Good vs. Bad

I have two very different children when it comes to eating. My little girl will eat everything (really!). I have yet to see her spit anything out. I’m the one that has to dig the things she isn’t supposed to have out (woodchips, rocks, bugs, etc.). My son, on the other hand, won’t eat hardly anything. The only things I can get him to eat without having to force feed him are chicken nuggets (and sometimes that’s a stretch), cereal, chips/crackers, and of course goodies.

My son’s automatic response to any food offering is generally a resounding “NO!”. I’ve been able to at least change that to a “No, thank you,” recently. It’s a lot easier to listen to, but it’s still irritating that he won’t accept food. When we offer things that he knows he likes he will eventually think about it a little and ask for it.

Tonight his choice was to
A. Eat Spaghetti or
B. Go to Bed.

After throwing a fit for 30 minutes, I decided for him and put him in his room. I told him he could come back out if he was going to eat his spaghetti. He’s come out a couple of times claiming he was ready, but in the end has just cried, gagged, and ended up back in his room.

I’m ready for help. I’m planning on doing a lot of research on different parenting sites, but I’m also interested in learning what has worked for you. I am one that in the past has said that it was okay for him to be picky, he’d grow out of it, he’s still a healthy kid and I can give him a vitamin to fill in the gaps, if he isn’t hungry he must be okay, it’s not worth it if he is going to make himself puke over it, etc. Let me know your opinion please (in a nice way). I kind of feel like I’m doing everything wrong when it comes to mealtime. If I follow one person’s advice I feel like I’m going against another’s.

Feeding the Picky Eater: 17 Tips
When Your Toddler Doesn’t Want to Eat

Addition later:
So I kind of gave in. I knew he was hungry and I wasn’t going to give him milk unless he ate something good (he tends to get full on milk and not be hungry). I told him he could eat some chicken if he’d like. He said yes. So I dished his plate up with a handful of popcorn chicken, a couple spoonfuls of mandarin oranges, and some of the spaghetti. He still won’t touch the spaghetti, but he ate the chicken and oranges.

Vegetable Spaghetti

When making my weekly menu, I like to plan for one meatless meal. I usually will do 'Breakfast for Dinner' and use eggs as my protein. As I was thinking about this the other day I decided I wanted to try and figure out some more meatless ideas. The first idea that popped into my head was some spaghetti. This was my first attempt. :)

Ingredients:
Noodles
1 bottle of Spaghetti Sauce
Fresh Mushrooms
Broccoli
Carrots
Garlic Seasoning

1. My noodles were already made from another night. That was helpful. When storing noodles make sure you add a little olive oil to help preserve them and make them easier to work with. All I had to do was reheat them in the microwave right before I was ready to eat and stick them on the plate.

2. Put your Spaghetti sauce in a medium saucepan and start warming it on medium heat. Start cutting up your vegetables (hardest first, so in this case, carrots) and add them to your sauce as they are cut. I cut my carrots with my Food Chopper . It made the process pretty quick. My broccoli was cut into small florets. With my mushrooms I took the stems off and sliced them, then cut the mushroom tops in half and sliced the rest of the way. Bite-size pieces work great, but make them thin enough that they cook through quickly.

3. Once everything was cooked to the tenderness I wanted I seasoned the sauce with some Garlic Seasoning from Pampered Chef. Start with a small amount and taste your sauce. You don't want it overpowering your flavors. If more is needed go for it.

4. Pour your sauce over your heated noodles and serve with some Parmesan. Freshly grated is always great, but the other stuff would be okay too.

This would also work great as a side dish along with a serving of meat. It would taste good with ground meat in it also. Lots of options. Enjoy!

Aunt Nola's Brownies

I live in the same small town that I grew up in. Part of living where I grew up means that I have a lot of family around me. My (Great) Aunt Nola was a big part of this little town. She was known for her great food. She passed away last year, but she is lovingly remembered often around here. One thing that helps me think of her is food. I have several recipes that link right back to her. This is probably in the top three.

This recipe also reminds me of my mom. Whenever she is asked to bring a treat to a party or get-together she will most likely choose these brownies. This was actually my first time making them all by myself. It is an extremely quick and easy recipe that pretty much has a no-fail guarantee!

