Rebecca Davis 7/18/16 Rebecca Davis 7/18/16

Rainbow vegetable quiche

Isn't she puuuurty? This dish combines a lot of M's favorite foods: Eggs, cheese, milk, and bread (or at least, something bread-adjacent). Also, quiches are basically fancy casseroles with all of the benefits (big-batch; make ahead and reheat; easily customized based on preferences; etc), but are less messy than some of the saucier casseroles and are cube-able, which means that quiche = toddler finger food. This particular quiche is so pretty that I would happily feed it to a crowd. It's also so tasty that I would happily eat it all by myself (which I pretty much did because M went on a hunger strike after I made it).

I used a pre-made crust because I'm lazy.

I also recommend pre-cooking the potatoes a little bit, but this step isn't crucial. I just like predictability and pre-cooking means that all of the veggies will be evenly cooked. Tossing them in raw is more of a gamble, though after 45+ minutes of cooking, they'll probably be fully cooked. Also, slicing the potatoes thinly ensures that they cook at the same rate as the squash and tomatoes, which you can make a little thicker.

Rainbow Veggie Quiche

Time: About 1.5 hours (most action up front and then waiting for the quiche to cook)
Yield: 6-8 servings as a main; 8-10 servings as a side

1 large tomato, sliced into about 1/4-inch rounds
½ large sweet potato, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
½ large yellow squash, sliced into about 1/4-inch rounds
2 large handfuls fresh spinach or 1/2 cup frozen spinach, thawed and drained
3 small purple potatoes (or regular potatoes if you can’t find purple), sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
olive oil
4 large eggs
¾ cup whole milk
2-3 large garlic cloves, minced
¾ cup cheddar cheese (or whatever cheese you prefer)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 9” pre-made pie crust (or your favorite homemade crust in a 9-inch pie plate)

Preheat the oven to 400.

Slice sweet potatoes, purple potatoes, into 1/8th-inch slices. You can use a mandolin or just eyeball it. Spread them in a single layer on a baking sheet and brush lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Cook in the oven for about 8-10 minutes, just until the sweet potatoes become pliable.

In the meantime, combine 4 eggs and milk and whisk to combine. Add the minced garlic. Grate the cheese and add ½ cup to the egg/milk mixture, reserving ¼ cup for topping the quiche. Season generously with salt and pepper. Stir to combine and set aside.

Next, using a fork, make holes all over your pie crust. Once the veggies have softened, turn the oven down to 375 and cook the empty pie crust for 10 minutes.

Remove the crust from the oven and begin assembly. I recommend putting a sheet pan beneath your crust to catch any spillover.

Starting with the purple potatoes, spread a single layer over the bottom of the crust (pie crust should peek through). Then, add two handfuls of spinach. Pour about 1/3 of the milk/cheese/egg mixture over these layers and tap the quiche once to remove air bubbles.

Then, add the yellow squash layer and the sweet potato layer. Pour over the other 1/3 of the milk/cheese/egg mixture. Tap once to remove air bubbles. By this point, the liquid should be even with the sweet potato layer and everything should be up to about the rim of the pie crust. If not, add more liquid and veggies.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, uncovered.

After 30 minutes, remove the quiche and add the tomato layer. Pour a bit of the remaining egg/milk/cheese mixture over the tomatoes (if possible- there may not be enough room for more of the egg mixture and that’s totally fine) and top with the remaining cheese.

Return to the oven for 15 minutes, or until the quiche is set. You should be able to rotate the entire thing without much movement from the contents.

If the quiche is not set after 45 minutes, but the cheese on top is browning, cover with foil and check again after another 10 minutes.

Let cool before serving.

Rebecca Davis 6/3/16 Rebecca Davis 6/3/16

Cherry, strawberry, basil, and coconut yogurt smoothie

Cherry, strawberry, basil, and coconut milk puree | Me & The Moose. Cherries, strawberries, basil, and coconut yogurt combine in this smoothie that is equally delicious for babies, toddlers, and grownups. #meandthemoose #babyfood #toddlerfood #summer #cherry #strawberry #basil #coconut #smoothie

Roasting fruit is a fantastic way to make it taste super sweet AND save it from the garbage if it’s a little past its prime. Here, we’ve combined that syrupy goodness with fresh basil and coconut yogurt for a unique and TASTY smoothie.

Take me to the recipe!

Okay, okay. I know it’s a little much to roast fresh fruit in the summer, but I promise that it’s worth it! The fruit gets SO SWEET that it tastes like candy, which is an excellent way to get kids to eat it.

It's also incredibly forgiving and versatile. Want to use only berries or only cherries? Do it. Want to use vegan coconut yogurt? Absolutely!. Want to freeze them as popsicles? Freeze away! Want to swap in frozen fruit because it’s cheaper or it’s winter? One hundred percent fine.

However, you CAN NOT use dried basil in place of fresh. You could skip the basil, but really, it's the star of the show.

