Peanut butter, bananas and granola wrapped in a whole grain tortilla
Now that it’s back-to-school time, I have received several requests from friends for easy after school snack ideas. I’ll admit, sometimes we just go with a Kind bar or a Lara bar (both options have less sugar and minimally processed ingredients). But many times it’s apples and peanut butter, guacamole and whole grain tortilla chips, a whole wheat pita with some olive oil, a piece of fruit, or some fresh veggies. Sometimes I get creative and try new things. The after school snack is a great time to try new ideas with your kids, because they tend to be ravenous when they come home from school and more willing to try new foods!
One of my daughter’s favorite easy but delicious snacks is a whole grain tortilla filled with banana and peanut butter. You could also add granola in there for added “heft”, especially when using this as a breakfast or lunch idea. These wraps travel really well, so put them in your kids’ lunch boxes, and bring them along for when you need a quick dinner between activities. There’s great protein and healthy fats in the peanut butter. The banana is full of potassium and fiber (you could also use apples in here). The granola has a nice crunch, especially if it’s homemade and/or one that isn’t crammed with sugar (I really love the Purely Elizabeth brand).
Keep an eye here for more healthy snack ideas. If you have any recipes for snacks your kids like, please comment and share below!
As you might already know, I’ve committed to cooking my way through Gwyneth Paltrow’s newest cookbook It’s All Good: Delicious, Easy Recipes That Will Make You Look Good and Feel Great.This, by the way, is a huge statement. These recipes will make me LOOK GOOD? AND FEEL GREAT!? I feel like I should take before and after photos or something.
We last made Vegetable Potstickers that were a huge hit. We ate those up very quickly. To summarize the experience: they weren’t super difficult to make (although they weren’t easy either) but were very messy. I was looking forward to making the Japanese Meatballs because they looked much easier and less messy to make. Plus we like meatballs.
With some help from my blog readers, I decided that I am allowed to make substitutions to recipes as I see fit. My good friend Becky pointed out that I was actually doing my readers a service by suggesting substitutions and tweaks that other busy people might also appreciate. Take, for instance, the Chinese Five Spice Powder called for in the dipping sauce. I really dislike the taste of this particular spice blend. My sister in law told me that she hadn’t ever heard of it and could I please recommend something different. I’m thinking that a lot of other people probably don’t have it on hand. So, I made the Hoisin Sauce without the spice powder thinking that I could taste it and add something back if I thought it needed it. Turns out the Hoisin Sauce tasted phenomenal without it. So, there you go. Another substitution came in the form of using turkey rather than chicken, because the grocer was out of ground chicken.
Here’s the recipe, adapted:
MEATBALLS
1 lb ground turkey or chicken (or beef or lamb or any combo you prefer)
1/2 teaspoon salt (I like sea salt)
1/2 teaspoon pepper (Gwyn would say freshly ground, I say use whatever)
1 garlic clove or more if you love garlic, finely minced
1/2 teaspoon ginger powder or 1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
1 tablespoon soy sauce (low sodium if possible)
2 teaspoons real maple syrup
Look at these beautiful spices and ingredients.
METHOD:
Mix all ingredients in a bowl with your hands and form into small balls. Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes but keep an eye on them.
Hoisin Sauce (recipe below)
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup miso paste
1/4 cup real maple syrup
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
METHOD:
Heat oil in small saucepan over medium heat, add garlic and cook about 30 seconds. Add the rest of the ingredients and whisk to combine. Bring to a simmer and cook, whisking constantly for a couple of minutes. Let cool and serve.
A couple of notes about the meatballs: there are no bread crumbs in there. Gwyneth is gluten-free (of course she is. I mean, obviously) So when you are shaping them they have a very soft, sticky, almost doughy consistency. See?
Uncooked meatballs
Not to worry, they bake up very nicely. The recipe states you can bake, pan fry, grill or however-you-want these meatballs but gave no directions for any cooking, so I looked it up and decided I’d bake mine at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. Check every few minutes to make sure they aren’t being overcooked.
The result was that my family really enjoyed them, the sauce was my favorite part (visually, it isn’t beautiful — My daughter and I thought it looked like apple sauce, and my husband assumed it was a peanut sauce). I would definitely make these again and double or triple the recipe for freezing.
See the photo above? That’s the wishful thinking version of how I envision my meatball will turn out. As we witnessed with the Veggie Dumplings, my reality wasn’t really on par with the beautiful photo I wishfully posted. That’s ok though, because they were still really tasty.
We are moving on to the second choice winner in the Gwyneth Paltrow cookbook IT’S ALL GOOD, which you might remember is the Japanese Chicken Meatballs. These seem quite easy to make. They were featured in “The Kids’ Menu” section. There’s a hoisin sauce to serve on the side which includes miso paste. Weirdly, I found some in my fridge from the time I decided I was going to make homemade miso soup and never did. So, we will have to ascertain if that container will give us botulism or if I need to purchase a new one. Other than the ground chicken and the possibly the miso, I’m super excited to announce that I have all the ingredients for this recipe! The ingredients include pantry staples like garlic, sea salt, ginger, soy sauce, maple syrup and Chinese five spice powder. The last one is tripping me up a bit because I have used it before and am not a huge fan of the taste. I’m wondering as I cook my way through the cook book if I should be allowed substitutions based on my family’s personal preference, or if I really should follow it to a “t”. What are your thoughts?
