Mediterranean Stuffed Zucchini

Morty got his tube changed out this past week.  He is now a proud owner of the Mic Key button.  We have been waiting for this for a long time and we are so happy to finally have it.  It's taking a bit of getting used to... just to get into the new routine of filling the syringe/tube and administering.  It's just a slightly new system.   At the hospital, my husband requested that they give my son the same size Mic Key as the PEG tube.  Apparently they didn't listen to him, and we're now running a size smaller - 14 french now vs the previous 16 french.  We'll see if that has much of an effect.  I am blending the mix a little longer to make sure everything is smooth.

Table
Summer brings zucchini, and this week we bought a bunch of it at the farmer's market to make this stuffed zucchini dish.  Compared to a lot of stuffed recipes (stuffed cabbage, stuffed peppers, etc), this one is not tomato sauce based, so it's a little dry.  But it still has a variety of flavors with the cheese and pine nuts and sun-dried tomatoes , so it's pretty good.

Tube
After I made the zucchini, my husband and I ate a serving each, and I just put the other 2 servings in the blenderized g-tube version.  It included zucchini stuffed with the sausage, asiago cheese, pine nuts, sundried tomatoes, and scallion mixture.  I also actually threw in some of the zucchini that was hollowed out - seemed a waste to throw it out.   I added some cooked bulgur wheat for grains.  Side note: my dad used to make a cracked wheat breakfast cereal when I was growing up, that he called simply "mush".  It pretty much looks the same as cooked bulgur.

Here's the blenderized g-tube recipe:

Whole Milk	1 cup
flavored Kefir - 1% milkfat	1/2 cup
orange juice	1/2 cup
bulgur wheat	1/4 cup dry, cooked
stuffed zucchini (1/4 lb sausage)	2 serving
Sunflower Seed Oil	2 T
Dole cherry mixed fruit cup	1 container
Children's Multivitamin	1/2 tablet
calcium chews supplement	1/2 chew
Volume (oz)	40
Cal/oz	31.3
Cal/cc	1.0
% Fat	33%
% Carbohydrates	50%
% Protein	17%

Beef Tacos with Roasted Red Peppers

When I was young, one of my sisters would only eat a couple different meals, one of which was tacos, so needless to say, we ate a lot of tacos growing up.  Mexican food is definitely a favorite in my family.  And I think my all time favorite flavor is cilantro + lime.  So this blend definitely includes cilantro!  Morty might not taste it, but I can't help myself.  Plus, there is a farmer at our farmer's market that sells a bunch of cilantro for $1.  What a deal - and I can't let it go to waste.

Table:
The recipe for this dinner came from the June 2012 Real Simple magazine.  I would link the recipe here, but I don't think it's been added to their website yet.  Basically, it's a beef/onions/corn base with all the appropriate spices, and garlicky red peppers roasted in the oven on the side (we actually just ate these laid on top of the meat, a la the picture above).  Then you add all the regular taco toppings - salsa, grated cheese, avocado...  It looks like a lot of ingredients, but it really wasn't anything particularly fancy.  I did make my own salsa this week, with some tomatoes that a neighbor was kind enough to give me.  (another great use for the BlendTec)  And you can bet that I added plenty of cilantro & lime to that salsa.  I also have a jalapeno in the salsa...  It didn't seem to bother Morty.  You can definitely leave it out if the blenderized diet you're making needs to be less spicy.

Tube:
For this g-tube blend, I pretty much made an extra taco and threw it in the blender.  I added an extra shell for carbs/calories and more peppers for the vitamins.  I also put in mango & bananas because they seem like appropriate complement!  With the previous success of adding a small amount of cheese to the blend, I kept that in here too.  The avocado also added some nice calories and fat.  It also made the blend real "smooth".  This was such a great smelling blend!  That may stem from my love of all Mexican food.

