Easy Kids Meals

Those bags of frozen chicken wings make an easy main dinner dish. One of those “fix it and forget it” meals.  The bags used to contain 5 lbs but they dropped the amount to 4 lbs and left the price the same. I always wondered why we no longer had chicken leftover.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F

2. Line a baking pan with foil for easy clean up.

3. Spread the frozen chicken on layer deep on the pan

4. Cover with another piece of foil and bake for 1 hour

5. Remove the foil and season the chicken ( I use salt and pepper)

6. Bake the chicken uncovered till all liquid is evaporated, might take another 45 minutes.

7. Serve the chicken with your choice of favorite sauce.  My kids like bbq sauce.

I serve the chicken with vegetable fried rice.

Not tired of leftover turkey yet? This pizza is sure to disguise the taste of turkey to any turkey-ed out palate.  Since we are always experimenting with pizza topping, I thought we’d give topping a try. 

• ·        Pizza Dough

• ·        2 cups of diced turkey

• ·        2 cups diced tomato

• ·        ½ lb bacon cooked till barely crisp and chopped up

• ·        2 tablespoons of Mayonnaise

• ·        Shredded lettuce about 2 cups

• ·        Olive oil

• ·        2 cups Mozzarella cheese

1.      Stretch pizza dough over pizza stone

2.      Brush olive oil over dough

3.      Spread mozzarella cheese over crust

4.      Sprinkle tomatoes, turkey, and bacon over cheese

5.      Bake till cheese is melted

6.      While crust is baking, toss lettuce with mayonnaise and seasoning

7.      Put the lettuce over cooked pizza serve immediately.

Another recipe for left over turkey; this is a favorite in our family.  This uses left over turkey, left over celery, turkey gravy.

·        1 chopped onion

·        1 chopped bell pepper

·        1 cup chopped celery

·        4 tablespoons butter

·        2 cups cooked turkey

·        6 medium sized potatoes

·        Worcestershire sauce

·        Steak sauce

1.      Cube the potatoes and deep fry

2.      Melt the butter and caramelize the onions, and peppers

3.      Add turkey and sauté till dry

4.      Add potatoes, and sauces to taste.

5.      Salt and pepper to taste

6.      Serve the hash with gravy if desired

This makes a great breakfast, lunch or dinner.

After stuffing yourself with turkey and all the fixings the last thing you are thinking about is cooking another meal. The after thanksgiving turkey sandwich is our favorite sandwich. The dinner rolls I make are large enough to make a small sandwich. Split the roll in half. Layer on the sandwich turkey, stuffing/dressing, cranberry sauce, sweet potato soufflé, collard greens (I cook my thanksgiving green in orange juice and butter – so they are slightly sweet).  My sandwich is usually the largest of the bunch, the kids prefer different combinations. If your rolls aren’t large enough, you can use regular bread. If your leftover aren’t conducive to making a sandwich, plan you next thanksgiving dinner accordingly.

I modified a recipe because I was missing some key ingredients – I didn’t have cucumbers, but had celery instead, so I threw those in there.  It is cooking as we speak.  The kids have always loved corn relish but I was looking for an easy side dish that would look colorful on the dinner table.  This is perfect.

2 cups of frozen corn

I large onion chopped

1 cup of sugar

1 cup cider vinegar

1.5 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 cup chopped celery

1 red bell pepper chopped

½ teaspoon turmeric

Put all the ingredients in a pot, bring to boil and simmer for 30 minutes.  This relish can store in the refrigerator for 3 weeks.

This is the season for slow cookers. Easy kid friendly meals that are tasty and cook all day with minimum fuss. Adults should try horseradish on this sandwich for a surprisingly tasty mixture.  This sandwich goes well with a creamy coleslaw.

Slow cooker bbq beef sandwiches

·        3lb boneless chuck roast

·        1 cup bbq sauce

·        ½ peach preserves

·        1 red bell pepper

·        1 tablespoon mustard

·        2 teaspoon brown sugar

·        1 chopped medium onion

·        12 rolls

1. place roast trimmed into slow cooker
2. mix the rest of the ingredients and pour onto roast
3. cook on low for 7 hours
4. remove roast from cooker and cut into slices and
5. return into cooker for 30 minutes

Winter comfort food – chicken pot pie

It is supposed to snow over the next couple of days and it is time for winter comfort food.  Nothing says it better than a chicken pot pie.  My recipe is missing seasonings but I do add parsley and basil.  The idea of having pie for dinner always gets the children excited.

·        ½ cup butter

·        1 lb mushrooms

·        I diced onion

·        6 tbls flour

·        3 cups chicken broth

·        3cups cooked chicken

·        4 carrots cooked and diced

·        pastry crust for 10 inch pie

·        1 cup peas

1. preheat oven to 450
2. melt butter in sauté pan
3. add mushrooms and onions until soften
4. add flour
5. add chicken broth using a whisk till broth thickens
6. add salt and pepper to taste
7. remove from heat, add chicken, carrots and peas
8. pour mixture into pie pan 10 inch
9. place pastry over chicken mixture
10. bake for 20 minutes then reduce oven temperature to 350F and bake for 15 more minutes.

For this generation of children ,spinach conjurors images of kids disgusted faces.  In my generation we remember Popeye and the strength that he gained from spinach.  I have always loved spinach as a result almost wanting to eat it straight from the can.  My children eat spinach in this sauce and they love it.

Penne and spinach sauce

1.      Olive oil

2.      Garlic 2 tsp

3.      ½ lb spinach

4.      2 cups of heavy cream

5.      1 ½  cup chicken stock

6.      black pepper

7.      salt

8.      dash nutmeg

9.      ½ cup parmesan cheese

10.  I medium onion chopped

11.  1 lb penne

heat oil in pan

add onions and cook till soft

add spinach and cook till wilted

add cream, stock and spices

simmer the  sauce gently until it begins thickening

remove from heat and add parmesan cheese

Toss with cooked pasta

Muffins are a quick breakfast. They can be mixed easily, and I always make a triple batch to freeze for those quick breakfasts. Every fall we go and pick blueberries and have so much fun doing it. We pick enough to enjoy fresh and enough to freeze for a year of blueberry buckles, pancakes, and muffins.   

·        1 ½ cups flour·        ¾ cup sugar·        2 teaspoons baking powder·        1 egg·        2 tablespoon melted butter·        ¼ cup water·        ½ cup orange juice·        ½ pint blueberries (thawed) 

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Mix dry ingredients together
3. Mix wet ingredients together
4. Combine both till moistened
5. Spoon into pre-greased muffin pans
6. Bake for 15 minutes

I am always willing to entertain my kid’s eclectic tastes for pizza. We live in a small town where there is no pizza delivery and the store bought pizza doesn’t cut it, so I always make home made pizzas. I saw this recipe for a Sloppy Joe Pizza.1 lb ground beef1 large onion chopped¼ teaspoon ground mustard¼ teaspoon garlic powder1 ½ teaspoons Worcestershire sauce1 cup salsa½ cup grape jelly

cook the beef and onions then add the salsa, jelly till the mixture slightly thickensspread the mixture of the pizza doughspread the cheddar cheese over the mixturebake until cheese is melted and crust is done