Maple Brown Sugar Oatmeal

This recipe takes boring old oatmeal to a whole new level. Officially called porridge - it's creamy, salty/sweet goodness...and your kids will love you for making a batch.
If you're like me, you grew up eating maple brown sugar oatmeal out of a packet. It wasn't until I had kids of my own that I started making rolled oats the old-fashioned way. As my kids got older, there were times I kicked myself for getting them hooked on the good-for-you stuff, because now they wouldn't touch a bowl of instant oats with a ten foot pole {it's a texture thing, not a taste thing}.

Banilla Smoothie

Last week I talked about a way to freeze and store fruit, to have it on hand for making smoothies. Today, I'm sharing one of my favorite ways to use some of that frozen fruit...namely, bananas! I don't know about you...but, in our house, if there's one fruit that goes from ripe to over-ripe faster than any other, it's bananas.
But, ever since discovering this recipe, having over-ripe bananas has been a happy occasion. It means that there will always be a constant supply of frozen banana chunks in the freezer for making this smoothie.
Along with the smoothie bag making discussion...I also talked about how smoothie obsessed my two boys have been in recent months. They've always loved them. But, the obsession took over shortly after our regular blender crapped out and I purchased this system as a replacement. It's a compact blender that comes with four plastic smoothie glasses and lids. You fill the glass with your smoothie ingredients, twist the blade attachment over the glass...then blend away. It's super easy...even for a child to use, and safer than a traditional blender. I've seen them sold in many places, but this online store has them in a bunch of great colors!
The recipe for this smoothie came from a little book I got from my DH for my 30th birthday {which was more years ago than I'd care to think about}. At the time, I had a 2 year old & a newborn and happened to be in the midst of my own smoothie phase. I used the book for a while...but, since the phase ended, it's sat collecting dust. My older son has taken quite a liking to the book nowadays. I love seeing him {every morning} with his little black book of smoothies, deciding what the day's blend will be...then gathering up all the ingredients he can find, measuring them, and whipping himself up some breakfast.
It's bittersweet that my son is now old enough to fix himself breakfast...more so, one that doesn't simply involve pouring some cereal and milk in a bowl! For all of you mother's of babies and toddlers out there...it actually does get easier...and, yes, it does go by in a blink of an eye.

{The Basics} Smoothie Bag

I've spoken many times here about keeping a "stock bag". Whenever I'm using a whole chicken for a recipe, I save any remaining pieces I might have and store them in the freezer for when I make chicken stock.
Over the past year I have started using the same method for making a "smoothie bag". It came about around the same time my kids became smoothie obsessed. Both my boys love drinking them, but my older one is consumed with the smoothie.
He drinks them every day after school, as his snack. He drinks them for breakfast, or a pre-sports game snack. If he could he would drink them for every meal. But, I had to limit him to one a day...even with good things, it's easy to go overboard.

Pomodoro Fresco Pasta Salad

A while back I received a copy of the cookbook In a Small Kitchen to review. It's written by the 20-something girls, Cara Eisenpress & Phoebe Lapine from the food blog, Big Girls Small Kitchen. I'm just finally getting around to it now, which is an indication of just how insanely busy my summer has been thus far!
As much as I love cookbooks, I am extremely selective in the ones I purchase...or, even accept for free...as I don't want to amass an enormous collection of cookbooks unless they'll be used on a fairly regular basis. {Is there a term for the opposite of being a hoarder? A minimalist? If so, that's me.}
But, I happen to be a fan of these girls. I love that they've been bitten by the food bug at such a young age and I appreciate their love of entertaining. I heard about their blog for the first time while watching an episode of Barefoot Contessa on The Food Network, in which they were guests. I know you're not supposed to judge a book by it's cover...but, looking at the cover of this cookbook, I could tell right away I would like it.
The recipes within it's pages are very accessible, even for beginners in the realm of cooking. At the same time they're still sophisticated. The cookbook has an original approach, where it's recipes are organized by the occasions for which one would cook...such as meals perfect when you're cooking for one, or having a date night, or hosting a dinner party. This one was from the section titled, Potlucking...under the subcategory, Packing a Picnic. Each section of also full of stories and food inspirations. It's one of very few cookbooks I've known that reads like an actual book, in that you could read it cover to cover.
What drew me to this recipe is that it's exactly the type of meal I would naturally make for a summer dinner, albeit a bit more refined than my typical version. When I looked at the ingredients list I realized it was basically my mother's bruschetta {with a few extra ingredients} mixed with pasta. My mom makes her signature dish many times every summer with her garden tomato harvests. She serves it with toasted bread slices as an appetizer. It's something that we all look forward to!
This recipe is called a pasta salad, as it's supposed to be served at room temperature, and can be made ahead of time. But, you could certainly serve it warm by adding in the hot pasta and plating it up right away. I love their idea of adding in some balsamic vinegar and a touch of sugar, as I knew it would add a nice sweetness to balance the acidic nature of tomatoes. It couldn't be easier to make and it's sure to be popular with anyone you serve it to...even with the a picky kid crowd.
ALSO...Today, I am offering up TWO free copies of "In a Small Kitchen" by Cara Eisenpress & Phoebe Lapine! To enter for a chance to win one, just leave a comment below. Winners will be randomly selected on Monday, August 1st {my birthday!}. Don't forget to leave contact information!
UPDATE: And the WINNERS are...Comments #1 {Lindsay!} and #14 {Joanne!}. Please send me an email with your contact info, so I can mail you your cookbooks! You can find my email in the "About Me" section above. Thanks All!

