Vegan Paht Si-Yu

I make Vegan Paht Si-Yu (listed as the last recipe) at least every other week.  Suuuuuuuuuper easy.  I make a larger batch by using a whole pound of spaghetti. I just toss in more veggies and make a slightly larger batch of the sauce. Cathe Olson has this in her The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook which seems to be out of print. This is a total bummer, because it is one of my all-time-favorite cookbooks and I'm constantly recommending it to moms.  Many pages are falling out of my copy from lots and lots of love and use over the past six years. Hope you give it a try and enjoy!

Hello, again, baby food

My sweet third son, Odin, is now seven months old. Unbelievable. As with all things, Odin has gracefully taken a liking to solid food. This third time around I found myself having many bittersweet feelings. I was excited for him to try this new adventure as I got to whip up batches of nutritious, simple baby food. Yet, he was taking a tiny step towards independence. Sigh.

I've been meaning to write about my method of introducing solids all month long! I'm glad to be here now writing these words. Yay! Each baby is different as is each parent. This is one way of introducing solids that has worked well for my family, and I hope it makes your transition to baby food a little bit easier!

When?
Six months has been the golden age in our home. I love, love, LOVE the information on www.askdrsears.com. They have incredible, straight-forward information that has naturally resonated with me. Check out their Feeding At A Glance Birth-24 Months. Awesome.

What?
I love starting with banana or avocado. So easy and no preparation needed. Simply mash and add a tad of filtered water for the appropriate consistency. Next, I love adding pear (pictured above) to their diet which is great for helping with their bowel movements during this transition. My babies eat this for breakfast every day until they can graduate to true oatmeal with the rest of the family. Don't believe the hype that fruit is too sweet as a starter food. There is plenty of research showing that is an unnecessary worry. Check out this great website on how to make your own rice cereal, which will also lead you to sources (including The American Academy of Pediatrics) backing that you don't have to start with commercial rice cereal or even veggies.

How?

Keep. It. Simple. While you are cooking breakfast, lunch or dinner, make a batch of baby food. This is actually a small amount of food. Three peeled pears fills up two and a half ice cube trays which will last for weeks during the first months. Babies eat so little, especially in the beginning, that cooking a batch in your 2 quart sauce pan will get your very far. I clean, peel, then evenly dice the fruit or veggie. Just cover with filtered water. Bring to a boil then lower to a gentle simmer. Cook until you can easily puree in with a hand blender, food processor or food mill. Spoon into ice trays. Transfer to freezer bags for easy preparation for weeks to come. You can find several books and websites with even greater detail. Just make sure everything (including your hands) are VERY clean.

Books?
Feeding the Whole Family: Cooking with Whole Foods by Cynthia Lair is incredible. It supports my theory that children should be given real, simple food. She thoughtfully approaches "Raising Healthy Eaters" as well as the nutritional realities of new eaters.

Simply Natural Baby Food by Cathe Olson is a fun resource if you want to add extra creativity to your menu. A small, easy companion.

Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron is redundant and an overload of information HOWEVER it has some great recipes...especially on how to make your own cereals such as her super porridge.

Being a healthy eater begins with first foods. If it's important to you to introduce a healthy, whole foods diet commit yourself to avoiding jarred food. Save it only for vacations. You can do it! I believe in you! Give you and your child the gift of avoiding food battles in the future by introducing food in their freshest most simplest way. Only feed your children what you are willing to sit down and eat yourself.

Lastly, you don't need recipes. Keep it simple. Keep it stress-free. Have fun!

Post Punk Cornbread

My family loves, loves, loves, loves, LOVES this cornbread! Guests really enjoy it, too. I make this at least once a week during the winters to accompany our chili. It is so hard to not eat the entire pan. It's perfectly moist and not too sweet. The authors of theppk.com (The Post Punk Kitchen) are also the authors of Veganomicon. This recipe also shows up in that fantastic cookbook, but it replaces the 2 Tablespoons of maple syrup with 1/4 cup of sugar. So choose the sweetener of your choice. And...as you can see...it is very much kid-approved!

Vanilla Crunch Granola

I have shared other favorite Cathe Olson recipes in the past, and alas I fell upon another on the internet I have come to love! Vanilla Crunch Granola is a great quick, crunchy (love the steel cut oats) breakfast that is slightly sweet but not filled with tons of sugar like many store-bought granolas. This is incredibly easy and fast to make. Everyone in our family loves it! I follow her directions exactly; however, I do use golden raisins and think about throwing in some chopped dried apple next time.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we have!

Feeding The Whole Family

One of my hobbies is to constantly check out cookbooks at the library. I feel the urge to buy a new cookbook at least everything six months (cookbook budget is unfortunately quite limited.) I am thankful for living in a city so large that it has an enormous cookbook selection and is willing to purchase most every book I ask them too. Yea for libraries!!!

