Feeding Finnley IV

Finnley spends a day or two with us most weeks when we are in town.  She is two years old now and is able to tell us just about anything she wants.   She is a happy, smart child, talking or singing all the time and has a higher vocabulary than other children older than her in day care. She sings several nursery rhymes and songs, ABC’s, and counts. She runs, jumps, plays ball and dances to some of her favorite music. What a joy she is and I am sure her baby sister will be just as special when she comes in July.

I have many requests for more ideas about feeding children. I have to make it clear that Finnley does not eat completely raw but she eats a lot of raw foods and her mother has been open to trying different things. I approach feeding Finnley as a grandmother who eats a raw food diet feeding a granddaughter whose parents eat a healthy but cooked diet. I think it is best not to have issues over food choices and be an example for new healthy foods that she will eat. As a grandparent be an inspiration and don’t be judgmental!

So what is she eating at Nana’s now… she loves most fruits, especially watermelon, pears, grapes and apples – preferably organic Golden Delicious, Granny Smith are too tart. She loves bananas and prefers organic. Blueberries are still a favorite fruit but sometimes she will not eat them. Peas, corn and carrots are about the only vegetables she will eat. Peas are loaded with nutrition, so for now we are blessed that she is a good eater. She will not drink juice,  prefering water. I am working on giving her a smoothie so that I can add greens. She loves my applesauce from the last Feeding Finnley, but she has eaten so much of it, last week she said “no more applesauce Nana”, so we will give it a break for a while.  She likes brown rice that I mix with my Sunflower Humus, making the rice stick together, which can be quite messy to eat. She also likes this humus on whole-wheat pita. The next time she comes I will see how she likes my Sweet Pea Humus. She eats small amounts of the Vege- Burger and likes to snack on Protein Nuggets and soaked raisins. She will also snack on some of my Kale Chips. She sleeps 12 hours at night and takes a nap every afternoon. Sleep is very important for children and should be considered as important as any nutrient.

Some say the “terrible twos” are a difficult time. This can happen when the parents are “terrible” by not setting limits and teaching them to respect others and their things. We have never moved anything in our house when she comes over. She knows what she can play with and when she tests these limits, I simply say, “Finnley, thank you, that’s Nana’s”. I save “no” for the important things. I also support whatever my daughter is trying to do for discipline. The first time I asked her if she wanted to go in “time out”, she looked at me as if to say, “so mommy told her about “time out”.  Having limits will help her throughout life. Finnley is so much fun now because we feed her with more than just food.  Here are some recipes that she likes today, because tomorrow she may not, which is very typical of children this age.

Sunflower Red Pepper Humus

Created by Jackie Graff

Sprout Raw Food

Serves 8

3 cups sunflower seeds soaked 8 hours and drained

6 cloves garlic

2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons cumin powder

¼ cup olive oil

¾ cup lemon juice

1 cup raw tahini

1 red pepper

Parsley or cilantro and Zartar as garnish

For Avocado Humus add 2 avocados to 1 cup of the mix and blend.

1. Place sunflower seeds, garlic, salt, cumin, olive oil, lemon juice, pepper in a 2HP blender or food processor and blend until smooth (the food processor will not get it as smooth).
2. Add tahini and blend well.

Serving Ideas: Place on a plate, swirl humus and drizzle a small amount of olive oil over the humus and garnish with some chopped red pepper, parsley and zartar (a middle eastern spice with thyme and other herbs) and serve with vegetables, chips or pita.

Shelf life: 10 days

Protein Nuggets

Created by Jackie Graff

Sprout Raw Food

2 cups walnuts, soaked 4-6 hours and drained

2 cups sunflower seeds, soaked 4-6 hours and drained

2 teaspoon sea salt

2 cloves garlic, chopped fine

2 tablespoons fresh oregano

1 tablespoon cumin

½ cup fresh basil

1 cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked 2 hours, drained, and processed into paste

1 onion, chopped very fine

1 red bell pepper, chopped fine

1. Place garlic in food processor and finely chop.
2. Add salt, cumin, oregano, basil, onion and pepper to food processor or high-speed blender and process well.
3. Add walnuts and sunflower seeds to food processor and process well.
4. Add sun-dried tomato paste and process well.
5. Squeeze ½ teaspoon pieces from a pastry bag onto a Teflex sheet and place in dehydrator for 12 hours until the pieces are completely dry.
6. Store in sealed container in refrigerator- will keep for a month, or more.

Sprout Suggestion for use: snacking, on salads, topping sandwiches, pets and kids like them.

Kale Chips

Created by Jackie Graff

Sprout Raw Food

Serves 8

Cheese

2 cups macadamia nuts, soaked for 8 hours and drained

2 cups water

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon turmeric

2 sun-dried tomatoes

¼ cup juiced lemon

1 cup pine nuts, soaked for 8 hours and drained

2 bunches of kale torn into pieces

1. Place macadamia nuts, filtered water, salt, turmeric, sun-dried tomatoes and lemon juice in blender. Blend until smooth.

2. Add pine nuts and blend until smooth.

3. Stir in jalapeno peppers. Massage kale with the cheese and place on teflex dehydrator sheets and dehydrate for 12 hours. Sin a sealed container.

The story about Pine Nuts

Pine nuts became very expensive a few months ago and not widely available. We have substituted Macadamia nuts for pine nuts in all of my recipes while they are so scarce and expensive. It was not widely publicized that most of the pine nuts had been recalled because of bacterial contamination. The information was in an article in the Atlanta Journal about the infamous peanut factory in Georgia involved in the contaminated peanut butter. I had not seen this information prior. I guess it’s a good thing we do not eat peanut butter.

Peace and love,

Jackie Graff