Toddler approved meals

I have a lovely toddler who is not into eating a lot of vegetables. As of late I have decided to try and find ways to get her to eat her veggies without her even realizing it. This recipe portions and freezes well for make ahead meals (which is great for me since baby #2 is almost here and cooking meals will be out the window soon), and it is pretty delish even for adults.


Broccoli and Spinach Pasta
1 TBL butter
1 TBL flour
1 cup milk (for a lighter sauce, use skim)
1/2 cup grated cheese
Salt & Pepper to taste
Cooked pasta of choice, about1 cup uncooked (I recommend wheat or fortified pasta)
Vegetables of choice, chopped finely

Melt butter and stir in flour. Once it is smooth slowly add in the milk, using a whisk to get rid of any chunks. Bring to a light boil so that it thickens. Reduce heat, add in cheese, salt and pepper, and voila! Sauce is ready.
Add in vegetables of choice to your sauce and keep on low heat so they get soft. **If you are doing a lot of hard vegetables like carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, etc I would recommend steaming them quickly in the microwave beforehand to save time.**
Add in cooked pasta and you're ready to go. With the extra pasta (if there is any) divide it into plastic bags portioned for your toddler and freeze. It reheats in about 1 min, stir after 30 seconds.

The nice thing about this recipe is that it is simple, completely flexible, and healthy! I know that the makers of baby/toddler foods have the best intentions, but this is preservative free and way cheaper than buying pre-made food.

Tomatoes three ways: Part 1

Recently my mom gave me a ton of tomatoes, like more than one person could use in a month...So, I decided to be creative and get cooking so that they didn't go bad, plus it's good practice since I have tomato plants growing in my garden.

Fresh pasta sauce

Ingredients
8-9 vine ripened tomatoes (or slicing tomatoes)
3 TBS olive oil
2 TBS minced garlic
1 TBS Italian seasoning
2 TBS salt
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 tsp pepper
**optional** basil and red pepper flakes

Roughly chop up your tomatoes. I threw out most of the "guts" i.e. seeds and insides, but I reserved some just in case my sauce got too dry.

 

The guts

Put your tomatoes in a pot on medium heat (with your olive oil) to cook them down. As they cook down the tomatoes will peel themselves and you can pick out the skins if you don't like them. Add all of your seasonings and continue to let the tomatoes render out, about 20 min.

After 20 min turn your heat down to lo/simmer and if your tomatoes start to get too dry, add in some of the guts that you didn't throw out. After about 15 more minutes, take out 2/3 of your tomatoes and puree them in a food processor/blender/magic bullet. I did a rough puree, dumped 1/2 back in, then finely pureed the rest. I like texture in my sauce, but if you do not, then puree all of the tomatoes until fine.

This was enough sauce to cover about 1/2 lb of cooked pasta, to which I also added 2 chicken breasts.

Chicken Breast Secret

 Heat your oven to 350. In a pan on the stove (medium heat) add a little oil before adding your chicken breasts and then sear your chicken for about 2 min on each side, giving them a nice golden brown color. Transfer them to your oven for about 10-15 min (depending on their thickness) and you have a perfect chicken breast that didn't dry out on the stove!

Alton Brown's Macaroni and Cheese

I'm not really sure when My mom came across this recipe, but it has been a family favorite since the first time she made it! It is quite possible that this is my most frequently made recipe in my box. It's easy to add things to it, or to modify.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese: Serves 6-8 people
1/2 lb elbow macaroni (I use all kinds of different noodles...)
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp powdered mustard
3 cups milk
1/2 c yellow onion, finely diced
1 bay leaf (mom makes it with this, I don't have them, so I never do)
1/2 tsp paprika
1 egg
12 oz sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (12 oz is a lot, especially on a college budget, so I usually just grate a whole big pile but I'm certain it's never this much..)
1 tsp salt
Pepper

*Cook pasta in large pot of salted boiling water to al dente
*While pasta is cooking, melt butter in separate pan over low, whisk in flour and mustard powder and keep it moving till the mixture bubbles.
*Stir in milk, onion, bay leaf and paprika. Simmer for 10 minutes. Remove bay leaf.
*Temper the egg. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Fold the macaroni into mix and pour into a 2 qt casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese.
* Use 1 c bread crumbs to top (I had some stuffing mix that I needed to use today that I used instead and it was delicious!)
Bake for 30 minutes at 350*. Let rest 5 minutes before serving.

You can see that the right half is a little bit red-- it's because I added salsa to that half! I also sprinkled the other half with Italian seasoning. Let me tell you: delicious!