Desperate parents and kids who will only eat mac'n cheese? Here's a healthy option.

Like a lot of people these days, I’ve got a kid with eating issues. Due to neurological and developmental issues, the doctors keep saying she needs about twice the optimal daily allowance of protein for a child (about 30 grams for most kids, 60 for my kid).

BUT due to sensory sensitivity issues she won’t eat most meat or eggs. She will sometimes eat legumes and nuts but not nearly often enough. The one significant protein source she’ll always eat is cheese, but dairy protein alone isn’t going to cut it for brain development.

Let me get one thing utterly clear here.

There’s a lot of judgmentalism out there about parents saying their kids have eating issues or intolerance to certain foods, when in reality it’s sometimes about parents wishing their kid was more special than the next kid or the inability of parents to set limits on the demands of entitled, picky kids living amid excess privilege.

And on one level I am as irritated as the rest. It is not “cool” to have neurological difficulties or sensory disorders or allergies or digestive illnesses. The real thing is a huge pain in the butt. If not eating gluten either helps you avoid little bumps on your skin or helps you feel good about yourself or about your kid, go for it. At least it is bringing the gluten free prices down for people with acute digestive illnesses. But please don’t make a big deal about it in every gathering where your child might ingest a small amount of gluten and have absolutely nothing happen. That kind of behavior is going to get a child with a real nut allergy killed, because people stop taking it seriously.

On the other hand, people who are irritated by this wave of special eating issues need to get a grip as well. Be grateful that you or your kids don’t have issues and can freely eat what they want. The instance of life-threatening allergies and real actual, factual, documented deaths from allergens has gone up in recent decades. Few researchers want to risk a funding ban by pointing fingers at the chemical industry and agro-business but there are plenty of studies linking the toxic stuff these industries put out to harmful hormonal, genetic and immune effects. People who say they really have a problem and are willing to eat the potatoes with nothing or the like and thank you for them are not realistically faking a problem for fun or image considerations.

Sure, shrug the next time a mom guilt trips you about how you should have made gluten free cupcakes for the birthday party because her little tike is “sensitive” while he’s over at the table going to town on the Doritos and she doesn’t care. But pay attention when it is clearly a real issue.

So, back to the story. If you are irritated by talk of food sensitivities and just want the recipe for healthy mac’n cheese, use the scroll bar.

Given all her sensory sensitivity and her love of cheese, my daughter has become obsessed with mac’n cheese in recent months. She had seen it on TV and the fact that it was mostly just noodles and cheese, two of her favorite things, was extremely enticing. For me, however, not so much. She gets plenty of cheese protein in a regular diet and there is very little nutritional value otherwise in this standard comfort food.

So, I was resistant for a long time. Finally, I decided to research healthier options for mac’n cheese, Other than hiding tiny bits of meat in it, the only viable option I came up with for adding protein was protein powder. It’s less than ideal but I was also concerned about other nutrients. Finally, I came across a recipe for reasonably healthy pumpkin-based mac’n cheese. Still a ton of dairy protein and the pumpkin sauce would make the protein powder disappear more easily.

The best part was I had just pulled a small pumpkin out of my garden.

There are those who have told me I should cut out all gluten from my kids’ diets given the sensory and neurological issues, but even testing the theory requires months of absolute isolation from gluten and that isn’t feasible in our school system without a heavy-handed doctor’s order, which we aren’t likely to get in order to just test a theory. So, this recipe includes regular whole wheat macaroni noodles, but you can substitute as needed.

My younger kid, the one without most of the eating issues is lactose intolerant, so I used lactose-free milk and cheese but the same can be done with regular milk and cheese.

My plan was to make the mac’n cheese in secret without letting my daughter know it had pumpkin in it, because she insisted she only wanted “pure” unadulterated mac’n cheese. And when she throws a food fit, it is epic. Not that we let her get away with dictating everything, but when you can avoid a hours-long scream-a-thon with basic precautions, you just do it.

