1)Facebook illustration by Rok Kobal: Isn’t this the one of the funniest graphics about sleep and kids? This really made me crack up and yes, we have tried every single sleep position here. In fact I am in the “dog house” as I am writing this post.

2) School project on Potatoes on You Tube:  Potatoes are on the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Produce List. Watch this video to see the difference between the organic and non-organic potatoes. Michael Pollan in his book, Omnivore’s Dilemma,  writes about a chemical Monitor that is put on potatoes to control bugs. It is so toxic that no one goes on the farm for 5 days after they apply the chemical no matter what happens on the farm.  This chemical is extremely toxic to the nervous system.  Once the chemical fades then the potato is good for consumption.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exBEFCiWyW0

3) Super Bowl Sunday (2/5)! Whether you’re cheering for the Patriots or the Giants, show your team’s allegiance with Magnolia Bakery’s classic vanilla or chocolate cupcakes, decorated in your team’s colors and topped with Super Bowl XLVI decorations. Cupcakes are $3.50 each and are available in-store.

If asked how much money I spend on my kids for their toys and clothes, I am hazy on the numbers, but I know exactly how much money I spend on food. A few years ago, fed up with throwing away rotted produce week after week from the fridge, I started counting my $$. Clearly, I was over buying. Driven by  a desire to minimize waste, I started going grocery shopping with a specific dollar amount in my pocket. Once that was done, I was finished with shopping for the week. Over time I have adjusted the amount as our family has grown.

When I read reports of how difficult it is to eat at $5/day per person, I snicker because I feed my family of 4  for about $140 dollars per week. This includes fruits and veggies that need to be organic, organic dairy, and organic meat.

Here’s how our weekly grocery budget breaks out:

1)      $50 at the local Farmer’s Market. I walk in with $50 in my pocket and when I have spent that money on our produce, we leave. Over the years I have found that 50 bucks at Farmer’s market minimizes waste (no rotting produce) and this $50 includes our weekly stop at the balloon man and a few dollars as tips for musicians at the farmer’s market.

2)      $50 for dairy, seafood, meat, eggs. This includes organic milk (2 gallons @$6 each) and some combination of organic chicken ($13), seafood ($20), organic dozen eggs ($5) and cheese.

3)      $40 – the remaining $40 is what I call free money – it is spent on bread, lentils, pasta, rice, tortilla,  shopping trips to ethnic stores . This free money is also used for the occasional packaged treat.

This weekly budget feeds us for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the whole week with a few exceptions:

1)      1 meal we eat out as a family over the weekend,

2)      1 meal we probably eat at a friend’s place over the weekend.

3)      My husband eats out for about 3 lunches during the work week.

Here’s why this budget works for us:

1)      We cook at home.

2)      Portion Sizes: We try to eat the correct portion sizes.  Once we started eating the correct portion sizes, we realized how little we have to eat.

3)      We use a lot of dried beans and lentils as it is cheaper than cans. I do however keep a few cans of goodies for Armageddon.

4)      We eat meat/seafood one meal a day.

5)      No soda, juice  or juice packets at home or for school for the kids. We do have a soda stream maker as neither my husband nor I can live without sparkling water.

6)      No power bars and processed packages for kids school lunches.

7)      No chips, donuts, cupcakes, etc.

I recognize that there’s some loop holes  in my budget– but my point is that you can eat healthy without really trying hard. It can be done.

My children have discovered puff pastry now and fancy themselves as gourmet cooks! I think puff pastry makes everything seem gourmet. Growing up, puff pastry dishes were the ones you ate out of the house, because you didn’t make it at home. Imagine my joy when I discovered puff pastry sheets a few years ago and since then they are a pantry staple. I always have a few boxes of it in my refrigerator to whip up something at a moment’s notice.

My refrigerator is always stocked with the Trader Joe’s puff pastry. I love this product especially since it is made with just five ingredients: flour, butter, salt, sugar, and water. The flavor YUM – is so rich and buttery that you can just eat the cooked puff pastry without any filling or topping. That is exactly how we eat it at home more often than not!

When a snack recipe attempt for my daughter’s preschool failed miserably in the morning, I whipped up a batch of freshly baked puff pastry cheese straws for the kids!

Making puff pastry cheese straws takes about 40 minutes but the active hands on time is about 5-10 minutes. You first need to thaw the puff pastry and that takes 5-10 minutes. It takes about 15 – 20 minutes of baking time.

The middle part is the fun part where you can add whatever you want to the puff pastry sheets. Hence, here’s my problem right now, I don’t really have a recipe for these cheese straws as the amount of cheese I add depends on what sort of a mood we are in. Sometimes I will add ½ cup of cheese per 8×8 puff ( 1 sheet of Trader Joe’s Artisan Puff Pastry) and sometimes I add 1 cup of cheese. Sometimes I add grated parmesan, other times I add cheddar and when we are adventurous we add a blend a 4 cheeses. So I guess what I am saying is that you can add whatever you want to the cheese sticks and you can’t go wrong.

