Chickpea Sauce

This was a little sauce I threw together yesterday, and I was so pleased with how it turned out.  We've had a stomach bug going around our family, so I wanted something kind of gentle to serve.  The sauce tasted kind of like hummus, which the girls adore, and we served it over brown rice.  It didn't photograph well at all, so this is just a recipe!

Chickpea Sauce (in the slow cooker)

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, diced

ground cumin

dried oregano

salt & pepper

2 to 3 potatoes, scrubbed and sliced thin

2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2 cups stock (veggie or chicken)

1 14oz can diced tomatoes

Heat up the olive oil in a large skillet.  Add the onion and cook until softened, 5 to 7 minutes.  Season with ground cumin,  dried oregano, and salt and pepper to taste; I used about 1 tsp of cumin, 1 tsp of oregano, and a few shakes of salt and pepper.  We would probably do more cumin in the future, but tailor to your family's taste buds.  Cook 1 minute more.

In the slow cooker, combine the potatoes, chickpeas, stock, tomatoes, and cooked onions.  Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours, until potatoes are very tender.  I used a hand blender to puree most of the sauce, leaving a few chunky chick peas and potato pieces.  You could also (carefully!) blend some portion of the sauce in the blender or mash it by hand.

This was a great sauce for brown rice, but we will be having the leftovers over pasta.  We served some raw veggies as a side dish and had one of the most pleasant, food battle-free dinners we've had in a while!

Creamy Asparagus Soup

I bought one of those 2-lb bags of asparagus from Costco (indeed, I adore Costco and it's mountains of produce!) for roasting up alongside out Easter lamb - but when the time came, I was just not in the mood for asparagus. So I needed to use it up, and I was in the mood for a creamy soup. I used potato to help thicken the base, so I could use just two cups of 1% milk instead of cream, butter, etc. - and I achieved an incredibly creamy soup.

As with all soups, my kids were a little iffy on this. Abby ended up eating about half of her bowl, though not without some prodding. Lizzy tried a bite... which is, well, something at least!

Creamy Asparagus Soup

2 lbs of asparagus, washed and chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp dried dill
1/4 tsp dried lemon peel
salt
1 large potato, peeled and chopped
2 cups of stock (vegetable or chicken)
2 cups of milk (I used 1%)

In a large pot, stir together asparagus, onion, celery, olive oil, dill, lemon peel, and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until vegetables have begun to soften.

Add potato and stock. Cover and cook over medium-low heat until potato is soft enough to fall apart easily. Stir in milk.

Use an immersion blender to puree soup (or, puree in a blender, working in batches. Be careful when blending piping hot soup!!). Continue to keep warm over low heat until ready to serve.

Zucchini Nuggets, Take Two

Waaaaay back when we started this blog, I posted zucchini nuggets. I made those all the time that fall, and then they kind of fell by the wayside. I found myself once again with some lonely, unused zucchini in my veggie drawer the other night, so I thought of those nuggets. I revamped the recipe this time around, largely because I had run out of Panko bread crumbs, also because I had more zucchini to use up. These were just as big a hit with the girls as the originals - served alongside some home-baked sweet potato fries, these made a great "fries and nuggets" dinner!

I used homemade bread crumbs for these. No one in our family really loves the crusty ends of loaves of breads (or "bread bums", as we call them), so I collect them in a bag in the freezer. When I need bread crumbs, I whirl up a few "bums" in our food processor - and voila, I have coarse, whole wheat bread crumbs!

Zucchini Nuggets, Take Two

3 small zucchini, grated
2 cups coarse bread crumbs
2 Tbsp flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup cheese (cheddar, jack, whatever you like)
canola oil for frying

In a large bowl, combine zucchini, crumbs, flour, eggs, and cheese. You want the mixture to have a meatball-like quality to it.

Heat up a small amount of canola oil in a frying pan over medium-low heat. Gather up scoops of the zucchini mixture, slightly smaller than a golf ball. Mush the ball in your hands a few times until the mixture is really holding together, and then flatten into a nugget shape. After all the nuggets are formed, cook them in batches.

I cooked them "low and slow" - about 4 to 5 minutes per side, over medium-low heat - to let them get nice and golden. This made about 24 nuggets.

