Posts filed under 'Who ate it?'
I used Cate O’Malley’s recipe from Just Baking for these muffins, although it was Mub’s post about Peanut Butter Banana Bread that got me thinking about that flavor combination for the boys.
I made a few small changes to Cate’s recipe, using white whole wheat flour, 3 very large bananas, and almost a whole cup of Simply Jif (a lower sugar peanut butter). I also went a little light on the chocolate chips — I used closer to half a cup than a full cup.
Cate’s recipe is great; nice and dense without being heavy, and lovely for a breakfast muffin. The banana flavor was prominent, with the peanut butter just an undertone. The recipe is perfectly sized to make a full set of 24 muffins. But best of all, both boys devoured them.
I think the sugar can be reduced a bit (don’t I always say that?) because the very-ripe bananas add so much sweetness. Next time I’ll try adding some flax seed meal to boost the fiber as well.
October 16th, 2008
I was cutting up tomatoes and basil for a simple salad when I realized the colors and size of the tomato slices would make pretty flowers. The boys seemed unimpressed with my handiwork, but we had less resistance than usual to trying something new.
Surprisingly, A. opted to try the basil leaf first, and then decided that he liked the Golden Rave tomatoes better than the red Juliets — the yellow ones are slightly sweeter and less acidic. We got G. to actually chew once while a tomato slice was in his mouth, which we took as progress. He is very fond of placing an item in his mouth for a second — avoiding as much contact with it as possible — then removing it and telling us that he tried it and didn’t like it.
August 24th, 2008
I sometimes use divided plates for the kids when the meal has many separate parts. My thinking is that it may make it easier for them to try one thing on their plate, and not be put off entirely if the other pieces of the meal go untouched. G. ate one bite of the pita, and was intrigued by the pocket he created; it wasn’t enough to make him eat more. That single bite was the only bit of this meal that was eaten by either of my boys. But G. ate his weight in applesauce, too.
The falafel balls are new to me, made by Yarden and found in the freezer section of my kosher butcher. They were OK — similar to what you make from the Near East mix. I still prefer the Amons brand falafel if I’m going to buy them frozen.
My hummus recipe never fails me — yum. I should make it more often.
And the tzatziki from Kalyn’s Kitchen didn’t turn out, but it’s my fault. I bought a seedless cucumber (which actually had a ton of seeds that I needed to remove), but forgot to salt it ahead of time to draw out the water. When I pureed it in my food processor, I saw that there was a lot of water and I still didn’t bother to drain it. So my yogurt dip is more of a sauce. The flavor is nice, though. I’ll try it again and do it properly another day.
The best part of preparing this meal is that I actually remembered to shred the Gruyère for Thursday’s cauliflower gratin while I had my food processor out. I’m still patting myself on the back over that one.
I am dreading cleaning up my kitchen tonight. What you can’t see in this photo is that my dishwasher is full of clean dishes that need to be put away, and I have a whole sinkful of dirty ones to take their place.
May 20th, 2008
I try to present vegetables to the kids in an attractive way, hoping to keep their exposure to foods they have previously refused very light, fun, and non-confrontational. I never fight with them about food, and just try not to make a big deal out of it if they eat something or not. I figure if they see their family and friends enjoying a range of foods — eating them because they taste good, and also because they help our bodies feel good — they’ll eventually (20 years from now?) come around.
We are big Jenga fans, so I thought they’d get a kick out of playing red pepper Jenga with J. and I at dinner! They loved the idea, but were happy to just watch J. and I play and eat the stack.
May 17th, 2008
Last night was a simple dinner of grilled cheese (made with shredded mozzarella, the boys’ favorite) and cut-up red pepper and carrots. A. came in as I was starting to make the sandwiches and was just despondent over what I was cooking. He wanted me to make macaroni and cheese instead. (I think he was upset that this was going to be another dinner he skipped — he hadn’t eaten a single bite of last night’s meal.) To his credit, he talked to me about it rather than just throwing a tantrum. I explained that one of my jobs was to help him learn about foods that he likes and that will help him grow and be healthy. So while the sandwiches were cooking we made a list together of things he likes for me to “cook” for lunch and dinner:
- macaroni & cheese (from a box only)
- cream cheese sandwich
- yogurt
- noodle soup (my chicken soup, strained, with noodles)
- plain pasta with Parmesan or shredded mozzarella
Then we looked over the short little list and I asked if he could see now why it would be fun to be able to add more foods into rotation — especially something like grilled cheese, which has the bread and cheese he already knows he likes. My sweet 4 year old just looked at the list, and giggled. “You’re right mom, that’s not a lot of stuff,” he said. But he still ate nothing for dinner.