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cubes of butter or margarine (softened)
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs (I only had medium so I did 7)
1 Tablespoon of vanilla
1/2 cup cocoa
3 cups flour
1/2 t salt

1. Mix all of your ingredients together. I started with my butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Then sift in your flour, cocoa, and salt. I was going to try and be buff and mix it by hand.... don't. If you have a mixer, use it. I don't know why I had that thought! I love my Kitchen Aid!

2. Butter and flour your jelly-roll pan. Do this by brushing a light layer of Crisco all over your pan. Then put a small amount of flour on top and tip your pan around so it coats the pan. I find that tapping the back of the pan helps to move it when it's all stuck in one place. Practice makes perfect. You'll get it.

3. Pour your brownie mix into your pan and spread it around. Push it as little as possible since you don't want to disrupt your flour job you just did.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. When you check it at the 20 minute mark go ahead and lightly tap the brownies. If it feels pretty doughy still or if it is still raised a ways above the rim of the pan they probably aren't done. They will settle back to the height of the pan when they are done. Check with a toothpick to be double sure.

These are great when paired with ice cream (especially with all of the toppings), or frosted (homemade or store bought), or plain. Enjoy! :)

Chocolate Cake - Redone

I made some cake on Friday to celebrate the weekend finally getting here. I'm not much of a cake person, so that says a lot about how long the week was and how good this cake recipe really is. Here is the original recipe. The only thing I changed was adding peanut butter chips instead of the chocolate chips. It was a good twist. Then came the genius moment.
This morning as I was lovingly gazing at the cake an overwhelming urge to put jam on it sprung up in my mind. I immediately told myself I was crazy. Then I stopped. What about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? I ran to my fridge.
So there you go. Add jam to the top of your cake. It is heavenly! I luckily had some Homemade Strawberry freezer jam waiting for me. It really was amazing... I may need to go hide the last piece before it disappears.

Flamingo Chicken

This was inspired by the fact that I didn't have what I wanted to make something else. I noticed I had some Catalina dressing in my cupboard leftover from some bean salad that I never made... So this is what happened. It was an experiment, and it turned out really well. The idea also came from some dutch oven chicken that my dad makes. It turns out pink from the Catalina dressing, thus it is a Flamingo... Yeah, you can laugh if you'd like.

Ingredients:
4 Chicken Breasts
1/2 bottle Catalina Dressing
1 Red Bell Pepper
4 stalks of Celery

1. Cover your chicken in Catalina dressing (enough to coat both sides and a little extra for good measure). Then cook up your chicken.

2. While waiting for your chicken, go ahead and wash/cut up your celery and pepper. Add to your chicken towards the end of the cooking process and let them soften a little. Make sure to check your meat temperature.

We ate this with rice tonight, but will be having it with spaghetti noodles for our lunch tomorrow. Phil thinks next time I should add some water chestnuts. I'm also thinking about trying mine with some pineapple tomorrow (It was good!).

Pineapple Salsa

This is a Pampered Chef recipe tweaked by a friend. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 Large Pineapple
1 Medium Red Onion
1 Cucumber peeled and seeded
1 Bunch cilantro
2 jalapeno peppers
2 Tbs lime juice

1. Chop everything up into small bite size pieces so you get a good mix of the salsa when you eat it.

2. Pour over the lime juice and mix it all up.

Serving options:
Would be great with Teriyaki chicken and rice! You could also try cooking your chicken in this for some great flavor!

Enchiladas

We had left over shredded chicken so I created some delicious enchiladas tonight!

Chicken
1. Cook your chicken up in your favorite salsa. Turns out best if it is cooked covered so the moisture stays in.
2. Shred or cut your chicken how you like it in your enchiladas.

Enchiladas

Ingredients:
Chicken
Campbell’s Fiesta Nacho Cheese Soup
1 can of Olives (sliced and divided)
2 Roma tomatoes (diced and divided)
6 tortillas
Sour Cream
Cheese

1. Cut your olives and tomatoes. Make sure to leave enough olive slices to go on top as well as one of the tomatoes.

2. Mix your chicken, soup, olives and tomato

3. Scoop into your tortillas and roll.

4. Spread a thin layer of sour cream over the top. Cover with cheese and garnish with remaining olives and tomato

5. Bake at 400 degrees for 40-50 minutes (or however long it takes it to warm through). I left mine uncovered because I like it a little crisper. It would be fine to cook it with foil on it if you don’t like the crunch.