Swiss Chard is one of those Top 10 nutrient dense foods we had not tried in our family yet. Imagine my surprise when I got to the grocery store and saw this gorgeous Rainbow Chard!  I was in love right away.  The colors were so bright and pretty! Anyway- What I’ve learned about the Swiss Chard

• It’s season is from May-August.  Although with most produce these days you can get Swiss Chard all year long, however it tastes better and will be less expensive during May-Aug.
• When preparing your Chard, submerge the entire stalk and leaves in cold water to get the debris off.  Then dry with paper towels.
• Cut the stems away from the leaves.  Many people do not eat the stems.  You can eat both, but the stems need to be cooked longer than the leaves, so cutting them away makes this possible.

• Roll the leaves altogether and slice into thin strips.

• Swiss chard is the sweetest of all the leafy greens.
• If you don’t know how to use the leaves, use them much the same way you would spinach.

Here is how I cooked up our Swiss Chard!  It was super super super yummy! I hope you’ll try it ASAP! It got super approval from husband, neighbor, and semi-approval from children.

RAINBOW CHARD CHICKEN PIE

Prepare Swiss Chard by:

• Sautéing the chopped Chard stems in skillet with olive oil for 5 minutes.
• Add garlic and continue to sauté
• Add the leaves from the chard and sauté for another 3-4 minutes.
• Sprinkle salt over the entire mixture.
• Set aside.

Sprinkle and mix into swiss chard:

• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup cheddar cheese

Pour Swiss chard and cheese into prepared pie crust.  Then mix together separately:

• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk (mixed together)

Pour the eggs and milk over the greens.

I added chicken to the top of the greens. (optional)

Top with another pie crust.

     Bake at 350 for 45-55 minutes, or until crust is cooked.

Readers also recommended these ways to cook Chard:

Beth.said Swiss chard is really good if you add it to soups, chopped up. It wilts a little, but still holds some shape. It’s part of the Olive Garden Zupa Tuscano soup recipe I have. But I’ve also heard you can saute it, like asparagus.

Marla said: Swiss Chard….toss it with some pasta & parm

Jeff  said: chard, cut away the center stem and cut to 1″ by 2″ or 3″ strips (they shrink during cooking). put in a touch of olive oil (easy though each spoonful is 120 empty fat calories) and saute for a while till they wilt, and even after that. it brings out the natural sugar in the veggies. you can add sea salt or kosher salt to taste/remove bitterness and italian seasoning or other seasoning your kids like. saute them with mushrooms, onions, garlic and/or eggplant for a nice side dish

Emily recommended this recipe that her family loves:  Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Swiss Chard and Pecornio Cheese

Thanks for all your great ideas!!

Zucchini has 36 calories per cup, yet 10% of your DV for nutrients such as; manganese, vitamin C, A, and fiber.  However, it is so much more beneficial than a vitamin supplement because squash has the ability to help you absorb other nutrients

Whether your garden is overflowing with zucchini, or picked some up at the grocery store, have your kids try these Stuffed zucchini pizza boats.

The process was simple, and the kids can help!

• We sliced a zucchini down the center, and scooped the seeds out of the middle to create a well for the toppings.
• We then placed the zucchini in a microwave safe dish.
• Filled it with a mixture containing

1. 1/3 cup cooked rice
2. 1/3 cup spaghetti sauce
3. (add any other vegetables you choose)
4. Topped with mozzarella cheese.

Then, we added a touch of water to the bottom of the dish and covered it with plastic wrap.  (like 1-2 TBL)

Then we microwaved on high for 8 minutes (or until zucchini is tender).  You can also choose to bake at 400 for about 15 minutes.

  This pizza is a great alternative to pizza for those kids sensitive to gluten!  Overall, it’s great for all kids.

Here are some other zucchini posts from the past:

• Fried Worm Sandwiches
• Chocolate zucchini cake
• Zucchini Bread
• Crookneck
• Breaded zucchini

I had to be at church for most of Sunday, so my husband made dinner.  Our Japanese friends were so surprised to see him making dinner!  They said, “Why is Wade making dinner, he’s the father!!”  In their culture, father’s do not take part in meal preparation in Japan, so to see Wade make dinner, was culture shock for them.

