Zuccanoes- yummy,healthy, and filling!

Pardon this photo. My zuccanoes look like they've been sitting under a heat lamp for 30 minutes. Actually, they were fresh out of the oven and quite visually appealing- but when you live in a poorly lit house your nighttime photography options are limited.

After hearing so much about the New Moosewood Cookbook, I decided to check it out from the library and see if it is for me. I will admit that not all the recipes appeal to me, but this one looked good. And it was! And so healthy too! I was getting ready to type the recipe here, when I realized it's already on Mollie Katzen's website. So, click here to get it! Aren't I just the efficient one?

(As if!)

If anyone else has any recipes from this cookbook that they recommend, please do let me know.

Recipe::Santa Fe Skillet

This is a recipe I promised Jennifer after I read that she was in a (minor) cooking slump. Been there, sister. This is my favorite one-skillet meal. It's really good and actually is pretty healthy too. And, miracle of miracles, my picky eaters actually love this one!

Santa Fe Skillet (it used to be called something lame like chicken-salsa skillet but that wasn't festive enough for me)
Ingredients:
package of boneless chicken breasts
2 cups instant rice
jar of salsa
can of chicken broth (I use low-sodium)
can of black beans (drained)
can of corn (drained)
cheddar cheese (grated- I use almost a whole block!)

Directions:
1. Wash the chicken and cut it up into small bite-size pieces. Set aside.
2. Grate the cheese.
3. In a large pan, cook the chicken pieces until done. (I put a small amount of oil first.)
4. When chicken is done, add the can of chicken broth, salsa, corn, and black beans. Stir and let come to a boil.
5. When boiling, add the rice (2 cups) and stir.
6. Top with grated cheese, turn off heat, and cover with lid. Let stand for 5 minutes, covered.

This makes a really yummy, cheesy southwestern style meal. I like it with chips but my husband likes it on a tortilla with a little lettuce and sour cream. Two additional notes:
*When I'm out of instant rice, I just cook a pot of rice, only add about 1/3 the can of broth for flavor, and stir cooked rice into the mix instead of instant rice. I think it's even yummier that way, but the instant rice is fine.
* I keep threatening to shred the chicken. I don't like "chunks" in my food. Gee, I wonder where Brother gets his picky eating habits?

Mudballs: A yummy toddler snack

In my quest to help Sister become a better eater, I have tried letting her help me cook as a way to make the food more appealing. So far, so good. She has already "cooked" and eaten oatmeal, a spoonful of veggie soup (hey- at least she tasted it!) and a new snack favorite called Mudballs. I found the recipe in Trish Kuffner's book, The Toddler Busy Book. I am a sucker for this genre of parenting book that promises lots of creative ideas and activities for toddlers, and usually am disappointed. Seriously, how can an author fill a book with highly UNoriginal "activities" like, "paint with water on the driveway" or "take a trowel to the sandbox and let your toddler dig" and get published?
Anyway, The Toddler Busy Book has enough creative and original ideas to be a keeper. (Though if I were you I'd try to check it out at the library before I bought it.)
Anyway, the kids had a lot of fun making the Mudballs and ate gobs of them. And, the mudballs are pretty healthy, too. (At least healthier than a cookie!)

Mudballs

1 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup dry powdered milk
1/2 cup raisins
Crushed Graham crackers (we used about 1/4 pack) You can increase if the mixture is too sticky.
Chocolate milk powder

1. Mix all ingredients together in a medium size bowl. (Except chocolate powder.)
2. Form the mixture into small balls.
3. Place a small amount of chocolate milk powder on a plate and roll the balls in the powder.
4. Eat as a tasty snack or refrigerate and eat later.

