Raw Thai Wraps with Cilantro-Pumpkin Seed Pâté

We have a garden full of tender fresh collard greens right now which is what inspired me to create these nourishing raw wraps! My children even love them. Well, my 8-year old thinks they are just okay, and the littlest one can only really eat the pâté and cucumber strips, but the rest of the gang enjoys them!

I know I haven't been blogging much lately. I have a one-year old now who is into everything.....and four other children. Need I say more? However, we do have a new website in the works which I'm excited to share with you, so stay tuned! If you want to keep up with what I'm cooking and creating in my kitchen please follow me on Instagram. In the meantime....please enjoy this raw collard wrap recipe!

Banana Almond Butter Muffins (gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free)

I like to make this healthy grain-free muffin recipe after my children go to sleep at night so they have something nourishing to eat for breakfast—especially helpful on really busy mornings! The other day my daughter wanted to know how much protein each muffin had so she worked out how many grams of protein each ingredient contained and then divided the total number by 12. She came up with 6.3 grams per muffin, not bad.

I generally use roasted almond butter in my baking recipes, including the recipes in my new Nourishing Meals cookbook. The brand I like to use for these recipes is Zinke Orchards. Although this almond butter is not certified organic it does come from spray-free almonds, and at a very good price. For eating or raw recipes, we like to use raw organic or raw sprouted almond butter.

Packing Healthy Lunches to GO!

I've already written about packing healthy school lunches for children here. But what about you, the adult? If you are working full time or going to school, you might want some ideas on simple ways to create a nourishing lunch. Of course, taking leftovers is always an option, but what about something new?

Let's face it, if we really want to continue moving forward as a culture and as a global community, we all need to take responsibility for what we consume. Every time we eat we vote with our fork for the kind of world we want to live in. Eating is something we partake in at least three times a day. If we are rushed and decide to go out for lunch, even to a seemingly "healthy" place, we are probably unknowingly consuming genetically engineered ingredients, foods grown with pesticides and herbicides, or ingredients that are far too processed for the human body to thrive off of. It's unfortunate that the world we live in right now isn't set up for the health and well-being of the people and the planet, but we can change that....we are changing it! One big step is to buy organic ingredients and prepare your own meals.

By taking a few moments out of your day on the weekend you can easily prepare a week's worth of lunches for yourself all ready to go. I like to use glass mason jars because they are easy to store in the refrigerator and transport well. After preparation, make sure to cover them tightly with a lid and store in your refrigerator for no more than 5 days, though I prefer to make enough for 3 or 4 days at a time. Below are some of my favorite combinations! It is best to wait to add the dressing until the day you plan on consuming your salad. If you have any lettuce in the salad then it is best to wait to dress it just before serving.

Heirloom Tomato Basil Quinoa Salad

I love summertime's bounty of fresh produce! I created this recipe while visiting family in the Midwest, where you can actually find a variety of tomatoes this time of year. In the Pacific Northwest the tomatoes are not in abundance until August. Heirloom tomatoes have not been hybridized over the years and have a sweeter taste, but are also generally less resistant to disease, which is why they are not produced on a large scale. Look for them at your local food co-op or Farmer's Market in the summertime.

This salad pairs fresh tomatoes and basil along with cooked quinoa and finely diced sweet onion. Serve it as a light, nutritious lunch or share it at your next potluck picnic. For those of you not familiar with quinoa, it is a nutrient-dense grain packed with all essential amino acids, is gluten-free, and cooks up quite like couscous. It is best if the quinoa cools completely before you make this salad.

Since my children do not like fresh tomatoes, I cook up 3 cups of quinoa and remove a third of it to make a special salad just for them. In place of the tomatoes I use chopped cucumbers and they love it! Everything else stays the same.

Buckwheat Pecan Thumbprint Cookies (vegan + gluten-free)

Try making these healthy, vegan, gluten-free cookies on a rainy afternoon with your children. They will surely brighten your day! Recipes made with freshly ground buckwheat flour (from raw groats) do not require the addition of xanthan gum in order to hold together without crumbling. Buckwheat is a grain that is quite often cross contaminated with gluten grains so be sure to purchase your groats from a certified gluten-free mill, such as Bob's Red Mill.