Mushroom-Spinach Sauce

We had a day last week when I realized the girls had reached dinner time with nary a fruit or vegetable to their day. This is very uncommon for us - but it was a day when we were running around with school, ballet, and errands, and we had done more "on the fly" eating than usual. I wanted to pack as many fruits and veggies into dinner as I reasonably could, while also making something the girls would eat without complaint (as they were very tired and likely to kick up a fuss). I resorted to the favorite mom trick of pureeing veggies into a sauce for pasta, and served the pasta with smoothies. I like to use a rotini pasta with sauces - the spirals hold a lot of saucy goodness! The girls cleaned their plates (and their cups), and I felt much better about our day!

(I'm continuing my goal of one vegan and one vegetarian dish per week, which has been much easier than I expected. This was our vegan meal of the week (the smoothies were bananas, strawberries, pomegranate juice, and vanilla soy milk).)

Mushroom-Spinach Sauce

1 box rotini pasta
2-3 handfuls of baby spinach
1 zucchini, sliced
5 large white mushrooms, washed and chopped
1 Tbsp olive oil
dash of oregano, salt
2 tsp balsamic vinegar

In a large pot, cook pasta according to package directions. Reserve 1 cup of the pasta water when draining the cooked pasta.

In a sauce pan, heat up the olive oil over medium heat. Add the spinach, zucchini, and mushrooms. Season with oregano and salt. Cook, stirring, until the zucchini and mushrooms are soft. Transfer the veggies to a blender, adding balsamic vinegar. Blend veggies until smooth, adding some of the pasta cooking water as needed.

Toss the cooked pasta in the sauce before serving.

Spinach Tart Crust

This week, I have a challenge on my hands. I bought a 2.5 lb bag of spinach at Costco last weekend, as I needed a little bit of spinach for a dinner party menu. I am bound and determined not to let this spinach go to waste, but I'm also not much in the mood for spinach salads all week. So I'm finding ways to use it up! First up, a double spinach tart - spinach in the tart filling, and the crust. This crust was so good, and it was an easy way to pack more spinach into my kiddos. I got the idea from my friend Ana, who has long made a tart crust with basil mixed in. I can see myself trying out cilantro and parsley in the future, too!

Spinach Tart Crust

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 big handful of baby spinach
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup butter, cut up into pieces
1/4 cup chilled water

In a food processor, blend together the flours, spinach, and salt until well-combined. Pulse in the butter until mixture resembles pea-sized crumbs. Pour in the water, and blend until dough just starts to come together.

Remove the dough from the food processor and knead it lightly until it comes together. Form it into a disk and wrap it in plastic wrap. Chill for about an hour.

Preheat oven to 350F. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured board and press it into a removable-bottom tart pan.

Fill as desired (I sauteed some sliced mushrooms and a few handfuls of baby spinach in some oregano olive oil and laid that mix across the bottom, then topped it with four beaten eggs, a splash of milk, and some shredded cheddar cheese). Bake for 35-45 minutes.

* * * * * * *

My kids absolutely adored this, and each had seconds. They rarely ask for seconds, particularly of something involving spinach, but they thought the green crust was a lot of fun. If I can incorporate beets and create a pink crust, I think I would blow their minds!

Avocado Goddess Dip

For some wonderful, miraculous reason, my girls have been all about trying new vegetables lately. In the last week, they have had grape tomatoes, broccoli, cucumber, romaine lettuce (new to Lizzy), and asparagus. They have done this without complaint and without me having to nudge them into trying them. What on earth?! Either all of my attempts to get them to try more things is finally paying off, or it's some fluke never to be repeated again. We will see!

Last night, Abby held up her broccoli and said "Look, Mommy, it's like a tree!"

Remembering Jenna's recent post about having her boys "eat like dinosaurs", I said "You can eat that tree like a dinosaur!"

"But Mommy," she said, "I'm not a dinosaur. I'm a little girl."

"I know, Abby, but the broccoli is like a tree, so -"

"But Mommy, it's not really a tree. It's just a broccoli."

"I know, Abby, but -"

"And I'm just a little girl, eating broccoli. Okay?"

"Okay, Abby."

So, the dinosaur thing is not quite working for my little girl - but hey, she's eating the broccoli, so woo!

I've been trying more dips and dressings as the girls have been willing to eat more vegetables. One of my first tries was a green goddess dressing, but based with avocado instead of mayo. It was delicious and had a lot more nutrients and good fats than our usual dips!

