Broccoli #MacroMonday

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Broccoli is a wonderful vegetable to grow during a central Texas winter and early spring.

  • It withstands light freezes and even keeps producing little tiny florets of broccoli after cutting off the main stalk.
  • It’s high in vitamin C (1 cup=135% of your DV).  It’s a perfect food to kick that winter cold in the ass.
  • All parts of the broccoli can be used for cooking. Yep, even the stems.

It’s a garden gift that keeps on giving and a beautiful one at that. I like it steamed with a bit of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Now, if only I can get my little man to enjoy it as much as I do.

img_4163Steamed Broccoli Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 1 bunch of broccoli
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 1 TBSP of oil
  1. Cut broccoli into 2-inch florets.
  2. Toss into steamer basket or boiling water for 4-5 minutes. Don’t over cook it.
  3. Take out and toss with 1 TBSP of oil and a pinch of salt.

 

Kale Yeah! It’s #MacroMonday

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I love me some kale chips. It’s the one green recipe that I can cook and  guarantee that  T will eat. They are light, crispy and absolutely addicting.

Here are some fun kale facts:

  • 1  cup of purple kale=206 % of your Daily Value (DV) for Vitamin A
  • 1 cup of purple kale=134% of your Daily Value (DV) for Vitamin C. That’s more than 1 orange.
  • It easily grows in a winter garden in central Texas. A slight freeze will only enhance the flavor of the plant.
  • Kale has 150 mg of calcium per 100 grams, while milk has 125 mg. That’s something to consider, if you have to avoid milk.

So to that my friend, I say KALE YEAH!

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Purple Kale

Baked Kale Chips Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 1 bunch kale
  • 1 TBSP oil
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a non ­insulated cookie sheet with parchment paper.
  2. With a knife carefully remove the leaves from the thick stems and tear into bite size pieces. Wash and thoroughly dry kale. Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
  3. Bake until the edges are brown, but are NOT burnt (10 to 15 minutes).

 

Rainbow Heart Pizza with Vegan Cheese

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We are in LOVE with vegan cheese. You can do so many things with it.  I’m just so grateful to my sweet friend who introduced us to it. It’s so nice to have a cheese alternative. We’ve been experimenting with all kinds of “cheesy” things too. T requested a T-friendly rainbow pizza for Valentine’s Day and I’d say it was a big hit. If you are expecting cheddar cheese, then you will be disappointed. This stuff has the consistency and taste of Velvetta except it’s actually made out of “REAL” ingredients. I encourage you to give it a try and see what you think.

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Rainbow GF Vegan Pizza topped with roasted red tomatoes, carrots, bell peppers, avocado, blueberries and purple cabbage. 

Magic Vegan Cheese Recipe

makes enough for 2 small pizzas

  • 2 cups large white potatoes diced
  • 1 cup carrots chopped
  • ½ cup cooking water*
  • ⅓ cup of vegetable oil
  • 2 tsp salt
  • The juice of ½ a lemon
  • ⅛ cup nutritional yeast
  • ¼ tsp onion powder
  • ¼ tsp garlic powder

*the leftover water from boiling the potatoes/carrots

Instructions:

  1. Boil potatoes and carrots until soft.
  2. Blend all ingredients in a blender or food processor.
  3. Store in the fridge for up to a week.
  4. Heat in the microwave to make it spreadable.
  5. Freeze in ice cube trays to thaw out for later use.
  6. Double the recipe to freeze for future use.

For pizza:

  1. Spread it over a safe pizza crust. We buy our frozen gluten free pizza crusts from East Side Pies for $5 each.
  2. Top with your favorite safe ingredients and cook for 10 minutes at 375 degrees

Try it on pizza, pasta, nachos, or tortillas for quesadillas. You can even mix it with a can of rotel for a queso dip. YUMMY!  

 

Welcome to Vittlelab!!!

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What is a “vittle?”

It’s actually the incorrect spelling of the fancy word, victual. It’s often misspelled this way because this is how the word is pronounced. Seriously. Look it up, if you don’t believe me.

victual/vittle

noun

  1. any substance that can be used as food

verb

  1. supply with food
  2. lay in provisions
  3. to eat a meal or take in nourishments

What is Vittlelab? 

Over the past four years, our kitchen has become one giant lab as we have strived to find the right recipes and safe vittles for our son who has a restricted diet due to an incurable disease called Eosinophilic Esophagitis (say: EE-oh-sin-oh-FILL-ick  Ee-SOFF-a-JIE-tiss) or EoE for short. It’s a really hard disease to live with and even more difficult to pronounce.

As of today, our little man cannot tolerate any products that contain dairy, eggs, soy, wheat, gluten, sesame seeds, tree nuts (except pecan and almonds), buckwheat, peas, corn, peanuts, coconut, beef, melon, and banana. If you are counting, that’s 15 foods.

Vittlelab is a space where we can finally get our recipes, experiments and cooking tips organized in one place instead of what seems like one thousand different websites, polybinders and cookbooks across our kitchen and social media sites. It’s a place where we hope we can share what we’ve learned and pass it on to others. Thanks for visiting and welcome to Vittlelab.

Deborah