I love mishmashed pasta dishes like this one. With Israeli couscous, bacon, artichokes, corn, mushrooms, fresh herbs, some lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil… What’s not to like?

Or how about this one with kale, toasted pine nuts, a bit of cream, and parmesan? Simple. Clean. (Recipe here)

I love to take my big skillet out and toss some pasta with leftovers like roasted vegetables, sausage, chicken, crème fraiche,  and such. (Recipe here)

Or to make a fresh batch with wild mushrooms, some heavy cream, kale, and tomatoes.(Recipe here)

With only kale and cream, it’s good stuff too!

(We do like kale in this household. Recently, we’ve been eating it raw. Good, good.)

Here we have orzo, tomatoes, feta, black olives, green olives, mint, oregano, pine nuts… (Recipe here)

And here we have corn, cauliflower, kale, pesto, tomatoes, and parmesan.

In this one: farro, garbanzo beans, roasted peppers, steamed cauliflower, Israeli couscous. All good stuff!

But my children… The ones that grew inside my body… The ones who carry my genes… (Well, 50% of them), they like pasta… plain.

They like Mac and cheese too, of course.

There is no punch line to this post.

***

Sometimes I feel as glamorous as a chicken meatball.

Ehhh, let me explain. Where should I begin?

Maybe from the end. Yes, the end. That’s was when I heard the sweet sound of the word “yummy”. It came out of the mouth of a sweet, but stubborn, and picky, little boy, who mostly likes to eat cheese with carbs. Cheese pizza, pasta with cheese, crackers with cheese, cheese tortillas, cheese panini… and hot dogs.

Yes, that’s a better start. To tell you right away that this story has a good ending. After all, we all love a story with a conflict, problem solving, unconditional love, and a happy ending, no?

Because, you see, lately, I’ve been feeling very unglamorous when it comes to cooking. I’ve got to a point where any of the following can get the creative joyful cooking wind out of me (people with no little kids be warned, there’s poopy involved!):

1. there’s a toddler in my house with a daily afternoon routine of trying-to-poop-for-45-minutes episodes accompanied by crying, whining, screaming, nagging, while trying to hold the poopy in, which makes me want to scream sometime “let it go”.

2. a first grader who turns his nose away from most food that is not of the “cheese & carbs combo”- family as mentioned previously with an occasional smoothie, yogurt stick , and a few types of fruit which makes me want to pull my hair out sometimes

3. an almost daily dinner time with one or both kids whining and/or complaining and/or making constant silly noises and/or keep jumping from their chairs and mainly not leaving my husband and me a chance to complete one sentence or eat peacefully for more then 2 straight minutes which makes me want to poke my eyes out sometimes (Thank god for date nights)

4. and a very rare appearance of re-energizing words like “yummy” or “thank you for dinner” or “dinner was great” or “you’re a wonderful cook, darling”, or even “that cake you made is awesome, mom” and that sort of stuff, you know… which makes me think I’m being taken for granted sometimes

5. before making dinner I need to multi-task like crazy. For example, play chess with my son using the left side of my brain while reading a book to my girl with the right side, or whatever’s left of it, while poopy episodes interrupt in the middle, that basket full of laundry staring at me, and other fun stuff, which makes me dream of a vacation on an isolated island all by myself sometimes

And then, around 6 PM, I get my 20-30 minutes to be a diva in the kitchen and whip up some magic.

Ahhhhhhh, I don’t think so. No can do.

Of course I did not expect to hear “yummy” about something as delicious as the roasted cauliflower with apples and red onion

Not even when I made the chicken and noodles soup my boy has requested. Alas, I missed his emphasis on the “noodles” and i put some veg in there.

Not when I baked Challa bread which everyone loves so much

And not even when I presented the Pumpkin banana cream pie or Apple pie. No “Oooo” or  “Uuu” or “Aaaa” were heard.

I knew it. I had no expectations. Only hopes.

But last night, hallelujah! I finally heard it.

Out of the blue I heard “yummy”. Oh, what a sweet little moment it was. T’was a good thing I was sitting, otherwise I would have fallen off my feet.

I made these meatballs I found on Smitten Kitchens’ blog and my 6 years old liked it and announced it “yummy”.

