Friday-Night Leftovers

Today I'm posting the sixth main-meal idea using items from my friend, Jane's, shopping list.

For Jane's family of four (including tweens aged 12 and 10), I've kept the meals simple, quick-to-prepare, colorful, nutritious, tasty, and most importantly, kid-friendly.

Here's a list of the meals I've proposed so far:

1. Shrimp & Tomatoes with Garlic Mash
2. Mini Tortilla Pizza
3. Beef Curry with Condiments
4. Crustless Quiche with Salad & Parsley Potatoes
5. Kid-Friendly Pasta and Salad

Friday night is often an evening when families will pick up take-out, or eat out at a family-style restaurant. If you haven't made the Mini Tortilla Pizza yet, try it tonight instead of take-out, and since they're fun to make, have the kids help you put the pizza together.

The other option is to make a pie with your leftovers -- also lots of fun to make with kids.

I made my leftover pie using tuna from yesterday's Kid-Friendly Pasta meal. Having suggested tinned tuna for the kids and tuna steaks for the adult-version of that meal, I'm guessing, like me, you might have a combination of some tinned tuna and tuna steak leftover.

Chances are, if you cooked the Shrimp & Tomato with Garlic Mash when I posted it, you don't have anything from that meal leftover. However, if you cooked it a few days ago, and have leftovers, those leftovers combined with the leftover tuna mixed with extra mashed potato is the basis for my meal idea for today.

Friday-Night Leftover Pie
1) Boil several potatoes until they're tender; drain and mash with seasoning, butter and some milk. Set aside.
2) Into a bowl, toss any leftover tuna you have, break it up with a fork.
3) If you have leftover Shrimp & Tomato, add that to the bowl too.
4) Break a couple of eggs over the lot and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon.
5) Spoon the mixture into an oven-proof bowl and dot the top with pieces of buttered bread cut into squares.
6) Pop the pie into a 350-degree oven for about 30-40 mins or until the bread pieces on the top of the pie turn toasty. (If bread turns quite brown before the middle of the pie is hot, cover the pie with foil and return it to the oven for additional cooking.)

To Serve: A side of veggies like broccoli and carrots tossed in some butter and parsley, would make this a more complete and nutritious meal, however, it is Friday and rather than deal with the stress of nudging the kids to "eat your vegetables" just enjoy the pie as is, perhaps with some crunchy corn chips on the side.

Crustless Quiche with Salad, Parsley Potatoes

This is the fourth main-meal idea I'm posting using items from my friend, Jane's, shopping list.

These are simple, nutritious meal suggestions for families with kids. Jane's two are 12 and 10 and they're at an age where they'll eat most of what their parents eat, bar some greens.

I remember loathing spinach as a child; the bitter flavor and the texture was too sophisticated for my taste buds.

I'm still not that keen on plain cooked spinach, but tossed in lashings of butter and garlic -- now that's a different story!

Crustless quiche takes maybe an hour to prepare and cook, and it's terribly easy, plus you can improvise and use whatever veggies you have in the crisper.

As you can see in the pic above, I used a leafy green, red chard is my favorite. Jane tells me her youngest, doesn't like it, or spinach. Broccoli is on her shopping list, so I'm going to propose that as a substitute.

I'm proposing a very basic salad to go with the meal. I dressed the salad to left with a yogurt and garlic dressing.

And the other side is boiled potatoes drizzled with olive oil and coated in freshly chopped parsley.

Crustless Quiche with Salad & Parsley Potatoes

1) Break 3 large or 4 small eggs into a bowl. Pour 1 & 1/2 cups of milk (or Half & Half) over eggs, season with S & P (and a little nutmeg if you like). Beat well.
2) Meanwhile, put 3 or 4 potatoes into a pot and gently boil till tender.
3) Wash, and chop into pieces whatever greens you have on hand, i.e. spinach, chard, broccoli, zucchini etc. Toss greens in a little olive oil with some onion (or leeks or shallots or spring onions) till transparent. Then place sauteed greens & onion into an oven-proof bowl.
4) Pour egg and milk mix over greens, and top with grated cheese of your choice.
Note: You could add some cooked chicken pieces or salmon pieces to the quiche for additional protein.
5) Put crustless quiche into oven at 350 degrees for about 40 mins.
6) Wash and drain your choice of lettuce. Pop in a salad bowl. Decorate with chopped tomatoes.
7) For the dressing, plop some yogurt into a cup, pour in olive oil to thin the yogurt, squeeze in juice from half a lemon, squeeze a garlic clove through a garlic crusher into the cup, then stir contents thoroughly. Pour dressing over salad.
8) Drain potatoes, cut into pieces, pop pieces into a serving bowl, drizzle with olive oil, season with S & P. Chop a handful of parsley and sprinkle over potatoes.

The flavor pals in this meal are simple and intuitive: parsley with potatoes, cheese with milk and eggs, a garlic-yogurt dressing over lettuce to add oomph to a subtle-flavored quiche.

If you would like to try your hand at pairing foods and flavors other than what I've suggested above, I'd highly recommend FoodPairing as a resource. Keep it bookmarked on your computer and refer to it when you need help preparing meals for your family and friends.

Cooking with flavor pals or using the technique of food pairing, which I refer to often in this blog, is a great tool for becoming recipe-independent, which is also something I refer to often.

