Help for the Hungries

I know this blog is where you come for new food ideas, but I’m in need of some help this time around. My son is starting a pre-K/young 5s program next week to which he will be taking his lunch every day of the week. In addition to that, I, in the role of Mom of Student, get the extreme privilege (as far are privileges resemble scheduled responsibilities) of providing a classroom snack a couple of times each month. Both of these requirements have caused my brain to turn completely off.

As far back as I can remember, my school lunches consisted of a triad of components: a sandwich (usually meat and condiment on white bread, unless I was graced with a cheese single in there as well, or PB&J), a bag of chips (the Frito Lay variety pack was big in our pantry, and am I the only person on earth who thinks nacho cheese Doritos are vile?), and a dessert (typically a Little Debbie selection, and boy howdy, so I still love me some Swiss rolls). Occasionally a warm thermos of something would make its way into the rotation, but this was the mainstay, at least on days when I didn’t bring my crumpled up dollars for my school’s Item of the Day. We didn’t have a cafeteria, so over the years, the school would contract a local eatery of sorts to provide items in bulk for our sustenance, should we choose to indulge. These included hamburgers, burritos, fried chicken, chicken fried steak, and cheese pizza, as well as hot dogs lovingly boiled, bunned, and packaged by an industrious group of moms on a weekly basis. So I don’t have a lot of experience in the lunch diversity department. I could use some quick and easy ideas, and extra points if they work in fruits or veggies without being messy or requiring super-defined motor skills (he’s 5, y’all).

Now, there aren’t a lot of restrictions on the classroom snacks, other than they be healthy and not include strawberries due to an allergy. OK, that’s more than enough restrictions. If it’s not store bought, I have to include a list of ingredients. So, if anybody out there has some tips or tricks for me to satisfy 12 little kids, please let me know. Thanks in advance for the inspiration.

I'll be back with some food thoughts of my own, as soon as I can find all of the utensils that have been spirited away from my kitchen by very short people.
-Julie

"Gourmet" Italian Crepes

Okay, so I'm not so good with the titles of my dishes sometimes. Tonight I got this inspiration in my head and totally went with it. I was slaving away in the kitchen for over an hour making wonderful smells (this isn't in the easy category!) When my husband calls out, "What are you making?" I thought about it and said, "GOURMET! You are having Gourmet for dinner tonight!" He wanted to know "gourmet, what?" So I said, "Gourmet Italian!" Whatever that means... basically I had the idea to make lasagna flavors in a crepe instead of a layered noodle casserole.. well I'll have to try that another day since I had like only 2 ingredients to make a traditional lasagna. So, I went vegetarian with this yummy veggie-cheese filling. And during all this inspiration I realized I had NO tomato sauce, not even store bought. So, I whipped up a simple bechamel to pour on top.... enjoy!

Gourmet Italian Crepes:

1 cup loosely packed basil
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1 tbsp olive oil
pinch of salt
1/8 cup flax seed meal (can be omitted)
about 1 cup of milk

Stuffing:
1/4 onion finely diced
1/2 pint of mushrooms, sliced
6 roma tomatoes
1/2 cup frozen spinach, or a couple handfuls of fresh
1/2 can (or more) of chopped artichoke hearts
1 cup cottage cheese (or ricotta)

Bechamel Cheese Sauce:
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1/2 cup grated italian cheeses
1 1/2 cups of milk
salt and pepper

To make the crepe batter, place basil and oil in a blender and pulse. Add eggs, flour, flax seed meal, and salt, pulse again. Slowly add milk until you have a thin batter, you may need less or more of the milk. Your batter will be pretty runny, a lot thinner than pancake batter.

To make crepes: In a pre-heated crepe pan or a small non-stick skillet ladel out about 1/4 cup of batter. Pick up the pan and swirl the batter around with the pan with a flick of your wrist. You want to coat the entire surface of the pan. Let cook on medium heat for about 45 sec. With a non-stick spatula, gently lift up the crepe and flip.Cook for an additional 45 seconds or so.