He only ate one meatball, but that’s different story. Don’t worry, I have leftovers for him for tonight’s dinner, hi hi hi…

Baked Chicken Meatballs

Adapted from Smitten kitchen who had adapted it from Gourmet
Serves 4, or 2 adults + 8 kids, or makes 12-14 meatballs

3 slices white bread, torn into small bits (1 cup)
1/3 cup milk
3 ounces sliced pancetta, finely chopped (or Canadian Bacon)
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 small garlic clove, minced
1 large egg
1 pound ground chicken (I used dark meat but next time I’ll try ground breast)
1 tablespoons tomato paste
3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
2 tablespoons ketchup
oil for greasing the pan

Preheat oven to 400°F with a rack in the middle.

In a small bowl, soak the bread in milk until softened.

Meanwhile, preheat a medium skillet over medium heat and start cooking the pancetta. Add the onion, garlic, salt and pepper and cook until the onion is softened, about 6 minutes. Cool slightly.

Squeeze the bread to remove excess milk, then discard milk.

In a medium bowl, beat the egg, then add the chicken, tomato paste, parsley, pancetta mixture, and the bread. Mix well and form 12 meatballs.

Lightly spray or oil a baking sheet (I used a 9×13 Pyrex dish) and place the meatballs in it. Squeeze a little ketchup on top of each meatball and spread with a teaspoon.

Bake until the meatballs are cooked through, about 20 minutes.

By the way, his sister, 20 months old, is entering the picky eating stage now, so it seems.

Oh, boy.

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Today was the first day of the Hunger Action Week. I made a plan ahead of time (see here) – I had to – and a grocery list, I calculated the estimated costs, and went grocery shopping today. More about that in a minute.

We take this challenge as a family so I tried to find recipes that I know the kids will/might love and ones that are not very expensive, and of course, quick to make. One of the meals I picked was chicken liver. Yeah, yeah, I can hear some of you go “Yuck!” with an exclamation mark, but we like it. It’s cheap, it tastes good, it’s healthy, it’s organic. I was afraid that the kids, as kids often do, might have changed their minds about liver and will refuse to eat it and then what will I do? Roasted chicken, for example, is always loved. Chicken liver? Sometimes. One day they like it and another day they don’t. So I thought we’ll have a little chat.

But how to explain the challenge to my kindergartener? Tell him that we’re playing a game? It seemed inappropriate. And what if he wants something from the pantry and I tell him he can’t have it? Or what will happen if we run out of food on the fifth day? I have finally decided that, in this case, more is less. Sort of.

I reminded him the times we have donated food items for food drives in his school and our previous conversations about families who don’t have enough food or enough money to buy food. I told him that this week he needs to eat any food I make and we don’t throw any food away.

So far so good. At dinner time he tried to protest against the chicken liver but he ate it and liked it as we all have. I made it the same way as the previous time, minus the apples for budgetary reasons, and it was wonderful.

What did we eat today?

Breakfast: the usual (see previous post)

Lunch: leftovers from last night’s dinner (was deducted from the groceries budget). I had a slice of onion quiche. Oh, I was starting to get hungry by the time the quiche was ready.

Snack: Yogurt, crackers, fruit

Dinner: Cinnamon chicken liver, Yellow rice, milk. And we have leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch.

The groceries. What did I buy?

I don’t mean to bore you with details, details, details… but planning for this event really took a lot of my time but it was a must as far as I’m concerned. As a parent I am responsible to provide food for my children. Also, I did not want to find out that I went over budget and ask the cashier to take back food items.

Here are the details, details, details part… But you might find it helpful.

To avoid going over budget I planned the menu, estimated the cost of each dish (I also used to do that as a personal chef, especially when catering for parties. You must know how much things are going to cost). I made a list, stuck to the list, took a calculator with me and used it as I added items to my shopping cart.

I bought most of what I have planned and skipped only a few items like cilantro, bread, and my favorite deli meat.

Fresh herbs are expensive. I knew that before. I didn’t by the cilantro on my list for $2 a bunch or any other fresh herb. This is why it’s a particularly good idea to have a little veggie garden or at least a few pots of herbs in your back/front yard or even by the window.

Bread. We like artisanal fresh bread, not the sliced bread in a plastic bag that was baked who knows when. Those cost $3-$5 a loaf. Since we need two of those for the week, I decided to skip it and bake our own. I had a recipe from a friend for challa bread with simple ingredients – flour, sugar, yeast, salt, a little oil, and water (no eggs, no butter, no milk) – that makes 2 loaves and it is so good!