So, I cut up and steamed the pumpkin. I pre-cooked the noodles. But then my daughter got home from her playdate early and the gig was up. She noticed the mound of noodles in a pot on the stove and went into overdrive. “I want mac’n cheese! I want mac'‘n cheese!”

Fifteen minutes later, after calming exercises and a discussion plus role play on how to express enthusiasm and make an appropriate request, I agreed to let her “help” cook. I figured that the added flexibility fostered by being involved in the cooking would balance out her disagreement with pumpkin in the sauce.

First, we had to make the sauce base and keep it free of lumps. This requires putting the butter in the pan and then briskly whisking in the flour and protein powder. You can use just flower, but you’ll need about 2 TBSP of flour. I can do this asleep by myself. But with my daughter it’s quite tricky. Thus no pictures of this stage. She managed it and thanks to the hand blender, there weren’t even any lumps.

Then we poured in the milk and plopped in the pumpkin, which hadn’t been pureed yet. You can puree it earlier to be on the safe side, but with a hand blender this works too. Just don’t let it get too hot first. My daughter insisted on tasting it at this point, still without salt and she was understandably horrified. But I managed to talk her out of full judgement.

She first got excited when I dropped in the mixture of herbs, salt and spices I had prepared ahead of time. She loved the smell. Who doesn’t? Pepper, paprika, basil, oregano and rosemary are a good smell combo. Then she was so taken with the pretty colors in the sauce that she insisted I take a picture.

The next taste test was the best part. She already loved the sauce, declaring it to be “the best sauce ever” and we hadn’t even added the cheese yet. Once we did she was fully on-board. We mixed the noodles directly into the sauce once we were happy with it and then poured the whole mess into the greased baking pan.

I saved out a third of the cheese to sprinkle on top and added breadcrumbs for a nice crust.

So, here’s the recipe in a nutshell:

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of wholewheat noodles (pre-cooked)

• 2 TBSP butter

• 1 TBSP flour (Use 2 TBSP if not adding protein powder)

• 3 TBSP protein powder (equivalent of about 30 grams of protein)

• 2 cups milk

• 1 TBSP dried oregano

• 1 TBSP dried basil

• 1 tsp dried rosemary

• 1/2 tsp black pepper

• 1 tsp turmeric powder

• 1 tsp sweet paprika powder

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 1/2 -- 2 cups pureed winter squash (or one small winter squash or pumpkin, with seeds and rind removed)

• 1 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (save 1/2 cup for topping)

• 1 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (save 1/2 cup for topping)

• Olive oil to grease the pan

• 3/4 cup bread crumbs for topping

Bake for 45 min to 1 hour, until top is golden brown.

The waiting for it to bake was the hardest part. My daughter was over-the-top excited and the smell was pretty amazing. In the end it came out beautifully and our men-folk ate it with amazed glances at me, given that I’m known for only making healthy stuff and my daughter insisted we wait until after they’d eaten to tell them the secret ingredient.

For the love of a cup of tea: Home Medicine Cycle 24

The first frost has passed and the cold and dark half of the year has come where I live. This is the time for drawing inward and the time for tea and fires on the hearth. That gives me the opportunity to write about one of the most basic of herbalist arts--making tea.

There are herbal teas that I use for their specific medicinal properties, though I find that a lot of first aid can be handled with salves, fresh herbs or tincture. But when you're dealing with something beyond first aid, a chronic illness or the need to strengthen the body or treat a systemic imbalance, tea is often the best answer. It keeps you well hydrated, which is an often overlooked facet of healing, and it can provide a long-term, sustained intake of beneficial compounds that are otherwise difficult to isolate. 

Wild oregano - Image by Arie Farnam

And then there's the fact that tea is simply comforting, tasty and relaxing. I have met herbalists who claim--in all seriousness--that a large part of their healing comes from the fact that they have to take the time to calmly prepare and consume tea. While tincture and a hurried glass of water gives you a lot of the same nutrients and compounds,, tea does a lot to heal beyond the immediate and the physical. The experience of sitting, breathing deeply and drinking tea by a fire is one that is almost absent from so many modern lives, and those same lives tend to be wracked with intractable, chronic and systemic health problems that western medicine has such difficulty treating. 

