Vitamix

Big news! I bought a vitamix. I've owned it for just over a week now and I am in love. After breaking 6 blenders in 4 years (3 of those were $100+ too!), I decided to go crazy and buy the super expensive vitamix. So far I am very happy. I am definitely doing things with it that a regular blender just couldn't handle at all.

Henry and I were both very excited when the box was delivered. He kept saying there were toys inside. But he didn't seem too disappointed when he saw it was a blender instead. He just said "make it smoothie".

One of the first things I made was my very own almond butter which was delicious. I was thinking it might be one of those things that tasted extra good when it's freshly made and the almonds are freshly roasted. But no, it tasted exactly like the stuff that you buy. But I'm sure it is cheaper and it was super easy.

I'm making smoothies like always. But now they are much much smoother and I can put lots of cashews and almonds in and even a raw carrot. And it blends up the seeds from raspberries. We haven't had a single one of Henry's straw cups get blocked since we got it.

Both Henry and Lightning McQueen approve of the new smoothies. I have started drinking them too.

And today I tried this recipe for strawberry parfait made from strawberries and cashews. I admit the first bite tasted like cashews but by the second bite I didn't notice, it just tasted really good. And Henry really liked it which is a big deal since he is still not eating much.

Kevin and I are really loving a chocolate pudding I've been making in the vitamix using chia seeds and I will post the recipe for that soon. We didn't like the vitamix recipe for hummus but I did LOVE that the vitamix could easily make a double sized recipe of hummus - that's a litre of hummus, about a week's supply for us over here. AND I love that instead of using tahini, which is so annoying to scoop out and measure and makes a big mess, I can just use sesame seeds and the vitamix will turn it into tahini! What I think I will appreciate most though is not having to replace the blender in 6 months.

Today we are having a snow day. We needed some snow to replace the stuff we lost in the last week of warm temperatures and rain. We missed our playgroup today because I didn't want to drive in the blizzard so Henry and I will spend the day hanging around the house. Playing with toys and watching the snow and snuggling. It is looking less windy now, we'll have to go play outside soon.

French Fries

Henry has turned into a terrible eater. All he wants to eat is bread, granola bars, and apples. And he usually likes pasta with tomato sauce. Luckily he also still likes smoothies so I am filling those with as much good stuff as I can (have started adding black beans or chick peas along with everything else).

Oh and he eats fries at restaurants. So I thought I'd try making him some fries tonight. They are still greasy but they have no salt. I always put cumin, oregano, thyme, and paprika on homemade fries in place of salt. And I did half potato, half yam. He refused to try the yam fries but at least he liked the potato fries. Finally another real food that he likes even if it is french fries.

Edited to add: It's about 5 days later and he now hates french fries!

Smoothies

Firstoff, I decided to put a post about smoothies up on the blog because I wanted a reason to take photos of my most recent thrift store acquisition: the most beautiful blender the world has ever seen. But also since I've been making smoothies on and off for years and every single day for the past few months since Henry started liking them, I think I have some good knowledge on the subject to offer up to the internet community.


Back to my blender - isn't it beautiful. It's got avocado green, shiny chrome, and even faux wood grain. And it looks and works like new. And it cost just $12. I've been through 3 $150 blenders in the past 3 years. The first 2 that broke were luckily replaced under warranty. And after the third broke I did actually replace it with a cheaper new blender but I am happy to keep that one in the basement as backup so that I can have this one on my counter. I am hoping that this is one of those "they don't make them like they used to" situations and not an "Amy is way too hard on her blender" situation so that my new blender will last for years to come.

Of course this beautiful blender has created that age old problem of making my toaster and microwave look hideous but I think I can deal with it. Well, maybe I will keep just one eye out for an awesome thrift store toaster. But I don't think that microwaves are one of those "they don't make them like they used to" appliances. Besides, I don't think microwaves get much more vintage than our current one.

Onto the smoothies, I make some variation of this every morning. Assuming you are not taking pictures along the way, it takes less than 10 minutes for the whole thing.

First the veg (well 2 of these are fruits if we want to be technical). I add about 3 big collard leaves and avocado and, since zucchini are coming out of the garden right now, I've been adding those too. Add the collards to the blender first to be sure that they get well blended.

