On the days that I really need the kids to actually eat their food, it is always handy to have on hand a bunch of recipes that have been a hit in the past.  I am really bad at remembering which ones are a hit with them and which were less of a hit.  So I will try and mark the posts of the recipes which worked well with the kids and note when then they worked less well for my kids.

This recipe turned out to be a big hit with the kids.  Ladybug ate 3 servings, and Rosie ate all of her serving which for her means that she really like it and Little Man ate it messily with only a little modification to the recipe.  I just changed the type of pasta he ate since I thought spaghetti might be a bit difficult for the one-tooth eater.

Bolognese

Recipe by KT

1 lb Ground Beef

1 tbsp Oil

1/2 large Onion, finely diced (if I had a regular onion I would have used a whole one)

5 cloves Garlic (mine were small, so use less if you want.  Or more if you swing that way)

1/2 Green Pepper, finely diced

2-3 cups Zucchini, shredded and extra water squeezed out

1 jar Marinara Sauce (I used Newman's Own, but you can use what you have on hand)

1 cup peas, fresh or frozen

Pasta of you choice (I used spaghetti for those with teeth and a tiny pearl pasta for those with fewer chompers.

~In a large skillet over medium high heat, brown the meat, breaking it us as it cooks.  

~Once the meat has browned, you can add the onions, peppers and zucchini.  Once the veggies have softened it is time to add the jar of Marinara.  Drop the heat down and let it simmer for 5 or 10 minutes.  If you find the sauce a bit too thick you can add a bit of chicken or beef stock to thin it out a bit. 

~Just before serving, add the frozen peas.  If using fresh peas, add it a bit earlier.  

~Serve over some sort of pasta.

 This is Little Man's lunch today.

Adventures in Baby Food

This is my third time around the baby food making business.  I have made the vast majority of my kids food.  The one thing that I did buy jarred is fruit since it is packed at it's freshest and we don't always have the variety of fruit, or tasty examples of said fruit available throughout the year.  I didn't do a lot of veg, meats, or combos of those because if I think it taste bad why would I feed it to my kid.  

I start with simple 1 ingredient purees, my favorites are yam to start since that is the easiest puree to make.  Applesauce and banana are great travel foods since you can buy regular pots of apple sauce and keep them with you. Bananas don't require refrigeration which is always a bonus.  Here are some of the first purees that I made for Little Man, on the left is carrots.  Top right is yams and bottom right is cauliflower.   Real simple and delicious.

Another day I made another bunch of purees.  This time I did some blended purees.  On the left large bowl is Leek, zucchini and butter.  Top small bowl is potato.  Right large bowl is potato and broccoli.  Right small bowl is broccoli.  

Another green puree that I have done but isn't shown here is Pea, which has the best colour imaginable, so bright.

Applesauce also won't be shown here since I was using up the stock that I had made last fall, and the rest I get from a jar.  Hard to mess up with jarred applesauce, just make sure it is unsweetened and there aren't any funky ingredients.  Ascorbic acid is ok since it is just vitamin C to keep the colour.

Yesterday, I decided to get a bit more adventurous with some purees since none of my kids have had allergy issues and Little Man doesn't seem to be showing any signs of them either.  So I made a lovely Lentil Stew (Large bowl) with red lentil, sweet potato, carrots, some chicken stock, and leeks.  Quite tasty, this can be made as an adult soup. 

I also tried out some kale with leeks and butter.  Wow, I wish that that little bowl wasn't a whole bunch of kale, since I would have happily eaten it all.  But I do loves me some kale.  The top small bowl is some more yams since they are always a favorite.

This morning, I wanted to try something different from his usual applesauce breakfast, so I took some of the frozen blueberries that we have in the freezer, cooked and pureed them and added applesauce and a scoop of yogurt.  He was squealing with joy with that one, and I can't blame him it was pretty good.



Now you ask what I do once I have these purees made. Well, I freeze them, of course.  I have a bunch of different freezing devices such little freezing pots and ice cube trays, and silicon trays.  I really like the silicon,  but I've misplaces them between children.  They are probably in my house some where, I just need to find where.  If using little pots or ice cube trays, they can hard to remove you frozen foods. try running the bottom under hot water for a bit and then try and push them loose from the bottom.

