Kid Vs. Produce

At the Farmer’s Market, we picked up some gorgeous rainbow chard. After shocking myself by loving the collard greens earlier this year (although admittedly, they were WAY WAY overcooked) I figured that chard would be equally yummy. The kids all oohed and aahed about the colorful stalks and we grabbed two bunches. Leafy greens – with bonus color – is a very exciting proposition. Since I wasn’t going to be cooking with them the same day, I put them in a vase of cold water in the fridge, and they stayed nice and perky. Plus, they were very pretty:

Back at home, I did a quick search for chard recipes, uncovering a zillion versions of the olive oil, garlic, red pepper, lemon juice, saute method. I’m all for simple and easy, and this approach seemed to be The Way To Go, if you trust the internet for your recipe needs. (I totally trust the internet.)

Although, I will say that this recipe for a rather unconventional lasagne sounds super fab. Mushrooms, Rainbow Chard and Gruyere Lasagne? YES PLEASE. But for my first time out of the gate, I’m going to try to method that 90% of the internet seems to recommend.

Aaaand, here we go:
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We took the kids to the Farmer’s Market on Saturday, and had ourselves a rip-roaring good time.  One of the items we pick up was a bunch of Golden Globe turnips that the farmer assured us were tender and sweet and delicious.  She was absolutely adorable, with her hair in two golden braids and she didn’t mock me when I prodded her wares and looked suspicious.  The Boy actually suggested we get these, since he had fond memories of the last turnip trial we did.

Back at the Brat Cave, we decided to poke around for some recipes online.  At Culinate, we turned up what looked very much like a winner: Maple-Glazed Baby Turnips and Carrot Coins.  Maple and butter – what could be better?

The only problem?  The recipe called for Hickory Bacon Salt, and I don’t have any of that.  Granted, it sounds like a fabulous product, but we’re trying to really keep our sodium to a minimum.  We just omitted it, and moved ahead with the recipe.

My camera has been acting up lately – I think I need to clean it after using it so frequently in the kitchen.  The focus is sort of hit-or-miss.  Anyhoo:  Here’s the cast of characters:

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The Chef has been obsessed with pommelos for some time, although I am not entirely sure why. She refuses most citrus fruit, and isn’t a fan of having to deal with pith. When she pushed a single, softball-sized pommelo in my face at the store, I figured we’d give it a try, and she lobbed it into the cart.

Here’s the thing with pommelos: they start off all big and pretty. But then…
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Blog Backlog Ahoy! If you read our family blog, you’ll know that we’ve had a hectic couple of weeks that resulted in more meals out of the house and more takeout pizza and Chinese food than I’d rather admit to. But today, it dawned on me that all I have to do is stop with the lazy and get back to photographing The Boy trying to choke down produce and it will all be fine.

A few weeks back, I watched Jamie Oliver’s TED talk, and then made my husband watch. We’ve had quite a few conversations about the kind of foods we want our family to eat. We’re in agreement that we need to be sitting down as a family and sharing in the preparation and enjoying of homecooked meals. But as soon as life gets hectic, or the workday runs long, or a kid has a project due, we tend to sacrifice the family meal in favor of bolting down pizza or grabbing burgers and fries. The thing is, the trip to the drive-through is often no faster than it would be for me to make a pot of rice, and quickly assemble a quick curry, or some stir-fry, or heck, scramble some eggs and chop up some veggies to toss in.

That is, provided I have groceries in the house that will allow me to whip things up. And I’ve been finding it hard to make it to the market – meaning that that run to the pizza parlor is the default.

My sister is currently undergoing treatment for breast cancer – and even though she is tired, and even though she is working as close to full-time as she can manage, she’s still managing to eat an extremely healthy diet of mostly whole grains, fresh fruits and veggies, and vegetarian proteins. She’s done a ton of research, and has met with a number of experts on nutrition and is treating her diet as an integral part of her treatment process. She simply doesn’t allow herself to say – oh well, I guess I will just grab a burger because I didn’t plan ahead.

If she can do it, surely two grown adults and three intelligent kids can suss out a menu plan and keep the house stocked with healthy, go-to meal ingredients. More than ever, I am realizing how important this challenge is to our entire family. What we learn through this process will have lifelong benefits for all of us.

