So here is another one of those easy quick toddler foods that everyone in my family eats way before the twins can even get their paws on it.  I always keep some tuna in the pantry to be ready when I am running out of ideas.  This is also a great pasta to take to work or school provided your child is not intimidated by tuna.  This brings back an array of bad childhood memories when kids are forced to eat ethnic meals by their parents just to find themselves sitting alone at the school cafeteria.  I do not want to be the cause of such turmoil and as far as I can tell with a very picky tween tuna is acceptable by her classmates.  I guess since sushi is one of the most popular meals it is hard to diss tuna, liver on the other hand may still be a stretch.

You will need cooked pasta about 2 cups, 2 scallions, can of tuna, 1 cup of corn, 1 cup of grape tomatos, 1/2 lemon or lemon juice, 1 tsp olive oil, 2 tbs mayo.

Cut tomatos into quarts.  My kids love these and will actually pick them out to eat first.  I understand that the opposite can be true in most families but whatever you do do not give up.

Chop up the scallions or green onions as they are called in other parts of the country.

Here they are nice and sliced.  You may want to slice them more if you think your kids will pick them out, this way you will make it harder on them.

Squeeze about 1 tsp lemon into mayonnaise and olive oil.

Mix well.

Open and drain the tuna, add it to the mayonnaise.

Mix together making sure you break up the tuna.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  You can use this tuna on a sandwich instead.

Add Pasta, corn, scallions and tomatos.  We really like these mini bow tie pasta called Farfalle but you can use macaroni, twists (rottini) or any short shape pasta.

Mix, serve and enjoy.

These Noodles are great.  They only take about 15 min max to make (that includes cooking the chicken and boiling the noodles).  Everyone in my family loves them which means I can have a lunch/snack or quick dinner ready in a flash.  They are toddler friendly meaning my toddlers will eat a couple of bowl fulls each asking for mooore.  Plus they are actually good for you so what better way to introduce your picky toddler to ”different” meal.   I call this a win win win situation.

Here is your cast of characters: soba noodles (2 bundles about 8oz), 1 green onion (scallion), 1/2 cup + 2tbs chicken stock, 1 tbs soy sauce, 1/2 tbs corn starch, 1 cup corn, 1 cup pease, 1 cup chicken.

I found these Soba Noodles in the International Food section of a major grocery chain (not a fancy one).  They are sitting in between the chinese/japanese/thai sauces.  You can use regular spaghetti, or whole wheat spaghetti but these are amazing.  Not only are these buckweat noodles but they are also made with Yams.  According to my sources on the internet these are not the traditional sweet potatoes that we refer to as yams in this country but “starchy tubers” found in Africa and Asia.  For me anytime you put a vegetable in a pasta it makes it that much sweeter.

Boil 2 bunches of noodles according to the directions on the package.

Don’t break them but instead let them fall into the water as they soften.  My kids love long noodles and it is a joy to watch.

drain

Pour 1/2 cup of low sodium chicken stock into a bowl.

add tablespoon low sodium soy.

chop the scallions (green onions)

add them to the soy sauce.

add corn, I am using canned one which I drained before hand.

Pease.  These were frozen but you can just as well use canned ones.

Doesn’t this look good.  Great way to eat your pease.  What kid does not like corn?  Do you know of any parent that has trouble with making their kids eat corn.  It almost seems like fries and corn are a staple of toddlerhood.

Add chicken.  Place on medium heat and simmer for about 3 min.

Pour 2tbs of stock into a bowl add corn starch.  Keep in mind that it is 1/2 tbs my tbs was dirty so I used 1 1/2 tsp instead.

Mix until well combined.

Pour into the pan.  Cook for another 2 min until the sauce slightly thickens.  It will not become creamy but it will be slightly thicker then stock.

Toss the vegitable/chicken mixture with the noodles and serve.

This dish works well warm as well as cold which makes it great for picnics or outings.  Enjoy.

Crostinis are a perfect party snack.  They are easy to make and they can be made more fancy like in this one with Pomegranate Onions or simple and elegant like our Mozzarella Caprese Crostini.  You can do whatever you wish on them even decorate with mashed potatoes and few sauteed mushrooms and they will be fabulous.

