What's Cookin'-Week 1

This week I started my own recipe challenge. It's probably not that challenging to many people, but I am trying to cook more for my family (kind of hard, as my oven is broken right now). I'm trying to make healthy meals that they will actually eat, but even if they don't, I want to offer up a variety of foods for them to try.

I started with something I loved growing up: a simple taco salad. I mixed the ground turkey (and tempeh for me) with taco seasoning. If I make this again, I will be sure to try out the recipe I read on  The Mama Dramalogues . With a big bowl of greens in the center and LOTS of things to add in all around, the kids could create a salad like me or fill a taco shell like Dad. Samantha helped set the table. All of the condiments made my salad for lunch the next day very easy to throw together. And of course (look at all that food!) we had leftovers the next night.

Next I tried veggie burgers. They don't look that great, but I love them. I made a side dish of coleslaw (with broccoli instead of cabbage). I used yogurt instead of mayo. Kids didn't like it that much, but Ethan ate a decent amount of his burger. And there were some other options: potato chips (made in my toaster oven—remember oven is broken), pickles and grapes.  

If you have any suggestions for what I should try out, I'd love to hear from you!

What's Cookin'

With my kids going back to school on Tuesday, I am newly motivated to try to cook some nice and healthy weeknight meals for the family. Too many times we've fallen back on soup (from a can), chicken nuggets and sandwiches. I'm not looking to make anything fancy. Just some simple, fresh foods that might broaden their palettes a bit and make me feel good about serving it to them. And it's not all about the kids. I find that when I spend some time making a meal, I sit down and savor it a bit more than something I just throw together. I'd also like to have a nice option for my husband when he comes home from work. He might not get too excited about the veggie burgers I plan on cooking up this week, but it will be there if he wants to try it!

Though the kids will be in school all day, I don't plan on cooking all day! I am planning an art class I'll (hopefully) be teaching at the school, working on a newsletter and two magazines, continuing with Raspberrykidz and (coincidentally) putting together a cookbook as a school fundraiser. I would, however, like to work on organization and simplicity, and I'd like to keep the grocery bill down at the same time.

I also think that posting here will help motivate me to make a nice presentation, because I will occassionally take pictures of what I serve up to post here, starting right now. Above is a simple green bean dish I brought to my parents' house this evening for a barbeque.

If you have any simple recipes, tips, tricks...anything you would like to share, feel free to post here! I can use all the help I can get!