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Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Brownies

This is a brownie recipe that is still gooey, rich and yummy but has some secret ingredients hidden in there. I try to incorporate some veggies in almost all the deserts we make in our house. When you have a kid that won't eat anything; a way to get a little more good stuff in him is to hide it, even in his treats. That being said, just 'cause there are avocados and carrots in these brownies, it does not mean you should let your little one eat them all day – they are still packed with sugar. I let the monster have a little square after meals assuming he eats his meal. You ask me: do they taste like brownies? - YES! REALLY GOOD ONES.

These did not only pass the Wiseman Monster test but also the very finicky eater that is known as my father a.k.a pepere. He could not tell that there was anything unusual added to the recipe.

Brownies

Brownie Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter - melted
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 small avocado - pealed and mashed
1/2 cup shredded carrots (washed with peals on)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
1/3 cup cocoa powder*
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup pecan meal**
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup white chocolate chips


Frosting Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoon milk
1 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease an 8 or 9 inch square pan.
2. In a large saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, avocado and 1 teaspoon vanilla - beat until creamy.
3. Beat in eggs and carrots.
4. Beat in 1/3 cup cocoa, flours, nut meal, salt, and baking powder.
5. Stir in white chocolate chips
6. Spread batter into prepared pan.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Do not overcook.
8. To Make Frosting: add all ingredients and beat until creamy.
9. Let brownies completely cool, then frost.
10. Cut in squares and enjoy

Next time I make these, I want to double the carrots, only use whole wheat flour, use panela instead of white sugar, remove the white chocolate chips and add some avocado to the frosting. Will let you guys know how it turns out...


*The type and brand of cocoa powder one uses can change a recipe so much; some just taste better then others. I love the Camino brand personally:
Though it's not cheap it's well worth the premium.

**Most nut meals can be bought in health food stores however you can also make your own. Check out this website for how to make your own nut meals:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2243930_make-nut-flour.html

Monday, December 20, 2010

Blueberry Juice

This juice is light and refreshing and another favourite in our home.

Blueberry Juice - makes one serving

Ingredients:

1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 cup diced apple (washed and peeled)*
1/2 cup diced zucchini or cucumber**
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp water

Combine all ingredients in the cup that comes with your immersion blender and puree until smooth. Place in sippy cup with a few ice cubes and enjoy.

* in the fall we go apple picking with the apples I make all sorts of goodies but I also wash, peel and chop up a bunch to freeze. This ends up being less expensive since I am buying them direct from the source and is also very handy for making juices. If you are going to use frozen fruit for your juices always take them out the night before and place them in the fridge to thaw. Our rule of thumb is you make a juice; you take out stuff for the next juice.

** Same goes for zucchini. My parents grow some in their garden and brought us I think about a dozen large ones. We diced them all up and froze them.

Nutritional Information:
1 serving vegetables
approximately 2 servings fruit

Friday, December 17, 2010

Cheese Pizza - or is it?

Earlier this week I made "Tomato Pasta Sauce" and had some left over; so I decided to make pizza with it. You don't have to use this sauce for the pizza you could use any tomato pasta sauce.  If you are using store bought tomatoes sauce try adding some cooked veggies to the sauce and purring it all together - this will add a bit more veggies to your toddlers diet.

The pizza dough recipe below is an adaptation from the cookbook that came with my Cuisinart bread machine.  Don't be surprised if your toddler does not eat as much of this pizza as he typically would. This pizza both sauce and dough is so loaded with hidden nutritious ingredients that it is more filling then your average pizza.


Cheese Pizza - Serves 2 adults and 1 or 2 toddlers (8 slices)


Ingredients:
Dough
2/3 cup water
1/2 tsp sugar or honey (any kind of sugar can be used - I use panela)
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup all purpose white flour
3/4 cup whole wheat bread flour
6 tbsp quinoa flour
1 tbsp hulled hemp seeds
1 tbsp flax seeds
1 tsp teff seeds
1 tbsp minced dried mushrooms
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast

toppings
1 - 200g pkg mozzarella cheese (shred the cheese)
1/2 cup to 1 cup "tomato pasta sauce"

Place all dough ingredients in order listed in your bread machine pan.  Select the dough setting and press start.  Once dough is ready remove.  If using right away roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick and top with sauce then cheese. Note that the dough can keep about 24 hours in the fridge if placed in a zip lock bag - keeping it longer then that changes the taste.

