Purees....

A while back I said we were trying out the recipes in "Deceptively Delicious". One step in that process is to make up some vegetable purees so we have them on hand when we need them. I am not very good at consistently creating balanced meals with the food groups, especially vegetables. So I'm hoping this will help. Of course, it means I need to be better about meal planning, too, but I need to do that anyway. I made carrot and spinach purees a while back (as you can see by the date on the bag!) and we have used up most of these. Right now I have pumpkins and squash that need to be processed (but are making lovely fall decorations by our front door until I get to it!) and I'm hoping to get to that (at least some of it) this week. After all, the pumpkins should have a couple days with fun halloween faces before I cook them! =D

(and now you see my theory on pumpkins... they ought to serve as many purposes as possible with the least amount of effort... pumpkin patch family activity, fall decoration, jack-o-lantern carving family activity, Halloween decoration, toasted pumpkin seeds (keeping some out for planting in the spring), roasting and pureeing the flesh for use in pies and scones and cookies and soup all holiday season!)

Recipe Review: Deceptively Delicious Aloha Chicken Kebabs

I tried my first Deceptively Delicious recipe the other night, so I thought I'd share my thoughts on it. I made the Aloha Chicken Kebabs made with sweet potato puree. They were really good! I will make them again!

Once you have the sweet potato puree (I recommend making up the purees ahead of time for these recipes), the chicken is very easy to make. I didn't have any short wooden skewers, like the recipe calls for, so I just used the long metal ones we use for grilling. That didn't work. Because they didn't fit in the pan I was using to cook the chicken, the chicken didn't rest on the bottom of the pan and therefore didn't cook. I just pulled the chicken off the skewers and cooked them in the pan. It worked just fine. It didn't look as festive, but it worked just fine.

The chicken had a nice Polynesian flavor about it, and tasted very different from what I usually make. I really liked it! I think it would be really good served with rice or stir fry with pineapple and almonds (like a Polynesian stir fry). I definitely recommend this recipe if you have the cookbook!

One thing I don't like about this book is that it doesn't include all the nutrition information. As a calorie counter (my choice for dieting) I like to know all the specs on my food. Thanks to sparkrecipes.com, though, I can now tell you the nutrition information for this dish! You'll have to buy the cookbook for the recipe (and I recommend it!) but the nutritional details per serving (3-4 kebabs) are...

Calories: 315
Fat: 8
Carbs: 32
Fiber: 3
Protein: 30

Update on Crudites

The "no snacks before dinner except veggies" rule has been going great! Last night I offered her carrots and she didn't want them but requested bread. I told her that she couldn't have bread because we were only going to eat vegetables before dinner. She paused a minute and then said, "Hmmm.... I want cucumbers!" So I got out a cucumber and cut her a spear and she ate it and then came back for a second spear!

So far so good!

Tonight I'm trying my first Deceptively Delicious recipe - Aloha Chicken Kebabs.

Crudites

Here's an idea I just got from the cookbook "Deceptively Delicious"... If your kids are hungry before dinner, offer them some raw vegetables to munch on. If they're really hungry, they'll eat them. If they stuff themselves with vegetables before dinner and "ruin" their appetites, at least they got a good healthy dinner of veggies.

I just tried it with Eliana - offered her carrots instead of the traditional late afternoon popsicle snack. You know what? She took the two baby carrots and has been happily munching on them and not bugging me for a popsicle. It's a good idea for adults to remember too when you feel like snacking during the dinner preparation process!