We got a bunch of snow in our neck of the woods today. I made one little trip to the post office on the snowy icy roads and decided we would all be staying in our nice cozy home for the rest of the day. Snowy days always get me in the mood to cook, but today I just wasn’t in the mood to make something super time-consuming. That is when the lightbulb came on. Pasta e Fagioli is a go to soup in the Evolving Mommy household because 1. it is quick and easy to make, 2. it is always tasty and 3. I always have the ingredients on hand. Paired with some warm homemade whole wheat blueberry muffins and we were a happy little family with full bellies after this kid friendly lunch.

What’s on the plate: Pasta e Fagioli Soup and Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffin

• Soup with chicken sausage, white beans, diced tomatoes and whole wheat pasta shells topped with parmesan cheese.
• Whole wheat blueberry muffin with an oat-streusel topping

Tortillas make me happy.

If you know me or have spent any time around here you know that more breads do. Homemade breads make me especially happy. I know it’s easy to buy tortillas in the store, but have you looked at the ingredient lists for most store bought tortillas? Yowza! Who needs all those extra ingredients they put in to elongate shelf life when all you need is a handful of ingredients? Now I will admit that whole wheat tortillas purchased from a local tortillaria are hard to beat, but not everyone has the time to make a special trip to a tortillaria just to buy tortillas for dinner.

Back to why tortillas make me happy. Tortillas are great for all those meals you usually use tortillas for along with many other. Around here whole wheat tortillas are a lunch time staple too. Tortillas are very kid friendly art lunch time helping to make Chicken Salad Wraps, Peanut Butter and Jelly-dilla, Salmon Quesadillas and much, much more.

I like to make these fajita sized tortillas for soft tacos, fajitas, huevos rancheros – don’t worry Jen I’ll be sharing that recipe soon-, as a bread to accompany Black Bean Soup or Mexican Chicken Stew and as a quick starting spot for lots of other meals.

These homemade whole wheat tortillas are pillowy and thick, but soft and easy to wrap around things. They have a great nutty flavor that really adds to spicy meals and best of all they do not have that overly chewy texture of so many store bought tortillas. I make this tortillas and freeze the leftovers, pulling them from the freezer as I need them. They thaw quickly and are just as tasty as the first time around.

 
Whole Wheat Tortilla Ingredients
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3/4 cup water, plus extra as needed

Mix whole wheat and white flour, baking soda and salt in a medium sized mixing bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Pour the oil and water in the well.  Using hands mix ingredients into a dough. Dough should be moist and just slightly tacky. If the dough is still too dry add water a teaspoon or two at a time until it reaches a springy and elastic and not dry and stiff consistency. Roll into a ball. Let the dough ball rest in the bowl covered with a tea towel or plastic wrap for 15-30 minutes.

Divide dough into 16 equal equal sized balls and cover with the tea towel. Preheat a large cast iron skillet or a griddle to medium high heat. Working with a rolling pin roll each ball into a 7-inch circle.

Place a dough circle into heated pan to cook. The tortilla will begin to form slight bubbles when it is ready to flip over, which should take about 45 seconds. Flip the tortilla and continue to cook for about 30 seconds. Remove tortilla from pan an wrap in a tea towel to keep warm an soft

Tortillas are best when eaten fresh. They will keep for a day or two at room temperature or in the freezer for a month when wrapped in plastic wrap. To warm leftover tortillas microwave tortillas for 10-15 seconds.

Fresh Roma tomatoes from the garden taste so much better than store bought Roma tomatoes. Actually, any homegrown tomato will beat the pants off its store-bought counter part. Not that tomatoes wear pants.

Also, homemade tomato soup beats the pants off canned store-bought tomato soup.

I cannot tell a lie. Well, lets clarify that statement. I cannot tell a lie about tomatoes. Or tomato soup.

Granted some store bought and/or canned tomato soups are okay there is nothing like fresh tomatoes and basil getting friendly in your own pot on your own stove.

I love this soup because it is thick, flavorful and pretty stickin’ good for you. Not to mention that it is pretty stickin’ easy too. I like to use freshly peeled tomatoes. Since you now know how to peel tomatoes- you can too, but if you really aren’t in the mood to peel tomatoes or you can use canned tomatoes. Since I cannot tell a lie about tomatoes or tomato soup, I’ll admit that I have used canned tomatoes in the recipe and thoroughly enjoyed the outcome too.

