Mandarinquat!

My daughter noticed these cute little orange fruits today at the grocery store: ​

​Mandarinquat! (next to a Meyer lemon and a lime) 

Mandarinquats! ​Just the thing for Try it Tuesday.
Too big to be kumquats, too little to be mandarins, clementines or tangelos. Apparently they're a hybrid between a mandarin and a kumquat and according to this source you can eat them "out-of-hand" but they're tastier when used in sauces, preserves and the like. My daughter ate hers without the peel and declared it "tangy, juicy and interesting." I sliced mine (and was frankly a little disappointed by the huge amount of seeds!). It was sweet and tart at the same time and I enjoyed the texture of the peel next to the soft citrus flesh. Would I buy these by the bagful? Probably not. But I sure enjoyed trying them. I also love this post from the Kitchn with clever suggestions for using citrus peels. I've got a few more mandarinquats and plan to add some of the peel into hot water with fresh ginger as a soothing tea. 

DIY Black Bean Wraps for Meatless Monday

So it's April. Yay! Today felt like Spring is actually going to arrive at some point... but I'm not holding my breath just yet. I'm still craving hearty fare despite today's sunny skies so to celebrate Meatless Monday, I made a big ol' pot of black beans and decided on DIY black bean wraps for tonight's dinner. 
I bought these lovely pale fleshed, purple skin yams and decided to roast them, along with some carrot sticks (375 drizzled with olive oil for 30 minutes). On the DIY plate, I included some firm tofu - my kids are not fans of tofu but I like to reintroduce foods every now and then to gauge whether tastes have changed. The avocados I've had lately have been absolutely outstanding! We eat avocado pretty much every night around here. And we have fruit with dinner every night too, so I sliced a mango to go inside of our wraps. My daughter loves cheese but my son does not. The shredded monterey jack cheese is for her. I found these wraps at my local grocery called Mountain Bread Oat Wraps. Man, are these good! They're thin and they roll nicely. 

Here's what I did with the black beans:

1/2 large red onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves of chopped garlic
2 cans of black beans, drained
1/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon white vinegar

I sauteed the red onion with the olive oil in a sauce pan over medium heat. When the onions started to brown along the edges, I added the chopped garlic. After about 3 minutes, I added the black beans, cilantro, salt, cumin and white vinegar. I let this all simmer together for about an hour, stirring occasionally. 

Success! The kids were enthusiastic about making their own wraps! Happy Meatless Monday! ​

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! ​