Family Food Friday

This was a busy and crazy (somewhat) week because we had my daughter's birthday party on Saturday last week, an outing Sunday, which included a ball game and night out for pizza—both of which left me kind of wiped out. Then the real birthday during the week where we ate out and went to a local ska show in a park. The meal plan was sort of a jumble of partying, but many recipes were made, so I am just going to list the ones that were homemade without specific dates as these span back from last Friday (June 17) through now, rather than a Monday through Sunday thing. This, though, is actually a decent snapshot of how most weeks go as far as dinners and such, even when things aren't feeling busy—I kind of do a blend of complicated and easy and let my tastes and cravings drive what I make. We are big beer lovers so I've included the beers we enjoyed with each dish, where applicable.

• Pad Thai (beer pairing: Ommegang Hennepin)
• BBQ Quorn Tacos (beer pairing: Dogfish Head 60 minute IPA)
• Veggie Burgers (beer pairing: Troegs Nugget Nectar)
• Salmon Caesar Salad with Garden Veggie Side (beer pairing: Sloeber Strong Pale Ale)
• Fresh Veggie Wraps (beer pairing: Dogfish Head 60 minute IPA)
• Quinoa Salad with Cherries and Pecans (beer pairing: it was lunch! I didn't drink! ok, that doesn't always stop me...)

For the Pad Thai, I have a basic recipe that I used to "teach" me how to make it, and now I just kind of throw it together how I want, riffing on the recipe. We don't eat meat (but we do eat seafood) so instead of the chicken, I loaded it up with tofu and veggies. Sometimes I'll use shrimp. I had alot of fun going to a local, huge international foods market to get the real rice noodles and other crazy things like black fungus (still don't know what I'll use this in yet, but I read it's in alot of Asian dishes, and now I've got it), tamarind (I added some tamarind juice to my Pad Thai) and galangal (I steeped the noodled in galangal water).



The BBQ Quorn Tacos is one of my "original" recipes, but with a forced twist. I usually make tempeh tacos (tempeh can be bought at the store, but is made by natural culturing and fermenting that binds soybeans or grains into a cake form, similar to a very firm vegetarian burger patty). Whole Foods was out of tempeh so I bought Quorn instead (which is like a vegetarian faux chicken). So, it's simple but so tasty...you just slice a red onion and a red pepper and saute them in a hot pan in some olive oil. You cook the onion first til it starts to brown and carmelize (maybe add a dash of salt) then once that's going, you throw in the peppers, getting them tender but not overcooking. Then you throw in the diced Quorn (or sliced tempe). Cook it a few minutes til the Quorn (which is cooked right from frozen but does not technically require "cooking" like real meat, same with tempe) softens and gets some cooked color from the pan. Stir in some BBQ sauce and maybe dashes of garlic powder, cumin, chili powder, sweet smoked paprika (this is my favorite seasoning these days), depending on your taste and the BBQ sauce you use. Then, you just put that mixture with some shredded cheddar cheese into tortillas and enjoy. I am big on just sautéing up things I like and putting them in tortillas! We're big on leftovers around here and my husband insists on them being available for him to take as lunch to work to save money.



Veggie Burgers are just veggie burgers. Warm them up in a pan and go. But, I am picky, so I will do things like toast the buns, spraying them with olive oil and sprinkling some garlic salt on them. We'll add sautéed mushrooms and onions to the burgers, maybe some sliced avocado, and of course, melted cheese. Trader Joe's makes a really good garlic aioli mustard that we put on our veggie burgers. Bake up some oven fries, add a side salad and you've got your meal.

Salmon Caesar Salad is another easy go-to meal for me. Just pan sear or bake some salmon filets and top the classic romaine salad with it. I am a big fan of Whole Foods and their caesar dressing (in the produce section, chilled) is very good. Normally, I hate store-bought or packaged dressing and I make my own vinaigrette all the time, but this one I like, especially since making caesar dressing is a little more involved than whipping up a vinaigrette. The Garden Veggie Side was just some extras I harvested from our little garden. I had some carrots and leeks so I braised them with apple cider vinegar, finished the cooking under a quick broil with butter and parmesan, then lemon squeeze, salt, pepper.