Avocado Goddess Dip

2 ripe avocados
1 bunch tarragon, chopped
1-2 Tbsp chopped chives (depends on how much you like chives!)
1 handful chopped parsley
salt & pepper
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1-2 cups milk (start with 1 cup, add more as needed to get to desired consistency)

De-seed and scoop out the avocado. Add everything to a blender or food processor and puree. Add more milk as needed, depending on how thick or thin you want your dip to be (I added more milk after I served the girls, to make a dressing for my salad).

I've submitted this post to the Big Words, Little Foodies recipe swap over at Food with Kid Appeal. See what other little foodies have to say about their dinners!

Winter Night's Soup

Our vegan dinner last week came courtesy of a new blog, My Family Dish, started by a friend of mine from my old neighborhood. Her Winter Night's Soup (a minestrone) jumped right out at me; I was intrigued by the slow-cooking of the celery, carrots, and onion at the beginning and by the promise of big flavor without relying on stock. I also wasn't sure what to think about butternut squash cubes in a soup (I love butternut squash bisques, but haven't had many soups with the squash left in cubes). This soup was amazing!

Now, my kids hate soup, but I took a great tip from Jenna at Food with Kid Appeal and served some cheese toast alongside the soup. This dinner was vegan for me, not so much for the kidlets. But, it worked! They adored their cheese toast, dipped it in their soup broth a little, and even deigned to try a few bites of the soup (Lizzy picked out every bean, Abby said "I'm only eating the celery" and proceeded to eat every bit of kale. I certainly didn't correct her!)

Winter Night's Soup

How can you not love a soup with this many colorful ingredients?


I was out of cannellini beans, which the soup called for, and subbed in black beans and garbanzo. The garbanzo were not a good substitution, although at least Abby would eat them (she adores hummus, so I just told her they were un-smooshed hummus, and she delighted me by eating each one!). I adored the butternut squash in this soup - it was unexpectedly rich.

Definitely give this soup a try; it was fabulous, rich, chock-full of veggies, and the leftovers made for some great lunches!

Curried Chickpea Stew with Pan Garlic Naan

We've been indulging in a lot of fall flavors lately and needed a little getaway from root vegetables, apples and the like. This meal satisfies that desire for warm and hearty but with flavors of curry and ginger. The naan, of course, makes a great utensil for mopping up the stew juices. Neko gobbled it up which is great because its filled with protein and vitamin packed veggies! I think this is a great "Intro to Curry" for toddlers because the curry flavor is very mild.

These recipes made enough for the 3 of us to have dinner AND a couple lunches during the week. I'm going to bet that this stew will be even better tomorrow.

Curried Chickpea Stew

(makes approx 8 servings)

Ingredients:
1 tsp. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 white potatoes, peeled and chopped
1-1/2 Tbsp. salt
2 Tbsp. curry powder
2 Tsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. grated ginger (fresh)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 c. vegetable stock
2 (16-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 head of cauliflower, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 vine tomatoes, diced
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3c. spinach, chopped
1 can coconut milk

Instructions:
1. In a large skillet heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until translucent.
2. Add the potatoes and 2 tsp. of the salt and cook for another 5 minutes.
3. Stir in the curry powder, brown sugar, ginger and garlic. Cook for another minute, stirring frequently to incorporate flavors.
4. Add a generous splash of the broth and, using a wooden spoon, scrape the bottom of the pan to deglaze.
5. Add mixture to crockpot along with the cauliflower, chickpeas, remaining broth, tomatoes and remaining salt.
6. Cover and cook for 4 hours on high.
7. Just before serving stir in the spinach and coconut milk. Let cook covered for another couple minutes until the spinach is cooked. Serve!

Pan Garlic Naan
(makes 12 4" round pieces)

Ingredients:
1c. warm water
1/4c. sugar
3 Tbsp. milk
1 egg, beaten
2 tsp. salt
3-1/2c. bread flour
2-1/2 tsp. bread machine yeast
2 tsp. garlic, minced
1/4c. butter, melted

Instructions:
1. In your bread machine pan combine in order the water, sugar, milk, egg, salt, bread flour and yeast.
2. Set machine to dough cycle and run (an hour and 40 minutes on my machine).
3. When the dough cycle is complete, punch down the dough (I did this right in the bread machine pan) and begin to pinch off small (approx 2"), round balls of dough.
4. Arrange the dough balls on a cookie sheet leaving room in between for them to rise.
5. Cover with a towel and put in a warm place to rise. I set my oven to 200 degrees while I was making the balls. When I was halfway done I shut it off and opened it to let a little of the heat out. Let rise until doubled in size (for me this was about 45 minutes).
6. In a small, microwave safe bowl melt the butter in the microwave. Stir in the minced garlic.
7. Brush the bottom of a large skillet with a little bit of the butter/garlic mixture and heat to medium heat.
8. Flatten the balls to form little dough cakes (approx 4"). Add to pan.
9. While the first side is cooking, brush the other side with the butter/garlic mixture. Cook until brown spots appear and flip. Cook the other side until brown spots appear. Remove from heat. Repeat until all the dough is cooked. Serve!

