ChowBaby

A few days ago, while still recovering for our colds, Mike and I took Isaac to the NYC transit museum for a much needed outing. By the time we returned home, I was pooped. I opened the fridge hoping to find a complete leftover meal and instead found about 2/3 of a rotisserie chicken (New Yorkers: Fresh Direct sells tasty roasted antibiotic free chickens). I hit the pantry and pulled a can of chickpeas and a container of Maya Kaimal curry sauce. (As you can tell by the frequency with which Michelle and I mention these all natural sauces, they are a lifesaver that keep me from defaulting to mac-n-cheese every time I'm super short on time.) Next stop, the freezer for 1 box of frozen spinach. Within 15 minutes (total prep and cooking time), a well-rounded meal, topped with a little yogurt, was on the table.

Could dinner have been better had I sauteed some fresh garlic and ginger first? Or added a little cilantro and lime juice? Sure. Was it necessary? Nope. Not on this night. That was the beauty of it. Dinner was so easy, in fact, that I got to thinking: what else could I make with 1 store bought rotisserie (or leftover) chicken, 1 box of frozen spinach, 1 can of beans, and some pantry staples?

Here's what I came up with. (A little jaunt around the globe!) I didn't bother with with exact measurements--you can play with each "recipe" based on taste and also consistency (e.g., you may want a soupier dish if serving with noodles, a thicker sauce if serving plain or with rice). Some of these "recipes" will take longer than 15 minutes to cook down the sauce (since they don't call for pre-made sauces like the curry one I used the other night). I also gave some ideas of other ingredients you can add if you feel like getting fancier. Would love to hear your ideas, too.

GREEK style with chickpeas and avgolemono (egg-lemon) sauce
1. Put some organic chicken broth over medium heat. The amount of broth depends on what consistency you want. One whole box (32 oz) or more will make a soup (to which you can add orzo or rice). Just a little less will make a stew-like meal. A whole lot less will make just enough egg-lemon sauce to coat your chicken, chickpeas, and spinach.

2. Meanwhile, in a separate pan, saute chickpeas and shredded chicken in a little olive oil. Add thawed & drained spinach. Set aside once all 3 ingredients are well mixed and excess water from spinach is cooked off.

3. Beat 2 eggs until they begin to froth. Continue beating while slowly adding juice of 2 lemons. When the mixture is very frothy, slowly add some hot broth. The point here is to slowly raise the temperature of the egg/lemon mixture so that it won't curdle (ie, the egg won't cook) when you add it to the rest of the hot broth.

4. Once your frothy egg-lemon mixture is hot, bring all of the elements (egg-lemon sauce, any remaining broth, chicken/chickpea/spinach) together. Season with salt and pepper.

you can also add...frozen peas, sauteed onions, fresh dill
serve with...orzo, rice, couscous, top with a dollop of yogurt

FRENCH style with white beans (inspired by cassoulet)
1. Saute onions and garlic in olive oil. Add fresh or dried thyme or herbs de provence.

2. Add white beans, shredded chicken, and thawed & drained spinach. Cook until excess water from spinach is cooked off.

3. Add a bit of red wine or balsamic vinegar and a can of whole peeled tomatoes, breaking each one up with your hands. The amount of juice you include depends on the consistency you want to achieve. (If you want something even soupier than what you can achieve by adding the whole can of tomatoes and juice, add chicken broth.)

4. Cook down until the sauce thickens as much as you'd like. Season with salt and pepper.

you can also add...sauteed carrots and/or celery, sage, rosemary, sausage
serve with...couscous, egg noodles, rice, top with breadcrumbs

TEX-MEX style with pinto or black beans
1. Saute onions and garlic in a neutral oil. Add cumin, a little chile powder, and a chopped jalapeno (if you want a little spice).

2. Add an all-natural enchilada sauce or a can of tomato puree. If using tomato puree, you may need to add a little broth and additional spices, and cook down until the thickness of an enchilada sauce.

3. In a separate pan, saute beans, shredded chicken, and thawed & drained spinach in oil. Cook until all ingredients are well combined and any excess water from spinach is cooked off. 

4. Add sauce to chicken, beans, and spinach. Season with salt and pepper.

you can also add...unsweetened cocoa powder (add at the same time as cumin and other dry spices for a depth of flavor), frozen or canned corn, sauteed peppers, fresh lime juice
serve with...tortillas, rice, lime wedges, salsa/pico de gallo, top with a dollop of sour cream and/or shredded cheese

ITALIAN style with white beans (inspired by chicken cacciatore)
1. Saute onions and garlic in olive oil. Add fresh or dried rosemary and/or oregano.

