Burritos

No fancy name for these, just a delicious wrap chock full of nutrients.

Start with a whole wheat tortilla, and add black beans, salsa, chopped tomato, avocado, raw onions and cooked vegetables:  onions, mushrooms, kale.    Easy Peasy.

Pita Pizza

We use whole wheat pita bread for these.  They are harder to find but worth the effort.

Serves 1

1-Whole Wheat low sodium pita

½ cup - Pasta sauce* low sodium, low or no sugar

½ cup each of chopped onions and  mushrooms, 1 clove of minced garlic

Fresh spinach, one handful

Raw tomato, 1 medium

Other toppings as desired  (I love raw onions on mine, husband loves salsa)

Optional – vegan cheese

Seasonings:

Crushed red pepper flakes

Garlic powder

Nutritional yeast

* pasta sauce.   Either find a brand you are comfortable with, or easily make your own and store in the fridge.  

In a skillet, put the chopped onions, mushrooms, and garlic with ½ cup water and cook on medium or medium-high until the onions are translucent.  

If you like your crust crispy, bake it first then add tomato sauce and other toppings.

If you like it softer, add the toppings and then bake the whole thing.

Assembly:  pizza crust, add the sauce, add the cooked vegetables, add the raw spinach and sliced tomatoes.   Sprinkle with the seasonings and nutritional yeast and cheese, if using it.    Bake it for a few minutes even if you’ve already crisped the crust. 

TIPS for kids:  I add the cooked onions, mushrooms, and garlic into the food processor and blend with the pasta sauce.   My son hates chunks of these vegetables but doesn’t mind the flavors. 

FREEB!RDS Freedom Salad

To avoid the high sodium of the restaurant foods but still get all of the delicious flavor, here is our version of the Freebird Freedom Salad.

Ingredients:

Chopped onion
Oyster mushrooms, chopped
Button mushrooms, chopped
Brown rice
Cilantro
Lime juice
Tomatoes, chopped
Spring mix (lettuce)
Black Beans
Salsa (low sodium)
Avocado, sliced

Water saute half the chopped onion and all of the mushrooms just for a few minutes.    Warm the black beans and rice, seasoning them with salsa and squeezing the lime into it.   Combine all the ingredients including the cooked vegetables and the raw onion.  Top with sliced avocado.

Kid Friendly Veggie Wrap

My self-proclaimed vegetable hater has been transformed, mostly, into a more tolerant eater over the past 3 years.   We work hard to find favorites that he will eat, and this one passed the test with an inclusion of a small amount of not-nearly-as-healthy foods.  

Veggie Wrap:

Ingredients: 

We use a whole grain Flat Out wrap or a whole wheat (or other whole grain, flax, etc) tortilla or wrap for these.  

Some favorite vegetable ingredients are spinach, shredded carrots, red or green leaf lettuce, thin sliced cucumbers, and tomatoes.    

Then, we add 1 tablespoon of finely shredded cheese and 1 shaved thin slice of pepperoni, chopped to spread out over the entire wrap.  

Last, we add other vegetables on the side, his favorites that he will eat plain.  

Plant STRONG kid ;) 

Sushi Salad

A member at the Dr. Fuhrman website passed along this great lunch idea; as usual, we stole and ran with it.   Two of our family members love sushi, but it's expensive to buy and time consuming to make.   This salad is an easier way, maybe, to get the same taste at home.  

It's a very versatile dish, and the time involved in making it can range from just a few minutes to a half hour or more, depending on your ingredients.  If you use just a few, raw, chopped ingredients, then it's a quick throw together meal.  Or, if you want more depth, using cooked and raw ingredients, tofu, and so on, then it can take a bit longer.   My solution is to take the extra time to make it, but to make enough to last a few days.   Then, I'll wait a couple of weeks before making it again so as not to burn them out on it. 

Possible ingredients - choose your favorites:

• Cooked brown rice or sushi rice (I used short grain brown rice, but any rice, black rice, wild rice, or even out of the box ideas like red quinoa or even a combination of all the above will work.  Or, noodles, but then we're off into other territory. 
• Nori - seaweed sheets.   Or, you can add kelp.   I baked the nori with a spray of olive oil (or an oil rub down with a paper towel) and seasonings until it was crispy, then sliced it into thin ribbons.   However, an easy sub is just to tear the nori into strips and toss it in as is. 
• Sesame seeds - toss this unhulled sesame seeds into the salad either raw or toasted in a pan on medium for just a few minutes. 
• Tofu - an optional ingredient that we used for a protein boost.   You can season, then boil, bake, or pan "fry" this and toss the cubes into the salad. 
• Raw vegetables - avocado slices, cucumber slices
• Cooked or raw vegetables - carrot shreds, mushrooms (cooked!), cabbage, green onions, spinach, edamame, and so on.  (The spinach, I just wilted in a warm pan very briefly but raw is fine, also).

Dressings:

We converted a few favorite dips into dressings - very simple ones.   Soy sauce and wasabi are their most used dips.   One dressing uses soy sauce, wasabi, ginger, honey, tahini, and a splash of rice vinegar.   Another uses soy, wasabi, and water.  A third is wasabi, rice vinegar, tahini, soy, pepper and garlic   If the dressings are too thick, they can be watered down to spread more easily.