You say potato, I say potahhh-to!

Last night was one of my easy-peasy, really hard to fail meals: baked potato bar and a big salad, both things that everyone in this house loves as they encompass the food groups of starch and Ranch dressing.
Most of the time, during the winter, I just do Cesar salads since you have to spend an arm and a leg to get halfway decent tomatoes. This time, the dinner gods were smiling, because the little cherry tomatoes were on sale, and with a simple meal, I prefer to punch up the salad at least a little. A nice mix of lettuces, little cherry tomatoes, some grated cheese and a sprinkle of bacon pieces to add some protein and make it a filling salad.
With the 'taters, I baked them off in the oven instead of the quickie microwave. I figure if they are going to be the star of the meal, they should be presented at their best. Moist inside with a crispy skin is the way to go. Open 'em up and then let everyone fill them as desired from a selection of butter, sour cream, cheese and bacon. Salt and pepper to finish them off. Everyone is happy. Everyone eats. And mama feels like she didn't even have to cook. It's a win-win situation!

Stroganoff a strike-it-off?

In hopes of improving El's interest in food and maybe getting her to vary her diet some, we sat down last week and went through one of my cook books looking for things she thought might be good. I was surprised at many of her choices, including a chicken pie with leeks in it because she has refused to even touch my version of chicken pot pit. We'll see how that one plays out in a couple of weeks.
Tonight we had chicken stroganoff, which was a recipe she had picked from the cookbook. Since I tend to use recipes as starting points and not engraved in stone like the ten commandments of cooking, my final result wasn't exactly like the book showed. The biggest difference was that the recipe suggest rice pilaf as a side dish, and in my esteemed opinion, stroganoff is supposed to be served on egg noodles.

Otherwise, it was pretty similar to the more classic beef stroganoff. Here's what I did: Put a pot on to boil for the noodles. Add about a teaspoon of salt to the water and toss in the noodles when it's at a boil and cook until al dente.

While that's going dice some chicken, sprinkle with salt, pepper, rosemary and paprika. Slice about a quarter of an onion. Saute both in a skillet with a couple of tablespoons of butter or canola oil. Meanwhile, slice a handful of mushrooms (if you have a family that likes them, use as many as makes you happy. I used them sparingly since I'm the only one that eats them), and finely dice some garlic.

When the chicken is brown, add all that to the pan and saute until the mushrooms are soft and the garlic fragrant. When it's almost done, add a bit more butter, then a couple of tablespoons of flour to the pan. Cook for a couple of minutes, then whisk in some milk. Somewhere between half a cup and a whole cup. Just enough to make a bit of sauce. At this point, a took some out of the pan for Bill, because he hates sour cream. For the rest of it, add about half a cup of sour cream. Sit gently until it's melted in.

Toss the stroganoff with the cooked noodles and serve. Voila! Chicken stroganoff. It was relatively quick and easy to make, too. And other than the mushrooms, I almost always have the ingredients on hand.

We served it with a Cesar salad. Sounds nummy, yes?

I thought so, but we all know my opinion doesn't mean squat around here. The moment of truth for the one that picked the meal:













S0, what did the masses think? Well, Sam was quite rude and refused to even try it, so his opinion doesn't count. As for the other two, it got two thumbs up!



So, chicken stroganoff was definitely not a strike-it-off and we'll be adding it to our repertoire. A definite dinner win!

Shaken, not stir fried.

I declared a day off for myself today and vegged with a book, a CSI marathon and too much chocolate. Dinner needed to be off the cuff and something guaranteed not to strain my brain too much. So I went for a quick and easy stir fry. It's something that can be made out of almost any combo of meat/no meat and veggies and rice/noodles and it's quick to prep and cook. Tonight's stir fry was thinly sliced chicken, with broccoli, carrots and onions tossed with a garlic, ginger and soy sauce marinade served over rice. Sounds impressive, yes? In reality, I had it all chopped and sliced and diced in about the same amount of time its going to take me to write this post. And it cooked in about the same amount of time. Major flaws in tonight's dinner included me not putting enough water in the rice, so it was a little crunchy and not cutting the soy sauce with enough water, so the dish was a little salty. Maybe I melted a few too many brain cells with the CSI marathon.

As for the family, no one openly complained and Bill actually likes stir fry, I think. The kids at least at the rice and voluntarily ate a veggie or two. I'm pretty sure I saw Emma eat a bite of chicken, as well. She complained that it was too sour, which is her complaint when she knows a food is too something, but isn't sure what. And she was right, it was a little too salty.

Overall, I was just thrilled that I didn't hear any moans, groans or protests of "Yuck! I don't like that!" even if it wasn't the best dinner I've ever put on the table.

Beans, beans the magical fruit...

