Recipes

Ok.... Mary P over at DaycareDaze has a kid recipe swap going on....

Elle- you MUST post your enchilada recipe.... because I love it.

So, basically, our meals break down into the same three categories as everything else in our lives.... cheap, easy & green. Everyone already knows my kids eat too many hotdogs and chicken tenders but let me attempt to further the myth of super-mom with the following selections...

Tomato cubes in the freezer. At the end of every summer I get a giant flat box of tomatoes and various other garden leftovers from my grandpa. More than I could ever eat. Ever. So I dump all the extras (tomatoes, onions, zucchini, squash, carrots... whatever) into my big soup pot and cook it down. Then I run it through the blender and freeze it in ice cube trays. I toss the cubes in zip-lock bags and whenever I'm making soup or pizza or spaghetti sauce I toss a couple in for spare veggie goodness.

Cream of Green Things soup. Same idea as above but lots of green stuff (or yellow or orange or whatever) all together in the trusty soup pot. I pause and wish I had a stick blender. Then I run it through the blender and freeze it. Thaw and add cheese tortellini and cream. Ta-da. Ok, sure, the torts and cream aren't exactly health and diet food but YUM.... and the kids will usually eat it.

For FUN we do zip-lock bag omlettes (two eggs and whatever toppings you like mooshed together (be careful not to use too many mushrooms.... it makes it watery), put in a freezer-type small zip-lock with your name on it (seal well and try to get all the air out) and toss in (that trusty soup pot again) boiling water for 13 minutes) or hobo dinners (a hamburger patty topped with tomato slices, carrots, potatoes, onions all wrapped in a foil packet and cooked in the bbq or oven..... best eaten outside while you pretend you are camping.)

Ok.... I admit... FUN in this case means no clean up for mama.

And I present the following two for super-speed.

Pita Pizzas. Um, this isn't really a recipe... pita bread, top with tomato sauce or tomato cubes from above, sprinkle with pizza-style spices and cheese and everyone select their own toppings. Ok... I'm going to confess.... I've also done this with cheddar cheese and left-over taco meat and called them Mexican Pizzas. You can bake them or, in case of emergency "mama, I hun-gee" moments... nuke 'em.

Turkey Roll Ups. My mother-in-law called me at work one night and asked what a turkey roll up was..... Sweet was asking for one. She was concerned with cream cheese and tortillas..... I explained how we make turkey roll ups at our house.... You take a piece of deli turkey. And roll it up. The End.

Oh... and the ultimate swimming lesson meal. I leave work at 4:30, get the kids at 5, take them to the pool for lessons at 5:30. By 6 they are both starving. So last week I made "hamburger-cheese rolls" for special snacks.... served cold, we ate them, with baby carrot sticks, snow peas & blueberries, by the pool and then swam again (without waiting a single minute for our food to settle!) for a while before we went home. They are super-easy to make up and stick in the freezer: Brown some meat (I used elk burger... it isn't greasy) and make a batch of dough in the bread machine. Roll out the dough and sprinkle with meat & cheese & whatever else floats your boat.... we put some tomato sauce & mushrooms in the last batch. Or you could do ham & cheese. Tuff likes chopped pickles in hers. Ew. Then roll up and slice like cinnamon rolls. Bake. Serve hot or cold with ketchup or salsa. Easy and portable. You can also make "mama" rolls with pesto and expensive cheese.

Oh wait... one from my mom.... a special treat when we were kids was a freshly-washed lettuce leaf sprinkled with sugar and rolled up tight. Sugary crunchiness. Mmmm.