The Toddler Café ™

We Are Moving (VIRTUALLY)

2012-01-13T10:01:00.000-08:00

Hi readers, for all of you, new and old I just want to let you in on some new information. The good news is Toddler Café the book is sold out! (no bad news here) The Toddler Café Blog is moving, the new blog, Playful Pantry will essentially be the same. I have moved over all the original posts from here so you wont miss a beat, all my old post are coming with me. The premise of the new blog is creativity, this has always been my focus but my ideas will expand a bit to include food for kids and grow ups too! I will be working on new projects, and will keep you updated as they begin. The new blog Playful Pantry will be just as fun and will also include great tips, fun and different ideas to help you in the kitchen.
Pleas make sure you go over to Playful Pantry and sign up for my email alerts and RRS feed. I value your readership and hope to see you over at Playful Pantry soon. It's easy to follow my new blog, just head over there and sign up for my e mail subcription, and invite your friends too!
Also don't forget to follow me on my Chef Jen Facebook page and Twitter for all my updates!

Eating Your Veggies

2012-01-02T12:50:00.000-08:00

Cute Little video for kids who may not be hip to eating their veggies!! Start the New Year off right, get some veggies and sing!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS from The Cardens!

2011-12-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

A HUGE THANKS TO ALL OUR FRIENDS, READERS AND COLLEAGUES.

HAVE A GREAT NEW YEAR!!

Home for the Latkes

2011-12-24T10:17:00.000-08:00

Hanukkah for me is like Thanksgiving for most Americans, I think. The smell of frying potatoes takes me right back to my childhood. It evokes a warm happy, safe wintery feeling. I have a deep need to share this time with our friends, Jewish or not so I can tell you that today my house smells like a greasy spoon, in a good way. Yesterday I fried Latkes all day long and it was well worth it.

Even though it is not snowing there is a perfect chill in the evening air and frost in the morning. It is good enough for me to re create the winter holiday season I have imprinted from growing up in the East coast.

So here is my recipe for Latkes, I don't drain the potatoes like most people do, they will come out fluffy and crispy just the way we like them! You can make these anytime even if you are not Jewish, everyone eats potatoes!

Happy Holidays to you all!

Home Style Latkes

Recipe by: Jennifer Carden * Author of The Toddler Café

We love Latkes; we like them crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. We call the crispy outsides “hair” and the hairier the better in our family! The small hole grater is what makes these so delish. My method for making these is a little different than most recipes, just go with it.

3 Tbs all purpose flour

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

3 russet potatoes, peeled

1 small onion

1-2 cups vegetable oil

For serving

Applesauce, sour cream

Whisk the flour, eggs, salt and pepper in a bowl. Set aside. Grate the potatoes on a fine or very small grating disk in a food processor, alternating with the onion.

Mix the potato onion mixture into the egg mixture with your clean hands.

The mix will be soupy, it is OK, and there is no need to drain it. (The water is what makes the hairy edges.)

Heat oil in a large skillet on medium until a bit of mixture dropped in bubbles sizzles. Be sure not to let the oil start to smoke-you want a shimmer only.

Using tongs or large slotted spoon and gently drop the mix into the hot oil. Fry until edges are brown and crispy. Remove with tongs draining oil over pan.

Drain pancakes on brown paper bags or paper towels. Serve hot with applesauce and sour cream on top.

Taking Chickpeas To The Next Level

2011-11-29T14:05:00.000-08:00

Finished roasted chickpeas

I learned to make Crispy Chickpeas with Garlic & Sage from my friend Michael Chiarello, we eat them all the time. We love the crunch and the chickpeas are a healthy fiber filled snack food for the kids. We love to do a quick version of his recipe by roasting them in the oven with rosemary and salt, they always get eaten up before they get to the table! My daughter loves to go pick rosemary from the garden wash and cut it up using scissors The kids can season them and stir them, and be proud of their involvement in the dish.

Tiny sorghum popcorn and chickpeas

Chickpeas can be great in rice, eaten cold or warm, with curry, in salad they go great in just about anything. If your kids are like my daughter they may not like humus but they may like chickpeas in a different form. I always try to serve up ingredients in various forms and sometimes it actually works! My child wont touch hummus but loves the crisp texture of baked chick peas!

I was looking for another way to serve up these power packed legumes. I came across a very cute video of two girls making a very yummy version of our favorite. Human Body Detectives is an adorable series about body function written by Dr. Heather about her kids adventures in the human body. Her girls also make videos about their favorite healthy recipes that they cook at home. I came across their recipe for a slightly sweeter version of crunchy chickpeas I really like it, I can use organic ingredients, raw honey and control the sweetness too. You can use other spices, try adding pumpkin pie or nutmeg or some vanilla.

Standard popcorn vs. Sorghum popcorn

One thing we came across recently is Sorghum popcorn, it is tiny tiny popped grains, the cutest thing you ever saw! We tossed it in with the cooked sweet chickpeas for a little texture and saltiness, it was a hit. If you can't find plain popped Sorghum just use regular popcorn it works just as well.

The winter holidays are on the way like a wave of sugar and glistening sparkles and you want to be armed with snacky food ideas, don't you? Skip the chips and dip, instead put bowls of crunchy snacks all around the house. Surprise your kids and guests with these sweet gems, it's time to break out of the hummus rut. I suggest making a double recipe....

Removing the tough skins

Butter cinnamon mixture

Roasted Honey Cinnamon Chickpeas

Ingredients:

1 15 oz. can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed (or 2 cups cooked garbanzo beans)

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 Tbs of canola oil or 1 1/2 Tbs of melted butter

1 Tbs of raw honey

1 cup tiny Sorghum or regular popcorn

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.

2. Place the beans between two paper towels and pat dry, loosening the outer skin of the

beans.

3. Remove the outer skins of the beans, and pat dry to remove any other excess water.

4. In a bowl, whisk together the oil or melted butter and cinnamon. Add the beans and

coat well. Place on a baking sheet.

5. Roast for 40 minutes.

6. Remove the beans from the oven, place in a glass bowl and toss with 1 Tbs of

honey.

7. Place back in the oven and roast for an additional 7 minutes. Cool completely add in popcorn and serve!

* Sorghum popcorn http://www.minipopsinc.com/

Zojirushi Winner!!!

2011-11-10T18:54:00.000-08:00

#16 Serena Victoria is the winner. Congrats to you I hope you love your new rice cooker!!

Egg Pasta Ribbons Minus The Pasta

2011-11-09T13:11:00.000-08:00

(it is very important to make sure you have color coordinated flowers on the table at all times (not really, just coincidence)

This morning my daughter asked if we could have "egg pasta" again soon, how ironic I told her because I was already writing this post! "Great minds think alike" I said!

I think the summer has officially gone, it is starting to get cool and rain here in the San Francisco Bay. I thought I'd share a very easy sunny recipe with you. As I write this it is very sunny and warm but it wont last.

Nothing annoys me more than when my daughter asks for plain pasta for dinner. I may as well give her the sugar bowl and a spoon! Kids need a little more than plain pasta but sometimes we are in a hurry or just out of ingredients.

We almost always have eggs in the house, it is our go to meal. We love eggs the good kind, the deep orange yolks from chickens that roam free and have personal groomers (no really I just couldn't resist!) Just get yourself some great eggs, when you make a one ingredient dish that ingredient should be the best it can be. Eggs are great way to get some nutrition into a kid, but if they are picky or discerning then eggs may turn them off. Pasta will turn them right back on again, I can guarantee it. If making homemade pasta is not your thing this is the next easiest way to fake it and get them to eat eggs! If they like this recipe it try tossing this with real fettuccine noodles upping the nutrition factor. Add peas and Parmesan for a little more flavor. Add cooked chicken or shrimp, or roasted carrots and ricotta cheese.

Egg Pasta Ribbons Recipe

The way you get the ribbons is to treat he eggs like a crepe, cooking it as thin as you can. Use a very large pan so the egg spreads very thinly or else you will just end up with an omelet.

Serves one

2 eggs

Pinch salt

1 Tbs olive oil or butter

Crack the eggs into a bowl scramble very well.

Heat a large 8 or 10 inch non-stick pan on medium add oil or butter coating pan thoroughly.

Add egg and swirl immediately coating the whole pan. Cook on medium for about 30 seconds to one minute until cooked through. Pour out into a plate or cutting board. Roll the egg into a tight roll and cut 1/4 inch slices with a knife. They will be rolled up like little spirals, put on a plate, toss to unravel and serve!

Oh The Horror...Cherpumple Cake

2011-10-30T11:48:00.000-07:00

Every Halloween I try to make the most disgusting thing I can think of, like earwax Q-tips or Bloody Eyeballs or the infamous Cat Litter Box Cake. We always have fun with Halloween, we eat healthy during the year but on Halloween I just have to go to the dark side! Halloween is a great time for me to showcase my baking talents, I love to bake but I try to stay away from it during the year. My friend Barb sent me a link to one of the worst horrors I'd ever seen, Cherpumple, a travesty of cake and pie a most disgusting mess. I knew I was destined to make this monstrosity and I knew it would take hours, and it did. I think the originator of this mess was Charles Phoenix so I will give him credit too.

It is basically a Turducken in cake form, a Turducken is a turkey stuffed with a chicken a duck and quail and so on with stuffing in between each layer. I have made one before but it is not a regular occurrence in our house.

I knew if I made this cake for Halloween it would have to represent something creepy. It reminded me so much of Frankenstein that I decided to give it the green frosting and hair but not the whole face. I did make bolts for the neck but they ended up looking weird. The problem with this cake it that finished it weighed about 25 pounds and I forgot that It would have to go on a car ride.

I made three layers, yellow cake with a pumpkin pie, chocolate cake with a cherry pie and spice cake with apple pie.

The way you make this cake is to sink a prebaked pie into raw cake batter and cook it for about an hour and 15 minutes. The glitch is that you can only bake on eat a time or they bake unevenly. I started at 9 am and finished the last touches at 5 pm. I was speed cooling the last layer as I was frosting the rest, it was mayhem. I used some wrapped up frozen salmon on top as it sat in the fridge.

The guts.

It was a ridiculous idea to transport this cake, every time we turned it leaned like the Tower of Pisa but the Tower of Pisa is not covered with green butter cream and fondant! I would not recommend moving this cake, it was like Food Network Challenge when thy have to move those 500 pound cakes, totally nerve wracking.

The good news it that it made it to the party and the crowd loved it. The bad news it that as we removed pieces it became so heavy that it tipped the cake plate over, that's one hefty cake!

I am already planning on my Thanksgiving cake....maybe just two layers next time. Don't miss the Poo Poo platter photo below, yet another disgusting idea from my kitchen.

Poo Poo Platter! (Tootsie Rolls inside)

Zojirushi's Umami® Micom Rice Cooker GIVEAWAY

2011-10-27T21:36:00.000-07:00

The winner is....Serena Victoria

Zojirushi's Umami® Micom Rice Cooker 5.5 cup (you only win one)

I am so glad that you can't see my office, it's really cute but you'd never know it because it is almost always filled with boxes! The boxes are full of good stuff though, great products people send me to review and give away. This is where you come in, you as reader could be you as winner! I always have something to give away and this time it's pretty amazing.

