Healthy Tasty Chowcleaner recipes, reviews, toddler mom stuff and food chatter

Photo Courtesy Amyskitchen.com

I was super-excited to receive some (lots) of frozen meals and treats to try from Amy’s!   See, I had posted a picture from my pregnancy cravings part and in the process of getting their permission to post it, we had a nice little chat and I got some food!  Though I am now officially at week 14 and feeling better- I’m still fairly particular on what I’m in the mood to eat.  The things I’ve tried so far aren’t necessarily the same things I’d normally go for first, but that’s okay, it’s fun!  Currently, I’m craving a good white cake or cupcakes- which is strange since I normally never want cake – I’d pass up a wedding cake any day for a brownie or carrot cake, but here I am, it’s all I can think about.  Wedding cake style cupcakes is what I’m obsessing about- will have to figure something out after this!  But…uh…not healthy.  Amy’s is!

• Roasted Vegetable Lasagna (kosher, corn free, tree nut free, soy free): Delicious!  (not to be confused with their Garden Vegetable lasagna, which I have not tried but a vegetarian friend raves over that one)  It’s got a fantastic blend of tomato sauce and cream sauce that melt together quite nicely with the roasted vegetables.  Since eating this one – I can’t stop thinking about how I’d like another one asap.  Also, there’s a nice flavorful crunch to finish it off from the bread crumbs on top. 
• Mexican Casserole(Gluten-free, kosher, soy free, peanut free):  I love this one, however, my husband tends to steal it before I get to it.  That’ s okay though since he’s super-picky with his frozen meals and this is one of the few he’ll eat without complaining about it!  The corn tortillas mixed with the sauce (in this case, a great chili flavor), reminds me of my favorite Mexican dish when done well: Chilaquiles.  Though it really isn’t like chilaquiles, you can’t beat the tortillas in the casserole!
• Kid’s Meal Baked Ziti(gluten/dairy/cholesterol/lactose free, kosher, vegan):  I’ve actually been buying this one for quite some time now.  It’s funny because I think after the third time eating it I realized it was gluten free!  What a huge bonus- the noodles are fantastic, you really can’t tell they are gluten-free at all.  It has a nice mild sauce for kids.  My son’s favorite part is the apples, which he does not allow me to eat any of.  I love that there is broccoli on the plate – usually my son takes one bite of the broccoli and spits it out, but at least he keeps doing it, one day he’ll eat it!  And the foccacia is good for me to dip up the leftover sauce.  Yes, we always end up sharing as he only seems to eat half of the ziti, which is fine by me.  Also, there is a nice little picture to color on on the inside of the box, as well as a temporary tattoo or little gift for the kid.  How cute! 
• Baked Ziti Bowl(gluten/dairy/cholesterol/lactose free, vegan, tree nut free, kosher): Similar to the kids meal ziti but with the addition of peas.  It’s a large bowl of ziti, very mild flavor. In this case, I also split this with my son and this time he ate plenty of peas, very nice! 
• Mexican Tamale Pie(gluten/diary/cholesterol/soy/tree nut/lactose free, kosher, vegan, lower-fat): I’ve been buying this one forever.  It has a more mild sauce than the Mexican Casserole, actually, I wish I could get that sauce in this dish!  Anyway, I love the small portion size and the fact that it’s only 150 calories.  I eat this on the days where I am literally eating  like a hog and just cannot stop myself.  I’m feeling like  I need a whole meal at 2:30 after a large lunch and can’t figure out why I’m not full and must eat.  When a granola bar just won’t do.  I’d never eat this for a meal, definitely not filling enough, but it tricks my stomach into thinking I’ve had more of a meal rather than just a snack when otherwise I could’ve been a huge piggy.  This has saved me many times.
• Shepherd’s Pie (gluten/dairy/cholesterol/lactose/tree nut/corn free, kosher, vegan):  Same deal as the Tamale Pie, it’s a perfect stomach tricking snack when I want a meal at inappropriate times!  I won’t lie, I prefer pub-style shepherd’s pie with lamb or cottage pie with ground beef, but hey, this is a fantastic and healthy snack and it’s served me well many times. 
• Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake (gluten/dairy/cholesterol/lactose/tree nut/corn free, vegan, kosher):  First I’ll say that I love reading the stories on the side of the boxes.  I read them all.  I’m kind of a sucker for these stories and hope they’re all true!  This goes for whatever story comes on my food, if there’s a story, I’m curious because then I feel like I know a little more about where the food came from.  Anyway, for me, this cake needed something, like strawberries, a little something moist and sweet to add to the flavor. 
• Orange Cake (dairy/cholesterol/lactose/tree nut/corn/soy free, vegan, kosher):  This moist and heavy cake has a fantastic orange flavor with a little nuttiness to it.  As I write this, I’m planning on making some butter-cream frosting to top it off.  I know this will be snarfed up by my family very soon…or if it isn’t, I will gobble it up myself, no problem!