Now go forth and fall in love with soup. Oh, and I strongly urge you to try it with Winter Herb Bread either toasted or as a grilled cheese sandwich. So.stickin’.good.

Tomato-Basil Soup Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 stalks celery, diced
3 carrots, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic,  minced
4 cups fresh peeled and diced tomatoes or 2 14.5-ounce cans diced tomatoes
1 14- ounce can vegetable broth
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup basil
1/3 cup cream
salt and pepper to taste

Warm Olive oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Saute celery, carrots, onion and garlic for about 5-10 minutes or until softened.

Add tomatoes and vegetable broth to pan and mixture for 20 minutes or until carrots and celery are very soft and tender. Reduce heat to medium. Add butter, basil leaves and cream to pan. Using an hand held immersion blender puree the soup mixture until smooth. (A traditional blender can also be used. scoop the mixture from the pan into the blender and blend until smooth. Blend a small amount at a time to ensure that the hot liquid doesn’t explode out of the blender.)

Once soup pureed to s a thick yet smooth consistency salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm with crusty bread or hot grilled cheese sandwiches.

Potlucks are such fun. So much food in one place.

Sun dried tomatoes are also quite fun. Delicious and fun. Or more simply put, delicious fun. Add some pasta and some kalamata olives into the mix and you’ve upgraded from delicious fun to a party in a bowl if you ask me.

This pasta salad was a hit at this weekends potluck and because that popularity and its adaptability this dish is going on permanent rotation in the Evolving Mommy household. Side dish or Main dish. Warm or cold. If it’s a dinner I need I can easily add shrimp of cubed chicken for a main dish. If I’m in a hurry I can easily substitute jarred sun dried tomato pesto for the homemade version in this recipe, although the homemade version is both easy and delicious. See, this Sun dried tomato pasta salad is flexible, even downright versatile.

Sun dried Tomato Pasta Salad Ingredients

Sun Dried Tomato Pesto (recipe below)
1 pound rotini or corkscrew pasta
3/4 cup kalamata olives, roughly chopped
6 ounces baby spinach leaves, wilted
1/2 one red onion, diced (about 1/2 cup)
3 roma tomatoes, diced (about 1-1/2 cups)

Cook pasta according to package directions, making sure to cook noodles until they are just aldente.

In a large serving bowl mix all ingredients together until the noodles are evenly coated and the ingredients are evenly distributed. Refrigerate until serving time.

Sun dried Tomato Pesto Ingredients
1 cup sun dried tomatoes
4 cloves garlic
1/3 cup basil leaves
1/3 cup Parmesan
1/3 cup whole toasted/roasted almonds
3/4 cups olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Using a food processor pulse the almonds a few times to chop them into smaller pieces. Add the sun dried tomatoes, garlic, basil and parmesan to the processor bowl and pulse a few times. Add the oil into the bowl, process the mixture until will mixed. Add Salt and pepper to taste.

Food is so much more fun when the kids to be in charge and nothing is more fun than dipping your favorite foods into peanut butter.

On the plate this week:

• Sliced Apples
• Banana chunks
• Red Grapes
• Homemade Thin Wheat Crackers
• All Natural Peanut Butter

A little hands on cooking from the kiddo and some creative arranging on the plate makes mini pizza’s even more fun.

On the plate this week:

• A Cantaloupe wedge “smile”
• Whole Wheat English Muffin Pizza with turkey pepperoni, red bell pepper, spinach, sauce and cheese cut into wedges and arranged into eyes and a nose.

Our Toppings.
1 toasted whole wheat English Muffin, tomato sauce, turkey peperoni, spinach, diced red bell pepper, and cheese.

Have your child top the pizza any way they would like.

Once the English muffins are topped toss them in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds to melt the cheese and warm the toppings. Cut into wedges (slices) and serve.

A large and small flower cookie cutter can turn a normal lunch into a floral affair and have kids asking for more.