Roll out dough



Add sauce - I like lots of it


top with cheese


Cook pizza in a preheated oven (400F) for 15 - 18 minutes check it at 10 minutes then again at 15 minutes just in case your oven is extra hot.  If your oven has a hot spot to ensure even cooking rotate pizza half way threw cooking time. Once cheese is browning pizza is ready.

I cook my pizza on a pizza stone but you can also cook it on a cookie sheet or pizza sheet. If you do not use a stone the cooking time might vary a bit.

The pizza was so good that I forgot to take a picture until we were done supper.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

"Tomato Pasta Sauce" A.K.A. Lentil and Tomato Sauce

This is a unexpected twist on pasta sauce. As long as your little one will eat pasta with plain tomato sauce, chances are he will eat this one. Another thing that I find that helps with our monster is to let him select the shape of the noodles that I am going to serve. Also, I don't overdo it with sauce for him -- just enough to coat the noodles.

"Tomato Pasta Sauce" A.K.A. Lentil and Tomato Sauce (makes 4 adult size servings)

Ingredients:

1/2 jar Tomato and Basil pasta sauce (700mL Jar) - I like to use the President Choice Organic
3/4 cup dried red lentils** (always sort through lentils to make sure they do not have any rocks hiding in them and wash before cooking)
2 1/2 cup water
1 cup shredded carrots (packed; approximately one very large carrot)
2 tsp dried onion flakes
2 tbsp fresh or frozen rosemary (chopped)

Combine all ingredients in large saucepan; mix; then bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium; cover and cook for approximately 15 minutes until lentils are tender - stir frequently. It is very important that you stir the sauce every 3 minutes or so as it will stick to the bottom and burn if you do not. If the lentils are not tender and the sauce seems to be too thick add a little bit of hot water and continue to cook.

While sauce is cooking, cook (as per the package's direction) your child's favourite pasta. Try to select a whole grain pasta, as it is healthier for you. If your little one is used to white pasta get the same-shaped pasted in both whole grain and white and mix the two. Starting with 1/4 whole grain to 3/4 white then slowly bring up the quantity of whole grain to 100%.

For those of you that have kids that are not too picky you can serve the sauce as is on your favourite cooked pasta.

For the rest of us the trick to get it into your kids is once the sauce is cooked puree it with your immersion blender until smooth. It now looks pretty much like any plain tomato pasta sauce.



I also wanted to note that this sauce makes a great pizza sauce; we had left over sauce after supper and well tomorrow I am making pizza dough and we will have cheese pizza with this sauce for supper.

Nutritional Information in full batch:
approximately 2 servings of meat alternatives
approximately 5 servings of vegetables
lentils are a very good source of cholesterol-lowering fiber; they are also high in folate, magnesium, iron and protein.


Tuesday, December 14, 2010

How much food should your 3 year old eat?

Now that I am getting the monster to eat food that is not breastmilk the question is how much should he eat and what variety? Don't get me wrong breastmilk is amazing and my little monster still nurses 4 times in a 24 hour period and will keep that up as long as he needs it. But he is almost 3 now and pre-schoolers need more then just breastmilk.

I turned to the Canada's Food Guide to find my answer. They have a great interactive tool that will do all the thinking for you...

Canada's Food Guide for a Boy or Girl age 2-3

Now that we know how many servings of food the monster should have in a day the next question is what is considered a serving for that answer check out these great charts on Canada's Food Guide Web Site.





Whenever I refer to Nutritional information at the bottom of one of my recipes the servings quantities marked are based on the links above.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Vegan Banana Apricot Muffins

I would say the monster gave these a 3.5 out of 5. He is willing to eat them but they are not his favourite muffins I have ever made. I quite like them. Geoff says they are too banana-y, but that is what I like about them. We are not vegan, however I do like making vegan baked goods as my son can help me and I don't have to worry about constantly telling him to not eat the dough because it has raw eggs in it.

