What We Ate Wednesday

April 13th, 2011 - filed under: The Food » Food Styles



Last weekend, while relaxing on my mini vacation, I discovered an awesome new blog. Spabettie features frequently vegan, always gluten free, and beautifully photographed food. And the author is a Portlander! I love me some good food porn, and I was particularly intrigued by her participation in the rising Internet meme, What I Ate Wednesdays. Inspired by her lovely photos, I’ve decided to play along!



I always enjoy seeing what other people eat, and I thought it would be fun to look at a toddler’s meals as well. So here’s mine (high-raw) and Waits’ (not including lots of breast milk) menu, on Monday 11 April. If you’d like to join in on the What I Ate Wednesdays fun, you can learn more about it here.






Coffee.
We were just back from a weekend away and, I discovered, out of coffee filters. Toilet paper to the rescue.




Baby Breakfast.
Waits had half a banana, a dollop of almond butter, and a few raspberries. We also shared a spoonful of blackstrap molasses, not pictured.








Smoothie.
Due to the aforementioned mini vacation, we were also totally out of greens. But no worries, I just raided my patio pot for it’s dandelion “weed”. Greens is greens, and dandelion is exceptionally nutritious. My smoothie also contained: water kefir, a small frozen banana, frozen mango, Vitamineral Green, hemp protein, and maca.




Waits finished up . . .




. . . while I prepped some dinner ingredients (that’s quinoa and cashews, soaking)








Juice.
After a bath, a nap, and our morning walk, Waits and I shared a juice that included an entire head of cabbage, half of a large cucumber, and a splash of fresh lemon. I heart cabbage juice!

While we drank our juice I made up a big batch of hummus, and Waits snacked on that as well. Then I made another cup bowl of coffee (not pictured) and tried, unsuccessfully, to put Mr Man down for his afternoon nap. His schedule was still off from our trip and he was having none of it.



Late Lunch.
Instead of having a nap, we had a hummus plate. Cukes, carrots, and celery. Waits ate mostly hummus and cukes – his favorite veggie.




Kombucha.
While I was making dinner I had some peach kombucha. Repurposed salad dressing bottles are excellent for storing home brew!






Dinner.
Damian and I had taco salads, with romaine, red onion, and radishes tossed in lemon juice and nutritional yeast, topped with spiced quinoa, azuki beans, and avocado, and drizzled with a zesty red cashew cream sauce. Damian’s was served over a crispy flour tortilla.

Waits ate a kiddie version of our meal: quinoa with zesty sauce (his first cashews!), azuki beans with nutritional yeast, and some cucumbers on the side.




