The kids helped with every step, from mixing the marinade for the chicken …

… to cooking the chicken …

… to stirring up the veggie taco filling.

They made guacamole and peach salsa (from Parker County cling peaches — yum!) while waiting for the chicken and fish to cook. It took a little while, so in the meantime, two of the girls entertained us by singing “Love Potion Number 9.”

Finally, it was time to dig in. Everything was a hit, including the veggie tacos, which garnered this thumbs up.

Our thanks to Savory Spice Shop’s Karen Aboussie and her great staff for making the Savory Kids classes such great learning and eating experiences!

In fact, the events were such a success that Savory Spice Shop is doing more: Afternoon classes will be held in July, from 2-3:30 p.m. What better way to introduce kids to more flavors than by tasting and trying new things in this interactive setting?

The cost will be $6 per child (ages 7-12), and they must be accompanied by one adult. Classes are very limited so be sure to register quickly, either in the store, on the phone 512.524.1093 or by email at austin6thstreet@savoryspiceshop.com. 

The dates for July Savory Kids classes are:

July 12   Pasta, Pasta and More

July 19   Not Just Ordinary Burgers

July 26   A Trip to India

Watch Savory Spice Shop’s Facebook page for updates.

Peach Salsa

6 ripe peaches, cut into small chunks

2 Tablespoons dehydrated diced mixed bell peppers (or fresh)

2 Tablespoons lime juice

1 teaspoon LaPlata Peak Latino Spice

1/2 cup diced red onion

1 Tablespoon minced dried mango

1 Tablespoon minced crystallized ginger

1 Tablespoon brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

In large bowl, stir together all ingredients. Let sit for 5 minutes, then toss again and serve. Yield: About 1 1/2 cups.

Erin’s Quick and Easy Guacamole

2 large, ripe avocados

2 teaspoons Mt. Elbert All-Purpose Seasoning

1 Tablespoon lime juice

1/4 cup diced tomato

1 Tablespoon diced red onion

Mash avocados to desired consistency. Add Mt. Elbert All-Purpose Seasoning and lime juice and stir. Fold in tomatoes and onions. Yield: About 1 1/2 cups.

Family-Style Chicken Fajitas

4 Tablespoons Family-Style Fajita Seasoning

1 cup chicken broth or stock

1 pound sliced chicken

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1/2 lime, juiced

Mix fajita seasoning with broth and set aside. In a pan over medium-high heat, brown chicken in the oil and drain. Working in same pan, reduce heat to medium-low, pour broth over chicken, and stir thoroughly. Cook for 5-6 minutes. stirring. Reduce heat to low, squeeze in lime juice, and simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring often. Serve with corn or flour tortillas or over rice. Yield: 4 servings.

Veggie Tacos in Lettuce Wraps

2 bunches spinach, washed thoroughly

1 can black beans, drained

1/2 cup freeze-dried corn kernels

1/4 cup diced red onion

1/4 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon Carribean-Style Adobo Seasoning

1 teaspoon olive oil

1/2 each red and yellow bell peppers, sliced thinly

1 head iceburg lettuce, halved, rinsed and drained

In pan over medium heat, sauté bell pepper slices in olive oil until softened. Set aside. Coarsely chop spinach and add to large bowl with black beans, corn and red onion. Mix lightly. Add sour cream and seasoning and stir to coat. Serve mixture inside a lettuce leaf with a few slices of sautéed bell pepper. Yield: 4-6 tacos.

(All the seasonings and specialty items in the above recipes are available at Savory Spice Shop.)

Written by: Shannon Oelrich

Livemom got a chance to talk with a few of the restaurateurs providing vittles at ACL to find out more about their participation in this great event.

Juicebox

Juicebox is the new kid on the block – an upcoming joint venture between Matt Shook of the Daily Juice and David Ansel of The Soup Peddler.  While the Juicebox is not officially open yet, there will be a Juicebox stand at ACL 2010 to make sure you have something fresh and delicious with which to quench your thirst.  Stop by and delight in a cool, refreshing fresca, a Cherry Limeade, or a Sambazon Acai Smoothie. You also can get the best rehydration ever with a nice, cool glass of pure coconut water.

Kerbey Lane

ACL 2010 will be Kerbey Lane’s first time to participate in the food court inside ACL.  At ACL 2009, Kerbey Lane had a booth outside the festival.  As an Austin classic, Kerbey Lane will be concentrating on offering menu favorites for the locals who love them and the non-locals who are about to fall in love.  Kerbey Lane has graciously shared a recipe for their menu-favorite tomato pie!

