Mark and Sarah said… From what I have read about you guys and food, it seems you have great taste. Would you be willing to share your Top 10 favorite dinners (and accompanying recipes…in your spare time!!).
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Heather said… I’m going to also put in a request that food week include some wonderful recipes! Thanks for sharing — I always love to read what you’re cooking up! HCP
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Mark and Sarah, Heather, and everyone– This isn’t a Top Ten list per se, but here are a few more of our trusted easy/healthy favorites~~~~
Kyle’s Favorite Roast Chicken
This recipe was originally the “Rosemary Roast Chicken” from the Williams Sonoma Fun Food Cookbook. But I have altered it pretty significantly. Kyle’s favorite vegetable is green beans, so I almost always serve green beans with it for him… making this a super-duper special meal for Ky Ky (although Owen loves this too– especially the ‘sauce’). I often buy the green beans that come clean and prepped in the microwavable bags from the produce section. We serve this with mashed potatoes to soak up that great ‘sauce.’ And again, I often use the bag of microwavable potatoes and then mash them to make it fast (or, even faster: buy the pre-made store-bought kind from the refrigerated section of the grocery store—we like the ‘Country Crock’ brand of mashed potatoes the best). By using the store-bought mashed potatoes and the microwave-in-bag green beans it makes this tasty, homey, cozy dinner super easy to get on the table!!!
- Place 6-8 chicken pieces (the bone-in, skin-on kind) in bottom of baking dish. (I usually make this with just chicken breasts — whole/”split” breasts, bone-in, skin-on – because that is what we all like best; however you can use chicken thighs, legs/drumsticks, wings too).
- Mix together: juice of 2 whole fresh lemons, ½ cup olive oil, 6 tablespoons of whole-grain Dijon mustard. Pour mixture evenly over chicken.
- Cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge to marinate overnight.
- When ready to cook— Pre-heat oven to 400. Take chicken out of fridge to let stand at room temperature while oven is pre-heating.
- Place baking dish in oven, uncovered, and roast chicken until the skin is browned and the chicken is cooked through ~~ about 40-50 minutes.
- There will be quite a bit of delicious ‘juices’ in bottom of baking dish when done… this is the “sauce” that makes this chicken so awesome. Serve chicken by spooning the “sauce” over the chicken pieces.
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J-M Favorite Stir-Fry
This recipe originated as something called “Molasses Marinade.” Our friend from grad school, Patricia (HI PATRICIA!), and her roommate Michelle, made this for us one night at their apartment in Boston. The original recipe called for for using this marinade with pieces of pork loin and then sauteeing the marinated pork with red peppers. They served it over rice. Braydon and I both loved it. Over the years I’ve greatly modified the way I use this recipe, but the original marinade recipe remains in tact. K & O both love this but it is a particular favorite of Owen (especially if made with pork). The first time I got the boys to eat broccoli it was broccoli and chicken stir-fried with this marinade/sauce.
For the marinade/stir-fry-sauce, mix together:
- ¼ cup canola or vegetable oil
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- ¼ cup white wine
- 1 Tb fresh ginger, or 1 tsp ground
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 2 Tb molasses
For the protein (choose one or more of the following and cut into bite-sized pieces):
- pork
- beef
- chicken
- shrimp
- firm tofu
For the veggies (choose one or more of the following –or whatever you have in the fridge!– and cut into bite-sized pieces):
- green and/or red bell peppers
- broccoli
- carrots
- celery
- onion
- mushrooms
Marinade the meat/tofu/whatever for anywhere from 30 minutes to overnight. Remove from the marinade and sauté in a wok or large pan with a tiny bit of canola/vegetable oil. Remove from wok/pan and set aside. Sauté veggies in same pan, adding some/most (or all) of the leftover marinade to use as stir-fry-sauce. Once veggies are cooked through, return meat/tofu/whatever to the pan and mix together. Serve with white or brown rice.
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“Sunny Chick” (Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes & Chicken)
My old friend from college, Rachel (HI RACH!), made this for me once and I fell in love with it on the spot. We’ve been eating it ever since. It is such a hit with everyone that it is often my go-to recipe for bringing to pot-luck dinners or dropping off for families with newborn babies.
- Cook/Boil 1 box of pasta (I usually make with penne or farfalle)
- While pasta is cooking… Cut 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces.
- Slowly saute chicken over medium-low heat in pan with olive oil (just enough to cover bottom of pan), garlic (I buy the jar of ‘chopped garlic’ that you can find in the produce section, and I use maybe 2 tablespoons of it), and a couple pinches of salt, pepper, oregano to taste.
- When chicken is almost cooked through (maybe 5-10 minutes max), squeeze juice of one whole fresh lemon into pan.
- Add a whole jar of sundried tomatoes to pan (I buy the ones that are julienned and packed in a jar with olive oil and herbs — I find it in the produce section), sauté with chicken mixture until tomatoes are soft and heated through.
- Toss chicken/’sauce’ together with the cooked penne.
- Serve with fresh Parmesan cheese.
K & O Making “Sunny Chick”:
For better or for worse, these cycle through as regulars around here…
For this I’m only including dinners that:
A] involve barely any actual real cooking. Thus, if it takes longer than a couple of minutes to assemble then it is automatically out of the running for this Top Ten List.
B] all four of the fully-solid-food-eating-J-M’s (i.e., Meera not included) find edible. Thus, anything that Braydon and I might enjoy eating for dinner but that the boys don’t particularly enjoy (i.e., steak, baked potato, salad -or- tuna nicoise), or anything that the boys enjoy eating for dinner but Braydon and I don’t particularly enjoy (i.e., mac-n-cheese -or- tortellini) is automatically out of the running for this Top Ten List.
