I also love them for how versatile they are. You can use them on their own as a side dish or include them in a huge variety of dishes including omelets, pastas, grain salads, pizzas, quesadillas, wraps, grilled cheese/paninis, stir fries. And you can flavor them in various ways–salt and pepper, indian spices, chili powder, parmesan, nutritional yeast, soy sauce, and bread crumbs are just a few of our favorite ways to have them.

Roasted vegetables are also often a great entry point for picky eaters. The reason for this is that roasting brings out the natural sugars in the vegetables, which makes them sweeter and, therefore, more appealing to those who are more resistant. If I am working with a client who is trying to feed a very resistant eater, the vegetables that I most often recommend starting with are potatoes, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, and broccoli because they seem to be the most accessible for tentative tasters. Potatoes and sweet potatoes can be sold as “like french fries” and dipped in ketchup and cauliflower and broccoli can be “trees” that a giant is eating or can be loaded with parmesan.

If you’ve never roasted vegetables, give it a try! And if you have, see if there is a way you can change it up to make it more exciting. I think you will be very pleasantly surprised!

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Roasted Broccoli

Course Sides

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Author Jessica Braider

Ingredients

• 1 large head of broccoli cut into bite-sized stem pieces and florets (or a bag of pre-cut broccoli)
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Toss broccoli with 1 tbl olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
• Spread evenly on the baking sheet, trying to have a single layer.
• Roast until just tender, about 10-15 minutes.

<p>The post Roasted Broccoli first appeared on The Balanced Kitchen.</p>

One solution that I have been using a lot is to make a big batch of roasted vegetables and then reheat or recrisp them when I need them. This is a great and healthy way to use these veggies. Sometimes I cut them into bite-sized pieces, recently I’ve made them into french fry shapes and put out dipping sauces—the boys think they are getting a super special treat. But roasting vegetables can’t be the only answer.  So I turned to the crock pot.

This Fall Veggie Stew is a warming, soothing, delicious comfort food. It is wonderful on couscous but also great on rice, millet, or any whole grain you love. Or you could skip the side grain all together and just sop up the goodness with a nice, crusty bread. Another reason I love it: you can make it vegetarian or throw in a bit of meat and change the flavor profile that way.  It is also great because it is so packed with veggies that it can truly be a one-dish meal, no need to make a salad (unless, of course, you want one!).

So chop up the ingredients, throw them in the crock, let the magic happen, and dinner will be waiting when you get home. Enjoy!

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Fall Veggie Stew

Course Dinner

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 3 hours hours

Total Time 3 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Author Jessica Braider

Ingredients

• 1 winter squash like butternut or cooking pumpkin (about 2 ½ lbs), peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 large potato peeled and chopped into bite-sized pieces
• 2 large carrots peeled and chopped into bite-sized pieces
• 2 cups chopped fresh or frozen spinach
• 1-2 cloves garlic chopped
• 1 15 oz can or home-cooked chickpeas drained
• 2 sausage links cut into bite-sized pieces (optional)
• 1 ½ cups vegetable or chicken stock
• salt & pepper
• 1 tbl dried oregano
• 1 tbl dried thyme
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp red chili flakes optional

Instructions

• If you are using meat, in a small frying pan, brown the pieces of sausage on a medium-high heat (about 5 minutes).
• Place the squash, onion, potato, carrots, garlic, chickpeas, and the meat (if you are using it) into the crock pot. Pour the stock over. Pour on the spices. Give a good stir. Cook on low for 5-6 hours or on high for 3-4 hours. In the last 20 minutes before serving (for instance, while you are making your couscous), mix in the spinach.
• Serve on top of whole wheat couscous, brown rice, millet or any other whole grain you love.

<p>The post What To Do With All Those Fall and Winter Vegetables?: Fall Veggie Stew first appeared on The Balanced Kitchen.</p>

It isn’t really fair to Halloween that I am sick of it, my real problem is that I did it all wrong. I took on way, way too much, given the other pieces of my life that are busy right now (all of them), and also put the preparations off. 

Usually I pride myself on being efficient and on top of things. In college I was that seriously obnoxious girl who finished every paper 5 days early and never pulled an all-nighter. This wasn’t because I was overly ambitious, it was due to the fact that when I am not on top of things, I freak out. And that is what happened to me this week. I was a walking basket case. My “to do” lists were out of control, I went to bed way too late, I was crabby, and I was scattered.

But the silver lining is that it did serve as a healthy reminder for me. It reminded me that I can do a lot and I do need to be organized, but that I am also human and that it is also important to recognize my limits, say no, and, ask for help. Just because I am making supernatural creature and Jedi costumes doesn’t mean I need to be a superhero.

Did I need to hand-decorate the cookies for the Kindergarten Halloween party? No (especially since decorating is not my forte).  Did I need to undo and redo my sewing when it wasn’t how I wanted it? No (especially because no one would have noticed).

But now it is done. Now I will take a moment. Breathe. Have a handful of the Halloween-inspired snack mix I made this week. And enjoy the rest of the day and festivities. Happy Halloween!