I use the dry container of my Vitamix to make homemade buckwheat flour. It quickly grinds up into a soft, non-gritty flour. You can use a coffee grinder too if you don't own a high-powered blender. Store the flour in a glass jar in your pantry for up to 3 months, or freeze it for longer storage.

Gluten-Free Flatbread Recipe made from Soaked Whole Grains (yeast-free, vegan)

I'm very excited to share this super simple gluten-free flatbread recipe with you today. It is made entirely from soaked gluten-free whole grains....no flours! This is a guest post from the lovely Kim Wilson of Simply Natural Health. Kim has written a fabulous e-book entitled Good and Easy Eats where you can find more of her delicious gluten-free soaked whole grain recipes! When Kim emailed me her recipe yesterday I immediately made it. I actually already had the two main ingredients prepped and ready to go....a bowl of millet and brown basmati rice soaking on the counter (in the correct measurements). My children devoured it right away and are asking when I will be making more! I just want to add that it is imperative that you sort through your millet (before soaking) and pick out any gluten grains. Millet is almost always contaminated with gluten! Happy Baking! ~Ali 

It’s a thrilling opportunity to be able to offer a guest blog here as I’ve admired Ali and Tom’s delicious recipes, lovely photos, and family-approach to natural eating for years. It was fourteen years ago when our family began embracing whole foods as the solution to our health issues. It wasn’t an easy transition initially as my husband was an extremely picky eater and I didn’t like cooking. Because of this I was highly motivated to find the quickest and easiest ways to prepare the most nutritionally-dense and family-pleasing foods. When I focused on developing more gluten-free recipes in an effort to help our adopted son (non-verbal and with many characteristically autistic behaviors), I was excited to find that the whole food approach to gluten-free cooking provided much more satisfying results than any of the costly, unappetizing and nutritionally-devoid gluten-free products and mixes out there.

Most gluten-free folks would probably agree that a couple of the toughest foods to replace satisfactorily are bread and pizza. I’ve worked for several months on developing and refining the super-simple, extremely versatile flatbread recipe I’m sharing here. I particularly love this kind of recipe because it begins with whole grains in contrast to whole grain flours. The grains are soaked, which increases their digestibility and nutritional profile, blended, and then POURED onto a hot baking stones or skillets. No more wrestling with sticky dough or batter!

Homemade Seaweed Snacks

Have you ever tried those salty seaweed snacks you buy at places like Trader Joe's? I know, they're addicting, we've tried them before and my children loved them! I won't buy them because they have so much packaging and because canola oil is listed as one of the ingredients (which is often genetically engineered). My 10 year old daughter has been thinking about a way to make them for months and she finally decided to figure it out last week. I asked her to write a "guest post" for me but she didn't want to. She did, however, write the recipe below but wanted me to "introduce" it. 

When she makes these, the other children hover over the pans as they come out of the oven and devour them ALL in one sitting. She will then proceed to make another batch and quickly hide some of them for her lunch. Seaweed, with the addition of unrefined sea salt, is a very nutritious trace-mineral snack! 

Here is Lily's recipe. I was amazed that she knew how to organize and write a recipe....must be from using my cookbook and cooking on her own. She asked me quite a few times what she should say next and I would reply: "what was your next step?" Then she would realize that she already knew the answer and proceed to type it up.

Gluten-Free Gingerbread Muffins (vegan, nut-free, xanthan-free)

Happy Winter Solstice, the darkest day of the year here in the northern hemisphere. As we were heading out to the beach today with the kids, my 6 year old said to me, "mama, that's weird, I thought today was supposed to be the darkest day of the year, but it's the sunniest!" Yes indeed, today was a beautiful day to spend at the beach playing on the warm, sunny rocks and exploring the trails. Also a good day to come home and bake gingerbread muffins to warm us up along with mugs full of hot spice tea!

These muffins use pureed prunes and chia seeds to bind them together and hold moisture. They are made almost entirely of teff flour. I buy 25 pound paper bags of it from Azure Standard for around $40 with free shipping. That comes out to about $1.60 a pound, which is far less than what you pay for those little packages in the health food store, plus the packaging is biodegradable. I buy organic, unsulphured prunes in bulk from my local food co-op.

