Kids Cook Monday- Lasagna!

This Monday we were a little pressed for time to get dinner on the table because Chris had a plane to catch later in the evening. We could have had dinner after he left, but I wanted him to have a home cooked meal before he left town because when he's away for work he has to eat out for every meal. I decided to make a family favorite- cheese lasagna. This is really the only way I make lasagna because I'm not a big ground meat fan. Brady LOOOOOVES Italian food so I knew it would be easy to get him on board with this meal as well.

Basically this is a very, very simple way to make a "homemade lasagna." When I say "homemade lasagna" I'm referring to the fact that I'm assembling it myself and not just baking a frozen one (not that there's anything wrong with that either!) But, when I say "homemade lasagna" I'm not claiming to make my own sauce or take that much time doing it.

Here's the basic ingredients to this lasagna:

Lasagna noodles (the kind you don't have to boil ahead of assembly)
2 jars of your pasta sauce of choice
1 large container of cottage cheese
2 packages mozzarella cheese

That's all I used for this lasagna, but it would also be great with some spinach, chopped zucchini, fresh tomatoes, or ricotta cheese. That's the great thing about lasagna; you can layer in whatever you like and it still tastes delicious! (Anything would with tomato sauce and cheese!) I started with sauce on the bottom of my baking dish and then layered noodles, cottage cheese, sauce, cheese and then repeated until I started running out of ingredients! It's so easy! I baked it for 30 minutes on 350* with foil on top and then another 15 minutes uncovered.

I didn't get a picture of the lasagna right when it came out so the only picture I have is after we began to devour it. As you can see, it's half gone. Mind you, it was just Chris, Brady and me. We joked that Brady had a crazy look in his eyes between bites and it couldn't cool fast enough for him.

This makes the best leftovers too!

Crazy look. Give. Me. More!

A happy, satisfied, boy!

Brady is a little young to help in the kitchen, but I can't wait to make this meal when he's older. It's the perfect dinner for kids to help "cook." They can easily help with the assembly- there's really no way to mess this one up!

Kids Cook Monday- Chili Night!

Us Pennsylvania folks had our first little glimpse of Fall this past weekend. The lows were in the high 50's (this is totally unheard of where we came from in Florida!) This inspired me to break out the crock pot and try my mom's meatless chili recipe. It wasn't exactly cold outside today, but I will take any excuse to eat chili and it makes the house smell so yummy!

This recipe calls for 3 different types of beans. Basically, you can use whatever type of bean you have on hand or are in the mood for. I used kidney, pinto and black beans. You can change the amount of beans depending on how thick you like it. I actually never make meaty chili (I'm not a fan of ground beef) so this is my go-to chili recipe and it just sort of worked out for Meatless Monday. I let it all simmer in the crockpot on high for about 4 hours, but you could definitely do it on low for 8 hours. I normally do it the slower and lower method, but I didn't get a chance to get started until the afternoon.

Here's the recipe, but you don't have to follow it exactly. I like to wing it in the kitchen!

3 Bean Chili

15 oz. can tomato sauce
1 can tomato soup
2-14 oz. can diced tomatoes with green chilies
2- 15 oz. can chili beans
15 oz. can red beans
15 oz. can black beans
3 Tb. dried chopped onion
1 Tb. sugar
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper

*cook with crock pot lid slightly propped, season to taste

Cooking with the lid propped is important in helping the chili thicken up. It smelled delicious in our house!

So here's a mistake I made with this chili. If you make this chili for your kids you can either learn from my mistake or try my trick for "fixing" it. I'm so used to making this for Chris and I and we like a little kick with our chili. I should have used a little less chili powder and regular tomatoes to make it more kid friendly. When I tested it, the chili tasted great to me, but I knew it would be too spicy for Brady, so I had to cool it down for him. Chris always likes plain Greek yogurt (instead of sour cream) on his chili so I decided to make Brady's version a more creamy chili. It really worked well to tone down the spice. I just used about half Greek yogurt and half chili and it was the perfect creamy chili sauce for a 14 month old!

I have always liked chili on pasta. We called it a 3-Way when I was growing up...chili, pasta and cheese. I mix it up on what kind of pasta I use just based on what I have on hand. Today I had a pasta called "Pipette" which was similar to a macaroni but a little thicker tube (just thick enough for chili beans to get inside- yum!!) Here's our 3 finished products.

