I made banana bread. Banana bread required mashed up bananas and what better way to mash them up than by hand? My 2 year old believes that banana mushing is necessary for a complete and healthy preschooler life and I tend to agree with her. Yes it usually means that I have mashed bananas in the living room, kitchen, and sometimes my hair… yes it means that half of the bananas dont end up in the bread… and yes it means that I spend the rest of the day cleaning banana goo from her body. Yes… it is worth it. Not just to see how happy she is but to eat the end results!

Banana loaves

This was the end result today. Four little banana loaves that were full of nuts, bananas, raisins, and love.

A little bit of family history here… my brother wont eat veggies. My father wont eat veggies. My mother would try to force feed us canned green beans and spinach which would promptly make us gag and puke yet we were not allowed to get up from our chairs until it was all off of our plate. So… I grew up hating veggies. One of my youngest memories is of sitting at a table with a plate of green metal smelling goop in front of me that my mother called spinach that I saw her pour out of a can and into our plates, it looked like sludge. I have vivid memories of the juices that my mother would make us with her extractor… all carrot based. I hate carrots.  She would try to trick us by putting apples, pears, and other fruits into it… but it was just a waste of good fruit to us. The carrots killed the yummy fruit flavor, worse when celery was put in it. ICK.

To this day I still believe that this harmed the way that my family views healthy eating. I cook and if the words “healthy” are uttered it is almost like a bad word… yet if I dont tell them what is in it.. they will eat it… and ask for seconds… so I have stopped saying what is in food and we are good to go.

WHen cooking for MIke and the kids I dont have the same struggle. Mike and i eat most veggies and Kate will too, we are starting Calvin on eating everything and hope that we dont have troubles with him. Yet sometimes all kids, even the best eaters…get picky.

There are days when Kate wont eat anything but soy cheese and crackers with maybe two grapes and 4 raisins. I have realized that this is why all kid food is “fortified” and has “100% of the needed supply of vitamins and minerals”.. because you dont know if that is all they are going to eat for the day… so you want to make sure that your food packs a serious punch healthwise.

This explains the allure of books like  The Sneaky Chef,and Deceptively Delicious. They are all mother’s desperate attempts at trying to trick their kids into eating better.

This becomes a real issue for those of us with kids with allergies or who are veg*s. I remember the phone call from my own inlaws that were concerned that Kate wasnt getting enough calcium in her diet because she couldnt eat dairy. I of course dont worry since I know that soy milk, tofu, and other products that we have on hand all have calcium in them. Leafy greens also have that and her diet is balanced enough that we arent concerned about her calcium intake.

I found the Pyramind website that the government has set up has some interesting info on where veg or dietary restricted families can get their nutricion from.

As for us?

I have been known to put turnips, brocolli, and cauliflower into mashed potatoes. I put tomatoes and spinach into breads. I bread meats with oats and whole wheat flour.  Grated zucchini and carrots taste great in cakes.  My family loooves quiches. Some phyllo dough and cream cheese/tofutti is a great device for delivering greens and other veggies into picky eaters.  Raw green beans are crunchy like chips and are well loved, sprinkle some paprika and salt on them for a twist. Or better yet, make your own baked veggie chips. Soups are a staple here. We make our own broths that are boiled down veggies and bones or something similar…  the list goes on and on…

Want some fun drinks for parties?  Here is one from Veg Kitchen:

Sneaky Peppermint!

Makes about 2 to 2 1/2 cups

• 1 cup soy milk
• 1/2 cup brewed, then cooled, peppermint tea (fairly strong)
• 1 cup ice cubes
• Handful of fresh spinach leaves (don’t let anybody see you do this.. it will make the drink green but not interrupt the flavor, adds nutrition)
• Raw sugar to taste, optional

Whirl away until in a food processor or blender until smooth. Pour into glasses to serve.

Teas are a great way to get nourishment into kids too. Red Raspberry Leaf and Nettle Tea which I drank when i was pregnant is a great sources of potassium , iron, and other goodies for your blood. Make a tea of these and make it into a popsciple for kids while sweetened with honey or stevia makes a good treat that they will LOVE to eat…. and they will think that they are getting away with something when they do!

Now I am off to find a way to sneak peas and liver into cream cheese icing. Wish me luck!

The 365 blog above has a good description of what one can entail. It usually involved herbs, incense, blood of some animal, prayers, an egg, a curandera, and whatever else your shaman has decided in their vast experience exorcising the bad energies and spirits out of people that you will need to heal.

