Kids Dish

The yogurt I get through my CSA is incredible. It’s made from the milk of pastured Jersey cows and it’s delicious, better even than baby yogurt. One of my favorite ways to enjoy yogurt is with granola and fresh berries. But at more than four dollars a box at the grocery store, I haven’t been buying much granola lately. Something had to be done. I looked up and experimented with a few different granola recipes so I could enjoy my yogurt fully.

Basic granola is made from a baked mixture of oats, nuts, and seeds. It’s very easy to make and unless you’re careless and forget to take it out of the oven (not that I have first hand knowledge of that or anything) it’s really hard to screw up. All you have to do is mix the stuff together and bake it at a low temperature stirring occasionally until it’s lightly browned. Buying the ingredients separately at the grocery store is expensive, but you’ll definitely get more for your money than you will buying a box. Buying the ingredients from the bulk bins at a health food store is your best bet.

I’ve made several batches of granola now and haven’t yet committed to a recipe. The first tray of granola I made using applesauce and honey as sweeteners wasn’t quite sweet enough. The next few batches with maple syrup and honey were a little to maple-y. I think there’s a perfect balance out there somewhere, and I’m happy to keep trying granola recipes until I do.

Here’s my basic recipe for granola. It makes about ten cups.

5 cups rolled oats
2 to 3 cups raw nuts- I use a mixture of chopped pecans, slivered almonds and cashews
1 cup sunflower seeds
¾ cup sesame seeds
1 cup unsweetened coconut
1 tsp. salt

Wet ingredients:
¾ cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/3 cup maple syrup
¼ cup honey
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

Dried fruit (added after baking)
1 cup of fruit of your choice. I use raisins, craisins, dried cherries, blueberries, apricots, apples and whatever other dried fruits I have on hand.

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Stir wet ingredients together, pour over the dry ingredients and mix well. Spread the mixture over two baking sheets and bake in a 300 degree oven for 35-40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Stir in the dried fruit and let cool. Store in the refrigerator in a large ziploc bag or airtight container.

There’s a lot of room for improvisation in this recipe. What do you like in your granola?

Hazelnuts are high in protein and good-for-you unsaturated fat. Many brands of packaged mixed nuts contain lightly salted hazelnuts (also called filberts) in addition to the typical cashew, almond, walnut, peanut mix. They’re great for snacking on plain or salted, and they’re also now making hazelnut butter which is just like peanut butter only, well, made with hazelnuts. Hazelnut coffee is the only flavored coffee l like (though please don’t give coffee to your kids!) and hazelnut liquors like Frangelico are delicious poured over ice cream or just over ice (again, please don’t give booze to your kids!) Combined with chocolate, hazelnuts are divine.

Nutella, a chocolate hazelnut spread, is the easiest way to get your chocolate- hazelnut fix and you can even serve it for breakfast. I love hazelnut crepes, but sticking to my quick and easy theme I’ll just link to a recipe for the crepes (which require more effort for breakfast than I generally like to commit to) and give you a recipe for a close second in deliciousness. Grilled Banana and Nutella sandwiches. If you have a panini press, sandwich press, or George Foreman Grill I recommend using that for the ease of clean up and minimal effort, but if you don’t have specialty equipment any frying pan will do.

Grilled Nutella and Banana Sandwiches
makes 2

1 ripe banana sliced and mashed
4 slices whole wheat bread
1/3 cup Nutella
4 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon confectioners (powdered) sugar (optional)

Place the bread slices on a flat surface and spread each slice with some Nutella. Spread the mashed banana over 2 of the slices and combine to make 2 sandwiches. Butter both sides of the sandwich.

Heat the grill or frying pan to medium-high. Place the sandwiches on the grill and cook until golden brown on both sides (cooking times vary, but it usually takes 3-5 minutes on my preheated panini press). If using a frying pan flip the sandwiches after the bottom is browned and cook the other side until brown and crisp. Remove from the grill and sprinkle with the confectioners’ sugar. Eat immediately.

Btw, I didn’t forget about the lasagna recipe! I’ll post it tomorrow.

I bought two bags of cranberries for Thanksgiving before my aunt told me she’d make the cranberry sauce. She did not bring any cranberry sauce for dinner but by the time she arrived it was too late for me to start so I got stuck with two bags of cranberries. Not knowing what to do with them, I stuck them in the freezer. They were taking up space I decided to use some.

I’m not a huge fan of muffins, yet for some reason I like to bake them. These cranberry muffins turned out much better than I expected. Bonus points for Sam loving them and asking for “muffin, muffin” every time he sees them. The recipe is for 12 regular sized muffins. I froze half.

Cranberry Muffins
INGREDIENTS

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Fold in sour cream. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg and salt; stir into the creamed mixture just until moistened. Fold in cranberries. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two thirds full. Combine topping ingredients; sprinkle over muffins. Bake at 400 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until muffins test done. Cool in pan 10 minutes; remove to a wire rack.

With almost a full container of buttermilk left over from a cake I made a week ago I decided to make pancakes for breakfast this weekend. This was the first time I’ve ever made pancakes from scratch and it really didn’t take much more effort than the good old fashioned ‘just add water’ mixes. The difference between pancakes from a mix and homemade buttermilk pancakes is huge. I don’t generally eat a lot of pancakes, but when the mood strikes, I’m saying bye-bye to the mix for good.

