Well it has been forever once again. I have to be honest, I have not been cooking that much lately. I am about 13 weeks along with my second baby and still coping with nausea and heartburn almost all day long. That being said, poor sam has really been eating a lot of cheese toast, almond butter and jelly sandwiches, yogurt, and so on! However, this week I have pulled it together and made a couple items for him (and us) that he enjoyed. First recipe, chicken and dumplings. Really not that hard for any of you that haven't made it homemade. There are so many different ways to make this recipe, some call for herbs and spices and other vegetables, which is the route we normally take in this house, but NOT with chicken and dumplings! These dumplings are a bit different they are more bready and less chewy than what you may get at Cracker Barrel. Some people like it that way though, but this is my favorite.

Chicken and Dumplings
3 organic chicken breasts
1/2 t chicken boullion paste
1 can cream of chicken soup
black pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 t baking powder
3/4 t salt
2 T crisco
3/4 c milk

In a pot, put just enough water to cover the chicken breasts and add the chicken bouillion. Just cook these on medium low heat until cooked through.

Remove the chicken breasts and boil the leftover cooking water until reduced a little (pour out some of you have to)

Turn down the heat, add the soup, black pepper, and milk, and shredded cooked chicken. Let the mixture get bubbly (be careful though, it may stick if it gets too hot!)

While that is warming up, grab another bowl to make your dumplings. Mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the crisco until mixed through. Stir in the milk just until all ingredients have been moistened.

Drop by spoonfuls into your pot until all have been dropped in and top pot with a tight fitting lid. Set the timer on your oven for 12 minutes and dont open until the timer goes off! Then it's ready to eat! Enjoy!


Next recipe I got this idea from a local restaurant called "The Redneck Gourmet". Pimiento Cheeseburgers! Sounds gross, but you just have to try it, pretty tasty.

First things first, I like homemade pimiento cheese, but storebought would be fine too.

Pimiento Cheese

6 oz extra sharp cheddar cheese
6 oz extra sharp white cheddar cheese
4 oz jar pimientos-drained
1/2 cup mayonnaise (may use less)
1 t sugar
diced jalapenos (optional)

Shred your cheese (it is much better this way, don't buy the preshredded stuff), add the sugar and pimientos and mix. Now, add the mayonnaise, I would start with half of that and stir it up and add more until you have the consistency that you like. Next add in the jalapenos if you like. Then it's done! So easy!

Make your normal hamburgers on the grill or however you prefer and when almost finished top with a generous amount of the cheese and turn off the heat to the grill and just shut the lid. Wait about 5 minutes then they are ready to go. I like to gently melt the cheese like this because it can sort of just melt off the burger if you get it too hot! These burgers are so good and worth a try. Sam also likes the cheese toasted on some bread as well!

Enjoy!

Sometimes you want to give your children something a little more elegant to eat for dinner than just diced carrots and chicken and fruit. Plain, simple, and nutritious, yes.....but also boring. It is hard for me to get a more elegant menu prepared for my little guy on most nights because we don't get home from work/daycare until around 6:15 and he eats around 6:30 every night. This does not leave a lot of time for creativity. Recently though I have prepared a couple little items that were simple but a little more exciting for the little guy.

Simple sweet potato "casserole"
1/2 cup diced sweet potato steamed (leftover from the previous night)
organic whipped butter
brown sugar
pinch of unrefined sea salt

I just warmed it all up in a bowl and melted the butter a little and pureed with my immersion blender. Pretty good substitute and a little jazzed up from the previous night which was just plain diced sweet potato. Yes I know it has butter and brown sugar in it, but it was good and just had a little of the bad items.

Southern squash "casserole"
1 small summer squash (organic if you can find) peeled and diced into bite site pieces (i don't remove the seeds, sam has always just eaten them, but if you would feel better about yourself if you seeded it, then please do)
shredded cheese
2 t minced onion
unrefined sea salt
organic whipped butter
organic cold pressed olive oil

In a skillet add 1/2 t butter, 1/2 t olive oil, squash and onion. Cook until tender enough for your child to eat. Add just a pinch of salt and put into a small bowl. Add the cheese (probably about an 1/8 cup) and just slighty puree with your immersion blender. I left it sort of chunky for sam so that it wasn't too close to baby food.

These items are just a quick easy way to add a little flavor and variety to your child's plate.

Also, I am going to share the meal I made for me and Austin tonight because it was THAT good.