Here we are going a little fancy shmancy but why not.  You will need Pomegranate Juice, 3 onions, 1 container of goat cheese and a french baguette or bread (this will make about 12 crostinis).  You can always use some other dark sweet juice like Cherry, Blueberry just make sure it is as real as it gets.

chop up the onions into thin slices.

pour the juice over them till covered.

marinate for about 20 min to overnight.

toss all into a pan (no oil or grease needed)

cook on medium heat until the juice has been absorbed and the onions are caramelized meaning soft and sweet.  Try one.

while the onions are working hard in the pan take out the bread and slice it.  Gently brush it with olive oil or whichever oil you prefer.

scoop about a teaspoon of goat cheese on each piece spreading it evenly (or semi evenly).  Bake is a 350 deg oven for about 10 minutes until the cheese and bread are golden.

Remove from the oven cover with caramelized onions and enjoy warm….

So this is seriously my favorite food since I tasted it at my friends party.  I refused to leave her house until I got the recipe.  I loooooove it.  Because of this dressing I eat cabbage at least 5 days a week and I am trying to cut down.  The dressing is so good that I recently had a different friend of mine leave my house with leftovers and serve it over white fish for dinner, it is also great over potatoes.  Honestly there is nothing you can’t serve this with to make it taste oh so good.

You will need a package of Cole Slaw (buy a couple since they will magically disappear daily), 2/3 cup of mayonnaise, 1tbs Maple Syrup, 1/2 tbs of Dijon Mustard, 1tab Rice Vinegar, 1 tbs fresh lemon juice, 1tsp celery seed, 1/4 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 clove of garlic (chopped or pressed), 1 pickled jalapeno (which is about 1tsp or more if you want it spicier), handful of cilantro (optional).   Now you can add to this whatever vegetables you have.  Even avocado and apple does really well in this dressing. Now you can add to this whatever vegetables you have.  Even avocado and apple does really well in this dressing.

Note:  buy your pickled Jalapeno in the same isle as pickles and olives.  I have recently purchased Italian Style Jalapeno Peppers in Vinegar and those BURN, really badly.  Can’t eat them by handfulls plus the regular ones come in mild flavor.

Take cilantro, jalapeno and garlic and magically chop it up.

voila

Put all the ingredients into the bowl.

Squeeze in ab0ut 1 tbs of lemon juice.  For me it is a half a lemon juiced.  If you roll the lemon on the flat surface a few times pressing lightly it will loosen up the juices and make it easier to squeeze.  Make sure you do that before cutting in half or else you may end up soaked in lemon juice.

Mix well together.  Make sure to try it a couple of times just in case you want to make it spicier, more garlicy or sweeter.

Dump in the cole slaw mix and whatever other vegies you are adding.

Serve, Admire and Eat Daily.

We love pork it is so easy to make and so easy to eat.  You can eat it properly seated at the dinner table with napkin on your lap or you can just slice it and eat it with or without bread.  This is one of those dishes that everyone including the 2 year olds likes, well actually the 2 year olds are the least picky of my eaters.  This recipe comes for Elie Krieger who is trully amazing cook. 

You will need: 1 1/2- 2 lb pork tenderloin, low sodium soy sauce, dark brown sugar, sherry wine, rice vinegar, garlic cloves, fresh ginger root, red pepper flakes.  The sherry gives it that a slightly “porky” flavor but you can eliminate it if you rather stay teriyakish.  Is that even a word?

1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce into the bowl it goes.

2tbs dark brown sugar

1tbs sherry

2tbs rice vinegar

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Peel and Grate the ginger root.

1tsp grated ginger

wack the 2-3 garlic cloves with a side of a knife and peel of the rough skin.

chop the garlic

OMG…. not only is my babies hand next to the blade of a not as sharp as it should be knife but it is also eating garlic…. brb…. all is good… btw did I mentioned that my toddlers were not picky eaters at all… who knew they had a love of garlic though.

mix it all nicely (or not) together.

Make sure the tenderloin is trimmed of any access fat before you put it in a gallon ziplock bag and drench it in the dressing.

Marinate in the fridge for 1-4 hours.  Make sure to preheat the oven on broil (max with heat from the top) before cooking the meat.

Take out and broil in the oven for 15-20 min turning over once.

Let it rest for 10 minutes before cutting.  So what do you think?   Let me know…

Instead of making traditional doughnuts or Polish paczki I decided to fiddle around in the kitchen and made these tasty pumpkin pie fritters.  They are delicious just like pumpkin pie without the crust and in less time (yes it is possible).  They are also FRIED which means LOVED in my household.  As long as something is fried I can be certain that it will be eaten by my husband, he is simple like that, well at least when it comes to fried foods.

