Lunch Box

I'm really big on having Babygirl eat whatever I would be eating, which is how her packed lunches end up looking eerie similar to what I would take to school.  I fear her current on-the-go lunch/snack is wholly unoriginal, but I guess there's plenty of time in the future to figure out other alternatives.

For the record, I despise peanut butter - the smell alone makes me gag.  So no, my kid will not be having  the ol' american classic peanut butter and jelly any time soon.

This is pretty much what's always on our bag.  If we have a proper lunch that day, then any of these items can be a nice healthy snack.

Lunch box from skip hop, and its a pretty perfect size for a full lunch

Lunch contents:

• 2 graham crackers
• 1 banana
• 1 small container of blueberries
• 1 sandwich (1 slice whole wheat bread, cream cheese and turkey meat)

Basically, we both end up having a similar lunch, since this is pretty much what I'd be eating anyway (except blueberries, I don't like them).  It's healthy, low fat, and fresh.  Ideally, it'd have more vegetable, but Babygirl is going through an anti cold veggies phase, which she'll hopefully grow out of soon.

Monkey Cake

We made this cake for Babygirl's first birthday party, and it was a smashing success.  See what I did there?  "Smashing", because toddlers smash pastries on their face?  Folks, I'll be here all week.

This is a great dessert because it's tasty, but is also a good "first" cake since it's more banana based and thus lower sugar.  Do you like banana bread?  Then you should like this.  I think I'd been looking forward to making the first birthday cake since we brought Babygirl home from the hospital.  And I'm not even a good baker!  Funny how we fixate on certain things

In the end it was pretty straightforward to bake, and the Smitten Kitchen instructions were flawless.  I needed some help with the actual face decorating, since it takes a smooth grip to make straight lines with frosting.  Luckily, Babygirls's uncle (also known as my younger brother) was more than happy to take over the final decorative touches.  He's got nerves of steel.

Monkey cake

Cupcake smash cake

I'm not even going to attempt to transcribe the recipe, since baking can be really complex. And really, it's a science,and you should never (never!) mess with baking ratios.   The link below will take you to the original recipe, and also 3 different ways to approach making the monkey face.  For what it's worth, we did option 2 - two 9" layers for main face, ears made of cupcakes and extra cupcake smash cake.

http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/09/monkey-cake/

Eating Out: Central Market Westgate

Went here to lunch today, and it's an okay place for toddlers.  For starters, there's no waiters, so you can eat (and leave) at your own pace.  They have booster seats and high chairs.  The vibe is relaxed, and casual.

The children's menu is terrible (too much greasy cheese), but no issue, we tend to order off the adult menu anyway.  Babygirl ate Grilled Chicken Breast, which included herb marinated chicken, grilled vegetables (zucchini, bell pepper, onion), and jasmine rice.  It was tasty and healthy, and she liked it.  Though our main problem was that I also ordered a chipotle aioli chicken sandwich for myself, and, of course, she wanted a taste of it.  The sandwich was delicious, but unfortunately too spicy for Baby girl.  So for future reference, we should order all dishes that she can eat.

They have changing tables in the bathroom, and of course, the grocery store itself is right there for any extra needs.  There's no playground, but a toddler can run around the cafe and store without attracting any attention.

Weekly Challenge 1: Tomatoes "Heirloom Tomato Pasta Salad"

Our friends over at  Read It, Eat It have decided to start a weekly challenge.  To which I say:  Bring it On!

For this week, we settled on a feature ingredient: tomatoes.  This might not have been the best on planning on our parts, since it's not tomato season yet.  But nevertheless, we cooked our favorite heirloom tomato pasta salad.  We'd made it before, pre-baby, and I was curious as to how Babygirl would react.  She liked it, but with trepidation.  It took two tries for her to eat her whole portion - first time she ate only the pasta, second time we realized that some pieces of tomato had too much skin, and when we took those out she ate the tomatoes happily.