Chris's, Brady's, and mine.

Brady testing out his creamy chili pasta.

All in all, this meal was a hit. And the best part is that we have TONS of leftovers. It's enough to have lunch tomorrow and freeze some for whenever we get another cool spell. Or, as Chris reminded me, we could also throw it in with some Velveeta cheese and have nachos for football this weekend!

Kids Cook Monday- Daddy's out of town!

My hubby Chris recently had to leave town for a week for work. It was sort of a long week considering we are in a new state where I don't really know anyone, but I had lots of bonding time with my B-man!

I don't know about you, but I'm not overly motivated to cook dinner when it's just myself. If it wasn't for Brady, I probably could have survived on popcorn or chips and salsa for dinner all week. But, Brady was definitely my motivating factor for getting something nutritious on the table.

One of Brady's go-to favorite meals is a cheese quesadilla. It's simple and easy. One of my favorite go-to easy meals for myself is a bean burrito. I almost always have these ingredients on hand to make it happen; tortillas, cheese, refried beans, lettuce, salsa, and plain Greek yogurt (my healthy swap for sour cream.) So this week I decided to make a simple meatless meal for me and my little man.

I bumped up my normal bean burrito with a little fresh tomato from our garden. We have a ton of them right now, so this was a good way to use some of them up! I also happened to have a really ripe avocado so we threw that in there as well. Brady LOVES avocado. I've been giving it to him since he was about 6 months old and he's always gobbled them up. Here's how our easy dinner shaped up...

Here's the inside of our meatless Mexican dish. Beans, Greek yogurt, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and avocado.

Here's the folded up finished product. It would have been great if I had heated it all up on the griddle too. But remember, I wasn't that ambitious with the hubby out of town!

Brady approved!

This is how Brady helps out in the kitchen. It's mostly just him underfoot, emptying my spice rack, but it's good company!

I will definitely keep this one in my repertoire. It is super easy and Brady liked it. Plus, there was enough of the ingredients left to have it again for lunch the next day!

Kids Cook Monday- Meatless Greek!

Us Smiths are trying desperately to keep up with the fabulous garden that our previous homeowners have left in our care. Squash, zucchini, cucumbers and tomatoes are everywhere and I hate for any of it to go to waste. Soooo, I knew I had to be creative with my meal planning to use up what I had. I like cucumbers, but I maybe can eat one a week. Luckily Brady will snack on them, but that still does not take care of the 4 giant ones we picked last weekend. So, I came up with the idea to make a tzatziki sauce (that yummy greek yogurt sauce you get on gyros!) Normally I would put this sauce on a pita with chicken and tomatoes, but we have been trying really hard to stay meatless on Mondays so I had to think outside the box.

When I checked out in the garden I was greeted by lots of this---

 So, Brady and I got to picking! It was a "fun" game of me picking...and him throwing. He kept repeating, "ball." I guess I can kind of see where he was coming from.

With the produce ready to go I just had to somehow turn it all into a meal.  I was "pinspired" by something I saw on Pinterest and decided to just marinate my veggies in a little olive oil, salt, pepper and dried herbs and then sauteed them up and sprinkled a little parmesan cheese on top. I served it with pita bread and hummus and the delicious tzatziki sauce that helped me use up my abundance of cucumbers.

Here's a version of a tzatziki recipe similar to how I made mine: http://www.goodlifeeats.com/2011/06/visiting-crete-tzatziki-recipe-and-minoan-palace.html

This was a fun easy meal and the best part was that I didn't have to buy all that much because I either had the ingredients in my pantry or in my backyard! I wasn't sure how Brady would like this meal because it was a whole lot of textures going on. Basically I cut the veggies up pretty bite size for him and made little pita sandwiches with the tzatziki and hummus. It was a hit! Now I can officially say, "Yea, my kid eats Greek food." Afterwards I even thought of more ways I could improve on this meal- maybe some yummy black olives, feta cheese, or even marinate the veggies in Greek salad dressing and then grill them.

Hopefully you and your family can get in on the fun of gardening for your dinner. If not, hit up your produce stand and see what kind of new cuisine you can make with it!