That's why many of the herbal teas I drink regularly come from cooking herbs, that are safe for daily consumption and are unlikely to precipitate dramatic health changes one way or the other. I specifically gather herbs that are of general benefit to the immune system and biochemical health without the intent to treat a certain ailment and then I use these for daily teas. 

The most important part about drinking daily tea is to do it in an environment where you can get the benefit of the warmth and relaxation the tea offers. Here are few tips to make it more possible to get to drink regular cups of herbal tea and to ensure that they retain as much of their nutritious and medicinal properties as possible.

1. Unless otherwise directed for a specific herb, use about a tablespoon of dried herbs (two if fresh) to make a cup of tea.  
2. When an herbalist or book recommends a "hot infusion" be made from a certain herb, that means regular tea, where you pour very hot water over it. (Most herbs will make better and more potent tea, if you boil water and then wait two or three minutes for the water to slightly cool before pouring it over your herbs.)
3. If it is recommended that you make a "cold infusion," you simply pour cold water into a jar with herbs and store it in the refrigerator over night. You can also make sun tea by pouring lukewarm water over herbs in a clear glass jar and leaving it in direct sun for a few hours. Many medicinal compounds will degrade in sunlight however, so unless this is specifically noted for a particular herb, I reserve sun tea for general daily drinking, when I don't acutely need the specific medicinal properties of a plant. 
4. When an herbal recipe calls for a "decoction," that means, you should simmer the herbs (usually roots or bark) in a pan with water.
5. Whether you let an infusion brew or simmer a decoction, you will get more medicinal potency out of the tea if you let it brew or simmer for at least 10 minutes. For maximum effect, let it sit or simmer for 45 minutes, but this will often result in a very bitter draft and need sweetening.
6. The herbalist tradition of "simpling" holds that the most benefit is gained by ingesting large quantities of diluted medicine, rather than small quantities of pure medicine. That is why it may be preferable to make a nice warm cup of tea and let it brew only ten minutes, drink it and make more, rather than trying to force yourself (or your child) to drink one bitter infusion that has been sitting for most of an hour. Still there are times when what you need is strong medicine and some herbs are better prepared as a strong infusion than as a tincture. So, this depends on your purpose and the herbs you are using.
7. Many herbs react with metals and lose some of their medicinal potency. For that reason it is preferable when possible to use an enamel pot for simmering decoctions and a bamboo strainer for all kinds of herbal teas. Some will go so far as to recommend a special wooden or ceramic spoon. I again tend toward the philosophy that it is better to drink good herbal teas often rather than to be so perfectionist about achieving maximum potency that you only rarely get to drink them. But if you have special, non-metallic spoons and strainers, by all means use them.
8. For those who are busy and truly need the comfort and stress-reduction of a cup of herbal tea, choose a few safe and beneficial herbs or a mix. Then build into your daily routine a time when you can boil water and return to it in a few minutes. This can be the routine of turning on a timed or self-regulating kettle before you get into the shower in the morning, meaning that your water is slightly cooled when you get out. Pour the hot water over your tea and again build your routine so that you have another short task that takes between five and ten minutes while your tea brews. Then ensure that your routine allows for fifteen minutes of peace (even if that means putting your kids in front of the dreaded television) and sit down in a comfortable place to drink your tea. 
9. Other ways of getting the benefits of herbal tea are to take a travel mug full of tea on your commute or taking an extra cup to sip while you work or study.
10. if you have small children at home most of the time, you will have to build your own tea into the routine, so that there is a time when you know you need to be making it before the time when the children will be preoccupied with their screen time allowance or other distractions. Accommodating tea in a household of small children is a significant challenge for me but it is worth making it a priority for the reduction of stress and clarity of mind that result.

