Evening snack: Hummus Brussel Sprout Wrap

I promised myself I'd eat clean today. I worked hard at the store, did a mild work out and ended up with 800 calories left if I intended to break even. Because I can't lose any more weight.

Yesterday I didn't reach my protein goal so I started today with a spirulina protein shake. Then at 9 a.m. I had breakfast/lunch: a small piece of zaatar bread heaped with very generous amounts of romaine and spring mix, some hummus, a touch of Bulgarian feta, and a little baba ghanouj. 

I punched out of work at 3 pm and got a nonfat unsweetened green tea latte (matcha in skim milk) for a snack/afternoon pick me up. I received a venti, so that means my calcium is in good shape today and the milk adds to my protein count.

Dinner was one serving ham, about a 1/4 cup tropical fruit (see previous blog entry) and about 3/4 cup boxed mac and cheese.

So for my snack I made Brussel sprouts. Put 12 of them in a six inch wrap with 1 ounce spicy gouda, less than 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan and-- get this-- 2 tablespoons hummus. 

It was so good. And I washed it down with a green apple Angry Orchard hard cider.

Sweet potato fry snack

Child has a 2-hour delay today and like mom's everywhere I'm screaming "My routine is off!" And it's Monday, which makes it even more difficult. Honestly, I'd rather keep her home for the day!

So at 10:20 a.m., they have a healthy snack from home.

For own snack I made sweet potato fries, sprinkled them with cinnamon and serving with a dipping sauce of 1 part blackstrap molasses to 3 parts pure maple syrup.

Best. Snack. Ever.

School snack

Today's school lunch is Chef Boyardee ravioli, which I'm not thrilled about, but rather than say anything (because my daughter wants to buy), I'm focusing my efforts on balancing the lunch with healthy other meals.

Her school snack is plain raw carrots, raisins, unsalted cashews and a handful of of sesame sticks.

Mini fruit and almond balls

In my house, this recipe may be colloquially known as "baby balls."

It's based on a recipe I found on a gluten-free paleo blog, which I mentioned in my first adaptation of this recipe: http://bit.ly/XCh5On

MINI FRUIT AND ALMOND SNACK BALLS

Ingredients:
- 1 cup (and a few more) raw almonds, soaked in water a few hours and then well drained
- 8 fresh medjool dates, pitted
- 1/4 cup dried blueberries
- 5 dried pineapple rings

Grind the nuts in a food processor.

Place them to the side.

Grind fruit.

Add nuts.

Process until combined.

Shape as desired.

Refrigerate until cold. Store in fridge.

Multicultural cheese pocket

This turned out super yummy:
- 1 tortilla
- roasted red pepper dip from Forks Mediterranean Deli (red peppers, garlic, pine nuts or something)
- mozzarella from Klein farm
- cheddar from Klein farm
- Bulgarian feta

Spread tortilla with red pepper spread. Add cheddar and mozzarella to taste.

Heat until cheese is melty.

Add Bulgarian feta crumbles.

Fold. Eat.

More so-called weird snacks

For breakfast today, my daughter had a banana, water and peanut butter/jelly on my multigrain biscuits I made yesterday.

I started to prepare her snack. I was thinking maple-vanilla yogurt from
Klein Farm. She's been pretty good about avoiding dairy so a shot of yogurt will be good.

As I was adding some frozen raspberries to keep it cold, she came into the kitchen.

"Are you packing another weird snack?" she asked.

"Is yogurt and raspberries weird?"

"Yes."

"I thought other kids brought those tube yogurts."

"Yeah. And some bring fruit snacks so that's similar."

Me, muttering, "fruit snacks... As if that's healthy... Do you want something else."

"No," she said.

"Do you want some almonds in top?"

"Yeah!"

Me, after contemplating, "Yesterday you had an apple. That's not weird."

"It is when I bring it."

"I'm sorry."

She shrugs.

Gluten Free Fruit Bars

I almost broke my food processor this morning, jamming all the pieces together the wrong way and somehow still managing to get the thing to run.

