Ants on a Log

Remember these from childhood? They're really easy! I've created a new label and will try to add to the "super snacks" often, because I know sometimes great snack ideas elude me! I will try to add to this category often. This is one of my favorites. It's fun, it's easy, it's fairly healthy (OK, the peanut butter is questionable, but all things considered I'd say it's not too bad).

So completely simple that my 2 year old Bugs helped me make them. Simply wash celery and cut into 3-4" pieces, fill the crevices with peanut butter (or whatever nut butter you have on hand), and top with ants, I mean raisins. In this picture Bugs is topping the "logs" for me.

And for Roo, since she is too young for peanut butter, I give her whole raisins when we have ants on a log. And some graham crackers to go with them. Yum!

Super Easy Stir Fry

Today my husband woke up at 3 with errands to run (that's pm, since he works graves). Since Bugs missed him and wanted to spend time with him, I thought it would be a good idea (ha!) to run errands together as a family. I regretted that once I realized we were finally going to be getting home at 6 and Roo's bedtime is 7, and Bug's is 8. Not much time for messing around. Especially considering I didn't have a plan for dinner yet. Oops.

Anyway, I came up with stir fry as an easy and fast dinner for tonight's meal. And it was a hit!

Bug's plate, ready to go. Okay, okay, I admit it-- the chopsticks are a prop. She didn't use them. But then again, she's only 2!

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In your rice cooker (something I feel is an essential kitchen item), put in desired amount of rice and water and set to "cook." Or I suppose you could cook your rice conventionally if you must. Follow the instructions listed on your rice's packaging.

Cut four chicken tenders or one chicken breast half into small pieces. In a large skillet or wok, heat 2 or 3 T sesame oil on medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook through stirring frequently, 3-4 minutes. Add 2 T oyster sauce and 2 T soy sauce.

Add approximately 4 cups of frozen stir fry vegetables. I use the huge bags you can buy at Costco, mainly because they have the little corn in them and Bugs loves those. Plus it's cheaper to buy them in the huge bag. Add 2 t Asian seasoning (I use Essence of Emeril) and 1 t sesame seeds. For a regular stir fry, you would continue stirring, but because these are frozen vegetables it cooks faster if you cover for a few minutes until they are cooked through.

Serve over mounds of rice.
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Feeding a very young toddler like Roo is a difficult task sometimes. They have food sensitivities and sometimes have reactions. I do think my pediatrician's suggestion to take Roo to the emergency room for a rash over her mouth, chin and eyes was a little overboard, though. DH said she was probably covering her butt and didn't want to be held liable if she told me something different and there were serious consequences. Instead I ignored that part of her advice and just gave her Benedryl, like she suggested. The rash was almost gone within a few minutes of taking the food away, washing her hands, and giving her Benedryl. As a treat for enduring the medicine, we gave her watermelon for dessert. Yum! I was hoping as a pleasant side effect of the Benedryl, she would sleep soundly for more than 1 hour at a time, but since quarter to 8 when she fell asleep, she's woken up 3 times. Whoops, make that 4 times. Gotta go!

Cheater Chicken Noodle

I admit to having cans of Campbell's Chicken Noodle in my pantry. But those are strictly reserved for those days when I personally am so sick that I can barely function, let alone make a batch of chicken noodle soup.

For all the other times that I want chicken noodle, I make it from scratch, mostly. I am a cheater, really. Ideally, one would simmer a chicken in some water with vegetables and fresh herbs to make a lovely broth, then de-bone and cut up the chicken, strain the broth, and add more fresh vegetables and herbs and homemade noodles. But I'm running a home here. I have toddlers and a husband working night shift, so the kids have to be quiet all day long. I can't slave away in the kitchen for hours.

Obviously, we have had some cooler weather lately so I've been making soups for dinner a lot. I wasn't planing on making chicken noodle yesterday until my husband woke up with a sore throat. I wasn't 100% sure what I was going to make (I was thinking about a chicken pot pie made with whole wheat pastry, something I've never done before) but with him waking up sick sealed the deal on dinner. Fortunately my cheater version of chicken noodle doesn't take all day, only about a half hour or 45 minutes start to finish, and it's not fussy so you're not spending the whole time in the kitchen slaving away over dinner.

