A Hanukkah "Carrot Seed" Story

This blog is technically not a mom blog. I try to give timely advice to women and parents based on my training as a nutritionist, and more recently a Certified Lactation Counselor. However, as all moms know, it is sometimes difficult to refrain from telling your own story. So, once in a while, I will tell stories about my life and my experience being a mom to a cute 2 year old boy with dairy-egg-nut food allergies. I hope it adds some personality and flavor to the blog. Here is the first such story:

We inherited a copy of The Carrot Seed by Ruth Kraus from my husband's family and it is by far one of the best children books I have read. For those of you who read this blog, you know that I have mentioned it before. It contains only 101 words but tells a powerful story of faith, determination, or instincts- depending on your interpretation. It is the story of a young boy who plants a carrot seed and tends to it, even though his mom, dad, and big brother tell him "it won't come up." The carrot came up "just as the little boy knew it would."

This is often how I feel about food allergies. People tell me that I won't be able to make traditional foods like cake, pancakes, cupcakes, and challah and that our son will feel left out. With a little bit of effort and advice from other blogging food allergy moms and cookbooks, I have successfully made all of the aforementioned foods. He has cake at parties, pancakes on Sunday mornings, cupcakes with children in his day care, and challah every Shabbat. We have even found some store brands of baked goods that adhere to his food allergies, which helps reduce our kitchen time. The dairy is never the problem since rice, soy, and coconut milk have taken care of that. But those pesky eggs...they are everywhere...in almost every recipe, using their power to bind and leaven.

In the days leading up to Hanukkah, I mentioned to a few friends and family members that I was going to attempt to make egg-free latkes. As you can see in the linked Wikipedia entry, latkes are "traditionally" made with eggs. Everyone's response was essentially the same: "Okay, good luck with that but I am not sure that is going to work." Even the talented caterer for this upcoming latke event, was somewhat skeptical.

Then I found this link, which saved the day. Article author Murry Shohat has his grandmother's Eastern European recipe for latkes. Guess what? There are no eggs in it. I doubt the explanation for this is due to a sensitivity to food allergies; food allergies were rarely a concern back in the day. Shohat explains the lack of egg in his grandmother's recipe: "Eggs were a luxury in the peasant shtetls and rarely were they available in sufficient numbers to find their way into latkes. Yet virtually every western latke recipe I've seen uses eggs. In fact, latkes are often incorrectly called potato pancakes, and that explains the use of eggs."

So last night, for the first night of Hanukkah, we made Murray's Grandmother's latke recipe (don't you love the internet?). The only change I made was exchanging one regular potato for one sweet potato. I am a nutritionist after all and couldn't fathom eating all that oil without any fat-soluble vitamin A to go along with it. Read more about Vitamin A in this post.

Getting ready to make latkes...

Squeezing out the potato juice from grated potatoes...

Here we go...

Looking good...

Yum!

Just as the little girl had known they would be :)

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Menu Plan Monday for a Busy Week

About Menu Plan Monday

Menu Plan Monday is hosted by Organizing Junkie. I try to post a dinner menu every week, but it does not always happen. All foods that I post are appropriate for a healthy pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, and childhood. Most of the foods I use are appropriate for people with allergies to milk, peanut, sesame, and egg (my son is allergic to those foods and I don't like to cook 2 different meals).

We have something going on after work almost every day this week. Therefore, I planned very simple and quick meals that can be somewhat-prepared the night before. I hope you find them useful too.

Monday
Crock Pot Lentil Soup and Hearty Bread

Crock Pot Lentil Soup
1 pound (16 oz.) dry lentils, rinsed
1 cup chopped celery
2 chopped onions
8-10 baby carrots cut in thirds
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. dried basil, crushed
1/2 tsp. dried oregano, crushed
1/4 tsp. dried thyme, crushed
3 bay leaves
8-10 cups water (do you like thick soup?)
1 tablespoon salt
1 box chopped or stewed tomatoes
1/4 c. snipped fresh parsley
1/2 cup olive oil
2 Tbs. balsamic or red wine vinegar

Put everything except vinegar in your crock pot the night before or in the morning. Cook on low for 8 hours. Stir in vinegar before serving. Serve with a hearty bread.

Variations: Add small pieces of smoked turkey or hot dogs to the crock pot. Or top with Parmesan cheese.

Tuesday
Broiled Cod and Bulgur with vegetables

Broiled Cod
Marinate cod (or other fish) in Italian dressing the night before. Use the dish you plan to broil in and drain off dressing in the morning. Broil for about 10 minutes or until finished.

Bulgur
Follow instructions on package but add one bag of frozen vegetables of your choice to the water before boiling. You can prepare the veggies/water the night before and keep in the fridge. Spice to taste.

Wednesday
Crock Pot Taco Meat with avocado and taco shells

Crock Pot Taco Meat
1 pound chopped beef or bison
1 cup of salsa
Some water (1/2-3/4 cup)
Pinto or black beans (canned or pre-soaked dry beans)

Place all ingredients in crock pot, cook on low for 5-8 hours. Serve in taco shells.