Here’s something really cool.  You know how when Oprah likes your product, you’re pretty much gold?  Well, Oprahs’ producers did a nice video about Amy’s founders, click here for the link.  You get to meet Amy’s parents who tell you how the concept all started (I’ve read the boxes, I already knew:) and you actually also get to meet Amy- who is now a beautiful young woman very proud of her parents’ accomplisments.  Watching the video, it’s pretty obvious why I trust this brand and since they came out in stores here; it has always been my number one frozen meal company!

I love how sensitive Amy’s is to people’s various food sensitivities as well as being mostly organic!  I feel like by feeding this to my family, I’m not going to stir-up any potential allergies by removing some of the major allergens in the diet beforehand.  My philosophy, a little bit of everything is fine.  Though I do not know if my son has food allergies yet, I wouldn’t want to over-do the wheat and other allergens just in case, since my husband does have a wheat allergy (among many other food allergies).  Also, I always think of those stories of the kids whose parents thought they had autism, but changed their diets to gluten and casein free which basically solved their behavioral problems.  Okay, so maybe it’s not that cut and dry, but I think of those kids when I read the ingredients in many of these Amy’s items.  I’ve got lots more to review so expect a round II!!!

Disclosure: I received free product from Amy’s

Photo by Roland A. Manarin

Here’s just a quickie- you may remember my Take on Runza Casserole from awhile back.  I entered it into a Pepperidge Farm’s Puff Pastry contest with Foodbuzzand am now a finalist!  I’m a little late on this post- since they posted their finalists Tuesday and I only figured it out yesterday (Friday).  Of course, I haven’t been on the computer as much lately since my stomach is still a little queasy due to the little baby in there and so didn’t check my twitter until yesterday to see the Foodbuzz announcement tweets!  Darn!  I could use some helpful votes! 

I promise – the casserole is delicious and I’ve had lots of emails from people who have made it that loved it!  Click on VOTE and select Main Dishes then find the Runza Casserole, select Vote and in the lower-right “Submit My Vote” and you’re done!  They don’t ask for any personal information so it’s fast and simple.  Thank you for helping!  And once again, I promise to get cooking soon- I’m 12 weeks along right now so feeling better, but still not quite there yet.  My last pregnancy I felt magically fantastic the day I hit 13 weeks!  Not sure if it’ll happen quite the same way but hopefully, a little fantastic would be nice.

UPDATE!  Feb 6,  Thank you so much to everyone who voted and supported me on this:)  We find out winners April 15th!  I’ll be checking but for now, I’m just happy to have made it that far!  (I’d have updated this sooner but my computer wasn’t working for a week)

Okay, so now I am 12 weeks – one week away from second trimester and hopefully bliss compared to the last many many weeks!  I’m still not able to cook (way too stinky, the thought is gross) -but luckily I can eat out at most restaurants and have a few options that sound good to me.  Compared to before- where only a certain food item from a certain place would do for days at a time – I’ll indulge you in some of these things!  I wish I could say that I am being a model pregnant person and only craving healthy foods- but it’s just not the case.  It’s such a struggle because I would try to eat healthier (ie, not the cravings) and then I would physically get sick!  It was nuts!  Luckily, I am definitely eating healthier now.  My doctor said, when you are first pregnant many women need more fat in their diet – myself definitely included! 

