Pancakes

Have you ever heard of a kid that wouldn't eat pancakes?! This boy is such a meat lover that if I could wrap raw beef around veggies, that would be all he would eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! Did I mention that I had been a vegetarian for over a decade until I was preggers with him? No? Well, I was. I had such AWFUL cravings with him that one day I said "Morals, shmorals" and picked up a piece of fried chicken off my husbands plate. Needless to say, he was pretty shocked.

So... Pancakes...

I learned that if I measure out the dry ingredients, and put them in a baggie when I'm at one of my "awake" moments, I can just add the wet stuff with it all in a bowl in the morning, and I can _almost_ cook. (I'm not a morning person at ALL!) But my young one won't touch them. Brat.

One day I had an apple with a huge bad spot one one side, but was pretty and healthy on the other side. What to do? Chop it up, throw it in the pancake batter, add some cinnamon and POOF, they disappeared! Who ate all the pancakes?! Well DUH mom, they were apple cinnamon, of *course* I ate them!

We've always added fruit to them, I just never thought to add apples. silly me.

So there you have it, add fruit to anything, even making Pb&J sandwiches with waffles is something new and fun the kiddies might enjoy!

Bon appetit

Freshies

So cooler weather is here again, and with it come some great recipes!

I know I've been a slacker, but I'm working on changing that. Look for new posts 2- 4 times a month from now on!

I mentioned in my last post that it's orchard time. My newest creation is stewed apples. Sounds nasty, but tastes great, as long as you don't burn it to the bottom of the pot! (:

My kids run out, grab as many apples as they can, then run back to the car to their video games. *sigh* This results in a huge pile of tiny misshaped apples that they won't eat because they don't look like the ones in the store. *sigh again*

So, out came the peeler, and in one day I made 2 apple upside-down cakes, 1 apple crumble, and a mess of stewed apples.

*Stewed apples*
@ 10 small to middlin' apples, peeled and cored
2 tbs brown sugar
2 tbs honey
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4tsp allspice
1 1/2 c water
pop it all in a pot,
simmer on low stirring every 15 minutes or so for as long as it takes for your apples to mush as you stir
Serve over ice cream, waffles, in a dish with whipped cream, any way you want. I'm thinking of trying to make some sort of chicken dish with it...
Stay tuned!

Rhubarb

Harvest time!

Now is a good time to think of the things your kids like most to eat, and break it down to its most basic components.
Once you've done that, head out to your local Farmers Market, and point out the things that your kid didn't know she liked!

We go to our favorite orchard this time of year, and pick peaches, apples berries, and flowers. This year they planted some unusual cross breeds, so, we'll see!

I love this place, and I love cooking the fresh produce! Let me tell you sometime how I FINALLY got my youngest to eat pancakes.

I'll gladly pay you Thursday...

I love burgers! So do my kids, and they're willing to eat almost anything on them as long as they get to eat them!

I have to say, now that my kids are better eaters, I don't have to do this anymore, but one of my little tricks was to slip veggies into _everything_!
I kept several cans of veg-all in the cabinet for this reason alone. (Well, and because as babies, this would be their snack, ~no! seriously!~)

First thing to do, toss the corn! It's not much of a veggie, more a starch. If you can grind it to make flour, it's what we here call BAD carbs. Not that it is bad, but really, no one in this house needs it! I try to make our carbs veggies more than starch, it sticks less, and heavens know, we don't get half as much exercise as we should, so we don't need the extra energy.

RIGHT! BURGERS!

Take a heaping tablespoon of vegall per burger, _then_ puree it. then add it to the chop meat before shaping, and seasoning the burgers. Sometimes I even add chopped onion to the mix, but a lot of kids notice that.

For toppings, shred the lettuce like fast food joints do, and then you can hide the dark green leafies in that! They'll never know........ (:
On top of that, I always tell them "It's exactly like a "Whopper"! Mayo, lettuce, tomato, catsup, onions, pickles, and cheese.

Try to grill burgers as often as possible, if you have a pan with ridges, use that to drain the fat away from the burgers, after all, it can't be healthy to cook them sitting in pools of their own fat!

Just some quick condiment help...
Read the ingredients on the catsup bottle, choose the one with the least sodium. They're all pretty close to the same, but sometimes you get lucky. And one of the few things I will pay extra for, is Hellmans canola oil mayo. The oil really does make the difference! The flavor is the same, but the calorie, and fat content is much lower!

Happy grilling all, and have a happy Memorial Day!
(Why happy, you ask?) Because I'm very happy I get the freedoms I do, Thank You to our Soldiers, for sacrificing all, for me and my kids.

Salad.

Not too many kids are usually up for this... As summer approaches, and the oven becomes your arch nemesis, you could almost cry at the menu, or the cost of eating out!

Ham, chicken, boiled egg... whatever your kid will eat, can be added to a salad. Most kids won't eat much more leafy stuff than iceberg lettuce, but, if you take a few leaves of basil, roll them up length-wise, and make skinny cuts cross-wise, you get a very tasty confetti.

You can do the same thing to baby spinach (or regular spinach) leaves... you can do it to as many different kinds of lettuces as you want to mix in, add some julienned carrots, thin sliced (seeded) cucumbers, sweet peppers, all kinds of stuff! Will they eat raw broccoli? Try it out.. kids will usually eat it if they don't recognize it as something they think they wont eat. you can put peas, snow peas, raw green beans.... the list is almost endless!