One of the appliances I can't do without in my kitchen is my rice cooker. When I was at the ABC Baby and Kid show last year the people at Zojirushi were so kind to send me two machines! I am a multitasker and for some reason can't be trusted to make rice stove top. I ALWAYS burn it, yes even trained chefs burn stuff. Once I experienced one of these rice cookers I couldn't dream of going back to burnt rice. This is by far the best my favorite appliance, well, I love my coffee grinder too but that is for another time. The Zojirushi Micom Cooker has a timer so all you do is add the rice and water, set it for the time you want it to be done cooking (a great feature) and press a button. This machine is so smart, it's like a PC that just happens to cook food. Truth be told this is not only cute, portable and perfect every time but it plays the cutest little tunes. Yes it plays music...when set, it plays Twinkle Twinkle and when the rice is done it plays another tune but no one seems to know what that tune that is. For about 15 minutes I made it my mission to find out but came up short, let me know if you know what the little song is.

My daughter says that I love this machine too much, "it's just not right you shouldn't hug a machine mama!" The retractable cord is great and it has a handle so you can take it with you, just strap it in to the front seat! Not because you don't want to be parted from it, but for bringing warm food to a potluck or dinner party. The warm setting is great, my rice stays warm and doesn't over cook. It even has a battery which means you can unplug it when not in use and it keeps track of time.

You can make porridge or congee, a thick rice soup popular as a breakfast in some Asian countries. I have not made soups but you can make pretty much anything in it, it even slow cooks.Tapioca works well but we use it for steel cut oats. If you add the oats and water the night before it will be done in time for breakfast! Now that's an easy healthy breakfast, add fruit and you can't go wrong.

The one I own is the 3 cup perfect for our small family, don't think I haven't thought of opening the 5.5 cup that's been in my office! I have will power, not much but I have some. I kept it perfectly preserved for my winner, it's brand new and ready to be shipped. [Rice cooker stats below]

I thought I'd also add a great new cookbook to the giveaway from Michelle Stern.

Her new book is called the Whole Family Cookbook and is available on Amazon. I am a bit biased since I food styled the book and my husband Matthew shot the photos. It is a great book because all the steps in the recipes are broken down into age appropriate tasks making it easy for all ages. Her Purple Rice recipe will work really well in your new rice cooker!! So have fun with your new rice cooker and cookbook. Rules for entry are below.

Requirements to enter the Zojirushi's Umami Micom Rice Cooker GIVEAWAY:

This giveaway ends on Wednesday, November 9th, 9am PST.
The winner will be generated with Random.org
When leaving a comment make sure you leave your e mail address, if I don't have it I can't contact you.

1. Subscribe to my email updates - enter your email in the box on the upper right of this blog

and

2. Leave a comment on this blog post telling me you subscribed to my email updates. Tell me what your family's favorite rice add-ins are or what your kids favorite rice dishes are.

To increase your chances to win and receive additional entries, do the following:

Tweet about this giveaway. Add @chefjen and #toddlercafe to the tweet
Share on Facebook. Make sure you tell me you shared by commenting on my Facebook page that you did! Make sure to 'Like' my Facebook page!

Blah blah blah...
NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY TO ENTER THIS DRAWING

One winner will be chosen at random. Winner will be chosen in Novato California on November 9th 2011 at 10 am. The winner will be notified via email within one week after the draw. The winner will be required to provide an address to ship the two prizes to the address only be used for shipping purposes.

DISCLAIMERS: All federal, state, and/or local rules and regulations apply; void where prohibited by law. Jennifer Carden is not responsible for late, misdirected or illegible entries. Winners are responsible for any and all taxes associated with their acceptance of any prize. Jennifer Carden is not responsible for technical, hardware, software, telephone or Internet access failures of any kind, lost or unavailable network connections, or failed or incomplete, garbled or deleted computer or network transmissions which may limit the ability to participate in this sweepstakes. Sponsor reserves the right at its sole discretion to cancel or suspend this sweepstakes or any part thereof should virus, bugs, unauthorized human intervention or other causes beyond its control corrupt or affect the administration, fairness or proper conduct of this sweepstakes, including terminating just one phase or portion of the promotion.

Rice Cooker stats:

The Umami® Micom Rice Cooker Warmer comes with Zojirushi's exclusive Umami setting that soaks and steams the rice longer for enhanced flavor. It also has a Slow Cook function that allows the rice cooker to work like a slow cooker.

Micro computerized Fuzzy logic technology
Zojirushi's exclusive Umami setting soaks and steams rice longer for enhanced flavor
Versatile slow cook function to cook soups and other menus
Automatic keep warm, extended keep warm and reheating cycle
Spherical inner cooking pan and heating system
Delay timer (2 settings)
Menu settings include: white, umami, mixed, sushi, porridge, sweet, brown, GABA brown, rinse-free, quick cooking and slow cook
cETLus listed

Model No.	NS-YAC10
Capacity	5.5 cups / 1.0 liter
Dimensions (W x D x H)	10-1/8 x 15 x 9-1/4
Electrical Rating	120 volts / 610 watts
Color	Pearl White

Model No.	NS-YAC18
Capacity	10 cups / 1.8 liters
Dimensions (W x D x H)	11 x 16 x 10-5/8
Electrical Rating	120 volts / 820 watts
Color	Pearl White

Rainbow and Squirrel Sandwiches (not what you think)

2011-10-25T12:36:00.000-07:00

We made it through September and October seems to be even busier!! Seriously is it me or do we get busier every year? What happened to the down time it must be somewhere, I am still looking!! The preparing dinners is tough enough, but making lunches can leave you at a loss too. Walking in to the kitchen groggy and trying to juggle breakfast, finding missing socks and making sure homework is in the backpack can be a real chore. The last thing you want to do is make a bunch of lunches, am I wrong? Well I can't help with that because the kids have to eat!! At our school we have to bring lunch everyday we do not have a lunch program (yet). Over one hundred and twenty or more lunches in a school year can seem daunting, and if you have more than one child...well you get my drift!

When winter comes I immediately get out the Thermos and go for soups and stews, warmth during the day can give a child that little boost they need. But until then I like to make sandwiches, the problem is that my daughter has never been a fan of the sandwich. She much prefers a warm lunch, something homemade of course but that can't always happen. Recently I remembered I had some edible markers I usually use to draw on hard boiled eggs with. My discovery that they work on bread was a gold mine!!! I can write notes like "I miss you" or "drink more water" on her bread!!

The best part is that she likes make her own lunches (with some persuading) because the markers are fun to use. We make the sandwich the night before so we are not rushed in the morning. We only do this once a week to keep it special but it sure is fun!! We add, fruit, cheese and crackers, and a veggie like cucumbers or carrots. I very rarely add any sugary treats unless it is home baked like banana bread. This gives me a break the next morning so I can gear up my creative brain for the next day's lunch.

Try going to a thrift shop for cookie cutters, Ikea has some fun ones too! I have a large collection and find that I almost never make cookies with them. They work so well for "sandies" as we call them in our house!

Cookie cutters and edible markers make a great lunch.

Epic Cake Decorating Day

2011-10-15T23:19:00.000-07:00

Beanstalk Stump Cake

Our school has a fair every October, but because we just joined the school last January we have never been to the feté. One of the requirement for every class is to bake a cake for the cake walk. There is also a friendly competition for the snazziest cake, so naturally I wanted to enter. I immediately started thinking of something to make and as usual my mind was blank. I usually don't have a clue what I will make but I got lucky here. Our class booth is the "sleeping giant," you know the Jack and the Bean Stalk story. I figured I'd make a beanstalk themed cake, the ax was an afterthought but my favorite part!!

My eight year old wanted to make a cake too she went with the draw bridge theme, I love her cake! She made a sitting night at rest with his helmet off hanging out by the river.

We worked, mostly in silence sharing tools, ideas for hours.

What a treat to be able to sit with my daughter and craft something that we are both totally absorbed in. Who knows if either of our cakes will win a prize but I know someone lucky cake walk winner will be taking them home for sure!

Claire's drawbridge and Knight cake

UPDATE
Claire took first place in her division!!!
YEA CLAIRE!!
I won nothing.....

Let The Kids Decide What's For Dinner

2011-10-10T17:49:00.000-07:00

Kids love to give their opinion and to be the boss so let them, sometimes. Dinner can be tricky with toddlers and siblings and distractions. It’s hard to tear them away from a game or task to come to the table. Admit it, if you were in the middle of writing an email or playing with Lego's and someone made you get up in the middle of it for dinner you may be have a tantrum too. We need to be gentle with kids, they live in a whole other world of make believe and play, they may be in the room but their minds can be elsewhere. A warning 10 minutes before dinner can make a huge difference in getting them to the table with sanity! If that trick fails then for sure involve them in the dinner planning to start their engines.

Kids want to be involved, feel independent and be a part of the group. Get them involved in dinner, planning so they know what to expect.

Start small by stocking your fridge with healthy brightly colored veggies, and proteins. Keep a well stocked pantry full of whole grains and rice and beans.

When it comes time to plan dinner have your kids help choose a veggie, a protein and a starch. Let them know that plain pasta just will not give them the energy they need to play for hours. (remember eating a rainbow is the way to grow) Letting your child understand choices gives them confidence and good decision making skills. Set them up for success by starting with simple choices.

Pick Your Toppings Pasta Night

Once they decide on the 3 or 4 ingredients, cook them up and, put them in separate dishes and let them “mix” their own bowl for dinner. Feel free to offer a sauce on the side like olive oil or Alfredo and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. We like to have a bunch of sauces and spices on the table so everyone can tailor the meal to their liking. Get them used to seeing different foods arrive each night. Give them some guidelines, for instance, only add ingredients one spoonful at a time, it is easier to add than take away. and they have to try everything they have chosen to mix in. Give lots of praise even if it tastes bland and boring. Try to avoid saying something tastes bad in front of a child, being negative around food will quickly create a picky eater. This is about building self-esteem around eating not necessarily what they end up eating. The point here is you are putting them in the driver seat, put on your seat belt and get ready to take a ride.

Grown-ups can go heavy on the veggies to model meals for the kids. Adding nuts is a great way to get protein too!

Choose wisely like trying whole-wheat pasta vs. white pasta, shredded zucchini vs. sausage, white beans and grilled chicken instead of ground beef.

Use ingredients like bacon and some meat as seasonings or flavorings instead of using them as the star of a dish.

For do-it-yourself pasta night here are a 2 ingredient suggestions, using the same pan, sauté one after another.

To sauté, heat a large shallow pan on medium heat, add 1- 2 tablespoons of olive oil, add your first ingredient, continuing adding until everything is cooked.