Vegan Banana Apricot Muffins - makes 12

Please note that this recipe is an adaptation of "Banana Wheat Germ Muffins'" published in Veganomicon; The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook. Veganomicon is, hands down, one of the best Vegan cookbooks and is a great staple for any creative chef's kitchen.

Ingredients:
1 cup plain soy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 large rip bananas
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup pre-grated panela* (can be substituted with brown sugar or sucanat)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup hazelnut meal (can but substituted with any pecan or walnut meal)**
1/2 cup wheat germ
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt (or 1/4 tsp table salt)
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup all purpose white flour
15 dried apricots (diced very small)


  • Combine the soy milk and the apple cider vinegar in large mixing bowl let sit for 5 minutes


  • Meanwhile mash your bananas


  • Once the 5 minutes is over add to the soy milk and apple cider vinegar mixture the bananas; oil; panela and vanilla. - mix well


  • Then add hazelnut meal; wheat germ; baking powder and salt - mix well


    Hazelnut Meal


  • Now slowly add the flours until everything is incorporated

  • Then add the apricots - mix well and let batter stand for 15 minutes


    Apricots whole and chopped
  • While batter is standing pre-heat the oven to 375F and grease a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray


  • Divide batter into the 12 muffin cups and cook at 375F for 22 minutes


  • Remove from oven and once cool enough transfer muffins to a cooling rack


These muffins are great served warm with a little butter. Once cooled store the muffin in an airtight container in the fridge. Since these are extra moist due to all the bananas they really need to be kept in the fridge. When you want to enjoy one warm just pop it in a cold oven and turn the oven on at 350F when your oven is done pre-heated the muffins will be nice and warm. Or pop them in the microwave for a few seconds.

**Panela can be bought in bags pre-grated it looks kinda like brown sugar and can be used in almost any recipe instead of brown sugar or white sugar. I buy my panela at Fresh From the Farm.

*Most nut meals can be bought in health food stores however you can also make your own. Check out this website for how to make your own nut meals: http://www.ehow.com/how_2243930_make-nut-flour.html






Nutritional Information per muffin:
1 serving Grain Products
approximately 1/2 serving of fruit
plus some protein due to the nut meal
only contains approximately 1 1/2 tsp added sugar



Saturday, December 11, 2010

"jus rose" A.K.A Strawberry Banana Smoothie

This is one of the first smoothies I ever made for the little monster. I was at Starbucks one day and got a strawberry banana smoothie and the little monster (who was only about 13 months old) wanted to try it. I give him a little bit, and that ended up turning into half of my cup. Since he seemed to like it so much I came up with a healthier version to make at home.

"Jus Rose" - makes 2 servings


Ingredients:
1 banana
1 cup small strawberries (or large ones cut in half)
1 1/2 pears peeled and cored
1 small yogurt cup (I use an apple pear Yo Baby)
1/2 tsp bee pollen (optional)

Combine all ingredients in the cup that comes with your immersion blender and mix until smooth. If smoothie is too thick use a little bit of milk or water to thin it out.

If your little one likes popsicles this will make some awesome ones.

Also you can use all frozen fruit; just make sure you thaw it out first. What I like to do is every morning when I make my smoothie I take out the frozen fruit for the next day and place it in the fridge for the next morning's smoothie.



Nutritional Information per serving:
Approximately 1/2 serving of vegetable
Approximately 1/4 serving dairy
Approximately 2 1/2 servings of fruit

Why is bee pollen good for you? - http://www.envirobee.com/beepollen.htm

***Note***
If your child has never had bee pollen or if you are allergic to bees please introduce bee pollen gently into your diet - Start from 3 grains, increasing by 2 grains every few days until reaching 1/2 tsp. a day.

Friday, December 10, 2010

"Jus orange" A.K.A Orange, apple and carrot juice

One of my favourite ways to get fruit and vegetables in the monster is "juices". I use the term juice lightly here as they are really more like a smoothie. We have a house rule that the only juice the monster is allowed to have are my smoothies. This way he does not fill up on sugary drinks that do not have any fibre in them. One of our house favourites is "jus orange" (translated 'orange juice' -- for its colour). My best description for the flavour of this smoothie is an orange popsicle or creamsicle. If your child likes popsicles, try freezing the juice in popsicle moulds.