Photo Courtesy Amyskitchen.com

The cravings all started before I even knew I was pregnant- I didn’t really want to eat much of anything but Amy’s Indian Vegetable Korma and then sometimes their Indian spinach and cheese meal.  That was for about almost a week of lunches.  I’m not so sure if frozen meals are really that healthy when eaten every day since I don’t have the patience to put them in the oven.  I know there is a study going on now about the result of microwaved foods in pregnant women and their fetuses/babies.  I’ll be interested to see the results-though it will be too late when the study comes out!  Still not knowing I’m pregnant, the next week I was all about Amy’s cheese tamales and also the black bean tamales with salsa verde!  They were both heavenly and just so delicious!  I highly recommend you try those tamales!  I see they are coming out with a vegetable one on their website but have yet to see that at my local Targets (where the Amy’s foods are by far the cheapest!)  Then the strangest craving I had, at this point wondering if I was pregnant, was the maple glazed cake donuts with nuts.  This was really the only kind of doughnut that I liked when I was a kid.  As a little girl, I’d just eat off the top part, including the top half of the donut, and then throw the bottom part away.  I haven’t done this in years so when I really wanted one, I knew something was up!  Anyway, I figured I’d pick up some totally unhealthy donuts and bring O a few donut holes- he’s almost 2 1/2 now and he’s never had a donut!  So, what the heck, how will he like them?  I put three on his plate to see what he’d do.  He takes one tiny bite from each one and then says, “all done!”  Wow!  I felt pretty proud:)  All the while every single morning for breakfast I was eating a slice of buttered toast with a fried egg on top.  I did this when I was pregnant with O as well without knowing.  Strange!

Then it hit.  Sickness.  It’s like I had the flu but for one week would only eat lasagna (who eats lasagna when they are sick?) from this one restaurant in Omaha- Pasta Amore.  With toasted Rotella (local Italian bread) heavy hearth rolls.  That really isn’t too bad since there are some great nutrients in lasagna – but it’s so heavy and for almost every meal is a little much for anyone!  The week prior to that was probably the weirdest craving for sure: combination fried rice, no shrimp – and egg rolls.  This craving happened over Christmas week when we had major snowstorms and kept getting trapped in our house and/or neighborhood!  I’m supposed to be in the Christmas spirit and everything but pretty much daily I was just pissed off (hormones) that either I couldn’t get out of the house to get more Chinese food (they don’t deliver in Omaha) or I was freaking out that the Chinese food rations would run out!  Normally, I never really want to eat Chinese food and I never order egg rolls!  But egg rolls in the sweet and sour dipping sauce was amazing - which is hard to imagine when absolutely no other food sounded good at the time and I felt on the verge of being sick at any moment.  Low energy and nauseus plus Chinese food obsession was a strange week.  Then I moved on to steak salads.  I had to get them at Pepperjax grill since the weather was too bad for me to go too far and still wasn’t cooking.  For breakfast it was Honey Bunches of Oats.  What?  Totally not my type of cereal – doesn’t have the nutritional requirements or flavor I typically want, but I saw this old lady at Costco with a huge box of them and suddenly I had to have them!   Oh, I almost forgot the worst thing of all that I wish I could have removed from my diet – but I couldn’t help myself and bought Munchies.  Doritos, no matter how nostalgically yummy they are, have hydrogentaed fats and are not good for baby.  However, it was something I just had to have.  Sigh.  Wish I could’ve removed that craving especially but the pregnant belly/mind doesn’t care about anything- it’s a crazy short-term addictive personality!  Oh yeah, the other really bad thing that I’m ashamed of but couldn’t seem to help myself: Arby’s curly fries with cheese dipping sauce.  A 5th grade favorite come back to haunt me as a 30 year old pregnant mom.  Sigh- luckily, the really bad stuff didn’t last all that long- most of the cravings were at least somewhat nourishing!  Malts are full of calcium:)   Okay, I’m being honest here and am fully aware of epigenetics and the results of what you eat on the fetus – so if you have anything negative to say, please skip it – I already feel awful about it!  I think the really sickness lasted about a month with periods of eating crap but mostly eating heavier, yet healthy-ish foods.  Oops- I left out Italian style thin-crust pizza.  I think that was a week or a week and a half!  Pizza is just tasting good again.  See, when you only one want food for a few days to a week, after you’re done with it, it sounds pretty gross for quite some time.  I should note that for my friends who normally eat unhealthy foods, when they get pregnant, they start craving fresh crunchy vegetables and tons of fruits.  I think your body wants what it normally doesn’t get – healthy or not so much. 

Luckily, a couple of weeks ago I went to Vegas.  Something about the oxygen pumped into the casinos (or something else? ) made me actually feel better for a long weekend and I was able to eat like a semi-normal person!  I had my first healthy dose of fruit cravings and also fish.  We went to Bartolotta at the Wynn and it was probably the best meal I’ve ever had in my life!  Don’t listen to the negative reviews- order seafood and use the sauce they suggest.  This food is seriously Italian food, but I can’t say if sometimes they have an off- night.  The rabbit appetizer is delicious.  Thank you Vegas!

