The What’s Cooking Blog has moved: Please visit us at our new location: whatscookingblog.com

The What’s Cooking Blog has moved: Please visit us at our new location: whatscookingblog.com

You will find this article there

The What’s Cooking Blog has moved: Please visit us at our new location: whatscookingblog.com

You will find this article there

The What’s Cooking Blog has moved: Please visit us at our new location: whatscookingblog.com

You will find this article there

With Halloween right around the corner, I have been giving a lot of thought to the menu for our annual block party. We are hosting the party at our house this year, and I hope to serve some delicious finger foods to fill up our bellies before hitting the streets.

I haven’t settled on the menu yet, but here are some items that I am considering:

• Vampire Drool
• Orzo with Roasted Seasonal Vegetables
• Sticky and Slightly Spicy (Bat) Wings
• Spiced Pecans
• Marinated Mini-Mozzarella (eye) Balls with Pita Crisps
• Sour Cream and Scallion Dip with Sweet Potato Chips and Carrot Fingers
• Mummy Pizzas that the kids will make themselves (Just pull apart string cheese and lay it on an English Muffin topped with a little marinara…Add some sliced olives for eyes and voila – you have a mummy pizza!)
• Pumpkin Chocolate Brownie Cake – Absolutely delicious! (We had a bit of buttermilk left over from waffles this weekend, so I used that instead of the sour soy milk she recommended.)

Update: Here are some photos of our food from the Halloween party.  Pictured, you will see Vampire Drool with a Green Ice Hand, Marinated Mozzarella Eyeballs with Pita Crisps, Orzo with Roasted Vegetables and Bat Wings.  Everything was a hit, although I was reprimanded by my daughter for not making enough Bat Wings.  They were gone in a flash!

Although I can control the quality of the foods I’ll be serving at home, I can’t control what will be doled out by the neighbors.

Kids are often afraid of the sights and sounds that meet them when the doors at each home creek open…but the truly frightening experience lies in the ingredients of the foods that they are collecting: partially hydrogenated oil, high fructose corn syrup, alkali, chemicals, artificial colorings and more…

There is no sense in banning candy – that will only make everyone want it more (parents included…admit it!). But it might be worth a few moments to read some of the labels in your stash, just to see what you are consuming and how it will affect you. It just might help prevent you from over-indulging.

In some homes, parents have created a wonderful compromise – Kids select a few of their favorite treats to keep and trade the rest with you for a toy, trip to the movies or some new books.

If you would like to promote a Healthier Halloween yourself, leave the candy at the store. Instead, pick up some flower or herb seed packets, pencils, colored markers, stickers or small card games to distribute instead.

The What’s Cooking Blog has moved: Please visit us at our new location: whatscookingblog.com

Hey, don’t shoot the messenger! This is a title of an article that my husband told me about in the New York Times…

I found it to be very interesting, especially their explanation of how evolutionary biology plays a part in why children are (and should be) cautious about certain foods.

The article also supports what I have been promoting:

• Don’t be a short order cook. Make one family meal each night and don’t cater to the little drill sergeants in your kitchen. (We do that enough the rest of the day!)
• Lying to your kids may not be the best policy.
• Be persistent – It can take 8-12 exposures to a new food before it may be liked…or tasted!

For those of you who are fairly new to my blog, I thought I’d refer you to one of my earliest posts about some power struggles that I was having with my son. Because I Said So… describes how Ari and I avoid battle engagement at the dinner table.

The What’s Cooking Blog has moved: Please visit us at our new location: whatscookingblog.com

This weekend, our family attended the Doof-A-Palooza at the Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California. It was an amazing Fun Food celebration that allowed kids and their parents to learn about food through fun interactive events from growers, authors and chefs who shared their knowledge and passion.

Doof is an innovative television series for children aged six to eleven. Bound for public television, the show uses humor, science and music to teach youngsters about healthy eating and the joy of culinary exploration.

One of the highlights of the day was Co-Hosting our own pretend food show with Bay Cafe’s Joey Altman. We even got a copy of the DVD to bring home!

