If I was stranded on a desert island and could only bring one cooking tool with me, it would be my slow cooker.  (Don’t read too much into that sentence since if I was on a desert island, I could fashion a grill from native trees and rocks and probably an oven, too, if I was smart.  What I am saying is how much I like my slower cooker.  And yes, I know I’d have to have some sort of battery for it, but if the Professor can figure it out, so can I.)

Anyway, I my slow cooker rocks because it transforms tough (read: cheap and flavorful) cuts of meat into something tender and sublime.  Even better, whatever you cook in slow cooker absorbs all of the flavors around it, meaning you can create some true masterpieces in 4-6 hours.

Masterpieces like…

Slow Cooker Mexican Pork Recipe

I promise this  recipe is easy.  You’ll need about 15 minutes to prep, then dump everything into the slow cooker and come back later.  It’s also really messy if you want it to be (or if you kids want it to be!)

You will need:

• 4-5 dried chilies (anchos and habaneros are my favorite)
• 1 2 pound pork shoulder (aka Boston butt or pork butt)
• Healthy amounts of garlic powder*, salt, pepper, basil
• 1 onion, diced
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 1 tablespoon Mexican oregano

* If using garlic powder offends you, make a garlic paste out of 8 or more cloves of garlic instead.

Fill a saucepan 3/4 of the way full and bring it to a boil.  Add the dried chilies, turn off the heat, and cover.  In 10 minutes, they will be soft.

While the chilies are rehydrating, score the pork with a knife by making 1/4 inch incisions across all sides of the pork.  Rub salt, pepper, and garlic into the incisions.  Don’t skip this step (Mrs. WellDone, I am looking at you on this one.)

When the chilies are done rehydrating, pour out all but a few tablespoons of the water the chilies were boiled in and remove the tops and (optionally) the seeds of the chilies.

Now you have a choice.  How are you going to process the chilies.  You can either put the chilies and their water into a food processor or you can leave them in them in the sauce pan and use an immersion (stick) blender to mix them up.  (The stick blender is by far the messier, noisier, and more fun option.)

With that decided, put the onions, orange juice, wine, and oregano in with the chilies and use your food processor/stick blender to make a nice paste.  You are looking for something with the thickness of ketchup.  If it’s too thick, add a little more wine.  If it is very runny, drain off some of the water.  (Note: it’s better to be too runny than too thick.)

Finally, put the pork in the slow cooker, pour the chili paste on it and rub it into the incisions.  Cover slow cooker and cook for 6 hours.

Serve with tortillas and green salsa.  Enjoy!

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SproutGear

Of course, he owns SproutGear.com, a cool little kids’ boutique, so he’s not really the most impartial of witnesses, but he does have some cool stuff.  This cool stuff will include, very shortly, some of my kid-friendly recipes and perhaps even a contest about cooking with your kids.

In the meantime, check out some of the cool stuff on his site.  He’s got everything from the perfect gifts for the mommy-to-be, baby clothes, shoes, stuff for dads, baby baskets, baby carriers, and the one must have for everyone who loves to cook with their kids: aprons (although I do need to get BWD, Jr. a chili pepper bandana!)  Here are few aprons from his catalog:

Not too shabby.  Now, if only he could get some aprons with some manly prints like footballs or monster trucks or dinosaurs.  G.I. Joe maybe?  Transformers?  BWD, Jr. would love that!  (Though he might like the pink, too, but that’s another story.) 

Anyway, go and check out SproutGear.com and check back here for the official contest annoucement.  Maybe buy an apron.  Enjoy!

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Over the past six days, we’ve looked at several different recipes which are kid friendly, both in how they taste and (mostly) in how they are prepared.  At the very least, the recipes were reasonably healthy and there were at least a few steps that younger children could do under adult supervision.

But one question remains.  Why?  What’s the big deal about your cooking with your kids?

I wish this question were a no-brainer, but the more I read about health issues, childhood obesity, and even childen who fail to adjust as adults because no one spent time with them, I just keep wondering how we can afford to not cook with our children.  Really, in the end, cooking with your children isn’t just a great way to nourish their bodies, but their minds and their hearts, too.

