Easy protein-packed "pancakes"

My nearly-two-year-old son is a bit of a picky eater. Aren't they all at this age? I can pretty much get him to eat any sort of carb-filled food -- breads, rice, quinoa, Morning O's (wheat-free cheerios), rice chex, bananas, fruits -- anything sweet or full of carbs that turn into sugar. But vegetables are always elusive, and protein, as well. Sure, he'll eat lentils and beans and such (sometimes) so that helps, and I make him a green smoothie every morning that he just LOVES, which makes me feel better about him getting some veggies in his diet. But nuts are kind of a choking hazard at this age, and he just doesn't like meat, and he liked eggs for about two days before he decided he hated eggs. So what's a mom to do?

I had decided to stop feeding him carbs for breakfast. No more oatmeal and rice cereal, because he's eating too many carbs and if I start the day off with them, then he's just going to be in a carb-frenzy for the rest of the day. Veggies are a hard sell any time of day, so I certainly didn't plan to fill his breakfast plate with veggies. Eggs seemed like the perfect option, but we've already covered his anti-eggs stance.

Time to get creative.

Egg "pancake"

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp coconut oil (or oil of choice)
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp almond meal 
• 1/2 tbsp flax meal
• 1 tbsp pureed veggie or squash of choice (if available)
• 1/2 tsp maple syrup (or honey, etc)

Directions:

1. Whisk together egg, almond meal, flax meal, syrup, and veggie puree (I've used minced zucchini, butternut squash, and green beans from a baby food jar. This one isn't essential but is a way to sneak other goodies into it, and the butternut squash is by far the favorite). 
2. Heat oil in a skillet on medium-high heat.
3. When oil is hot, pour mixture into skillet. Is should spread out pretty thin. Let the pancake cook until you can easily flip it over in one piece.
4. When both sides are cooked, put it on a plate to cool. 

Makes one pancake. One pancake is approx 190 calories, 15 grams of fat, 7 grams of protein, and only 7 grams of carbs (2 grams sugars).  

I call them pancakes for my son as sort of a marketing technique. But they're more like crepes, which means you can smear them with almond butter or fruit filling or something and roll them up if you want to get fancy.

Sometimes Zeke likes them plain, but when he gets bored with it I will put almond butter on it, or a dab of honey, or some almond butter and dried cranberries... you get the idea. These (below) are made with butternut squash, and have a light layer of honey on the inside before they're rolled up, per the Little Man's request.

Zeke’s Butternut Squash Muffins

I started making these muffins soon after Zeke started eating enough solids that we needed to bring snacks with us so he had finger foods to munch on. They're still one of his favorite foods, months later. Gluten free and vegan (if you omit the eggs), and relatively healthy! I wouldn't let Zeke eat them all day long, but a couple muffin bites a day keeps the little man happy.

I've passed along this recipe a number of times, so I thought it was time I put it up online.

Remember, this is all easily adaptable. For instance, If you don't have tapioca starch, you can use another kind of starch that you have in the house. If you want dried cranberries in yours, go wild. This is just a start.

Zeke's Butternut Squash Muffins.

Adapted from Tova's Chia Pumpkin Muffins

Ingredients:

• 2 cups steamed and pureed butternut squash (or pumpkin, or sweet potato)
• 1 cup gluten-free flour of choice (I use 1/2 cup brown rice and 1/2 cup sorghum)
• 1/2 cup tapioc starch (or arrowroot)
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 tbsp ground flax mixed with 6 tbsp warm water (or 2 eggs)
• 1/4 cup high-quality extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup or honey
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla
• Optional: nutmeg, cinnamon, and/or crushed nuts.