Cheesy Cauliflower Pie

Well hello there! I'm all moved in to my house, the days are getting cool and crisp, and I have a fabulous new kitchen to work in - time to get cooking!

So now you're thinking "you come back from a ridiculous hiatus with cauliflower? Blech." I am not a fan of cauliflower (and I seriously doubt Abby or Lizzy would touch the stuff normally) but I am a huge fan of this pie. For one thing... it has a hash brown crust. Drool.

I had had this at my friend Ana's house before, but never tried it for myself. So I finally dusted off my Moosewood Cookbook and gave it a whirl - with a few changes to make it a tad easier and more like something my kids would eat. We all wolfed it down! It basically tastes like cheesy hashbrowns, so how can you go wrong?

Cheesy Cauliflower Pie

Crust:

4 packed cups of grated raw potato
1/4 packed cup grated raw onion
1 egg white (keep yolk for the filling)
1/2 tsp salt
cooking spray

Filling:

2 Tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1 medium cauliflower, diced small
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
1/4 cup skim milk

Preheat oven to 400F. Generously coat a deep 9-inch pie plate with cooking spray.

Mix together all crust ingredients. Pat into the bottom of the pie plate and around the edges to make a crust. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove the crust from the oven, spray with cooking spray, and return to the oven for 10 more minutes.

While the crust is cooking, prepare the filling - heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan. Saute the garlic, salt, and herbs for 1 minute. Add the cauliflower and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes, until cauliflower is tender. Remove from heat.

Whisk together the egg, egg yolk, and milk.

When crust comes out of the oven, lower heat to 375F. Spread 3/4 cup of cheese across the bottom of the crust. Top with vegetables, and spread the other 3/4 cup of cheese over the veggies. Pour the egg/milk mixture over the top.

Bake for about 30-35 minutes, until set.

Neko's Birthday Dinner Date!!

Amazingly my little girl (who seemed to be 2 FOREVER) has turned 3!! In honor of the special occasion I planned a dinner date that was sure to make her happy.

Even though Neko will happily eat things like sushi, calamari, tofu, sardine nuggets and spinach smoothies (honest to god she will) she is still a kid and if I ask her "What would you like for dinner?" almost always her response is "macaroni and cheese". I've tried many different variations of mac and cheese and thankfully there are even hundreds more I haven't tried. This help keep this kid favorite fresh.

I decided to try a version featured on Kara's friend Ana's blog: Our Veggie Family because it looked so yummy. It was super easy to make and WAS very yummy indeed! The butternut squash blended right into the cheesy goodness and the dish tasted like mac and cheese should.
I also served steamed and buttered green beans which I don't have a picture of or a recipe for since they are pretty self explanatory. The only thing I will add is that I let Neko and Abby snap off the ends of the beans before I cooked them which they both really loved doing. Kara said she had not previously gotten Abby to eat green beans but she scarfed them all down at dinner date. I'm guessing she liked them better after having had a part in making them. :o)

We have too many birthdays in July/August in our house and we are caked out (which I didn't think was possible). So for dessert I decided to do build-your-own-sundaes instead! For toppings we had: sundrops, blueberries, sliced strawberries, Funky Monkey Bananamon chips, whipped cream and homemade agave butterscotch.
Agave Butterscotch

Ingredients:
1/2 c. agave nectar
3/4 c. brown sugar
4 Tbsp. butter
1/2 c. heavy cream
2 tsp. vanilla

Instructions:
1. In a med. saucepan combine agave, brown sugar and butter over medium heat, stirring frequently. Bring to a boil and cook for another minute.
2. Remove from heat and stir in cream and vanilla.
3. Serve warm or keep in fridge until ready to serve. Yum!

Happy Birthday Neko!!

"What We Ate On Summer Vacation" Dinner Date!

