Dipman Beans

It's been more than a year since my last post. I'm vegetarian mama to Baby #2. There is a lot more to say about that, but for now I'm just going to do a recipe that I've been meaning to post for a long time! It's one of my easiest but most delicious meals. It's named in honor of the friend who first made it for us many years ago.


Ingredients

Several cloves of garlic, minced
2 T olive oil
One 28-oz can diced tomatoes, or even slightly more (can also be made with fresh tomatoes)
1 cup water
3 cans white beans (cannelini, navy) (can also be made with dried beans)
1 T dried basil (or 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil)
salt and pepper to taste
2 T balsamic vinegar

1. Saute the garlic in the oil until soft.
2. Add the tomatoes and the water, bring to a simmer.
3. Add the beans, simmer for 15-20 minutes.
4. Stir in the basil and salt and pepper to taste, cook another 5 minutes.
5. Remove from heat. Add the balsamic vinegar, stir well.

Serve with a vegetable and a crusty bread loaf!

We had this tonight. Both girls loved it. N, age 3.5, ate hers with a spoon like an adult. M, age 9 months, had hers spread on a piece of bread.

Still Rear Facing at 30 Months

Here is an updated photo of N., still rear facing in her car seat at 30 months, 37 inches, and 30 pounds!

Pumpkin French Toast

How do you get a picky toddler to eat more vegetables?

A few weeks ago I stumbled across a cookbook about how to hide vegetables inside kids' food so that they will consume more of them without realizing it. I do not agree with this philosophy at all, because I think that children have a right to know what they are eating, and because I don't believe it actually encourages kids to "like" eating vegetables! Parenting has to include building trust between the parent and the child, and I don't ever want my daughter to think that she can't trust me to tell her the truth about what I am giving her.

Instead, I prefer to capitalize on what N. does like and build from there. I continue to serve her a variety of foods each day that she has both liked and disliked in the past, and every once in a while she will decide to like a new food. (Recently: honeydew melon and grapes.) I also regularly serve her favorite nutritious foods so that I can be sure she's getting the vitamins she needs.

The cookbook did have some ideas I found intriguing, though; in particular, inserting vegetable purees into common everyday foods. I decided to try this myself, but WITHOUT HIDING! N. watches, and even helps, as I spread her quesadilla with pureed carrot or her grilled cheese sandwich with butternut squash. And one of her new favorite breakfasts is pumpkin french toast!

1/4 cup canned pureed pumpkin
1 egg
1 slice whole grain bread
a pinch of cinnamon
cooking spray or oil/margarine

1. Mix together the pumpkin, egg, and cinnamon in a bowl.
2. Soak the bread in the mixture, about 30 seconds each side.
3. Heat a pan that has been sprayed and/or dotted with oil or margarine.
4. When the pan is ready, place the bread in it. Pour any excess pumpkin-egg mixture on top of the bread (there will probably be a lot). Lower heat, cover, and cook for about two minutes.
5. Flip the slice of bread and cook the other side for about two minutes, or until it appears that the egg is all cooked. Continue flipping and cooking as needed until you are sure it is thoroughly cooked.
6. Cut, cool, and serve! Can be topped with maple syrup or powdered sugar if desired. Personally, I think it needs a little sweetener, but I try to serve it to her without much extra sugar.

Sunday Dinner

Growing up, Sunday dinner was always a little fancier than the rest of the week. Maybe something that cooked for a few hours on the stove or in the oven, maybe a fire in the fireplace, and maybe sitting in the dining room instead of the kitchen.

I've tried to keep up the tradition, and sometimes nothing says "Sunday" like meat and potatoes. But since we don't eat meat ... it's time for Field Roast!

We buy it at Whole Foods or at our local co-op. It's easy, and we all love it. I make a vegetarian gravy and serve up some cooked vegetables and potatoes, and voila - fancy Sunday dinner!

Vegetarian Gravy

1 carton (4 cups) vegetable broth
1 bulb of garlic
1 T olive oil
2 carrots, coarsely chopped
a bunch of fresh ground pepper
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
some white flour
a little butter (optional)

1. Bring the vegetable broth to a gentle simmer on the stove. Add in the carrots and pepper.
2. While the broth is simmering, slice off the top of the garlic bulb, pour on the olive oil, cover in a microwavable dish, and cook on high in the microwave for 2 minutes.
3. Allow the garlic to cool, then peel the individual cloves and add them to the broth.
4. When the carrots are soft, puree them with the garlic into the broth. (I use an immersion blender, but you could also pour it into a food processor.)
5. Whisk in the nutritional yeast and bring to simmer again.
6. Whisk in the flour, or, if you have more time, cook the flour in the butter to make a paste before whisking it in.

Quinoa Casserole

Quinoa is an grain that originated in the Andes Mountains of South America. It is high in protein and iron, making it great for vegetarians. The grains are about the same size as couscous when uncooked.

When I first read about quinoa I was intimated by the need to rinse it before cooking. Once I tried it, though, I realized how easy it was. N. likes it some days, especially if I leave out the spices!

I usually bake it in a casserole using the following general guidelines:

1 T canola oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 red or green bell pepper, diced (optional)
1 cup dried quinoa, rinsed in a wire strainer under cold running water for 2 minutes
1 can black or pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
1 T chili powder (optional)
1 tsp ground cumin (optional)
2 cups vegetable broth - approximately

1. Saute the onion, garlic, and pepper (if using) in oil until softened.
2. Mix all ingredients except the vegetable broth in a casserole dish.
3. Add the vegetable broth until the mixture is a couple of centimeters from the top of the dish.
4. Bake in 375 degree oven for 1 hour. Check after about 45 minutes, stir, add more broth if needed.
5. The quinoa is finished when it is puffy and translucent.

