Fast & Easy Breakfast Cups

These are a big hit with our kids so I thought I'd share. It's a fast and healthy breakfast go to in our house.
-Amanda

Yogurt Cups

In a small sauce pan mix up some frozen fruit and a heaping spoonful of no-sugar added all fruit jelly. You could probably leave the jelly out, but it seems to help with the consistency. Add a squirt of honey. I make this mixture a bit over sweet, so when it mixes with the plain tart yogurt the sweetness evens out. With a potato masher, mash up your fruit mixture until it is almost pureed. Or if you like, you can puree it in a blender for kids who have texture issues. Above I made strawberry and banana. After the strawberries were mashed down, I removed it from the heat and mashed in a banana.

 Layer in your container jam, whole-milk plain yogurt, jam, yogurt. If your kid (or you) likes granola, then put some in a small snack zip bag and store it on top so they can sprinkle it in.

Cottage Cheese Cups

My girls have been eating cottage cheese since they were babies. I didn't put honey in it until they were a bit older, but now it's a favorite, especially with pineapples crushed in! So I just simply mixed some 4% cottage cheese with a bit of honey and topped with crushed pineapples. All ready to be stirred in and enjoyed come morning!

Homemade Yogurt, updated

(Not my photo: I'll replace soon.)

Homemade yogurt isn't as scary as it sounds. I'm not an expert, I've only made it a handful of times, but it is easy to make. If you are using raw milk, it will be runnier than store-bought yogurt. The time I made it with raw milk it was more like drinkable yogurt, just a bit thicker than heavy cream. This is still really good for you as it has all the probiotics that yogurt has and all the healthy enzymes that raw milk makes available to you. To make your raw milk yogurt thicker it is suggested to bring it up to a boil. This will break down some of the good enzymes, but it is still healthier than buying pasterized homogenized milk to start with. Another trick I heard to make raw milk yogurt thicker is to do half raw milk and half heavy cream as your base. I haven't tried that either. I have made yogurt with raw milk and store bought organic pasteurized/homogenized milk. Do not use Ultra Pasteurized, which is a DEAD product and the good bacteria that make yogurt litterally has nothing to eat in the milk to make it into yogurt. (Think about that.... if a single cell bacteria cannot live off of ultra pasteurized milk, why put it in our bodies?? It offers us nothing nutrition wise!)

Process:
Bring 1 quart of whole (raw) milk to 110 degrees. Like I said before you can do half milk/half cream (or any percentage you choose.) If you bring the milk up to a boil, then cool it to 110 before proceeding.

Add a mere 2 tbsp of yogurt from a previous batch OR store bought. Buy a high quality whole milk, no additives, plain yogurt. I like to start with a Greek yogurt. You can also buy starters from websites like Cultures for Health.

Whisk the 2 tbsp of yogurt into your warmed milk. Then pour into either several small containers or one large container. Whatever your prefrence is. Then you need to incubate the yogurt for 10-12 hours at 110 degrees. You can go further but any extra time makes the yogurt more and more tangy.

Incubation methods:
1.Expensive yogurt maker.
2. Dehydrator with trays removed set to 110 degrees is the easiest way that I've found.
3. Crock pot brought up to high temperature and then unplugged, wrapped in a towel for extra insulation.
4. In an empty oven with oven light on.
5. Sat on a heating pad on low, wrapped in towels.

(The only two methods I've tried are 2 & 3, but I've heard great success with the others.)

After the 10-12 hours move to refridgerator. You can add honey and fruit to sweeten. I like to puree fruit and then gently stir the yogurt. I find if I try to puree the fruit into the yogurt it gets even more runny. Or I chop the fruit and stir yogurt in with a drizzle of honey or pure grade B maple syrup. 

Birthday Party Playdate Meal (Chicken Satay)

I hosted a birthday party today for my twins third birthday party. We had 11 kids and 6 adults. I wanted to plan a menu that would be healthy, the kids would like and the moms would like. I decided Chicken Satay, Sugar Snap Peas, Buttered Whole Wheat Noodles and Fruit Skewers. Cupcakes for dessert. I think it was a pretty good success, all the Moms liked the food and most of the kids did too. Chicken Satay is normally grilled and served on skewers, but for this crowd I did them under the broiler. I figured kids and moms alike would love the peanut sauce poured on top!
-Amanda

Chicken Satay

(for 4-6 servings)

Chicken Marinade:
1/2 cup of yogurt or coconut milk or combo of both
1 tbsp curry powder
2 cloves garlic, grated (I had to leave this out, since one of my guests is very allergic to garlic)
salt and pepper
4-6 chicken breasts cut into thin strips

Peanut Sauce:
1 cup all natural peanut butter, smooth
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 lime, juiced
1 tsp sambal (for spicy sauce)
2 tbsp dark brown sugar
hot water to thin

In a large bowl, mix chicken strips, yogurt, curry powder, garlic and salt and pepper. Cover, refrigerate and marinade for two hours. Set broiler to high. Place a wire rack over a cookie sheet. Lay strips of chicken on wrack and broil for 6-8 minutes until cooked through.