I went to Trader Joe’s to get a few items that cost less there compared to my favorite Whole Foods store and got 2 organic milk, eggs, Comte cheese, pizza, arugula, Brussels sprouts, 2 types of yogurt, kiwi.

At Whole Foods store I got 5 organic whole chicken legs that were on sale for $2.49/ pound, 1 pound free-range chicken liver, 4 pork chops, gruyere cheese, heavy cream, deli meat, bananas, organic pears, plouts, grapefruit, organic tomatoes, organic onions, cucumber, organic carrots, organic yams, rice, 2 cans organic black beans.

I think I did pretty well although I have a fear that I might have forgotten something and will get stuck without food later on. Oh, I know what I forgot. The pizza toppings!

I did appreciate every bite of food I ate today.

Leave me a comment. What do you think?

I am a foodie and a picky eater in a choosy finicky, or conscious eating way. Since we got married, I got my husband all excited about food too. Our kids, however, are a different story. We have a one-year-old girl who is willing to try anything, almost, but changes her mind about what she likes and dislikes quite often. And we have a kindergartener who challenges us more.

I always try to cook family friendly food (hence the name and essence of my blog) that we will all like. I compromise a lot between what I really love to cook and eat and what kids usually prefer (we all know what THAT is). I really go a long way to make them happy but I draw the line when it comes to junk food. We have never ordered pizza or any other take-out and we never set foot, (or car), at any of the junk fast food places (Well, not willingly. Oh, how I hate those kiddies birthday parties at Chuck E Cheese). Once a month I might prepare an upgraded pizza (see recipe here) or a Mac and Cheese but then I use real wonderful artisanal cheeses.

My son can be a picky eater even when it comes to dessert. He always prefers a candy (from Halloween and birthday parties… ) over a fresh home-baked cake. Can you believe it?! (Click here to see the cakes). On one hand, this kid can tell the difference between goat cheese, feta, parmesan, Gouda, Swiss, Brousin, mozzarella, cheddar… and of course, a cheese stick. On the other hand, he is a typical 5 years-old. After a few years of trying different strategies with the kid, I have decided – enough. This is not really working anyway and I’m getting bored with the food that we eat. We’re going back to what mommy likes to cook and eat. So OK, no chilies and no Bobby Flay food yet, but a few weeks ago I cooked dinner and the menu was:

Young onion tart with cantal, applewood-smoked bacon, and Herb salad
From “Sunday Suppers at Lacques” cookbook
Butternut squash, butter lettuce, arugula and apple salad
Inspired by Ina Garten’s recipe from her new cookbook “Back to Basics”

It was heavenly.

Why this menu?

The choice of the menu was affected by our decision to eat less meat and chicken following a few posts I wrote about the cruel conditions under which animals are raised. (No, we’re not becoming vegetarians, just eating a smaller amount of animals and less frequently. If you care about conscious eating, see my second blog “Good Food and Bad Food”)

I knew the menu will be a tricky one with the kids. However, I decided to make it anyway because I was very curious about the recipes and I fell in love with “Sunday Suppers at Lacques” cookbook (there’s a short review at the end of the post). The food was so amazingly delicious. And this is an understatement. Really. It was like a 5 stars restaurant dinner but only at home. (And by “5 stars” I mean in flavor, not in labor-intensive preparations). The baby devoured the tart. She had crumbs all over her face and in her beautiful and funny hair. The kindergartener? He, surprisingly, ate the onions on the tart. The onions! He never eats onions. He declares a ban on onions, and onions, you know, are the base for many many dishes. He ate it and said that it was good! Then I told him: “you know, those are onions”. His answer: “no, this is a new kind of chicken”.

Since we loved the tart and salad so much, I wanted to make them again. Tonight I have recreated this dinner to show you: 1) the challenges foodie parents face with young kids at home, 2) how amazingly delicious these dishes are, 3) how fantastically simple and easy it can be to cook a 5 stars dinner at home, and, of course, 4) the funny comments and reactions from the kids’ point of view.

