a healthier mac and cheese : by amy

Logan is starting commercial daycare in a few weeks.  I'm not too cray-cray about their meal plan option, so I'm thinking of packing his lunch for his 3 days/week at daycare.  But...what to pack for my picky toddler who can't quite feed himself properly with utencils just yet?  He likes to eat bread, cheese, yogurt, broccoli/carrots/peas, all fruits (except cherries) and rice/soup.  He doesn't do many pastas, quesadillas or meat very well.  So I recently started thinking about portable, well-balanced lunch options for him that can be microwavable.  It also stinks that he doesn't eat pasta too well since pasta is just so easy to make.  His current care provider says he does eat mac and cheese.  I rarely make mac and cheese because it's so rich and heavy due to the butter-laden roux.  Actually, I made it once, and neither Logan nor my husband ate it (husband was training for a bike race at the time), so I was forced to eat the entire thing.  It didn't do my waistline and chins any good.

Anyway, since mac and cheese (or elbow pasta) seemed to be the only pasta that Logan would eat for the time being, I wanted to try to make an elbow pasta dish that Logan could eat at daycare-- preferably one that's somewhat healthy.  After doing some research, I found a way of making the cheese sauce a little more heart-healthy.  Other than the altered roux, this is an original recipe by yours truly!  You can eat it right after mixing the pasta up in the cheese sauce, or if you prefer a little more texture, you can bake it with some extra cheese and panko sprinkled on top.  The latter will result in a less-saucy mac and cheese but will have a great, crispy top texture.  See below for my recipe!

 



Amy's Healthier Mac and Cheese

Ingredients:

- 1 box/pound of elbow pasta

- 2-3 cups of shredded cheese (I used a Kraft/Philadelphia Cream Cheese blend b/c it looked interesting.  You can use freshly shredded or whatever cheese your heart desires)

- 1 grated zucchini

- 1 diced onion

- 1 package of baby spinach, roughly chopped

- 1.5 cups of whole milk, divided (1 cup / 0.5 cup)

- 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour

- salt and pepper to taste (I never measure this!)

- panko breadcrumbs

Directions:

(preheat your oven to 350 degrees if you plan on baking)

- Boil the pasta: If you choose to bake this, you want to undercook it by a 2-3 minutes since it will continue baking in the oven.   If you don't plan on baking this, boil according to the box's instructions-- don't forget to season your pasta!  Drain and set aside.

- Cook the veggies:  Saute the grated zucchini and diced onions in a pan with some olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper.  Once the onions are softened, add in the package of chopped baby spinach.  Gently fold the sauteed veggies over the spinach to help wilt it and cook it down.  Once the spinach is cooked, set the pan aside.

- Make the cheese sauce: Warm 1 cup of milk in a pot over low-medium heat (do not let it boil!).  In the meantime, in a separate bowl/cup, mix the flour with the remaining 0.5 cup of milk.  Whisk to make a smooth paste.  Once the warmed milk is steaming, pour the paste mixure into the pot and turn the heat to low.  Continue whisking the mixture for 3-4 minutes until the roux becomes smooth and thick (do the back-of-the-spoon test).  Once thickened, add your shredded cheese (if baking, use 2.5 cups and save the remainder for the topping).  Keep stirring to make a smooth cheesey sauce and then take the pot off the heat.  Season with salt and pepper to your liking. 

- Combine and eat/bake!: Mix your sauteed veggies into the cheese sauce.  Then pour all of your elbow pasta into the cheese sauce and carefully combine.  You can serve it just like this.  Or, you can pour your mac and cheese into a baking dish, top it with leftover cheese, panko and a light drizzle of olive oil, and pop it into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. 

P.S.: Logan's daycare lunch menu will likely consist of a variation of the following:

- steamed dumplings / steamed veggies / fruit

- kimbap (Korean rice rolls) / fruit

- umma's healthier mac n' cheese / fruit

- rice/soup / steamed veggies / fruit

- cut up ravioli (or any stuffed pasta with ricotta cheese) / steamed veggies / fruit

veggie pasta : by jean

Everyone loves pasta.  Adults love it and so do babies. Pasta sometimes get a bad rep but not anymore!

 Barilla  has recently come out with veggie pastas.

Veggie Penne-Freshly Pureed Tomatoes and Carrots 

Veggie Farfalle-Freshly Pureed Carrots and Squash 

Veggie Rotini-Freshly Pureed Spinach and Zucchini

I used to add grated veggies into the pasta sauces so Miles gets some extra veggies, but now he gets it in the pasta as well!

We've tried the Veggie Rotini and Farfalle so far, and he's liked it.  Honestly, I can't tell much of a difference, so why not get a FULL serving of vegetables through your pasta??

fast, easy, and tasty 2 ingredient cookies : by jean

As you all may have noticed, Amy is the cook in our relationship.  She's the Amy Ina Stewart Park Chang.  She's great at looking at recipes and coming up with her own things.  I, on the other hand, HATE looking at recipes.  I'm better at picking up the phone and calling Amy or my own umma and asking how to make something.

