Smoothie Pops

It's July, and it's hot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everyone needs a good cool-down treat in the summer time, and this is my tried and true recipe that pleases children and adults alike. It's packed full of nutritious stuff, and nothing nasty to speak of. This recipe has even been tested on a friend's son who never ever eats fruits or vegetables, but couldn't get enough of these pops. Enjoy!

Smoothie Pops
1/2 cup frozen fruit (we usually use a mix of berries and mango)
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup milk
2 Tbsps. veggie powder (we use Triple Greens by Purity Products)
1 Tbsp. ground flax seed

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth. Add more milk if needed to thin the consistency. Pour into freezer pop molds (we use these great silicone ones). Freeze thoroughly.

These can be made vegan by substituting soy yogurt and any non-dairy milk substitute (soy, rice, hemp, almond milks).

Thoughts on School Food - The Beginning

My 3-year-old daughter started nursery school two weeks ago (technically camp, but camp and school are pretty much the same thing at this age). Until now, I've never had to think too much about what my daughter eats. She eats what we eat, and we eat healthy foods. Sure, I've had to occasionally explain to a family member that she can't have certain foods in their house, and that's never a fun conversation. No one wants to be told that their food isn't good enough. Still, we've been lucky enough to have family that generally sticks to our guidelines ... generally.

School is quite a different story. My daughter has exposure three times a week to what most people consider acceptable food for children, most of which is far from what I would call acceptable. Since it's summer, the school treats the kids every day to ice pops. Now, that sounds like an innocuous, reasonable treat for a child, and most parents wouldn't object, and might even feed their own children such things. But what is an ice pop? It's frozen sugar water, most often sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, colored with artificial colors. Artificial colors contribute to hyperactivity in children and refined sugars like white sugar and high fructose corn syrup are exactly the sorts of sweeteners that can lead to type II diabetes, as well as contributing to the growing (pardon the pun) childhood obesity problem in this country. They are empty calories that don't serve the needs of the child in any way. Giving kids sweets like this, especially on a regular basis, makes it much harder to steer them toward healthier options at meal times. Why should they eat broccoli when they consider candy bars a food? What in the world would drive a parent or a school to give kids such seriously flawed "foods"? It baffles me, but that's the reality most health-conscious parents face when sending their children to school.

So, clearly, I cannot allow my daughter to partake in the foods provided by the school. But even avoiding that does not shelter her from the fact that everyone else is eating these things, and that becomes a difficult conversation to have with a 3-year-old. For now, my daughter assumes that she cannot have other people's foods because she has food allergies. But I would like her to understand that even when there is no danger of food allergens, there are other problems with some foods that make them bad choices. So, I've begun to tell her things like, "we don't eat that because it's not very healthy for us," or "we only have things like that as a treat, on holidays or special occasions," or "it's more fun to make things ourselves at home instead of buying them in a store." I think these sorts of statements help her to understand that we do have choices, but that not all the choices are equal. Eating isn't just about responding to hunger or cravings. It's about listening to the needs of our bodies.

I can teach her these things, hopefully with success, but I can't teach other parents or school personnel without crossing some boundaries. So, the question remains, what do I do to address them? Although I'd love to be an influence on other parents, I realize that's a long shot. For now, I'm contenting myself with modeling what can be done to feed good food to children. If a parent is interested in what I do, I'd be more than happy to share my methods. Otherwise, I'll avoid stepping on anyone's toes.

Thankfully, the school we've chosen is very accommodating in allowing us to provide our daughter's food and drinks. Instead of ice pops, we provide homemade smoothie pops (recipe to follow), and another snack of some kind (usually cut up fruit, but sometimes crackers or whole grain cereals).

The thought has occurred to me that my daughter might become somewhat preachy around other children, and that could become a concern for her socially. I try to stress that different people make different choices. We know what's good for us, but we don't know everything about other people. I hope that message gets through to her enough so that she won't go around judging everyone else. A physically healthy child with a severely injured psyche is not at any kind of advantage.