"Jus Orange" - makes one serving


Ingredients:
2 cubes carrots (thawed)
1 cup diced fresh apples (peels removed) - you can also use frozen apples, just thaw them out first
1/2 cup real orange juice (like Tropicana or Happy Planet)

Combine all ingredients in a jar or the cup that comes with your immersion blender; then blend with immersion blender until smooth. If smoothie is too thick, just add a little more orange juice or water to thin it out.



To serve, I give my son a sippy bottle full, with a few ice cubes, and let him drink it throughout the day. When he is not drinking it, I store the bottle in the fridge and give it to him whenever he asks for his juice.



Nutritional Information:
Approximately 2 1/2 fruit servings
Approximately 1 vegetable serving

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Freezing vegetables puree...

Many of the recipes I will post will mention frozen cubes of carrots, beet greens, spinach or some other vegetable.  To make sure you understand the quantity I am talking about when I say 2 carrot cubes I decided it would be good if one of my first post would be about how I prepare my frozen veggies.  That being said you can always use fresh vegetable puree for any of my recipes I just find it's easier to prepare the purees in bulk and freeze them.


Containers for freezing:

First lets talk containers to freeze in any old ice cube tray will so however I like to use the Tovolo Perfect Cube Ice Trays.  These are made of food grade silicon and dish washer safe for easy clean up.  Each ice cube ends up being approximately 35ml or 2 tbsp and 1 tsp of food (if tray is filled to top).

Freezing Carrot Cubes:

I like doing 2 or 3 large carrots at a time. Wash the carrots, then chop them up leaving the peels on (most of the nutrients for foods are found in the peel) place them in a saucepan and cover with water bring to a boil and cook until carrots are soft.  Keep an eye on them and if they are running out of water just a a little more hot water.

Once carrots are cooked puree carrots and cooking water using an immersion blender. You want to make sure to use the water the carrots were cooked in as some of the nutrients from the carrots will be now found in the cooking water.

Take the carrot puree and distribute in ice cube tray then freeze; once frozen transfer cubes to a ziplock bag. Don't forget to label the bag with the date and it's content. Carrots will keep for approximately 9 months in the freezer.

If you have a baby that is just starting solids this also makes great homemade baby food.


Freezing Spinach Cubes:

When my spinach is looking like it's soon going to start to go bad instead of rushing to eat it all or throwing it out; I make spinach puree and freeze it for latter.  It can then be thrown in smoothies, sauce or baked goods to sneak in a little green veggies. 

First you want to make sure your Spinach is washed; don't worry about drying it because we will be adding water anyways.  Once it's washed toss it in your food processor. 

I used 4 cups baby leaf spinach for this demonstration.  Add ice water; I added about 1/2 cup water. Pulverise the mix for about 3 minutes then open and scrap sides of bowl; repeat until smooth. (Will look almost juice like and be frothy on the top)

Make sure you scrap the sides of your bowl otherwise you will end up with chunks.

Once ready divide in ice cube tray and freeze over night. Once frozen store in a plastic bag; will keep for approximately 9 months in the freezer.

Since I started with 4 cups of spinach and ended with 12 cubes; that means 3 cubes of spinach equals one cup or one vegetable serving.

Don't forget to label and date your bag.





Tuesday, December 7, 2010

A bit about me...

I'm a mom of a 2 1/2 year old that pretty much would not eat anything other then carbs. and breastmilk when he was 18 months old. Since I have always had a love for food and cooking I was greatly disappointed and also understood that this was not a healthy diet for my child. I decided to get sneaky and come up with creative ways to get fruits and vegetables in him.

This blog is a journal of this; highlighting my scucesses.

If you want to learn more about us as a family you can check out my other blog (that is probably out of date as I rarely have a chance to update it) The Wiseman Conspiracy.


The Wiseman Monster at Organics Family Farm this summer.  Photo taken by Geoff