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Begin by pouring 2- 1 quart boxes of chicken broth in a soup pot set on the stove at medium heat. Begin dicing 1-2 stalks of celery, 2 carrots, and 1 medium onion and add to the pot. Once those are added, you can season with a little salt and freshly ground pepper, add a little rosemary, thyme, and parsley (maybe a half teaspoon of each dried, a little more if you're using fresh, either fresh or dried are fine, though I usually prefer to work with fresh herbs). Once the vegetables are just starting to get tender, open up a 14.4 ounce can of chicken chunks (I told you this was cheater chicken noodle! I suppose you could use freshly cooked if you wanted to) and add it to the soup, breaking it up with a spoon as you stir it in. I get my chicken from my church's cannery, but I know they sell canned chicken in grocery stores as well. Finally, add 1 or 2 cups of egg noodles, depending on how much you like noodles. I usually go with 2 cups because my kids and my husband all love noodles. I use Country Pasta's Homemade Style Egg Pasta instead of conventional egg noodles. They have a much better bite to them and regular egg noodles simply will not do anymore. Simmer your soup until the pasta is cooked.

Serve with fresh bread or crackers. Don't expect leftovers (we never have any).

Minestrone Soup

Minestrone soup is simply a thick Italian soup made with vegetables. And it is also one of my specialties. You know it's good when your two year old says, "Mom, this is delicious!" Every morsel of food placed on Roo's tray was devoured. Bugs asked for seconds. Sweet hubby was disappointed that the girls and I ate all the leftovers so he was only able to have one serving.

This is one of those meals that I can make in a hurry when all else fails. I always keep cans of diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, kidney beans, and boxes of pasta (I typically use Barila Plus because of the added nutrition and whole grains) in the pantry, and bags of Italian vegetables in the freezer. I usually stock up with three or four bags when I buy them so I have plenty on hand for those days when I don't feel like thinking about dinner.

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Bring a pot of water with a pinch of salt to a boil. To it, add approximately 4 ounces of pasta. Cook until al dante. Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, in a soup pot on the stove set to medium, drizzle in 2 T olive oil and add 3 cloves garlic, minced (I use jarred garlic, though "real" chefs and foodies will argue that fresh tastes much better-- I can't tell the difference personally). I then sprinkle in 2 t Italian seasoning (McCormics) and a pinch of rubbed sage. Once the room starts to smell garlicky, pour in two 15 oz cans of diced tomatoes (you can use Italian style if you like) followed by two cans of water and an 8 oz can of tomato sauce. Add 1/2 t celery salt and bring to a boil. Add one bag of Italian Style frozen vegetables and bring back to a boil. Drain and rinse one 15 ounce can kidney beans and add the beans and the cooked pasta to the soup.

Serve with crusty bread and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. I like making the bread fresh and grating the cheese at the table.

Quinoa

Oh, how I love thee, quinoa. My favorite seed. One of my favorie dishes is Quinoa Tabbouleh, which I first found in the Seattle Times food section. I've made it several times for potlucks and it is always a huge hit. It is also vegetarian and gluten free, so it is sure to please almost everyone.

Except for my two year old, Bugs. "Mama, I don't like quinoa. It has un-juns in it." But at least my Roo likes it! At least, I think she likes it, based on the mess she made. Oh well, I will keep making her eat it and not offering her anything as a substitute, and eventually she'll like it.

For my version, I don't rinse the quinoa before hand. Virtually all the quinoa sold in the US is sold without the bitter coating on it. I also don't dry it out on paper towels after I've finished cooking the seeds. It is messy and takes too long. And it tastes fine without it. I also use bottled lemon juice. I'm positive fresh would be much tastier, but frankly I'm not a gourmet cook and I don't have that kind of time, so bottled will do just fine. I do grow a few herbs, and one of the herbs I grow is mint, so I use that fresh from the garden. Currently that is the only garden herb I have available, but eventually I'm going to have cilantro and parsley as well. Yum!

When serving to Roo, I take out the toasted pine nuts, since they are a choking hazard for infants. I give her a bowl and a spoon and let her go at it. For clean up, I have found that letting it sit on the floor a while helps make clean up so much easier. I know, sometimes it's hard to let a mess just sit there, but it is nearly impossible to sweep up moist quinoa.

