Baked Chips and Homemade Salsa with Salmon

I'm going to do something a little special for Maggie tomorrow - She is not only getting some homemade tortilla chips (baked!) She's also getting homemade salsa, and steaming hot salmon leftovers. I'm not going to trust them to the Thermos because, well, that would be completely disgusting - salmon out of a Thermos? Nope, I am going to heat it up and drive it up to school at lunchtime for her: Mama's Cuisine To Go!

On Mondays Ellie doesn't have kindergarten, so we have some special time together. Maggie hates this, so I drive her to school and pick her up as special treats. But, usually, that's where it ends. I am so into the idea of getting her good hot food at school, though, I am taking it up a notch. Maybe it's the holiday spirit? We'll see how it goes.

Here are the recipes I'm using for dinner tonight that will set me up for tomorrow:

Baked Tortilla Chips:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Take some corn tortillas and cut them into 6 even pieces each. Brush the tortillas ever so lightly with a little bit of vegetable oil and lightly season with salt or a non-salt seasoning. Bake the chips on a baking sheet for about 15 minutes or until crispy. That's it! Who needs Doritos?

Baked Copper River Coho Salmon:

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Brush about 1 1/2 pounds of salmon with a little olive oil and the rub of your choice. We use either salt and pepper (original, I know) or Chef Paul Prudhomme's Magic Salmon Seasoning (it is fabulous - I don't want to look at the label to see if it's bad for us. It can't be that bad if we just use a little bit!) Cook for about 15 minutes on each side. I love the idea of getting Maggie some high-quality salmon-y goodness for her lunch. Maybe I'll dress up like a waitress and embarrass her. No. That would be BAD...

Homemade Salsa:

I already posted a recipe for a corn-based salsa-type salad quite some time ago, but tonight I'm going to make it right. Here's how:

• Chop up a couple of medium tomatoes.
• Chop up some red onion - more if you like onion, less if you don't - but put at least a little in.
  
• Open and rinse a can of sweet corn. (Did you know they put sugar in the liquid in cans of corn? I don't know why I had never thought about that before - probably because I hardly ever buy canned vegetables. But, it's the only way to get corn this time of year. I did find that you can buy canned sweet corn that does not have sugar added to the liquid. Good grief. READ the LABELS!) You'll need about half a cup of the corn.
• Dice up a small avocado - yum! Yes, they're high in fat, but it's good monounsaturated fat!
• Open and RINSE a can of black beans. (Always rinse your canned beans - look at the goo they're packaged in!) You'll need about half a cup of beans.
• Wash and finely chop a handful of fresh cilantro.
  
• Squeeze all of the juice out of a fresh lime.
• Toss everything together and give it a few minutes for everyone to get to know each other in the bowl.
• Eat with the baked tortillas and/or spoon a little bit over the salmon.

Tomorrow for lunch, I'll add an apple and let Maggie buy (white) milk at school. I'll keep you posted on how the whole hot meal delivery service works out.

In the meantime, here's a CNN story that talks about five foods that have suffered through some bad press over the years, but which can be really good for you. It is especially complimentary toward the humble avocado - along with heart-healthy fats and antioxidants, it seems that eating avocados along with other foods high in antioxidants may help us absorb the antioxidants from other foods more effectively. So, avocados in a tomato salsa is not only tasty, but good for you!

Thankfuls and a Wish List

Photo from readingforrobin.wordpress.com

The holiday season is upon us, and with any luck, we'll all have a chance to STEP AWAY from the COMPUTERS, put the studies or work aside for at least a while and enjoy the important things - family, friends, and our own personal well-being and growth. Toward that end, I figured I'd devote this post to sharing some of the things I've been thankful for recently and to create a personal wish list of nutrition- and personal growth-related things I want to get to during my upcoming break from studying.

First, some things related to kids' nutrition that I am thankful for this fall:

• The Thermoses I bought have been successfully used on two different days this past week. I'm so glad it's a novelty that the kids like and that I did not waste $30!
  
• Ellie has decided that she really does like salad - She just likes having it tossed with dressing instead of having dressing put on top. I can totally accommodate that preference, and it gives me control over how much ranch dressing she uses.
  
• I am blessed to have frozen mixed vegetables in my freezer. They might be kind of unappealing to me, but Ellie likes to eat them straight out of the bag frozen. At least she's not just eating noodles at every meal.
• My sister-in-law is hosting Thanksgiving dinner. We always have it at our house, and this year, someone else gets to orchestrate the feast. The kids are excited for the change of pace, and I am grateful for the mental break that this will allow me.
• Maggie has entered a phase where she will try any new food we offer her. I really appreciate this, and it gives me hope that in a year or two Ellie might be more open to trying new foods, too. (Knock on wood.)
• Concentrating on different options for the kids' lunches has opened me up to some new ideas that are really working, specifically the use of salads in the lunchbox, using leftovers from dinner for lunches, and the new Thermoses for hot food from home at lunchtime.
• The free offerings bar at the kids' primary school. I know that every day, whether they buy lunch or not, they can get some salad and fruit to go along with their lunches. I still pack fruit and vegetables, but it feels good knowing that they can choose to supplement their meals with more. It gives them a choice and reinforces that fruits and vegetables belong in every lunch.