Chicken-ish Pasta Dish

Chicken apple sausage, cut in rounds and sautéed

Sautéed zucchini rounds

Cooked whole-wheat rigatoni or elbows

Shredded green apples, raw to add on top

Olive oil, salt and pepper

Gobble It Up Turkey Sauté

Ground turkey, sautéed

Broccoli florets, steamed

Shredded Cheddar cheese

Quinoa or Brown rice, cooked

Taco Night

The ever-popular taco night, another great way to get your kids experimenting! Put out bowls of ingredients and let the kids add what they like. Smearing re-fried beans in the bottom of the taco can help the ingredients stick, thus preventing ingredient spillage! Cutting the ingredients into small bits makes it easier for little mouths. Use soft or crunchy taco shells and lots of healthy ingredients like:

Corn tortillas, soft or crunchy

Ground beef or turkey or a mixture (cooked with taco seasoning and crumbled)

Shredded cheddar or pepper jack cheese

Shredded lettuce

Green or black olives, sliced

Avocado, sliced

Red or green salsa, mild

Re fried beans, organic, warmed

Diced tomato

small amounts of sour cream

corn off the cob

caramelized onions (raw onion can be too harsh for kids)

Crunchy Granola a Whole New Generation

2011-10-01T08:46:00.000-07:00

A fun craft to serve your creation in

My latest article from Edible Fall 2011

Stone's Soup Corner
Crunchy Granola a whole new generation...
When I told my parents 18 years ago that I was moving to California, they labeled me as "crunchy granola." I was pretty offended. After all, I wasn't a hippie; I was a modern 20-something heading to San Francisco to seek out conversations about art in cafés with Beat poet types! They also asked me when I was coming back, to which I replied "never."

After a year or so in San Francisco, I decided to set aside my artist's tools and take up cooking–the right choice, looking back. The joke is on me because now one of my favorite recipes is what I call "Grab and Go Granola." I guess I was "crunchy granola" after all!

The ways of Woodstock may be gone, but the tradition of making healthy homemade snacks is alive and thriving. These days, "health food" is not just for love-in breakfasts or others on the fringe; it is mainstream. Snacks like granola are soaring in popularity and it seems every time you turn around there is a new gourmet granola on the market shelf. There are fruity ones, nutty ones, even regular-old cereals masquerading as granolas. A great way to ensure that your family truly is getting a healthy, wholesome granola is to make your own–and it's an easy and fun activity for kids, too!

KITCHEN CRAFT

In the cooking and gardening camps at Napa's Connolly Ranch, we teach the kids to make pots for seedlings out of newspaper. These paper pots are also a fun way to serve snacks like homemade granola. You can use newspaper or even plain copier paper or construction paper for colored snack cups. This is a fun and creative activity for parties and play dates, too. Try making different shapes, like squares or rectangles!

Materials needed:

Sheets of paper
Tape
Markers or crayons
A can (vegetable or soup cans work well)

To make:

1. Cut or fold the paper so that you have a piece that is long enough to fit all the way around the can (with a slight overlap) and is about 1 inch higher than the height of the can.

2. Wrap the paper around the can and tape the seam to seal the paper around the can–but not so tightly that you won't be able to slip it off.

3. Fold one end of the paper under the can to form a bottom for your cup.

4. Tape the seams to secure the bottom.

5. Have your child draw a design on the paper, then slip it off the can.

6. Fill your cups with your homemade granola or any other dry snack.

Grab and Go Granola

Granola is easy to make and store and it is delicious plain or as a topping. Try it on yogurt! My recipe below is easy and adaptable. Add more or less of any ingredient to your liking and it will always be delicious. Experiment with different types of nuts and dried fruits–dried blueberries or cranberries give it a flavorful punch. Make a double batch because it will disappear quickly.

Yield: About 6 cups

INGREDIENTS

1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut (Note: Using large-flake coconut adds a great chewy texture.)
4 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup wheat germ or flax meal
2 cup unsalted sunflower seeds
2 cups almonds, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons sesame seeds or flax seeds
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup honey 1/2 pound butter, melted
3/4 cup dried currants or golden raisins

TO PREPARE

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Spread coconut on a baking sheet and place in the oven for about 5 minutes, checking constantly. Once coconut starts to toast it will brown quickly, so keep an eye on it. Bake until the edges are golden, then remove from the oven and transfer coconut to a shallow dish to cool. Once cooled, crush to break apart into individual strands.

Decrease the oven temperature to 300° F.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. In a small pan, melt honey, maple syrup and butter and set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, combine oats, wheat germ or flax meal, sunflower seeds, almonds, sesame seeds or flax, cinnamon and nutmeg, then stir well to combine.

Pour melted honey, maple syrup and butter mixture over oat mixture, then stir well to combine. Spread on parchment-lined baking sheets and bake at 300° F. for about 25 minutes, until lightly golden. Check often to make sure it does not burn. Remove from the oven and allow to cool, then break up any large chunks with your hands and add the coconut and dried fruit. Store in an airtight container.

Hawaiian Birthday Bash, The Rain and Hula

2011-09-11T09:01:00.000-07:00

Message in a bottle

Our pretzel hut.

Seven years past and now she's eight, not a toddler anymore but that doesn't mean that food can't still be fun!!

Claire was dead set on having a Hawaiian themed birthday this year, quite appropriate because we has just been to Maui for the first time 2 weeks prior to her party. We let her plan the favors and get a bunch of them in Hawaii, she wanted authentic Hawaiian goodies. We planned for goodies that were reusable and somewhat eco friendly.

The original party was planned for our back yard with a surprise of authentic Hula dancers and a lesson for the girls but the weather worried me. The forecast was cold and rainy and I could just imagine 18 wet and cold crabby girls. At the last minute I secured a gymnastic location, not my first choice but it seemed better than cold wet 8 year olds!

Making faces on the cheese people.

Pineapple with dried fruit

Table with leaves and shells

Pouches from Hawaii with a necklace in each one.

Decorated cups

The logistical issue was with the hula dancers and since I'd paid the deposit I was dead set on having them show. We had to squeeze the gymnastics and dancers, snacks and cake into an hour and a half! Well I am happy to report it worked and better yet it was fast and easy!

I has some idea of what I wanted the food to be like but since had just had knee surgery the week before and was on crutches I had to give up some control. (yes that is tough for me)

The lucky part is that I had a cookie decorating class lined up two days before the party and to my surprise it ended up being a beach theme. I used the cookies I made on the cake I just got lucky they went so well. So I will show you what we came up with, some prior some day of the party.

My long drawn out point here is that if you have some basic stuff on hand you can come up with a fun and creative party!

Dried banana leaves as name tags

Here is some of what I had:

Cheese

deli turkey

dried fruit

shells

some Hawaiian decorations I got at the dollar store.

cloth napkins....

I got a pineapple not really knowing what I would use it for but it was a perfect way to skewer dried fruit and attach it to the pineapple with flowery picks to serve!

I rolled the cheese and turkey and drew faces with an edible ink marker.

The shells were decoration.

My mom helped me glue fabric flowers and Claire added stickers to the drink cups.

We used large banana leaves as tags on our goodie bags.

The cake we made with sugar cookies attached.

The cake was planned, Claire made to hut and cut out fondant flowers.

I ordered a sushi platter.

We had gotten sugar cane in Hawaii and added it to the drink cups.

The kids loved it and it ended up being a great day....it never rained!!

Girls in their Hula skirts learning a dance.

A happy birthday girl at home after the party.

Jessica Alba a Regular Mom: SPY KIDS: ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD.

2011-08-19T08:25:00.000-07:00

SPY KIDS: ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD IN 4D In theaters August 19th

When we are in the kitchen we smell everything, I always ask the kids to tell me to describe the ingredients to me. We pick basil and rosemary and take big sniffs to get our creative juices flowing. The new movie Spy Kids, All The Time In The World is in 4D has smell-a-vision or Aroma Scope, which means we get to smell what the actors are smelling! When you get to the theater you will get a scratch and sniff card, I know my generation will be excited. (I speak for all of us when I say we loved our scratch and sniff stickers)

Joel McHale, Jessica Alba, Mason Cook and Rowan Blanchard in "Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D"

Jessica Alba star of Spy Kids All The Time In The World was as sweet over the phone as she seems to be on the big screen. She is very down to earth and seems like a regular gal who has made quite a name for herself in Hollywood. She has a 3 year old girl and had her second daughter on August 13th and is absolutely thrilled. Although she says she can't imagine having them grow up or be teenagers, she says that gives her a panic attack! I was invited in on a call where a number of Bloggers got to ask her a few questions about her new movie, SPY KIDS: ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD.

There were some great questions about how she balances her time between family and work, what her favorite scene was and my question about feeding her toddler of course!

Chef Jen's question: Your new movie is called Spy Kids All The Time In The World. I am pretty sure that you don't feel like you have all the time in the world! Being a mom I want to know what your best go to snack is for your daughter?

Jessica:

Although her daughter is picky at times she is a good eater. Her go to snack is fruit (I loved hearing this)

On the run she grabs grapes. She says her daughter is all about being a big girl so when she gets a whole apple she is thrilled. Her daughter knows not to eat the seeds in the middle too. She loves to eat peaches, mom says even though they are messy it's a big girl fruit that keeps her occupied!

JESSICA ALBA as Marissa Cortez Wilson in "Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D"

My friend Amy of the The Family Chef

asked Jessica, "what is your family's favorite meal?" Jessica replied with some of our family favorites like rice, veggies and she says her husband makes great tacos. She also said her daughter changes her mind 40 times a night, sounds like a typical 3 year old to me! Her daughter is good eater even though she can be picky, again, a typical 3 year old.

Although many would describe her as an exotic beauty, Alba was raised in a traditional hardworking American family in California. She said she and her brother were always made to feel like they were number one. Although her mom sometimes held 3 jobs she made time to make them feel important and took the time to check in and remind them they are a priority. Jessica talked about working less these days and prioritizing time to spend with her family, I like this idea, and I think I will try it.

So if you are looking for something to do on a hot summer day, cool off with this cool new movie.

Spy Kids All The Time In The World

Synopsis
On the surface, Marissa Cortez Wilson (Jessica Alba) has it all...married to a famous spy hunting television reporter, a new baby and intelligent twin step kids. But in reality, trying to mother Rebecca (Rowan Blanchard) and Cecil (Mason Cook), who clearly don’t want her around, is her toughest challenge yet. Also, her husband, Wilbur (Joel McHale), wouldn’t know a spy if he lived with one which is exactly the case - Marissa’s a retired secret agent...

(All images courtesy of the Weinstein Company)

My Kitchen - A Well Oiled Machine?

2011-07-26T07:40:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer - I wrote this on a Spanish computer in an Internet cafe in Spain, please forgive spelling and formatting mistakes!

I was going crazy trying to cook in my kitchen! Yes I love kitchen equipment but my closet, my attic and my shed are not proper places to store my coveted equipment. Special things like a Le Creuset pot that Jacques Pépin gave me for working on his show years ago. A tea tin from Martin Yan from China, and various other important items, you get the picture. I always wanted to have someone help me organize my kitchen but it was always last on the list. I love those shows about getting organized, where a team ambushes you, tears apart your house and puts it all back together again! I had my friend and organizer create a workspace in my office about two years ago and it was amazing.

5 ways to know if you need a kitchen reorg!

1. If you only buy pre-made food because you can't get to your pots and pans.

2. If you spend to much money buying items you already have but can't but don´t know they are in the cabinet.

3. If you never let your kids help in the kitchen for fear of an avalanche and trip to the hospital.

4. If your phone and take out menus are your best asset in the kitchen.

5. If when you walk in your kitchen you feel defeated before you start cooking.

I was starting to feel all 5 of these things in my own kitchen. I used to make more homemade pasta, breads and tortillas but all my tools had become buried and it was way too much work to dig them. Unless I was developing a recipe I felt as if my creativity had fizzled due to sloppiness. I tried to do it myself, to organize a few drawers at a time, I thought I was doing so well but I wasn´t because hacking away one mess at a time was not effective. When My friend Diane a home organizer came to dinner one night I found her on her hands and knees pulling apart on of my cabinets. She looked at me and said, "how do you function in here?" Instead of being annoyed I just said, "well I obviously need help." So we scheduled a day for the kitchen to be transformed and I felt relief. I wish I had taken "before" photos to show you but let's just say it wasn't good. Diane Woodall is amazing, she took apart my kitchen and put it back together again as a well oiled machine I am glad I made the call. Here are some after photos for you.