For stuffing: Saute onions and mushrooms in a skillet. Cube tomatoes and for extra flavor roast them in your oven. To do this, place them on a cookie sheet and coat with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast at 450º for 20 minutes or until they start to brown and dry out. (Substituting sundried tomatoes would work too!) I used my toaster oven to do this so I didn't have to turn on my big oven. Add the tomatoes to the onions and mushrooms. Add the spinach and artichoke hearts. Remove from heat and let cool a bit. Then add the cottage cheese (or ricotta.)

Bechamel Cheese Sauce:
Place the butter in a small pot and melt. Add flour and whisk, cooking the flour a bit. Add milk while stirring. You may need to add all of it or less, you want a good consistency that you are happy with. Add the cheese, salt and pepper and stir. I always make too much of this, but it is perfect on noodles the next day as homemade mac n cheese (just thin it with a bit more milk, it'll tighten over night.)

Assemble your crepes:
Put some stuffing down the center and roll like a burrito OR place some stuffing in one "corner" of the crepe, fold in half and then fold in half again to make a triangle shape. Drizzle a bit of the cheese sauce over the top. Enjoy! Serves 4.
-Amanda

Oatmeal Cookies

These are the oatmeal cookies from the under the lid of the Quaker Oatmeal container. What makes this batch special is that my Twin Toddlers helped me make them. To hear about that read HERE.

Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
(minus the raisins because we didn't have any)

1/2 pound of butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon (I used 1 1/2 tsp)
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups Quaker Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1 cup of raisins (which I omitted)

1. Heat oven to 350
2. Beat together butter and sugars until creamy
3. Add eggs and vanilla, beat well
4. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt, mix well
5. Stir in oats and raisins, mix well
6. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet
7. Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown
8. Cool 1 minuted on cookie sheet, remove to wire rack.
Makes about 4 dozen

Bar cookies: bake 30-35 min. in ungreased 13-9 inch metal baking pan
-Amanda

Meatballs & Gravy

Nothing super original here, but a good tasty meal. The only problem was the time of year. This is definitely a cold weather meal, not a middle of August meal. I'm not sure what I was thinking but it was tasty! Oh, and it isn't exactly in the quick and easy category since it took well over an hour to make.

Meatballs and Gravy

1 lb of ground beef
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup of oatmeal (ground in magic bullet or food processor)
1 egg
salt & pepper
1 tsp dried (or fresh) tarragon
1 clove garlic finely minced

1 1/2 onion
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup flour
3 cups beef broth
1 jar of mushrooms
1/2 cup frozen peas

1 package egg noodles

Slice onion into half rounds. Put 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet and place onion in the oil. On a medium-low heat, cook onions for 30-40 min until brown and caramelized. Add chopped garlic towards the end of this cooking time.

Meanwhile, mix meatball ingredients: In a large bowl mix the ground beef, bread crumbs, tarragon, salt and pepper, egg, and ground oatmeal. Form into 1 inch meatballs and set aside on a cookie sheet.

When onions are finished, remove them from the skillet and into a bowl. Add more oil if needed, turn temperature up to high and place meatballs in skillet to brown. Turn them after a few minutes to brown the other side. Gently stir meatballs to brown all around. Remove meatballs from skillet, placing in the bowl with the reserved onions.

Sprinkle flour in the skillet over the pan drippings and any meatball crumbles. With a whisk, cook the flour for a minute or two, make sure skillet is on high heat then add beef broth all at once. Whisk to make sure there are no lumps and then add back in your meatballs and onions. Add a jar of mushrooms and peas. Set stove to low, cover and simmer meatballs for 20-30 minutes until cooked through.
-Amanda

Fritter Medley

(Served here with cheese and apple slices)

Okay, trying to come of with a fancier way of saying "Leftover Balls" which my Mom informed me was not glamorous by any stretch of the imagination. This is a fun technique to stretch a serving of leftovers. Last night I made Easy Butter Dill Salmon with Roasted Asparagus and Zucchini Rice. Today I turned that into Fritters for lunch. You could do the same thing with a chicken breast, broccoli and rice from the night before too (or whatever).