I’ve been back from Vegas for a couple of weeks and though I don’t feel as well, I can still eat a little bit more normally and I’m still eating lots of fruit.  Yay!!!!  My only unhealthy craving nowadays is milk chocolate dipped in crunchy peanut butter – but for me, that’s a little more normal!  Usually, it’s dark chocolate, but whatever, pregnant me wants milk chocolate.  So be it!  Actually, I lied, I want various Girl Scout cookies but it makes me so mad that still the cookies have trans fats!  C’mon people!  Just remove them already!  And all the fake stuff and the high fructose corn syrup!  I wonder if the ingredients have changed since I was a kid or if I also grew up with all the trans fats?

Oh yes, vitamins, darn it, vitamins stink.  Not only that, taking them made me get even sicker- not matter what time of day or what brand, the pre-natals made me sick.  When I was pregnant with O, I was able to take gummies- but this time, the smell has made me sick as well.  I have to not breath when I give O his gummy vitamins and then wash my hands immediately.  So, needless to say, I haven’t been able to take them every single day, but as often as I could get them down!  That’s getting better too but still smelling and swallowing the big pill makes me feel gross.  And there goes being active as well!  Every day that I get a lot of work done and move around too much I end up paying for it big time by having a huge wave of sick and tiredness.  That’s getting better too- though not completely gone.  Can’t wait until the weather gets warmer and I can take long walks outside.  Bliss! 

Anyway, this could have bored the crap out of you and I’m sorry, but if you’ve made it this far, you’ve probably been pregnant, are trying to get pregnant, or are pregnant right now (or maybe trying to understand your crazy wife or friend).  I wish for you that your experience is/was better the first trimester- though I know a few people with far worse experiences -hospital stays due to sickness and/or dehydration.  Constant vomiting, etc…  However, most of my friends have had similar to better experiences and luckily, the worst part for most people (and I’m hoping me again!) is over after the first trimester.  Yay!  Here’s to not being a hermit anymore, having more energy for my son, and cooking again!

Photo courtsey of www.attunefoods.com

I apologize for not doing anything with my blog for the past month!  However, I just haven’t been feeling well and so I really have hardly cooked anything except some nachos and a steak salad.  Otherwise, it’s been almost all restaurants and/or takeout.  Lots of cereal and berries as well.  My poor family!  Why have I not done anything for a month, including checking other blogs?  Because yes, I am pregnant.  And unless the particular food item is something I happen to be craving that second, it just looks nasty and I don’t even want to think about it!  It’s pretty awful to be a crazy food person like me and then not want to think about food except the craving.  In fact, I think I’ll probably write a crazy pregnant lady cravings post here soon.  Anyway, I normally wouldn’t be announcing my pregnancy this early (because I’m a totally paranoid pregnant person- so please send some warm fuzzies to my tummy please), but it’s just not right to leave this blog lonely and I’m beginning to feel slightly better.  I’m 10 weeks along, so I am beginning to be able to eat more like a normal person, though still pretty darn skewed.

When the nice people over at Attune contacted me (A MONTH AGO), I was soooo excited to  try the new flavors I could hardly wait!  It was pretty funny timing too because the last time I went crazy buying Attune bars was when I was pregnant with my first!  They are chock-full of probiotics with fiber to boot, and when I’m pregnant, pills are just revolting and chocolate is nice.  Plus, they are gluten-free!!!  A fantastic and natural compromise to helping my stomach get through the next nine months or so!  I waited patiently and finally, received them at my house.  Oh boy, it was pretty late when I got them so I thought I’d wake up the next morning and rip into them all and take at least a bite of each.  Little did I know, the next morning I woke up feeling awful, sick and not wanting food at all, and then wanting very specific things and that’s it.  Knowing it was probably the pregnancy, I figured I could just try them in a week or so.  Unfortunately, the darn yucky bug stuck with me for a month.  It’s still with me but not as bad.  Last pregnancy, I felt gross the first trimester but nothing like this.  Anyway, in the meantime I received a few more items to cook with and review from other companies and I feel just awful about not using them yet!!!  It’ll all be featured eventually though, just later than I thought. 

I’ll start with my original and favorite: chocolate crisp!  There is something comforting about eating the chocolate crisp.  It has a nice sweetness and though the Attune bars are stored in the fridge and I usually eat my chocolate at room-temp, they eventually melt in your mouth if you give them time.  You could also just take them out of the fridge for awhile if you know you’re going to want one.  The probiotics survive best refrigerated so I also keep mine in the fridge.  I think the milk chocolate crisp must bring me back to being a kid.  They’re simple, sweet, and good for you.  I think I would’ve been happy with a case full of these:)  However, it took me awhile (until yesterday) to finally try the rest of the flavors because I was not in the mood for them.  What kind of chocolate have I been in the mood for?  Chewy nougat covered with milk chocolate.  Not offered by Attune yet but maybe someday! 

