Rolled Eggs

I was a picky eater as a child (to which I'm sure my mom will agree) and I did not experience anything outside of scrambled eggs or rolled eggs until I was married. That includes omelettes or fried eggs. Rolled eggs were my favorite. Anyway, I don't know where my mom came up with this, but it's still one of my favorite ways to eat eggs. And now my kids like it too.

Ingredients
1 Egg
butter
Salt
Pepper
Parmesan cheese

Scramble egg in a bowl. While scrambling, heat small skillet over medium heat and add about 1 tbsp butter, or enough to evenly coat the bottom of the pan. When all melted, add the egg. Roll pan to ensure egg coats the bottom. Sprinkle egg with salt and pepper. When the bottom is cooked and the top isn’t too jiggly, flip over. Cook the other side until golden brown. Remove to plate, sprinkle inside with parmesan cheese and then fold. Serve while warm.

It's basically a plain omelette. For me, the butter and parmesan cheese add a lot of the flavor. Most of it, I guess, since there really isn't much else to it. The skillet I use is not the larger size, but a small one. I have one from my parents house. I don't know if most people have small ones. If you only have a large skillet, I'd scramble at least 2 eggs versus one. You don't want it too thick, like an omelette, but not as thin as a crepe.

Sweet Potato Pancakes

Don't let the veggie in the name fool you. These are killer good pancakes. Sweet potatoes get a bad rap being veggies, but they are so sweet! They are one of my favorite purees to use in my foods.

Ingredients
1 cup water
1/2 cup sweet potato puree
1/4 tsp cinnamon or pumpkin spice (optional) (You could totally get away with any spice. Ours tasted like a dessert)
1 cup pancake mix
Nonstick cooking spray
1 tbsp canola or vegetable oil
Pure maple syrup, for serving

In a large bowl, mix the water, sweet potato puree, and cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice (I used cinnamon), if using. Add the pancake mix and stir just to combine-the batter should be lumpy. Coat a griddle or large nonstick skillet with cooking spray and set it over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, add the oil, and spoon the batter onto the griddle or pan, using 1/4 cup batter for each pancake. (I didn't use cooking spray or oil. We have an electric griddle and it doesn't need either.) Cook until bubbles form on top of the pancakes and the batter is set, 2 to 3 minutes. Then use a spatula to flip the pancakes and cook them until golden brown on the other side, 2 to 3 minutes.

We didn't have real maple syrup, but these were still ultra sweet. (In a good way, not in a gagging way.) I could even nix the cinnamon next time. They're almost like a Thanksgiving morning kinda breakfast. If you do that next year, give me credit! I think I'll definitely do that, now that I think about it. Anyway, this was a great recipe. Joseph devoured these (like he does with any pancake), and so did we!

Deceptively Delicious

This is a wonderful cookbook I got a few years ago that uses vegetable purees in your regular meals. There are tons of different ones out there. This one is authored by Jerry Seinfeld's wife. It has lots of great recipes, of which I've only skimmed the surface. It gives directions and tips on everything vegetable and everything puree. It's great. I've found that you can use home pureed foods in these recipes, as well as baby food. I've got a baby who's not on table food yet, so we have baby food sitting around all the time. Sometimes I've had home pureed sweet potatoes or yams, which work for her recipes. But I've also found that the canned baby food from the store works great too. It even comes in perfect proportions for her recipes. (usually 4 or 8 oz.) So look out for these recipes coming up soon. They can take a few tries to get used to, but I really do think they're great if you do them properly, and don't tell your kids what's in them!  And to be honest, I don't just do this for my kids' benefit, but for me too. I know I don't get nearly enough vegetables in my diet. So this way we are all getting more of what we need and it feels good to be eating healthy.

French Fries

Yup, we made homemade french fries. These were baked however, not fried. So I must be honest, I don't remember exactly how we did them. We have a french fry cutter. It's pretty sweet. It's like those apple slicers, but it's a bit square with the blades making lots of little squares. So we used that to cut up the potato. If you cut them by hand, you just want them to be the same size, so they cook evenly. I want to say that we might've brushed them with oil. Maybe. Or tossed them in a bag with oil. Then we sprinkled them with Lawry's. We baked them at a 350 (I think) for maybe 20-30 minutes. We checked on them periodically I'm sure. I wish I remember better! You can find plenty of homemade recipes online that bake versus fry. We washed and scrubbed our tator too, but didn't remove the skins. This can be a preference thing. I heard that the skins have nutrients in them, so it can be good to leave them on. They didn't bother us. Sorry for the horrible recipe! I just had to share it anyway, because I was jazzed we made homemade fries. I'll have to make this a part I of II. Next time I'll remember how I made them and give a better tutorial!

Habichuelas Rojas Guidadas con Arroz

I think the literal translation is Stewed Red Beans with Rice. This is a Dominican dish that Aaron had on his mission. I really like this one. We've had it a few times and we're getting better at making it. I really like it! Aaron was the chef on this one as well.

Ingredients
2 cups red kidney beans, boiled very soft
Water in which you boiled the beans
½ cup chopped celery
1 small red onion cut into 4 quarters
1 cube chicken stock (we use granules, or bouillon)
½ tsp chopped coriander/cilantro
½ tsp thyme leaves
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp oil
½ teaspoon mashed garlic
Pinch oregano
Salt

In a pot heat the oil. Add oregano, onion, garlic, tomato paste, celery and herbs. Stir and add two Tablespoons of water. Add the beans and simmer. When the water has almost evaporated add the chicken stock and two more Tablespoons of water, stir. Add the remaining water mashing beans over heat. Boil at medium heat until it reaches a creamy consistency. Adjust salt to taste.
Serve with white rice, a side dish (or salad) and meat.

We've learned that if you cook your kidney beans too long and let them soak too long, they will turn sweet. This is not yummy for this recipe.  I imagine you could easily used canned beans, using the liquid from them as well. You would just need to be cautious later on and add water if needed.

Pancake Tip

This isn't anything revolutionary, but just something I'm beginning to do regularly that makes pancakes easier.

I believe I'm holding a 1/4 measuring cup here. It makes smaller pancakes, but very nice and consistently sized pancakes. They all cook evenly and it's just nice. If you prefer bigger pancakes, use a 1/3 measuring cup. (My griddle holds 4 pancakes this size, at a time. The picture is only far away enough to show 3. You could probably put up to 6 if you chanced putting them close together. That, however, would take pancake flipping skills that I do not yet aquire.)

Taco salad

Over Aaron's two week break, he helped out with the cooking a bit. A few of the next recipes will be Aaron's. This is one of them. He has always loved taco salad. I didn't like it very much, but since my tastebud revolution over the summer, I now totally enjoy taco salad. It's pretty darn easy and pretty darn yummy.

Ingredients
lettuce
tomato
kidney beans (1 can or pre-soaked/cooked)
olives
1/2 lb. ground beef
grated cheese
salsa
tortilla chips

Ground beef. Combine with other ingredients in a large bowl. Serve over tortilla chips.

So I know it's pretty lame that I didn't include very good specifics on how much of what to use. It's really up to you. If you're not a fan of something, don't use very much or you can exclude it all together. It's really an eyeballing thing. If you do like something, you can have more of it.