What I fed my ChildWhat I Fed My Childhttp://whatifedmychild.com/what-i-fed-my-child/2013-04-10T00:53:22ZSquarespaceWith linguine and some frozen vegetables, what to do? Add yogurt?http://whatifedmychild.com/what-i-fed-my-child/with-linguine-and-some-frozen-vegetables-what-to-do-add-yogu.htmlCommuter Cookery2013-04-10T00:05:31Z2013-04-10T00:05:31ZThe answer to #whatsfordinner is not always obvious.  Sometimes what we start with is just whatever we find in the refrigerator, and like tonight the outcome does not appear promising at first.  With noodles and frozen mixed vegetables, our combined creativity was tapped out. 

Rather than a quick trip to the store, we made a quick look in the phone.  Putting in a few ingredients in to the smartphone gives results surprisingly useful. To be fair, we also found we had some cooked frozen shrimp in the freezer.  One of us thought to enter "shrimp vegetable pasta", and found this on a well designed mobile site:

Creamy Garlic Pasta with Shrimp & Vegetables at EatingWell.com

This recipie is a self described mediterranean yogurt sauce.  Fortunately we also had yogurt, but I had overlooked this as a dinner ingredient on my first pass.

Making the yogurt sauce, we chopped a little garlic, simmered too much linguine, heated the frozen mixed vegetables, and after a little conversation found our senses returning.  One of us made iced tea.  One of us put plates on the table.

Dinner was remarkably pleasant.  The yogurt sauce was optional, and it was tasted by all.  After the taste, it was (at least by the cooks) wholeheartedly spooned on to the noodle dish as if it were something made with tomatoes.  This was not for light dipping, this was a sauce.

The ingrdients for the yogurt sauce up to the very last are similar to ingredients for a tomato based pasta sauce, which is likely why we had all of this in the house in the first place.  Garlic, a mix of herbs (we used a pre-made blend of thyme, chervil, marjoram, and basil only because it was left over from a previous night's preparation) salt, olive oil, it begins to veer...pepper, lemon juice (and more than I would have expected) and yogurt.  We actually added everything to the yogurt and witheld the lemon juice until right before eating.  i just wasn't sure about that. But it was fantastic.

We'll do it again, and next time it will be planned.

]]>Farro - We tried it!http://whatifedmychild.com/what-i-fed-my-child/farro-we-tried-it.htmlThe Urban View2012-07-29T22:58:26Z2012-07-29T22:58:26ZArmed with a bit of cooking look-up (here, thanks Foodzie!) and a general and cavalier approach to all grains (it can't be that different than rice, right?), we cooked some farro to go with dinner.

I brought 4 cups of water to a boil.

Added 1 cup of dry farro.

Reduced the heat to small simmering bubbling and put the lid on the saucepan.

I set a timer for 35 minutes just not quite believing the predicted 1 hour cooking time (really?).

 

The victory is this 

Farro (and Rapini, which I made in the intervening 35 minutes.)

]]>Do you eat every meal together at the table?http://whatifedmychild.com/what-i-fed-my-child/do-you-eat-every-meal-together-at-the-table.htmlNorrisFelty2012-07-27T18:59:03Z2012-07-27T18:59:03ZWhat do you do about the impact of food advertising on your family?http://whatifedmychild.com/what-i-fed-my-child/what-do-you-do-about-the-impact-of-food-advertising-on-your.htmlNorrisFelty2012-07-27T15:00:00Z2012-07-27T15:00:00ZDo you ever get tired of thinking about vegetables all the time?http://whatifedmychild.com/what-i-fed-my-child/do-you-ever-get-tired-of-thinking-about-vegetables-all-the-t.htmlNorrisFelty2012-07-19T15:00:25Z2012-07-19T15:00:25ZWhat are your family's 5 favorite proteins?http://whatifedmychild.com/what-i-fed-my-child/what-are-your-familys-5-favorite-proteins.htmlNorrisFelty2012-07-17T17:00:38Z2012-07-17T17:00:38ZDo you change what you serve depending on your kids preferences?http://whatifedmychild.com/what-i-fed-my-child/do-you-change-what-you-serve-depending-on-your-kids-preferen.htmlNorrisFelty2012-07-13T16:27:15Z2012-07-13T16:27:15ZFish Tacos -Another take on 7 minute lunchhttp://whatifedmychild.com/what-i-fed-my-child/fish-tacos-another-take-on-7-minute-lunch.htmlThe Urban View2012-07-12T15:00:55Z2012-07-12T15:00:55ZOne of the fastest lunches I can serve is fish.  When the order of thawing, heating, searing and steaming is thought through, the three parts of lunch all finish at the same time and are ready to serve hot.  For our typical 7 minute lunch, I start the fish first.  The fish cooks in five minutes, and by then the steamed vegetables are ready.  We have enjoyed this repeatedly and when I began to make it today I was facing another ingredient in the refrigerator. Tortillas.