April 2nd, 2008
Last night we had a relatively rare dinner playdate — my boys go to bed early (by 7 PM) and therefore eat early. It’s generally not conducive to late afternoon/early evening get-togethers with friends. Last night went so smoothly, though, and even after Vicki and Rhys left around 6:30 I was still able to get A. and G. into bed by 7:10. Go me! And go Rhys… he is the youngest blogger I know (he really writes his own entries!).
The beautiful vegetable-laden pizza above was clearly not made by my children. Rhys’ pizza featured an unconventional cheddar cheese layer with sauce on top, plus scallions, mushrooms, and red peppers. A.’s has just mozzarella. G. branched out and added mozzarella plus what seemed like half a pound of mushrooms. The boys all had fun and actually ate their creations, which is a first for my kids (we’ve done the make-your-own pizza thing before, which they then refused to eat). Rhys is a good influence on them.
While I was running around getting the sauce and such, I drafted Vicki into making a pizza for us grown-ups to share. Here’s what she came up with — it was delicious.
And the glass of wine we had with it didn’t hurt, either.
The cherry on top is that all my vegetables are now already prepped for tonight’s stir fry — red, yellow, and green peppers, scallions, and mushrooms. Yum, twice.
March 11th, 2008
In this past weekend’s edition of the Wall Street Journal, Raymond Sokolov wrote an article about two popular books in mommy circles right now: The Sneaky Chef, by Missy Chase Lapine; and Deceptively Delicious, by Jessica Seinfeld.
In “Playing With Their Food,” Sokolov perfectly captures the reasons why I choose to serve vegetables in a recognizable form, even if the kids don’t usually eat them — I’m hoping that with repeated exposure, and seeing me eat them, they will learn to love (or heck, just tolerate) them. I can’t stand terms like “sneaky” and “deceptive” being given a positive spin when you’re talking about catering to kids. I do understand that to some, adding hidden veggies to meals is more about nutrition (get healthy stuff into them any way you can), and less about teaching them to enjoy those add-ins. But to me, blessed with two healthy, active boys, it is all about encouraging healthy habits they will take with them as they grow into adults.
Sokolov points out:
It may well be that industrially packaged macaroni and cheese inoculated with white-bean purée (Lapine) or home-boiled macaroni with reduced fat cheddar and some cauliflower purée (Seinfeld) will give your grade-schoolers a healthful, adequate meal, but such low-end distortions of a classic dish do not help the girl or boy at the receiving end evolve into a grown-up eater.
He goes on to say:
[T]hese books promote gastronomic regression. With their occult purees, they re-introduce their targets’ tastebuds to baby food. Indeed, Ms. Lapine actually recommends commercial baby food as a choice for parents too pressed to boil and mash a sweet potato.
Ultimately, Sokolov recommends “Culinary transparency. No sneaking around. Serve as much real food as your schedule permits, and use each dish as a gentle advertisement for adult taste.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.
January 28th, 2008
Last night was another “I give up” moment when I served lasagna for dinner. I altered my usual recipe slightly, using Hodgson Mill whole wheat noodles instead of my favorite Barilla oven-ready sheets, and one package each of frozen chopped spinach and broccoli, when I normally just use one package of spinach. Since my normal lasagna is one of maybe five dishes that I cook that J. looks forward to, I should have known better than to mess with a good thing.
It pretty much goes without saying that neither kid ate the lasagna. The boys rarely eat anything I cook. No, really. I mean almost nothing. So I just cook and serve and then if they don’t eat, well, at least I’ve exposed them to something other than plain pasta. Last night G. ate nothing, and A. ate yogurt because apparently he tried the lasagna while I was out of the room, and J. felt that was enough to warrant a change of menu for him. I wouldn’t have been such a softy.