Recipe Round-Up: Ideas for Packing a Healthy School Lunch

Well, the time has come to share some amazing recipes from some very talented bloggers. This month I am hosting the blog event, Go Ahead Honey, It's Gluten-Free, created by the lovely Naomi Devlin. My theme was of course, Ideas for Packing a Healthy School Lunch. I received so many submissions for this event that you may want to make yourself a cup of hot tea, sit back, relax, and enjoy what is to follow (or come back later when you have time). I know you'll leave the computer with oodles of new recipes and ideas for your child's lunchbox (or you own)!

My children go to a school where there isn't a hot lunch program so they have to pack their own lunches, although I know many children do indeed have an option for hot lunch. Unfortunately the majority of hot lunch programs throughout the United States offer food that is not conducive to health or mental attentiveness at all. For a look into daily meals of a typical hot lunch program please check out the lunch lady's blog, Fed up with Lunch: The School Lunch Project. Reading her blog churns my stomach and saddens me to view what children across the country are served in schools. On a positive note, there are people and organizations working right now to improve the health of our children, reduce obesity, support local farming, and strengthen the community with programs such as the Farm to School Program! Yes!

My girls pack their lunch every morning (sometimes they are super organized and work on it the night before, but not usually). I have created a handy chart that you can post on your fridge to help as a guideline. When children pack their own lunch they are more likely to eat what is there. For example, if I were to pack a salad in my daughter's lunch...would she eat it? Maybe. But chances are, if she packs it and it was her idea, she'll eat it. Packing a lunch and having the opportunity to choose healthy foods is very empowering for young children!

The above photo is a typical school lunch that one of my daughters might pack (minus the cherry tomatoes, I added them for color). It consists of an almond butter and Homemade Honey-Sweetened Jam quesadilla (on a steamed brown rice tortilla) placed into a reusable sandwich bag from ReUsies.com (I just ordered some). They might also pack some fruit and greens and maybe a trail mix and place everything into a wicker basket with a cloth napkin.

Now, on to many ideas for packing a healthy school lunch from some fabulous blogs.......

First off we have Kim from Affairs of Living. She shares healthy, gluten-free, allergy-free recipes on her blog. For this event, Kim devoted a whole post to Packing a Healthy, Allergen-Free Lunch. Within her post are links to many of her fabulous recipes, such as her Yeast-Free Pumpkin Seed Teff Sandwich Bread or her Cashew Cheese recipe, plus numerous ideas for creating a healthy, balanced meal.

Next we have Carrie from Ginger Lemon Girl. Carrie has shared her recipe for Black Bean and Butternut Squash Chili. Just in time for Autumn! Carrie has many gluten-free baking recipes on her blog, including a recipe for Crusty, Vegan Gluten-Free Bread and an amazing Peach Crisp Recipe!

And now on to Sea from Book of Yum! Sea shares healthy gluten-free, allergen-free recipes on her blog as well. Many of them are Indian-inspired such as this post for Indian Tiffin Recipes, including a recipe for Indian Quinoa with Peas, Baby Zucchini Curry, and Squash Blossom Pakoras. Can you pack my lunch Sea? Seriously though, my children love anything curry! Her Quinoa Masala recipe is fabulous too!

Next we have Elana from Elana's Pantry. Elana shares wholesome gluten-free, grain-free recipes on her blog. She has also written a cookbook based on almond flour entitled The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook. Today she shares a typical Healthy School Lunch that her boys would pack and her recipe for Spicy Power Bars. If you would like an alternative to grain-based sandwich breads then check out her recipe for a very nutritious Grain-Free Sandwich Bread. She is also giving away a copy of our cookbook right now, so head on over and leave a comment on her blog to enter!

Next we have Heidi from Adventures of a Gluten-Free Mom. Heidi blogs about all things gluten-free, including many Gluten-Free Product Reviews. For this event she has shared her recipe for Spring Rolls with a Vegan Pumpkin Dip. I like her tip for keeping the rolls moist until lunchtime!

And now on to Shirley from Gluten-Free Easily! As you probably guessed, Shirley shares recipes that are gluten-free and easy! She uses ingredients that most folks can find at their local grocery store and keeps ingredients to the minimum. Today she shares a mouth-watering Protein and Fruit Bar Recipe using quinoa flakes, a fresh apple, and nuts and seeds all baked into a bar at a low temperature. I can't wait to make them! You might also like Shirley's easy dessert recipes such as her Crustless Apple Pie or her Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies.

