Cooking with kids

Chocolate Hazelnut Hummus

April 21, 2011 by danawyyc 1 Comment

Hazelnut butter is the only nut butter that I’ve tried that might give peanut butter a run for it’s money. It’s just so good. So it was almost inevitable that my hummus experimentation would end with Nutella inspired hazelnut hummus. It was way better than the peanut butter hummus. I ended up leaving it a little chunkier than I usually do with hummus which gave it a really nutty feel. I ate the whole batch with apples for dipping (over a few days of course!) And I didn’t even share. Yes, it is that good.

Hazelnut butter is not as easy to find as peanut butter or even almond butter. In the superstore by my house you can find it in the aisle with the organic food, soy, and gluten free products. Not in the peanut butter and jam aisle.

Chocolate Hazelnut Hummus

Ingredients

1 can (16 oz) Chickpeas ; rinsed and drained
4 Tbsp Hazelnut butter or 2 TBSP hazelnut butter and 2 Tbsp peanut butter (I just used a big spoon – more if desired)
½ teaspoon Sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ cup cocoa powder
4 Tbsp maple syrup (you can adjust this to taste (2-8 Tbsp)
½- 3/4 cup Water (depending on the texture desired)

Instructions

Drain and rinse the chickpeas.
Add all the ingredients to the food processor (you can use a blender, but it’s not really not as effective. I have tried and don’t recommend it. I ended up buying a food processor so I could make hummus).
Run the food processor until the hummus starts to appear to bounce up and down (this won’t take a really long time) . Alternatively just check it every 10 seconds or so. You’ll want to scrape off the sides of the food processor because I find some chickpeas tend to stick to the sides and then give it another quick blend. If you are finding it’s not as well mixed or creamy as you would like just add another ¼ cup of water.
Serving Ideas With apple slices, as a sandwich spread, sauce on a dessert pizza, on crackers, with pita

Making Muffins– Whole Wheat Pumpkin Ginger Nut Muffins

March 31, 2011 by danawyyc 1 Comment

I don’t bake very often. I like baking. In fact it used to be one of my favorite things to do when I was stressed. But I found that stress eating and stress baking were going hand in hand. So I decided that perhaps I should try different ways to manage my stress and bake a little less. It didn’t hurt that around the same time the oven at our rental unit was broken (I could use the stove and broil things, but not bake) so I couldn’t bake even if I wanted to.

Baking can be so great to do with kids though. You don’t tend to need much in the way of sharp implements and the heat is all at the end. I love ginger and I had some left over canned pumpkin from the holidays so when I found this recipe from the food blog Simply Recipes, I was sure I had found a winner.

Gordie loved them! I made them into mini-muffins because they are easier for little hands to hold. The pumpkin provides some good nutrients, but I wanted to see if they’d still be good if I used whole wheat flour. They weren’t quite as light as the white flour ones (or as pretty) but they were good and Gordie loved them just as much.

Making Muffins– Whole Wheat Pumpkin Ginger Nut Muffins

Ingredients

1½ cups whole wheat flour
½ teaspoon salt1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup pumpkin pure
⅓ cup melted butter
2 eggs beaten
⅓ cup water
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp allspice
1 tsp ground ginger
½ cup chopped pecans
¼ cup chopped candied ginger (I like them roughly chopped but most kids will probably like them better if they’re pretty finely chopped).

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F.
Mix dry ingredients (flour, salt, sugar, baking soda, spices) in a large bowl.
Beat eggs in a bowl and then add the wet ingredients (pumpkin, melted butter, water).
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix with a fork. (I love how recipes say “do not over-mix” without over explaining what that means. I try to stop right after there isn’t any visible dry flour).
Spoon into the mini-muffin cups (using my non-stick muffin tray I find it’s actually better not to grease the pan) and bake for 17-22 minutes. Test a muffin with a toothpick. If it does not come out clean, bake for a couple more minutes and retest.
Makes about 24 mini-muffins.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Hummus

March 26, 2011 by danawyyc 2 Comments

After making peanut butter hummus I started to wonder if you could make a sweet hummus dish instead of the traditional savory hummus. A peek around the internet proved that this was indeed possible so I decided to give it a try. Now some of the sites I visited suggested that this could be an actual dessert. I’m still not sold on that. What I made would not really be good as an ice cream topping for instance, and if I were to add enough sugar and fat to make it that way, I’d rather just go for broke and use caramel sauce.

