Strawberry Spinach Salad

Okay - so given I had a bunch of baby spinach left over courtesy of one of my New Year's Party recipes, I thought I'd try a quick spinach salad for lunch.

Found this recipe through Pinterest and it's courtesy of As a Verb.

Strawberry Spinach Salad

Makes one serving

Ingredients

 

For Balsamic Vinaigrette:
- 4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 2 tsp dijon mustard
- 1/4 tsp soy sauce
- 1/4 tsp sugar

 

For Salad:
- 2 cups fresh spinach
- 5 strawberries
- 1 tbsp almond slivers
- 1 tbsp feta
- Cracked pepper to taste

 

Directions

 

1. Heat up a sauté pan on medium heat, spread the almonds out evenly. When they began to brown, spread out so the other sides get toasted. Remove from heat.  (Note: I didn't bother with this and just had the almonds uncooked.  Maybe I'll try next time).

 

2. Whisk together balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard, soy sauce, & sugar.

 

3.  Slice up strawberries, then toss with spinach & a tablespoon of dressing. Top off with almonds & feta, & cracked pepper.

 

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It was yummy!  I may try next time with bocconcini cheese instead.

Curried Squash Stew with Arame Lace

A few months ago, I took a Healthy Soups and Stews class through Continuing Education with my local school board (from a company called the Enlightened Home Chef).  This stew has been a hit with my whole family (which is impressive as there is no meat involved).

 

Curried Squash Stew with Arame Lace

- Fifteen cups to serve 8; 45 minutes prep time, 30 minutes cook time

Ingredients  
- 2 cups organic basmati rice or quinoa (Note: both times, I didn't bother with this, and just ate the stew straight)
- 8 cups butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes (Note: if you buy pre-cut packages from the supermaket, this is two packages - so I'm guessing two squash)
- 1 large, sweet onion, chopped (appox 3 cups)
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp each curry powder and minced ginger
- 2 tsp (10 mL) ground cumin powder
- 1 tsp. each (5 mL) chili powder
- 5 tbsp (75 mL) unsalted butter or coconut oil
- 2 cups (500 mL) distilled water, organic vegetable broth, chicken broth or beef marrow stock
- 4 tbsp (60 mL) nutritional yeast (provides zinc and selenium)
- 1 can organic Black beans, drained
- 1/4 cup (60 mL) organic currents
- 1 organic lemon, juiced
- 2 tbsp (30 mL) black Arame lace sea vegetable topping (Note: I skipped this)
- 2 cups plain organic whole milk yogurt or Kefir (for Vitamin A) (Note: I skipped this)
- 1/2 cut (125 mL) slivered almonds, toasted, topped with fresh parsley, chopped fine (Note: I also skipped this)

Directions

1.  Prepare rice or quinoa.  In a covered pot, boil your choice of grain in three cups of vegetable broth for 20 minutes.  Keep covered and hot on the back stove until stew is ready to serve.

2.  Prepare the stew: 

• in a stewing pot, use a quarter-cup of water to steam the onion and garlic for 4 minutes;
• then stir in curry powder, minced ginger, cumin, chili and salt, and cook for two minutes;
• stir in butter or coconut oil, 2 cups stock mixed with nutritional yeast, squash, black beans, and currants;
• bring to boil (10 minutes)  (NOTE: I found 10 minutes too long from boiling point; so try 10 minutes total)
• reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until squash is tender.

3.  Toast almonds.  In a dry pan on stovetop, toast almond slivers until golden, stirring lightly.

4.  Finishing touches.  Stir lemon juice into the stew and then sprinkle on top the Arame leaves.  Serve the hot rice into individual serving bowls and then the stew on top.  Sprinkle almonds and parsley on top.

5.  Bowl of plain yogurt on the side to help with digestion.

Nutritional info (per two-cup serving of stew with a half-cup of quinoa, plus yogurt):  598 cals; 21g protein; 22g fat; 79g carbs; 12.5 g fiber

Making Your Own Baby Food

Okay - so given my youngest is almost 6 months now, we've got her in the high chair for meals.  She is watching us intently, which I figure means she's ready for solids.

I remember first step last time being Rice Cereal.  Checked on trusty Babycentre.ca and that still seems to be a good suggested way to go (I know there's been some chat recently about changing what to intro first), so we'll be doing that.

Last time 'round I also successfully managed to make my own baby food, so in preparation for when that time comes, it's time for a bit of a refresher.

As far as I can remember, all I need is my blender (that thing I bought in my early twenties to make daiquiris, but have since worked out has other uses) and ice cube trays.  Then I just need to started steaming and boiling stuff, and I'll be on my way.

Last time (following a little while on just rice cereal) I started with sweet potato.  Peel, cut in to small pieces, steam, then blend with some of the water used for steaming. And done. Chicken was equally simple.  Boil it.  Pretty bland, so once I'd introed both that and apple sauce, I started mixing it together. 