Next we have Naomi Devlin from Straight into Bed Cakefree and Dried. Naomi in the creator of this monthly blog event, Go Ahead Honey, It's Gluten-Free. Naomi has shared a beautiful and nutritious gluten-free Pumpkin Pitta Bread Recipe! Wow, they sound amazing! Naomi also shares plenty of super nutritious filling ideas for these lovely pittas in her post. While visiting Naomi's blog be sure to check out her Grain-Free Pizza recipe or her Grain-Free Cheese Crackers.

Next we have Debbie from The Gluten-Free Dish. Debbie shares gluten-free, dairy-free, and sugar-free recipes on her blog. Today she has shared a raw Date Bar Recipe created by her husband. Full of warming spices, dates, and pecans, I'm sure this nutritious recipe will be a hit with your children! While visiting her blog you might also want to check out her recipes for Quinoa Black Bean Burgers and Stevia-Sweetened Black Bean Brownies!

And now on to Alisa from One Frugal Foodie! Alisa is the author of Go Dairy Free, a cookbook and resource guide packed full of information on dairy-free living with yummy recipes! Read a review I wrote here on this blog about her book if you would like. Alisa has shared an easy and nutritious Banana Oat Bar recipe that children love! If you are interested in more information on Dairy-Free living then check out her very popular Go Dairy Free website.

Next we have Valerie from City | Life | Eats. Valerie has so many simple and super nutritious lunchbox ideas and recipes on her blog that you'll definitely want to check out her Healthy Lunchbox Series! For this event Valerie has shared her recipe for a non-dairy Chocolate Milkshake made with Sunbutter, raw cacao, spinach, and a few more key ingredients. Having a smoothie in your lunch is such a treat!

Next we have Melissa From Gluten Free for Good. Melissa is a lover of anything veggie and has a host of nutritious gluten-free recipes on her blog. For this event she has shared a kid-friendly Healthy Power Bar recipe. Oh my goodness do these sound amazing! Melissa has four grown children and spent many years packing healthy lunches for them....oh how I love to hear her stories. Having four young children myself, her perspective and wisdom go a long way. You might also want to check out her recipes for Gluten-Free Veggie Pizza and Homemade Vegetable Soup Stock!

And now onto Nicola from G-Free Mom! Nicola has shared a post she wrote on Easy Kid Lunch Boxes. She shares 13 lunchbox ideas in this post all with photos. It is very helpful to be able to visually see each lunch! While visiting her blog be sure to check out her recipe page, which is full of easy, gluten-free family-friendly recipes.

Next we have Zoe from Z's Cup of Tea. Zoe blogs about gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free, and sugar-free food! Today she has shared her recipe for Flourless Apple Pancakes. Although we tend to think of pancakes as a breakfast food, this super nutritious recipe would be perfect for a lunchbox! While visiting her blog you may also want to check out her recipe for Pumpkin Muffins made with nut butter, eggs, and pureed pumpkin...oh they sound so yummy and nutrient-dense....the perfect treat for a school lunch.

And now on to Maggie from She Let Them Eat Cake. Maggie blogs about gluten-free baking and living. Today she shares her recipe for Vegan Chocolate Almond Cupcakes (just in case you want to add a healthy treat to the lunchbox)! Yum! These cupcakes are full of almond meal, sweetened with maple syrup, and have a yummy raw cashew frosting to top them all off! You might also want to check out Maggie's recipe for Vegan Apple Bread!

Next we have Kim from Cook it Allergy Free. Kim blogs about all things allergy-free For this event, she shares her post entitled: Allergy Free Lunchbox with Brain Power! Kim literally has dozens of ideas for packing a healthy lunchbox, allergy-free or not! While visiting her blog you might want to check out her recipe for Pumpkin Pie Waffles: Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free! Mmmm!

Next we have Hallie from Daily Bites. Hallie shares very nutritious, gluten-free recipes on her blog. For this event she created a Sweet Sun-Dried Tomato Hummus. It gets its sweetness from the addition of sun-dried tomatoes. Anything dip-able usually goes over well with children. My children are big hummus fans and I'm looking forward to trying her recipe. While visiting her blog you might want to check out her recipes for 5-Minute BBQ Sauce and Vegan, Flourless Pumpkin Pecan Cookies!