Nourishment of the Body

Without a doubt, food you cook at home from basic ingredients (ie nothing straight out of a box and into the microwave) is going to be healthier than what you get at a restaurant or from a box.  Restaurant food (while delicious) is stuffed full of butter and oil and sodium and stuff you and your children really don’t need.

That’s why we stressed healthy over the past six days.  It was imporant that we didn’t just show how to make a burger and fries or chicken strips.  They are easy enough to do, but they should be sometimes foods.

And granted, we didn’t always succeed.  There was butter in the noodles and oil in the rice, but overall those dishes are going to be healthier than their equivalent dish at a restaurant.

Still, that’s largely secondary to the real reason you should cook with your kids…

Nourishment of the Mind and the Heart

Cooking with my son is time we spend together and as a dad who travels a lot and works a lot, that’s invaluable.  If I were to be nothing more than pragmatic, when BWD, Jr. and I cook together it kills two birds with one stone.  We get food on the table and we spend a good thirty minutes together.

But it’s so much more.  My son takes genuine pride in the fact that he’s my sous chef, I’m the head chef, and Mrs. WellDone is the pastry chef.  (Well, technically she’s the bakestry chef, but that’s close enough.)  We use cooking as a way to get him to try new things, learn new skills (like counting, fractions, colors, etc.) as well as learning to love cooking. 

Plus, he takes pride in the things he makes, even if at this point all he makes is um… interesting combinations of soy sauce, seasoning salt, and whatever cheap spices we can find on sale at the grocery.  (Oh, by the way, he makes us try them using the same logic on us that we use on him when it comes time to try something new… shudder.)

Ultimately, there was just something deeply profound about the last time I had to travel for work and I told him that he was the man of the house.  His reply: “Does that mean I’m the head chef and mommy’s the sous chef?”

Pretty cool.

Cooking With Your Kids: The Guide

Despite these recipes and the fact I love cooking with my son, cooking with your kids is hard.  Especially when they are younger and can’t read recipes.  Here are some things I keep in mind when I cook with BWD, Jr.

I look for recipes which involve minimal cutting (which I always do) and lots of steps that he can handle.  At this point, those steps are fairly limited, but include stirring, rinsing, kneading dough, and using a pizza cutter on dough.  You know your kids and you know what they’re ready for…find recipes that fit their skills.  Then let them participate.

The important thing you have to remember is not to get upset.  That’s the problem I have…I start worrying more about the dish than about the time with my son and sometimes I have a tendency to take over or get short.  It’s not worth it.  Use the time to be with your children.  Leave the gourmet for some other time.

Hopefully that helps.  Now, get out there and cook with your kids.

Enjoy!

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The Sushi Chef’s Noodles

Seriously, this is one of my son’s absolute favorite dishes in the world.

What is it?

It’s the noodles we get when we go to “sushi.”    Which to the rest of the world is usually called “Japanese steakhouse,” but in my family goes by the name sushi.

Why do we call it sushi?  As the story goes, I love sushi.  Love it.  Love it.  There’s only one problem.  As a restaurant experience, waiting for a platter of artfully arranged raw fish takes time, especially in the quantities in which I like to order it.  Sadly, the amount of time it takes to make the sushi far outweighs the patience of a typical one, two, three, or four year old.

Enter Japanese steakhouse and the fire, the onion volcano, the banging on the stove with wooden sticks, etc.  All of that is more than enough excitement to keep a little one entertained for as long as his father needs to wait (un)patiently for his sushi.

Even better, my son will actually eat the food at the Japanese steakhouse, including the noodles, which he loves so much we always have to order extra.  Here then, is the recipe for those noodles.

Japanese Steakhouse Noodles

These noodles are simple.  You can use anything you have, including spaghetti.  The basic technique is the same.  However, if you can find them, look for “Cantonese” noodles.  They look kind of like spaghetti (same thickness and color, but they taste slightly different.)

You will need:

• 12 oz Cantonese noodles
• Salt
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon oil
• Soy sauce
• Pepper

Boil the Cantonese noodles in salted water until just al dente.  Remove from the water and dump them in an ice bath to stop their cooking.  Drain and set aside.

Mix the garlic and the butter together to make garlic butter.

