Cheater Monday - Sweet Potatoes, etc.

We've got some big mutant sweet potatoes still building up from the farm box.  On Sunday we had Bangers and SP Mash, with Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy from Vegan With A Vengeance.

Cheater Monday: The leftovers were repuposed into a casserole by spooning the gravy over the mash (leveled flat) and baking at 350F until bubbly.  Meanwhile I made Black Bean, Quinoa, and Sweet Potato Spicy Croquettes with Pumpkin Seed Chipotle Cream from Let Them Eat Vegan.  Since the sweet potatoes and quinoa were leftovers in the fridge, these went together really quickly and fried up nice.  My sister recommended pureeing everything except the quinoa together, so they'd be more burger-like.  I imagine that would also work well.

No filler, just 100% good for you.  And awesome.

Cheater Monday - Seitan Burritos & Dip

Mexican-flavoured meals are often our quick easy dinners.  This meal was supposed to be fajitas, but the seitan didn't turn out as well as it could have (probably because I made a triple batch and it needed more individual TLC, but whatever).  But my sister reminded me of one of my old favourites: beans and veg fried up to be burrito filling.  Throw in the not-quite-chickeny-enough seitan, and we had a nice hearty hash for stuffing tortillas. Slap on the guac and salsa!

I also have a mound of sweet potatoes piling up from the farm box, so I planned to use a bunch on the week's menu - I made the Smoky Sweet Potato & Black Bean Salad turned into a dip as recommended from Dreena Burton's new book Let Them Eat Vegan! (Oh Dreena, you never disappoint.)

Perfect for a beautiful long weekend supper - not too fancy, but darn tasty

Long Weekend Project - Clothes Line

The weather was so nice this weekend!  I really had no excuse to not put up a new clothes line (the other one broke a while ago) - the cloth diapers needed airing out and the sun was shining!

There is nothing like direct solar energy.  Free dry clothes, with a natural fresh scent?  Sold.  And there is nothing quite as peaceful as hanging laundry on the line.  Chopping vegetables comes close.

This job was made even easier by the advances in clothes line technology since the last line was hung, decades ago, I'm sure.  When the old line broke I was left with a broken cable and more hardware than I'd need to assemble a tank.  It seemed daunting to put up a new line when I couldn't really figure out how the old one was hung.  Thankfully, now all you have to do is cut the wire and insert both ends into a less-than-$10 winch.  Takes less than ten minutes if you have a way to cut the cable to size.

That, my friends, is a beautiful sight.

Cheater Mondays - Big Ass Salad

Sometimes it's not about the slow cooker.  Sometimes, when the weather is nice and the rest of the family is finishing the leftovers, it's about cleaning out the fridge with a big ass salad.

Romaine, tomatoes, cucumber, carrots, the last of the tahini sauce, some nut-based parmesean, corn, chickpeas, pita croutons, hot sauce and soy sauce.

Bring it.

What is it about corn that makes a salad decadent? It reminds me of a Cobb salad.

Child Nutrition - Mom is Awesome

I want to re-visit the bit about our food tradition growing up (maybe it's Mom's Day making me sentimental).  There are certain things my mom did really well, and I cherish those memories.  I'd say they were mostly dessert-related - Mom was a baker. I remember the fresh homemade muffins for breakfast - she'd have the dry ingredients measured out the night before, waiting on the counter. I remember the well-used Tupperware containers where the flour, sugar and brown sugar were kept. I remember her rice pudding (and I make vegan version now that always takes me back). I remember how she'd make me something else for lunch because I didn't like the hot dogs everyone else was having. I remember Lloyd Food, pork chops in mushroom soup sauce, and beef and peppers simmered in soy sauce, poured over rice.

And I don't know how she kept the seven of us fed, without going insane.  Especially because she didn't like to cook. The dinners weren't all winners, but I think what is clear is that kids remember the good stuff. She also had the patience to teach me what she knew. That was key.

Another great thing about Mom is that she is open to new things.  She'll give most things a try before she decides. This is one of her more important gifts to me, and contributes to my adventurous spirit in the kitchen. She has recently started putting tofu in her smoothies, and as of yesterday, she's a kale chip convert!

I just put them out at our family lunch, all casual-like, between the pickles and potato salad.  Ha ha!

Here are some of the books I turn to for info on veg children nutrition (non-affliate links, yo, I ain't making any money):

Vegan Pregnancy Survival Guide by Sayward Rebhal - this is a quick read and keeps to vegan-specific advice.  Highly recommended.

Vive le Vegan! by Dreena Burton - I like all her cookbooks because her focus on family-friendly and healthy whole foods sing just the right notes. This particular book also has a food introduction schedule for babies.

Raising Vegetarian Children by Joanne Stepaniak MSEd and Vesanto Melina, MS, RD - more than a nutrition resource, this book helps me deal with the social aspects of veg kids as well. It's a thoughtful book that answers a lot of the questions I would have struggled with otherwise.

Healthy Eating For Life For Children by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine - I read this one in chunks as my kids progress through different stages of development.