Here I have stacked the little pots ready to be put in the freezer for a few hours or overnight.  Then pop them out, and place in a labeled (which what it is and when you made it) freezer bag and place it back in the freezer.  

They usually don't take long to thaw, either by packing up lunch at breakfast time or by microwaving in short burst until it has thawed but without over heating since you want to be careful with little mouths.

Carrot Puree
~Carrots
~nub of butter

Peel and chop carrots.  Place in a pot with enough water to cover and simmer until  carrots are soft usually less then 10 min.  Remove from water and place in a blender or the cup of a hand blender (which is my preferred way of pureeing.)  I remember reading that you shouldn't use the water from carrots or beets to add to your purees, so I used boiled water because it was handy.  Add enough for the puree to get pretty smooth.  Apparently, beta carotene requires fat to make it more easily absorbed. So I add a bit of butter to the carrot puree.  Cool puree before portioning and freezing.

Yam
~Yam (orange fleshed yam)

Peel and slice the yam.  Place in a pot with enough water to cover and simmer until yam is soft.  Blend, adding back enough cooking liquid to make a smooth puree.  Cool puree before portioning and freezing.

Cauliflower
~Cauliflower, about 1/2 a head.

I use a steaming basket in a pot for cauliflower.  Steam for about 10 minutes, until soft. Blend, adding back enough cooking liquid to make a puree.  Cool puree before portioning and freezing.
Peas
~peas, fresh or frozen

I use frozen peas which are really great, just add some hot water until the peas are thawed, then puree with some water.  Thin to what ever consistency you want.  Cool puree before portioning and freezing.
Leek and Zucchini
~2 large Leeks, washed and finely chopped
~1 medium Zucchini, sliced
~1 -2 tbsp Butter

In a frying pan, melt the butter over medium and then saute the leeks until almost soft and buttery.  Add zucchini and cook through and have started to get a bit mushy.  Blend, adding extra liquid to make a smooth puree.  Cool puree before portioning and freezing.

Potato
~2-3 Potato
~Butter(optional)

Peel and cube potatoes, in a pan with enough water to cover, simmer until soft.  Mash potatoes with cooking liquid to make a puree.  *note* mash rather then blend potatoes to avoid the gummy mess that will result.   Cool puree before portioning and freezing.
Broccoli
~1 Head of Broccoli

Peel stock of broccoli, then chop and add it into a steam basket with broccoli florets.  Steam until soft.  Blend with cooking liquid, until smooth.   Cool puree before portioning and freezing.
Potato and Broccoli
Add mashed potato and pureed broccoli together and Voila!

Kale and Leek
~2 tbsp butter
~1 large Leek, washed and finely chopped
~1 bunch Kale, with spines removed and roughly chopped.

In a frying pan, melt butter and saute leeks until buttery and soft.  Add Kale and cover, stirring occasionally.  Once Kale is soft, blend with liquid to make a smooth puree.  Cool puree before portioning and freezing.

Blueberries
~1 cup or so frozen blueberries

In a sauce pan, heat the blueberries over medium until berries are soft.  Blend with a bit of liquid to make a smooth-ish puree.   Cool puree before portioning and freezing.
Lovely Lentil Stew
~1 large Leek, washed and finely chopped.
~1 large Sweet Potato (yellow fleshed)
~3 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
~1/2 cup red lentils
~2 cups low sodium chicken or veggie broth

In a large saucepan, melt butter and saute leeks until soft and buttery.  Add Carrots and lentils and soften.  Then add sweet potato and add broth, enough to cover.  Cook until everything is soft.  I love my hand blender since this makes quite a lot, I used the hand blender in the pot to puree this tasty treat.   Cool puree before portioning and freezing.


Extra Notes:
~As the baby matures, you can make your purees thicker and chunkier as they go since that way they get used to different textures.
~Good food hygiene is important, so keep hot food hot and cold food cold, and keep the in between really short.

