Product Review: Milk Alternatives made from Rice, Soy, and Almond

Lately the Nature Family has been on a food odyssey. One of our nature kidz has had some allergic reactions and we've been hosting our own non-televised episode of the popular "Mystery Diagnosis" show.  Unfortunately, the most allergenic foods out there also happen to be Nature Kidz' most commonly eaten ones: dairy (milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream), wheat, nuts.  Let's just say that our food groups are: mac and cheese, pizza, chicken nuggets, and peanut butter sandwiches (thank goodness peas, broccoli, and most fruits fit in there too!).  

In order to eliminate dairy for a while (we will introduce it after a period of time to see if there is a reaction), I definitely needed an alternative.  I purchased the ones pictures above at Trader Joe's on the recommendation of another shopper whom I accosted while she was browsing the dairy alternative aisle.  I'm sure she felt thankful to escape when she did, as I peppered her with multiple questions, like: "is it good? Is it thick? Would you say it's more chocolatey or banana--y"?  

At any rate, here are our thoughts:

None of these "milks" have the thickness and creaminess of whole milk. All of them have their fair share of sugar.  All are lower in fat and calories than whole milk.  3 of the 4 come in shelf-stable packaging, which is convenient.

Vitasoy Chocolate Banana:  This dairy-free soy-based beverage is a favorite of mine.  I think it's delicious--it has a nice chocolate flavor and is great in a smoothie with a frozen banana and some ice.  However, Nature Kidz did not like it.  They found it "too banana-ish."  I guess they were expecting chocolate milk.

Vitasoy Strawberry Banana: Elder Nature Kid loves this stuff.  It helps that her favorite smoothie flavor is strawberry banana.  She drinks this one regularly, and she and I shared a smoothie made with frozen banana, ice, and honey and a good measure of this "filk" (faux milk) and it was really very good. Nature Kid the Youngest did not like it at all.  But then, she is a peanut-butter-and-chocolate smoothie lover.

Trader Joe's Vanilla Rice Drink:  This is an acceptable substitute for milk in cereal, but neither kid liked it at all straight. It just doesn't taste like milk, which is what they wanted.  But over cereal or mixed into things like oatmeal, it's a great substitute and a good price.

Almond Breeze Chocolate Almond Drink: This one is Nature Kid the Youngest's favorite.  She declared it "just right!"  It's got a nice rich chocolate flavor.  This one, of course, presents a problem if a person is allergic to almonds, but it's probably the best-tasting of the bunch and is very kid friendly.

Overall, the fact is that there is no really perfect substitute for milk in terms of taste and additives: though "natural," each of the drinks features here has a lot of sugar.

Back to Basics: Simple Roast Chicken

With the pace of life being so frenetic these days, it seems like most of my recent years have been nourished (I use the term loosely) by bags of frozen food or semi-fast food.  While I feel okay about trips to Panera, with their fresh baked bread and organic options for the kids, I have to face facts: there are about 10,000 too many french fries in my family's past.  

As a mom who was working full time, running a household full time, and trying to be a full time mom (yes, I know, it's simply not possible), dinner time often got put on the back burner--or, rather, not on any burner at all; we ate a quick bite out or microwaved something.  These days life's pace is a little saner--not slow, I am still crazy busy, but I do have time to throw something in the oven while I work on my book and do other things.

While shopping the other day I saw something I hadn't noticed in many years--a simple whole chicken.  This is one of the easiest things to prepare, provided you have time, and it's nutritious and counts, in my book, as comfort food.  I bought an all-natural chicken with a little pop-up timer; to prep it I simply washed it, added some sea salt, pepper, and bay and parsley leaves, and popped it in the oven for a couple of hours.  Of course, I also basted it with real butter every half our or so.  I steamed some broccoli and roasted some potatoes and voila! a real dinner.  It was delicious, nourishing to the spirit and body, and, wonder of wonders, the Kidz ate it.

Ahhhh, happiness.

Natural living in the 21st century Depression

Cherchie's White Bean Chili and a Home Made Slow-Cooker Alternative
Momz Rating: A
Dadz Rating: A+
Kidz Rating: B-

Cornbread:
Momz Rating: B-
Dadz Rating: B+
Kidz Rating: C-

So, this afternoon I was slaving over my Kitchen Aid mixer making yummy cornbread from scratch and Cherchie's White Bean Chili for dinner when the doorbell rang. Nature Dad answered and, when he returned from a brief discussion with whomever was at the door, informed me that Thomasville (that's the furniture people--we live in NC) had people at the door asking if we wanted to buy furniture direct from the warehouse; they had two trucks full of stuff and were going door to door selling it.

Within two minutes, Nature Dad returned from the playroom after checking on Nature Girlz (they were being too quiet--we knew that they just had to be up to no good) and informed me that they were playing "homeless children." He asked if I remembered playing something like that as a child.

Of course not. We didn't even have the term homeless when I was a child.

Now, maybe it's because I recently watched Kit Kittredge for the second time, but this really affected me. Here I am trying to live a more back-to-basics, natural existence for my kids' sake, and someone (was it really Thomasville reps? was it stolen? Is Thomasville going under?) it out selling nice furniture out of the back of a truck, and the world seems to be crashing around us.

