ethan's weekly eats

MONDAY:

Monday's lunch was an epic failure. My husband and I spent a lot of time the day prior at the health food store consulting with a very helpful fellow shopper who knew her stuff about the healthiest "jelly" on the market. She helped us select an organic apricot fruit spread by Bionaturae with no refined sugar and the least amount of calories per simple sugars. I was really excited about our find, especially because Ethan hasn't had apricots since the days I pureed his food and even then, he loved them! I toasted a slice of whole wheat bread and topped it with the fruit spread and some banana slices. When Ethan took a bite, he screamed bloody murder and grabbed his tongue in an attempt to pull it out of his mouth. He wouldn't even look at the sandwich. He wouldn't even eat the bananas that touched the fruit spread, no matter how well I (thought I) wiped them off. It appears I've found the first food Ethan avidly dislikes and it's a shame, because I was really excited about those Bionaturae fruit spreads!

I had paired this lunch with some fresh organic sugar snap peas dipped in hummus. He was so upset by his sandwich that he refused to touch them at lunch time, but after his nap he finished them all. I've noticed Ethan loves food he can crunch and the crisp sugar snap peas are perfect for that!

TUESDAY:

Tuesday's lunch was such a hit that it made up for Monday's little mishap. I made Ethan these adorable spinach nuggets and he loved them. You can shape them however you like, though Ethan didn't get much variety because apparently the only non-Hanukkah or non-Christmas cookie cutter I own is a simple star shape! He didn't seem to mind.

To make these spinach nuggets (which I served alongside a nectarine), you need: 16 oz. of frozen cooked spinach, 3/4c whole wheat breadcrumbs, 1/4c wheat germ, 1/2 tsp. garlic powder, 1/2 tsp. black pepper, 1/2 tsp. oregano, 1 1/2c shredded cheddar cheese, 2 eggs, 3 oz fruit or vegetable puree (I used a Peter Rabbit Organics grape and apple fruit snack pouch).

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and lightly grease a baking sheet with olive oil.

Add all ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix until combined. Once combined, shape your spinach nuggets and place them onto baking sheet. You should be able to roll out "the dough," but I found it easier and less messy to place the cookie cutter on the baking sheet, press the mixture into it and then lift the cookie cutter up. The shaped mixture stays put and there is less of a mess!

Bake for 20-25 minutes at 375 degrees, turn nuggets over and continue to cook for 15 more minutes. Serve warm!

WEDNESDAY:

Wednesday's lunch was leftover spinach nuggets and some sliced green grapes, which ended up being the perfect take-along lunch for our trip to our local butterfly garden.

THURSDAY:

Thursday's lunch was even more of a hit than Tuesday's. What looks like plain old macaroni and cheese is actually macaroni and veggies with a little bit of cheese. (More clever name still pending! I'm open to suggestions!) The rain canceled our plans on Thursday so Ethan and I spent most of the day experimenting in the kitchen. I had tried and failed -- miserably -- to make him homemade Baba Ghanoush a little earlier, but luckily I came through with lunch. What looks like a cheese sauce is actually a homemade vegetable puree of zucchini, cauliflower and carrots and the delicious breadcrumb topping is actually mostly comprised of arugula leaves.

For this, you'll need macaroni (I used DeBoles "Kids Only" organic alphabet whole-wheat durum pasta), cauliflower (I used about 8 florets), carrots (I used 4 organic baby carrots), 1/4 peeled zucchini and breadcrumbs*.

First, to make the breadcrumbs, I threw 1 slice of whole wheat bread into a food processor along with some fresh parsley and close to a handful of arugula leaves.

Boil your pasta and preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Once your pasta is cooking, make your "cheese sauce." I steamed my cauliflower florets, zucchini and baby carrots. Once they were ready, I put them into my trusty Baby Bullet and pureed them until smooth:

Once your pasta has finished cooking, drain it and return it to the pot. Mix in your vegetable sauce. It's up to you how much cheese to add -- I added a little less than a handful of shredded cheddar cheese and a few pinches of fresh parmesan cheese:

Once everything is combined, pour the mixture into a baking dish and top with breadcrumbs. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes, or until the breadcrumbs are toasted and the cheese is bubbly!

