Tilapia Even a Toddler Will Eat

I have a strangely picky eater on my hands; T loves to eat crazy strong flavors but has some issues with textures. She will keep meat or chicken in her mouth for a while and then gift me a lovely pile of mush; if I’m lucky it will end up in my hands and not on the floor! I think it’s rather odd that my kid will pound Indian food but won’t eat a chicken cutlet. However, I have discovered that she will eat my tilapia – yup, she will chew it and swallow it! The added bonus is that my husband and I love this quick meal as well.

mustard and mayo / prepared crumb topping

1lb of tilapia fillet

2 tbsp French’s honey mustard

2 tbsp mayo

1 cup French’s fried onions (I highly suggest you buy the gigantic bag of these at Costco- so delish)

1 cup of corn flake crumbs

Onion powder, garlic powder and salt to taste

The prep for this is super easy… 

Mix together the mustard and mayo and coat the fillets

In a separate bowl crush up the French’s fried onions and mix with the corn flake crumbs

Now you can hand coat each piece of fish with the fried onion and crumb topping -or take the lazy way out like me… I spray my baking pan with oil and then coat the bottom of my pan with the crumb mixture. I then layer the fish and put the rest of the crumb mixture on top! So much easier and just as crunchy!! I then sprinkle the fish with onion powder, garlic powder, a tad of salt, and a spritz of oil.

Layering crumbs: the much more efficient way to bread anything!

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Viola, fish my kid will eat! I think that is worth celebrating!

See, you can't even tell I breaded the fish the lazy way!

** I have made this exact same recipe on chicken cutlets too, it is a hit (just not with T) 

The Best Baked Ziti

I don't really understand how people all over the web post such pretty pictures of the food they cook and rave about how delicious it is at the same time. If it were actually as good as you say, wouldn't you forget you had to take a photo and enjoy some of your dish first? I mean, come on people!! 

Toddler T and I both love noodles, pasta, pure carbohydrates- call them what you will. T actually calls them NuNus and even has a doll named NuNu because that’s how we roll. So we cook a lot of NuNus and this recipe is one of our all time favorites, and easy too! I also love this ziti because I am not a huge ricotta fan so the cottage cheese in this recipe is much better, and you can pretend it makes the dish so much healthier and have another bowl.

Cook up a box of your favorite pasta

Then add

16oz of cottage cheese (I like to use 1-2% milk fat, when I make it for other people I sometimes use 4%, because it’s a little creamier that way)

6oz + of your favorite cheese

1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce (I love the smooth sauces like Rinaldi – it is also cheap!)

Mix together and put it in a pan, or mix in the pan and have less dishes to wash

Add more cheese to coat the top of the ziti

Bake for 25-30 minutes on 350

T loves to help me cook, so I let her mix the cottage cheese and the cheese together, it keeps her busy and happy while I'm prepping the pasta! 

Here are some add in options: 

Morning star meat crumbles and/or chopped spinach (defrosted and water free)

**I have even added both to the same Ziti and it was wonderful and a good way to add more protein and veggies to your dinner. 

Ridiculously Easy Pumpkin Muffins

Look how moist! I ate this one piping hot. 

My Mother-in-law is responsible for this amazing creation. There are 2 ingredients, that is right, 2! And I try to always have these 2 things in my cabinet as a go-to. Let’s say it is Friday morning and I get a last minute Shabbat meal invite…oh no! no time to really go shopping or cook-- well hello, handy dandy pumpkin muffin recipe. So I tell my friend, of course we would love to come, can we bring anything along? How about some lovely pumpkin muffins?

So here it is…

1 box of spice cake mix** (just the powder, not the created batter)

1 can of pumpkin 14oz, we like Libby’s 100% pure pumpkin

**(if you can not find pareve spice cake you can use a yellow cake mix and add 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg, 1/4 tsp ground ginger and 1/4 tsp allspice - that is actually what I did in this batch.) 

Mix the 2 ingredients together and plop into cupcake liners (make sure your plopping looks kinda nice, because they tend to look the same after cooking)

Heat oven to 350 and cook for 15-18 minutes, my oven kind of sucks so it varies.

You can choose not to believe me, I was also a skeptic at first and refused to believe my mother-in-law. I must have called her 3 times to make sure I don’t also add the oil, eggs and water first before the pumpkin.

That is it, and now for the best part, no raw eggs so you can eat the batter!! This recipe usually yields 16 muffins, but when I make it I end up eating at least 1 muffin’s worth of batter. Yummanuum! 

Before cooking, please note the missing muffin batter.

Fresh out of the oven and I've already eaten one.

Easy Crockpot Chili

Before leaving to work, one day last week, I threw together a quick crockpot chili. It was pretty easy and I recommend this as a go-to meal. It is very simple to make adjustments to the recipe based on your family’s preferences and I suggest using your favorite veggies as added substance.  If your kid is picky it is also a good way to trick them into eating some new veggies, everything tastes the same when it’s been cooking all day! 

Baby T really enjoyed the chili, especially the beans and the mess she made eating. Good thing I got her naked first, it saved an outfit, literally, as the mess was not even simple to wash off of her skin!  

Here is how I made the chili –

1lb chopped meat - browned

1 large onion – diced

1 yellow pepper – diced

1 can of kidney bean – 15oz drained

1 can of small red beans -15oz drained

1 can of tomato paste – 12oz

1 can of crushed tomatoes – 14oz

1 large can of diced tomatoes – 28oz

2 tbsp of crushed garlic

2 tbsp of brown sugar

1 packet of Ortega taco seasoning

Salt and pepper to taste

The night before I browned the chopped meat and chopped the veggies, because if you are making a crockpot meal to begin with, it means there just isn’t enough time in your day!

The next morning, I threw all of the ingredients in the crockpot and cooked it on low – for a long time. The chili would be good in as little as 6 hours, but unfortunately my work day is longer than that**.  I usually leave it in the crockpot on low from 8am-6pm but this past week my husband didn’t get home from work until after 9:30pm and it was still good!   

The finished product! MMmmmm... 

**As a side note – here is a short vent about crockpot recipes on Pintrest. What good is a crockpot recipe to me that cooks between 4-6hours? I am out of the house for 9 hours a day. Please start to post recipes that fit into my schedule because I would totally make some of them!! In the meantime I will be experimenting and sharing what works…