The menu:
* Onion tart with gruyere, applewood-smoked bacon, and Herb salad
* Butternut squash, butter lettuce, arugula and apple salad
* Good wine (not for the kids) – Meadow 2007, Ross Andrew winery, Oregon (Something local that the guy at the grocery store recommended with my menu. Thanks, Bruce! It is a lovely wine.)
* Home-made cinnamon ice cream (you have been so good to read this long post up to this point, so I give you a bonus – dessert. Actually, we always have dessert on the weekend, remember the cakes?)

The Recipes:

Young Onion Tart with Cantal, Applewood-Smoked Bacon, and Herb Salad
Don’t skip making the herb salad. It will be a huge huge mistake. It is so unique and to die for.
Slightly adapted from Suzanne Goin, “Sunday Suppers at Lucques”
Serves 6-8

1 sheet frozen all-butter puff pastry (I used two 8*9-inch sheets)
1 extra-large egg yolk
½-pound sliced applewood-smoked bacon
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 cups sliced onions, red and white
1 tablespoon thyme leaves
½ cup whole milk ricotta, drained if wet
¼ cup crème fraiche
1/3 pound Cantal, Gruyère, or Comté cheese, thinly sliced

½ cup flat-leaf parsley leaves
¼ cup tarragon leaves
¼ cup chervil sprigs
¼ cup 1/2-inch-snipped chives
A drizzle super-good extra virgin olive oil
½ lemon, for juicing
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Defrost the puff pastry slightly and unroll it onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Use a paring knife to score a 1/4-inch border around the edge of the pastry.

Stack the bacon slices in two piles, then cut crosswise into 3/8-inch rectangles or lardons.

Heat a large sauté pan over high heat for 2 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil, and allow to heat another minute. Add the bacon, and sauté over medium high heat 4 to 5 minutes, until slightly crisp but still tender. Reduce the heat to low, and toss in the young onions, thyme, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir together a minute or two, until the onions are just wilted. Toss in the onion tops, and remove to a baking sheet or platter lined with paper towels to soak the fat, and to cool a bit.

Place the ricotta, egg yolk, and 1 tablespoon olive oil in abowl and whisk until smooth. Gently fold in the crème fraîche and season with 1/8 teaspoon salt and a pinch of pepper. Spread the ricotta mixture on the puff pastry within the scored border. Lay the Cantal over the ricotta, and arrange the bacon-onion mixture on top.

Bake the tart 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the baking sheet once, until the cheese is bubbling and the crust is golden brown. Lift up the edge of the tart and peek underneath to make sure the crust is cooked through. (If you underbake the tart, it will be soggy.)

Toss the herbs in a small bowl with salt, pepper, a drizzle of super-good olive oil, and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Cut tart to wedges and serve with herb salad.

Butternut squash, butter lettuce, arugula and apple salad
Inspired by Ina Garten’s recipe from her new cookbook “Back to Basics”
Serves 4-6

1 (1 1/2-pound) butternut squash, peeled and cut in 3/4-inch dice
Good olive oil
1 tablespoon maple syrup
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons sliced shallot
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
4 ounces baby arugula
½ head butter lettuce, torn into 2 bite-size pieces
1 apple, thinly sliced
1/2 cup walnut halves, toasted
3 tablespoons dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Place the squash on a sheet pan. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil, the maple syrup, ½ teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper and toss. Roast the squash for 20 to 30 minutes, or until tender.

To make the vinaigrette, mix the cider vinegar, shallot, and mustard in a small bowl. Whisk in ¼ cup olive oil, salt, and black pepper.
Place the arugula and butter lettuce in a large salad bowl and add the roasted squash and apple. Add the cranberries and walnuts. Spoon just enough vinaigrette over the salad to moisten, and toss well.

Cinnamon Ice Cream
Make this at least 1 day ahead just to be on the safe side that the ice cream has the right consistency.
Slightly adapted from Suzanne Goin, “Sunday Suppers at Lucques”
Makes 1 quart

2 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
2 cinnamon sticks
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 extra-large egg yolks
½ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract*
1 teaspoon hazelnuts extract*
Pinch ground cinnamon for serving*

Place the milk, cream, cinnamon sticks, and ground cinnamon in a medium pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Turn off the heat, cover, and let the flavors infuse about 30 minutes.

Bring mixture back to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Turn off the heat.
Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl. Whisk a few tablespoons of warm cream mixture into the yolks to temper them. Slowly, add another ¼ cup or so of the warm cream, whisking to incorporate. At this point, you can add the rest of the cream mixture in a slow steady steam, whisking constantly. Pour the mixture back into the pot and return to the stove.