Quinoa is a South American seed grown in the Andes, and has been a staple there for thousands of years. It is highly nutritious, being high in protein, with almost all the amino acids that one needs in a healthy diet. It's also high in magnesium and iron, and a good source of fiber. It is fast and simple to prepare, and can be prepared in a variety of ways. You can cook it as you would rice (2 cups liquid to one cup quinoa, and it should soak up all the liquid after about 15 minutes of simmering), grind it into flour, or even sprouted to make it even more nutritious.

Tacos... a simple and tasty treat

The thing that I love about tacos is there are so many options. What type of meat, if you're going to use it at all, the shell, the fillings... it can be as elaborate or as simple as you want it to be.

Tonight's tacos started out as a desperate search for an easy dinner that wasn't going to take too long. Well, I ended up going slightly overboard (again) and I ended up with a gourmet taco that was loved by all, even my picky toddler.

For the filling, we had two options tonight: venison and black beans with tomatoes. To top them, we had cheddar cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, green onions, salsa (my favorite is Salsa So Fresh), and sour cream. Our shells tonight were corn tortillas, but not the kind that you buy prefolded and crunchy. More like the kind you get at a taco stand.

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Meat filling:

Take one pound ground meat, whatever you have on hand. Tonight I used venison, since I'm married to a sportsman. If you're using a very low fat meat like I did, you may want to add a little olive oil.

Brown the meat on medium to medium high. Add 1/4 cup or one packet taco seasoning (I used McCormick, which I buy in bulk at Costco) and 3/4 cup water and simmer until the water is gone.

That was easy! My mom has a better taco meat recipe, but this one is so easy and simple that I usually make it in lieu of my mom's taco meat!

Black beans and tomatoes:

Rinse and drain one can black beans and put in a 2 quart saucepan.

Add to that one can diced tomatoes. Set the stove to medium heat.

Add one teaspoon cumin and one teaspoon ground coriander. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and a few grinds of black pepper, to taste.

Bring to a simmer.

Preparing taco shells:

My husband loves corn tortillas, so that's what I usually get, although I sometimes get flour for my daughters. I still buy them prepackaged, but I'm hoping to learn to make them soon so I can start making my own from whole grains.

Flour tortillas are easy: Just microwave for about 30 seconds still in the plastic wrapping. Comes out perfect every time.

Corn tortillas require a little more effort, at least from my husband's point of view. He likes them warmed on the stove in a little oil. I just heat about 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a saute pan on medium heat. When the oil is warmed, I add the tortillas, one at a time, giving them about a minute or less on each side. I then place them on a paper towel and serve immediately.

Favorite fast & easy lunch-- Dressed Up Mac & Cheese

"MOM! I want mac and cheese!" Every day when I ask Bugs what she wants for lunch, it's mac and cheese. Every. Single. Day. Needless to say, Mom gets a little tired of mac and cheese. Not only that, it's not terribly nutritious. So today, we compromised. OK, you can't really compromise with a 2 year old. When I told her we were adding vegetables, she freaked out. "I don't like veg-a-bowls. I don't want it!" I told her she could pick them out, but her sister liked vegetables so I was going to add them. She did pick some of them out, but most of them she didn't notice or forgot that she was supposed to be mad about eating veg-a-bowls. How sneaky of me!

To make this super easy lunch, you just need a box of your favorite macaroni and cheese, 1/3 bag of mixed vegetables, and a protein of your choice. I have Annie's macaroni and cheese, which I prefer because it uses organic ingredients and I understand all the words on the ingredients list, plus it uses less butter so it's slightly less bad for you. I also used a leftover smoked sausage cut into bits for the protein. You could also use lunchmeat, tofu, hotdogs, leftover cut up chicken, or whatever else you have on hand.

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Begin by boiling 6 cups of water, with a pinch of salt, and begin making the macaroni noodles according to the instructions on the box. When there are about 3 or 4 minutes remaining in the cooking time, add the frozen vegetables and the protein, cut into bite sized pieces. Alternatively, you can cook the protein or the vegetables in the microwave.

When the noodles are done, drain them in a colander.

At this point, I scoop out some noodles and vegetables for my one year old, Roo, and let it cool off for a minute.

Now make the macaroni and cheese according to the instructions.

Serve with fruit on the side.