Birthday Burrito Blend

OK, so I've been a slacker with this blog recently.  But hey, I'm a busy lady.  Last month was Morty's 3rd birthday, and we had a big mustache party with all his playgroup friends, Early Intervention therapists, and nannys (past and present).  I contemplated what to order for food (there was no way I was making all the food & planning the rest of the party) & asked a lot of people whether they would like burritos or sandwiches.  The overwhelming response was burritos!  Which is good, because that's what I wanted too.  We just weren't sure whether a bunch of 2 & 3 year olds could handle them - we have no way to gauge since our little 3 year old doesn't eat a whole lot by mouth.  But it was a total success - typical 2 and 3 year olds can definitely handle burritos.

Happy Birthday to my little dude!

Table
We ordered them from Boloco and got a bunch of the "mini" size - which were just right because the dads could have 3 if they wanted to eat a lot, and the little ones were satisfied with 1.  I also made some fresh salsa and served it with store bought chips (some salsa ended up in the blenderized mix, but the chips did not).

For cake, I made this great mustache cake out of a Betty Crocker cake mix with directions from this site.  I also made a batch of cupcakes with a second box of cake mix.  I'm not afraid to admit I used a box mix.  My palette is not refined enough to actually tell the difference.  And, of course, I'm short on time.  I did, however, make the frosting - I can definitely tell the difference with the stuff that comes out of a store bought tub.  I used the Cake Boss's recipe.  Just a hint - that "fancy" swirl of frosting on the top of the cupcake was WAY easier to do than frosting them with a knife.  I just used a ziplock bag with a hole cut in the bottom corner.

Tube
I'm not going to lie - I am totally guessing at the volume that this recipe made - I forgot to check.  But my Blendtec doesn't hold much more than 40 oz and still mix, so I think that's about right.  But as is often the case with restaurant food, the calorie content of this mix ended up being super high!  I think it's the highest that I've made.  That's probably pretty normal for a birthday meal, though.  If you wanted to cut the calories down, you could just omit the 3T of oil, and that would bring it back to 1.3 cal/cc.

I added the basics to this recipe, including green beans and fruit to build up the nutrition content.  I also put in a cupcake - because every birthday boy needs a cupcake - even if it goes through a tube!

Here's the blenderized diet recipe:

Whole Milk	1 cup
flavored Kefir - 1% milkfat	1/2 cup
apple juice	1/2 cup
"mini" size Boloco classic burritos	2
salsa, fresh	2 T
green beans	1 cup
banana	1/2 small
diced peaches with juice	4 oz cup
Red Velvet cupcake	1 cupcake
cream cheese frosting
Canola Oil	3 T
Children's Multivitamin	1/2 tablet
calcium chews supplement	1/2 chew
Volume (oz)	42
Cal/oz	48.3
Cal/cc	1.6
% Fat	26%
% Carbohydrates	57%
% Protein	16%

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%