Resolution Food #4: Dried Mango

Dried mango has got to be one of my favorite snack foods ever. When I first discovered the gently dried mango from Peeled Snacks, it was an eye opener. I had long avoided most dried fruits because of the added sulfites and sugar. The Peeled Snacks much-ado-about-Mango has one ingredient: organic mangos. No preservatives. No added sugar or oil. No sulfites. And they're organic, so they're non-GMO. These have become a staple for car trips and I frequently have a bag in my purse. They make for great snacking for kids and adults. I recently began experimenting with ways to use dried mango beyond the snack...

Voila! They work beautifully with breakfast AND lunch! This Chickpea with Dried Mango and Avocado dish is a hint of warm weather in the black hole of winter. We gobbled it up! 

Chick peas are a year round food for us (and as an aside, I am a fan of canned beans and loved this blog post from Gina Rau about it). Avocados are also a year round food for us. And in dishes like these, Peeled Snacks Much-Ado-About Mango is a perfect fresh mango substitute. Everything about this dish is Real Food and it's a wonderful way to kick off a healthy new year.

For more Resolution Foods, click here.
 

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Chickpeas with Dried Mango and Avocado

Ingredients
1/2 cup of chopped dried mango
1/2 cup of chick peas
1/2 avocado
1/3 cup chopped bell pepper (we used yellow pepper here)
pinch of salt
pepper to taste
2 teaspoons of olive oil
juice of half of a Meyer lemon
1.5 tablespoons of fresh chopped cilantro
teaspoons of fresh chopped mint

Method
Combine all ingredients and let the flavors dance together. This is best at room temperature and even better on day two! 

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Dried Mango and Bulgur Wheat Porridge

Dried mango is excellent with breakfast too! I reconstituted a few slices of it in warm water and cooked the pieces with bulgur wheat to make this porridge-type of breakfast. This can be done with any grain or with oatmeal, of course. Bulgur wheat can be a bit messy with young eaters but the texture is so delightful and it's a nice change of pace for us (we've been on an oatmeal kick lately). For an extra protein kick, you can add nuts or chick peas to this breakfast. 

Ingredients
1/2 cup of bulgur wheat
1 cup of water
7 slices of dried mango
1/2 cup of warm water
1 teaspoon of cinnamon

Method
Place the bulgur wheat and 1 cup of water in a pot and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, place the mango strips in a bowl with warm water to slightly reconstitute - approximately 5 minutes. Once the pieces are slightly soft, cut them into chunks. when the water is boiling, stir the bulgur, reduce heat to low and add mango pieces. Simmer until the water has evaporated. Add cinnamon and serve (and nuts or chick peas if using). 

Resolution Food #3: Eggs

The other day my daughter and I were chatting about meal possibilities for an upcoming brunch that we're hosting. I suggested omelets. "Mom! Omelets are a dinner food. Sunny siders, frittata, poached and soft boiled eggs are for breakfast or brunch. Hard boiled eggs and egg salad are for lunch." Ahem. 

We eat a lot of eggs in my house. It's one of the few things that all five of us regularly enjoy. There's joy in eggs. They're the glue that holds so many recipes together (like cookies, meatballs and muffins) and they are fabulous by themselves.  Eggs can also be an inexpensive way to feed a family. I thought I'd push the envelope on my daughter's thinking with these Egg Eyes - I'd eat them with any meal. We've enjoyed various mini frittatas made similarly (affectionately called Egg Nibbles chez moi) but never the straight up baked egg. Not sure how that's possible, but it's the truth.

Success! The Egg Eyes have been proclaimed "adorable!" I used a small muffin tin, which doesn't hold an entire egg so six eggs made twelve egg eyes (six were whites only). My awesome babysitter took one look at the baked eggs in the tin and assembled them on the plate like this (hence the name): 

Egg Eyes!

Egg Eyes

6 large eggs
Vegetable oil or cooking spray for oiling the muffin tin
Mini muffin tin

Method
Preheat the oven to 350. Bake the Egg Eyes for approximately 9-10 minutes. If you like the yolk slightly more runny or slightly more well done, adjust the time as needed.