Speaking of Whole Foods, the next thing on the list, Fresh Veggie Wraps, I learned about from a kids event at our local store. Not that it's something you need to "learn" exactly, I mean, it's a veggie wrap, pretty simple. But, sometimes you just need a fresh look at ingredients, or to be reminded, hey, this is out there, put it together with that. So, that's what we did. They had out for the children diced veggies in rainbow colors—red peppers, carrots, corn, shelled edamame, shredded purple cabbage—you can choose the veggies your family likes best. Smear some hummus on a large lavash (or tortilla, but I like the big size of the lavash to really get everything wrapped up) and then layer in the veggies with some mixed salad greens and wrap it up. We took these to the Fathers Day baseball game.



The Quinoa Salad with Cherries and Pecans I learned of from a Facebook friend and made back on Memorial Day. It was yummy so I decided to make it again and take it to lunch with a friend last week. Here's the recipe for that.

Healthy Instant Key Lime Pie

Yesterday we got a mini key lime pie cheesecake from Whole Foods. It was fantastic, but I shuddered to think of how many calories were in it. It made me realize how much I'd missed the great taste of key lime pie—probably my favorite dessert—and when I finished, I already wanted more.

So today I came up with a healthier version you can whip up in minutes. It's not as decadent as a true key lime pie, natch, but it's tasty just the same. And my little friend loved it so much it hardly lasted long enough to get a picture!

Here's what you need and how it's done:

Greek yogurt (1/2 c)
Vanilla whey protein powder (1/2 scoop)
Lime or lime juice (1 tsp)
Graham crackers (1/2 to 1, to taste)

Crumble the graham cracker and place in bottom of single serve dish, larger ramekin, or small mug. You may have extra crumbs for topping.

Mix the yogurt (we use 2%) with a 1/2 scoop of vanilla whey powder. Add in the lime juice (we used bottled since we had it on hand), but I think fresh would be better, of course.

You can sweeten more with a touch of honey or stevia, but I like to keep it tart and the whey powder has a bit of stevia in it already.

 Layer on top of graham cracker crust. Chill or freeze to taste or enjoy right away as we did!

1 serving = 180 calories

Healthy Peanut Butter Easter Eggs

We're trying to cut back on sugar and eat healthfully and seeing all those chocolate eggs, bunnies and chicks has been a real temptation. So, I decided to try and make a healthier version of a favorite—the peanut butter egg. These are my very own creation! While these eggs, with their larger size and whole ingredients have more calories than a Reese's egg, they are meant to be shared and are full of healthy nutrients. You could also make them smaller and have more of them. It should also be noted that much of the fat in these are from the peanut butter and chia seeds—very healthy fats! And yeah, the chocolate has fats and sugars, but compared to store-bought candy, I give these an A+. The taste is kid-approved, too!

1/2 cup natural peanut butter (no sugar! no hydrogenated oils!)
1/2 cup whole oats
1/2 cup chocolate chips
(I used Whole Foods Dark Chocolate Chunks)
2 tiny scoops of stevia extract
(not needed, but adds sweetness, more on stevia)
1 TB chia seeds
(optional, adds crunch and extra nutrients, these are full of vitamins!)
1/4 tsp vanilla extra (no sugar added)
dash of cinnamon to taste

Blend oats in food processor to a fine meal. Mix stevia and cinnamon into oats. Mix peanut butter with oat mixture slowly to ensure a wet enough consistency to be able to shape into egg shapes without crumbling. (You can add more peanut butter or a touch of water if needed.) Add vanilla extract and chia seeds. Shape into four or more egg shapes. Melt chocolate chunks on stovetop or in the microwave. Coat peanut butter eggs gently with the melted chocolate. Chill in freezer to set. Enjoy!

Eggs can be kept at room temp for a few hours but are best refrigerated and brought to room to eat.

393 calories per egg, from a four-egg batch

28 g fat
11 g protein
30 g carbs
8 g fiber
10 g sugar

split an egg with a friend, or make 8 eggs:

196 calories
14 g fat
5.5 g protein
15 g carbs
4 g fiber
5 g sugar

(keep in mind, I'm an art girl, not a math girl, but I think these numbers are right)

Sweet Puttanesca Pancakes

Most people associate puttanesca with a spicy sauce of tomatoes, olives, peppers and such. And rightly so, as those are typical ingredients in an Italian puttanesca sauce. But, did you know puttanesca actually means "in the style of a prostitute"—she's been too busy fucking so she didn't have time to really put together a fancy, composed meal and so she tossed in a bunch of random stuff she happened to have around.

Well, I've been wanting to make healther pancakes for my kid, so that's basically what I did this morning—and actually how I cook alot of the time. For these pancakes, I didn't use tomato, olives or peppers, of course.