We recently got back from a 2 week vacation to Minnesota and Ontario. We had a lovely time and ate a lot of yummy regional foods! We even had walleye (caught by my husband) for breakfast our last day in Ontario! Yum! I planned to make Wisconsin cheese soup for the main course of this dinner. We had a layover in Wisconsin where we enjoyed some fabulous soup for dinner. Unfortunately, I had an appointment that ran way over right before dinner date so I didn't have time to make the soup. Boo! I ended up making grilled cheese sandwiches with the Wisconsin cheese that I had bought for the soup. They WERE very delicious grilled cheese sandwiches I must say. ;o) With them I served:

Wild Rice Salad
(serves 6)

I got the wild rice in Canada and it was of the highest quality. You just can't find wild rice this good anywhere where I live. Check out how long the grains are:

Ingredients:

2c. wild rice, cooked and cooled

1c. seedless red grapes, sliced in half

½ c. celery, diced

½ c. slivered almonds

2/3c. mayonnaise

Instructions:

1. Stir all ingredients together in a medium bowl. Chill for at least one hour. Serve! Easy!

Rhubarb Delight

(serves 6)

On Canada Day one of my Aunts made this dessert. Normally it has a yummy crust on the bottom but to cut down on the sugar I decided to leave it out. Admittedly when I made this the rhubarb layer was NOT sweet enough so in the recipe here I have added some agave to sweeten it up.

Ingredients:

2-1/2 c. rhubarb, diced

½ c. orange juice

3 egg yolks

1c. heavy cream

1/2 c. agave nectar

2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour

3 egg whites

6 Tbsp. granulated sugar

½ tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. In a medium bowl, mix together the rhubarb, juice, egg yolks, heavy cream, agave nectar and flour. Divide mixture into 4 individual sized, greased ramekins or baking dishes.

2. Put all baking dishes on a cookie sheet and bake in a 325 degree oven for 40 minutes.

3. Add the egg whites to a mixer bowl and mix on high. Gradually add the sugar and vanilla and mix until stiff peaks form.

4. Divide the meringue evenly over the rhubarb mixture in each ramekin.

5. Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees. Add the desserts and bake until meringue browns. This happens quickly so keep a close eye on it.

6. Cool and serve!

Swiss Chard and Parmesan Tart

My good friend Ana has started up a blog, Our Veggie Family, about feeding her vegetarian family. Ana has been vegetarian from birth, and is raising her two daughters vegetarian as well. Before I met Ana, I was completely unaware of vegetarian cuisine (to be fair, I was just graduated from college, too - I was pretty impressed with myself for knowing how to make a smoothie). I thought vegetarian cooking was basically "chicken and broccoli casserole - hold the chicken." Ana has introduced me to some fabulous dishes - and because of our numerous dinner parties (in our pre-kids days), I've acquired a nice collection of vegetarian cookbooks. We regularly go meatless for a few dinners a week, just because there are so many meat-free dishes out there that we love.

Ana's Swiss Chard and Parmesan Tart is one of my favorite's - my husband loves it too. I was psyched to see the recipe posted on her blog, since my written copy was lost long ago!

Swiss Chard and Parmesan Tart

Mmm. I made my tart nice and garlicky. One bunch of swiss chard yielded as much chard as my tart shell could handle - I don't know how Ana can usually do two. Maybe I have a shallow tart pan? Maybe my Shaw's sells super-sized bunches of chard? Lizzy, my husband, and I happily ate up our dinner. Abby, though she was persuaded to try some because I told her it was Maia's favorite, had only about 5 bites. Oh well. That's 5 more bites of chard than she would normally eat, so ha!

Eggs Over Barley

In conjunction with Penny Pinching Parent, we're trying out a new series on Itty Bitty Bistro: Itty Bitty Budget! I'm working up some recipes that are kid-friendly and achieve maximum nutrition on minimum budget. Check out the post at Penny Pinching Parent to see the pricing breakdown!

Eggs are a great, cheap protein - and my favorite way to stretch any protein is by combining it with a whole grain. For kids who like rice, barley is a nice change of pace - and it provides a good source of fiber, B-vitamins, and minerals. The onion is too often overlooked as a veggie - it's full of antioxidants, fiber, folate, and even vitamin C!

Eggs Over Barley

(sigh... that really doesn't photograph well!)

1 cup pearled barley, rinsed
4 cups water
1 large Vidalia onion, chopped
2 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper
6 eggs

In a medium pot, bring 4 cups of water to a boil. Stir in the barley and bring back to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, covered, for about 45 minutes - until barley is tender. Drain excess water.

