Thank you! Good luck. Keep on trying! Don’t give up!
i love your blog.. i have 2 kids and they re picky eater… so i’l try to make some of u’re recipes, hopefully it works for them! look good and yummy too… keep it up! =)
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What to do with all these tomatoes!
When my left over uncooked tuna wasn’t smelling fresh I had to come up with another last minute dinner plan. I was going to cook an Indian Tomato Sauce recipe I saw in Mark Bittman’s, How to Cook Everything, but realized I didn’t have 2 key ingredients. Yikes, the dinner hour was fast approaching and I still was unsure of what to cook. I had so many ideas but too little time and not always all the ingredients. But what I did have was an overabundance of tomatoes (in different colors and sizes) so I knew I wanted to do something with them. Since I had so many, I thought I could prep some for cooking before they get bad, so I removed the skins and seeds then crushed them. 
An easy way of removing tomato skins is to blanch them for a minute in boiling water. First slit the skin then pop into the water. Remove and place in ice bath. Once cool enough to handle, take a paring knife and peel the skin off… it’ll come right off. You’re not cooking the tomatoes, just softening the skin so it peels off like paper. After cutting out the center core around where the stem base meets the tomato, I put them in a sieve and removed the meat; letting the juices drip into a bowl beneath. I push remaining juice/pulp through the sieve with a spatula and put all the meat into the bowl with juices. Now you can finish with a potato masher or an immersion blender to crush or purée the tomatoes, I used a masher.
Finally after much contemplation I decided on a pasta with tomatoes, chickpeas and beet greens. I had steamed the beet greens a couple of days ahead because they were starting to wilt and I didn’t want to miss their peak freshness. I did this with kale and bok choy too. Just steam or boil and cool immediately when just done. Put in fridge and when you’re ready for dinner, this can come out of the fridge, plopped into a pan and reheated with desired seasoning. You can freeze vegetables this way too.
Pasta with Tomatoes, Chickpeas and Beet Greens
- 1 can chickpeas (or equivalent)
- 1 bunch of beet greens
- 3-4 tomatoes- peeled, seeded and chopped or crushed
- 1 shallot- chopped
- 2 garlic cloves- minced
- Handful of fresh basil- chopped
- Handful of fresh parsley- chopped
- Olive oil
Prepare pasta according to directions. Prep beet greens— clean, remove stems, cut into 1 inch wide strips and either steam or keep raw. Sauté garlic and shallot in olive oil. Mix in crushed tomatoes, chickpeas and beet greens. If the beet greens are raw, cover and steam for a couple of minutes. 
Add herbs. Cook for 5 minutes. Mix together with pasta. Salt and Pepper to taste. Add parmesan cheese if you wish.
I used farfalle (bowtie pasta) that my youngest picked out at the supermarket. On the side I gave them corn on the cob. This can be taken off the cob and put into pasta as well.
I wasn’t sure how they’d like it. My 3 year old didn’t want to eat the chickpeas even though he loves hummus and I explained that’s what it’s made from. The middle son whined and said he wasn’t going to eat it but proceeded to eat it anyway. My 8 year old loved it. 
If you notice that’s sort of the pattern with our family. It shows that persevering will give the intended results (not all of the time, but usually). Keep giving it to them even when they complain or say they won’t eat it. Have them try it and eventually the may eat it and love it too!
Fun with sushi
My two eldest LOVE sushi but I haven’t convinced my youngest yet to give it a real try even though he will eat wasabi rice crackers and anything with seaweed/nori. Trader Joe’s has some dried Nori chips that are pretty yummy but don’t come close to their discontinued Tempura Nori & Wasabi chips. We used to make them into an appetizer with sushi-grade tuna and wasabi mayo; yum. 
The other night we made homemade sushi with our new sushi mat. We set up a sushi bar on our kitchen island. Tuna, rice, nori, avocado, cucumber, carrots, wasabi tobiko, pickled ginger, scallions, wasabi and tamari soy sauce made up our ingredient list. The sushi rice was prepared according to instructions with rice wine vinegar, sugar and salt. (For 1 cup rice: 1/4 vinegar, 1 Tbsp sugar, 1 tsp salt.) The vegetables were mostly julienne except the avocado. Though, next time it should be thinner for ease of rolling. 
We made several different rolls with various ingredients depending on kids’ preferences. They each had their own soy sauce with or without wasabi mixed in. 
My youngest had a bowl of rice, nori sheets, cucumber and carrots. At least he got a nutritious dinner and with all the protein we eat, he didn’t miss out. 
It was a great, fun dinner to make together. We still have to practice getting the rolls tight enough, but the kids don’t care. 
Braised Chicken with Tomatoes, Zucchini and Mushrooms
Thankfully I write this in Word first. Tumblr didn’t actually post my entire post with photos and all!
Continuing on a cheap dinner theme, I bought 4 Springer Mountain chicken thighs on sale for under $3. They aren’t perfect, but fairly good chickens- no antibiotics and humanely treated. I wish they were outside getting greens and bugs, like I said, they aren’t perfect.
Anyway, I decided on a dreary summer day that stewing or braising the chicken in a tomato based sauce would be perfect. My youngest had picked out wagon wheel-shaped pasta, so I thought this would go well with it. Since I still had some ratatouille left I knew it would go great with the chicken, but how to have it so all the kids would eat it… I added only about 1/2 cup full toward the end. It added a wonderful subtle smokiness to the dish. So, also using a CSA zucchini I’d forgotten that I had put in the fruit drawer since I had no more room elsewhere in my fridge and mushrooms I bought, I made a wonderful meal that everyone loved. And since all of this was made in one pot (besides boiling the pasta), it was an easy clean-up. 
Chicken Zucchini and Mushrooms
4 Chicken thighs (I used with skin & bones on)
1 large (or 2 small) zucchini- sliced
1 cup shiitake and crimini mushrooms- destemmed and sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 shallot (or 1/2 white/yellow onion), minced
1/3 cup white wine
1 tsp chicken base (Knorr Roasted Chicken Base)
1/4 cup water
2 cups chopped tomatoes
2 Tbsp fresh thyme- chopped
1 Tbsp parsley- chopped
olive oil
salt and pepper
Optional: I added 1/2 cup of grilled vegetable ratatouille that I had left over.
Heat olive oil in hot pan, brown the chicken (seasoned with salt and pepper) skin side down first for about 4-5 minutes each side. Set aside. Pour off excess fat. 
Sauté shallot, garlic and mushrooms (if necessary add a little more olive oil) over medium high heat and set aside when done (not brown). Keep stove on med-high and pour wine into pan and let boil off for a minute. Scrape sides of pan to get chicken bits and then add chicken base and water. 
Stir well. Add chopped tomatoes, herbs, shallots and garlic. Add chicken so that skin side is down, cover with sauce and salt and pepper to taste. 
Cover pan and reduce heat. Let simmer for 30 minutes, giving it an occasional stir. Add zucchini and mushrooms (and ratatouille if you have it) Cover. 
Simmer another 10-15 minutes. You can either take chicken off the bones or leave whole.
Serve with pasta or rice. We took ours off the bones (since there were 4 pieces but 5 people) and also added the pasta to the pan. 
This can be done with various different vegetables and without mushrooms. It’s very delicious the next day too! My middle son whined so long that he didn’t want it. I even tried to record him… he loved it and finished it without fuss. 
They all did! 
Hahaha nice tumblr!! found you on the recommended page, followed and recommended! Keep up the WICKED work, need to see more of your updates. just joined this site a couple days ago.. wheww! Care to check out my photography? I really want to know what you think.. your posts are orgasmic heha! -Robin :-)
Thank you Robin!
Great photography!
What do you think about the Fat Acceptance movement?
I actually had to look it up, so I had no “thoughts” previously about it. This blog isn’t about being thin… or fat, it’s about feeding children good food so that they will be healthy.
Hey (: I’m Richie. I had a blog called HellYeahFood which I deleted, but now I am back & I was wondering If maybe you could tell people about my blog (: That would be wonderful Please reply back at (http://hellyeahfood.tumblr.com/ask) – Richie.
Richie,
Best of luck!
I’ll be answering this here so people can go to your site.
V
It’s late, but if you would be so kind… recommend this blog for the directory. Thanks
Link
Cheap Dinner
If you look over most of my recipes and food posts you might think that there aren’t many bargain foods in there. One of our national tragedies is that junk food is cheaper to buy than healthier foods. It can be daunting to live up to a pesticide-free natural diet when organic fruits and veggies and hormone-free, humanely treated dairy and meats are so expensive. I probably spend a larger ratio of our income on food than many others because I feel the cost in my children’s health is greater if I try to always buy the cheapest foods.
I save by making my own foods, bagging my own snacks, making cookies and breads, shopping at Target, Costco and Trader Joe’s for processed foods and some whole food ingredients (and buying them on sale) and belonging to a Community Supported Agriculture shared harvest. It’s amazing how much you can save if you don’t buy the convenient snack or single serving sizes. Since I try to be environmentally conscious I buy reusable sandwich and snack containers and water bottles; this also saves money over time. I know first-hand how tough these times are economically for many people but for now I will scrimp on clothes and stuff instead of food.
This dinner is actually cheap, quick and healthy. (Not perfect as I used pork that’s conventionally farmed/processed). I served with brown rice pilaf, green beans and my ratatouille I made the day before (it tastes better the next day anyway). The ratatouille and green beans were from the CSA which is paid twice yearly for the whole season of veggies/fruits/flowers and worked out to be cheaper than buying each time— especially since it’s a bountiful year. The thin pork chops cost under $4 for 8 pieces. Brown rice pilaf was less than $2 for the box. So for a family of 5 we ate very well for around $2 each. We had left-overs for a lunch too.
Panko Crusted Thin-cut Pork Chops (boneless)
3 bowls large enough for pork chop to lie in.
One with 1/2 cup flour seasoned with salt and pepper; one with an egg and 1/4 cup milk whisked together; and one with panko bread (Japanese) crumbs.
Dip pork chop into flour then egg mixture then panko; covering both sides.
Get pan hot then add oil (we used sunflower oil since it’s got a high-heat point and won’t smoke like some other oils/butter).
Place enough chops in the very hot oil— don’t crowd pan; do in more than one batch if necessary.
Turn after about two minutes. Cook until it is just browned.
Serve immediately.
To help with the timing, prepare rice and veggies first. Have cool veggies ready to reheat and when the rice has 5 minutes left you can start cooking the pork. The boys all loved the pork, rice and beans. We only served the ratatouille to our eldest since we’d tried the night before and youngest two didn’t want/like it.
Note on the milk… it’s from a local farm and you might notice it looks yellowish. The cows are grass-fed which gives their milk a creamy yellow appearance. It’s also non-homogenized which means fat and skim milk separate- the molecules aren’t bound together unnaturally and can be easier to digest for some.
Food and parenting
Several things as a parent I wish to accomplish when it comes to food. Most importantly getting my children to eat healthily so that they will be healthy and making sure they have a healthy relationship with food— no hang-ups, eating disorders or dieting fads. Sometimes in order to do the latter the former must be set aside. Finally, learning to be adventurous with foods is part of not having neuroses but also so they can go anywhere in the world and always find food to eat.
Occasionally they are allowed candy, ice cream, popsicles, soda, sugary cereal, cookies, cakes, fries, chicken nuggets, pizza, etc. But I truly try to see that it’s only on occasion. We don’t have dessert every night and they must finish dinner (to my satisfaction— like all the veggies and most of the protein) to get it. I prefer to give them homemade desserts or those that are perishable over highly processed packaged sweets. We don’t go to fast food restaurants often- but when we do I order one medium fries for everyone (including me) to share and they get milk (regular not chocolate) and whatever fruit is available. When they have soda it’s one 12 oz bottle or can shared between the three of them. I would rather them eat ice cream (real, natural, creamy ice cream) than any other “frozen confectionary” because I don’t fear the sugar or fat, but the ingredients that would be foreign to my grandmother. I’d rather make my own popsicles than buy them because I dislike artificial colors and many preservatives over other ingredients. 
I feel always denying my children the unhealthy stuff could set them up for disaster later on. I remember going to a friend’s house when I was little and stuffing as many Twinkies and Yankee Doodles into my mouth during the visit as was possible because I wasn’t allowed them. Luckily I found balance. I want my kids to know that a little of this stuff probably won’t do much harm, but a lot of it will.
I also believe that by opening my children up to many different foods will make it easier to travel in the future. At 16 I went off on my own to the other side of the world. Traveling is a huge love of mine, that I wish to pass down to my kids. If one is unable to be adventurous with foods it can limit one’s enjoyment when faced with unfamiliar foods and cultures.
So you will notice this blog is mainly about cooking and feeding my kids healthful foods, I do sometimes allow them some junk. But how I do it and how often helps maintain the healthier lifestyle that I want my kids to emulate.
