Here at Team FridayReads, we are practicing book addicts. Because we suffer from this contagious and life-saving malady, we often read multiple books at a time. This means our hair is extra shiny, we walk with extra pep in our step, and our #fridayreads won’t fit in one Tweet!
Here’s what…
I’m reading Binocular Vision, a collection of short stories by Edith Pearlman.
Honey-Oat Granola Bars
Are granola bars healthy?
When they first became popular, back in the 1980s when my kids were little kids, I thought so. And in my efforts to be a “good mother” who tried to give my children healthy food, I bought what was available then. Granola bars were frequent snacks in the house and for school.
I later learned that many of those so-called healthy snacks weren’t.
Just because something is called granola doesn’t mean it’s healthy.
Like if the bars are loaded with trans fats, hydrogenated vegetable oil, high fructose corn syrup, marshmallows, chocolate, artificial color and so on.
Here’s a recipe for Honey-Oat Granola Bars. Yes, they have chocolate. And honey is a sweetener. And there’s a little brown sugar in there. Still, there’s oats and dried fruit and nuts. You can add some sunflower seeds if you wish.
And they taste good. These are rich, so you just eat a little and feel snack-full.
2 cups quick cooking oats
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
3/4 cup honey
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 cup dried cranberries
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9-inch-square baking pan with parchment paper, letting a few inches hang over the side of pan (to help you lift the bars out of the pan). Brush the paper with vegetable oil. Place the oats on a cookie sheet and bake for 5-6 minutes, mixing them once during the baking process, to toast them slightly. Mix the vegetable oil, honey and brown sugar in a saucepan and cook over medium heat for 1-2 minutes or until blended, smooth and hot. Combine the toasted oats, almonds, chocolate chips, cranberries, cinnamon and salt in a bowl. Pour in the honey mixture and stir until well blended. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until toasty brown. Let cool in the pan. Lift the square out of pan using the overhanging paper. Cut into squares or rectangles.
Makes about 2 dozen
I think it’s possible, when you work out, even with a trainer, and all you talk about is food the entire session, that you can gain weight just from the conversation.
I suffer through “squats” and some awful exercise called “mountain climbers” (I HATE those!) and my trainer yaks about not eating carbs but then we frequently wind up our session talking about all the wonderful pasta dishes his mother and grandmother used to cook.
Robbie is from an Italian family so he also mentions the braciole, the broccoli rabe sauteed in garlic and olive oil, the cheesecake.
But, I digress from the no-carb thing.
Robbie recently mentioned that his grandmother made a spaghetti dish and topped it with breadcrumbs. He told me that a lot of old timers did that because grated cheese was so expensive and breadcrumbs were a good substitute.
I had to try it.
This dish is really good. Also cheap. Also easy to make for a quick dinner.
I’ll have to do even more mountain climbers to keep the pounds off I guess.
Spaghetti with Breadcrumbs
1 pound spaghetti
1/3 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh lemon peel
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
optional: mashed or chopped anchovies or 2 tablespoons rinsed capers
Cook the pasta according to package directions. While the pasta is cooking, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a sauté pan over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook briefly. Add the breadcrumbs and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5-6 minutes or until the crumbs are golden brown and toasty. Add the parsley and lemon zest stir and cook for another minute. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Drain the pasta, but reserve about a 1/2 cup of cooking water. Add the pasta to the pan with the breadcrumb mixture and toss the ingredients to distribute them evenly. Pour in the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil and enough cooking water to moisten the pasta. Add the cheese and some salt and pepper to taste. Remove from the heat and serve. Makes 4 servings
Maurice Sendak has died, at age 83. Above* is a clip of my daughter, then age 2, singing Alligators All Around.
He was one of my favorite parenting writers.
Wait, you thought his books were for kids?
Chicken Soup With Rice is a brilliant “Playful Parenting” approach to living with a picky eater.
Pierre is one of the best descriptions I’ve read on how (not) to deal with defiant behavior. (I have read it aloud, front to back, to a roomful of adults taking my parenting workshops).
Where The Wild Things Are shows us how children’s destructive impulses can find a home in fantasy, and lets us see an example of how you can both send your child to bed without supper and also make sure he gets fed.
Bears — oh how many of us have been in that frantic search for the all-important stuffed animal who’s gone missing again! That book is like a tiny treatise on how to play with separation anxiety and loss.
Each book is like a nugget of wisdom, showing us playful ways to cope with all that’s weird and challenging and complex when you live with little ones. You close each one with a new idea of how to proceed. Even poet Rita Dove famously used Sendak as an inspiration in a beautiful poem about mothers and daughters and body talk.
