Sunday, February 24, 2013

Strawberry Syrup for Milk


             Have you ever just gone to the supermarket, pulled something off the shelf that you haven't had in a while, something that you loved as a kid, brought it home, read the label and then yelled at yourself for not reading the label, and how dare you bring that home and put that in your kids' bellies?  Sorry for the run on sentence.

             I bought strawberry syrup for the purpose of getting a child of mine to drink milk.  Who doesn't like strawberry milk?  I remember the first time I ever drank a big food conglomerates strawberry milk.  I will honestly admit that it was so darn good.  I know some people who take the syrup with them on vacation overseas to keep their kids happy.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Broccoli Pesto


                    I've been finding myself with a lot of broccoli in the fridge lately.  I love roasted broccoli, but I figured it was time to find something else to do with broccoli.  I found a recipe for red pepper soup with broccoli pest trees on Food Network.  Broccoli pesto intrigued me.  I loved that it was a vegetable pesto that I had never thought of.  It automatically adds a vegetable to whatever you are using it with, whether it be a sandwich, a pasta dish, or a vegetable dish.  I also like that if you don't have that much basil on hand, which I don't since it's the winter and the garden is frozen over, you can supplement the basil by adding broccoli.

                    I didn't follow the recipe but if you want to take a look at it here it is.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Tortillas


                     Back when I posted my mango lime chicken fajita recipe, I made homemade tortillas with it.  It was my first time ever making homemade tortillas.  Although they tasted ok, the recipe I used created a disaster of me and my kitchen.  Flour was everywhere, my hands were a gooey mess with dough stuck to them.  I said I would post a tortilla recipe once I was able to succeed, which for me includes besides tasting good, not being a mess to make. 

                     I didn't go about trying a new recipe right away.  I needed to take a pause from the tortilla endeavor considering what my kitchen counters looked like after my original trial.  Now, the leftover tortillas I had that day, I stuck in the freezer.  I needed a really quick dinner one day when I was not in the mood to cook.  I had pizza sauce on hand.  I really didn't feel like preparing pizza dough.  I realized that I could just make a tortilla pizza.  It was successful in that my kids ate it all, even my picky kid.

                    Due to that success I knew it was imperative to find a great and easy and not messy tortilla recipe.  I found it and tinkered with it.  Best of all, you should have all ingredients on hand. 

Friday, February 8, 2013

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies


                All the veggie dishes have made me realize that some sweets were in order.  I decided to make chocolate chocolate chip cookies for my chocoholic kids and myself.  Sometimes a chocolate chip cookie is not enough.  You need that extra kick of chocolate.  I did feel compelled to use some whole wheat flour though.   That just seemed to make me feel less guilty if I took two.

Friday, February 1, 2013

Pizza Sauce


                   Every family has a kid that is picky.  I realized a long time ago not to fight it, but just be sneaky on how you serve vegetables.  Then when they finish the food you say, "hey did you enjoy the zucchini?", or whatever vegetable you're hiding, they realize that it isn't so bad.

                   I created this pizza sauce with my dear boy in mind.  One of his favorite things to eat is pizza.  He also loves dunking bread sticks in pizza sauce.  I decided to throw loads of veggies into a sauce and see how it would go over.  There was no flinching when eating, no wrinkling of the nose, and so 3 slices later I realized I had a winner.

                    I would like to share this recipe to help those of you with a picky eater.  You can even add other veggies if you like, like carrots or summer squash.  I am sure they would go great.