And now on to Diane from The W.H.O.L.E Gang (whole organic living every day). Diane blogs about real, gluten-free food that is simple and delicious! She has shared her recipe for Roasted Chickpeas for this event. I think it would be the perfect addition to a child's lunchbox! Diane also has a post with School Breakfast and Lunch Ideas that you might want to check out. Diane has also written a cookbook entitled, The Gluten-Free Diner available as a PDF download on her site!

Next we have Andrea from Phyto Foods sharing her recipe(s) for Kale Chips. She says parents are often amazed to see their children eating one of these, and then another, and another.....and so on. Yes! Kids do eat kale when it is offered! Andrea shares healthy, whole food recipes that are often raw and always gluten-free! While on her site be sure to check out her recipe for Brown Rice Lentil Dosas! They look amazing! And don't miss Andrea's Easy Raw Chocolate Torte!

And now on to Kelly from The Spunky Coconut! Kelly shares gluten-free, casein-free, sugar-free, and ofter raw recipes on her blog. For this event she has shared her recipe for Teriyaki Veggie Cakes. Full of beans, vegetables, hemp seeds, and chia seeds, this recipe would be a super nutritious addition to your child's lunchbox. I love how Kelly has created a kid-friendly balanced lunch incorporating lightly steamed cauliflower, guacamole, and rice crackers. While on Kelly's site be sure to check out her recipe for Vanilla White Bean Cake....it is out-of-this-world amazing! Kelly has also published a cookbook entitled The Spunky Coconut Cookbook that is full of nutritious gluten-free, casein-free, and sugar-free recipes. You can read a Review I wrote here on this blog of Kelly's book if you would like.

Next we have Carol from Simply Gluten Free. Carol shares fabulous gluten-free recipes on her blog including many baking recipes. For this event, Carol has shared a post she wrote on Allergy Free Lunches for Kids which includes a recipe for Chicken Salad Lettuce Wraps. Yummy and easy! Her post lists dozens prepared foods that are gluten-free, something that can be easily overlooked if you don't pay close attention to labeling! While on Carol's blog be sure to check out her recipes for gluten-free, dairy-free Cream Puffs and Polenta Chicken Pot Pie.

Next we have Alta from Tasty Eats at Home! Alta shares delicious, family-friendly, gluten-free recipes on her blog. For this event she has shared an uber nutritious Banana Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe. Her recipe is grain-free, dairy-free, and sugar-free! I can not wait to try these! While on Alta's site be sure to check out her recipe for Vegan Gluten-Free Cheesecake with Blueberry Compote and her recipe for Gluten-Free Cornmeal Pancakes with Maple Orange Butter.

And now on to A. Fisher from Homemade Inspirations. She has shared her recipe for Homemade Delicious Salsa! Mmmm! She says she likes to use the salsa as a dressing for a bed of lettuce and will sometimes add a hardboiled egg and tortilla chips on the side. While visiting her site be sure to check out her recipe for Homemade Salad with Steak and Potatoes.

And last but not least, we have Jennifer from The GFCF Lady. Jennifer has shared A Week of Lunches...with photos of each lunch! And Another Week of Lunches complete with more photos! There are plenty of fun ideas here for school lunches! While visiting Jennifer's blog, be sure to check out her recipe for Green Chicken Curry and Homemade Coconut Yogurt.

I also received a few submissions from non-bloggers but I was having difficulties copying and pasting their recipes into this post so I will save them for later this Fall.

Thank you all for your submissions to this wonderful blogging event! I think we can all walk away with many new ideas for improving our children's lunches!

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Raw Caramel Dip for Apples

Happy Autumnal Equinox! As the evenings become as crisp as the apples, darkness begins to triumph over light. Today we celebrate the closure of summer, the dying of the light, and prepare ourselves for a new season. Autumn. As the trees shed their leaves and the plants die back, shedding old beliefs or thought patterns and going inward to feel our roots, our connection with the earth, can be quite powerful at this time.

Last night I was part of an equinox celebration (albeit a day early). The night was crisp and the sky crystal clear with the moon almost full. A warm fire, songs, and good food shared amongst friends composed most of our celebration. One friend brought a delectable raw caramel dip and sliced fresh apples. It was so tasty that I tried to recreate it today. Success! It tastes very close to her version (thanks Janet). Enjoy!

