Breakfast Muffins

One of my favorite things to cook up for breakfast is a breakfast muffin. This is a great brunch food and the possibilities are endless for what you can put in. All you need is a package of  Pillsbury Crescent Rolls and your favorite breakfast items. In my house this is scrambled eggs, bacon, and cheese. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Take a muffin pan and spray some Pam into the tin. Unroll your dough and place a square in each muffin base so that the largest part of the dough is in the bottom of the tin. Top with some bacon, eggs, and cheese then fold the rest of the dough over the ingredients so that all the filling is covered with dough. Place in the oven for about 18 to 20 minutes and serve. I tend to serve these with my version of these Homefries. Hope that you find your family's favorite breakfast muffin.

Quick and Easy Pasta for Kids

There are some days when I am not in the
mood to eat at the same time as the kids
are. On those days I struggle to find something healthy and wholesome for the kids. Here is what I came up with one night, that received raving reviews.

Whole Wheat Pasta
1 apple peeled and diced
1/4 cup of dried cranberries
1 package of Green Giant's New Immunity Blend

Cook pasta and veggies as directed. Mix cooked vegetable with drained pasta, add in apple and extra cranberries, serve.

Captain Crunch Fried Chicken

I love fried chicken this is probably due to the Sunday dinners that we would have while I was growing up in the Midwest, but something about good fried chicken just makes me happy. I have spent years playing around with different breading options and one that always seems to catch every one's attention is my Captain Crunch Fried Chicken. I use Peanut Butter Captain Crunch, but I am sure that the regular would work just fine. I thought that this would be a fun meal for my son to help make, and he seemed to enjoy helping out with this meal. So without further ado, here is the recipe for Captain Crunch Fried Chicken:

3 cups of Captain Crunch cereal

boneless skinless chicken breasts or tenderloins

2 eggs, cracked and mixed

oil

Place cereal in a plastic bag that will be large enough to hold the mashed crunch, and the chicken pieces. Pour around 2 inches of oil into a cast iron skillet and heat on medium low. While oil is heating, use a rolling pin or kitchen mallet crunch the cereal into crumbs leaving some larger pieces. Dredge chicken in egg mix and left out letting as much extra drip off as possible. Place chicken into bag and shake until all pieces are well coated. Place chicken in heated oil and cook until crust is golden brown, and chicken is cooked through.The timing depends on the size of your chicken piece. Remove chicken from pan and place one a plate lined with a paper towel to drain. Serve with mashed potatoes, corn, and a house style salad and enjoy a fun meal that the kids will love too.

Summer Twist on Fall Classic

I love pork chops but, they seems to be more of a fall thing, that is until Asian Barbecue by Vicki Liley gave me an idea for a summer twist on a fall classic. In the recipe in the book, there is an Asian flavor twist. I personally wanted something that reminded me more of the classic oven roasted flavors. Here is what I came up with...

1 package of boneless thick cut pork chops

2 apples (I used Fuji, but go for what you like)

1 large white or yellow onion, cut into wedges

2 tablespoons of parsley

1 tablespoon onion powder

salt and pepper

Using an apple corer, core apple. Cut pork into apple sized pieces and season with salt and pepper. In a bowl large enough to hold all ingredients, mix pork, apple, and onion and season with parsley and onion powder. Place in fridge for 20 minutes, and soak skewers in water for same amount of time. Heat grill on Medium-High. While grill is heating place pork, apple, and onion on skewers alternating each ingredient. Place skewers on grill and cook with the lid on, turning over after 3 minutes until the pork in done. Serve with a mixed greens, cranberry, and walnut salad.