My oils and vinegars used to be down below in my island and very hard to see. Now all my go-to ingredients are at eye level for easy access.

Everything is where we can see it now.

Slide out drawers for easy access.

This tall cabinet was full of shoes but now it is full of appliances I can easily get to.

We love paper straws, they are pretty and better than plastic for the environment and easy to reach now in the straw jar.

Look now I have an empty space!

Easy as Pie!

2011-07-26T06:46:00.000-07:00

It's not apple season yet but at the Connolly Ranch where I run my cooking camp there is a tree and it does have apples. They apples are TART, well downright sour I'd say. The kids don't seem to mind though, they eat them because they get to pick them! Mostly they are used for making fresh pressed apple juice with the ol' press. The juice is divine but as for eating the apples could use another few months on the tree.

When it comes to kids they don't seem to care if the fruit is in season or if it has hit it's maximum sweetness I know this because all 130 kids at my camp enjoyed these apples. My daughter loved them so much that she smuggled home about 10 apples and asked if we could make pie! I thought "pie, in July, from apples...not exactly the fruit I'd choose. How about we use cherries or peaches I asked?"

Her response, "nope we have these green apples from the ranch, I want to use these," I agreed. I did remember that I had a lump of pie dough in the freezer from last summer (it was Food Saved so don't think I was using some old freezer burned dough) The great part was that I had worked cheddar cheese to the dough in an attempt to make a "fun flavorful" dough.

Cutting apples with kids can be scary until their knife skills get better...we used a chopper. I cut the apples and gave her the chopper to chop them with. I told her to chop them very small so they would cook faster. She loved whacking the apples and obliterating them!

The easy thing about pie is you don't need a pie dish, free form pies or tarts are fun because they always look so pretty and rustic. You can pass of the "rustic" tart or pie as beautiful, anytime!

We needed a way to sweeten the apples without dumping a bunch of sugar on them and recently my daughter discovered that she likes apricot preserves. I wanted to use up the jar we had so I suggested it and she agreed.

Kids seem to love kitchen tools and the more you use the more skills they can gain in the kitchen.

We used a rubber pastry brush (not pictured) to spread warmed jam on the crust, they are perfect for this job easy to clean. Warming and stirring the preserves makes them easy to spread. After spreading the jam we added our apples, some droplets of butter and a sprinkle of brown sugar for richness and a pinch of salt.

I taught her how to fold the crust up so the sweet goodness wouldn't leak out.

We baked it for 1/2 hour at 400F and it was amazing!!! She was so proud of her pie!!

Pickled Carrots or Carrot Pickles?

2011-07-18T00:22:00.000-07:00

"Mom, I'd like to make some pickles but from carrots. What would we call them, pickled carrots or carrot pickles?"

I have been in the kitchen every second of every spare minute working on styling recipes for a cookbook with my husband the photographer. I have made, cookies, fudge, omelets, shakes, scones, pretty much everything you can imagine. Somehow in between the recipes for the project and meals for my family (and not to mention I'm running a full time cooking camp for 3 weeks!) I am cooking with my daughter. We are making Popsicles in our Zoku, pies, hand ground corn tortillas, eggs, grilled cheese on a stick, pickles...you get the point. I love what I do don't get me wrong but summer is tough when the kids are out of school and schedules are out of whack.

She has always loved my food but I have been waiting for her to blossom as a little chef and it happened. The timing is all-wrong, I mean really kid, couldn't you wait until I wasn't so busy? The answer is is that it doesn't matter, I will always be busy and I HAD to take advantage of this NOW! Her taste buds are hopping and her little brain is churning with ideas, it's my job to facilitate that. If my kid wants to try onions I sure as hell am going to help her with that! Tonight she made a pie that was so delicious I was in awe. Sure I help her, give her tips and even chop ingredients but I am really trying to let her drive, really trying. as she gets more comfortable with the equipment I will just sit in the passenger seat and try not to use the invisible brake.

Sweet Pickled Carrots

Getting kids to eat acidic foods or foods with any flavor can be a challenge but if THEY make this recipe they may change their mind! This is a great kid friendly base recipe for pickling veggies, let them add a variety of veggies or other herbs and spices to experiment.

Great on tacos!!

Makes about 8 cups

Ingredients :

2 pounds organic carrots, 1/8" slices

1 medium onion, finely sliced half moons

2 cloves garlic, finely sliced

2 cups water

3/4 cup vinegar of your choice (recommend 1 part rice vinegar and 2 parts ume plum vinegar)

¾ or up to 1 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Directions:

1. Blanch carrots in boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water to stop cooking. Place carrots, onions and garlic in two 3 cup glass jars or bowl with a cover.

2. Meanwhile, add water, vinegar(s), sugar and salt to a saucepan over high heat. Bring to a boil and ensure sugar has been completely dissolved.

3. Pour hot liquid over vegetables. Let cool to room temperature, cover and store in refrigerator.

Announcing Our SodaStream Winner!!

2011-07-06T13:22:00.000-07:00

Congratulations APRIL J. you win!!!

Thank you for all your entries and keep looking for our next great giveaway starting very soon!!

Salad Days

2011-06-28T06:30:00.000-07:00

It finally happened, yes it's true...my child loves salad!! I knew the day would come, she always liked her veggies and was OK with chomping on lettuce, but a salad was not on the menu for her. Salad is a tough one for kids, it can be acidic, or slightly soggy or just green! The advice I give in my cookbook Toddler Cafe is to present some form of salad every night. Put it on the plate, just a few leaves and cut up veggies let your child get used to seeing the veggies there but don't force it. You may end up eating a few extra veggies while you are cleaning up because they probably will leave them untouched every night for years....but...eventually they will eat it. (fingers crossed)

Another tip is to use very crisp lettuce like baby Romaine and cut it small. I like to cut the length of the leaf and then across to make smaller bite size pieces. Having to manage large leaves of lettuce can be un-fun for little mouths, so chop all the ingredients small.

Of course it was not all my hard work and determination to get her to like salad, it was school! One day the second grade made a salad, they were so excited it was as if they had just all gotten a candy bar or something!! All 17 of them came screaming in the class room, "LOOK WHAT WE MADE, LOOK WHAT WE MADE, WE MADE A SALAD!!!!"

I just happened to be in the classroom for reading groups and got the witness the total frenzy of excited eight year olds first hand. It was so cute, they were so proud of harvesting and making the salad including the dressing.

That night when Kidlet came home she asked if she could make a salad for our dinner. She has always cooked with me and always created her own "recipes" but she hadn't really made anything fully edible yet on her own. I said with gusto, "sure you can make the salad tonight!" I fully thought it would be horrible, I mean she has been making salad for her pet rat but now she's working on one we are going to eat!! I knew there would be a mess, corn smashed on my socks and dried up lettuce to be scraped off the floor but I didn't care.

She chose her ingredients and I helped get the appropriate tools for her. I showed her how to scrape the food in to the bowl from the cutting board instead of manhandling it in small fistfuls into the bowl.

She made the dressing with lemon, olive oil, salt and a few drops of Balsamic vinegar. Her veggies were, sweet corn, broccoli, carrots, lettuces and parsley, all chopped well.

She tossed it and served it and was beaming and proud and truth be told it was really good!!

Now she wants to make the salad every Friday night, we dubbed it Shabbat Salad and she is in charge of that part of the meal now. We always say what we are happy about on Friday dinner and on that particular Friday I was happy my daughter was exited about salad!

Soda Comes Clean (also win a SodaStream)

2011-06-13T07:00:00.000-07:00

Our garnish is a hula girl straw with a strawberry

In our house we don't drink soda but we do like "fizzy water." One of my favorite gadgets in my kitchen is my Soda Stream. I can't stand buying bottles of fizzy water just to toss them out a few days after they go flat. Plus with old age approaching schlepping those bottles can be a real back breaker. I became obsessed with "needing" a Soda Stream and once it came I was in love. One of the best things about it is that if the water doesn't get used up right away you can just add more water and re fizz it instead of pouring out the water. Another great thing is that the Soda Stream is self contained, by this I mean it has no plug or cords, and is free standing. We can take it camping or to a party, it travels well no electricity not problem. I chose the model with the plastic bottle for safety with the kids but the "Penguin" model is very pretty with it's retro looking glass bottle.

Mashing berries with wooden spoon

I use a dropper for vanilla extract

When I attended the International Housewares Show in Chicago I got lucky enough to be given a Soda Stream to give away on my blog! (I asked really nicely and smiled a lot and it worked!) Details below on entering to win.
I thought I'd give you a fun way to make a healthier soda so when you win the Soda Stream you have a fun activity to do with the kids for summer. You can use your imagination for whatever fruit you want to add and as always I encourage creativity and using up your leftovers!

Removing stem

I also want to teach you how to de-stem a strawberry using a straw it is a great tip. Taking a sturdy straw push it from the narrow end of the strawberry through the center of the top (green leaves). Voila, a de-stemmed berry! (We like to suck the berry meat out of the straw, waste not in our house.)

If you want to get a little less healthy and a little more celebratory try adding a scoop of vanilla or strawberry ice cream! With the ice cream try adding blueberries for a great a Fourth of July drink!
Add lemon for another interesting drink or float an orange slice for more color.
Strawberry Sodas
Serves 2

6 medium Strawberries, washed
1 1/2 tsp sugar, honey or sweetener of choice
1 tsp. vanilla extract
8 ounces unflavored fizzy water from SodaStream
an egg slicer

Have the kids take the tops off the strawberries using the straw technique.
Slice de-stemmed berries in the egg slicer, and place 3 in each cup.
Add sweetener and, have kids mash, mash , mash with the end of a wooden spoon!
Add soda water to the top and enjoy!

Fan-only SWEEPSTAKES from 'Chef Jen Carden' is now Live! Check it out on my page here

"Like" My New Page And Enter To Win A New SodaStream

2011-06-12T23:02:00.000-07:00

Celebrate the launch of Chef Jen's Facebook page!

Enter the Chef Jen Carden Facebook Sweepstakes and you could win a grand prize — a fancy new SodaStream soda maker. The SodaStream turns tap water into sparkling water in under 30 seconds! It's one my favorite kitchen gadgets.

The contest ends on June 27 and we will be contacting the winner via email and also announcing it here on my blog. I will be closing down the old Toddler Café Facebook Group soon, so thank you for joining me on my new official Facebook Page.

One-Eyed Purple People Eater Muffins

2011-06-01T15:24:00.000-07:00

One-Eyed Purple People Eater Muffins
Photo by Matthew Carden

DIRT MADE MY SNACK?!

Article from Edible Marin Wine Country current issue you can see all the issues online.

How does a year go by so fast—it’s summer again? When your days are full of managing your family, driving kids from here to there and trying to fit in your job, time seems to both fly and stand still at the same time. Yes, indeed, warm, sunny weather is here again, so it’s time to get outside.