So, here is what I’ve learned about dinner in Japan for Anna and Fumiko:

• Despite being working mom’s, Japanese mother’s spend a good portion of their time at home in meal preparation!  And what they spend most of their time doing, chopping and cooking vegetables!  Kind of makes me feel guilty for trying to get in and out of the kitchen as quickly as I can.
• Children help with preparing dinner if they are not at clubs (like soccer or tutoring).  Starting at age 6, Anna helped her mom with dinner preparations.  She would cut vegetables, wash dishes, or set a table.
• Although the fathers do not participate in preparing meals, the boys in the family (brothers) did help in the kitchen as children.
• When they have salads, they use lettuce, tomato, corn, tuna, with either a French dressing, a soy sauce dressing, or mayonnaise!  Straight- plain- mayo!  I couldn’t believe it! They even added mayo to their taco’s at our house!
• They never drink juice or soda. Always milk, tea, or water.

I love that they spend more time preparing dinner.  They said they chop their vegetables very tiny! When Anna made dinner for us, this is how she chopped our carrots for this meal:

I could not believe how she was able to cut the carrots so finely!  It takes time to do that.

Here is one of the recipes they prepared while they’ve been here.   They called them pancakes. If you make it, I don’t recommend calling them pancakes..TJ was quite disappointed that they didn’t taste like pancakes!

OKONOMI-YAKI

(As you like it- pancakes)

• 2 sausage links, chopped (or any other meat)
• 1 head of cabbage, chopped
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 1 cup flour
• 3/4 cup water
• 3 eggs
• salt to taste

Mix all ingredients together.  Pour batter onto skillet like pancakes.  Flip and cook on both sides until browned.  Top with Okinomi-yaki sauce (or BBQ sauce if you don’t have any Okinomi-yaki sauce) and mayonnaise (which we did not use)

They served the pancakes with noodles and vegetables, which I could not get a recipe for, because they brought packaged noodles with an accompanying seasoning packet from Japan… but it was DELICIOUS!!  Even this cutie liked it!

(While I was taking pictures for the noodle dish, I put the chop-sticks in the bowl.  Anna and Fumiko quickly ran over and took them out, informing me  that by placing the chop sticks inside the dish, it implied it was a meal prepared for the dead… oops!) 

Thanks for sharing your own Japanese experiences!  Anna and Fumiko have loved reading your comments!!

(At the Summit County Rodeo)

Our rice cooker is the BOMB!!!  Remember when I first bought it and we made oatmeal in it?  Well, last night I made our entire dinner in it!  It took about 10 minutes in prepping, ONE pot to clean, and our dinner was ready for us as soon as we got home from a little league baseball game.  None of this 5 hour stuff like a crockpot (but I do love crockpots).   And the best part… everyone ATE IT UP! No, seriously loved it! There were NO leftovers!  They were scraping the bowl for more.  (Tortilla chips do help with the wow-ness factor for them).

What we ate: Chicken Tortilla Soup (Printable recipe)

• ·½ onion, peeled and chopped
• 1 clove garlic
• ·1 TBL olive oil

Turn rice cooker on and Sautee onions, garlic with the oil in HOT rice cooker.

• Add chopped chicken to rice cooker and cook till browned.

Then add all at once:

• 5 cups chicken broth (I use “Better than Bullion “)
• 1 cup chopped carrots (I left these somewhat large so the kids could pull them out if they wanted to, although no one did)
• 1 can diced tomatoes (with juice)
• ½ cup brown rice (uncooked)
• 1 can corn (drained)
• 1/2 cup black beans

Turn rice cooker on to ‘brown rice’ setting, if yours has that one. Or turn it on for at least 45 min-1 hour.

  What I love about this meal: 

• The beans, of course… super healthy
• The carrots, tomatoes, onion, garlic… gotta have our veggies
• The brown rice.. Superior in health to white rice
• The fact that I had all the ingredients
• That it was fast, easy, and low clean-up!

For the last tip on getting your kids to eat more beans is to incorporate, or mix it into foods they are already eating (and loving).  For example, we always add black beans to ground beef.  Whether it is in tacos, lasagna, spaghetti, tamale pie, etc.  black beans are a natural addition.  It takes on the flavor of your dish and gives you more meat to work with (for less money)

For this dinner, I tried getting all creative with our taco’s.  I used white corn tortilla’s (because they are softer than yellow imo).  Then, I made them SUPER warm in the microwave so they would mold to my cupcake pan without breaking. 

Then I put beans on top of the tortilla to make it heavy enough to stay in the bottom of the pan.

Then I baked in the oven at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes.

And you know what happened? I’m not going to lie to you.  They were super cute, but the kids didn’t care.  They aren’t fooled by cute over flavor anymore.  They wanted nothing to do with my “Taco Flowers”.  They wanted regular taco shells instead.  Whatever!  I had some, so I didn’t care.

