Image by Muffet

The other night I had a craving for cauliflower, which I love, and decided to make it pureed. It was one of the first chilly evenings of the new fall season, so I planned a menu of a whole, roasted chicken, pureed cauliflower and broccoli.

The chicken was done very simply, the way we usually do it in my house, with salt, pepper, fresh rosemary and olive oil on top and a lemon and onion stuffed inside.

The broccoli was also done simply: boiled until just tender and then tossed in some olive oil and chopped garlic. A little salt thrown on top.

The pureed cauliflower, while also very simple, involved a few more steps than the other dishes, so I’ve included the recipe for you:

Pureed Cauliflower

• 1 head of cauliflower
• 1/4 cup of milk
• 1 Tbsp. of butter
• Salt and pepper to taste

Cut cauliflower into florets and steam until florets are easily pierced with a fork. In a blender or food processor, puree cauliflower, 1/4 cup of reserved cooking water, milk and butter until you get the desired texture. Feel free to play around with the amounts of cooking water and milk to get the consistency you like. Serve with salt and pepper.

Another option, which I often do, but did not the other night, is to add freshly grated parmesan during the pureeing process. Fresh parmesan makes everything better in my opinion.

*This recipe is also great for young babies who are just starting on solid foods. It’s probably best to leave out the extra salt for young babies and don’t go too heavy on the pepper, but everything else about the recipe can remain the same.

My kids (ages 6 and 3) were very happy to be served chicken and gobbled that up no problem. Broccoli happens to be the only green vegetable my son (the 3-year-old) really likes, and so he ate a bunch of that. Broccoli also happens to be just about the only green vegetable that my daughter (the 6-year-old) really doesn’t like, so she didn’t eat much, if any, of that.

When it came to the cauliflower, I think both of the kids each had a little taste, but that was it. This is one of those times where the ‘Golden Rule’ of feeding, which states that kids need to see a new food 15 – 20 times before they’ll try it, applies. I don’t serve cauliflower too often, let alone pureed cauliflower, so I’ll give them a pass this time (and maybe the next 14 times as well – but no more than that!).

Image by VirtualErn

My husband was not home for dinner last night and so I wanted to make something quick and easy. Lucie asked for pasta and meatballs, which I did not feel like having, so I settled on pasta and sausage instead.

There is a dish I make fairly regularly that basically consists of Farfalle (bowtie) pasta, chicken sausage, peas and mushrooms. When I went to the store for the sausage, they did not have any mushrooms, so I decided (in the interest of time and convenience) I would leave them out. When I got home, I realized that my last onion had gone bad and my neighbor wasn’t home to lend me one, so I had to ditch that part of the recipe as well. This was turning into a pretty boring pasta dish!

I rummaged through my fridge to see what else I had and found some organic baby carrots. I decided I would add those. What I ended up with was pasta with chicken sausage, peas and carrots…and it was actually pretty tasty. I have to admit though, seeing the peas and carrots mixed together made me feel like I had been transported back to the 1950’s.

Here’s the recipe:

• 1/2 lb. Farfalle pasta
• 3/4 lb. of chicken sausage, cooked and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1/2 bag of frozen peas
• 1 cup of organic baby carrots, cut into small pieces
• 8 oz. of chicken broth*
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• Freshly grated parmesan cheese, to taste

Put water on for pasta. While water is beginning to boil, cook the chicken sausage in a little olive oil on the stovetop until cooked through and set aside. Put the carrots in the pan and saute until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, cut sausage into 1/2 inch pieces. Put sausage back into the pan with the carrots and add the chicken broth. Keep the sausage, carrots and broth on simmer while pasta is cooking. When pasta has about 5 minutes left, add the frozen peas to the broth mixture and continue to simmer until pasta is cooked. Drain pasta and add all ingredients together.

Serve in shallow bowls with freshly grated parmesan and black pepper on top.

Very kid-friendly and fast dinner!

*I buy Pacific Natural Foods Organic Free Range Chicken Broth in 8-ounce packages and use one of those when I make a recipe like this.