This is also the perfect time to talk to your kids about dirt. Uh-huh, I said dirt. Dirt is where all of the yummy summertime fruits and vegetables they love so much really come from, and

our kids need to learn that—for their sakes, and for the sake of the whole planet. It is our responsibility to teach our children that taking care of the soil in which our food is grown is the first and most important step in cooking. Dirt’s connection to

the kitchen is endless, yet that connection is surely lost on kids when all they see is their parent or caregiver tossing packaged items into grocery carts. Glitzy packaging may be enticing, but a pea pod is also an amazing package design, isn’t it?

So, plan a trip to the beach, the woods or somewhere else outside, even as close as your own front yard, and take along a homemade snack, like the fun and delicious Purple People Eater Muffins I give the recipe for below. While you’re out there, talk with your kids about how much dirt matters.

For extra fun, teach them to sing Dirt Made My Lunch, one of my favorite little ditties by Santa Cruz’ the Banana Slug String Band!

It starts like this...

Dirt made my lunch, dirt made my lunch.

Thank you dirt, thanks a bunch—

For my salad, my sandwich, my milk and my Munch,

’cause dirt, you made my lunch.

One-Eyed Purple People Eater Muffins

Local blueberries are coming into season, so it’s the perfect time to bake some easy and deli- cious blueberry muffins with your kids. These can be eaten warm, right out of the oven, or filled with a scoop of delicious blueberry ice cream for an extra special treat. I use frozen blueberries in the ice cream mixture to get the pretty purple, but you can also use fresh berries when they are in season.

Yield: 12 muffins

INGREDIENTS

For the Crumb Topping:

1⁄2 cup brown sugar 1⁄3 cup all-purpose flour 1⁄4 cup room temperature butter, cut into cubes 11⁄2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

For the Muffins:

Paper muffin liners (optional) 11⁄2 cups all-purpose flour 3⁄4 cup white sugar 1⁄2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1⁄3 cup vegetable oil 1 egg 1⁄3 cup milk 11⁄2 cups fresh blueberries, in season (or frozen, semi-thawed)

For the Ice Cream Filling:

1 cup vanilla ice cream (your favorite brand) 3⁄4 cup frozen blueberries, semi-thawed (or fresh, but your mixture will not have the same intense purple color)

TO PREPARE:

Preheat oven to 400°. Grease muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.

Crumb Topping: Mash together sugar, flour, butter and cinnamon. Set aside.

Muffins: Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Set aside. Place vegetable oil into a 1-cup measuring cup. Add the egg and enough milk to fill to the 1-cup mark. Pour

the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently stir until just mixed. Do not over stir. Fold in the blueberries. Fill the muffin cups about 3⁄4 full with the mixture and sprinkle with crumb topping. Bake 20 minutes until the tops are golden and firm.

While the muffins are baking, make the ice cream filling.

Ice Cream Filling: Place 1 cup of ice cream in a bowl with the blueberries and mash together with a fork or potato masher (this is a fun job for the kids). The ice cream should turn purple and will have melted slightly. Place the mixture in the freezer to re-harden while the muffins cool.

To Assemble: When muffins are cool, use a small spoon to scoop out a hole in the top of each muffin. Using a small ice cream scoop or spoon, place a scoop of the ice cream filling in the center of the muffin. Serve immediately or assemble and hold in the freezer until ready to serve.

When does a seven year old need baby food?

2011-05-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

When does a seven year old need baby food?
When they get BRACES!! I thought this was the perfect opportunity to chat about the UBFC.
Yes that is my face on the box, and I am loving the fact that I get to develop recipes and promote this product. The interesting part is, is that as much as I love developing toddler and baby food, my toddler just turned eight years old! *crying*

Ultimate Baby Food Center (UBFC)

I am always looking for new ways to use this machine, it sits on my counter and it does do lots of nice little jobs like chop nuts, steam a quick side dish for my lunch but best of all makes great baby food!

My baby (yes I know she is 8 now) got braces when she was 7 just a few months ago. First off I have to tell you what a warrior she is because braces hurt! She was not scared a bit or nervous at all, she obviously does not take after me I break out in hives at the thought of the dentist.

Once she got the mouth bling, she was excited and proud to show off the colored rubber bands to anyone who would look in there. The pain was secondary, I knew it hurt but she wouldn't cave to it, just a few whimpers from her was all I heard.

I knew she couldn't chew or bite and the dinner that night, I had absently mindedly made something chewy and tough so that was out. I surely didn't want her to exist on Jello and pudding and canned soup for three days, how could I live with myself?

Baby Chef to the Rescue! I went to my handy copy of the little cookbook I wrote for the machine and made my Swamp Soup recipe. Perfect, I knew she loved it because we have been making it the traditional way for so long. I knew I could whip it up in the UBFC machine in 5 minutes, steam, chop and voila! We also made lots of smoothies with wholesome ingredients to keep her going, she loves an egg in her milkshakes! (that is probably from us talking about the old days at Orange Julius)

For a few days I concocted some soupy recipes with ingredients like silken tofu, broth and beans, and she ate it all. So that is how a 7 year old ends up eating baby food. A puree is a puree, whether it is in a five star restaurant or just plain old baby food. At least when you make it you know what goes into it and you can really make sure your family is getting the best. Get creative, make this with carrots or a blend of veggies.
Happy blending.

Swamp Soup For Ultimate Baby Chef Machine

Makes 1 ½ cups

1 medium zucchini unpeeled, diced

1/2 avocado, peeled and pitted

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

3/4 C. chicken broth

Add water to the steaming chamber

Place zucchini pieces into steamer basket.

Place filled basket into steaming chamber, turn onto HI

Steam zucchini for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile add chicken stock and nutmeg to blender, spoon the avocado in, set aside.

When zucchini is done add steamed zucchini to prepared blender cup blend for 1 min or until smooth and silky.

As with all hot foods, when blending be careful and open blender slowly

Protein-a-luscious: A Fancy Pants Breakfast

2011-05-25T05:45:00.000-07:00

Finished nests just out of the oven

If you know me you know I am a breakfast junkie, I am a believer in high protein breakfasts for kids. I think they act better, think better and grow better. With good for you foods in the early hours of the day their brains function much better than with sugary or even no breakfast. Some kids just don't like eggs so this is for kids who don't like eggs. Call them nests!
I saw this recipe on Simply Recipes and I instantly loved the concept. The original recipe called for Gruyere cheese but I happened to have a cheddar and jack blend so I went with that. I have changed this recipe, I upped the servings and added a few tips of my own, enjoy!

I like making a few extra smaller puffs (as we call them) ones without egg just to snack on! So snack on and on....
My daughter said it was the best breakfast EVER!

I can't wait to start experimenting with some other ideas using this technique stay tuned.

The Bird is in the Nest (wink wink)

Egg Nests originally from

La cuisine est un jeu d'enfants
Serves 4

Ingredients:
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup grated Cheddar / Jack
Pepper or Paprika (optional)

Preheat the oven to 450°F with a rack in the middle. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or non stick silicone mat.
Separate the egg yolks from the whites. Keep each individual yolk in half of a shell on a rimmed plate or small bowl. (this way you don’t have to dirty four little bowls making for an easier clean up.)

Yolks awaiting to be deposited in the white nests
Place the egg whites and salt in a very clean mixer bowl. Beat the egg whites with a whisk attachment in a mixer (or using a hand mixer), start on low speed working your way up to high speed, until stiff peaks form. Do not over beat the eggs here, you'll want them silky not chunky.

With a rubber spatula gently fold in the grated cheese, doing your best not to deflate the egg whites.

Create four equal mounds (or more) of the egg white mixture on the lined baking sheet. Form the mounds so they look like nests, using the back of a spoon make indentations in the centers.

Place nests in the oven for 3- 4 minutes until firm but not browned. After 3 minutes, take the pan out of the oven and gently add an egg yolk to the center of each nest. Return the baking sheet to the oven and cook for 4 more minutes. Sprinkle with a small amount of salt.
Serve immediately.

Unbaked nests with cheese

Tip* Make sure your egg whites are yolk free, free of any fat, the yolk will cause the whites to misbehave.

Make it Pretty for Earth Day + Kids Konserve Giveaway

2011-04-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

I buy plates and cute cups like some people buy shoes! (OK, I buy shoes like that too) My husband and I do many food shoots and I am always on the hunt for new props. I can’t keep my hands off those cute playful serving vessels, I do try to buy recyclable items as much as possible. My cupboards are busting (to my husband's dismay) with stacked colorful plates, bowls, napkins and even the occasional coconut shell or bamboo plate. But in real life I try to reuse as many containers as I can. I like fun food and so do kids, they love to imagine and play and it doesn't stop at mealtime. If you are trying to get your kids to eat healthier, it can be a frustrating challenge. Starting with snacks can ease the pain, get them eating better in small doses. Once the snacks are more wholesome then you can work on mealtime. Kids are much more likely to be interested in a fun presentation of a food even if they may not have been a fan of it in the past. Any change for kids can be tough but making it fun can make a world of difference. You can get your kids to make a world of difference by re using containers you already have. Reusing containers in a great way to stay conscious about how much trash we are tossing. Ditch the paper plates and cups and please do away with plastic forks and spoons. If you need some good ideas for no waste lunches click here.
I have a great giveaway, this super reusable lunch bag and containers from Kids Konserve!! Read below to find out how to enter.

· Take everyday foods and cut them in new ways. Instead of giving a granola bar in the wrapper, unwrap it and cut it lengthwise for something different.
· Serve salad in a cup, stand up the baby Romaine leaves and cut everything in sticks
· Slice quiche in small triangles and insert fun playful toothpicks for eating.
· Use an ice cream scoop for rice, or even veggie lasagna!

Make it different, change it up and think out of the box. Snack time is a fun time to try new food ideas, it fast and uncomplicated. Moving to healthier foods at snack time can be tough, so put the emphasis on adding new foods not on taking away foods. Start with fruit to replace sugary bars and nuts to replace chips. Keep the crunch, kids love crunch it is very satisfying. Try fun snacks you may have not noticed in the store before, check the natural section. Have fun and look around the house for new ways to serve up snacks to your kids.

See what you have in your cabinet to serve in and see what kind of healthy snacks can go in to them in fun exciting ways. Have your kids help find containers to hold the snacks.

Suggestions:

•   Clean votive candle holders
•   Shot glasses
•   Mason jars
•   Use clean-take out containers
•   Wrap snacks in parchment paper and tie with a bow
•   Cut a circle from a paper bag and make a cone shape for holding snacks
•   Make a boat shape from aluminum foil
•   Small Tupperware containers, are good for serving
•   Large deep lids are good to serve in too
•   Use doilies left over from Valentine's Day
•   Cut wrapping paper in to squares for a makeshift place mat

Our winner is The Family Chef!

To win the Kids Konserve Lunch bag:
Tell me what creative ideas you have come up with for your children's lunches or what you thought of while reading this post?

Follow my blog or or join me on The Toddler Cafe Facebook page but leave a comment here telling me you did!
I will do a drawing on Saturday April 30th at 12:00 PM using Random.org you will receive your gift within three weeks.
Please make sure your profile is public or leave your email address in your comment or I won't be able to find you!!