Instead I would suggest using it as a Nutella alternative. Or as a way to try to get your kids to try beans. Sort of a gate way food for beans. Overall, it wasn’t bad, people who tried it generally liked it, but I don’t think I’m going to have to make a new batch every week.

I’ve give a wide range for the maple syrup because it’s so easy to adjust to taste as you can just add more in and pulse the food processor for a few more seconds. We found that the cocoa came out more with less maple syrup, but it is definitely sweeter with more.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Hummus

Ingredients

1 can (16 oz) Chickpeas ; rinsed and drained
4 Tbsp Peanut Butter (I just used a big spoon – more if desired)
½ teaspoon Sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ cup cocoa powder
2-8 Tbsp maple syrup
¼ cup Water (more if needed)

Instructions

Drain and rinse the chickpeas
Add all the ingredients to the food processor (you can use a blender, but it’s not really not as effective. I have tried and don’t recommend it. I ended up buying a food processor so I could make hummus).
Run the food processor until the hummus starts to appear to bounce up and down (this won’t take a really long time) . Alternatively just check it every 10 seconds or so. You’ll want to scrape off the sides of the food processor because I find some chickpeas tend to stick to the sides and then give it another quick blend. If you are finding it’s not as well mixed or creamy as you would like just add another ¼ cup of water.

Cooking with the Kids
The kids can:

Measure and pour the ingredients
Rinse the chickpeas and put them in the food processor
Run the food processor (with supervision)

Serving Ideas With apple slices, as a sandwich spread, sauce on a dessert pizza, on crackers, with pita

Peanut Butter Hummus

March 18, 2011 by danawyyc Leave a Comment

Peanut Butter Hummus

Ingredients

¼ teaspoon Garlic powder
¼ cup Lemon juice
¼ cup Water (more if needed)
1 can (16 oz) Chickpeas ; rinsed and drained
4 Tbsp Peanut Butter (I just used a big spoon)
1 teaspoon Sea salt

Instructions

Drain and rinse the chickpeas.
Add all the ingredients to the food processor (you can use a blender, but it’s not really not as effective. I have tried and don’t recommend it. I ended up buying a food processor so I could make hummus).
Run the food processor until the hummus starts to appear to bounce up and down (this won’t take a really long time) . Alternatively just check it every 10 seconds or so. You’ll want to scrape off the sides of the food processor because I find some chickpeas tend to stick to the sides and then give it another quick blend. If you are finding it’s not as well mixed or creamy as you would like just add another ¼ cup of water.

It’s funny how much how something is presented can change your attitude towards it. I’ve seen recipes for hummus that suggested you could substitute tahini with peanut butter on multiple occasions and I always thought that was kind of lame. Okay if you lived somewhere that you really couldn’t find any tahini, fine but otherwise?
Then one day my mom sent me a recipe for peanut butter hummus. Peanut butter hummus? Brilliant! Now I realize that this is actually the same thing that I previously thought was lame, but somehow now it sounds interesting and different instead of a cop out.
It’s pretty good too. The peanut butter taste isn’t overpowering but if your kid is a little adverse to hummus, this may be enough to win them over.