I used:

• 1/2 c rolled oats
• 1/4 c whole wheat flour
• 1/4 c white flour
• tsp or so baking powder
• dash of cinnamon
• TB creme fraiche
• couple TBS yogurt
• a little less than 1/3 c of egg whites (or small egg/egg white, or 1/2 egg, the point is some binding protein-like goop)
  
• splash of skim milk, to desired consistency
  
• 1/4 smashed up ripe banana
• honey to taste
  
• handful of walnuts, mashed up pretty good
• chocolate chips

(This recipe makes about six 5-inch diameter—or so—pancakes.)

So, you mix the first four dry ingredients listed, and set aside. You may want to run this through a food processor, depending on how textured you think you'd like your oats in the pancakes. Then mix the wet as listed, up to, but not including the the milk. Then you mix the wet and dry. After that, you add milk little by little til you get a good consistency.

Hopefully you will remember making pancakes from the box mix, like I did, and you can remember the consistency. It's nice if you can pour it, but also OK to plop the batter on the buttered griddle or pan and gently spread. But, we're getting ahead of ourselves.

After you have the basic wet and dry mixed, you can stir in your honey to taste, your mashed banana, walnut paste, chocolate chips or whatever else you want.

Now, heat up a pan or griddle to medium high. (I just use a nonstick pan and make them one by one, keeping each hot under a plate til they're all ready, layering each pancake with a pat of butter.) Butter or oil the pan/griddle a bit and pour or spoon your batter. When you see the pancake bubbling, you can gently flip it. When I am making pancakes, since I make them one by one, I have to turn down the heat about halfway through. You just figure it out and pay attention. It will all work out!

That's how I cook, throwing things together and experimenting. Sometimes its good and sometimes it's not.

I know these pancakes were good (I tasted them) but, truly, 'cause my kid ate them right up!

Train table/block table: Temporarily repurposing furniture for life with kids

Just thought I would share this cool idea I came up with a few years ago. I had this great glass-top coffee table from my past life that was packed away as soon as my kid started crawling and pulling up.

When she was about 2.5, an experienced walker who wouldn't bash her head on the corners, I decided to bring the table back into circulation—sans the still dangerous glass tops.






I cut out plywood the same size as the glass inserts and decorated them as aerial landscapes, with water, bushes, and such. Now she has a totally unique train and block table with room for storage below.



I like the table so much, it's found its way back into my living room, now as a block table. And when she trades in her blocks for bigger kid activities I can pop my glass tops back in, get my living room back and pine nostalgically for the little kid days.

New century eclectic boho kid's room

Style points:

• futon on floor
• mix of fabrics/prints
• bright wall
• corkboard of original art

It's true, I have my own highly unique style (wink wink). It is based in not having alot of money or alot of time to "decorate" but being sort of artsy. It is executed by using alot of what I happened to have around. (We bought the house with a red wall in this room and it just "worked" so we left it.)

The genius of a full-size futon on the floor for a child cannot be overstated. It allowed me to co-sleep until the child was old enough to sleep on her own, while allowing my husband to be undisturbed. It allows me now to cuddle up comfortably for stories and for those nights that I choose to "sleep over." I actually prefer the feel of the floor futon to my own real bed and love the ultra-dark room that we first created to help with baby sleep. Now the child sleeps through anything— til 630 or 7 am rolls around. But back to the fantastic decor...

The mix of bold colored stripes of various weights with the beloved "jaguar" (as in Baby Jaguar) print fuzzy blanket is kicky and fun. The green frog humidifier is a bold contrast to the reds, pinks and purples. The crisp white hand me down lamp from 3 boyfriends ago is clean and modern, placed behind an angular K-Mart night table/shelf for bedtime story books, inflatable frogs and more.

I stole these shelves from what was a sewing room when we moved into our house. They were situated on a table top, but now I use them alongside the futon for books, books, and thangs. You can also catch a glimpse here of my very unique window treatments (and effective room darkening shades). And just to the left is a framed rubbing of the pressed sidewalk of Barcelona's Passeig de Gracia, draped with Tibetan prayer flags and a Nataraja sculpture—I told you it was eclectic!

Other walls of the room have some original paintings (both framed and unframed) that I created when I was pregnant, and also after having my child. The very best part of the eclectic boho kid's room, though, is the original art, by the child herself, rotated on and off of the corkboard!