Culinary Misadventures With the Kiddo Return

Since this is the kiddo's last week of freedom, I'm trying to make it a memorable one within the constraints of the law and my sanity. Inviting him back into my kitchen may push both.

The Oddest Twinkies Ever Made
As you may recall, Gentle Reader, from my first culinary misadventure with the boy, I had picked up a kid-friendly cookbook from the Bam-meister for a wonderfully cheap price--and it actually had some recipes we used! One of the recipes we didn't have time to make was for corn dogs using a corn stick pan. Since I'm a cheap bastard and refuse to pay $12 for a cast iron corn stick pan, I wound up buying for just a bit more a few weeks back a Twinkie pan because, well, the husband swore we needed it and I saw its potential use as a corn dog maker.

Today the Twinkie pan made its debut in my kitchen. I trotted out the box of Krusteaz fat-free honey corn bread, which also made its debut in my kitchen. (I grew up on Jiffy sweetened corn bread. Literally. Practically every morning for years Mum would whip up a square pan of this yummy stuff for us before school.) Ya gotta love anything you just add water to make! But would the corn bread baked around an Oscar Meyer 98% fat-free weiner satisfy the boy, whose damnedable father introduced him to the drech that is a Sonic deep-fat-fried corn dog? See for yourself:

A Supper Featuring 'Special Lettuce'
or
Return of the Giant Pasta Shells
While going through some old Weight Watchers Magazine recipe booklets, I came across a recipe that I thought had some potential and employed one of the boy's favorite ingredients from a prior culinary misadventure: giant pasta shells.

The only drawback: it called for both mushrooms (the boys are major mushroom haters) and spinach (which everyone knows is a sure-fire picky-eater repellent). But I hoped the appeal of those mutant pasta shells might overcome both the boys' aversions to other ingredients. Plus the recipe gave me the chance to use up some lingering ingredients that were nearing expiration in the 'fridge, so I plowed ahead.

The recipe is pretty simple: brown some onion, garlic and mushrooms, add some liquid, add some chicken, add some spinach, let simmer, then pour over some cooked giant pasta shells. I'll admit that I had my doubts that I could pull it off, though, particularly after adding the liquid. I feared it wouldn't thicken or that the chicken wouldn't probably cook through sitting in the liquid.

And perhaps Lumpy saved my bacon--er, creamy chicken and spinach--with its accurate heating power. Or perhaps I can actually make something without screwing it up. (Don't gasp too loud, Gentle Reader. The FSM knows I'll never be competent.) But once I got to the point of adding in the spinach, I was pretty sure I was going to wind up with an edible dish--even though I had no clue what the finished dish should look like since the cookbook I got it from didn't include one.

Not too terribly disgusting looking, non?

Sadly, I have no serving dishes in which to pour the prepared pasta, so one of my Williams-Sonoma mixing bowls had to fill in as one. I swear no kitchen should be without a set of these incredibly handy bowls. Sure, they're a bit heavy when all nestled together, but they don't take up much space because they nestle so nicely, and the price is really good considering you get 10 bowls of quality glass.

Anywho, enough of a nonfunded product plug for W-S. Check out my finished dish:
Even if you're not a fan of spinach, you have to admit that the finished dish is colorful. Right? Right?

Of course, to fool the boy into at least trying the dish, I told him the green stuff was lettuce. He likes lettuce. He planted lettuce at Mum's house earlier this summer. I figured that was a safe fib.

And it worked for a while. Then he announced he didn't like the dark green lettuce. But he ate several shells and a good bit of the cubed chicken, so I was satisfied. And no, he didn't touch any mushrooms. The husband did accidentally eat one and proudly announced he wasn't dying as a result. Twerp.

If you're interested in making the special lettuce and chicken dish for your own picky eaters, here it is as it appears in Weight Watchers: Simply the Best:

Creamy Chicken and Spinach1 t canola oil
2 C sliced mushrooms
1 onion, chopped
2 minced garlic cloves
1 T all-purpose flour
1 C skim milk
1/2 C low-Na fat-free chicken broth
3/4 lb. skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cubed
10 oz. frozen, chopped spinach
1/4 t ground black pepper
4 C cooked medium pasta shells
2 T grated Parmesan cheese

1. Thaw and squeeze dry chopped spinach.
   
2. Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet. Once oil is shimmering, add the mushrooms, onion and garlic, then cook until softened (5 to 6 min.).
   
3. Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, until it is lightly browned (about 1 min.).
   
4. Gradually stir in the milk and chicken broth, then cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture boils and thickens (2 to 3 min.).
   
5. Stir in the chicken, spinach and pepper, then return to a boil, stirring as needed. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover and let cook, stirring as needed, until the chicken is cooked through (6 to 8 min.).
   
6. Place the pasta in a serving bowl, and pour cooked chicken sauce over it, tossing to combine. Sprinkle with Parmesan (optional).

Yield: 4 servings

Nutritional Info
Calories: 231
Fat: 3 g
Saturated fat: 1 g
Protein: 21 g
Fiber: 3 g
Carbs: 29 g
Cholesterol: 35 mg
Na: 135 mg

The Faudie's Futzings

• I used a 4 oz. can of no-salt-added mushroom pieces and stems instead of 2 C of sliced mushrooms. I like mushrooms, but I can't eat that much of 'em all by myself.
  
• Since my kitchen is all-purpose flour-free, I used a tablespoon of white whole wheat flour.
  
• While I did have more than a cup of skim milk on hand, I opted to use up some fat-free evaporated milk I needed to dispose of. That was about 3/4 of a cup, so I topped it off with skim milk. I don't think it affected the flavor at all, but how would I know?
  
• I set the small can of grated Parmesan cheese on the table. I'm not a big fan of cheese, and I've prayed that the boy doesn't become like my little sister--a total cheese junkie. Did my not using but a scant sprinkle of cheese on my own serving affect the flavor? Doubtful. But when I spooned out some of the boy's abandoned "dark special lettuce," which he had fairly liberally blessed with Parmesan, I could definitely taste the cheese--and was glad I'd abstained. I'm just not that big on Parmesan.

The next time I make this, I'm probably going to substitute rotini or penne/ziti because (A) the giant shells are just too fragile to be tossed with cubed chicken and (B) there's not enough sauce in the recipe to really fill the shells. If you opt to use shells, consider a layering technique to combine them with the chicken-spinach sauce: put down a few shells, pour some sauce over it, then stir/toss gentle to combine before putting down another layer of shells then pouring more sauce over them. I think this technique might introduce more sauce into the shells. But, then again, what do I know?

Beware of Volcanoes
When my dear friend Joy visited, she kindly gave the boy the gift of an awesome kid-friendly cookbook since she'd read about his culinary misadventures with his faudie mother here on the blog. (Her own kiddos prepare supper for her family once a week. Lucky lady!) We'd picked out a few recipes together but decided tonight to cap off our day of misadventures with an apple volcano.

If you want a quick and pretty healthful, not to mention tasty treat for yourself or your mastication-able kiddo, here's the recipe:

Apple Volcanoes1 apple
1/2 C peanut butter
1/4 C sunflower seeds

1. Core the apple with an apple corer.
   
2. Fill the hole of the apple with the peanut butter. A butter knife works well.
   
3. Sprinkle the sunflower seeds on the peanut butter.

Sorry that I can't provide you with nutritional info. The book doesn't include it, but should obviously one apple is one serving.

The Faudie's Futzings
Yes, Gentle Reader, I even futzed with this simple recipe.

• We used a medium Red Delicious. I had three small ones, but the boy chose the biggest of the four.
  
• We didn't use half a cup of PB, that's for sure. Maybe an eighth of a cup. And we used the reduced fat Peter Pan creamy, although the boy said something about using crunchy. I'd imagine crunchy would be fun and add a nice crunch to the already crunchy apple.
  
• I didn't have sunflower seeds, so I got out the can of mixed nut morsels we bought ages ago for an ice cream topping. I'm sure your favorite nut would work fine. I'd also thought of using miniature marshmallows for bigger "boulders" of "lava." The toasted coconut marshmallows Jet-Puffed might also be fun. I'm not a marshmallow fan, so I'd have to consult the husband.

Updates

I'm once again laboring for money! I'm taking on some proofreading work of grade school texts. Yeah, me--the one who rails against the woeful state of public education. But I don't point the finger at texts or teachers or students or administrators. I point the finger at No Child Left Behind and the big-ass gimme that little piece of legislation was for private business.

The angel food cake ripper does work! Instead of perforating the cake in order to make cutting it with a knife easier, I realized on the second knife that the ripper perforates the cake so you can then very cleanly rip away the slice from the cake body with your fingertips. Very handy!