Cooking with the Kids
The kids can:

Measure and pour the ingredients
Rinse the chickpeas and put them in the food processor
Run the food processor (with supervision)

Per 1/8 of the hummus: Calories – 81, Carbs – 7g, Fat – 5g, Protein 4, Fibre – 2

Curry Gnocchi – Vegetarian

March 14, 2011 by danawyyc Leave a Comment

Gordie was helping me pick out ingredients from the pantry and figured we should have Gnocchi. And then decided that he wanted chickpeas too. I was a little thrown. I usually just serve Gnocchi with a tomato pasta sauce. So I poked around the internet and that that some people combined these two ingredients with canned tomatoes. That was definitely something I could work with. When I run out of canned tomatoes I sometimes feel like I’ve lost the ability to cook. I decided to add some chopped spinach I had in the freezer which reminded me of an Indian dish so I added some currry spices. Gordie is a little iffy on the spinach (and green food in general at the moment) but loved everything else. The dish I made was a pretty mild curry without too much heat but you could always add more if you were so inclined.

Curry Gnocchi - Vegetarian

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large can diced tomatoes
1 can chickpeas (rinsed and drained)
1 block of chopped frozen spinach
1 package of Gnocchi
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon Garam Masala (an indian spice mix, you can get it here in Calgary in Superstore in the Indian spice section – not the baking aisle)
If you can’t find or don’t want to buy Garam Masala just use twice the curry powder.

Instructions

Heat some oil in a pan. Mix in the spices, tomatoes and chickpeas. You can basically cook this for as long as you want on a low simmer. I’d recommend at least 10-15 minutes.
When you are about 10 minutes from serving, put a pot of water on to boil. Add the Gnocchi to the boiling water. After a few minutes the gnocchi will float to the top. Use a slotted spoon to scoop the floating gnocchi into a bowl (it would also be fine to put them directly into the pan with the tomatoes and chickpeas).
Defrost the spinach in the microwave. As soon as it has thawed, squeeze the water out of it. The spinach will look the best if you add it to the pan close to when you plan on serving it but it will still taste fine if it cooks for a while.
Cook the spinach, tomatoes and chickpeas until the spinach is heated.

Cooking with the Kids
The kids can:

Pour the cans into the pan
Measure and pour the spices
Stir the vegetables under close supervision

Per 1/4 of the Curry Gnocchi: Calories – 316, Carbs – 56g, Fat – 6g, Protein 12, Fibre – 7.

Roasted Butternut Squash

February 5, 2011 by danawyyc Leave a Comment

I took another crack at the butternut squash today. It turned out quite a bit better than the last time. I think the problem before was that the squash wasn’t as fresh as it needed to be. Not that it was bad, it just didn’t have the right consistency anymore – it was a little too mushy around the edges. So if you (like I usually do) buy pre-cut cubes (Costco’s are great) make sure you get the furthest away best before date and check to make sure they are nice and firm when you go to cook them. If they’re not, maybe make soup instead.

This isn’t the lowest calorie vegetable dish you can make but it’s a crowd pleaser and makes a nice side dish for special occasion dinners (or just for snacking!) Unless your kids are going through a really picky stage, they’ll like this dish. And you will like making it! The prep work is minimal and once it’s in the oven you don’t have to do a thing.

Roasted Butternut Squash

Recipe type: Side Dish

Ingredients

2 lbs butternut squash cubes (shortcut – buy pre-cubed)
2 TBSP oilve oil
¼ cup shredded Parmesan Cheese (or white cheese blend)
1 tsp salt
0.5 tsp pepper
2 garlic cloves minced and 2 Tbsp parsley chopped (both optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400F.
Put all ingredients into a large resealable plastic bag and combine (you can also mix in a bowl).
Spread evenly on a single layer on a shallow baking dish. I've found that lining a cookie tray with parchment paper works really well. The cubes pop right off. Whatever you do, don't put them directly on the cookie tray – trust me it will never be the same.
Cook for 40-50 minutes. The edges should be carmelized and golden. You can flip one of the cubes over to check the bottom, but otherwise leave them alone.

Notes

Based on <a href="http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Garlicky-Baked-Butternut-Squash/Detail.aspx">Garlicky Baked Butternut Sqush</a>

I completely forgot the garlic, but they were still great. Adding the parsley makes for a nicer presentation, but I was all out.

If you have leftovers, you can mash up the cooked squash with some pasta water to thin it out and use it as a pasta sauce.

Cooking with kids

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