Cottage Cheese Pancakes

I can get a little loud (let's say not annoyingly so) about my Eastern European roots when it comes to foods like sauerkraut, cabbage soup, and cottage cheese pancakes. This is true, as it turns out, even when the recipe is only loosely based on actual regional cuisine.

These pancakes are a cross between American breakfast pancakes and a sweet Russian farmer's cheese pancake called syrniki. Fluffy, creamy, faintly savory in a way that begs for a counterpoint of sweet fruit, they'll reverse the (sad and inexplicable, in my opinion) bad rap of cottage cheese.

My parents used to make these for my brother and I as kids, and they haven't lost their ease or their appeal. The batter practically falls together in the bowl, and the hot pancakes taste so rich and simple, there's no need to add more than fresh fruit at the table.

My kiddo loves these (OK, so he usually gobbles the blueberries off the top first, but the pancakes shortly follow.) They even make for decent leftovers, as a cold take-along snack.

What are your favorite heritage recipes to share with your little ones?

Cottage Cheese Pancakes
Serves 4

3 whole eggs
1 cup 4% milkfat cottage cheese
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
2 Tbls. melted butter
pinch salt

Whisk eggs, cheese, butter and salt together in a bowl. Add flour and stir to until combined, but not over-mixed.

Ladle pancakes into a lightly buttered non-stick pan over medium heat. Flip when the first side is nicely marbled and golden, then cook through.

Plate and top with fresh fruit for a decadent, protein-rich part of breakfast or lunch.

Mayo-Free Coleslaw with Cranberries and Herbs

I love this recipe for rescuing coleslaw from the gloppy, sugary, diner-fare stereotype. Instead, it's tangy, garlicky, and flecked with herbs and carrots--who knew coleslaw could be so inviting?

This is the most successful of a few "toddler salads" I've tried, because the firmness of cabbage lets you shred it very finely without turning it into a sloppy mess. (I've tried mincing lettuce leaves into a baby salad. Trust me, it's not very appetizing.)

What really captures Darwin's heart about this slaw are the dried cranberries inside (with added sugar, they're a very rare treat for us. You can sub in raisins for a totally sugar-free slaw.) At a recent meal, he plucked one of the cranberries out of the coleslaw and brushed the cabbage shreds off it, explaining, "cranberry covered in coleslaw." Let us all shed a tear for Darwin's poor precious cranberry!

Enjoy this with your family. It's even better on day two, when it's had some time to marinate.

The recipe is modified from this one by one of my food heroes, Mark Bittman.

Mayo-Free Coleslaw with Cranberries and Herbs
Serves 8

6 cups cabbage, finely shredded (use a mandolin, if possible)
1 large carrot, grated
1/3 cup green onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup curly parsley, minced
small handful dried cranberries (or raisins)

Dressing:
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbls. dijon mustard
2 Tbls. apple cider vinegar
2 cloves garlic, crushed or grated
freshly-ground black pepper*

Toss cabbage, carrot, herbs, and fruit in a large bowl.

In a small bowl, whisk together dressing ingredients. Drizzle over coleslaw, toss, and marinate 30 minutes or more before serving.

 *I recommend NOT salting the dressing. Salt on cabbage causes it to release its water, which can make coleslaw sopping and limp over time. Plus, subtle sweetness and tang are the flavors most of us want in a good slaw.

hard at work

Darwin woke early from his nap, so he mixed up his own little slaw.

fresh steamed carrots, coleslaw, cheesy Ezekial toast, fried egg

Butternut Squash Souffle Bites

butternut squash souffle bites, fresh green beans, raisins

Every time I see those garden lite souffle things in the freezer section of the supermarket, I have one of those inspired and slightly supercilious "I-could-make-that" moments.

They have a lot of different flavors, and I (you, anyone) could make them all. When I set out to replicate the butternut squash flavor, I struck gold on the first try with a ridiculously simple recipe.

These sweet, pillowy souffles are adorably-sized for little hands. Darwin kept calling them "cake!" which, I think, is a pretty good endorsement. They refrigerate well for a couple of days, and taste good cold.

If you make these in a regular-sized muffin tin, or in ramekins (which works just fine), add a few extra minutes to the cooking time. I suspect they'd be terrific with a little handful of raisins thrown in. If you try it like this, please let me know!

Butternut Squash Souffle Bites
Makes about 15 mini souffles

3 eggs
1 cup roasted and pureed (fork-mashed) butternut squash
pinch cinnamon
freshly ground black pepper and a pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350.