I love when children’s books are also for the parents. Because reading is like nursing: you hold your child close, you use your body and your mind to offer to your child a multi-sensory experience essential to his growth and development. You use intimacy, touch, rhythm and warmth, to expose him of the best that the world has to offer. It is so, so important to your child that you hold him and read to him.
And all too often, just like nursing, we look at reading as though it’s *only* beneficial for your child, as though it’s not equally profound for mom. But that’s wrong. When it works, it’s for both of you — the content of the books, the experience of holding each other and sharing the art of the written word. You’re in the milk and the milk’s in you. He’s in the milk and the milk’s in him. There you are, learning the world together.
Read good books with your child.
*Note: Somehow you can only see the video if you view this site through tumblr! Well, what better reason to join tumblr and follow me (amotherisborn) there …
Beautiful in every way!
Here’s an oldie but goodie. My Mom’s Marble Cake, which she would bake whenever there was leftover sour cream that was about to get the heave-ho. It’s a moist cake and she served it plain, as a snack or coffee cake. But sometimes she’d frost it with a thick, fudgy icing.
Well, I’ve read so much lately about the benefits of coconut oil, that I wanted to see if I could make various dishes using that instead of the dreaded hydrogenated vegetable shortening (coconut oil is solid at room temperature). The recipe calls for only 1/4 cup shortening so I thought it might be a good place to start.
It was. There is a definite coconut flavor to the cake (although when I served the cake no one was quire sure what that “new” flavor was). Because of that it has more of a sweet quality about it.
I also substituted non-fat plain yogurt for the sour cream.
Maybe that makes this cake a bit of a healthier snack.
But it’s the same old, same old Mom’s Marble Cake. For traditionalists, use vegetable shortening instead of the coconut oil and sour cream instead of the yogurt.
Mom’s Marble Cake with Coconut Oil
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup coconut oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-3/4 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup plain yogurt (non-fat is fine)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8-inch-square baking pan. Melt the chocolate and set it aside. Cream the sugar and coconut oil together in the bowl of an electric mixer set at medium for 2-3 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat the ingredients until well blended. Sift the flour and baking soda together. Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture in thirds, alternating with the yogurt. Beat the mixture for 2-3 minutes to blend the ingredients thoroughly. Divide the batter in half. Mix the melted chocolate into one of the halves. Either drop blobs of alternate batters into the prepared pan or spoon in one batter, add the second and swirl it into the first. Smooth the top. Bake the cake for 30-35 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Then invert onto a cake rack to cool completely. Eat plain or frost with fudge frosting. Makes one cake serving 8
Kids’ lunch? It’s the talk of the town. And the country. Because what our children eat is important to their growth, to their health and to their future.
One way to help them eat healthier is to let them have some choices. And learn to make good decisions. Feel a part of what’s going on around them.
That’s what Lala Lunchbox is for.
Confession: this is my daughter Gillian’s new App. It launched last week and kids throughout the world from Omaha to Oman are using it already.
First the kid picks a really cute monster avatar (mine is bright orange with jagged teeth). The food choices are in categories including fruit, vegetable, protein and snack (parents can limit what’s available) so children learn about what a balanced lunch has. They plan their lunch choices for a week and that translates into a shopping list for Mom or Dad.
Another bonus: the decision has been made so you can prepare the actual lunch (maybe even the night before) without the arguing and the rushing in the morning when you are rushing to do everything else in your life.
This App is so simple that even grandmas like me can understand how to use it.
Your youngsters will figure it out in no time.
Go to the LaLa Lunchbox site and sign in.
Get the App directly here.
And use it!
Mother’s Day is coming — this App is a good, inexpensive gift for mothers of young children.
Here at Team FridayReads, we are practicing book addicts. Because we suffer from this contagious and life-saving malady, we often read multiple books at a time. This means our hair is extra shiny, we walk with extra pep in our step, and our #fridayreads won’t fit in one Tweet!
Here’s what we’re…
#fridayreads I’m reading The Falls, by Joyce Carol Oates
I love when science and studies and experts say that some food item I love is healthy. Like in this article that speaks to the benefits of coffee. Apparently coffee can help prevent cognitive decline.
Wow! I am going to be cognitively okay then!
Because I have been drinking coffee, and LOTS of it, since I was age 5 or so and my aunt Roz and Uncle Mac lived with us for a while. My Mom slept late and Aunt Roz took care of breakfast and got us off to school. But she was newly married and had no clue about kids so she served us coffee. Because that’s what everyone else had for breakfast.