Cook the custard over medium heat 6 to 8 minute, stirring with a rubber spatula, scraping the bottom and sides of the pan. The custard will thicken, and when it’s done will coat the back of the spatula. Off the heat, add the vanilla and hazelnut extracts and mix. Strain (in a fine mesh sieve) and chill at least 2 hours in the refrigerator. The base should be very cold before you churn it. Process in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Serve with a sprinkle of ground cinnamon.

*My additions.

Kiddies comments and reactions:

Herb salad
I put some salad on my son’s plate. He immediately burst into tears. E.: “I don’t like salad. Take it out of my plate. I want a new plate”. Me: “OK, I’ll take it out”. E. :”no, I want a new plate”. Me: “I’ll wipe it clean”. E.: “you can’t wipe out the flavor”. Me: “relax already. Here, see? It’s all gone”.

R., that’s the baby, on the other hand, didn’t try it at all. The minute she saw it, she threw it away from her tray and onto the floor. E. finds it very amusing and laughs loudly. She was however, very interested in a long stem of chives.

Butternut squash salad
Me: “how about this salad? This lettuce taste very nice”. E.: “no, I don’t like salad”. Me: “OK, what about eating the ingredients separately but not the lettuce?” E.: “OK”.

R. tried to eat the lettuce but had a hard time chewing on it since she has only 2 tiny teeth. She made a funny face and spitted it out. Well, at least she tried. She ate the squash but can’t eat the berries and nuts (choking hazards).

Onion tart
E. eats the bacon on top of the tart, and then stops. Me: “why don’t you eat all the “pizza””? E.: “it has onions. I don’t like onions”. My husband: “you ate the onions last time and liked it”. E.: “No I didn’t. I don’t like onions”. Me: “OK, just take them out and put it on the side of your plate and finish eating it”. Then he takes a bite and me and my husband see the onion hanging from the side. There’s a moment of silence… he ate it! Didn’t say a word.

R. loves this tart. No complains on her part.

Ice cream
Me: “today we have home-made ice cream!” E. – “I want a candy on the ice cream because ice cream alone doesn’t taste good to me.” Me: “you need to choose – ice cream or candy”. E: “then candy”. At the end he chose a Scooby Doo push up Popsicle, leftover from his birthday party last spring. Me: “how can you choose a Scooby Doo over home-made ice cream?” E.: “I’ll eat ice cream another time”. Me: “so why don’t you eat the Scooby Doo another time and tonight you’ll eat ice cream?” E.: “because that is what I chose”.

R. – this is the first ice cream she had in her life! She loved it. She even managed to feed herself with a teaspoon for the first time.

Some photos taken by E. who likes to take pictures and do some food styling

Good night… Bye bye…

The Cookbooks:

“Back to Basics” by Ina Garten
The Barefoot Contessa… no need to elaborate what I love about her, like so many millions of people around the world. I thought that owning 4 of her cookbooks is enough but I just couldn’t resist buying the fifth one. It is just as good and beautiful as the previous ones.

Thank you for reading! Nurit.

My mom, of course, insisted that I eat the whole thing. Ohhhh, this was a call for a battle of powers. You know how they tell you to choose your battles with kids?! Oh, well… So I stared at it, and stared and stared for an hour, testing to see who will break first – me, my mom, or the toast. Well, the toast wasn’t planning to go anywhere. I prayed that it will somehow magically disappear from the plate but no higher powers came to my rescue.

After an hour or so I came up with a brilliant idea and told my mom that I will finish my toast in my room.

And then I threw it out the window.

Then I came back to my mom proudly showing her the empty plate and declaring: “all done”.
My mom is a very smart lady. But it doesn’t take a genius to figure out when your kids try to lie in your face. Plus, she heard the “plunck” noise when it hit the ground. It was thrown from the forth flour of an apartment building. A quick pick outside my bedroom window confirmed her suspicions fairly quickly.

And then I was punished to stay in my room for a certain amount of time.

I cried and cried. Maybe I even tried some screaming. I learned it from other kids. It didn’t work on my mom though.

Well, I haven’t tried that trick again. But you just wait until I tell you about some other creative ways I came up with to solve food problems on other occasions.

Reminder: You can now follow me on Twitter.