My theory is that when you become independent of recipes and recipe books, and instead trust your inner culinary-expert, you're less likely to make extravagant and unnecessary food-purchases at the store and thus more like to have success sticking to grocery budget.

Mini Tortilla Pizza

When feeding a family on a budget it's tempting to buy cheap filler-foods, like frozen pizza.

I know ready-made meals are convenient; I posted a blog titled More Meal from Your Frozen Favorites.

Yet I also have concerns about the impact on a family's health and happiness if mealtimes are reduced to consuming food that is made in a factory, frozen, and then sold cheaply.

It's actually very easy to fill up on cheap calories, if that's what eating is all about -- filling up.

But to me, nourishing oneself and a growing family is a holy and sensual act that can't be bought in the frozen-food section of your grocer.

If at the end of the day, time is the reason you seek the convenience of ready-made meals, consider involving your children in the preparation of dinner. Enlist their help and make cooking the family meal a fun and engaging way to be together.

As a kid, I followed my mother around the kitchen as she cooked, I'd tell her about my day at school and she'd give me things to do to help, like shelling peas or peeling potatoes, and this is how I began to appreciate the joys of cooking.

Then as a tween, one of my favorite meals to make was pizza, because like most kids of that age, I loved pizza! I made it on the weekends because I used yeast to create a traditional pizza crust, and as you probably know, when you use yeast, you need plenty of time.

With time in mind, the pizza I'm proposing here is simple, quick and easy. And it's definitely a meal kids will enjoy helping you make, and then enjoy eating even more.

Mini Tortilla Pizza
(using ingredients from my friend's shopping list)
1) Lay tortillas out on a baking tray. As you can see in the pic above, I used the mini corn tortillas so I allocated two per person.
2) Cut up several tomatoes and place slices around the tortilla.
3) Wash and chop leafy greens and or broccoli, then toss into a pan with some garlic, chopped onion and olive oil. Saute gently till greens are tender.
4) Dot the tortilla with sauteed greens.
5) Grate cheddar and mozzarella and spread cheeses over tortillas.
6) Drizzle olive oil over pizza. Pop in oven.
7) Bake at 375 degrees for about 15 mins or so.

Olives, of course, are great flavor pals to mild cheese and sweet tomatoes, but sometimes the salty, brine-like flavor of olives is a bit strong for kids.

It's easy to make family-style pizza without olives, instead, use whatever cheeses you have in the fridge and whatever veggies you have in the crisper. And if you want to add a little protein, dot pizza with ground beef.

Shrimp & Tomatoes with Garlic Mash

As I post meal ideas using my friends shopping list (yesterday's post), I'm keeping in mind that this is a family of four with two children, aged 12 and 10.

Tweens are at an age when appetites increase in direct relationship to physical growth. This is particularly so for boys.

And it's a tricky age, particularly for girls, who are suddenly aware of their body-image and hence at risk for developing an unhealthy relationship to food. Either they won't eat properly, for fear of getting fat or they satiate they're pubescent emotional ups-and-downs with too many delicious sweets and snack foods.

Additionally, tween taste buds are maturing and so they're often open to eating a wider ranger of foods and flavors -- that is, so long as you introduce them into your cooking.

In summary, family meal-times can be a challenge. However, the important ingredient is to model healthy eating by consuming a range of simple, colorful meals with texture, flavor and eye-appeal.

With that in mind, here's the first family-meal idea using my friend's shopping list.

Shrimp & Tomatoes with Garlic Mash

• Shrimp is a slightly sweet crustacean with a subtle flavor that lends itself well to delicate flavor pals, or big flavors. Kids tend to like shrimp fried because that's how it comes at family restaurants on the "Kid's Menu." Frying makes most foods delicious, and it can drown the subtle flavor too. I'm pairing shrimp in this dish with vegetables: tomatoes, leafy greens, cilantro, and some onion. The shrimp flavor will hold its own paired with these veggies.

• Potatoes have an earthy flavor that lends itself to many flavor pals. Because the shrimp and tomatoes are sweet and delicate, I'm adding garlic and butter to the potatoes to enrich them and add oomph to the whole meal. Plus, mashed potatoes are a fave with kids, probably because the buttery texture is non-threatening to their palate.

1) Boil several potatoes (you can either peel or not peel them).
2) Meanwhile, toss a chopped onion and a smashed clove of garlic into a pan with some olive oil. Saute gently until transparent.
3) Wash and chop leafy greens, and several tomatoes (and a couple of carrots, if you wish).
4) Add veggies to pan with onion, stir, then put lid on pan and turn heat to low, letting veggies cook in their own juices for about 10 mins or so.
5) At the 10-minute mark, pour frozen shrimp over veggies and replace lid. The moisture from the frozen shrimp will cause the veggies and shrimp to gently steam cook.
6) Once potatoes are tender, mash them with a fork, tossing in a couple chopped gloves of garlic, a big blob of butter, some milk. Season to taste.
7) Chop cilantro and toss over shrimp and veggies, season, then squeeze a lemon over the lot.

To Serve: I've sliced an avocado to decorate the plate--adding color and eye-interest. Though avocados aren't on my friend's shopping list, they're abundant and well-priced at the moment, and they're a great flavor and texture pal for potatoes. Try them with this dish and see if your family enjoys the combination.