Ideas for Packing a Healthy School Lunch!

Well, September is here, school is beginning and it is time for packing

lunches once again! The above lunch was made by my 8 year old daughter. It is composed of a quesadilla made with refried beans and two brown rice tortillas, blackberries and sliced nectarines, sliced carrots and cucumbers, raw cashews, almonds, and chocolate chips. As you can see, very simple and nutritious, full of key nutrients for a growing and developing brain.

This month I am hosting a wonderful monthly blogging event called Go Ahead Honey, It's Gluten Free! This event was created by the lovely Naomi Devlin of Straight into Bed Cakefree and Dried. And my theme, of course, is: Ideas for Packing a Healthy School Lunch! This is a way for you, a reader or blogger, to submit a link and photo of your recipe and/or ideas to me by the end of this month (please, no later than September 27th) and I will post them all to my blog on the 30th of this month. If you don't have a blog, please feel free to submit a short recipe or list of ideas with a photo and I will post it along with the links from other bloggers. Please email me your post attached with a digital photo to ali@nourishingmeals (dot) com.

In the meantime, (while we are waiting for all of your lovely ideas) I have a few ideas myself to share. First off, if you haven't read the post I did last year on Packing a Healthy School Lunch you might want to check it out. I have a colorful chart with pictures of foods in each food group that you can download, print, and post on your refrigerator for a quick reminder of what to pack. This way your child can choose a food from each category to create a healthy, balanced lunch.

Main Dish/Protein Ideas:

Quinoa Salmon Burgers

Summer Black Bean Salad (made without the spicy peppers)

Dilled Adzuki Bean and Rice Salad

Chicken and Wild Rice Salad

Rice, Garbanzo Bean, and Kale Salad (my kids love this one!)

Spring Herb Quinoa Salad (my 5yr old daughter's favorite!)

Collard Wraps with Raw Sunflower Seed Pate

Garlic Rosemary White Bean Dip on sliced bread with cucumbers

Slices of Roasted Chicken

Lentil Noodle Soup

Easy Chicken and Vegetable Stew

Spiced Chicken and Rice Stew

Soothing Red Lentil Soup

Moroccan Chickpea and Potato Soup (an absolute favorite of my kids)

Halibut and Potato Chowder

Soy-Free Tamari Roasted Nuts

Quesadilla slices made with brown rice tortillas, refried black beans, and spinach

Vegetables/Fruits:

Green Smoothie (poured into a small glass jar with a tight-fitting lid)

Blueberry-Cucumber Smoothie

Cucumber, Tomato, Basil Salad

Raw Mediterranean Kale Salad

Orange-Wasabi Cabbage Salad

Curried Carrot Cauliflower Soup

Mixed greens with a small container of Salad Dressing on the side

Slices of cucumbers, carrots, and celery (my kids like simple best)

Celery sticks with almond butter spread into them

Any in-season whole or sliced fruit

Grains:

Sticky Brown Rice in nori rolls (all-time favorite of my kids)

Cooked Quinoa

Cold Spaghetti Salad

Whole Grain Flatbread (yeast-free)

Quinoa Seed Crackers

Teff Banana Bread

Teff Banana Pancakes

Dark Teff Sandwich Bread

Zucchini-Almond Bread

Peach Muffin

Carrot Raisin Buckwheat Muffin (my kids beg me to make these!)

Treats:

We don't always have treats around but when we do it would be some of the following (fruit is sometimes the best and easiest treat of all):

Raw Energy Balls

Cinnamon-Sunflower Truffles

Date-Sweetened Ginger Cookie

Spiced Teff Cookie Bar

Sunflower Seed Cookies

Oatmeal Heart Cookies

Peanut Butter Cookies

Flourless Chocolate Chip Cookies

Strawberry Hazelnut Shortcakes

Maple Raspberry Scones

Mango-Coconut Pudding

Vegan Pumpkin Cheesecake

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

Apple Crisp

I am really looking forward to sharing your post on Ideas for packing a Healthy School Lunch. Please remember to submit it with an attached photo by September 27th, 2010! Thanks! :)

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Spring Herb Quinoa Salad with Dandelion Greens and Peas

Light, refreshing, and full of Spring's intoxicating flavors. Rosemary, thyme, oregano, and chives. Fresh dandelion greens, peas, and lemon. This quinoa salad is balanced and uber nutritious. I've added salmon and sheep's feta but it can be made vegan too. In fact, once you have the quinoa cooked and tossed with the simple herb dressing below, the options for creativity are endless.