Once I sprinkle the cheese on top of the puff pastry, I cut into strips of my desired thickness and I twist each of them into spiral shapes and place about 1 inch apart from one another on a foil-lined baking sheet.

Pre-heat the oven to 425 F and bake your cheese straws for approximately 15  minutes.

Today head on over to my pal Erika’s Blog –  In Erika’s Kitchen for my guest post and my veggie quinoa recipe. Her recipes are amazing but more importantly she’s an amazing person.  She has been doing a Super Foods recipe Series all through January that you will like!

A bite earlier in the day of this dessert was enough of an incentive to make my kids skip their regularly scheduled stop at the vending machine after their swim lessons. Every Tuesday evening, the stop at the vending machine typically ends with them buying a small pack of some processed junk … but not today. They walked right past it only to come home and have their Strawberry Cheesecake. This is seriously the best cheese cake I have ever eaten.

We typically don’t eat cheesecake even though it is so so delicious, but yet so calorie dense but this version will be showing up a lot more in our home. This recipe uses a mix of Greek yogurt and low fat cream cheese for the filling. It also uses these amazing Graham Crackers from Attune Foods. Check out the ingredient list:

Organic wheat flour, Organic whole wheat flour, Organic evaporated cane juice, Organic vegetable oils (safflower or sunflower oil), Organic evaporated cane juice syrup, Organic honey, Organic molasses, Leavening (baking soda, ammonium bicarbonate), Sea salt, Cream of tartar, Organic cinnamon.

I love it! I can actually read all of them. I love that about Attune Products. Their ingredients make you feel good.  Their cereals are also amazing, which is another post. Full disclosure, I was given product samples from Attune Foods but the opinions are all mine.

Did I forget to mention that you can assemble this cheesecake in less than 5 minutes and no baking required?

Light Strawberry CheeseCake (makes 2 cups or about 16 oz)

1.5 pieces of New Morning Organic Cinnamon Graham Crackers

½ cup Fage 0% Plain Greek Yogurt

½ cup Horizon Organic reduced fat cream cheese

2 tbsp sugar or your preferred sweetener

5 strawberries cut into small pieces

2 tsp strawberry jam

1)      Hand crush the crackers place them in the bottom of your cups.

2)      Mix the greek yogurt, cream cheese and the sugar. Place the mixture equally in 2 cups.

3)      Cut the strawberries into small pieces and mix with the strawberry jam. Place the strawberry mixture on top of the yogurt mixture.

4)      Eat right away or chill for a few hours and eat!

This is what happens when you keep a dish aside to photograph later for a blog post without a note saying to not eat anything. Yes, what started off as a plate full of beautifully arranged Parmesan Cilantro stuffed mushrooms had two lonely mushrooms looking for a tummy! I guess on the bright side, they must have been delicious because if I didn’t come back to the kitchen in time these two babies would have been inhaled too.

I am a fan of small bites. It is easy for the kids to pick the food up; you can use these small bites for lunch or afternoon/after school snack or a playgroup snack. These crispy mushrooms definitely appeal to the younger kids who have a preference towards crunchy taste. Also, did you know that Mushrooms are a great source of Vitamin D?

Cilantro Parmesan Stuffed Mushrooms (makes about 20-25 mushroom bites)

Ingredients:

20-25 small (bite) sized white Mushrooms

1 medium diced red onion

2 garlic cloves finely chopped

1/4 cup chopped Cilantro (both leaves and stems)

½ cup Breadcrumbs

½ cup freshly grated Parmesan Cheese

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil

Instructions:

1)      Wash mushrooms and gently twist off the stems. Chop mushrooms stems.

2)      Sprinkle little salt in Mushroom cavity.

3)      Rub oil (approximately 1 tbsp) on the outside of the mushrooms.

4)      Heat a pan on medium heat and add the oil. Add chopped garlic and onion and sauté until onion becomes translucent.

5)      Add chopped mushroom stems, cilantro, and salt and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

6)      Mix in the breadcrumbs and the grated parmesan cheese.

7)      Stuff the mushrooms with above stuffing. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Put stuffed mushrooms in oven for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven. Serve warm.

1) Biodegradable shoes: How awesome are these shoes? These shoes by O1M  are eco-friendly and 100% biodegradable. They are made from natural latex. And they are not yet available in the US at the moment. They just launched a kid’s line also. Love them and I cannot wait to get my hands on them.

