Daughter feeds the babysitter

Guest blog entry from my friend Gayle who watched my daughter for a couple hours yesterday:

From the mouths of babes ....

Today I child sat while mommy went to work.

As we were driving to Target the Angel mentioned that my car, Aretha, was very, very dirty. During the discussion the child mentioned she would make lunch. I thought, sure, right. She's six.

Our first stop on the way home was the car wash. She had never been to the drive thru kind. [Mimi] uses the the one where you do-it-yourself. We came out and parked at the vacs. I gave her a hose assuming she'd know what to do. She did. The middle of every area. I went and followed her and did the sides and corners.

Our next stop was mommy's other favorite store, Aldi. Her first favorite is Wegman's. Talk about extremes. I needed paper towels to do the car windows. Angel had mentioned her father-in-law makes a mean window cleaner. I usually use vinegar and newspapers. I knew Angel wouldn't have the paper. The child reminded me numerous times "that mommy didn't use paper towels, and that they were wasteful". "Yes", I assured her. "I don't use them as a rule either, but for some things they are best for the job". "But mommy says they are wasteful". And so it goes.

We get into Aldi and she asks for cereal. "No, mommy has very specific things you are allowed to eat. I don't want to buy the wrong thing. We came for cheap paper towels." They had started stocking up on the Christmas toys and she spied a doctor Barbie. Again I said "no". We get the towels and she says "I bet you'll say yes" and headed down the aisle for the fruit and veggies. She was right, I did. We bought tangerines to eat with lunch.

So we got back to her house and she starts making lunch. Calling out the nutrition play by play.

Cheese: We cut this into three squares each, 2 colors. It's protein and milk. Cheese is good for you.
Crackers: Pick those because all the colored spots are nutrition. Three one for each piece of cheese.
All on one plate. I tried to put it on our plates and she said no, you have to take it from the common plate, at the table.

Tangerines

Trail Mix in little plastic cups: Raisins and red things (strawberries) because they are fruit and they are sweet. And these yellow things (ginger) because they are spicy and that's good with sweet. And nuts because they are good for you. And chocolate covered raisins because they are yummy.[Angel's note: They were chocolate covered dried plums]

Plus I heated the thyme bread that Angel left out for us.

So it works. If you start young, they understand what's important. I wanted to mention it was a bit of a carb overload, but she's six. It wasn't PBJ.

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.

Tuesday morning

Nothing exciting on the menu yet... I'm contemplating some sort of broccoli potato pot pie for dinner...

For breakfast, the daughter had Stoneyfield Yo Kids Strawberry yogurt with graham crackers, bananas, and chocolate soy milk. (I had a banana yogurt.)

I started stressing about lunch, and I do mean stressing, because I spend way too much time thinking about if my kid eats enough fruits/vegetables/colors every day. And her father made pasta with red sauce and Morningstar vegetarian sausage last night so my brain screams, "Have red. Need orange and green. Green for dinner."

Seriously.

So, for lunch I served three Morningstar Vegetarian Chik*n Nuggets with ketchup AND ranch, plus a side of commercial Swiss-style trail mix with a ton of extra raisins and some whole cashews.

Oatmeal Bars

I'm not quite happy with the breakfast selections around here these days and we can always use something quick, easy and nutritious. I love those Quaker Oatmeal Bars (not the breakfast cookies, those don't have much in the way of nutritional content) and thought maybe I could make something similar at home.

I searched "oatmeal raisin breakfast bar" and found the following:

http://mummam.blogspot.com/2006/10/oatmeal-raisin-breakfast-bars.html

Oatmeal-raisin Breakfast Bars

Ever since I discovered this recipe in a Vegetarian cookbook (published by Barnes & Noble), I hav decided to replace my breakfast porridge with these nutritious and tasty bars and a glass of cold milk!

Makes: 14 bars
Preparation time: 30 minutes

1.5 Cups rolled oats
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup dried raisins
1/2 cup melted butter
oil for greasing

Preheat oven to 375F, grease a 11x7 inch tin.
Stir oats, sugar and raisins together in a bowl.

Add the melted butter and thoroughly stir.
Press the mixture into the pan.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden.
Remove from oven, cut into bars and cool in pan for 5 minutes.
Store in air-tight container for 15 days.

Now, this looks frightening similar to my tried-and-true granola recipe from The Imus Ranch cookbook. And of course, I can never stick to a recipe. So, I mixed up the following:

4.5 cups oats
1/3 cup sugar
2 + cups trail mix
some cashew crumbs from the bottom of the container
1/3 cup raisins
1/2 cup butter
1/8 cup honey
1/4 cup oil

Eliminate the butter and the honey and this recipe could easily become vegan...

Mine are cooling now... and I bet I end up with three or four bars and a big pile of granola...

I was right, and the reason my bars didn't maintain their shape is because I didn't use enough butter. You know, good old fashioned butter. And butter is what cools and hardens and makes them keep their shape.

Trail mix, augmented

As I have reported in the past, I make a pretty awesome homemade granola, but with the intense heat and how busy we've been I haven't had a chance to make any.

My mother (Mimi) had brought some huge containers of Swiss Trail Mix that had so much butterscotch chips and chocolate candies that it didn't really qualify as a snack in my mind. It did have some peanuts and some dried pineapple and raisins but nutritional it was more or less dessert.

Normally I mix this 50/50 with my own granola. Today I took a container of it that was 2/3 empty and added a container of White Mountain trail mix from Aldi. This is very similar stuff, just more peanuts and more cranberries, and white chocolate instead of butterscotch and chocolate candies.

Then I added what cashews we had left.

Then I added a sample box of Honey Bunches of Oats I was given.

Now the container is full again, with "stuff" closer to the way I like it.

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!!!!!