egg drop veggie fried rice

Here is a super quick to make, easy recipe that became a staple around this house after the very first time I made it. See, Rob is a vegetarian with a love for non-vegetarian inspired dishes and I am a mom with an organic foods fetish, an organictarian (that's a thing), but I do eat meat and so do the kiddos. Finding recipes that satisfy Rob's love of classic, not-too-healthy tasting fare and satisfying my love of whole grains and non-science-altered food can be a challenge. This recipe does the trick and everyone in the house gobbles it down from the tallest to the smallest of us.

What you need...
- 4 cups cooked brown rice.
- 2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger minced
- 2 cloves fresh garlic minced
- 1 yellow onion chopped how you like
- 1 cup frozen vegetables (mixed style or just peas)
- 1 bell pepper, chopped how you like
- 4 eggs
- 1-2 tablespoons soy sauce
- ground black pepper
- 3/4 cup cashews, smashed or whole
- 4 green onions chopped

What you do...
- Take your cooked rice and put it in a bowl in the freezer, uncovered, while you cut and chop and fry the vegetables, this will dry it out (if you have previously cooked rice from the fridge that works great too)

- Heat oils in a BIG skillet or wok on medium-high

- Add ginger and garlic to hot oil, stir with a wooden spatula or spoon for about a minute

- Add onion, stir about 2 minutes, until soft. Push onion to the sides of skillet.

- Add frozen veggies to the middle and stir-fry for 1 minute. Push to sides.

- Add bell pepper to the middle and stir-fry for 1 minute.

- Add rice to the middle of the pan and stir everything together about 2 minutes

- Add eggs to the mix one at a time and stir-fry into the mix until they are visibly cooked. This might take a few minutes and some stirring to make sure the mix is coated and the eggs are cooked through.

- Add soy sauce, pepper, cashews, and green onion. Stir-fry for 1 minute.

Done!

ps. This egg drop veggie fried rice is savory and flavorful but you can also serve with soy sauce, sriracha, salt, and pepper on the table so everyone can season to taste if they really like their sodium/spice (Rob I'm looking at you!). I'd like to try adding sprouts, fresh tomato, and pineapple to the mix sometime. It also works as a side or a main dish. We like ours with steamed vegetable gyoza. Enjoy!

Creamy UnChicken Enchiladas from Mommy D's Kitchen!

Mucho Mucho Bueno Bueno!

I wanted to share with you an awesome recipe I discovered at the amazing Mommy D's Kitchen blog (that link will take you to the original recipe - yum!). I made Mommy D's creamy chicken enchiladas but subbed out Morningstar Farms Meal Starters Chik'n Strips.

Other than the chicken substitution, we followed the recipe to a T and ended up with a super delicious dinner than will definitely become a regular on the menu at my house (even my 18month old, Otto, loved these enchiladas and he is famous for his "no tortilla" attitude).

That's right, Otto hates tortillas, how dare he!? Haha, but these enchiladas made the grade!

I loved that this recipe was quick to make but allowed for the use of super healthy and hearty ingredients. So even though it's quick and simple, the end product was very healthy!

♥♥♥♥♥♥

-Lindsey

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

Tilapia to Make You Happy-a!

Super super healthy and easy as anything, even for weenie freaks like me who are completely intimidated by the idea of cooking fish. (I grew up in a house where we never ate fish unless we were scooping it out of a can and into our mac and cheese.) Anyways, this recipe is soooo easy and makes a delicious, citrus-y summer dinner for the whole fam in under 30 minutes. Guaranteed to make you happy-a!

I found this recipe in the June 2010 "Parents" magazine and then tweaked it to meet my needs, which included cooking the fish quite a bit longer than necessary to appease my undercooked-fish-will-give-me-cooties fear. I also added more veggies, used lemons instead of oranges, skipped the salt, and switched out Mrs.Dash for my favorite organic seasoning blend.

Let's get going. Preheat your oven to 400'.

Gather:

- 4 boneless tilapia filets (2-3 oz. each)

- 24 asparagus spears

- 1 TBSP seasons blend (my favorite organic blend from CostCo is pictured or Mrs.Dash garlic herb)

- 2 liz lemons

- Parchment paper

- EVOO

- Frozen organic brown rice - prepared (aim for 2 cups)

- 1/2 cup frozen organic vegetable blend - steamed

Put it together:

1. Cut the parchment paper into 4 squares, each about 12". Fold each square in half to create a pouch.

2. On each parchment page lay on one side of the fold a tilapia filet. Garnish that guy with 6 asparagus spears, drizzle lightly with EVOO, squeeze almost 1/2 of a lemon onto it, and then sprinkle with the seasoning.

(Note: between the 2 lemons you just want to set aside about 1/2 lemon worth of juice for the brown rice with veggies.)

3. Fold paper over the fish/veggies and roll up the edges of the parchment paper all around so you're creating a "sealed" pouch. Arrange your 4 pouches on a large baking sheet.

4. Bake for 17 minutes, rotating the cookie sheet 1/2 way through. At this point they should be done and you can check by testing the fish to see if it is flakey. Me, though, I keep those bad boys in there for another 5 minutes just to be sure they're d-o-n-e. (Note: "Parents" suggested a 12 minute cooking time, but I found that by almost doubling that there were no negative effects. The fish still comes out moist and lovely.)

5. While the fish is baking, prepare your organic brown rice and veggies separately. Then mix them together and squeeze about 1/2 of a lemon over the top.

6. Plate, dish, eat. Yum! Or, if you're like me, take 1 pretty picture and then throw it all in a bowl and cut it up into a homogenous gruel for your toddler.

Check out Otto scarfing down Yo Yo Baby yogurt after polishing off his tilapia, brown rice and veggies!

See (she says to herself) cooking fish doesn't have to be scary at all. And because this is cooked in parchment paper, cleanup is minimal.

-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

Which Fruits and Vegetables Should I Buy Organic? The Dirty Dozen

Heard about the dirty dozen? These are the 12 fruits and vegetables that are considered the "dirtiest" (meaning most pesticide-ridden) and that should (as recommended by experts, I'm just relaying the info here) be bought organic whenever possible. Even though I'd heard of the Dirty D, I never took the time to find out which fruits and vegetables they were. Except today I did and here's the list:

DIRTY:

• apples
• bell peppers
• celery
• cherries (good to know, this time of year I'm so tempted but I'll hold off for organic)
• grapes (imported)
• nectarines
• peaches
• pears
• potatoes (whoa, very good to know)
• raspberries
• spinach
• strawberries

Then again, there is also a list of fruits and veggies that are considered clean enough whether you buy organic or factory-farmed:

CLEAN(er):

• asparagus
• avocado*
• banana*
• broccoli*
• cauliflower*
• corn*
• kiwi*
• mango*
• onion*
• papaya
• peas*
• pineapple

* indicates fruits/vegs that are widely available organic and from personal experience don't really cost that much to buy the organic version (at least in the southwest US where I live). So, I don't think this CLEANer list will affect my past shopping habits as far as stopping buying these items organic (fresh and frozen); I'm going to keep doing just that. However, I'm super-happy to see asparagus and pineapple on the CLEANer list because they are not as readily available organic and are both favorites.

Here are a couple of website stories that get deeper into this information (and that I used as sources):

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/13737389/page/2/

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-12-Most-Pesticide-Ridden-Fruits-and-Veggies&id=73473

-Lindsey