2. Add white beans, shredded chicken, and thawed & drained spinach. Cook until excess water from spinach is cooked off.

3. Add white wine and simmer a few minutes.

4. Add a can of diced tomatoes and juices. Cook down to desired consistency.

5. Season with salt and pepper and a final drizzle of olive oil.

you can also add...sauteed mushrooms, olives, capers, frozen peas
serve with...polenta, pasta, noodles, rice, top with grated cheese

MIDDLE EASTERN style with chickpeas and yogurt sauce
1. Saute (a bunch of) garlic in olive oil. Add a lot of fresh or dried mint, yogurt (the thick greek kind will work best), and fresh lemon juice.

2. In a separate pan, saute chickpeas, shredded chicken, and thawed & well drained spinach in olive oil. Cook until excess water from spinach is cooked off.

3. Add yogurt sauce to chicken. Season with salt and pepper.

you can also add...bits of pita chips, cubed cucumber (at the very end), white wine (add to chicken, spinach and chickpeas, cooking off before adding yogurt sauce)
serve with...couscous, rice/pilaf, top with slivered almonds

and, of course, you can always just toss cooked penne or other cut pasta with the beans (chickpeas and white beans would both work well), spinach, and chicken in olive oil and a little broth (or a can of all-natural jarred sauce, if you can find one you like), and top the whole shebang with grated cheese. yum.

-S

related posts: talking turkey with you chickens (plus turkey paprikash for 10+ mos)

go ahead. do a google image search for "peanut butter and jelly" and check out the results. mostly white bread, but sometimes wheat. mostly creamy peanut butter, but sometimes chunky. the one thing that's ALWAYS the same: purple colored jam.

i take this as proof that i'm not alone in defaulting to jams of purple and dark red color. so maybe my revelation about orange colored jams will be useful to others with messy eating toddlers, too--they don't stain! i'm not telling you to ditch grandma's homemade strawberry rhubarb preserves, but i am suggesting that clean-up--or at least laundry--will be easier if you feed little justin-bobby orange, peach, or apricot jam.

-S

this made me laugh. thought it was worth sharing for those of you who don't subscribe to daily candy:

http://www.batterblaster.com

the branding on this is hysterical--and done to a tee! as for the product, i'm happy to try an easy way to whip up organic pancakes as a treat. (although every time i feed isaac pancakes, i feel a little more bad that he's yet to taste maple syrup! we still use a drizzle of yogurt or apple sauce. seems to satisfy him just fine, so i'm sticking with it. it's just funny considering how much *i* love syrup!)

whenever i actually take time to make pancakes, i make a whole bunch extra so that i can freeze them (place parchment between flapjacks and stack in a freezer storage bag--they microwave beautifully after that). this might just make my big batch even easier to cook... or maybe i'll stop worry about making a huge batch at all with a great short cut like this! i'll report back after the family taste test!

-S

i thought i'd never have to say my son is a picky eater. after all,
food, in all its many splendored varieties, may just be my greatest
pleasure. planting it. growing it. picking it. reading about it.
cooking it. sharing it. and, especially, eating it. no surprise i fell
hard for my husband since he's a (now retired) professional cook. and
even if i'm not the best on-the-fly savory cook, i can follow (and
even tweak) a recipe with the best of them. plus i'm a rocking good
baker.
 
anyway, i was hell-bent on having a kid with a good palate. one who
could go to any restaurant and eat off the menu (and i don't mean the
kids' menu!). one who could travel unencumbered by any special foods
from home. one who proved, once and for all, that if we feed our kids
a varied diet we'll raise kids that will eat just about anything.
 
and that was true for the first 2 years of atticus' life. spicy
curries. dark and bitter leafy greans. fennel olive breads. i admit
it. i was proud. and then, one day, out of nowhere came the cry: i
want plain! plain pasta. plain yogurt. plain chicken. plain bread.
plain rice. i was ready to kill myself. or him. what had gone wrong?
 
i did some digging and found out it's not me. some say it's biology.
evolution, in fact. this article describes that kids get picky between 2-years-old and 4- to
5-years-old because taste buds "shut down" around the time toddlers
start walking to prevent them from putting just anything in their
mouth and eating it. i also learned from one of my favorite baby food resourcs that some say it's a development issue. an opportunity for kids to
flex their independence and experiment with cause and effect (ie, how
funny it is when he says "no, yucky" and i roll my eyes and sigh).
suddenly, i didn't feel so bad.
 
