One of those days...

Yesterday was a fun-filled day for our family.  First we had my grandmother's 90th birthday party around lunchtime, and then we headed straight into the city to meet more family around Henry's dinner time.

Henry was so overwhelmed at the party, that I only got him to eat about 2 noodles and a few bites of tuna fish for lunch...and only while my 11 year old nephew showed him Elmo on his cellphone.  After that Henry discovered the fruit platter - yay! And proceeded to eat loads of watermelon.  I thought we were in pretty good shape...the party was waning and Henry had yet to discover the cake and cookie table.  And then, as we were cleaning up, he spotted the cookies.  I figured we were fine - one cookie is definitely okay.  But then he also ate a piece of a chocolate rugelach.  And then around 4PM, as we were heading out the door, I spotted him with my 6 year old nephew eating another giant cinnamon rugelach.  When I asked my nephew what happened he said, "I was getting a cookie, and then Henry said "cookie", and reached it all by himself!" (My nephew was very proud of his baby cousin).  At this point I realized I had no idea what Henry had been eating all day...

I decided to pack yogurt for our little trip to the city, but as was expected Henry was too full from all the baked goods to eat anything else.  I'm just hoping today is a bit more balanced...

Happy and (mostly) healthy eating!

Begging for Broccoli

Okay, I know the picture above is of pizza, and it's no great accomplishment that I got my kid to eat pizza.  What was amazing about tonight, however, was that while I was making the pizza, Henry was getting extremely impatient.  He kept whining, and I kept telling him that the pizza would be ready soon.  And then I realized he was pointing to a bowl and not the pizza...and then I listened closer.  He was begging for broccoli.  I almost fainted.  I haven't actually made broccoli in a while, and couldn't believe that was what he wanted.  I figured he'd just hold it and lick it, but he shoved the piece in his mouth, chewed it, and then asked for more.  I honestly feel like some sort of miracle just happened.  Happy day!

(As for the pizza, its just store bought whole wheat dough that I rolled out and then topped with sauce, cheese, broccoli, and olives).

Happy and (mostly) healthy eating!

Baked Gnocchi with Spinach

You may remember that after I made gnocchi a couple of months ago, I froze half the batch.  Well, today I finally decided to use it.  I texted my friend to invite her and her daughter (also 20 months) over for a dinner play-date, and planned to make it when I got home from work.  After sauteeing the spinach, while boiling the gnocchi, and shortly before my friend was going to arrive, I realized I was out of shredded cheese, so I had to improvise.  I mixed the gnocchi with the spinach and some ricotta cheese, and then topped it with my last 3 slices of muenster cheese.  I have to admit, it was pretty good.  Henry loved it and ate about 6 gnocchi mixed with the spinach and ricotta.  His friend wouldn't try it, but then we realized she had fever, so we're not going to count her opinion.  Her mommy liked eating her untouched food though before they had to leave!

Baked Gnocchi with Spinach

1.5 cups gnocchi

1 teaspoon olive oil

2 cups fresh spinach

1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic

7 ounces part-skim ricotta cheese

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup tomato sauce

3 slices muenster cheese

1.  Preheat oven to 450.

2.  Boil gnocchi until they float to the top.  Drain and set aside.

3.  Saute spinach in olive oil.  Add granulated garlic, and let cook until wilted.

4.  Mix together gnocchi, spinach, ricotta cheese, salt, and pepper.  Pour into sprayed (with cooking spray) skillet.  Spread tomato sauce over top and then the slices of cheese to cover the top.  Bake in oven for about 2 minutes, or until cheese begins to brown.

Happy and (mostly) healthy eating!

Meatball Stuffed Shells

After making Pumpkin-Ricotta Stuffed Shells earlier this week, I had loads of leftover cooked and empty shells. My husband was sad that he missed the Honey Glazed Meatballs this week since he had been working so late each night, so I decided to experiment and try making meatball stuffed shells.  I just made a basic meatball recipe, stuffed it in each shell, and baked it with some tomato sauce on top.  Couldn't have been easier.  I had worried because the recipe made 20 shells, and I was only feeding my husband and Henry, but as of yesterday, they had already polished off 11 of them (Henry ate 1.5 Friday night and another full one for Saturday lunch).  I'm pretty confident that between Henry, my husband, and our nanny, all will be finished as of tomorrow!

Meatball Stuffed Shells
1 lb ground beef
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs
1 T ketchup
2 T Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp salt
pinch red pepper
1 egg
20 jumbo shells, cooked
1/2 jar tomato sauce

1.  Preheat oven to 375.

2.  In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except for the shells and sauce.  Then, stuff each shell with ground beef mixture and put them in a 9x13 pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray.  Top shells with the tomato sauce.  Cover with foil and bake in oven for about 40 minutes, or until beef is cooked through.

Happy and (mostly) healthy eating!

