Happy Face Omelet

I love making food that the kids will enjoy. So today a Happy Face Omelet is on the menu. Since most omelets are shaped like half a skillet, it lends itself to the bottom of a face. Once I made this cute omelet, I got requests even from Grandpa.

I've tried many different fillings--onions, peppers, sausage, bacon, avocado, but Grandpa's favorite is
ham and  cheese. Today the happy face had a little surprise. Grandma still likes to play with her food even
when she can't cook with the kids. What do you think?












Ingredients:
   
2 eggs
1 tablespoon water
Salt and pepper to taste
Grated cheddar cheese
Sliced ham or turkey meat

Directions:

Whip eggs with salt and pepper in a small bowl, using a wire whip or fork. Heat a medium skillet coated with cooking spray. When it is warm enough for a drop of water to dance on the surface, add the egg mixture. Spread the egg until it covers the surface.Sprinkle cheese on top. Lay the meat at the edge of one side (like a tongue sticking out of a mouth).

When the egg is nearly done, flip the other side of the omelet over, not quite half way, so that the tongue is
exposed. When the egg is done lay the omelet on the bottom half of a plate--the tongue sticking out.      Toast a small bagel, butter it, or cover with cream cheese for the eyes!  Now you have a happy face omelet!
  

A Beautiful Pea Green Boat

I can't see a green pepper without thinking of "The Owl and the Pussy Cat."  You may think that's strange, but after reading this post you'll understand.  Most children are picky eaters, preferring sweets to any other taste, but it's very logical since the first food they eat is mommy milk.  Human milk, in case you don't remember, tastes so sweet you would swear someone poured in some sugar.  Considering the bonding and joy the whole life-giving process of nursing gives, there's no wonder children prefer sweets.

Since we know humans need vegetables to have a balanced diet we have to figure ways to get kids to eat them.  We can hide them in a casserole or make them seem to be something they're not. I prefer the latter.  I have a creative granddaughter who loves poems, songs, and anything that rhymes. She has several Mother Goose and children's traditional song books.  These are her favorites and She loves the poem "The Owl and The Pussy Cat."  It begins, "The Owl and the Pussy Cat went to sea in a beautiful pea green boat.  They took some honey and lots of money wrapped up in a five pound note..."

From reading this rhyme we quickly jump to lunch and vegetables. The princess eagerly accepts "A beautiful pea green boat" made of half a green pepper with oars made from two slices of the remaining side of the pepper.  We fill the boat with a scoop of humus and add cucumber slices (money).  You can also create miniature docks out of whole grain crackers!



Your children will eat a healthy snack without even realizing it if you use your imagination to create meals.  Add a figurine of an owl and a cat if you have one.  Try other peppers--yellow, red or orange.  How about some carrots or celery? Have you got a recipe to get children to eat vegetables?  Tell us about it! 

Imagination Cupcakes

My sister Wilma, an extraordinary grandmother, who has lived through many a power outage, came up with this idea that allows children to create their own cake. Since we had just come through hurricane Irene, I thought it would be a great way to get rid of all those long-shelf-life foods we purchased before the storm. Fortunately for us, all we lost was internet and cable TV, so we just needed entertainment. We scanned the pantry and found a yellow cake mix, cooking oil, cocoa, some already prepared pudding cups, mini chocolate chips, coconut, and powdered sugar. In the frig we found blueberries, eggs, butter, and cream cheese. The Princess pulled out the step stool; we turned on our imaginations and got started.

We followed the directions on the cake mix box and my assistant pastry chef used the wire whip to mix the basic batter then lined the cupcake pans—next came the fun part. Since the recipe would make 24 cupcakes, we figured out the math and made six of each kind. We divided the batter into four small bowls.

In the 1st, we added a handful of blueberries, mixed them and poured them into six cups.

In the 2nd, we added cocoa and mini chocolate chips and poured them into six more cups.

In the 3rd, we mixed in cocoa, put a heaping tablespoon of batter into each cup, and then added a spoon of butterscotch pudding before adding another spoon of the batter. Not only were those filled, but they erupted like little volcanoes in the oven!

In the 4th bowl, we added 2 tablespoons of flaked coconut, poured each cup half full of the batter then put in a spoon of lemon pudding and covered it with the rest of the batter. They also erupted. We put all of them into a preheated oven at 350 degrees and baked them until they sprung back when touched lightly.

Since our objective was to use things we had on hand, we made cream cheese icing but you could use canned icing. We topped off the blueberry with plain icing marked with a single blueberry. To both the chocolate cupcakes we added cocoa. Those with chocolate chip we topped with more chips and the others we iced then put just a tiny bit of chocolate syrup coming out of the volcano.

Finally the lemon ones were covered with plain cream cheese icing then topped with coconut. If we had fresh lemon, a tiny bit of lemon zest would have been a good way to tell what was inside, but that didn't keep it from being the most popular cupcake.