While the barley is cooking, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and season with salt and pepper. Lower the heat to low-medium and cook, stirring occasionally, for 15-20 minutes, until onions are soft and slightly caramelized. Whisk eggs in a small bowl; add to hot skillet. Cook, stirring to scramble, until eggs are cooked, about 5 minutes.

Serve barley topped with the eggs, accompanied by a crisp green salad.

If you like the combination of eggs and caramelized onion, try Cheese, Egg, and Caramelized Onion Quesadillas - they have become one of our go-to quick and easy dinners!

"Catching a Rainbow" Dinner Date

Back when the 5-a-Day program was still in vogue, one of its themes was to "Catch a Rainbow Every Day". So cute! A few weeks ago, I bought an erasable whiteboard and a rainbow of dry erase markers, and now every day Abby and I draw our fruits and vegetables as we eat them. I tell Abby that we want to try to eat a rainbow every day to help us be big and strong. The motivation to draw works really well, and Abby has eaten a rainbow most days since!

Now, I'm not too picky about having both a blue and a purple, and I'll let yellow slide if we have plenty of orange, but we always aim for a red, an orange, a green, a blue or purple, and a white. Here's how the board looks at the end of a typical day (clearly, I let Abby draw her own foods on this!) (and if you're laughing at my random red-green blob... it's supposed to be a mango.)

I found some other cute ideas on encouraging children to "eat a rainbow" at Preschoolrock.com. They have a lot of other fun stuff in their nutrition section, so poke around! And of course, the 5-a-Day program is outdated now, but the Fruits and Veggies Matter site has some useful information and tips, too.

Hidden Rainbow Pizza

(this is probably the worst "food" picture I've ever taken. It tasted way better than this looks)

Super-Easy Pizza Dough (I made a double batch and then froze half of the pizzas for future yum!)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 zucchini, chopped
1 yellow squash, chopped
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 cup baby carrots, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
oregano, salt, and pepper
1-2 handfuls of baby spinach
1 jar of your favorite marinara (or 2-3 cups of homemade marinara)
Cheddar cheese

Prepare the pizza dough. Prepare the sauce during the second rise (when the dough balls are resting for 30 minutes):

In a large saute pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add all vegetables and garlic to the pan. Season with dried oregano, salt, and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes - until the carrots and onions are tender, but before the zucchini and yellow squash get too squishy. Remove from heat and stir in the baby spinach.


Dump vegetables into a blender. Add about 2 cups of marinara sauce and blend until smooth, adding more marinara as needed to achieve a smooth texture.

Preheat oven to 450F. Form the dough balls into pizza rounds. Top each round with some sauce and ample cheddar cheese. Bake for about 10 minutes, until the pizza crust is golden and the cheese is melted.


This pizza is all about the hidden vegetables - I am a fan of hiding vegetables for a picky eater, but alongside the pizza, we also served some cut-up, colorful, raw veggies. Abby only ate the carrots, and Neko stuck to just the carrots and tomatoes, but at least the veggies were offered!

Fruity Brownie Pizza

I could eat this entire thing by myself. And I almost did.

1/2 cup unsalted butter
4 oz white chocolate
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 banana
1/2 packet of acai pulp (available in the freezer section - leave it out if you can't find it, but I wanted a purple!)
a rainbow of chopped up fruit (we used cherries, strawberries, mango, and blueberries - I wish I had bought some kiwi or green grapes!)

Preheat the oven to 350F. Generously coat a 9-inch round cake pan with non-stick spray.

In a small bowl, combine butter and white chocolate. Microwave in 30 second intervals, whisking well in between, until melted. Set aside to cool.

In a small bowl, whisk together wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar. Whisk in the vanilla extract and the melted chocolate-butter mixture. With a spoon, stir in the flour until just combined.

Smooth the batter into the cake pan. Bake for about 25 minutes, until set in the center. Let cool.

When cool, mash the banana well with a fork. Stir in the acai pulp (only as much as you need to make it smooth and not too runny). Spread the banana-acai mixture on as the "sauce". Top with chopped fruit. If you're feeling nice, serve it to your family. Otherwise, go hide in a closet with a fork and the brownie cake!

Here's the board for the girls' dinners - a whole rainbow, tucked in their tummies!


... and I have no idea what an acai berry looks like.