These last two weeks have given me a good lesson in letting go - something that is truly in order for me now that my little girl is becoming so independent. She needs to find her own way in the world, but as parents, I think it's still important for us to provide the tools and guidance that will help our children make choices that work for them, food-related and otherwise.

Super Cheap & Easy Salmon Burgers

I envy the seriously inventive chefs out there who are capable of true originality. It’s been a very rare occasion that I’ve been able to come up with something that hasn’t been done before, and many times over at that. The reality for most professional chefs and home cooks alike is that coming up with a recipe starts with inspiration from someone else’s food. That means that when we create a recipe, we may be combining things in slightly different ways, or adding a single new twist to an old trick, but we’re really not making something entirely new. We borrow ideas and flavors and make them subtly our own. This is not revolutionary stuff.

The good news for home cooks is that this means we can practically steal most of our ideas, but still feel that we’re a part of the creative process. Many home cooks adapt recipes to suit the tastes or desires of their families; that’s basically the process I’m describing. And there are more and less complex ways of doing this. Sometimes, it doesn’t start with a written recipe, but with a taste of something worth copying. More often than not, this is where my recipes start. So it is with this recipe for salmon burgers.

As I mentioned in a previous post, some time ago I attended a dinner party put on by Healthy Pantry, a company that makes easy-to-prepare meals for the home cook. One of the dishes they made that evening was salmon burgers, which were a bit sweet for me, but still quite tasty. I noticed that they used canned wild salmon to make these, and I thought, wow, this is a great way to use an inexpensive, very healthy product. I’ve always tried to find ways to use canned salmon, since it’s pretty much always wild, and so much less expensive than fresh or frozen wild salmon. You can get a 14.75 oz. can of Bumble Bee red salmon (red salmon is higher quality and higher in omega-3 fatty acids than pink salmon) for around $5. The frozen wild sockeye salmon fillets that I buy at Costco for the bargain basement price of $26 for 3 lbs. works out to almost $8 for the same 14.75 oz. That’s 60% more expensive for essentially the same product! From an environmental standpoint, the can is also superior, because it eliminates the need for refrigeration. Good for your heart, good for your wallet, good for your world. There’s even another benefit to canned salmon that can’t be found in fillets – canned salmon contains soft, edible bones that are an excellent source of calcium, and a particularly bio-available form of the mineral.

The trick about canned salmon is that it really doesn’t taste as good as fresh or frozen fillets. So, some creativity is needed to employ it in recipes. Canned salmon needs a little help from other flavors to make it palatable, as opposed to canned sardines, which are also seriously healthy, and I think are just fabulous all on their own.

Somehow, salmon burgers eluded my bargain radar until I tasted the Healthy Pantry version. How could I have missed this opportunity? Needless to say, I got to work on a recipe. I’ve attempted to emulate the spirit of the Healthy Pantry version in that my burgers are made almost entirely from pantry items, rather than perishable ones. This reduces costs, makes prep time shorter, and makes it an easy go-to meal when you have no time to run to the grocery store. Feel free to substitute fresh products, if you’re so inclined. Here it is, my very own 30 minute meal:

Super Cheap & Easy Salmon Burgers
1 14.75 oz. can wild Alaskan red salmon
½ cup whole wheat bread crumbs
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 Tbsps. tomato paste
2 tsps. dried thyme, crumbled
1 Tbsp. dried parsley flakes
1 Tbsp. dried chopped onion
1 tsp. garlic powder
Salt & pepper, to taste
Safflower oil spray

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well with your hands or a wooden spoon. Form into patties.

Heat a cast iron skillet or griddle over high heat, and coat with safflower oil spray. Once hot, reduce heat to medium high. Cook patties 4-5 minutes on each side. Serve on a whole grain burger bun. Top with whatever you like: sprouts, avocado, tomato, lettuce, cole slaw, cheese, sauteed mushrooms, onions, etc.