This recipe is based on:
http://nourishedandnurtured.blogspot.com/2011/02/apple-raisin-snack-bars-gaps-legal.html?m=1

Basically, match 1 part nuts to 2 parts dried fruit.

I soaked raw almonds and chopped pecans overnight like the recipe suggested. I used chopped pecans because I bought my food processor when I got married 13 years ago and it's a cheap Black and Decker and I thought this recipe would kill it.

The nuts chopped fine. The fruit made it groan and convulse.

This recipe gets mixed in three parts. First nuts. Then fruit. Then fruit and nuts together.

- about 1/2 cup raw almonds
- about 1/2 cup pecans
- about 1 cup dates
- the remaining one cup for me was a helter skelter mix of raisins, dried cranberries, dried blueberries, dried strawberries and dried kiwi.
- instead of spices, I used about 2 tablespoons poppy seeds

Grind nuts. Transfer to bowl.

Grind fruit, using rubber spatula to pull sticky goop from under blades and the sides.

Add nuts back to goop and blend and mix and rubber spatula until combined.

I greased my hands and a cookie sheet with walnut oil. A plate would have been big enough. Or a brownie pan. And shaped them.

Refrigerate for a couple hours.

Apple fun breakfast

We're in a hurry this morning because child is taking three times longer than usual to do everything. Sigh.

Her breakfast this morning is "fun apples."

Slice an apple and serve with:
- a small dipping bowl of cinnamon sugar
- a butter knife and peanut butter
- raisins

Avoiding failure

Today started strong. It's December first so I have to forgive myself for blowing November's food budget in a flurry of ear tube surgery, report card rewards, stress eating and Thanksgiving.

Breakfast was vegan pumpkin waffles with maple syrup from the freezer.

Lunch was hurried after an eye doctor appointment so it was a bowl of Boo Berry with unsweetened soy milk.

So I had to make myself something hearty for 4 o'clock snack (before work.)

I opted for two scrambled eggs in small tortilla shells, Archer Farms summer fruit salsa and a touch of pepper jack cheese.

Snacks!

Daddy went to Giant on the hunt for Just Born jelly beans. No luck! Since child can't have the doritos Daddy bought last night (he wasn't thinking) I suggested he buy her some chips or snack from the natural food aisle.

He got me my favorite licorice, Twizzler's pull n peel, cherry.

He bought child "baked fries" which are flavored with cheese and buttermilk (oops-- he couldn't find the allergen warning) but two other options too: nature's promise vegetable chips and Pirate Booty veggie!

Snacks and plans

So, I pick up my daughter from school and she tells me she didn't eat her lunch because someone threw up in the dining hall and she wasn't hungry.

I open her lunch box. Salad: gone. Animal crackers: gone. Banana: gone. Juice box: consumed. All that remained was the emergency "she's still hungry" mixed nuts.

For snack after school she had raisins, sunflower seeds and we finally opened the chocolate covered dried plums (aka prunes). She loved it.

Dinner for tonight is pork with apples and a side of sweet potato crunch (some of the topping is sunflower seeds, not just pecans). I'm considering a dessert of chômeur pudding.

July's granola

Ah, granola...

Thanks to some discussion with friends, I am in the mood to make granola (which is great because random odds and ends are all I have in the house so I can mix them up!).

Adapted from the Imus Ranch cookbook:

Dry ingredients:
-3 cups oats
- 1.5 cups Aldi brand peanut butter crunch cereal
- about one cup dry roasted peanuts
- about one cup mixed nuts
- about 1/4 cup dried cranberries leftover from a salad mix
- about two tablespoons dried candied ginger chopped as small as possible
- four fresh dates chopped into about six pieces each
- dried strawberries, chopped, 1/4 cup
- 1 cup raisins
- 1/3 cup brown sugar


Wet ingredients:
- about 1/2 cup blackstrap molasses
- about three tablespoons honey (omit for vegan version)
- about 1/2 cup canola oil
Mix wet ingredients thoroughly and then mix into dry

