Wednesday, 29 February 2012

Catching up...lots of photos and ideas

Ok, so I lasted 2 days. I know I said I was only going to blog once a week, but obviously that is not going to happen.

I have so much to tell you!

So, catching up...

Here is one dinner that was a bit hit...

These potato slices were super easy to make. Just slice, rub on some oil, and sprinkle with herbs. Bake on high, 400 for about 20 min, or until are crispy on the outside and still soft on the inside. 

 We all inhaled these and there were no leftovers. You could dip them in sauce or drizzle sauce over them to make them a little fancier.
 This was a meat pie that can very easily be made vegetarian.
 I added ground beef, brown rice (leftover), garlic powder, Italian spice mix, 1 egg, gravy browning sauce, salt, and ketchup on top. Baked these in the oven.

This is what my husband's vegetarian version looked like. Can you tell the difference? His has veggie ground protein, and still one egg. This was pre-veggie piling on.

Mine was a bit of tonight's potatoes with some leftover steamed veggies, shredded veggies, and canned lentils. I sprinkled vegan cheese over top and melted it. IT was so yummy. 
I sneaked a photo of my kids meal. They each ate all of their dinner and then asked for seconds...yes they do have holes in their legs. :)

Moving on,

Still more catching up...

When you think the noodles are almost done, throw in some broccoli. You save a pot that you don't have to wash and the noodles are cooked in broccoli nutrient water. Not bad...

This is gluten free (rice noodles), vegan spaghetti (leftover veggie ground protein thrown in the spaghetti sauce)

Still more...

I tried making a gluten free Naan bread. It turned out more like a crape or pancake, but Tyler liked it, so it was a pass for me!
 Potato starch, Tapioca flour, 1 egg, baking soda, water, spices
Cooking in coconut oil...

Now it's done. It was bendy, and didn't fall apart, which is always a risk with rice flour and gluten free stuff. He like it...

This lentil curry was so simple to make and it was on low just keeping warm while I was making everything son couldn't stop eating it. Can you imagine....lentils...he loved it. Woohoo!

This is him grabbing a spoonful and hiding under the table to eat it. Sneaky little

Third trip..

 Wondering if he could have more...
What a cutie!
This was my meal. Vegan and delicious.

And for dessert...

This was amazing. The cupcake was moist and melt in your mouth and the vegan cream cheese icing was exactly like the dairy version. This icing was actually meant for cinnamon rolls. We just licked it up.

Toffuti cream cheese and double the icing sugar. Whip is up with a blender or hand mixer. I used my Magic Bullet. 

Ok, phew. I think I am done. Wow that was blogging for 2 days. But as you can tell, I still couldn't stop taking pictures.


Monday, 27 February 2012

Shredded veggies

So last night we went to a local vegetarian/vegan restaurant and we did find something on the menu for Tyler to eat. (wheat free, soy free)  One of the things that they do at this restaurant is shred their veggies. The kids like their shredded carrots! 

Cutting up veggies in different shapes can sometimes make all the difference in the world to them. Kids tend to like raw veggies in small pieces that are easy to chew:

thin peppers or in small squares

 Sometimes popping off the tips of green beans can get them interested enough in making the eating an activity, like dipping, it's something to do.

Shred your veggies and see what happens?


Saturday, 25 February 2012

CHEESE and dairy free kids

Think of meals that kids like to eat...


Grilled cheese

You get the idea. Most of the favourites have CHEESE in them.

What do you do when your children cannot digest dairy?

 My husband uses the toffuti cheese slices for grilled cheese

My son likes the goat block cheese below. There is a cheddar block option as well.

Some soy cheeses you need to be careful of because they still have cow protein in it called casein.
 This is my fav cheese.

 It's vegan and soy free so Tyler can still pick food off my plate. :)

This is the cream cheese. Very yummy.

 Sour cream. Dairy free.
These products are my favourite. For people who have been eating dairy for years you will notice a taste difference but admit it's very close. For children growing up on dairy alternatives, it's yummy and they'll never know the difference.

There are also lots of ice cream alternatives, and dessert alternatives. Explore the freezer isles of your grocery store. These items are not stocked in large quantities so you need to leave the kiddies at home so you have time to really explore and hunt for the items.