You will need: 15oz pure pumpkin can, 1/2c flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 2tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/8 tsp cloves, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp vanilla, vegetable or canola oil for frying.  You can subsitute cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves with 1tsp pumpkin pie spice mix.

Sift the spices, baking powder and spices together.

Break 2 eggs into a bowl… you can’t make a cake without breaking some eggs.

Mix, mix, mix.

Add vanilla and mix some more.

Add the can of Pure Pumpkin whisk until combined.

To the dry ingredience add sugar.

and salt.

Mix the dry stuff with the wet stuff, meaning flour stuff with pumpkin stuff…. got it?

Swirl it around a bit to combine it all.  At this moment you will have to fight your urge to eat the batter.  Make sure not to allow any children to taste it or else you will have a hard time finishing this “project”.

Now step back and admire the beauty of greese…. well I mean oil…. heart healthy oil.

Drop tablespoon of mixture into med/hot oil.  Meaning if it is smoking it may be too hot and will burn your fritters.  If you are not sure how fast it will brown try with an itsy bitsy fritter and see how he does.

Make sure to fry only 4-5 fritters at a time, they fry quickly don’t worry you will be eating soon.

When you see them  brown on the outside in about 8-10 seconds flip them on the other side.

Using slotted spoon remove fritters from hot oil.

Place on paper towels to drain.  Napkins will do the trick and if all is lost toilet paper will work also.

Place on a plate and sprinkle with sugar.  Powder sugar would be better but I was out of it.  I actually did not taste the sugar before sprinkling the fritters just to find out it was not sugar at all.  “Kathy these are really salty”…. “What?  Why?  Did that 1/2 tsp really make that much of a difference?” … “No I think you sprinkled them with salt”….. “oh”…

Serve warm with Ice Cream, Whipped Cream or by themselves.

This recipe is for the kids that will only eat Chicken Nuggets.  This is a way to add a little bit more flavor to your nuggets and maybe just maybe step away from the drive through window.  I know how the days go believe me with toddler twins I am always running late and by the time we get were we need to and get out the last thing I want is for the kiddos to go hungry or to worry about them waiting up for food other then taking their afternoon nap. 

I am also coming to a time in their development when the afternoon nap window is getting smaller and smaller and if they do not go to sleep at a certain time I can forget about the nap all together.  I do not like this stage and hope that it will be over soon and that my kids will continue to take 3 hour afternoon naps until they go to college.  In a meantime I am trying to eliminate our drive through habit by making meals ahead of time that we can freeze and microwave quickly and painlessly.  It does not help however that are microwave has been out of commission for the past month and I can’t seem to find enough time or energy to pack up the kiddos and go microwave shopping.  Call me crazy but at this moment I would rather be without a microwave then deal with a stress of taking these two into a appliance store.  But I digress…

You will need:  A package of chicken tenders, 1 1/2 cups of buttermilk, soy sauce, worchestershire sauce, paprika, 1/2 lemon, 2 eggs, flour and breadcrumbs.  The amount of flour an crumbs will depend on the amount of tenders we are making, hence the size of the package.  Just have a box of each ready, you will use it sooner or later.

Chop up the tenders to desired size, or leave them the way they are if your kiddos are older. It is easier to eat finger foods and honestly the finger bites dissapear much faster then longer ones.

To the buttermilk add 1 tbs of soy sauce and 1tsp worchestershire sauce,

add 1/4 tsp paprika and

squeeze into it 1/2 of a lemon.

Mix well

then pour on the tenders, cover.  Marinate in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.

In the meantime prepare the breading mixture.  You will need one plate with flour, one with crumbs and one with egg wash… a what?

Take an egg pour some water in (about 1 tbs, please do not measure)  and swirl it around to break up the yolk.

Once mariated coat each chicken piece in flour then

in eggwash and then

in breadcrumbs.

Ready to fry.  Melt oil in the pan and saute these beasts until golden brown.  You can add some butter to the oil which makes it taste a little more buttery, you know… softer and better.

Before you are finished you will see all these people coming up to you asking for a piece.  Please remind them that they are hot and they may have to wait a few minutes till it cools.  Also could they please leave some for the babies to cool?  Yes with this batch not the next one.  Serve alone with ketchup, sweet chilli sauce, ranch, honey mustard etc.

