Day 17 - Healthy cooking for Kids

Like a lot of moms, when either one of my children were born and starting to eat solid foods, I put a lot of effort and thought into making sure they were eating healthy foods and healthy diets.  I bought all the baby food cookbooks and toddler cookbooks and they sit prominently in my kitchen, where I can grab them easily.  And they have the bonus side effect of showing everyone how I'm such an awesome mom, right?  Well, I'm a fraud!  I've used those cookbooks 3 or 4 times!  HA!  It is unfortunate, because they are great books.  But, they seem to be books written for different parts of the world, using ingredients that are hard to find her in the southern United States.  I, instead, usually just fed them what we were eating anyways, with maybe some modifications to accommodate their gummy little mouths.  But, while I was planning our menu this week, I remembered that those books had unique items in them, and decided to thumb through for some wheat free recipes that we could dine on and that the kids would love.
I found a recipe for "Mashed Potato and Hamburger Casserole."  It is very similar to a Shepard's pie. The top was a mixture of a mash made from one baking potato and one sweet potato.  The recipe called for ground lamb, but I didn't have any on hand, so I used ground turkey instead.  I also added a little bit of tomato paste, and added some seasoning.  Everyone enjoyed the meal.  (I will post the recipe below)

I served with roasted corn on the cob.  Yes, friends, I know corn isn't a vegetable!  But, when we were at the market, my son saw these amazing looking corn on the cobs and begged me to get them.  And who am I to tell him no?  ;)  We have corn on the cob only a couple times a year, but the kids love it, the devour it and then ask for more.  It is pretty cute. I wish it were healthier!

Mashed Potato and Hamburger Casserole
(from Healthy Cooking for Your Kids, by: Sarah Banbery)
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 lb 10 oz lean fresh ground lamb or beef  (I used about 1.25 lbs of ground turkey instead)
1 leek, chopped
1 small red onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped (I used extra because my kids love carrots)
1 celery stalk, chopped
3.5 oz mushrooms, chopped
14 oz canned tomatoes
2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
1/2 Cup water
1 lb 2 oz potato, boiled and mashed
14 oz sweet potato boiled and mashed
4 Tbsp whole milk (I used almond milk)
unsalted butter (I used smart balance w/flax seed)
sea salt and pepper

1. Heat half the oil in a nonstick skillet and cook the ground lamb over high heat, breaking up with a wooden spoon, until well browned.  Remove the ground lamb from the skillet with slotted spoon and pour away any fat, and wipe the skillet with paper towels. 
2. Add the remaining oil to the skillet and cook the leek, onion, carrots, and celery for 15 minutes (I found it didn't need this long) until soft.  Return the meat to the pan and add the mushrooms, tomatoes, thyme, and water.  Season to taste with salt and pepper and let simmer for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350.  Mix the 2 mashes of potatoes with half the milk and half the butter in a bowl and season to taste with salt and pepper.  
4. Spoon the meat sauce into a baking dish and top with the potato mixture.  Brush with the remaining milk and dot with the remaining butter.  Bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes until the top is brown and crisp.

Day 16 - Squash in place of spaghetti?

When I was deep in mourning over the loss of one of my favorite foods, pasta, some friends had some really great and creative suggestions for me.  I love getting suggestions from friends, it gives me something new to try.  If you have any suggestions, please feel free to leave them in the comments!

One of them, I hadn't tried before, so I decided to experiment last night.  I made a fairly traditional tomato sauce and added some extra bell peppers.  One of the great things about tomato sauce is that you can add almost any kind of vegetable you have on hand.  It adds extra nutritional value and flavor too!  I also used some chicken Italian sausage.  I threw the sausage and the sauce in the crock pot and let it cook all day. Then, a few minutes before dinner time I cut up some zucchini, and yellow squash.  I used the squash instead of pasta.  My kids didn't seem to mind much at all.  Although, I think they probably would have eaten a little more if it were actually pasta.  My husband said it was "good" which really meant he wasn't going to complain about it but it wasn't his favorite.  I think the squash worked pretty well.  I think the biggest downfall of the recipe was actually the sausage.  It ended up being really dry.  So, I will probably try again, and use regular sausage.

