Tag: Cook

“Oh! I like kale!”

Kale
Kale (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Getting your kids in to the kitchen to help you cook/wash vegetables/create new recipes, is the best way to get them to enjoy trying new foods. Juni, who refuses all things green, knowingly ate kale twice today. All I did differently was to let him add the greens in to the blender for our afternoon smoothie. Then tonight, when it appeared on his plate, he gobbled it all up without blinking an eye. He said, “What is it, Mama?”. I said, “It’s Kale, honey.” He said, “Oh! I like Kale!”. That’s it. No big drama. No wailing about how he doesn’t like green.

When kids touch the ingredients of the foods that they’ll be eating, it opens a door for them. They are part of the process. They have power over how much goes in to the dish or how clean the veggies get. They get to smell the raw produce, feel the texture of the grains between their fingers. See what color the beets will turn their hands, just from touching the surface after it’s peeled. It’s like they’ve stepped in to a science lab and they get to set up the experiments. The stuff we do everyday, it’s all new and cool to them.

There is a great gift to sharing time cooking with our children. A little bit each day is all it takes to raise kids that not only love cooking, but hopefully have a healthy relationship with food. Not to mention that it’s 10 minutes that you get to spend with them that doesn’t involve playing trains/princesses/secret agents/whatever it is they just begged you to play for the 17th time today.

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Slow Roasting In Summer, For Realz!

Thanks to a food blog (that slips my tired brain right now) I recently found out that I can roast veggies in a slow cooker! This is huge. I love roasted vegetables in the fall and winter months, but haven’t done much roasting in the summer for obvious reasons. Um, hello! Way to hot to have the oven on 400 degrees for any amount of time. So, before now, I haven’t been able to enjoy the awesome flavors of roasted squash, tomatoes, peppers, onion, garlic… you get the picture. That’s all changed, my friends. Oh yes, it is officially on!

Today I made homemade pasta sauce, using roasted tomatoes, zucchini, yellow summer squash, yellow onion and garlic in the crock pot on high for 3 hours. This process added almost no heat to the kitchen and took very little of my precious child rearing time. I greased the crock pot lightly with coconut oil, added the cut up veggies, seasoned them with salt, pepper and fresh oregano and drizzled it all with a bit of olive oil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of the 3 hours, I spooned it all in to the food processor and voila! Delicious, perfectly roasted pasta sauce. I wish I could say  that the pasta was perfectly cooked, but alas, it was overcooked and mushy. You can’t have it all, I guess.

sauce

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Super Easy Coconut Avocado Pancakes

I got a little “creative” in the kitchen this afternoon. I knew I wanted to make pancakes on the griddle to avoid turning on the stove or oven (it’s crazy hot this week!). So, I found a recipe for grain-free pancakes that sounded pretty tasty, but I didn’t have some of the necessary ingredients. This is where the creative bit comes in. What’s easier than avocado to mash up and substitute for apple sauce? OK, maybe a banana, but I wanted to get some green in our dinner and cut some of the sugar. Besides, avocado has 2.9 gr of protein, 708 mg of potassium, vit. B-6, vit. C and magnesium.

The recipe went over well with the kids and the husband. Win!!

 

Coconut Avocado Pancakes:

 

1/2 large avocado (mashed)

4 large eggs (beaten)

1 tblsp honey

1/2 cup coconut milk

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/4 tsp salt (I used himalayan pink salt)

1/2 tsp baking soda

 

Smash the avocado. Add beaten eggs and honey. Blend well. In large bowl whisk together flour, salt and baking soda. Combine wet and dry ingredients. I added the cocnut milk at the end because the batter was way too thick. You could add it to the wet ingredients earlier in the process, it doesn’t really matter. Spoon the batter on to griddle to make approximately 18 silver dollar pancakes. Flip when browned and firm on the bottom. Let other side brown and remove. Top with whatever you like. That’s it!

These pancakes are Paleo, gluten-free, fast and very nummy.

Give them a shot and let me know what you think.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Homemade Apple Lemonade

This image shows a whole and a cut lemon.
This image shows a whole and a cut lemon. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is a recipe that I make in the summers when my son starts asking for lemonade. Sometimes I substitute limes for lemons, either way it’s not too sweet and very refreshing. The raw honey and lemon boosts the immune system and helps greatly with seasonal allergies. You can add more or less apple juice to your liking.

 

4-average size organic lemons

1/3-cup raw honey

8 ounces organic apple juice

1-tall pitcher full of filtered water