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Asparagus, Steak, Spinach & Potato dinner ©2010 MyKidsReallyEatThis.com
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Ok, now I know why my asparagus is mushy. All these years of trying and giving it up. It’s the ice water I needed. Thank you.
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The great thing about learning to cook vegetables this way— blanch or steam while other food is cooking, shocking them in cold/ice water to stop cooking, and slowly reheating when it’s time to serve— gives you perfect, just-done vegetables everytime. You don’t need to try to time the vegetables to be finished at the same time as other longer cooking items, they’re cooking when you have the time and finished when you’re ready to eat. The vegetables retain color, crispness (yet tenderness), flavor and nutrients too.
At Thanksgiving I may cook my string beans the day before when I make the cranberry sauce and apple pie. One less item to make during the rush of getting it ALL done.
©2010 MyKidsReallyEatThis.com
Hey Vanessa – your blog is great! I also give the kids the Stoneyfield Organic “Yokids Squeezers” . They are so much better than those awful gogurts. They also love the Dannon Dan Active Vanilla yogurt drinks – they do have a little sugar in them but again so much better than the yogurt drinks marketed to kids. – Josie.
Thanks Josie! It’s also amazing how the better stuff gets squeezed off the shelves by the unhealthier choices. There are so many different varieties of gogurts in all crazy colors and with cartoon characters on them. It’s such a struggle sometimes when I shop with the kids because they always want the better marketed ones. I too don’t mind sugar in some things, as long as over the period of a day it’s not too much sugar (holidays, birthdays excluded!).
Asparagus, Steak, Salad
We don’t eat much beef (or red meat), but every once in a while we’ll have a steak or beef chili. I bought a New England farmed top sirloin from Whole Foods and cooked it simply on the grill the other night. Though my husband would never buy that type of steak (he’s a ribeye fan) he would approve of my cooking method. I just put some sea salt and pepper on the steak before it went over the hot coals (he prefers charcoal to gas grills). Just make sure you slice it thinly so it’s not too tough. It smelled so good our local raccoon came looking for dinner with his nose up in the air. 
I served it with asparagus, organic baby spinach and organic red potatoes. “Conventional” asparagus is considered “clean” in terms of pesticide contamination. If you’re wondering which vegetables and fruits to buy organic over conventional there are lists of those considered “clean” and those you should always buy organic (like I recently got reminded that strawberries contaminated with pesticides , which we eat almost daily, have been linked to ADHD among other problems). I had been buying the cheaper conventionally grown strawberries because the price was right, but now I think the price I have to pay is greater in the long run.
Understand, I didn’t grow up with asparagus because my mother said she didn’t have an “asparagus cooker” and it was expensive. Asparagus is often on sale in spring and you certainly don’t need a specialized cooker. Just another thing to clutter your cabinets, an asparagus cooker is a tall, narrow pot with a basket where the asparagus rests vertically in the hot water. Another wonderful trick I learned from my husband… cook in a sauté pan filled with water where the asparagus lies horizontally. 
I take the whole bunch in its rubber band and chop off the bottom third of the stalk before I put it in the boiling water. That is the woody part and what most people complain about. You can save it for asparagus soup or just compost it if you’re like me. Just need to lightly boil the asparagus for a few minutes until tender (you can always taste test one), take off heat, and cold shock with ice water. 
It’s one veggie that needs to be cooled completely to stop cooking. No one likes mushy vegetables. Wish someone would tell/teach that to the cooks at the elementary school. Once you’re ready to serve everything, reheat in a little butter, salt and pepper (once again, notice the pattern).
Tonight my middle son, who normally says, “I don’t want that” at every dinner, asked for more salad. He’d eaten all his spinach, some of his brown rice, most of his bool kogi, and wanted MORE salad!! He even asked his brothers if they would give up some of their salad. No, they wouldn’t share! I give several raw veggies a day and at least 3 salads per week, but it’s not always the favorite thing, not always first, or not always finished. But today, all three ate all their salad (mixed CSA greens, organic Romaine, cilantro, Brianna’s vinaigrette) and wanted more! Love that!
When we were at a PTA pasta dinner not one of them ate the salad but had ziti and meatballs or pizza and ice creams for dessert. I kept thinking if anyone sees them, “Really my kids do really eat the foods I blog about.” Just not often when we’re out. That’s why it’s so important to give them the good foods at home.