Roasted strawberries and cherries for a dairy-free smoothie made with coconut yogurt and basil. #dairyfreesmoothies #dairfreerecipes #roastedfruit #strawberrysmoothie #cherrysmoothie #smoothierecipes

Cherries falling into a dairy-free pink smoothie that uses leftover fruit and coconut yogurt. #meandthemoose #babyfood #toddlerfood #coconut #smoothie #dairyfreesmoothie #roastedfruitrecipes #leftoverfruit #howtousebadfruit — Cherry, strawberry, basil, and coconut milk puree | Me & The Moose. Cherries, strawberries, basil, and coconut yogurt combine in this smoothie that is equally delicious for babies, toddlers, and grownups. #meandthemoose #babyfood #toddlerfood #summer #cherry #strawberry #basil #coconut #smoothie

Cherry, strawberry, basil, and coconut yogurt smoothie

Time: (30-35 minutes, mostly active)
Yield: 1 cup roasted fruit puree; 2 smoothies

1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries, quartered (2 cups of whole berries if using frozen)
1 heaping cup cherries, pitted (fresh or frozen)
10 oz coconut yogurt, cow’s milk or vegan (2 small cartons or 1 1/3 cups)
1/2 cup water, added a little bit at a time
6-8 large fresh basil leaves

Pre-heat the oven to 350. Place the fresh or frozen strawberries and cherries on a foil or parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 20-30 minutes. Check frequently to avoid scorching. Roast until the fruit is very mushy and its liquid has released and become syrupy.

Once your berries are roasted, dump everything into the blender and blend until smooth.

Rebecca Davis 6/1/16 Rebecca Davis 6/1/16

Classic Caesar Dressing

This Classic Caesar dressing ticks all of the boxes: fast, easy, dairy-free, Whole30, and most importantly, delicious.

Take me to the dressing!

Quick content warning: I’m about to talk about body image and weight and dieting. I promise not to talk about it ad nauseam on this blog, but as a human with a body who eats and looks in the mirror, it’s hard not to fall prey to the diet culture and wellness madness that swirls around us.

So, I just finished doing a Whole 30 and nary a crumb or drop of wheat, grain, dairy, soy, legume, alcohol, or added sugar crossed these lips the entire time. It was, by far, my most successful run of disciplined eating. And I lost 10 lbs.

But then I went back to "real" eating. For the first few days, I felt scared of anything that wasn't Whole 30-approved. Like, eating a grain of quinoa was going to wreak havoc. So I kept up the regimen. Then I had some wine and remembered how much I loooooove wine. So, I decided to rejoin Weight Watchers (guys, Oprah eats bread on Weight Watchers EVERY DAY). But, then I quit Weight Watchers. Then I tried eating Whole 30-approved foods while also recording everything on My Fitness Pal, which then turned into: Eating Whole 30-approved foods but adding back just grains and beans. Then I convinced myself that I should just work out daily to keep the weight off while eating everything in moderation. And then I had a meltdown and ate an entire chocolate babka. Bear in mind that my Whole 30 ended just two short weeks ago. That's a lot of dieting in 14 days. And a lot of babka.

During the Whole 30 I abstained from some of my FAVORITE things without much difficulty and really did feel great. I mentioned in an earlier post that one upside to the plan's rigidity was that I stopped obsessing about my food choices. Welp, that came back full force once I didn't have to follow the Whole 30 rules. I also feel much more obsessed with weight loss than I did before and more discouraged about my ability to stick to a regimen even though I JUST DID IT.

Also, this article came out.

There is hella conflicting information about health and nutrition out there, which I already knew, but is maddening nonetheless. Do I worry more about the content of my food or the volume? Is exercise or eating more central to wellness and weight loss? If I do manage to lose weight, am I one of the teeny percentage of people who can actually keep it off? So, I've been toying with the radical notion of just stopping. Just shutting down the voice in my head that says my worth is inversely proportional to my size. Or that my worth is bound to how I look at all. Or that there's something wrong with how I look. Or that "healthy" has a rigid and universal definition. And just when I think I'm good with that, I feel a clenching in my chest imagining the weigh-in at my next doctor's appointment...

No matter how frustrated with food I might feel, this Caesar dressing is insanely good and will remain in the repertoire.

*Update: It’s been four years and I could have written this four days ago, so…yeah, still struggling with weight and body image! But I still make this dressing all the time, so something good came out of doing Whole30.

This Classic Caesar dressing is fast, easy, dairy-free, Whole30 compliant, and most importantly, delicious. #caesardressingrecipe #dairyfreerecipes #caesardressing #meandthemoose

Kale Caesar salad

2 Tbsp Primal Kitchen avocado mayonnaise
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
2-3 anchovy filets (look for ones packed in olive oil)*
2 cloves garlic (medium)
3-4 dashes Cholula hot sauce
¼ cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
6 cups raw kale

*I've recently realized that some anchovies, particularly the ones that come in a can with a peel-back lid, are what I would call a half filet. If your anchovies aren't double sided or look like they've been butterflied, then double the amount to 4-6 of these half filets.

Combine first six ingredients in a food processor and pulse to chop. Set the food processor to puree and slowly add olive oil in a stream. Add salt and pepper to taste and puree until all ingredients are combined. Remove tough stems from kale, clean, and chop. Toss dressing and greens together and serve.