But I digress, this post is not about my corn tortilla’s.  It about mixing in the beans:

Having a bag of pre-cooked beans (which you can store in the freezer after cooking), makes it so easy to throw into any meal you may be preparing.  From casseroles, to one pot meals, to cold pasta salads etc.  Here are some other ideas other people have had:

• Jessica Seinfeld mixes 1 can of chickpeas (not pureed) into her chocolate chip cookies.
• Amanda’s Family loves beans as a spread (hummus anyone?). Which is perfect to add to sandwiches
• Mary (reader plus real life friend) grinds beans into flour in place of corn starch in thickening things and baking.
• Merideth likes adding beans to soups.
• And don’t forget soy is a bean.  Reader and friend Venessa sent us this awesome smoothie with tofu in it.

So, buy your beans in bulk! They are great for food storage, and then actually start USING the beans every day!  Make a goal to eat 1 cup of beans per day.   The new Dietary Guidelines (although not available yet) have had talks about saying to get more of your protein from plant sources, and that is great advice.

Thanks for reading bean week!  Here is a recap:

• Day #1- Puree beans
• Day #2 Beans as a dip
• Day #3 Chicken Nuggets
• Day #4 Roasted beans
• Day #5 Mix-ins for ground beef.

What’s coming up: 

• Saturday- New Meal Plan!
• Monday- Is Grass Fed Beef better?

Tip #3 for getting your kids to eat beans: Turn beans into something familiar, like chicken nuggets.

Did you happen to see the Jamie Oliver episode where he put a nasty chicken carcass into a blender and shaped it into chicken nuggets?  The kids, knowing what was in it, still ate it!  They ate it because it looked like chicken nuggets!  Our falafel had the same idea, except with CHICK-peas, instead of a chicken carcass.  lol, get it??  My kids didn’t know what was in it, but they loved these!

I started with this recipe from Allrecipes, omitting things I didn’t have.  My final recipe was this:

Chick-en Nugget Falafel

(printer friendly)

• 1 can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained

Mash into bowl. I use a pastry blender.

In a food processor, I put

• 1/2 onion
• Parsley (from my kitchen window…mmmm)
• 1 clove garlic

Blend the onion mix with the mashed beans:

Then in separate bowl combine:

• 1 egg
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 dash pepper
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 TBL olive oil

Mix with bean dip, and slowly pour in 1 cup bread crumbs.   Mix enough bread crumbs until your dough is not too sticky to shape.

Shape into chicken nuggets and either bake or fry.  I “grilled” in a cast iron pan with a small amount of olive oil.  Then I made that Origami Fry bag.

WE LOVED THESE!!  Just so you know!

Still need Ideas to get your kids to eat their beans?

• Tip #1  Add pureed beans to baked goods
• Tip #2  Use beans as dip
• Tip #3 Chicken-En Nuggets
• Tip #4 Roast Them!
• Tip #5 Mixing in the beans

I was wondering how many times I’ve started a post with the words

“Our new favorite salad is…”

Because seriously folks, our new favorite salad is THIS ONE!!

It is super simple too.  Literally… It took me like 3 minutes to put this together.  Perfect for the last minute salad to go with dinner ( or lunch if you want something quick and light)

• Shredded cabbage. (I love the bagged, precut shredded kind)
• Dried cranberries
• pecans

The dressing (I use this recipe for lot’s of salads)

• 1/2 cup fat free Mayo (I used miracle whip)
• 1/4 cup skim milk
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/8 cup white vinegar
• 1 TBL poppy seeds.

Why you should include cabbage in your family’s diet:

• VITAMIN K!! Hello!! So vital we give our newborns a Vit K shot at birth!  1 cup has 91% DV
• VITAMIN C!! 1 Cup has 50% DV
• FIBER  (Get that food moving through!)
• Phytonutrients (found in cruciferous veggies)  Antioxidants!!

And check this one out: 

The study included hundreds of Polish women and Polish-born women in the U.S. who are part of the Polish Women’s Health Study, a case-control breast cancer study. Participants were given a food frequency questionnaire that assessed their cabbage consumption when they were 12 to 13 years old and as adults.

Compared with women who ate only one serving or less of cabbage per week during adolescence, those who ate four or more servings were 72% less likely to develop breast cancer as adults.

So give your girls some cabbage already!!  Too many exclamation points today!! Sometimes I get so excited about what food can do for your family!!!

Have a great weekend.  I’ll be back tomorrow with next week’s menu.

Today’s recipes are a guest post from  Felicia R. Mcclinton who writes for the blog,  Mediterraneanrecipes.org She uses the blog to help people learn how to make Mediterranean recipes to eat healthy to prevent diseases.