1 leftover salmon filet
6-8 leftover roasted aspargus spears
1/2 cup leftover zucchini rice
1/2 -1 cup of chicken broth (or water)
2 tbsp mayonnaise (for binder)
1 piece of bread
1 cup panko bread crumbs
cooking spray

This what I had leftover, you can use what you have leftover and adjust the amounts. In a small food processor (I love my Magic Bullet!) Grind up a piece of bread. Put it a small mixing bowl. Blend fish, asparagus, rice and chicken broth in blender next. Pour in the mixing bowl with the bread crumbs. Add mayonnaise. Stir, should be thick enough to form small balls. You can add more bread crumbs to thicken or a bit more broth to loosen. Form balls, roll in panko crumbs and lay on a cookie sheet. Spray liberally with cooking spray. Broil on HI for 5 minutes, flip and broil for another 5 minutes until crispy and brown. The ingredients are all cooked, so you are just browning the bread. I made 12 balls. Which is several meals for my toddlers or one more meal for the family!

Easy Butter Dill Salmon

This meal was clocked in under 30 minutes. Super easy and fast. Tasty too. Well, at least my husband and one of my daughters thought so. Izzie ate all of the fish off of her plate and begged me for my fish too! Maddie finally came around and ate it, but begrudgingly.

Easy Butter Dill Salmon
with Roasted Asparagus & Zucchini Rice

1 cup rice
2 cups of chicken broth
salt and pepper
1 small zucchini
3-4 sprigs fresh oregano (or other favorite herb) (you can use dried if you wish)
a bit of butter

1 bunch of asparagus
olive oil to coat
salt, pepper & garlic seasoning

4 salmon fillets
1 tbsp butter
salt, pepper
chopped fresh (or dried) dill
2 tsp lemon juice

Pour rice in small pot. Add chicken broth, salt and pepper. Put burner on high to bring to a boil. Cut zucchini into small squares. In the skillet that you will later cook the fish in (I used a cast iron skillet) saute the zucchini on high heat in a bit of butter. Try to brown the edges. Rice should just be at a boil. Add zucchini and cover. Lower to a simmer and cook for 15 min.

Prep asparagus by cutting or snapping off the tough ends. Place in one layer on a cookie sheet. If you have a toaster oven this is perfect so you don't have to heat up your big oven. Either works fine though. Drizzle olive oil over asparagus. Add salt, pepper and garlic seasoning. If you have a real lemon for the fish grated lemon zest is also great to add to the asparagus. Place in oven (or toaster oven) and cook for 15 minutes on 475.

Place 1 tablespoon of butter in reserved skillet. Place burner on med-high heat and let it get really hot, but don't burn the butter. Quickly salt, pepper and put dill on fish. Place skin side down in butter. Don't touch and poke at it! Let it get a crust. Salt, pepper and put dill on second side of fish while it is in the skillet. Cook for 3-4 minutes. Flip once and cook another 3-4 minutes or until done. Squirt lemon juice on fish and serve. (Serves 4)
-Amanda

Homemade Bubbles

This is ridiculously easy and these bubbles were WAY better than store bought. They formed easier and they lasted longer. I don't think I'll ever go back. Currently I used a bubble wand from a store bought bubble jar to make these bubbles, but I am going to experiment with other bubble makers. I hear pipe cleaners work well, I'll have to try it out!

Homemade Bubbles:

1 cup of water
1/8 cup of dish washing soap
1 tablespoon of liquid glycerin (I bought at the craft store, near the soap making stuff)

Combine ingredients. Blow bubbles!
-Amanda