Potato Soup - made from leftover (s)mashed potatoes

the picture certainly is not the best, however this soup was delicious. Earlier this week I made smashed to serve along meatloaf - http://galactopdx.blogspot.com/2012/03/meatloaf-perfect-smashed-potatoes-and.html. I made plenty so the girls had meatloaf for lunch a couple of days, and there were enough potatoes left to make Friday soup.
I got Wiener's from the German butcher in Portland - http://www.edelweissdeli.com/ - and served the soup "German" style - this is what Ron calls it :) Meaning I warmed the whole sausages in the soup and each bowl had soup and one sausage (btw - the pictures did not turn out) a person. It was quite a success as Alena ended up eating her entire bowl of soup and three Wieners.
You need
Splash of olive oil
1 onion diced
3/4 celery root, peeled, and diced
2 carrots diced
1 leek cut into fine rings
salt and pepper to taste
one vegetarian bullion cube - optional (pls read label careful to make sure it does not contain
lactose, whey, etc.)
leftover (s)mashed potatoes - I had about 2-3 cups
Wiener's - optional or other mild sausages
1. Heat olive oil and when hot add onions. Sauté until soft.
2. Add leeks, carrots, celery and a couple of generous pinches of salt
3. Sauté until leek and carrots are bright in color. Add (s)mashed potatoes and stir it all up.
4. Add 2-4 cups of water and bring soup to a low simmer. Simmer until celery is soft.
5. Either remove 1/2 of soup to blend in pot
6. Add pepper, and adjust salt. You may want to add a bullion cube at this point (I did)
7. Add sausages - if using - and warm gently until sausages are warmed up
We had crusty bread with it as well as a bowl of mixed green salad. Enjoy!

Smoothies for breakfast

What took me so long to figure out that smoothies are perfect for breakfast? Well, it could have been the missing blender but I just never thought how much the girlies would love.
So finally it clicked :) I really want the girls to eat fruit in the morning and we were all out besides bananas, and frozen berries. Voila - and the breakfast smoothy idea came to life in our little house in Portland. Frozen berries - raspberries and blueberries in this one, vanilla soy yoghurt (we like WholeSoy), and some plain soy milk. Put it all in the blender and it was perfect...The other great thing about the smoothies is that it gives the girls calcium plus the perfect "vehicle" for the vitamin D drops. Well, I should say that Alena generally drinks fortified chocolate soy milk for breakfast and Mia Rose used to drink fortified OJ. Here is the kicker Mia Rose used to drink OJ and has only been drinking water. So adding smoothies for breakfast will also great for increasing the amount of calcium. Let's just hope that by posting it I did not jinx our new found perfect breakfast drink :)

Pork in coconut curry with jasmine rice and mixed green salad

Oh, what a week this is. So busy for all of us - packed with school, work, meetings and fun. During weeks like that I am happy for all the easy meals, and short cuts there are. So here it is, pork in coconut curry. We still had one pack of pork left from our "family meat pack" from New Season's market. There was also a pack for the coconut curry mix in our pantry, as well as onions, frozen peas, and coconut milk. Voila - served along side jasmine rice, and salad it was a perfect, easy, delicious meal :)

Meatloaf, perfect (s)mashed potatoes, and mixed green salad

was our dinner on Tuesday.  These are THE perfect mashed potatoes.  Creamy, smooth, delicious - wow what were we missing all this time.  This was the first time I tried "smashed potatoes" from a recipe I saw on Twitter from @familyfoodie All I can say is wow, wow, wow - amazing here is the recipe  http://familyfoodie.com/how-to-make-the-perfect-smashed-potatoes-sundaysupper/ I followed it to a "T" and used Earth Balance - or use other vegan butter you like - instead of the "cow", and soy milk - rice, or hemp would certainly also work great - instead of the "cow" milk.  Voila - perfect smooth, creamy, galactosemia safe (s)mashed potatoes. You must try it...