Friday, 24 February 2012

To steam...or not to steam

 This is my steaming basket. I got it at the Canadian Superstore.

 It's great to steam lots of things at once. Here is my cooking buddy.

Mine has two layers. I am steaming Edamame and broccoli.

The kids love steamed veggies because they are warm but still crunchy.


Thursday, 23 February 2012

The adventures of gluten free & vegan pie dough

This is what I created last minute after my plan fell through

These were delicious and I am definitely making them again. However, I am the only one in my family who thought so. My kids refused to even taste it.

I started out with an experiment. My goal was to create gluten free & vegan samosas. I found the pie pastry dough at choices.

 Most of the ingredients are a listing from what Earth Balance is. It's basically Earth Balance, rice flour, potato starch, other flowers and vegan shortening.

 It molds like dough
 It rolls like dough
 This was my whipped potato and pea mixture. I was not including the spices as I was trying to make this kid friendly.

 Put the two together and you get a beautiful mess.

Beautiful samosas aren't they?

 So then I tried to bake the dough first, but it crumbled when I tried to do anything with it.

So then I added food yeast, a bit of Dijon mustard some salt to the potato mixture and put that into the pie dough lined mini casserole dishes. Let it bake in the oven, and they were soooo good. I ate both of them along with my dinner. Yummy, yummy, yummy. I am doing this again. :) to get my kids to eat something like this...I think I'll start with mini pie's.

Wednesday, 22 February 2012

Pretend chicken vs. lentil soup

So, yet again.  We all ate something different, it all worked, and everyone was happy. :)

This is what I had...
This is a lentil soup. So easy.
When I got home from work I chopped up the veggies add the spices, and let it cook.

Veggies: 1 sweet potato, 1 carrot, 1 parsnips, 1 celery, and 1 onion.
Spices: Dried rosemary, and my favourite veggie spice. 

It didn't take long. Then about 10 min before we ate I added about 1/3 of a can of lentil and some leftover brown rice that we still had in the fridge. Let it cook some more and done.

I offered my soup to the rest of my family and Tyler liked the stock and asked for seconds, but Alex and David didn't want it. They aren't soup lovers like my son and I.

Now this is what the rest of my family ate.

My daughter veggie chicken with hash browns and corn. The hash browns were just put on a baking pan and put in the oven. I didn't have to think much for them. Same with the canned corn. My soup was also at this point, just cooking on it's own. The simulated chicken was also in the oven warming up.

My daughter likes to dip her "pretend" chicken as she calls it, into plum sauce. I gave her the choice to eat chicken like her brother, but she loves these things, and always wants to eat them when David is having his.
For my husband I just warmed up a bun to make it a chicken burger, with lettuce and vegan mayo (vegannaise).

My son first said he didn't want a chicken burger but once he saw Daddy's he quickly changed his mind, and the tears started flowing. So I took out his gluten free bread, cut off the crust, and warmed it up in the microwave.  I put real chicken pieces in-between his bread with some ketchup and he at the whole thing, and more. 

This was a very manageable meal. Everyone ate what they liked and we had very little leftovers. Success!


Tuesday, 21 February 2012

Pesto pasta

This is rice pasta with pesto seasoning, peppers, mushroom, tofu, and fresh parsley.

I pick out the tofu for the kids and put a bowl of chicken for them to have instead. We also had salad and I made him gluten free croutons with cutting up small pieces of very toasted gluten free bread with Earth balance margarine. The croutons probably wont pass the test for an adult but for a 4 year old boy it works just fine.

So, how it's made...

I fried up some mushrooms, with garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, 1 tbsp of oil, and some water to soften them up.

While you are cooking the veggies you need to cook the rice pasta in hot water. 

Add pine nuts, and pesto sauce and let it all cook. 

The pesto sauce I use is below. It's certified gluten free. 

Once the mushrooms are cooked and the water has evaporated...

 Add in peppers, tofu, and chopped parsley (optional)

 Let it cook to soften the peppers, and then when the pasta is ready add in the pasta and more pesto seasoning.

That's it, enjoy!