tasty tuesday-easy dinners

 if you're like me, you're not up for cooking every.single.night. some nights we just need a break but that doesn't mean that we want to feed our kids junk. here are a few of the easy, yet still healthy, dinners that we have on nights where mama doesn't want to cook.

our go-to easy dinner is a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store deli. they are seasoned, hot and ready and usually only $5. bake some potatoes in the microwave and throw in some fruit or frozen veggies. i usually just call B on his way home from work and he swings by the store and picks one up while i prepare the sides. instant dinner that is healthy, cheap and yummy. what kid doesn't like chicken?

now let's talk frozen food. usually it's full of sodium and preservatives, and that's okay every once in awhile but i prefer to offer the boys something a little healthier. my mom actually introduced these bag meals to me and we love them. they are by birdseye and they are the Viola! meals.

now granted, they still have quite a bit of sodium (940mg in one cup) but to me, the fact that they get my kids to eat carrots and broccoli make them a win! our favorite variety is the Garlic Chicken but the boys also like the Three Cheese Chicken. you literally just pour the bag in a skillet, add 1/4 cup of water and heat to a high boil, then simmer for 7-9 minutes. one bag is about $4 and it will feed our whole family one meal. usually i will add a little bit more water, then add another handful of frozen corn or broccoli from the freezer and cook that up with it. its a great thing to keep in the freezer for a night when you just don't feel like cooking.

another frozen favorite is tyson's chicken nuggets, which have no artificial ingredients and are made of white meat only. we usually eat these with mac and cheese, frozen fries or mashed potatoes and a side of fruit.

probably my favorite easy dinner is one where we just thaw out something that i had previously made. usually this is a soup. i previously shared our easy peasy cheesy potato soup which freezes very well. i also make a fairly simple chicken noodle soup, chocked full of veggies, that freezes wonderfully. here is that recipe, though i use the term loosely as I don't measure.

Chicken Noodle Soup:
You will need-
-about 3 cups chopped carrots
-about 3 cups chopped celery
-about 1 cup chopped onion (i use chopped frozen)
-about 3 cups of previously cooked chicken, shredded or diced. (left over rotisserie works great! or you can use boneless skinless chicken breasts)
-chicken broth (how much depends on how much soup you want, I usually use 3 cans of broth/stock and then 2 cans of water and 1 bullion cube)
-parsley
-24 oz bag reames frozen egg noodles
-salt
-pepper


In a large pot, with a little bit of EVOO, saute onions until translucent. Add chopped carrots and celery and cook for a few minutes. Slowly add in a little bit of broth, taking a second to scrap off any seasoning/flavor that is on the bottom of the pot. Add chicken and remaining 2 cans of broth.

Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Let boil for about 5 minutes, then add chopped/shredded chicken and continue to boil for another 5 minutes. Turn heat down to low/medium and add noodles. Add salt, pepper and parsley. Let cook/simmer for at least an hour to an hour and a half. Take a spoon and taste it. What does it need? Stronger chicken flavor? Add a bouillon cube. Too plain? Add more seasoning/herbs. Parsley, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and or thyme are all good. As is Mrs. Dash. It can be done now, if the noodles are fully cooked. However, I usually leave it on low heat for 2-3 hours.

I typically make this during naptime, around 2:30pm and it takes about 30 minutes of prep between the chopping and boiling, etc. i let it sit on low heat from 3pm until we eat at 5:30.

This isn't a soup with a clear broth; by slow cooking the frozen noodles instead of boiling them quickly it will make a thicker heartier soup (the flour breaks down and acts as a thickening agent) similar to making homemade chicken and noodles over mashed potatoes. we usually have this with a french baguette from panera. so yummy and it makes A TON. i mean, a lot. we can easily eat it for dinner and have enough leftover to freeze and feed the whole family for another dinner. when reheating you may want to add a bit more chicken brother as it will be pretty thick.

next time i make it, i can try to take pics as a tutorial like i did with the potato soup. i'm not sure if this helps or not, let me know!

toddler approved, tasty tuesday

i thought that i would use todays ''tasty tuesday'' to talk about toddler approved snacks that don't include m&m's or cookies :)

 

my boys are almost 4, 2.5 and 15 months old, please use common sense & only give these snacks to kiddos who are old enough. 

generally speaking my kids love to eat almost anything. their all time favorite (at least for pooks) are fruit snacks.

now while they are kinda sugary, i'm okay with them for several reasons. first, they are a light snack and won't ruin dinner. they are about 10 pieces in each pack and one package contains 100% of their daily value for vitamin C, they are 80 calories and fat free. they are made with real fruit juice, so overall i can't complain too much. plus they are super easy: just tear open the package and go. we keep quite a few in the diaper bag!

coming in a close second is: any type of fruit with a dip. usually strawberries, apples or blueberries. now while they love caramel dip, it is high is sugar so i limit it. usually we use all natural vanilla yogurt.

it's just a little bit sweet and the active cultures help keep 'em healthy. bubba just uses his just as dip, while peanut and pooks dip and then eat theirs.

now there are quite a few snacks that are appealing, not necessarily because of the nutrition but because of the educational value. yep, snacks can be fun! take for example both of these: cheez-it snacks and nabisco alpha-bits:

 

sure my kids are too old to play scrabble, even the junior version, but they love looking and talking about all of the letters! now i'll be honest, peanut could care less, but bubba and pooks are really recognizing their capital letters (bubba knows all of them!). these aren't really nutritious but they aren't horrible either are yummy and fun.

other popular snacks are:

• smoothies--made with yogurt, frozen strawberries, bananas and a little bit of honey.
• trail mix-- made with peanuts, raisins (or crasins), peanut butter chips, cheerios, pretzels and chocolate chips
• pretzels--plain or dipped in peanut butter
• crackers topped with cheese

i hope this post gave you at least a couple suggestions to help out with your toddler. please share any ideas or common snacks that your kids enjoy in the comments section of this post. i'll then add them to this original post for us to look back to later!

toddler approved, tasty tuesday....on wednesday

so sorry this is late, i was excited to share my other news and totally forgot to get this posted:

 

This week I thought that I would share a recipe that is so easy to make and delicious! Plus, using last weeks tips and tricks you can make it veggie loaded. here is the recipe, and below are some additional tips/suggestions.

Baked Ziti

Ingredients:
1 pound dry ziti pasta
1 onion, chopped
1 pound lean ground beef
2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce
6 ounces provolone cheese, sliced
1 1/2 cups sour cream
6 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add ziti pasta, and cook until al dente, about 8 minutes; drain.
2. In a large skillet, brown onion and ground beef over medium heat. Add spaghetti sauce, and simmer 15 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter a 9x13 inch baking dish. Layer as follows: 1/2 of the ziti, Provolone cheese, sour cream, 1/2 sauce mixture, remaining ziti, mozzarella cheese and remaining sauce mixture. Top with grated Parmesan cheese.
4. Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cheeses are melted.


Doesn't that sound freaking delicious? yeah well it is, i promise. and yes it calls for sour cream, no you cannot even tell that it's in there. i suppose if you really wanted to you could omit it and it's taste just as good. now when i make it i follow the recipe with 2 exceptions.

1. Instead of regular ziti pasta, I use Ronzoni Smart Taste 'Penne Rigate' noodles. These noodles taste exactly like regular pasta but have "Three times the fiber and calcium equal to an eight-ounce glass of milk."  These noodles cost a little bit more but are so worth it! The website has a printable coupon and we usually buy them for much less at Sam's Club.
2. As I mentioned in last weeks post, use veggie loaded sauces! Nothing makes this pasta dish better than chunks of tomatos and onion. Delish! This is also super easy to sneak those pureed carrots into; the cheeses mask the taste :) 

make it, and let me know what you think! 

oh and word to the wise--this will fill a 9x13 dish to the point of (almost) overflowing. it makes a ton! if you want, i recommend splitting it between two 8x8pans; putting one in the oven to bake and one in the freezer to thaw for an easy meal on another night.

how to get your kids to eat broccoli, no really!

okay, may i please present the very first:

 

i think for the very first post, i'm going to talk about veggies. i have 3 young boys and veggies are by far, the trickiest things to get them to eat. but by sneaking a little into meals that they love, they'll get the nutrition and be none the wiser. i will warn that some of my suggestions will involve lying. if you can't outright make a teeny tiny white lie to your toddler about what they are eating, well then maybe this post isn't for you. i for one have no problem lying about the little things. "oh man. dang it! dora the explorer isn't on right now, sorry hon." has been said a few times around my house. "if you don't hurry up and get your shoes on, i will leave without you" has possibly been threatened as well.