The protein: tofu, cashews, and flaxseed. I add a third of a 530 g package of soft silk tofu. I also sometimes add raw cashews, I find about 1/4 cup soaked in water overnight works well. I also always have soy protein powder in the pantry which I add if I am out of tofu or occasionally in addition to tofu.
The sweet fruit. I always add one banana and then about a handful of various frozen berries or peaches or whatever tasty fruit is in season. On this day I also added some raspberries and currants from the garden that weren't getting eaten. Mangos are also a really nice addition.
I meant to take a picture of all the ingredients stacked up in the blender, it looked quite nice but I accidentally pressed blend first so this is the picture showing the ingredients in the blender (some blended some not) along with the juice. I usually use orange juice but this is what I happened to have. It's a good idea to taste the smoothie before you take it out of the blender. If it turns out you added too much collard greens or flaxseed (too much and you can taste the bitterness) or even tofu (too much and the smoothie becomes bland) the best thing to add is raspberries as these seem to cover up those tastes the best. And if you don't like the grittiness of the flaxseed it is also a good idea to add raspberries because we are used to that gritty texture when we eat raspberry stuff.

I think that is just about all my smoothie knowledge. Of course just about any these ingredients can be substituted or omitted. The only balance that's important is the sweet versus non sweet ingredients.
So you can see these are pretty healthy. Lots of fruit and veg and protein. And calcium from the tofu and the greens. Henry has a serving of this, he sometimes drinks it all at once but it often goes in and out of the fridge while he works on it during the day. Having him get all this good stuff lets me feel a bit more relaxed about what he eats the rest of the day.

These ingredients made enough for 3 servings plus a little left over that I pour into popsicle molds. Henry and I both like to eat the popsicles that these smoothies make. And I found these great little molds at Dollarama that are nice and small for little Henry.

Here's the recipe just in case this information really is of use to anyone out there:

3 big leaves collard greens
1/2 avocado
1/2 zucchini
1/4 cup raw cashews presoaked overnight
1/3 pack soft silken tofu
1-2 TBSP flaxmeal
1 banana
~handful berries or other fruit
1/2 cup+ orange juice

Put all ingredients in blender and blend. Start with 1/2 cup juice and add more until well blended to desired consistency.

Peas and Raspberries

We had the first of the peas and raspberries from the garden yestereday. Only a handful of each but we can see that there are many more to come.

It was fun walking around the garden and showing Henry the food on the plants and then giving it to him to try. He spat the first 2 peas out but now he loves them. And with the raspberries I gave him one, told him it was food and he popped it into his mouth.

Healthy Toddler Seed Cookies

At 11 months Henry seems to think nursing is much too boring for him, at least during the day. As a result, he eats quite a bit of solid food and I am at the point where I have to think about his nutrition - oh no! At least he is not as picky as he was a month ago, he likes a lot of things but it is still sometimes hard to get him eating a significant quantity of something that is not fruit or grains. And he really likes to feed himself so even though he always likes my soy yogurt, sometimes he just refuses to be fed from a spoon. And he loves hummus but that involves either feeding from a spoon or letting him get super disgustingly messy feeding it to himself which is the route I usually go.

So I came up with this recipe for some cookies full of seeds for all their healthy protein-y calcium-y goodness.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sesame seeds (find unhulled for maximum calcium)
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup flax seeds
1/2 cup oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp each cinnamon and ground ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup oil
2 TBSP blackstrap molasses
3/4 cup apple sauce

Grind the seeds and oats in a dry blender or food processor. Mix with remaining dry ingredients. Then add in the wet ones and mix. Spoon out onto oiled cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes or until set and just a little brown on the bottom.


They turned out well. They taste ok to me, not something I would make for myself but Henry definitely liked them. They are a bit crumbly but I don't think I can avoid that without sacrificing the high seed to flour ratio.


I think the only changes I would make are to use ground up oats in place of all the flour, just because he eats plenty of wheat already, probably good to get a different grain. And I might use even more seeds even though that will probably make it even crumblier, maybe just more flax since flax seeds actually hold stuff together (make a great egg substitute) but I've wrecked muffins in the past with too much flax taste. And I think I will spring for coconut oil since it seems I am always reading that is the only healthy oil for cooking (sorry I couldn't find a more credible looking source but I know I have read it in credible sources too). Even though I try not to be cheap about food since it is such a huge part of life (between eating and cooking and how it affects your health) I usually think coconut oil is too expensive. But since these are for my little angel baby, I think I ought to buy some. I might be posting a version 2 sometime soon.


Here are some more photos of Henry enjoying his cookies ( I gave him 3 and he gobbled them up).