What to do When Your Kids Won't Eat Hard-Boiled Eggs

It's maddening.  Neither Encyclopedia nor Cool Guy will even taste a hard boiled egg.  So, so easy, so nutritious, so portable, so REJECTED.

Still, every month or so, they appear on the breakfast table, always with other things, so that the boys will have something to eat.  I wish they would at least try them, but it's not really a battle I'm ready to have a stand-off over.  I continue to boil more eggs than get consumed, and then have eggs left over.

Here are some things I do.  (Also, let me confess, I always boil more eggs than needed so that I WILL have extras)
1. Have them the next day cold while I fix oatmeal for the boys.
2. Slice them, cold, and serve them open face on buttered bread for lunch the next day.
3. Make tuna or egg salad.
4. Use them, quartered, in salads.
5. One from my mom: quarter them and serve over cooked spinach.  (I'm still the only consumer, but it's an old favorite.)

I was playing around with egg salad the other day, and came up with a great version that Burt raved about.  I diced up the eggs, and then added mashed avocado, a squirt of mustard, squirt of mayo, and had the best egg salad ever.  Do try it.

The Onslaught Begins

Zucchini, that's what I'm talkin' about.  The zucchini tsunami has begun.  Thankfully (?) I don't grow them, but if I go late enough to the farmers' market, they are practically giving them away.  Late, meaning that the people manning the stands want to dump their wares and get on home and will offer outrageous deals.  So it happens that I have a crisper drawerful of zucchini, yellow squash, pattypan squash, and yellow zucchini.  What's a poor girl to do?

Zucchini bread, of course!  Actually, I was lucky enough to pick up the latest issue of Eating Well magazine, which had lots of ideas for zucchini, but the bread struck my fancy.  It's easy, and good for you, too.

I went ahead and threw in a half cup of chocolate chips, to make it more tempting for Cool Guy, who resists any and all vegetables on principal, and he adored it.  My plan is to gradually decrease chocolate chips (they did nothing for me except add calories) until they disappear and are only a distant memory in Cool Guy's subconscious.

Next time I make this bread, which will be soon, I plan on converting it to muffins, following my muffin conversion strategy.  They stay fresher that way, are much easier to portion out, and any leftovers can be frozen for those bleak winter days when we have no zucchini to complain about.

Cool Guy and the vegetable story:
Last week, a water line broke in our neighborhood.  We had no water for 8 hours.  Come lunchtime, I had nothing to offer.  Oh, we had PBJ and milk, but no way of washing up, and the kitchen was a shambles from breakfast dishes still to be done.  And then there was the toilet issue.  Couldn't flush, and Cool Guy was refusing to go.  So I made a command decision to Go Out for Lunch.  My decision, my choice, so we went to the Indian place in town, which has a lunch buffet.  Lucky us.

We were a bit early, so the buffet was a bit bare at first.  No fritters, no rice pudding, no naan.  So Cool Guy took some tandoori chicken and something that looked like gravy.  Boy, did he dig that gravy.  I made the mistake of asking the waitress about the "gravy," at which she replied, "it's only spinach."  Well, that did it.  Not another bite of gravy passed Cool Guy's lips.

 I reminded him of DW, the Picky Eater, (an excellent, funny book that everyone should read) but still no dice.  Ah, well, it was good while it lasted.  And so you can understand my gilding the zucchini bread with chocolate, which was quite good.  Try some yourself, and throw in some chocolate to convert the natives, if needed.

Spring Cleaning Finds, and a Bonus

Trying to follow good, healthy practices, I like to cook things when the ingredients are in season, a la farmer's market.  The following is definitely not farmers' market and definitely not seasonal.  However, in a twisted kind of way it is seasonal.

What does Spring make you think of?  Strawberries?  Asparagus?   Eggs?  What about pumpkin?  No?  NO!  Unless, of course, Spring also means Spring Cleaning, and that entails clearing out the pantry and checking expiration dates on canned goods.  Does anyone else always seem to have a can of pumpkin left over after Thanksgiving?  I always do, and unfortunately, it tends to expire before the next Thanksgiving rolls around.  And I need the room.  I do not have a limitless pantry.

