I’ve recently been stuck on autopilot with regard to meal preparation for my children.  The carb rotation had become particularly stale: pasta, rice, potatoes, bread… rinse, repeat.  Sure, the rice varies from white to brown to wild to fried to risotto.  And the pasta may be whole wheat, quinoa or brown-rice based.  Once a week I’ll toss in some buckwheat soba noodles or quinoa pilaf to help reduce the frequency with which I feed them rice (too much arsenic?) and wheat (too much gluten for kids at risk for Celiac Disease?)  But new iterations of starches to pair with their proteins and veggies are always welcome.

I’ve wanted to try making Korean Japchae noodles for ages, but abandoned the project prematurely when I discovered one of the local Korean markets in my neighborhood didn’t sell the star ingredient– sweet potato starch-based vermicelli.  I’ll confess to having ordered this dish at Korean restaurants on more than one occasion, even knowing that it contained soy sauce (not gluten-free).  In weaker moments, I found it impossible to resist that giant pile of otherwise wheat-free, plump, glassy noodly goodness, kissed with that signature savory-sweet flavor profile.  But I have since reformed myself and don’t allow myself to be willfully ignorant to gluten when dining out.  Which meant: if I was ever going to taste Japchae noodles again, I’d better make them myself.

And so today, I decided to ask one of the store’s owners if perhaps they did carry these specialty noodles somewhere “in the back”– a prize awarded

Sweet Potato Vermicelli (ingredients: Sweet Potato starch, water)

to those emboldened shoppers who had the nerve speak up and make a request.  And sure enough, the owner’s son was dispatched into the store’s inner sanctum, reappearing shortly to reward my gumption with an oversized bag of these elusive gluten-free noodles.  I was in business.

A small small bundle of additional ingredients later– 1/4 lb of fresh shiitakes, a carrot, some scallions and a bag of baby spinach leaves– I was headed home to try my hand at Korean cooking.

I followed this recipe from Chow.com almost to a tee, swapping out the regular soy sauce for reduced sodium, wheat-free Tamari sauce instead.  It was a FUN recipe to make!  The highlights for me were using kitchen shears to trim fat, sesame-oil slicked noodles into manageable segments (a project I’d recommend you allow an older child to help with… it’s such a tactile pleasure to slice through those plump, slippery things!) and practicing my knife skills to achieve matchstick carrots and paper-thin shiitake slices that would find camouflage enough in the noodles so that my kids won’t pick them out.  To keep this dish interactive, try letting toddlers and preschoolers sprinkle their own sesame seeds on top when serving.

So when I found myself recommending Chia seeds to patients with all manner of dietary dilemmas– from chronic diarrhea to chronic constipation to chronic gas/bloating from IBS — I knew that this so-called Superfood had staying power.  When I found myself going through bags of it at home in relatively quick succession, I knew Chia had crossed over from trend to staple.

On one hand, chia (latin: Salvia hispanica), is an unusual little seed.  Once wet, chia seeds swell and take on a viscous, gelatinous texture that is responsible for some of their unique nutritional properties and utility in the kitchen.  To some, this texture is more “slimy” than endearing, and indeed I’ve found that it can be quite polarizing as far as seeds go.  But if you can get past this aesthetic hurdle, there are a multitude of reasons to love chia seeds.  Here are ten of mine:

1. No grinding required: Unlike some other popular seeds–like flax –chia’s seed coat is well penetrated during the digestive process, meaning that you need not grind it into a powder in order to access its nutritional heart of gold.
2. It gels: Chia’s unique fiber turns into a gel once wet, making it a handly little ingredient to keep around the kitchen.  Out of eggs?  Swap in 1 TBSP of gelled chia seeds per large egg called for in a recipe.  (Try a chia: water ratio of 1:6 to make the gel.)  Chia seeds can be used to make a tasty and nutritious pudding.  For a lactose free/dairy free/vegan variety, try this deelish Banana chia pudding recipe.  For a kid friendly milk-based pudding, try this fun Vanilla Chia Seed pudding recipe from Weelicious.   Chia seeds can also be used instead of pectin to make homemade jam.
3. Kids like them!  And even better, MY kids like them!  You can slip a few TBSPs of chia seeds into practically any baked goods recipe– brownies, bars, cookies, muffins– to boost its nutritional credentials without altering the taste.  (I put them in my oatmeal banana peanut butter bars.)  If your kiddo isn’t one for fiber rich foods, try mixing some chia seeds into his favorite fruit/yogurt smoothie.  Give one of the easy, stovetop-free pudding or jam recipes above a try–and let the kids help you make it.  That way, the next time you’re beating yourself up for allowing your children to indulge their chicken finger habit more often than you’d like, remind yourself that at least they’re also the type of kids who gobble up chia seeds!
4. Omegas:  We’ve got a long way to go to re-calibrate the ratio of pro-inflammatory omega 6 fats to anti-inflammatory omega 3 fats in the typical Western Diet.  Regular inclusion of omega-3 rich plant foods like chia seeds can certainly help.  A modest TBSP of chia provides about 2.2g of omega 3s in the form of alpha-Linolenic acid (ALA)– well above the recommended intake of 1.6g per day for men and 1.1g for women.
5. Iron: According to the USDA, 1 TBSP (about 1/2 oz) of chia seeds has about 1mg of iron, which is 5% of the daily value for women, 9% of the daily value for kids aged 1-4, and 12.5% of the daily value for men.  Not too shabby!
6. Calcium: Chia is a great non-dairy source of calcium, making it a handy little accessory to keep around the kitchen if you’re female, lactose intolerant, vegan or all of the above.   That same 1 TBSP portion has about 9% of the daily value for calcium (90mg), according to the USDA.
7. A gluten-free source of fiber: The typical gluten free diet can be low in fiber, particularly because gluten-free substitutes for breads, crackers, cereals, waffles and all manner of baked goods tend to be made from starchy flours like tapioca, potato, rice and corn.  But adding a tablespoon of chia seeds to diet staples like yogurt, GF oatmeal or cooked cereal, smoothies adds FIVE fabulous grams to the meal in an instant.
8. Digestive tolerability: Chia seeds are low in FODMAPs, meaning that they’re unlikely to trigger gas and bloating in people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) or otherwise sensitive digestive plumbing.
9. They can help manage chronic diarrhea: Eating foods relatively high in the gooey, gummy, spongy type of fiber called “soluble fiber” can be life-changing for people who suffer from chronic loose, urgent stools as the result of IBS.  Chia seeds are a good source of soluble fiber.  Even though chia seeds contain relatively more of the other type of fiber (called insoluble)– generally known to hasten digestive transit–studies have nonetheless shown that chia’s soluble fiber minority to be so incredibly viscous that it nonetheless slows down digestive transit.  As a result, a bedtime chia smoothie may help calm morning bathroom woes–or some chia in the morning yogurt can help keep a tummy calm later in the day.
10. They can help manage chronic constipation:  A food that helps manage BOTH diarrhea AND constipation?  Yes– you read correctly.  Viscous soluble fiber is magical in that way.  While it regulates transit time in the setting of jumpy, spasmy intestines prone to diarrhea–it also absorbs water and helps keep stool soft, formed and easy to pass.  As a result, fiber-rich foods like chia smooth out digestive transit irregularities of all sorts.

If you’re ready to jump on the Chia bandwagon, look for it at natural grocery stores and supplement stores.  Bob’s Red Mill is one national brand that markets it.

And if you’ve got a favorite chia recipe to share, please post it in the comments below!

For years, my mom has been making these crunchy biscotti to serve with tea at our Passover Seder.  She calls them mandelbread (or mandelbrot), but I’m sorry– they are so very biscotti to me.  More nuts than flour, kissed with cinnamon and subtly sweet, they are the perfect antidote to those heavy, cloying storebought passover desserts that sit in your stomach like lead.

When I went gluten-free 6 years ago, so did my mom’s biscotti.  When I became a dietitian 3 years ago, her biscotti went lower in sugar.  Let’s hope neither of my children develops a nut allergy, or these lovely little cookies may not survive to see another Passover.

Enjoy these at your Seder, and make them again this around the December holidays as a gluten-free treat to enjoy with hot cocoa or coffee.