To make peanut sauce, mix ingredients in a blender or food processor, streaming in hot water to thin it out as desired.

Buttered Noodles

Cook a package of whole wheat noodles. Drain. Cube up half a stick of butter and toss. I like to add chopped parsley for vitamin C and color, but left it simple today.

Sugar Snap Peas

Saute in a bit of butter, salt and pepper.

Fruit Skewers

I used coffee stirrers instead of wood or metal skewers to make them toddler safe. Slide 4 or 5 pieces of favorite fruit on each skewer and serve.

Tex-Mex Stuffed Bell Peppers and Fruit Salad

A few days ago I made Taco Mini Muffins. When I made the meal, I doubled the taco meat & veggie mixture for a meal later in the week. That was tonight. I turned the taco meat into Tex-Mex Stuffed Bell Peppers, and they were very delicious! I served them alongside a simple fruit salad with a yogurt dressing.
-Amanda

Tex-Mex Stuffed Bell Peppers

1 recipe of the taco meat & veggie mixture from my Taco Mini Muffins.
2/3 cup wheat couscous
3/4 cup of chicken or beef stock (or water.)
4 small bell peppers
2 oz of your favorite Mexican cheese, grated

In a small pot, bring stock to a boil. Add couscous and stir. Turn off heat, cover and let sit for 5 minutes. Add couscous to taco meat mixture and stir. Cut the tops off your bell peppers. If the bottoms are very crooked, you may want to cut of a very small amount to make them level so they will stand up. Stuff each bell pepper with 1/4 of the taco/couscous mixture. Place them on a cookie sheet and bake at 425 for 30 minutes. Top each bell pepper with some of the grated cheese and broil until cheese is melted. Serves 4.

Fruit Salad with Yogurt Dressing

1 banana
1 orange
8-10 strawberries
1 cup of grapes (I did green and red
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp fresh grated giner

Peel and chop banana. Peel and segment one orange and cut each slice in half. Cut strawberries into fourths. Cut grapes in half. Place all fruit into a mixing bowl. In another small bowl, mix the yogurt, vanilla, honey, cinnamon and ginger. Pour over fruit. Serve chilled.

Homemade Yogurt!

It worked! I made homemade yogurt! Now I wish I had saved a few of the old yogurt containers to reuse. I was pulling all sorts of containers out this morning to put the yogurt in. I'm so excited! And it cost SO much less than even the big containers you can buy at the store. I followed the recipe from "A Year of Slow Cooking." Please check out Stephanie's blog for step by step picture procedure. She even shows you how to make fruit flavored yogurt. Here is a summary:

Homemade Yogurt in Crockpot

1/2 gallon of whole milk
1/2 cup of real yogurt (either store bought, or from a previous batch)

Put the entire 1/2 gallon of milk in your crockpot. Set to low. Cook for 2.5 hours. Keep covered, but unplug to let milk cool, about 3 hours. In a small bowl mix two cups of warmish milk from your crockpot with 1/2 cup of real yogurt. Add back to crockpot and stir. Cover with entire crockpot with a bath towel to keep insulated, but keep the power off. Let sit for 8 hours. Open lid to a wonderful surprise! Yogurt!

Carrot & Applesauce Puree

Lately my two year old twins have gotten picky about certain vegetables. I think it's a phase most two year old's go through, but I'm determined to power through it and get to the other side. Right now, they love peas almost every time you serve it to them. Broccoli on the other hand is hit or miss. One day they "love" broccoli, the next day it is, "yucky, NO like it!!" As for mushrooms, Izzie likes them, Maddie has eaten them on accident. And for reasons beyond my comprehension, they don't like carrots. I thought carrots were supposed be one of the "give" veggies that all kids liked. They don't like them raw, cooked, shredded or roasted. Today I decided to go back to the babyfood days when they actually loved carrots and puree them. I got the idea watching Food Network. On some of the fancy cooking shows the contestants will serve a "puree of blah blah blah vegetable." I always laughed at the critics who were basically eating baby food and saying how wonderful it is. Now all this is to say, I made pureed carrots for the girls, and they did turn them down, but I'm going to serve them again at dinner and see how it goes. I think the fact that they saw me make the carrots was my downfall in this instance. One success I've had with the girls is to offer the same vegetable several meals in a row, until they get so used to it, they don't think about "not liking" it.
-Amanda

Pureed Carrots & Applesauce
for a Toddler palette (I hope!)