4  large tomatoes, peeled and thickly sliced
10 fresh basil leaves, chopped
2 green onions, white and green parts chopped
1/3 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/3 cup mayonnaise
Kalamata olives, chopped
Salt and pepper
Pre-baked savory pie crust (store bought or homemade from your favorite recipe)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place the tomatoes in a colander in the sink in 1 layer. Sprinkle with salt and allow to drain for 10 minutes.
Press the sliced tomatoes between layers of paper towels to remove some of the juice.
Cut the tomatoes into large pieces then mix together with the basil and onions in a large bowl.  Season with salt and pepper.
Combine the yogurt, feta and mayonnaise together in another bowl.  Put the tomato mixture into the pre-baked pie shell then spread the yogurt  mixture on top and bake for 30 minutes or until lightly browned.
Let cool for at least 15 minutes.  Cut into slices and serve warm with a sprinkling of Kalamata olives.
For a richer version of this recipe replace the non-fat Greek yogurt with mayonnaise.

Lonesome Dove Western Bistro

Chef Tim Love is the official chef of ACL this year.  Love will be enhancing ACL’s food court by developing two pop-up locations of his celebrated Lonesome Dove Western Bistroand the Love Shack, while also catering private parties backstage during the three-day event. “This is my second year working with the amazing crew at Austin City Limits,” notes Love. “I’m looking forward to building on the success of last year, while adding a few new dishes and parties to the mix.  I’ll do everything I can to give the fans and musicians the type of food they want and need to have a great time.”

Lonesome Dove Western Bistro graciously shared their recipe for Truffled Mac & Cheese, which also includes their recipe for homemade chicken broth.

Truffled Mac & Cheese

1 cup orzo, cooked then lightly tossed with 1 tsp white truffle oil
3 oz. heavy cream
6 oz. chicken stock*
1/3 cup Manchego cheese, shredded
Kosher salt and cracked black pepper to taste

•       Heat cream and chicken stock in a medium sauce pot
•       Add orzo and cheese, stir and cook for approximately 2 minutes
•       Season with salt and pepper to taste
•       Serve warm

Chicken Stock*

5 – 6 pound whole chicken
2 large carrots, diced
2 large celery stalks, diced
10 oz. fresh mushrooms
15 whole black peppercorns
2 roma tomatoes, roughly chopped
6 sprigs cilantro
1 chipotle pepper
2 cloves garlic
3 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. kosher salt

•       Remove excess fat from chicken
•       Cut chicken into large pieces with a cleaver
•       Place chicken and all other ingredients in a large stock pot and add enough cold water to cover ingredients
•       Bring to a slow boil
•       Decrease heat and simmer for at least 4 hours while skimming fat every half hour
•       Strain stock through a fine sieve and, again, skim for any fat or impurities that rise to the top
•       Store in refrigerator for 3 days or freeze for up to 2 weeks.

I also will stop buying sweet potatoes and butternut squash in the hope that a cold snap is “just around the corner!” I should know better. I should be wringing the life out of summer, knowing that soon enough, my toes won’t ever feel warm enough in bed unless my dog is on them, that I’ll miss fresh blueberries and peaches like crazy by next April, that my child will mourn the loss of swimming like it was a family pet …

So here is my End of Summer Gazpacho. All the good things about summer blended into a bowl of cool deliciousness. Enjoy it with a cold beer or chilled glass of white wine and join me in trying to stop wishing summer away.

End of Summer Gazpacho

3 large tomatoes (good ones!)

1 large seedless (English) cucumber, peeled

4 scallions

1 medium clove garlic, mashed into a pulp

1/4 cup minced parsley

1 large avocado

2-4 limes, juiced, depending on juiciness (need about 6 Tablespoons)

1 teaspoon salt (or more, to taste)

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 Tablespoon minced fresh basil

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon honey

1-3 cups cold water

Sour cream, an extra avocado and/or hot sauce for garnish

Cut the tomatoes and cucumber into small chunks. Mince the scallions (whites and 2 inches of greens). Combine these in a large bowl with garlic and parsley.

In a smaller bowl, mash the avocado and mix in lime juice. Add this plus salt, pepper, basil, olive oil and honey to the first bowl. Add 1 1/2 cups of cold water, mix well, and taste for seasoning. If you like this consistency, stop here. If you want it soupier, scoop half the mixture into a blender or food processor and blend until minced but not totally smooth. Add back to mixture and stir, adding more water as needed. The gazpacho should chill, covered, in the fridge to combine flavors for at least 1 hour.