Quinoa is naturally gluten-free and one of our favorite grains. It is high in protein, antioxidants, fiber, and complex carbohydrates. We cook it at least twice a week. I love that it cooks up in only 15 to 20 minutes! Here is a tip for cooking quinoa (actually most grains): Be sure to bring the quinoa to a boil when it first goes on the stove and then it bring down to a simmer. If it doesn't boil first, the quinoa can end up mushy and the grains stuck together.

Garlic-Rosemary White Bean Dip on Gluten-Free Baguette

The other day a wonderful friend came to visit us from Seattle along with her children. She brought a spread of beautiful, delicious food to share. I also cooked up a lovely white bean, olive, tomato pasta sauce to go over noodles. I had plenty of leftover white beans in the pot which I wasn't sure yet what to do with. Well, my friend suggested I make a white bean dip.

And so I did.

We have been enjoying it spread over slices of a crusty whole grain, gluten-free baguette that I have been making. My kids beg me to make this recipe almost daily now. It is a kneadable, gluten-free, vegan yeast bread I developed with very little starch and only a smidgen of xanthan gum. It is moist and dense with a flavor and that resembles 100% wheat bread. Hint: it will be in my next book.

Collard Wraps with Raw Sunflower Pate

A few months ago I soaked a bowlful of sunflower seeds overnight with the intention of creating some sort of yummy pate to be wrapped up in a collard green. I wasn't quite sure how it would evolve but I trusted it would be, at the very least, edible. After rinsing and draining the soaked seeds I pulled out nearly every ingredient imaginable from the refrigerator. Now time has taught me to not go overboard and to just stick with a few ingredients when creating recipes. So I chose three (not including salt, pepper, and herbs) and tossed them all into the food processor along with the soaked seeds.

Both Tom and I were more than delighted with the results. Our toddler boys couldn't seem to get enough! A few days later I measured ingredients and whirled the food processor once again to figure out the amounts. We've made these wraps a number of times since then and even demonstrated them at a recent Elimination Diet cooking class. We never seem to get bored with them.

To make the collard greens pliable for wrapping I decided to blanch them. Just sixty seconds in boiling water creates an awesome flourless wrap folks! If you don't decide to use the filling ingredients below I hope you will venture into trying the wraps with whatever fillings you desire.

Turkey and honey mustard? Smoked Salmon with Avocado Mayonnaise? Refried Beans and Brown Rice?

The trick is to find very large greens with out too many slug bites or insect damage (holes)!

Gluten-Free, Vegan Hemp Bread Recipe

This fantastic gluten-free yeast bread recipe utilizes high protein hemp flour along with other gluten-free flours such as teff flour and brown rice flour. It is dark and hearty, perfect for sandwiches. For a slight variation you can create a flavorful "Rye" bread by adding onion powder and caraway seeds.

Here is the feedback from my taste testers: rustic, hearty, "dessert bread," mmm, I'd like to make this!

I buy my hemp flour from our local Community Food Co-op, though here are a few other places that sell it online: Nature's Perfect Food, Essense-of-Life, and Healthy Hemp Food.

Hemp's nutrition profile is no laughing matter. This seed boasts over 33 grams of digestible protein per 100 grams. It contains all essential amino acids; is high in minerals such as iron, calcium, and magnesium; and is high in essential fats.

I won't go into much more detail about the nutritional benefits of hemp, but you can read more about it here.

Pictured below is the hemp bread with my homemade honey-sweetened blueberry jam.

Whole Grain Flatbread (gluten-free, yeast-free, vegan)

I have had a number of emails over the summer for a gluten-free flatbread recipe. I also get emails and requests for yeast-free breads. So here is is, the best of all worlds....yeast-free, gluten-free, rice-free, whole grain goodness, and quick & easy! What more could you ask for. Oh yes, it tastes great too.

