Yogurt Monkey Tails

The cook at the school I work at makes this summertime treat. It's easy to make, kids (and adults) love it, and as a bonus it's healthy too!

bananas
1 container strawberry or vanilla yogurt
sprinkles (optional)
popsicle sticks

Cut desired number of bananas in half. Insert a popsicle stick. Lay on wax paper on a baking sheet and place in the freezer. When completely frozen, dip each banana in yogurt until coated. Add sprinkles and place back in the freezer until yogurt is frozen.

5 Easy Time Savers

Use pre-minced garlic. Freshly minced garlic tastes better, but takes a long time to prepare (although I got a very nifty kitchen gadget that makes it a lot easier). You can find pre-minced garlic in the produce isle in a jar, or if you use a lot of it like I do, you can buy it at Costco.

Don’t peel your potatoes. Whether you are mashing them or making hash browns, don’t bother peeling the potatoes, there are a lot of extra vitamins in the peel and it will cut more than a few minutes out of your prep time. If anyone says anything, just tell them they are “homestyle”

Use an apple corer/slicer. This is a great time saver when the kids (or I) want a quick, healthy snack. Make sure you get a heavy duty one that is all one piece. I use mine all of the time and the cheap ones break easily and can cause injury when they do. It’s worth an extra $5!

Use canned beans. When a recipe calls for dried beans, I usually use them, but if I’m in a hurry and don’t want to go through the 12 hour process of soaking and cooking them, I will just buy canned beans. This skips several hours preparation!

Heat the water in the tap before you put it in the pot to boil. If you are boiling water, wait a few extra seconds for it to heat up in the tap before adding it to the pan. The already warm water will come to a boil faster!

Simple Soup Recipe

The following is a recipe from a cookbook called, Soup: A way of Life by Barbara Kafka. I had to include it because if you take all of the shortcuts, it is probably one of the easiest homemade meals I’ve ever made! I’ve doubled the recipe to make it big enough for a 4 person family and would serve it with bread.

Simple White Bean and Pesto Soup

4 cups chicken broth (I usually use 4 cups water and 4 tsp Better than Bullion)
4 cans white beans, drained and rinsed
4 T Pesto
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese, to taste

Combine first 4 ingredients, bring to a boil, and then simmer for 1 minute. Add Parmesan to each bowl and serve.

Cheddar Cheese Risotto

I absolutely love risotto, so when I heard an interview with Nigella Lawson on NPR describing her recipe for cheddar cheese risotto, I was very intrigued. If you aren’t familiar with risotto, it is an Italian dish that usually includes vegetables, meat (or not if you make it as a side), and delicious Italian cheese. To put cheddar in a risotto almost seems wrong, and yet I was compelled to try it. As far as risottos go, I’d give it three out of five stars, but my daughter loved it (and did all the stirring for me). That’s when it occurred to me that this dish is practically macaroni and cheese. What a great crossover meal! It is familiar, but different and the next time that I want to make a more authentic risotto, perhaps she will be more willing to try it even if it contains scary things like broccoli.

Cheddar Cheese Risotto
by Nigella Lawson
Ingredients
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 baby leeks or 2 fat scallions, finely sliced
• 1-1/2cups risotto rice
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 4 cups hot vegetable stock
• 1 cup chopped Cheddar cheese
• 2 tablespoons chopped chives
Instructions
1. Melt the butter and oil in a medium-sized pan and cook the sliced baby leeks or scallions until softened.
2. Add the risotto rice and keep stirring for a minute or so, then turn up the heat and add the wine and mustard, stirring until the wine is absorbed.
3. Start ladling in the hot stock, letting each ladleful become absorbed as you stir before adding the next one.
4. Stir and ladle until the rice is al dente, about 18 minutes, then add the cheese, stirring it into the rice until it melts.
5. Take the pan straight off the heat, still stirring as you do, and then spoon into warmed dishes, sprinkling with some of the chopped chives.
Serves 2 as a main course or 4 as a starter


To checkout the interview for yourself, visit: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114320079

1/2 Whole Wheat Buttermilk pancakes

It’s important to me that my family eat healthy food, but I also want to let them eat “normal” foods. Not only that, but if I go overboard with too much whole wheat flour or pasta, my husband complains that I’m feeding them “cardboard.” I’ve found a way to compromise with both viewpoints by using half and half. When I make spaghetti for instance, I use half whole wheat pasta and half regular pasta. When I make baked goods, I use half whole wheat flour and half unbleached white flour. Here is a recipe for pancakes where I’ve adjusted the ingredients to make it a healthier treat. I’ve substituted vegetable oil for safflower oil which is a healthier oil, but unlike olive oil, has no flavor. We’ve also started topping our pancakes with applesauce instead of syrup. Try it, it is delicious!