Bake at 300 degrees for about 30 minutes, turning frequently, every 10-15 minutes

Add M&M's or butterscotch chips after baking for something decadent

Midnight corn snack

I was in the mood for something salty. So, at 9 p.m., having not cooked a real meal since Friday, I whipped up the following in the Le Creuset skillet:


- 1/2 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil, just enough to grease the pan
- about two teaspoons it's a dilly
- 1/2 teaspoon butter (omit if vegan)
- one Morningstar vegetarian sausage pattie, crumbled
- one can corn, rinsed
- one can sliced white potatoes, rinsed
- 1/2 teaspoon four color pepper
- another 1/2 teaspoon butter

Work snacks

I packed myself lots of snacks for work as I'm expecting to work late. I don't want to pack a meal, because I'd like to be optimistic and think I'll be home in time to eat a meal before bed.

So, I filled my Sigg water bottle. Packed a banana, a Nature Valley granola bar, a Special K meal bar, some trail mix with lots of extra cashews and almonds, one of my daughter's Very Berry juice boxes and some sugarless gum.

Hope it keeps me happy.

Snack platter

I can home from the library meeting the other night hungry, so my husband made this lovely cheese and cracker platter with cheddar, Ritz-style crackers, horseradish mustard and grapes.

Granola and Swiss Trail Mix

I made a simplified version of the Rio Grande Granola from the Imus Ranch Cookbook. The Imus Ranch Cookbook is primarily vegan, except they do use eggs because they have their own chickens. My stepmother bought the cookbook a long time ago, because she likes Imus and the ranch provides kids with cancer a chance to see what they're capable of.

My previous batches of granola are listed under granola, if you need the original recipes.

I like making granola. It's yummy on yogurt and a great light snack. With the right ingredients, it has protein and carbs to keep you going. It takes about an hour start to finish and you can make enough for a month way cheaper than the bulk bins, boxed granola or processed granola bars. Though I do keep a box of Nature Valley Granola bars from the werehouse store as "help yourself" breakfasts when my daughter gets up early on weekends. Nature Valley is the only granola bar I've found that actually has some nutritional value and protein and decent carbohydrate levels.

Today I wanted to combine my homemade granola with some of the Swiss Trail Mix my mom gave me. She gave me three HUGE containers with raisins, peanuts, butterscotch chips, chocolate and dried pineapple. Nutritional content fairly negligable. And while it tastes great, it's mostly sweet.

So yesterday I mixed it with little graham crackers, cashews and yogurt covered raisins. Better, but still sweet.

Hence, the granola today. I took three cups of old-fashioned oats, 1/4 cup organic sugar, about 1.5 tablespoons cinnamon, 1.5 teaspoons oriental five spice, about 1/4 cup cashews, about 1/4 cup graham cracker pieces. Then I made the "sauce": about three tablespoons honey, 1/4 cup blackstrap molasses, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and 1/4 cup canola oil, whisked. I poured the sauce into the granola and spread it thin on a cooking sheet once well stirred.

Bake at 300 for 30 minutes, turning every ten minutes.

Then I put one third of it into a big bowl, added an equal amount of swiss mix, put the lid on the bowl and shook it. I did this in layers until the granola was gone. The butterscotch chips melted but got into all the oats and granola.

Microwave cobbler

I got out of my Intro to Political Theory class at 3 today. I left campus at 3:05 and was home before 3:15. I have to leave my house by 4:23 to return to campus to get my husband when he gets off work so that left about an hour. I ate a handful of trail mix, poured a cup of coffee and sat to check my email. Then, I told my daughter if she wanted we could make a cobbler. She was thrilled.

This cobbler can be a real life saver! And it's so adaptable. I snagged the recipe in one of my vegan cooking courses at Northampton Community College. The instructor, Eileen Breslin, had adapted it from a newspaper clipping. She made it vegan, but it certainly doesn't have to be.