A few months ago, I got inspired to bake some cookies.  I figured once Miles gets older, I would want to bake some cookies for him.  Besides, Amy has this amazing cookie recipe that she makes occasionally that I love, and I was particularly craving it one weekend (no, I'm not pregnant) so I decided to go for it.

She makes Ina Garten's Chocolate Chunk Cookies.  SO delicious.  There's walnuts it in so it's kinda healthy, right?!

And then I came upon this 2 ingredient cookie recipe. TWO.  It seemed too good to be true so I tried it out just now!  I can't remember who's blog I was on when they cited this recipe, but thank goodness I bookmarked it.

I present to you, 2 ingredient cookies.

Bananas & quick oats.  That's it!

If you want to add chocolate, cinnamon, nuts, you can, but you don't have to.  The best thing is, it's not only easy to make but healthy enough for your kids!

I made 2 different kinds for my first batch.  One small row of just plain bananas and oats, and then the rest made up of bananas, oats, chocolate, and walnuts.

pre baking

post baking

They are pretty good!  I'm hoping Miles will like them as well.  Since these are just bananas and oats (plus whatever extras), you can even have cookies for breakfast!

fast food on Sunday...literally.: by amy

Glad y'all enjoyed my last blog post on recipes for the working mom! (click here if you missed it)

I'm telling ya, that lemon and garlic marinade from Wegman's is magical deliciousness.  I always want to sop up all of the chicken juices in the pan with some bread.  And it's organic!  If that matters...to anyone...

So, my church had recently moved to a new building which also meant a new service time.  Sundays are always "whack" days for Logan because the napping and feeding times are all up in the air because of church (Gosh, Jesus, way to be so inconvenient for my baby!  haha, just kidding).  When he was an infant, I used to obsess a bit more over it, mostly because he was such a terrible napper to begin with.  Now that he's older, down to 1 nap a day, and eating regular adult-time meals, I feel more comfortable breaking up the schedule now and then.  But, with the new service time, I noticed that we'd be rushing home to try to feed Logan and put him down for a nap.  Sometimes, I'd debate, Should I take him straight to the crib?  Will he even nap well since he's only had a few snacks and no lunch or milk? If he sleeps, then he'll have lunch at 3pm and won't be hungry for dinner...

So, this past Sunday, I decided to pack a lunch for Logan and feed it to him at his normal lunch time instead of filling him up on snacks.  There were 2 problems: 1) What was I going to make?, and 2) When was I going to have time to make it?  Logan doesn't give me an easy time when I try to cook in the kitchen and there's no one else around to entertain him (husband typically works out in the morning).  So, I gave Logan a Sunday-special breakfast item to keep him busy (guess where it's from???):

That's right-- Wegman's organic flaxseed waffles.  Yes, it's better with syrup, peanut butter or nutella.  No, I don't give it to him with any topping.  I just rip it up into pieces and let him go at it.  This waffle takes him a little longer to eat than his usual bowl of (dry) Wegman's whole grain cereal (which we give before yogurt and fruit).  But while he kept himself busy with that, I frantically searched my refrigerator, freezer and pantry for something quick to whip up.  I also had to keep in mind that the lunch would need to be relatively "neat" (not a messy meal).  After some searching and head-scratching, I decided to make pasta with garlic, peas and parsley.  It took me 15 minutes to put together.

I used a small amount of olive oil (maybe 2-3 tbsp?), 2 cloves of garlic, some leftover parsley and peas and tri-colored pasta.  I minced the garlic and sauteed it on low heat.  Once that softened up, I added in the chopped parsley, small cup of peas, and a dash of salt and pepper.  Then, I tossed in the pasta to let the ridges pick up all of that garlicky parsleyness!

I realized I was missing a protein here, so I heated up some frozen whole wheat chicken nuggets (I keep a stash in the freezer).  I also realized the pasta was a little long, so when feeding it to him, we cut it up in half (and he did not finish this entire container).

By the time, I finished cooking and packing the lunch, the husband finished his workout and fed Logan his yogurt.  Breakfast- done!  Lunch- packed!  Church- arrived early!

Talk about a productive Sunday!

recipes for the working mom : by amy

I work about 50-60 hours a week, so having a home-cooked meal is pretty difficult.  I used to love poring over recipe books and clipping recipes for future experiments, but who has time for that now!?  I still want to cook for Logan (oh yeah, and my husband too, ha), so I've now resorted to semi-homemade cooking.

