I can honestly (and shamefully) say, this is the first red cabbage I have ever bought!  It was just so beautiful sitting on the shelf next to the dull green cabbage I was there to get.   I couldn’t help myself.

So for dinner last night, we were searching the cupboards in order to include as many different colors in this salad as we could.  I had the kids help with this, so they had a bit of ownership in the dish.

Here is what we came up with.

• red cabbage
• green cabbage
• mandarin oranges
• blueberries
• shredded carrots
• Craisins

Then I added a coleslaw dressing and let it chill in the fridge for a few hours to penetrate.

Excuse me? What’s that you say?  Beautiful salad, but my kids won’t touch it?  I know, I know!  Let me tell you what we do in our house?

Every night for dinner we either have a salad, a side of cooked vegetables, or for the children’s sake; the veggies are pulled out of the casserole/ stir fry/ whatever one pot meal, we are having and separated on their plates.

With the whole meal on their plates (the vegetables being the star) we do not make a fuss. We do not force them to clean their plates. They are welcome to seconds of the other portions of the dinner, even if their vegetables are not all gone.  My hope is they will learn what a balanced plate looks like, by seeing it every night!

My secret weapon!  PATIENCE!  It took NINE YEARS for Nathan to finally say he liked salad!  NINE YEARS!!  So, the awful truth of it all is: there is no magic formula except boring old patience and persistence while consistently offer vegetables to your kids.

And here is Nate, enjoying his Rainbow Salad, FINALLY!

Will your kids eat this salad?  What other foods of different colors would go well with it?  I was thinking there wasn’t enough DARK green, so maybe some baby spinach leaves?

I will never forget a study I read about the most “well adjusted” teenagers.  The teenagers who aren’t so self absorbed, follow the rules, and contribute to society.  The one common thread in these great teens were they all were involved in SERVICE!!  I love it!   Have you heard yet about the Free Disneyland tickets for contributing a few hours of service.  There are TON’S of opportunities from age 6 on up.  Click here to enter your zip code and find opportunities in your area.

Anyway, let’s get down to delicious Vegetables!!  Luckily I made some broccoli with the creamy sauce, and kept some broccoli without. Because as always with picky children…. some will try it, and some just preferred it plain.

Take:

• 6 oz light cream cheese
• 1/4 cup reduced fat milk
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Grated orange peel

Stir in a small saucepan until smooth and melted..  Then add

• 1/4 cup orange juice.

Keep the sauce warm to drizzle over steamed broccoli, or bring to room temperature and use as a dip for raw broccoli. 

  Well, I’m not going to lie here…. not ONE of my kids actually tried it.  I did! I liked it!  But there are very few foods I don’t like.

OK Mom’s and Dad’s! If the kids are going to eat their vegetables, we have to make them taste good!  Is the only way you’ve offered cooked carrots is chopped and sautéed?  I have actually never enjoyed my carrots that way.  If you are a “texture” person, like Erica (my 9 year old), cooked carrots are often too mushy, because of their size.  These carrots are cooked, yet have no mushiness about them!

The easy part of this dish, Polka Dot Peas and Ribbons, is the children can peel the carrots.  They are way easier to peel than potatoes!

So first, some frozen peas (thawed), and as many carrots as you want to peel.

Stir the carrots around with 1 TBL of butter till softened (about 5 minutes).  Then add the peas and keep cooking until the peas are heated through.

And serve up with a little salt and pepper.  My kids actually ate this without forks. 

So, go ahead and try it! You know you have all the ingredients on hand!

Busy? Poor? Still want to eat healthy?  The best weapon I have is frozen vegetables!  When they go on sale, I fill my freezer with all kinds!  Stir-fry mixes, broccoli, peas and carrots, corn, etc!

We add frozen vegetables to rice, noodles, soups, casseroles, pot pies, and as a side dish.  Here is what I like:

• They last forever!  (in contrast to fresh veggies)
• They don’t need to be washed
• They don’t need to be chopped/ peeled/ cut.
• They are generally cheaper.
• They are usually picked at the peak of ripeness
• We can eat them out of season and all year long!

So, here is our favorite, fast, healthy, go- to meal.  I always have the ingredients on hand, and my kids will eat a ton of it!  It looks like a long recipe, but I promise it is QUICK!!!

• 3 TBL butter
• 3 TBL flour

Melt butter in small saucepan and stir flour in until bubbly.  Then Add:

• 1 cup of Chicken broth
• 1/2 tsp oregeno
• 1/2 tsp pepper.

