Mama Tested, Mama Approved

I scribbled frantically through last Thursday's LLL meeting to capture the great ideas and recipes that were shared… and here’s the list! Please let me know if I didn’t faithfully record your recipe and I’ll be happy to edit. ☺
Meal Ideas
Baked Oatmeal -
3 c rolled oats (not instant, if gluten free- make sure they are certified)
1/2 c brown sugar
2 t cinnamon
2 t baking powder
1 t salt
2 T flax meal (optional)
1 c milk (or soymilk, water)
2 eggs
2 t vanilla
1/4 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup dried fruit
I used a 4 quart round crockpot. You're baking this, but no need to vent the lid of the crock; keep all the moisture in. I really wanted this to take 6 hours on low so I could see if it could be done overnight. It took 4 3/4 on low for me, so unless you hardly sleep do it during the day so you can keep an eye on it!
Mix all the ingredients in the crockpot. I dumped in all the dry stuff, then added the melted butter and milk. Stir well with a spoon -- make sure the baking powder gets dispersed evenly.
Cover and cook on low for 3-5 hours, checking every so often. This is done with the edges are brown and beginning to crust, and the center is set. An inserted knife should come out clean.
Let it sit in the cooling crockpot for at least an hour before attempting to cut. The longer you let it sit, the more set and brownie-like the pieces will be.
OR bake in a 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes, until set.

Curry Chicken
2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs (mine were frozen solid)
1 onion, sliced
6 garlic cloves, chopped
4 T butter
15 cardamom pods
2 t curry
1/2 t cayenne pepper
2 t garam masala
1/2 t ground ginger
1 can coconut milk
1 can (6oz) tomato paste
2 T lemon juice
1 c plain yogurt (to add at end)
large bunch of chopped fresh spinach
Use a 5 qt or larger crock pot. Put chicken in crockpot, add onion, garlic and all of the dry spices. Plop in the butter and tomato paste. Add lemon juice and coconut milk. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 4. The chicken should shred easily with 2 forks when fully cooked. Add fresh spinach and let cook until just wilted. Stir in plain yogurt 15 minutes before serving. Discard cardamom pods. Salt to taste, serve with white or brown basmiti rice.

Quesadillas – Top a whole grain tortilla with cheese, black beans, chopped zucchini, grape tomatoes, avocado. Top with another tortilla and heat in a lightly buttered skillet. Serve with salsa.

Fish Tacos – heat talipia in skillet, season with salt and pepper. Wrap in tortilla, taco style, and top with cheese and your favorite tex-mex toppings.

Salmon – remove skin. Toss in sesame/soy sauce. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, pan fry. Turn fish and finish in oven.

Salmon - Place a ring of wadded-up aluminum foil in a deep skillet. Place a dinner plate on the foil, then add water to the skillet. The water should not reach the level of the plate. Drizzle salmon and plate with olive oil, then top fish with lemon slices and dill. Steam for 5-10 minutes.

Fish - cook in foil packets in the toaster oven. It seems to work better to use more small packets than one large. Add onions, lemons and tomatoes if you want.

Cabbage – cut in thirds and slice thinly (almost like small noodles) then sautee in olive oil and salt. Even the 4 year old approved!

Raw Cabbage Slaw - Toss thinly sliced cabbage and carrots with a drizzle of honey, vinegar, diced dried apricots and raisins. Let sit in the fridge overnight, then enjoy.

Black Bean Burgers – especially with walnuts and mushrooms...

Quiche – 3 eggs, 1/2 cup milk or half-&-half, cheese and veggies. A crust is optional... bake until done. Moms especially seem to like steamed spinach. ;)

Quiche - Brown rice layered with egg and cheese in a baking dish. Add diced asparagus, diced mushrooms and spinach with feta cheese. This is a great use for leftover rice.

Veggie Sloppy Joes - green lentils, onion, celery, catsup, balsamic vinegar, water in a crock pot. The veggies keep a great texture!

Snack Ideas
smoothies

cheese chunks

cheese-and-crackers

any kind of fruit, dried or fresh

veggie sticks

granola and yogurt

mac-n-cheese-wieners and broccoli (just a spoonful of mac-n-cheese helps the broccoli go down!)

walnuts, raisins, apricots, occasional chocolate chips for trail mix

muffins

sliced french loaf with yogurt and raisins, peanut butter

eggs - scrambled, sandwich, yummy with cheese

Favorite Recipe Sources
Whole Foods for the Whole Family
Feeding the Whole Family
How it all Vegan
How to Cook Everything
Busy Mom's Slow Cooker Cookbook
Dr. Sear's Family Nutrition Book
allrecipes.com
Betty Crocker Cookbook
Nourishing Traditions

Our Favorite Recipes

Today's meeting was a big success. We were pleasantly surprised to have such a great turn out on this rainy morn. Melanie and Kate chose to lead a discussion on planning meals and snacks for the family. It can be a challenge at times to keep it interesting with 3 meals and probably 2 snacks a day; feeding ourselves and our yungins something delicious and nutritious is a grand task. I am so glad to have had this discussion as I wanted us all to have a recipe share months ago, and I failed to write this post as I had promised. Well, better late than never ; )

Thanks to Emily for coming to the meeting with not one, but two recipes in hand with copies for all!! I plan to try the oatmeal bake very soon, and maybe next time we can get you to bring your famous spanakopita recipe. Mmmmmm Many of us have enjoyed it at a couple previous LLL picnics. It was great to have a couple new faces join us, and one mama brought a favorite vegan cookbook, How it All Vegan. I enjoyed looking through it, and I will be putting that one on hold at the library. I don't know about the rest of you, but after todays meeting I found myself super hungry!

Oh, and I cannot leave out one of my most inspiring people...Cynthia Lair. She is the author of Feeding the Whole Family, one of the titles that Melanie mentioned today. Her quirky little video blog can be found here:

http://www.cookusinterruptus.com/

Here is my contribution to the recipe exchange. If you would all leave a comment to this post and share your favorite "old stand-bys," perhaps anything/everything you think of as just ho-hum because you make it so regularly, we will all find that the things one person thinks of as the usual boring meal, everyone else will see as a new and great food idea.

Christina

Spinach Tortilla Pie

This is great warm or room temp, so something good to take to a pot-luck. It is a snap to prepare. Total time about 30 minutes.

6 tortillas (I like the Ezekiel sprouted grain tortillas) the original recipe called for corn, but in the 100 times I have made this, I have yet to get around trying it with them :)

1 - ten ounce package frozen chopped spinach - prepared according to package directions

aprox. 6 ounces good quality feta cheese - crumbled (our fave is Split Creek Farms through Locally Grown)

1 cup chopped fresh tomatoes when in season - when they are not, I use about 3/4 can of diced

3/4 can pinto beans

olive oil

Preheat oven to 375. Brush olive oil onto both sided of tortillas, and fan them out into a round pie pan so that they overlap to make a "crust." Bake for about 8 minutes. Spoon the spinach evenly over the tortillas followed by the tomatoes, feta, and beans. You can top with a small drizzle of olive oil. If you desire, you can season with salt and pepper. Bake about 15 minutes until tortillas are crispy, but be careful not to overcook. Enjoy now or later when cool. It really is delicious, and although I have a mental block against making it at times because it is just our old tortilla pie recipe, whenever we do, I always declare how tasty it is, and my husband and I proceed to inhale large servings and nibble through any left sitting on the stove, polishing it off by night's end.

Bon Appetit