Kid's Choice: Cornbread

It was Alex's choice this week and all he gave me to go on was cornbread. Well we couldn't eat only cornbread for dinner so I made it's obvious (to me) companion, chili. I found recipes from Everday Food. Alex and I really liked the Mini Cornbread Puddings. Dylan complained about them having corn kernels in them and picked them all out, only to eat them off his plate when he was finished with the bready part of the muffins.

As for the chili, I've had better. It's a good base that could have benefited from a little more spice. I used diced tomatoes with "zesty" jalapeños, but the zest added nothing that I could taste. Alex said he liked it. Dylan ate the avocados and sour cream off the top.....

Kid's Choice: Quesadillas

Another Wednesday another opportunity to get the kids to think outside the chicken tender and Kraft Cheese and Macaroni box. Actually, I'm proud to report that we haven't made a box of mac and cheese in this house for at least a couple of months. It was Dylan's turn to influence the menu, he requested quesadillas.

I found this recipe for Chicken Quesadillas at Epicurious. Chicken, cheese, and tortillas, maybe not a huge step out of the box, but onions, garlic, and pepper jack help. I made one slight change, I used half cheddar and half pepper jack. While in the grocery store, Dylan saw me pick up the peppery cheese and insisted that quesadillas were made with cheddar, so we reached a compromise.

Dylan, Daddy, and I all thought these were great. I would prefer a little more heat, sliced jalapeños would be nice, but it was Kid's Choice. Alex, on the other hand told me he didn't like them. He got in a little trouble Wednesday and incurred a pretty serious punishment (no sweets for a month!!!!). I think he would have turned his nose up at anything Mean Mommy put in front of him. At least he ate the watermelon, that's as sweet as it's going to get for quite awhile.

Kid's Choice: "Fried" Chicken

Wednesday was a long, tough day full of whining, complaining, and back talk. When dinner time rolled around, I didn't feel like the kids deserved a choice this week and that I should feed them Liver and Onions. Fortunately for the boys, I didn't have any liver in the fridge.

My oldest son has been requesting Fried Chicken for a few weeks. I've resisted because making it at home leads to the house smelling like a deep fryer for days. I found this well reviewed recipe for Oven-Fried Chicken and decided to try it out. As written, this recipe would feed a small army, I adusted it and made only one chicken cut up into eight pieces. It could not have been easier, it took me about ten minutes to make the cornflake mixture, coat the chicken, and put it in the oven.

I was happy to get four thumbs up from the kids and two more when my husband had leftovers after class. The chicken was juicy on the inside and crunchy on the outside. The rest of our plates were filled with steamed baby carrots and broccoli. I'd like to think it was much healthier than chicken and all the fixings from KFC or Bojangles.

Kid's Choice: Quiche Lorraine

I had a leftover pie crust in the fridge so I used my subtle powers of persuasion on the boys to choose quiche for Kid's Choice night. They were excited, they love egg and cheese pie.

Coincidentally my sister made Quiche Lorraine this week also. Her's is a fancy French Culinary version. I am a complete klutz when it comes to pastry, so the store bought crust is more my style. I have made this recipe many times. For the cheese, I usually use Gruyère, this time I used Emmentaler. It was good, but I will go back to Gruyère next time.

refrigerated pie crust

8 bacon slices, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

4 green onions, chopped

2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Swiss cheese, divided

6 large eggs

1 cup whipping cream

1/2 t. salt

1/8 t. ground red pepper

1/8 t. ground white pepper

1/8 t. ground nutmeg

Fit pie crust into a 9-inch pie plate; fold edges under and crimp

Bake at 400° for 7 minutes; remove from oven.

Cook bacon pieces in a large skillet until crisp; drain on paper towels, and crumble. Sprinkle bacon, green onions, and 1 cup cheese into prepared crust.

Whisk together eggs and next 4 ingredients; pour mixture into crust, and sprinkle with remaining 1 cup of cheese and nutmeg.

Bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until set. Let stand 10 minutes.

Kid's Choice: Scrambled Eggs

With one son recovering from a stomach bug, the tacos we had planned for last night didn't seem like a smart idea. After a day of white toast with butter and sprinkles of cinnamon sugar, sick son instinctively knew he needed some protein and asked for eggs. Dad was at school taking a midterm, so I made enough eggs for three. Sicko expressly said no cheese in the eggs, so I only added a little ground pepper. The boys had their very plain eggs and a piece of toast with apricot jam.

My portion of the eggs needed to be jazzed up a bit, a perfect excuse to use the truffle salt again! I dressed some greens and attempted to turn my Parmesan and Gruyère crisp into a pirouette. I couldn't quite roll it tight enough, it still tasted good. My plate was finished with a slice of whole wheat toast.

Speaking of the plate, I picked it up at Crate and Barrel the other day. I got two large rectangle plates and two small. I love the amount of space on the plate and the price!

Kid's Choice: BLT Salad

The boy's requested BLT's this week. My first thoughts were to just make sandwiches and come up with something interesting to serve on the side. The more I thought about it, I realized I didn't want a sandwich for dinner, so I did a bit of research and came across this recipe for the salad.

I was worried the news of a salad would elicit groans from the kids, but I was pleasantly surprised. They thought it sounded good.

The salad was very easy to prepare. I did not cook the bacon in the oven for two reasons. I had only a tiny scrap of parchment and it saved time to do it on the stove so that I could do the croutons in the oven at the same time. The dressing is delicioius, next time I'd like to add some crumbled blue cheese. The croutons hold up well once the salad is dressed. My husband came home from class close to two hours after we ate and the croutons still had some crunch. I kept the bacon separate.

This is one of my cats, Mimi. I think she can smell bacon from a mile away, she loves it. Mimi is a very spoiled kitty, but not so spoiled that she has her own spot at the dinner table! Thankfully, she didn't manage to eat off of my plate and she was shooed away after I snapped her photo.

Kid's Choice: Macaroni and Cheese

I considered suspending Kid's Choice this week, since five days at Disney is the ultimate kid's choice. I really wanted to serve a heaping bowl of vegetables to counteract all the sweets and chicken nuggets, but didn't feel like enduring the whining that would surely ensue. My eldest son requested Homemade Macaroni and Cheese. I decided I could work with that.

I have a basic recipe for Mac and cheese, but last night I wanted to spice it up a bit so I made a few changes. First I made a bread crumb topping:

2 T. butter

2 large cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 C. panko

Salt and Pepper to taste

Melt butter over medium low heat. Add garlic and sauté for 30 seconds then add panko and mix until coated with butter. Cook until bread crumbs are golden. Salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

For the Macaroni:

2 C. uncooked Macaroni ( I use Barilla Plus for a little extra protein)

1/4 C butter

1/4 C flour

1/2 t. salt

1/4 t. pepper

1/4 t. ground mustard

pinch of cayenne pepper (this was a new addition last night)

1/4 t. Worcestershire sauce

2 C. milk

2 C. shredded Cheddar Cheese

small precooked ham steak, chopped

cherry tomatoes

Preheat oven to 350° Cook Macaroni as directed on package. As Macaroni is cooking, melt butter in a 3 quart saucepan over low heat. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, mustard, cayenne, and Worcestershire Sauce. Cook over meduim low heat, stirring constantly until mixture is smooth and bubbly. Remove from heat. Stir in milk, heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir for one minute. Stir in cheese, cook and stir until cheese is melted. Stir in cooked macaroni and ham. Top with bread crumb mixture. Place quartered cherry tomatoes atop bread crumbs. Sprinkle tomatoes with a little salt and pepper. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

The tomatoes and breadcrumbs added some sophistication to this kid friendly staple. The cayenne was also a nice addition, subtle but nice. My youngest complained about the tomatoes and left them in the bottom of his bowl, but he ate everything else!