Artichokes. They aren’t the most reasonable vegetable to approach a produce-averse child with, but I figured it was time. I love artichokes. And although the Chef and my husband will eat them as well, The Boy has never willingly eaten a plain, steamed artichoke before. (He’s had them in that spinach pie I made, and I’ve sneaked them into casseroles.) I figured this would be a one-biter before he ran screaming into the night.

To up the chances that he’d eat SOMETHING, I decided to pair the artichokes with chicken sausage and quinoa.  Here’s what we started with:

• Quinoa, prepared according to package directions in my rice steamer, using chicken broth as the liquid.
  • One scrawny carrot
  • A couple cloves of garlic
  • 1/2 a small red onion
  • 1 package of spinach, fontina and roasted garlic chicken sausages (fully cooked)
  • grated Parmesan cheese

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We’ve had some startling successes with The Boy’s willingness to try new things over the last few weeks.  That said, willingness to try doesn’t always equate to willingness to eat.   For some reason, bell peppers are on his list of buh-sgusting foods.  Like carrots and onions, I am determined to wear him down on these, because I love to cook with them.

So, years and years ago, we had an exchange student from Spain stay with my family for a few weeks.  He had prepared a dish that consisted of slowly sauteed  red bell peppers in a savory tomato sauce.  I loved it, and wanted to try to replicate it.  Here’s what I started with:

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It appears that all we eat is soup around here. That’s not really the case, but it’s winter and I’m trying to get my kid to eat produce – and soup always sounds like a friendly-vegetable-delivery-system. With my flair for screwing up recipes, or blatantly not even trying to use a recipe, we’ve had some really weird soups over the last month and half. Part of me thought, hey, I should look up a great recipe for Tortilla Soup. But then, why break my streak?

We’re winging it over here – come along for the ride!

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I’m quickly becoming a roasted vegetable evangelist.  I’ll admit to enjoying asparagus…some of the time.  I like it mostly when other people cook it for me, since I always manage to make it stringy or tough or bitter or wrong in some other way.  When I was a kid, I wasn’t a fan AT ALL.  In fact, I distinctly recall nicknaming asparagus spears “green weenises.”  What a shocking display of immaturity! (Heh.)  I haven’t shared that little tidbit with my kids.  I imagine they will come to it on their own, and will be as proud of their invention as I was back in the day.

Greenises.  Hah!

The Chef and Sous Chef were excited about having asparagus for dinner, because they’ve learned from my mom that “asparagus makes your pee smell funny!” And who doesn’t want that, right?  Funny-smelling pee?  Bring it on!

This is totally the most appetizing post EVER here on Kid Vs. Produce.  Let’s just get to it, shall we?

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Yesterday, I posted the first part of this whole filo dough extravaganza.  Basically, what happened is that I had used only 1/2 a box of filo, and I didn’t want to put it away, so I decided to make some apple pies for treats.  Here’s what I started with:

• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• about 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• about 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• three small fuji apples
• a splash of vanilla extract
• 1/2 box of raisins (the kid’s snack size box – left over from our Cuban Ground Beef and Plantain meal)

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Oy! I’ve been cooking up a storm, and taking pictures up a storm, but I haven’t had a free minute to scratch my booty let alone write about our produce smackdown.  As a result I’ve got a backlog of posts just waiting for the finishing touches, and I’m going to have to learn how to schedule post so I don’t forget to make them live.

Along with the puff pastry from the Chicken Pot Pie night, I had stashed a box of filo dough in the freezer.  I love filo like nobody’s business, and I invent excuses to use it a few times a year.  You just can’t go wrong with flaky pastry + butter in my universe, and even The Boy has been known to roll his eyes up into his head in ecstasy  when biting into a filo pastry.

It was time for more leafy greens, and after the Greek Quiche reaction (also known as “Meh”)  I wanted to let the spinach flavor stand on its own.

It was time for Spinach Handpies.

Here’s what I started with:

• About 1/3 a cup of olive oil
• A big old thing of organic baby spinach, washed and dried in the spinner (vroom!)
• A handful of garlic cloves
• Salt, pepper and paprika
• About 1/4 onion, diced
• About 1/4 cup of red bell pepper, diced
• About a tablespoon of fresh oregano
• About 1/4 cup of feta, crumbled
• 1/2 a can of water chestnuts, chopped
• 1 stick of butter, melted (aw yeah)
• 1/2 box of filo dough.  (I used the other half for apple handpies, which I’ll post later)

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