so until this phase passes, what is the parent of a picky toddler to
do? don't make a big deal of it. but don't give in to it either. i
don't support, and neither do many experts, the strategy of hiding
veggies in foods your kids like (ie, hiding pureed butternut squash in
macaroni and cheese)--because kids aren't learning to appreciate the
food in question. i do, however, like the idea of continuing to offer
the foods they reject along with the foods they enjoy. and not making
a scene if they don't eat it. it helps that we cook so much at home
since we're invariably making some staples (like rice or pasta or
chicken) that he will eat. so before we plate our meals and let every
food (gasp!) touch the other, we make a special plate (like this fancy schmancy BPA-free and phthalate-free one from Skip Hop) for atticus where the foods he doesn't like remain far from the foods he does. and
sometimes, if we act over-the-top excited about how yummy the yucky
food is (but not so over-the-top that atticus gets suspicious), he'll
ask for a bite. and sometimes, just sometimes, he forgets it's yucky
and eats it all up. yum!
 
--m

 
making homemade playdough is an easy and cheap (albeit a little
messy!) way to while away a wet and windy saturday morning. the
homemade version is just as functional as the storebought variety. but
since your kid is actually making it, there's the added fun of
measuring, counting (one cup...two cups...), mixing, splashing it on
the floor, cleaning it up, mixing some more, wondering why it's so
sticky, realizing that adding more flour makes it not sticky anymore,
and so on.... until poof wallah, you (or rather, the little bean) made
playdough!
 
here are the 2 recipes i use most (plus a resource for a few others).
 
i prefer the texture of the cooked version. but if
your kid is at the independent stage where everything centers on "me
do it!" then the uncooked version works just as well. make sure
you keep the final product in a covered bowl or ziploc in the fridge
so it doesn't go bad when you aren't using it to create pirate ships
and dragons.
 
cooked playdough
1 cup water
1 cups flour
¼ cup salt
½ tablespoon of vegetable oil or olive oil
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
combine all ingredients in a bowl. transfer to a saucepan and heat
over a medium flame while stirring constantly. when the moisture has
been absorbed the playdough is done. allow it to cool (and make sure
it is cool all the way through since i find there are often hot spots
that aren't safe for little hands) and then knead until smooth.
 
uncooked playdough
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil or olive oil
1/3 cup warm water
mix flour and salt. add oil. add water. stir to combine. once the oil
has been absorbed into the mixture (it takes a minute or two,
depending on how advance a stirrer you have). knead the dough until
the mixture forms a ball. add more flour if the dough is too sticky.
 
-m

   

Click here to download:

how_squeezing_an_orange_made_m.zip (1268 KB)

oh, juice. the bane of my mama existence. and probably the topic of many posts to come.

this is from a february 2007 policy statement from the american academy of pediatrics entitled The Use and Misuse of Fruit Juice in Pediatrics:

basically, juice doesn't provide the full scope of nutritional benefits as whole fruit and it's a lot easier to feed beyond the daily recommended intake (which means a whole lot of sugar) when fruit is served in juice form.

but fighting the requests for juice sometimes feels like a never ending battle. plus, as it turns out, organic juice, at least, can be a great source of vitamin C. (check out the section A Glass of Orange Juice More Protective than Vitamin C Alone.) good to know, especially in the winter months.

this morning i managed to give isaac a small cup of freshly squeezed orange juice without having to contend with begging for more. i bought juicing oranges for mulled wine this weekend (mama juice?). i grabbed one in my pre-coffee haze and decide to make a spectacle of squeezing it "special" for isaac. it yielded almost exactly 1/3 of a cup of juice (just about 3 oz)--a perfect serving size! once i had extracted all of the juice, which took all of 2 minutes, i let him play with the orange halves. you know how we're suckers for tactile food experiences here. plus it was fun, distracted him from wanting more juice, and gave him a concrete way of seeing that the juice was "all done" (as opposed to me sneakily slipping a full container back into the fridge while dishonestly--and guiltily--repeating, "all done").

-S

we've all done it--carried on about how different we were before we became mamas. you know, when we had time to put on makeup every day. and go shopping for clothes that actually fit and don't have to be vomit-food-marker proof. it's not that i don't talk about that stuff--believe me, i do--but i more often talk about how well i entertained before isaac. when there was time to care about details, perfect recipes and timing, plan ahead for days, and roll out a perfectly elaborate cocktail party in heels and lipstick without breaking a sweat. yea. those days are gone.

after a two year hiatus (isaac is 2-years-old--do the math), my baby-daddy and i decided to bring our holiday party back. unlike previous years, we put rules designed to keep the party as low stress as possible in place: isaac must spend the night AND next day at grandma's (key to enjoying a party is not having to care for a toddler the day after), and limit cooking and clean up so that we can actually enjoy ourselves.

leaving isaac with grandma overnight--easy breezy. low impact party menu--not so much. what's a party without days of prep? cooking for hours and hours? making everything homemade? it was tough, but i was up for the challenge. and am happy to report that we had a great time with great friends, no kids, and good food that i was proud to serve... even though i didn't slave for days.