Photo by Princessrica

Yesterday morning I asked Lucie, my five-and-a-half year old daughter, what she wanted for dinner. Her reply: “spaghetti with a little sauce on the top and two meatballs on the side.” Okay so, spaghetti and meatballs. I was fine with that since it was chilly and rainy outside and it’s a quick enough meal to make.

I made dinner pretty quickly by using half store-bought and half homemade foods. The spaghetti was Barilla Plus, one of my favorite brands of pasta. The marinara sauce was from one of the many local Italian pork stores in my Brooklyn neighborhood, Esposito’s. The meatballs were homemade by me using about 90% of my mother-in-law’s recipe. And then I made broccoli on the side (steamed with fresh lemon juice and salt on top).

When I served Lucie she said, “that’s not how I wanted it” and she promptly moved one meatball to one side of her plate and the other meatball to the other side. She clearly had a picture in her mind of exactly what she wanted her dinner to look like when I had asked her that morning. So funny to me, but just goes to show you how particular kids can be about their food…even those who are considered ‘great eaters.’

Anyway, Lucie ate both of her meatballs, a bunch of spaghetti and a couple of pieces of broccoli. Ronan, my two-and-a-half year old son refused any meatballs and ate a bunch of spaghetti and a bunch of broccoli. I don’t really like broccoli. I much prefer broccoli rabe, and cook that often. But one day when I made broccoli I noticed that my son ate it up and particularly liked the tiny florets we dubbed ‘baby broccoli.’ Many of you know that my son is not a great eater. Do a search for “Ronan” on this blog and you will find numerous posts over the course of the first three months of feeding him solid foods when he literally would not taste a thing. So now that I know he enjoys eating broccoli, I am resigned to making it once a week or so.

Here is my “recipe” for meatballs. It may not be exact, but that’s the fun of it!:

• About 1.5 lbs. ground beef and pork mixed
• 1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 big handful of fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon of freshly ground fennel seeds (optional)
• Salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix with your hands until well-combined. Form into balls about the size of a golf ball and cook on the stovetop in a little olive oil. Turn the meatballs, browning on approximately three sides before dropping them into your favorite sauce to finish cooking.

I used about half the meatball mixture for last night’s dinner and froze the other half for another time.

For a more exact recipe, I always trust my friend Jennifer Perillo at In Jennie’s Kitchen:

Mama’s Meatballs

I’ve posted about my new favorite fish recipe already, but I made different sides with it the other night, so I wanted to give you a run-down of how the kids liked everything.

Wednesday night we had:

• Tilapia cooked my new favorite way
• Sugar snap peas, steamed with a little salt
• Brown rice
• Leftover sweet potato “fries”

Lucie (5 1/2) was feeling a bit sick, so she mostly ate the brown rice with some butter on top and a bunch of the snap peas. No fish, no sweet potatoes. Oddly enough, my very un-picky daughter does not like apple sauce, sweet potatoes or macaroni and cheese.

Ronan (2 1/2), who many of you know almost never eats any dinner, ate a lot of rice, a few snap peas and a bunch of sweet potatoes. I don’t think either kid touched the fish, unfortunately.

The sweet potatoes I made came from an Epicurious recipe that I found ages ago:

Roasted Sweet Potato Slices

They’re pretty good. But I noticed the other day that the recipe says not to peel the potatoes and none of the reviews said that they should be peeled, so I made them this time unpeeled. Not a good idea. They really need to be peeled. So make sure if you do make this recipe you peel the potatoes and cook them a good long time so that they’re nice and crisp.

Image by Mharrsch

Last night I made this very easy recipe for fish (which I’ve reprinted below) that my mother gave me about a month or so ago. I think I’ve made it three times since she’s given it to me. You can use it with any mild white fish. I happen to buy tilapia most often for my family since it’s so inexpensive and tends to have no problems with mercury or other contaminants (see The Environmental Defense Fund’s Seafood Selector for more information).

I usually serve the fish dish over brown rice and last night we also had brussels sprouts.

Lucie (age 5) who usually eats a great dinner, was not so interested last night. She had a few brussels sprouts, which she loves, despite the fact that they are clearly not in season right now and were very bland-tasting. She also had a few of the grape tomatoes that were on top of the fish, and maybe a bite or two of rice and fish. Ronan (age 2), who never eats dinner, ate a bunch of fish and rice and maybe one brussels sprout.