We are long time buyers of tortillas.  I think of them as a treat, and we don’t buy them on every trip to the store.  When we lived in locations that offered fresh baked tortillas, we did buy them every time we went to the store  (A would be fascinated watching the hand mixed dough go around the tortilla baking machine.  I wish stores had fresh made tortillas here.)

Inspired by this treat, we made fish tacos for lunch.  Still within 7 minutes, and by “we” I mean A assembled her own lunch!  I thawed one frozen tilapia filet in the microwave.  Had I planned ahead, I could have thawed it in the refrigerator starting right after breakfast, but I’m not that kind of food planner.  (2 minutes) With a paper towel dried filet searing in olive oil on the stove (I love my fajita pan for this), I put a pre-baked sweet potato in the oven set to 400 degrees.  I should have done this first.  Then I steamed seasoned mixed vegetables for 3 minutes, a significanlty shorter time than is recommended on the label. This creates a better texture while still heating the vegetables. I used Pictsweet, Seasoned Spring Mix with Asparagus.  From the refrigerator I gathered a few inner leaves of romaine, and A opened the tortillas.  I put two tortillas in the still warming oven, placing each one directly on the oven rack.

I turned the fish once, and sprinkled a garlic and onion salt mix over the cooked side.  Being an extremely thin filet, the fish was ready quickly.  I use the 10 minutes per inch rule of thumb for cooking fish, but I also test it with a fork.  The filet flaked easily directly down the middle leaving two narrow pieces, one for me, one for A.

Lunch is served!

We each had a nectarine, and the romaine was within reach on the table. Everything else came to the table hot, half a sweet potato, a bowl of steamed vegetables, a tortilla on each plate.  We each added a lettuce leaf and spoonfuls of vegetables to our tortillas.  A put her own fish in the tortilla.  I didn’t think she would.  I had assembled my own in the kitchen, but left the fish and tortilla side by side for A.  A  has been in an eating all things separate for a while, which I haven’t commented on.  But the appeal of tacos was too compelling!  A  put it together and ate it all.  I think we’ll do this again.

]]>10 things we eat for lunch other than lunch meat.http://whatifedmychild.com/what-i-fed-my-child/10-things-we-eat-for-lunch-other-than-lunch-meat.htmlNorrisFelty2012-07-09T17:00:50Z2012-07-09T17:00:50ZBecause I read labels, I don’t always buy lunchmeat on every trip to the grocery store.  I am looking for protein (check),  fiber (where?), no added sugar (tough), no added flavors (why? Here).  And we have found Applegate Farms and Sara Lee have some good choices.  Since we are not much eating processed lunch meat, what do we eat for lunch?  Good Question.  What does your family eat for lunch that is not lunch meat?

1.   Beans and steamed vegetables (Beans are often leftover from last night’s dinner, and vegetables are Steam in the bag frozen vegetables, cooked for only half the time suggested on the package)

2.       Chicken thighs and a fresh vegetable (the chicken is  individually frozen,  thawed quickly and steamed with water or seared without water)

3.       Fish and asparagus (or broccoli, or kale, or rapini, or mustard greens, or turnip greens, or collards.  M’mm collards….)

4.       Chicken soup (at a restaurant or reheated homemade)

5.       Leftover dinner, (the small saved portion made extra just for this purpose that never went to the dinner table but straight to the refrigerator.)

6.       Soy chicken breaded cutlets (clearly not less processed than lunch meat, but the taste is better)

7.       Three fresh chopped vegetables (steamed quickly), a fruit, and a piece of cheese.

8.       A cheese sandwich, whole grain bread, side of mixed nuts, mixed dried vegetables and mixed dried fruit.

9.       Beans and greens  (One drained can of pinto beans, one drained can of turnip greens, heated)

10.   Sushi  (well that just means we went out.)

 

 

 

]]>If you don’t eat bread with most meals, aren’t you serving a low carb diet?http://whatifedmychild.com/what-i-fed-my-child/if-you-dont-eat-bread-with-most-meals-arent-you-serving-a-lo.htmlNorrisFelty2012-07-07T17:00:00Z2012-07-07T17:00:00Z