Apple Stuffin’ Muffins

2011-04-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

Mini muffins with a strawberry and mint leaf in place of real leaves

Besides driving, working and entertaining, parents are always running right alongside their toddlers: making meals, doing dishes, and trying to keep everyone from getting grumpy. The best way I have found to offset the constant running in circles is to be prepared with nutritious snacks. I promise you that these are so quick and easy that you will WANT to make them, instead of feeling like it’s yet another chore.

This is a really flexible recipe. You can change ingredients here and there and still get great results. Add a small dot of cream cheese on top for more protein, or leave out the butter or replace it with a vegetable based non-hydrogenated margarine. These muffins are extremely forgiving, so get to it and make a batch now your kids will thank you! What are your kid's favorite healthy afternoon snack?

Apple Stuffin’ Muffins

Makes 24 mini muffins

Here’s a great after-school snack for a hungry kid or any other member of your family. These are perfectly sweet with a strong apple flavor when you use homemade applesauce. The better the apple sauce the more flavor the muffins will have. No time for making applesauce, add diced fresh apple to the recipe for a stronger flavor.

Ingredients

3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cardamom (optional)

3 tbs butter

1/8 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup fresh applesauce

1 egg

1/4 tsp salt

Optional. 1/2 apple peeled and chopped very small

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray a mini muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray, set aside.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a small mixing bowl, set aside.

In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter on high for about 30 seconds; add sugar, applesauce, egg and salt to bowl. Mix well.

Pour the apple mixture over the flour mixture.

Gently stir in the flour until just incorporated, do not over mix.

Fill the muffin tins about half full with batter.

Bake for 8-9 minutes for mini muffins.

Note: For 6 standard size muffins bake 15 minutes

Tip:

For evenly sized muffins, a mini cookie scoop works wonders, get one at your baking supply or craft store.

Optional Add-ins:

Small shredded carrot or zucchini, currants, chopped dates, flax seeds, quick oats, peanut butter, diced banana, shredded cheddar cheese

Our Whole Family Reviews The Whole Family Cookbook

2011-04-10T21:44:00.000-07:00

My husband and I have been supporting Michelle since she told me she wanted to do a book. She has been so super supportive of me and all my projects so now it is her turn to soak it in. It finally happened a book was born and we got to be a big part of the making of it! Matthew photographed and I styled the recipes and we had a great time doing it. When you get two Jewish girls who love food together how can you NOT have a good time?

I wanted to do a review of this book but since it is really for kids we decided our daughter would do a great job.

Claire decided on the Baked Apple Puff recipe because she loves apples and most of it was at her skill level. You could have it for breakfast for breakfast dessert, which is what we did. You have to have breakfast dessert on Sunday, it's law. It would be delicious along with some pork chops and a salad for dinner too.

In the book each task is notated with a color code to make sure the task is age appropriate, we loved this feature. We also loved how the book was easy to read and had lots of hints and eco tips.

We shot this video very off the cuff on a Sunday morning and Claire is quite taken with seeing herself in the camera. (notice staring child) You may notice the video is a bit long, that is due to my lack of video editing skills, I know know that there is a learning curve!! Watch our video to the end because there are some dancing monkeys you won't want to miss. Next we are going to make the Nutella Lace Cookies, but not for breakfast or even breakfast dessert!

Enjoy our video review and leave a comment answering my question below to win a copy of The Whole Family Cookbook!

What are your children's favorite tasks to do your kitchen?

Follow my blog or leave a comment here to win The Whole family Cookbook for your family.

I will do a drawing on Saturday April 16th at 12:00 PM using Random.org you will receive your book within three weeks.

Please make sure your profile is public or leave your email address in your comment or I won't be able to find you!!

Now the disclaimer...I didn't clean up for you all, yes I invited you in to my house and did not tidy up!

Avert your eyes from the mess I totally forgot that you would be seeing all the parts of my kitchen. (oops)

Winner is:

Krista said...

hah! great video. this cookbook looks great, we would love to have a resource like this around!

pulchrabliss(at)hotmail(dot)com

Movin and Groovin'

2011-03-24T10:38:00.001-07:00

Wondering why I am not posting here? For the month of March I moved over to Nickelodeon Parents Connect. Stop by for a visit and enter to win the grand prize, The Ultimate Baby Food Center plus a prize a day.

Ingredients:

2 cooked lasagna noodles (the old fashioned kind)

2 slices cheese, mozzarella or Monterey jack

2 pieces of lettuce

2 thin slices turkey

2 thin pieces of salami

Instructions:

1. Lay the noodle out flat on a piece of plastic wrap.

2. Layer the cheese, lettuce and meats on top of the noodle, alternating end to end.

3. Roll up from the short end, then wrap in plastic wrap or secure with a toothpick.

Mucking it up in Spring!

2011-03-02T19:11:00.000-08:00

Article from: Edible Marin and Wine Country — Spring 2011

Stone's Soup Corner

For those of us who live in Northern California, spring is all about waiting for the rains to end and the sun to arrive again, and, thankfully, it always does. During this time of year, there is a lot to be done to prepare the garden for summer planting. It's also a great time to talk to your kids about what you are going to plant so that they will be excited about taking care of the garden and harvesting and eating what you have grown–and getting dirty in the muddy veggie patch! So, put your rain boots back on and go get dirty with your kids in the Spring muck!

Try my recipe below for "Swamp Soup," and I bet you will get your kids to not only eat their vegetables, but love them. The trick here is to hide a few beans in the bottom of their soup bowl and tell the kids to eat to the bottom of "the swamp" to find the "muck beetles"–and yes, I made that up. By the time they get to the bottom of the bowl, the soup will have magically disappeared. The soup itself is delicious, packed with green vegetables and will warm you and your kids up on a chilly Northern California spring day.

Swamp Soup

Yield: 4 servings

INGREDIENTS

4 cups chicken or vegetable broth, divided in half

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 cups zucchini, thinly sliced (about 3 whole squash)

2 medium ripe avocados, peeled and with the pit removed

½ teaspoon salt or to taste A handful of cooked organic black or pinto beans Prepared pesto (optional)

TO PREPARE

In a large saucepan, bring 2 cups of the broth to a boil with the onion, garlic and nutmeg. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for an additional 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Next, add the remaining 2 cups of broth and the zucchini and bring back to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, re-cover and simmer for an additional 15 minutes. Remove the lid and allow the soup to cool slightly.

In a blender, purée the slightly cooled soup mixture with the avocado, in batches, until it reaches a smooth consistency. Return the purée to the saucepan, add salt to taste and warm gently. To serve, place a few of the beans in the bottom of the bowl and gently pour in the soup. When you serve it make sure to tell the kids to eat to the bottom to find the muck beetles!

OPTIONS:

• If you don't want to open a whole can of beans for this recipe or take the time to soak dried beans and cook them separately, just pick up a few at your grocery store's salad bar.

• Add a dollop of pesto to this soup after you purée it for an extra punch of flavor and a green color.

• Float strips of toasted bread or crackers on top of the soup and place a bean on one so your kids can make the "bean bug" "jump" from log to log.

KIDS' CRAFT–SCIENCE IN THE KITCHEN

Looking for something fun and educational to do with your kids over a long weekend or spring break? Try this project using dried beans that will teach them a little science and gardening know-how. Setting it up is a great inside activity on a rainy day. Beans sprout very quickly so they are fun to watch and this experiment works well for kids of all ages.

In this version of the old-school experiment you use different liquids–milk, water, salt water and sugar water–to find out which one causes the beans to sprout in the shortest amount of time.

Things you'll need:

4 empty cups

1½ cups of water

½ cup milk

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

4 paper towels

20 dried beans

4 plates

Steps of the experiment:

1. Fill 3 cups each with ½ cup of water, and a 4th cup with ½ cup of milk.

2. Add the sugar to 1 of the cups that contain water and add the salt to another, leaving 1 with just plain water.

3. Soak 1 paper towel in each cup for 1 minute, or until saturated.

4. Label each of the 4 plates with one of the following: water, milk, salt-water and sugar-water.

5. Place 5 beans on each plate, and cover loosely with the saturated paper towel that corresponds to the label on that plate.

6. Observe the growth of the beans each day for several weeks, making notes on the number of beans that have sprouted on each plate, as well as the length of the sprouts. Determine which liquid was the most successful at causing the beans to sprout.

7. Once the beans sprout, you can plant them in dirt and keep them growing!

Launch of The Ultimate Baby Food Center!!

2011-02-21T19:28:00.000-08:00

Over the past few months I have had the privilege to work with Kids Line and be a part of their new exciting product line, Baby Chef. Recently I was at the ABC Baby Show in Las Vegas working with the machine and demonstrating it to retailers. I met Kathy Ireland who was a doll and generally had a blast, as I usually do.

Since then I have written a small cookbook insert for this product and also if you look close enough you will see my smiling face on the product packaging! Yes, it's true, that's me and where every you see this great product you will probably see me close by using it to make fresh delicious food for baby.

I will be heading to Seattle to take part in the launch of The Ultimate Baby Food Center for Amazon Baby this week and will be demonstrating the the Food Center featuring 2 of my original recipes. Amazon.com is hosting us with hundreds of Mom bloggers who will be there sampling my food and watching this product hard at work. I am honored to be a part of this event, I will be giving away 10 signed books as well as

10 Ultimate Baby Food Centers

Baby Chef vegetable bags

Freshness Minders

10% off coupon for attendees

Event date:

February 23rd, 2011Palace Ballroom in downtown Seattle Washington

My next stop will be the International Housewares Show in March in Chicago. I am really looking forward to that show. Check in here for updates.

Granny's Drawers

2011-01-12T12:08:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid I just loved going to my Bubbi's house. (Bubbi is a word for a Jewish Grandma) The minute we got there I would run over to her bottom drawer in the dinning room because I knew that is where she kept the Hershey Bars. She also kept a host of other chocolates and goodies in there, those sugary fruit gel slices that we only got on Passover.

My Bubbi also always had her famous chocolate chip cookies in the freezer; she was never without a batch.

My point is is that back in the day when people moved slower it seemed like they were prepared. If someone dropped by, or if the whole family was coming for a holiday they were ready. It always made us feel special, like she cared and thought about is when we weren't there.

Now we just run out and grab something prepared at a store because there is one everywhere you turn. I live between a Trader Joe's and Whole foods, with a peppering of other stores all around. It's fine for company and when it comes to your children's lunches it may be easy to just grab a pre made sandwich. If you are like me you want fast and easy, and there is nothing wrong with that, but adding personalization can make a big impact on your child and is is not too much extra effort.

My solution is to start by making your child's lunch very special. Some parents add a note, some draw hearts or smiles on the brown bag. Our kids are away from us all day and as much as they may resist hugs or kisses they really do need and want to be with us and know we care.

A really nice way to make them feel warm and loved is by adding a very small quick note, a drawing or stickers. Many schools are now requiring no waste lunches and in that case you may want to keep reading.

Now back to Grandma...a few years ago my husbands Nana died and she has an amazing collection of linens. She was a real collector, anything you can imagine, and she had a jar or drawer full of it. Lucky for us she had a whole collection of beautiful linen napkins. I don't mean a few of them I mean hundreds. I sorted through to find the ones I thought my daughter would love and I took about fifty of them home. They are from the 1940's, 50's, and 60’s so cute and and brightly colored. Every day I choose two to go in her lunch, one for snack and one for lunchtime. She uses them as a place mat or a napkin. She never knows which ones she will get; it’s always a surprise. Sometimes I try to match the colors of her clothing, if it’s a grey day I add a floral pattern. Are you getting my drift? They wash up beautifully; I just toss them in with the laundry, no ironing for me!