*Note: you can use a regular muffin tin for this too. One large egg makes one Egg Eye in this size. 

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Egg Salad on a Seaweed Rice Cracker

Egg Salad

My mother makes the best egg salad ever. Consistently. Other egg salads seem like mayonnaise and salt concoctions with a touch of egg. My mom's is all about the eggs with a touch of mayonnaise. In my own home, I follow my mom's recipe but add fresh dill. We all love it. My kids love to eat this on seaweed rice crackers for lunch. Me too! 

Egg Salad with Dill

Ingredients:
6 large eggs
Slightly less than 1/4 cup of mayo
1/4 teaspoon salt (or salt to taste)
2 tablespoons of fresh dill
 

Method
Place the eggs in boiling water and take them off the heat after 10 minutes. Rinse with cold water. Peel the eggs once they have cooled. Grate or chop the eggs (I prefer to use a boxed grater). Add the mayo, salt and dill and mix thoroughly but gently to avoid mushing the eggs.   

Check out other New Years Resolution foods for kids right here. 

Resolution Food #2: Quinoa

Okay hear me out.

Red Quinoa with Avocado

I do realize that quinoa isn't the first thing that came to mind when you were thinking about reinvigorating your breakfast and lunch routines. But seriously, quinoa is good stuff. It's so easy to make - just set up 1 cup of quinoa (rinse first) with 2 cups of water or stock, bring to a boil and cook covered on a low heat until the liquid has evaporated - about 15 minutes. And on top of the fact that it works well in sweet and savory dishes, it's loaded with protein, fiber and iron, among other things. 

We've had successes and failures with quinoa in my house. My toddler absolutely loves it. It's great with fruit in the morning and this recipe for Breakfast Grains with Blueberries, Hazelnuts and Lemon from TheKitchn is fabulous (we omit the nuts). My girls enjoyed Quinoa with Avocado for lunch recently and with just 5 ingredients, I couldn't be happier. 

Red Quinoa with Avocado
1 cup of cooked quinoa (we used red quinoa but any will do)
1/2 ripe avocado, cut into chunks
1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
 

Place all ingredients in a bowl and gently combine. Add salt if desired. 

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Ground beef, quinoa meatballs

More thoughts on quinoa... 

I thought about kibbeh the other day out of the blue – Middle Eastern meat and bulgur meatballs, usually deep fried. I wanted to create something using quinoa and had some fresh mint on hand. I baked these Vietnamese-inspired Quinoa Meatballs and served them in DIY lettuce wrappers. Big thumbs up, especially from my husband who added Sriracha. My kids are not typically fans of lettuce but got a kick out of eating and holding it this way. 

Vietnamese-Style Quinoa Meatballs 
2/3 cup cooked quinoa
1 large egg
1/2 cup chopped red onion
6 oz ground beef
1.5 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon fresh chopped mint
2 teaspoons fresh grated ginger
1/2 cup chopped kale (we used frozen)
Romaine hearts
Sriracha to taste

Preheat the oven to 350. Place the quinoa, egg and red onion in a mixing bowl. Add the ground beef and gently combine. Add the soy sauce, rice vinegar, lime juice, mint, ginger and kale. I found it most efficient to use my hands to ensure that the ingredients were evenly distributed. Form into balls (about 2 inches in diameter) and place on parchment paper on a baking tray. Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes. Serve on romaine hearts with or without Sriracha. 

Check out other New Years Resolution foods right here. 

Vietnamese Style Quinoa Meatballs with Sriracha

Resolution Food #1: Ricotta Cheese

Ricotta is one of those things I only think to buy if I’m making lasagna. My kids don’t currently like lasagna, so it’s been a while since we’ve had ricotta chez moi but with the onset of cold weather, I thought it might be a great opportunity to reintroduce the warm comfort of gooey lasagna to my kiddos. Here’s the not so great news: my 7 year old gave lasagne a sideways thumb (aka, it's so-so) and my 3 year old gave it a thumbs down. Apparently, tomato sauce is only okay on pizza. Hmmph. Here’s the great news: we were able to use one container of ricotta for breakfast, lunch AND dinner - nothing wasted! (recipes below)

My kids gobbled up Ricotta Apple Pancakes for breakfast. They had a hint of sweetness, thanks to vanilla extract and were packed with flavor. These pancakes are based on the quick pancake recipe from Mark Bittman that appeared in the New York Times Magazine recently and are super fast to assemble (in other words, you can do this on a hectic school morning because it's not so involved). 