Another suggestion I received was to use spaghetti squash instead of spaghetti.  I've done this before and it is always delicious!  I also found some brown rice pasta at the store that I look forward to trying.  I will share both experiences here in the next couple of weeks! 

Keep those suggestions coming friends!  XOXO

Days 14 & 15 - HALF WAY POINT!!!

I cannot believe I have reached 15 days already.  It has gone by a lot quicker than I would have thought.  It hasn't always been easy, but it hasn't been as difficult as I thought it would be either. Reaching a milestone like halfway, causes me to stop and reflect on how things are doing, to take stock in how I am now.

My arthritis is better.  I'm not yet back to 90 or 95%, but I'm not nearly as miserable as when I started this diet.  I don't think I have enough information to say that my improvement is due to my dietary changes, but it is at least promising.  Promising enough in fact, that I might extend the wheat free diet to 60 days.  My skin is still pretty bad, but at least I have had tangible improvement when it comes to my joints.
On Tuesday, I made one of my simple go to meals.  I keep the ingredients in the freezer, always..  And, then when life gets busy, I can just grab them and make this meal in under 30 minutes.  It is a simple chicken stir fry.  I use frozen grilled chicken strips.  You can buy these in the freezer section, or make them yourself and put them in the freezer.  I also use frozen veggies.  I found a stir fry veggie combination at Costco, and use that.  I start the rice first get it simmering, Then, in a separate skillet or wok, I stir fry the chicken in some sesame oil or peanut oil.  If neither of those are available, vegetable oil will work.  Once the chicken is heated through, I add a bit of soy sauce, heat that and then add the vegetables, I also add about a spoonful of Hoisen sauce.  It is pretty tasty and really easy and fast.

We have been a busy family recently (who isn't, right?), with our normal day-to day activities, my son has also been in swimming lessons.  My daughter watches and asks when her turn will be.  So, of course, we "have" to take her to open swim later in the evening!  When we do this, it makes dinner time difficult to plan.  Last night we opted to eat a quick bite out.  We thought about where we could go that has a few gluten free options.  Thank god for Mexican food! Or at least corn tortillas!  Have you ever been to a Fuzzy's Tacos?  Yum!  If you don't want dairy, just ask, they can make their tacos dairy free too!  We love the fish tacos.  If you haven't already, try it! 

Day 13 - A case of the Mondays

It was nearly 2:00 p.m. when it happened.  It hit me and it hit me hard.  There is this Italian joint near where we live, and they serve the most delicious bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  I had a craving for that yesterday like you wouldn't believe.  All I could think of was that bread and how delicious it sounded.  I fought back, and distracted myself with the mundane Monday tasks, like laundry and dishes as my daughter napped quietly.  Eventually the craving went away, and we continued on with our day.
Then around 10:00 p.m., I was struck again!  This time, not with a craving for delicious bread, but for the pieces of leftover pizza sitting in our fridge.  We brought this devil's food into our house for our kids the night my husband and I went out for sushi with some friends.  And those slices of gluten smothered in dairy and pepperoni sounded so delicious last night.  I begged my husband to eat them, so they would be gone and I wouldn't have to think about them anymore.  But, he just cruelly laughed at me.  I sent myself to bed so that I wouldn't cave.  I thought that I'd be passed the cravings by day 13, but they hit me with a vengeance!
Every once in a while, I will cook something that when I taste, I think to myself.  "Damn!  That is GOO-OOOD.  Tonight was one of those nights.  I grilled Spice rubbed pork chops.  The only thing I did differently from the recipe is that I put it in a simple brine (salt and water) for about 8 hours before I rubbed it down with the spice mixture.  I like to brine my pork and chicken before grilling because it has a tendency to get dry.  The other trick to delicious pork is to not over cook it.  I try not to go to far over 145 degrees Fahrenheit.   Along with the pork, we had one of the most delicious and simple potato salad's I've ever had.  It is called Baby potato salad, and man is it yummy!  I also grilled some asparagus.