One last thought of the night, which has literally nothing to do with meatballs or Gwyneth Paltrow (that I can reliably confirm anyway): OLESTRA. Remember Olestra? It was that super creepy calorie-free fat substitute that was featured in all those potato chips and snacks back in the late 1990’s/early aughts? It was supposed to be this super awesome ingredient that would allow us to eat snack food guilt-free? That was until weird things started happening to people’s digestive systems .
I wonder when we will stop looking to quick fixes and magical products to allow us to continue to eat junk food and just realize that maybe we need to cut back on the junk food. I love chips and fries and crackers. I really do. But if I’m going to eat them I’m going to eat the real version, and I am going to moderate my intake. I know they aren’t good for me and that they have no nutritional value (except I did tell a friend today her potato chips had a ton of potassium in them, which is actually true, so there. For more on why potato chips are not super villains, check out this link). I don’t believe every single thing we eat has to be virtuous. Let’s just aim to do 80% virtuous and 20% whatever we want. But if you are at 30%/70% I would say you can start slowly by trying to achieve 50/50. And then 60/40, and so on. Small changes beget bigger changes.
I will post my Japanese Chicken Meatball recipe as soon as it’s tested! Until then!
Ok, so last night we were lucky enough to be invited to a private event at the Children’s Theater Company in Minneapolis which included the coolest theater experience we’ve ever had (a fully immersive and interactive performance of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) followed by a traditional lobster boil by Smack Shack. It was amazing.
I woke up this morning feeling like I wanted to eat a bit lighter, and I had some leftover cooked quinoa and tofu from the Veggie Dumplings we made yesterday so I decided I’d make a salad for my family to have for lunch today. I wanted something light and easy. I had some fresh green onions and cucumbers from the farmer’s market in the fridge and peas in the freezer. I always have garlic powder, salt and pepper, so those were no-brainers. Below is the recipe I created, which is totally vegan. It’s easy to sub out the tofu for another protein of your choice: beans, feta cheese, even shredded chicken.
QUINOA AND VEGGIE SALAD
Ingredients (makes 4 servings)
3 cups cooked quinoa (I like adding a bit of vegetable Better Than Bouillon to mine when cooking)
1/2 cup crumbled firm tofu
2 green onions, white and light green parts only, chopped
1/2 cup chopped cucumber
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder or fresh garlic, minced
1 cup peas
1/2 cup parsley
course sea salt and pepper to taste
METHOD:
Mix everything together (think you can manage?)
This would be an easy salad to double the recipe and keep it around for lunches and side dishes all week.
Remember those beauties? Vegan Dumplings were the big winners in the poll for the first recipe I would test from Gwyneth Paltrow’s It’s All Goodcookbook. You’ll remember from a previous post that I received the book as a birthday gift, and that Gwyneth and I have a long, complicated history. Mostly it’s me not being sure if I should love her or loathe her. It’s so hard to decide. Regardless, I love the look of many of the recipes in her cookbook and so I decided I would cook my way through it and report back. What I want to find out are: Are her recipes approachable? Can a middle aged busy mom without a nanny, a cook, a housecleaner and other household help actually find the time to make the creations within? The only way to find out is to try.
I accumulated the ingredients for the dumplings pretty easily (you know what, I like to say potstickers better, and I think the way I made them are more like potstickers, so let’s go with that from now on). It wasn’t a crazy list with lots of expensive, hard-to-find ingredients.
My kiddo has been in camp all week and I really wanted her help with this one, so I waited until today to make these. You’ll notice in the photos she’s wearing her Angry Birds pajamas. In this house, we cook in our pajamas.
The end result is that they turned out amazing. They were really delicious and perfect and we couldn’t stop eating them. They might not be as beautiful as the stock photo I used above. I’m thinking I should invest in a food styling course.
The downside is that they are really messy to make, including a lot of splattering if you choose to pan fry them (which we did, because PAN FRYING IS AWESOME). The cleanup wasn’t fun, but then again it never is. My best piece of advice is to always try to clean up as you go so it isn’t so overwhelming at the end. Here is my kitchen at the end of everything. SO. MUCH. MESS.
So here’s the recipe, adapted from Gwyneth Paltrow’s Vegan Veggie Dumplings (I can’t legally reprint the whole recipe here without her permission, and even though I emailed last week to ask for it, I’m guessing her people have better things to do, which may or may not include sourcing local and organic tomatillos for her kids’ lunches.)
Vegan Potstickers Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups green cabbage, roughly chopped
1/2 small red or yellow onion, or even two or three green onions, roughly chopped
1/2 cup crumbled firm tofu (I haven’t tested this but I bet you could use ground chicken, turkey or other animal protein in place of the tofu. You know it wouldn’t be vegan anymore, though, right?)
