Orange and Ginger Sauce (vegan)

Tonight my husband took a recipe from "Joy of Cooking" full of dairy and vinegar and put his own twist on it. It was so tasty I decided it was blog worthy. This sauce can be used in any stir fry of veggies with meat or tofu. Tonight he made a fried brown rice with asparagus with sliced chicken breast which he poured this sauce on. The ginger is not over powering making this a kid friendly dish, our toddler loved it.

Orange and Ginger Sauce

1 tbs Earth Balance
3/4 cup chopped mushrooms
1/4 cup shallots/onions
1 cup apple juice
2 tbs chopped ginger
3 cups vegetable stock (or chicken)
3/4 cup fresh orange juice
3/4 cup coconut cream (can find at Trader Joes)
1 tbs orange zest
Lemon juice to taste
salt/pepper to taste

Saute earth balance, mushrooms and onions until brown. Then add apple juice and ginger and cook until reduced by half. Add vegetable stock and orange juice and cook until reduced by half. Add coconut cream and cook until it coats the spoon. Strain sauce into bowl and add orange zest, lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Stores in the fridge up to 7 days and can be frozen for longer storage.

My Kid is Happy, Healthy and Skinny

My oldest daughter was born tall and thin into the eighth percentile for weight and 78th percentile for height and by the time she was six months old she was in the zero percentile for weight and 86th percentile for height. The doctors assumed I was not producing enough breast milk. I could easily pump out eight oz in a sitting with a nice layer of fat in it and she was not fussy, tired or sickly. She was hitting all her development milestones and bubbly. This aside our doctor was very worried about that number on the scale and started us on a high fat diet mixing coconut oil, olive oil and formula into everything she ate. Still she remained in the zero percentile for weight and the 84th percentile for height. By the time she was ten months old the doctor ordered a huge round of blood tests which all came back perfect and normal. After that our doctor backed off for awhile as she moved into the fourth percentile for weight and held that until she turn two.

When children turn two they put them onto a different percentile chart. Factoring in her height this chart showed she was very underweight, again. They offered to refer us to a dietitian that would most likely prescribe a feeding tube. At this point my husband just about lost it. "She ate half a chicken last night and was running laps around the other kids at the park!" he yelled. My husband has some food allergies that affect the way he digests food so we decided to take her into for a food allergy panel even though she has never really showed any discomfort. This was an absolute fiasco! She screamed through the entire appointment and testing. Thank goodness my parents were there to help. Guess what they found? NOTHING! She can eat anything and everything and she does!

The problem with using a percentile chart to measure a child's health is it is comparing my child to other American children. The last time I checked America was having an obesity epidemic and most children are way too big. My child is not undernourished, she is in perfect health. Our society is obsessed with charts and test scores. Everyone wants their kid at the top of the chart, but is that a good thing? Maybe being at the low end of the weight chart is actually a good thing. So, I am declaring no more tests unless she is sick. My kid is happy healthy and skinny!