Delectable Dessert Collection

My son attends a local preschool, and their breakfast has something to be desired. They serve the children cereal, milk and maybe....maybe some fruit. The only protein the get from that diet would be the milk. Sometimes the school serves sugary cereal, and Lucky Charms.

This is a crucial time in his life, his brain is not growing as rapidly as it did when he was a baby, but still neurons are making connections on a daily basis. Kids need a diet with healthy fats and protein. I make his breakfast at home every morning, and send it with him to school. He still eats with his friends, but he will not be eating school food.

Sometimes, I make him scrambled eggs with salmon. He only eats a little of that. Then I think of other ways of getting fat into his diet, like mixing some fish oil into his peanut butter - but he can't have peanut butter at school. One thing he always loves its my pancakes. Every two weeks I make a large batch of pancakes, freeze them in little baggies. When I assemble his breakfast in the morning I toss in a couple blueberry pancakes with his egg whites and fruit. Today - I made him a different kind of pancake.

Naomi's Avocado Pancakes

Although avocados contain mainly monounsaturated fats (omega-3s are polyunsaturated fats), they are still a healthy source of fats and beneficial for your child's development. Toddlers should consume 40 percent of their daily calories from fat, with is 33 to 45 grams of fat per day for toddlers consuming 1,000 calorie diets. According to the USDA Nutrient Data Laboratory, half an avocado provides your child with about 15 grams of healthy fat. This batch of pancakes contains 3/4 an avocado, he will eat 3 or 4 mini pancakes every day.

So, the small amount of avocado in three pancakes certainly is not enough fats - but hey, it is something, and it is certainly better than pancakes without any avocado.

Hi Everyone! I hope you all are enjoying your summer.

I picked about 10 pounds of wild blackberries, and prepared three quarts. I have to make room for my blackberry wine and need to sell these three jars. They are $11.00 each. These jars are huge and enough to make at least two large cobblers.

Each quart has one tablespoon Splenda, so these are sweet and low calorie. Good for a healthy dessert.

I have only three, blackberry season will be over in the next few weeks, maybe I can pick more. Contact me if you would like one.

Naomi

Buy Here: Each one is $11.00 each

The other day I got the idea to make my boys some nutrient dense homemade granola bars. Today I made a
note to myself to try a recipe. I found several recipes online but decided to be adventurous and go my own way. This is an extremely calorie dense recipe, unfortunately I cannot eat them. I will taste it, but will certainly not eat a whole bar. The recipe is just something I came up with to make sure my boys get a good amount of protein every week.

1. cup rolled oats
2. 1/4 cut crushed or sliced almonds

(bake the oats and almonds for 10 minutes at 350. )

1. 1/4 cup honey
2. 1/4 cup brown sugar
3. 3 table spoons butter
4. 2 tablespoons peanut butter

Mix and melt

Add the toasted oats and almonds to liquid mixture.

Then add:
1. one cup granola
2. three tablespoons soy protein
    (one tablespoon = 5 grams of protein)

I pressed it all into a lightly greased, foil lined baking pan. The toppings were chocolate chips and one tablespoon melted peanut butter. (I mixed a little soy protein into the peanut butter, about .5 teaspoon)

The mixture was so thick that I easily formed bars, but it only fit half of my pan. If the boys like this treat I will double the recipe and make a full pan.

My son's lunch

I made three stuffings, one cheesecake, one gravy and tangerine cranberry sauce.

One word

Exhausted!

In Washington State the berries and rock fruits are in full bloom. Now is the time for our wine making.

This is a great idea

Pike Place Market - Seattle

The other day, I went to the Pike Place Market with my son to look around and see what was going on. How I love that market! The smell of flowers, coffee, and fish...ahhh, nothing quite like it. I saw some pepper ornament things hanging from the ceiling of a shop and asked one of the employees if they were real peppers. He abruptly say, "yes". It was closing time, and he clearly did not want to stand around and chit-chat with me. Anyway, I took the above photograph at Seattle's Pike Place Market. These are drying peppers and garlic. From closer inspection, they look like Thai Red Peppers. I thought that they were so pretty hanging there that I needed to take a picture. I started growing Thai peppers in my garden, and have yet to use them in any dish. The image inspired me to publish a quick blog about Seasoning Blends. (Note: these are not my recipes, I got most of them from allrecipes.com)

Seasoning Blends tend to be very expensive in the supermarket. When we look at the ingredients, it is plain to see there is no reason we should not be able to make these at home.

Alas - here are some of my top picks: 

Taco Seasoning Recipe:

• 1/4 cup Chili Powder
• 1/4 cup Cumin Powder
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon Oregano leaf (or oregano leaf powder)
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 cup himalayan salt or sea salt (optional)
• 1 teaspoon ground pepper

I love to bake, especially with two boys in the house, I will need to bake and freeze my breads, treats and goodies. When you soak certain fruit in alcohol, the alcohol draws out the flavor and aroma. Aroma is a very important part of flavor. Have you ever noticed that when your nose is stuffy, food does not taste right? The same process is at work when making extracts. It is a matter of making a tincture. A tincture uses a solvent, such as vodka or rum, to extract oils, nutrients or phytochemicals of a plant.

This is my first attempt at making Polish Borscht Soup. I found several recipes and YouTube tutorial videos.борщ and featured on Ukrainian postage.(see image) Borscht is beet root based recipe popular in many central and eastern European countries. The original Ukrainian name does not end with a 't', the final t sound was added when the dish was adopted by Yiddish speaking Jews.

My base recipe came from the following YouTube video. Red Borscht - Barszcz Czerwony - Christmas Menu Recipe #51. There is a follow up video, how to make miniature Polish mushroom dumplings, Uszka. Ukrainian Borscht is more complicated, as it calls for carrots, potato, cabbage and beef.

As this is my first Borscht, I do not know if I prefer the Polish version or the Ukrainian version. I will be making it my own way. In Ania's video, she strained the soup with a cheese cloth, and recommend we do not bring the soup to a boil more than once as it will turn brown. In another Polish language video, (featured below) they used a strainer instead of a cheesecloth. Ania recommended letting the soup sit overnight, then slowly reheating it the next day.

• 1 can beets
• 1 red apple
• 2 cans water
• 1 small yellow onion
• 1 shallot
• 2 garlic cloves
• 4 tbs orange juice
• 1 bay leaf
• sugar
• salt
• pepper

How Was it Served?

I served it with a dollop of sour cream and chopped green onion. The sour cream sank right to the bottom, which I did not like. I think that the sour cream is intended for the Russian/Ukrainian recipe and not the Polish recipe. I served it with chopped green onion, as I did not have time to make the mushroom dumplings.

How Did it Turn Out?

I thought that it was delicious, my husband thought it was too tart. Next time, I will replace 4 tbs Orange Juice with 2 tbs lemon juice. My intention is to make this soup again during the Winter Holidays. The Polish Borscht should be transparent, not cloudy, much like a red won-ton soup whereas the Russian/Ukrainian version can be cloudy, and hearty.