Sweet Potato Fries

My 1 year old is eating solid foods now and some day it is a challenge to come up with healthy things to feed her. I have been reading about what a super food the sweet potato is and have been looking at different ways to bring this vegetable to the table. The vegetable is a excellent source for vitamin A, vitamin C, Vitamin B-6, dietary fiber, potassium, and iron, why wouldn't I want to serve it to my kids. So thinking of ways to eat this that did not involve the use of forks, or pureeing the sweet potato where a challenge until I remembered how many people keep telling my how good sweet potato fries are. French fries are a great finger food, my daughter has never had them that I know of (a question for my husband perhaps?) so why not make her first experience a healthy one. I looked up some sweet potato french fries recipes and realized that I was going to want to bake them and not to season the fries so much that the nutritional benefits of the sweet potato were lost. I was amazed at the amount of recipes that called for tons of sugar my only thought was why bother adding sugar to something that is already so sweet. So here is what I came up with:

Sweet Potato Fries

1 sweet potato, peeled

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/2 cup of olive oil

1/2 teaspoon of paprika

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Cut the sweet potato into strips about 1/2 inch thick. In a bowl large enough to hold the potato strips mix olive oil, salt, and paprika and toss potatoes making sure that each is coated. Place seasoned fries on a baking sheet in a single layer and bake for 45 minutes for a slightly crispy fry. Serve immediately.

Fried Rice

I am sure that I have mentioned that I normally purchase fried rice from Trader Joe's but never again will I. For some reason fried rice was something that I was scared to make. I did not know how to make it, so I never bothered trying to figure it out, this changed when my 1 year old started eating solid foods. Fried Rice is a great food for new eaters as it has everything but dairy in one dish. I found a recipe on http://fooddownunder.com/cgi-bin/recipe.cgi?r=25505 and started to play, I made some chicken fried rice and some beef fried rice, and both were a huge hit with the whole family. Here is my recipe modified from the link above:

Basic Fried Rice Recipe

4 cups of cooked rice

1 cup of frozen peas

1/3 cup of chopped carrots

1/2 cup of diced onion

2 tablespoons of butter

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

1 1/2 cups of cooked Chicken, Beef, or Pork

Cook rice following instructions on package. Pour rice into a large bowl to let it cool in the refrigerator. If adding meat to the recipe, cook meat and set aside. Scramble the eggs in a small pan over medium heat, separating the eggs into small pieces while cooking. In a large pan add some butter, and cook onions and carrots until the onions are translucent, set aside with eggs and meat if using. Melt 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter in the same pan that you cooked the onion and carrots over medium/high heat. When butter has completely melted, dump the cold rice in the pan and make sure that it is coated with butter. Add all other ingredients into the pan and add soy sauce. Cook rice for 6-8 minutes over heat, stirring often. Serve.

Chicken Finger Parmigiana

The kids have been off with the husband for the past few days and to welcome them home I decided to make some baked chicken finger parmigiana. This is a super simple recipe and works great for a healthier version of chicken fingers too.

Baked Chicken Parmigiana

6 chicken tenders

1 1/2 cup of seasoned bread crumbs

1/2 cup of marinara sauce

1 egg beaten

salt and pepper to season

1/3 cup of mozzarella cheese

1/3 cup of parmesan cheese

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Place bread crumbs in a bowl and in another bowl add the beaten egg. Dip chicken tenders in egg, then dip in bread crumbs, place on cookie sheet and bake for 14 minutes. In a shallow baking pan spread some marina sauce, place chicken tenders in dish, cover with cheese and more sauce. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until cheese is melted and chicken is fully cooked.

Pesto Pizza

I found some new premade pizza crust the other day at the grocery store, Mama Mary's Thin and Crispy Pizza Crusts. Put your favorite toppings on and cook according to the package instructions, and these really come out nice and crispy. In the most recent issue of Bon Appetit, there is an article on a pizza and prosecco party, that gave me an idea for a simple pizza that I knew John would eat. Pesto and Feta, simple toppings, but 5 year old friendly. I highly recommend that you try these premade crusts the next time you are in a hurry and would like an easy meal and check out the other ideas for pizza in Bon Appetit for some inspiration.