Whisk eggs in a medium bowl, then add squash puree, cinnamon, salt, and pepper. Whisk again until the mixture is smooth.

Spoon or pour souffle batter carefully into a nonstick mini-muffin tin (I usually swipe some olive oil inside the tin with my fingers, just to make sure there's no stickage).

Bake 15 minutes, or until centers have puffed up and set. (They'll flatten slightly upon cooling.)

Parsley-Walnut Pesto

fresh in the bowl

Have you tried pesto with your kids? Parents tell me their kids dig right into fresh pestos of all kinds, with their unassuming, smooth-textured flecks of green. What a cool, sophisticated way to bring veggies to the table!

I love a good basil pesto, but it's kind of expensive to make. Putting pine nuts into my grocery cart feels like I'm buying a little satchel of diamonds. Basil can be a bit of a splurge, too, if you don't have it in the garden.

Parsley and walnuts, though, are (let's agree) excusable expenses, and I've discovered that a rich and garlicky parsley-walnut pesto works magic on pasta, chicken, sandwiches, and crudites. Fear not if your family is lukewarm on parsley: even with two (densely nutritious!) cups of the herb, the pesto doesn't scream PARSLEY. I adapted my recipe from this one on Simply Recipes (I actually reduced the amount of garlic she calls for, so pigs must be flying.) It's the best I've tried, and Darwin agrees.

Since the pureed leaves of parsley don't turn brown when they oxidize, your pesto still looks verdant on day two. Parsley wins again.

Parsley Pesto
makes about 1.5 cups

2 cups chopped curly parsley
1 cup walnuts
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (unprocessed "shake cheese" is OK)
2 garlic cloves, grated
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt to taste (sparingly; Parmesan is a salty cheese)

Combine all ingredients in a food processor or high speed blender and process until smooth.

Enjoy immediately, or refrigerate for a day or two.

whole wheat macaroni with parsley pesto, baked sweet potato fries, apple slices, garlicky kale

Kid-Friendly Indian Food (Easy Dal)

red lentil dal with brown rice, sauteed garlicky curly kale, turkey-veggie meatball, pear and clementine slices

Indian food is kid-friendly. (Indian kids eat it, after all, and there are a lot of them.) But lets say you're an American who loves Indian flavors, maybe you cook with them sometimes, or you get takeout from that awesome Indian place you know, and until now you never thought to toss your kid a piece of the vindaloo.

It's definitely not too late, no matter your kids' ages. This mellow dal is a great introduction to eastern spices for curry-lovers-in-training. (Darwin started eating it when he was around nine months old.) It features the best of Indian flavors: warming ginger, garlic, fried spices, and that mysterious marrying of coconut and tomato that seems absurd in western cuisine but works so beautifully in curries.

We like it over brown rice with a few torn cilantro leaves on top and a dollop of whole plain yogurt. We almost always add something to it while it's simmering: a chopped carrot, some cauliflower florets, or a cup of garbanzo beans (if you're adding a lot of anything, scale up the spices to match.)

Enjoy.

Basic, Delicious Dal
Serves 4

1 cup dry red lentils, rinsed and drained
1 medium onion, chopped very finely
2 roma tomatoes, chopped
1 generous Tbls. extra virgin coconut oil
2 cloves garlic, minced or grated
1 Tbls. freshly grated ginger
1 tsp. ground coriander (freshly ground is best)
1 tsp. ground cumin seeds (freshly ground is best)
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. salt
pinch cayenne (optional)

In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat and fry onions until translucent, about five minutes.

Add garlic, ginger and spices and fry a minute more, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot.

Add tomatoes and cook five minutes more, stirring frequently, until tomatoes have begun breaking down into sauce.

Add lentils, stir to coat, then add 2.5 cups of water. (This is also the time to add any extra vegetables you like.)

Bring the pot to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and cover, checking and stirring occasionally until the lentils completely soften and break apart, about 20 minutes.

Stir in the salt and taste. Adjust with more salt if needed.

Serve topped with yogurt and fresh torn cilantro leaves.

Cheesy Veggie Baked Ziti

cheesy veggie ziti, fresh green beans, blueberries

I'm really excited to share this baked ziti. It's a rich, saucy pasta bake that's 100% whole wheat and completely crammed with veggies. Because it's cheesy and familiar, this recipe will win over even kids who are prone to making "the face" when you serve vegetables.