Top Ten “No Cook” or “Barely Cook” J-M Dinners
[not in any particular order] ~~~
- Hot Dogs and Beans. Hot Dogs, grilled; baked beans, from the can; a bag of pre-made salad (our current favorite is one of the Dole Salad Kits called “Perfect Harvest“) or… Keilbasa — same as above, but substitute kielbasa for the hot dogs.
- Bean and Cheese Quessadillas. Spread refried beans (from the can) on one half of a fresh tortilla; layer shredded cheese on top; fold tortilla over to make quesadilla. If we have leftovers from some other meal then we might add shredded chicken or pork or steak. And/or we might add chopped tomatoes or some other veggies (my favorite is canned artichokes). I add a generous amount of fresh chopped cilantro if I have it on hand. Cook in dry pan over medium-high heat, turning once to brown both sides. Serve with salsa, sour cream, and a salad tossed with Newman’s Own Lime Vinaigrette.
- Cheese Quesadillas and Black Bean Soup. See #2 but skip over everything except the shredded cheese and just make a simple cheese quesadilla. Heat up a couple of cans of black bean soup (our favorite is Amy’s Organic Black Bean Vegetable). Voila!
- Tacos or Taco Salad. We use the Old El Paso reduced sodium seasoning packet with 1 pound of ground beef or turkey; soft and/or hard taco shells and/or tortilla chips; shredded cheese; lettuce; tomatoes; salsa; sour cream; jalepenos. An oldie but goodie!
- 3-for-1 Rotisserie Chicken. I buy the large “family size” rotisserie chicken from the deli counter at the grocery store. 1st night = rotisserie chicken; green beans (the microwavable bag from the produce section); couscous (from box to table in 10 minutes). 2nd night = rotisserie chicken, shredded; over Caesar Salad (K & O’s favorite caesar— they like it even better than my own home-made caesar— is Dole’s Caesar Kit). 3rd night = “Thanksgiving Sandwiches”… sandwich bread with leftover rotisserie chicken, stuffing (if we have it), cranberry sauce (from the can), lettuce, mayo.
- Spaghetti and Sausage. Pasta (any kind), Red Sauce (any jar), Italian Sausage (turkey sausage, chicken sausage, traditional sausage, take your pick!). While water is heating up and then pasta is cooking… place sausages in bottom of medium-sized pan with just enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Turn once or twice so that sausages are browned. Dump sauce in. Stir. Cook until sauce is heated and sausages are cooked through. Pour over cooked pasta. Eat it up.
- Crab Cakes. I buy pre-made crab cakes at the seafood counter of the grocery store; tartar sauce (mix together some mayo and some relish); rice; salad.
- Curry Chicken. Chicken simmered in an Indian cooking sauce (we haven’t tried a jar of Patak’s sauce that we didn’t like!), toss in some veggies if we have some around, serve over basmati rice.
- …and then, of course, there is always… Breakfast for Supper. Cereal or pancakes or french toast or waffles or omelets or whatever!
- … and of course, there is Lunch for Supper (i.e., Sandwiches). Old stand-by’s include grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup; “Skitchwiches” (grilled cheese with tuna salad layered in, in addition to the cheese); bagel sandwiches; BLT’s; chicken caesar wraps; wraps with hummus, tabouli, feta, cucumbers, tomatoes; roast beef, provolone cheese, ranch dressing, lettuce on pumpernickel; and our favorite treat– Turkey “Rachels” (rye grilled with deli turkey, swiss cheese, coleslaw, thousand island dressing).
WHAT ARE YOUR REGULAR FAST/EASY “NO COOK” OR “BARELY COOK” DINNERS???
Please leave ideas in comments section here!
riversnake said… Every time I see a food related posts on your blog I cross my fingers hoping for an accompanying recipe! In particular your pesto recipe! 
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Here you go! ~~
Creamy Pesto Chicken and Pasta
When we lived in Boston, Braydon and I used to frequent a great little place in the South End called Giacomo’s Ristorante. They had great Italian food that was cheap, and you could buy a bottle of wine with dinner that was under $12. As grad students it was a big deal to be able to order a bottle of wine with dinner! I still love the idea of a restaurant where you can buy a decent bottle of wine to drink while you eat for less than $40. Anyway… the item on the menu that Braydon always got was Chicken and Penne in a Pesto Cream Sauce. He absolutely loved it. After we moved away from Boston I was determined to figure out how to make it. We have not eaten at Giacamo’s since 2001, but I think this pasta will be with us forever. This is K & O’s favorite dinner in the whole wide world and apparently it is now Meera’s favorite too. It is definitely not low-fat but it is sooooooooooo good!
- Add 1 box of pasta (I usually use penne or gemelli, but you can use any shape pasta you want) to boiling, salted water to cook.
- While pasta is cooking… Cut up 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts into bite sized pieces (or, even easier, buy the boneless skinless ‘chicken tenders’ and just cut them each into 3-4 pieces each).
- Saute some garlic, butter, and olive oil in a pan over low-to-medium-low heat (about 1 tablespoons butter; 1 tablespoon olive oil; about 2 cloves chopped garlic). Add chicken to pan. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Saute chicken until just browned on the outside.
- Remove chicken from pan and set aside, leaving cooking juices/bits in bottom of pan.
- Add cream to pan to de-glaze (I buy the small box/container of cream– the size of the milk we used to get in elementary school– and use the whole container; I usually buy ‘light cream’ but you can make it with ‘heavy cream’ or ‘half-n-half’ too).
- Stir constantly, allowing the cream to steam/thicken/condense, but not heating up too much– only small bubbles should form at sides of pan; do not let it boil because you don’t want to scald the cream. Add a couple of pinches of dried basil and oregano. Cook until cream is thick and sticks slightly to a spoon.
