Who doesn’t like garlic fries, right? I once watched a chef season his garlic fries in a stainless steel bowl and I’ve never looked back! I used red fingerlings and medium sized blue potatoes to make this batch. Enjoy!

Slice potatoes lengthwise. Season with salt and pepper and 2 Tbs. olive oil and then stir it all up in the bowl.

Lay it on a cookie sheet and place in a 350 degree F oven. Bake for 30 minutes or until potatoes soften. Longer if you like crispier, browner potatoes.

Add hot fries to the original bowl (now cleaned). Using a garlic press, add two minced cloves of garlic and 3 Tbs or more of chopped parsley for an iron boost. Drizzle a little more olive oil and mix with a wooden spatula.

Tri colored baked garlic fries, turkey meatballs, carrots and celery with ranch and grapes. This is my 2 year olds tray and rations.

Here’s our simple Go-To.  I bake a hearty loaf of bread– I’ll post the recipe one day– it makes two loaves!  I cut a thick slice and then slice that in half.  It’s enough for my little woodworker.  We also keep Mana Bread in our freezer for mornings when we find ourselves out of bread.

Like so many parents, I often find myself at a loss on what kinds of peanut butter alternatives to send my son to school with.  Our school is, “nut tolerant” and there are designated, “no nut zones” due to the increased number of children with nut allergies this year.  We still try to do our part and make nut free pesto for school (we keep the good stuff at home).  Some alternatives to the traditional PB&J have been:

– Tahini, Molasses sandwiches (add nutritional yeast for a protein boost)

-Tahini, Banana (mashed) and honey

– Hummus (recipe will follow) and cucumber

– Egg/ tofu egg salad (add kale)

-Tahini and Jelly

While I know that sunflower is another seed butter and a popular alternative to peanut butter, I can’t seem to shake the articles that I’ve read about how much sunflowers absorb certain carcinogens.  My research isn’t complete yet but until I’ve sifted through it all (kind of like arsenic in American rice), I’m steering clear of it as much as possible.  Most things in small doses won’t kill you but 2-17 years is a lot of sunflower butter sandwiches– better safe than sorry.

Tahini, banana, honey sandwich with apple slices and cheddar cheese for snacking.

So much to blog– I will ease you in slowly.  Here’s day 6.  Some days are just simple ;o).

Salami and cheese in crackers, kid made whole wheat pretzels, apple slices, and two whole wheat fig bars for dessert.

We had a late arrival home today (4:30pm).  With Mochi (my 2 year old) needing dinner, a bath and a bed by 5:30pm, that left very little time to prepare an elaborate meal.  So one of my quick go-to dinners is baked potatoes topped with cheddar and bacon.  It literally takes 10 minutes to prepare and 30 minutes to bake.  Serve it with a salad and if there are any leftover– I often need to chide my oldest for eyeing his father’s ration– you can pack them up for school the next day.

First steps are to wash and slice your russet potatoes in half. Next, you lather both sides with olive oil. I recommend pouring some of your best olive oil in a ramekin and letting it sit with minced garlic before applying. You can sprinkle a bit of salt and put them in the oven as is for half hour (my mother-in-law taught me this quick, basic and flavorful way to bake potatoes).

We like our meat to be organic and that costs quite a bit. Our solution? We buy very little meat and when we do cook with it, we use morsels. So bacon is kept frozen in our house and when needed for a stew or something like this, I just cut a few slices widthwise. This way we always enjoy quality meat and in moderation. It works for our family– make huge holiday meals a well celebrated occasion. What do I tell the kids? We eat to live, we don’t live to eat.

If you are a vegetarian, add your grated cheese of choice and sprinkle chives or anything else herbally fragrant.

If you’re going for the kill (sorry, I couldn’t resist), top your potatoes with those prepared bacon slices). Place it in the 350 degree F oven for 30 minutes.

MMmmm. Enjoy!

This is a fun weekend project that is quicker than you would think and the children love to help out.  Of course, if your children are like mine, you’ll have to sigh and relinquish control as they experiment with making pretzels  into intricate abstract forms and ambitious animal sculptures.  My rule for such occasions– give them 1/4 of the dough to do as they will and make your own perfectly sculpted yumtastic bread.

This recipe that I made with the boys is from Molly Katzen’s kids book, “Honest Pretzels”.  I will not post the recipe here– just photograph the steps that we took– you can buy the book or better yet, borrow it from your public library.  Both of her children’s cook books are staples in our kitchen– especially now that my 6 year old can read and follow all of the steps.

That being said, I’m not crazy about her recipe.  It yields smallerpretzels that I wasn’t aware of at first.  My favorite, though it isn’t whole wheat (not like you eat pretzels every week anyway– one day of white flour…) comes from Williams-Sonoma’s website.  Those pretzels are larger and more identical to the ones that I remember growing up in NYC from any given hot dog stand.  Here’s a link to that one– very simple ingredients and again, easy to make.  In fact, you can experiment with using 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 all purpose flours if you desire a little more sustenance.

Always proof your yeast. this is 1/4 cup of warm water to wake them up, a pinch of brown sugar to quench their microscopic appetites, and then pour in the little VIPs

Whisk the dry ingredients

Make a well in the center

Pour the wet ingredients into the well.

Mix to combine.

Knead away….

Fold like flaps of a book and knead some more.

Place the dough in a clean bowl, cover it with plastic and a towel and store in a warm (non drafty) place for 1 1/2- 2 hours or until the dough has doubled in volume.

Once risen, punch, knead a bit more and then section your your dough. Your little one will love making the “snakes” for this one.

Add pretzels into boiling water and remove them with a slotted spoon. Place on a cookie sheet, spray with water and add your toppings (some prefer to add them in the end). Bake for the amount of time designated in your recipe.

Enjoy!

One of my favorite reasons  for belonging to a CSA (community supported agriculture) is that we receive a box each week with many vegetables that I am not familiar with cooking with.  It forces me to think outside of my tried and true, “box” and instead experiment with what is in my CSA box.  It allows my family to enjoy food that is in season, all season long.  I first came across the environmental and health benefits of eating as close to seasonally as possible while reading Barbara Kigsolver’s, “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” a wonderful and informative read especially for those of us who cook for our family.

This week we received a bounty of green tomatoes.  I wasn’t sure what they would taste like or what to do with them but I remember reading that they were popular in some parts, breaded and friend (what isn’t?)  So I gave it a shot.  The result was that it was a bit firmer and tarter than red tomatoes.  I would never use it as a substitute.  If we get any next week, I’ll probably like them sprinkle the slices with salt, dill, olive oil and perhaps a smear of La Tur cheese ;o).

This week we put a fried egg on it and placed it on a bed of arugula.  My husband loved it!  How do you prepare yours?

6 tomatoes sliced into thick 1/2 inch slices, dip in egg (I used two) and then combined corn and all purpose flour 1:2.

Here’s what we yielded out of the frying pan (fried in safflower oil).

Worked for us! The children were not as impressed but my oldest doesn’t like tomatoes either.