Easiest Dinner Ever

I don't know if you are like me, but I HATE making food. I am not yet to the short-order-cook phase (and I feel like if it got that bad, I may burn the house down and head for Bermuda). There was a time I loved to cook, even tried out fancy recipes in cookbooks that required long grocery lists and hours of prep and cooking. That was during my vegetarian years (a good 16 years, people- I didn't hop on the trendy bandwagon), and I tore through book after book, trying out different cuisines. They weren't all successes, and I was also unemployed during a brief stretch, so time didn't matter.

Now, I do not have the luxury of time. Usually I am preparing something while children are pushing and crying and doing who-knows-what in the other room. It is not enjoyable. By the time dinner prep rolls around, I have often already made 3 meals that day. Yep, cuz the lunch I prepare is not approved, or else I have to make my own lunch because as tempting as mac and cheese is...
Needless to say, I lack inspiration. I want my family to eat healthy, but I am not going to knock myself out to prepare something fanciful only to have two little boys turn their noses up at it. It is enough to cause me to cry. I'm not big into forcing food on my children, especially since the older one has a super gag reflex (like gags when he touches oatmeal). I've gotten into a bit of a rut of quesadillas, meatloaf, spaghetti, grilled chicken. I know they'll eat it, it's fast, and who can complain.
I forget about the easy stuff.
Like this:

Super Quick Quiche

This is LITERALLY the easiest and most adaptable recipe. Throw in what you have. It's great for leftovers. I usually cook up a big pan of veggies and have a bowl of leftovers that I throw in mac and cheese or quesadillas (for super quick lunch that's healthier). Today, I had some purple veggies I bought especially for this, hoping the color would entice the boys.

5 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/4 or more of cheese
salt and pepper
I added curry powder, turmeric and garlic salt
I cut up 2 large green onion stalks, about 6 fat purple asparagus stalks, and a quarter of a purple pepper.

Beat the eggs, milk, spices and cheese in a bowl, add to a Pam-sprayed pie pan. I cut the veggies up very thinly so they would be sure to cook quickly and thoroughly. My son picks out peppers if they aren't cooked enough (and calls them spicies).

Throw in a 375 over for 20 minutes. Cool and serve. Personally it tasted like it could have used more cheese, but was pretty tasty. Even my eldest ate it. I gave him a bite and asked how it was. He declared it delicious so battle won this time. The younger wasn't too impressed, even with ketchup, but he's also teething so he picks and chooses which meals he will actually eat.

Verdict- seriously easy. I am going to make it once a week, maybe with ground turkey, broccoli, other cheeses like mozzarella. If your kids are adventurous you could do wild and crazy things.
It doesn't make a huge amount though.

Baby Steps

How to have achievable goals

Every New Year’s Eve, it’s almost customary to sit around with friends or family and discuss What We Are Going To Do. Because we have to Do things. It’s not enough that we continue with everyday life and normal functioning, but now we must pledge to Do something. We can’t be one of Those People that let’s the opportunity pass to Do something. We aren’t lazy, undisciplined, presuming ourselves perfect.

We must Do. We don’t make resolutions to think more, to dream more; our goals are lofty and often very nebulous: I vow to lose 50 pounds; I’m going to stop eating unhealthy foods; I’ll write a book. Often that one resolution is lumped together with other resolutions, and if you’re like me, they are written down in a long list. One page has the future of the entire next year mapped out. No one sets themselves up for failure, so they chase that dream. We put our money where our mouth is, buying gym memberships and workout clothes, self-help books, journals and pens. We tell our friends in hopes that saying the words aloud will make us more committed. We spend much of our focus on that one task. The first month after our resolution, we work out fanatically, we make high goals of writing thousands of words a day and maintaining multiple blogs, and we throw away all of the unhealthy foods cluttering our cabinets.

Then Something happens. Somethings always do. We have a bad day. We get in a fight, have a stressful day at work, take a weekend off. And all that momentum just blows away. If I’ve set myself up for a big week and by Tuesday I’ve blown it, I think- I’ll start again next week. I give myself a week to do absolutely nothing. And then when the next week rolls around, I think- why bother? I’ve already ruined the diet, missed too many days at the gym, ignored my blog for too long. For me, the guilt of inaction leads to more inaction. It’s much like a friendship that you put on the backburner for too long; you worry that if you contact them, they will be mad at you for not having spoken in such a long time.

