Zucchini Spaghetti With Pumpkin Seed Pesto, Peaches and Tomatoes

Raw fruit is something new for Baby Brother, and raw peaches have recently been introduced.  It is such a treat to go to the farmer's market right now and bring home a basket of  juicy, sweet peaches for us all to enjoy together.  The best part, really, is that I can actually give my little guy what he is asking for when he cries out "peach, peach, peach." We also have been bringing home lots of zucchini, enough to fill up one crisper drawer along with tons of carrots and baby cucumbers for Big Brother.  Zucchini happens to be one of Baby Brother's favorites, as he has it daily this summer in his bone broth, so I look for many ways to use it: zucchini slice, stir-fry and a new favorite-zucchini spaguetti made with this sprializer.  This summer, I was inspired by this recipe from The First Mess.  It combines zucchini noodles with a delicious pumpkin seed pesto and fresh peaches. For my lunch, I added in vibrant tomatoes since I like the flavor combination and combined juiciness of tomatoes and peaches together with fresh basil. I also add a hard boiled pasture egg-since egg is tolerated by everyone right now, and I make several daily *Baby Brother only has eaten yolk so far and Big Brother is not so keen on the texture of the white.  For the pesto, I have swapped out the garlic for some green onion and lemon zest-I add lemon zest to just about everything since it's free flavor.  Also, I use sprouted pumpkin seeds that my local Whole Foods places aside for me before hitting bulk bin.  I am comfortable with this practice with my personal tree nut allergy.  Would you be ok with it for your tree nut/peanut allergic child ? 

What You Need For Salad:
4-5 zucchini, spiralized into spaghetti
2-3 peaches, sliced in wedges
2-3 tomatoes, sliced in wedges

What You Need For Pesto:
1 cup of pumpkin seeds
1 cup of basil leaves
3 tbsp olive oil
splash of water
1 tbsp lemon juice, plus the zest
1 scallion, sliced in small rounds
salt and pepper to taste

How To Make:
First step pesto:

Place pumpkin seeds in TM bowl and process, speed 7, until you reach coarse breadcrumb consistency

Add in the rest of ingredients and process, speed 7, until you get desired paste-like texture.

You may have to add another splash of water or olive oil to help move along.  You also may need to scrape down sides with spatula after a few seconds before continuing. 

Second step spaghetti:

Spiralize Spaguetti and place in a big bowl and toss with a pinch or two of salt.  Let sit to soften while slices peaches and tomatoes

Third step assembly:

Toss the spaguetti with the pesto.  Add in the tomatoes and peaches with some torn up basil leaves.  Add some extra bits of pesto and lemon juice to taste. 

A zucchini set aside away from prep area to make sure that
Baby Brother's noodles for his chicken soup are free
of cross contamination as the pesto was being prepped
I hesitate to use cucumber in the spiralizer at this point since
it appears as if Baby Brother does not tolerate them
Problem being that Big Brother eats tons of cucumbers and
shuns zucchini....

Baby Brother's noodles

Love that the veggies and produce are all local and from Urban Harvest 

Planning Week's meals around fresh ingredients

Juicy

Traveling With Multiple Food Allergies

Our favorite "cooler" backpacks for traveling. We love them so much 
that we bought three.  They are fully lined and have collapsible cooler
bags: perfect for carrying a whole day's worth of meals and snacks
that need to stay cold.  For this trip, we used flat ice packs, and bags of
 frozen blueberries, which we enjoyed the following morning for breakfast.

I was super nervous before and during our recent trip away from home.  How does a family eat safely on the road when both mother and children have multiple food allergies?   Baby Brother, at 18 months, has several known and confirmed allergies: wheat, dairy, garlic, banana, avocado, peas and almonds (so assuming peanuts and tree nuts).  Wouldn't you think that I'd rather not travel and be home in my own kitchen? Yes, I much prefer to be home with my Thermomix, our own cooking utensils and our stocked fridge and pantry. Airplanes, restaurants and socializing are some of the major sources of stress in my life, but they are also part of traveling. Next time we go anywhere, it will be a must to have a kitchen wherever we stay.  For this recent trip, we didn't have that necessity; however, I found ways to safely eat. As you can imagine, we do not improvise anything about food so there, as always, was a lot of planning involved. As I reflect on the nerves involved in this trip away from home, I realize that the allergy stress is compounding with each new ingredient to be avoided. I have a lot of fear about food these days, a whole new sense of vulnerability and loss of joy.  Here is a series of photos with captions explaining our meals and snacks.  

I take along my apricot and coconut bliss balls when I travel
or am out for several hours.  They travel nicely with an ice pack
and are great any time of day

Baby Brother's first meal cooked by someone other than his mom
And at a restaurant.  Not just any restaurant, but Blue Ginger.  
Yes, a dream come true!
I will be posting one of these daysabout our experience 

Breakfast at cute little park next to Flour bakery

Big Brother enjoys his croissant: eating out at bakeries is rather new

 since outgrowing his egg allergy

Mom has black coffee with honey and the breakfast cookies she baked in Houston

Papi gets to enjoy a chocolate croissant since he isn't

breastfeeding allergic child or allergic to nuts himself

Baby Brother eats some apple Happypuffs in his stroller, away from allergens

And there is my MEC backpack I take everywhere with 4 Epipens, Bendadryl

and Seventh Gen wipes for cleaning surfaces

After eating, we will all wipe our hands with baby 
wipes/wash up before touching Baby Brother 

Breakfast at Whole Foods
Allergic Mom eats large bowl of their steel cut oats cooked in water as
dairy is being avoided while nursing Baby Brother who is allergic to dairy
Delicious with maple syrup, cinnamon, frozen wild blueberries and coconut flakes
Baby Brother asks for: "Boobayees" and "coco tips"

Whole Foods's Catering team prepared Baby Brother's lunch
 every afternoon in Boston 2 chicken thighs, 
a giant sweet potato and 4 hardboiled eggs
were cooked safely for him
I took the two foil pans back to the hotel and saved
in containers in hotel room fridge
for that day's dinner and following day's breakfast