- Add chicken back into pan with cream mixture. Cook together over medium-low heat until chicken is fully cooked through.
- Stir in one container of prepared pesto to the cream/chicken (see my pesto recipe below… or… you can buy perfectly good pesto in the grocery and it works great for this dish. I like the “Buitoni” brand fresh pesto. In my grocery store it is in the refrigerated section with the fresh pastas and prepared sauces, hummus, special sausage meats, etc.). Cook just for a minute until the pesto is incorporated with the cream and heated through.
- Toss chicken/pesto/cream sauce together with cooked pasta.
- Serve topped with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
HBJ’s Pesto
This is my own version of pesto and I have no idea the lineage of how I came up with this but it is seriously, seriously, seriously good. In the summer I grow pots of basil on our porch. I’ve been doing this for years — it started when we got really into urban gardening when we lived in Boston during graduate school. I grow a ton of basil and make pesto almost every week in the summer, freezing most of it so that we can eat it year round. Toasting the pine nuts gives the pesto a nice, heightened ‘nutty’ flavor; cooking the garlic a bit before (instead of using raw garlic) gives it a more mellow, sweeter flavor. I like to go easy on the olive oil to keep the fat content down — plus we prefer a dryer, more paste-like pesto to a more oily, liquidy pesto.
To prep:
- BASIL: Wash, dry, and de-stem a whole lotta fresh basil.
- PINE NUTS: Heat a small pan over medium-low heat. Add a couple of handfuls of pine nuts to the dry pan to roast. Stir occasionally until pine nuts are browned. Remove pine nuts from pan. Set aside to cool (if in a rush, place in the freezer to cool quickly).
- GARLIC: In same pan, still over medium-low heat, cook a handful of whole (peeled) garlic cloves in some olive oil (maybe 6-8 whole cloves; maybe 2 tablespoon olive oil), until slightly browned on all sides. Remove garlic and oil from pan. Set aside to cool (if in a rush, place in the freezer to cool quickly).
- PARMESAN: In a Cuisinart, grate good quality fresh Parmesan. Remove from Cuisinart and set aside.
To make:
- Shove all the basil leaves into the Cuisinart. Run Cuisinart until the basil is fully chopped.
- With Cuisinart still running, and add the garlic and olive oil.
- With Cuisinart still running, next add the grated Parmesan.
- With Cuisinart still running, next add the pine nuts.
- With Cuisinart still running, add more olive oil until the pesto reaches desired consistency.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
To store:
- Put pesto in the bottom of a container. Cover with a thin layer of olive oil. Store in fridge for 3-4 days, or in freezer for up to a year. (the layer of olive oil on top keeps air from touching the basil, which keeps the pesto bright green and fresh-looking… otherwise it will turn gray/brown).
ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!
Ani said… I love the cooking pictures! I don’t enjoy cooking all that much (although I LOVE to entertain – go figure!), so my recipe arsenal is pretty limited to tried and true dishes. We are lucky to have a wonderful nanny who is an amazing cook – but I would love some good (nutritious AND easy) recipes that are simple enough to allow our 3 year old in the kitchen as sous chef.Looking forward to this series!!!!
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Dear Ani,
K & O started helping me make this recipe when they were 2 years old. Now they are practically pro’s at it! I made it with them last week and they literally did everything. Everything! We all love this chili. It originated from a recipe from my mom, but I’ve altered it a lot over the years. It is our family’s favorite chili — we prefer it to any meat chili I’ve ever made. K & O love it and we discovered, this past week when we made it, that Little Miss loves it too!!! This chili freezes really, really well (and even us, who basically hate leftovers, love this chili as leftovers). Here it is~~
Vegetarian Chili
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 medium zucchinis, cut into bite-sized chunks
1 medium onion, cut into bite-sized chunks
2 green peppers, cut into bite-sized chunks
1 red pepper, cut into bite-sized chunks
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 large (28 ounce) cans of diced tomatoes
2 (16 ounce) cans of kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 (16 ounce) can of garbanzo beans (chick peas), rinsed and drained
1 (16 ounce) can of black beans, rinsed and drained
2 teaspoons chili powder (more if you want more heat)
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried dill
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon oregano
1/4 cup fresh parsley
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
Heat up large pot. Add olive oil. Add the veggies and garlic. Stir occasionally until zucchini is slightly tender and onion is starting to become translucent. Add tomatoes, beans, and all the rest. Cook over medium heat, uncovered, for at least one hour. Can cook longer for thicker chili.
Serve with any or all of the following:
Cornbread
Fresh Tortillas
Tortilla Chips
Shredded Cheese
Sour Cream
Sliced Green Onion
Chopped Cilantro
Fresh Chopped Tomatoes
chopping up the veggies*
opening all the cans with the electric can opener– their favorite part!!!*
Owen eats it burrito style! (by filling a fresh tortilla with the chili, cheese, and sour cream!)
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Kyle eats it straight up! (with lots of cheese and sour cream stirred in!)… and asked to have more chili packed for his school lunch the next day.