I also took a workshop at my local Early Years Centre on Making Your Own Baby Food which offered a number of good tips, as well as some wonderful handouts on baby food, and introducing solids, which I found very useful.  So here they are again.

This first one is Sample Menus by age - done by Ottawa Public Health - which I found was a good guide for how much I should be feeding baby:
 

The second one I found really good was this one below, which lists good flavour combinations to try:


(Note: I know this one really isn't legible at the moment - blogger isn't playing nice with my computer and I can't upload pics properly from it at the moment.  When I figure it out, I'll fix it.)

Aside from these, I'll follow the rule of only introducing a new food every three days or so for allergy reasons.  And if she doesn't like something the first time, I'll just tuck it away for a while and reintroduce it again later and see if anything changes.
 

So that should keep me going for the first few months - until sometime between 7 and 9 months when, further to that seminar I attended last time 'round, I'll try making food less pureed and more lumpy so babies get use to different textures.  Apparently, if this "window" in age is missed, some babies end up on purees for a long time and reject other foods.  I honestly don't remember this being an issue with my first, but maybe that's because I "caught the window".  Who knows.

New Year - Self-assessment

So I don't want to talk about New Year's Resolutions - I have a bunch of specifics, but really, what I'm aiming to blog about here covers them (eg: learn to cook; get healthier; lose weight; spend lots of quality time with my kids; still find time for me).  That said, wanted to post a few links here to things I'd like to remember/try.  All of these are courtesy of Chatelaine.  I don't subscribe - but I'm on their email list.  Usually, I just surf through their stuff - but this one had a bunch I read.  So here they are:

1.  11 New year's resolutions worth keeping.  Hit's on a lot of what I'm going for (except maybe wearing more colours - not sure on that one).  Eg: focus more on my kids; get healthy; be kinder etc...  I also like that it tells me to go on Facebook :)

2.  Five ways to boost your metabolism.  I'm currently trying to up how much water I drink daily and have already been adding lemon.  I liked the suggestion here to add cayenne pepper as well.  It's a good taste and if it boosts my metabolism at the same time - meh!  All the better.

3.  An easy detox to cleanse your body for a new year.  I've been reading a lot on detoxes in the past few days.  Not sold yet (among other things, I'm not ready to give up coffee along with all the other stuff I'm now trying to avoid in order to eat more healthy) - but this one seemed more simple than some of the others - so bookmarking for future reference.

Homemade Fruit Yogurt

Did this one - also from Better Food for Kids - a few days ago with my daughter (to get rid of a bunch of plain yogurt left over from the pasta salad recipe in this post) and it was a huge hit.  Definitely doing it again.

Homemade Fruit Yogurt

Makes 2 cups (500 mL)

Ingredients

- 1 cup raspberries or sliced strawberries or sliced peaches
- 1 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp frozen orange juice concentrate
- 1 cup plain yogurt
- Fresh fruit, such as orange sections, banana chunks, apple or pear slices

Instructions

1.  In a food processor or blender, purée fruit with sugar and orange juice until smooth.  Transfer mixture to a microwave-safe container.

2.  Microwave, covered, on High for 2 minutes or until warm and sugar is dissolved.  Cool before whisking in yogurt.  Serve as a topping or sauce or as a dip with a variety of fruit.

Notes in book also say it is good over cottage cheese, or with pancakes or waffles (my daughter loves waffles). 

Nutritional Info (per 1/2 cup): 72 cal; 3.7g protein; 12.2 g carbs; 1.2 g fat; 16% CDV Calcium; 2% CDV Iron.

In the world or weird, I am also trying to get more fibre down my kid and she insisted this morning on putting bran buds in this yogurt.  And then STILL ate it.  So yeah, doing this again.

Easy Baking and Breakfasts!

I've tried two new recipes since I last posted (on a bit of a roll - both with the recipes and with the jotting stuff down here).

As noted a couple days ago, I was planning on still trying a few recipes from Better Food For Kids.

My three year old and I did the Orange Banana Muffins this morning to get rid of our over ripe bananas.  I'll wait and see before firmly weighing in, but I think they are a success.  My daughter got to help so we made it into an activity, which was fun - and they also made the house smell great! 

Here's the recipe.

 

Orange Banana Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

Ingredients

- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup cornmeal
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- Pinch salt
- 1 cup mashed bananas
- 1/2 cup frozen OJ concentrate, thawed
- 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 egg

Instructions

1. In a bowl combine whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, cornmeal, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

2.  In another bowl, stir together bananas, orange juice concentrate, brown sugar, oil, milk and egg.  Add mixture to dry ingredients; stir until mixed.

3.  Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until muffins are firm to touch.

