Strummin' on the Old Banjo

Life is good. ​

I came across something on Twitter the other day that basically boiled down to 'slow down to recognize all of the wonderful things you already have around you.' Always a good reminder. 
As an aside, my infant is teething. I've been up every hour for two nights and have reached a new level of exhaustion. Or delirium. Or new normal - I'm not sure.  It's hard to notice the wonderful things around you, let alone celebrate them when you're in these kinds of trenches but today I was spending the morning with my son and at some point realized that I was giggling! Loved.That.  

Cooking Banjo Muffins with My Toddler

​My son is regularly this smiley; it makes him a delightful companion. And when it comes to cooking, he scoops and measures with gusto; he pours in cinnamon like there's a present at the bottom of the container; he acts like he's the luckiest guy on earth when he gets to sample the goods along the way. And the best part? He'll often jump off of his "helper chair" in the kitchen and run into the playroom to get a prop and pretend to be the Entertainment Committee, playing his guitar, belting out a song at the top of his lungs. Lately, he's all about being in the kitchen with Dinah, strummin' on the old banjo. And there we were, singing it loud and proud - working on the railroad, fee-fi-fiddly-eye-oh-ing. I felt happy deep in my cells. 

Pretty much everything that I bake, I bake with him. It's all toddler-friendly measuring-pouring-scooping stuff around here. If there are any more complicated steps, I can get those done while he's in the midst of his musical interlude. Anyway, so today he wanted to bake muffins and use our Dora the Explorer cupcake liners. We devised this recipe together, tossing in some beet and apple for color and sweetness. Once cooled, he gobbled one down and declared it "dah-lisheey-ohso!"

Ol' Banjo Muffins
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup grated sweet potato (basically one medium sweet potato, peeled and grated)
1/4 cup grated apple (one medium apple, peeled and grated) 
1/4 cup grated beet (one medium beet, peeled and grated) 
1/3 cup coconut sugar (* you can substitute brown sugar) 
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 Tablespoons flax meal
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/2 cup oat milk (* you can use whatever milk you'd like... we made this dairy free) 
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

Method
Preheat oven to 350. Line a muffin pan with liners (this recipe makes 12). In a bowl, mix together all of the dry goods. Add grated veggies and fruit and mix well to combine. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, oat milk, oils and vanilla. The coconut oil may be clumpy so using a whisk is probably best. Combine dry ingredients with wet ingredients. Scoop into muffin tins and bake for approximately 20 minutes. ​
Let cool for 5-10 minutes and enjoy. 

Pinkalicious Hummus

My son is crazy about Pinkalicious these days. The book used to belong to my daughter but she's not into Pinkalicious anymore and has moved it to his book shelf to make room for her Ramona Quimby and Super Fudge books. 
And I'm not sure when it happened but pink is no longer her favorite color either – it's aquamarine. Nevertheless, today I packed pink hummus in her lunch. She loves hummus and requested it for today using LaLa Lunchbox. She'll get a kick out of seeing pink hummus (unless, of course, she gets weirded out by the whole thing and leaves it over completely, which would be a shame). Truth be told, I made the pink hummus as an experiment - I came upon a recipe for roasted beet hummus and wondered how it would taste if made with raw beets instead. Verdict: yum. Check out this lunch! Hummus with carrots, celery and whole wheat pita; clementines and homemade banana bread (dairy free!) 

Lunch packed with Pinkalicious Hummus in our EasyLunchboxes container

I'm going to officially dub it "Pinkalicious Hummus" and see if the name and the color will persuade my son to give hummus another try. Yeah, that's right, I admitted it. Keep your fingers crossed - he is not a dip-loving guy. It can be stressful when one child likes a food that another does not but I'm a strong believer in continued exposure to foods and have seen with my daughter that tastes and preferences really do change over time. 

Pinkalicious Hummus
1 can of chick peas, drained (keep some of the liquid for possibly thinning out hummus) 
1/2 raw beet, peeled and cut into chunks
juice of one Meyer lemon
1 clove of garlic
1 T olive oil
3 T tahini
salt to taste

Place all ingredients together in either a food processor or a container that can be used with a stick blender. Puree until it reaches desired texture. If it's too thick, you can add a tablespoon at a time of the reserved chick pea liquid. 

Sam I am

I've made loads of mistakes as a mom but one of the best things I've done reliably is take loads of photos and videos. I have the memory of a gnat sometimes and for me, photos are the best time machine ever. 

​St Patty's Day 2009

So this year, when my almost 7 year old daughter specifically asked for green eggs and ham for St. Patty's Day, I remembered the video that I have on my computer of our first St Patty's Day with green food, back in 2009. ​ (Here's a screenshot of that video)

Oh wow. Four years have flown. I got all choked up just listening to the pitch of my daughter's voice and her special pronunciation of words (like gwakka-moweee) that I had long forgotten. It was a trip to see her bouncing in her clip on high chair and so excited by our green celebration. 