I've made this dish many times, always boasting about the abundance of vegetables in it. This time, for fun, I decided to find out the actual ratio of pasta to veggies, by weight.

hefty vegetables on the postal scale

I don't have a kitchen scale, so whenever I want to weigh something, I haul out my old (literally, rusty) postal scale, plop a Tupperware on top, and load it up (yes, I tare. This is science, people.)

Here are the weigh-in results:
pasta: 0.5 lbs
veggies: 1.75 lbs!
 
Impressed? I am! Indulge and enjoy!



Cheesy Veggie Baked Ziti
Serves 4-6

8oz 100% whole wheat ziti or penne (half a box)
8oz white button mushrooms, chopped
1 medium sweet onion, chopped
1 medium-large carrot, grated
1 large zucchini, cut into quarter rounds
2 cloves garlic, grated
8oz whole milk Mozzarella cheese, cut into small cubes
1 1/4 cup whole milk Ricotta cheese
1 1/2 cups good quality marinara sauce (we like Barilla)

In a large pot, set pasta to boil. Preheat oven to 350.

Meanwhile, in a second large pot, saute onions, garlic, and mushrooms in a swirl of olive oil over medium-high heat about seven minutes, or until the mushroom liquid has cooked off. Add the carrots and zucchini, and saute five minutes more.

Drain pasta when tender and set aside.

Add marinara sauce to the pot of veggies and simmer briefly to combine flavors and soften vegetables. Remove from heat and stir in pasta and both cheeses.*

Scoop mixture into a lasagna pan and bake at 350 for 20 minutes, or until cheese cubes have melted.

Serve hot!

*For me, this is where the recipe ends. I scoop the mixture into a glass bowl and use the toaster oven to heat individual portions. I confess to never actually having baked the whole pan of ziti at once, so if you do, please tell me how it turns out!

cheesy veggie ziti, green olives, crispy oven-baked kale chips, blueberries

We heart leftovers!

Easier, Better Macaroni and Cheese

Whole-wheat/whole cheese macaroni, crispy oven-baked kale chips, nectarine slices, pea pods

Boxed macaroni and cheese was THE food of my childhood. I probably asked my poor mom to make it for lunch every day between 1987-1997. When the noodles were on the stove, it was my (very, very important) job to tear open the packet of cheese and dump it into the pot, tapping it meticulously so as not to waste a single puff of precious powder. Later, as a crafty (Krafty?) teenager, I started making it myself, with two packets of cheese for every box of pasta. Imagine it: a day-glow-orange salt-bomb in a pot.

Fast-forward to a new era, in which I am still unequivocally in love with macaroni and cheese. There is nothing like an over-large heap of gooey yellow noodles paired with a big stack of crudites around noontime of, oh, any day.

Still, I gave up macaroni and cheese for a long time. That powdered cheese isn't actually, you know, cheese. And those soft white noodles are stripped of the germ and the bran that make pasta not just nutritious, but hearty and flavorful.

I dreamed up this technique when I was pregnant, and have never since bought boxed mac. It's delicious, creamy, fast, real macaroni and cheese, perfect for whole-food kids and parents. It even makes that little squelchy kissy sound when you stir it in the pot.

As soon as Darwin outgrows his toddleresque drive to dump food onto the floor (can that be today? Please?), he'll be the one in charge of adding the cheese to the pot.

Whole-Food Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese
serves 2

1 cup dry 100% whole wheat pasta (macaroni, fusilli, or other short, chunky shape)
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded from the block*
splash of milk or cream
salt and pepper to taste

Boil pasta until tender, drain, and return to pot. Add milk and cheese and stir well until cheese has completely melted and combined. Salt to taste and serve immediately.

*I've used many kinds of cheeses, and almost all work well, even spicy pepper jack. If you don't mind fussing a little, mixing a sharper cheese (like sharp cheddar) with a meltier cheese (like mild cheddar or jack) is a good choice for balancing tangy/creamy notes.

PB Sweet Potato

Peanut Butter Sweet Potato

This post begins with one of our all-time favorite snacks. Ready for the recipe? Don't blink, or you'll miss it.

PB Sweet Potato
Serves 1

1/2 a medium baked sweet potato
1 Tbls. natural creamy peanut butter

Stir together and enjoy.

*

We were having this snack in the yard this morning, near our Rubbermaid Romaine:

digging in the ground seemed too hard

Here's the bin of lettuce representing my half-formed commitment to put it in a vegetable garden this season. (I had a bin of collard greens too, but it got besieged by bugs! Oh well). On a whim, I picked a leaf of romaine and used it to scoop up some PB Sweet Potato. Huh! Tasty! The slightly bitter, hydrating crunch of the lettuce offset the sweet and creamy tuber just right. So there we sat, my little one and I, picking and dipping and crunching in the morning sunshine.