One quick side discussion before I reveal the secret to the 30 minute start-to-finish fruit cobbler. If you're looking for a vegan, non-hydrogenated margarine that mimics real butter in flavor and cooking, try Earth Balance. I love it, but lately I have not been able to afford it.

Commercial done. Now, the recipe:

Microwave Blueberry Cobbler

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 cup milk or soy milk

1/2 cup butter or margarine

2.5 cups blueberries

Mix dry ingredients in 8 x 8 microwavable pan. Stir in milk. Melt belter and pour over batter. Drop in fruit. Microwave 12-14 minutes until batter sets and butter dries.

Now my version today was a peach cobbler and I didn't have quite as much fruit. My ingredients were more like:

Angel's peach cobbler

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup wheat flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tsp honey

1/3 cup margarine

1 small can peaches

cinnamon

I drizzled the honey on the batter before the margarine and sprinkled cinnamon on the peaches before cooking.

End of month review

January certainly did not follow the typical pattern around here. I just reviewed the finances for January and unless I spend unforeseen amounts of money today, we ended up spending $162.53 on groceries and $151.01 on dining. Remember we had a house guest for close to three weeks, and that accounts for some of the cost. And last night I splurged and treated the family to dinner out. That was $37. The great thing is our pantry is not as depleted as usual. I even have enough beef in the freezer for a batch of stew. I have lots of frozen veggies (even artichoke hearts), lots of sauce and plenty of noodles. 

I did not bring the camera last night so you don't get to see the feast we enjoyed. We went to MexTex Trio, a fabulous restaurant in downtown Easton. We've been there four times now (and if our finances were better we would probably be there once or twice a month.) They have a kids menu that includes chicken breast and spanish rice, or quesadilla, or tacos/burritos. We tried the chicken breast. We've tried several of the option and our daughter prefers the Nachos de Rey off the appetizer menu. It's enough to feed an army, so we usually share.

Since MexTex had some technological issues, we had to pay with cash. That meant my husband had to walk to the MAC machine. And it meant there was no wiggle r

oom in the budget for the evening. We had $50.

My husband offered to share nachos with our daughter. I ordered a round of hot chocolate for us. It's $2.50 a cup but man is it incredible. And I teased it was dessert, and we were having it first. (And since my husband got to walk several blocks in the cold it seemed a nice treat to warm him.) I couldn't decide what I wanted so I ordered a chicken quesadilla with a side of spanish rice and a side of fried beans. Then we shared everything. The bill came to $3o.15. I added a $7 tip. We all left full.

I hate to do an entry without a photo, so this is a photo of the fritos and dip we had the other day. The dip was an organic ranch mix that you add to sour cream. It was the first time I tried it, and being me, I added It's a dilly to give it some zing. The family loved it. That little cup was all I made, just enough for a little snack for each of us.

Peorogies with spinach and feta & roasted red pepper tomato soup

My daughter had one of those hollow leg days, where she eats and eats and eats.

 When I had a yogurt, she ate half. She ate half her daddy's banana, then a ton of broccoli, then most of her peanut butter sandwich. When we got home, about an hour later, she ate half my leftover pork with apricots and one mini-egg roll.

Since my lunch had been pilfered, I poured some of this cajun trail mix I bought at Aldi. She ate half that too. I normally make my own trail mix (not as yummy as Gayle's), but this big bag was $3 and I liked that it was spicy, something different for the old taste buds.

During my site visit to Northeast Middle School, one of the girl's shared her potato chips with my daughter about half (if not more) of the single serving bag.

For dinner, I made Pacific Foods organic tomato and roasted red pepper soup with parmesan goldfish and Wegmans spinach and feta peorogies with sour cream. They were incredible!!!!!

Yogurt with Bananas and Graham Crackers

Ten a.m. around here usually means a morning snack. Today I suddenly remembered that I had purchased Stonyfield Farms Lowfat Vanilla Yogurt at the store.

So, we mixed 

in crumbled graham crackers and sliced bananas. Good stuff. And the four-year-old loves to stir it up.