2 large carrots
1 tsp olive oil
pinch of salt
1/2 cup plain, full fat greek or organic yogurt
1/4 cup natural, no sugar added applesauce

Cut carrots into round slices and place them on a cookie sheet or roasting pan. Drizzle olive oil and salt over them and toss to coat. Roast in the oven at 475 degrees for about 25 minutes or until tender. (They are great for adults this way! I pulled out some for me to eat at this point.)

Scrape all the carrots and oil into a blender. Add yogurt and applesauce and puree until smooth. This dish is really sweet, too sweet for me, but if you like sweet vegetables, I'm sure it would be a good side dish even for an adult.

Creamy Parmesan PestoTomato Soup

While I could probably eat Chicken Tortilla Soup every single day forever (okay, maybe not...) I think John could do the same with Tomato Soup. Almost every time I check out of the grocery store, I have about 10 cans of Campbell's Tomato Soup in my cart. I thought I'd try my hand at making homemade, but wasn't sure if I'd match up to the store bought variety that he's used to. John gave this soup a passing, but told me not to fancy it up with fire roasted tomatoes (sorry, it was what I had in the pantry!) He also recommended that I puree it a bit longer than I did, and I have to agree with him on that one. The random chunk of onion really threw off the texture. But the flavor was really good and this is coming from someone who cannot stand canned tomato soup. I'll definitely make this again, and with the grilled cheese sandwich on the side it was superb!
-Amanda

Creamy Parmesan Pesto Tomato Soup

2 tbsp butter
1 1/2 onions
1 garlic clove
2 cans of diced tomatoes (I used fire roasted)
1 1/2 cup yogurt
1/2 cup heavy cream
dash of pepper
salt
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup pesto (homemade or prepared)

Rough chop the onions into small pieces and mince up the garlic clove. In a medium pot, melt the butter and saute the onion and garlic on medium heat until it becomes translucent. Add canned tomatoes. Using either an immersion blender or a regular blender, puree onions and tomatoes.

Add yogurt and heavy cream to the pot and lower the heat all the way. Add salt, pepper and Parmesan cheese. Stir until cheese has melted in the soup. Add a dollop of pesto to individual bowls when serving. Serves about 4.

Yayla Çorba

Merhabalar! That means "Hello Ya'll!" in Turkish. I have been invited by Amanda to join the Frickin Chicken. I apparently wooed her with my food pornography and anecdotes of being anAmerican Ex-Pat in Turkey. I have been in Turkey for about six months and have made it my job to try as many new dishes as possible. Translation: I eat my own weight in food on a regular basis. I love food and cooking, and immersing myself in a new cuisine has been a blast.

Turkish food is extremely varied by region, but a commonality in most cuisines is yogurt. Many Turkish foods use yogurt either as an ingredient or a condiment. What is great about using yogurt in a soup means you get a rich creamy soup without having to use a butter based roux. Yayla Çorba (pronounced chorba and means soup) is an amazing comfort food. This soup is especially wonderful when you are sick. The yogurt in the soup is good for stomach or digestive ailments. It is also very easy--which is helpful because when you are sick the last thing you want to do is stand in the kitchen and chop and measure. I know this soup looks different but it has become one of my favorites since I came here. Don't be skeptical of the mint, it is really fantastic with the savory creaminess of the soup.

Yayla Çorba

6 cups water
1 cube beef bouillon (omit for vegetarian soup)
1/2 cup rice, washed and drained
2 cups yogurt
1 egg
2 tbsp of flour
2 tbsp butter
2 tsp dry mint

*1-2 tsp of red pepper flakes

*Optional

In a large pot boil the water, rice, salt and bouillon. Cook on medium high, until the rice is done.

While the rice is cooking, in a bowl, mix yogurt, egg and flour well. After the rice is cooked, take a few spoons of liquid from the pot and mix into the bowl to temper the yogurt and egg. Add the yogurt and egg mixture into the pot slowly, so the egg and yogurt does not curdle. Stir very slowly. Cook for 10 more minutes.

In a frying pan, heat the butter until it starts to spit, then add the mint, and let sit for 20-30 seconds. Do not let the mint burn. Pour the butter and mint into the soup and stir.

This soup is very quick, very easy and very tasty. Other herbs that are sometimes used in addition to, or in place of, the mint are tarragon and dill. To make the soup lighter you could use less butter or substitute olive oil for the butter.

Serves: 4-6

-Jules