New Meals

First off, you must know that I am not above feeding my family a meal from a box. I just wish my children would also eat the other more nutritional things that I put with it. In the Deceptively Delicious Cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld she makes everything from scratch, which is amazing! BUT sometimes I just don't have the time to do that... but that didn't stop me from squeezing in some veggies! On New Years Day I cooked a huge meal with cornbread dressing, ham, broccoli cheese casserole, rolls, and pecan pie. I knew my kids would snub their noses at it the moment it was placed in front of them. That didn't stop me from putting it in front of them, but I made a couple extra sides to put with it.
I took a box of Kraft mac & cheese and made it just how the box tells you to but also stirred in 1/2 cup sweet potato puree with it.
My kids do not like to eat protein unless it is battered and fried... so I bought some unflavored protein powder to add to some dishes.
I had some instant potatoes in the pantry that I made how the package said to, I added 1/2 cup cauliflower puree and half a scoop of protein.
For dessert I got a Pecan Pie because that is Adam's favorite and he deserved a treat but I new the kids would have nothing to do with it. I took a Betty Crocker pack of Chocolate Chip cookie mix, made it according to the directions on the package, and added 1/2 cup Zucchini puree.
I put their plates in front of them (we have a rule that you have to at least try everything. "Try it, you might like it" is our phrase.) and of course Emma ate all her mac and cheese, her roll, and most of the mashed potatoes after I she had tried everything on her plate and she finished it off with a cookie for desert. Eli surprised me he ate 2 servings of mac & cheese, 2 servings of mashed potatoes, his roll, half of the broccoli & cheese casserole, and a serving of cornbread dressing. Then he topped it off with a cookie for desert.

Last night I made pasta for dinner. I cheat and use prego sauce, but I mixed it 1/2 cup of red bell pepper puree with the sauce that I put on the kids pasta. they loved it and ate it all.

Emma loves yogurt. Both of my kids LOVE breakfast food. They usually eat all their breakfast, but sometimes that is the only meal they will eat all day even though I offer them other foods throughout the day. So this morning before Emma woke up I made some special yogurt.
1/2 carton Strawberry yogurt
1 whole carton Vanilla yogurt
1 cup frozen strawberries
1/2 cup squash puree
1 scoop protein
Put it all in the blender til smooth and then I put it back in he original yogurt containers
I tasted it and it was so good! Tasted like strawberry yogurt

For breakfast I made oatmeal from the cookbook


1 cup milk
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup sweet potato puree
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons peanut butter
Mix all those in a medium saucepan, bring to a boil and stir in 1 cup old fashioned oats
reduce the heat and simmer 2-3 minutes until oatmeal is soft and creamy.
I added more milk at this point since my kids like their oatmeal semi runny
Pour into bowls and top off with
a small handful of mini chocolate chips
& sugar free maple syrup

My kids ate this up! Loved it!
Today for lunch I made grilled cheese using the same cheese mixture (on whole wheat bread) from the cheese quesadillas in a previous post "Challenging Challenge" and they were success! Emma ate the whole sandwich and then got a zucchini cookie for desert!

Happy Cooking!