Apple Pie...

About to try and make a bonafied Apple Pie (as I have more apples than we can ever realistically eat..). Will post the recipe if it works out...

Salamander is LOVIN' the applie pie. I'll be posting the recipe soon.

Not Much Time..

for posting recipes or trying new things in the kitchen. Lots of other stuff happening that needs my full attention, so when it comes to kitchen chemistry, I'm *coasting* on the "tried and true" this week. I may actually take the easy way out and get Thai take-out from a local restaurant tonite. They have been absolutely awesome in learning the boys' dietary challenges and respecting my instructions regarding food preparation and contamination.

I don't advocate for eating foods not prepared in your own kitchen when you have children with complicated food issues like mine. It is a risky proposition. But I've been getting food (sticky rice, chicken satay, chicken coconut soup - no soy, no peanut sauce, no peanut oils, no MSG, no ginger, no garlic, etc etc etc) for close to 3 years now, and I have never ever had a problem.

Allergy Grocery Fresh Baked Goods

I am soooo disappointed..

I am currently on the Allergy Grocery mail order web site (as I need to restock a few flour mixes I use frequently), and I got so excited when I saw their announcement for their new fresh baked goods with a picture of a pile of gorgeous looking bagels.

So of course I immediately drilled down into the ingredients, begging the Universe that, just for once, all ingredients used would be a match with the boys dietary requirements.

See, Potatey doesn't really miss bread at all.. he never really was exposed to breads much. But Salamander does remember (and miss) our Sunday morning breakfast jaunts to the local bagel place (this was before Potatey was born and before I realized the extent of Salamander's digestive issues), and I would have so much liked to be able to surprise him with a bagel treat.

But alas.. no such luck. Here are the ingredients:
White rice flour, non GMO modified tapioca starch, water, GF yeast, unrefined cane sugar, non GMO canola oil, guar gum, salt.

While the fact that yeast is used is not ideal, we have gotten to a point that the boys digestive systems can now handle a little yeast on a very infrequent basis. Canola oil however continues to be absolute poison for Salamander. Why, oh why could they not have used safflower or sunflower oil.... Ya think I should write them and ask that question?

Honey Suckles

LINKY THINGIES ADDED - SORRY FOR CONFUSION

Just discovered Honey Suckles on one of my favorite mail order websites, Digestive Wellness!!!!

Every year, after the boys and I come back from our annual apple picking adventure, we stop by at this little farm stand that sells organic honey, organic fruit jellies, wonderful Indonesian spices, Sambal, loempias, etc.

And every year I buy the boys a few honey suckles, at $2 a piece (yes, ouch ...).

So imagine my delight (and the boys are super excited as well; they were looking over my shoulder as I was ordering) finding them at a much more *palatable* price!!!!!

These will make great, every once and a while, additions to the lunch boxes too...

Chocolate Brittle

This one went over really well with Salamander. Not so much with Potatey - he really is a food purist. As in, do not mix different foods and textures together. As in, make a dish that's based on one food, and one food only.

1 bag Enjoy Life GFCFSF chocolate chips
1/2 tsp safflower oil
1/2 cup organic blanched almonds
1/2 cup organic whole cranberries
1/2 cup organic Thompson raisins
1/2 cup organic red flame raisins
couple of tbs spoons of pignolia nuts
couple of tbs shelled organic pistachio nuts

Grease (I use Spectrum Cooking Spray) an 8 x 8 inch Pyrex glass dish.

Put almonds, cranberries, raisins, pignolia nuts and pistachio nuts in a bowl and mix

Pour chocolate chips in microwave safe container, and mix thoroughly with oil. Put in microwave for 30 seconds and stir. Continue to melt chocolate chips in microwave, stirring every 20 seconds.

Once chocolate chips are fully melted, stir in fruit/nut mixture. Spread chocolate mixture out in greased Pyrex glass dish into about 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick layer.

Place in fridge to allow mixture to set up.

Remove chocolate brittle from dish and break in small pieces.

Delicata Squash...

Am about to start experimenting with Delicata Squash... will let you all know how things turned out..

Things are turning out very, very well... I fully admit I am not a huge big squash fan (and I am going to have to change that as my farming co-op has a bumper crop of winter squash in all kinds of varieties this year), but the Delicata Squash is DELICIOUS!!!!

Unfortunately, the boys weren't too keen on it. Potatey took one bit and flat out rejected it. Salamander ate most of what I gave him for lunch, but finally "confessed" that he gave it a "40/60" (as in he liked it 40%, but didn't like it 60%). Ah well, you can't win 'em all..