I used the remaining ricotta cheese to make Ricotta Carrot Roll Ups for lunch. I still had lasagna noodles, which is what I used as a wrapper here, but this can be made with any kind of wrap or tortilla. This was a fun project for my kids to get their hands dirty with - my son loved rolling his own lunch!

Check out other New Years Resolution foods right here.

Ricotta Apple Pancakes

Ricotta Apple Pancake batter

Ingredients
2 eggs
4 tablespoons of flour
4 teaspoons of water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 small apple, peeled and diced

Method
Whisk together the eggs, flour and water until there are no lumps. Add vanilla extract, cinnamon, ricotta and apple and combine. Fry these little pancakes in a pan until golden brown on each side - takes about 2 minutes per side. 

Ricotta Carrot Roll Ups

Ricotta Carrot Roll Ups

Ingredients
4 lasagna sheets, boiled OR 4 small tortillas OR wraps
1/2 cup of ricotta cheese
16 baby carrots
Pinch of salt
Pinch of garlic powder (optional) 

Method
Set out your wrapper of choice on a cutting board. Spread out the ricotta cheese evenly along the edge. Cut the baby carrots in half and place them evenly along the ricotta cheese. Roll up and cut into bite sized pieces. Enjoy! 

Winter Root Soup Before the Storm

Happy New Year!

Have you heard about this blizzard that's coming tonight? I'm no stranger to winter storms. I grew up in the north east and spent several winters in the midwest. A little snow doesn't scare me (ice, on the other hand, completely scares me but that's another story.) Yesterday, as my family was grocery shopping, we were approached by some news reporters wondering if we were "planning to stock up before the storm." Nope. Just grocery shopping as usual. The thing is, we only have so much space in our refrigerator. I don't have the luxury of excess pantry space or an extra freezer. And besides, I live in the city that never sleeps so theoretically as long as I'm able and willing to go get something from the outside world, it can be done. Still, I thought about what my day might be like tomorrow if all three of my kids were home and my babysitter couldn't come and I was unable to work. I'd probably want some food on the ready so I didn't have to think about at least one meal. I took a quick look in my veggie drawer and discovered root veggies practically begging to be used: celeriac, rutabaga, parsnip. It was time for them to take center stage. 

I basically threw all of the ingredients together (recipe below) and let this sit on the stove on very low heat for hours. Seriously, it's *that* easy. It's been a hectic day so when I finally had the time, I pureed it, added cayenne pepper and some dill to garnish. Delicious! Admittedly, I've never cooked with celeriac before. I bought it with the intention of experimenting. I was afraid that the celery flavor would be overwhelming but it wasn't. The soup itself is hearty without being overly starchy. It's rooty without being overly earthy. The flavors are sweet and mellow and the added cayenne makes it wonderful. It's going to be perfect to heat up and eat while watching the snow come down tomorrow. 

Winter Root Soup

Ingredients
1/2 red onion, chopped
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 celeriac bulb (celery root), peeled and cut into chunks
1/2 rutabaga, peeled and cut into chunks
2 parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks
1 teaspoon of salt or salt to taste
fresh dill (I used about 1/4 of a bunch) plus some to garnish
7 cups of water or stock
cayenne to taste

Method
In a medium soup pot, sauté the onion in olive oil over medium heat. When the onion becomes translucent, add the root vegetables and stir. After a few minutes, add the salt, fresh dill and water and bring to a boil. Simmer for a couple of hours or until veggies are very soft. Add cayenne (to taste – I added 1/2 teaspoon) and puree with a stick blender. Garnish with dill. 

Note: this soup is vegan, dairy free and gluten free. You can absolutely use chicken or beef stock in place of water and if you choose, you can add 1/2 cup of milk or cream if you're looking for a creamy soup.