Weekday dinner and table

I'd like to say that the kitchen is always neat, but the reality is it's a hard-working room and too often shows it.   This is typical.  The floor needs sweeping.  The table crowded with Liam's craft supplies and assorted projects in progress.  Various bits of paper and odds and ends.  Today it includes a snow globe Liam just. had. to. have. from a garage sale this weekend and which hasn't found it's proper place in the house yet.  (Why do they all play it's a small world?)  Crumbs, always.  A potted plant. 

And, most nights about 5:30: dinner.

Tonight, green vegetable stir fry.

We eat some version of this dinner at least once a week, and more often twice.  It is the easiest thing ever and I can reliably have it on the table 20 minutes from walking in the door from work.  Faster if I've remembered to prep the vegetables in advance, or chop the ginger and garlic on Sunday night and put them in a jar in the refrigerator with some oil to cover.  (Which happens about 1 week out of every three if I'm lucky.)

Take any relatively crunchy green vegetable, we most often use green beans or broccoli or both.  Asparagus is good too.  Trim and clean.  Chop up a good amount of ginger at at least two large cloves of garlic.  Heat a pan with a little oil (we generally use coconut), saute the green vegetable for 5 minutes or so with a splash of tamari.  You can add onion, carrot, pepper or any other crunchy vegetable at this time.  Liam likes it when I add carrots.  Sometimes I add mushrooms about three minutes in.  Liam likes that less.  Once the vegetables have brightened up and started to cook add the ginger and garlic and heat for a minute or so (Don't burn them!) and then quick, quick add about a quarter cup of water, turn down the heat, and put a lid on the whole thing to steam for about another 5-8 minutes.  If you're going to add tofu, or spinach or something like that, add it right after the water, before the steaming.  Then, take off the lid, turn up the heat, add another splash of tamari and some fresh basil if it's summer and you happen to have it around, taste to make sure it tastes good and is cooked, and you're done.  Pass hot sauce, sesame seeds, and sesame oil if you like at the table.

I most often make this with vegetables only (no tofu) and serve it with rice.  I have this idea that we mostly get all the protein we need and then some, and mostly do not get all the vegetables we need.  Very occasionally, if I'm worried he hasn't had enough nutrition in the past few days, I'll cook a piece of salmon to go next to this for Liam, or a scrambled egg.

Fast. Healthy. Loved by five-year-olds.  What could be better?

Pizza Friday

 

Pizza Friday has re-established a toe-hold at our house.  We'll see if it continues.  In the meantime, any suggestions for getting good pizza out of a regular 450 degree-ish max kitchen oven are welcome.  In a "wow, universe thanks for paying attention" moment, last night was our first pizza Friday and today in the mail arrives a pizza stone as a mother's day present from Auntie Chris. (Thanks Chris!  I hope to have perfected pizza by the time you get here in June.)

Pizza was Liam's second dinner.  First he ate fish, broccoli and raspberries, proclaiming that he didn't like pizza.  But then (an hour later when the pizza was finally, finally ready) he was prevailed upon to try some and proclaimed it "yummy!" 

Get the preschooler to the table on time

Updated: I checked back to this time last year; Will has been feeling pretty sick this week and I was trying to remember when he started getting sick last year.  (A: exactly this time, pretty much to the day.)  I was reminded how much Liam has changed in a year.  Last year he was still using half sign language and some half-words for talking.  Now, it's more words than you can shake a stick at and just this past weekend I asked him if he remembered how he used to say "more"  and "please" when he was a baby and he had no idea what I was talking about; I had to show him the signs.  Every time I get the notion to stop this writing I'm reminded how nice it is to be able to look back.

I've decided Liam is a preschooler now.  I think; now that he's three.  At any rate.  One of my (many) struggles as a (working-full-time-outside-the-home) parent is getting dinner to the table on time and then getting Liam to the table to eat it without an epic struggle.  Remembering that 5:15 pm is not the time of day when I am at my highest and most mindful best, it often goes something like this:

Me:  Liam, dinner is almost ready, 5 minutes, please wrap up what you're doing.
Liam: (Ignores) or "I'm playing! I'm playing! I'm playing!"
Me: Okay, finish up your playing and get ready to take a break for dinner.
Me: Liam, 2 minutes until dinner, get ready please.
Liam: No, no, no, no, no; I don't want to eat.  I'm playing.
Me: Well, we're going to eat dinner, so wrap it up please.
Me: Liam, dinner time, it's on the table, come on.
Liam: (Crying fit.)