The almond milk chocolate was also nice – another little crunch with milk chocolate – though I usually like milk and dark chocolates, this pregnancy has me leaning towards milk unless it’s a lower-percentage dark.  The raspberry dark chocolate has a very nice hint of raspberry to it.  I normally don’t eat white chocolate (since it isn’t really chocolate,  I wish they’d change the name!) but actually, the blueberry vanilla white chocolate was the sweetest of them all and pleasantly nice, my little boy gobbled this one up in nothing flat!  Without my current state of skewed tastebuds, I’m not sure how I would normally feel about this one, but I liked it!!!  I can’t remember if I liked the dark chocolate one before, but this time it was too dark for me and I unfortunately couldn’t try the coffee bean one.  Actually, just the smell of coffee has made me nauseus the past few weeks.  I’d like to tell you how they taste but I’m just not qualified right now, sorry! 

Thanks again people at Attune for letting me try your newest selection of bars and a few of the oldies too.  In a few weeks when my stomach normalizes a little more (I HOPE), I’ll be back to Whole Foods getting some Chocolate Crisp bars for sure! 

Disclaimer: I received free product from Attune Foods.

Easy Alphabet Soup

After reading The Little Foodie’s Alphabet Soup recipe, I felt the need to immediately buy some Alphabet Pasta.  My first big concern was finding the darn Alphabet  pasta.  I looked everywhere for it and couldn’t believe that no stores carry it here!  Damaris, of The Little Foodie bought hers at Trader Joe’s.  I’ve gotten on their website and requested them to come to Omaha about a bazillion times (help me out fellow Omahans!) but they haven’t listened yet…  Of course,  I ended up finding it at Whole Foods – and I love this brand!  Eden Organic Vegetable Alphabets is such a great alphabet pasta to feed my son!  The ingredients are: Organic Whole Grain Durum Wheat, Organic Golden Amber Durum Wheat Semolina, Organic Beet Powder, Organic Spinach Powder, Organic Carrot Powder, Organic Annatto Powder.  Last month I was feeding my son and some of his friends the Ian’s Alphatots and they couldn’t get over how cool it was eating the letters they’re trying to learn. Watching this cute fascination with the Alphatots and trying to properly point out the letters and pronounce them is the cutest thing ever.  Of course, this made me want to get the ball rolling and make him some soup already.  He doesn’t like kids’ canned soups or pastas, so in this case, Alphabet Soup is something I have to make myself, though not difficult at all!

Like his mama, O likes his soup brothy, so even though The Little Foodie’s version is pretty awesome, I wanted more broth.  Plus, when you’re a mom and you’re making food for your hungry kid – he/she realizes that you’re making them food and has zero patience.  O even tried to eat some uncooked alphabtet pasta.  I don’t recommend that.  Anyway, sometimes instead of going all gourmet, it’s nice to just throw some stuff that you already have in your pantry in and get a quick ‘n easy and healthy meal…kid approved.  Unlike the larger Alphatots, O didn’t scrutinize each letter since they’re so tiny.  However, he did recognize they were letters and enjoyed eating it anyway.

Ingredients: 

• 4 cups chicken broth (I used organic broth in a pourable container- the whole thing)
• 1/2 cup or so of frozen carrots and peas – just throw in the proportions that you think your kid will eat – more if your kid will eat more!
• 1/4 finely chopped onion
• 1/4 cup Alphabet Pasta (you can throw in more, but like I said, my son likes his soup brothy!)
• olive oil for drizzle

Method:

• Boil chicken broth, carrots and peas, and onions until the carrots and onions have almost softened
• Add pasta and boil another 9 minutes
• Serve with a drizzle of olive oil for extra flavor and omega 3s!  Trust me, the drizzle brings a nice flavor to the soup- I drizzle it on most all of my brothy soups!

Sometimes, as a mom, you get so frazzled you don’t think of the simplest things to make for you kids.  Then you see the recipe or idea and wonder why in the world that didn’t cross your mind before or why you haven’t made it in so long.  I posted this recipe for my fellow frazzled mommies:)

Paul Smith Limited Edition Evian Bottle

All you foodies into fashionable impressive presentations will like this.  In fact, I feel a little divaish just talking about this:)  I have to admit, I have a hard time with presentation.  I put so much time and effort into the flavor of the food- I often forget how to make it look pretty.  Er, sometimes I just don’t want to take the extra time on looks.  But I always appreciate and notice when someone else tries to make nice impressions and it really works!  You go into a creative atmosphere where everything flows together and some effort was put into appearance, and it just seems to help the party feel like a party and also get a nice mood going.  Ambiance.