She knows that I pick them for her and she knows that they were her great grandma's, and that I put an extra bit of thought into her lunch. Getting away from paper napkins can make you, your child and the landfill feel good, and this is an easy way to get started. I was resistant because of the extra laundry but it is very easy to wash them.

So look in the drawers or ask your parents or grand parents if they have old linens or cloth napkins you could have. Any thrift shop should have a stack somewhere. So that is what you can gain from looking in Grandma’s drawers!

The Gingerbread Man Gets Healthy (and no he is not lifting weights!)

2010-12-18T09:05:00.000-08:00

I am sure you are all in the thick of it, you know, the holiday rush. Shopping, baking, cleaning for guests, decorating and traveling. When Texas Oncology asked me to share their Healthy Granola recipe with my readers I jumped at the chance. Unfortunately there are very sick adults and children out there all year long, not just with cancer but heart problems and a host of other illnesses. The holidays are especially difficult for their families and the ones affected.

A good friend of ours has a toddler who has Leukemia and has been in the hospital for almost two months. You may feel helpless if you have a family member or friend who is sick, so what can you do? A phone call, an offer of making food or school lunches for their other children or just a card. You can make this recipe and share it with their family or the great doctors and nurses who work so hard.

Every year Texas Oncology shares healthy recipes with its families and this year they asked me to share their Gingerbread Granola recipe with a larger audience.

I took the statement below off their site, now I know some cancer, especially in children does not fall in to the category of nutrition. As adults we can think about what we are feeding our kids and ourselves, we need to stay healthy for our kids, it’s our responsibility.

Just like millions already know, Nearly a third of cancer deaths in 2010 could be prevented because they are related to poor nutrition, obesity, and physical inactivity, according to the American Cancer Society. The organization also states: “There is strong scientific evidence that healthy dietary patterns, in combination with regular physical activity, are needed to maintain a healthy body weight and to reduce cancer risk.” “Nutrition plays a major role in promoting good health,” said Dr. Arvind Bhandari, medical oncologist at Texas Oncology–Sugar Land. “A healthy lifestyle and proper dietary habits can lower the risk of disease and contribute to overall well-being.”

Granola is great but some store bought granola can be fatty and over sugared, so make some at home, it easy!

Gingerbread Granola

Ingredients

2 ½ cups rolled oats

¾ cup raw slivered almonds

¼ cup raw sunflower seeds

2 teaspoons flax seeds

¾ teaspoon ground ginger powder

¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1/8 teaspoon salt

Pinch nutmeg

1/3 cup agave nectar

1 tablespoon molasses

1/3 cup brown sugar

¼ cup chopped dried apricots

¼ cup golden raisins

Directions

Preheat oven to 300˚F. In a large mixing bowl, combine the oats, almonds, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, and spices. In a separate bowl, whisk together the agave nectar, brown sugar, and molasses. Pour over dry mixture and stir until incorporated thoroughly. Evenly spread the granola mixture onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake until dry, stirring occasionally, for about 25 to 30 minutes. Cool slightly before adding apricots and raisins. Once cooled completely, store in an airtight jar or sealed bag.

I like to put it in a large mason jar with a tag, the jar can be reused and no plastic bags are wasted.

Here is a link to a very cute recipe card with the recipe to attach to the jar!

Here are some ideas on how to use your creation…

Combine it with milk, almond or soy milk for a healthy start to the morning.

Sprinkle it over yogurt with fresh fruit.

Put it on top of ice cream for a sweet treat with a drizzle of honey.

Serve it as a nutritious afternoon snack.

For seasonal color, add dried cherries, which are rich in Vitamin C.

Slice apple, add almond butter, dip apples in granola for a crunchy after school snack.

Sweeten it up with bits of dark chocolate for antioxidant power.

Add chopped pecans or walnuts for a nutty dose of protein.

Mix in sesame seeds for a calcium boost.

Put it inside apples and bake for a healthy dessert

Here are some other very simple ideas from Texas Oncology for a healthier holiday

When planning holiday menus, select foods that represent a rainbow of colors, like dark, leafy greens and seasonal fruits and vegetables, including berries.

Prepare holiday meals rich in fresh and seasonal fruits, vegetables, and legumes, such as cranberries, pumpkins, clementines, beets, sweet potatoes, and lentils.

Limit sugary drinks, like eggnog, and serve sparkling cider for toasting.

Vegetables in the cabbage family are rich in fiber and protective vitamins, so load up on Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and turnip greens.

Instead of buying a frozen turkey, try a natural, fresh one free of artificial ingredients.

Skip the mashed potatoes in favor of cauliflower, celery root, or turnip purees.

Review favorite holiday recipes to substitute butter or lard with healthy oils such as olive, canola, and other vegetable oils.

Add fiber, “good fats,” and a host of phytonutrients, vitamins, and minerals with chopped nuts such as pecans, walnuts, almonds, or hazelnuts.

Serve whole grain bread with holiday meals, which contains fiber, folic acid, and iron, or use whole wheat bread in stuffing.

For the table, dress up water for the holidays with cranberry ice cubes

For more from Texas Oncology sign up for their newsletter here.

Going Against the Grain - Healthier Gingerbread House * Recycled*

2010-12-10T21:33:00.000-08:00

Here we are again...It is winter and the holiday season is in full swing. I bet you are all as busy as I am so I know you will understand when I tell you that I am recycling an old post I wrote for Edible Magazine. Things around here are great and I have a few projects up my sleeve. I am not quite ready to share all the details with you. So I figured it is better to re-share than post nothing, enjoy and if this is old news to you then chime in with some new ideas for the perfect gingerbread house!! I promise that after the break I will get back to posting more healthy recipes for your little ones. Until then enjoy your time and don't stress out too much, remember to have fun and take a breath this holiday season!

With the holidays coming, kids have two things on the brain—presents and sweets! When I think of the holidays I always think of a gingerbread house. We made one every year when I was growing up, and we always looked forward to it. It was an elaborate plan of blueprints and time. This year I am thinking of making a much healthier and simpler version—a rustic gingerbread cabin, if you will.

Are the kids sighing in the background? (Just wait kids, this can be fun.) I understand that the thought of a gingerbread house conjures up visions of candy canes, sugary gumdrops and gobs of frosting, but why not build one with some healthier, but still tasty, ingredients?

Remember, a gingerbread house can be any kind of house—a tiki hut, a ski lodge, a trailer, a mouse house or a train. When you make a traditional gingerbread house you end up with bags of sweets left over and, let’s face it, no kid wants to get old, stale candy for Halloween next year and tossing it out is so wasteful. Go against the grain and forgo the candy this year! Challenge the kids to use items you already have in your cupboards and try not to go out and buy a ton of new ingredients. The great thing about this project is that the “decorations”—foods such as nuts, cereals, and crackers— are healthier, easy to use, and you could make a fun cereal trail mix with your leftovers. This gingerbread house will be different, and still just as fun to look at and eat.

An easy way to make a small gingerbread house is to use graham crackers. If you are more adventurous or want to make a larger structure, you can purchase a readily available gingerbread house kit or bake your own.

You will need:

· Graham crackers: 10 per house to allow for mistakes!

· Royal icing for mortar (see recipe below)

· Piping bags and tips or gallon size freezer bags (make sure your bags have a nice square corner, not a pleated one)

· Decorative items such as: nuts, seeds, dried fruits, chocolate-dipped dried fruits, candied ginger slices, banana chips, marshmallows, pretzels, crackers, cereal of any kind, and cookies

Tips:

· To color your royal icing “mortar” for a more rustic look, add a drop of black food coloring during mixing.

· To fill a zip top bag with the royal icing, stand the bag up in a tall glass before filling.

· Cut a tiny hole in one corner of the zip top bag after filling it. You can always cut a bigger hole, but you can’t make a big one smaller!

· Keep your icing bag in the refrigerator for touch ups or other projects during the holidays.

To build the house:

Use a large plate or sheet pan as a base so you can also create an amazing landscape around your house. Attach the graham crackers to each other with the royal icing by piping a line of frosting along the edge of one piece, pressing it against the adjoining piece, and holding them in place just until the icing sets. Prop up the pieces with cans of food or other heavy objects, if necessary, while they dry. Allow the house to dry for several hours before decorating. A graham cracker cut in half diagonally works well for the sides of the roof, or make yours a flat-roof house.

Royal Icing

3 egg whites *

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 (16 oz) box confectioner’s or powdered sugar Yield: 2 cups Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth and thick, about 7 minutes. When a knife blade drawn through the icing leaves a clean cut, it is ready. Chill in a tightly sealed container if you are not using it right away.

· Purchase pasteurized egg whites if you are concerned about using raw eggs.

IDEAS TO SPUR YOUR CREATIVITY

Firewood pile: mini Tootsie Rolls

Shutters: sticks of gum

Rustic stone siding: chocolate cereal

Sand: brown sugar

Roofs: Oreo thins, Wheat Thins or Shredded Wheat cereal

Fences: pretzel sticks

Lamp Posts: pretzel sticks with marshmallows on top

Trees: green gum drops shaped like leaves (sold as “Spearmint Leaves”)

Pile of presents in a sleigh: decorated sugar cubes

Barnyard: animal crackers

Walkways: flat cookies or dried fruit

Snowmen: marshmallows with pretzel sticks for arms

Bamboo siding: pretzel sticks

Chimneys: sugar cubes or marshmallows

Snow: shredded coconut (can be sprinkled on for a snowy look on roofs and trees)

Photos: Matthew Carden—www.350degrees.com

Thanksgiving Baking

2010-11-27T14:04:00.000-08:00

It is technically still The "holiday weekend," right? I am out of time for a long post but wanted to share all the fun baking we did for the holiday. We made apple pie with salted pecan crumble, Limoncello macaroons and gluten free chocolate coconut brownies.

I got Kidlet involved by having her use the mortar and pestle to grind sea salt for the pie. She also loved using the apple peeler to peel and core the Granny Smiths. I will give the recipe below, we adapted the recipe from one I found a while ago on line.

Next we made Heidi's Lemoncello Macaroons, the dough is like play dough so Kidlet loved it. I let her cut the cookies from the long dough rope.

The dough is lovely to work with and the cookies, divine.

The Brownies were just my standard quick Gluten free go to, Pamela's Chocolate Brownie mix. I always add extra cocoa powder and vanilla to the mix. I use her frosting mix also, but make it very thin to coat the brownies with and add coconut to the top.

Today we snuck in a banana bread and gluten free corn bread for dinner!

Apple Pie with Salted Pecan Crumble

Salted pecan crumble:

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons (packed) light-brown sugar

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2/3 cup pecan pieces

5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

2 Pre made refrigerated pie crusts (The name escapes me but Whole Foods has an organic pre made pie crust we like)

Apple Filling:

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

6 (1/2 pound each) Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest

Vanilla Whipped Cream:

1 cup cold heavy cream

2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

1- 2 tablespoons cinnamon

Directions

To make salted pecan crumble: In a food processor, combine flour, sugars, salt, cinnamon, and 1/3 cup pecans; process until pecans are ground. Add butter and pulse until mixture is crumbly. Transfer crumble to a medium bowl; add remaining 1/3 cup pecans and, using your hands, crumble and squeeze mixture to form larger clumps. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Take one of the dough circles and wet one side, lay it on top of the other. Using a rolling pin, roll them together to make a thicker, larger circle. This will create a thicker dough and will give oyu more edge to work with.