Other fun activities included:

• A cheese-smelling contest from the wonderful Cowgirl Creamery
• A art station that used vegetables instead of paint brushes – give it a try! You would be amazed at how well broccoli, carrots and celery work to apply paint and texture!
• Petting baby goats and learning how to make ice cream and yogurt from goat’s milk.
• Touching, “sea-ing” and tasting various types of sustainable seafoods.
• Learning how to roll Spring Rolls.
• Making our own apple sauce, pies and pizzas
• Making Bagel Faces with Mollie Katzen

As a person whose career is based on healthy cooking with children, it warmed my heart to see the Google Campus filled with families interested in celebrating food and cooking. It was also an amazing networking opportunity for me. Mollie Katzen gave me permission to use some of her recipes in What’s Cooking Weekly, our healthy menu planning service for families. And Michael, the founder of Doof, is interested in working with What’s Cooking in the future.

At the end of a long day, we were full…not just with delicious food, but with new ideas to try with our friends and students.

The What’s Cooking Blog has moved: Please visit us at our new location: whatscookingblog.com

I wondered if I should upload this here for fear that people would think it was in poor taste. But then I remembered how it made me laugh out loud, and wanted to share that simple pleasure with those who could use a lift today.

The What’s Cooking Blog has moved: Please visit us at our new location: whatscookingblog.com

You will find this article there

The What’s Cooking Blog has moved: Please visit us at our new location: whatscookingblog.com

Yesterday after school, we had my daughter’s friend, Emma, over for a play date. Like most multi-tasking mothers, I started getting ingredients for dinner ready while they were playing. Emma kept coming into the kitchen to stare at my ingredients and to ask questions. When I told her that we were making Asian Lettuce Wraps, she wanted to know why I liked to make foods from other countries. I happily explained how fun it is to try new foods. She leaned over the steaming pot of pad thai noodles and loved that they were almost invisible…I am so lucky to have a career that sparks such enthusiasm in kids!

When I found out that her mother was running late, Emma ran to the table to eat dinner with my kids. After the first bite, she asked, “do you always make such nice dinners?” I looked at the table and had to laugh. It was simple and took less than 30 minutes to prepare. But it made me realize that before I began meal planning, I made the same things over and over again. Emma explained that she was tired of the foods she got for dinner, and asked me if I could tell her mom what I did to the food to make it taste so good.

When her mother came to pick her up, her stood wide-eyed as the kids asked for seconds…and thirds, and ate their asian broccoli slaw! She admitted that until she saw Emma eating with such gusto, she hadn’t realized that she was in such a food rut. She started asking questions about What’s Cooking Weekly, my online meal planning service for families, and decided that she would give it a try. Even if she just tried a few of my menus, or simply added some of my sides to her existing repertoire, she said it was still a good value. She was also excited that she would start saving money on groceries, since she would go into the market knowing what she was looking for.

She nearly had to drag her daughter away from the table when I said that I had to save the rest of the food for my husband, who hadn’t arrived home from work yet.

So, what was that simple menu that caused such a sensation?

Asian Broccoli Slaw:
1 bag broccoli slaw mix from Trader Joe’s
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
2 Tbs. sesame oil
2 Tbs. sesame seeds

Combine dressing mix and pour on salad, to taste.
Yes, that’s it!

Pad Thai:
This is embarassing – I used a package from Trader Joe’s that was in the back of my cabinet for 6 months. The kids loved it, and it was so easy that I’ll use it again. Next time, I might add some scrambled egg, tofu and maybe some julienned bell peppers or carrots.

Asian Lettuce Wraps:
1 pound ground turkey
1 can water chestnuts
1 small red onion
2 Tbs. oyster sauce
2 Tbs. hoisin sauce
1/2 tsp. salt
Juice from 2 limes
1 Tbs. brown sugar
Large lettuce leaves (bibb lettuce works well)

1. Dice water chestnuts and red onion. Combine in a bowl, along with the oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, salt, lime juice and brown sugar.
2. In a large skillet, begin to brown the ground turkey. After 3 minutes, add red onion mixture.
3. Cook until the turkey is done.
4. Serve by putting the turkey mixture on top of a lettuce leaf. You can wrap them like a burrito, or like a taco. Either way, be prepared for some of the filling to fall out. The kids loved the fun and challenge of eating their food like this!
5. Serve with Asian broccoli slaw, pad thai noodles or steamed brown rice.