On the plate this week:

• Watermelon slices cut into flowers
• Grilled cheese sandwiches, made with whole wheat bread and sharp cheddar cheese, cut into flowers
• Dill Pickle “leaves”
• Homemade Pasta Fagioli Soup

What’s on the plate:

• homemade hummus
• grilled chicken strips
• broccoli
• tomatoes
• cucumber
• jicama (pronounced hick-ah-ma)
• carrots
• toasted whole wheat English Muffin quarters

A few thoughts about this lunch:

We try to have hummus in the refrigerator most of the time. It is a great snack, condiment and in the case of today’s example, a healthy and filling part of a balanced lunch. Store bought hummus is good but I usually make our hummus. If you haven’t made hummus before I would highly recommend Roasted Red Pepper Hummus. We also try to grill an extra chicken breast or two when we grill them for meals to have for lunches, but there are lots of options for precooked chicken in both the frozen foods and deli sections of most grocery stores.

For those of you who may not be familiar with jicama, it is a root vegetable similar to a potato with a texture and crunch like water chestnuts and a very slightly sweet flavor. Jicama is high in fiber and relatively low in calories so it is a good choice for veggie trays, slaws, salads and snacks.

What are you kid friendly lunch suggestions? Please link up your Kid Friendly Lunch posts and share your ideas!

Kid Friendly Lunches: Beyond PB&J

I know it is all to easy to reach for the jar of peanut butter and the jar of jelly, slather some on two pieces of bread and call it good. We actually love peanut butter and jelly around here, especially me and we actually eat it fairly often, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other fun, creative, interesting and healthy lunch possibilities.

Starting next week I’ll be sharing kid friendly lunch ideas in a new weekly round up, Quick Take: Kid Friendly Lunches. These will be quick posts with a picture, a quick break down of the  lunch idea and maybe a recipe if needed. Sometimes I’ll be sharing healthier updates on old favorites, sometimes it will be fun twists on lunch and sometimes it will be lunches with a theme, but the aim will always be to give you ideas for quick, healthy and yummy lunches for your kiddos.

Each Wednesday the Quick Take: Kid Friendly Lunch post will go up along with a linky so please feel free to snap a quick picture of your own yummy, healthy and creative lunch ideas and link up your posts. I would love to see what your serving up at your house!

When fall weather rolls in all I want to do is make soups and stews and bake things. There is something about cooler weather that makes me want to hunker down in the kitchen and make warm filling foods for my family.

Well, I live in Colorado. Which actually means fall like weather can make appearances at any moment, regardless of the month. So soup and stew season has started in my house. Already. Soup and stew season also means crock pot/slow cooker season too, because honestly the only thing better on a cool day than warm soup is smelling that warm soup cooking all day long. Well that and spending 15-20 minutes on your dinner in the morning and having delicious flavorful food in the evening is quite awesome.

The recipe below, like a lot of my favorite recipes, is very flexible and yummy year round. If you like ground turkey use that in place of the ground beef. If your family hates corn but loves peas use peas instead. If zucchini is a no go then leave it out or substitute a different veggie. When the farmers market is in full swing I use all fresh veggies, but this soup tastes yummy with canned and frozen veggies too.

This recipe makes 6-8 servings (or more depending on your appetites). We love this soup with buttered bread but it would also be yummy with warm rolls, side salads, or corn bread muffins.

Hamburger and Veggie Stew

Ingredients
2-2 1/5 pounds ground beef
2 minced cloves garlic
1 cup diced onion
2 cups sliced carrot
1 1/2 cups zucchini
1 1/2 cups green bean cut into 1-2 inch pieces
2 1/2 cups potatoes cut into about 1 inch cubes
1 can kidney beans
2 cups corn
2 tbs Worcestershire sauce
4 cups beef or vegetable stock
1 28oz can diced tom with juice
1 teaspoon oregano
Salt and Pepper to taste

Add carrot, zucchini, green beans, potatoes, kidney beans, corn, Worcestershire sauce, stock, diced tomatoes and oregano to slow cooker.

Brown ground beef with onions and garlic in a saute pan. Once beef is cooked drain the fat off the beef and add the beef, onion and garlic mixture to the vegetables mixture in the slow cooker.

Cook stew on high for 4-6 hours or until potatoes and green beans are cooked. When ready to serve,before stirring, skim any remaining fat off the top of the stew with a spoon. Add salt and pepper to taste, stir and serve.

Feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions.

Other Evolving Mommy Recipes you might enjoy:

• Honey Whole Wheat Bread
• Ethiopian Beef Stew
• Mexican Chicken Stew