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Meera Grace, 3/28/09, 8:04 AMWell, this one is bitter sweet for me. In all honesty, mostly bitter (although she is absolutely all sweet). I’m just sad that the first year is disappearing so quickly. How can my newborn tiny infant suddenly be 10 months old? 10 months? A year ago I was pregnant and we were setting up the crib. How can we now be watching our girl getting ready to walk? As far as I’m concerned, this is getting way too close to the 1-year mark. Every day I wish I could freeze time. I don’t remember feeling this way about Kyle and Owen. It wasn’t that I wished away the time — not at all — but with them I have always been so incredibly curious what they’ll grow up to be, and with them caregiving was always such incredibly hard work (simply because they were twins; and rambunctious “all Boy” twins at that). Of course I’m curious what will become of Meera Grace (she’s an interesting case in and of herself), and of course taking care of her is hard work (caring for any baby is), but I just wish I could keep her my baby-baby-baby forever. 10 months seems like a big jump from 9 months. And this past month has seen such fast-paced development for our little one. It is all just moving way too fast and no matter how hard we try to slow it down, time slips away. And then it is gone forever. Which is why I am bitter. But then I look at her and the bitterness melts away immediately. Because seriously, you cannot be in the presence of this baby and feel anything but warm-fuzzies. At least I can’t. Meera had a Well Baby doctor’s visit on Thursday. She weighs 23 pounds and is 29.5 inches tall. That’s the 90th percentile for weight and 95th for height. Like Braydon said, she seems to have the Swedish genes going strong and my Popop would be proud. And Meera would love Popop too, since she seems to love just about everyone. She goes willingly to strangers to be held, she smiles and waves at people she sees, and she loves to “talk” and interact with any of the kids at Kyle and Owen’s school each day at pick-up. This month, however, for the first time, Meera showed her first signs of stranger anxiety. Three times she cried when random friends (different people/different times, but all male) tried to talk to her. Since she rarely cries (rarely), it was striking (yet right on track for her age and development). She’s also figured out that she can get just about anything she wants from her big brothers, who will do just about anything they can to please her if she even wimpers or whines the tiniest, tiniest bit. Meera’s favorite new trick is banging two object together. She’s been doing it for the past 3 weeks or so, and getting a big kick out of it. That — and standing — are by far her favorite things to do. All she wants to do is stand. She shows absolutely no interest whatsoever in crawling (or even rolling over– she still doesn’t roll over!), despite our best efforts to encourage her interest in it, but she wants to stand up all the time. Just in the past week she has started to be able to not only stand holding on to something, but to ‘walk’ along it as well (coffee table, etc.). She still sleeps like a DREAM BABY. And we’re still astounded, daily, that somehow we lucked out and got a DREAM BABY. How could we be so lucky??? This past month Meera has started to show some of her willfulness. We’ve always known, from the start, that it was there, but before it was very subtle and now it is coming out more often overtly — especially around eating. She wants to eat what we are eating. Always. Period. She will eat baby food if she is hungry enough, but would much prefer whatever is on our plates. And if she isn’t hungry enough she’ll just go on a food strike, pursing her lips to keep her mouth shut tight, until we give in and give her something she can manage from our plates… which is more and more often. My guess is that by the end of this month she’ll basically be eating all normal food and the baby food jars will be more-or-less obsolete. Her favorite food is now macaroni and cheese (oh no! now we have 3 of them!!!), and Kyle and Owen take great pride in knowing that their sister loves “The Bunny” (i.e., Annie’s shells and cheddar) as much as they do. She also loves pasta of any kind, mashed potatoes, any/all bread, and cheese. And she’s loving trying to drink out of a sippy cup (and getting pretty good at it too). Meera’s relationship with Margie (the original, the best, Super Nanny) is very sweet and adorable. They hang out together like old friends. Meera talks and Margie listens. Margie talks and Meera listens (Spanish? no problem!). Margie cleans, Meera plays. Meera has her bottle, Margie has her tea. They have a whole routine going. They are best buds and it is so cute to see. Little Miss is quite the verbal little thing. Margie comments on it regularly to me — telling me that she is way beyond her age where all things talking are concerned (I have no reference because K & O were just being exposed to English for the first time when they were Meera’s age, so their speech development was not typical whatsoever). Meera says “hi”; “bye”; “hi kitty!”, “all done!”; “bottle”; “baby”; “book”; “bunny” (her lovey); “no”; and… we think… maybe “Mama” too. She probably says other words too, these are just the ones that are immediately coming to my mind. Of course only we (and Margie) can make these things out… but still… she’s talking up a storm. And babbling all day long. This month we got one of the boys’ old high chairs down from the attic and put it in the kitchen. Meera likes being right in the center of everything, so this is working out well for her! She sits there while we get breakfast ready and cook dinner and lots of other times in-between when we’re all gathered in the kitchen. She likes outings in the stroller, but prefers the backpack (loves the backpack). And she continues to adore (like, ridiculously, over-the-top adore) her wild and crazy brothers… who are always good for a good laugh… and who tickle her and play peek-a-boo with her and read books to her and run circles around her entertaining her with their antics. And she is very entertained. Laughing, smiling ear-to-ear, clapping… she loves every minute of every show (and the show just goes on and on and on). We have all these Baby Einstein videos from when K & O were babies, but Meera has built in entertainment so we have yet to even pull one off the shelf. She enjoys watching them do anything they are doing (puppet shows!? yay! riding the train!? yay! you name it, and if K & O do it, well, then, she loves it). Lately she is getting in on the action more and more as a semi-reciprocal sibling relationship begins to grow. They try to include Meera in some things now– and if she can fit into the action while she’s in her walker (i.e., relatively autonomous and safely stuck in something they can’t pull her out of), then we watch and laugh as the three of them “play” together. I can only imagine the future. But I do know one thing about it: for as long as the five of us are all together in this world it is sure to be interesting. You can say whatever you want about our life, but there is truly no denying that there is never a dull moment. I cannot wait to see what Meera becomes. I am incredibly excited about what she is becoming. And so, despite the bitter… there is the sweet.
Jen said… about the picture of Owen & Kyle sauteing (I have no idea how to spell that) baby spinach in garlic and olive oil–do you have a recipe that goes with the spinach, or do you just eat the spinach itself as a side dish? Thanks—I’m always looking for new things I can make w/spinach!