Some alternatives:
For meatier flavor – add 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce to the patty mix
For spicier flavor – add one finely chopped chipotle pepper, or one fresh jalapeño, or several drops of hot pepper sauce to the patty mix

Makes 5-6 patties

Note: Canned salmon is a cooked fish product. It does not require the same precautions as raw fish. This means you cannot undercook it, and you can taste the mixture before it is cooked to see if it is seasoned to your tastes.

More DC Restaurants

Wow! This is long overdue! Life has been happening with a vengeance lately, but I'm finding a little time to catch up, now that my little girl is at summer camp.

I meant to post a good month ago about the food we were able to sample while in Washington DC on our last hurrah vacation before baby. In my earlier post, I talked about Ceiba, which was truly the dining out gem of the trip, but there are two others worth mentioning.

As tourists, we were most often in places where tourists go - treacherous terrain for finding remotely edible food. My big belly prevented us from running laps around the Mall, which would have been helpful in finding good food faster. Unfortunately, all that seemed to be available for ever and ever were ice cream carts, and in the muggy, hot weather, I was not interested in anything sticky or sweet. Even hot dog carts were few and far between! There was the MacDonald's at the Air & Space Museum, but that's not food.

Small tangent - since I've cleaned up my diet (which wasn't that messy to begin with), I find that even on vacation, I crave fresh veggies and fruit, healthy proteins, and whole grains. Junk just slows me down and makes me feel less alive. Good for me! but those are generally not realistic cravings in tourist areas. Fast food tends to be the "nourishment" of choice.

Well, we found our way over to the National Museum of the American Indian, which is adjacent to Air & Space. I wish we had time to explore the museum itself, but my swelling feet and hands and my rumbling tummy had other plans - the Mitsitam Cafe, possibly the best lunch option available in downtown DC.

The restaurant features a not-so-authentic Native American regional eating experience. Clearly, their preparations and prices are aimed at high end rather than tribal foods. Nonetheless, the quality of the food was far and away better than anything else available in the area, and so the prices are somewhat justified. Just don't expect to feel like you went back in time on the reservation after eating here.

Food stations in the cafeteria-style restaurant are divided by geography, and each station tries to emulate Native American cooking, highlighting indigenous foods of the region. I appreciate the homage to regionality and cultural marrying of food with locale that has become so rare in this country. My meal came from the Northwest Coast, and included Mussels with Spring Garlic and Wakame Broth and Fiddlehead Fern, Asparagus and Corn salad. My husband ate from the Great Plains, which (no surprise) featured buffalo. His dishes were the Indian Taco and the Pulled Buffalo Sandwich with Chayote Squash Slaw on a Whole Wheat Kaiser Roll.

My meal was much lighter and, I think, more satisfying than his. Probably the most unfortunate part of the meal was the taco, which was not much different than a taco salad from Taco Bell. In fact, I was reminded of Taco Bell's recent television ad, which boasts that their taco salad has just enough lettuce to qualify as a salad, while trying the Indian Taco here. With so many more interesting options (see the menu here), it was really too bad that we wasted money on this. I suppose it is necessary for the restaurant to serve something that would please the fast food masses, and my guess is that was the reason this dish was offered.

The pulled buffalo sandwich was tasty, but not incredible. I really enjoyed the chayote slaw, which was very flavorful and not at all oily. The fiddlehead fern salad was good, but a bit underseasoned. And the mussels with wakame broth hit the spot!

If we had been in Washington for more than a day (which was really all it was), we certainly could not afford to eat like this for every lunch. But, then again, if we were staying for a longer time, I would have probably visited a local market and stocked up on some stuff for picnics. That would save us money, but it would also save us from the perils of fast food, and the aggravation of trying to find somewhere to eat.