Bring to a boil and simmer. Stir occasionally. Then, in large skillet add:

• 1 TBL butter and 1 TBL olive oil.  Then after butter melts, add:
• 1 chopped onion
• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed or chopped.

Cook till browned then add:

• 2 cups frozen cauliflower. (defrosted)
• 2 cups frozen broccoli (defrosted)
• 1 package frozen peas (defrosted)

Cover and cook till heated through.  Then stir in:

• 1/2 Cup chicken broth
• 1 large fresh tomato (or canned tomatoes)

Add 1/2 pound cooked whole wheat noodles (such  as spaghetti or linguini).  Mix everything together (vegetables, sauce, and noodles)  then top with parmesan cheese.

NEED SOME FROZEN VEGETABLES? AND PERHAPS A $25 TARGET GIFT CARD TO GO ALONG WITH IT?  HEAD OVER TO THE GIVEAWAY PAGE TO ENTER!!

One trick to getting my own kids to eat more vegetables, is to keep it simple.  Once I stir fry, blend, or assemble too many vegetables into one dish, I get resistance. 

So, in our quest for “5 servings per day”, we made it!

Breakfast: They each ate a banana (one serving)

Lunch: They each had a few baby carrots and an apple (two servings)

Snack: They each had an orange

Dinner: I gave them a choice. I made this delicious salad:

The only thing in it was peas, corn, romaine lettuce and cheese.  They prefer peas and corn cold, not warm.  Well, they wouldn’t eat this salad, so I let them have just the bowl of peas and corn that hadn’t yet been put into the salad.  They preferred that and ate it up. Then they wanted more chicken, and I said, they had to have another helping of peas and corn first.  So, they did.  1 full cup in all (two servings!!)

Disclaimer: You may be wondering, what happened to night one of Fuhrman’s menu?  Well, I chickened out. Not Fuhrman’s fault. My own!  I feared no one would eat, so I bagged it altogether. Sometimes I’m such a wimp. Instead we ate chicken nuggets, and the pea/ corn salad.

Merry Christmas!!  I love Christmas, I love the parties, the presents, and especially the food!!

I love it when my family party assignment is salads or bread!!

This was my contribution to our weekend family party-with the Roskelley’s

• Blackberries
• Strawberries
• Feta Cheese
• Pecans
• Greens

Then my sister’s dinner last night (Christmas Eve) she asked me to bring rolls.  Here is the light version of the most delicious, Lion House Rolls!!

After preparing and rising the dough, Roll out in rectangle about 8 inches wide, and 18 inches long.

Slice into 4 X 2 inches rectangles.

Roll each rectangle and put seam side down on pan:

Then bake till slightly golden:

Yummy!!

I’ve tried so hard to get good pictures of chicken, but somehow, it never looks appetizing to me.  

Anyway,  I got this great recipe from my very oldest (not by age) friend, Sarah Kent.  She even has a facebook fan page, cause she’s a SUPERSTAR!!!

Anyway, Sarah (although you can’t tell by her picture) is part Japanese. 

Her family used to make the most amazing Teriyaki Chicken.  And since I was out of my favorite Yoshida sauce, and I for spice week, I knew it required ginger, I emailed her for the recipe!.

For the record, the original version (which I will share) is not Super Healthy.  High in sodium and sugar.  But I made some minor adjustments, and it was still good.  We always serve Teriyaki chicken with Broccoli, which Erica LOVES!!

Here is the original…in Sarah’s words:

For one bag of frozen chicken wings or breast (whatever turns you on)

Approximately the following:

• 4 -5 cups of Kikoman Soy Sauce (no low sodium here) (I ONLY USED 1 1/4 cup and low sodium :0 sorry sarah!)
• 2 cups + of brown sugar (I used 1/4 cup)
• 1 can of chopped or crushed pineapple (just add the juice and the pineapple and all)
• 1/4 cup + of grated fresh ginger root (keep ginger root frozen in freezer until you’re ready to shred it, it’s easier to grate when it’s frozen)
• 1 + chopped garlic clove or 1 tsp garlic salt
• 2 tsp of Kosher Salt (optional)
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions (semi-optional)
• 1 cup chopped mushrooms (optional)
• 1/2 cup sliced white or yellow onions (optional)

Basically you’ll mix all of that together and the taste should be kind of strong of ginger, or the smell should really be strong of the ingredients especially if you’re adding frozen chicken because it will dilute the taste some and after letting it slow cook for a few hours it will be just right.