Here's the blenderized g-tube recipe:

Whole Milk	1 cup
flavored Kefir - 1% milkfat	1/2 cup
orange juice	1/2 cup
wheat tortillas, fajita style	2
ground beef taco mix	2.5 oz
red pepper, oven roasted	1/2 pepper
salsa, fresh	2 T
cilantro	2 T
avocado	1/4 fruit
grated Mexican cheese blend	2T
banana	1/2 small
mango	140 g
corn oil	2 T
Children's Multivitamin	1/2 tablet
calcium chews supplement	1/2 chew
Volume (oz)	36
Cal/oz	37.3
Cal/cc	1.2
% Fat	23%
% Carbohydrates	57%
% Protein	20%

Pork Chops with Green Beans and Sweet Potato Fries

Ok, first confession is that I did not take the picture above - I found it on Google Images and took it off of Southern Living or something.  Second confession is that I did not make the pork chop dinner that is pictured above!  My husband was gone on a 2-week trip for work, so you might be able to imagine how hectic things become with a special needs child with only one parent - you may even be in that position permanently yourself!  I was pretty much lucky to not fix frozen pizza every night or just eat a bowl of cereal for dinner - and believe me, that thought crossed my mind more than once.

Table
This table dinner was a pretty simple one.  I just grilled a couple of pork chops and ate it with green beans and sweet potato fries.  Nothing spectacular.

Tube
For the g-tube blenderized version of this, I added brown rice for carbs.  We buy frozen brown rice from Trader Joes that only needs a 3-minute zap in the microwave to cook.  It's the best thing for busy people.  I think the blend came out super thick, so if you don't want it so thick, I'd recommend only using about 1/2 the brown rice and substituting a couple slices of bread.

I also put in applesauce, because pork chops and apples just go together so well, and he needed some fruit.  I also added maple syrup because there's a Real Simple recipe we often use for sweet potato fries where you drizzle maple syrup on the fries.  I just used store bought frozen fries this time, but the maple syrup is good for a calorie boost.

Whole Milk	1 1/2 cup
flavored Kefir - 1% milkfat	1/2 cup
brown rice	1 1/2 cup
applesauce	1 cup
sweet potato fries	3 oz
green beans	1/2 cup
pork chops	2 oz
maple syrup	1 T
olive oil	2 T
Children's Multivitamin	1/2 tablet
calcium chews supplement	1/2 chew
Volume (oz)	38
Cal/oz	36.4
Cal/cc	1.2
% Fat	15%
% Carbohydrates	71%
% Protein	14%

Grilled Hawaiian-Style Pizza

Table
One of my favorite ways to make pizza is on the grill.  Yes, we grilled again tonight!  It is summer, after all...  I can buy pre-made pizza dough at a couple of my regular grocery stores.  Trader Joe's even regularly stocks a whole wheat version, so that's what we started with tonight.  I follow the basic directions from Allrecipes.com found here.  It's really quite fast and easy - the hardest part is stretching and managing the dough before it goes on the grill, but I've found if I put the stretched dough on some cornmeal, it really helps avoid some disasters.

Instead of sauce, I used canned diced tomatoes.  And for toppings tonight, I made a sort of Hawaiian pizza with ham and pineapple.  I also added some green peppers for extra veggies.

The picture above already has the pizza cut up and ready to go.  We've been bringing these quick, homemade pizzas to the Concerts on the Common.  If there was one thing I could change for the "table" version, it would be to figure out a way to cook the toppings a little more - it cooks so fast on the grill that the toppings don't have much of a chance to get all crispy.

Tube
I was totally excited to make a blenderized version of this recipe for my little guy's g-tube.  When Morty was eating easily by mouth, pizza was one of his favorite meals.  Yes, I fed my little guy pizza.

I saved about 1/3 of the dough for the blend, spread it out, and basically just cooked it on the grill with the other pizzas.

The test for this blend is how well the mozzarella cheese would blend.  I'm keeping the volume to 2 tablespoons to see how it goes...  I'm worried it will be soft when I blend it up, but then it will get solid and thicken everything up in the fridge.  I don't mind pushing a thick blend through a syringe, but the potential for blow-outs is higher.