This recipe is light, and fluffy, and really highlights the tomato flavors.  You have to use heirlooms, otherwise it won't taste as good.  In all honesty, I haven't tried it with other types of tomatoes, but I just kinda have the feeling.  Also, the creme fraiche adds a wonderful lightness to the taste.

I had some questions on the fat content of this meal, because y'all, have you seen creme fraiche?  It's the creamiest milk fat e-ver! But alas, I went OCD on the recipe and calculated the nutritional information on an excel spreadsheet (yes I did, *sigh*).  And even though both olive oil and creme fraiche are straight up fat, by the time you include all the pasta and tomatoes, it balances out to a nice 35% calories from fat content.

This recipe comes from Gourmet magazine, Sept 2009

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup creme fraiche
• 1 tbs white-wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 2 lbs heirloom tomatoes (about 4 mediums ones, the fresher more farmer's market friendly, the better)
• 1 medium shallot, finely chopped
• 1 lb fusilli or other short spiral pasta (whole wheat)
• 3/4 cup fresh chopped mixed herbs, we used basil and thyme

Directions

1. On a large bowl, whisk together oil, creme fraiche, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper.  
2. Coarsely chop tomatoes.  Toss them into bowl, along with shallots. 
3. Marinate tomatoes for at least 10 minutes
4. While tomatoes stand, cook fusilli in boiling water until al dente.
5. Drain pasta quickly and add to bowl with tomato mixture, tossing to combine
6. Cool to room temperature (do not chill), toss in herbs, and stir again

Gourmet Chicken, or Chicken with Balsamic reduction

My brother named this "Gourmet Chicken," and I can still remember the night it happened.  My parents were out of the country on a trip, so my my then teenage brother and I were home to fend for ourselves.  We came up with this variation on simple pan-fried chicken just playing around with ingredients.  And it came out really tasty!

Over the years, it's become a staple for dinner at my house because it's just so simple to make.  For those days when you don't feel like cooking, but still want that homemade goodness?  Gourmet chicken it is!  I've also simplified it over time, for efficiency's sake, though sometimes I'll add fresh Italian herbs or white wine for extra flavor.

Babygirl loves this chicken, and will munch on it happily.  My main concern with this meal is the lack of vegetables integrated into the dish.  We usually end up eating it with a side of steamed frozen veggies, if even that.  But really, we aren't fans of stand alone vegetable, too bland tasting.

Ingredients

• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into small pieces.  (with fats removed) 
• 1 large yellow onion, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar*
• 2 cups rice
• salt/pepper

Directions

1. Cook rice and set aside.  We use a rice cooker, so this step is a non-issue, but you can follow any process you prefer.**
2. On a medium/large pan, preheat olive oil and cook onions and garlic until onions look clear.  You can use more or less oil, as needed, but we've found that you need some olive oil to get the best taste from the onions.  Heart healthy cooking doesn't mean fat free, just low fat, so some oil is good.
3. Add chicken and season with salt and pepper.  Stir.
4. Once the chicken is browned and cooked all the way, add balsamic vinegar to pan.  Stir chicken and the balsamic with naturally reduce.  Do this for about 5-10 minutes, adding balsamic vinegar slowly until the chicken is coated in it.
5. Optional: After taking the chicken and onions out of the pan, you can put the rice on it and soak the leftover oil/balsamic reduction.  This "dirty" rice comes out de-li-cious.

* I'm not actually sure how much balsamic vinegar goes on this, as I've always eyeballed it.  However, I tend to be pretty liberal with the balsamic, as it reduces to a delicious consistency.
** I strongly prefer the taste of white rice, but that's just me.  Brown rice is healthier

Chicken and mushroom spaghetti

My brother visited for his college spring break, and took it upon himself to cook us a meal as a sign of appreciation.  He's one of those people who makes up recipes on the spot, and tries new things all the time.  Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't, though I've never been around when it doesn't work.  Man, he's a good cook.

