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Sandwich Night: Tuna Melts with Crispy Kale

tuna melt sandwiches
Tuna melt sandwiches with crispy kale and cucumber wedges for Sandwich Night!

Some nights it just feels like too much to go all out for cooking much of anything, and the other night I remembered a favorite post on Sarah Zeldman’s Solutions For Busy Moms blog about it being okay to sometimes pull out sandwiches for dinner and have a Sandwich Night. I, for one, was appreciative of the permission to take a night off from providing more of a “cooked” meal for my family the way I normally do.

The other night was one of these nights at our house. Between the after-school carpool, basketball practice, art class, and a piano lesson, I was about done before I had even thought about what to make for dinner.

For this Sandwich Night menu, I mixed up a family favorite of tuna fish salad. I diced a tomato and added it to the fish and some vegan mayonnaise, then spread it on lightly olive oiled slices of bread to toast on a baking rack over a sheet in the oven. I topped them with slices of goat milk cheddar cheese, and baked them open-faced, letting the top piece toast nicely next to the filling.

To serve along with it, I washed and sliced a bunch of kale and then tossed it with olive oil and set it on a cast iron griddle on the oven shelf below the sandwiches. I pulled it out to toss occasionally, and then sprinkled the leaves with sea salt before serving.

Cucumber wedges provided a fresh note as a pre-meal munchie for hungry children.

Homemade Yoghurt Recipe – Can be dairy-free!

homemade dairy-free coconut vanilla yoghurt
Homemade dairy-free coconut vanilla yoghurt from the Health Renegade.

Can’t find a commercially-sold yoghurt that doesn’t have at least 9g of sugar and a list of unpronounceable ingredients? Need a dairy-free yoghurt alternative, because no matter how many people tell you that “lactose-intolerant people can tolerate yoghurt,” you still can’t tolerate yoghurt made from cow’s milk? This might be your answer.

Today, the Health Renegade/Kevin Gianni posted a simple recipe for homemade yoghurt made from coconut water and flavored with vanilla beans. By “simple” I mean: “few ingredients;” it does take a little bit of effort to come together, though I’m sure that once you got it down it would be less onerous. The recipe comes from his book “Cultured! Make Healthy Fermented Foods at Home.”

One reason I like simple recipes with few ingredients is that they are easier to tolerate for those with food sensitivities who have multiple ingredients to avoid when choosing foods. Simpler recipes have fewer possibilities for provoking inflammatory reactions.

Let me know if you try it by leaving a comment below!

Sustainable Bamboo Coffee Filters

I’m always looking for ways to lessen my footprint on the earth, and one way I’ve found is to switch from paper coffee filters to more sustainable bamboo coffee filters or to a reusable mesh filter.sustainable unbleached bamboo coffee filters

Bamboo is a fast-growing plant that quickly re-grows after being cut down, the bane for many gardeners in tropical climes where it can be an invasive species, but the boon for those interested in sustainability. Bamboo fibers are being used for everything from sustainable flooring to soft, beautiful textiles to unbleached coffee filters.

Switching to bamboo coffee filters can save a lot of trees in the long run, trees that are being sacrificed just to make our morning cup of joe. Bamboo coffee filters are unbleached, saving both you (the drinker) and the environment from contamination from chlorine and bleach chemicals. It’s a win-win.

A metal re-usable filter is great for the environment and cleans easily. My only complaint with mine is that the mesh isn’t quite fine enough so I end up with a fine powder of coffee in every cup.

Soothing Throat Coat Tea for Sore Throats

With all the highs and lows we’re sethroat coat tea for sore throatseing in our weather this month, perhaps its no surprise to see lots of kids with coughs and scratchy throats. In my experience, nothing soothes a scratchy, irritated throat like a nice cup of Throat Coat tea from Traditional Medicinals.

The Just for Kids line by Traditional Medicinals offers a delicious brew of six organic herbs to bring relief to little necks. Each bag contains marshmallow root, sage leaf, calendua flower, licorice root, cinnamon bark, and wild cherry bark for a blend of healing herbs long known to be helpful for sore throats.

Be sure to cover the bag in hot water and then with a lid and let steep for at least ten minutes to allow the herbs time to release their healthful components. Sweeten with honey as needed to make it appealing to little palates.

Be sure to check out these natural remedies for croup!