MENU PLANNING
advance planning is necessary, but i knew it had to be minimal enough to handle in just 1 or 2 nights after isaac went to sleep. it couldn't drag on for days and days the way it used to. as much as i love that process, i just don't have the time. to keep myself on track, i asked three questions to assess potential menu items:

can i make extra to have around for isaac?
cooking for a party is enough major cooking for the week. there was no way i was going to put any significant amount of time into something that i couldn't also feed isaac. 

can i make the recipe while isaac sleeps or is playing around the kitchen?
this focused me on stuff that could be easily and quickly made ahead. it ruled out all elaborate recipes or anything that required delicate timing. no souffles. nothing made to order. (yes, i've gone there.)

can store bought components pass without sacrificing quality?
this was a hard one for me. i'm a nut for making everything myself. but i knew i couldn't feed 25 people 100% homemade food without breaking the rules and stressing out. in sticking to this rule i learned that a few, high-quality, specialty store bought items mixed in with an otherwise homemade menu works really well. it's kind of like mixing expensive accessories with an otherwise inexpensive outfit. if you do it right, you look barneys when you're really 90% forever 21.

when you consider store bought items think beyond your conventional market's prepared foods or frozen section. while there are exceptions, most of that stuff isn't so good. is there an ethnic section of your neighborhood that has a killer specialty store or bakery? what about online resources? iGourmet has an interesting international section. i've never ordered from dean and deluca online, but have been curious about their mail order appetizer selection. trader joe's is a good option, too. (any other suggestions?)

MENU
so, after some (but not much) deliberation, here's where i ended up:

dub pies
these are delicious australian/new zealand-style gourmet meat and veg pies made in my beloved brooklyn. i got 100 2" party pies (50 steak mince & cheese, 25 curry veg, and 25 chicken) for $130. we still have a bunch left over and though they aren't organic, i feel comfortable feeding these high quality, hand-made, hand-held meals to isaac. he likes all of the flavors, though the curry veg might be too spicy for some kids. dub pies offers mail order all over the country (they come frozen) and delivery or pick-up options for either frozen or hot pies throughout nyc.

bacon wrapped dates (stuffed with almonds)
my holiday party stand-by. delicious. a crowd pleaser. this is not something i'd feed isaac, but there's also NEVER any leftover, no matter how many i make. and these are so easy to make ahead that it barely matters. just stuff a blanched almond into a pitted date (or prune); split a strip of bacon down the middle; use half to wrap the date. pile prepped dates onto a platter, cover, and put in the fridge until it's time to pop these babies in the oven. when it's time, i preheat the oven to 400 degrees and bake until the bacon looks nice and brown. remember that bacon will crisp up more once out of the oven and left to rest.

hearts of palm dip & pita chips
this is the easiest dip ever. it's basically a simple hummus made with hearts of palm instead of chick peas. toss 1 can hearts of palm, a couple of garlic cloves, and juice of a lemon into a food processor. puree while slowly drizzling in olive oil until the mixture becomes the consistency of hummus. done and done. it's light, refreshing, and delicious. people dig in expecting hummus and are always pleasantly surprised. i've passed this recipe on to many people for whom it has also become a staple.

feta dip & crudite
the feta dip was new for me. i adapted this recipe from martha stewart. i didn't have quite enough sour cream, so i added cream cheese which worked fine. i wanted to make the recipe even easier, so i put everything but the scallions into the food processor (i mixed the scallions in afterwards). it worked well, though i would have preferred the chunkier texture achieved from hand mixing. next time i'll use the processor but set some crumbled feta aside with the scallions to mix in before serving.

potato pancakes served two ways: with gravlax and creme fraiche, with homemade applesauce
classic cocktail party combos made easy thanks to pancakes purchased at trader joe's. i decided to make the applesauce from scratch because i thought it would have a nicer texture than the jarred stuff. (it did, which actually helped the potato pancake a lot--i wasn't thrilled with the gravlax version). plus, applesauce is so easy to make and freeze. you can do it with your eyes closed and it's about as family friendly as food gets. i didn't even follow a recipe. just peel and core a bunch of apples (try to use two different kinds--i used fuji and gala--here's a list of varieties suggested for apple sauce); throw in a pot with some water or apple cider (about 1/2 a cup per 4 apples, though you can easily add or drain liquid as necessary); squeeze juice of a lemon; throw in a few dashes of cinnamon and some sugar if you wish (about 1/4 cup of sugar per 4 apples seems standard--i use less--you can always use a little honey at the end).