Serve with sour cream, cubed avocado and/or hot sauce to spice it up. Serves 4-6. (Adapted from The Enchanted Broccoli Forestby Mollie Katzen.)

Note: You can add diced bell pepper if you like it, or finely chopped jalapeño if you want heat.

Written by: Shannon Oelrich

I get a weekly recipe from Campbell’s Community…you know, the people who make soup.  Despite my love of all things creamy, I typically gloss over the recipes I get from them…except this one.  I saw the words “shrimp” and “enchilada,” and I was intrigued.  Here is the link to the original recipe. The recipe below includes my tweaks.  Trust me when I tell you this stuff is GOOOOOD…especially if you love all things cheesy and saucy.

Ingredients

2 TBSP butter
1 bunch green onion, chopped
1/2 cup chopped white onion
2 TBSP minced garlic
1 pound fresh or thawed frozen shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 can (about 4 ounces) chopped green chiles
1 can (about 10 ounces) diced tomatoes (if you like extra kick, use Rotel)
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell’s® Condensed Cream of Shrimp Soup
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, low fat
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp Old Bay seafood seasoning
10 flour tortillas (8-inch), warmed
2 cups of shredded pepper-jack cheese 
 

Directions

1. Heat the butter in a 3-quart saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook until tender, stirring occasionally. Add the shrimp and cook until they’re cooked through. Remove the shrimp mixture from the heat and cool slightly. Chop the shrimp into small pieces and return to the pan. Stir in the chiles, tomatoes, soup, cream cheese, ground cumin, and Old Bay, and cook over medium heat until the cream cheese is melted, stirring occasionally. Remove the saucepan from the heat.

2. Divide half the shrimp mixture among the tortillas, sprinkling the contents of each tortilla with some of the shredded pepper-jack cheese. Roll up the tortillas and place, seam-side down, into a lightly greased 3-quart shallow baking dish. Spoon the remaining shrimp mixture over the filled enchiladas. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

3. Bake at 325°F. for 30 minutes or until the enchiladas are hot and bubbling.

Makes: 10 servings.**

**Not in my house.  In my house, we are lucky to get four servings out of this.  We are big eaters!

We’ve been eating a whole lot of salads over the past couple of weeks since it’s been so miserably hot outside. I step into the kitchen and have a tough time cooking large meals that require me use the stove or oven for long periods of time. But after several days in a row of just eating salads for dinner, I grew tired of the thought of more greens. And so I pulled out my tattered and torn copy of Food & Wine magazine (September 2007) to find some inspiration. I stumbled onto the well-worn page with the recipe for cappon magro (aka Tuna, Olive and Bread Salad). It’s an easy dish to make and even easier to clean up! Makes for the perfect fancy summer tuna salad.

We recently returned from the Ligurian Coast in Italy where this recipe has its roots. Admittedly, I forgot all about making it over the past couple of summers while I was visiting that particular region. I wish now that I would have kept an eye out for it in restaurants while there to compare the differences between the way I make it and the way they serve it in Italy. Apparently, from the research that I’ve done, the version that I make is completely different from what they serve there. Oh well…. just incentive to go again!

The original recipe calls for anchovies, but I have always left those out. I have played around with some of the other ingredients in the past if I don’t have a particular item on hand and it always turns out good. I also use more garlic than the recipe calls for because it adds a spiciness to the dish. Word of warning: Wear gloves when rubbing the clove on the bread so that your hands don’t smell like garlic for several days after preparing this dish!

Ingredients:

One Loaf Italian Bread, cut into 8-10 thickly sliced pieces (the bread is one of the best parts so add more if you have plenty)

2 Garlic Cloves

2 Tablespoons Vinegar (red wine or balsamic diluted with a little salad vinegar if you don’t have red wine vinegar)

2 Tablespoons Water

1 Pound Diced Tomatoes (plum or cherry tomatoes work great)

1 Seedless Cucumber, peeled, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1 Scallion, thinly sliced (I also use green onions when I can’t get my hands on scallions)

1 Cup Kalamata Olives, pitted and halved

1/2 Cup Torn Basil Leaves

1 Tablespoon Chopped Oregano

1 Tablespoon Capers, drained (I put a little extra in because I love capers)

2 Cans of Tuna- Central Market Yellowfin packed in Olive Oil or Albacore are the better options

1/3 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt and Fresh Pepper to taste

Directions:

Place the bread slices in the broiler and toast on both sides. Combine the water and vinegar in a small bowl, set aside. Once the bread has cooled, rub with garlic (I rub it on both sides), sprinkle with the vinegar/ water mixture until it is well-moistened. Let sit while you prepare the other ingredients.