Then add some diced protein... egg, ham chicken, even bologna or pepperoni! Some shredded cheese, and dressing... YUM!
Just remember, if you measure out the recommended serving of dressing, you'll find that it usually is quite enough. Do we really need to waste money by letting it sit in a puddle in the bottom of the bowl?

Next up, tricking them into eating healthier burgers!

Tricks of the trade

So because warm weather is approaching, I'm only going to touch on this.

The freezer is your friend!

Grilling time! But you don't feel like mixing and shaping all those burgers, and Oh No! you forgot to marinate the meat!

Easy fix. Buy your meat in the bulk package, and when you're done putting away the groceries, season and shape all your burgers and freeze them. If your kids are like mine, they love rare burgers, keep 'em frozen until you pop them on the grill, or defrost them first for more well done. Or for pasta, make some of the meat into meatballs and freeze them.

Portion your steaks, pork chops and roasts into dinner sized portions too, that way all you need to do is pull them out.

We make our own BBQ sauce, because well, it tastes better, but we also get less junk that way. Pour your marinade over the meat and toss it in the freezer, then when you take it out to defrost, it's also marinating, and you haven't forgotten to do it.

There are all sorts of things you can do to cheat the clock, with these seeds of ideas, come up with some of your own and post them in the comments... I'm always up for learning more!

Next up, lets make some tricky burgers and salad!

French fries!

Do you see how many ingredients there are?!

This takes some doing, but only on the cutting part....

1/2 a large baking potato per person, or one small golden potato per person, cut into the fries you choose... planks, shoestring, fat fries... whatever.

1/4 cup olive oil,
and now they make iodized sea salt! 1/2 tsp ground sea salt (lower sodium content, all the salt taste!)

Dump them all into a covered container, shake it up, spread 1 layer thick on a baking sheet, and bake at 400 for 25 minutes, stirring once about halfway through.

I never claimed this was going to be healthy food... just healthier... (:

Mmmmmmm, fries!

Ice Cream!

Okay, sorry for the wait, I was hoping for some time to do this with my boys and get some pics for you, but alas... Life interferes with fun once again. (:

Really, this is fun and EASY!

plain old vanilla Ice cream...

1c whole milk
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2tsp vanilla extract
Halite (The super coarse, ice melt, salt stuff, from this AWFUL winter we just survived)
crushed ice
an old coffee container, or any roundish container with a lid
quart sized zip bag

mix the first 3 ingredients in the zip bag, make triple sure it's locked well!
put the bag, ice and halite, in the bucket close the lid tight, and
Shake, shake, shake...
Shake, shake, shake...
Shake your ice cream,
Shake your ice cream!

(Yeah, a bit insane, but not dangerous or anything)

Give it about 3 minutes. Have the kids roll it back and forth on the floor to each other... or just to you if you were smart enough to stop at 1. If you like it set more, then just shake and roll it for a bit longer.

3 ingredients.
Low sugar content.
Lower fat content than bought ice cream or even frozen yogurt.
You can add any fruit you want, a tablespoon of cocoa powder... I think I'm gonna be making rum raisin next....

Eat well, Be well, and...
Have Fun!

Easy

I wanted to start with the easy stuff, things that you and the kiddos can do that are fun...


The first thing to remember in all of this, is that the further something is from it's natural state, the less healthy it is likely to be, right? Well what the hell was soda to begin with?! Soda, and juices are expensive and sugary, and just really not that healthy for you at all.

Doctors everywhere tell us water is the healthiest thing for us to drink, so your kids should be gulping it down, right? YEAH, RIGHT! Quick and fun solution... Ice cubes!

Keep a pitcher of water in the fridge, and remember, your tap water is more than likely just as healthy as bottled stuff. Take a frozen can of 100% juice and defrost it, (or you can buy Juicy Juice in concentrate form off the shelf) add only 1 can of water to it, and put it in ice cube trays. When it's frozen, the kids can put them in their glass of water, (Only 1 or 2 though!) as they melt, they'll add flavor, and kids can watch the color start to drift around from the cubes.

You've just saved yourself a TON of money too! If your family drinks a bottle of soda a day, at $2.00 a pop, that's $14. a week, and the can of juice probably cost you less than $3.! That's $11. you didn't have before, and your kids are having fun with their drink, AND they are getting healthier!

Do your kids have a favorite food you wish you could make healthier for them and still have them eat it? Let me know!

Next up... I scream you scream, we all scream, for "___"!

Revolution!

So. I was watching Jamey Olivers new show, about making the kids in this one town in America healthier.... I think he's going about it the wrong way.

He tried to bring about a radical change in the foods they were eating at school, and he started with salad, and his own dressing mix, and fresh chicken legs in a citrus marinade. These kids have been eating processed meats, and starches, and, to be honest, for the most part, it's pretty yummy.

I think what he should have done, was make healthier versions of what they were already eating. At least to start.

So here's my thing. I am going to post recipes here, as much "junk food" as I can think of, but the thing is... Although the kids think they're eating the fat- filled, processed junk they always have... It's going to be much healthier.

If you're reading this, and you think it's a good idea, please leave a comment! Let me know what your kid (or YOU) love to hate to eat.

The key is always moderation. And sometimes it's a pain to go the extra step, but if you enjoy learning new things, I can help with that step too!