If you follow the blog, you already know that I like to make kid-friendly fare but I try to be as adventurous as possible. In other words, I don’t do straight kiddie meals. Except maybe this once. I woke up with this idea and I was so excited about it that I actually let my kid watch TV instead of cooking with me. I tiptoed into the kitchen and prepared the omelet and then surprised him with it on the sofa. He was SO EXCITED that he actually took his eyes off the TV. (That’s H-U-G-E.) He ate it in 2 minutes flat and then asked to make his own Open Face Omelet.

We cooked the second omelet together and then I set out a bunch of different veggies for him to chose from. He went to town adding far more facial features than I included on my face. Eating the “parts” of the face were especially thrilling! To my kid this was the best breakfast ever. I was just as satisfied having delivered an awesome surprise and enjoying the simple pleasure of it all. Now for the recipe…

Open Face Omelet Recipe

Prep Time: 10 mins  Cooking Time: 5 mins

Ingredients:
1 large egg
1 egg white
1 tablespoon lowfat milk
black olives (halved)
mini carrots (halved)
red peppers (cored + sliced)
shelled edamame
other veggies of your choice
salt and pepper

In a small bowl whisk together eggs and milk. Heat a greased an 8 or 9 inch frying pan over medium heat until it sizzles when water is thrown on it. Turn heat down slightly and pour in eggs. Swirl the eggs to cover the entire pan. Cook until egg is set, carefully transfer to a plate and decorate!  Makes 1 face.

My mom had some left over turkey chili in the fridge and suggested we use it up for dinner. I had serious doubts about my kid eating a whole bowl of turkey chili so I came up with this healthy, kid friendly chili mac instead.  After tasting it my kid said “I want to eat this every night!”

This had just the right amount of cheese to give it good flavor, but it wasn’t oozing with fat and calories (like mac and cheese). My mom and I both vowed to make it again the next time either of us have leftover chili – proving that you don’t have to use recipes for kids to make great, family friendly food. I’m excited to try it with veggie chili too. Heck, it’s almost worth making a fresh pot of chili for! Now for the recipe…

Baked Chili Mac Recipe

Prep Time: 10 mins  Cooking Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:
2 cups dry whole wheat or multi-grain elbow macaroni
1 egg
1 egg white
2 to 3 cups chili
3/4 cup shredded cheddar (divided in half)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cook macaroni in boiling water until al dente. Drain and let cool slightly. Transfer to a large bowl and mix in eggs and 1/2 of the cheddar. Pour in chili and continue to stir. Transfer to a greased 9 inch square pan and sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Bake for 30 minutes or until bubbly and set. Let rest for 5 to 10 minutes before cutting into squares. Can be prepared in advance and reheated!

I was reading my new Jamie Oliver Cookbook, Jamie’s Food Revolution: Rediscover How to Cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals, when a recipe for Baked Carrots in a Bag caught my eye. I knew my kid would be all about cooking something in a bag! Jamie’s recipe looked tasty, but it included bacon (my veggie husband will not eat) and some other things I didn’t have in the house. But I did use his recipe as inspiration to come up with my own.

I showed my kid the picture of the aluminum foil bag and before we even started making this my kid started running around the house shouting “we’re making carrot pouches!” He munched on raw carrots as we pulled together the ingredients and kept peaking in the oven once they were baking. Everything about this recipe was a hit including the finished product. Now for the recipe…

Pouch Baked Carrot Recipe

Prep Time: 10 mins  Cooking Time: 45 mins

Ingredients:
8 large carrots (peeled)
1/2 large shallot (diced small)
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 medium navel orange
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut carrots into chunky pieces on the diagonal. (Do not slice too thin!) In a large bowl toss the carrots and shallots with olive oil until coated. Add the honey and juice from the orange. Zest the orange over the mixture and salt and pepper to taste. Lay a 2 foot long piece of aluminum foil on the table. Place carrot mixture on one half of the foil and fold the other half up over the carrots. Crimp the sides and then close it up in front to form a pocket, then close the pocket to form a pouch. Place on a cookie sheet in the oven. Check occasionally to make sure no juice is escaping from  your pouch. If it is, re-crimp the sides. Bake for 45 minute or until tender. Serves 4 to 6.

I’ve found that kids like just about anything on a stick. This Cheesy Corn on a Stick Recipe was inspired by the Mexican style corn on the cob I once ordered at a restaurant in New York City. That corn was slathered mayo and butter and then sprinkled with grated cotija cheese and cayenne. I’m not a huge fan of mayo (although I did really love that corn) so my kid and I made up our own recipe.