I think the photo shows some corn in there, too, but I usually leave that out.

Serve with grated cheddar (optional).

Extended Rear Facing

This is a blog about raising a vegetarian child; however, I am going to put up this photo of N. in her new rear-facing car seat. The benefits of rear facing past age 1 have been demonstrated in several studies. We hope that this car seat will allow her to keep facing backwards until she is 4 years old. The seat is a Sunshine Kids Radian XTSL. When she becomes too tall to rear-face in the seat, we will turn it forward to enable her to ride in a 5-point harness for another year or two at least.

The second photo is of her Evenflo Triumph Advance, which she uses in her grandmother's car. It is not as tall as the Radian, but it should still allow her to rear face for another year at least. The Radian would not have fit well in this car.

If you would like more information about extended rear facing, please visit the following links:

AAP Article Encouraging Rear Facing to Age 2

BMJ Article Explaining Safety of Rear Facing Through Age 4

Accident Study of Car Seat Use in Europe (long, contains photos, some disturbing details)

I hope you will consider rear facing your child to the limits of their seat.

Minestrone & Brussels Sprouts - A Holiday Recovery Meal

We traveled for Christmas, ate too many cookies, and suffered a bit from jet lag. For our first dinner back at home, I wanted a low-fat, high-nutrition, comforting meal. I made minestrone soup for everyone, broccoli and peas for N., and sauteed Brussels sprouts for the adults.

N. not only loved the minestrone - veggies and all - but she also requested some of our "sprouts." Then she requested more, and more, and more. We were amazed at her sudden love for them. Perhaps it was in the saute... or perhaps all the holiday food just left her body craving vegetables!

Easy Minestrone:

2 T olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2-3 cloves of garlic, pressed
3-4 stalks of celery, diced
2-3 carrots, diced (I actually used about 12 baby carrots)
4 cups vegetable broth
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried basil
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
2-4 oz small dried pasta shapes (I used broken spaghetti, about 1 inch long)

1. Heat olive oil in large pot.
2. Saute onion and garlic for about five minutes, until onion is soft and translucent.
3. Add carrots and celery; saute another five minutes or so.
4. Add vegetable broth and bring to boil.
5. Lower heat, add spices, and simmer about ten minutes.
6. Add beans and pasta and cook for another 10-15 minutes.
7. Serve with parmesan cheese (optional). If needed, add salt and/or pepper to taste.

Sauteed Brussels Sprouts:

10 oz fresh Brussels sprouts (I like the Trader Joe's bags)
1 T butter
1 T olive oil
1 clove garlic, pressed

1. Trim the ends off the Brussels sprouts and remove the tougher outer leaves (just the first layer). Cut each one into four quarters.
2. Heat the butter and oil in a large skillet until the butter is melted and they coat the bottom of the pan.
3. Saute the garlic for 1-2 minutes.
4. Add the Brussels sprouts, stir well to coat with butter & olive oil, cover, and reduce heat to medium-low.
5. Continue cooking for about fifteen minutes until soft, stirring every 3-4 minutes to make sure they aren't sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Harvest Meal with Soymilk

Fall is such a great season for vegetarian cooking, with all the squash and other harvest-y foods. A couple of weeks ago I made wild rice casserole (complete with low-sodium cream of mushroom soup), which was a big hit.

She ate it with squash and applesauce. The applesauce, not usually served at dinner, was very popular. (Incidentally, I usually add wheat germ to applesauce to boost its nutrition content.)

Off to the left you can see her straw cup with soymilk. While I cook with cow's milk, I don't serve it for drinking. N. has only ever had soymilk to drink and she assumes it's the norm. When she sees a picture of someone drinking milk, she calls it "so-milk!" It took a while for her to like drinking it, and even now she doesn't drink very much - maybe an ounce or two at best. But since we're still nursing twice a day, my pediatrician says we don't need to worry.

First Mini-Donuts

I really don't let my daughter eat junk food. She's had ice cream a few times, and cake a few times, but that's about it. Since she doesn't eat much to begin with, I don't want her to fill up on nutritionally-empty foods.

That said, we had a family trip to the pumpkin patch last week (our third!) and it was COLD. When I saw that there were mini-donuts and hot cider for sale, I said, "It's time for her first donuts." We bought a bag and sat on a bench, munching away. She was pretty impressed by the whole experience, and ate two! But she wouldn't consent to even a small taste of the cider.

Healthy Vegetarian Toddler

We had the 18-month check-up earlier this week, and N. is officially a healthy toddler. She measured in at 90th percentile for height and 40th for weight, so she is tall and thin like her dad! She easily passed her milestones and enjoyed coloring with crayons on the exam table.

I asked the pediatrician if we should be concerned about iron, given the vegetarian diet, and she expressed her opinion that N.'s healthy pink color and obvious energy level gave her no concerns about iron deficiency. (I do give a half-milligram of iron supplement a couple of times per week, in addition to trying to serve iron-rich foods on a regular basis.)

Although I believe that a vegetarian diet is perfectly healthy, it's still always nice to have it confirmed by an actual M.D.