I dont really believe in any things like this but the “limpia” ceremony (literally means “clean”) is an interesting phenomenon in Mexican culture. We are really a superticious people. I have two beautiful children (no bias here) and everytime we go out and a lady looks at them they have to touch them.  If you dont the kid will get the evil eye or “Mal de Ojo”. A result of this ailment usually involves kids having stomach problems… possibly a great deal of vomiting. It might involve a cold. It some extreme cases it could maybe even lead to the death of the beautiful child. Supposedly this “eye” is not done on purpose but if you look at a child long enough and want one like it or admire it… you can do it without knowing it.. so you must touch the baby or carry it for a few seconds. This will ward off the eye that you could have given the child.

If we go out somewhere and our kids have been stared at we come home and give them a bath with some herbs… this is a good step is keeping the evil out, Gloria goes so far as to give them a rub down with alcohol. She tells me when they have been around women with no children who want children because if that is the case I need to keep an eye out for any signs of sickness that could have been caused as a result.

These beliefs are old and ingrained deep within the culture and psyche of my family. My family doesnt claim to follow the old folk traditions because they are generally based on pagan rituals and beliefs… but when I saw them this Tuesday to have dinner with them they insisted that I put socks on my children to avoid them getting any kind of “bad airs” that come in through their feet. We live in a large city in the united state and my father went to medical school…. and he truly and honest to goodness believes this to be true. They refused to leave until I put sock on my kids feet eventhough it was 80 degrees outside. I shook my head and nodded… knowing full well that even in my skepticism I do my own little things to make sure that none of the evil spirits or energies get to us.

Mike believes in karma, wayyyy before My name is Earl came out… Mike was a believer that karma was a powerful force in our lives and he doesnt believe in doing certain things because it created bad juju for us. We joke about it… and I wonder sometimes if it is he really thinks that it is true or not… but when certain things pop up he will stop me or himself from doing things.. as to not get the dark clouds around us as a result of our actions. I guess this is his own form of weird beliefs.

What’s funny about these beliefs in my culture is that we are very high and mighty about how this is not witchcraft… this is not dark magic.. this is just the energies moving around us.  I guess it is like the “force”… if you want to put it in a geek term.

I find it funny how most cultures have something like this.

So my family insists that someone has somehow put some kind of black mark on our house or our family… maybe we made someone angry or maybe someone is jealous of us. They are unsure but we need a cleansing apparently.

Gloria has made sure to give her house a good cleansing because she wants to make sure that it is not coming from her. She burned a few oils and moved some furniture around to try and create a cleaner “air” for the children and for her.  Their suggestion is that we do something similar.

I have been eating copious amounts of chocolate recently. I think that it is my way of fending off the foul mood I get into when I feel sick. I made chocolate cupcakes this week and the week before I made donuts.

I dont know what the world is telling me but maybe I just need to start using bleach again…

Regardless, I might pick up a dozen eggs tonight to shake in front of my coughing kids and husband. Hey, it cant hurt.

Since Mike has been out of town I know that he has not been eating well so I made a salad for dinner to help his body recover from the evil crap food that he has been eating in Austin.

I used the fruits from our CSA share this week and veggies. It has beet greens, apples, citrus, and more.

I put some honey covered walnuts in it and make a citrus and apple cider vinegar dressing.

The bad:

I made baked fudge.

I baked it in some ceramic loaf pans that i have. One for me, one for Mike.

Mike had his in a nice glass container. With ice cream.  He is civilized… that cannot be expected from me.

I ate mine right out of the pan

Baked Fudge

2 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 heaping tablespoons cocoa
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 300 to 325 degrees.
Beat eggs until light in color. Beat in sugar until just combined.
Add cocoa, flour, melted butter, and vanilla extract. Mix gently until well combined.
Pour batter into four large ramekins or 1 8-inch square baking dish.
Set ramekins or pan into a larger pan halfway full of water.
Bake 40 to 50 minutes, or until upper crust is crispy and the rest of the batter is firm but not set. Toothpick should come out…not clean, but mixture should not be overly runny.

I ate mine with ice cream, you can make a whipped cream topping for it.

I shamlessly stole this from Pioneer Woman. Bless her soul.

It is called Industry Country Market it has solar and wind energy and they have classes about green living. They are also a little store and a quaint looking building.

This has been my dream todo for years. I want a little restaurant/store outside of the city.Where i grow my food and serve it to others.  Mike had even thought about putting an alien ship stuck on the land and give tours.

Someone already did this and it makes me sad because now if we do it, we will just seems like copycats. Oh well.

