Sole with rice and veggies

It might seem like an odd combination, but this one is very delicate and has very little fishy taste kids might not like. In fact this is how I got my son to like to eat fish, well some time ago now. So if a child doesn't like to eat fish, this might be the one to try. At the beginning I was mixing it with rice so it was almost undetectable (assuming that child likes rice :-).

- Sole filets (I like sole, but any white, more delicate fish would do, I use fresh fish filets)

- frozen peas and carrots, a handful or 2 (If he/she won't eat it use frozen corn instead)

- milk to cover fish 

- 1 cup rice, 2 cups water

- 1 cup total of grated sweet potato and yellow zucchini, can be green, but yellow blends in and won't "scare" the picky eater 

- salt to season

Start with rice so everything is ready at the same time. Just mix in the pan: rice, water, shredded zucchini and sweet potato, season with salt, bring to boil. After it starts boiling reduce the heat, cover and cook for about 15-20 minutes until all the water is absorbed. Lest stand few minutes and fluff with fork. Might want to add a tsp of butter (optional) and other seasoning besides salt if your child likes.

Place fish filets and peas and carrots in a pan, cover with milk and cook on medium low heat. The fish has to cook on low heat, otherwise the milk starts to foam a lot and bubble too much. Cook covered for about 10 minutes from the moment it starts simmering. I don't add salt to fish. I don't add any seasoning here. Milk and pas make it a little on a sweet side.

Pasta with spinach and ricotta

Another quick and simple family dish. Pasta with spinach and ricotta can be served just as pasta dish itself or with fish. Salmon (steamed or simmered in butter) is best match here.


For the sauce:
- bag of fresh baby spinach, I always make it using fresh, but I guess you can try with frozen too
- 1 tsp butter
- 2/3 cup of ricotta
- 1/3 cup of milk
- pinch of grated nutmeg
- salt 
- pepper

Start with boiling water for pasta so everything is ready at the same time.

Melt butter, add a bag of spinach and saute on medium-low heat about 5 minutes, or just until it wilts, when spinach is cooking mix ricotta and milk with a pinch of nutmeg. It should be smooth, no lumps. 
Add ricotta mixture to spinach and cook on low heat for about 5 minutes, just so it heats but it doesn't boil, to prevent clumping. Season with salt and pepper, mix with cooked pasta and serve.

Beef meatballs in creamy tomato sauce

Here is another version of our favorite meatballs, this one I make with beef and we all like it. Anything that freezes well, like this one, I always make more and store for later. 

- about 1lb ground beef (or any ground meat)
- a handful of finely grated carrots (I grate about 5 baby carrots)
- about 2/3 cups of cooked rice (optional, I use it when I have leftover from last night dinner)
- if there is no rice add 1 white roll soaked in few tablespoons of milk, milk squeezed out
- 1 small yellow onion, grated
- 1 egg
- salt and pepper

Mix it all together, form small meatballs, and put one by one into boiling water. I like to use quite a lot of water, this way we have more sauce. I also add some more grated carrots to the water as well as few peppercorns and 2 bay leaves.
Cook for about half an hour. After it's cooked, leave in the pan just the amount for today, add a small can of tomato sauce (not the paste, sauce is more delicate) boil for about a minute or two. Turn off and add about a tablespoon of sour cream or plain cream cheese, adjust seasoning and serve with whatever you like, it's good with rice, pasta, mashed potatoes or couscous. Sometimes I divide it and make adults portion more spicy adding cayenne pepper or just a little bit more of black pepper. I also like to add frozen petite peas or corn to rice and often add it to mashed potatoes too, just to smuggle some more vegetables.
For our child I usually serve it with high sauce to rice ratio, almost like a thick soup, just like in a picture above. 

Whatever was taken out before adding tomato sauce, I cool and freeze in small portions for the child or big portion for the family for later use. Then when needed, thaw, bring to boil, add tomato sauce and sour cream or cream cheese and serve.
 

One pot steamed salmon and veggies

I have to admit, this one is pretty plain, but I like it and my child likes it even more, great finger food too, so it's a keeper. Only for lunch though as it is too plain for my husband.

It's all done in about 15 minutes in one pot. 

I use pot with steamer insert for this one to keep it to one pot. Place in steamer insert : some frozen broccoli florets, few sliced baby carrots, salmon fillet. Boil whatever pasta shapes are your child's favorite. As soon as pasta starts boiling, place the steamer insert with fish and veggies over boiling pasta and cover. It should all be cooked within the time your pasta is cooked - usually about 10-15 minutes. Sometimes I overcook my pasta  little bit as it is easier to eat for the child than al dente.

After it's cooked I divide it to plates, lightly butter pasta and veggies and drizzle just a little honey or maple syrup on fish and veggies, then on my plate I add some squeezed lemon juice and pepper on fish and veggies. Only use salt in water for pasta.

This is very light summer dish. I would also really recommend to try to play with how it is arranged on a plate, here we were playing with all sorts of circles again and that really did the trick to have fun healthy meal. 

Chicken meatballs with pasta and vegetables

I really like making meatballs. It's really quick and easy to make. I usually make it using ground chicken and make large batch, that way I have at least few portions to freeze for the "lazy day".