For dinner that evening, we visited Zola, which was touted as an experimental restaurant in the International Spy Museum. The food was good, but hardly experimental, and certainly overpriced. My husband found the emphasis on protein here particularly disturbing. We are accustomed to a truly balanced diet, where the protein is not the main event. Here, the protein was nearly all that there was, and anything else was a garnish. But I suppose the same could be said of a great many American restaurants. It's what the people seem to want.

The menu sounds more interesting than it actually is. I ordered two appetizers, the Citrus Cured Pork Belly and the Zola Chop Salad, instead of an appetizer and entree, mostly to compensate for the high prices, but also because we had had a late, filling lunch. Neither of these were anything to write home about, but they were perfectly adequate. My husband ordered the Butter Lettuce Salad, which was very plain and boring, and the Green Hill Farms Lamb, which he seemed to enjoy. He also ordered the Ancient Gouda Fries as a side dish, which were, well, fries. It was an uneventful dining experience. Everything was edible, nothing was astonishing. I probably wouldn't bother going here again, simply to avoid the inflated prices.

Restaurants - Ceiba

My husband and I went on a very, very short trip to Washington DC this past weekend, and managed to pack in a few good restaurants while on our last romantic hurrah before baby #2 comes along. (My apologies to my Aunt, whom we did not get to see, as we were out nearly as soon as we were in the city. And thanks to my mom who kept our 3-year-old out of trouble, and showed her a great time, while we were away.)

The best of our sampling of restaurants, by far, was Ceiba, a Latin American restaurant, with a little Caribbean mixed in. It ain't cheap, but remember, we were going for romance and wow, not just filling our stomachs. Perhaps the only minus was the somewhat over-zealous wait staff, but that didn't manage to spoil a nearly perfect eating experience.

We lucked out a bit with seating. We were in a bright room that looked out onto the street. The inner rooms of the restaurant were not as inviting. The decor was nothing special, but I'm not one to be wowed by decor anyway. It was certainly modern and clean, and that works for me. Perhaps a little ethnic something-or-other wouldn't hurt.

Being our first romantic night out in some time, we did splurge a bit on food. We started with the Sampling of Ceviches, which included their Peruvian Clasico, Yucatan Shrimp, Yellowfin Tuna, and Wild Striped Bass ceviches (they were arranged in this order, each one being progressively hotter than the last). Yum! They were all so original! I think of ceviche as relatively simple and undressed, save some citrus juice and maybe a hint of heat. These were quite complicated, each in its own very distinct way, and yet they didn't confuse the palate. The flavors all worked well together, and even though each ceviche was different, moving from one to the next was not at all problematic.

We also had the Shredded Duck and Three Cheese Poblano Chili Relleno, another appetizer. The duck was so flavorful, and not a meat I would ever imagine having in a chili relleno. More often than not, I've had them stuffed primarily with cheese, which I find texturally very unappealing. I've had them done well with shredded pork, and this was similar to that sort of application. I think the real success of this dish is that the components of it could each be experienced separately and in combination, since everything stood out: the duck, the cheeses, the salsa, the relish.

For our main courses, my husband had the Slow Braised Pork Shank "Feijoada" and I had the Grilled Sugar Cane Skewered Jumbo Shrimp. Both were flawless. We cleaned our plates (which is par for the course for me, but my husband is usually a leftover-leaver). The pork was incredibly tender and flavorful. The shrimp tasted just as they should be, like shrimp. I often get annoyed at the way shellfish is prepared in restaurants; it's so often mixed into something, drenched in a sauce, or hidden in some other way. Why do people pay so much money for something that will only be buried in something else? I like my shellfish fairly naked, and that's just how this was. It had a subtle, sweet glaze and a slight char from the grill, but the taste was truly that of shrimp. It wasn't even slightly overcooked, as so much restaurant shrimp is. In an embarrassing moment, my eagerness to eat as much of the shrimp as I could got the better of me, and I accidentally flung a shrimp halfway across the room while attempting to de-skewer it. Our waiter quickly swiped it up, and next thing I knew, I was being served a replacement! Apparently, they were as eager to indulge me as I was to be indulged.