Nutritional info (per muffin): 179 cals; 3.9g protein; 31.1g carbs; 4.9g Fat; 3% CDV calcium; 11%CDV Iron.

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Next up, yesterday we also did breakfast for dinner.  My daughter wanted eggs.  Seeing she's also a waffle fan and we hadn't yet tried French Toast with her, I figured I'd try this recipe I found on Kids in the Capital courtesy of Amanda Y.

J's French Toast

Ingredients

- 5 eggs
- 1/4 cup of milk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 6-8 slices whole wheat bread (at least day old works best)
- 1-2 tbsp vegetable oil

Instructions

Pre-heat the pan w/ some oil.  Do up the mixture.  Coat the toast with it and cook.  It was suggested to preheat the pan then lower the temperature to about medium or slightly lower.  That worked well for us.  I halved the recipe (well, 3 eggs, and then halved everything else) and that also worked fine.  I just cooked up the (very small) remainder of the batter into eggs to go with the french toast.  Cinnamon eggs were actually quite good!

We served it with blueberries; maple syrup and chocolate milk.

It was quick.  It was easy.  My little food critic helped with some of the cooking and ate it.  So we'll do it again.

New Year's Party Food!

Okay - so we're hosting a few people for New Year's tomorrow.  Nothing too big.  About 12 max - probably fewer (not counting kids - max 6, again, likely less - all under 4).

Usually when we host parties that don't involve formal dinner (like this one) I do a number of M&M appetizers; slow cooker meatballs in Diana sauce; a veggie plate; cheese plate; and chips.

However, in addition to that, I decided to try and do a few things by hand this time - nothing extravagant - to see how it goes as far as adding those to party/guest prep time.

Here's what I'm doing:

1.  Courtesy of PInterest, I found this recipe at Yummy Mummy Kitchen. 

Christmas Sangria

Ingredients

- 1 bottle white wine

- 25 oz. sparkling cranberry juice (3.125 cups)

- 1 apple, thinly sliced

- 1/2 cup fresh cranberries

- 1 sprig rosemary (more for garnish, optional)

 

Combine all ingredients and refrigerate for an hour.

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2.  This one is courtesy of the label from the Old El Paso Refried Beans can.

 

Layered Bean Dip

 

Pro: I love this at parties, but have never learnt to do it.  It looks pretty simple, so here I go!

 

Ingredients

 

- 2 cans (398 ml each) Old El Paso refried beans

- 1 pkg (35g) Old El Paso Taco Seasoning

- 2 ripe avocados

- 2 tbsp lemon juice

- 1/2 cup mayonnaise

- 1 1/2 cups sour cream

- 1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

- 1 jar (440 ml) Old El Paso Thick N' Chunky Salsa

 

Then add your favourite toppings - eg: sliced black olives, chopped tomatoes, green onions etc...

 

Instructions:

 

 

Combine refried beans and seasoning mix.  Spread over bottom of large baking dish or platter.  Blend avocado, lemon juice and mayonnaise; spread on top of bean mixture.  top with layers of sour cream, cheese and toppings.  Serve with tortilla chips for dipping.

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3.  Courtesy of a quick online search - and due to the fact we have some packages of smoked salmon to use - I'm going to try this recipe.

 

Smoked Salmon with Dill Cream Cheese on Toast Points

 

Makes: 16 appetizers / Prep time: 15 minutes / Total time: 30 minutes

Ingredients - 4 slices white bread (I'm going to use baguette)
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, optional
- 2 ounces smoked salmon (lox style)
- 2 ounces reduced-fat cream cheese
- 1/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream
- 2 tablespoons freshly chopped dill
- 2 tablespoons minced chives
- 1 to 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 16 baby spinach leaves
- Fresh dill for garnish
Instructions

- Preheat the broiler.  - Place bread slices on a baking sheet. Brush one side with melted butter and season with salt and pepper. Toast the bread under the broiler until it's golden brown and crisp, about 2 minutes. Flip and broil on other side until golden, about 1 minute.

- Slice off the crusts while the bread is still hot. Cool slightly and cut each slice into 4 triangles. Set aside.

- To prepare the salmon, separate into pieces and set aside.

- Meanwhile, mix together the cream cheese, sour cream, dill, chives and lemon juice. Set aside a small dollop of the cream cheese mixture for garnish. Spread about 1 to 2 teaspoons cream cheese on each toast point. Place 1 baby spinach leaf on each slice. Top with smoked salmon slices. Garnish with a dab of reserved cream cheese mixture and fresh dill.
Nutritional Info:  48 calories (42% from fat), 2 grams fat (1 grams sat. fat), 5 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams protein, 166 mg sodium, 6 mg cholesterol, 0 grams fiber

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I'll update once I've tried them re: how it went.

UPDATE:  So, these all worked, and all went over well.  Nothin' much more to say about that!