Last week the child developmental specialist I see to help us know how best to talk with Liam about Will's sickness and hospitalizations suggested something I should have thought of on my own, that we give Liam a dinnertime ritual to help him transition from play to the table.  (Her first idea has always been: almost no kids this age eat dinner at the table; don't fight it, this is a battle for when he is five.  But, since dinner at the table is one of the only parenting outcomes Will has requested, I told her we had to try.)

So, Friday, we started "candle time."  Now our conversations go more like this:

Me: Liam, almost dinner time, 5 minutes, please finish up what your doing so you can get the candles out.
Liam: Is it ready? Is it on the table? Is it time?  Daddy, Daddy, will you help me get the candles?

Seriously.  I don't know if it will stick, but so far it's about that good a transformation.  We still have trouble keeping him at the table, but now at least we can get him there.  We use these candles given to us by Will's sister.  Liam loves them more than words can express. The giraffe has already been glued twice. 

Tonight's dinner was a weeknight favorite featuring leftover chicken: quesadillas.  They are the easiest thing to make.  Get some flour tortillas (we use whole wheat), thinly slice some cheese (we use cheddar or monterey jack or whatever is around), slice some green onion and some tomato if you have it.  Shred up the leftover chicken.  Make a tortilla sandwich with the chicken, cheese, etc.  Pan fry/grill (use very little oil and only a medium hot pan) until golden and melt-y.  Serve with sour cream for the non-calorie-counting set and a side of whatever vegetables you have around (tonight green beans and carrot sticks; often it's black beans and sauteed squash).  Totally toddler approved.  Will likes them too.

Tuesday Night Dinner

One of the things that can be very hard is getting dinner on the table quickly when I get home from work. Often I'm tired and don't feel like dealing with it. Usually Liam is hungry and that makes him clingy and temperamental. I've spent some time lately trying to get a better handle on dinner. If it goes well, we have a good evening. If it goes poorly, well, let's just say we've all been in tears more than once.

The key for me is thinking it through ahead of time and finding things that cook fast. (Aside: I now heart couscous because it cooks so fast.) So, here's Tuesday's dinner: spice-rubbed chicken from the grill, couscous with pine nuts and raisins, tomatoes, and sauteed zucchini. It came together in about 20 minutes, no fooling. Here are the steps.

• Make the spice rub. Anything will do. I used about a teaspoon each of cumin and chili powder and about half a teaspoon of allspice and cinnamon. Adding turmeric might have been good, I'm trying to add more of that to our diet, but I forget. One could make this in advance for sure.
• Cut up the chicken and put it on skewers. Salt and pepper. Dump on the spice rub. Put it in the fridge and wash your hands and wash up the counter. This also could be done in advance, say, in the morning before you leave for work. I'm always trying to remember to do things like that.
• Melt some butter in a pan, add the pine nuts and toast briefly, add the raisins and add the couscous and coat with butter. Turn off.
• Start the grill.
• Cut up the zucchini. Start it cooking in a hot pan with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Turn it down so it doesn't cook too fast.
• While the zucchini is cooking, get a can of chicken broth and pour it into a measuring cup, add whatever water you need to have enough liquid to cook however much couscous you are making, and zap it in the microwave until it's hot.
• Turn the couscous back on briefly, add the hot liquid and stir. Cover and cook on low for a few minutes and then turn it off and let the liquid absorb.
• If there is someone to grill the chicken for you, find him/her and get them to do the grilling. Chicken on skewers is great because it cooks evenly and fast. 4-5 minutes a side, maybe less is about all it needs. If you're on your own, turn the zucchini way down or off (it should be cooked by now) and do the grilling yourself.
• While someone is grilling for you (or while the chicken is resting if you did the grilling yourself) cut the tomatoes in half and add a little olive oil, a little sherry vinegar and some salt, pepper and whatever herb you have handy. I like thyme.

That's it. Make up the plates, pour the milk, and dinner is on the table. Liam ate it all happily except for the tomatoes.