Easy Cheesy Butternut Squash Lasagna

It might seem like I love butternut squash especially butternut squash lasagna since I have a lot of recipes that I've created that with butternut squash.  Well it is true, I love how much flavour you can get out of it and how nutritious it is too boot.  Normally I peel and cube the squash before roasting but the squash were tiny and I was lazy so I just cut them in half, scooped out the guts and baked the cut-side down until soft. This will leave a bit more moisture in the flesh.

Made in an 8"x8" pan

This lasagna was originally made as a "I'm not going grocery shopping so I'm only using what I got" kind of meal.  The cheesy layer is loosely based upon a dip that a friend of my lovely MIL makes for most functions.  Basically it is cottage cheese, mayo, green onions and a crap-ton (yes, that is a word) of pepper and a bit and bit of salt.  Now, I'm not averse to baking with mayo but it has to serve a purpose and lasagna does not seem the proper vehicle. In place, I used light cream cheese which adds to the creaminess without the post bake pools of oil.

Made in an 11"x13" pan

I've made this in an 11x13 baking dish or an 8x8, it just depends how you want to layer it. 

In the 11x13 it was noodle, cheese, noodle, squash, noodle.

In the 8x8 it was noodle, cheese, squash, noodle, cheese, squash, noodle. 

I think I prefer the 8x8 configuration so that is how I've laid out the recipe.  Adjust the amount of noodles if do the 11x13. I used only 6 in the 8x8 which with trimming and using the trimmings make 3 layers of 3 noodles, the middle layer being the trimmings from all the other noodles.

Cheesy Butternut Squash Lasagna

Weight Watchers Points Plus value: 8 pts+ per serving
Makes 6 servings.

~Roasted Butternut Squash.  1 very large or 2 regular sized squash (you can always roast extra and use it on salads etc)
~6 lasagna noodles cooked according to the package directions.
~1-500ml tub 1% Cottage Cheese
~1- brick Light Cream Cheese
~1 whole bunch Green Onions, chopped
~1/4 cup Parmesan, grated
~Pepper
~Salt
~1/2 cup or so, shredded cheese (cheddar, or mozzarella, or I used pre-shredded Kraft Italiano light cheese.)

Instructions:

~I roasted the butternut squash either by cubing it, lightly coating with olive oil (or butter), salt and pepper and baking or by just cutting in half and putting cut side down on a tray and baking at 350 or 375 until it is soft.  Cubing it results in a dryer squash since there is more surface area to dry out while the halves of squash keep more moisture.  So really it depends on what texture you are looking for.  I like both ways, so it just depends on how lazy I am.

~Cook lasagna noodles according to the box directions and set aside.

~In a bowl cream the cream cheese with the cottage cheese, once that is mixed then add the green onions, and salt and pepper to taste.  I like a lot of pepper, so I put a lot of pepper, it goes really well with the cottage cheese.  You can add Parmesan to the cheese mixture or leave it out, it just depends on how cheesy you want it.

~Spray an 8"x8" pan and place 3 noodles down, trim to fit, but keep the trimmings since that will be the middle layer.  I usually trim all 6 noodles since that makes construction a little easier.

~On top of the noodles spread 1/2 of the cheese mixture, then top with 1/2 of the squash.  Top with the 2nd layer of noodles, rest of cheese, rest of squash, 3rd layer of noodles and then sprinkle with the shredded cheese.

~Bake at 350 until cheese looks melty and bubbly.  Since everything is cooked, you are just warming it through.

~Enjoy with some salad or other veggies.  Delicious!

On The Road Again.

This week has had a lot of successes this week and some things that I'm just realizing.

I have succeeded at doing all the exercise that I had scheduled in for this week, I even added a Pilates workout at the Y today, it felt good. I've missed Pilates, I had an awesome instructor who I worked with for years through my local rec centre.  A couple of years back I decided that I wanted to go back to my Karate class that I had taken at Uvic when I was there for university.  Different sensei, different people but still great feeling getting to hit people, a great stress reliever.  It was part of my "do something that scares you" thinking. The problem with taking both of them is that they were on at the same days and times, i made the choice to drop Pilates.  It felt great to isolate those muscles again, I'm not too badly off after baby, there are abs in there somewhere:-)

In today's Pilates class, I felt great doing the moves but when I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror I was less than impressed.
After the baby was born, my beautiful pregnant body was now a large deflated body.  I sometimes have a problem looking at myself in the mirror since the image of my self I hold in my head is still very different than what I actually have right now.  I think it has to do with feeling like I still have so much to do and so much to loss.  Before I got pregnant with Little Man I was somewhat active with running and Karate and I was starting to lose weight from when I was pregnant with Rosie and now I see all that work ahead of me again.

On the more positive side, I have been feeling really good over the last week.  My body really likes all my running and karate, I'm mean my back, knees and feet aren't great but they are doing.  My outlook is positive and I'm more energetic.  I'm loving the feeling, so I will try to focus on the feeling knowing that if I keep going with all the exercise and tracking what I eat then the physical changes will happen.

I weigh in on Monday's and this last Monday I had lost 1.5lbs so I'm at 195.6 for a total weight loss of 7lbs.  I'm pretty happy that all the changes I've done over the last few weeks is starting to show up on the scale. 

And.........

My pants are getting looser. 

We are up at the cottage over the weekend, so I only have my tablet which isn't a great way of posting pictures. Or, at least I haven't figure it out yet.

Like Moussaka but Completely Different, Almost

As with most Greek food I have had, it is both strange and delicious.  In searching for a Weight Watcher recipe, I found that I have in my possession a weight watcher cookbook. It isn't for Points+ but with all the necessary nutritional information on the bottom of the page and checking the recipe in the recipe builder on their etools, I did determine that this thing of lovelyness is 8 Points+ which isn't bad.  This reminds me of Moussaka, except with beef and spaghetti noodles instead of eggplant and potatoes.  So as you can see almost identical ;-)

PASTITSIO

from Weight Watchers "Take-Out Tonight"

3 cups Milk (1% or 2%, I used 1%)

1/4 cup Cornstarch

3 Large Eggs, lightly beaten

8 Tbsp Grated Parmesan

3/4 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Freshly Ground Pepper*

1/8 tsp Ground Nutmeg*

1/2 lb Spaghetti

1 tbsp Olive Oil

1 Large Onion, diced

3/4 lb Lean ground beef (I used a full pound and it didn't affect the points)

1 lb Plum or Roma Tomatoes, chopped

2 Cloves Garlic, minced*

3/4 tsp Ground Cinnamon*

*I found the recipe needing a bit more flavour, so I would increase the spices would improve the recipe.

~Preheat oven to 350F

~Spray a 7x11 inch baking dish with non-stick spray

~Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil, add speghetti and cook according to package directions, drain and set aside.

~To make the white sauce, combine milk, cornstarch, and eggs in a large saucepan, cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened, 7-9 minutes.  Remove from heat and whisk in 6 tbsp parmesan, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp pepper*, and the nutmeg*.  Cover and set aside.

~To make the meat filling, heat a large skillet over med-high heat.  Swirl the oil and then add the onions.  Cook, stirring occasionally until the onion is softened, 4-6 minutes.  Add beef, and garlic*, breaking the meat up with a wooden spoon, until browned, 5-6 minutes,  Stir in the tomatoes, cinnamon*, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/8 tsp pepper*.  Cook, stirring often, until the liquid from the tomatoes has evaporated (mostly, I got impatient but it still worked well) 4-5 minutes.

~Arrange half the of the spaghetti in an even layer on the bottom of the baking pan.  Top with all the meat filling, then top with remaining half of the spaghetti.  Spread the white sauce evenly over the spaghetti, sprinkle sauce with remaining 2 tbsp of Parmesan. Bake until the top is golden, 30-35 minutes.  Let cool 5 minutes before serving.

The White sauce

The Meat sauce.

The bottom layer of the spaghetti

The top layer over the meat sauce.

Ready to be baked.

Post Baby Weight

Little man is doing really well.  As of 11 weeks he weighed 12lb 2oz and I am amazed how generally relaxed he seems to be.  We have gone through a bit of a fussy week which might be that he is teething, feeling a bit under the weather or it could be that he is now 12 weeks old and he wants to be fussy.  It is a bit of a guessing game.

What isn't a guessing game is the amount of baby weight that I am still carrying.  This pregnancy I put on less weight then with the girls but I also started out heavier then with the girls.  I put on about 30lbs with Little man and didn't loss as much as I had hope...dreamed I would lose.  I was hoping beyond hope that it would all magically fall away, but I knew that it wouldn't since it hadn't after the girls :(

This has left me with a bunch of weight to take off, again.  To facilitate this endeavour I have signed up for Weight Watchers.  I started at 202.6 and I am down to 197.1 which isn't a whole lot and averages out to .7lb for every week I have attended, but that was over Christmas and New Years and I am actually fairly proud of myself.

One of the ways that Weight Watchers encourages you to lose weight is through exercise which I hadn't been able to start until 2 weeks ago since I had lovely case of pelvis diastasis. I started back at Karate and started my couch to 5K program (I could give you a link but there are may programs to choose from, I am using a C25K app for my android phone.)  I have been going to karate on Tuesday, Thursday and the occasional Saturday, Sensei can work us pretty hard.  

I have also started running but that became difficult when my husband went back to work, boooo.  I have a gym membership that I haven't used in a year since finding out that I was pregnant.  It does have a child minding service but Little Man is still too young to use it yet.  Luckily hubby works not that far from the gym and has a very flexible office, so I can drop off the kids with him and I can head to the gym to get my runs in. 

I have completed a slow week where I did 3 runs of: 
5 minutes of warm up
30 seconds run, 60 seconds walking, repeat until I reached 20 minutes on the timer.
5 minutes of cool down.

I am in the process of working on week 2 of C25K, I have done 3 runs in week 2 but since I am running more then the recommended I have repeated week 2 day 2 :)

This was half the amount of running as the first week of C25K, but I wanted to start out slow since I have hurt myself in the past by starting to quickly.  I did that while we were away for New Years since they building has a rather minimal gym, but did include an elliptical.

Currently I am trying to run 3-5 times a week and do karate 2-3 times a week.  When I get my tendon problem in my wrist sorted I will start to do some weights.

Punk Turkey

I have to thank Jamie Oliver for this recipe, and the plethora of Christmas Specials that he produces every year. Ok, I think that all the shows were mainly from years past, but I will still blame Jamie because this super amazing recipe is all his. Yes, it is a bit time consuming but I was able to easily spread it preparation over 2 days, so it didn't actually take that long to do. 

When I originally saw this on tv, I thought that it looked sooooo good that I would force my family to partake in this thing of beauty. 

I have a confession....I have never had Beef Wellington or really any Wellington at all. As a bit of a foodie I am sorry to say that before I made this I couldn't tell you what made up a Wellington. Now I am a convert. I am planning on making this again; Ideally I should have bought some more turkey breasts while they were on sale at Christmas, but alas I did not.

I would have written this earlier but I neglected to take my computer with me up to New Years (we were out of town) and posting on my tablet nearly made my head explode.

I actually followed the recipe, which is always amazing since I love to tinker but this was something completely new so I followed the direction mostly. I did pick up some butchers twine while at the grocery store but left it in the bag with the frozen turkey that went to the brewery's freezer so I had to improvise. Thusly my punk turkey is born. I used toothpicks to keep that filling in the turkey while it cooked. Once it was cool, I pulled the toothpicks out

Turkey Wellington
recipe by Jamie Oliver

1.6 kg Turkey Breast, skinlessSea salt and pepper
Olive Oil
Bunch of Thyme Leaves
Jar of Cranberry Jam or Homemade Cranberry Jam
25g Dried Porcini
6 Rashers Smoky Bacon, thinly sliced
3 Sprigs Fresh Rosemary
600g Mixed Mushroom, chopped
2- 500g packet Puff Pastry
1 Egg, beaten

Turkey

~Preheat oven to 350°F~Place turkey breast side down on the board.
~Gently slice into the natural join of the breast muscle to open it like a pocket.
~Season the bird well, and drizzle a bit of olive oil (I don't apply it quite as liberally as J.O. does. Sprinkle with half of the thyme leaves.
~Spread the jam, pushing it into all the nooks and crannies.
~Fold the turkey back into shape with the jam inside, using butcher's twine or toothpicks to secure the turkey like a roll. (When I did this some of the cranberry sauce came out, but that was ok.)
~Place the turkey in a roasting tray, rub with olive oil and season again with salt, pepper and the rest of the thyme, cover with aluminum foil and roast in the oven for 60-70 minutes or until the internal temp is 160°F
~Let the turkey cool.

Mushroom Mush
~Soak porcini mushrooms in a bowl with just boiled water, soak for about 5 minutes then stir with a fork to get any bits of grit to sink to the bottom.~In a large frying pan over medium heat, add bacon (with some oil if you'd like, I don't think I did) fry 5 to 10 minutes or until the bacon is golden and crispy.
~strip the leaves of 2 rosemary sprigs and fry in the bacon fat for 30 seconds and then remove everything from the pan, leaving the bacon fat behind.
~Add fresh mushrooms to the pan with a pinch of salt and pepper. Reserve bacon and rosemary for later.
~Drain and chop the porcini, saving the water, then stir into the pan. 
~Add a splash of reserved mushroom water, avoiding the grit, then cook for another 10-15 minutes, or until the pan starts to sizzle again and the mushrooms are golden, soft and sticky with caramelly edges.
~Add a nob of butter when the pan is dry and toss to coat.
*NB you can and put the mushroom mixture through the food processor while it is hot or while it is cool. I prefer doing after it has cooled since I don't like putting hot food in the plastic bowl of the food processor.
~Cool mixture
~Process in the food processor until you have a good mixture of smooth and chunky.

Putting It All Together
~Roll out 1 package of puff pastry on a flour dusted surface. It needs to be big enough for the turkey to sit on it with about 1 to 1 1/2 inches around.~Place rolled pastry onto a lined jelly roll pan (cookie sheet with sides).
~Spread about half of the mushroom mixture onto the middle of the base to cover the same area as the turkey breast.
~Place the turkey breast on the mushroom mixture and spread the other half of the mixture over the whole turkey, packing it on and smoothing it out so the whole breast is covered.
~Sprinkle the top with the reserved bacon and rosemary.
~Roll out the other piece puff pastry, bigger then the first since it has to cover the whole turkey breast with enough extra to fold up the edges.
~Gently mold the top pastry around the shape of the turkey pushing the air out and seal the edges together.
~Trim the edges to around 1 to 1 1/2 inches, then pull, twist, tuck and pinch in the pastry like in the picture below.
~Brush the whole thing with the beaten egg.
~You can leave it uncovered in the fridge overnight or cook it straight away.
~Bake in an preheated oven set to 350°F for 50 to 60 minutes or until the pastry has risen and is a beautiful golden colour and the turkey is piping hot all the way through.
~Let it cool 10 minutes before carving

NB: The original recipe makes a gravy as well, I didn't make it but it looks lovely to make a gravy to go with it. I was lazy so I used the pan drippings from cooking the turkey breast and a packet to make the gravy. Plus, we had some left over mushroom gravy that my dear hubby made for a previous party.

End Note: Formatting these pictures has made my head almost explode, which was helped along by Ladybug, Rosie and the baby being very needy while I was trying to work on it.  Ladybug being 6 understands (mostly) about there consequences to inappropriate behaviour, not that she can think about that when the situation arises but is able to see that repeated bad behaviour tends to you being put in your room.  

Rosie being almost 4 does not see that her bad behaviour tends to put her in her room repeatedly.  I know that she wants some attention and that is causing her to push boundaries and try and piss off her sister.   

The baby is tired and has been over tired because his sisters have been waking him up from all his naps.  This has lead to an over tired baby and a frustrated mum, whose head feels like it will explode at any second.