<p>The post Supermom? first appeared on The Balanced Kitchen.</p>

There are a couple of tricks that I have learned over the years that help this kind of multitasking work well:

1)   The kitchen timer is your friend. This allows me to focus on the tasks at hand and not have to keep an eye on the clock. When I’m really on a roll I often have both my oven timer and the microwave timer going at the same time.

2)   Think through the pots and pans you are going to use ahead of time. I mentally assign pots and pans to different dishes so that I am not suddenly scrambling at the sink to clean a pot as things sizzle on the stove.

3)   Think through the order of things before you start. If you are going to need the oven at two different temperatures, think through which dish should be done first and which second.

So what did this look like yesterday? I started the spice brew for my chai on the stove, setting the kitchen timer. While it was in the first stage of brewing, I chopped the veggies for the sauce. When the timer went off for the brew, I paused in the chopping and started the second round of brewing, setting the timer again. Then it was time to start the pasta water and the sauce. When the timer went off for the third time, I took out the tea bags, mixed in the last ingredients, and left the chai to cool.

Then it was time for the next batch of veggies to go into the sauce. Once they were in, the water came to a boil, so in went the pasta.  I started the oven to preheat and then my five-year-old appeared wanting to help. So I set him to work prepping the herbs for the sauce and then together we chopped the olives (he can’t handle a chef’s knife on his own quite yet). All of those things went into the sauce, he went off to play, and I had time to chop the broccoli for roasting. By then, the pasta was done, so I strained it, popped it into the sauce, mixed in the final ingredients, and into the oven it went. And I set the timer again.

While the pasta baked, I prepped the broccoli for roasting and put it to the side to go in when the pasta came out, decanted the chai, and even did a first round of dishes. Then, when the pasta came out, I reset the oven temp, put the broccoli in to roast, and again set the timer. I used that final timer both for the broccoli roasted and the pasta cooling!

It may sound overwhelming and crazy, but with just a tiny bit of planning ahead and the use of my love, the kitchen timer, it all went very smoothly. And in the end, dinner was made (as well as lunches for a couple of days), roasted broccoli for lunches and to go into quesadillas later this week was done, and my chai was ready and waiting for me in the morning.

Oh, and I felt a little bit like a superhero.

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Baked Pasta

Course Dinner

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Total Time 55 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Author Jessica Braider

Ingredients

• ½ lb whole wheat pasta shells and fusili are favorites in our house
• 1 onion chopped
• 2 carrots pealed and chopped
• 1 green pepper chopped
• 1/3 large head of broccoli chopped into bit sized stem pieces and florets, add stem pieces to onion pile and keep florets out separately
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 1 28 oz can chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbl fresh oregano chopped or 1 tsp dried
• 1 tbl fresh thyme chopped or 1 tsp dried
• 1/3 cup red wine
• ¼ cup olives chopped
• 1/3-1/2 cup feta
• 1-2 tbl fresh basil
• 1/3 cup parmesan
• salt and pepper
• extra virgin olive oil

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 425. In a 5-6 quart dutch oven, heat 1-2 tbl of olive oil on medium-high, add onion, carrots, green pepper, and broccoli stems (you’ll add the florets later). Turn down to medium and cook until the onions are translucent. Start a pot of water to boil. Add garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Add broccoli florets, can of tomatoes, oregano, thyme, wine, salt and pepper. Turn down to low and let simmer gently. When the water is boiling, add pasta and cook until just al dente. When pasta is ready, strain and add to the sauce. Mix in the olives, basil, and feta. Sprinkle parmesan over the top. Cover and put into the oven for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, uncover and broil for 5 minutes.

<p>The post Baked Pasta and Multitasking in the Kitchen: Making Time Count first appeared on The Balanced Kitchen.</p>

But even with a whole lot of support, there was a lot to organize and accomplish yesterday: boys needed to be dropped off at school (with reminders to teachers that a different person was picking them up), dinner needed to be made ahead of time so that it would be ready and waiting for my in-laws to serve, supplies for the kids had to be set out so my in-laws could easily find them, the house had to be straightened up so my in-laws wouldn’t find out that we sometimes live like slobs, my work had to be finished for the day, I had to prepare for the meeting, and I had to feed myself and get some snacks ready so I wouldn’t pass out on the drive back post-dinner time without dinner in my stomach. Whew!

So yesterday morning was all about efficiency and timing.  Sound familiar?  Which meant some important food choices.  Here’s what I went with:

Dinner: The wonderful Weelicious Crock Pot Veggie Lasagna, which takes all of 10 minutes to make.  Instead of canned sauce, I used my homemade sauce (recipe coming soon) which I make in HUGE vats and freeze for later use.  Side note: This is a great recipe that is tons of fun to make with kids. 

Snacks for the road: Dried mango, a handful of chocolate chips, rice crackers, and a cheese stick.

In the end, everything went smoothly! The boys apparently inhaled the lasagna and my MIL said it was so good that she is never going to buy her favorite pre-packaged lasagna again (which is from a local restaurant)!   And let me tell you, smelling the still warm lasagna (thanks, crock pot!) when I returned home was such a nice end to a long, but rewarding day.

And as for leftovers? After lunch for my husband, this is all that was left:

That’s what I would call success.

<p>The post It’s All About Efficiency first appeared on The Balanced Kitchen.</p>