deviled eggs
i fell in love with the deviled eggs with tuna and black olives at oleana in boston years ago. i've worked hard to approximate their deliciousness. i haven't perfected a recipe, but basically mix the following to taste: hard boiled egg yolks, creme fraiche, low fat mayo, either chopped gherkins or black olives (don't use the kind that come in cans--they'll give a tinny taste), italian oil packed tuna, salt, and pepper. i added the tuna last this time so that i could set a few vegetarian eggs aside for isaac. he ate one for breakfast this morning. yum!

cheese plate
if you can, go to a cheese store and splurge on a few special kinds. it doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg. i used umbricao, ossau iraty, and idiazabal. just place on a platter with almonds (i used marcona almonds), grapes, crackers and, if you want to get really fancy, quince paste.

gougeres
these delicious cheese puff apps are not hard to make from scratch, but i had to follow the rules and my to do list was growing. anyway, cheese temple artisinal in nyc sells a delicious frozen version that just need to be popped in the oven. believe me. these don't need a homemade component. they are delicious as they come.

BOTTOM LINE
i ended up making 2 dips (both with basically only 1 step), a bunch of bacon wrapped dates, applesauce, and deviled eggs from scratch. not bad.

PREP SCHEDULE
i made the applesauce and boiled and peeled the eggs during isaac's nap the day before the party. i made the dips the morning of, while drinking coffee and watching isaac play in his bean box. i prepped the bacon wrapped dates and deviled eggs while isaac napped the day of the party. i composed the cheese plate and crudite and preheated the oven just a few hours before guests arrived. the first thing to go in the oven were the potato pancakes. once crisped, it took all of 10 minutes to top them as the first guests arrived. then it was just a matter of doing oven rounds: popping batches of dates and gougeres in and out and warming the dub pies as necessary.

it was honestly a breeze. for the first time ever. i don't think the food was quite the same caliber as it has been in the past, nor was i as organized or put together, but that was mostly because i was so excited to be entertaining--loudly!--in a house with no sleeping toddler. it worked out beautifully. and i learned myself a little something about taking it easy.

cheers to that. happy holidays.

-S

sounds strange, but it works. at least with the two veggies i've tried: sweet potato and butternut squash. (what else do you think you could use?) it's just like apple butter, really. (in fact, apple butter is a great reference for consistency.) and you can use it the same way. i usually spread veggie butter on our morning toast on top of a little butter. for today's snack, i spread squash on toast that also had some peanut butter on it. yum!

you can prepare the veggies however you'd like in order to make a thick-ish puree. i like to roast both sweet potatoes and squash. i'm sure you can steam (though you'll lose flavor) or boil (you'll lose flavor and nutrients). whatever is easiest.

once roasted and cooled, i peel the sweet potato and wrap the whole thing in foil. anytime over the next three days that i want some sweet potato butter, i just unwrapped it, cut off a slice and spread it with a knife. spreads smooth as melted butter and doesn't need any other flavor (though i sometimes sprinkle cinnamon on top).

as for the squash, i find it easier and neater to make the puree as soon as it has cooled. i don't mind lumpy and prefer to dirty as few dishes as possible, so i just mash it with a potato masher and season with a little bit of all natural, organic maple syrup and freshly grated ginger (best done using a microplane, one of my other favorite kitchen tools). 

so easy, a sweet treat (though less so than jam, in a good way), and a creative way to get an additional serving of veggies in the mix (without having to hide them!).

-S

(pictured: squash puree in a mason jar--i keep in the fridge for up to 3 days--and today's snack of toast with peanut butter & squash with a side of blueberries)

   

Click here to download:

use_veggies_instead_of_jam.zip (1240 KB)

atticus is finally getting his two-year molars. and this round of teething feels completely different than the last. when he couldn't talk. when he didn't try to manipulate me with his discomfort and use it to avoid taking his dishes to the sink after dinner or turning the lights off at bedtime. sure, he's perfectly happy to take tylenol for the pain—and embarrass me in public by loudly exclaiming, "mama, i want bubblegum tylenol pleeeeeeeeeease!" but he's also old enough to soothe his tender gums others ways. this weekend, i discovered that frozen unsulphered dried organic mango sliced into thin strips offer lots of relief (not to mention vitamin A). he holds one end and works the other right into the sore spot. then gnaws away as it defrosts. cool!

-m