9 year old Nature Girl has been bringing home her ziploc bags from her lunch box--so I can use them again.

And I remarked the other day to another mom that I think I might go bankrupt at Whole Foods just trying to keep artificial junk out of my family's foods (Though I'm learning to find things at my local grocery store, too). Why is is that Cheetos are much cheaper than cheese? Why is it that, pound for pound, it's cheaper to buy fatty ground beef and Hamburger Helper than it is healthful meats and fresh vegetables? What's going to happen to our health in tough economic times?

I, for one, have no intention of turning to Velveeta and margarine.

The soup I made tonight claims to be "81 cents per serving" on its website (I think I paid a bit less than the site's retail price for my bag); I added some cut up chicken breast to it, and served it with homemade cornbread (another inexpensive option). While this meal was, of course, less costly (to our wallet and our health) than a meal out eating food of questionable provenance (did you know that many shredded cheeses have an anti-caking agent made from WOOD?), it is also labor-intensive and takes an 8-mile hike to Whole Foods to get everything (hello, Whole Foods, can you please open a store closer to me?)

But as for the food: I cooked the chili in my crockpot, bypassing the directions. I used a carton of natural low-sodium chicken broth to replace most of the water called for, and also added about a pound of cooked, chopped chicken breast. My additions made the meal not vegetarian, but leaving out the chicken broth and chicken makes a nice, inexpensive vegetarian meal (with leftovers!). The chili is also gluten-free. I topped each bowl with a hearty dollop of sour cream and shredded cheese.

The chili cooked in my crockpot all day while the Nature Peepz were out enjoying ourselves. The result was absolutely wonderful. Fall has really set in here, and it was a blustery day in the 50s. Chili was a great option for dinner. The white beans make for a creamy, thick, yummy concoction and Cherchie's adds just the right seasoning. I often make my own white bean chili, but I think I like the mix better than my recipe. The package states that it has jalapenos, and I suppose it does, but it's not an especially spicy food--suitable for kids for sure!

For the cornbread I used the basic recipe on the package of my corn meal. I don't use corn meal "mix" because I never really know what goes in there--I used House Autry Plain Yellow Corn Meal for this recipe. We found it to be really too dry--I had to choke it down. We like a moister corn bread, ever since a former neighbor baked a sinful recipe with sour cream and all sorts of other additions that my kids dubbed "corn cake" for its moist, sweet yummy-ness.

If you like a dense, crumbly corn bread, this one is good.

For my home made white crock pot chili, the recipe is from the Fix-it and Forget-it slow cooker cookbook and it's quite good and, based on the ingredients, suitable for Feingold Stage 2.

1 lb. bag large Great northern beans, soaked overnight

2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut up (us all natural with no solution added)

1 medium onion, chopped

2 4.5 oz cans of green chilies

2 tsp. cumin

1/2 tsp. salt

14 1/2 oz can chicken broth (Whole Foods' 365 Organic Chicken Broth)

1 cup water

1. bring soaked beans to boil and simmer 20 min.  discard water.

2. brown chicken in 1-2 Tbsp. (Bertolli or 365 Every Day olive oil) oil in skillet.

3. combine everything in slow cooker and stir.

4. cover.  cook on high 5-6 hours or low for 12 hours.

You can serve with cheese, sour cream, or just as it is.

Home made Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies

Momz rating: A-

Kidz rating: A-
Dadz rating: A

My 2 Kidz helped me make these cookies. I got the initial recipe from another blog (Gluten Free Girl), did some more searching since this recipe didn't specifically say "chewy" (a MUST in our house) and found another website (Chowhound) and created my own version using organic sugars, peanut butter, and egg, and adding some vanilla. I think the result turned out great! I got about 3 dozen small (1.5-2in) cookies out of this recipe.

The upside to this recipe is their chewiness; no one in my house likes a crunchy cookie, and of course peanut butter cookies are usually crunchy (note in the picture that these do not have the traditional fork-smashing pattern). Also, they get better with time--I actually (and this is unlike me) preferred them after cooling for about an hour to the fresh-out-of-the-oven taste. Because I rolled them in sugar before baking, they might be a bit too sugary. Overall it's an incredibly simple recipe that we managed to make in just a few minutes and pop in the oven while I was prepping for dinner.

Here's the recipe:

1 cup organic peanut butter (with only the ingredients peanuts and salt)

1 cup organic brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla (the real stuff, no artificial vanilla allowed!)

1 tsp baking soda

beat together the peanut butter, sugar, and egg. Add baking soda and vanilla and mix until dough becomes firm and malleable (it may seem too wet at first but let it mix a bit and it will thicken). Form dough into small (tablespoon sized) balls and, optionally, roll in white sugar (I used organic evaporated cane juice, which is not really "white" sugar). Place on cookie sheets and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes. When removing from the oven, make sure to let them sit on the cookie sheet to cool for about 5 min. (otherwise they may fall apart). Let cook completely and enjoy!