Granted some of these components had to be done ahead by me – but still the setting of the table and the assembling of the salads was all him, which really helped out. He calls these ‘his’ taco salads, I assume this is because they MUST BE ASSEMBLED AS SHOWN. I’m sure there’s some leeway in there…maybe? Some? Ok, none.

ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
homemade taco seasoning (recipe here)
spanish rice (recipe here)
chips
cheese
lettuce
salsa
guacamole (recipe here)

In a large pan over medium high heat cook the ground beef with the taco seasoning until no longer pink. Set aside.

Here’s what makes this recipe the Kid’s: Take some chips and spread them out in a single layer on a plate. Cover with 1/4 cup cheese and microwave for 20-30 seconds until melted.

On top of the cheesy chips add…

…a few spoonfuls of rice…

…add a spoonful of the meat…

add lettuce, salsa, guac and even more cheese.

Serve your family then eat and eat some more!

These steamed buns are also known as bao but I always think of them as manapua buns. They are normally filled with a saucy bbq char siu pork and made with yeast. However, I am no fan of yeast so I tried to create my own little buns sans-yeast and this is what I came up with.

I also don’t always have time to make a char siu filling so I just like to grill some korean pork belly and put it all together like a little asian sandwich. What can I say, I’m difficult – but the recipe is easy! It’s quicker than you think and since I make them quite small, the kids love the little buns!

ingredients:
3 cups cake flour
1-1/2 Tablespoons baking powder
3 Tablespoons sugar
pinch of salt
3/4 cup milk
1 Tablespoon sesame oil

thin sliced pork belly

In a bowl whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.

Add the milk and the oil and when it’s combined start kneading it until you get a nice dough.

Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. By the way, I use a metal insert steamer, but use a wok, bamboo steamer or whatever works for you.

Pinch off golf ball sized pieces and steam for 15 minutes.

Let cool on a wire rack.

Lay the pork belly on a baking sheet and broil for 5 minutes until crispy brown, then turn and broil for 2-3 minutes until cooked.

Slice the buns in half and place the pork inside. Some people like sauce, but honestly I prefer it without. The crispiness of the pork is all I need!

Lately I can’t live without a little heat. Sweet Chili Sauce provides a nice balance between the sweet AND the heat and it goes great in a pork chop marinade!

ingredients:
4 boneless pork chops (1/2 inch thick)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons sweet chili sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
juice of half a lime
pepper

In a small bowl whisk together the soy sauce, sugar, chili sauce, garlic, lime juice and a dash of freshly ground pepper.

In a baking dish pour the sauce over the chops and marinate for 1 hour.

Heat a pan over medium-high heat and cook the chops on both sides until they are no longer pink in the middle.

Marinating pork makes for a flavorful and quick weekday dinner!

This weekend I am on a panel at Geek Girl Con about parenting, and the question people always ask me is how I get my kids to try different foods. The answer is easy – make dinner fun and engaging!

A good friend who knows how to have fun – gave the kids these cool Fred and Friends Food Face plates as a gift. I knew they’d be a perfect vehicle for an entertaining, healthy dinner where I could introduce some new foods.

I decided to go with all one color, green. Just because there are so many healthy green foods and it was also a nice palate to work with.

Here is what we used for our ‘green’ meal:

Green Tea Udon Noodles
Spinach Tortillas
Seasoned Seaweed cut into strips
Edamame (shelled)
Sliced Cucumber
Green apples

Once the kids got into it they started thinking of other foods that would make good hair, accessories, facial features – and they got really excited about planning our next meal. As the Baby said, “every dinner should be like this!”

The Baby went for the obvious with noodle hair while the Kid thought seaweed was the way to go. Apples became ears, edamame became eyes.

I tried to stay away from the obvious greens (broccoli, beans) and try different textures and flavors but also go for good ‘shapes’ that would help them be creative. My fave was the seaweed unibrow – courtesy of the Baby, of course.

The plates became a great way to get kids to be imaginative and creative and also get them involved in planning and eating a variety of foods. The empty plates don’t lie – they ate everything and had a great time!

Shoyu chicken is a plate lunch fave in Hawaii and sometimes you can even get it fried to a crisp. OMG so yum.

However, while I love fried foods, I’m not keen on frying at home so I came up with this baked version which I promise you is just as crispy and still has that comforting shoyu chicken taste.

ingredients:
8-10 chicken thighs
1-1/2 cups flour
salt
pepper
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 Tablespoons mirin

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep a baking sheet by lining it with foil, then placing a wire rack on top.

Prep your ‘dipping station’ – in one shallow dish season the flour with salt and pepper and whisk together. In a second shallow dish whisk the egg with the soy sauce and mirin.

Wash and dry the chicken. Dip the chicken into the egg mixture, then rolling it in the flour, shaking off the excess.

Place the chicken on the wire rack prepped baking sheet. Bake for one hour.

My kids LOVE this. It’s so good you may never eat shoyu chicken the old fashioned way again!

I knew I wanted the kids to fully experience it so we had ‘dinner and a movie’ night to watch the previous Pirates. Luckily they loved the movies (and weren’t scared) and mostly because of our family love of Disney they were ready for the full experience. It’s a good thing too because I got VIP tickets to see the new Pirates at the El Capitan in Hollywood (recap, here).

To go along with our Pirates celebration I made a Pirates themed dinner of course!