Maybe you pick up again after a few weeks, but the voice lingers- it’s too late for you. Why bother? Look at everyone else achieving their goals- you have put it off for too long.

I’m tired of that voice, and moreover I’m tired of the menacing Do. I Do a lot, thank you very much. Everyday is so crammed with Doing that by the time the kids are asleep, the only Do I want to do is consume a pint of ice cream while zoning out in front of the tv for half an hour before I go to bed before I have to get up and do it again. I’ve seen these blogs and books full of “hustling”. I need to get up at 5 a.m. to hustle my dreams. I often get woken up by my sweet dears of children by that time, and I have to hold them, feed them, comfort them. There’s laundry to do, dishes to do, food to make, groceries to buy. As a Christian I am also told I need to get up early to read my Bible and talk with God. So if I’m getting up to “hustle” my dream, then I’m guilty of not “hustling” for God.

Oh I’m a pro at this. I can think of reasons why I shouldn’t Do anything nearly all of the time.

I know that once I set up a big Do, I will unravel like a ball of yarn. Maybe I will obsess about that Do for maybe a month or two, and then I will hit a roadblock and it’ll be gone. Sure, I’ll think frequently of what I should Do and what I want to Do, but I’ll make sure I don’t.

So this year I have set little teeny tiny baby goals. Sure I want to have a 6-pack stomach and write a super long awesome novel, but instead I’m working on maintainable goals. It’s not realistic for me to say I will work out an hour everyday. Or even 3 times a week. “Everyone has at least 3 hours they can give to their health a week” you say, and that’s just not realistic for me right now. I do 10 squats a day. What? That’s ridiculous, you say. But it’s an achievable goal. Ten squats is such a little amount that duh I can do that many in a day. I can do more if I feel like it. And it is noticeable. Even my husband has noticed the firming up of my backside. And that says a lot because he is oblivious. And somedays whoops I forget. But it doesn’t throw me off because once again, it is such a little goal. I’m trying to read more (a practice that disappeared when I was in grad school and reading 100 pages of the most dense subject matter known to mankind a day). I’m trying to read more of the Bible. I make sure my Kindle is charged up and next to the bed, and that I have a few reading plans going on my phone (YouVersion has a great app for daily reading plans/devotionals- keeps it interesting and focused on basically any subject). That way when I fall into bed and I’m not too tired, I can read a little of my book, read some of the Bible, problem solved. And I want the family to eat healthier, so I’m working of these sneaky smoothies.

Smoothie Recipe (all amounts are eye-balled in the blender- make them and see what you like)

Whatever amount of liquid I use, I do about ½ apple juice, ¼ carrot juice, and ¼ water. I do more if making them for all of us for dinner, or less if it’s just the boys and I for lunch

Handful of raw almonds (we have also used raw cashews- you could do walnuts too)

Small spoonful of coconut oil (this oil has so many health benefits)

Couple spoons full of plain Greek yogurt

Squirt of honey (make sure it’s a good honey, or even raw honey)

At this point, cover it up and blend. The nuts need to be blended before you add much more or the blender has some struggles. Unless you have a great blender, in which case you do you.

Then I get sneaky. I have either kale or spinach (fresh, mind you) that I wash off and then add to the blender. Just a bit. I have tried not adding a bit and end up drinking all the smoothie myself. I take off stems because those are bitter, also all the leaf-webbing or whatever it’s called for kale because it’s stringy and bitter. For kale I add about 2.5 leaves (usually 2 big ones and a baby one), and for spinach about 6-8 leaves. If you’re like me, you need to shove it down under the liquid line so your children can’t see it and comment how much they dislike vegetables and then once again you’ll be stuck drinking it all.

Toss in your fruit. I like to do some fresh and some frozen, but whatever. It’s all good. I like frozen pineapple, frozen mango, definitely frozen blueberries. My husband likes us to add fiber so he will cut the ends off a kiwi and throw the whole thing in. You could toss in a few baby carrots. We’ve tossed in peeled cuties (those little mandarin oranges that are easy peel), berries, etc.

I blend and pour some for my husband and I, and then add 2/3 scoop of this powder we got for our kids- Vibrant Health Green Vibrance Junior for Kids. It adds a slight apple flavor, but is supposed to add protein, fruits, vegetables and probiotics.

