School Lunch Salads

We alternate between sandwiches & salads for school lunches. 

This day the boys had orzo salads.

• Orzo
• Cucumbers
• Tomatoes
• Spinach
• Basil
• Cilantro
• Red Onions
• Sweet Red Pepper
• Sun-dried Olives
• Sea Salt
• Garlic powder
• Corn
• Sun-dried tomatoes

Maple Glazed Salmon

The recipe for this fantastic meal came from The Raw Food Detox Diet by Natalia Rose.  I made some variations, due to ingredient limitations and taste. So, I'll list the way we made it, because it was SO good! 

There was such a positive response from the boys, we've had it once or twice a month since.  The whole family likes it, even Jeff!

Recipe:

• 1 cup Tamari
• 1 cup pure maple syrup
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• 4 to 6 fresh or frozen salmon fillets, well rinsed

Mix all ingredients but the salmon in a blender.  Use the mixture to marinate the salmon for 1 to 24 hours.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Place salmon in a baking dish with marinating mixture and bake for about 18 minutes.

I made zucchini noodles with our spiralizer and stir fried them with some other veggies for a side dish.
We started the meal with a small salad.  Ta-da... restaurant style!!!

School Lunches 2012/2013 school year

We've made some additions to our school lunch menus this year.

I found these nifty containers for lunches (Bed, Bath & Beyond)... they work great for sandwhiches and snacks.

Cheese sandwiches have been added to our menu a time or two per week.  We use either sprouted grain buns or bread, raw goat cheese and organic condiments.

The smoked cheese is amazing!  It is my favorite, but the boys prefer the mild cheddar.

Final Harvest before the first frost

 

 

Sniff... it's a sad day.  The last harvest from the garden.  We are supposed to get a hard freeze this week.  The kale could last awhile, but the freeze will kill the rest.

 

Goodbye til next year!



 

 

 

 

 

Garden Fresh Bruschetta

At the end of the summer, we had a plethora of tomatoes and basil... which led to many bruschetta snacks/meals.

We used sprouted grain pita pockets and toasted them in the oven... the sprouted grain option significantly reduces gluten issues for Matt.

I didn't follow a recipe for the bruschetta... played it by ear.

Chopped garden fresh tomatoes, basil, a dash of extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, minced garlic and topped it with some shredded raw goat cheese.

Tastes likes summer.... summer in Italy :)

Taylor: Healthy Pizza

We all love pizza right?  Could there really be a healthy alternative that tastes fantastic?!
YES!
And that helps you lose weight and feel great at the same time?
YES!

Again, we are using "The Raw Food Detox Diet" by Natalia Rose as our guide.  Taylor chose the "Detox Pizza" section and fashioned it to each person's preference.

Taylor chose to make salad and individual pizzas for all 5 of us.  He was quite meticulous, so it took him a bit of time to accomplish.  But a wonderful thing about this recipe is that is as quick as it is delicious.  Too good to be true right?

The ingredients are simple:

• Sprouted whole grain tortillas
• Vegan organic Spaghetti sauce (many varieties at your local health food store and even some like Muir Glen at WM)
• Fresh Basil leaves
• Fresh veggies to taste (sliced onions, mushroom, sweet pepper, tomato etc)
• Shredded raw goats cheese (so far, we have had NO symptoms to this cheese like to cow's cheese or regular goats cheese... no congestion, constipation etc)

Super quick... super easy... super yummy!  Best of all combinations!

We had a salad first to help digest all the cooked foods.  Then dug in to each individualized pizza!  Thanks Taylor!  Great meal!

Raw Vanilla Ice cream

We ate lunch out on Sunday, so we didn't need a big evening meal too.  Therefore, we ate fruit/veggies for dinner and the boys teamed up to make the family a yummy evening dessert!

The recipe is called "Raw" Vanilla ice cream (from The Raw Foods Detox Diet), although technically the maple syrup and vanilla extract are not raw... still, it's pretty close to being an all raw treat!  The recipe actually called for vanilla beans, but we only had extract and it turned out great.

Matt/Dad (Jeff) made the vanilla ice cream and Tay made the chocolate sauce.

Ingredients:

Ice Cream:

• 3 young thai coconuts-- all flesh and some of the water
• maple syrup (1/2 cup)
• vanilla (1 TBS)
• ice (3-4cups)

Blend them all up together until creamy.  After years and years of getting by with a normal blender, we finally broke down a few years ago and purchased a Vita-Mix blender.  SO.WORTH.IT!  We use it multiple times a day to make smoothies, dressings and now desserts!

Chocolate Sauce: (from The Raw Foods Detox Diet also)

6 TBS Organic Cocoa powder

1 cup maple syrup

Blend in a blender.

Use a cleaver to open the coconuts... carefully! 

Tay smiling because it is SO good!

Matt has dished out the ice cream and now Tay pours on the chocolate sauce





Noah had to get in the picture :)

Matt Meal #1- Whole Wheat Lasagna and Chocolate Shake

So, we've taken a slight deviation of late, in that we have added raw goat's cheese into our food choices.  We won't eat it every day, just occasionally, and I'm finding that it doesn't leave behind symptoms, as cow's cheese does and even soy cheese.  We didn't experience a congestion hang-over, even when this raw cheese is used in a cooked meal.

The ingredients for the lasagna:

• whole wheat noodles (we would have used sprouted grain or spelt if we could have found them)
• spinach
• zuchinni
• raw goat cheese
• organice spaghetti sauce
• garlic

Matt served a salad, lasagna and then finshed off the meal with a chocolate shake, which was made of pure cocoa powder, young thai coconut, stevia, almond milk, vanilla  and ice.  Great way to finish a fantastic meal.

Some ingredients and kitchen tools used in preparation

Matt used a mandelin to thinly slice the zuchinni

Doesn't that look good?

We ate our salads at the table...

Then dug into the lasagna...

Then moved into the living room for a "picnic" while we ate and watched a movie.

Summer of kids Chef Meals begins...

Well, the Seiter family is back at it... except more from a "Julie & Julia" perspective.

Out of all the raw foods and vegan books I've read, this is the one that resonates as the best recipe guide for our perspective on nutrition.

As stated before, we don't really have a label.... we aren't vegan, we aren't vegetarian...we make choices to eat food as close to the way they occur in nature, we eat abundant amount of raw fruits and veggies and try to avoid foods that are de-natured and turn into toxic waste.  We try to eat food combinations that allow for the best digestion and absorption... quick exit foods, as Natalia calls it in this book.

Therefore, we are going to use many of the recipes in this book, as well as some others, and the boys are going into "Chef" mode again this summer.

Some of the recipes they've picked out are "Whole Wheat Lasagna", Raw vanilla ice cream, Chocolate milkshake, Orange sherbert, Gazpacho, Quick Pizza, Coconut Thai soup, Pad Thai and many many more.

We went shopping for some of the initial recipes this weekend and bought ingredients like:  pure maple syrup, raw honey, stevia, nama shoyu, young thai coconuts, cilantro, lemons, limes, salmon, zuchinni, eggplant.

The first recipe of the summer is Matt making the Whole Wheat Lasagna and a chocolate shake for desert.  Yum!  AND, these are recipes that a Mom can feel good about feeding her kids.  AND, Mom doesn't even have to make it!  A Win/Win scenario all the way around!