Wine.
After the baby was snuggled up asleep, I enjoyed a very small glass of wine while working. It was delicious.

~~~

What have you been eating lately?

  • http://spabettie.com Kristina @ spabettie

    oh, what a LOVELY surprise to come here and have some blog love! thank you SO… your wonderful words mean a lot and make me smile BIG :D

    your photos are gorgeous, your food sounds tasty, and I want a three portion plate like Waits!! I have fashioned a coffee filter out of tp before too!! (and in college, I think the other way around, just once…) ;)

  • TeniseRae

    I also dig the three portion bowl/dish.

    And wow…you’re not kidding when you say you had a “very small” glass of wine. That’s like…one gulp for me. lol!

  • http://lovesveggies.blogspot.com/ Lindsay

    haha I guess I didn’t realize how messy babies really are! looks like he enjoyed it though! I’ve never tried juicing cabbage (not sure why but it never struck my fancy) but I think I will now because it’s SUPER cheap at my farmers market and I know how full of nutrients cabbage is. Thanks for the post! Love your blog girl. :)

  • http://mutualmenu.blogspot.com Joselle

    Ha! I love how that sweet, minimalist dollop of almond butter and few disks of bananas turned into a HUGE smear all over Waits’ plate & tray. :)

    I’m glad I logged on because I was just going to eat pasta and a veggie burger with frozen green beans for dinner because I am tired and don’t want to chop. But now I’m going to make the sweet potato tacos from Color Me Vegan along with a raw cabbage and beet slaw I originally planned on. Thanks for the inspiration to eat a better dinner.

  • http://joyfulyogawithtara.blogspot.com/ Tara

    Thanks for the good food inspiration! I’ve never juiced cabbage before, but I think I might give it a try after reading this. It looks so yummy!

  • http://peasandcrayons.blogspot.com Jenn L @ Peas and Crayons

    Hello new friend!!! =) You forgot to link up your post on my page (thats how everyone sees your amazing post and can visit you!) So I did it for ya! <3

    I would love to hear more about your homebrew peach kombucha and cannot wait to read more of your posts!!!! =) Happy What I Ate Wednesday!

  • http://amongtheknights.blogspot.com Sara

    What a lovely idea! And to think I have been buying dandelion greens.
    So just out of curiosity (and let me please be clear…i am in no way trying to be judgmental, I completely trust all of your judgment in the way you are raising Waits and will be buying your book…) it’s ok to drink a little when you breastfeed? That is most definitely a small glass of wine. Will you be talking about these things in your book? I guess I don’t quite understand the process.

  • http://emilyscrueltyfreekitchen.blogspot.com/ Emily

    I’d love to see a recipe for that cashew cream sauce :)

  • Melisa

    I love food porn, too. :) When you soak quinoa, how do you alter the preparation? Missed you while you were gone, by the way!

  • Christina

    I also loved how Waits simple plate of a few things turned into mush paint. I miss that! Sooo cute!

  • http://easierthanyouthink.wordpress.com Ginger Baker

    Oooooh cabbage juice sounds at once fascinating and slightly terrifying. I must try!

    @Sara Yes, reasonable (read: small) amounts of alcohol are perfectly okay, especially if you have just finished nursing the kiddo and don’t expect to be providing the milk bar to the kid for a while. :) If you DO drink a lot, you can express and dump some. FYI, breastmilk is created from blood cells, so, essentially, if your blood alchol level is low, you needn’t worry. And even if not, a good way to think of it is this: if you drank the blood a a drunk person, would you get drunk? Presuming of course that vampires could get drunk in the first place LOL!

    Yes, my brain is weird.

  • http://urbanana.net Lauren

    From what I understand, consuming alcohol (in moderation) while breastfeeding or even while pregnant isn’t nearly as bad as they say.

    While breastfeeding, if there’s a little alcohol in the milk it’s not going to cause fetal alcohol syndrome or brain damage or anything like that. It might make the baby sleepy and I read in ONE source (and it may not have been a very scientific source) that it may delay motor skills development. But I drank a beer or a glass of wine every now and then while I breastfed my son and his development is totally normal. I think they just say to avoid it because they don’t want you binge drinking… but that’s not healthy whether you’re pregnant/breastfeeding or not! The bigger problem with alcohol while breastfeeding though is that it can reduce your milk supply.

    As for drinking while pregnant, I’ve been reading a lot about this because I’m pregnant for the second time and wanted to occasionally have a small glass of wine (like the size of Sayward’s in the photo). Drinking that small of an amount of alcohol while pregnant is OK because your body will process the alcohol before it gets to/through the placenta. It’s when you have 2+ drinks a day that you should be careful. In fact, all of the research I found said that all cases of fetal alcohol syndrome were from mothers who were alcoholics and drank something like 18+ drinks a week! And a few studies even said that drinking alcohol in moderation while pregnant (like one small drink a day) even resulted in smarter children when they tracked them through age 5.

  • http://amongtheknights.blogspot.com Sara

    Wow! That’s very interesting. I didn’t realize that was how breast milk worked. It makes much more sense. Thank you for clearing that up :) I’m not a binge drinker or anywhere near having kids yet but I’ve always wondered.

  • http://easierthanyouthink.wordpress.com Ginger Baker

    @Sara No problem. :) It helped me understand a lot too once I understood the actual process of how breastmilk is created (well, the GENERAL idea of the process – I am sure it is quite complicated biologically lol!) Not, mind, that that knowledge helped any in explaining to my MIL that, no, it’s not like a giant funnel wherein alcohol is drunk in and pours out of my nipples lol. But that’s one of the upsides of my divorce…