Were you a picky eater? Are you still?

Eating out while on a trip or vacation, with or without kids, can become a stressful event. Going out for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and maybe snacks too, every day throughout your vacation, can be tiring. Choosing a restaurant, driving, parking, waiting to be seated, reading the menu, consulting, deciding, ordering, waiting, paying, waiting… add kids to that… Oh, it makes me tired just to think about it.

Vacation is fun. Eating out is fun. But when it is done a 3-5 times a day, every day, for a week or so, it can turn into a not-so-much-fun experience. Here are a few tips and things to consider that we have learned on our last trip to Whistler, BC, last summer (a great place for a family vacation in the summer and winter, by the way).

Lessons learned and tips to share:

1. Book a hotel that serves breakfast. This will save you time and money and will make your morning more relaxed as you don’t have to go anywhere or drive to another location. You can go back to your room after you had your coffee and your belly is full to finish getting ready for the rest of the day.

2. Choose a room with a kitchenette or at least a mini refrigerator. This is great when you want to have a light and peaceful meal in the room, or a snack, as well as store leftovers from a restaurant meal. We usually buy some food at a local grocery store (like cheeses, deli meat, fruits and vegetables, bread, yogurt, and milk) and eat in the room at least once a day. We find it is much easier to do this when we are with the kids than to drag them to restaurants all day long. It cost less too.

3. The “kids menu”. We have fallen in the “kids menu” trap before and no need to say that we hated it. The selection of food from the “kids menu” can be frustrating. However, if you do order from the kids menu, check for quality. Taste a bite to make sure the food is fresh. If your child if fussy or picky and don’t want to eat their food, maybe it’s because it is not cooked right or taste good. Also, read my post: Kids’ menu – Is it good for them? Is it good for you?

4. Buy food to go. Young kids have a hard time sitting for long periods of time all nice and quiet. In the summer, you can buy sandwiches or a lunch basket and have a picnic by the lake. In the winter you can find a sheltered area or go back to your room and have an indoor “picnic” there.

5. Split and share. In most restaurants the serving size per person is huge and can feed 2 people, and sometimes even 4 people. To save money and extra pounds, you can order 2 entrées or a few appetizers for the whole family and share. I once overheard a waitress asking another customer if they have been to the restaurant before and know that the portions are large. She asked if they would like smaller portions. I asked her for smaller portions of what we ordered and it was perfect. Lesson learned –always ask.

6. Do you let your kids choose from the menu for themselves? On one hand, everyone gets to choose what they like at the restaurant, right?! On the other hand, if your child can’t read, you can skip those items you don’t want them to eat (for example, I tend to skip the PBJ sandwich, grilled cheese sandwich, Mac and cheese, pizza, etc). I admit, I lied in the past to my son and told him that the restaurant we were dining at doesn’t serve Mac and cheese. I read to him the items I wanted him to eat. He is a good reader now, so this strategy in no longer applicable. This is where our authority as parents and new strategies come to play in setting boundaries.

7. The Mac and cheese episode. Do you have a kid that will be happy if s/he can eat Mac and cheese all day long? Theoretically, we have one of those (“Theoretically” because we don’t want to test it to find out). Now we limit M&C to once a week while on a trip, and chicken strips with fries every now and then. If you prefer to avoid these battles altogether, at least order something along the cheesy pasta like vegetables, chicken, or fish to balance the cheese-carbs ratio.

8. Kids don’t have to know about ALL the ingredients in the dish, right?! My son likes pesto but the restaurant served spinach pesto. I knew he wouldn’t eat it if he knew about the spinach so I “forgot” to mention it to him. Oops. He enjoyed his pasta with spinach pesto, goat cheese and nuts, and asked for it again the next day. What would you do – tell or not?

9. If you want to go to a fancy restaurant with your kids, check with them ahead if it would be OK for the kids to sit at the table and do a coloring book. We usually bring an activity book and colors with us because not every restaurant has them.

10. Don’t forget to eat your veggies. You will find out that the most popular vegetable side dish is made with potatoes: fries, mashed, baked, and all other forms. Of course we love them in all shapes and sizes, but after a couple of lunches and dinners, it’s time for some veggies, no?!

11. Juice comes only with dessert, not before the entrée. We usually don’t drink juice at home but while on vacation we loosen up on this. However, we prefer that our son drinks juice only if he eats most of his meal and usually not beofre it’s time for dessert.