I'm going to post the recipe anyway...

1 delicata squash
olive oil
garlic salt, pepper
1.5 cup pear juice
1 cup water
1 tsp apple cider vinegar


Peel squash with vegetable peeler (not as easy as it sounds - the skin of the delicata is quite thick; it took me about 25 - 30 minutes to completely peel the darn thing..)

Cut lengthwise in half and scrape out the seeds. Cut each piece again in half lengthwise, and then crosswise in 1/2 inch thick pieces.

Coat the bottom of a large skillet with olive oil. Add garlic salt and pepper. Let mixture oil/spice mixture come to temperature on medium heat (you'll see some bubbles in the oil).

Add squash pieces and stir fry at high heat for about 5 minutes. Add pear juice, water, cider and a little more salt. Stir. Cook for 20 - 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, on medium heat at an even boil until the pear juice is starting to boil in and the squash is getting soft. Then cook for another 10 minutes on high heat until the pear juice is boiled down to a glaze and the squash is tender (you can cut it with a fork). Taste and season with additional salt or pepper as needed.

Serve warm (although it's pretty tasty cold too).

Match Me If You Can...

I had made myself the promise that I wasn't going to mix the purposes of my two blogs up. But as I am getting a sense that I may be getting hits here that I am not getting on my main blog, I am going to make an exception. And the only reason is that I feel very strongly about this particular cause. So if you dropped in here directly, please check out this post on my other blog.

And match me if you can...

So Sorry..

for not having posted any new recipes. Not that I don't have more stuff to put up, I just haven't had the time (it's one thing to put a quick, rambling, blog post, but quite another to put up a recipe that can actually be replicated!!).

That being said, Salamander did thoroughly enjoy a few twists I made last night to his dinner salad.

I replaced the lettuce with baby spinach
And I added pignolia nuts
(and I had ran out of grapes, but he wasn't missing them at all)

The grin that broke out on his face, when he discovered the pignolia nuts, was priceless.

And oh, yes, I DID make chocolate cupcakes using this mix from Cherrybrook Kitchen (Potatey was in hog heaven.. ).

Tasty Chicken Tenders

I made these in the same skillet as I had just used for the baked apple.

9 chicken tenders (but you can use how ever many you want)
almond oil
salt
Garam Masala (Indian Spice)
agave syrup

Coat large skillet with almond oil. Add chicken tenders. Sprinkle chicken tenders with salt and Garam Masala. Stir fry at high heat until chicken is slightly browned. Turn chicken frequently. Drizzle agave syrup over the chicken.

Let cook at low to medium heat until chicken fully cooked and evenly browned on both sides.

(Salamander ate a few with dinner. I am sure the left overs will be great in a salad, or as a protein in tomorrow's lunch box)

Baked (fried?) Apple

Growing up, my mom used to make baked apple as part of Sunday Dinner. I have not been able to replicate her exact recipe. I came up with my own tasty variation instead.

4 small to medium sized apples (It's apple season in New England right now, so I plenty apples laying around); skinned, cored, quartered and sliced
almond oil (sunflower oil works too)
agave syrup
handful of organic cranberries
handful of organic raisins

Coat the bottom of a large skillet with almond oil.
Put raisins and cranberries in skillet. Keep it all at medium to high heat and let the fruit *toast* for a bit.

Add the apple slices. and let *toast* at medium heat for about 10 minutes. As apple slices start to get soft and slightly browned, turn heat to low. Drizzle agave syrup over the fruit mixture.

Let *toast*/*poach* for another 10 - 15 minutes at low heat (do flip the apple slices over frequently).

Salamander ate about 1/3 of what I made for dinner. I am sure that the left overs will be great with breakfast.

(if I were able to use cinnamon and walnuts, I would have added those. But alas)

Beef and Vegetable Stew

I'll admit it.. I am very much a *Jewish/Italian mother*... when I am upset or emotionally off kilter, I take refuge in the kitchen. And yesterday afternoon I definitely was upset...

So I worked on tweaking my beef and vegetable stew recipe. Salamander LOVED the end result (as in, cleaned off every last bit). His words? "The Quality Control Department gives this a double thumbs up." Have I mentioned yet that I adore this kiddo?

Making this stew definitely takes time. But most of the time is simmer time, and yes, you can walk away and do other stuff (I do).