Okay, there was lots of milk and sugar in that coffee.
Still.
Anyway, once you get that coffee habit in the morning it’s hard to break. I set up the coffee maker every night so all I have to do in the morning is turn the on button. On days when I know the exact time I am getting up I set it on automatic.
Cognitive benefits.
I wonder how I would do in Physics these days?
Anyway, when I was a kid there was nothing to go with that coffee. I like a little something with coffee. So, maybe these — not for breakfast. But they’re pretty delicious later in the day.
Lemon Oatmeal Cookies
1 pound butter
1 cup sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups quick oats
1 tablespoon grated fresh lemon peel
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
confectioner’s sugar
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer set at medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until well blended. Add the flour, salt, oats, lemon peel and vanilla extract and mix to blend ingredients thoroughly. Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes. Remove small portions of the dough and roll the pieces into 1-inch balls. Place the balls on an ungreased cookie sheet. Spoon a film of confectioner’s sugar onto a dish. Press the bottom of a drinking glass into the confectioner’s sugar. Press the balls flat with the sugar-coated bottom of the glass. Repeat until all the cookies are flat (keep coating the glass bottom as needed). Bake for 13-15 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cool for 10 minutes on the cookie sheet, then remove to a rack to cool completely. Makes about 100
African Coconut Rice
We used to be a rice family. It was one of those foods we all agreed we liked. Ed, my daughters, Meredith and Gillian, and me.
Unfortunately I made it so often that we reached a saturation point.
I had jumped the shark of rice cooking.
We were riced out.
For years.
A few weeks ago, Meredith got a rice cooker. She and her husband and family had a sudden yen for rice.
Which got me to thinking that Ed and I hadn’t had it in a long, long time.
So I went out and bought a package of jasmine rice and made this recipe for African Coconut Rice. It’s a little hot. A little sweet.
Ed said “wow, this is so nice. We haven’t had rice in so long. I miss it!”
I’m guessing there’s a lot of rice in our near future. White, brown, red. All sorts.
I just won’t overdo it this time. I hope.
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3-4 scallions, chopped
1-2 serrano or habanero peppers, deseeded and chopped
1 cup halved grape tomatoes
1 cup white rice
1-3/4 cups coconut milk
salt to taste
Heat the vegetable oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the scallions and pepper and cook for 2-3 minutes to soften them. Add the tomatoes and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the rice, stir, and pour in the coconut milk. Sprinkle with salt to taste. Raise the heat and bring the liquid to a boil. Boil for one minute. Turn the heat to low. Cover the pan and cook for 18-20 minutes or until the rice is tender and all the liquid in the pan has been absorbed.
Makes 4-6 servings
Tagged: coconut milk, rice, side dish, African Coconut Rice
I’ve been in a broccoli sort of mood lately. Maybe it’s because I read that broccoli stalks are healthy.
So many people I know throw away the stalks. I actually think they are the best part. You have to peel them though, as I mentioned the other day (with instructions on how to do it).
Besides, it’s a big waste to trash the stalks, isn’t it? One of the things I learned at the China Institute when I took cooking lessons there decades ago, was how adept Chinese home cooks are using parts of products that other people throw away.
Like broccoli stems.
Try this recipe. The bread crumbs give the dish a nice toasty taste and crispy feel.
Broccoli with Lemony Bread Crumbs
2 stalks broccoli
2/3 cup fresh bread crumbs (any kind)
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons grated fresh lemon peel
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 large cloves garlic, cut into thick slices
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Remove about one inch from the bottom stems of the broccoli stalks. Peel the stems and cut the stems and florets into bite-sized pieces. Cook the broccoli in lightly salted simmering water for about 4 minutes or until barely tender. Drain under cold water and set aside. Mix the bread crumbs, mustard and lemon peel and set aside in a small bowl. Heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil in a wok, stir-fry pan or deep sauté pan over moderate heat. Add the garlic and cook for a minute or so until the garlic begins to brown. Discard the garlic. Add the bread crumb mixture to the pan and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring constantly, and breaking up the mixture into crumbs, for 2-3 minutes or until the pieces are toasty brown. Dish out and set aside. Pour the remaining tablespoon olive oil into the pan. Add the broccoli and cook, stirring occasionally, for 1-2 minutes to reheat. Dish out into a serving bowl, sprinkle with the crumb mixture and serve. Makes 4 servings