Pumpkin-Ricotta Stuffed Shells

Though Passover seems far away, I am already in prep mode.  Yesterday, I officially started food shopping for the holiday.  It hit me that I have loads of other food in my pantry that I need to finish in the next few weeks to make room for all the Passover food.  So get ready for the next few weeks of posts to be about dishes made from random finds in my cabinets...

Today's find? A can of pumpkin (probably from Thanksgiving) and a box of jumbo shells.  I absolutely love butternut squash filled ravioli, and Henry tends to like winter-squash, and of course loves noodles, so I figured I'd try to stuff the shells with pumpkin.  Instead of the standard butter-sage sauce that goes with squash ravioli, I opted to lighten things up a bit and make a pumpkin sauce instead.  The outcome? Henry happily ate half a stuffed shell.  His friends who came over for dinner, however, were not quite as enthusiastic - except for his 10 month old friend who couldn't get the food in her mouth fast enough!  Oh, and all the adults liked it too!

Pumpkin-Ricotta Stuffed Shells
1 (15-oz) can pureed pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling), 1/4 cup divided out
1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1/4 c grated parmesan cheese
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cinnamon
dash ginger
dash ground cloves
freshly ground black pepper to taste
18 jumbo shells, cooked
1/2 cup Imagine "No-Chicken" Broth (or vegetable broth)
2 teaspoons butter
1/8 tsp ground sage
salt and pepper to taste
grated parmesan cheese

1.  Preheat oven to 375.

2.  Mix together canned pumpkin (minus the 1/4 cup pumpkin), ricotta cheese, parmesan, egg, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and pepper.  Fill the 18 shells with the pumpkin mixture, and place them in a 9x13 dish sprayed with cooking spray.

3.  In a small saucepan, heat the broth, butter, 1/4 cup pumpkin, sage, and salt and pepper to taste.  Bring to a simmer.  Then pour the sauce over the shells.  Sprinkle additional grated parmesan cheese on top.  Cover the baking dish and bake in the oven for about 25 minutes.

Happy and (mostly) healthy eating!

Freezer Find: Honey-Yogurt Waffles

A couple of months ago I made a brunch at my house for my husband's birthday.  I made a double batch of Honey-Yogurt Waffles from the Two Peas and Their Pod blog, and had loads of leftovers.  Since I knew there was no way we could possibly finish them all, I divided up the individual hearts (I have a heart-shaped waffle maker - thanks Mom!) into baggies of 4-5 hearts each and put them in my freezer.  It's perfect - Henry will happily eat about 2 waffle hearts as a special treat for breakfast.  The only downside is that we just finished our last freezer baggie - I guess I'll have to make more soon!

Note: I followed the recipe exactly, but I didn't have whole-wheat flour, so I used all white flour.  I also only had 1 container plain non-fat Chobani Greek yogurt, and 1 vanilla non-fat Chobani Greek Yogurt, so my Greek yogurt addition was a combo of the two.

Happy and (mostly) healthy eating!

Honey-Glazed Meatballs

On my way home from work today, I decided I would make meatballs.  My usual meatballs take about 2 hours to simmer, so that was not going to happen.  I also wanted to use up some honey that was starting to crystallize.  So, as soon as I got home I threw together some meatballs and threw them in the oven.  Meanwhile I made a quick sauce of ketchup, garlic, soy sauce, and honey.  It was so quick, that Henry and I were even able to go for a short walk before dinner.

Henry LOVES to go for walks, but he is quite stubborn.  A few minutes into each walk he decides he no longer wants to hold hands.  He merrily toddles along singing, "walking, walking" the whole way.  And then a couple of minutes past that, he decides to try to run into the street or onto people's properties.  Most walks end with Henry crying while I carry him kicking and screaming back home.  He initially loves the walks so much though, that I'm willing to suffer the consequences.  Today was no different.  When we got home, he was besides himself.  He kept crying and crying, asking for his pacifier.  At that point, usually dinner will not happen.  But then he saw the meatballs.  He ate the first one in a matter of seconds, and then proceeded to eat 2 more (with some popcorn cauliflower on the side).  With that kind of reaction, I kind of want to make them every night now!

Honey-Glazed Meatballs
2 tsp olive oil
1 lb ground beef
1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp dried minced onion
1 tsp granulated garlic
2 Tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp ketchup
1 Tbsp water
1 egg
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp olive oil
1/3 cup honey
2/3 cup ketchup
2.5 Tbsp soy sauce

1.  Preheat oven to 400.  While oven is preheating, put 2 tsp olive oil in a small roasting pan and put in the oven.

2.  Mix together all ingredients from ground beef through 1 egg.  Form into 15 meatballs, and put into roasting pan that was heating in oven.  Put pan in oven and cook about 13 minutes, or until meatballs are cooked through.

3.  In a medium saucepan, saute minced garlic in 1 tsp olive oil.  Then add honey, ketchup, and soy sauce and bring to simmer.  When meatballs are done add to sauce, and heat through with sauce for about 5 minutes.

Happy and (mostly) healthy eating!