It is obvious there is a recurrent theme with this blog and a whole lot more I can share that I have been holding out on. I just realized that I have been subconsciously focusing on the theme of food and eating, starting with breastfeeding, the first food–if a kid is so lucky! Then, there is the blogpost on the delectable toes of my grandson; and then we are back to breastfeeding again. I guess I just couldn’t see the forest for the trees, but now it is all clear to me.
It is time to move on to more exciting edible topics that can be enjoyed by others, not just nursing babies. Every day I am discovering, sharing, and sneaking new and healthy foods into the bodies of children (and adults). I have finally decided to reveal these secrets as they show up in my life. No more holding out; no more recipes that I forget to write down because I never measure the ingredients. No more dreams by others for me to write a cookbook. (A cookbook is something I have never had the desire to write!) There are too many secrets that I have developed through the years that I could not even begin to put them into my book, The New Physics of Childhood without turning it into a cookbook, so I settled for the references of other wonderful cooks that have nourishing recipes and I will dedicate this blog to my own spontaneous concoctions which I would rather not call recipes because that is far too formal for what I will be sharing. I don’t want to intimidate the free flowing process of cooking creativity. I also reserve the right to share the ideas of others as they come to me with full credit to the clever cook, whomever they may be, though I will probably not be sharing their recipes either, just the basic ideas and links if there are any.
Because this is NOT a book I will NOT promise to be accurate, but I will promise that what I do share will be nourishing and clever and creative and sneaky and tasty and even pretty darn easy! I can’t stand doing anything that takes more time than it has to, with the exception of heating up children’s food in a hot water bath instead of a microwave oven, thought this actually only takes about 2-3 minutes longer in most cases, so I don’t see the problem there. Children need to learn to wait a little bit longer for things these days anyway. I also can’t stand cooking anything that has to be measured, involves waste, includes unnecessary spending or unnecessary dirty dishes.
Sneaking extra nourishment into everything I cook has gone on for most of my life; it has become a second nature that I cannot separate from cooking itself.
It all started with my mother, actually I thought it started with my father, but I realized that before my mother died when I was 12, she had already introduced me to the book by Adelle Davis, “Let’s Have Healthy Children“. When I was married and then responsible for cooking for a family of my own, I immediately purchased a copy and memorized the food charts and ingredients for the next several years. This became my formative training in fortifying the foods I prepared for my children. That was 35 years ago and I have been studying, learning, and experimenting ever since.
This is a casual format so I can make sure to get the ideas down without procrastinating for the perfect time to make it “look pretty”.
Basic and simple!
I always figured there are so many great cooks and chefs and foodies out there that have enough bright ideas, but perhaps there are a few that you may find useful in this blog.
My first tried and true idea is this:
Putting leftover cooked oatmeal in pancake batter (add a little more baking soda and baking powder to compensate for the heaviness). Add about 1 cup oatmeal to a batter that will feed a family of 4. You will have moist pancakes filled with fiber and protein that also make easy take along snacks for kids that you can feel good about.
The REAL Breakfast of Champions
If I don’t have leftover oatmeal, I just start the batter in a bowl by adding dried oatmeal and a little hot water to soak up for a few minutes before I add the other ingredients. This fortifies a pancake batter, especially one with white flour. For those who squirm at the thought of healthy pancakes, they can’t even tell because oatmeal is basically white. For people with constipation problems, this takes the antagonist out of the pancake and makes it friendly and even helpful in the process, especially if you add the flax seeds too (whole are preferred-just a couple of tablespoons).
My best taste test for this idea was a holiday gathering of my husband’s relatives from Mexico. I made a huge restaurant tray filled with these pancakes made with
Pancakes Don't Have to Hurt
leftover oatmeal that also had whole flax seed added. I kept them in the oven to stay warm, covered with tin foil. After the main meal was over, two-by-two, the kids and teenagers kept sneaking into the kitchen to get a few more because they didn’t dry out like other pancakes do. Pretty soon the tray was empty. I was happy because I knew these kids had more than just simple carbs but hearty ones filled with much more than calories. I never heard a word or complaint about the flax seeds either.
Another nice thing about these tips and most all of the others I will share is that they are fairly inexpensive, which has always been a priority for me, even if I am cooking for a wealthy family. Oats and flax seeds, when bought at a normal location other than Whole Foods Market, are extremely inexpensive and amazingly fortifying foods
Amazing & Inexpensive Flax Seeds
that you can sneak into most anything! (more recipes on those later)
And, what is healthy and tasty and inexpensive for children is healthy and tasty and inexpensive for everyone else as well.
The saying “those who laugh last laugh loudest” really applies to oatmeal today. For years, people have thought I was nuts for only eating oatmeal every morning for breakfast (most days at least). Protein crazy-carb-fearing fanatics had no respect for the perfection of oatmeal until today with the endorsements of celebrities like Madonna and Arnold Schwarznegger, which means that they may actually embrace this idea and let themselves enjoy a bowl of oatmeal and even a pancake now and then!
I hope you enjoy the new format of this blog and feel free to add your own creative, nutritious concoctions to the comments section too. P.S. Forgive my redundancies, because again, this is NOT a book!
You know what I say, “There is never a bad time for good information.”
Happy Trails,
Granny Pants
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