J. sat at the table, eager to dig into the lasagna. He took a big bite. And was horrified. He choked something out like “It smelled so good and I was so looking forward to this…” and then basically told me it sucked. But not in those words. Personally, I liked the slightly more pronounced, wheaty taste of the noodles. But perhaps it was the addition of broccoli that took the lasagna over the edge from having subtle spinach to being a full-blown vegetable lasagna.
Call me a baby, but having the three other people I was eating with totally reject the food I had prepared was enough to bring angry tears to my eyes. That was when I left the table and A. finagled the yogurt substitution. But hey, it’s just dinner, people. I pulled myself together, scraped everyone’s plates into the garbage, and then carefully wrapped up portions of the remaining lasagna to freeze. I know my mom will love it, and I bet my sister, who is vegetarian, will too. It’s obviously so much more satisfying to cook for people that enjoy what you’ve lovingly prepared for them.
I think there’s a lesson in all of this, and it’s not that 1.) my family ought to be more grateful; or 2.) I ought to be less sensitive. (Although, those are both valid points.) The lesson is that if you’re making changes to a recipe you already like, only change one thing at a time. I have a feeling J. would have been fine with the whole wheat noodles, and it was the broccoli he didn’t care for. But I’m not sure, since there are two variables. I will make my lasagna again using the whole wheat noodles, but I’ll keep everything else the same. And then I’ll post the recipe.
January 22nd, 2008
The thing about planning meals for the week is that they’re just a plan, not set in stone. Since J. was home on vacation this week, I thought we’d stick pretty closely to the meals I outlined for the week. Not to be.
Wednesday the kids were being ornery and J. had no interest in the eggplant. Since I hadn’t purchased the ingredients yet, I scrapped that plan and fed the kids yogurt (a favorite meal for them). Then we ordered Indian from Mughal Palace. Yum, and no dishes to wash. The next day I went to the supermarket to pick up eggplant anyway, thinking I’d make the dish over the weekend instead. But the eggplants all sounded hollow and were mushy near the stem, so I passed on that recipe entirely.
Friday I did cook the soup in the afternoon, and I was planning on serving leftover rotisserie chicken with it (for me and G., since A. and J. won’t eat it). Then we had a late-afternoon playdate and the boys wound up eating there. J. didn’t feel like having the soup because I’d forgotten some sort of bread to have with it. I’m going to make beer bread today for the first time and we’ll have that with the soup for lunch.
A bright spot: My in-laws brought us a few bottles of wine from Panacea Wine Co., a 2005 cabernet sauvignon which was really easy to drink — mostly because it was very light and barely dry. I thought it was fresh-tasting and enjoyed it, though I see it’s not getting great reviews online for the price. (But hey, free to me!)
Tomorrow I’ll be doing cooking for New Year’s Eve, which we spend with friends on Long Island. I’m making cold sesame noodles, some kind of chicken satay, guacamole, and kitchen-sink cookies. Will be posting many recipes, I promise!
December 29th, 2007
It’s a good thing I enjoy cooking, because sometimes the comments out of my kids are less than encouraging.
A., who once described a skunk’s spray as smelling as bad as “sauce,” walks into the kitchen as I’m finishing up tonight’s pepper steak. He wrinkles his nose and declares, “That smells disgusting!” Thanks, bub. We have had many, many discussions about how not everyone has the same taste, but that there are polite ways of saying “I don’t care for the way it smells.” I’m thinking of teaching him to say “That’s not my bag, baby” a la Austin Powers. Then at least I’ll get a chuckle out of the opinion I didn’t ask for.
G. was happily eating white rice and challah (whoo hoo! white-carb nutritious!) when he put down his spoon and declared, “This is terrible.” Now, he’s 2 and not always totally clear when he speaks. So I said, “Um, what?” Nope, I didn’t hear wrong at all.
My MIL and GIL (grandma-in-law!) loved dinner, though, so I am once again satisfied that there are people in the world who enjoy my cooking. Just not my kids.
December 20th, 2007
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I'm Dara, the chick in the kitchen. Living in the suburbs of Manhattan with my two boys, ages 3 and 5, and husband. Trying to feed my family something more diverse than a different shape of pasta each night. Reach me at .