I try to have 3 things in the fridge every week for Logan: 1) some type of meat dish; 2) a soup with vegetable that I can ration out and freeze; and 3) a finger-food vegetable.  Typically, 2 out of the 3 require hardly any cooking.  Additionally, I always keep a batch of Korean-style brown/grain rice in the freezer, also rationed out into smaller containers.  Logan's typical dinner consists of a small bowl of rice in soup ("bap and gook") with some finger-food (vegetables) and cut-up meat.  We finish each dinner off with some fruit and milk.  The vegetables are often roasted sweet potatoes, carrots or some other root vegetable or frozen broccoli/peas/cauliflower that I steam or boil.  Logan LOVES peas-- I think he thinks they're snacks since they're so small and round :).

Here is my current and favorite meat dish of the week: Roasted chicken with onions in Wegman's organic lemon and garlic marinade (P.S.: can you tell what my favorite grocery store is?)

I get 2 packs of chicken-- I usually mix them up but it's typically thighs and drumsticks.  Yeah, yeah, breast is healthier... ANYway, you literally dump the chicken, 2 or 3 cut onions, and whatever roast-able vegetables you have in your fridge (carrots, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, turnips, squash, etc.), pour on this AMAZING marinade, and bake this at 400 degrees for about an hour or until your chicken is cooked through.  Done.  Another substitution for the marinade is Italian dressing.

The next semi-homemade "dish" that I made for this week was kale soup.  You're going to laugh because this isn't cooking at all: kale + chicken broth = kale soup.   Hey, I never promised any Bobby Flay recipes on this blog!  I promise I cook forreal, but when it comes to Logan's "bap and gook," sometimes I keep it pretty simple.

A little note on chicken broth: homemade is always the best, but I just don't always have time to make it.  So, when I'm in a time-crunch, I use Pacific organic low-sodium chicken broth.  In the past, I used Swanson, but Swanson's low sodium is not that low-- I always diluted it by half.  Pacific's low-sodium is legit-- no dilution needed.  They also sell them in bulk at Costco :)  I use 1 quart of chicken broth and bring it to a boil; toss in a healthy 1.5 handfuls of kale and let it simmer/boil for about 10 minutes or so, or until the leaves are pretty wilted.  Kale is a pretty tough leaf, so you want to make sure it's cooked down enough for your toddler to chew and swallow.

After it's cooked down, I take scissors and cut up all of the kale leaves so they're in smaller bite-size pieces  After it cools down a bit, I pour them into my little freezable containers.  When it's dinner time, I nuke one small bowl of rice with 2 containers of soup.  Sometimes I add a few pieces of dried seaweed ("gheem") for a little extra flavor.  You can use this same "recipe" with spinach, onion, carrots, celery (mirapoux) or use beef broth.  Again, I was feeling a little lazy last night because I was actually excited to make the next and last dish...

I saved the best for last: roasted tomato and basil soup.  The origin for this recipe was from Ina Garten (she pretty much taught me how to cook), but I made a few changes to it based on my pantry and preferences.

Around 2-3 pounds of tomatoes (Roma or vine), 1-2 bunches of basil, 3 onions, a small handful of garlic cloves (I think I used...10), and 1 or 2 cans of diced tomatoes (I've made it with either 1 or 2-- doesn't make much of a difference).  For seasonings, you need salt, pepper, 1 teaspoon of thyme and 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes.

Slice the tomatoes long ways and put them on a sheet pan in a single layer.  Drizzle olive oil and season lightly with salt and pepper.  Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes-- don't shorten this step!  The longer you roast, the more sweet, roasted tomato flavor you get.

In the meantime, dice the onions and chop up the garlic.  Cook in a deep pot for about 10-15 minutes or until your onions are browned and cooked down.  Add in the red pepper flakes, thyme and basil and cook for a few more minutes.  Once everything's cooked through, add in the 1 (or 2) cans of diced tomatoes and 1 quart of chicken stock.  Start bringing your pot to a boil.  Once your roasted tomatoes are done, carefully place them in your pot, along with any juices in your pan.

Now, you're going to let this come to a boil and then simmer (uncovered) for another 30-40 minutes.

Next, it's time to bring out the secret weapon: the Cuisinart hand-held Smart Stick.  After you've simmered, turn off the heat and start hand-blending away until the soup is silky-smooth with no chunks.  To get the right consistency, I add in about 3/4-1 cup of whole milk and stir it in.  It's not heavy/creamy like a bisque, but light and smooth.  It's also surprisingly sweet and not salty, with just a *touch* of heat down the back of your throat, thanks to the red pepper flakes.  I actually don't add any additional salt or pepper to the soup-- it's perfect just the way it is.

But, I do make a small grilled cheese sandwich, drizzled with some olive oil and sprinkle of sea salt  to dip into my luxurious tomato soup :)  Logan likes it too!  I would toast one piece of whole wheat bread with 1 slice of cheese on top.  I cut it up into little pieces, and he likes to throw them into the bowl of soup.  Then the bread absorbs all of the soup, and he semi-spoon-feeds himself. 

So, there you have it: 3 "home-cooked" dishes in 1 night and something that toddlers and parents can enjoy for the week.

This entry was pretty much a commercial for Wegman's, wasn't it?  They should pay me...