Recipe: Gluten Free Biscotti (Kosher for Passover)

Adapted by my mom from Helen Nash’s Kosher Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 6 oz hazelnuts or pecans, chopped coarsely in food processor or by hand
• 6 oz shelled almonds, chopped coarsely
• 8 oz dark raisins
• 8 TBSP gluten free Passover cake meal, such as Yehuda brand (or year round: any gluten free all purpose flour blend)
• 6 TBSP sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp powdered ginger
• 2 eggs lightly beaten (you might need a little more egg)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325.
2. Grease 2 9×5 (or slightly smaller) loaf pans and dust with GF cake meal or flour
3. In large bowl mix nuts, raisins, cake meal, sugar, spices.
4. Add eggs and mix with wooden spoon.  If mixture does not hold together, add a little more egg. Divide dough in half and put it in 2 pans.
5. Press very firmly to pack it down.  Bake side by side in oven, reduced to 300 degrees, for 1 hour.
6. Cool, turn over pans and release the biscotti. Cut them into 1/4 inch slices, then place them on cookie sheets to dry out in 200 degree oven for 45 min. on each side.
7. Cool completely before storing in airtight container.

Generally, my philosophy on random remnants of meals gone by is this: tossed together in a bowl of rice with some fried egg and hot sauce, these sad, unappetizing forgotten bits can be born again into the sublimest expression of comfort food. That it only takes about 10 minutes to make is just the cherry on top.

Unlike its greasy, Chinese restaurant counterpart, homemade fried rice is a perfectly healthy dish, and there’s no shame feeding it to your family.  Indeed, sticky fried rice is FABULOUS toddler fare: easy to self-feed on a spoon, easy to chew, colorful, and featuring a universally well-liked carb (rice) that facilitates acceptance of the teensy, well-cooked pieces of veggies (that can’t easily be picked out).  My kids have gobbled this dish up in every incarnation its been offered to them.

Consider the recipe below more of a formula than a recipe per se; fried rice is VERY forgiving, and you can add more veggies or less rice based on your preference (and what ingredients you have on hand.)  Play around with it until you find the combo of veggies and ratio of rice:protein:veggies you enjoy best.

Recipe: “Kitchen Sink” Vegetable Fried Rice (gluten-free, low FODMAP)

Ingredients:

2 tsp grapeseed, canola or peanut oil

2 eggs

2 cups assorted, ready-to-eat vegetables** (see note below)

Optional: 1/2 cup finely chopped cooked protein (for example, leftover cooked chicken or tofu, boiled edamame, chopped baby shrimp, bay scallops…)

3 cups cooked rice (leftover brown or white work equally well, and sticky is better.  If making from scratch, use 1 cup dry rice to yield this amount cooked.)

1 TBSP gluten-free Tamari soy sauce

1 TBSP sesame oil

Kosher salt

Garnish: Sesame seeds (preferably black) or raw finely chopped scallions (greens only)

Directions:

1. Heat 2 tsp oil in a wok on high heat
2. Scramble eggs until cooked through
3. Add vegetables to the wok in groups based on their cooking time.  (For example, if using frozen peas, add them first until thawed, then add anything raw (i.e. shredded carrots), then finally add any cooked veggies.  Stir fry until all veggies are almost at desired serving texture.
4. If using a cooked protein, add it now and stir until well combined.
5. Add cooked rice, tamari soy sauce and sesame oil.  Stir all ingredients continuously until well combined and the batch begins to warm through thoroughly–just a few short minutes.
6. Taste for seasoning and add a sprinkle of kosher salt if necessary to taste.  Be careful not to oversalt!
7. Sprinkle with sesame seeds or scallions to garnish and serve.  If serving to young kids, try offering them a little bowl of garnish alongside their bowl and let them sprinkle it on themselves.

Note on veggies:

I like to use at least 3 different varieties.  Some winning combos from past batches include:

• “Continental”: 1/2 cup frozen green peas + 1/2 cup raw, finely shredded carrots + 1 cup chopped cooked broccoli
• “Asian”: 3/4 cup chopped cooked green beans + 1/2 cup chopped cooked mushrooms + 3/4 cup mung bean sprouts
• “South Asian”: 3/4 cup chopped roasted cauliflower + 3/4 cup frozen green peas + 1/2 cup diced frozen carrots
• “Summer Succotash”: 3/4 cup finely shredded raw zucchini (squeezed well to remove excess water) + 3/4  cup frozen corn + 1/2 cup frozen lima beans