Later I made these, a lunchbox-friendly version of the same snack, and perhaps the world's easiest lettuce wraps. 

Lunchbox ready

Love your orange veggies!

Lazy Parent's Minestrone

Minestrone-style bean and vegetable soup, kiwi, whole rye cracker with butter

We like minestrone. Long lists of ingredients, we like less. Ditto time-consuming recipes. Traditional minestrone, done well, requires standing sensitively over the stove for a while, adding ingredients in turn so that nothing turns to mush. It's really more of a job for people without toddlers.

Once I realized I could get the same rich, herb-y flavor as traditional minestrone with about half the ingredients and a seriously simplified cooking process, I got back on the minestrone bandwagon.

Of course, power to you if you want to throw in a handful of spinach, chopped green beans, whole wheat pasta, or zucchini. As is, this minimalist revision tastes like the real thing, and still fills little bellies with a good variety of veggies.

Lazy Parent's Minestrone
Serves 4

1 medium onion, chopped
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 large celery stalks, chopped
1 15-oz can chopped or crushed tomatoes, with juice (if BPA concerns you, use Muir Glen or Pomi brand)
3 cups cooked, drained kidney beans
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
3 cups vegetable broth or water

Saute onion, celery, and carrots in a swirl of extra virgin olive oil until translucent, about ten minutes.

Add broth, beans, tomatoes, garlic, and dried spices, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until vegetables are tender.

Remove from heat and stir in parsley just before serving. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Top with fresh grated Parmesan cheese for extra Yum.

Chickpea "Chicken" Salad, Sweet Potato Oven Fries

Chickpea "chicken" salad, sweet potato oven fries, apple wedges

If you Google mock chicken salad or mock tuna salad, you'll get about a billion recipes for chickpea-based salads. Let me nip in the bud any impulse you might have to shop around: this recipe is the best one.

Almost all other mock-chicken salad recipes include mayonnaise (or Veganaise), to try and reproduce the creaminess of the original dish. I'm not a fan of commercial mayonnaise for a bunch of reasons (refined soybean oil, gluey splattering out of those upside down squeeze bottles, etc.), but what really makes me scratch my head is that mashed chickpeas are already creamy, so why mess with that? Adding gloppy mayonnaise to the mix just makes it, well, gloppy.

This version uses Dijon mustard, fresh-squeezed lemon juice and a swirl of extra-virgin olive oil to make a zesty, fresh dressing in a salad that gets its creaminess from the all-important legumes.

We all love this stuff. Darwin sometimes pauses mid-crunch to declare, "celery!" because that's just the kind of enthusiastic kid he is. I hope your family enjoys it just as much!

Chickpea "Chicken" Salad
(Serves 4)

3 cups cooked chickpeas, cooled, rinsed, and drained (canned is OK)
1 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced sweet onion
3 Tbls. fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 Tbls. Dijon mustard
swirl of extra virgin olive oil (1 Tbls or less)
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

In a large mixing bowl, mash chickpeas with a fork or potato masher until creamy. Stir in celery and onion.

In a small dish, whisk together lemon juice, mustard, olive oil, salt and pepper. Drizzle over chickpea mixture and stir until well-combined.

Serve a scoop on top of a green salad, inside a sandwich with lettuce and tomato, or plain. Enjoy!

Delicious variations: We've added shredded carrots, diced apples, curry powder (like curried chicken salad!) and other minced veggies with great success.

*

In other chickpea news, here's a dinner from earlier in the week that feature Smitten Kitchen's recipe for Chana Masala. This is in our regular rotation--we love a good spiced curry!

Chana masala, Mozzarella cheese, fresh berries, garlic curly kale

Fruit-Sweetened Breakfast Cookies

The famous breakfast cookies!

I make sure we never run out of our freezer stash of these oat-flour based cookies. They are so sweet and moist, you would never guess they're made entirely of pure, whole foods, without any sugar, refined flour, or refined oil. Our kind of treat!

Breakfast Cookies

(makes ~20 cookies)

1 cup steel cut oats (or 1 + 1/3 cup oat flour)

1 egg

2 medium ripe bananas

1/2 cup shredded carrots

1/2 cup shredded zucchini

1/3 cup walnuts

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup virgin coconut oil (gently heated, if necessary, into liquid state)

pinch cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350, and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Mill oats into flour in high-speed blender. Add walnuts and cinnamon and pulse until walnuts are desired consistency (very fine, for toddlers.)