oh and the meatloaf? It turned out fantastic as well - I just made my usual recipe.  Please let me know if you would like me to repost it :)

Walnut Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

What happens with bananas once they turn brown?  One thing is for sure, nobody in my family will eat them anymore.  So what do you do?  Make banana bread - I know it is hardly a groundbreaking idea.  I have tried to make it on several previous occasions, but it just never turned out in a way that everyone in my family loved it.  Well, that was until yesterday. Yes, finally - delicious, Galactosemia safe, banana bread that everyone in my family loves

they actually love it so much, that it is gone within 24 hours :)

I adapted the recipe from the Joy of Cooking http://www.thejoykitchen.com/

It is quick, easy, delicious, and takes about 1 hour in the oven.

You need

1-1/2 Cups of flour
1-1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2    teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of sugar
6 tablespoons of Earth Balance or other vegan butter
1/4 teaspoon of lemon extract
2   eggs
2-3 bananas
2/3 cup of finely chopped walnuts
1/2 cup of dairy free chocolate chips

*Preheat oven to 350 F
1. Cream sugar, vegan butter, and lemon extract together
2. Add on egg at a time
3. Add mashed bananas, or if very ripe add one at a time until well blended in
4. Mix together flour, baking powder, and salt
5. Add flour mixture in 1/2 cup increments to the dough.  Mix in well before adding another 1/2 C
6. Add walnuts - or other nuts and blend well into dough
7. Add in chocolate chips
8. Pour batter into a well greased loaf pan, and bake in preheated oven at 350F for about 1 hour, or until
    toothpick comes out clean

Enjoy!!!

Monday Night at the Oregon Symphony...

to hear the symphony together with Inon Bartnatan on the piano. Ron and I already heard the full program on Saturday night, but there was this special the Oregon Symphony offered. Come back to see the program, present the ticket stub and pay $5 each ticket. Too good a deal to pass it up, plus we both loved the program.
You may know that both girls are taking piano lessons so we took this great opportunity to see a live piano concerto. We stayed for the first half of the program and it was - again - fantastic! Both girlies loved it as well, and listened attentively to the concert. Before we left they both got their programs signed by Inon Bartnatan - they where in awe. Mia Rose told me how she felt very, very shy :) Just in case you are interested in the program http://www.orsymphony.org/bios/guests_1112/barnatan.aspx . Oh, and dinner? Well, I would rather not talk about it right now...but tomorrow I promise two food posts :)

An entertaining weekend...

recap on this rainy Monday morning.  We had another fun weekend and I did not cook one meal the entire weekend.  Can you believe it?!  Not one meal - besides breakfast on Saturday morning....I probably should not admit to that, right?! So what did we do? 

We spent our Saturday as usual, with the girls going to the Sophie Scholl German Immersion Saturday School, and me working while they are there.  After school, we met Ron at Porque No in Southeast Portland for lunch, and then went back home to relax.  The sitter around 5 pm, took the girls to the playground, made them dinner, etc. while Ron and I went on a date.  Fun was had by the entire family!  

For Sunday we went out for lunch - again - to the girls most favorite places.  Do you know what it is?  Do you want to guess?  No, ok, ok...here is a picture of Mia Rose at the restaurant

Do you know where this is?  Yes, it is the occasional fast food at Burgerville.  The girls certainly enjoyed their Hamburger Kid's Meal along with a - very, very rare treat of an orange soda.  And yes,  it is galactosemia safe :)  Just in case you are interested here is the link to the allergen information on the Burgerville Website http://www.burgerville.com/our-food/special-dietary-needs/

We followed up the fun with a trip to the movie theater where we saw The Lorax in 3-D.  It Ron's fabulous idea - and I have to say it was a fantastic movie.  No, no worries I am not about to start reviewing movies - but we all enjoyed it very much.  What however is a visit to the movies without popcorn, right?  Even if you have just eaten lunch...