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Dear Jen (and this is not my college roommate Jen, this is a different Jen that I have never met IRL but who I love and admire nonetheless): Since you are one of my favorite readers I am going to give you three spinach-related dinner meals that we LOVE and eat often in this house!!! You just won the spinach jackpot my friend! You can make these for some of your med school friends and talk about the importance of folate/vitaminB/folic acid! 😉
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And Patricia (Patricia is a dear, dear, dear friend from grad school who we know IRL and love IRL)… The second recipe is for you my dear!
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Our Favorite ‘Meat & Potatoes’ Dinner
I’ve mentioned that K & O are not meat-and-potatoes types. Braydon and I aren’t really, either. But we do love a good meal like that from time to time. And this one is our absolute favorite. Pork is, by far, the boys’ favorite meat. You need a grill for this, but if you don’t have one, just bake the pork according to the directions on the package. The spinach that you saw K & O sauteeing was for this meal one night recently. And you can’t forget the applesauce! You can use store-bought in a pinch, but this homemade version is super easy and quick… Braydon and I don’t even want to have grilled pork unless we can have it with applesauce! We eat this in the fall and winter, and for us, it just isn’t officially fall until we’ve eaten this dinner a couple of times. The four things — the grilled pork, apple sauce, the fresh sauteed spinach, and the mashed potatoes — just seem to go perfectly together (at least in my book they do!). Here you go (this should serve 4 adults) ~~
1 package of lean pork loin (you buy this, in vacuum-sealed plastic package, in the meat/butcher section; the one I buy has two pork loins in the package).
1 big container of fresh baby spinach (or at least 2 bags of it from the bagged salad area of the produce section)
potatoes (to make this super quick, I sometimes buy the microwavable bag of little/baby/new potatoes in the produce area)
dry rub BBQ seasoning (my favorite is Sticky Fingers)
olive oil
garlic
salt, pepper
butter, sour cream, milk — or whatever you like to make mashed potatoes.
apples, peeled and cored and chopped
cinnamon and sugar
Grilled Pork: Preheat the grill. Prepare the pork by rubbing a generous amoung of the dry BBQ rub all over the pork loins. Place on grill. Grill until done. Let sit for a couple of minutes before you slice it to serve.
Sauteed Spinach: Heat up a wok or the largest saute pan you have to medium-high heat. Add about 1 Tablespoon of olive oil, all of the spinach (it seems like a lot but it wilts down to almost nothing!), 2-3 cloves of chopped garlic. Season generously with salt and pepper. Keep the spinach moving in the wok/pan until just wilted (tender but still a little firm– don’t let it get too wilted or it isn’t as yummy). Serve immediately!
Garlic Mashed Potatoes: [you can do mashed potatoes any way you want, obviously… but here is my quick/easy weeknight-in-a-rush recipe for garlic mashed potatoes…] Follow directions on the bag of potatoes and microwave until done. In a small saute pan, heat up about 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. When butter is melted, add 2-3 cloves of chopped garlic. Cook garlic until just barely cooked through (not too brown). Dump cooked potatoes into a serving bowl. Mash with potato masher. Stir in butter/olive oil/garlic mixture. Add milk until desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste. (If you feel like splurging add a big dallop of sour cream and/or more butter). Serve immediately!
Apple Sauce: Place all of the chopped apples in a pan with just enough water to cover the bottom of the pan. [Note: the smaller the chunks of apples, the quicker this will take to cook]. Add cinnamon and sugar to taste (the J-M boys like lots of cinnamon and very little sugar). Cook over medium heat, stirring occassionally, until apples are broken down and the apple sauce has reached the desired consistency (the J-M boys like it mushy but still chunky). Serve warm with the pork.
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Spinach Salad
This recipe comes from my mom and I don’t know where it originated. I grew up eating it and have loved it my whole life. It remains a steady fav around here, especially in late fall and winter. K & O love it and Owen sometimes requests it (“the sweet dressing”). Serve it with crusty bread and white wine as a perfectly terrific dinner or a hearty lunch (I often serve this to guests because everyone loves it). Not much is better than this!
Dressing:
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tbs worchestershire sauce
1 small red onion, chopped
1 tsp salt
–>Mix all together in jar and shake well.
Salad:
fresh raw baby spinach
hard boiled eggs, chopped
bacon, fully cooked and chopped
grated sharp cheddar cheese
sliced fresh button mushrooms
red pepper, celery, and any other veggies you want to add
–>Toss all together, adding as much dressing as desired. Serve immediately.
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Spinach & White Bean Pasta
This is a recipe I made up based on a pasta dish I used to love at one of our favorite restaurants when we lived in Charleston, SC. The restaurant was this wonderful little place called Celia’s Porta Via. Even though the last time I ate at Celia’s Porta Via was in 1995, we eat this pasta dish regularly around here — especially in late winter and spring.
1 box penne
2 bags of fresh baby spinach
1 can of white beans (cannellini beans/white kidney beans), drained
and rinsed
olive oil
butter
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
red pepper flakes
good white wine
freshly squeezed juice of 1/2 lemon
salt, pepper, dried oregano
fresh parsley, finely chopped
Fresh parmesan cheese
Cook penne in boiling, salted water. While penne is cooking, heat up large saute pan to medium-low heat and add about 1-2 tablespoons butter with 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil. Once butter is melted, add garlic, onion, and red pepper flakes (I usually add a small pinch; add as much as you want depending on how much spicy heat you like). Stir occasionally cooking until onion is translucent. Add white beans, about 1/2 cup of the wine, and the lemon juice. Season generously with salt, pepper, and oregano. Once beans are heated through and some of the wine mixture has cooked down, add a big handful of the fresh chopped parsley. Turn off heat and let sit. Meanwhile, when pasta is just one minute from being done, dump all of the spinach into the pot. Let cook for a minute (literally! just until the spinach is barely wilted in the pot of water and pasta). Drain pasta and spinach, reserving about 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid. Toss pasta and spinach with the white bean mixture. If dry, add some of the cooking liquid and/or more olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with freshly grated parmesan cheese.