Other veggies that work great:

• chopped cooked snow peas or snap peas
• minced raw bell peppers (in confetti colors)
• chopped frozen spinach or sauteed spinach
• asparagus tips and/or very thinly-sliced asparagus stalks (tender top half only)

I debated whether to even share this recipe or not.  On one hand, it’s extremely labor intensive– the dough is soft and melty like you’d expect a shortbread to be, and there is a lot of back and forth between active time and freezer time to get it right.  On the other hand, the results are SO INCREDIBLY delicious, that perhaps it’s worth the trouble.  The cookies are nutty and buttery and delicately textured; an absolutely indulgent treat.  If you’ve got a season of Downton Abbey or House of Cards to catch up on, perhaps you can devote a Saturday night to cookie-making and TV as my husband and I did; the stops and starts wont be as annoying when you’ve got high drama paused on your screen.

Let’s backtrack: I’ve blogged previously about making my grandmother’s hamentaschen recipe gluten-free.  It worked out just fine, though anytime you’re working with rolling out gluten-free dough for a recipe, excess handling can really be taxing.  The doughs are temperamental, and can get sticky or too soft in a heartbeat.  When you have to cut out circles, then fold over those corners to make the triangles, and then transfer the folded cookie to a baking sheet, all sorts of trouble can ensue.  And often, when you’re using jam as a filling in Hamentaschen, it liquifies and leaks out of the corners, creating burnt little corners and leaving you with a half-empty pocket.

But in a linzer scenario, all you need to do is roll out the dough, cut into triangles with a cookie cutter, and bake flat.  Furthermore, since we’re using triangles, the shapes “tesselate”–meaning they can be cut back to back like tiles, leaving virtually no wasted scrap in between shapes.  I recommend you cut the dough this way; it reduces the number of times you’ll need to consolidate scraps and re-roll the dough to make use of it all, since–as you will see–this is not a dough that likes to be worked.  It cuts best when very cold, and once it starts warming, you’ll need to go back to the freezer for a few minutes in order to get your shapes cut and removed onto a baking tray with ease.  Since the jam goes in AFTER the cookies are baked, each cookie retains a nice, full center of well-textured filling.  There you have it: all of our gluten-free Hamentaschen problems, solved.

A few tips and technical notes:

• You will want  a stand mixer to do this type of recipe properly.  Most of the gluten-free Linzer cookie recipes I consulted agree on this point.
• You can use the same Carol Fenster gluten-free flour blend that I’ve recommended previously for my gluten-free carrot cake pancake recipe.  If you don’t have easy access to sorghum flour, just swap in brown rice flour instead.
• It’s best to cut out our triangle shapes with cookie cutters on parchment paper, and then transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet.
• You will be making/baking two types of triangles: whole triangles (for the sandwich bottom), and ones with a mini triangle cutout (for the tops).  I recommend making your first batch of triangles the cutout ones, so you can “recycle” the cutout dough back into the master dough ball to be re-rolled.
• You will need 2 sizes of triangular cookie cutters to make this recipe work easily.
• If your dough starts getting too soft and melty to work with, just return to the freezer for a few minutes to firm it up and try again.

Recipe: Gluten-free Linzer Hamentaschen

Adapted by marrying recipes by Stephanie Stiavetti and Nicole Haan, and then adjusted to accomodate my pantry

Yields about 2 1/2 dozen 2.5″ sandwiches (~72 triangles)

• 1 1/3 cup finely ground hazelnut flour (you can substitute almond flour)
• 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature (or alternative shortening as desired)
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups Carol Fenster’s gluten-free flour blend
  
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Filling: 1/2 cup thick jam, poppy seed filling or Nutella
• Optional: confectioner’s sugar and a fine sieve or sifter