Tangent: if you are interested in major pantry reorganization, please visit this Kitchen Stewardship post for a lot of really inspirational links regarding pantries, bulk food storage, and freezer storage.  I've got to get busy!

So I unearthed this can of pumpkin and no way was I making pumpkin pie.  So I did something better: whole grain pumpkin muffins.  Did you know that you can turn any quick bread recipe into a muffin recipe?  Just put the batter into muffin cups (12 muffins for one 9x5 loaf of bread) and bake for about 22-25 minutes.  If ever you have muffins left over, and we don't, you can freeze them and have them some other time.

I used the King Arthur Whole Grain pumpkin bread  recipe (see below) and added dried cranberries to the batter.  I had some of those left over too.  I had some pumpkin seeds, and sprinkled them on top, and it was a flashy, thematic addition.  (Note: I have a picture of these beauties on my camera, which seems to have died.  If it resurrects, I will put the picture up, but for now, just use your imagination.)  These muffins were delicious and loved by all at our breakfast table.  Not hard to make, though I did save it for the weekend, and the boys snacked on pumpkin muffins all weekend long.  I was happy knowing that they were snacking on something that was giving them whole grains, lots of beta carotine, plus other good stuff, rather than, say, Cheetos.

One thing I do not like is when recipes call for something like 1 cup of canned pumpkin.  A can of pumpkin holds more than a cup.  Remember, I'm trying to use up stuff, and be frugal, not throw out nearly half a can.  I decided to save the extra pumpkin and make it into smoothies for the boys.  Honestly, to me a pumpkin smoothie didn't sound that great, but Cool Guy especially liked the idea.

I put into the blender the remaining can of pumpkin, some vanilla yogurt, a pinch of cinnamon, a banana past its prime, and about a Tablespoon of maple syrup.  Whirred it up, and had a very quick, nutritious, and surprisingly good after school snack. 

So this can of pumpkin turned out to be a two-fer winner.  What do you have in your pantry?  Can you put your creativity to work and find some good uses for your orphans?

Pumpkin Muffins
(Reprinted, with permission, from King Arthur Whole Grain Baking Book)

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. cloves
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup regular sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 3/4 cup chopped nuts (I didn't include, since boys don't want them)
• 3/4 cup raisins, dried cranberries, or chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 375.  Grease 12 muffin cups.

2. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and spices in a bowl.

3. Cream together butter, and sugars in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy.

4. Beat in eggs, one at a time.

5. Beat in vanilla and pumpkin.

6. Add dry ingredients.

7. Stir in nuts and other addition.

8. Fill muffin cups.  They will be pretty full.

9. Sprinkle on pumpkin seeds if you have them.

10. Bake for about 23 minutes.

11. Wait about 10 minutes after taking out of the oven, and then remove from muffin pan.

I'm not going to do the math translating nutrition information between 1/16  of a loaf to 1/12 of the recipe for the muffins, but suffice it to say that you WILL get close to 20 whole grains, a nice bit of fiber, protein, vitamin A, iron, calcium and other stuff that is good for you.


Pumpkin Smoothie

• Vanilla yogurt
• banana
• canned pumpkin
• dash of cinnamon
• Tablespoon of maple syrup
• ice cube, optional

Whir it all in the blender.  Add more yogurt if the pumpkin is too strong.

Scrambled Redux

I posted not too long ago about a veggie scramble, but I'm going to risk being boring and repetitive by posting about another for several reasons.

1. This one is different.
2. I love to talk about eggs, especially when fresh.
3. I love winning prizes, and this one has a prize involved.
4. It's my blog, and I'll repeat if I want to, repeat if I want to....

First, this one is different because I used potatoes and tomatoes, both leftovers from other meals.  The potatoes were the innards from baked potato skins that I had made and just couldn't bear tossing.

Second, I went to the farmers' market last weekend, and could not believe the plethora of eggs available.  It made me so happy, and I bought a ton, or rather 3 dozen.