In a skillet, add the oil and get it hot.  Then put the now dry noodles on the oil.  Put the butter under the noodles and wait until it is melted.

Pour the soy sauce over the noodles, sprinkle with pepper and stir until the noodles are warm.

Serve.

Note: These recipe is slightly hardcore.  It is every step I can find to make perfectly restaurant-quality Japanese steakhouse noodles.  If you have neither the time nor the inclination to cook the noodles, then shock them, then recook, don’t.  If you want, just boil, drain, put them back in a pot with the oil and butter.  Then add the garlic, pepper, and soy sauce and you’re done.

Enjoy!

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Apple, Banana, and Peanut Butter Sandwiches

Yes, this recipe is very simple, but it’s important to know that there are fun, meatless alternatives we can give our kids that aren’t fried or full of sugar.  Sure, some peanut butters are little more than hydrogenated oil and sugar, but this recipe can be healthy if you use the no sugar added peanut butter.

Besides, if you add enough apples, bananas, and perhaps a touch of honey (or agave), they’ll never know the difference!

Apple, Banana, and Peanut Butter Sandwich Recipe

Get ready for a recipe that requires no cooking at all.  I suggest toasting your bread, but you don’t even have to do that.

You will need:

• 2 slices whole wheat bread
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter
• 1 banana, sliced
• 1/2 apple, diced
• Honey or agave nectar to taste

Toast the bread in your toaster or in an oven.

Spread the peanut butter over the bread, cover with bananas and apples.  Drizzle honey on top.

Enjoy!

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Healthy Fried Rice

I know, there’s something about “fried rice” that means it can’t be healthy, right?  It has the word fried in it, so it has to bad.  Listen,I know I’ve seen fried rice made where it in no way resembled a health food.  It was dripping with oil and butter and who knows what else.

But, it doesn’t have to be that way, trust me.  The way we make it at Blog Well Done central uses only a little oil, some soy sauce, and whatever veggies or meat we want to throw in there.  The version we make is a little high in sodium because we use soy sauce, but you can use low sodium soy to get around that if you like.

In terms of making this with the kiddos, this is a perfect recipe.  It requires a little cutting in the beginning (the type only adults should do.)  However, once that’s over, all that is required is stirring.  As long as you don’t mind a little mess, kids of just about any age can handle this recipe.

Healthy Fried Rice Recipe

One thing this recipe does require is some planning.  Fried rice is always best with rice that is a day old because it is dry and will soak up the soy sauce, broth, etc.  So if you can, make extra rice the day before and save some in the refrigerator.

Also, if you have it, use brown rice for this.  You’re going to make the fried rice brown anyway with the soy sauce, so you might as well use a healthier rice and sneak it past children who might otherwise be picky about that sort of thing.

You will need:

• (optional) 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter (or a second tablespoon of olive oil)
• 2 chicken breasts, thinly sliced
• Salt and pepper
• 1 carrot, julienned
• 1 stalk celery, julienned
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 1 cup cooked rice
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2-4 tablespoons of broth

Get your wok or skillet very hot.  (If kids are doing the work, go to medium-high.  It will take longer, but burn less.)

Add the eggs and scramble them.  Do your best to break them apart into small pieces.  When they are done, set aside.

Add the olive oil, the chicken and the vegetables with a pinch of salt and pepper.  (Not too much salt because of the soy sauce used later.)  Cook until the chicken is done.  Remove to a plate.

Melt the butter in the wok.  Add the rice, garlic powder, soy sauce, and two tablespoons of broth.  Stir the rice and watch as it rehydrates.  Cook until it has fully rehydrated.  You may need the other two tablespoons of broth depending on how dry it was.

Add the eggs, chicken, and vegetables back in, stir until they are hot and serve.

Enjoy!

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So as coincidence would have it, tonight my son wanted to make homemade spaghetti and meatballs.  Never one to turn the boy down, I thawed out some hamburger, found the flour, and we started cooking.

As a meal to make with your kids, spaghetti and meatballs is pretty good.  Most kids like it and though there is a not-so-trivial effort in handmaking noodles and meatballs, a lot of that effort can be done by even the youngest child.  On the other hand, it’s not exactly a speedy process.  In order to constantly give your children tasks to do, make sure you follow the order as I have it laid out here.  That way, something is always cooking.