Our recipe not only includes a stick (kid-tastic!) but also involves rolling the corn around in butter (or olive oil) and cheese. Nothing more fun that that. Oh, and I must point out that the adults RAVED about this corn. I wonder, was it the stick or the taste they loved so much? Hmmm…. Now for the recipe

Cheesy Corn on a Stick Recipe

Prep Time: 10 mins Cooking Time: 15 – 20 mins

Ingredients:
4 ears of yellow corn (shucked)
2 to 3 tablespoons melted butter (or olive oil)
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
cayenne
8 bamboo skewers (pre-soaked in water for 1 hour)

Break each ear of corn in half. Bring a large pot of water to boil and boil corn for 5 minutes or until tender. Drain corn and insert 1 bamboo skewer into each piece of corn. Grill corn over medium-high heat until toasty. Pour melted butter or olive oil on a small plate. Pour parmesan on another small plate. Remove corn one by one from the grill and roll each stick in melted butter and then in parmesan. Serve with cayenne and invite guests to sprinkle to taste. Makes 8 sticks of corn.

Holidays are all about having fun with food. My kid just loves watermelon so I thought it would be cool to cut out some star shapes in honor of our country’s independence! This is the easies activity ever. The only trouble I had was keeping the stars out of my kids mouth. He wanted to eat each one as soon as it was cut!

We used a baby seedless watermelon because I find that they are consistently sweeter. We didn’t waste any melon. We just recycled the left over parts into watermelon chunks and my husband and I had it with our dinner. Happy 4th of July! Now for the recipe…

Festive Watermelon Stars

Prep Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:
Seedless watermelon
Star shape cookie cutter

Slice watermelon into 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick slices. Lay flat and cut out star shapes. Use left over watermelon in a fruit salad.

Believe it or not, I have never been able to get my kid to eat hamburgers… until now. We accomplished this culinary feat by using our favorite new pickiness buster – kid sizing it! First, we bought mini hamburger buns and then I upped the anti by rolling the ground beef into mini meat balls and inviting my kid to “hide” a cube of cheese in the middle. I covered up the evidence, shaped it like a patty and fired up the grill. Of course, the cheese in the middle melted and my kid just loved biting into the mini burger looking for the hidden cheese. He ate two burgers and had so much fun doing it!

It should be noted that I used organic, grass fed ground beef for this recipe. I really prefer the taste and peace of mind, but I do find that this kind of meat cooks faster and it needs to be watched closely. Also, I should probably admit that I liked this meal as much as my kid did. Mini burgers are so awesome! Now for the recipe…

Hide & Seek Hamburgers Recipe adapted from Epicurious.

Prep Time: 10 mins  Cooking Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
sea salt & ground pepper
8 mini cubes of sharp cheddar
2 small vine ripened tomatoes sliced
8 mini hamburger buns or dinner rolls

In a medium bowl mix together beef, garlic powder and Worcestershire sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste and form 8 meatballs. Push one cube of cheese into each meatball and pinch up meat to “hide” the cheese. Flatten meat into a patty. Patty should be slightly larger than the diameter of your mini hamburger bun to allow for shrinkage on the grill. Grill burgers over medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes on each side. (Cooking time will vary depending on your desired level of doneness.) Toast the buns on the grill. Assemble burgers on buns and add one slice of tomato to each burger. Let burgers rest for a few minutes before serving. Makes 8 mini burgers.

Veggie Tip: For my husband I grilled up some Morningstar Farms veggie sausage patties and melted cheddar cheese on top. I assembled them on buns and added the slice of tomato. Husband was quite pleased!

O.M.G. How have I not noticed these beautiful kid-tastic veggies before today? Discovering this broccoli cauliflower mix in the produce section of Trader Joe’s was like a dream come true. My kid immediately started referring to it as “Rainbow Broccoli” and he simply could not wait to make it for dinner.

The medley contains traditional green broccoli and white cauliflower but mixes things up by including orange, purple and light green varieties. The mix comes in a ready-to-steam package. While that sounds very convenient, we wanted to do something a bit more interesting with it.  After making it, we decided to toss our Rainbow Broccoli Parmesan with whole wheat pasta and made an entire meal out of it. Now for the recipe…

Rainbow Broccoli Parmesan Recipe

Prep Time: 5 mins  Cooking Time: 8 mins

Ingredients:
1 package colorful broccoli / cauliflower mix (about 3 cups white, green, purple and orange florets)
1 garlic clove (crushed)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon basil (chopped very finely)
2 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan + some for sprinkling
sea salt & freshly ground pepper

Blanch florets and set aside. Heat olive oil and butter in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and saute for 2 minutes. Add broccoli and continue to saute for 5 minutes. Add basil, 2 tablespoons of Parmesan and salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat. place in a serving bowl and sprinkle Parmesan on top of florets before serving. (Alternatively, add 3 to 4 cups cooked pasta to skillet and saute with florets for a few moments before transferring to a serving dish and garnishing with Parmesan.)