We talked about what pirates eat on the ship: “Bread! Chicken! There’s not room for anything else!” Hm. Ok. And if you remember green apples are BIG part of the movies as well. I also made a special pirate-y dessert.

Salt + Pepper chicken drumsticks (recipe, here)
Garlic Bread
Green Apples
Cap’n Crunch Treasure Treats (recipe, here)
Milk

The Baby wanted RUM “like the pirates drink.” Yeah, nice try 5 year old, it’s milk or nothing. We enjoyed our pirates dinner and re-watched the old movies – the Baby in full pirate regalia, of course.

When I made the Mac ‘n’ Cheese Pie it was for a party and I kind of wanted to make something along the same lines for dinner, but not in such a large serving. I love to miniaturize things. Someone grab my ray-gun.

The obvious step was to use ramekins and make mini pot pies! I freeze them ahead, and whenever I don’t have a meal plan or need a side dish, I simply bring them out and bake them up! Perfectly cute and comforting.

ingredients:
1 pound small pasta (elbows or shells)
2 Tablespoons butter
3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
1-1/2 cups cheddar or jack cheese

Pie dough

In a large pot of boiling water, cook the pasta according to package. Drain. DO NOT rinse.

Ready the ramekins buy buttering the insides so the mac n’ cheese doesn’t stick. Set aside.

In the same pot you cooked the pasta in, melt the 2 Tablespoons of butter over medium heat, add the flour and stir constantly until combined – cooking through for about 2 minutes.

Add the milk and heavy cream and bring to a boil for about 2 minutes, take off the heat and add the mustard, paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Add the cheese and stir until thickened and combined.

Mix the pasta with the cheese sauce and spoon into the prepped ramekins.

Now for the tops – you can make your own dough of course, but if you’re short on time, frozen dough works well too. Just defrost it, roll it out and cut it fit the top of the ramekin. I like to have overlap of about 1/2 and inch.

Cover the filling and press the edges onto the sides of the ramekin. Cut vent slits on top. Cover them with plastic wrap and freeze for later.

When you are ready to serve them, say – a few days or weeks from now, just unwrap them, butter the tops and sprinkle lightly with kosher salt. Bake in a pre-heated 375 degree oven for 20 minutes, then serve. Be careful – the ramekins are hot!

My kids love these little pot pies!

Every night while I cook dinner the kids pick out books to read and somehow the books they choose always revolve around…food! What can I say, I have two little foodies. One night the Baby chose Where the Wild Things Are, a classic.

If you remember in the end of the book when Max comes back to his bedroom, a hot dinner is waiting for him. We read the book and talked about Max coming home after his long trip and the Baby decided that Max’s dinner was obviously a warm bowl of soup with MEAT in it (the Baby’s fave) and a nice BIG piece of yummy yellow cake. That’s some dinner.

The Baby asked me to make my version of Max’s dinner, so here you go:

Roast Pork Stew (recipe, here)
Mascarpone Poundcake (recipe, here)
A glass of milk

A nice meal to come home to at the end of a long journey…or day at school.
Let the wild rumpus begin!

(drawing by the Kid)

Whenever we go back to Hawaii the kids love the food – especially breakfast. There’s something comforting about Portuguese Sausage and eggs that makes you full and happy.

Since we often have breakfast for dinner around here I put together a hearty meal – an egg frittata studded with savory portuguese sausage. A quick, easy dinner perfect for the middle of the week!

ingredients:
1 portuguese sausage
6 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
salt
pepper
1/2 cup shredded cheese

Cut the portuguese sausage into small pieces – slices cut into quarters works well for me. In a fry pan, cook the sausage until it’s caramelized a bit, then set aside to drain.

Wipe out the same pan and set it back on medium-high heat. Put the portuguese sausage back in the pan. (Now, you can skip this back and forth, I just don’t like too much grease.)

In a bowl whiisk together the eggs, milk, garlic powder and season with salt and pepper.

Pour the egg mixture into the hot pan over the sausage. Let the egg mixture cook until the edges of the egg start to firm up. The middle will still be runny.

Add cheese to the top of the egg mixture. Turn on your oven broiler and place the pan in the hot broiler (make sure it’s an oven proof fry pan!) Let the eggs cook under the broiler until the center of the frittata is cooked through, about 5-7 minutes.

Take it out of the oven and the frittata will slide right onto a serving plate. Cut into slice and serve!

This is a quick and easy dinner, but nice for a weekend brunch too!

By the end of the day I’m tired. Too tired to boil pasta?? YES. Hey, I’m a woman on the go – I AM THAT TIRED. So I decided to experiment with making baked dish where I didn’t even have to boil the pasta. If you get your kids to assemble it – even better – less work for you!!

My kids loved it and it gave me a little extra nap time. Zzz…

ingredients:
4 cups Mini Ravioli, frozen
4 cups marinara sauce
1-1/2 cups shredded mozzarella
Salt
Pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Butter 6 mini ramekins (so the pasta won’t stick when you bake it.)

Spoon a Tablespoon of marinara into each prepped ramekin. Here’s the kicker, add the FROZEN pasta – distribute evenly into the 6 ramekins.

Top with the rest of the sauce, then the mozzarella cheese. Season with a little salt and pepper.

Place the ramekins on a baking sheet (in case of spill over) and bake for 35 mins.

The ramekins will be hot, so be careful when serving.