but, i'm digressing. my point is that if you want your picky toddler to eat the things that are good for him, well sometimes you have to trick him. here are some tricks and tips that i use regularly with my kiddos and so far, they have been fool proof. 

my first choice is obviously to just have them EAT the veggie. and if the veggie of the meal is potatoes or corn (and sometimes peas), i usually have no problem. {luckily peanut eats absolutely anything, broccoli is his favorite food} but getting the older boys to eat anything else is like pulling teeth. this only leaves me a few options:

1. force them to sit there until they eat their veggies which ultimately ends in at least one meltdown and sometimes it's mommy
2. only feed them corn and potatoes
3. lie about what they are eating. (we'll get to this in a minute)
4. sneak the veggies into food that they WILL eat *ding!ding!ding!*

i sneak veggies in, well a lot of foods. and i'm sure if B reads this post he'll be like ''WHAT?!" but it's true. no one can tell the difference. the absolute easiest thing to sneak veggies into is hands down, spaghetti sauce. first off i will say that i without a doubt always buy Ragu ''Robusto" "Organic" or "Chunky" sauce. it's super cheap, often 10/$10.  and there is more than a full serving of veggies in just 1/2 cup of sauce and that's based on an adults caloric intake, so for kids it's slightly more! that's the first part, buy veggie loaded from the get go. will the kids always eat the chunks of veggies? no. but they are getting some and that's a start. 

so what to sneak? how about carrots or broccoli? easy-peasy. i actually discovered this when pooks was a baby but if you drop 2 cubes of pureed carrots {or one jar of stage 2 baby food carrots} into the sauce while it's simmering--no one will notice! no one. not even your husband. it really doesn't change the flavor, but they're in there! on the same note, i've even made the good ol' blue box mac and cheese and added a cube of pureed carrots. the kids ate it up and never even questioned that anything was different.broccoli is also fairly easy to sneak. while your spaghetti sauce is simmering, chop up some broccoli florets (fresh or frozen) and mince then up til they are tiny. (like the size of minced garlic) add the broccoli to the sauce and viola, your kid is eating broccoli! it's so tiny they don't see it or complain--in all honesty they probably don't even taste it!

other easy veggies to sneak are onions and celery because while they have flavor, if sauteed until slightly translucent, they are clear and hard for little eyes to spot. i saute onions and celery and then use it in homemade soups (both potato and chicken and noodle). you can also do this and then add spaghetti sauce.

the second and easiest way to sneak to veggies: buy juice that is both fruit and veggie. juicy juice has a "healthy harvest" juice that, in 8oz has a full serving of fruit AND a full serving of veggies. (the veggies are carrots and sweet potatoes) V8 also has a "V-Fusion" (veggies include carrots, sweet potatoes, and beets) 

which is the same concept but they offer more flavors. now 2 things to be prepared for if you buy these: first of all, they are kinda pricey...over $3 a bottle and it doesn't last long if you have more than one kiddo but it's worth it if you can't get veggies in any other way. and secondly, do NOT give them this juice and then sneak veggies in the same day. WAY TOO MUCH FIBER FOR LITTLE BUTTS. no joke, it will be an epic blowout. i never give my kids the full 8oz for fear of this happening again. 

also buying healthier versions of things they do like. instead of frozen french fries, try frozen sweet potato fries. rather than buying potato chips, try these veggie chips. 

(various brands, usually in the organic or "natural" section of the super market.)

and along those same lines are these "chips" by Frito-Lay called Flat Earth. they are delicious and addicting. and they are 1/2 serving of veggies in every once. i think we've tried every flavor and they rock. seriously addicting.

my last suggestion is, mix it up a bit and lie when needed. okay maybe not lie, but don't offer too much info. (and really this goes for ANY food question they may have.) for example when my mom makes fried rice she uses shredded carrots. shredded carrots look like shredded cheese. kids like cheese. so when your curious little 3 year old says ''is dis cheese?" well, just smile and nod. no joke my kids ate carrots for a long time thinking they were cheese because of this. bubba is now wiser and realizes that they are carrots but also knows that they are ''super yummy'' so he now eats them. shredded carrots = good. sometimes you just have to make veggies more appealing.

try it out and let me know what you think and how it works. until next week!