Third, the prize.  I won a giveaway from Meal Makeover Moms and was thrilled to receive at the end of Feb. a gorgeous wooden crate of  Muir Glen fancy tomato products.  You should visit the company's website to see what all they offer.  I wanted to use those tomatoes in a special way, so for awhile was afraid I'd waste them in some dish where they wouldn't shine.  Finally, I just dove in, and used half a can on some open-faced sandwiches and had half a can leftover.  Into the eggs, they go!  And they were delicious.  And shone.

Fourth, just kidding.

The way I made the dish:

1. Melt two TBS. butter in a nonstick skillet.
2. Throw in the potato innards, and toss around until getting a little crispy.
3. Turn the heat down to low.
4. Mix the eggs (I used four) and a little milk.
5. Add to the skillet, which should be cooled down a bit by now.
6. Scramble it up, and right before it is done, throw in the well-drained tomatoes.

The point of this whole dish is twofold:

1. Get some veggies into breakfast.
2. Use up leftovers.

Any veggie that would appeal to you in the morning would work, I imagine, and it always seems to all go together well with eggs.  And it's great not to be wasteful of food, with the bonus that most everything is already cooked for you, and all you have to do is warm it and mix it all together.

We had this with some hot, buttered toast.  Total time invested was about 10 minutes.  Did the boys enjoy it?  Both said they preferred their eggs plain, but they ate about half a helping each.  It takes time, developing flexible eaters, and I'm not going to push it.  Sometimes, we have plain scrambles, and sometimes veggie scrambles, sometimes weirdly colored scrambles.

If you try adding some leftover veggies to your scrambled eggs, why don't you let me know what you tried and how you liked it?  I'd love to hear from you!

Making a Hash of Breakfast

You won't mind that this morning's breakfast has no photo?  Good.  My photos stink, and this was not an appealing picture anyway.  Is there any way to make has look appetizing?

The real reason is that I snafued on the alarm situation again.  God, I hate changing time.  By the time I zipped through breakfast, it was too late to take a picture.

Hash is the topic of the day.  This is another gem I got from the Betty Crocker book back when I was first married.  We had a delicious (if I do say so myself) pot roast on Sunday, along with some leftover carrots and onions.  I was out of potatoes, so we made do.

After waking up way too late, I wasn't sure that I could pull off breakfast in time, but I found out that hash can be made in about 10 minutes.  Did you know that?  Here is how I did it.

Roast Beef Hash

leftover roast beef
leftover carrots
leftover potatoes
leftover onions
leftover pan drippings or gravy

1. dice the beef and anything else you have into small pieces.

2. Put some kind of grease in a cast iron skillet.  Today, I used olive oil, but I could have used Crisco or bacon grease.

3. Add all the chopped up bits, plus gravy or drippings,  and then go get dressed, pour juice, set the table.  The point is that you want the stuff to just sit in place in the skillet for a bit to get browned.

4. Turn it and check it every now and then.  Add more liquid if needed.  When it is good and crusty on one side and warm through, serve.  Total time, no kidding, 10 minutes.

So now, the secret is out.  Your kids will think you are a wonder mom, and really all you did was open the fridge, chop, chop, and fry.  Enjoy.

Ham and Corn Pudding

I woke this morning without my throat screaming at me every time I swallowed.  I got up and wasn't dizzy.  I made coffee and didn't feel that I had to rest after doing so.  I'm on the road to recovery!  Now, I'm going to be honest, here: I don't mind being just a teeny tiny bit sick once or twice a year if it will allow me to lie in bed and read all day long guilt-free, but this wasn't what I had in mind at all.  I felt awful for three days, and there's no glamour in feeling too rotten to do anything for three stinkin' days.

So, on to breakfast.  I haven't been to the store in almost a month, and we're scraping the bottom of the barrell.  We have oatmeal, sure, but I didn't want oatmeal again today (though  Burt and Cool Guy would).  What we have in abundance is ham, loads of ham.

I decided to try something new, Corn and Ham Pudding, a recipe from the Meal Makeover Moms, two dietitians who have children with typical children's tastes.  Their recipes are designed to be

• healthy, or at least healthier than the original recipes
• quick and easy to cook with ingredients that real people have on hand
• something that real kids will eat without making faces

I like listening to their podcast, and I subscribe to their email newsletter, but I have never tried a recipe.  But today, feeling much better, I was ready to explore new territory. 