As for choosing which teas to make, you can make tea out of just about every medicinal herb and many of them are quite tasty. When I list specific herbs in the Home Medicine Cycle, I usually note if a tea from some part of the plant is specifically used for a certain acute problem. But when I use teas for general beneficial purpose, I don't always include that in the specific listings. So, here are a list of my favorite tea herbs for supporting a healthy body and peaceful mind. These are also herbs which are usually easy to grow in a northern climate. All of those listed are good for making a hot infusion (regular tea).

• Wild oregano flowers - This is my all-time favorite general purpose tea. Wild oregano is much milder in flavor than the usual cooking oregano and I use the flowering tops, rather than the leaves for tea. It grows abundantly in my garden and has a delicious flavor that aids in maintaining healthy metabolism. 
• Primrose - Wild primroses grow in the highlands of Bohemia and they are somewhat harder to obtain for me, but they have a light, earthy flavor and make a brilliant yellow tea that is a joy to look at in a glass tea pot or cup.
• Linden flowers - Linden or lime (not the citrus kind) treas have beautiful golden flowers, made famous by J. R. R. Tolkien's rapturous descriptions of the Elven realm of Lothlórien. They also make a very good tea in the winter months when colds and flu are a danger and they taste wonderful, light and flowery just as you would expect an magical drink to taste. I personally find the literary associations to be very relaxing as well.
• Borage flowers - Borage is a funny little plant that some people .like to eat as a prickly sort of green, although I have read mixed research n the subject. There is no controversy about the flowers however. They are astoundingly beautiful dried--little packets of bright purple and blue that remain beautiful all through the winter. Their flavor is so sweet and good that it is often recommended as a children's tea.
• Chamomile - There is a reason why chamomile tea figures in many old books and stories. It has been used by herbalists for hundreds of years both for acute ailments and as a general tea. Brewed correctly it is actually a bit bitter, but it can be helped by honey and then it has a good flavor. It has very beneficial effects for those with fevers or digestive troubles.
• Huckleberry, rasberry and strawberry leaves - When you're out collecting edible berries in the late summer, don't forget the leaves. Most edible berries (those that are not sprayed with pesticides) make excellent teas with a lot of nutrients and minerals and a pleasant tangy flavor without the sour heaviness of tea made from dried fruit. Raspberry leaf tea is known as a uterine tonic which is often taken to help regulate menstruation, to help a woman get pregnant or just before giving birth, but it isn't recommended during pregnancy, because of the unpredictability of such effects.
• Mint - Mint is one of the most common herbal teas, but brewing mint from a local plant is a completely different experience from the tea bag variety, which is not only stale but also often treated with chemicals. You haven't really had mint tea, until you have had some locally grown mint tossed into your cup. It can help to calm an upset stomach. And mint tea from fresh mint has an astoundingly different (and quite pleasant flavor) as well. Dry and fresh mint cannot really be considered the same tea at all because of their differences in flavor and content.
• Lemon balm - Lemon balm is one of those herbs that is surprising science in recent years with discoveries about it's amazing antiviral and anti-bacterial action that is not well understood due to the lack of harsh chemical compounds. It also remains one of the mildest and most pleasant general teas. Given the research, I will probably lean toward using lemon balm in times of sickness, but I have yet to see any caution on its use as a general tea. It is wonderfully calming, delicious and popular with adults and children alike.
• Plantain - There is no such thing as too much plantain! Plantain tea has a rough caramel like flavor particularly when sweetened a bit. It is great for sore throats, coughs, irritated stomachs and urinary tract infections but it is also good for just tea.
• Echinacea flowers - I definitely use Echinacea tincture and even tea for flu and cold prevention specifically. You don't want to drink it all the time because that may lessen it's needed effects in the season when viruses are rampant but it is generally useful enough and delicious enough to merit a mention here. Drink it as a daily tea whenever there are colds going around your workplace or local schools. It has a distinct, hearty taste that reminds me of the pleasant smell of bee hives (not just the honey but the hives themselves). 

I hope this list can inspire others. There are surely many more fragrant and delicious herbal teas for daily use. Let me know below if you have a special one or a particularly favorite blend. Keep in touch and happy tea drinking.