Days 9 & 10 - more lunch troubles

I am still struggling with lunch ideas.  I keep finding myself making one entree for me and a different one for my children.  I don't want to do that!  I'm far too lazy for that!  One of my friends who eats according to the Paleo diet, told me she usually eats salads for lunch with a meat on the salad.  This would work great for me, and possibly my 5 year old son, but my 20 month old, hasn't quite figured out how to chew up salads well yet.  On Thursday for lunch, I thought I would make Tuna salad for me and eat it on a salad, then I made fish sticks for the kids, because I had them in the freezer and it was easy.  I reheated some left over veggies and cut up some fruit for them.  My daughter ignored her fish sticks and kept asking for bites of my tuna salad...go figure!

Friday came with Taquito trouble!  I read on a gluten free blog, that there was a certain brand of taquitos that are gluten free and I thought, ah ha!  That's an easy lunch idea that I can use on the days that I'm in a rush.  So, I went to the store, bought that brand, took it home and stuck it in the oven.  As I was waiting for them to finish cooking, I took a look at the ingredients, and that's when I saw it...FLOUR!  Ugh!  Lesson learned: don't believe everything you read on blogs!!!  I made a huge batch of guacamole and that was at least wheat free and delicious!  I ate it with baked corn tortilla chips from guiltless gourmet, which WERE certified gluten free!  

Friday night I made one of my favorite easy go to meals.  I love to cook it because it requires very little prep work.  As you're heating up a large braising pan, you cut up some potatoes.  I always use golden potatoes so that I don't have to peel them.  Then add olive oil to the pan, after it is heated, add the potatoes.  While the potatoes start cooking, slice an onion, add that to the pan.  Let those cook for a while, but as they are cooking, slice up a kalbalsa style sausage (I usually use sausage), and slice some bell peppers.  I usually use two of whatever color I have on hand.  Once the potatoes are mostly cooked through, I add the sausage and bell peppers, then continue cooking until they are heated and everything is cooked through.  And you're done.  The kids love it, and it is easy, and luckily it is also gluten free! 

Days 7 & 8 - Kitchen Nightmares

I must admit I am frightened to take any pictures in my kitchen right now!  It is a MESS!  It is beyond a mess, it is a disaster zone!  Our nice beautiful slightly over 2 year old Bosch dishwasher broke, at least we thought it did.  (You can read about that saga below if you're interested).  I also did a terrible job of sticking to my menu plan so far this week.  We have been so busy.  My son is taking swim lessons again.  And they are at 5:30, so its been making dinner time a little difficult.
I did find a good gluten free sort of fast food option though.  The only problem is that you have to be careful because they have a lot of terrible for you food too!  Panda Express, they have some grilled meat option, and also some pure veggie options, you can pair with brown rice, and its probably better for you than a double bacon cheeseburger!
We made a gluten free mexican meatloaf last night.  My kids LOVED it!  I adapted a Weight Watcher's recipe, and instead of using corn bread stuffing mix, I used gluten free corn flakes, and an extra egg white.  I also only use ground turkey, and I replaced canned green chilis with roasted hatch chilis because they are in season right now and ohh so yummy!!!

Dishwasher Drama

I know, this has nothing to do with wheat, but I didn't stick to my meal plan this week as much as I had hoped in part because I hate cooking in a messy kitchen, and I hate even more to wash dishes!

