Summer "vacation" is a month from being over and we are in the heat of it. After all, with no summer camp or school activities, the little rascals are with me pretty much every minute I'm not in the office. So, we are finding ways to stay active, to keep learning and to enjoy our time together.

Naturally, I have found myself in the kitchen. To keep my little beach bums happy when they're stuck indoors or between summer gigs, we have been dipping strawberries, creating kid-friendly meals and rolling out some gluten-free dough.

My oldest picky eater created his famous "Smiley Pizzas" on such a day. In a rare instance I was without a gluten-free frozen pizza, dough or the ingredients to make dough, he pointed to a bag of McCain's frozen Smiles. Happy he was getting creative with me, I popped 5 of them in the microwave for a minute and flipped them over. We spread some tomato sauce on them and topped them with Tofutti cheese slices (Kraft is gluten-free if your kiddos can tolerate dairy). We put them in the microwave together for another minute and, voila, Smiley Pizzas (photo at top).

No one likes to wake up only to see a sheet of rain drowning out all thoughts of outdoor fun during summer vacation, especially one with two small and very active boys. I found myself confronted with this exact scenario not so long ago. After watching a video, setting up every train set in the house and having more than a few pillow fights, I turned toward the kitchen and found this handy recipe:


Gluten-free Play-Doh
1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 cup water
1 teaspoon cooking oil
Food coloring, if desired
Mix ingredients in small saucepan. Add food coloring if desired. Cook and stir on low heat for 3-5 minutes or until it forms and begins to look slightly dry. I like to scrape the bottom and flip a few times so it doesn't burn during cooking. Place on wax paper and cool. Knead until soft and pliable. Store in plastic containers. Will make 2 cups (I like to split into two pans and make two, 1 cup balls of dough -- like the one at right).

Then, there are days when we have found ourselves outside enjoying the best of the season. We meet friends at the park, ride our bikes down the street, kick the soccer ball around the back yard, and sometimes I even get to fiddle in my garden. On one such day, I was clearing out some of the overgrown zucchini leaves when I spyed quite possibly the most enormous zucchini in history. I washed it off later that night and put it through grating attachment on the food processor. It made close to 5 cups.

I whipped up a batch of zucchini bread (actually, the one zucchini made THREE breads) and was surprised when all three of my picky eaters gobbled it up the next day. The recipe I used called for crushed pineapple, only 2/3 cup of sugar and not a drop of butter or oil. Perhaps I should keep that information to myself.

Regardless of the nutritional content, this bread was a show-stopper:



Gluten-free Zucchini Pineapple Bread
1 cup flour mix (I used Bob's Red Mill)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 egg
2/3 cup sugar or other sweetener to taste
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup crushed pineapple, well drained
1 1/2 cup grated zucchini

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray loaf pan with cooking spray.
Combine dry ingredients (first seven) in medium-sized mixing bowl. Place egg, sugar, vanilla and pineapple in stand-up mixer. Mix on medium speed a few minutes or until smooth. Add zucchini and then dry mixture and incorporate. Batter will be runny.
Pour into prepared pan and bake 45 minutes or until knife inserted into center comes out clean.

And then, there are "recovery" days. Today, we got back from a trip to my aunt's cottage. I found myself cooped up with two exhausted little boys. After two days of running up and down hills, building sand castles and jumping into the lake, they were home and bored but too tired for any more physical activity. Again, I turned toward the kitchen. A bag of chocolate chips and two pints of strawberries later, we had a sweet, tart pick-me-up:

Chocolate-Covered Strawberries
2 pints strawberries, washed, de-stemmed and chilled
1 bag gluten-free chocolate chips (I used Enjoy Life found at Meijer)
1 tablespoon oil
Milk or milk substitute, enough for desired thickness

Line large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Melt chocolate chips and oil in double boiler. If you don't have a double boiler, set a glass or heat-safe bowl on top of a sauce pan with about an inch of water in the bottom. Add milk until desired thickness. The runnier the chocolate, the easier for dipping - but the less hard the "shell" will be when finished.

Poke strawberries with a small fork and dip into chocolate mixture. Place on prepared baking sheet. When all the strawberries are covered in chocolate, place in freezer for 10 minutes. Enjoy immediately or freeze/refrigerate for later.

Summer is a time to go outside and explore, get messy and create memories. But if the former location is not available, I recommend the kitchen.