One of the few really healthy foods that Ellie will eat on a regular basis is black beans. She loves them. Always asks for seconds. Unless I make black bean soup, which makes me irrationally angry. Because I love black bean soup and it's so stinkin' good for you and SHE LIKES BLACK BEANS DAMMIT SO WHY WON'T SHE EAT THE SOUP? Recent comments about soup from cans has led me to the conclusion that she doesn't like black bean soup because it doesn't come from a can.
Now, I love me some canned beans. Nothing makes a quickie dinner like some black beans and cheese quesadillas. I have no idea if that word is spelled right or not as Firefox apparently doesn't do Spanish.
Anyway, beans from a can are like one of God's little gifts. But when I make black bean soup, I like to make it from dried beans, and therein lies the kicker for Ellie, I think.

So, imagine my shock and surprise when I made black bean soup for the first time this winter and not only did Ellie eat it, but so did everyone else. It was a Christmas miracle of dinnertime proportions! And I made quesadillas with a different kind of cheese, which they all voluntarily sampled and liked.

Now, Ellie and Sam had to play with their quesadilla triangles and pretend that they were wearing bow ties. But hey, I can deal with a little bit of horse play with the food so long as it gets eaten.

Black bean soup, topped with cheddar cheese and sour cream, served with cheese quesadillas, a dinner success. And really that huge glop of sour cream is a trick of the camera angle. I swear.

If you're interested here's what I did:
Quick soak the beans by boiling them for a few minutes then letting them sit and soak for several hours. Drain and rinse.
In the same pot, saute sliced onion and bell peppers until tender. Add garlic, cumin, cilantro and a dash of chili powder (like cayenne or smoked chili powder not the kind you flavor chili with). Add the beans and a quart or so of water to the pot and let simmer for about 2 hours. About 20 minutes before serving, check for salt. It's going to need a bunch so keep tasting until it tastes right. Add a bit of pepper and a couple of spoons of salsa and it should be good to go. Serve with cheese, sour cream and salsa as desired.
Sides can be quesadillas, salad, corn chips or nothing at all.

If you just gotta have some meat in there, a bit of leftover ham is good as is a bit of good sausage. But we like it as a protein rich, but meatless meal.

I could do anything for meatloaf, but I won't do that...

It was a meat and 'taters night here, so the masses were mostly happy. Tonight we had meatloaf, rosemary and parmesan roasted potatoes, Italian green beans sauteed with onion and tossed with almonds and parmesan and a salad. It sounds like a guaranteed win, right? It was a dinner paradise by the votive candlelight, according to Bill.

















But honestly, I never know with the kids. It's one meal that I know Bill will not only eat, but enjoy, though. Tonight I only had Sam having a whinefest about not liking it and refusing to carry his own plate to the table. But, a couple of hours of sledding and an hour at the barn and an hour in a restaurant playland makes for a tired boy. And I think he was just worn out. He ate decently.

Ellie served as my sous chef. I thought that might encourage her to eat a little better. Hm. Maybe.

















She ate a little bit of meatloaf, the insides of her potatoes and salad.

Emma ate her meatloaf, her potatoes and one green bean.

In this house, that counts as a dinner win.

And yes, I know she's wearing PJs. We'd been sledding and she changed back into them when we got home to get warm.

Like the world needs another food blog

Really, though, can you have too many food blogs? I think not. Besides, in my own mind, I am a genius (that's Wile E. Coyote, Suuuuuuper genius, thank you very much), and I think that ramblings, complaints and the frustrations of a food lover and wannabe foodie stuck with a family of picky eaters and out and out food haters.

Case in point, in honor of our glorious snowfall today, I thought a pot of turkey noodle soup would hit the spot. And hey, there was leftover turkey from Christmas in the freezer just waiting to be used. Ah, a pot of soup simmering away on the stove all day. It smelled yummy. When we were ready to eat, I went down, fished all the meat out of the pot and stuck the immersion blender in. Voila! The veggies magically disappeared. What? Quelle horror, you say! Yep. It's pretty much a crime against humanity to puree the vegetables into oblivion in soup. But if I don't, the kids won't eat them and will whine about them even being in their bowls. This way at least they eat the damned veggies and maybe get a vitamin or two that didn't look like a gummy bear.

So, ok, turkey noodle soup with pureed veggies. We eat chicken noodle soup once or twice a month in the winter and it's not like it's something exotic. The kids come down, see what's for dinner and immediately start moaning and groaning. "I don't want that!" says El. "I hate chicken noodle soup!" says Sam. "It's too hot!" He immediately opened the fridge to look for something else, whereupon I snarled at all of them that this was dinner and they could take it or leave it.

Sam did end up eating his. The girls picked at theirs, and when I sighed and said "But you like chicken noodle soup and this tastes the same," Ellie said "Well, I like it when it comes from a can."

You see what I'm up against here? I'm not even trying to feed them anything exotic. I just want us to eat real food, limit the canned and processed stuff, although I make no promises that we will never eat convenience food, and all in all get my family to learn to enjoy food. Good food. Healthy food. Food with flavor and color and some damned nutrition in it. Something not mac and cheese and chicken nuggets and canned chicken noodle soup.

Hopefully along the way I don't loose my mind.