Now, the wish list. I am so looking forward to having some free time to do luxurious things like read for pleasure! Try some new recipes! Learn new things for fun! Take all the time I want at the market! Clean my kitchen! (Did I really just write that?? What do you want for Christmas, Colleen? "Well, let's see... I'd like a full afternoon to clean my kitchen!" Pathetic.)

Anyway, in the last few weeks, I've come across some blogs and books that I'd like to really dig into over the holidays. Here are some links:

Blogs to Check Out More Thoroughly:

• Fed Up with Lunch - The School Lunch Project. I discovered this blog this past week. In 2010, an anonymous (although recently unmasked) teacher decided to eat school lunches every day for a year, take pictures of them, and post them on the internet to raise awareness about what our kids are served for lunch in public schools. She completed her project, and has since published a book about her experience (see below). Here also, for your viewing pleasure is a YouTube montage of everything she ate for lunch last year. Looks yummy, hmm? (Not!)
• Super Healthy Kids. I just found this one, but the little girl on the blog looks VERY happy, and the photos look great, so I'll look forward to giving it a look. It incorporates recipes, book reviews (Michael Pollan's Food Rules), meal plans and lunchbox ideas.
  
• Raise Healthy Eaters. I keep mentioning this blog because I love that it's written by a registered dietitian and mom of young kids. The brief chances I've had to peruse the blog have left me happy, edified, and wanting to luxuriate in it at my leisure. There will be no luxuriating until mid-December, but eventually I will sit and click and click some more just for fun. I mean, just above I mentioned how happy I am that Maggie is eating whatever we offer her at age seven and that Ellie is a hard-sell to eat anything but macaroni and cheese at age five. Here is a quote from yesterday's post on the blog. It feels like she is writing just to me - my own personal dietitian!

"Knowing that my reluctant-to-try-new-foods 5-year old is at the tail end of her food neophobic peak (2-6 years) helps me tremendously. That means all the food exposure she’s getting now will translate to more and more food diversity in the not-so-distant future. But if I thought she was going to be this way forever, this stage would be much tougher and no doubt our feeding interactions would suffer." Maryann Tomovich Jacobsen, MS, RD

Books to Read or Use or Just Look At:

• Speaking of Food Rules by Michael Pollan, a new illustrated edition is available. It incorporates new "rules" - some submitted by readers, and PICTURES! I love picture books. I saw Michael Pollan speak this past spring at the University of Portland, and it made me want to spend time with him. If that's not possible, spending time with his book will be a pleasant alternative. Especially with pictures. I would also like to try The Omnivore's Dilemma for Kids.
  
• Also, going back to Mrs. Q. and her school lunches, she has dropped her cloak of anonymity, somehow managed NOT to get fired from her job, and published a book called Fed Up with Lunch. Here is the description from Amazon.com: "When school teacher Mrs. Q forgot her lunch one day, she had no idea she was about to embark on an odyssey to uncover the truth about public school lunches. Shocked by what her students were served, she resolved to eat school lunch for an entire year, chronicling her experience anonymously on a blog that received thousands of hits daily, and was lauded by such food activists as Mark Bittman, Jamie Oliver, and Marion Nestle. Here, Mrs. Q reveals her identity for the first time in an eye-opening account of school lunches in America. Along the way, she provides invaluable resources for parents and health advocates who wish to help reform school lunch, making this a must-read for anyone concerned about children s health issues."
• The Disney Magic Kitchen Cookbook. When I took Ellie to her school's book fair last month, she chose this book. Obviously, she's a sucker for the Disney characters, but I was impressed by the healthy recipes, nutrition information with each recipe. There are a lot of nutrition-based activities and some kid-friendly educational pages. I'm not afraid to admit that Nemo and Princess Tiana stand a better chance of getting Ellie to try new foods than I am, and if she is the one choosing the book and the recipes we try, I say, "THANK YOU, DISNEY!" At the same book fair, we also bought the Cooking Light Ultimate Kid-Approved Cookbook: Delicious Food Kids Will Eat, Nutritious Meals Mom Will Love. This one's got a kids panel that helps to prepare and taste test every recipe. It doesn't suck the kids in like the Disney book, but they like to find pictures of the kids they like and to see what they've prepared. Again, it's got great nutrition information for every recipe and lots of pictures to engage the kids and get them interested in cooking with me.

Well, I think that's enough, no? Enjoy your Thanksgiving!