food, food, food

Hi y'all;0) from your favorite German-Bostonian...


What has been on my mind constantly over the past few months is our diet, our dinners and snacks. It has been challenging, to say the least, due to food sensitivities (which I talked about in earlier posts) and varying likes and dislikes throughout the family. On many days I basically make several dishes, or at least one member (and I will not point fingers here;0)) will eat out, opt for a pbj, take-out or rather just snack his way through the pantry instead of even touching what is on the table.

No I am not a fantastic cook, but I like to try different things, "healthy" dishes, whole grain pasta, I make oat meal with nuts and seeds and would love to cut back the meat consumption. I also like to add fresh veggies or frozen, and there I prefer to use a variety as well. On the other hand I do make basic German (my family) dishes, such as Schnitzel, "Geschnetzeltes", Potaotes with Quark, or my mom's special "poor man's dish - Sour eggs", a dish with potatoes, sweet and sour mustard sauce with bacon and soft boiled eggs. Yes, yes I know, only hard boiled eggs on this side of the big pond, but I have grown up and LOVE soft (6 minutes-) boiled eggs. No I don't give them to my children, much against my grand mother's advice;0)

I understand if at least the last one makes many of you feel uneasy and I promise I haven't made it in a long time, I only make it for me and/or the kids, and again, the kids eat the hard boiled version. But the others I have made and except for Schnitzel they are tolerated at most. Restrictions, restrictions.

Also, cooking needs to be easy and quick, I am not going to look up the ingredients and preparation shouldn't take more then 20-30 minutes and not require more then two counter tops...

The reason for my intro is that I have found a website/blog which has helped me lately to introduce "new" ideas to the table and are being "liked" by almost all members...Well princess L is an exception here since her likes exclude anything that is not Mac and Cheese, PBJ's,  cookies, chocolate or candy.

As you can imagine the discussions we have on a daily basis about dinner choices or veggies. She does eat fruit, otherwise I would be more worried then I already am. And here I found that if I include her in the cooking and preparation process, she may even try one or the other ingredient.

But back to my new discovery: It's called ( and I love the name;0)): Moms Who Think


They have an 8 week list of easy family dinners, and so far we have tried the pesto chicken over angel hair pasta, the meatloaf, the bubble pizza and honey brown sugar pork chops...

The meatloaf didn't turn out that great, I must have done something wrong, I used turkey instead of beef, maybe that was the mistake. But the other meals were generally yummy and easy to prepare.


So if you need some inspiration, have a look here.


That was it from me for today. JJunior has been clinging to my leg begging for attention, I better give him some;0) Love and peace to all of you.


Namaste,
Romy

Dairy Free

When JJunior was about a week old I started to notice problems with his digestion and over the first few months things didn't improve. So the doctor and I watched and decided to feed him and me dairy, soy and red meat free. The first few weeks of that major diet change for me were hard, since I am a chocaholic and love to eat all the good things out there. Now it turns out, dairy is in EVERYTHING, and if it does not contain dairy it has soy. The red meat wasn't that much of a problem, since I could still have chicken.

I got a few books and started reading and realized that cooking at home wouldn't be such a big deal. You can substitute dairy for cooking and baking with all kinds of things, Rice milk, almond milk, shortening...Obviously you need to try it out and adjust things as you go along and learn all the new ways of eating. But it is easily manageable. The problems start if you go out and dine at restaurants, go to coffee shops, bakeries or want to EAT ICE CREAM;0)

Most restaurants now ask in big signs to let them know about specific allergies. But I must admit, when you do, many struggle to help you. Some are very professional and have prepared lists easily accessible, for example Chipotles has a list with all the meals and ingredients as a little printout.  Friendly's had a messy folder with so many sheets to read and search through. Not a very easily manageable task, when you sit in the restaurant with a hungry husband, preschooler and a whiny baby.  You end up trying to please everyone (including the oh so helpful waitress), racing through the list and eating nothing good and healthy.... Margaritas has a list of all their items that contain dairy, or soy, or any other allergens. So you have to read the regular menu and when you find something you like, you check the allergy menu if any of your ingredients are to be found there...and again, first time I ended up with plain rice and plain grilled  chicken...Burger King actually has a printed menu on the wall with all the allergy information. Very helpful. Not that I dine there a lot, but occasionally I do.  

Now one important thing, if you are very allergic to something, you shouldn't trust the waiter to tell you about the ingredients. I have had a couple of occasions where people looked me in the eye stating that this and that was dairy free and I had to insist for a written and approved list of ingredients (oh how I love to be a pain in the neck... you should see husband hiding behind my back when I get annoying;0)) just to find out that the waiter was wrong. It's not such a big deal for us, since JJunior wouldn't have immediate life threatening symptoms, but many people do. But I am sure those of you who do, are probably aware of people's obliviousness. 

We are now introducing Soy back into my diet and JJunior's diet, so my life has improved a 80 percent. We will see how baby does with it and then we can start giving him Soy milk at age 1. So buy buy nursing and stinky predigested formula;0) I am sure JJunior will approve!