Your imagination can take you a long way and cooking with children can give you lots of ideas. Look in your cupboard and see what you can do with those ingredients before their expiration date comes around. Sometimes we just need a little push to see what we can do with leftovers.

Fairy Very Berry Smoothie

Fairy Very Berry Smoothie

Do you have a very finicky little eater in your house? I am the granny-nanny to two of my grandchildren and they are both picky, but act out in different ways. My grandson, Logan the toddler, pitches unsavory tidbits over his shoulder to the tune of, Yuck, Yuck, and Yuck. These sometimes end up glued to his bottom in the highchair.

The other child is a princess who has become a little more sophisticated at almost four years of age. She turns up her tiny nose and says, “No, thank you.” But sometimes bribery works. (If you try this new vegetable you can have a lolly-pop.) That’s rather self defeating when the object is to try new foods and get nourishment into their little bodies. I have discovered, however, that subterfuge works best. Make a Fairy Very Berry Smoothie. You can vary the ingredients and just the name alone will have the princess in your life slurping down wonderful vitamins and antioxidants—she will, no doubt, be dressed in her royal robes. She might even put her wings on for this one. The prince, however will have it devoured before he can deliberate whether or not there are any unsavory chunks that the dog would like.

You know those tiny black spots that appear on banana peels after about a week? They might as well be chicken pox because kids won’t eat bananas with spots! This is one place where stealth comes in. At the end of the week when you discover that you bought too many bananas (and the kids aren’t watching) remove the peels, wrap them in plastic wrap and stack them like logs on the freezer shelf. They will last up to a month or so. Ka-ching! The money you would have thrown away is now the sweetener and thickener for your drink.

The princess refuses to help with this recipe because she’s scared of the loud blender, so I am on my own—te-he-he-he—unless I ask Logan for help. He loves noise and loves to push buttons.

1. I quickly remove the plastic wrap from the frozen banana and toss it in the blender.

2. Then I add 1 cup of plain organic yogurt.

3. Next clean and remove stems from 1 cup of fresh organic strawberries and toss them in.

4. Now add 1 cup of juice, preferably pink or purple (grape or cranberry)

5. Look around and, if the kids aren’t looking, toss in a couple leaves of kale—honest, I really do that and they don’t even know the difference! Just make sure it is thoroughly blended. (If there is a milk allergy you can substitute soy milk and a little ice for the yogurt.) It tastes great and doesn’t need sugar, Mother Nature already sweetened it.

6. At last it’s time for Logan to push the buttons. Go Logan!

Fill a princess and a prince cup with this wonderful drink and be sure to save some for yourself. Now Granny Nanny, you can rest in peace knowing that you just fed your descendants two servings of fruits and vegetables, and a serving of dairy. Nothing got tossed in the floor and none of it was fed to the dog or hid under the couch cushions. Don’t you feel like a real sneak? Now go put your cloak and crown on. Don’t you know you are supposed to play the part of the Queen Mum?

Now folks, do you have a recipe or something you do with your children or grandchildren that gets them to eat nourishing food? If you do, be sure to leave a message, a recipe to share, or a link so we can join forces. Thanks!

Fruit Cobbler

Fruit Cobbler

This fruit cobbler is easier to make than a cake mix in a box. Traditionally cobbler had a pie crust placed on top of the fruit, but this one has a batter that is poured in the pan first and then the fruit mixture is poured on top. When it’s baked the crust forms on top and the wonderful filling is on the bottom—no rolling out pastry or feeling guilty about the saturated fat you consumed.

I got this recipe from a church cookbook that long ago fell apart and disappeared. But I never forgot how easy the cobbler was to make, how great the taste was, or how versatile the recipe. Pick out your favorite fruit or what ever is in season—fresh or frozen and start. It’ll be ready by dinner time. Do you have some ice cream or whip cream to scoop on the top? Yum!

Fruit Cobbler

Ingredients:
First mixture
1 cup sugar
1½ cup flour
¼ cup butter
1 cup milk
2 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt

Mix dry ingredients and use a fork to incorporate the butter. Pour in milk and mix until dry ingredients are absorbed. Pour into a large oblong greased cake pan.

Second mixture

3 ½ to 4 cups fruit (fresh or frozen)
1 cup boiling water
3 tablespoons butter
1 to 1 ½ cups sugar depending on acidity of fruit

Mix fruit, water, butter, and sugar and pour it over the first mixture. Put the pan into preheated oven 400 degrees and bake 30 to 40 minutes, until browned and bubbly. Serve warm or cold with or without whipped cream, or ice cream. Delicious made with peaches or berries. This is a great way to use the fruits you froze last summer, or the ones that ripened before you could use them. If you don’t have enough peaches, throw in that half pint of blueberries before they go bad. Let the kids help with this. They would love to invent a new recipe. Name it after them!