Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Watching Daddy Mow
Saturday, August 9, 2014
REAL Kid-Friendly FOOD: Sweet Potato and Spinach Mac and Cheese
We've never had a whole lot of trouble getting Lukie to eat...but there are days when it is harder than others. In general, he's super distractable at mealtime, and when he is eating, I pray that nothing will break the spell. Hope Mommy doesn't sneeze. Hope Dixie doesn't sneeze. Hope Lukie doesn't sneeze.
Yup, that's all it takes sometimes. And there's more than one reason to hope Lukie doesn't sneeze. Shrapnel.
Lately, it's been a little rougher than it used to be. Cottage cheese seems to be all he'll eat sometimes...though he really likes eggs poached in tomato sauce. I've tried lots of other things lately, and all I can get into him is fruit!
Lukas does, however, seem to have a serious love of pasta, and if I give him a bunch of pieces of pasta in a sauce, he tends to concentrate for longer and more intensely on eating. Granted, they end up in his hair, in my hair, in the dogs' hair...but still, a good majority of them get INTO his body.
Now, I'm not nuts about the idea of stuffing him with white pasta with nothing more than cheese on it. However, I've figured out some great ways to get veggies and whole grains into a Lukie-pleasing meal. And, on top of that, Mommy and Daddy get some veggies, too.
The first recipe I shared here was one of those recipes. See this post, in which I shared a recipe for roasted veggie pasta. This one is another one. To be honest, I like this macaroni and cheese better than regular old butter-laden, cheese-soaked, white noodle-filled mac and cheese. The sweet potato, especially, does a great job thickening the sauce, so you don't need to use even a fraction of the butter and flour you would use in regular mac and cheese sauce!
Sweet Potato, Spinach, and Veggie Mac and Cheese
Ingredients:
1 large sweet potato
1 1/2 cups milk
1 bag whole wheat egg noodles OR one box (12 oz.) whole wheat rotini
1 head fresh broccoli, chopped, OR 2 cups frozen broccoli
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 head bok choy (including leaves), chopped
1 small onion, diced
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 (8 oz.) block Colby Jack cheese, shredded
1 LARGE handfuls fresh spinch, roughly chopped
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Farenheit. Rub olive oil on potato skin and bake for 45 minutes, or until soft. Peel off skin and mash in a bowl. Mix in 1/4 cup of the milk. Set aside.
Boil pasta according to package directions. Add chopped broccoli for the last 2 minutes of boiling. Strain and set aside.
Melt butter in a large pan on stovetop. Do not overheat- butter has a low flash point. Add onions and bok choy, and sautee until softened. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of flour over the sauteed onions and bok choy, and cook for a minute or two. Slowly, and whisking continuously, pour in remaining 1 1/4 cups milk. Stir until smooth and cook until slightly thickened. Mix in the sweet potato/milk mixture, frozen peas, and chopped spinach, and bring to bubbling. Let it bubble for a minute or two.
Turn off heat (DO NOT BOIL ONCE CHEESE HAS BEEN ADDED!!). Mix in cheese (note: I like to shred my own cheese to make mac 'n cheese. The bagged shredded cheese often has fillers like potato starch in it to keep it from sticking together. While I don't have a problem with this on an OH NO CHEMICALS level, I don't like the way it makes a sauce kind of grainy. So shred your own cheese (unless you don't have the tools). It's worth it.)
Stir in cooked noodles, and add salt and pepper to taste.
(Optional: you can eat this now (which we usually do because we're hungry), or you could put together a mixture of a little butter and some panko bread crumbs, top it off, and pop it in the oven for 10-15 minutes to get a brown on the crumbs. I'm not sure it's worth the extra effort, but hey, whatever.)
(Optional, also: I'm going to try adding tuna someday. I love tuna mac, and it'd add that much more protein!)
(No, seriously, another optional thing: You can sub lots of veggies. Adding red peppers in at the onion/bok choy stage adds a welcome pop of color, I find. Add some diced green chilies for a different flavor. You could probably get away with some celery and a blob of mustard if you want to go all French on this thing.)
Wildly adapted from here.
Yup, that's all it takes sometimes. And there's more than one reason to hope Lukie doesn't sneeze. Shrapnel.
Lately, it's been a little rougher than it used to be. Cottage cheese seems to be all he'll eat sometimes...though he really likes eggs poached in tomato sauce. I've tried lots of other things lately, and all I can get into him is fruit!
Lukas does, however, seem to have a serious love of pasta, and if I give him a bunch of pieces of pasta in a sauce, he tends to concentrate for longer and more intensely on eating. Granted, they end up in his hair, in my hair, in the dogs' hair...but still, a good majority of them get INTO his body.
Now, I'm not nuts about the idea of stuffing him with white pasta with nothing more than cheese on it. However, I've figured out some great ways to get veggies and whole grains into a Lukie-pleasing meal. And, on top of that, Mommy and Daddy get some veggies, too.
The first recipe I shared here was one of those recipes. See this post, in which I shared a recipe for roasted veggie pasta. This one is another one. To be honest, I like this macaroni and cheese better than regular old butter-laden, cheese-soaked, white noodle-filled mac and cheese. The sweet potato, especially, does a great job thickening the sauce, so you don't need to use even a fraction of the butter and flour you would use in regular mac and cheese sauce!
Sweet Potato, Spinach, and Veggie Mac and Cheese
Ingredients:
1 large sweet potato
1 1/2 cups milk
1 bag whole wheat egg noodles OR one box (12 oz.) whole wheat rotini
1 head fresh broccoli, chopped, OR 2 cups frozen broccoli
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 head bok choy (including leaves), chopped
1 small onion, diced
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 (8 oz.) block Colby Jack cheese, shredded
1 LARGE handfuls fresh spinch, roughly chopped
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Farenheit. Rub olive oil on potato skin and bake for 45 minutes, or until soft. Peel off skin and mash in a bowl. Mix in 1/4 cup of the milk. Set aside.
Boil pasta according to package directions. Add chopped broccoli for the last 2 minutes of boiling. Strain and set aside.
Melt butter in a large pan on stovetop. Do not overheat- butter has a low flash point. Add onions and bok choy, and sautee until softened. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of flour over the sauteed onions and bok choy, and cook for a minute or two. Slowly, and whisking continuously, pour in remaining 1 1/4 cups milk. Stir until smooth and cook until slightly thickened. Mix in the sweet potato/milk mixture, frozen peas, and chopped spinach, and bring to bubbling. Let it bubble for a minute or two.
Turn off heat (DO NOT BOIL ONCE CHEESE HAS BEEN ADDED!!). Mix in cheese (note: I like to shred my own cheese to make mac 'n cheese. The bagged shredded cheese often has fillers like potato starch in it to keep it from sticking together. While I don't have a problem with this on an OH NO CHEMICALS level, I don't like the way it makes a sauce kind of grainy. So shred your own cheese (unless you don't have the tools). It's worth it.)
Stir in cooked noodles, and add salt and pepper to taste.
(Optional: you can eat this now (which we usually do because we're hungry), or you could put together a mixture of a little butter and some panko bread crumbs, top it off, and pop it in the oven for 10-15 minutes to get a brown on the crumbs. I'm not sure it's worth the extra effort, but hey, whatever.)
(Optional, also: I'm going to try adding tuna someday. I love tuna mac, and it'd add that much more protein!)
(No, seriously, another optional thing: You can sub lots of veggies. Adding red peppers in at the onion/bok choy stage adds a welcome pop of color, I find. Add some diced green chilies for a different flavor. You could probably get away with some celery and a blob of mustard if you want to go all French on this thing.)
Wildly adapted from here.
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