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350°
2. Mix all ingredients together
3. Spoon into muffin tray or muffin bites tray. (If pouring into a muffin tray, only fill each cup about 1/3 to 1/2 full).
4. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes until tooth pick insterted comes out clean (often takes longer than this to cook)

I usually make these in a "brownie bites" tray so that they're pretty small, but there's more batter than what fits into that tray so I pour whatever is left into normal sized muffin tins. I only fill them about 1/2 way full, and they do not rise much. After they bake and cool, I stick a couple in the fridge and freeze the rest. Then I'll pull out as much as I plan to let Zeke have early in the morning and put it in the refrigerator. Once I'm ready to give him some, it's thawed out and I can cut it into bite-sized chunks. If I'm taking them "on the go" with me, I will cut them into chunks before we leave the house, and store them in a small tupperware. Then they're ready whenever the little bug needs a snack.

Here's a printer-friendly PDF.

Fatten up your Baby

This one is short and sweet and for all you mommas out there whose pediatricians are a little concerned because your baby is in a lower weight percentile.

This is what I fed Zeke when our doc was concerned about his weight when he was 6 months old. What can I say, the kid has a high metabolism, and his momma produces 2% milk instead of cream. When I needed to get some more fat in my little man's diet, pretty much the only solid he would eat was bananas. So this is what I came up with:

Zeke's Chubby Cheek Breakfast Mush:

• 1/2 of 1 banana
• 1/4 of 1 fresh avacado
• 1 tbsp flax meal
• dash of cinnamon (optional, only if you know your baby can handle cinnamon. Turns out mine is allergic to it.)

That's it! Mash it all up together and then serve. Flax and avacado are both full of healthy fats, and omega 3s. Fantastic for brain development along with being a great way to add some chub to those cheeks.

When Zeke got chubby enough (after some time, people actually started remarking how he'd put on some some pounds!), I started easing off the avacado. I would cut it into chunks and freeze the chunks, then set down one chunk to thaw every night so it was ready for breakfast in the morning.

Now that Zeke is older, I put the avacado chunk, banana, and flax in his daily smoothie (along with extra goodies like blueberry, spinach, and carrots).

Let the chub begin!

Green Smoothie weekend - belated reflections

Wow, I've been meaning to add more reflections on the green smoothie cleanse, but life just keeps... well, you know, happening. I pretty much only get to reflect in the car, the kitchen, or the shower. And my laptop just isn't too handy in either of these places. But tonight the boy is asleep, the hubby is away, and I've got another night or two before freelance will take over my life again, so here I am.

(If you don't care about my rambling but do care for the recipe for my rich tasting superfood snackalicious smoothie, jump on down to the bottom of the post).

So I think what I was really hoping to get out of the weekend was some sort of noticeable health improvement. More specifically, my hands have been breaking out for a LONG while now, and nothing I do seems to help. I've got my cleaning regimen down to very few, all-natural ingredients, and the only soap I use is homemade, unscented, organic goats milk castile soap. Yet my hands still itch and crack and drive me crazy. So I was hoping that they would clear up some over the weekend and I'd be able to use that starting point to figure out a food that's doing it. No such luck.

In fact, from the second day of the cleanse and straight through the next 10 days or so while I was still having a smoothie a day, my throat was sore and weird. So if anything I've discovered that I'm INTOLERANT to something I was putting into smoothies... and with so many ingredients in them, it was impossible to figure out what was doing it.

So I have officially gotten off the green smoothie bandwagon for a while. Gotta slowly keep an eye on what I eat and figure out what's doing the throat stuff.

Zeke, on the other hand, is still rocking about 16-20 oz of smoothie a day. He loves it and I love that he loves it. I'm slowly modifying his recipe to get an optimal mix that doesn't break the bank, and isn't too sweet. For instance, I'm trying to cut down on how much blueberry goes into them, but it seems he won't drink them without blueberries. (In case you haven't noticed, blueberries aren't cheap!) And since likes to eat his bananas, I don't want to put another whole banana in his smoothie... I've been dropping about a cup of frozen organic spinach in each day's smoothie for the high calcium value. But again, that ain't cheap. So now I'm experimenting with adding two tbsp of hulled sesame seeds and chia seeds for their high calcium content. And since these are for Zeke and not me, the high fat value of the seeds isn't a problem at all... in fact, I'm always looking for ways to bulk this skinny minnie up a little bit. So the Zeke smoothie is still going strong.