What we need:

- about 1lb ground meat

- 1 small or 1/2 large yellow, onion grated

- 1 white roll soaked in milk, milk squeezed out (can use bread crumbs but the meatballs will not be as soft)

- 1 egg

- salt and pepper

Mix it all together with hands or a fork. Form small balls and put, using a spoon, one by one right after it's done into a pan of boiling water. If they stick too much to your hands, wet your hands every couple meatballs in cold water. It is important to put it in boiling water, otherwise the meatballs will fall apart.  I use quite  a lot of water almost, as much as I would use to make meatball soup, after it's cooked that water becomes a mild broth, a basis for a sauce. It's also a good idea to add finely grated carrot to water. I leave it too cook for a bout 30 minutes. After done I take out the portion for "today" and add to it frozen green peas with carrots and corn, cook until vegetables are done, about 7 minutes and add a spoon or 2 of sour cream or cream cheese, adjust seasoning and serve with pasta, I like orzo, it's great with rice too. It's easy to manage by a beginner eater, it sticks pretty well to the spoon.

The remaining amount of meatballs in broth I divide into portions and freeze. Portions size depends if it's to be used for the whole family or just a child. They freeze well in that broth and when I am ready to use it next time, I thaw it overnight in the fridge and boil in it's broth adding the same ingredients as above to make creamy vegetable sauce. Our other favorite version is in simple tomato sauce - just add some canned tomato sauce (to taste, add more if you like stronger tomato taste, or just a little if you like it very mild) and some cream cheese.When adding cream cheese or sour cream, add it at the last minute, and mix it in but don't boil, otherwise it will crumble.

Sweet potato and other stuff

No day with the toddler is fully predictable, that's almost a given. So on the days that something just came up again or I just don't feel like cooking or the weather is so nice that we just want to be outside, I use one of my  "healthy shortcuts".

Pour some water into the main dish of a rice cooker and put on rice cooker's steamer basket:

- sweet potato cut into about 1 inch cubes (can cut in advance, or buy already cut up)
- a handful frozen petite peas

- chicken rissoles (straight from the freezer, I don't thaw it in advance), I will post my recipe for chicken rissoles in separate post, but any meat rissoles or meatballs will do.

Turn steam cooking function in rice cooker on for 25 minutes and leave the kitchen.
Come back when you are hungry, rice cooker will turn to keep warm after 25 minutes and can keep it for quite some time, depending on rice cooker.

Sometimes I just use sweet potato and rissoles and nothing else, but if I have it at home (and the child does not have allergy to green color) , I add to that a little bit of all or some of the following:

- butternut squash cut into about 1 inch cubes

- few baby carrots

- a handful of frozen petite peas or frozen corn

- a handful of fresh baby spinach leaves

After it's cooked I take it out from the rice cooker straight to the plate,  add a spoon of cream cheese (optional), mash together (right on the plate using a fork) sweet potatoes, butternut squash and carrots, takes just a minute. After it's mashed I steer in petite peas (unless decided to serve them separately), corn and spinach if using (I guess you can just mash it all together but I like to mix it after potatoes are mashed). Add the rissoles and ready. I don't season anything here. Rissoles are already done and seasoned before. The rest doesn't require anything. My rice cooker steam basket is big enough to fit the amount for 3 kids or 1 kid and 1 adult portion.

My rice cooker has function that allows steam cooking with timer, I pour about 1-1.5 inch of water then place the food on a basket, close it and turn on steam cooking for 25 minutes. The amount of water is not too much to start boiling quickly and steam the food but it's not too little either so when it's done after 25 minutes turns into keep warm and it can stay on for more than an hour or longer. It's also enough time to thaw and cook rissoles (they are actually really nice and soft after being steamed). I often just throw everything in, turn it on and go out to play outside, an hour later we are back hungry, the food is ready and warm. You can only leave it like that though, if you can trust your rice cooker not to use water too quickly and burn.

Salad Nicoise

I failed so many times to convince my son to try one of my and my husband's favorite Summer dish. Got really tired of coming up with 2nd dinner just for the kid. So one day, when he was especially curious about shapes I told him he will have plate full of circles for dinner. Guess what - everything (well, except green beans) was gone! And the cute little black circles (olives, that he never ever even wanted to smell) were especially big hit, ended up asking for more and more. I hope this works on other dishes too!

 Mom's version and toddler approved version

Eating cars all day long ...

My son is clearly car obsessed, and yellow is his very favorite color. One day while making scrambled eggs for the family I surprised him (and myself!) with a yellow car on a plate. What a hit! He likes eggs, but this was just soooo much more exciting. Then I just couldn't help it, I was seeing cars in everything I was putting on my child's plate. What's best about it it's so simple and doesn't add any time to making the food especially appealing to my toddler. So we had scrambled eggs for breakfast, cheese and fruit for snack and store bought meat ravioli with grilled zucchini (I put a touch of maple syrup on it after it's grilled) and honeydew for dinner. But you can use anything you have at home. I just happened to have it that day. It's also easier to convince your little one not to throw away car's wheels just because they are green ...

The other best thing about it it's all finger food = you can eat at the same time, well at least you have a better shot at that! Even the eggs! I make it now so it has easy to pick bits. Any leftover raviolis? No problem, just wait for mom to turn around and grab a pen!