Applesauce for the GI Monster's Exit

I've heard horror stories among my friends about the flus and various viruses going around this winter. And with Spring right around the corner, I really thought that my family dodged a bullet by not falling prey to any of it. But alas, I was too quick to make that call. That said, when three of the five of us were flattened by the GI bug recently, it wasn't as grim as I feared. 

I was the first to feel under the weather and was sick for 24 hours. Three days later, my husband got it. Again, 24 hours. And three days after that, it sucked to get the call from the school nurse to come pick up my child who had just hurled everywhere. ​Ugh. The thing is, even if you change the towels every two days, use a powerful cleaner on doorknobs and are hyper vigilant about hand washing, germs happen. And you never can tell who will pick up whatever is going around and who will be able to slough it off. 

​Homemade chunky apple-mango sauce

What's a mom to do? Well, when I'm feeling anxious, I like to tidy and to chop. ​I guess it's a pretty good thing because my refrigerator now has containers of fresh produce peeled, cut and ready to go for whatever I decide to prepare. Once my daughter was able to keep food down (24 hours later), I was happy to be able to provide her with freshly made applesauce (part of the BRAT diet).  While I love to peel and chop apples, I always need to start with much more than I need because I nosh along the way. 

The homemade applesauce really hit the spot - my kids like it chunky, which means less cooking time. I've added some fresh mango (high in vitamin C)  to the apples for an extra bit of flavor as well as some cinnamon and juice of half a Meyer lemon. Note to self: always make three times as much of this stuff. It flies out of the bowls. 

​Homemade Applesauce with Mango
6 apples, peeled and chopped
1 mango, peeled and chopped
1 tsp cinnamon
juice of 1/2 Meyer lemon

Put all ingredients in a sauce pan. Cook on medium heat until the fruit begins to soften. Lower the heat and simmer until fruit is cooked to desired texture. ​

Coloring Outside the Recipe Lines

I read recipes all the time. Sometimes I follow them to a T. Sometimes I don't. When I don't follow a recipe it's typically either because I need to make dietary adaptations (I am dairy free now and nut and fish free always) or because I don't have a certain ingredient in the house but have already come too far to turn back.

Today I discovered Lilyshop and had an absolute blast perusing the cooking section on her blog where I saw this recipe for Best Ever Oatmeal Bars. The recipe looked great! So great, in fact, that my son and I got started right away whipping this up.  I love that Jessie Jane, the site's founder, found it on a sheet of paper at an antique store. But alas! I didn't have shredded coconut. And I can't eat butter. So I've adapted this recipe and am so pleased with how it turned out that I had to share right away. I omitted the white sugar completely from the original recipe and replaced with a very ripe banana. I add flax meal to everything baked these days so that's in my recipe as well. 

Enormous thanks to Jessie Jane. I haven't colored inside the lines with her recipe but it's absolutely thanks to her that I've come up with it. My kids *LOVED* this. Looking forward to many more discoveries on Lilyshop! 

Lilyshop Oatmeal Bars (adapted recipe)

Oatmeal Bars (Adapted) 

Ingredients
1/2 cup coconut oil 
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 very ripe banana
1 tablespoon flax meal
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups quick cooking rolled oats
1/4 cup oat milk

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. 

2. Add all ingredients and mix well. 

3. Pour into a greased 8x8 pan.

5. Bake at 325 degrees for 30 min. 

6. Let cool, cut into bars and serve. YUM. 

Off-Label Breakfast Usage

Oatmeal with Peeled Snacks Cinnamon Crunch

We're in an oatmeal phase chez moi. Specifically we are digging quick cooking rolled oats and we like it dry and lumpy as opposed to smooth and creamy (I realize that some folks think this is nuts.) I use just enough water to cover the oats, stir twice and it cooks in minutes. I'm so happy about this phase because making just one breakfast makes mornings a tad easier. Everyone eats the same thing with minor differences: My husband and I like it with cinnamon and nutmeg, my daughter likes it with a splash of agave and fresh apple slices; my son likes it with a dash of cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon of maple syrup and fruit on the side. He gets particularly excited to pour his own cinnamon. It's heart health month and according to health magazine, oatmeal is one of the top ten best foods for a healthy heart and is said to lower LDL cholesterol. Besides that, it's loaded omega 3 fatty acids, fiber, potassium and folate. An awesome way to start the day.  

This morning I went a little off the beaten path. I stirred a handful of Peeled Snacks Cinnamon Crunch into the oatmeal (after it had finished cooking) and reserved a few to adorn the top. Cinnamon Crunch is one of the three Apple Clusters snacks that Peeled Snacks describes as "diced organic apple pieces, rolled into tasty clusters for a new crunchy snack bursting with natural flavor." Great texture without refined sugar and a fun, non-traditional addition to our morning. My son, initially outraged that there was no maple syrup on his oatmeal, quickly became excited by this crunchy addition to his breakfast. 

