Pudding With Green Beans

"Eek!?"

Well kind of. More like, "Errrk?".

This post was supposed to be called "Pudding Like Your Dad Used to Make" because when I was making Otto's dinner tonight I decided to whip up some instant Trader Joe's pudding mix & throw in sliced strawberries & Annie's chocolate chip bunnies (a twist on my dad's classic banana 'Nilla Wafer pudding parfaits).

Gosh dang my dad used to make some freaky deaky pudding! Anyways, mine is good too, and a bit healthier I guess since I use organic rice/soy/or cow milk and organic berries and Annie's bunnies.

Yeah, Yeah, Get to the Green Beans...

Otto's bowl was berry and bunny free (probably tmi but since he's been eating fruit and fig bars all day I thought his diapers could use a break). On a lark, I tried sprinkling raw green been bites from his dinner in the pudding and he gobbled it up!

I always taste these little food experiments of mine when I'm feeding Otto something that sounds totally appalling and disgusting. Well guess what: pudding with green beans is actually kinda sorta yummy.

It's always easy to forget how sweet veggies actually taste. Green beans don't = rainbow sprinkles, but they're a nice sweet little crunchy gift from nature just the same.





Well, whatever, just thought I'd share along w/ the cute pics! No recipe here cause it's pretty much just what it is: PUDDING YUM!

-Lindsey

Zora's zucchini muffins

It has always been so fun cooking with Zora. She gets really into it, and says the greatest things while doing it.

For awhile, we made these mini muffins at least once a week, froze them, and then took them along with us on playdates. Big hit!

While making these one morning, I wrote down 4 consecutive statements of hers - these just came out one after another:

"It's all googly" (when stirring the wet ingredients into the dry)

"Yuck! It smells like sugar, but it doesn't TASTE like sugar!" (when I let her try a bit of cinnamon from my fingertip).

"This will take a lot!" (referring to how much stirring is necessary to get it thoroughly mixed).

"Wow, look at the fork, it stands up!"

That is the great thing about cooking with kids - they are really making so many observations, and are just fascinated with the process.






Here is our recipe, if you want to try it yourself!

ZORA's ZUCCHINI MUFFINS
makes 4 dozen mini muffins or 2 dozen regular sized

3 eggs
1 cup oil or applesauce or a mix (we do 1/2 oil 1/2 applesauce)
1 cup sugar (white or brown or a mix - we do a mix)
2 cups grated zucchini (about 2 large zucchini)
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups flour (we do a mix of whole wheat and unbleached - 2/3 regular and 1/3 wheat)
3 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp (or less) salt

Preheat oven to 350

line muffin tins or spray HEAVILY with organic pam spray - these will stick to the tin, if not.

Medium bowl - beat the eggs, then mix in oil/applesauce sugar. Combine with grated zucchini and vanilla (all wet ingredients)

Large bowl - combine all dry ingredients

Mix them all together now in the Large bowl

spoon into muffin pans - well greased or lined! (Zora is really good at this part).

Bake for 14 minutes (mini) or 20-24 minutes (regular sized) - you will know they are done when your child says, "wow, those smell good." I frequently bake until that perfect smell hits - that is the true gauge.

Freeze half of them for later - these freeze really well.

Enjoy! Zora has 3 at a time (of the minis).

ps. we have a KinDer Perch, and find that this makes cooking so much fun. We highly recommend it.






http://www.tinybirdsorganicbabytoys.com/cgi-bin/item/WickedDecentKinderPerch/search/Wicked-Decent-Kinder-Perch-Learning-Tower

10 Minute Whole Wheat Pita Pizzas

This recipe truly takes just 10 minutes and has only 3 key ingredients - talk about fast, easy, healthy, and delicious. It's also a great recipe for young chefs. Quick clean up too.

Ingredients:

- Whole wheat mini pitas (our Trader Joe's always carries these)

- Pizza sauce (you can add nutritional value by stirring in pureed pumpkin at a ratio of 3:1 [sauce:pumpkin] and it won't affect taste or consistency)

- Shredded mozzarella

Set your oven to low broil.

1. Use a butter knife to halve the pitas so that each pita "pocket" becomes two pita "discs". Lay the discs rough side up on an ungreased baking sheet.

2. Smear on pizza sauce to taste

3. Sprinkle with shredded mozzarella to taste

4. Option - top mozzarella with whatever you like. The ones I made tonight (pictured) have a bit of shredded basil from my garden on top. Customize for each member of the family! I love "old man" toppings like green olives and artichoke hearts. My husband takes his Kevin McCallister style (plain cheese). And Otto digs chopped veggies added to almost anything.

5. Broil until the cheese starts to brown (about 5 minutes).

Done! In the image pictured I posed a Thomas the Tank Engine in the pan so you can see just how bite-sized the finished pizzas will be.

If you want to add another 2 minutes to the recipe you can pre-toast the pita discs under low broil for about 2 minutes before adding sauce and cheese. this will guarantee you a crunchier "crust" for your pita pizzas. But honestly I never do it that way. They're definitely not soggy if you skip this step.

Yummmmmmm

-Lindsey

Easy Disposable Snack "Bowl"

I took Otto to his first movie on my birthday last week.

We saw the documentary "Babies" and he had a great time; we both did!

Getting ready for the outing I knew I needed to prepare a Movie Theater Survival Kit including things like a pacifier, sippy cup, bag of snacks, etc. But I was concerned that Otto would drop his snack bowl on the theater floor and didn't want to deal with any fumbling around in the dark. So I decided to cut the top 2/3 off of a half dozen brown paper bags. I recycled the tops and threw the bottoms (aka the "bowls") in the survival kit. During the movie, I poured small portions of crackers, cereal, and dried fruit into a "bowl", unworried about anything dropping because if it did I would just go for another disposable "bowl" right away.

At the end of the movie, Otto had only gone through a single snack "bowl" which we tossed in the bin along with my nacho tray. A total success! Hey, I got to eat movie theater nachos, that's a stellar day in my book no matter what else happens.