Fold in half and ease gently into a 9-inch pie pan. Unfold dough, letting pastry overhang edge. Trim overhang to 1 inch. Fold under and flute or crimp edge. Refrigerate shell. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

To make apple filling: In a large bowl, combine sugar, cornstarch, and nutmeg until blended. Add apples and zest; toss until apples are evenly coated. Remove pie shell from refrigerator and spoon apple filling into it, mounding filling in center of pie. Sprinkle crumble evenly over top of pie, gently pressing into place; place pie on a baking sheet.

Bake 1 1/2 hours, or until filling is bubbly and topping is golden brown. Let cool completely on a wire rack. Dust top of pie with confectioners' sugar, if desired. Serve with cinnamon whipped cream.

To make Cinnamon whipped cream: In a large bowl with a hand-held mixer, beat heavy cream, confectioners' sugar, and 1 tablespoon cinnamon until soft billowy peaks form.

Including the Kids with Pie Dough- Jelly Cat Rolls

2010-11-26T12:41:00.000-08:00

Jelly Cat Rolls

My posts have been few and far between but that doesn't mean I have been just laying around! My family and I have been traveling, so cooking has been minimal. But we are back for a few weeks and are right back in the kitchen! When we were in Canada last week Claire got a treat from the grocery store, one for her and one for her cousin. The treat was an individual serving size rolled cake, vanilla with strawberry jam rolled in coconut. It was like a Little Debbie cake, not very good for you I am sure of that, she loved it! I assume she has been thinking about that treat because she recreated one!

My first Thanksgiving dessert was an apple pie, I had some leftover dough and when Kidlet saw it she instantly knew what she wanted to make with it.

Once she got the dough she asked me for jelly and coconut, both of which I had. I showed her how to roll the dough from the center out, she did a fine job. She spread jelly on it and sprinkled coconut on it then rolled it up. I helped her cut the pinwheels with a

big chef's knife. We chilled it for a few minutes before cooking and baked it for about 10 minutes and VOILA homemade strawberry roll ups!

Kids are funny, they know what they want and are perfectly capable of churning out their vision. This could be a good lesson for us grown ups, taking the lead from a kid. Just focus on what we want and make it happen, sometimes seems impossible but kids seem to do it with ease. Happy Holidays!

Halloween 2010 - Treats and Insanity

2010-10-31T10:33:00.000-07:00

I am writing this fast post between sleepover and costume application for my small yet scary Vampire child....Claire.

This Halloween seemed to come on like a huge wave. The water was calm, I turned around and WHAM right in the face! Usually I have a list of planned out treats to make for the various we go to. This year I was not focused at all, I was distracted by life, not ready for the "big game." I am only being overly dramatic because generally I love Halloween, I live to make disgusting treats once a year, like the Kitty Litter Cake or Severed Fingers. This year I was so overwhelmed with great ideas from my Twitter friends, magazines and bloggers that my brain became a scramble of ideas and then my head popped off!!

My first idea was to make Bakearella inspired Cake Pops like eyeballs on a fork. Then my ideas changed when I saw some cake pops that had witch hats made from Oreos. Let me save you from the thought process, anyway I went back and forth and eventually just let it become free form.

The Cyclops were and after thought, I was low on eyeballs so I decided to make a one eyed monster. I had black sprinkles and thought they make goofy hair, perfect! The second is a witch and the kids loved them.

I also saw some fake earwax Q-Tips so of course I made them and, they were my yuck factor.

Last but not least, Lychee "cow eyeballs"

I happened to have a can of Rambutan, I used creative licence and substituted them in for lychee, it worked just fine.

So I am just taking a few minutes to share our creepy treats with you. I'd love to see yours, leave links in the comments for me to see!! Happy Halloween!!

Mango is a Star

2010-10-18T22:15:00.000-07:00

In July The Stir did a nice little piece on Popsicles, and included my Minty Pea Pops as one of the reviewed. One of the other entries was from the Kitchen Enchantress she made a delicious looking mango ice cream. We are going to squeeze the very last bit of summer out of this recipe! The mangoes here have been so utterly delicious and juicy we've been gorging ourselves on them daily! We have giant Raposa here but the common one you will see int he store are reddish, greenish, yellowish and weigh about 1/2 pound. The small yellow mangoes are good too but you would need about 3 for this recipe. (see below for mango types) It would be fun to bring home two or three kinds and do a taste test with the kids. Once I saw the Stir's article I knew we just had to make the frozen treat. We had one more giant jucy mango in the fruit bowl just waiting to be eaten.

The recipe calls for frozen pineapple concentrate as an ingredient. I had a hard time finding this, I wanted organic and could only find orange. I thought I'd substitute orange because I was not in the mood to go to another store.

The surprise was, when I got home I found out I had grabbed raspberry concentrate instead! My first reaction was total disappointment, but we decided to make it work anyway, I was up for an experiment. Her recipe was very easy and fast, just my kind of recipe. I happen to have some very cute Popsicle molds and am always looking for a way to use them, this was perfect!

If you have never cut up a fresh mango it can be tricky but once you learn it makes sense. The pit inside a mango is long and flat, this means that to avoid it when cutting and there is a special technique to cut around it. I found this video and liked how Chef Allen shows how to tackle it. If you are going to dice the mango in the skin please be careful. I advise setting it on the cutting board and not cutting into your hand.

After cutting you should have 2 lobes and the middle with the pit in it. This is the part we fight over, peel it and eat the meat off the pit before you toss it. Now scoop out the meat from each lobe and put it in the food processor and follow the rest of the recipe.

Recipe adapted from Kitchen Enchantress

Creamy Mango Pops

These are so creamy and delicious, you'll want them again and again! If you don't have molds, just pour into a large zip-type plastic freezer bag, seal completely, and lay flat in your freezer for at least 2 hours. When frozen, scoop with a metal spoon to serve!!

2 very ripe meduim mangoes, with the skin and the pits removed
3/4 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup raspberry juice concentrate
1 Tablespoon agave nectar (or honey)

1. Blend all ingredients together in a food processor until creamy and smooth.
2. Pour into frozen treat molds, and place in freezer for at least a couple of hours, preferably overnight.
3. Remove from molds and ENJOY!
NOTE- I poured a bit of the concentrate into the top of the molds to make the pops very pretty.

Mango Types:

Haden
These are medium, rounder mangos with an oval-round shape. Haden mangos have skin that is yellow in color accompanied by a red-orange blush when ripe. They have a juicy and yellow pulp that is sweet in flavor and have moderate fiber.

Availability: March through June from Mexico

Tommy Atkins
Large, oblong shaped fruit with green skin that has some hues of red. Tommy Atkins are characterized by firm, juicy flesh with a smaller pit and moderate fiber. They emit a strong and pleasant scent.

Availability: February through July from Mexico

Kent

A large fruit, primarily green colored on the outside, with an occasional red blush. Kents have smooth flesh with minimal to mild fiber and are very juicy with a sweet, rich flavor.

Availability: June through August from Mexico

Keitt

This large, oval-shaped fruit has green skin with a hint of a rosy-orange blush. Its flesh is smooth, sweet and juicy with mild fiber. Keitts have a flavorful aroma and also have a smaller pit than other green mango counterparts.

Available July through September from Mexico

Kid Friendly Fragrant Cardamom Chicken

2010-10-04T10:04:00.000-07:00

I am preparing for the ABC Kids Expo and Baby Show in Las Vegas this week. I will be at the show making some of my recipes with the Baby Chef food steamer / blender. One of my tasks is to demo the Baby Chef Yogurt Maker before the show. I did successfully make the yogurt, it was delicious, but I had four jars and I wanted to use it another way, so I ran with an idea just off the cuff. (OK the real truth is that I fell asleep and woke up at 4:30 realizing that I had not even thought of dinner.) I did really want to use the left over yogurt though, really I did!

I happened to have some beautiful organic chicken on hand, I immediately thought of Tandoori Chicken. The problem here is that I don't have a Tandoori oven nor do I want to add a bunch of spices my daughter wont eat, nor do I have 24 hours for marinating. As usual I tried to figure out how to best make a dish kids would love, and quickly!

This is a good one to get the kids involved they love to help.

The kids love to crush things in the mortar and pestle, have them crush the cardamom pods. Pull out the green husks, and add a pinch of kosher salt and let the kids grind them or use the bottom of a glass on the counter to crush them.

I succeeded, with light flavors of cardamom, coconut and figs. Yes Figs, I know figs are not usually served with Tandoori chicken but this is so far from Tandoori at this point I felt like I could use artistic licence here. (indulge me) We had some fresh black California figs left from farmer's Market, I hate to see food go bad so I decided to use them. The chicken comes out so moist and I bet if you marinated it overnight it would be even better. We served this with Jasmine rice and sauteed spinach.

This took about 10 minutes to prepare

1 whole Boneless chicken breast, skin on

1/2 cup fresh plain yogurt

2 Tablespoons honey

coconut oil

8 figs cut in from top to bottom in fourths

6 cardamom pods, crushed or powdered or 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/8 teaspoon salt or to taste

Line a cast iron skillet or baking pan with foil (for easy clean up)

Preheat the oven to 375˚F

Coat all the chicken with coconut oil and salt, place in pan skin side up.

Spoon yogurt over the chicken coating every part generously. Sprinkle with cardamom and drizzle honey over the top. Surround the chicken with figs place in oven for 15 minutes.

When the chicken comes out let it fest covered for 5 minutes. Slice and serve with pan juice over rice and sauteed spinach.

Notes on Cardamom:

Cardamom comes from the seeds of a ginger-like plant. The small, brown-black sticky seeds are contained in a pod in three double rows with about six seeds in each row. The pods are between 5-20 mm (1/4”-3/4”) long, the larger variety known as ‘black’, being brown and the smaller being green. The texture of the pod is that of tough paper. Pods are available whole or split and the seeds are sold loose or ground. It is best to buy the whole pods as ground cardamom quickly loses flavour.

A Different Kind of Pear

2010-09-29T21:57:00.000-07:00

We are lucky enough to live around the corner from a Mexican Market. I like to go in there and look around for new and different ingredients. When my daughter saw these bright purple fruits she knew she wanted to take them home. I thought this would be a great activity in the hot weather, so we went for it. Now, I knew all about the Prickly Pear, it comes from a cactus, it grows with long spines all over it and it is very staining. The spines get removed before it comes to the store, but beware tiny spines can be lurking. Before you start rub the fruit with a damp towel to get off any leftover prickers. (I got a tiny one in my hand and it itched like the devil) That told we bought three, and dug right in. They are delicious as is, but you can make jam with them, or dice them and serve over with fish or in drinks, the possibilities are endless.

I shot a very crude video for you to get the full messy effect.

Kidlet had just come home from

school, we did not primp at all for this video (she was fully destroyed from a long hot day of school) I also made her wear an inside out tee shirt so she wouldn't stain her clothes! We hope you enjoy learning about this and maybe it will inspire you to find an unusual food in your neighborhood.