FRIDAY

Last week, my husband and Ethan had falafel for lunch at a local vegetarian cafe and Ethan loved it. I mentioned that I wanted to figure out a way to make homemade falafel but baked instead of fried. This was my first attempt. I made these baked falafel in a muffin tin, so I guess I'll call them baked muffin tin falafels. They came out cute and Ethan loved them but they were a little bit crumbly. It was my first attempt and I want to try again to make them a little less crumbly next go-round, but I think they were a success! I served these falafels with some avocado and peach slices.

To make these, you'll need 1 can chickpeas (rinsed and drained), 1/4c red onion, 1/2c fresh parsley leaves, 1/2c fresh cilantro leaves, 2 garlic cloves, 1/2 tsp. cumin, 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper and a tiny pinch of salt.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and then throw all of your ingredients into a food processor. (I used my trusty Baby Bullet again. It's just easier.) Once everything is smooth, grease a muffin tin with olive oil. Fill your muffin cups close to the top -- the falafel don't really rise much.

Bake for 25-30 minutes and let sit for 10 minutes before removing from muffin tin.

SATURDAY:

I spent all of Saturday immersed in the daunting task of preparing and throwing my sister's sweet sixteen. My husband took Ethan to ride the steam trains at a local park and then he and my father-in-law took Ethan to Chipotle. Ethan ate rice and beans. (He was originally supposed to eat leftover falafel, so Saturday would have still been rather uneventful.)

SUNDAY:

A few "Ethan's Weekly Eats" features ago, I made Ethan a Very Cheesy Caprese Sandwich. (I'm still sticking by my theory that "Caprese" sounds better when I pronounce it incorrectly and rhyme it with "cheesy.") It was okay, but I had pureed the basil and tomatoes to make a paste. I had said I wanted to try it again but with whole tomato slices instead, so that's what I did. It's a simple sandwich: basil, tomato and mozzarella cheese. I paired my do-over sandwich with some grapes, a plum and some Pirate's Booty.

i'm being fearless today.

Today something I wrote is being featured at Fearless Formula Feeder. I wrote it just before Ethan turned one, which is about the time I really let down my guard and became a fearless formula feeder myself rather than a reluctant, insecure formula feeder. It was also about the time he transitioned off of formula and onto milk, so that could have had a lot to do with it. Actually, it probably did.

Many people who I meet now assume Ethan was breastfed. I am the token crunchy mom in our group of friends and it only makes sense for me to have been a breastfeeding mother. I wish that I was -- it was what I had planned, after all -- but unfortunately my body had other plans. Sometimes I'm still unsure of how to react when I read claims on internet mothering groups about how mothers who choose formula for their children also feed them McDonalds for each meal of the day. Sometimes I'm not sure how to react mostly because it's so false and also because it's not always a choice. It's not always so cut and dry, so black and white. Life, in all of it's beauty, is way more intricate than that.

But this isn't a debate because there isn't anything to debate. I respect all mothers who do their best for their children, who nurture them and love them and do all that they can for them. Being featured on Fearless Formula Feeder, which served as such therapy for me during my initial time of coping with the choice that my body had made for me, is an honor. If there's anything I can take away from this experience, it's that maybe other mothers in similar situations will find solace and comfort in my words and know that they're not alone.

My story can be found here and a huge thank-you to Fearless Formula Feeder for considering my measly words amongst all of the strong, incredible voices I've come to find so much hope and inspiration in!

with a star upon your shoulder lighting up the path that you walk, with a parrot on your shoulder saying everything when you talk

My sweet, sweet Ethan,

You amaze me everyday with your sweetness. Every single day you are learning so much. Every single night, I go to sleep amazed at the things you've learned, the things you can do, the things that you know. You've shed some of your token timidness but not all of it and that's okay. You are not afraid to be scared and I hope that you realize this will always be okay; it's okay to be apprehensive of new and unfamiliar things. I think you are the most incredible person I know. You have such a beautiful, gentle heart and I am honored to be able to watch you grow.