Place all other ingredients into a large bowl, tear the bread into bite-sized pieces and toss well.

Enjoy,

Catherine

My two perennial store-bought favorites are Annie’s Natural Shitake & Sesame Dressing and Brianna’s Home Style Dijon Honey Mustard Dressing. I’m also a big fan of a new line from right here in Austin: Cookwell & Company. I love the Olive & Lemon Vinaigrette on pretty much anything, and the Watermelon Vinaigrette is really refreshing, especially on their Watermelon Cucumber Salad (which doesn’t call for lettuce, but I like to add it to the mix of chopped goodies).

Below is a simple recipe for homemade vinaigrette that you can adapt to your tastes. LiveMom’s Catherine shared another good, refreshing dressing with me recently, German Yogurt Salad Dressing. As we travel through these (hopefully) final dog days of summer, nothing is easier or cooler on a hot night than salad, however you decide to dress it.

Homemade Vinaigrette

1/4 cup white wine or apple cider vinegar

1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

In medium bowl, put vinegar and mustard. Drizzle in olive oil while whisking to emulsify. Add salt and pepper to taste. (You could make this in the food processor or blender.) For added kick, I like to add about a teaspoon of the juice from a jar of minced garlic, if I have a jar in the fridge. You can also add fresh herbs to taste or use lemon juice instead of vinegar.

Written by: Shannon Oelrich

On a good day, I’ve made healthy muffins (see below) and everyone likes them, and I can hand them a muffin and smoothie and call it a morning. On a so-so day, I’ve bought bagels or English muffins, have boiled eggs in the fridge, and that’s okay, too. On a bad day, someone ends up with a heel of bread smeared with peanut butter and wrapped around a banana. There are always cereal and breakfast bars available, too, and when the weather cools down, instant oatmeal is another option.

Nevertheless, I find myself wishing it was even easier. I wish the Breakfast Fairy would wave her magic wand and make a delicious, nutritious breakfast appear in the hands of my loved ones. What do you do to make mornings easier? Have you found a website that helps you come up with ideas? Please share!

Morning Muffins

This recipe is very forgiving! You can make subtitutions if you keep the amounts the same. Last time I made them, I found I was out of rolled oats, so I used two packages of instant oatmeal and cut the sugar in half. I’ve also used dried cranberries or raisins in place of the apricots. I’ve put other suggestions with the ingredients below.

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup wheat germ (or sesame seeds or ground flaxseeds)

1 cup rolled oats

3 eggs

1/3 cup lowfat yogurt (plain or vanilla; skip the vanilla extract if you use vanilla yogurt)

1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup finely grated carrots

1 cup shredded green apple

3/4 cup quartered dried apricots (or cranberries or raisins)

1/2 cup chopped pecans (or sliced almonds or walnuts)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put quartered apricots in a bowl, barely cover with water, microwave on HIGH for 30 seconds and let sit for a minute. Drain before adding to muffin mixture.

In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, wheat germ and rolled oats. Stir with whisk to combine. In small bowl, beat eggs lightly, then add eggs, yogurt, butter and vanilla to flour mixture. Fold in remaining ingredients. Fill paper-lined muffin cups level to the top. Bake for 20-25 minutes and check middle with a toothpick to make sure they’re done.

My mom made me a strawberry cake almost every year. She got the recipe from my grandma, who probably got it from a box of Jell-O or a friend at church because it’s the ubiquitous strawberry Jell-O/white cake mix recipe. But it’s hard to beat. In fact, I’ve tried to beat it by making it from scratch, but I’ve found that there’s no substitute for that package of Jell-O. Nothing gives it that particular tart-sweetness that makes the cake what it is. So, what you have below are two recipes. One for the original cake and icing with all the shortcuts intact, and one for a fussier, from-scratch version with cream cheese frosting (closer to the Hey Cupcake version). Both are extremely good and perfect for a summer birthday.

If you want to go all out, thinly slice fresh strawberries and arrange them on top of the cake just before serving. You can also put them in between the cake layers, but be sure and frost the top and bottom of each layer or the strawberries will make the cake soggy.

Strawberry Birthday Cake
1 package white cake mix
2/3 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 cup frozen strawberries, thawed
1 small package strawberry Jell-O

Sift cake mix and Jell-O into bowl. Blend in oil and 4 eggs, one at a time. Add berries and beat until mixed. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Icing
1 box powdered sugar
1/3 cup thawed strawberries
1 stick margarine

Blend all ingredients well and spread on cooled cake.

Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
1 (3 ounce) package strawberry Jell-O
4 eggs, separated (room temperature)
2 3/4 cups sifted cake flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup strawberry puree made from fresh strawberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans (or spray with Baker’s Joy). In large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and Jello-O until light and fluffy. Add in egg yolks one at a time.

Using a mixer, beat the egg whites until stiff. Set aside.

In separate bowl, measure flour AFTER sifting by lightly spooning into a measuring cup and leveling with the back of a butter knife. Combine flour with baking powder and salt. Stir this mixture into batter, alternating with milk. Stir in vanilla and strawberry puree. Gently fold in egg whites. Divide batter between the prepared pans.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow cakes to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pan to cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup strawberry puree made from fresh strawberries
3 1/2 -4 cups powdered sugar

Using a mixer, cream butter and cream cheese. Mix in the strawberries. Slowly add 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar. If the consistency is too loose, add another 1/2 cup of powdered sugar.

Written by: Shannon Oelrich

First Lady Michelle Obama has created the “Let’s Move!” program to “solve the epidemic of childhood obesity in a generation.” It’s an ambitious but important goal, as childhood obesity has more than tripled in the last 30 years. Her website has helpful information on making healthier choices as a family (including a link on the importance of breastfeeding), gives guidelines for physical activity, and talks about access to affordable healthy food.

The site also covers getting healthier food into schools, although there’s been criticism of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s lack of funding in that area (see www.lunchboxadvocates.org for information on urging your elected representatives to increase funding for school lunches). But, overall, the “Let’s Move!” program is a good place to start in fighting childhood obesity. The next step is for American parents to embrace the precepts of healthy eating and daily physical activity and bring those habits into the home.

LiveMom asked Deirdre Earls, a local registered and licensed dietitian with more than 20 years’ experience counseling adults and children on nutrition, what she thinks about Michelle Obama’s plan and how parents can bring healthy habits home.

This year, First Lady Michelle Obama launched her “Let’s Move!” initiative to “solve the epidemic of childhood obesity.” What do you like about the initiative? What would you like to see added?

I like that the First Lady is drawing attention to childhood obesity specifically, and that the foundation of our lifelong eating habits are built when we’re young. Instead of emphasizing processed calorie-controlled edibles, I like her emphasis on nutrient-dense whole foods such as fresh vegetables and fruits, whole grains like brown rice, and consistently getting low-fat milk in our diets. I also love that one of the newest parts of her program is called “Let’s Read. Let’s Move.” as a reminder that physical and mental exercise are also required for lasting good health.

What advice do you give to parents who are worried about obesity in their children?

Even before children are old enough to talk about what they like or not, build their tastes and diet around unprocessed, whole foods like those that the First Lady is promoting. For various reasons, parents all over the world still feed their children these things. It’s what their (and our) ancestors did for eons of time. These parents never feed their children what’s marketed as kids’ food here. Cereals and crackers made with processed flours and refined sweeteners, microwave popcorn with artificial flavors, multiflavored chips with artifical colors and hydrogenated fats, sodas with sugar or artificial sweeteners, and fast food “meals” that are loaded with engineered ingredients … none of this reflects the simple, whole foods that humans are designed to eat. It’s no wonder that the USA now ranks 43^rd in the world for longevity, and we’ve been outpaced by some third world countries. This is the first generation of children in American history who will not live as long as their parents.

Our only real hope is to take and to teach personal responsibility for our food and exercise choices, and to return to the wholesome foods and daily exercise that characterized the entire development of humanity. Teach your kids to think about what they’d be eating if refrigerators and freezers didn’t exist, if trucks and planes couldn’t bring us packaged foods from all over the country, if there were no drive-thru windows, if anything cooked had to be cooked on a fire because stove and ovens and microwaves didn’t exist. Teach your children that to a very large degree the choice is theirs and point them in the right direction.

How can parents play a greater role in what’s served in the schools?

“Be the change you want to see”; exemplify this first in your own health choices and then exemplify it throughout your home. Ensure that your family’s meals, snacks and birthday parties are built upon fresh, whole foods with very few ingredients. Figure out your own ways of making  taste-tested, nutritious meals and snacks at home instead of relying on prepared, processed foods. Figure out your own ways of doing this economically. Then share your ideas with teachers, parents, food service directors. If kids are eating brown rice and drinking milk at home, then they will want to do it in school too when the choice is theirs—so make sure your school is offering fresh, local and good-for-you choices, as much as they can. Borden Milk, made in Texas and containing no supplemental hormones, is served in most schools—while kids may recognize the friendly face of Elsie the Cow on the carton, moms can feel good about having their kids drink that rather than a can of soda or sugary juice.

