I’m all for that Sneaky Chef stuff. My 5 1/2 son can be a real challenge when it comes to getting him to eat vegetables. He loves salad, but I don’t always have fresh salad veggies on hand. My friends all cover their kids’ veggies with cheese, but my son hates melted cheese. So I’ve been getting creative. Yesterday I ran some carrots, spinach and peppers through the food processor and put it in the slow cooker along with the tomato sauce I was making for lasagna. I also grind up veggies real fine and put in meatloaf, meatballs and, once, mashed potatoes.

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This is one of my favorite recipes and it generally goes over pretty well, especially when the weather is not so great. Since it’s one of those foods that cooks all day, it permeates the house and makes you hungry for it all day — not IT — the food, you knucklehead. This is the food that forever converted my good friend, Renee, to eating spicy food. She loves it and that’s a great endorsement. I’m canning the bulk of this for her and for me sometime later!

If you want to serve this as a vegetarian meal, just don’t put in the sausage and remove a cup of the broth.

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Granola goes way back. It makes you think of the birkenstock people, the hippies, the natural world embracing types. Granola is not only their food of choice but a fitting adjective: Madison’s grandmother smuggled weed in her bra to Woodstock back in the day, how granola!

The granola set wisely held tight to unprocessed, natural foods during the latter half of the twentieth century while the rest of us were eating Wonder bread. The virtue of the whole grain has since fallen back into the favor of nutritional scientists. Grain is refined by the removal of two outer layers. Because these layers contain fiber, phytochemicals, and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), processing a whole grain into a refined grain renders it less nutritionally useful.

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Black Beans

This is a variation of my red beans and rice recipe.  It’s thick and hearty and my good friend Renee tells me that this is perfect hangover food.  Since she’s a veteran of many a hangover, I believe her.  Reminder:  you should soak the beans over night!

Ingredients:

1 pound dry black beans

4 cups vegetable broth [can substitute chicken, if you’re not a vegan]

6 cups of water

3 14 ounce cans of petite diced tomatoes

1 jalapeño – minced [if you don’t like spicy, don’t add]

1 Vidalia onion – chopped

½ pound of sliced mushrooms

1 green pepper – chopped

1 TBLS ground chipotle

1 TSP dry mustard

4 or 5 stalks of cilantro

1 can sweet yellow corn

Salt and pepper to taste

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Gung hay fat choy! Happy Chinese New Year. This is a big occasion for my family, bigger than Christmas even. Normally we spend the day feasting with family under a red and gold backdrop!

Vitasoy has some great ideas for Chinese New Year fare, infusing Chinese and Italian flavors with their “Red, White and Green Pasta Dishes” created by Chef Jim Coleman host of PBS’ “Healthy Flavors.”

“Make a Chinese New Year’s Resolution to explore exciting new flavors and adventurous new uses for your favorite ingredients,” said Chef Jim Coleman, host of the PBS-TV ‘Healthy Flavors’ cooking show. “There is no reason to relegate Chinese noodles and pastas to traditional Chinese dumplings and stir fries! Chinese New Year’s is the perfect time to think outside the wok!”

Indeed, when I received the Vitasoy promotional packet, I couldn’t wait to try the recipe for the Chinese New Year Ravioli. It’s a creative dish, one that never would have occurred to me (but then I’m not a chef!) and it’s very tasty. The spinach and mushrooms didn’t appeal to my five year old, but my husband and I enjoyed it. I think it also makes a great dish for Valentine’s Day!

Here’s the recipe for Chinese New Year Ravioli:

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