Archive for the ‘kids in the kitchen’ Category

Hop Hop Hop

April 4th, 2010

It’s Easter! Around here that means an ‘egg’stavaganza of egg coloring. This year we used 3 colors. Turmeric for yellow, paprika for red and chlorophyll for green. Last year we had also boiled red cabbage for a blu-ish color and beets for red.

To make the dyes, we added boiling water to our color with a couple teaspoons of vinegar which helps the color set on the egg. For colors with foods like onion, cabbage and beets, you would boil the veggie until the water is colored and then pour off the liquid and add the vinegar.

The color of the eggs are fantastic! They are mellow and earthy and I never feel bad if some of the dye seeps in through a crack unlike when we used to use the chemical dyes. There is something to be said for the process as well. My kids (and me) love making the colors themselves and knowing what it came from. Gatlin enjoyed smelling the turmeric and paprika to see what “flavor” they were.

Good things can not be rushed. I will say, the natural dyes do take time to set. It is not wham bam done but that is part of the fun for us. It is an event of egg dying not a two second project.

So boil those local farm fresh eggs and hop to it! Have fun and happy Easter!

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Pasta Marinara

April 2nd, 2010

One of our favorites was always pasta with marinara sauce. I used to love pasta night because it was quick and easy. When we started adjusting our diet years back, I switched over from wheat to rice pasta and still good ‘ole faithful marinara sauce. Well, time for more change led us to a new twist on our old fave! We still have pasta marinara but the sauce is raw and our noodles are spiralized zucchini, carrot, summer squash or other veggies we can create twisties with!

I have tried several marinara sauces but I must say my absolute favorite and the biggest crowd-pleaser is from Living On live Food which is Alissa Cohen’s fantastic raw recipe book. It is easy to make and reaches all the taste buds with a bang!

To prepare the veggies you will use a spiralizer. Get the kids in on this one! They love doing this part. Spiralizers (you can get one in the Bodega) are a fairly inexpensive kitchen gadget and can add a great deal to your ability to make raw pasta. If you do not have one yet, you can use your vegetable peeler to make wide noodles.

Marinara Sauce

  • 2 1/2 c. tomatoes
  • 12 sundried tomatoes, soaked
  • 3 dates, pitted and soaked
  • 1/4 c. olive oil
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 2 TBS parsley
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 1/8 tsp cayenne
  1. Put all ingredients in food processor and blend until smooth.
  2. Pour sauce over you noodles and eat!

You can also marinate the zucchini after spiralizing it in lightly salted water. This will soften the noodles and release some of the water of the vegetable. It is not necessary to do this but is a nice thing to try.

I like to vary the sauce as well. Adding fresh basil or other fresh herbs I have and I do prefer to add a few more dates. Other than that I stick fairly close to Alissa’s recipe.

Remember the toppings. We are talking about pasta here so, add some nutritional yeast for your parmesan, top with minced sundried tomatoes, capers, minced yellow pepper and a spring of fresh parsley or basil. Voila!

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homemade hummus

March 14th, 2010

One of our favorite on-the-road snacks is hummus. Garbanzo beans are high in calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium and zinc, and are a source of dietary fiber and protein.The tubs in the store can be expensive, and can have preservatives or other unnecessary ingredients.

Soak the beans overnight to reduce cooking time — soak, drain and cook for 1-2 hours, and drain again. You can soak for 12-24 hours, sprout them for 2-3 days until the tail is about as big as the bean, and then steam them for 20 minutes or so until they soften. I’ve found enough information online and in The Sprout Garden to make me wary of eating raw chick peas, so if you decide to go that route, proceed with caution and do your research.

Seeing Lucia making sweet potato chips for the camera, Dante decided he wanted to make some hummus too. Except that was the first day we used the camera, and somehow the main video of him putting in all the ingredients was corrupted. Since he gives the recipe, I asked him to film it again using the extra chick peas and pretending to add the rest. He was a trooper though and acted as tho he had actual ingredients to add to the food processor bowl (love watching him “scrape out” all that tahini!).

Hummus

  • 4 cups cooked/steamed chick peas (~ 2 15oz cans)
  • 2 Tbsp lemon
  • 3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1/2 cup tahini
  • 1 tsp salt, or to taste
  • 1/2 tsp  cumin (or to taste)
  • pinch nutmeg
  • 1/4 cup water (or as needed to reach desired consistency)
  • 3-4 Tbsp olive oil

Put all ingredients in the bowl of the food processor and whizz. We usually add everything but the oil, and once the dip is nearly done, we add in the oil. We taste and add more spices, salt or lemon juice at this point as well. Sometimes we add more garlic, or roast the garlic first. You can add more lemon, 1 red pepper, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, chives or more to keep things interesting. While we tend to use hummus as a dip, we also spread it on rinsed romaine leaves and top with onion and tomato .  Sometimes we smear it on toast

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