Strawberry Paletas

As a kid, one of my favorite summer treats was a FrozFruit Bar. I loved the chunky strawberry one,...and I also really loved the coconut one. It all depended on my mood. It's amazes me sometimes the things from childhood that stand out as clear as day. Walking to the store, with a few pieces of change and picking out a fruit bar is a memory that makes me happy.
Years later, as an adult living in Brooklyn, I still loved walking to the nearest bodega and picking up one of those exact same bars. I know similar fruit bars, or even the same ones, are available in some supermarkets. But, eating one out of a box is different from getting an individually wrapped one out of a freezer chest at a convenience store. I don't know exactly what it is, but they taste different to me.
I recently purchased a set of ice pop molds and couldn't wait to try them out. When I decided on this recipe, I had no intention of re-creating a strawberry FrozFruit bar at home. But, the end result? It tastes exactly like one! I was so excited...and so were my boys. We've already started planning out which flavors we will make next.
For more ideas, I recommend the cookbook, "Paletas" by Fany Gerson...where you can find this recipe, and many more. By the way, Paletas are frozen fruit pops in Mexico...but, have become quite the rage in the United States. They are sometimes made with milk, but always with fresh, real fruit. Have you tried making Paletas at home? What are some of your favorite flavors, or flavor combos?

Lemony Chicken Tortellini Soup

I'm very behind in my posts & for that, I apologize. This past week was a total wash for me. Between losing a week of work time due to spring break & then a whole house full of sick people, it's been pretty much impossible to get anything done.
Because we had so much sickness last week, I wanted to make some chicken noodle soup. But, I didn't want to make it the way I usually do...which pretty much takes the whole afternoon. I wanted something easy & quick, but I didn't have any frozen stock on hand. So, I came up with what will now be my "weeknight" chicken soup!
It's easier because instead of boiling chicken for hours to get a flavorful stock, I started off with a bit of store-bought chicken broth, combined with water. I also added in some aromatics, in the form of some onion, lemon & star anise...which resulted in a pretty good base for soup in less than half the time. The star anise added a subtle sweetness to the soup, but was not at all an overpowering licorice flavor.
I added in the typical things my kids love in their soup...shredded chicken breast, carrots, pasta & of course...parsley {which is more for me, because I love the flecks of green in there}. This time, I used tortellini...specifically Barilla spinach & cheese tortellini. I have no idea if the spinach in those delicious little bits of cheesy pasta adds any nutritional value, but I have to tell you that my kids had no idea they were eating something with spinach in it! But, of course, you can use any pasta you'd like here...plain cheese tortellini would work well too.

Cheddar & Banana Pockets

Just because I'm doing the low-carb thing doesn't mean you all have to. I have to cook for my kids after all! These cheesy pockets {really, they're empanadas} are a Bozo favorite. Seriously, I can't see a kid not liking these. They are simple. Nothing gourmet here. The dough is super basic & definitely goes over well with a kids finicky palate. If you'd like a richer, more buttery dough, I recommend you try the empanada dough used here.
The filling is the perfect balance of salty & sweet. Bananas & cheddar cheese may not be a combo you've ever thought to combine. But, believe me, it's good!
My intention was to make these for lunch on Sunday & then have some leftover for school lunch this week. But, they never made it that far. I would imagine they'd be good with all sorts of fillings too. You could get creative here...I was thinking up next I would try bananas & nutella. Yum.