Homemade Spaghetti and Meatballs Recipe

Real quick, here is the general order of things:

1. Thaw the meat
2. Make the noodle dough
3. Mix and roll the meatballs
4. Cut the noodles
5. Cook the meatballs
6. Start the sauce
7. Cook the noodles
8. EAT!

Like I said, lots of steps.  But none too terribly difficult.  Oh, and to save on time, you can use storebought sauce if you’d like.

You will need:

• 2 pounds hamburger
• 3 cups flour + more for bench flour
• Salt to taste
• 3 tablespoons garlic powder (divided)
• 7 eggs (divided)
• 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
• 1 tablepsoon Parsley
• 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
• Black pepper to taste
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 Jars of tomato sauce

Step1: Thaw two pounds of hamburger  (done!)

Step 2: In a big bowl, mix the flour,  a healthy pinch of salt, and 1 tablespoon of garlic powder.   Make a well in the middle of the flour and add 4 eggs plus 1 yolk.  Mix well.  You may need to add a little water to the mixture, but what you are looking for is something that looks almost like dough, but is in large clumps.

Pour the clumps out on the table and knead with your hand until you have dough.  Wrap in plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator until you have the meatballs rolled out.  (done!)

Step 3: In a mixing bowl, add the thawed hamburger, 2 eggs, the rest of the garlic powder, breadcrumbs, all the parsely, Parmesan cheese, and black pepper to taste.  Mix well and then roll into quarter-sized balls.  (done!)

Step 4: Noodle time!  Divide the dough ball into quarters.  Roll out each quarter so that it is about 1/8-1/4 of an inch thick.  Use a pizza cutter to cut out the noodles.  Don’t worry too much about the size or width, just cut them.  Spread them out on a cookie sheet to let them dry.  (done!)

Step 5: Pour the olive oil into a skillet and get it hot over medium-high heat.  Add the meatballs and cook for 4 minutes.  Then flip and cook for four more.  (done!)

Step 6: Pour in two jars of sauce. (done!)

Step 7: Get a pot of well-salted water boiling and add the noodles.  Cook for about 2-3 minutes (fresh pasta cooks very quickly.)  Try a noodle.  If it’s al dente, it’s ready to go. (done!)

Step 8: Enjoy! (done!)

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Purple Cabbage Slaw

(Note: purple cabbage = red cabbage, but at home we call it purple cabbage.)

Okay, as a “kid dish” this slaw is a bit of a risk.  First and foremost, it’s a slaw.  That means lots of vegetables and in the case of this slaw, there’s no sugared mayonnaise to mix in to mask the presence of so many vegetables.  Secondly, the flavors are a bit more, shall we say, mature.

On the other hand, the flavors are not so far out there that kids should get turned off.  Plus, this is something they can help to make.  Younger kids can mix the dressing and the slaw while older children can shred the cabbage (as long as they are well supervised.) 

Of course, all of this misses the obvious point: the slaw is purple.  And kids eat purple.

Purple Cabbage Slaw Recipe

Okay, first and foremost, I adapted this recipe from Chef Cody Hogan and a class he taught many, many years ago.    So thanks to him for the inspiration.

You will need:

• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 head purple cabbage, shredded
• 3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

Mix the red wine vinegar, sugar, lemon, and a healthy pinch of salt and pepper in a bowl.  Then slowly drizzle in the olive oil, whisking the entire time.

Pour half of the dressing over the cabbage and sprinkle in the paramesan cheese and a little more salt and pepper.

Taste the slaw.  Continue to add more dressing until you like the flavor of the slaw.

Enjoy!

Thanks to geishaboy500 for the picture.

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Macaroni and Cheese with Tuna Fish

Let me start off by saying that I despise this dish.  Yeah, I know, I should keep it positive, but seriously, bleck.  And I mean bleck from the bottom of my heart.

However, my son loves the stuff, which as far as I am concerned, is as good a reason as any for a paternity test.

