Last Night's Dinner

For dinner the boys had:

broiled flounder (yes, I do allow fish on occasion)
fresh blueberries (Salamander)
shredded carrots (Potatey)
steamed green beans (Potatey; Salamander had some left over baked beans)
sugar snap peas (both)
apple (Salamander)

The boys ate this all up faster than I could get it on the table....
I would call this a successful 'fruits and veggies' dinner..

Beef and Vegetable Stew

I'll admit it.. I am very much a *Jewish/Italian mother*... when I am upset or emotionally off kilter, I take refuge in the kitchen. And yesterday afternoon I definitely was upset...

So I worked on tweaking my beef and vegetable stew recipe. Salamander LOVED the end result (as in, cleaned off every last bit). His words? "The Quality Control Department gives this a double thumbs up." Have I mentioned yet that I adore this kiddo?

Making this stew definitely takes time. But most of the time is simmer time, and yes, you can walk away and do other stuff (I do).

Beef chuck or stew meat
Pacific Natural Foods Free range Chicken Broth
garlic salt
pepper
Garam Masala (Indian spice)
Sambhar Curry Powder (Indian spice)
Ketchup (I use my own)
Handful Baby carrots
Handful Frozen peas
4 tbs kidney beans
Handful frozen green beans

In medium sauce pan, pour about 1 inch of chicken broth. Add cubed beef. Add garlic salt, pepper, pinch of Garam Masala, pinch of Sambhar Curry, 3 tbs of ketchup. Mix it all up thoroughly.

Simmer the beef/broth/spice mixture, first at medium then at low heat, for 1.5 to 2 hours, until the beef is soft and tender. The broth/spice mixture will thicken. If it gets too thick, feel free to add some water.

Remove the beef from the broth/spice mixture and set aside.

Add another 1 inch of chicken broth, and an addition 3 tbs of ketchup. Add baby carrots and frozen peas and bring all back to a boil. Cook on high for about 15 minutes (you want to soften the carrots).

Add kidney beans. Turn mixture down to medium heat (beans will actually help thicken the stew mixture).

Add beef back in mixture. Add frozen green beans.

Cook on low to medium heat for another 10 - 15 minutes.

Serve hot. I didn't have any tapioca buns available yesterday, but next time, I may try making garlic bread out of a toasted and sliced tapioca bun, spectrum shortening and garlic salt.

(oh, and I used the left over kidney beans to make Salamander his baked beans for today. I let them sit overnite in my usual ketchup/honey mixture, and then cooked it all up for lunch today)

Salamander's Salad

3 to 4 leaves of green lettuce, shredded
3 to 4 leaves of arugula lettuce, shredded
handful of organic walnut halves
handful of organic dried cranberries
2 grilled chicken tenders; sliced and diced
1/2 apple; peeled, cored, sliced and diced
15 green or red seedless grapes

Mix the shredded lettuces, walnut halves, cranberries and chicken together in a salad plate (or a small bowl). Sprinkle with cracked pepper and dried or fresh parsley. Serve diced apple and grapes on the side (Salamander likes to toss these into his salad himself).

For a salad dressing, I make my own using Hains Lite Safflower Mayonnaise, mixed with a little olive oil and some dried parsley. We also discovered Maple Grove Farms of Vermont All Natural Maple Fig dressing (I'll add a linkie thingie as soon as blogger will let me) this week, and Salamander tried it tonite. So far, so good.