1/2 Whole Wheat Buttermilk pancakes

1 C unbleached white flour
1 C whole wheat flour
1 T sugar
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 ½ salt
1 egg beaten
1 ½ C buttermilk *
¼ C safflower oil

Sift dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Mix wet ingredients in a medium bowl, then slowly mix into dry ingredients just until combined. Do not over mix. Preheat griddle and lightly oil with safflower oil. Put desired amount of batter on your griddle and cook until bubbles begin to appear at the top of the pancake. Flip and cook on the other side. Top with applesauce or pure maple syrup.

*In a pinch, here is a great buttermilk substitute: mix 1 ½ cup milk with 1 ½ T white vinegar. Let sit for 10 minutes before using. I almost always use this substitution since I usually make pancakes on a whim and don’t usually have buttermilk in the fridge. This will also means less fat in your pancakes.

Here’s a link for a great cookie recipe containing zucchini, granola, and oatmeal. Ok, so that was probably not a good way to advertise them, but trust me, they’re REALLY good! This is one of the recipes where I use half white flour and half wheat.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/St-Patricks-Day-Zucchini-Oatmeal-Cookies/Detail.aspx

Cooking with Kids

I’m sure that a lot of people might think that I’m crazy, but cooking with toddlers is a lot of fun! I started cooking with my daughter when she was about 18 months old. Sometimes it can be a lot of work and messes are generally bigger when she is involved, but cooking has become one of our favorite activities. There are several things to consider when you are cooking with small children:

Safety! I have to keep a very close eye on my daughter when I’m cooking. She knows to be careful around hot things, but isn’t as careful around sharp objects. I just try to remind her often to be careful and if she isn’t listening, I don’t let her help.

Boredom is the enemy! Sometimes when I’m cooking, I don’t have anything for her to do. That is when she starts making bigger messes, getting into things, and trying to grab sharp objects. I’ve gotten very good at inventing jobs. Constant stirring for instance is a very important job. If stirring isn’t necessary, I have her transfer ingredients from one bowl to another. I end up with more dirty dishes, but it is worth it.

A mess is not the end of the world. Sometimes it can be really frustrating when cooking with little ones. They stir too fast, sending ingredients flying through the air or dump the measuring cup outside the bowl instead of inside the bowl. When this happens, I just remind myself that a mess is not the end of the world.

Cooking with kids is slower. Just remember when cooking with kids, that you need to allow yourself some extra preparation time.

Here are some of the many benefits of cooking with your kids:

Quality time. I remember helping my mom cook when I was little and now, some of my favorite times with my daughter are when we are cooking. Even though she’s not quite three, I explain to her what all the ingredients are, what they’re for and give her definitions of cooking terms. I’m mostly joking, but she’s surprised me with the cooking terms that she knows. For instance last week she pulled something out of the bottom drawer and said, “Look Mom, a spatula!” How many kids her age know what a spatula is?

See things through their eyes. I don’t remember the first time I saw what was inside an egg or the first time I held a mushroom, but I will remember the first time that Melina did. She’s so excited about the vegetables that I’m cutting up and wants to try all of them. Last night, I was cutting mushroom and she picked it up saying, “What’s this?” I told her what it was and she exclaimed, “Oh, I LOVE it!”

Get them to eat more fruits and veggies. I read somewhere that when kids help prepare a meal, they are more likely to eat it and I’ve definitely noticed a difference with my daughter. For awhile, she wouldn’t eat any food that was green unless it was a pickle. Now that I have her helping me make dinner more often, I let her try food as I’m preparing it. She’s tried fresh mushrooms, onions, zucchini, broccoli, and it’s very rare for her to say that she doesn’t like it. When I set food on the table, she almost always eats it too!

An early introduction to math and science. A cooking lesson is really a math and science lesson in disguise. Teach your kids about weights and measures, changes of state, the effect of temperature, etc.

To be Picky, or not to be Picky

Since my daughter turned two, she has been experimenting with pickiness. That doesn’t make me too happy considering how much I like to experiment with “weird” food. I’ve discovered several tactics that seem to work.

1. This comes from my experience working with autistic children. You get a preferred food item and for every bite of the non preferred food, they get a small bite of the food they really like. When they start eating the non preferred food pretty well, you increase the number of bites they must take to get the treat. I usually say something like, “If you want this, take a bite of that,” and hold up both food items. I don’t force her to eat the food she thinks she doesn’t likes, but I don’t let her have the treat unless she does.

2. Rename food items. This will probably only work with toddlers, but I’ve discovered that green beans are much more appetizing when they are called “peanuts,” mashed potatoes are “ice cream,” broccoli are “trees,” etc. A rose by any other name apparently tastes sweeter!

3. I’ve also found that if I let my daughter down from the table when she is reluctant to eat something that she will often want to eat it about an hour later. She is much less likely to be picky on an empty stomach.

If you have any other methods to ease kids through the pickiness stage, please let me know!