It seems that strawberry lemonade is popping up everywhere this season. First we saw it at the pier, then at a party and just yesterday Trader Joe’s had a huge display of it. With July 4th right around the corner, I thought we’d see if we could make our own version. I looked for recipes online, but they all seemed to have tons of sugar. We decided to do a little recipe experimentation of our own instead.

My kid is crazy for anything strawberry and you already know he loves the blender so he was fired up for some mixology. We decided to use agave nectar as our sweetener of choice. It is better for you than sugar and is also much more cooperative about blending into liquid. Turns out agave was a good choice. The lemonade was sweet and tart and delicious. We’ll be making a pitcher of this for our independence day celebration. It’s the perfect festive Fourth of July recipe! Now for the recipe…

Fresh Strawberry Lemonade

Prep Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup strawberries (hulled + halved)
1/4 cup agave nectar
2 1/2 cups fresh water
juice of 2 large lemons
extra strawberries for garnish

Blend strawberries, lemon juice and agave on high until quite smooth. Pour into a pitcher and add water. Whisk to combine and refrigerate until well chilled. Serve over ice and garnish each glass with a strawberry.  Makes approximately 6 8 oz glasses. Note: Using only two lemons gives it that tart lemony flavor without having to add tons of sweetener. To get the most juice out of your lemon, put it in the microwave for 10 seconds before squeezing. If you want it more lemony, add the juice of 2 additional lemons (4 total) and another 1/4 cup of agave (1/2 cup total) to the blender before adding water.

My friend, Jaime, who runs the super popular, awesome blog Prudent Baby gave me the idea to make pretzels with my kid. I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of this. (When I lived in NY, I was known for harassing the street vendors to make sure my weekly soft pretzel was hot!) In searching for the perfect pretzel recipe, I wanted a nice crunchy outside and a soft chewy inside. I found this Alton Brown version which included the extra step of boiling the pretzels before baking them. I thought this might do the trick, and it did!

The great thing about this dough is that it’s not sticky so my kid and I had a lot of fun with it without the fear of it sticking to the table. We started by making really long snakes and then created all different shapes. My kid even made a pretzel necklace! Besides the fun of making the shapes, painting the egg wash and sprinkling the salt were also highlights. Now for the recipe…

Homemade Soft Pretzel Recipe from Alton Brown / Food Network

Prep Time: 1 1/2 hours (mostly unattended)  Cooking time: 20 mins

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 package active dry yeast
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 ounces unsalted butter, melted
Vegetable oil
10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Pretzel salt

Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.

Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan.

In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope. Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment-lined half sheet pan.

Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula. Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the pretzel salt. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.

A few days ago my friend, Susan, asked me if my vegetarian husband likes potato tacos. Yes! I answered, and then immediately began craving them. Since tacos are so easy to make and even more fun to eat my kid and I whipped up a batch tonight! I enjoy setting up a little taco bar on the counter and letting everyone build their own. My kid likes a deconstructed taco — he eats all the parts separately. Fine by me.

I keep a jar of Penzey’s Taco spices in the cabinet instead of buying those seasoning packets at the market. I find they taste better and it helps to always have them on hand. (Costs less to do it this way too.) If you don’t have a Penzey’s near you, the seasoning packet will do just fine. It gives the potatoes and corn such a nice flavor that you hardly notice there is no meat. Now for the recipe…

Potato & Corn Taco Recipe

Prep Time: 15 mins  Cooking Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:
4 medium yukon gold potatos (peeled + cut into 1/2 inch cubes)
1 large ear fresh corn (or small can corn kernels drained)
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons Penzey’s Taco Spice (or 1 packet taco seasoning)
2/3 cup water
salt & pepper
2 ripe avocados (diced + smashed)
1 large vine ripened tomato (diced small)
1 can sliced black olives
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
12 hard taco shells

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place potatoes in a large pot cover with water and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to medium and continue to cook for 10 minutes or until just tender. While the potatoes are boiling you can start to prepare the taco bar ingredients by setting out bowls of tomatoes, olives, cheese and avocados.  When potatoes are done, drain and set aside.  Meanwhile, shuck the corn and cut the kernels off the cob. In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and saute corn kernels over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add potatoes to skillet and add another tablespoon of olive oil. Stir to combine. Pour spices into water and add to skillet. Bring to a boil then turn the heat down to a low simmer. Let cook for another 5 to 10 minutes until water is absorbed. Add salt and pepper to taste then lightly smash some of the potatoes with the back of a rubber spatula making sure to leave some bigger chunks for texture. Place taco shells on a cookie sheet and warm for 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer potato mixture to a bowl and remove shells from oven. Set out on the counter with taco toppings and let the taco assembly begin! Makes approximately 12 tacos.