Pasta Primavera

1/2 pound asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 sweet orange peppers, cored, seeded and cut into 1/4-inch strips
1 pound spaghetti
3/4 cup half-and-half
3/4 cup chicken broth
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tbsp olive oil
5 cloves garlic, sliced
2 cups grape tomatoes, halved
1/3 cup grated Parmesan
1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Shaved Parmesan, optional

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add asparagus and green beans; cook 4 minutes. Add peppers and cook 1 more minute. Scoop out vegetables with a large slotted spoon and place in a colander. Rinse under cold water.

2. Add pasta to boiling water and cook following package directions, about 9 minutes. Drain; return to pot.

3. While pasta is cooking, place half-and-half, chicken broth, salt, pepper and nutmeg in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat.

4. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add olive oil and garlic and cook 30 seconds. Add cooked veggies and tomatoes. Cook, stirring a few times, about 1 minute, 30 seconds. Spoon into pasta pot. Stir grated cheese into the half-and-half mixture. Add to pasta and gently stir in parsley until all ingredients are combined. Allow to stand for 5 minutes. Shave Parmesan on top, if desired.

*cover recipe from the April 2010 Family Circle magazine, pg. 129

Diet and Exercise

Exercise:

One of Katelyn's favorite things to do is run. We can get her to eat almost any vegetable by assuring her that it will help her run faster. (We can get her to eat all the rest by telling her pink sparkles will trail behind her as she runs.) She wants to be the fastest. Much faster than daddy! Maybe someday she will beat him, but I don't know--he's pretty fast. So in the meantime she eats her veggies and dreams of the day that she will run, trailing pink sparkles, right past her daddy and off into the distance. She's such an interesting and funny girl.

Diet:

My sister, Maggie, was in town visiting last week and we made her a special dinner the Sunday before she left. It turned out so good, I want to share the recipes again...plus I'm tired of digging into my archives to find them. So here are the recipes I love for a baked salmon and a peach cobbler. They're both quick and easy, and even my kids love to eat it. Doesn't get much better than that.

Baked Salmon
Serves 2

Ingredients
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 tablespoons light olive oil
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
2 (6 ounce) salmon fillets

Directions
1. In a medium glass bowl, prepare marinade by mixing garlic, light olive oil, basil, salt, pepper, lemon juice and parsley.
2. Place salmon fillets in a medium glass baking dish, and cover with the marinade.
3. Marinate in the refrigerator about 1 hour, turning occasionally.
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
5. Place fillets in aluminum foil, cover with marinade, and seal.
6. Place sealed salmon in the glass dish, and bake 35 to 45 minutes, until easily flaked with a fork.

Peach Cobbler

I like to use more peaches...three of the small cans instead of two. And you can also use less sugar if you like. This recipe is from the Salt Lick restaurant in Texas.

12 Servings (but we ate the whole thing in a day!)

Batter:
1/2 cup melted butter

1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup room temperature milk
1 room temperature egg

Filling:
1 (28 ounce) can sliced peaches, drained
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Melt butter in a 9 x 13 inch pan.
2. Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder & salt. Stir in milk & egg. Pour evenly over melted butter.
3. Combine peaches, sugar & spices and spread over batter-DO NOT STIR! Bake 35-45 minutes until batter comes to the top and is golden brown.
4. Serve warm with ice cream.

P.S. Did you have a favorite summer movie this year? Ours was Ponyo. Six thumbs up! (Me, Kate, and Zach).

Ode To Baked Salmon

My sister was over the other day. My house smelled fishy because I had left some out earlier. I've never cooked fish in my life. It was just some frozen Gorton's that I had microwaved for lunch. Pretty sad, I know.

Anyway, she thought I had cooked it myself. "Wow," she said, "I've never cooked anything 'fancy' like that before. I have no idea how to make fish."

Well, neither did I. I felt the same inadequacies about preparing fish as she did, but I didn't tell her so. I just let her believe I had the skills. But by taking credit for the Gorton's I had sealed my fishy fate. I knew I would have to make the real thing in order to feel like less of a fraud.

So yesterday I hopped on over to recipezaar.com for a little lesson on baked salmon. Holy cow, was it ever easy! My sister and I had been silly to fear fish. All we needed was a little education.

Here is the Baked Salmon Recipe, which is easy, healthy, and inexpensive. Not to mention, it tasted "fancy" in a good way. Even Katelyn liked it. I have a feeling this will be my new staple dinner recipe. Go Mediterranean!!

Baked Salmon
Serves 2

Ingredients

2 cloves garlic, minced
6 tablespoons light olive oil
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
2 (6 ounce) salmon fillets

Directions
1. In a medium glass bowl, prepare marinade by mixing garlic, light olive oil, basil, salt, pepper, lemon juice and parsley.
2. Place salmon fillets in a medium glass baking dish, and cover with the marinade.
3. Marinate in the refrigerator about 1 hour, turning occasionally.
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
5. Place fillets in aluminum foil, cover with marinade, and seal.
6. Place sealed salmon in the glass dish, and bake 35 to 45 minutes, until easily flaked with a fork.

The Mother Is In: Free Advice

For the record...I don't offer this advice because I feel smart or anything. Quite the opposite. I offer this advice because we struggle in the child-eating-dinner arena, and I'm excited to find something that worked. If Katelyn got her way she'd eat a bowl of oatmeal for dinner every night. Even though she probably already had it for breakfast, and I probably gave in and let her eat it for lunch, too. And she might have even had an oatmeal snack somewhere in between. Honestly, if Katelyn were stranded on a deserted island, she would want to be stranded with oatmeal...and apples. She could eat those two foods all day. Sometimes she actually does.

Anyway, here's a trick that worked for me tonight. You can take it or leave it. Sorry all you mommys with boys. Although this MIGHT work for some of the little guys, I only recommend trying it on the girls.

This is the deal I cut with Katelyn at the dinner table tonight: “For every BIG bite you take of your dinner I will paint one of your fingernails.” I figured this would buy me at least 10 large bites of dinner. Maybe even 20 if we included the toes. Well...it worked like a charm. I even got lucky: after a few bites she decided that she actually liked dinner. She ate three servings and I only had to paint five nails. It was a miracle!

What is this miracle food that little Katelyn actually ate THIRDS of? Broccoli Cheese Casserole. Even Adam labeled it a "Keeper".

This year I am resolved to eat more vegetables. At least one a day. That may not seem very lofty to most of you, but it is for me. Right now I'm in the stage where I don't care what form it comes in; as long as it is a veggie I feel like I'm doing good. That is why I didn't mind that today's vegetable--broccoli--came disguised with mayonnaise, cheese and bacon. If you can handle that, you'll love this recipe.

20 oz frozen broccoli
1 can cream of mushroom
¾ cup mayonnaise
4 oz shredded sharp cheddar
2 eggs
1 onion, chopped
5 slices bacon, crumbled
Crumbled Ritz crackers

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cook the broccoli and bacon. Drain the broccoli.
In a bowl mix the soup, mayo, cheese, egg, onion, and bacon. Fold in the broccoli.
Pour into a greased 9x13 pan.
Sprinkle Ritz crackers on top.
Bake for 30 minutes.

A yummy way to get your veggies.

***Eventually I want to take my veggie habit in a more Mediterranean direction, so if you have a yummy/healthy recipe for veggies or with veggies please let me know. I need help becoming veggie inspired!***