A friend of mine who is an interior decorator came by the other day.  She’s attempting to help us finish our house nicely- tie everything in together and attempt to make it NOT look like a cute kid took over the whole place (he really did).   She brought me a bottle of this Paul Smith Evian thinking it might be of interest to me

Every year about this time, Evian has a famous designer or two design a limited edition water bottle.  You may have heard the the British designer Paul Smith.  My husband has some of his cologne and it smells fantastic!  The stripes on this year’s Evian bottle are basically his signature stripes, which are on the cologne bottle as well as his shopping bags.  It’s a nice and fun whimsical look that will effortlessly add a little pizazz to your gatherings.  However, this fun and different look does not come without a hefty price tag for water.  At $13.95 per 750ml bottle or $118 a case – you’d better make sure wherever you’re serving this water is worth it!  In fact, per bottle, this is more expensive than my usual wine!  Since my husband and I are huge wine-lovers, we prefer to buy some excellent yet affordable Italian table wines and treat ourselves when we’re in the mood.  Of course, I  usually serve nicer wines to guests or for special occasions, so the same holds true for water presentation- whether you’re putting a nice pitcher full of water with thinly sliced cucumbers on the table or this Paul Smith Evian bottle – it’s probably a little something different to show you’ve put some thought into it.

Anyone remember the movie Reality Bites?  It’s from 1994 with Ben Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke.  I think it was Janeane’s character that said, “Evian is naive spelled backwards.”  Love that movie.  Well, the quote is true, but it’s still a nice bottle and conversation piece!  Is there anything special you do with your water to impress guests?  I usually don’t get past lemons or cukes!

Gluten Free Chocolate Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

I’m in love.  Seriously, I’ve turned into the cookie monster.  I’m not sure why this is, but every winter I turn into a chocolate and mint fanatic.  My friend Chris made the yummy Nestle seasonal chocolate and mint chip chocolate cookies a couple of weeks ago and I about died and went to heaven when I tasted them.  On the other hand, knowing the ingredients that went into them and also reading the label on the chips tells me that they’re pretty awful for you.  I basically needed a healthy alternative and I’m happy to say I succeeded!  This is going to be a go-to cookie for me all winter.  My whole family likes them- my husband wants to eat them with ice cream!   I decided to develop my own recipe when I was meandering on Goop.com and saw the gluten-free chocolate chip mint cookies on there made by Erin McKenna of Baby Cakes - but they didn’t look how I wanted them to look.  So, I took to the pen and paper and wrote my own recipe like I always do when I bake….and then crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

Through Healthy Yum and Musselmans, I received two jars of applesauce, one regular and one chunky.  The regular version is what I used for this recipe – and it worked perfectly!  This way, the cookie is lightened up a tad and has a little healthy boost as well.  Not to mention the applesauce is yummy.  It reminds me of when I was a kid and couldn’t sleep at night.  My dad was always up reading and so when he saw me he’d pop two slices of heavy whole grain seedy bread in the toaster and top it off with applesauce.  He sometimes used prune or poppy seed pie filling as well.  Though my son loves his applesauce- he hasn’t quite gotten used to it on toast yet! 

I used real organic sugars in this recipe rather than agave, honey or fruit syrup because my husband can always detect it and usually doesn’t like the end result.  The perfect cookie would’ve used alternative sweeteners – but this is pretty close:)  In the close-up picture of the cookies- they appear a little grainy – they’re not!  They’re very smooth!  They’re not as thick as the Nestle flour version though – but still have a nice chewy thickness hard to find in many gluten-free cookies!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/2 cup applesauce (I used Musselman’s)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup sugar (I use organic white)
• 2/3 cup brown sugar (I use organic brown)
• 1 TB vanilla extract
• 1 tsp peppermint extract
• 2/3 cup baking cocoa
• 1/4 cup flaxseed meal
• 1/2 cup oat flour (for gluten-free, you have to grind your own GF oats)
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1/2 cup brown rice flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp xantham gum
• 10 oz chocolate chips (I mixed minis with regulars, but next time will stick with regular)

Method:

• Pre-heat oven to 350
• Warm coconut oil and butter until coconut oil is almost liquid and butter is softened, blend using mixer
• Add applesauce, blend, add eggs, blend
• Add sugars, vanilla and peppermint extract, mix
• In a separate bowl, combine remaining dry ingredients except chips
• Slowly add dry to wet, then add chocolate chips
• Using a small cookie scoop, scoop dough onto cookie sheet
• Bake about 9 minutes – allow to cool on sheet for a couple of minutes and then transfer to a wire rack. 