Whole Milk	1 cup
flavored Kefir - 1% milkfat	1/2 cup
Welch's Grape Juice	1/2 cup
Whole wheat pizza dough	5 g
banana	1/2 small
pineapple tidbits	1/2 cup
Italian style diced tomatoes	1/2 cup
green pepper	4 oz
ham	2 oz
part-skim mozzarella cheese	2 T
olive oil	2 T
Children's Multivitamin	1/2 tablet
calcium chews supplement	1/2 chew
Volume (oz)	36
Cal/oz	31.3
Cal/cc	1.0
% Fat	15%
% Carbohydrates	66%
% Protein	19%

Honey-Soy Glazed Salmon

Table:
We bought some fresh salmon at the farmer's market this past weekend, and decided to do a grilled version of this Real Simple recipe.  We also bought some bok choy, so we grilled and used that in place of the vegetables in the recipe.

Tube:
This is a pretty low calorie meal (the bok choy is practically water!), so for the g-tube blended diet, I added broccoli.  I also added pineapple to keep a sort of Asian stir fry feel to the mix.  And of course, I used the honey just as in the glaze.  (My son is 2 1/2  - babies under the age of 12 months should not have honey).  To keep a thinner consistency, I kept my rice to 1/2 cup and used a slice of bread.

Whole Milk	1 cup
flavored Kefir - 1% milkfat	1/2 cup
orange juice	1/2 cup
brown rice	1/2 cup
whole grain bread	1 slice
pineapple tidbits	1/2 cup
diced pears with juice	4 oz cup
bok choy	1/2 c
broccoli	1/2 c
Salmon	3 oz
honey	1 T
Sunflower Seed Oil	2 T

Children's Multivitamin	1/2 tablet
calcium chews supplement	1/2 chew

Total volume - 36 oz
cal/oz - 30.8
cal/cc - 1.0

Grilled Lamb Kebabs & Tzatziki

Table
We have a meat share through a local farm coop, and they often give some lamb in the share.  This month we got lamb "stew meat", which is actually just pre-cut in chunks, making it perfect for kebabs & grilling (all I want to do in the summer is grill).  I wanted to try something fun, fresh, lemony and totally Greek.

A quick search found this Ina Garten recipe and some blogs (Smitten Kitchen, The Delish Dish) using the recipe.  It sounded totally delicious, and I thought it would also be a great conversion to a tube recipe.

The yogurt marinade was kind of messy, but the end result was delicious!

Tube
Here's the dinner converted to a g-tube blended diet.  I made the blend to be the lamb kebabs, tzatziki, and an apricot-grape fruit salad.  We used the lamb, peppers, and onions straight from the grill.

Notes on the lamb-
1.  We cooked the lamb to about medium well.  We had marinated it for about 24 hours, so it was still pretty tender.
2.  This lamb had some fat on it that didn't blend so well, even though I tried to pick the least fatty pieces.  I had some slight stoppage when I plunged the blend in, so I put the remaining blend through a strainer, and that seemed to help.

Whole Milk	1 cup
plain yogurt, whole milk	1/2 cup
lemonade	1/2 cup
pitas whole wheat (large)	1 pita
apricot, canned extra light syrup	1/2 cup
grapes	1/2 cup
honey	1 T
cucumber	1/2 cup
peppers	1/3 med pepper
onions	slice, 1/4" thick
lamb	2 oz
olive oil	3 T
Children's Multivitamin	1/2 tablet
calcium chews supplement	1/2 chew
Volume (oz)	38
Cal/oz	30.8
Cal/cc	1.0

Warm Spinach Salad with Grilled Sausage

Table:
We used this Real Simple recipe for a sausage dinner on a hot summer night.  We grilled and put everything over pasta.  It was a perfect summer recipe.

Tube:
Here's the corresponding recipe for a g-tube blended diet.  This is the first time I've tried Italian sausage in a blend.  I'm a little nervous about how well my son will do with it, considering he has some reflux.  I have definitely done orange juice and tomatoes before without too many problems.  So we'll see!  If you'd rather substitute ground pork, I think that would work well also.  With the blueberries and the spinach, this blend came out a really nice dark green color.

Whole Milk	1 cup
flavored Kefir - 1% milkfat	1/2 cup
orange juice	1/2 cup
pasta	1 cup (dry)
blueberries	1/2 cup
diced pears with juice	4 oz cup
tomatoes	1 plum
spinach	1 cup
Italian Sausage	2 oz
olive oil	2 T
Children's Multivitamin	1/2 tablet
calcium chews supplement	1/2 chew

Volume: 40 oz
Cal/oz: 27.7
Cal/cc: 0.9