I have been cooking up a storm recently. Above is the banana bread that I made today.

After picking up my co-op share this week I was enthralled that we got greens and cauliflower. Today I made cauliflower curry with coconut milk for dinner. I veganized it (just like the banana bread above) because the cream does not go well with Kate.

Michael was in Austin this week for a few days and I dont realize how much I love him until he is gone… so when he got back I was so happy and now all I want to do is stare at him and make sure he never leaves my sight again. SO of course I cook a lot because I figure that if I cook good food he will never leave again right?

I made this carrot cake last week and was very happy at the outcome. It was vegan and moist and wonderful. I am pretty sure that I have not had a cake that was better than this. I didnt not frost it at all but it didnt need it. I also hate most frostings.

kate helped me with this.

Here I am shredding the carrots with her. I used baby carrots because I think they are sweeter.. I could be wrong but well it tasted wonderufl so I dont care if I am wrong or not.

She was lifting the bowl to me and saying that it smelled good, and it did. She loved eating the shredded carrot bits, she was so funny. She also loved mixing the cake with me.

Usually I dont use recipes but my friend Katie B. sent me this recipe for vegan Challah bread.

1 1/2 c. warm H2O
3 T. sugar
3 tsp. yeast
4 1/4 c. flour
2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp oil

mix warm water with sugar and yeast, when it proofs, add the rest of the stuffs.

Bake at 375 for 30 minutes or less.

I have a great fear of baking. I seriously do. I have this engrained inability to follow directions so baking always fails for me greatly. This recipe seemed simple enough that even I, the baking challenged would be able to successfully create this without it exploding in my face.

This is what my bread looked like when it was finished being beat down and braided.  I am not an expert at braiding stuff, and I never played with playdough so I am sure it looks awful. It was as pale as a scandanavian goth kid in winter.

It obviously looked great and it tasted wonderfully. I am so excited about this because I did it all by hand. I didnt use a mixer or a machine… I put all of the mixins on the counter and poured them into a little volcano made of flour and just kneaded and kneaded until it was all mixed. I really exercised the gluten and it really came out flufffy.. the yeast did its thing and we are all enjoying a beautiful bread that is both vegan and tasty.

Who said baking was rocket science?

Right after I made this I also made some Carrot Cake with Kate. I will post pics of it later on tonight because it was moist and perfect.  Carrot cake and i are friends now too.

I saw this recipe for Five Minutes a day bread and it seems like it would work for us. We are crazy busy and sometimes this break making thing takes a real long time.

We will get brave though…. and when we do I want to try this potato bread recipe.

Tonight is the first night that Mike goes back to teaching this semester. He teaches two classes again, this time on Tuesday nights and on Saturday mornings. I always miss him and the kids go crazy without their beloved father.

Another gadget that I have been loving this new year has been my rice cooker. Mike bought me an amazing rice cooker for Christmas last month and I have been really using it often.  Last night I made chicken Mole sauce with spanish rice and the rice cooker took care of the rice for me.  I boiled the chicken and used the stock from it to make the rice and to make the mole sauce.

Speaking of food… Calvin my little chunkster is crazy trying to get solid food into his little mouth. He grabs at plates, he tries to stuff things in his mouth all of the time. He lunges at people eating and he stares at our plates, following the food to our mouths like a lost puppy. I feel sometimes like an awful mother for not giving in to his obvious desire for wanting solid foods, but I have my reasons.

What are they?

Glad you asked!!

To begin with these are the signs that an infant is ready for solids. (From Kellymom.com)

• Baby can sit up well without support.
• Baby has lost the tongue-thrust reflex and does not automatically push solids out of his mouth with his tongue.
• Baby is ready and willing to chew.
• Baby is developing a “pincer” grasp, where he picks up food or other objects between thumb and forefinger. Using the fingers and scraping the food into the palm of the hand (palmar grasp) does not substitute for pincer grasp development.
• Baby is eager to participate in mealtime and may try to grab food and put it in his mouth.

Shake n Bake is 85% there but not 100% so he gets no solids yet. He is also not 6 months old yet which is the minimum that one should wait to introduce solids to a child. We have a family with a history of allergies, Kate has dairy allergies so I am going to wait as long as I can to make sure that his “gut” has been closed. For the first year solids are just for play anyways as babies need to stay on breastmilk being their primary source of nutrition for at least a year so I am in no hurry.

If you see the picture above, he isnt hurting or starving… so we really dont need to stuff him full of food quite yet. Also it will be cheaper for us to not feed him solids. When he is on solids he will eat us out of house and home. Seriously folks.