My verdict: Fairly successful

Here is the fish recipe:

1 container of grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1-2 lbs. white fish
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Sliced lemon (2 under each fillet)
3 cloves of garlic (thinly sliced)
1.5 Tbsp. drained capers

Preheat oven to 400° F. Line baking pan with foil, drizzle with 1 Tbsp. oil. Salt and pepper fish. Put fish skin-side down with lemon slices underneath. Heat oil in frying pan, saute garlic for 30 seconds, add tomatoes and a little salt, stir for 1 minute. Add in capers. Spoon over fish. Cover with foil and crimp edges. Bake 12-15 minutes or until fish flakes with a fork.

The lemon, oil and tomatoes make a nice sauce that you can spoon over rice or cous cous when you’re ready to serve the meal. I added a little white wine last night as well, which of course never hurts!

My friend requested this recipe from me yesterday and I realized you can only find it in the November 2007 issue of the Small Bites newsletter entitled, oddly enough, Parsnips. Who would have thought?

So here is the recipe reprinted for you. Go forth and bake!

Yummy Pumpkin Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

3 tsp. pumpkin pie spice or 1 tsp. each cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup oil

1 15 oz. can of pumpkin or 1 cup fresh pumpkin puree

4 eggs

1/2 cup chopped nuts and/or 1/2 raisins (optional)

Preheat oven to 350° F. Use muffin liners or spray-on oil to line muffin pans. Blend all ingredients in a bowl and mix at low speed until moistened. Beat at medium speed for two more minutes. Fill muffin pans about 3/4 full and bake 20-25 minutes. Makes two dozen muffins.

*I must give credit where credit is due and tell you that my daughter’s incredible preschool teacher is the one who gave me this recipe about a year and a half ago. Thanks Aleksandra!

Image by Brighterworlds

Here are a few links to some of my favorite recipes as well as recipes I’ve bookmarked but have not yet tried:

Pasta with Tuna and Olives

Summer Minestrone with Fresh Basil - One of my favorites

Lemony Ricotta Pasta with Basil

Lamb ‘Falafel’ with Lemony Tahini Sauce

Image by Wordridden

Last night we had a pasta and lentils dish that I make about once a week in the fall and winter. It’s super easy and really delicious.

Lucie (age 5) ate about half of what I served to her. Ronan (age 2) ate a few bites.

My verdict: Somewhat successful

Here’s the recipe:

3/4 cup of dried lentils, rinsed

2-3 Tbsp. olive oil

3 carrots peeled and chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 clove of garlic, chopped

8 oz. pre-made tomato sauce (canned, purchased or homemade) – I always use a bolognese sauce from a local Italian market for this recipe.

8 oz. chicken or vegetable broth

3/4 lb. of small pasta like farfalline or egg bows

Fresh parsley

Grated parmesan and salt and pepper to taste

• Boil the lentils in a pot of water just covering the beans until all the water is absorbed, set aside
• Meanwhile, put a pot of water on for the pasta
• Heat the olive oil in a saute pan and add the garlic
• Cook until the garlic is browned then add the carrots and celery
• Cook the carrots and celery until they begin to soften, approximately 5 minutes
• Add the lentils and stir approximately 1 minute
• Add the broth and tomato sauce to the lentil mixture, stir and simmer
• Just before pasta is done cooking, add the fresh parsley to the lentils
• Drain pasta and add a little of the lentil mixture to keep the pasta from sticking
• Serve the pasta in bowls with lentil sauce on top
• Add grated parmesan and salt and pepper to individual bowls to taste

This whole recipe takes about 30 minutes. I always let my kids add their own parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to their bowls. And, as I mentioned earlier, I use a meat sauce when I make this dish as well as chicken broth, but the dish can very easily be made vegetarian by using vegetable broth and marinara sauce.

I just found a Thanksgiving recipe in The New York Times online that is perfect for kids, even the youngest eaters.

Make sure you leave out the honey if your baby is under a year old. And feel free to use whole-fat yogurt if you are making this recipe solely for a child under the age of two.

Sweet Potato Puree With Apples