We enjoyed a great Christmas-New Year vacation at home with lots of keto-goodies and many tried-and-true recipes. Nora is still doing great, seizure-free, and growing up before our eyes. I’ve been intending to write this post for the past month and finally have a moment to get to it.
It is probably natural that a child who’s diet requires so much specialized cooking will take an interest in cooking. Especially an independent 4 year old like Nora. Last quarter, I spent at least 1 day per week home with Nora, when I did a lot of cooking for her. In early December Nora took up the creative task of cooking also.
Recipe 1: Chez Nora Olive Pie
One day Nora came out of the kitchen holding a jar of jam, proclaiming that she was ready to bake a pie. I had to talk her out of the jam, but told her that we could make another kind of pie that would work with her diet. Next, she brought out a jar of kalamata olives and lemon juice. Hmmm, we could work with that.
It took some time and negotiation to convince Nora that she needed my technical expertise to make anything that would be edible and fit into her diet. I suggested that she could make something like a quiche, an egg and olive pie. She agreed that would be good, and suggested it would be good with chicken in it too. Then she decided to add some fish oil to the recipe so that she didn’t have to drink it separately that night. I could go with that too.
I let Nora weigh everything on the scale and do the mixing. I told her when she had weighed enough of an ingredient so that she would like the final result. She mostly went along with my suggestions and I recorded the weight of everything that she included in her recipe.
After we weighed everything and assembled her olive pie, she made one for Papa and one for Anders for dinner too. I let Nora weigh and mix theirs but didn’t require precision. I also let her omit the fish oil from their portions. Unfortunately, egg dishes are not on my special diet (my stomach can’t tolerate much egg.) She could relate to that explanation. I had an alternative meal that evening.
Although Anders was skeptical at first, everyone was very pleased with their olive pie! Nora was especially proud to present it to Ted and Anders. It was adorable. She made me hide them for as long as possible until Ted was at the table to receive his meal. He was very gracious and complementary, much to Nora’s delight.
Chez Nora Olive Pie. Nutritional information from www.caloriecount.com.
Chez Nora Olive Pie
2 g Fish Oil
8 g Kalamata Olives, chopped
6 g Napoleon Chopped Green Olives
12 g egg
0.5 g lemon juice
3.5 g Heavy Whipping Cream
10 g chicken thigh, chopped
Measure egg and cream into a small ramekin and whisk well. Fold in remaining ingredients and mix. Bake at 325 for 10-15 minutes or until set. Cool and enjoy.
Recipe 2: Blueberry Monster Mash
One Saturday morning, Nora and I were home together and I was making up a batch of Macadamia Monster Mash. Nora likes to run the food processor when we make recipes like this one. She was inspired to make another recipe with the ingredients that we had on hand and another one of her favorite foods: blueberries.
Again, I tried to guide her on amounts as she measured the ingredients on the gram scale. I would say, “that’s enough!” then record the weight on the scale. Thankfully, she wanted to include coconut oil in this recipe, which worked great!
Blueberry Monster Mash
50 g blueberries
100 g macadamia nuts
10 g coconut oil
0.5 g salt
1/2 T lemon juice
1/2 T water
Measure and process in food processor until smooth. Enjoy!
Nora likes to call this “ice cream” and has offered to share it with friends. Of course, it’s not ice cream by most kids’ standards, but it’s pretty yummy anyway.