You are so creative and lately you really love creating art. You have a love/hate relationship with crayons and mostly you love using stamps and stickers to decorate paper. Recently we explored the avenue of vanilla pudding fingerpainting and I think I found something you love more than stickers. You are so strong-willed; there is a certain way you like to do things, specific places you like to put things. You've learned that you know what you want and are learning how to make these things happen without relying solely on me. This makes me both happy and sad. Happy, because I am proud of you and love watching you grow. Sad, because in my mind you'll need me forever.

I am having the time of my life with you. I am enjoying our daily adventures and I hope that you are, too. I am learning so much as you are learning -- and I am learning so much. Each day you awaken a part of me that has been silenced by adulthood.

On quiet afternoons like today, you sleep and I realize what a great team we are. Together. You and me. It's funny to remember when you were first born and your daddy had to go back to work and I was paralyzed with the fear of being alone with you, worried I wouldn't know what to do, worried something would happen. They were all wasted worries. We've got this.

I love you so much, my sweet boy. I am constantly in awe of you and your kindness. You keep me on my toes and I am nothing against your smile.

happy birthday, sweet sixteen

Yesterday my little sister -- my itty-bitty baby sister -- turned sixteen. Sixteen. As in the age where you're legally allowed to drive (thankfully she took a page from her big sister's book and never took her permit test and therefore isn't). Sixteen, the age where everything feels so bitingly real and powerful and strong. By my 16th birthday, I was already dating the boy who would later become my husband when we were all grown up -- because at sixteen, you're capable of real human relationships and feelings. It's the end of "you can't come to my birthday party" and "you can't be my friend anymore" and the start of exploring the deepest parts of your heart and knowing how to maneuver them with the emotional hurricane that is being sixteen.

Sixteen.

My sister's Sweet 16 celebration isn't until Saturday (did I mention I'm throwing it? And making the cake? And somehow creating a photobooth through a tutorial on Pinterest I can no longer even find? No pressure!) but since I'm not quite sure Ethan will make the invite list, we still had to celebrate on her actual birthday. We stuck some candles in an unfrosted cupcake, sang happy birthday and let Ethan devour the cupcake in it's entirety. Ethan doesn't get to eat sweets on the regular but I figured my sister's 16th birthday is as good a reason as it gets.

Sixteen. It takes a lot to render me speechless, but I just might be there.

That night, I accompanied my mother to surprise Megan with more cupcakes and another round of happy birthday to you after her dance classes. I'm not sure she appreciated the gesture -- you remember what it was like to be sixteen -- but I couldn't have gone to sleep that night without telling her happy birthday again. I mean, sixteen, you guys. How is that even possible?

My sister and I couldn't be more different. She is a blonde hip-hop dancer who knows how to style her hair, knows who everyone at the MTV awards is and how to put together an outfit. I am the introverted, mismatched older sibling with a penchant for foreign literature and cinema that makes my sister lift her eyebrow as she shrugs her shoulders as a surrender to my strangeness. Her experience as a sixteen year old is worlds apart from my own and sometimes it takes me a while to understand that she is still experiencing that fragile, awkward state -- just with much more grace than I ever did.

For her 14th birthday, I had a set of friendship necklaces made, one half meant for each of us. They were engraved with Further Seems Forever lyrics that have reminded me of her ever since she was a precocious child with blonde ringlets who would crawl into my bed at night and tell me I was her best friend. (She's always been mine, too.) And I recall how you always sat on the same side as me; it always seemed you'd always be on my side -- you're my best side.

And she still is, though I sense it'll be some years before she realizes it. Being sixteen will do that to you. We've all been there.

ethan's weekly eats

I skipped last week's Ethan's Weekly Eats because we all had colds last week, meaning lunches solely consisted of soup, toast and jam, more soup and some more soup. That's also the reason that Monday is missing from this post -- not because Ethan was still sick, as he was feeling much better. Just because I was feeling lazy, trying to navigate my way through motherhood with throbbing sinus pressure and a nose like a faucet. We went for toast and jam and soup on Monday, too.

I also put a tab on top of my blog to link back to all of my Ethan's Weekly Eats posts in case you need easy access to some healthy, fun toddler meals.