I made this again for dinner last night. While it was baking, one of my 20 month old twins was standing next to the oven as I opened it to take a peek. Immediately he started to let me know that he wanted some by his grunting and fussing (they don't talk much yet)! He patiently paced back and forth next to the oven until I pulled it out. As I set it on the counter he pushed a stool over and leaned over the hot pan to take a sniff. "Mmm" he said. "Hot" I said!

I cut into the bread after a few minutes and immediately he grabbed a bit out of my hands and gobbled it up, piping hot. I continued to cut it into squares to serve with dinner. I noticed that he kept grabbing the squares, hopping down off the stool, running away, then coming back for more. Well what I found was that he was hoarding all of the bread and placing it on his plate set at the dining room table! I just had to laugh!

All of my children love the bread as do the other children I had taste test it. My plan is to make this bread often and put it in my daughter's lunchbox along with something to spread on it. Small containers of almond butter and homemade blueberry jam or hummus will be perfect.

You can refer to the post I did on Packing a Healthy School Lunch and download a handy chart while there for more tips and ideas.

Last night after dinner was done and the kids were in bed, I mixed up two more batches of the dry ingredients and put them into sealed, glass containers. It is so much easier to mix everything up while all the ingredients are already out on the counter!

Packing a Healthy School Lunch

Simply making sure you have a good lunch can be a challenge sometimes, but what about your child? I know mornings can be frenzied and kids may go to school with less than optimal lunches. Or you may be the type that packs a super healthy lunch everyday only to find most of it uneaten in the lunchbox at the end of the day.

There is a solution.

Have your child pack his or her lunch in the morning! This way they pack what they want within the realm of healthy options and you have more time for other things in the morning.

We haven't always done this, in fact we just started having Lily pack her own lunch 2 weeks ago (she is 7 years old now). So far she has done it every morning and done a great job! She chooses the food she would like for that day, does any cutting or chopping necessary, and packs it all into her lunch basket.

The inspiration for this came from my sister-in-law. Her girls, 8 years old and 10 years old, have been packing their own lunches for the last few years. On a visit to their house I noticed this lovely chart they had posted on their pantry door. The chart had categories with food options written in each one.

So I decided to make my own chart and add little pictures next to each food to help younger children who may not be reading yet. The chart is no artistic masterpiece, I just used clip art, though in the future I may update it and use my own photographs.

Download Healthy School Lunch Chart Here:





The basics of the chart give 5 categories: Fruit, Vegetable, Whole Grain, Protein, and Treat. The child can choose at least one food from each category to create a healthy, balanced lunch.

I didn't mention anything about "gluten-free" on the chart so it can be used by all. For example, under the Whole Grain category I list "Whole Grain Muffin," which could mean a Teff Muffin or even a grain-free muffin such as my Banana Almond Butter Muffins for those of you who are paleo/grain-free, but this could be entirely different for someone else. Although dairy products are not actually necessary for proper human development, I have added "Yogurt" under the Protein category. This could mean cow, goat, or coconut milk yogurt. If you add other dairy products to your child's diet then you could just hand write in, say milk or cheese, under the protein category.


This morning Lily made a nori roll with sticky brown rice and carrots, put some heated Lentil Noodle Soup into her Stainless Steel Thermos, sliced some fruit, and placed a handful of raw almonds and dried mango into a lunch bag. She loves the chart and is very inspired to make her own lunch. It is also certainly a self-esteem builder to know you are capable!

If you would like your child to start packing his or her own lunch then print off the chart and show it to your child and ask what he thinks about it. You may want to try some practice runs with it on weekend days. Don't expect it to go super smooth the first week. It didn't for us. We had to remind Lily to pack her lunch instead of sit at the counter and color! One day I decided not to say a thing to see what would happen. I figured it couldn't hurt her to go to school for one day without a lunch, certainly she would never forget if that happened. Well, she got to the car with no lunch packed, it was 8:15am, and then she comes rushing back into the kitchen, grabs what she could in 5 seconds, and then rushes back to the car. She came home very hungry that day, but has since remembered to pack her lunch before she colors and has breakfast!



Also, don't underestimate what a child as young as 3 years old can do. They can pretty much pack an entire lunch, though they may need some training if they are not accustomed to working in the kitchen. I remember when Lily was barely that age, Grace had just been born, and I was completely consumed with caring for a newborn. She would go into the kitchen when she was hungry and make herself almond butter and jam sandwiches, and sliced bananas!


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