Seriously. Japanese bento accoutrements are the best things in the universe. So cute. So little. So useless.

I never knew that these things had a name. O.G. always called them FOOTBALLS cause that’s what they looked like. Brilliant, I tell you. Anyway I was shocked at how simple they are to make and the kids absolutely love them.

ingredients:
2 cups rice
1/4 cup rice vinegar
3/4 teaspoons salt
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon sake (I left this out when I made it for the kids, fyi)
1 package aburage aka tofu pouches

Cook your rice in the rice cooker. While that’s going, in a small bowl mix together the rice vinegar, salt, sugar and sake if you are using it. Set aside.

Now bring a pot of water to a boil and heat the aburage according to the package directions. Obviously this is the easy step, since the thing is pre-made. Pretty awesome and simple.

When the rice is done, mix it will with the sauce ingredients that you’ve mixed together. Careful, the rice is HOT.

Now get your prepped aburage ready. They look like little pockets.

Using a spoon, stuff the prepped rice into the pockets and serve. It’s that simple!

Part of Food Buzz 24, 24, 24: Cooking with Kids and the Farmer’s Market

This works in a weird way you wouldn’t expect. It’s not for everyone, but it’s a great refreshing summer salad.

ingredients:
1 tsp honey
1/2 Tablespoon Dijon Mustard
1/8 cup lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
2 ripe avocados
1 Oro Blaco Grapefruit
2 Ruby Red Grapefruits

In a small bowl combine the honey, dijon, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Add the olive oil and whisk together.

Peel the avocados, remove the pits. Cut into small cubes. drizzle with a little of the dressing just so the avocado won’t turn brown while you prep your grapefruits. Peel the grapefruits, cutting off the white pith. Carefully slice between each membrane so that you get only fruit segments.

Toss with the avocados and the rest of the dressing. Serve cold.

Quite obviously this is not a recipe. Just an idea of how to make your kids get interactive with meal time. One of the kids favorite books, “I will never, not ever eat a tomato” featuring Charlie and Lola, is all about picky eaters. In order to get Lola to eat Charlie comes up with fantastical ideas of what the foods could become. I took his cue and made race cars out of carrots.

I was making two race cars, one for each kid.
ingredients:
two carrots,
a radish
two sliced olives

Then I printed out teeeeny tiny little Charlie and Lola to sit in my carrot mobile.

The sliced olives were the steering wheels, and the sliced radishes were the tires. The kids were so excited to see race cars on their dinner plates, the Baby ate the whole thing!

Part of my own personal ‘Iron Chef: Battle Lemons’ series.

This a great side dish and since it’s baked, a little bit healthier. The lemon brings out a refreshing taste in the fries that you wouldn’t expect.

ingredients:
4 baking potatoes
1/8 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoons garlic
zest of one lemon

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Wash and pat dry your potatoes. I like the skin on, but if you don’t – go ahead and peel them. Slice the potato into stick-like fries.

Toss all the ingredients in a bowl, and lay it out on a lined baking sheet.

Bake for 30 minutes. That’s it! Couldn’t be easier. You know what goes great with this? LEMON COKE. Honest.

This recipe is vegan. And it’s O.G.’s fave. You don’t seem to understand how completely wrong that is. The woman loves to eat dead animals+biproducts more than anyone. Steak. Eggs. Milk. Butter. She can’t get enough. But when I made these for her she asks for them over and over. Sure, she calls them VAYGAN, but whatever.

ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Valrhona is best!!)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup mini chocolate chips (most chocolate chips aren’t vegan, so if you want to stay true to it, don’t add these, you won’t miss them)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep a mini cupcake pan with liners. I like to use the yellow liners whenever I do anything chocolate because it looks like little sunflowers.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Pour in the water, oil, vanilla and mix well. Can this get any easier?

Stir in the chocolate chips if you are using them.

Pour into the prepped cupcake pan.

Bake for 15 minutes. When they come out of the oven, they will be soft, but don’t worry, they’ll harden up quickly therefore, DON’T OVER BAKE!! Let cool on a wire rack.

