Okay, how's everyone doing with their New Year's resolutions? We are trucking along here, and doing surprisingly well with upping our vegetable intake.
Here's what has worked:
--Setting out raw vegetables (sugar snap peas, baby carrots, sliced green pepper, cherry tomatoes) with ranch dressing for boys (including DH) to munch on while I cook dinner. This has the added benefit that it seems to draw DH to the kitchen where I'm able to put him to useful work setting the table, pouring drinks, etc.
--Serving two vegetables every night. I've noticed that my boys seem to like a variety of things on their plates, so I've been making it a point to make at least two things be a vegetable.
--Adding more vegetables to things we already eat. Easy example: tossing more vegetables onto our weekly homemade pizza.
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Savannah is finally thawing out after 2 weeks of temperatures in the 20's. I wasn't sure I was going to survive. For those of you still below freezing, here's a wonderful, though very imprecise recipe for roasted vegetable soup. It's one of our favorites, and everyone, even my 2 year old, inhales it. The basic instructions are this: take 2 half sheet pans. Fill each with a single layer of diced vegetables, any combination you have on hand of cherry tomatoes, sweet potatoes, yukon gold potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, and butternut squash (basically, use up all your odds and ends of veggies - a great recipe to make at the end of the week). Toss the vegetables with olive oil, sprinkle liberally with salt, and a little less liberally with pepper. Roast the vegetables at 425 degrees for 30 minutes. Once they are nicely cooked (browned and tender all the way through), dump them in a large soup pot, and add 2 cups of chicken stock. Blend with your handheld blender until you reach the desired consistency, adding more chicken stock as needed. Taste for seasoning and add more salt and pepper as needed. Heat through and serve hot. Freezes brilliantly.
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I read a quote by a food critic this week that made me think she's been spying on our dinners: "Meals with small children do not end; they disintegrate." Truer words were never spoken. Can someone please explain WHY, when there are 2 children, and 2 candles to blow out, they have to fight over who blows out the one on the right?