The water wasn't draining out of the bottom of our not very old dishwasher, we cleaned out all the filters.  It still wasn't draining out of the bottom.  We cursed the dishwasher. Then, my husband started taking out all the drainage pipes and making sure they weren't clog.  The bad news was it didn't appear to be a clog.  Which meant, we had to spend money on a new drainage motor.  We cursed the dishwasher again.  My sweet husband shipped it overnight so that the kitchen wouldn't be a huge mess for too long.  The parts arrived, and he promptly went to work taking the dishwasher apart, putting in the new motor, and trying it again.  It still didn't drain!  We, again, cursed the dishwasher while staring it and scratching our heads wondering what on earth could be wrong with with it.  He watched the water drain through some of the pipes and sat staring at the cold silver machine willing it to start working.  In a last ditch effort, he started troubleshooting all over from the beginning.  Just as my husband had nearly given up, he found a piece of pipe under the sink where the water moves up, makes an exchange and then moves back down.  It was slightly clogged.  I don't think I've ever seen a man excited about a pipe clog before!  There was a piece of plastic.  More specifically, it was a plastic cover for a 9 vault battery.  How the heck it got in there, I have no clue, but it did.  This, tiny piece of plastic was the cause of hours and hours or dishwasher work.  And finally after all my husband's hard work and money spent it is fixed!  The good news is that we can send the new motor back, we didn't need it.  And all those nights I spent silently and not so silently cursing Bosch were wasted.  I'm sorry pretty Bosch dishwasher, it wasn't your fault!

Day 6 - Menu Planning Mania

Monday started off as any other day, got up, got the kids breakfast ready(leftover sausage and fruit), got my coffee and settled down with my lap top to plan the week's menu.  I'd learned from last week that I'm too new to this wheat free diet to fly by the seat of my pants for lunches, so I thought I'd plan those as well.  I sat with a blank mind pondering what can I make for lunches that my kids will also eat.  Hmm...google!  I quickly googled "wheat free lunch ideas" or something similar.  I skimmed through the first result, not good suggestions, at all...so I went to the next.  These suggestions were clearly written with kids in mind.  "Score!" I thought to myself.  But, as I read further I realized almost every suggestion contained a highly processed alternative to a wheat substance.  Now, I'm not against using gluten free products made to replace wheat every once in a while, but I don't want to do it everyday.  I just don't like to fill our bodies with processed food, whether its gluten free or not.  Most of these suggestions were things like peanut butter and jelly on gluten free bread, homemade lunchables with gluten free crackers, sandwich wraps on gluten free tortillas, quesadillas on corn tortillas, etc.  I rolled my eyes and tried to come up with some other options.  At this point, I got frustrated with the available lists and vowed to myself to make a better one!  So, stay tuned, when I figure out how to add a link with lists of menu ideas, it will be here!
After I ambitiously planned out a week's worth of meals, we ventured off to Central Market, my favorite grocery store to buy the supplies.  The kids got balloons, I got high quality produce and yummy foods.  It was a pretty good grocery shopping experience.  At least about as good as you can expect with two small children.  But, by the time we left, my son was in the backseat complaining hungry he was, and how he needs to eat, NOW!  I looked around and quickly thought of my options.  It was already noon, and I needed to get them fed so I could start nap time with my youngest.  But, we didn't eat very healthfully over the weekend, so I decided we would find something quick at home, even if it wasn't what I had planned.  Yep, that's right, the first meal of the week and I've already ventured off the meal plan!  Life never  goes as planned.  I had a few pieces of leftover homemade pizza in the fridge still, so I quickly warmed that up with some green beans for the kids.  I ate other leftovers and we made it through lunch.
I had leftover goat cheese from the tomato soup I made last week.  Which made me think about an old recipe I had from Ina Garten for Chicken with Herbed Goat Cheese.  Its delicious and so simple.  I love to roast part of a menu because you can pretty much put something in the oven, set the timer, and forget about it while you prepare the rest of the meal.  We added simply steamed broccoli and carrots and called it dinner.  My son, who has gotten a little picky, at everything on his plate, without even bargaining for fewer bites.