Couscous and Vegetables

Ingredients

Couscous — 300 grams
Ripe tomatoes — 4 pcs.
Canned corn — 150 grams
Carrots — 2 pcs.
Green olives — 100 grams
Green pepper — 1 pc.
Olive oil — 5 tablespoons

This recipe is good for 4 servings and can be prepared in 40 minutes. It is an Arab recipe and popular in North Africa. Couscous is composed of bran and grains and you can cook it by steaming.

Preparation

Thoroughly wash the vegetables and cut into small pieces. Place them in a large bowl then add the corn and grated carrot. Put salt and oil to season.

Boil one quart of salted water mixed with one tablespoon of oil. Pour the couscous into the boiling mixture and stir continuously until the water has been absorbed. Let the couscous to cool a bit by stirring. Mix the couscous in the vegetables and stir thoroughly. Season the preparation with lemon juice.
Nutritional Value:

Greek Crostini

Ingredients

• Bread — 1000 grams
• Greek Kalamata Olives — 200 grams
• Greek Feta Cheese — 100 grams
• Olive Oil — 8 tablespoons
• Garlic — 1 clove
• Salt
• Pepper

Crostini Greek is a sumptuous meal good for 8 people. You can prepare this recipe in 35 minutes. This recipe was derived from the Greek feta croutons and black olives. It has an unbelievable taste and flavor and very easy to prepare too.

Preparation

Cut the bread into 1.5-inch thick slices. Toast the bread in the oven or toaster. After toasting, rub garlic into each piece.

Prepare the feta cheese by slicing it into cubes about 1 cm each. Get some olives and cut them into quarters or halves. Mix the feta cheese and olives into a bowl and add olive oil. Sprinkle this mixture while the bread is still hot and serve.
Nutritional Value:

THANKS FELICIA!!

FIRST:  Don’t forget to enter the Giveaway yesterday for the Stainless steel food containers! The retail value on these gorgeous containers is $35-50!   I meant to post this photo yesterday, but my camera battery died!!

Secondly, many of you were curious about the Sweet Potato Crescent rolls I put on our menu this week.. So here are a few details:

• They are amazing!!
• They are healthier than your typical rolls because of the addition of sweet potatoes.  (Quick digression:  Well I’ve never been one to fully subscribe to the “hiding vegetables’ in food craze… I am TOTALLY on board with ADDING healthy ingredients to boost a foods vitamin and mineral profile!  And that is exactly what this recipes allows you to do!)
• I thought they were easy to make, but then again, I LOVE to make rolls, breads, or anything with flour!

Here are the steps and the recipe is HERE

• Add all ingredients to a bread mixer, or by hand. 
• Let rise till double in size

• Punch down
• Make ball
• Roll into a circle with rolling pin
• Slice into wedges

• Roll into crescent shape

Bake and eat!

Caught Nathan red handed going back for more! He loved them!

OK… Last call.  This survey I keep talking about, from Stretch Island Fruit.  They truly truly just want to get statistics.  I’m not getting paid, they are not asking for your email address, or making you sign up for anything. Just a few questions about your fruit eating habits.. so please answer a few questions.. it will only take a second! Thanks!!

Last night I decided to put my old piping bag to healthier uses.  I used to love decorating cakes…but my kids wouldn’t eat them.  In fact one birthday I was prepared to make an awesome cake (since I had just finished the Wilton beginners class), when my son announced he didn’t want cake for his birthday. Instead he asked for these:

I was mortified! embarrassed!  And prayed the other mothers wouldn’t know I was serving up Twinkies! 

But onto why you are really here, and it’s not Twinkies!

This simple presentation of mashed potatoes was a big hit!  

All we did was make mashed potatoes.  I use 1 potato per person eating (so I boiled 5 chopped potatoes)

Blended the chopped/ cooked potatoes with a bit of salt, butter, and milk. 

Then scooped the potatoes into a piping bag with the #20 star tip. 

And piped them into my favorite silicone muffin cups (other uses for the muffin cups):

As I was falling asleep last night I was thinking… this would have been gorgeous with sweet potatoes!  Or to blend orange and white potatoes together!. or my husband thought I should have made them green for St. Patrick’s day!  Woulda, coulda, shoulda. Oh well!

WARNING: If you are to try this at home..  I actually had a super difficult time getting the mashed potatoes through the #20 Piping tip.  My mashed potatoes, although I blended them really really well, were still somewhat chunky.  And the potato chunks got stuck in the tip.  I ended up prying the prongs of my tip open just a little bit wider.  If you have a bigger tip, it would be wise.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY