Tricky: I want to send my kids to school stocked up on protein and nutrients instead of a tummy full of empty carbs and sugar. I switched to whole wheat pancake mix and started sneaking cottage cheese and a grated apple or canned pumpkin into the batter. They don't even suspect the additions, and the pancakes are tastier. I give them peanut butter and fruit as toppings and try to stay away from maple syrup (aka high fructose corn syrup). They drink milk or soy and save the juice for an after-school pick-up. I think it keeps them full longer and makes me feel better about sending them out the door.
Easy: French Onion Soup. Chop a whole bunch of onions, saute them in olive oil and put them in the crock pot all day with beef broth. At dinner time, top each bowl with a slice of French bread and some cheese and broil. I use muenster, parmesan and swiss. Everybody loves it because it's so fun to eat and it's such hearty winter comfort food.
Cheap: For 50 cents, you can't buy more elegance than roasted garlic. Put a few heads with the tops cut off in a pan with a little water, drizzle with olive oil, cover tightly and bake at 325 for an hour. The cloves pop right out of the skin when you squeeze them, and you can spread them on bread or crackers. I served it at book club last week, and it made the house smell delicious, and looked cool.
Healthy: Turkey sandwich with hummus instead of mayo, spinach intead of lettuce, swiss instead of cheddar, with nuts and veggies instead of chips.
OK, now give me your tricky, easy, cheap, healthy, hearty, comforting, savory winter ideas. We can't have roasted garlic for every meal. People might start avoiding us!
6 comments:
Great idea for a post. I may steal it. When ever we go to the store Cade always wants a treat so we buy the apple dippers. He thinks it is the coolest thing. For a fast dinner I am all about the crock pot. Thanks for the tips you are the best.
Great tips Circ! My current favorite is your taco soup. I do the spicy crock pot chicken a lot too because we can all eat it the way we like, nachos,tacos, taco salad or just by itself.
Ooooh...I loved this post! We eat a ton of beanies (aka edamame) around here. Eliza would eat it for every meal if I let her. We also eat soup at least once a day.
Tiffany
I like your French Onion Soup idea....yum. I think all my easy ideas are common. As you know, we aren't very healthy. Easy oven chicken terriyaki is equal amounts soy sauce and brown sugar, pour on chicken, cover and bake for 1 hr...or whatever. Sometimes I'll add canned pinepple or diced green onion or mushrooms. And I "bake rice" for the same hour, steam edamame at the last minute..and serve.
One of our easy mainstays is French bread pizza. Slice a loaf in half lengthwise, spread sauce, cheese and other toppings and pop into oven to melt cheese. You can toast bread alone first if you want, but who needs extra steps?
English muffins or tortillas make great "crusts" for personal pizzas.
Turkey Pepperoni & Turkey Sausage are delish minus 80% of the fat. :)
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