· 3 cups all-purpose flour
· 3 tablespoons white sugar
· 3 teaspoons baking powder
· 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
· 3/4 teaspoon salt
· 3 cups buttermilk
· 1/2 cup milk
· 3 eggs
· 1/3 cup butter, melted

Directions
1. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together buttermilk, milk, eggs and melted butter. Keep the two mixtures separate until you are ready to cook.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. You can flick water across the surface and if it beads up and sizzles, it’s ready!
3. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture, using a wooden spoon or fork to blend. Stir until it’s just blended together. Do not over stir. You should still see a few lumps of flour. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

If you prefer whole wheat pancakes, substitute half whole wheat flour for the regular. If you like blueberries, using about a 1 1/4 cups of fresh or frozen blueberries, drop a few blueberries onto each pancake after pouring onto the griddle. If you add directly to the mix beforehand, the whole pancake will turn blue and streaky. For frozen blueberries, rinse under the faucet until the water runs clear, then put them on a paper towel lined plate in a single layer to dry.

Another tip. For the dry ingredients, instead of mixing separately in a bowl, put them in a large ziploc bag and shake to combine. You’ll have one less bowl to clean. Save the bag, and you’ll have it for any recipe that requires mixing dry ingredients.

What do you do for breakfast when you’re not a morning person? I feel like I should be cooking healthy, delicious breakfasts for Sam but instead I wind up feeding him dry cereal just about every day of the week. He will occasionally eat some cereal with milk. When we have Frosted Mini Wheats (I usually buy the Kashi or Trader Joe’s version) he’ll occasionally ask for them in a bowl instead of on his tray and sign for milk, which means a box of vanilla soy milk, not regular cow’s milk.

Every so often he’ll have some of my toast, but usually the only bread he likes for breakfast is bagels and half the time he wants them still frozen because he’s a weirdo. He’s rejected muffins and other quick breads for breakfast, though he will eat them at other times, and he rejects yogurt when I try and give it to him though others have had moderate success. He’ll eat a blueberry waffle occasionally, but again, he seems to like them frozen more than toasted with butter and syrup.

He’s eaten bites of other people’s eggs before, but 9 times out of 10 he reacts as though they’re poison. Perhaps when he’s bigger I can entice him by making something like this, but honestly I don’t think I can be that crafty in the morning. My mother said he loves bacon, but I don’t think she noticed him scraping it out of his mouth after his first bite.

Sometimes he’ll eat fruit for breakfast, but he seems to prefer it later in the day, for snack, for lunch or for dinner. I’d like to be able to serve him something with whole grains, calcium, fat (since he’s still a little peanut) and fruit, like some sort of multi-grain pancake, but to be honest, I’m way too cranky in the morning to cook something he’s bound to reject. What do your kids eat for breakfast?

Eke. Boy am I lucky that Madeline, my local franco-phile is out of town, or I would have caught an earful for leaving Croque Monsieur off of my list from yesterday of ham and cheese sandwich recipes.

So quick, before she notices, I’m adding the Croque Monsieur. If you throw a fried egg on top, you’ve made a Croque Madame - my kids love it for brunch!

Croque Monsieur

4 T butter, divided
1 T all-purpose flour
1 c milk
Salt and pepper
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 slices bread
4 slices ham
4 slices cheese (traditionally, it’s Swiss, but you can substitute any kind)

First, make a bechamel sauce. Melt half butter over medium heat. Whisk in flour and cook 1 minute. Slowly add milk and cook until sauce reaches low boil. Reduce heat to low and cook until thick and bubbly. Add salt, pepper and mustard, mixing thoroughly.

Meanwhile, melt remaining butter in skillet. Build sandwich with ham, cheese and bread - add bechamel sauce on top of the cheese before topping with remaining slice of bread. Toast until bread is golden and cheese has melted.

If you’d like, drizzle sauce over the top of the sandwich before serving (I like this, my girls didn’t) - and top with a fried egg to make it a Croque Madame. Bon appetit!

My kids love breakfast foods but it’s tough to get them to sit down and spend a moment or two enjoying their breakfast. That’s why I was psyched to run across this recipe from Kraft Foods. I made a few changes, but it’s still fairly close to the original recipe. Cute and nutritious! It’s especially appropriate just after Easter when the kids are still thinking about bunnies (of course, my kids are still playing “Jingle Bells” too, but they’re a little odd that way).

8 slices wheat or multi-grain bread
4 tsp. butter, melted
4 slices cheddar cheese
4 eggs
Suggested decorations: 8 green peas, 4 small triangles of red pepper and 8 fresh scallions

PREHEAT oven to 400°F. Cut out hole in center of each of 4 of the bread slices with a 3-1/2 inch egg-shaped cookie cutter. Cut each cutout lengthwise in half to make the “bunny’s ears.”

BRUSH remaining 4 bread slices with butter; place, butter sides down, on ungreased baking sheet. Cover each with 1 cheese slice; top with 1 of the bread slices with the hole. Carefully break 1 egg into center of each hole. Decorate each egg with 2 peas for the “eyes,” a red pepper triangle for the “nose” and scallions for the “whiskers.”

BAKE 15 min. or until cheese is melted and egg is set but slightly runny, adding the ears to the oven for the last 5 min. of the baking time. Arrange 2 of the ears at the top of each bunny’s head just before serving.