Christina said… If you feel like sharing that penne/turkey sausage/broccoli rabe recipe, I’d be much obliged!
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H. said… …Also, can you share your recipe for the penne/turkey/broccoli rabe? It looks awesome! Thanks,Hope
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Tiz said… Hello from sunny Australia! Loving your blog as always, there is nothing better than watching kids enjoy healthy food! I would like to second the request for the recipe of your Turkey, Broccoli, Pasta dish, it looks wonderful!! Thanks again, Tamsin
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Penne with Turkey Sausage and Broccoli Rabe
I made up this recipe based on a dish I ate at a restaurant called Ciao in Basking Ridge, NJ. Since I totally made this up I don’t have precise measurements or anything, but here is what I do:
1 box penne (can use whole wheat or regular or whatever you like)
1 package of lean turkey sausage, sweet Italian style
1 big bunch of fresh broccoli rabe
olive oil
fresh garlic (about 2-3 cloves, chopped)
salt, pepper, dried oregano
fresh good quality parmesan cheese
Get big pot of water boiling. Place large saute pan over medium heat. While pan is heating up, remove sausage from casings and crumble into bite-sized pieces. Add some olive oil to the hot pan (maybe about 1 tablespoon). Add sausage and garlic to pan. Season with salt, pepper, oregano to taste. Stir occasionally until sausage is cooked through and fully crumbled. Meanwhile, add pasta to boiling water, seasoned with salt to taste. While sausage and pasta are cooking, chop up broccoli rabe into pieces about 2-3 inches long (I use the stems, leaves, crowns, and all). About 3-4 minutes before pasta is fully cooked, add broccoli rabe to the pot with the boiling pasta. Continue to boil until pasta is done al dente and broccoli rabe is just cooked through (tender, but still firm). Strain pasta and broccoli rabe from the water, reserving about 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid. Mix together the pasta, broccoli rabe, and sausage mixture from the pan. If it seems too dry, add the 1/2 cup of cooking liquid and/or more olive oil. Serve with freshly grated parmesan. Yum!
lori said… I am impressed by the healthy and delicious looking foods you post on your blog. How do you do make it happen while both working and parenting 3? Do you have any tricks, techniques, or organizational skills you could pass along? Thanks for your great blog!
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Heather said… Here’s a question for you — when do you plan and shop for your meals? Do you have a set routine? The planning is always a major challenge for us . . .HCP
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Dear Lori & Heather and anyone else out there reading:
Are you MWC’s? (Moms-With-Careers) If so, then you know how hard it is and you know how important being organized is…. If not, then you can probably imagine… so, please be sure to tell me what your tricks are too!!! I feel pretty much clueless about this virtually all the time!!! Having said that, I will say this: being organized is at least 75% of the battle. I seriously believe that. Now, I am not sure whether being organized matters so much because of its actual relevance and/or importance to the whole logistical operation, or whether being organized matters so much simply because of the mental health related side-effects (i.e., feeling in control of something that is utterly out of control; believing we’re on top of it when we can never actually get on top of it; thinking that we have it covered when it is never truly covered)… but regardless… organization is key (at least for me). Key key key. And one thing I have going for me is that I can be (when I want to be) a super organized person. Thinking strategically comes naturally for me. And I’m always trying to improve on my system(s) and flex things as they need to be flexed (which is, alas, ALL THE TIME). My mom is also good at this kind of thing and she often helps me to tweak my system when she visits. Anyway… even though I’m pretty well organized, I do not have any secret recipes for making it all work. In fact, there are significant periods of time during which I feel like it is not working at all for me. We can be cruising right along, everything grooving and feeling like it is all holding together… and then… smack!–seemingly out of nowhere the whole thing crumbles and it feels like it will never come together again. It is a roller coaster of organization-(or perception thereof)-disorganization-(or perception thereof)-organization—— you get the idea; it just goes on and on like that. In regards to organizing our life where food/eating/meals/food-prep is concerned, I’ve tried tons of things. Tons of things. Right now here is where we stand…
Top Ten: Things That I’m Currently Doing That Seem To Make Me Feel At Least Somewhat Organized Where All-Things-Food Are Concerned~~
- I food shop once per week and try to avoid any/all food shopping whatsoever the rest of the time. I go to a big supermarket and buy what I can there. If I can’t find it there, I don’t get it. Every once in a while (like, maybe every 2-4 months) I stock up on things from a specialty/gourmet shop that I can’t get at my regular big-name market.
- I keep a notepad and pen on the counter next to the fridge and we write down what is needed there. I spend some time organizing and polishing that list before I head to the store with it. I try hard to stick to the list.
- Currently I’m grocery shopping on Sunday mornings. I am sort of pondering what we’ll have all the time, and thinking ahead to the next week of things that I’ll want to make for dinners. I cook, and we eat, very seasonally. Sunday morning while I’m having my coffee I try to start writing out my food plans for the week and my shopping list. I take requests from Braydon, Kyle, and Owen. I always try to plan for one pasta meal each week, one fish/seafood meal per week, at least one vegetarian meal per week, and one meat meal per week. At 9:00 I put Meera down for her morning nap and then I’m immediately out the door to the store. [important note: I absolutely HATE HATE HATE that I have to sacrifice precious weekend time to grocery shop. HATE IT. Unfortunately, it is how it is working out right now and no matter how hard I’ve tried it seems to be the only halfway workable time to do it. So it goes.]