Notes: In order to crush the graham crackers, I put them into zip-lock bags and gave one baggie to each kid. They had great fun smashing the crackers into crumbs. I had one too, and every few minutes I'd call out "Switch!" so I could make sure all the crackers got crushed fine.
Also, I quickly found that it was very important to make very small balls with my kids because they would put whole mudballs in their mouths and peanut butter can be a choking hazard if you're not careful.
Also, my kids had trouble forming the balls but my three-year old enjoyed rolling them in the chocolate powder. We formed a little assembly line and had great success.
Finally, I will warn you that these are not pretty. They will not be an appetizing treat to set out at, say, your PTA's father-daughter dance. But they taste pretty darn good!

a happy surprise and a yummy recipe

So last night I decided to log in to Blogger and tweak something on my blog's toolbar. I was surprised to see that someone had left me a comment! Since I only just started this blog, and haven't "advertised" it at all, I thought it was going to be a long time before anyone left a comment here. I was curious (and suspected a family member) but when I clicked the comment and saw who it was from I almost fell out of the chair. It was from Beck. BECK! My #1 favorite blogger of all time! The one person I obsessively read every day! I won't go on and on, because I already did that in an email to her and she'll think I'm a total wacko, but let me just say that it was quite a little thrill and if I never get another comment I don't care.
Thanks again, Beck!

OK, gushing over.

I have some nice photos of my kids' little venture into the winter yard yesterday, but I can't find the #!$*&! cord that connects the camera to the computer. I swear, it takes me just forever to recover from a move. So, those will have to wait until I find (or buy) the cord.

But, let me do at least one useful thing in this post.
For Christmas my husband asked for a cookbook by Giada de Laurentiis (the gorgeous Italian girl who also has a cooking show.) I bought it for him (and wrote a note inside telling him to keep his eyes on the recipes, not on the cleavage.) But while I was at the bookstore, I also saw another cookbook by a TV-famous Italian woman, Lidia Matticchio Bastianich. Now, Lidia is older and not as gorgeous, but her cookbook looked much better. So, I bought it too. Good decision!
Yesterday I was looking for a dinner recipe that was easy, fast, fairly inexpensive, and appealing to our palates. Yes, a tall order, I know. But I remembered Lidia's cookbook, and decided to try one of her easy recipes for pasta sauce. (She has loads of different suggestions for dressing pastas in this book.)
I went with the Sauce of Marinated Artichoke Hearts and Sun-Dried Tomatoes, and it was terrific! Here's the recipe:

SAUCE OF MARINATED ARTICHOKE HEARTS AND SUN-DRIED TOMATOES
from Lidia's Family Table
Ingredients:
6 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
5 plump garlic cloves, sliced
1/2 tsp. dried hot red pepper flakes
2 six-ounce jars (1 and 3/4 cups) marinated artichoke hearts, drained, sliced thin
2/3 cups sun-dried tomatoes, packed in olive oil, drained and sliced into 1/2 inch thin strips
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. grated lemon zest
2 Tbsp. chopped Italian parsley
1/2 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Instructions:
1. Start cooking the pasta in a large pot of boiling water (salted) 5 minutes before you start the sauce if you are using dry pasta, or just after if using fresh pasta.
2. Pour 4 Tbsp. of olive oil into a big skillet, scatter the garlic slices in, and set the pan over medium high heat. (Important- do not wait until the oil is hot to add the garlic- let garlic heat with the oil.)
3. Toast the roasted red peppers in a skillet "hot spot" for 1/2 minute- stir in with the garlic and oil.
4. Add the sliced artichokes and tomatoes, salt, and lemon zest. Stir well. Cook for about 4 minutes, shaking the pan and tossing the vegetables occasionally, as everything sizzles and juices in the pan thicken. (Doing your best "fancy chef" impression.)
5. Ladle 2 cups of boiling pasta water into the skillet, stir up the sauce, and cook at a perking boil for about 5 minutes, until the liquid is reduced by half.
6. Stir the remaining 2 Tbsp. of olive oil into the sauce. Keep it at a low simmer until the pasta is ready.
7. When the pasta is done almost al dente, scoop it up and into the skillet to finish cooking, adding a bit more pasta water or reducing as necessary. Add the parsley during the initial tossing; off the heat, toss in the cheese just before serving.

Try it, ya'll. It's yummy, and healthy if you use whole-grain pasta (which I have learned to love.)
BTW- I didn't add the red peppers because I was out, and it still tasted great.