What to Eat?

[Guest guest]

Originally posted by ... in August 2006

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Okay - just to warn, I don't do 'fancy', but no one's choked yet,

lol.

I do really simple stuff or 'planned over' variations during the

week, as school, work and etc make life nuts. On the weekends I

generally spend a bit more time. So two catagories: 'simple'

and 'needs more time'

Simple:

1) " Pizza " : use big portobellos for the bases. Fill with your choice

of legal shredded cheese (or not if you're DF), browned ground meat

and shredded veggies. Add a bit of tomato sauce if that works for

you.

We ate these for lunch today - I used free-range buffalo (with some

tongue and kidney ground in), a whole medium shredded zucchini,

shallot and scallions. Salt or whatever else to taste.

2) " Meatza " : use ground meat (any) as your base. Spice to taste. Pat

down thin in pie plate or pyrex and cook until nearly done (it will

shrink as it cooks). Drain oil/fat. Add veggies or toppings (I stack

pretty thick). Good cold, too.

3) " Poultry pancakes " : I generally make one bird a weekend (goose,

duck, turkey) and use leftovers for these. Great on the go snack

(good cold) or quick meal. Pulse meat w/ various veggies in FP. Add

eggs to bind (or legal mayo), turn out on hot pan (I use ghee, oil

or rendered fat - depends on what's around). I like smaller ones

better - more 'kid-friendly' looking, too.

Combos we like: goose, shallot, shredded summer squash, parsley

duck, shredded carrot, leek, marjarom

turkey, vidalia, shredded kale or chard, sage

4)Crab cakes: about 6 oz crab, cook and flake (canned stuff weirds

me out as Glenn tested high in aluminum). I buzz in FP w/ legal

mayo, a squeeze of lemon, green onion, pestled dry mustard (pinch).

Veggies that go well in are summer squash or cauli as they're pretty

benign taste-wise. You can add an egg or two if you need to get

calories in your kid. Pan fry in your choice of oil (tho I love ghee

for this). Also good on a big portobello as a 'sandwich' - just put

in 350F oven for about 15-20 min.

5) Salmon (Wild-caught Alaskan King) fillets - skin on: rub with

melted ghee or olive oil and dill, toss under broiler for 5 min. (I

cook it skin side down first). Flip. Add asparagus (frozen or fresh)

to pan, cook about five minutes more or until fish flakes easily

with a fork.

6) Scallops (ocean, wild caught): sautee minced garlic in ghee, add

scallops. Cook 2 min, flip, add veggies (baby peas, squash 'straws',

asparagus, green beans, snow peas...whatever cooks quickly). Squeeze

lemon over pan. DON'T overcook, they'll be gross and rubbery.

We don't do seafood much anymore, but these have been met with

happiness here in the past

As you can tell, I am a fan of the one-dish wonder here. Casseroles

are great too. Omlets for anytime, not just breakfast. Frittatas.

Quiches (use a shredded green leafy w/egg white for the crust..bake

10 min, add filling - we like bacon, carmalized onion and roma

tomato). I make little quiches in tart pans for Glenn's lunches.

Spagetti squash is a good crust too - and good, period. We didn't

use tomatoes forever, and I'd make it with my version of pesto (pine

nut and parmasan free).

The rest of the time I'll just quickly cook chicken

tenders, " hamburgers " (could be any meat, any combo of veggies), a

meatloaf, lasagna (use THIN sliced summer squash for noodles and

follow any favotite recipes, substituting for or omitting illegals).

I made this dairy-free for a long time...was like moussaka. Pork

chops with sauteed onion and sliced apples layerd on top. Lamb chops

with rosemary and baby peas. Cauliflower rice with anything (I make

w/ ghee and bone broths). Spices to taste.

I then serve two veggies - anything that gets steamed or quickly

done on the stove. I freeze bone broths into ice cube sizes, and use

these to flavor single serve veggies for school.

I also generally use the crock pot or pressure cooker at least twice

a week.

Chicken w/ mixed veggies: bag of frozen veggies: ex broccoli,

carrots, cauliflower. Spices and salt to taste (be sure to stuff

some into the bird and under the skin. Brown in pan before putting

in if you want it to look cute...I don't usually (we peel the skin

off before eating).

Pork loin, with sauteed onion and greens.

You can set up your crock pot the night before (remove the liner an

put it in the fridge). Just add an hour to the bake time.

Soup is easy and a great wintertime breakfast. Simmer overnight. You

can make a pancake out of practically anything. Just fruit and egg

or yogurt as a binder. Avocados are great too. (papaya/banana are

good). If you make fruit pancakes small (fist size) you can

dehydrate them and use as cookies. No nuts required :-) If you are

really feeling creative, put stainless steel cookie cutter shapes

down on a hot griddle, pour in pancake 'batter' and voila!

interesting food.

Don't underestimate the backyard grill - LOTS of stuff tastes better

grilled, IMO. I have a little hibachi I bought for a buck at a yard

sale years ago. I love it. Steak, lamb chopsKebabs of all kinds (let

little picky eater choose what he wants...kids are more likely to

eat if they have some control. I brought it to my son's graduation

from EI party (we had a group barbeque at a mom's house). I had

those kids eating ostrich steak kebabs with button mushrooms,

vidalia onion, THIN sliced carrot and peppers. No kidding.

Many sensative kids don't react to game meats simply because they

have not had them. Ostrich, emu, elk, rabbit, cornish hen, quail

etc. www.eatwild.com has lots but everything I've just mentioned I

have seen at Whole Foods one time or another.

Do kebabs with fruit too, pineapple, cantelope, honeydew, apple,

pear, etc. Any firm fruit. If you are really being decadent, drizzle

these with honey and roll in shredded coconut before grilling.

Now that we eat raw fruit, that, if anything, is usually dessert.

However, baked apples (or pears) stuffed with fresh diced figs are

good. There is a butternut squash, mango, pineapple custard cooling

on my stove just now.

Wow, longer than I intended. Sorry. There are wads more, too...just

needs imagination. Just look at the legal lists of fruits and

veggies alone - you could eat three different things every day and

go a week easy without repeating. Not nuts/beans required, even ;-)

Something I have found useful (with my husband, not my son as HE is

the picky on in our house!) is a rotation diet. At one time I had a

14 day one. Beneficial on several levels: Once it's made up,

anybody can shop for groceries because we know exactly what we need,

no foreplanning required, and if someone didn't LOVE something, it

would be at leat two weeks before they'd see it again. When you're

bored, make a new one. If you have a " picky " have " experiment

night " ; or offer a new food as a snack (that's how I introduced

spinich souffle - was Glenn's top choice for playground snack for a

long time). Good luck, HTH.

-christine