I think these make about 7 dozen when using a small cookie scoop.  I always forget to count but 7 dozen sounds about right!

Nutella Swirls

Via the Foodbuzz Tastemaker’s program, I received some free Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry.  Since I made these Spinach and Feta Swirls, my mouth has been thinking of making these with Nutella and hazelnuts.  I love puff pastry!  I can’t say it’s healthy- but you can put healthy fillings into it!  Check out my Runza Casserole!  One of my favorite things to do with puff pastry is to just put some Ham and good Swiss and a little dijon in between two sheets rolled a little flat and baking it.  Makes a fun and tasty sandwich.

Ingredients:

• Two sheets (1 box) frozen Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry – thawed
• Nutella
• 1/2 cup hazelnuts, toasted
• Chocolate chips – optional
• Melted butter- optional

Method:

• Pre-heat oven to 375
• Grind toasted hazelnuts
• Brush puff pastries with melted butter- unless you want to go a little lighter – the pastry gets drier without the butter once cooled, however, once warmed, the moisture from the fat inside comes back.
• Spread Nutella around pastry near the edges- enough so that you don’t see pastry under the Nutella
• Sprinkle hazelnuts evenly amongst both pastries
• If you want a little more chocolate (and a little more moisture) sprinkle some chocolate chips or minis on top of the hazelnuts
• Roll tightly – cut each roll into six pieces totaling 12
• Place spiral side down into greased muffin pan
• Bake about 25-30 minutes
• Cool slightly- serve a little warm – if you eat it right out of the oven, the Nutella flavor doesn’t come through!

My Little Guy Eating Erewhon Cocoa Crispy Cereal

I received a huge package of eight types of  Erewhon cereal!  I felt like I won gold when this package came:)  It was so nice to try out all of the Erewhon flavors of cereal – I regularly buy this brand of Gluten Free  Crispy Brown Rice cereal but hadn’t tried out any of the other flavors.  I love love love the ingredients they put into their cereals.  I was especially intrigued to try the two newest: Gluten Free Cocoa Crispy Brown Rice and Gluten Free Strawberry Crisp Flakes – I saw their ad in Living Without magazine.  By the way, if you have any food allergies- that magazine is pretty awesome.  I read it for ideas for my husband- not myself.  Though he still eats foods he’s allergic to- his belly is much happier when he’s eating something non-allergenic of course!  Anyway, I read this ad and want to run out and buy the cereal, I couldn’t find it anywhere in Omaha since it’s so new and I think customers have to start asking for it – which I will be doing.  Before I ask for products I wait around and hope for awhile- that almost never works though. 

The ingredient lists on these cereals are natural and very minimal.  Check it out.  The variety that went the fastest in my house was the Cocoa Crispy Brown Rice, which is no surprise.  My son LOVED this cereal.  Some days, he wanted me to add a little more sugar but not every day.  I enjoyed this cereal too – but at first with a little extra sugar as well, shame on me!  I’ve gotten used to it and eat it without now, I love it too:)  My personal favorite was the Strawberry Crisp kind – I wolfed that down in nothing flat.  I’m thinking about crushing up some of the corn flakes (gluten free) and baking some “fried” chicken.  But the crispy brown rice cereal just begs for me to make rice treats- so I think I’m going to make the classic right now- with some naturally colored sprinkles I found at Whole Foods!   

Erewhon Giveaway

So, the giveaway is pretty sweet- THREE lucky winners will win

• Three boxes of cereal of your choice (may I suggest Cocoa Crispy, Strawberry Crisp and Crispy Brown Rice?) visit http://www.usmillsllc.com/ to see all varieties – there are seven different gluten-free varieties of 18 total cereals
• A Patagonia T-shirt available in Adult L, XL and Kids L
• An Erewhon coupon keeper with coupons for $ off next purchase

How to win? 

• Comment – it’s easy!
• For another chance to win – you can twitter this post as many times as you want- just comment to let me know you did it
• For another chance to win- you can also put this on your Facebook page or on your blog if you have one
• Winners will be chosen via random.org Thursday, December 3rd
• Good luck and Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

****UPDATE!  Congratulations Rachel, Megan and Angela- random.org picked your numbers!  An email went out to you but if you didn’t receive it, email me (contact page) – enjoy your cereal!!!