Here's what this year's St. Patty's Day meal looked like: 

​Green Eggs and Ham

I was so delighted to see the intense green color of the eggs! And I love that this recipe turned out such a vibrant colored dish without the use of anything artificial. 

Green Eggs
8 large eggs
1 large spanish onion, sliced and sauteed in olive oil until caramelized 
8 carrots, shredded
1 bunch of spinach
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method:
Preheat oven to 375.
Sautee the onion in olive oil until it's caramelized (the onion was huge and this process took about 45 minutes chez moi)
Puree spinach with a stick blender. Add a teaspoon of water if need be. Set aside.  
Using a peeler, shred the carrots into ribbons and set aside in a bowl.
Add eggs to carrot shreds.
Fold in pureed spinach to carrot/egg mixture.
​Spread the sauteed onions along the bottom of a pie dish.
Pour egg/spinach/carrot mixture on top.
Bake in preheated oven for 30-40 minutes or until eggs are fully cooked. 

Serve with or without ham, of course. Enjoy! ​

Egg Nibbles - Quick Breakfast for On-The-Go Families

Breakfast has been so hectic here these days. Seriously – we're talking tears because there was too much cream cheese on a piece of toast, tantrums because there are no more strawberry yogurts, outrage at the mere mention of ​cereal with milk. And when my pancake-loving kids both told me that they didn't want pancakes, I knew we had a big problem. For many months, I've been making pancake batter at night and having it on the ready in a tupperware in my fridge to make quickly for breakfast. We are all pancake lovers here; how awesome is it to have pancakes on a weekday and not have to wait until the weekend? My kids don't even know how good they've had it.
We're all tired and this long winter is making us all cranky. Lately the back and forth about breakfast has added stress to all of our mornings and whatever my kids end up eating is usually packed inside of a paper towel and becomes part of the morning commute.  

So yesterday I took matters into my own hands and made these Egg Nibbles.​

Egg Nibbles

​They're eggs with avocado, spinach, garlic and chick peas, baked into mini muffin cups. That's what I had quickly on hand. They're a perfect travel breakfast and what's more, they're loaded with nutrition and all of the right stuff to get the day off to a great start. But the honest truth is, my kids didn't like them. My daughter gave the sideways thumb (which means she didn't hate them but she wouldn't ask for them either) and my son said he doesn't like to eat things with avocado. True story. 
So why bother writing about it? Well, these things were yummy. And maybe your kids will like them even though mine didn't? My husband and I have been happily popping them for breakfast for the last 2 days. I am planning to play around with the ingredients here... I'd bet there's some winning formula for Egg Nibbles that my kids will both enjoy. And in the meantime, I'll happily take suggestions. 

Egg Nibbles:
6 eggs
1 cup raw, chopped spinach
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/3 cup chick peas, chopped
1 avocado, chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 T olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350. In a bowl, scramble eggs. Add pieces of avocado and put aside. Saute spinach, garlic and chick peas together in a pan on medium heat for about 3-5 minutes. Let it cool for a few minutes and then add to eggs and avocado. Mix well. Line a mini muffin tin with paper liners. Pour egg mixture into each cup. Bake for approximately 20 minutes. Makes about 24 Egg Nibbles. 

Try It Tuesday: Pan Roasted Duck Breast!

Our family adventure to the Greenmarket this weekend led us to tasty pear cider, earthy shiitake mushrooms, organic eggs, ginger maple candies and best of all, duck breast. My kids have had chicken, turkey, goose and Cornish hen but somehow never duck. No time like the present! So in honor of Try it Tuesday, the main event last night was duck breast. The kids loved it and tore into it like cavemen! Amazing. In classic form, my "crust"-averse son took off the skin layer on top and my daughter quickly snatched it from his plate. He kept referring to the meat as steak, which my daughter was eager to correct. 

​Pan roasted duck breast to celebrate Try it Tuesday!

Duck tastes luxurious. The meat is tender and full of flavor and a great source of protein, iron and niacin. Bonus: my house smelled pretty great after cooking this meal. I have always been fascinated by the fact that duck is a red meat, not a white meat and by the fact that we eat it medium rare – something we'd never dream of doing with chicken. For more info about duck, click here. The best part of the whole thing is that it was super easy to prepare; it took about 20 minutes from fridge to table. 

Here's how:
​Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Using a knife, crosshatch the fatty layer of skin on top. Season the skin of the duck breast with 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon onion powder, 1 teaspoon ground mustard, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper. In a large saute pan, over medium-low heat, add the duck breast, skin side down. Sear for about 5-6 minutes. The fat that's rendered during this process can be used again on another occasion. Here are some great suggestions for what to do with duck fat. Flip the duck breast over and place the pan in the oven. Roast the breast skin side up for about 10 minutes (meat will be medium rare). Remove the pan from the oven and let the meat rest for a few minutes before slicing.