I mix one more time and then pour the boys their drinks. And they are pretty good about drinking it. Blend really well if you use sippy cups so it’ll actually go through the straw and not get stuck. That’s personally why I add water, to thin it out a bit. I feel good about at least getting the boys some green in their lives, and the fruit and other ingredients help too. Like I said, you may need to play around with ingredients to get your kids (or yourself) to drink it. My husband likes to add other sundry things, like an entire avocado, which makes it a bit gelatinous in my opinion, but to each his own.

Remember, maintainable small steps. 

Hidden Veggie Mac and Cheese

The Joy of Cooking

What a joy it is indeed. Especially on the days like today, when Captain Two-Year-Molars decides he’s up for the day at 4:45am. What a sweet and thoughtful boy. And I’m the dough-head who thought maybe I’d get him to sleep next to me and his older brother. So flash forward to lunch time (at 10:30 because when you’ve been up since 5 it seems very reasonable), and I’m doing the good mama thing, stirring the cooking noodles soon to be lunchtime mac and cheese. My oldest calls to me- “Homemade mac and cheese?” or as close as he can get because, God love him, he really can’t enunciate very well and probably needs a speech therapist (yeah it’s on my list back off). I remembered that indeed I promised him last night I would make homemade mac and cheese today. So quick change of lunch plans, I threw in some pasta sauce and cooked turkey meat and voila, not mac and cheese. I then proceeded to prepare real mac and cheese for dinner. Backstory- I grew up on mac and cheese. It’s a comfort food for me and I truly believe my mom’s is the best, only because it puts me right back at the dining room table growing up. I follow the heart of her recipe, but I definitely tweak it. This is my chance to slip in things that my children won’t normally eat (at least not the eldest, since he has decided to take up gagging loudly when introduced to a vegetable that isn’t hidden). BEWARE- I have learned the hard way that there is only so much you can slip in to mac and cheese before it becomes not mac and cheese. Then you have a bowl of noodles and something approximating mac and cheese that no one wants to eat. I don’t make this super frequently, so if I’m going to go the mile for a carb-y cheese-y meal, I’m going to tend to make it more mac and cheese, fewer hidden gems.

Hidden Veggie Mac and Cheese Recipe:

Cooked noodles- use what you have. Today I used a combo of whole wheat penne and organic wheat rotini. I’ve found that all work well, but elbow and anything small with crevices cradles the delicious melty cheese much better than penne or spaghetti. There’s no judgment here though- noodles are noodles. I’ve even used rice noodles or quinoa noodles. Do it up. Experiment. Anything covered with cheese can be edible (disclaimer: do not eat inedible objects covered with cheese).

One can of evaporated milk. I used a 12 oz can. It’s a fine balance between too little and too much moisture, but I’d err on the too much side.

Bag of shredded cheese- preferably cheddar or some variant. Mozzarella is going to turn it more into pizza, which could be good. I go for Colby usually, but today it was a bag of Sargento Gourmet Blend. We shall see. I didn’t use the whole thing but go ahead and do what you want.

Veggies- today I used maybe a cup of frozen broccoli. I tried to snap all the florets off so it was in small little pieces. My kids won’t eat big hunks of broccoli. My method left me with very cold fingers but whatever. That’s love right there.

Extras- I added half a can or garbanzo beans. I try to add something protein-y when making such a carb-heavy dish. I didn’t have any more cooked meat, and truly the cooked meat can tend to add a flavor to the dish that takes it out of the mac and cheese category for me. I have tried other beans in the past, and as long as the proportions are right, it doesn’t impact the results much.

Seasoning- do it up. I add lots of pepper, salt, some already minced garlic from a jar in the fridge, onion powder. Not too much- if you’re not comfortable adding dashes here and pinches there, just stick with salt and pepper. I sprinkled breadcrumbs in the dish while stirring and added some to the top. But then I remembered I took a bag of frozen cooked squash out of the freezer to add, so I’m going to stir that in to the mixture before it goes in the oven. It should add a little color and perhaps a slight sweetness, but definitely some veggie power.

Stir together in a medium-sized oven-safe bowl that has been sprayed with Pam. Don’t neglect the Pam or half the mac and cheese will stick to the bowl.

Preheat oven to 350, cook uncovered until it starts to get golden brown on the top. This is about 30-45 minutes. Don’t cook too long or the noodles on top get so crunchy as to render them inedible.

Remove, allow to cool, attempt to restrain self from not eating the entire bowl.