The Search for the Squash

As many moms know, getting your kids, or in my case husband, to eat veggies is next to impossible. So I have figured out several methods for sneaking in that vegetable in some pretty creative ways. And in this case the freezer is your best friend. I mentioned in my last post's recipe that I hide spinach or squash in the meal. Here is how I use them and how I figured out how to use them.


When my first child was born I went out and bought all of the name brand expensive baby food items. I didn't know what I was doing and figured that Gerber knew better than me, so I let them tell me how to feed my child. What I didn't realize at the time, was not only is their food expensive it is also a tad bland. So when I had my second child, I researched making my own baby food. And I did, I made every meal my son ever ate. It was so simple, steam/bake/boil whatever fruit or veggie, puree, and then freeze for later. It was so easy. Plus once you knew they had no allergies you could mix items and even add spices and meat to your food, making it a lot more enjoyable and flavorful for baby. My second born is a much better eater than my first, my first is very picky.
So that is how I discovered how to sneak in veggies and here is what I do with them. You can use any veggie or fruit that you like but I find squash, zucchini and spinach the easiest to hide.

SQUASH-
Because preparing squash can take a while I prefer to prepare mine and freeze it for when I need it.

Buy your squash fresh from the store, usually for under a dollar a pound. When you get home, cut it in half vertically. Then lay down in a shallow pan of water, just enough water so that the squash is surrounded on the bottom. Then put in oven at 350 degrees and bake for 40 minutes to an hour, depending on how big your squash is. Once done, carefully scoop out all of the insides and put in a blender. You can discard the hard peel, be careful with hot squash, it can burn you easily. Then blend until it's a nice thick applesauce type consistency. (if you are making it for baby food or like things a bit spicier, you can add spices at this point, my son loved it with a bit of thyme and rosemary, he also liked it when I blended it with cooked sausage)

At this point I take a clean ice tray and pour the squash into the individual ice cube squares. Cover it with foil, mark what it is and the date and put into the freezer for 24 hours. You can leave it in the ice tray and pull out as needed or you can pull all of them out the next day and put into a ziplock bag with the date and what it is written on the outside. I tend to do this because it saves space and you can then reuse the ice tray for other things. Food is usually good for about 3 months. You can then pull out an ice cube or two and heat up in whatever dish you are preparing as you need it. (if using as baby food, about 40 seconds in a microwave will warm it up enough to stir and serve immediately to baby.)

ZUCCHINI-
Follow the same freezing procedure as before, but instead of baking zucchini, steam it. Put zucchini in a colander over a pot of boiling water until soft. Then blend. Zucchini is a very thin watery mix when blended, so if you are making as baby food it works better if blended with other fruits, veggies or baby rice for a thicker consistency. However, make sure baby is not allergic first. Works well to hide it in food as well. It is a bit harder to freeze because it is so thin, so you might want to leave in for 48 hours before transferring to a bag.

SPINACH-
You can steam, blend and freeze spinach as well and mix it in, works really well for babies, but I'd hold off on that one until baby is a bit older because it can constipate a bit. However, with older children, I find it much simpler to just keep a bag of spinach in the freezer, pull out as needed and fry it up with whatever ground meat meal I am preparing. It mixes in well and takes on the flavor of surrounding food.

Have fun hiding those veggies, your kids will search and search and most likely never know that there is a a veggie on their dinner plate.

Baby Steps

Since life has been in perpetual change lately, what with the loss of a job, a move, a new baby, a new job and an upcoming move, I've decided that I can't just throw myself into the once a month cooking/shopping life just yet. Mainly because we are going to be moving here soon and I don't want the frozen food to spoil. :-)

So, we are taking baby steps towards this life change in our eating habits. Since we currently only have a small freezer, I can't even freeze a few meals, so we've been doing a few practice meals to see what freezes well and what tastes okay after it has been frozen. I have also been trying out a few new recipes in casserole form to see if my family enjoys them. I figure planned meals are that much more easy if they are one dish meals(meat, veggie, starch in one dish).

Here's what I have discovered so far. Spaghetti sauce does not taste very good after being frozen. The smell/taste of the garlic and the meat seem to overpower the container they are in and squelch any other flavor that might be present. I am thinking that maybe cooking up the meat ahead of time and then mixing with some sauce from the pantry before serving might be a smarter option.

I tried a new casserole recipe on my family that they seemed to love. Keep in mind I have only one eater and two pickers. So to get them all to eat an all in once dish meal was quite a victory. And on the plus side, I liked it too. I think it even tasted better the second time around after having been frozen. Hopefully your family will enjoy it as much as mine did.

Taco Casserole (adapted from allrecipes.com)

1. brown 1 pound of beef (or turkey beef, this is what we use, it's slightly healthier and my family can't tell the difference anymore)
2. here is where I add any veggies that I want to sneak into the meal for my family. Spinach is an awesome addition. It blends in wonderfully with any form of browning meat and takes on the flavor of what it is being cooked with. Plus having some frozen spinach in the freezer is a quick and easy addition. You can also put in blended squash or zucchini for easy tasteless, i.e. undetected veggies.
3. add a packet of your favorite taco seasoning. you might also want to add some salsa or hot sauce at this point depending on how spicy you like things.
4. add a can of tomato soup and a can of water.
5. stir all ingredients until they are well blended and warmed.
6. as you are browning the meat and mixing everything else, boil some macaroni in another pot. you can use mac and cheese noodles or any other kind of noodle, we used the noodles that look like shells. My kids like to look at them. :-)
7. Get big pan out(or two if you made enough to freeze half) combine drained noodles and meat/veggie combo together.
8. On top, put drained canned corn(or frozen) layered around the whole casserole.
9. On top of that put on broken taco shells sprinkled all over.
10. Top that with cheese.
11. Put in oven for a half hour at 350degrees.
Frozen Directions
12. If you freeze half, don't put on the shells or cheese until it is time to cook or they might be a bit soggy.
13. Make sure you mark what date you originally made it and use before a months time is up.
14. When reheating cook at 350degrees. might take a bit longer than a half hour, depending on whether it was thawed out or not.


Enjoy!

A journey starts with a single step...

Here is where my journey begins...

I have a problem, or at least my family has a problem. We are not good stewards with our food. We waste food, tons of food. We go to the grocery store at least twice a week to pick up just that one item we forgot and end up buying a cart full, we forget about that food in the back of the fridge until it rots, we throw out half of the meal we made because we don't eat leftovers, and we go out to dinner often, too often, because we don't have a plan and don't feel like cooking a big meal last minute.

How many of you can say that your family doesn't at least do one of those things? Well I'm determined to stop. My husband and I have been feeling God telling us that we need to become better stewards of our food. A weird concept I realize. But stewardship means taking care of the blessings God has provided us with and being thankful for what we have been given. A step my family and I have sadly missed up to this point.

I'm not a wonderful writer, or even a fantastic cook, in fact, I'd rather not cook most nights. I am, however, an everyday mom who is going to try something new for the next year and see if I can succeed at saving money and food, while at the same time tempting my families taste buds, learning new and exciting things and sharing my journey with you.

So, welcome, I hope you enjoy the ride...