Now that it’s summer, what can families do at home to make better food and activity choices?

Develop your own point system to reward the person who exercises the most regularly and eats the most foods with no ingredient list. Make it a game to thoroughly read ingredient labels and call out real, whole food versus “posers.” Make it a family outing several times a week to walk or ride bikes together for an hour. There are lots of food and activity options that children will enjoy eating and doing. Emphasize fresh foods with very few ingredients and variety. Some other ideas:

• Served as a beverage or frozen into popsicles, smoothies provide an opportunity to blend in and hide very nutritious ingredients that kids might otherwise not eat including flax or chia seeds, a variety of nuts like Brazil nuts, 100% raw chocolate powder, fermented milk items like kefir. When smoothies include dark berries and raw chocolate, the subsequent color allows you to blend in a leaf or two of kale or other dark, leafy greens.
• Bean dips like hummus are chilled and offer another means to use a variety of beans instead of just one; then add in dark, leafy greens like parsley or cilantro and seed butters like Tahini.
• Pasta sauce is another place to blend in a variety of greens, blended seeds or even beans.
• A convenient and affordable alternative to cooked meat for sandwiches, nut butters and seed butters like sunflower seed butter can be blended with raw chocolate (a bean) to pack in more flavor and total nutrition.
• And make sure you keep up that reading. It’s important to feed your body and your mind during the summer months. … Even when school is out, it’s important to eat breakfast every day—studies show that children do better when they start off the day with a meal rich in vitamins, mineral and protein.

Summertime Smoothie

Can be frozen into popsicles.

Blend together:

6 ounces milk

1 frozen banana chopped into pieces

1 Tablespoon almond or sunflower seed butter

1 Tablespoon raw chocolate powder

1 Tablespoons chia or hemp or flax seeds

1 leaf of romaine lettuce

Faster Than a Drive-Thru Window Breakfast (or Lunch)

I like the Lundberg Farms Tahini and Seaweed brown rice cakes as they sneak very nutrient-dense sea veggies into my diet without tasting them when I use this recipe. For breakfast, you may want to use a whole grain waffle.

1 brown rice cake

Spread with 1 Tablespoon 100% peanut butter.

Top with  1 Tablespoon 100% fruit spread in a rarely eaten flavor.

I make it twice a year: for his birthday in December and for Father’s Day in June. In both instances, I make two pies. He graciously shares one with the rest of us, then hoards the other to have with his coffee in the morning or with a little milk in the evening for the rest of the week. That’s okay with me because it’s really, really sweet for my taste. But, if you’ve never tried one, or if the Dad in your life has a sweet tooth, you ought to give it a shot.

One note of caution: This is an old-fashioned pie with plenty of uncooked egg in it. Yes, the lemon in the filling “cooks” the yolks and the meringue is baked for a short while, but if you are pregnant or nursing or have any immune problems, you’ll want to use pasteurized eggs. Same goes for the elderly and children younger than 4.

Daddy’s Pie

1 1/2 cups finely ground graham cracker crumbs

6 tablespoons butter, melted

1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk

3 eggs, separated

1/2 cup lemon juice

1/3 cup sugar

Put graham cracker crumbs into a 9-inch pie pan. Drizzle melted butter over them. Use your hands to mix until all the crumbs are moistened, then start pressing from the middle and up the sides to cover the pan, making a crust. Set aside

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a medium bowl, mix sweetened condensed milk and egg yolks. Pour lemon juice in slowly, incorporating as you go. Mixture will thicken. Pour into pie crust. Refrigerate while making meringue.

Using a mixer and a clean, metal bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Spread meringue over pie, making sure to spread it all the way to the crust on all edges. Form peaks with a spoon or spatula. Bake for just a few minutes, checking often for browned peaks. When lightly browned, remove from oven and let cool 10 minutes on a rack. Then move to fridge and chill for at least one hour before serving, preferably two or more.

Note: If you try to make meringue on a particularly humid or rainy day, you’re going to be disappointed. I wouldn’t even attempt it on a rainy day, but if you want to try it and the day is humid, add 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar to the egg whites to help them set up.

Written by: Shannon Oelrich