French Rice Salad

Jenna at Food with Kid Appeal posted a recipe the other day for French Rice Salad. I had a feeling it would be a hit with me and my kids, so I tried it out. It is delicious!!


I did that stupid thing where you convince yourself you have a bag of corn in the freezer so you don't need to pick any up when you're at the store - and then get home and, lo and behold, no corn. Grr. So I made the salad with peas instead, which tasted great, but doesn't look nearly as pretty as Jenna's! This salad is a definite must-try - I made a big double batch yesterday and it's already almost gone.

Orange French Toast

Celeste and I are starting a new series: each week, we're going to focus on recipes that incorporate one in-season vegetable or fruit. This week, we're playing with Valencia oranges! Apparently, they are the only orange in season in the summer. In his book 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life, David Grotto tells us that oranges are a great source of potassium and vitamin C, and are also a good source of folate. Go oranges!

Orange French Toast

6 slices wheat bread
zest from 2 oranges, finely chopped
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk (I used vanilla soy milk for extra yum!)

Whisk together the zest, eggs, and milk. Soak each piece of bread in the egg mixture. Cook on a hot griddle for 2-3 minutes per side (or until cooked through).

Optional: Orange Topping

Chop up the two oranges which you used for zest. Combine them in a small saucepan with 2 Tbsp water, 1 tsp of honey, and a sprinkle of cinnamon and nutmeg. Bring to a boil; lower heat and simmer the mixture while you make the French toast, stirring occasionally to break up the orange segments.

Baby Dinner Date!

Dinner date was a little different this week - it was created with Lizzy in mind! When Abby was a baby, I lovingly made all sorts of meals with just her in mind. Lizzy, on the other hand, is always just fed whatever bits and pieces she can manage of what I've made for the rest of us. So this week, I created a dinner for Lizzy (and for all the babies out there who are mastering table foods but don't quite have the teeth for a lot of chewing yet). I also used the Day 18 of the Month of Veggies recipe! Multi-tasking!

Multi-Grain Bean Patties with Curried Acorn Squash

Multi-Grain Bean Patties

1 cup cooked grains (I used a mix of amaranth, quinoa, and barley)
1 can of white beans (or 1 2/3 cup prepared beans), rinsed and drained
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
1 clove garlic
salt & pepper

Mash all ingredients together in a bowl until a paste forms. (You may want to add some breadcrumbs if you think the mixture is too wet). Drop by small blobs onto either a skillet or an electric grill - these worked surprisingly well on my Foreman grill. Cook for about 5 minutes in the grill, or about 5 minutes per side on the skillet. Crumble up to serve to baby, or serve on a bun for big kids!

(we pretended they were burgers for the big girls!)

Curried Acorn Squash

1 acorn squash, sliced into wedges
1/4 cup apricot preserves
1/2 tsp curry powder
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 375F. Place squash wedges with 1 Tbsp of water into a covered dish. Bake for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, stir together the apricot preserves and the curry powder. Brush the apricot mixture over the wedges and season with salt and pepper. Return wedges (uncovered) to the oven for 10 minutes more.

Roasted Berry "Sundaes"

2-3 cups fruit (as appropriate for your baby), diced. We had blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, and kiwi.
1 Tbsp butter
nutmeg and cinnamon
plain Greek yogurt
agave nectar

Preheat oven to 350F. Spread the fruit in a baking dish. Dice the butter and scatter over the berries. Sprinkle the fruit with cinnamon and nutmeg. Bake for 15 minutes; stir and let cool.

Scoop a little Greek yogurt into bowls; top with some roasted fruit and drizzle with agave nectar. Roasting the fruit should ensure that it is soft enough for a toothless baby - but beware, this will make a big mess!

* * * * *

This dinner was a big hit with Lizzy - she cleaned her plate! Since Lizzy is a little older, I like to add herbs and spices to what she eats to help her develop a palate for all sorts of foods - hence the basil, oregano, garlic, curry, cinnamon, and nutmeg. The big girls liked the dinner okay, but they were awfully busy playing to settle down and eat. Luckily, they both wolfed down dessert - and since they had just the merest drizzle of agave, their "sundaes" were a safe way to let them feel like they were having a treat!

Butternut Squash-Gorgonzola Pizza

The girls were finally all well enough for us to have dinner date last night, and since Celeste was hosting, that meant I took a night off from the Month of Veggies. But since the guest of dinner date always brings a "reheatable", I made these frozen butternut squash-gorgonzola pizzas!

