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.

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.