Healthy Mum, Happy Baby

Well, I just found out there’s a little bit missing in the recipe instructions for this recipe from p. 128 of “the book”. Oops! As this is one of our kids’ favourite recipes and ours as well, I wanted to put a quick correction in here.

In step 3 you add the peeled & chopped broccoli stem to the garlic, anchovies, olive oil & chilies.

Thanks Heather for the heads up!

And did I mention this is so, so fast. Especially if you put the water for the pasta onto boil when you start all your chopping.

So, someone is MUCH more of a foodie (and chef) than I scoffed at the Hummus recipe in the book because it didn’t contain lemon zest, which is apparently where all the flavour lies. So next time you make Tina’s Hummus from page. 110 of the book try adding some lemon zest, I’m going to…

And Andrew made the Salmon & Spinach Quiche (p. 154) and came up with the idea of layering salmon, cheese, spinach & cheese (as opposed to salmon, cheese and spinach as the recipe suggests) and I have to say, it tasted better.

Gastrokid is a blog devoted to kids and eating in a witty, informative way, rather than a “my child loves arugula” way. Their most current post references the chef of one of my most used cookbooks, (see previous post) Mark Bittman with his recipes for quick & easy meals, how can that not be enticing? Check out their recipe for cupcakes using my favourite, Green & Black’s organic chocolate. If you’re into kids and eating you’ll want to cruise around Gastropod or add it to your RSS feed.

Here’s another tip to make cooking quicker - that’s the rub of writing a cookbook, the recipes keep evolving as you do, but in the book they’re stuck in time.

Anyhow, I read this idea in Nutrition Action Magazine. Rather than spending time doing all the peeling, washing, baking, scooping and pureeing needed for Garlic Ginger Sweet Potato Soup (p. 158 of “the book”) buy your sweet potatoes pureed already. This will cut down a lot on the prep time & cooking time for this recipe. The recipe calls for six large sweet potatoes, I’d substitute about three 15 oz cans of puree.

Granted, you still need to roast the garlic and ginger, but that’s a snap compared to roasting (and pureeing) the potatoes.

Farmer’s Market Organic purees are great, and there’s no sugar added etc. I use their pumpkin puree for these great muffins from O Magazine (that aren’t the fastest muffins to make, but are super tasty): Pumpkin Applesauce Muffins

So, we (well, Andrew) whipped up a big batch of his spaghetti sauce (from p. 156 of “the book”) last night. It’s not usually a June staple, but we’ve had a cold, wet weekend and friends just had a baby, so we wanted to give them a batch for a night they just didn’t feel like, have time or energy for, or were too hungry to cook.

We also had a friend and her two little bookend boys for our little girls over as she’s been on her own a lot with the kids since her husband’s been super busy working. She thought the way we added more veggies to dinner was great, so I thought it was worth posting it here.

What we do is about three minutes before the noodles are cooked we throw in broccoli florets with the noodles - saving an extra cooking pot, and extra dishes for eating and cleaning up. Then we dish up the noodles with the broccoli in situ, and ladle sauce atop it all. For the littlest ones we chop up the noodles and the broccoli, and everyone’s happy.

Another great link with info on picky eaters: wondertime.go.com and also some good veggie recipes for kidlets and some sweet potato recipes (including muffins - which my kids love, though I haven’t tried this recipe in particular).

We’ve gotten into the habit of having breakfast for dinner once a week and we all love it. The kids think it’s funny to have pancakes for dinner and we love it because it’s easy and we both like restaurants that serve breakfast all day long. We usually have oatmeal pancakes, heuvos rancheros or, our guilty pleasure - fries, poached eggs, sausages and peas. We get the fries from Alexia so they’re at least trans-fat free. . .at least that’s our excuse and we’re sticking to it!

The oatmeal pancake recipe we use is in Healthy Mum, Happy Baby (of course) but this linked version is from Epicurious - I haven’t made them though, so I can’t vouch for them, I did choose the recipe with the highest fork rating however. The sausages and eggs are pretty self explanatory and I couldn’t find any huevos recipe that was as simple as  the we make it, so here’s a rough version of how we make ours - this isn’t in the book - and there are lots of recipes for them online too:

Heuvos Rancheros (serves two grown ups & two kids)

You’ll need:

• 1 can refried beans (we like Eden Organic)
• 6 corn tortillas
• 2 cups shredded lettuce
• 6 eggs (try omega-3 eggs for an added omega punch)
• handful grated monteray jack or cheddar cheese
• 4 tablespoons salsa (we like Fresh is Best)

1. Heat corn tortillas in oven according to package instructions.
2. While the tortillas are heating put the refried beans into a saucepan, add a few tablespoons of water and heat over low heat.
3. Poach the eggs - I use the poaching recipe from How to Cook Everything as I need help with basics like this. Here’s an eHow how to on poach eggs just in case you need it.
4. Wash and shred the lettuce. Grate the cheese.
5. If you’re feeling energetic then heat up the salsa in a saucepan or microwave-safe bowl, otherwise use cold.

Assemble by layering in this order: tortillas - lettuce - beans (make a little indent in the top of the beans to hold the eggs) - eggs (two for adults, one for each child) - cheese and finally top with the salsa.

For younger kids I usually cut the tortillas into triangles, put some beans, some shredded cheese, a well-poached egg and maybe some chopped tomato on their plate as it can be hard to eat for them otherwise.

For those of us who are no longer pregnant (nor planning to be again) it’s too late for us to take advantage of new research finding that mums who eat fish give birth to brainier kids but the info about mercury found in tinned tuna is still useful. And here’s a link to a whole host of info on Omega-3’s in fish oil and their benefits to breastfeeding & pregnant women.

And if you’re trying to get more oily cold water fish into your diet, here are some links to some delicious sounding ways to prepare salmon:

• Roasted Salmon with Maple Glaze from the Mayo Clinic’s Healthy Recipe section
• Monte Cristo Salmon Sandwich from Dr. Weil’s Healthy Kitchen section
• Serving suggestions for Wild Salmon from Whole Foods

Hint: All these sites have heaps of great health information and Whole Foods has a great section on maternal health and feeding kids as well. Speaking of Whole Foods if anyone knows when the Cambie location will be opening up please let me know, my pocketbook will shrink but my tummy will be happy!

This was one of the first recipes to be included in the book and it’s still one of my favourites. Tina and I gravitated toward each other in prenatal yoga class because our due dates were one day apart. We both went hugely overdue and our kids were born two days apart (and two weeks late). Her big fear was of tearing during labour, mine was having a C-section. She tore, I had a C-section, we both survived…

1 can (19 oz/540 ml) chickpeas
6 tbsp virgin or extra-virgin olive oil (with olive oil the more virgin the better!)
4 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice (or concentrate is fine too)’
1/4 cup tahini
4 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
Cayenne to taste
c. 1/4 cup water

Drain and rinse the chickpeas (apparently with tinned beans when you rinse off that gloopy, opaque liquid they’re packed in you’re also rinsing off a lot of the salt, which is good). Place the chickpeas in the bowl of a food processor or blender. Add oil, lemon juice, tahini, garlic, cumin, salt and cayenne, and process until smooth, adding water until you reach your desired consistency. Makes 3 cups.

Variations: You can totally adapt this to your taste, we’re big garlic fans in our house so I’ll often add extra. You can also try a splash of hot pepper sauce or substitute black beans for the chickpeas.

Hummus is super versatile. Use it as a dip for baby carrots, celery, pita bread or corn chips. Try is as a sandwich spread, or spread inside a pita bread stuffed with cucumber, tomato and lettuce. I also like dipping cheese toast into hummus.