Becoming Vegan by Brenda Davis, RD and Vesanto Melina, MS, RD

Child Nutrition

Hi There,
I'm going to talk about child nutrition and my philosophies.  (Please don't take what I say as expert advice, only the views of one vegan mom.  Always do your own research.)
K, Thanks,
Steph

I find my Mom philosophies on food are a balance between several different things: Is it healthy?  Is it tasty? Does it have a good nutritional profile? Have we been missing anything lately? Will he eat it? Can I make several meals out of it? Is it processed crap?  Does it have too much sugar? Does it contain nuts (and so is not allowed to be sent to school)? How much energy do I have today? What is in the fridge and pantry? Does he want to help?

A phrase I recently heard and loved was "The healthiest life you can enjoy" - Adam Bornstein. This drives much of my decision-making in the kitchen.

I think I am like most moms in that I try and do my best for my kids.  Food is a primary focus for me because I feel I have the chance, at least three times a day, to give my family love, nourishment, and pleasure.  At the same time I am teaching my son (soon my daughter) about what is good food.  I'm developing a tradition for him that will impact him for the rest of his life.

I didn't have a strong food tradition in my family growing up (as a mish-mash of heritages with little input from older generations), but my husband has so many delicious memories from his Polish grandparents.  His parents were somewhat experimental in their food as well, often trying new things.  I would like to build for my family a tradition as rich as this.  But it's gonna look a little different. A little more in line with our values, and yes, a little more vegan.  I stay vegan for many reasons, the foremost of which is that I feel it is overall better for the world (environmentally and socially).  We are blessed to live in a place where there is enough choice in our food that this is a healthy, delicious, and fun way to live.  I'd like these values to shine through in the food tradition I make for our family. Part of this is involving my children in our good food - from farm to plate - by helping grow some of it, visiting the farms where it is grown, the markets where it is sold, and helping get it on the table.

I read a lot about child nutrition to make sure my child gets all he needs, but the very nature of nutrition science means this can be an elusive topic, so I keep going back to the well for motivation as well as the latest information.  There are many who say you can get all you need from whole plant foods.  I think you can get what you need most of the time.  Kids are funny, though, eating the same thing several days in a row and shunning what you are sure they will love.  Supplementing is not a bad word, and it keeps me from worrying too much that we are missing something during a critical development stage and I-will-forever-screw-up-my-child-because-I-wasn't-ever-vigilant, (if you think I'm crazy, have a kid). The worst thing that will happen is that I will waste some money. And just because you can get everything, doesn't mean it's always optimal.  This would be true if my child wasn't vegan.  I don't think his nutrition would be any better if he wasn't vegan.

Still with me?  I watched this video recently by Jack Norris and it actually reassured me that I was doing pretty well.  That soy milk I send to school? It's a good way to supplement for a bunch of things. I will still put DHA oil in my son's oatmeal.  I'm going to keep using iodized salt because we don't have seaweed often.  I'll continue to hide greens in everything I can. And the most surprising thing I discovered?  Vegan kids can get too much fiber! That occasional refined grain is not the worst thing in the world.

Here are some of the resources I go to for nutritional information:
http://www.veganhealth.org/, Jack Norris, RD
http://www.brendadavisrd.com/, Brenda Davis, RD (saw her at Veg Fest in Toronto - love her! She co-wrote Becoming Vegan, a resource I turn to and lend out often)
http://www.theveganrd.com/, Ginny Messina, RD

Bottom line, I know that healthy food is a common theme for many mothers.  When I start obsessing, I have to tell myself:  We do our best.  It's enough.

Cheater Friday

I suppose I could just wait for Monday to roll around again...but that's the kind of thinking that's never going to get this house cleaned!

Monday was actually not a cheater day - it was a great Coconut Curry Soup and a big Fresh-styles rice bowl. The soup is one of my "premium" soups - it's got sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, other veg, red lentils, coconut milk, curry, all pureed into a delicious creaminess.  It's hardy and tasty.  I prefer using Arvinda's Madras Masala in place of the curry paste called for in the recipe - it makes OK recipes extra-special.  The rice bowl is usually a combo of our favourite Fresh sauces and whatever veg and protein we have lying around, and I used quinoa, because all this can be re-assembled into healthy lunches for the pre-schooler with a complete protein. Sometimes I don't like to think too much about if my son's getting all he needs, and quinoa is one of those silver bullet foods where I know he's getting it all. (He likes it so much, he feeds it to his trains as "coal." Hey, you feed the ones you love the best, right?)

That is not the cheater dinner!

The real cheater dinner is something this vegan is calling Leaf-a-roni.

It looks like an unholy mix of macaroni, alphabets pasta, veg ground round and Daiya.  And it is.  But the cheater (and fantastic) part is that I cleaned out the fridge for the sauce. I threw five or six different tomato bits into the slow cooker (half cans of diced tomatoes and paste, grape tomatoes, a reg tomato, leftover pasta sauce, ketchup), then added a zucchini, red lentils, peppers, onions, garlic, spices and a whole bunch of spinach.  Simmer and puree with a hand blender!  Delicious comfort food.

Our son doesn't like the fake ground round, having never built up a liking for the real stuff; I think he can taste it's not the awesomest thing he could eat.  The parents enjoyed this meal more than he did.  But the leftover sauce is in the freezer and he's gonna get some greens and protein in his next pasta lunch for school.