These come out not to too sweet or oily, as can be the case with some vegan baking. These are so good you won’t even miss the eggs or butter!

I always try to buy broccolini when I see it. It’s more tender, flavorful and not so…stinky. Just my opinion. And since the Baby will ONLY eat broccoli stalks, this is a good way to trick him into eating what is mostly…stalk.

ingredients:
1/2 a pound broccolini
2 TB olive oil
salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1/4 cup water

Wash and dry your broccolini. Zest your lemon, just the yellow parts – a microplane is GREAT for this.

In a pan, heat the olive oil on medium high. Saute the broccolini until is softens just a bit, then add a pinch of salt and the pepper. Sprinkle the lemon zest on top. Add the water to the pan and cover. Steam for about 5-7 minutes and they are ready to eat.

I ran out of eggs. And butter. I had to improvise on the fly. Now don’t get me wrong, I bow down to the altar of Paula Deen, (entirely made of butter, btw) but it IS possible to cook without animal products if need be, even if it’s not my first choice. These are REALLY good, moist and you won’t even miss the butter…

ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup light molasses
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons applesauce

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a cupcake pan with liners.

Sift together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, cloves, nutmeg and salt.

Whisk together wet ingredients – oil, molasses, syrup, water and applesauce.

Stir the wet into the dry until nicely combined.

Fill your baking cups about 2/3 full. Bake 15 – 19 minutes, depending on your oven, until a toothpick comes out clean.

I used a chocolate frosting, but any combination will do!

This is a kid food recipe for ‘vegetarian croquettes’. I prefer to call them by their God given name, POTATO BALLS. Who doesn’t like potato rolled in more potato? Yes, I’ve got my hand raised…

Ingredients:
2 large baking potatoes
1 Tablespoon butter
salt
1 medium carrot
1/4 cup frozen,chopped broccoli
1/3 cup frozen corn
some cubes of cheddar cheese (if you so desire)
potato chips!! (crushed)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Let me start by telling you, the frozen food thing is a huge factor here as far as time saving. The veggies are cooked and simply need to be defrosted. As far as the carrot, let me give you a secret tip for steaming a carrot without any effort at all. Chop the carrot into itsy bitsy pieces. Put in a bowl with water covering about half of the carrot pieces. Cover with plastic wrap, leaving a little bit open as a vent. Now microwave for about 1 minute. There you go. Steamed carrots.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Cut the potato into chunks, boil for about 10 minutes – drain.

Transfer to a bowl, mash with a masher or fork, add butter and salt.

Add in the defrosted corn, broccoli and “steamed” *wink wink* carrots. Mix up into a nice mash.

Now the fun. Form little balls and put a small square of cheese in the middle. (If you are going vegan, leave that out obviously). Cover it up and roll into crushed potato chips.

Place on a baking sheet, and bake for 15 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes. The potato chips will be crispy and the cheese will be…cheesey.

Sure these are ‘kid’ food, but they are tasty and I’m sure if you spiced them up a bit they’d be even tastier. Also if you have an aversion to potato chips (you heathen) then I guess you could try breadcrumbs, but I guarantee it won’t taste quite as yummy.

This is my go-to side dish. Quick easy, and loved by all. Well. Except for people who hate squash and/or mushrooms. Oh well.

ingredients:
2 TB olive oil
1 clove crushed garlic
1 italian squash
1 yellow squash
1 carton of whole mushrooms
1 TB butter
salt
pepper

Wash the squash and the mushrooms well. I like to take a peeler and take off stripes of the squash, but you don’t have to, it just looks nice.

Slice the squash into rounds, set aside. In a pan over medium high heat, warm the olive oil and garlic, then add the squash. Keep turning and watching them until they get a little soft, keep ‘em moving.

Once they start to brown a tiny bit, add the mushrooms and the butter. The mushrooms will act like little sponges and soak up all the flavorful goodness. Season with salt and pepper.