Equipment: parchment paper, triangle cookie cutter(s), stand mixer

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325°. Spread nut flour into a thin layer on a cookie sheet and roast for 15 minutes, stirring halfway through to ensure evenness.
2. With a stand mixer or electric hand beater, beat butter with brown sugar until well mixed. Add egg and vanilla, mixing until well incorporated.
3. Add gluten free flour mix, chestnut flour, hazelnut flour, cinnamon, xanthan gum and salt. Beat until you’ve got a smooth dough. (It will be wet– but fear not.) Roll dough out between two pieces of parchment until it is 1/2-inch thick and freeze for 10 minutes.  Do not roll too thin or the cookies will be too delicate to handle raw or break easily once baked.
4. Remove dough from freezer/fridge and cut with triangular cookie cutters to desired size.  Remove the excess dough from between the cookies.
5. Using a spatula and working quickly, gently move the cookies to a parchment lined cookie sheet(s).
6. Use a smaller cookie cutter (or knife) to cut mini-triangles out the centers of half of the cookies on a baking sheet.  Ideally, segregate the cutout halves from the intact halves on different trays, as the ones with cutouts may have a slightly shorter baking time. Gently remove the inner shape with the tip of a small knife to keep from damaging the outer cookie.
7. Place the baking sheet(s) in fridge to keep the cookies chilled. Repeat until you’ve used up all the dough.
8. Once all the dough has been cut with cookie cutters and the shapes are arranged on a baking sheet, place the baking sheets in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 325° while they are chilling.
9. Bake cookies for 14 minutes, or until they are very lightly golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool on pan for 5 minutes before moving the cookies, with their attached piece of parchment, to a cooling rack.
10. Allow to cool fully.  If you are not serving in the next day or two, freeze the unadorned cookie halves as-is and remove/thaw when ready to decorate and fill.
11. To serve: Arrange cutout halves (tops) on a working surface, and dust with confectioner’s sugar.  Spread filling onto the intact triangle cookie bottoms.  Top each frosted cookie bottom with a sugared cutout cookie top.  Voila!

So I figured: why not type up a typical weekly menu plan for my kiddos at age 2 and share it?

A few notes:

• As you will see, my kids do not follow a gluten-free diet, though I feed them more GF foods than other kids likely eat so that we can share family meals (or I can eat leftovers!).  I save the wheat and gluten for days that they’re home with the babysitter and try to keep family meals gluten free so we can all eat together.

• Lunch is their main meal of the day, as I find their appetite wanes as the day progresses.  As a result, our dinner meal tends toward the lighter side (especially during the week), and breakfast for dinner is not at all uncommon in our home!

• We generally do 2-3 meatless days per week.  I feed the kids red meat once per week, poultry 2-3x/week, fish 1-2x/week.  I tend toward vegetarian salad lunches on days that I work so that I can share their more animal protein-based lunches with them on days I’m home without overdoing it on the animal protein myself.

• We aim for family meals whenever one or both parents is home, and it’s usually on weekends or at lunchtime since mom works only part-time.  Once their bedtime is a little later, my goal is to have family dinners with more regularity as well.

• As you will also see, our weekly rotation includes a mix of home-made meals, some convenience food and one restaurant meal per week.  I generally cook lunches on the previous evening, after the kids go to bed.  That means I’m generally cooking 4 nights per week or so; my husband kicks in 1-2 dishes per week.  All dishes I choose are easy and fast– I generally won’t spend more than 30 minutes on a recipe, unless its a weekend and I have another set of hands to help.  I leave the more complex projects (braised meats, schnitzel, risotto) to my husband, who has the patience for such things.

• In the winter, I bake low-sugar treats once weekly, usually while my kids nap in the afternoon, and freeze leftovers in snack-sized portions.  That way, I can have a variety of healthy baked goods on hand to defrost whatever I need on-the-go.

• As you will see, I don’t buy cookies or sweets.  In addition to low-sugar homemade baked goods for a snack once or twice per week, I offer a healthy “dessert” about once a week (like pumpkin paletas).  Otherwise it’s just fruit.  However, I don’t limit their intake of treats and sweets at parties or on special occasions so as to avoid reinforcing the notion that these foods are the “forbidden fruit.”  I let them self-regulate in those situations, and they do just fine.  Nine times out of ten, Max will always choose fresh fruit over cookies and cakes.  Stella is a little cookie monster, and it’s a treat for me to watch her enjoy her special treats!