Alas, when the time for dessert arrived, we couldn't fit another bite into our glutinous selves, though there was plenty to entice! This, and the many other entrees and appetizers that we did not get to sample are reason enough for me to want to go back. I do hope this restaurant sticks around for quite some time, so I might have the opportunity to do just that.

Red Cabbage & Brussels Sprout Slaw

I was very hesitant, at first, when I saw this recipe at 101 cookbooks. The idea of eating raw brussels sprouts somehow didn't appeal to me, and eating raw brussels sprouts isn't necessarily the healthiest option either. So, I really wasn't interested.

Then, in planning my daughter's bird-themed birthday party, I thought, "Hey, I need some kind of slaw that looks like a nest and has caraway seeds, but I don't want to make a run-of-the-mill cole slaw." So, I thought I'd give raw brussels sprouts a whirl. The rest of this salad doesn't resemble the one from 101 cookbooks at all, but I nonetheless stole the idea, so I'll give credit where it's due.

Given that brussels sprouts really are better, and better for you, eaten cooked, I think you could just as easily substitute green cabbage or napa cabbage, and no one would object. Those little buggers are also a real pain to slice, and they're seriously more expensive than other types of cabbage. So, why go out of your way to eat raw brussels sprouts? I can't think of a reason. Make it whatever way works, I say.

Red Cabbage & Brussels Sprout Slaw (aka Birdie Slaw)
1/2 lb. brussels sprouts, shredded (very thinly sliced with a knife)
1 small red cabbage, shredded
2 carrots, shredded
1/2 oz. chives, cut into 2 inch pieces
1/4 cup caraway seeds
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsps stoneground mustard
salt & pepper, to taste

Toss brussels sprouts, red cabbage, carrots, chives and caraway seeds in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together olive oil, cider vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper. Pour dressing over slaw, and toss well. Serve cold or room temperature. Will keep in the fridge for a few days, but best served one day after preparation.

Serves 10 as a side dish.

My Big Red Quinoa Lentil Salad

Early spring can actually be a tough time to cook, at least in the Northeast. Most of the winter vegetables are no longer around, and are past their storing life. Asaparagus is everywhere, but what do you serve it with? So, I came up with this salad that makes use of winter's last remnant (beets) and spring's shooting star (asparagus).

For some kids, the bright red color of this salad, care of the beets, is especially alluring. For others, it's "gross me out!" If you're serving one of the latter, go with a golden beet instead of red.

My Big Red Quinoa Lentil Salad
1 red beet, washed and trimmed of ends
1/2 cup green lentils
1 cup water
1 cup quinoa
2 cups homemade or low-sodium veggie stock
1 bunch asparagus, trimmed of woody ends and cut into 1.5" pieces
1 navel orange, supremed (see note below)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 shallot, minced
salt & pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 400°F. Wrap the beet in two layers of foil and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 45 minutes. Allow to cool, and then peel the beet's skin, and slice the beet into thin strips.

In a small saucepan, bring lentils and water to a boil. Reduce heat and cover, simmering for 30 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed. In another small saucepan, bring quinoa and veggie stock to a boil. Reduce heat and cover, simmering for 15-20 minutes, or until liquid is completely absorbed. Once lentils are done, add the asparagus to the pan, stirring the pieces in and then replacing the cover for up to 5 minutes, allowing the asparagus to steam slightly.

In a large bowl, combine the quinoa, lentils, asparagus, beets, and orange sections, and toss. In a separate bowl, prepare the dressing by whisking together the olive oil, vinegar, parsley, garlic, shallot, salt and pepper. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss. Serve cold or room temperature.

Serves 4 as a main course, 8 as a side dish.


Note: To supreme an orange, cut the top and bottom off the orange, and then cut the rind and pith away from the sides, cutting from top to bottom. Remove individual orange sections by cutting between the orange membranes, so all you have at the end are segments of orange flesh.