- I avoid, at all costs, food shopping with all three kids. I try to go alone whenever possible, and this is my preference, by far. Lately, however, I’m taking either Kyle or Owen with me because it gives them each some alone time with me (and the other with Braydon while they stay home for Meera’s nap and do projects around the house).
- I have a “lunch station” in the kitchen. It is the counter area closest to the fridge. The lower cabinets store all of the lunch packaging stuff (the bento box systems, thermoses, lunch bags, napkins, water bottles, etc.). The drawers there contain zip loc baggies, saran wrap, clips, etc. The upper cabinets contain all non-perishable lunch stuff. Right there on the counter is where we keep our breads. So… when I make lunches each night it is relatively easy. Everything is literally right there (including the fridge), literally within an arm’s reach. It cuts down on time tremendously.
- The “lunch station” also makes road-trip or picnic lunches easy on the weekends. I can easily and relatively painlessly put together lunches-(or snack)-to-go for us to eat in the car or at the park. This saves us a ton of time, fat/calories, and money on the weekends. [photo below of a typical weekend K & O lunch-to-go]
- I have a “Meera station” in the kitchen. A cupboard that is dedicated solely to her stuff, including her bottle system and all things baby-food related. We keep all of her non-perishable baby food in one basket on the counter. This makes Meera feeding easy. [it also makes packing up food-for-Meera easy when we’re heading out to a restaurant or a friend’s house]
- I already mentioned the “Snack Drawer” in a previous post.
- For dinners…….. (the toughest)….. I’ve tried different things (like planning out menus for each day, not planning menus at all, and everything else in between)… and what is working for us is this: I plan ahead for a week’s worth of meals and shop for the ingredients for them on Sunday. I try hard to be realistic and plan for quick/easy/healthy meals that we will actually want to eat and enjoy. Each week I have 3-5 solid dinners ready to go…
- … carry over from 7 above… The other 2-4 nights we choose from the following options: a] order pizza to be delivered or some other kind of take-out (note: we do this on average once per week); b] have leftovers (note: we all — K, O, H, and B — truly hate leftovers and I wish it wasn’t so, but it is, although I still try hard to make us eat leftovers whenever possible); c] have soup and bread and cheese for dinner (note: we’ve found some great organic high-quality canned soups that we like, I also make soup pretty often and always freeze the leftovers for easy re-heating); d] eat one of our staple stand-by meals (note: these include for K & O things like macaroni & cheese, tortellini or ravioli, etc. and for H & B these include things like egg-and-cheese-on-a-bagel, a big salad, sandwiches, etc.); e] my favorite—– GO OUT TO EAT.
Dear readers, please leave a comment here– WHAT ARE YOUR TRICKS AND TIPS???????
Christina said… Do you have any secrets for instilling healthy eating habits in young ones?
Well, I guess like everything else, “healthy eating habits” is all relative… I know people who eat practically nothing but microwaved frozen food and drive-through take out! I know people who consider Lean Cuisine frozen dinners to be “health food.” I know people who have never eaten hummus (gads!!!!)! And I notice what other people have in their carts every time I’m at the grocery store (I am a sociologist; I can’t help but to be looking at stuff like that). But we also are part of a pretty hard-core Waldorf community– so… we also know people who are on macrobiotic diets; people raising children in strict vegan households; all-100%-organic families; and parents who will do just about anything to avoid letting their kids eat processed sugars/white flour/eggs that aren’t from free-range chickens. While we definitely don’t consider Happy Meals a perfectly decent well balanced dinner option for our kids, we definitely have no problem giving them store-bought cookies (and I’ve never made them a birthday cake from scratch, ever; store-bought b-day cakes all the way!)… Most of all, we definitely do not consider ourselves experts in this kid-food-healthy-eating area. At the same time, we are pretty comfortable with how our kids’ eating habits are developing. So, we discussed it together tonight, and for what it is worth, (whatever it is worth!!!), here is a brand new Top Ten List we just came up with for our readership’s reading pleasure!!!!
Top Ten: Things We Think We’re Doing That Might Possibly Be Contributing To Instilling Healthy Eating Habits In Our Young Ones~~~
- We try to eat meals together, sitting down at the table, whenever humanly possible. We manage to pull this off miraculously often (given our work-home-imbalance-situation!) and eat together almost all of the time (with the exception of weekday lunches, of course, which we almost never have together since the boys are at school and we are at work). And when we do sit down to eat together, we eat the same things we’re serving our children at mealtime whenever possible, which is almost always.
- We light candles and say grace (holding hands) at the start of every meal. This signals something special and reverent is going on. We act sincerely grateful for the food that we have…. every single meal. During meals we try to have real conversations. During dinner we do ‘Hi/Lo’ every night (i.e., we go around the table and we each say the ‘high’ and the ‘low’ of our day). We try to all sit at the table until everyone is done eating, and then the boys snuff out the candles… signaling the end of the meal.
- We very rarely have dessert. We act as if this is normal. When we do have dessert we do not make a huge deal of it. We don’t treat sweets as a super-special-big-huge-deal-treat. What we do treat as a special-deal-treat is going out to eat. Even though we eat out at least once per week (usually Saturday or Sunday lunch), we always act like it is special to eat in a restaurant and that we’re very lucky to be able to do that whenever we do.
- We force ourselves to eat a healthy breakfast with our kids every morning (I say ‘force ourselves’ because neither of us — H especially — are breakfast people and we’d much prefer to skip it altogether most mornings).
