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.

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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.

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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%

Mussels with Pesto and Garlic Oven Fries

photo credit to Real Simple and Christopher Baker

I'm a big fan of Real Simple recipes.  I've been saving the magazine recipe section for several years, and have a couple 3-ring binders filled with sheet protectors and the recipes.  It makes it easy for both my husband and me to pick recipes because they have a great picture for each one.  Plus, I really like that most of their recipes are quick, easy, and use fresh ingredients.  AND my husband will totally follow the recipes and make meals himself since we started using them a few years ago.

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With a recent trip to Cape Cod and an unappetizing visit to a seafood shack there, I was in the mood for some good seafood, so I picked this mussels recipe from Real Simple from a year or so ago.  I made the mussels in the pesto sauce per the recipe.  If you've never made mussels and are scared, I promise it's super easy - as easy as boiling pasta - and a little bit faster.  To save time, for the fries, I just bought a bag of Garlic Fries from Trader Joes.  To round out the meal with vegetables, we just had a super simple lettuce salad.

Because nectarines are in season, I decided to make a nectarine galette, another Real Simple recipe.  It's basically an open whole fruit pie, using pre-made freezer pie crust.  Mine didn't turn out as pretty as the one in the magazine (when does it ever?)  I was worried about the edges burning, so I did as suggested, and "tented" the galette with aluminum foil, but then the edges had trouble getting golden, so I ended up cooking it a little longer than the recipe suggested.

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I did actually check on how long you can use refrigerated mussels via a Google search.  All the sites seemed to say as long as the mussels were out of the shells, they could be stored in the fridge for 1 - 2 days. Conveniently, that's about how long the blend lasts.  And, I do know from previously feeding my son shellfish, he doesn't have any allergic reaction.

I was interested to see how well the mussels would blend in the Blendtec... "Will it Blend?"  And, well, "Yes, it Blends!"

I don't have a lot of experience with potatoes in the blend, and after the super thick blend with sweet potato fries, I was worried about making too thick of a mixture with the potatoes.  I only added 3 oz.

I also just basically just put a whole serving of the nectarine galette (1/4 of the galette) into the tube.  It had carbs, fruit, and fats.

There's not really any whole grains in this blend, but since most of the blends I make are full of whole grains, and the typical 2 1/2 year old seems to be eating mac & cheese, chicken nuggets, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I think one day of potatoes and pie crust won't hurt.  

With the salad greens and the pesto, this blend ended up a nice rich green color.  Plus, it had a great basil-garlic smell to it.  And it blended pretty smooth.  We'll see if it gets thicker after being in the refrigerator, but so far it flowed through the syringe quite nicely.

Here's the blenderized g-tube recipe:

Whole Milk	1 cup
flavored Kefir - 1% milkfat	1/2 cup
orange juice	1/2 cup
garlic fries	3 oz
mussels, shelled	3 oz
basil pesto	1/4 cup
salad greens, fresh	4 cups
nectarine galette	1 serving
Children's Multivitamin	1/2 tablet
calcium chews supplement	1/2 chew
Volume (oz)	36
Cal/oz	34.6
Cal/cc	1.2
% Fat	28%
% Carbohydrates	53%
% Protein	18%

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.

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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.

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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%