MoV Day 13: Fruity Salad

Last night was an easy victory - it was Day 13 of the Month of Veggies: Butterfly Salad. Abby adores romaine lettuce, grapes, and toast - and the "white dip" I made on the side was just the icing on her salad cake!

The only hard part? My homemade wheat bread kept falling apart when I tried to cut it into "butterfly" shapes. So we just broke it into croutons instead and scrapped the whole "butterfly" motif.

In other news - I received my brand-new crinkle cutter in the mail yesterday!! After all the comments about other people loving theirs, you know I just had to order one. So watch out, world, I'm going to be a crinkle-cutting fiend now!

Fruity Salad

Washed and torn romaine lettuce (Abby likes the rinds the best for their crunchy texture)
Red and green grapes, washed and cut into half or quarters
Whole wheat bread, toasted
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 tsp ground ginger
dash curry powder
dash cinnamon

Arrange a salad of lettuce and grapes. Cut the toasted bread into croutons and arrange on top.

In a small bowl, whisk together the yogurt, orange juice, ginger, curry, and cinnamon. Drizzle over the top of the salad, or serve on the side for dipping.

MoV Day 12: Teriyaki Green Beans

Last night we tried Day 12 of the Month of Veggies: Teriyaki Green Beans. Abby has always been kind of "meh" on green beans, but last night she cleaned her plate! Score!

The original recipe called for bottled teriyaki sauce, but we have recently eradicated all high-fructose corn syrup and artificial dyes from Abby's diet. So I made one up from scratch. The sauce made a lot more than I needed for the recipe, but I'll be brushing the rest of it over some baked chicken breast tonight. The sauce came together really fast, in the 5 minutes it took to microwave the green beans!

Teriyaki Green Beans

24 oz frozen green beans
1 cup + 1/4 cup water, divided
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tbsp molasses
2 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp cornstarch

Prepare green beans according to package directions.

Combine 1 cup water, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, molasses, and honey in a small sauce pan. Begin heating over medium. Dissolve cornstarch in remaining 1/4 cup water. Stir the cornstarch into the sauce. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly.

Toss cooked green beans with about 1/4 cup of the teriyaki sauce. Serve.

MoV Day 11: Breaded Asparagus

I wanted to serve asparagus with our Easter dinner last night, so it was a great time to try out Month of Veggies Day 11: Breaded Asparagus!

This is also the start of week 3 of the Month of Veggies plan: serve up a tasty sauce or dip. This should be a good week for us, as Abby looooves to dip stuff. She wants "dip dip" served alongside pretty much everything she eats. She had one and a half bites of asparagus, but then refused to eat anymore. Oh well. To look at the silver lining - she tried a bite!

Were I just making asparagus for adults who already like asparagus, I wouldn't bother with breading it. But I think this is a great way to make it look a little more fun and appealing for the younger set.

Breaded Asparagus

1 bunch asparagus, washed, trimmed, and patted dry
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
2 eggs, well beaten
1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs
2 Tbsp grated Parmesan

Preheat oven to 450F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat it with non-stick spray. Shake the asparagus and flour together in a zipper bag to coat. Make an assembly line of the asparagus, the eggs in one bowl, and the Panko and Parmesan combined in another bowl:

Dredge each stalk of asparagus in the egg, and then lightly coat with breadcrumbs. Bake on the foil-lined tray for about 15 minutes (more time for thicker spears, but the really thin asparagus would probably take more like 10 minutes).

I made a simple honey mustard to serve with this (2 Tbsp Dijon mustard to 1 tsp honey), but Abby didn't care for that and used ketchup instead. For her one and a half bites. Yup.

MoV Day 10: Pumpkin Peanut Butter Soup

We were feeling better last night, so we moved on to Day 10 of the Month of Veggies: Pumpkin Peanut Butter Soup.

Yuck.

Pumpkin Peanut Butter Soup: Don't Try This At Home

I expected to like this. I love peanut butter, I like pumpkin just fine... but it was not good. Bland, too thick, and too peanut buttery. This might be okay as a sauce over some roasted pork or chicken, but it did not hold up as a soup.

To Abby's credit, she tried two bites before saying "no thank you". I didn't push it, since I didn't want to finish it myself!

Have a Happy Passover or a Happy Easter or just a Happy Weekend!

Month of Veggies - Another Break!

The girls and I came down with an awful tummy bug yesterday, so needless to say, Pumpkin Peanut Butter soup was about the furthest thing from my mind!

So in the meantime, Abby and I are spending some quality time with Pedialyte. She's not a fan of the Pedialyte Ice Pops, which I can't understand - they are about the only thing that sound good to me right now! Of course, Lizzy is probably starting to wonder why my milk tastes like "blue raspberry" (and how did that ever come to be an acceptable "flavor"? Blue? Really?). We hope to be on the mend quickly and back to our veggie-tryin' ways!