Beef chuck or stew meat
Pacific Natural Foods Free range Chicken Broth
garlic salt
pepper
Garam Masala (Indian spice)
Sambhar Curry Powder (Indian spice)
Ketchup (I use my own)
Handful Baby carrots
Handful Frozen peas
4 tbs kidney beans
Handful frozen green beans

In medium sauce pan, pour about 1 inch of chicken broth. Add cubed beef. Add garlic salt, pepper, pinch of Garam Masala, pinch of Sambhar Curry, 3 tbs of ketchup. Mix it all up thoroughly.

Simmer the beef/broth/spice mixture, first at medium then at low heat, for 1.5 to 2 hours, until the beef is soft and tender. The broth/spice mixture will thicken. If it gets too thick, feel free to add some water.

Remove the beef from the broth/spice mixture and set aside.

Add another 1 inch of chicken broth, and an addition 3 tbs of ketchup. Add baby carrots and frozen peas and bring all back to a boil. Cook on high for about 15 minutes (you want to soften the carrots).

Add kidney beans. Turn mixture down to medium heat (beans will actually help thicken the stew mixture).

Add beef back in mixture. Add frozen green beans.

Cook on low to medium heat for another 10 - 15 minutes.

Serve hot. I didn't have any tapioca buns available yesterday, but next time, I may try making garlic bread out of a toasted and sliced tapioca bun, spectrum shortening and garlic salt.

(oh, and I used the left over kidney beans to make Salamander his baked beans for today. I let them sit overnite in my usual ketchup/honey mixture, and then cooked it all up for lunch today)

Salamander's Salad

3 to 4 leaves of green lettuce, shredded
3 to 4 leaves of arugula lettuce, shredded
handful of organic walnut halves
handful of organic dried cranberries
2 grilled chicken tenders; sliced and diced
1/2 apple; peeled, cored, sliced and diced
15 green or red seedless grapes

Mix the shredded lettuces, walnut halves, cranberries and chicken together in a salad plate (or a small bowl). Sprinkle with cracked pepper and dried or fresh parsley. Serve diced apple and grapes on the side (Salamander likes to toss these into his salad himself).

For a salad dressing, I make my own using Hains Lite Safflower Mayonnaise, mixed with a little olive oil and some dried parsley. We also discovered Maple Grove Farms of Vermont All Natural Maple Fig dressing (I'll add a linkie thingie as soon as blogger will let me) this week, and Salamander tried it tonite. So far, so good.

What Do The Boys Drink....

Truthfully? Mostly water.... filtered water (I have a filtration system on my water supply) or Penta water.

Potatey also drinks Apple Juice - Stop & Shop's (yes, a *local* grocery store chain) Nature's Promise Organic Apple Juice (no calcium added, no vit C added - my boys DO NOT tolerate anything that has calcium added - they go kooky)

Salamander drinks the Simply brand juices - Lemonade, Limeade, and Orange Juice (again, no Calcium added); he gets these diluted with Penta water.

My boys do not really drink milk. And no, they are not calcium deficient. They both take vit D, vit K and chamomile supplements. And together with the calcium they take in from their food (think leafy green veggies), we are doing just ducky in the calcium department.

We do use almond milk or hazelnut milk for cereal, baking and pancake batter.

Turkey Sandwich

Salamander likes one of these, especially when I have made soup (soup and a sandwich).

1 Tapioca Bun (we like the Ener-G Tapioca Hamburger Buns)
Couple of Slices of Deli Turkey (we recently discovered Hormel Natural Choice Oven Roasted Deli Turkey - yes, a few of the ingredients are less than ideal, BUT the boys don't get this every day. Rotation, rotation, rotation...)
1 tbs Mayonnaise (I use the Hains Lite Safflower Mayonnaise)
Couple of Lettuce Leaves
4 strips Orange (or Yellow or Red) Bell Pepper

Salamander likes to build his own sandwich, so I make sure he has all the ingredients, and then he *goes to town*.

On Seafood....

I am sure many are going to crinch in horror, but yes, I DO feed my boys fish.

No shellfish though.. off limits for Salamander, and momma doesn't do too good with it either.. which is really too bad, as I LOVED steamed muscles at one point in my life. I also ate fish and seafood through pretty much my entire pregnancy with Salamander (hey, he's from the years when obgyns recommended that you ate tuna fish at least once a week - and I was friggin' clueless) .. until the last trimester that was, when out of the blue, the smell of Friday's clam chowder in the work cafeteria made me run faster than any 7 month pregnant woman should be running... interesting eh?

Anyway, back to fish. My boys will have wild caught Salmon probably once a month. I will NOT feed them farmraised fish. On occasion, they'll also eat flounder, cod fish, or mahi mahi.