And, don’t forget… have fun! Lots of fun!

In my last post – With Respect to the Animals – I mentioned that unintentionally I got to this web site chooseveg.com, and watched a video depicting the awful life and death of animals – cows, pigs, and chickens, raised on “farms” (click here if you are brave enough to watch it). If you were wondering, no, I am not becoming vegetarian, but for now I’m taking some time off from meat. So in the past days we had Linguine with Shrimp Scampi (recipe here) and a few vegetarian meals (except for that BBQ we went to on Saturday), and I will soon post the recipe for the lovely onion quiche I made last night.

But I did decide that we will eat those animals in smaller portions and less frequently. And when I buy meat, chicken, or poultry, as well as seafood, I will choose free-range, organic, local, and sustainable food. It doesn’t necessarily cost more. Here’s an example. I went to Whole Foods and bought a pound of organic chicken liver. It costs $2.99 per pound, and $2.49 for free-range! Enough to feed 2-4 people. You do the math.

I had a great recipe, really special, which everyone loved – baby, kindergartner, husband, and yours truly. And the house smelled like cake! The one below is based on a recipe I got about 15 years ago. It’s by an Israeli cookbook author, Elinoar Rabin, and my brain remembered it because of the unusual flavor and pretty unique use of fruit with chicken liver (unlike foie gras).

Chicken Liver with Cinnamon and Apples
For 3-4 servings

¼ cup flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 lb. chicken liver, washed and patted dry
Salt
Pepper
A few tablespoons butter
2 medium apples, cored and cut to ½-inch slices
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, optional

Mix flour and cinnamon in a bowl. Sprinkle liver with salt and pepper, and then dredge in flour-cinnamon mixture.
In a medium size skillet melt butter over medium heat. Sauté the chicken liver until nicely browned on each side (I didn’t measure the time, about 4-5 minutes on each side). Remove from skillet and place in a covered dish to keep warm.
Add some butter to skillet and sauté apples until golden. Turn to other side, sprinkle with sugar and cook another 2 minutes.
Serve liver with apples and a drizzle of balsamic.

Another use I made for this recipe is to serve it, without the apples, with fresh (but store-bought) pumpkin ravioli. Make a sauce with shallots sautéed in butter, some canned pumpkin, heavy cream, cranberries, and roasted chestnuts. Delicious.

If you want to see something really special regarding eating the whole animal, I stumbled upon this post showing how to cook pork head, click here. It’s fascinating. And, hey, people in the world are eating like that.

It’s time to start posting recipes again. I know this is really what you are looking for, right?! I see on the polls’ results so far that most replies are from readers who like to cook and cook often. Please vote your voice on the right side column. There ->>

I saw this article “Kitchen superstar Wolfgang Puck shares his secrets for introducing new tastes to your kids” on Parent & Child magazine, and Wolfgang Puck is one of my favorite chefs, so if you’re interested, click here to read more.

A summary:

Encourage your kids to imitate you.
… Trying to force your children to eat a food typically results in bad feelings, making mealtime a chore and a battle. Instead, allow your kids to become curious about foods and develop their own interests. Let them wonder why you like something and then taste it to find out.

Make one dinner for everyone.
“One of the most important things you can do is avoid making separate meals for children and adults,” Puck advises. If you raise a child to think that there are special foods for kids (like macaroni and cheese or chicken fingers), they’ll believe that, and chances are they won’t be as willing to try anything else.

Offer variety, the spice of life.
From the very beginning, expose your little ones to as many flavors as you can, a little bit at a time.

Share the excitement of food.
Invite your children to help you cook—it’s an honor and a great learning experience. Eating out every once in a while, when your budget allows, can also be a wonderful way to get kids excited about new foods, if you do it right. Go on the early side before kids get tired and the restaurants get busy. Choose a family-friendly (I love that he uses this term and not “kid friendly” – N.) place … “It’s also important to eat together at home regularly before taking children out to restaurants,” Puck advises. “You can’t expect them to know how to behave at a table if they’ve never done it before.”

Teach children about what’s on their plate.
Take your kids to a grocery store, farm, cheese shop, bakery, or farmers’ market, so they can see where their food comes from and what it looks like before it lands on the table… Kids will love exploring the enchanting collection of shapes and colors. Teach them how to tell when a fruit is ripe or which bumps and bruises to avoid. When they feel like little experts, they’ll be more willing to eat what they helped you choose.