He made up this recipe based on previous experiences cooking pasta.   I'd definitely make it again, as it's pretty simple in concept, though I will make some amends to use less utensils.  We had too many dishes to wash that night. And one of the golden rules of eating with a toddler is to make it simple, and clean-up easy.  I'd also like to cook it with less butter.  I love the butter taste, and think it goes great with wine (how very french), but I worry about the heart-healthiness of it all.

This was Babygirl's first time with sauteed mushrooms, and she loved them.  Soft, tasty, and a great veggie.  We already knew she liked chicken and pasta, so no issue there.

Ingredients

• 1 pack of spaghetti (we prefer whole wheat)
• 1 1/2 tbl spoons butter
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 lb chicken breast, chopped to bite size pieces
• 6 oz mushrooms, sliced thin (we used cremini)
• 1/2 bunch of parsley, chopped
• 1/2 cup heavy cream (we substituted with half n half because it's what was in the fridge)
• 1 cup white wine
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, marinate chicken with white wine, season with a little bit of salt and pepper.  Let sit for at least 10 minutes.
2. Cook pasta al dente.  Do not drain.
3. On a medium skillet, melt half the butter, and cook chicken at low temperature.  At this point, you can squeeze half a lime for extra flavor
4. On the largest skillet you own, melt the remaining butter, and cook garlic until golden brown.  Add the sliced mushrooms, and continue cooking the mushrooms until the liquid reduces away.*  Season periodically with salt and pepper
5. Add the pasta to the large skillet (do not strain, take directly from cooking pot to skillet with a slotted spoon or tongs), and add the chicken to the large skillet.
6. Add the heavy cream, parsley and remaining chicken marinade.
7. Cook for 5-10 more minutes.

* for an additional punch, add 1 or 2 shots of vodka to mushrooms after 5 minutes of cooking.  We didn't try this because of Babygirl, but my brother swears it makes the sauce tastier.

Spanish Chicken with Rice

Great easy recipe and one of our go-to dishes.  It's made in the crock-pot, which means that it takes some upfront dedication. In fact, the prep takes a bit longer than I'd like, so I reserve for a Sunday afternoon cooking session.  But after it's done, it's mushy goodness, easy to store and reheat for at least 2 weeknight dinners. I've been embracing our crock-pot a lot, so much that we recently upgraded to a brand new model.

It also passes our toddler seal of approval: heart healthy, has 3 food groups (protein, carbs and veggies), easy to chew, and easy to reheat.

Babygirl loves this dish, and will eat it heartily.  We've also experimented with adding zucchini and yellow squash, and it works pretty well.   Please note that we don't give our kid sausage, as we feel it'd be too fatty.  However, we cook it all together for the flavor.   More sausage for the adults...

The recipe is slightly adapted from the "Crock-Pot Slow Cooker Bible"

Ingredients

• 2 table spoons olive oil  * we don't use oil, just heat ingredients in a Teflon pan
• 11 oz cooked kielbasa, sliced into 1/2 inch rounds
• 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs *for a leaner option, you can use chicken breast, and it still tastes juicy
• 1 onion, diced
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 2 cups white rice 
• 1 cup diced carrots *or more
• 1 bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced
• salt and pepper for seasoning
• 1/4 teaspoon saffron threads
• 3 1/2 cups chicken broth  *preferably homemade or sodium-free
• 1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed

Directions

1. On a medium skillet, brown sausage on both sides.  Transfer to crock-pot with slotted spoon.  You could also blot them with a paper towel to reduce the fat content
2. Add onions, garlic to skillet.  Add chicken and brown on all sides.  This is easier if the chicken is cut into small pieces.  Transfer to crock-pot
3. Add rice, carrots, bell pepper, salt, black pepper and saffron to crock-pot.  Pour broth over mixture until everything is just covered.  This should be about 4 cups.  Cover, cook on HIGH for 4 hours.
4. Before serving, stir in peas.  Cook for about 15 minutes.  It helps if your crock-pot has a WARM setting.