With that aside, you might be wondering how healthy mac and cheese with tuna fish can be.  It’s a fair question.  A lot of mac and cheese comes from a box and tuna is pretty high in mercury.  Also, unbleached flour isn’t exactly fantastic for kids.  Plus, there’s a lot of cream and butter in mac and cheese and that’s not so good.  And if you are wondering all that, you have a lot of nerve.

Still, I have solutions to all of these issues.

Macaroni and Cheese with Tuna Fish Recipe

Okay, so in order the objections were:

1. Processed food (mac and cheese in a box.) We’ll make it ourselves in about 30 min.
2. Tuna high in mercury. Switch the fish types or only serve this dish once a week.
3. Unbleached flour in the noodles. We’re making this ourselves, so we’ll use whole wheat noodles.
4. High in Fat. We’ll skip the butter and use whole milk to lower the fat content.

Oh, one other thing.  I am a big believer in crunchy toppings for my mac and cheese, so we’ll use baked chips for the crunch.

Ready for the recipe?

You will need:

• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 12 ounces fun whole wheat macaroni shapes (Cars and Mickey Mouse are big around here.)
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• (optional) 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
• 4 oz tuna fish
• Bag of baked potato chips
• (optional) Paprika as a garnish

Preheat the oven to 350.

Put the milk and garlic powder in a sauce pan over high heat and bring to a boil.

Immediately afterwords, get the well-salted pasta water boiling for the macaroni.  Drop the macaroni when the water starts to boil.  Remove when just al dente.

When the milk starts to boil, add the cheese and the optional mustard and stir to melt the cheese.  You should have a nice, thick cheese sauce.  If too thick, add a little milk or chicken stock.

In a bowl, add the macaroni, cheese sauce, and tuna fish.  Mix well, probably with your hands (sounds like a kiddo job, doesn’t it?)

Spread out the mixture into one even layer in a greased baking dish.  Top with the potato chips and bake until 20 minutes or until bubbly.  Sprinkle paprika on top.

Enjoy!

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To get thing started, I thought I’d call in a ringer: Heidi van Pelt.  Heidi is a great vegan chef, which means she’s the expert at getting kids to eat their vegetables.  She’s got a great vegan restaurant in Kansas City called Fud which serves up a mean plate of food if you know where to find it.

I asked her for this recipe in particular after see her demo it at a food event.  It’s very easy and it’s so colorful most kids won’t care that it’s good for you and filled with weird stuff like purple cabbage and chard.

So, without further ado:

Rainbow Wraps

If you’re looking for something really easy, fresh and full of nutrition, all you need to do is think about the rainbow. Eating the rainbow with every meal is the best way to get what you need.

If you’re wondering why eat all the colors, well the answer is easy. We see in the rainbow spectrum. All foods for human consumption come in those colors and each color delivers a variety of nutrients from that
color category. In fact, when we need a vitamin our body should naturally crave a color that vitamin is most dominant in.

Sometimes, due to mass marketing of colored candies and food packaging, it’s confusing for us to really source the real stuff. Sometimes the real stuff doesn’t taste as good as the packaged stuff because we’ve grown accustomed processed foods with added sugars and fillers.

One way to retrain your body to be attracted to the foods necessary for proper healing and growth is to start with fresh ingredients and make a tasty wrap. I call this the Rainbow Wrap.  Here’s how to do it.

Rainbow Wrap Recipe

• Collard leaves, washed and destemmed
• Avocado, halved
• Juice of a lemon
• Sea salt
• Purple cabbage, shredded
• Tomato, diced
• Carrot, shredded
• Fresh herbs like basil or cilantro, cut into strips
• Raw Walnuts, pecans, or sunflower seeds

Begin by removing the stem of the collard leaf and lay it out to fill with all of your ingredients.

Next, smash some avocado on the bottom, then sprinkle with lemon juice and sprinkle with a dash of salt.

Add cabbage, tomatoes, carrots and top with some chopped herbs, walnuts, pecans or raw sunflower seeds. Squeeze a little more lemon and a dash of salt and roll up and eat!

Remember to add the rainbow every time you eat.  Next try banana mashed on the collard leaf with raisins, goji berries, apple and a dash of lemon!

Eat the Rainbow!

Heidi

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