Feeding The Whole Family by Cynthia Lair is so wonderful to me that it is a definite "buy" by my standards. It is a fantastic resource on wholesome family eating, and I believe the recipes are easy for the less-advanced or least-interested cooks. Yet, the tastes have proven to be great for those more-advanced and very-interested tastebuds.

I cook and bake our family meals strictly vegan, and this book has a wide variety of recipes to accommodate. There are recipes that call for meat, but there are very few. The recipes that include dairy seem easy to translate into vegan.

Recipes we've come to love: French Lentil and Potato Stew, Split Pea Soup with Fresh Peas and Potatoes (minus the ham bone), and Pumpkin Pecan Muffins (vegan style).

Here are some of her recipes published on mothering.com and also included in the book, as well as an article she wrote:

Winter Fruit Compote with Nut Cream
Becky's Braised Greens
In The Kitchen with Baby
Summer Fruit Ambrosia with Vanilla Nut Cream
Golden Mushroom Basil Soup
Luscious Beet Green Salad

Thai Peanut Noodles with Roasted Cauliflower and Broc

I've never been a fan of cauliflower. I always thought is was bland and boring.I tend to simply ignore it. UNTIL I roasted it. Can you tell I have a thing for roasting vegetables? It's easy. You basically ignore them while they roast, and you can start washing prep dishes or make a salad. The flavor seems so deep while they're still nutrient-rich. Just ask Martha! They also soften up enough so a one-year old without molars can easily chew them. This is one of my newest and favorite quick meals. Definitely less than 40 minutes, and it will be on the table. Most of that time is just waiting for noodles and vegetables to cook.

INGREDIENTS:
6-8 cups cauliflower and broccoli florets (about 3 small to medium heads)
1 lb whole wheat spaghetti (or udon or soba noodles)
1/2 to 3/4 cup your favorite Thai-peanut sauce*
about 6 leaves of fresh basil, chopped for garnish (or handful of chopped cilantro or parsley)
sesame seeds for garnish
olive oil for drizzling
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place cauliflower and broccoli florets in a 9x13 baking dish. Spread out in a single layer. Drizzle with 2-3 Tablespoons of olive oil to evenly coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 20-25 minutes until lightly browned. Meanwhile, bring large pot of water to a boil. Cook noodles for 10 minutes. I like using metal tongs to stir the noodles, so they don't stick together. They're also a great tool for tossing and mixing all the ingredients for this recipe. Prep the peanut sauce while veggies are roasting and noodles are boiling. Reserve ½ cup of the pasta cooking water to think out peanut sauce (see note below.) Once noodles, sauce and veggies are done toss all together. Garnish with basil and sesame seeds. Serve with lightly-steamed green beans tossed with sesame oil and tamari on the side.

*This recipe is pretty close, but reduce the ingredients by half. For a pound of noodles, I've found 1/2 to 3/4 cup (including water to thin it out) of peanut sauce is enough. I used Ken Haedrich's recipe in his Feeding the Healthy Vegetarian Family. I add about 1/3 cup of the pasta's hot boiling water to thin it out, so it is easier for the kids to eat and much easier to distribute all over the noodles.

Pumpkin Pancakes

This seems a bit out of season, but I could no longer ignore the can of pureed pumpkin staring at me that I bought on sale this winter. We had to have pumpkin pancakes. I usually use a pureed squash for any pumpkin-flavored food - bread, pancakes, muffins - since Driftless Organics does a wonderful job of stocking us up on squash in the fall. If you've got that random can of pumpkin or frozen pureed squash here's the recipe for you! Or hold off until the fall for this awesome breakfast...or lunch or dinner.

This recipe is largely inspired by Robin Robertson's Pumpkin Pie Pancakes in Vegan Planet. I enjoy many of her pancake recipes; however, they are a bit too thick and heavy and don't yield enough for my family. Here's my version inspired by Robin.

DRY INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
pinch of ground cloves

WET INGREDIENTS:
2 cups unsweetened soy milk
1/2 cup water
1 scant cup pumpkin puree (half of a 15 oz can - use the other half for pumpkin bread or next week's pancakes!)
1/8 cup canola oil
1/4 cup water (gradually added at the end of mixing)

Gently combine dry ingredients in large mixing bowl. In a blender, combine soy milk, 1/2 cup water, pumpkin puree, and canola oil. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add wet mixture. Stir until just combined. Add additional water until you get your preferred pancake consistency. We like it to slowly yet easily fall off the spoon.