©2010 MyKidsReallyEatThis.com
Choices…
The dilemma these days is not the dearth of choices but glut. From organic to all natural, from processed to ready-made, from junk to health foods, kid-friendly to just what your family always bought. The book by Michael Pollan In Defense of Food really resonated with me and I have bought it for family and friends. His latest Food Rules gives a guide of what to eat and how. Part of the beauty of these books is that it brings food back to where it should be in our consciousness… something we need to think about but not obsess over. His motto “Eat Food, Not Too Much, Mostly Plants” is such a practical guideline. I try to buy organic and local when possible, but sometimes it doesn’t happen. I limit my processed food purchases but I’m not perfect and there are a few things in my cupboard that I know shouldn’t be there. Again, it’s a matter of balancing the “good” over the “bad” or just “better” over “worse”.
One area in which there are way too many choices is breakfast cereal. Some of my friends are more shocked when they see or hear that my kids eat Chocolate Cheerios than that they eat kale. Ok, so I refuse to buy Fruit Loops, Lucky Charms or Fruity Pebbles cereals but I do allow an occasional processed cereal. I base these decisions on sugar content, artificial colors and flavors, and preservatives. The Chocolate Cheerios don’t have as much junk in them as other flavored cereals. I would prefer them to eat oatmeal daily, but it’s not always possible in the morning rush.
A friend also noticed the high sugar content of the Brown Cow Whole Milk Cherry Vanilla yogurt I so enjoy. So, I called Brown Cow and was told that the sugar content is derived from three major components- one half from the milk itself, one quarter from the flavorings (whole fruits) and one quarter from sweeteners (sugar cane, maple and honey). They don’t use fillers or thickeners (modified corn starch, etc) or preservatives. They use real whole milk (the cream is on the top), real whole fruits, maple syrup and honey. So the choice isn’t always about how much sugar, but which sugar is better as well as the other ingredients. If you read the ingredient list of some other yogurts you’ll be amazed at the unrecognizable contents. And why on Earth has yogurt been turned into another junk food with toppings like Oreos and M&Ms or the Trix and Shrek colored stuff?
My kids also love the Maple and Vanilla (low-fat) Brown Cow yogurts. Since it’s not always available where I regularly shop, I do buy Stoneyfield or Trader Joe’s yogurts. They also love when I “make” frozen yogurt. I take Stoneyfield Organic “Yokids Squeezers” (in the tubes) and freeze, then peel off the top part of the packaging, wrap in a paper towel and serve as nice cool treat.
Just try to choose wisely for their health and wallet and your sanity! Put as many fresh, whole foods in their diet and limit the processed and overly sugared and salty foods. Don’t beat yourself up over all the choices.
©2010 MyKidsReallyEatThis.com
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So hot yesterday we joined friends to swim and picnic at a local park.
It would have been easy to leave your house and go home to throw some chicken nuggets (Bell and Evans) into the oven and call it a day. I was inspired after talking to you and reading your blog to saute some organic corn, squash and organic chicken sausage into a pan and cook in about 2T canola oil. Amanda and Anna Renee ate it up! After gagging Zac traded a tomato and chicken for the meal I prepared. But still, victory was ours tonight. Thanks, Vanessa
Wow! Awesome! So happy I can inspire you!
Made the Moroccan Chicken last night. Katy (almost 4 yrs. old) whined and whined about trying it, but finally did and, much to my surprise, liked it. She didn’t eat the vegetables and only ate a little of the rest, but for her to try ANYTHING new is a feat, so I was very happy. Great blog V. Nice going.
Great! Which vegetable did you use? I find eggplant can sometimes be too bitter for most kids, that’s why I made it with zucchini.
Keep it up and she’ll probably surprise you what she’ll eat. As I’ve said, my middle son starts almost every dinner with “I don’t want that” or “I don’t like that” but then immediately proceeds to eat and enjoy what I’ve served.
Quick Meal- Pasta with Seafood & Micro-Greens
It was one of those days around here, which is pretty often, when dinner time was upon us already and nothing was on the stove, in the oven or on the grill. So, what’s fast? Pasta! I had remembered earlier that we had a half package each of frozen large shrimp (uncooked) and Langostinos (cooked) and we could make a pasta with them. Langostinos are a crustacean, like crayfish, just about 2 inches long. I got these ones from Trader Joe’s.