I didn't have lean deli ham, just leftover ham, which I trimmed the fat from, and I didn't have lowfat Swiss cheese, but instead had locally-made Swiss - fabulous and most definitely not lowfat.  I'm OK with that.  And I didn't have my corn thawed (and microwave is broken.)  Otherwise, I followed the recipe verbatim.  I usually do the first time I try something.

If the ham and cheese were already cut up, it would take just a minute to mix together, but you need to allow 40 minutes for it to bake and then a little more time for it to set, so this is not a quick breakfast.  Save it for the weekend or one of those early-rising days.

It smelled fabulous as it was cooking, and it looked pretty good coming out.  The judgement was that Burt and I liked it pretty well, but we liked it even better when we smothered it with picante sauce.  We like picante with our eggs.  The surprise was Encyclopedia, who is suspicious of anything new, and I was sure that after his one no-thank-you bite, he'd move on to the cereal, but he tried it and then got a HUGE helping.  And this is the boy who never likes ANYTHING that is "all mixed together."  Cool Guy just wasn't going to try anything this morning.  He drank his juice, ate his orange, and declared himself full.  He can try it again another time, because it will appear again at our table.

I like that in one easy dish, we had eggs, meat, cheese, and a vegetable, if you count corn as a vegetable, which I do, needing all the wiggle room I can get to meet my daily veggie quota.  Picante sauce is a veggie, too.

A New Year Resolution Breakfast

I love New Year's Day.  Burt feels nothing but disdain for, what he calls, a "made up holiday."  His view is that it is silly to celebrate the turning of a calendar page and that the only good thing about New Year's is the football.  My view, the right one, is that here is the chance for a clean sweep.  Out with the old, clean out the cobwebs, clear out the clutter (literally and figuratively), evaluate your life, make some resolutions!  Who says resolutions need be negative or punitive?  Maybe New Years is the holiday for the Eternal Optimist.

Resolutions for this year include following the advice of the Meal Makeover Moms and eating 2 cups of fruit per day and 2.5 cups of vegetables.  This is such an easier way for me to translate into my daily life as compared to "portions" or "exchanges" or "servings."  I know what 2 cups looks like.

The fruit part is easy.  I get that done during breakfast, but the vegetables are going to be a lot harder to do consistently.  And it probably means that I should, when I can, include veggies in every meal.

New Year's Day dawned, and I set out to make scrambled eggs and bacon.  After the bacon cooked, I checked the fridge for any leftover veggies to add to the eggs.  I found the scooped-out potato from the day before's baked potato skins, and I found some garlicky sauteed spinach from the night before.  Here's what I did.

1. After the bacon was done, I poured most of the grease in the grease bowl, leaving just a film.  Don't want to undermine the veggie effort too much.

2. I added the potatoes and gently stirred them around.  I wanted them to warm up and get a little crust.

3. I then added the spinach to take the chill off.  They were already pretty well-cooked.

4. While the veggies were cooking I mixed together 5 eggs (one egg per person plus one) and added a little milk.

5. I added the eggs to the skillet, and very gently stirred it all on low heat.

Burt and I thought it was one of the most delicious renderings of scrambled eggs we had ever tasted.  It was probably a little more grown-up than the boys wanted, but after the sample bite, Cool Guy had  a regular helping.  Encyclopedia only had the sample bite and then contented himself with bacon and an orange.  Which is fine.

Would I make it again?  Most definitely.  Would I have potato centers and spinach sitting in the fridge?  Probably never again at the same time.  But, and this is the point, I'll have something.  And off the top of my head, I can't think of any veggies that I would not put in scrambled eggs.  OK, maybe not eggplant, but I don't like eggplant.  And not lettuce, either.  But you get my point.  Save your veggies from the night before, warm them up, add eggs, and reap the benefits of delicious food and lots of good nutrition.

The time involved with this creation clocked in under 10 minutes.  I'm loving it.