You can just marinate the chicken in this over night and then cook it as well. Seems that the longer you let it slow simmer, the better. Probably could be made in a crock pot. I’m not sure if it’s better to bring it to a boil first for a few minutes and then let it simmer for a few hours or not.

Best served with Japanese Rice.

Nice side with this is California roll sushi  and/or raw tofu with shopped up green onions, fresh tomatoes and white onions shopped on top with a little bit of fresh ginger root grated on top. Some soy sauce and/or a Japanese citrus dressing called Mirin. If you can’t get mirin, mix soy sauce and lemon juice together (roughly 3 parts soy sauce to 1 part lemon juice) it will have a nice tangy kind of salad dressing taste to add to any fresh veggies.

  ….and free my soul, I want to get lost in your rock and roll, and drift away.  Love that song.

Have you used beets in anything before? It was our first time, which explains the resistance of my two younger children to try it.  TJ said it was too “bloody” for him to eat.  But as far as vegetable soups go, this was tasty.  This dish (a Russian soup) is traditionally made with beets, tomatoes, and other veggies of your choice.

Beets are a great source of Folate… Perfect for you expecting mothers!

I used

• 4 potatoes (peeled and chopped)
• 1/2 head of cabbage  (shredded)
• 3 carrots (chopped)
• 1 onion, chopped
• olive oil

I put the potatoes, cabbage, onion, and carrots in a pot with some olive oil, and sautéed until the cabbage got soft.  Then I added:

• 3 beets  (peeled and chopped)
• 6 cups broth
• 1 can chopped tomatoes (with the juices)
• 1 TBL lemon juice
• Salt and Pepper to taste.

An optional step, is I took several cups of soup, and blended it in a blender, and returned it to the soup. I didn’t do it for all the soup, I wanted some of the vegetables to remain chunky, but I did blend up maybe 4 or 5 cups of the soup.  I think it makes vegetable soup creamier and yummier.

When served, add a touch of sour cream. It turns the soup Pink.. perfect for Valentines day!

Something is stuck UNDER my crappy camera lens.  I took the whole camera apart thinking I could somehow get access in between the lenses, but all I got was shocked!  And the lens never came off.   Anyone have ideas on how to fix this?

Every picture I take has a “soft focus” edge on the bottom of the picture. I don’t know what to do. I’d get a new camera for Christmas, but I already got this laptop for Christmas.  So, I’m out of luck until next year!

Anyway, I’m in some sort of root vegetable craze.  Not only do I love Russet Potatoes, and red potatoes, but I really love Sweet potatoes!  For any meal, they are so filling.  My kids really don’t need to eat anything else.  So here is a little potato 101.

Our grocery store sells two varieties of sweet potatoes.  Although BOTH are technically sweet potatoes, they call one a sweet potato, and the other a yam.

Have you ever noticed a difference?  Here is how we use each:

SWEET  POTATOES:  (with white flesh)

• Just like a baked potato (butter, salt etc.)
• As Sweet Potato salad.

YAMS: With the orange flesh

• Sweet potato fries
• In a casserole with brown sugar.
• As a baked potato with sweet stuff on it like cinnamon and brown sugar.

Is one healthier than the other?  YES! Yams, with its rich orange color has more vitamins.  The more colorful your fruits or vegetables are, the more nutrients they have.

Hooray, It’s fixed! Go ahead all you Firefox browsers and feel free to browse.  My amazing Sister (who is soon to start a techie blog to help other helpless tech challenged folks like me) figured out the problem and fixed it.

I got a completely different reaction to our potato bar than I expected.  I expected my husband to make a wise crack about a potato not being a Meal, but he said NOTHING!!  My kids assumed by “potato bar” I meant I was making potatoes into a bar (like a granola bar).  BUT everyone LOVED IT!  They ate the whole thing.

Kids love the choices.  Kids love the “BAR”.

I did have to run to the store to purchase BIG potatoes. When you buy the 10lb bags, they are usually so small.  I wanted the potato to be a meal, and be filling, and it was!

Here are some potato bar topping options:  Feel free to add as many as you can think of to the comments.

1. Broccoli
2. Light sour cream or plain yogurt.
3. Green onions
4. Chives
5. Cheese
6. salsa
7. chili
8. Bacon bits

Other BAR Blog posts

• Salad Bar
• Oatmeal Bar
• Taco Salad Bar
• Breakfast Bar