We took the frozen packages out and thawed them in 2 separate bowls of cold water. Put some water on to boil the pasta. Chopped a couple of cloves of garlic, one shallot and 1/4 red onion (because that’s what we had in the house). Sautéed them all in olive oil for a few minutes and added chopped organic white mushrooms (I tend to buy certain things organic and some conventional) a pat of butter, sea salt and fresh ground pepper. After a few minutes added some white wine (please use what you’d actually drink and don’t ever buy “cooking wine” it would leave the same awful flavor in your food as in a glass)— about 1/4-1/2 cup and some more olive oil. Added the drained shrimp that was cut into half (smaller bites) and took off the heat while the pasta is cooking. Once it’s finished and drained, added the pasta to the garlic, mushroom, shrimp mix, stirred in the Langostinos, package of baby organic spinach and 3/4 package of micro-greens and put back on heat stirring regularly for about a minute or two. No need to really “cook” the vegetables or Langostinos, just heat them. All done! It was less than half an hour in total.
The micro-greens I got from Trader Joe’s too (one of my favorite stores) and are the sprouts of Red Russian Kale, Red Cabbage, Purple Kohlrabi, Purple Radish and Beet Greens. They are intensely flavored and only about an inch long- root and all. Some of these ones are quite peppery too. Micro-greens are really rich in nutrients too. Because of their intensity, you don’t need other herbs with this dish, but you wouldn’t go wrong with some fresh chopped basil.
We hadn’t done this dish as such before, so I wasn’t sure how the kids would react except I knew that my middle son would whine, “I don’t want that” per most every dinner. Today he added, “I told you I wanted just plain pasta with butter. Didn’t you remember that?” Of course I did, I just ignored it. My kids get plain pasta with butter often when we go out to eat. It’s funny because we don’t usually have the things listed on the kids’ menu at home I let them order from it out. It’s a treat we’re out, so I let them have a treat of chicken nuggets or plain pasta with butter! The funny thing is as soon as the whine is out of the mouth, the fork is in. He ate it all and really enjoyed it. This was also one of the cases where he said he didn’t like mushrooms unless they were in a cream sauce, so I had him try it… he ate the rest without complaint. 
I’m sure some kids would love to eat cookies, candy and ice cream instead of all the good foods but as parents we know they wouldn’t survive on a diet like that. Well, they need the nutrients in vegetables and fruits and if they’re served regularly they will eat them. We got a taste for them at some point, so will they. Kids have to be introduced to them to understand they should be eating them every day. There won’t be the struggle some have over just a few veggies if they just have them in front of the kids every day. And when there are so many quick (and yummy) ways to do it, it becomes easier for all involved.
©2010 MyKidsReallyEatThis.com
Mahi-Mahi with Mango Salsa
Today I was at Whole Foods and got so many wonderful fresh foods. I chose the Mahi Mahi for dinner and picked up a mango to make a salsa to go with it. Years ago, before kids, we used to shop regularly at Hay Day (now Balducci’s) and once got their tropical fruit salsa to go with Red Snapper. Since then we’ve been making different combinations of fruit salsas for certain fish. I love the firm sweet-tartness of mangos, but sometimes we add cantaloupe, honeydew and /or pineapple. With a little red onion, cilantro (try mint if you hate cilantro), lime juice, orange juice, hot pepper (habanero goes nicely with fruit, but be careful as they can be extremely hot. Use a surgical glove as I previously suggested so you don’t burn your eyes later if you forget you’ve got hot pepper juice on your fingers!), it makes such a great topping for fish, pork or chicken. We add the hot peppers last, so that we can separate some for the kids, then have ours as hot as we’d like. Prepare salsa before the fish or vegetables as it should sit in juices and pepper — for the flavors to come out. Basmati Rice, green beans and beet greens rounded out the meal.
I try to always buy my beets with the greens attached, but they don’t always sell them that way unless they’re really fresh. I lop the greens off the top the day I purchase them but the roots (beets) can stay another day or two. Chop the greens with stalks attached into one inch strips and steam until wilted. You can do this anytime during the meal preparation, as you will reheat when it’s time to serve. You also probably want to leave the leafless stalk for a juicer if you have one (unfortunately right now I don’t). Once you are ready to serve, just reheat in sauté pan with pat of butter, pinch of sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. (You’ll see a pattern here with veggie preparation). Beet greens are similar in texture and color to chard but less minerally and sweeter. My kids really love them.
For the Mahi-Mahi preparation: cut into approximately 5-6 oz size portions, discarding any bloodline (the dark colored section in the middle of the filet), then season with sea salt and pepper. On high in a sauté pan get canola oil (or other mild vegetable oil) hot then add the Mahi-Mahi and reduce heat to med-high. Turn over when fish is nice and golden brown. Reduce heat further to med-low so it’s not getting blackened, but cooking through. It is a bit messy with the splatters, but it only takes a few minutes to cook this way. If you are cooking rice, time the rice and when you see there’s 8 minutes left, it’s a perfect time to cook the fish.
©2010 MyKidsReallyEatThis.com