Monday (Meatless Monday):

Breakfast: Cheerios in milk & organic blueberries

Morning snack: Saturday’s leftover carrot pancakes (served cold) & Banana & Milk

Lunch: Chana Saag (Indian spinach & chickpeas); ordered in the previous night from our favorite restaurant, with a can of Eden Organic chickpeas added to the batch; & Basmati Rice & plain organic yogurt

Afternoon snack: Graham crackers & Milk

Dinner: GF Almond pancakes + Herb roasted spaghetti squash

Tuesday:

Breakfast:  Cascadian Farms Organic Multigrain Squares in milk & sliced kiwi

Morning snack: Clementines & Mary’s Gone Crackers & Milk

Family Lunch:  Chicken breast (usually either with an Asian marinade, grilled, or a homemade GF breaded schnitzel) & Wild Rice medley & cooked green beans

Afternoon snack: Roasted chickpea snacks & Milk

Dinner: Omelet–plain for Max, with chopped spinach for Stella (pasture-raised eggs) & Baked sweet potato fries

Wednesday:

Eggs & Quinoa pilaf for dinner

Breakfast: Barbara’s Bakery Original Puffins cereal in milk & blackberries

Morning snack: Banana & homemade GF carrot/zucchini mini muffins + milk

Lunch:  Black Beans & Farro (they think it’s brown rice) & Steamed broccoli w/ butter

Afternoon snack: Happy Herbert’s Spelt snack sticks + milk

Dinner: Organic cottage cheese & GF quinoa pasta & peeled/salted baby cucumbers

Thursday:

Breakfast:  Barbara’s Bakery Shredded Spoonfuls cereal in milk & sliced banana

Morning snack: Homemade oatmeal/peanut butter/banana/chia squares & Clementines & milk

Family Lunch: GF homemade organic turkey sliders +  whole wheat mini pitas/multigrain slider buns+ ketchup + sweet potato fries

Afternoon snack: Organic string cheese + organic Triscuit-like wheat crackers

Dinner:  Macaroni & cheese (organic, from a box) + Tuna salad w/ mayo (light tuna, BPA-free can) + Herb roasted cauliflower

Friday:

Breakfast: Cheerios in milk & raspberries

Morning snack: Roasted chickpea snacks + milk

Lunch: Salmon Teriyaki + Quinoa pilaf (cooked quinoa with caramelized onions, peas, cumin and garlic powder) + Green beans

Afternoon snack: Dried fruit chips + Organic string cheese

Dinner: Golden Sesame Tofu (take-out from Whole Foods) +  Homemade stir-fried snow peas.  Dessert: Pumpkin paletas

Saturday:

Family Breakfast: GF Carrot cake pancakes + sliced banana

Morning snack: Roasted pumpkin seeds (pepitas) + watermelon + Milk

Family Lunch: Braised red meat (usually beef short ribs or boneless leg of lamb; organic and grass-fed) + Herb roasted potatoes +  Baby brussels sprouts

Afternoon snack: Dry cereal (Puffins or Cheerios)

Dinner:  Hard boiled quail eggs (!) + whole grain toast with smashed avocado + shredded raw carrots leftover from pancake-making

Sunday:

Breakfast:  Oatmeal w/ cinnamon and maple syrup + fresh fruit (whatever’s on hand… mango, berries, etc..)

Morning snack: Sliced apples with peanut butter + milk

Family Lunch: Mujjadara (Middle Eastern style lentils with rice and caramelized onions) + fried egg + sliced red peppers (raw)

Afternoon snack: Dried fruit (dates, raisins, dried cherries, etc..)+ milk

Family Dinner: Leftover short ribs + GF Quinoa pasta + grilled asparagus

***

There are other common foods in the mix, as well.  I’ll do a turkey meatball every other week or so; salmon burgers; apple cider braised cod; cauliflower soup with homemade croutons; peanut butter sandwiches; grilled cheese sandwiches; mini ravioli with pesto; and the Barefoot Contessa’s fabulous sliders (with local/organic/grass fed beef).  Occasionally we’ll make a home-made pizza and let the kids roll their own dough and adorn their own mini-pizzas, though truth be told, they enjoy making pizza far more than eating it.  Once in awhile, we’ll get takeout from a Middle eastern place and the kids will eat falafel, hummus, pita and babganoush.  Currently, I am working on acceptance of sauteed spinach/garlic, roasted butternut squash, raw peppers, and soups in general.  Our food is simple and homey, but we try not to do too much dumbed- down kid food.  We use herbs and spices liberally. We are cautious about empty-calorie snacks that could spoil their appetites for meals.