Thursday
Tuna melt on whole wheat bread with sliced veggies or side salad.

Tuna can be prepared the night before. I like using the food processor to chop some carrots and celery in it before I add the tuna. We use chunk light tuna to minimize mercury poisoning. To learn more about safe fish, read this post. Due to my son's food allergies, we use Vegenaise instead of mayonnaise- it is surprisingly great!

Note: I have been trying to use dry beans and boxed tomatoes (like Pomi) in an effort to reduce our BPA consumption. To read more about BPA, click here.

Enjoy your meals!
Debra

Why Go Beyond Prenatals?

The past few months have not been good for the supplement industry. Since April, three research articles and one review have been published that failed to prove a beneficial effect of certain vitamin and mineral supplements:

This seven-year study examined cancer rates in women who took high doses of vitamins B6, B12, and Folic Acid. The study showed that there were no difference in cancer rates, breast cancer rates, or death from cancer in women who took the vitamin supplements.

A Cochrane Database review last spring found that high doses of supplements of beta carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E did not prolong life or affect chronic disease. In fact, they may actually shorten life. Furthermore, vitamin C and selenium supplements had no effect on health status.

Two more studies indicate that vitamin E, vitamin C, and selenium do not offer cancer protection in men and may increase cancer and diabetes risk.

In contrast to these studies, a study last year indicated that women who got more calcium and vitamin d from foods had a one-third reduced risk of developing premenopausal breast cancer.

What do we know about vitamins?

1. The best source of vitamins exists in foods.
Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, dairy and animal foods contain a plethora of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phyto-nutrients, all working together in synergistic ways that promote health.

The study authors say it best:
Dr. JoAnn E. Manson, the senior author of the B-vitamin study comments on her study in a NYT article: “This doesn’t preclude an important benefit from diets that are high in B vitamins and folates, and folate intake throughout pregnancy is very important.”

Howard D. Sesso, the lead author of the study examining Vitamins E and C similarly comments in a NYT article: ''At the end of the day this serves as a reminder that we should get back to basics: keeping your body weight in check, being physically active, not smoking and following a good diet.''

2. We need vitamins throughout our entire life.
Vitamins are needed from the second an embryo is formed until a person dies. Some of the researchers suggest that vitamin supplements may have proved futile because they were taken too late in life. It is foolish to assume that vitamins can counteract years of poor diet, insufficient activity levels, and faulty genes.

3. Vitamins are still important
It is probably wise to take a multi-vitamin on most days, and absolutely necessary during pregnancy (for the folic acid, iron, vitamin D, and others). I cannot trust myself or any of you to eat a perfectly healthy diet. If that was our entire focus in life, then maybe we could do it. But other life events get in the way. However, no one should rely on any vitamin regimen to replace a healthy diet. They are simply used to fill in the cracks or if a certain food group is not consumed. Some examples: calcium supplements for women who do not eat enough dairy; fish supplements who women who do not eat enough fish; vitamin D supplements in the winter months.

Why go Beyond Prenatals?
These research studies show that good health starts early in life and requires eating healthy foods. The way to achieve this is to eat healthy foods before and during pregnancy and feed your children well.
And that is what going Beyond Prenatals is all about:
Going beyond prenatal vitamins to create a healthy pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, and childhood.

Interested in reading more? Check out these 2 NYT Blog posts here and here.

Menu Plan Monday: Spaghetti Themed Week

I plan my weekday dinners Monday-Thursday (Thursday is usually leftovers). Thursday I plan for the weekend. If you think of it that way, it is really easy to plan just 3 weeknight dinners. It makes the week run so much smoother. I try to prepare as much as I can the night before so that when we come home from work/day care, dinner gets on the table quickly!

Monday
Whole wheat spaghetti with tomato sauce and cheese, topped with roasted mushrooms and green pepper. Side salad of mixed baby greens, cucumber, and pre-sliced carrots.

Tuesday
Baked spaghetti squash with stir-fried onions, garlic, sage, black beans, and salsa (in olive oil).
Everyone can eat this differently: In a tortilla or taco; Topped with cheese, Parmesan cheese or sour cream; As a main dish or as a side dish with some grilled chicken.

Wednesday
Stir-fried chicken breast strips with Asian rice noodles (you can use bean thread too).
[Boneless chicken strips marinated in soy sauce, chicken broth, garlic, and crushed red pepper. Marinate the night before, setting aside 1/2 cup marinade. Brown chicken in oil 2-3 minutes, set aside. Stir-fry defrosted broccoli, carrots, and snow peas. Add set aside marinade and 2 teaspoons corn starch. Stir until thick about 2 minutes. Add chicken. Cook until chicken is done.]
In the meantime, cook the bean noodles, they take about 2 minutes!!

Thursday
Leftovers!!

Fruits we are eating this week: Mango, Anjou pears, Apples, Clementines, Bananas

For more menu plans from around the world, check out Organizingjunkie