MoV Day 9: Fiesta Corn

Fiesta Corn was on the menu last night for Day 9 of our Month of Veggies project. I rarely serve corn, so this was all unfamiliar (or oft-rejected) territory for Abby. In fact, dinner started out like this:

But since ignoring it didn't make it go away, we pressed on. I resorted to bribery - not my favorite tactic by any means, and not something I do often. Every once in a while, I just get tired of Abby refusing to try new things and will tempt her with a treat if she will eat up her vegetables (or whatever it is). I know it's not the best plan, but I'm also not perfect - and when my other tactics fail (taking turns, asking her to take two bites before saying "no thank you", letting her feed some to me), I will sometimes try it. I just want her to try new things - she often ends up liking them and eating them willingly the next time it's offered. Last night, it worked - she cleaned her plate and declared the corn "deeee-licious"!

This corn was indeed delicious. I added in some lime juice to the recipe, because I watch a lot of Top Chef, and Chef Colicchio is always on the contestants' cases if they don't add acid to their dish. I thought it added a nice bright flavor!

Fiesta Corn

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 large red bell pepper, diced
1 large green bell pepper, diced
1 1/2 cups frozen corn
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground coriander

Heat olive oil in large skillet. Add diced peppers and saute over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until tender - about 3 minutes. Add in frozen corn. Saute until heated through. Stir in lime juice, chili powder, salt, and coriander. Cook for 1 minute more.

MoV Day 8: Sweet Potato-Parsnip Mash

Day 8 of the Month of Veggies called for a Sweet Potato-Parsnip Mash. Yum! I love mashed sweet potatoes, and the parsnip was a great addition! Abby tried a few bites (which is HUGE - she doesn't usually try anything mashed. Abby is picky, if I haven't made that clear by now...) and Lizzy gobbled hers down (with her hands!).

Sweet Potato-Parsnip Mash

3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into chunks
3-4 large parsnips (aiming to have about half as much parsnip as sweet potato), peeled and diced into chunks
1/3 cup apple juice (or cider, when in season)
salt & pepper

Fill a large pot with about 1 inch of water. Add in diced sweet potatoes and parsnips. Bring water to a boil, and then simmer the vegetables for about 15 minutes, until very tender. Drain the vegetables and return to the pot. Add the apple juice and mash well. Add salt and pepper to taste.

MoV Day 7: Roasted Veggie Medley

We moved on to day 7 of the Month of Veggies last night: Roasted Veggie Medley. I LOVE roasted potatoes. I ate pounds and pounds of roasted potatoes while pregnant with Lizzy. Abby has always been iffy on them - one night she'll like them, the next night she won't - so I wasn't sure how this would go over. I thought the Parents recipe was going to make too small an amount, so I made a more generous portion to satisfy this potato-lovin' mama.

As it turned out, Abby tried one potato, and then gagged on a bite of butternut squash (and wouldn't touch a red bell pepper). Lizzy gobbled up everything - this is definitely a great dish to make for little ones who are learning to feed themselves. I had a great big bowlful and was in heaven! I have never roasted vegetables with balsamic vinegar before (I usually just do olive oil) and I loved the addition of that flavor!

Roasted Veggie Medley

2 large baking potatoes, diced into 1-inch chunks
1/2 butternut squash, diced into 1-inch chunks
3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dried thyme
salt & pepper
1 large red bell pepper, diced small

Preheat oven to 425F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Whisk together the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, dried thyme, and some salt and pepper in a large bowl. Toss the potatoes and squash in the dressing. Spread vegetables on the baking sheet. Bake for 25 minutes.

Scatter red bell pepper pieces over the vegetables. Continue baking for 15-20 minutes more, until vegetables are tender.

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!

MoV, Day 5: Crinkly Carrot Fries

We're back on track, and mostly feeling better! Last night we continued with day 5 of the Month of Veggies: Crinkly Carrot Fries. Apparently, I am the only person in the world who does not own a crinkle cutter, so we had boring old straight carrot fries (a.k.a., baked carrot sticks). These were delicious! I thought they'd be pretty boring, but they were great!

I forgot to take a picture, but I think Celeste might have gotten one. Mine didn't look as pretty as the ones on the Parents website, so it's probably for the best.

Crinkly Carrot Fries
(adapted from Parents Magazine)

1 lb carrots
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 400F. Cut the carrots into 1/2-inch-wide sticks with a crinkle cutter (or, cut them into small carrot sticks, if you are a sadly crinkle cutter-less person like me). Toss them with olive oil, thyme, and salt.

Spread the carrot fries on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes, until soft. (If you are baking these for a smaller child, they would need to bake longer - these were too tough for 9-month-old Lizzy to handle.)