    @Lauren Totally agreed!

  • http://www.pressurecookerdiaries.com Leslie@pressurecookerdiaries

    I’d love to see the recipe for the cashew sauce!

  • Sandra

    I really dig Waits’ plate, where did you get it?

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com Sayward

    @ Kristina @ Spabettie – Yay, well the love was much deserved. Thank YOU for the inspiration!

    @ Tenise Rae – Haha, yeah Im a lightweight these days. =)

    @ Lindsay & Tara – Cabbage (and broccoli stalks) juice up totally sweet. SO good! I’ll have a juice recipe post coming soon.

    @ Joselle – Aw, glad it inspired you. =)

    @ Jen L. – I was having technical dificulties and had to wait for my IT, er husband, to get home. All fixed now!

    @ Sara – I’m lat to the conversation, but what everyone else said is SPOT on (yay for super smart readers, right?). I enjoyed a small glass of wine here and there (at my midwives urging!) during my third trimester, and continue to enjoy occasional moderate alcohol while breastfeeding.I’m careful of course but I really don’t worry about it. It’s ne of my greatest little treats!

    @ Emily & Leslie@pressurecookerdiaries –
    1/2 cup cashews, soaked 2+ hours
    1 cup mild red salsa (I used Trader Joe’s organic roasted tomatillo something or other)
    1 heaping tablespoon nutritional yeast
    juice of half a large lemon
    * I added a tablespoon of tahini but Damian insists it would have been better without, and I think he might be right

    Process in a blender until creamy. Enjoy! I used it as the dressing pictured and I’ve been dipping raw veggies in the leftovers ever since. Tonight I’ll be serving the last of it on homemade veggie burgers. =)

    @ Melisa – I think you’d use a bit less water but honestly I never measure with quinoa! I just pour it into the rice cooker with enough liquid to cover and call it good. I’m not too texture picky and it’s very forgiving!

    @ Christina – Tough to clean up but totally worth the cute and the joy he gets from it!

    @ Ginger Baker and Lauren – Thanks guys, y’all are ON it! =D

    @ Sandra – This is it!

  • Alexandra

    Thank God you’re back! I missed my hippie mama in my crazy hectic life.

  • http://windycityvegan.wordpres.com Monika {windycityvegan}

    I wandered over looking for the FFF – don’t know how I missed this in my feed reader earlier.

    I agree with Ginger, the idea of juicing cabbage is both fascinating and slightly terrifying. I think I’ll give it a try, though!

    That green smoothie looks so good I want to dive right in. I’m in the process of transitioning to raw for the summer, but with my GI issues I won’t be able to go 100%. I’m curious, are you going to go all out raw, or do you have a less than 100% upper limit you’ll be happy with?

  • Kathryn

    YAY! For a juice recipe post coming!

  • Moira

    yes, please do share that cabbage juice recipe!

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com Sayward

    Yes, juice recipes coming soon!

    @ Monika – I don’t aspire to be 100% raw as, like, an “end goal” that I’m aiming at. I know its not sustainable *for me* and I’m also pretty sure it wouldn’t be optimally healthy *for me*. But, obviously I adore raw foods and I definitely feel my best when I’m high-raw. I also *love* doing periods of 100% raw, in fact I’ll be doing one next month for my MMM! (shhh don’t tell) (oh shit did I say that out loud?)

    How raw are you aiming for this summer? Do you worry about it with your training? I’m seriously considering taking up running very soon (shopping CL for jogging strollers!) but I worry that taking those two things on simultaneously might be a bit much. Do you have any experience there?

  • http://www.windycityvegan.wordpress.com Monika {windycityvegan}

    @Sayward: I like to do short periods of 100% raw, but it’s not feasible for me to do all of the time, either. I was 100% raw for six months a few years ago and it was a great experience, but I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to go that long again, at least anytime soon. (It was pretty wild, though!) Right now if I can stay 100% raw for a three-day weekend I’m satisfied.

    Going/staying high-raw helps my training, as long as I ease into it over a few days. I will be sending you information on that very soon!

  • http://hitomi-2011.blogspot.com/ Hitomi

    Ooooh! That’s really cool! I am keeping track of your blog a lot lately! You have inspired me to start my own! I am changing my eating habits little by little, though I have some troubles with keeping my stomach full! I am eating a lot less than before but I am feeling hungry more than I should! I am experimenting with a lot of new stuff and I am really happy about it!

  • Sandra

    Sayward,
    I made taco salad with the cashew cream tonight for dinner, and my holdout fiance ate this and said, “I think we can be vegan now!” I remember finding your blog over a year ago, and I haven’t bought laundry soap or deodorant since. Now, you’ve helped me convert my stubborn fiance! You’re amazing!

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com Sayward

    @ Monika – *very* excited to read that!

    @ Hitomi – Be careful to make sure you are getting enough calories if you’re switching to a plant-based diet. You shouldn’t feel hungry. Make sure you’re eating enough healthy fats to fel sated, and enough bulk to provide sufficient energy (plant food is generally less calorie dense so you *need* to eat what looks like more) I’m glad you’re inspired and on a healthier path – good luck!

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com Sayward

    @ Sandra – Ohmigod, BEST COMMENT EVER. Seriously, you just made my day. Not only flattering that you like my recipe, but so amazing that your partner is opening up to veganism. Thank you so much for sharing!

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