2) Natural Cold Remedy: When someone in my family gets a cold, this is my go to remedy. It almost always works and within a day I find the congestion disappears. My natural cold remedy is here.

3) Sandwich Art: I am loving the sandwich art from Low-Commitments Project. I think these sandwich designs are awesome for the older kids as they will appreciate the designs.

4) The Best Homemade Baby Food On the Planet Book: Were you confused on what to feed your 1st born?  I certainly was. Well I wish I had this book 5 years ago. There are more than 200 baby food recipes in this book which can be made in less than 10 minutes. Stay tuned, I have a giveaway of this book lined up for February.

I am a big fan of kebabs or patties. Kids love them too. They are awesome finger foods. They are multi purpose – you can eat them for lunch, snack, dinner, school lunches and serve as an afternoon snack! My 2 year old inhaled these patties. They have this smoky bacon flavor that just makes everything so yummy! Doesn’t bacon just make everything better?

Try them – Black Eyed Peas are still in season and they are full of fiber and potassium. Presoaked Black Eyed Peas are available in your local Ralphs if you are in the Southern California region.

Did I also mention that you can freeze them too?

Makes: 25 patties

1 11oz Frieda’s presoaked Black Eyed Peas (about 2 cups of Black Eyed Peas)

2 uncooked bacon strips

1 small bunch cilantro

1 small bunch parsley

1 small bunch chives

1tsp freshly grated ginger

1 tsp freshly grated garlic

1 tsp salt

1 egg

1 cup of bread crumbs ( I crumbed my dried 9 grain bread, but use any bread crumbs you have)

Oil for frying

1)      Boil the presoaked Black Eyed Peas till they are cooked. This should take approximately 20 minutes.

2)      Drain the water and keep the Black Eyed Peas aside.

3)      Cut the uncooked bacon strips into small pieces and add it to the black eyed peas.

4)      Finely cut all the green herbs (cilantro, parsley and chives) and mix together. You will need about ½ cup of the finely cut green herb mixture. Add the green herbs to the black eyed peas.

5)      Add the ginger, garlic and salt and mash the black eyed peas mixture using your hands or a potato masher.

6)      Add an egg to the mixture to bind it. Form into patties about ½ inch thick and an inch wide.

7)      Roll the patty in breadcrumbs.

8)      Heat oil over medium high heat in a large skillet. Cook the patties until nicely browned on both sides, about 3-4 minutes per side.

My daughter and I were invited to experience their Kid’s Menu.

(sometimes we make goofy faces instead of happy smiley ones )

I love how they broke out the menu into 3 categories – a nice way to teach kids what are sources of protein, carbs etc. I also like that fries are not listed under vegetables.

Aren’t these Bento Boxes the cutest way to serve a kid meal? I love the boxes and apparently so did all the kids eating there:

Simone ordered the Grilled Tofu, Sweet Potato Fries and the green beans. She was a fan of the sweet potato fries (never met a kid that doesn’t love fries!) and the tofu. They were both seasoned and had just the right amount of flavor for the kids. She was not a fan of the green beans as they were just boiled. I think Take A Bao could definitely season it with some garlic and soy sauce similar to the Chinese Green Beans and the kids will love it. The kid’s menu is priced at $6.

We also tried their Tofu Popcorn, Shishito Peppers, Roasted Sesame Edamame, Duck Confit Bao and Short Rib Bi Bim Bop.  Everything was perfectly seasoned and beautifully presented. I thought the  tofu popcorn, lightly battered tofu cubes with cilantro cashewnut chutney, was a very innovative dish. The cilantro cashewnut chutney was so delicious that I asked the chef for the recipe.

My favorite part of the whole experience?

The Ginger Lychee Martini! I think I can drink this baby all the time. Made from candied ginger, lychee puree and fresh lime zest – sipping it made me feel like I was on some beach in Asia.

Do check out Take A Bao – you and your family will truly enjoy your dining experience.

All of the photography in this post unless otherwise noted ) is ©Rashmi Nigam . I was invited to experience Take a Bao with my family. All of the thoughts, opinions, images and such are my own.

(source: Crunchacolor.com)

Designs that transform the eating experience:

I am in love with a few products on this list of product designs that have transformed the dining experience – dip and squeeze ketchup, smaller coke bottles, click n cook spatula systems.  My personal favorite item on the list? The Zoku Maker! A staple in our home and very popular with the kids! Always a hit at playdates in our home. YumKid has over 35 Zoku Recipes.

(source: businessweek.com)

Magnolia Bakery ships their cupcakes Nationwide:

Magnolia Bakery ships nationwide (only in the US) through their online store.  Baked fresh using the finest ingredients. Now you can get some of their classic and specialty popular cupcakes delivered straight to your home. They even have a cupcake club.