Photo by Cecily Upton

I graduated high school in 1997 – and since grade school, I always brought my own lunch.  Why?  Because the school food was nasty AND unhealthy.  Even as a 1st grader – I knew this food was not near as good as the stuff I ate at home.  I was just lucky enough that my parents could afford to make me my own lunches that were relatively healthy.  I am aware that some school districts out there have already taken matters into their own hands in favor of working together with farms, planting their own gardens, and hiring innovative chefs.  But for the most part – the rest of us are stuck in Lunch Lady Land.  My son is only two – but I’m already not looking forward to sending him off to school to eat the cafeteria  food.  See, I’m a girl (obviously), and we didn’t have any qualms about bringing our own lunch to school.  But boys (I’m remembering my high-school)- they’re macho.  They don’t want to walk around carrying a brown paper sack or worse-yet, a reusable thermal bag!  How embarrassing!?!  So, many of those cool boys end up eating the gross food- not liking it, but shoving it into their mouths anyway so they don’t have to deal with bringing their own bags.  Even if they’re not embarrassed about bringing their own lunches, they didn’t want to have to deal with making a lunch – it’s just too much to think about.  In high school- my boyfriend (now husband) – used to sit by me during lunchtime and share my lunch because it tasted so much better than what he could’ve bought!  Then, he also got to save his lunch money and use it for CDs or something.  Worked out pretty slick for him:) 

And then there’s the vending machine.  I’m not anti-vending machine.  Personally, I don’t think it’s a good idea to strictly prohibit things from kids.  My thinking: I’m sure we all know the party-animals in college who gained tons of weight and went a little crazy with alcohol.  They almost certainly came from super-strict parents who not only didn’t let them do anything, but also made them eat all healthy foods all the time.  I wish I could run around and make sure O only ate super-healthy stuff.  But, I know if I say no when we’re out and about, I’m just creating a monster!  He gets the occasional trans fat food (gasp!!!!) and whatnot, but otherwise, he eats pretty well and I’m relatively low-key in public considering the internal turmoil:)  I’m healthy and I know growing up I had my share of the stuff!  But there are a million ways to add better, more natural choices to the vending machines-with food and drinks.  

Anyway, O goes to a pre-preschool type of program once per week for 2 1/2 hours.  In those 2 1/2 hours, a parent is in charge of bringing a snack but it has to be peanut free.  The list of peanut free foods is mostly empty calorie, artificial, processed crap.  Except for fruit, yogurt and cheese.  Most moms, having to feed the whole class snacks, go the cheap, nutrition-free processed route.  Thinking it’s more practical on their budgets, plus, a healthy alternative to what they may have otherwise brought in to class was made in a facility that processes peanut, so it’s out.  Already, I’m seeing that we need a list of healthy peanut-free foods for situations like these so that we can bring our kids healthy snacks.  I couldn’t find a comprehensive healthy list anywhere – but I’m assuming one exists somewhere.  By healthy, in this respect, I’m just asking for no preservatives, no artificial coloring, flavors, no trans-fats, no high-fructose corn syrup- or any suspect sweeteners for that matter, antibiotic free meat and pesticide free meet and produce would be nice as well -and whatever else I’m not thinking of at this moment that should obviously be added to this list!  The wonderful thing is, the big food companies are starting to catch on. 

Unfortunately, our Child Nutrition Act only allows $1 per meal which alone is obviously not enough for schools to prepare healthy meals, even fast food restaurants laden with cheap fats don’t often make money on their $1 menus- this program is coming up for reauthorization from Congress in early 2010 and if enough people voice their opinion – then we CAN make a difference.  So at least if they change this program it’ll actually be something that can help reduce health costs in the future.  Ta da!  Tackle the problem before it becomes one with the young kids – and reverse some damage already caused.  For more information and to see what  YOU can do,  click here: http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/campaign/time_for_lunch/get_involved/ for how to get involved – how to be a voice and write a letter to your congressperson.  There are programs for kids to write in school as well as a project (I don’t think they need to be afraid they’ll only get broccoli from now on – I’m pretty sure the choices will still be vast!).   And to sign a petition click HERE.  I’m going to write an email letter.  Are you in?

Also, if you have any great peanut-free lists of healthy options, I’d really like that so that I can pass it on to my son’s teachers and maybe get better “peanut-free approved” list of foods for him!  Thanks!