New recipes coming soon!

Nurit

We have two food addictions in this house. One is for Brussels sprouts (recipes here and here) – now it’s like we’re trying to compensate for all those years we thought we hated them and wouldn’t eat them (what picky eaters we were) – and a newer addiction for zucchini pancakes. Once looked upon as a boring vegetable that is no longer the case.
The recipe that has changed it all is from Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa at Home. I keep making it over and over again. I think we ate these pancakes 3 times in the past 4 weeks. There were no leftovers here. Please, please, Try it.

These were originally served with Fresh Wild Pacific Northwest Salmon. Yum.

Zucchini Pancakes

Adapted from Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa at Home
Makes 10 (3-inch pancakes)

2 medium zucchini
2 tablespoons red onion
2 extra large eggs, lightly beaten
6-8 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
unsalted butter and vegetable oil

Grate the zucchini and red onion into a bowl (I do this in the food processor using the grater disk). Immediately stir in the eggs. Stir in 6 tablespoons of the flour, the baking soda, salt, and pepper. If the batter gets too thin from the liquid from the zucchini, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of flour.

Heat a sauté pan over medium heat and melt ½ tablespoon butter and oil together in the pan*. When the butter is hot but not smoking, lower the heat to medium-low and drop a heaping spoonful of the batter into the pan. Flatten with the back of the spoon. Cook about 2 minutes on each side, until browned. Add more butter and oil for the next batch.
I serve these with sour cream.

* NOTE: For pan frying tips, click here or here.

You know, I envy moms who complain their children won’t eat spinach or turn their noses up at pot roast. The ones who worry that little Tommy might fall over, looking all pale and emaciated, because he’s eaten nothing but Cheddar Bunnies and plain ramen noodles for the last eight days.

These women know challenge. Like climbing Everest with nothing but a bathing suit and a can opener. Or sailing around the world in a dingy. A dingy with a hole in it. The sheer experience of having to force feed your kid under the threat of tantrums, silent treatments and episodes of holding their breath until they pass out, not to mention just enduring three meals a day with a kid who won’t eat anything but frozen waffles, must make them just better parents and more centered people, simply because they are going against the monster everyday and living to tell the tale.

That kind of pain breeds real maturity.

So, I want you, dear readers, to have the same opportunity to become better, more well-rounded people through challenge. So, here is how you can cultivate and grow your very own obstacle-making, tantrum-throwing, spinach-hiding, fussy eater and be a better, more well-rounded person in the process.

10 Ways to Have Your Very Own Picky Eater

10. Remind your kid what a problem eater he is. Kids love that. In fact, tell him in front of guests. Call him “picky”, fussy”, “difficult at dinner time” or say things like, “He’s like this because he’s adopted,” and my personal favorite, “He’s just like his father,” and then, roll your eyes dramatically. You will only have to label him a few times before he sullenly looks at his plate of food, pushes it away and demands to be hand-fed McDonald’s French fries. If this works, you can go the next step and tell him he is “bad” or “a demon seed” and remind him that he was an “accident”.

9. Put him on the Snicker and Tootsie Pop diet. There is nothing to make a kid love healthy food more than pounding sugar for hours before meal time. I mean, you just want to fill them up, so they aren’t all crying and whining for food, right? So, if they won’t eat your green bean casserole, let him have that Hershey bar. No biggie. I mean, the almonds are protein after all.

8. If you are going to give your kids veggies, take my advice — pass up all that fresh farmers market stuff and give them vegetables from a can. Kids love vegetables from a can. Especially the soggy, bendy asparagus the color of a green suburban mini-van. And those lima beans! Those babies will turn them off good foods until they are 30. Go with that. Remember, embrace the challenge.

7. On the subject of vegetables, kids love them best when you steam them. A lot. And serve them in a heap on a plate all bland and limp. Or you can nuke them good in the microwave and… To read more, click here.

You might also want to read these posts:
Stuffed peppers – a picky eater’s nightmare?
Kids menu – Is it good for them? Is it good for you?
Encourage good eating
U-pick farms
Simplest vegetable salad
NY Times: Picky Eaters? They Get It From You
Some thoughts about parents and picky eaters