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup cooked quinoa (I love adding a bit of vegetable Better Than Bouillon to my quinoa when it’s cooking. It adds flavor)
1 tablespoon reduced sodium soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
2 tablespoons neutral oil (I used olive oil which technically isn’t a neutral oil but it worked out fine. You could also use canola)
Pinch of coarse sea salt
48 square wonton wrappers found in the refrigerated section, typically near the tofu
Dipping sauce for serving (see below for recipe)
Vegan Potstickers Directions:
Pulse the cabbage, onion and garlic in the bowl of a food processor until finely chopped.
In a large non-stick skillet heat the oil over medium-high heat and add the cabbage mixture with a hefty pinch of sea salt.
Cook and stir occasionally until the veggies have softened, about 5 to 6 minutes.
Add in the tofu, peas and quinoa and continue cooking until the peas are soft, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the soy sauce and sesame oil. Use a potato masher to smush up the mixture until it sticks together. We allowed some of the peas to stay whole because we wanted a bit more texture.
Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature.
Make an assembly line of several wonton wrappers and put 1 teaspoon of the filling mixture in the center of each wrapper. Wet your finger in a small bowl of water and use it to moisten the edges of each dumpling. Carefully fold the corners over making a triangle, making sure you press all the edges to form a good seal.
Heat a bit of the neutral oil (like canola) in a large nonstick skillet set at high heat. Cook the dumplings for 2 minutes, or until they are golden brown on the bottom.
When the potstickers are browned to your liking on the bottom, add 1/2 cup of water to the skillet, putting the lid on and allowing the dumplings to steam until the wrappers are completely soft, about 2 minutes. Serve with the dipping sauce recipe below. ***Make sure if you are using a skillet that isn’t non-stick that you pay close attention to the potstickers because they will cook a lot more quickly than in a non-stick skillet. (See the photo below for what happens when you don’t pay close enough attention.)
Vegan Potsticker Dipping Sauce Ingredients:
3 tablespoons soy sauce (I use lower sodium)
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
Combine all ingredients with a fork or a whisk and serve alongside the potstickers.
Last year for my birthday my good friend Angie gave me a cocktail “cookbook” called Homemade Liqueurs and Infused Spirits. She knows me so well. I love a good cocktail. You know, antioxidants and resveratrol and all. I had a lot of free time today with my 10 year old being in camp and so I decided to try my hand at the Blueberry Balsamic Liqueur. What I love about making my own is that I know exactly what’s going in there. Did you know that liquors aren’t required to have labels with their ingredients or any nutritional information? They can put whatever they want in there and you wouldn’t know. So, sometimes it’s nice to make your own. I have more blueberries than I can handle right now (see my previous post about my kiddo going on a produce strike) so the Blueberry Liqueur seemed like a great choice. The following recipe is inspired from the original in the book. You take the blueberries, muddle them with the simple syrup, and then add in the vodka, wine and balsamic. Put the lid on it, store it in a cool dark cabinet for a week, and when you take it back out, strain the mixture with a mesh strainer into a clean container. Seal it up, store in a cool dark cabinet, and use within 1 year (if it lasts that long). Ingredients:
2 pints fresh blueberries OR 1.5 lbs. frozen blueberries, thawed
2 cups simple syrup (2 cups sugar stirred together with 2 cups water in a sauce pan over medium high heat, brought to a boil and then let to cool)
2 1/4 cups vodka (I absolutely love Prairie Organic Vodka made right here in Minnesota)
Thanks to everyone who participated in helping choose the very first recipe I’ll test from the It’s All Good cookbook. The big winner was Veggie Dumplings followed very closely by Japanese Chicken Meatballs. So no one feels left out, I will make the meatballs next, okay?
I am planning on making the dumpling with my 10.75 year old’s help (she would really want me to tell you she’s ten and three quarters). She truly is my sous chef. I started cooking and baking with her when she was about one. First, she “helped” (i.e.: made a huge mess and caused a lot of havoc but had a great time). Now she truly helps. For real. She reads recipes, measures, chops, cracks eggs, blends, toasts, and can even make some recipes by herself start to finish. It’s a revelation. After all the hard work of incorporating her into my kitchen endeavors, even on days when it would be so much easier to do it by myself, she now truly makes cooking and baking easier on me! It only took about 10 years, but here we are. So anyway, the picture of the dumplings above are what they would look like in my dreams. The end result will surely be delicious but maybe not so pretty. Regardless, I will post the real photos of our finished product.
On a separate but related note, I started my classes for my Nutrition Consultant program yesterday. I am enthralled already by the material so that’s a good sign. My favorite takeaway from yesterday’s reading was this: “Being in conflict over what to eat, when to eat, how to eat, and with whom to eat may be a greater problem than what to eat, as distress sends a major stress message to the nervous system, inhibiting robust digestive response”. — Ed Bauman. I find this to be so true. I know so many people who are on special eating programs, or who just feel really stressed about eating in general. I think it’s so important to remember that being relaxed about eating, whatever it is you are putting in your mouth, is so important. Stress surrounding eating just messes up your insides. I truly believe that when you are relaxed about it, your digestive system works better. Remember though, I’m no doctor, so if you are on some sort of medically required eating program, you should stick with it and listen to your physician.
Cultivate Wellness 