Start the heat under your griddle at medium heat. Brush a light amount of canola oil or Earth Balance over the griddle. Begin to ladle your cakes onto the griddle. Flip when batter begins to bubble. I let mine bubble a minute or so. I like slightly brown cakes. I make baby cakes that are roughly 2 1/2 inches in diameter and regular cakes that are roughly 4 inches in diameter. This yields about 10 regular cakes and five baby cakes. Just enough for this ravenous family of four.

To serve...spoon a layer of whole-milk yogurt or soy yogurt then a layer of applesauce. Top with another pancake and repeat until you've reached a tower of pancakes that can fit in your mouth. Drizzle the top with just a bit of pure maple syrup. Pure awesomeness.

For the kids...spoon yogurt and applesauce on their pancakes, too, or just spoon a dollop of each on their plate for dipping.

Summer Squash and Rainbow Chard Za

(partially devoured za)

I have long feared making anything that involves active yeast. The first few times I tried, I failed. I was unsure how to "test" the yeast. How warm should the water be? How big should the dough be when it rises? How do I correctly knead? Well...thanks to one of my most dearest friends, Sara, I have begun to overcome this fear.

About a month or so ago, Sara came over and gave me a pizza dough tutorial. I'm a hands-on learner, and it was so wonderful to see Sara step me through everything. We made two pizza doughs, and they were awesome. Last week, I did it myself for the first time, and I actually succeeded. Yea!

Thursday is our CSA pick-up day. My kitchen is pretty bare on Thursday as I await to see what I'll have to work with for the week from my box. I decided that homemade pizza was the best meal to make. I could easily whip up some dough and homemade marinara sauce in the afternoon then use whatever veggies were presented to me that early evening by Driftless Organics. It was a fantastic meal. Thursday may now become our weekly pizza night.

INGREDIENTS:
One half batch of All-Purpose Pizza Dough (from Ken Haedrich's Feeding the Healthy Vegetarian Family)
3/4 to 1 cup of Easy Marinara Sauce (from Cathe Olson's The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook)
*Either of these above recipes could be easily replaced by another recipe, but these are my two all-time fave cookbooks.
One medium-sized yellow summer squash, haphazardly peeled to remove prickly skin then thinly sliced into half-moons
One bunch rainbow chard, rinsed and roughly chopped
Handful of shredded mozzarella (optional)
*I buy one block of mozzarella then shred it in my food processor. Since I use so very little cheese on our pizza, I freeze most of it. I then break off a chunk each time I make a pizza. Frozen shredded cheese lasts up to six weeks, I believe, according to Betty.
Salt and Pepper, to taste

Heat some olive oil in a saute pan. Add summer squash and cook until tender then add chard and salt and pepper to taste. Cover and steam until all is tender but not overcooked...about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, roll out dough and place on a cookie sheet. I like to bake my pizza on a Silpat. It's more idiot-proof for me. Spread sauce evenly on dough. Add veggies. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake in oven at 400 for 20-25 minutes.

All members of my family loved this. The 12 month-old devours it almost as fast as his father.

Enjoy!

Tamale Pie

I bought Cathe Olson's The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook near the end of my first pregnancy after finding her Tamale Pie recipe on the Mothering website. Finding this recipe was my gateway to the most-used cookbook in my life. The recipes are incredibly easy, simple, healthy and delicious. She offers great tips ranging from how to eat in different stages of pregnancy to time-savers in the kitchen that really work and still stray from genetically modified and processed foods. At least three, if not more, meals a week are made from this book in my house.

I enjoy serving this with lettuce drizzled with salsa and a side of roasted potatoes. Follow the link for her Tamale Pie recipe. How I roast my pots follows.

INGREDIENTS:
5-6 small potatoes, scrubbed and cut into bite-size pieces
olive oil to drizzle
salt, pepper and oregano to taste

Place potatoes in a 9"x13" baking dish - just enough to cover the entire pan with a single layer of pots. Drizzle with olive oil to evenly coat. Spring with salt (1/2 tsp), pepper (1 tsp) and oregano (1 tsp) to taste.

Place in oven with Tamale Pie. Stir once halfway through. Continue to roast while the pie rests for a total baking time of 40 minutes.

The Joy of Vegan Baking

I have found staying home full-time with a toddler is the most incredibly challenging job I have ever had. Our days are filled with every extreme emotion from anger to pure bliss. The energy ranges from off the charts wild to a tender moment falling asleep together in a chair.

On the days where I don't have the energy to match Finn I find we work quite well together in the kitchen. We often use The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. I am just beginning my journey as a vegan baker. I always seemed to fail every time I put a baked good in the oven. BUT! I've yet to completely ruin any of these recipes, and everything we've made has been quite amazing.

This week Finn and I made Hearty Spiced Cocoa Muffins. Nothing makes my day much better than double chocolate anything.