I got the inspiration for this pizza from LaDue & Crew's recipe for Gorgonzola and Butternut Squash Pizza. I thought it looked delicious, but I knew that great big chunks of squash and pear would be a tough sell for Abby. So I took it down to toddler level - but if you are just making this for adults? Try LaDue & Crew's recipe! (And then go drool over her other recipes... yum!!)

I was shocked at how much Abby and Lizzy both liked these pizzas. I worried that the gorgonzola might be a bit strong, but the squash is so mild that they balance each other out well. My husband and I loved them, too!

Butternut Squash-Gorgonzola Pizza

1 recipe Super-Easy Pizza Dough, prepared into 4 pizza shells
2 cups butternut squash puree (make your own, use frozen, or heck - use baby food!)
4 oz gorgonzola
1-2 tsp dried rosemary
salt & pepper

Spread about 1/2 cup butternut squash puree over each pizza shell. Top each with about 1 oz of the gorgonzola (it's a strong taste, so a little will go a long way). Sprinkle with a little dried rosemary, salt, and pepper.

To bake: Preheat oven to 425F. Bake for about 15 minutes, until crust is golden.

To freeze: Put each pizza on a wax paper-covered plate in the freezer. Freeze for about 2-3 hours. Wrap well in plastic wrap and store in freezer bags. To bake from frozen, preheat oven to 425F and bake for about 20-25 minutes, until crust is golden.

MoV Day 6: Zucchini-Beet Pancakes

We moved onto "week 2" of the Month of Veggies last night. The theme of week 2 is "mix a vegetable your kid likes with something different" and first up was these mini vegetable cakes. Now, I'm not sure which is supposed to be the veggie your kid likes and which is something different - zucchini or beets? They both seem a little out there. The original recipe called for, basically, just jazzing up a boxed corn muffin mix. I decided to start out from scratch!

Zucchini-Beet Pancakes

8.25 oz can of beets, drained and rinsed (or, 1 small roasted beet)
1 small zucchini
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup corn meal
2 Tbsp milled flax seed
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 Tbsp honey

Grate or chop the zucchini and beet together in a food processor (I wanted Lizzy to be able to handle these, so I basically ground the veggies together).

In a large bowl, combine the flour, corn meal, flax, baking powder, and salt. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, and honey. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry. Stir in the grated vegetables.

Drop by 1/4-cupfuls onto hot frying pan or griddle. Cook on each side about 1-2 minutes, until browned and cooked through. We liked our pancakes served with applesauce.


I quite liked these and will finish the leftovers for lunch today. I wouldn't say Abby hated them - she ate almost a whole pancake - but they definitely weren't something she'll be clamoring for. I thought their pink color would appeal more to her princess-loving self than it did! Lizzy, as usual, gobbled everything down with gusto.

If I want Abby to try zucchini again, I'll probably just stick with zucchini nuggets!

Roasted Vegetable Lasagna (Freezer to Skillet)

Roasted Vegetable Lasagna (Freezer to Skillet)

(makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:
4 whole wheat lasagna noodles
8 Tbsp. marinara sauce
4 tsp. heavy cream
1 summer squash, sliced lengthwise
5-6 stalks of asparagus
olive oil spray
1 c. frozen broccoli
1 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Cook lasagna noodles according to package directions. Cut into bite sized pieces and arrange in a single layer on a freezer safe dish. Freeze for at least 1 hour.
2. Prepare creamy marinara for freezing: In a small bowl stir together marinara and heavy cream until combined. Divide into 8 compartments of an ice cube tray. Freeze for at least an hour or until frozen enough to pop out of tray.
3. Turn on the broiler setting of your oven. Arrange squash and asparagus on a baking sheet. Spray with olive oil spray. Broil until both sides have a slight char (turn about once every 3 minutes). Cut veggies into bite sized pieces and arrange on a freezer safe dish. Freeze for at least an hour.
4. Divide the cheese between 4 snack sized Ziploc bags.
5. Divide remaining ingredients between 4 quart sized freezer bags. (2 sauce cubes, noodles, roasted veggies and frozen broccoli). Add the cheese packets. Seal, label and freeze until ready to eat.
6. To prepare from frozen: In a small saute pan over medium heat add contents of bag (but not the cheese). Cook until sauce cubes are fully melted and veggies are cooked through. Add the cheese and cook until just melted. Serve!