- We’ve never ‘dumbed down’ our food for our kids. We assume they’ll have sophisticated palates and enjoy the kinds of things that we do. We assume that they’ll like spicy salsa (not mild); al dente pasta (not mushy); blackened fish (not plain fish); and all sorts of foods/textures/flavors. You get the idea.
- We try to model healthy eating in front of our children. If we’re going to do something really naughty (such as have martinis, peanuts, and chocolate for dinner like we did the other night), we be sure that the kiddos are sleeping soundly upstairs in bed before we indulge in such guilty pleasures.
- We always have fresh fruit sitting out on the counter. And we regularly put in front of them heaping platters of cut up fresh fruits and/or raw veggies and simply assume they’ll eat it. We don’t talk about it. We don’t go on and on about it. We just act like it is perfectly normal to eat like that.
- We’ve always given our kids plain water to drink in between meals and often as the drink on the table for lunch and/or dinner. They like water and drink lots of it. Most of the time they don’t even think to ask for something else. And we (B & H) rarely have anything other than water in our glasses at mealtime.
- We always assume that they like just about everything (even if the last time they tried it they didn’t like it). We keep putting foods in front of them over and over and over (even if they reject it often) and always act like maybe this time they’ll like it. And then… voila!… at some point, eventually, they usually do. It took putting broccoli in front of them about 2,000 times before finally… ah ha!… they liked it. And now they eat broccoli all the time.
- We cook together whenever humanly possible.
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So… What about all of you out there in the blogosphere reading this? What do you do to instill healthy eating habits in your kids? If you don’t have kids, what do you plan to do when/if you do have kids someday? or (if you never plan to have kids) what do you think people who have kids should do? Or what did the folks who raised you do to instill good eating habits (or lack thereof!)??? Leave your thoughts here in the comments section!
Jen Slavin said… I am in the process of organizing my recipes that aren’t in cookbooks. I have clippings from magazines, written out on post-its, print outs from the Internet etc…I remember your amazing binders of recipes/meals and I’m wondering if you’d mind sharing how you organized them. Thanks! xo j
For those of you who don’t know, Jen is my college roommate and one of my best friends in the whole wide world and one of those people who I hope hope hope to live near again someday. We both lived in Boston for a few years post-college, so we kinda got spoiled by living near each other IRL (not that college isn’t real life, but in real life is just different… and it was awesome to be near her). Now we’re on opposite sides of the country, although we oftentimes seem to be living parallel lives nonetheless. And we still have a blast whenever we get together. Gosh, I love love love her. Anyway…
Jen~~ my idea for the binders came from being inspired by something that my friend Stacey showed me. It was all of her grandmother’s recipes, all neat and tidy in a 3-ring-binder. I loved it and got to thinking about doing something similar to organize all of my own recipes. Like you, I had clippings from magazines, print-outs from the internet, post-its, scraps of paper, etc., etc., etc. It was a total, total mess. What I came up with is what I have and what you’ve seen. It was one of my “Waiting Projects” (adoptive parents reading will know what I mean…. LOL!!!)… it was one of the many things I did to occupy myself during the months of waiting for Kyle and Owen to come home. That was about 5 years ago now, and I really wouldn’t change anything about my ‘system’ because it is actually working really very well. Still, though, Jen, let me know what you come up with because I’m always trying to find ways to improve upon all of this. And anybody else who is reading~~ please let Jen and I know what you do to organize your recipes/menus/cookbooks (leave a comment here on this post).
So, I have two binders. One is for recipes. The other is for menu ideas. The recipe binder is organized by categories. I bought all the paper supplies at Staples. (click on any photo to enlarge)
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Everything is in plastic sleeves (which is great for spills, drips, kitchen messes, etc.). I put all of the scraps of paper I had, and every recipe card, etc. into pages. Jen, note that the binder is open to your Dill Chicken recipe (on a “Colby” notepad piece of paper no less!)! We love that Dill Chicken — I still remember the first time I ate that in your apartment in Brookline, sitting on the floor of your family room, watching Party of Five (and I’ve learned that you can use half the stick of butter and still have it taste d-lish!!!!!!!)! I think that is a very kid-friendly recipe. Everytime we have it for dinner, K & O call it “chicken and grass” (instead of chicken and dill)! LOL!
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The Menus binder is much thinner, but is also organized by category. In there I have also included photos of great dinners I’ve made or dinner parties I’ve thrown that I want to remember. I add those in from time to time because it is the perfect (and really only!!!) place to put those sorts of photos! I also sometimes put in magazine clippings that aren’t for recipes per se, but rather are for ideas (party ideas, serving ideas, etc.)
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Within each category I have multiple sections. So, for example, in the “Soups & Salads” category I have soups, stews, crockpot dinners, salads, etc. Each has its own page. Again, everything is in plastic sleeves. Jen, note that the binder is open to the salad page (I know you love my salad dinners), and also note that the first salad on the list is your Fajita Salad recipe. I vividly remember the first time I had that salad too— again, in your apartment in Brookline– sitting at your kitchen table in your kitchen. It was so good! And I still love it so much! Anyway, so in the menus binder there are just lists of ideas. I don’t include recipes there. It is just a go-to place for ideas when I’m drawing a blank on what to make for meals that week, or when I need to come up with something to make for a pot-luck, or when we’re having company for dinner and I need to figure out what to serve. We also use it, sometimes, when we have visitors. I can give them the binder and ask them to pick something for dinner. Then we can go food shopping together, come back to the house, and make dinner together. This works really nicely and was, originally, actually the intent of this binder.
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My big problem now is that I still have all these cookbooks in my kitchen. Somehow I need to get them organized so that I remember what is in there and so that I can easily find new recipes in there too. Any ideas????
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