I also realized that when I'm making smoothies, I basically put all the same food in it that I would eat in installments throughout my day as snacks (a banana, some greek yogurt with fruit and honey, some almonds... you get the picture). Only now they're all packed into my morning smoothie and it doesn't fill me up and so then I'm eating MORE food throughout the day. Not really what I'm going for. Plus it takes more prep time in the morning than just throwing those items whole into containers and taking them to work to much on slowly throughout my day.

So there you have it. I'm an oddball and smoothies don't work for me. However, I will say that I am kind of hooked on the not-quite-so-green dessert smoothie I came up with during the cleanse. It's a good alternative to ice cream or a chocolate bar when I need something chocolatey and sweet....

Kendra's Not-So-Green Superfood Smoothie

• 1 cup almond milk (preferably made from scratch)
• 2 tbsp raw cacao (not to be confused with cocoa)
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 4-5 sprigs of fresh mint (yummy yummy yummy!)
• 4 soaked dates (or 1 tbsp honey if you don't want to wait on soaking the dates)
• 2 dashes cinnamon
• 1 banana
• 1 tbsp almond butter
• (optionals: 1 tbsp almond butter, 1/2 zucchini, 1/2 cup decaf coffee)

Blend it all up in your blender, transfer to a cup and sip away!

Remember that this is a rough template. I always go with what you have on hand and what I think I "need" from said smoothie.

While we're at it, Meghan's got a recipe for a chocolate pudding with a similar ingredient list.

My Recipe for Yummy Veggie and Chicken Noodle Soup

On Saturday I finally made my favorite chicken noodle soup, that I haven't taken the time to make since Zeke was born. It was super tasty and so I decided to finally write down my "recipe" to share. Just a reminder that you can ammend as necessary if you don't have something or don't like something in the recipe. We usually have all this stuff in the fridge, and when Chris bakes chicken thighs he always makes extra for me to shred and freeze for later recipes. We also had some extra broccoli prepared for omelets last night, so I threw what was left into my soup. I don't usually add broccoli, so even though it's in the photo it's not in my recipe below.

Kendra's All-natural Yummy Veggie and Chicken Noodle Soup

• 1 cup chicken broth
• 2 cups water
  
• 5 oz. cooked shredded chicken thigh or breast
• 1 small yellow onion or 1/2 a large onion, chopped
  
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 3 baby bella mushrooms, sliced
• 2 cups of greens (spinach, or kale, mixed greens, whatever works).
  
• 1 bag spaghetti-style tofu shiritake noodles
  
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• tbsp olive oil
  
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• pepper to taste
• pinch of cayenne pepper
  

1. Put water, chicken broth, onion, celery, carrots, mushrooms, garlic, and olive oil in a pot and bring it to a boil. Reduce to medium heat, it should be boiling lightly for 10-15 minutes or until carrots are as soft as you want them.
   
2. While that's boiling, rinse the tofu noodles, cut them in half, and microwave for 1 minute.
3. Mix in the salt, cumin powder, onion powder, pepper, and pinch of cayenne pepper.
4. Mix in the greens, and shredded chicken. Let simmer for another 3 minutes or so until greens have wilted.
   
5. Get two big soup bowls*. Put half the tofu noodles in each bowl. Ladle the soup over the noodles, half in each bowl.
6. Serve!
   

* For me this makes 2 big bowls of soup, depending on how much you eat you might want to break it into more bowls. I have found that the noodles are hard to divide evenly if they are added to the pan of soup, which is why I put the soup on top of it. Sometimes I do the same thing with the chicken, heating it first and then just adding as much as I want for each bowl to the top of the soup.