I love to entertain and I have instilled that love for entertaining into my tween daughter who often holds movie nights or get togethers at our house.  Unlike her I do not like serving chips with store bought dip.  I do like salsa or that wonderful cheese dip that I can eat by spoonfulls but I just like to pretend to make a nicer dip even though most of the ingredients came from a can and it only took about 5 minutes to make.  It makes me feel all grown up.

You will need 2 ripe avocados, 2 ripe tomatoes, bunch of cilantro, one can (15.25oz) sweet corn drained, one can (14.5 oz) of pinto beans drained and washed (no one wants the bean slime), 1/2 cup of salsa.  These are regular size cans but they just make them different sizes to confuse us or at least me.

Chop up the cilantro by first rolling it into a log then cutting into strips.

Remove the pit from the avocados by inserting whacking it with a knife.

Slice it into squares and

remove the skin.

Next up.  The tomato.  Quarted each of those.

Remove the seeds.

then chop it up into square pieces, well about square pieces.

when ready throw all the ingredients  into the bowl and gently toss together trying not  to break the avocado.

mix in 1/2 cup of favorite salsa, I use mild just in case but you can use super douper hot one.

Serve it with some corn chips, or even by itself.  Open wide… ahhhh

I love “breakfast” breads.  The loafs that are so sweet that can be just as easily be eaten for dessert.  First they are a great snack or on the go breakfast for my kiddos.  Second they hold up for a while provided you wrap them in plastic.  They never last longer then a day here.

You will need 1 stick of butter (1/2 cup), 3 cups of flour, 1 tbs baking powder, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 cup of dark brown sugar, 2 eggs, 1tsp vanilla, 1 lemon zested, 1 1/2 cups unsweetened “lite” coconut milk, 1 1/2 cups shredded coconut.

First we need to toast the coconut in order to make it more fluffy and tasty.  Preheat oven to 350 F, spread the coconut of the cookie sheet and toast for about 10 minutes mixing it often or else it will cook unevenly and ever BURN… yes BURN.

While the oven is doing its job swift together flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.

This is what the coconut will look like when it is nice and toasted.

In a large bowl add two eggs and whisk them.

all done.  Melt the stick of butter.

Pour the butter into the eggs.

in goes vanilla

brown sugar

lemon zest

mix it all nicely together.

add coconut milk

Whisk well together trying not to eat it all.  Oh it smells so good like the tropical beach.

Add the milk/egg mixture to the flour.

stir it around a bit

in goes the toasted coconut

and a sweet hand of a toddler… it is a hard ingredient to come by but hopefully you can find some soon.  It really makes a huge difference.

Caught red handed… by the way are toddlers allowed to eat uncooked eggs?  Oh well it hasn’t killed him yet.

Pour the batter into a 9×5 inch greesed pan.  Bake in  375 F oven for 1 15 min or until the wooden pick inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out clean.

Cool before serving.

Don’t touch.  You know you can do it.  It will only take about 20 minutes.  Go read a book, take a shower but do not get into a staring contest with the cake.  You will always always loose.

Now dust it with a bit of powdered sugar.

Dig in.  You can serve it with your favorite tropical jam like Mango, Pineapple or Guava.  Me I am all Cherry or Chocolate (nutella).  Yeah I really do not think this loaf of bread is going to last till tomorrow.  It will be tough for it to make it till dinner.

Sides are always my favorite.  I can skip the meat and fill myself up with mashed potatos, spinach or whatever side is served at the table.  Even though my family likes something more substantial, I often do find myself eating only sides for days on end.  This is one of those sides that I make and eat all by myself for lunch.  A warmed up salad if you may.  It is simple, light and makes you feel like spring no matter what time of the year it is.  At this moment I really need spring.

You need 1 zucchini, 1 leek, 1 lemon, 2 tbs butter, 1 cup frozen corn, 1/2 cup basil, 1/4 cup heavy cream.

Wash the leeks by cutting them in half and then washing them under running water.  This way you can peel back the layers making sure you got all the dirt.  Dry and slice.

Cut the ends of zucchini.

Cut in half, then again in half.  Slice up.

Roll the basil into tight bundle

and slice it getting a nice chiffonade, oui oui…

melt the butter

saute leeks until softer and translucent

add zucchini and corn.

Cook until corn is soft about 3 min.

add cream

basil

and lemon juice

That’s it.  Are you ready to eat?  Now lock the kids in their rooms or place them in front of the tv sit down at the dinner table and enjoy.