here is Mia Rose ready for the movie, and eating the family pop corn.  By the way,  at the concession stand they made a new batch just for us which was popped right into our bag.  The seasoning did contain lactose.  We all very much appreciated the extra effort by the staff.   The key as always is to ask.  People almost always want to help.  Oh, oh and before I forget here is the link to the movie http://www.theloraxmovie.com/index.php#/splash

"soy" and "cow" right next to each other

Alright, it is a strange headline but do you know what I mean? On the weekend I like to put the different choices on our lazy Susan in the middle of the dinning table. For some reason it is just adds a little bit of more fun instead of the usual "please pass". In any case,  all of us like to eat yoghurt.  The girls however - of course - eat Soy Vanilla Yoghurt, while Ron and I eat Greek Yoghurt.  So, I put the two choices right next to each other. There is no question, and both girls know exactly that the "cow"is off limits for them.

You, know when our kids were much smaller this would have been unimaginable for us.  I cringed just at the thought of having "unsafe" foods in the fridge.  But what good does it do for the children?  Our friends in South Tyrol, Italy -who also have two children with Classic Galactosemia - told me.  Alena and Mia Rose was 3 and Mia Rose 18 months at the time. Karin told me "if they do not learn at home which foods are safe, where will they learn?" And she was so right.  I will never forget how their breakfast table included soy and cow yoghurt, soy and cow milk, unsafe Nutella and safe chocolate spread, butter and vegan butter - I cringed and was nervous.  But then I saw how their children - 10 and 8 at the time - chose the foods that are safe for them.  Never even questioning an item which they could not have.

This was the turning point for me, and I think both of us.  From that point on when going out for dinner, we each order foods for us without worrying, and of course always sure that the food for the girls is "safe". OK - as a matter of full disclosure I had never before ordered "unsafe" food in a restaurant when the girls came along. Since that time our fridge includes "cow" and soy choices, our table includes it, and this is how the girls started to learn about their diet.  They know that there are many foods that they cannot eat - well, but there are still many foods that are safe.  The key which they have both learned is that they always need to recognize whether or not the item is safe.

I am positive that without that approach they would not be as understanding of their diet.

Dinner out at...

Hopworks - we let the girls choose what they wanted for dinner, and both of them chose Hopworks. Fun on a Friday night for all of us. Once we got there Alena was so excited as one of her friends from school was also there.

Oh, and as for dinner? Both girls had hot dogs with fries...No dinner photo but this beautiful picture of Mia Rose snuggling up to Ron :)

Baked egg noodles...

mixed salad, and soup as a starter. It sounds a lot more elaborate than tonight's dinner was! We had some leftover white bean-barley-kale stew - not enough for dinner for the entire family, so perfect as a starter. The noodles are "Schinkennudeln" - ham noodles, and then baked in the oven until the cheese is melted. Yes, I did say cheese! In case you do not know, we allow our kids to eat Emmenthaler, Gruyezer, Jarlsberg, and Parmesiano Regiano. We think it is a much better source of calcium. Now back to dinner - this is a quick and easy weeknight meal. Also perfect with leftover pasta - I just prefer egg noodles for this meal.

All you need

- splash of olive oil
- cooked pasta
- chopped onion
- Italian herbs, or herbs de provence
- ham
- a couple of seeded and chopped tomatoes (optional)
- 2 tablespoons of Tofutti sour cream
- salt and pepper to taste
- shredded Emmenthaler, or Gruyezer or both mixed

1. Heat up the olive oil. Add onions, and herbs.
2. When soft add the ham, and after a couple of minutes add the tomatoes
3. Add the noodles/pasta and sautee on medium heat until thoroughly heated through. Stir it up
frequently to prevent it from sticking to the pan
4. Add sour cream, as well as salt and pepper to taste -> if you stop here you have
Schinkennudeln :) I you would like them baked continue with step 5
5. Preheat oven to 375 F
6. Transfer noodles to one, or several individual baking dish(es).
7. Mix the cheese underneath the noodles, and top each dish with extra cheese on top
8. Bake until golden brown

Serve with a big mixed salad.