Kids Will Be Kids. And Parents Are Tired. It's Natural.

I have that *tired* look. You know the one. I'm going on months of an empty fuel tank here. Having an infant, two kids, a husband and a job is no joke. Lucky for me, I have always been able to function pretty well with very little sleep, or with interrupted sleep. Unfortunately, my brain hasn't sent the message to my face.
My mom slogs through traffic once a week to come spend time with my kids – a treat for all of us! Last week I guess I looked particularly exhausted and she suggested that we go out to dinner and not deal with the mess of cooking and serving dinner with kids. "I can't," I told her. "It's more stressful to deal with the unknowns of the restaurant." Anyone who has kids under a certain age knows what I'm talking about. My son doesn't like cheese or anything with a crust. My daughter loves cheese, likes crust but really just wants to read her books. My infant sometimes has incredibly loud crying fits as she's trying to settle down for a nap. My older two sometimes get along famously and sometimes scream at each other at the top of their lungs. Sometimes it's hard to tell those two things apart. Something spills at least once a day in my house (today it was applesauce for my son and yogurt for my daughter). This is where we are now and I accept it wholeheartedly at home. And while I'd love to be able to casually saunter into a restaurant with my brood and not get stressed out when my kids act, well, age appropriately, it's easier for me to shrug it off at the beginning of the day than at the end of it. (Brunch is surely designed for families!) Funny enough, my kids are pretty mellow. But parenting is hard nonetheless.  
I loved this article in The Motherlode about well-behaved kids and restaurants. Would a discount encourage me to "train" my kids to be better behaved in a restaurant? No. It's not that I'm some lazy parent who is abandoning all responsibility. It's that my kids are young. I think life would be a lot harder if I expected them to act like soldiers. It would certainly cause my face to look even more tired, which is totally unacceptable. I'm trying my best here.  

Roasted Purple Cabbage and Sweet Potato Chips

So I cooked at home. I'm roasting everything in the oven these days and this roasted purple cabbage was an experiment - one that went over big with both of my kids. Look at that amazing purple color! It was paired with roasted sweet potato "chips" and roasted chicken drumsticks (with the potato peel and the chicken skin removed for my "crust"-averse son). Here's my point: if you're tired and you need a break but the thought of going out to eat doesn't really sound like a break, look in your fridge, slice what you've got, drizzle with olive oil and roast at 375. You won't go wrong. Time passes and kids grow into different phases. For now, accept where you are and make the best of it. May the force be with you. 

Baked Chicken with Apricot and Mustard

Have you read Dinner, A Love Story yet? It's a great cookbook that follows the fantastic journey of Jenny Rosenstrach's family dinners over the course of many years. After reading this, Jenny and her clan felt like neighbors to me. I understood her struggles and also her desire to feed her family and to feed it well. I appreciated the anecdotes that she provided -- they made her recipes tangible in an empowering way. Mostly I felt great when I read "I don't even recommend attempting a sit-down meal with your kids until your youngest is at least three." PHEW. It feels impossible to sit down for a regular dinner with all of us in my house on any day other than Sunday. My youngest is 4 months old so reading Jenny's book just enabled me to cut myself some slack. I remember eating family dinner every night as a kid. But I haven't a clue when that started.

I also love that the book includes some tips and strategies for feeding picky eaters as well as some easy recipes to help your wee ones develop a broader palate. Anyway, back to the issue at hand - this awesome apricot mustard chicken... I made this dish the night of the Nemo storm and it was met with *rave* reviews. There was hardly a calorie left on the table! My 2 year old asked for it again last night - and he fondly refers to it as "Jam Chicken" but alas, I didn't have fresh thyme in the house so I used dried. I also modified the recipe slightly, as noted below. Special thanks to Jenny for a delightful read and an entertaining, informative blog.

Here's my modified recipe of Jenny's Apricot-Mustard Baked Chicken

Apricot-Mustard Baked Chicken, courtesy of Dinner: A Love Story

6 skin-on chicken pieces (we used thighs and drumsticks) rinsed and patted dry
Salt and pepper to taste
2/3 cup apricot jam
1/3 cup grainy mustard 
1/4 cup water
1 T dried thyme

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place chicken skin-side up in an oven-proof dish lined with parchment paper, sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake for 10 minutes. 
Meanwhile, mix the jam with the mustard, thyme and water into a small sauce pan and cook over low heat on the stove for about 3-5 minutes. Pour over the chicken after the first ten minutes are done and cook for another 15-20 minutes. Then (awesome Jenny suggestion) place the chicken under the broiler to get a crispy-looking skin top (note: we didn't do that because my son hates anything with "crust"). 

Enjoy!