Whisk egg in a large mixing bowl. Add well-mashed bananas, carrots, zucchini, coconut oil, and raisins.

Fold dry ingredients into wet, being careful not to over-mix. Drop by spoonfuls onto parchment paper and bake for 20-30 minutes, until tops of cookies begin to brown. (Keep an eye on the bottoms, as they tend to darken sooner than the tops)

Enjoy fresh or store in freezer bags for a quick, portable breakfast.

Sunflower Seed Burgers, Creamy Carrot Soup, Spinach Cupcake-Quiches

sweet potato rounds, clementine sections, avocado, cheese

sunflower seed burger, kalamata olives, spinach, apple slices

To my taste, store-bought sunflower seed burgers are a little dry, mealy, unexciting. I wanted to try making my own that were grain-free and packed with savory vegetables. The taste of these is terrific. Texture-wise, I'm still working on it. The outside tends to over-crisp in the oven before the inside firms up. Shaping burgers into a miniature size helps, and makes for a fun hand-held snack for little ones.

Sunflower Seed Burgers

2 cups raw sunflower seeds, ground into a flour-like consistency
1 cup grated carrots
1 cup diced celery
1 cup diced onion
1 1/4 cups organic crushed tomatoes
1 Tbls. soy sauce or tamari
2 cloves garlic, grated or minced
1 Tbls. ground flaxseeds

Preheat oven to 350 and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine all ingredients well and form into small patties (1/3 cup or less of mixture per patty.) Bake 30-35 minutes on first side, flip, and bake 15 minutes more.

"Texas caviar" with black-eyed peas, veggies, garlic, and herbs

The little monster himself

Garlicky mushrooms, banana chunk, Ezekial breadsticks, creamy carrot soup, and garbanzo beans

This is a very easy, elegant carrot soup! Good things happen when you have a half gallon of organic milk to use up.

Creamy Carrot Soup

3 cups carrots, peeled and sliced
1 medium sweet onion, chopped
3/4 cup half and half
dash of nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste

Saute onion in a swirl of extra virgin olive oil or pat of butter until translucent, 5-10 minutes. Add carrots and saute 5 minutes more.  Add 2 cups cold water, cover, and simmer 30 minutes, until carrots are very tender. Remove from heat and puree with an immersion blender, then add milk and blend again. Add salt to taste (I think I started with 1/2 tsp.) freshly ground pepper and a sparing dash of nutmeg.

Cheesy spinach bites made with our friend's fresh eggs!

Cheesy Spinach Cupcake-Quiches

(makes 8 cupcake-quiches)

3 whole eggs

1/2 cup cottage cheese

1/2 to 3/4 cup grated Mozzarella cheese

~4 cups fresh spinach, chopped somewhat finely
1 small sweet onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 and fill a muffin tin with aluminum foil liners.

Saute onion and garlic in a swirl of olive oil until translucent. Remove from heat and add spinach to pan, allowing it to wilt slightly. Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk eggs thoroughly, then stir in cottage and Mozzarella cheeses. When vegetable mixture has cooled slightly, add it to bowl along with salt and pepper to taste, then stir well to combine.

Fill muffin tins and bake 20-25 minutes, or until centers have completely set.

Allow to cool slightly before enjoying.

Cheesy spinach bite, blueberries, carrot shreds

Roasted chicken and vegetables, black beans, avocado

Turkey-Vegetable Meatballs

Turkey-vegetable meatball, Indian yellow split peas, garlic Tuscan kale, and young coconut meat.

We love these turkey-vegetable meatballs. We freeze them in batches and defrost one whenever Darwin's dinner needs a little something extra. He likes being able to hold and bite into them as much as he likes the taste, I think. The easy recipe is below.

The yellow split peas are a tasty and nourishing Alice Waters recipe.

*

Turkey-Vegetable Meatballs
(makes about 20)

1 lb good quality ground turkey
1 small yellow onion
1 packed cup mixed vegetables (minced button mushrooms, grated carrot, grated zucchini)
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
2 cloves garlic, grated
1 whole egg
1/2 cup whole grain breadcrumbs (I made some out of the toasted ends of an Ezekial loaf)
1/2 tsp. fine grained sea salt
a swirl of extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 350. Combine all ingredients well, form into ping-pong sized balls and bake on parchment-paper lined baking sheet 30-45 minutes.


And here's a snack:

Swiss cheese, skinny celery sticks, sliced tomato, whole rye cracker with butter