Flank steak quesadillas
1# marinated flank steak grilled and cut on the bias into small pieces (recipe for marinade below)
whole wheat tortillas
mexican cheese shredded
organic black beans drained and rinsed
onions and peppers sauteed
organic butter
jalapeno lime hot sauce (google this...Bruce foods louisiana brand jalapeno lime wing sauce.........this is the BEST stuff ever for flank steak or carne asada..YUM)

In a skillet melt about 1/2 t butter and spread out, lay torilla on top of butter and let cook slightly. Add your cheese and toppings and let melt. Fold tortilla in half before it gets too crispy and brown. Easy breezy dinner.

Flank Steak Marinade
2 T smart balance oil
2 T Tamari
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 t ground cumin
1/2 t chili powder
1/2 t dehydrated garlic
2 T salsa verde
2 T brown sugar
1 t cilantro paste (i buy it from publix or kroger in the produce section, great in a pinch when you don't have fresh cilantro)

I let it marinate in a gallon size ziploc overnight. SOOOO GOOD!

Hope you enjoy :)

Toddler Tapas

This is so simple that it is ridiculous and maybe you are doing this already. Many nights I don't have a so called "meal" put together for Sam. I just go through my fridge and clean out any of his leftovers and combine everything to make a meal. A little of this, a little of that, and tons of variety which Sam loves.

Toddler Tapas (this is just tonight's version):
Diced and peeled English cucumber (the long skinny kind wrapped in plastic)
1/2 slice Havarti cheese
leftover organic baked sweet potato mixed with some homemade applesauce
Zucchini pancake (I will explain this later)
Ice water

So, there is protein, carbs, fruit, non-starchy veg, fat, dairy, it hits a little bit of every group and was put together in literally about 5 minutes.

So, the zucchini pancake is not a homemade item, I know I know, this is about homemade baby food! I bought one box of this to try it out and they are so delicious, I plan on making my own as soon as these are gone. When I come up with a good recipe I will be sure to post. So, the pancakes are savory and contain shredded zucchini, carrot, onion, basil, potato starch, wheat flour, egg white, garlic. These are so tasty and the first thing Sam cleans off of his plate!

I have made so many different versions, including foods like chopped up chicken, salmon, black beans, lima beans, banana, steamed apple, carrots, sliced tomato, wheat toast, cheese and spinach quesadilla triangles, etc. You see that the list goes on and on.

So, take a few minutes to see that you have in your fridge/freezer and just use your head and pick something from each of the food groups. Your child will probably love it because there is so much variety.

It has been forever! I apologize! Honestly though, I really haven't been making anything special for Sam. He has been eating a lot of the food I cook for me and Austin or just some staples, like Salmon, with steamed carrots and applesauce, etc. I did make a HUGE (well for me) Christmas dinner for us and Austin's parents. I had not made any of the recipes before, but honestly they all turned out really great. To save myself a ton of typing, I am just going to tell you the names of the recipes and where to get them: (not figure friendly, but my taste buds are STILL thanking me)
1. Good Eats Roast Turkey-Alton Brown (food network)-this included brining the turkey before roasting....awesome recipe!
2. Carrot Souffle by Emeril (food network)-so good, you wouldn't even know it wasn't sweet potatoes.
3. Southern Cornbread Stuffing-Paula Deen (food network)-really good and moist, I do not like dried out stuffing.
4. Cherries Jubilee Black pepper crusted ham-southern living-pretty great as well.
5. Spice Cake with citrus filling-southern living (on the cover of the december issue)-funny story though, this is a 4 layer cake and I had nothing that was tall enough for this cake to fit into! I had to rig up the cake stand lid which ended up leaving a gap and the icing dried out after a couple days. So I ended up having to throw away the leftovers.

I also had a cranberry salad, green salad with homemade vinaigrette, and potato rolls. These were family recipes and would be happy to let you know how I made them if you are interested, just message me!

Sam ate all of the foods (except for the green salad) and loved it! We had tons of leftovers and I froze the extra ham which I used part of that for our new years dinner. I put some of the ham in the fresh turnip greens and also in the black eyed peas! SOO GOOD! I literally ate greens and peas for 3 days and was not tired of it at all.

Last night I made a homemade pizza using a recipe that my mom recently gave me. Sam ate a whole piece of pizza for lunch today, he was definitely digging it.

Spinach Alfredo Pizza
10 oz package of frozen spinach cooked and drained well
1 jar of alfredo sauce
Parmesan cheese
Mozzarella cheese
Pizza Crust
Crushed red pepper

Put the sauce, spinach, and crushed red pepper (I only used a few shakes because Sam was eating) into a saucepan and just warm
Prepare the crust, use whatever you like. I used the "pizza crust yeast" with the recipe on the back of the package, pretty good. It got really crispy which is what I like.
Put the sauce mixture on the crust and top with parmesan and mozzarella cheese.

Optional toppings: roasted garlic, chicken, bacon, grilled chicken, roma tomatoes, onions, pineapple.

Hope you enjoy!