TUESDAY:

I was really excited about this Very Cheesy Caprese Sandwich and all in all it was a success, though there are some changes I'd make for the next time. (Also, my husband proudly took to Google to assure me that "Caprese" does not rhyme with "Cheesy" but it sounds way more fun that way, so there!) For this sandwich, I threw an organic roma tomato, a clove of garlic and some fresh basil leaves in a food processor to make a sauce-paste. I brushed that onto a half of a sandwich round and topped it with some pieces of fresh mozarella cheese. I threw the sandwich into the toaster until the bread was toasted and the mozarella was gooey and melted. I served this alongside some watermelon and blueberries, the latter of which Ethan can no longer eat for a couple of weeks as we're undergoing more elimination-allergy experiments. (This will be a rough couple of weeks. He LOVES blueberries.)

Anyway, if I had to do it again -- which I would, because this was otherwise a big hit with both my husband and Ethan -- I wouldn't food process the tomatoes and basil. I'd stick to thinly sliced pieces of roma tomato paired with the food processed basil leaves and garlic. Ethan loves tomatoes and I think he'd prefer the pieces of tomato to the paste.

WEDNESDAY:

Though not for much longer, Wednesdays are still our busy day. We are on the go like mad on Wednesdays so it's all about functionality and not so much presentation as far as lunch goes. Wednesday's lunch was an Avocado & Cheese Quesadilla on a corn tortilla. I simply scooped out an avocado and mashed it up with a fork until smooth. I spread avocado on top of two small corn tortillas. I sprinkled some organic cheddar cheese over the avocado on one of the tortillas and then pressed both together. I cooked the quesadilla in a small pan on the stove until the cheese was melted and then sliced up with a pizza cutter. I served this with some watermelon and a plum.

THURSDAY:

On Thursday morning we were asked to a splash park with some friends and gladly accepted. I got up early on Thursday morning to make Ethan's lunch as planned, a little worried about how well it'd stand up alongside being packed up and traveled with. Luckily, these little Eggplant Pizzas traveled great! These were probably the biggest hit of the week -- Ethan couldn't eat them fast enough. These were easy, fun and a definite repeat!

To make these, I sliced up an eggplant into some thin slices. I baked them at 250 degrees for 5 minutes per side to soften them. Once finished, I spread some sauce on top of the slices and added some organic mozzarella cheese. I'm sure you could also add a variety of other toppings to these little pizzas, too, if you wanted to get creative! I baked them at 250 degrees for 10 minutes and served them with some grapes and blueberries.

FRIDAY:

Friday Ethan had leftover Lemon Chicken Milanese & Arugula Salad, which was dinner the night before. I served the 1/2 chicken cutlet atop chopped organic arugula leaves. I served this with a plum and a piece of celery filled with hummus.

SATURDAY:

Saturday afternoon, we were all out at the mall enjoying some family time. Ethan had some falafel at Maoz Vegeterian Cafe. I figured I might as well still document his lunch despite the fact I didn't make it, though it did inspire me to figure out an easy make-at-home falafel recipe, preferably baked. You'll be seeing this one pop up next week, I'm hoping.

SUNDAY:

Today's lunch was not attractive in the least, but it was delicious and Ethan loved it. These Vegetarian Zucchini Boats were actually vegan today as I made them with vegan cheese (again with the whole elimination-allergy experimentation, kill me now!). Instead of using ground meats like with most of the zucchini boat recipes I found, I made these with organic black beans. They're super easy, super quick to prepare and super tasty, too. (My husband happily finished Ethan's leftovers in two bites!)

To make these, you pop a zucchini in the microwave or the oven until it's softened (3-ish minutes). In the mean time, throw in about half a can of black beans, a handful of shredded cheese (I used vegan cheddar-style cheese), some minced garlic, onion powder, chili pepper and black pepper into a small bowl and combine. Once the zucchini is softened, slice it length-wise and scoop out (I used a tablespoon measuring spoon) the insides of the zucchini, tossing them into the mixing bowl. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and fill the zucchini shells with the black bean and zucchini mixture. Bake for 15-20 minutes and there you have it! I paired these zucchini boats with some grapes, which is all Ethan gave me time to prepare because he was starving. And sleepy.