Fried Cheese balls

These are like mozzarella sticks only shaped like a ball.

A couple weeks ago we found ourselves with more fresh mozzarella than we knew what to do with. We made pizza a couple times, we put it in soup, and  then we decided to fry them up.

Fresh mozzarella is awesome but my son was kind of grossed out by the wetness and didn't want anything to do with them fresh. Frying them up took them to a whole new level of deliciousness (like most things fried).

From start to finish (minus the frying part) my son was able to help me make these.

1. First put while flour on a cup and have your child roll the freshh moszzarella in it to coat with flour.
2. Then whisk together 2 eggs with a tablespoon of milk and coat the floured mozzarella with the egg mixture
3. Next have your child roll the mozzarella on breadcrumbs. I normally have italian seasoned breadcumps around but this time I didn't. I just added 1 cup of bread crumbs and 2 tablespoons of italian seasoning and some garlic salt. I mixed that all together in a shallow pan and had him room the  mozzarella around.
4. I fried them up in hot oil very quickly, just to toast the breadcrumbs on the outside.
5. He liked his with ketchup. I like mine plain. Anyway you have it it's totally good.

Snobby Joes

My husband likes to eat healthy food just as much as junk food, most of the time, but sometimes I say I’m cooking vegan and get that face from him that says, “Vegan?! Gimme some MEAT.” Now that I’ve said this he will claim that he never prefers meat over animal-free meals, but I see pretty clearly which foods become leftovers and which ones don’t.

So even though we might have a dinner where we’re not fighting over the last strip of flesh from the bowl, we walk away feeling full without our bowels bloated out for the next three hours. I actually really enjoy that.

This is one of our favorite vegan meals, especially because it is really easy and takes about 20 minutes to prepare, tops. The only thing it isn’t easy on is the eyes. I know. It tastes WAY better than it looks. PROMISE! It’s delicious. And I swear that I could trick a kid into thinking these are actually real sloppy joes. It tastes exactly right. These lentils are also very yummy with tortilla chips. I’ve served this meal to vegan skeptics, and one of our especially carnivorous friends was asking me for my leftovers the next day.

Snobby Joes (serves 4-5) from Veganomicon

• 1 C red lentils (brown lentils are fine too—I just like the color of the red better—you also have to cook the brown lentils just slightly longer)
• 4 C water
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 green pepper, diced (optional)
• 1 8 oz can tomato sauce
• 2-3 T maple syrup (the real stuff)
• 1 T yellow mustard (the fake stuff, not Grey Poupon or the powder)
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• Chili powder, to taste (I use about a scant tablespoon)
• salt, to taste
• french bread, sliced; or hamburger buns

1. Cook the lentils and water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, then turn heat down and simmer for 10 or so minutes until tender. Drain.
2. While lentils are cooking, heat olive oil in a large skillet until hot over medium high heat. Add onions, garlic, and pepper. Saute for about 7 minutes, until golden brown.
3. Add lentils to the pan. Add tomato sauce, maple syrup (taste to decide how much sweetness you need), mustard, oregano, and chili powder. Stir well, and cook until flavors meld together and the sauce thickens, about 10 minutes. Add salt to taste.
4. Serve with bread. I prefer an open-faced sandwich so the mixture doesn’t squirt out of the sandwich.

Yogurt Concoction

My Japanese mother watches Japanese shows about health, particularly about superfoods, ingredients that work with your body in natural ways to boost immunity, strength, and even stature (supposedly gelatin is very important for this). I usually chuckle a bit when she shares her supported-by-the-medical-community knowledge, but really I should be listening a little more closely, since she’s one of the healthiest people I know.
One food that I did adapt into my regular routine was her yogurt regimen. I think it was definitely more about taste and less about health benefits, but it’s easy to see that it’s good for you.
This concoction contains a fair to large amount of protein, calcium, good mono-unsaturated fats, living cultures for your intestines, nutritious fiber, and a little sweetness for an energizing morning meal or afternoon snack. Another element of this is “oligo sugar” which is some sort of honey-like sugar syrup that supposedly is not digested by your body like regular sugar, so therefore adds no calories (even though it shows that it has calories on the nutrition label). It is carbohydrate free. Supposedly, it also is very good for your intestinal tract. I say all this with not much scientific knowledge about this product, and my endorsement is only that it tastes good (like not-too sweet honey, and none of that strong-honey taste), and my mother believes in it. You can find the stuff at Japanese markets easily enough.
If you don’t have any, agave syrup is just as tasty. The whole concoction tastes sweet, has pleasant mouth feel, a slight tang, and a strong nuttiness, which I love.
My mother believes that the banana is just as important as the rest of it, but I forget now what the Japanese doctors say about it. She’ll probably call me up to tell me later.
To the original recipe, I added my own touch: the granola. I think it’s very important to have the granola. I always put it in. I received a tastemaker opportunity through foodbuzz to try their Special K granola, and I was happy to see that it’s lower in fat than most granola out there. Granola is, for some reason, always loaded with fat. It doesn’t stop me, but it lowers my portions. I just like a little granola in there for crunch. This granola, especially, is VERY crunchy, and tasty. No soggy granola in my concoction today.
Yogurt Concoction (serves 1)

• 3/4 C PLAIN yogurt (I doubt it would taste good with anything else)
• 1 T powdered milk
• 1 tsp tahini paste
• 1 T slivered almonds
• 2 t wheat germ
• 1 t oligo sugar/boso honey or agave syrup
• 1/4 C granola
• 1/2 banana, sliced

Put all ingredients except the banana and granola in a bowl. Stir well. Add banana and granola and serve.

Banana Chocolate Chip Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting.

I was going to post a recipe to a sugar-free nectarine crisp but a)you probably don't have any nectarines (I had frozen some from summer) and b) sugar-free things are for the birds. Who wants sugar free things raise your hands. Yeah, thought so.

So instead I am posting a recipe to the sweetest cake I have ever made. Bananas are sweet. Chocolate chips, sweet. Peanut butter frosting is the sweetest frosting in the history of frosting.

After spending a whole week under gray skies and pouring rain I was ready for something to cheer us up. Enzo has been obsessed by In the Night Kitchen (Caldecott Collection)which is a funky story of a boy who makes a cake in the middle of the night and is naked in the process of baking such cake. have you ever read it? I was seriously considering waking Enzo up in the middle of the night to bake a cake with him which would make me either the coolest mom ever or the stupidest mom ever. I might still do it, we'll see. In the meantime I've been baking at 2:00pm. However, it's so dark and gloomy outside it kind of feels like it's night.

Banana Chocolate chip Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting
cake

•  2 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
  
• 1 1/2 cups mashed bananas
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 1/2 tablespoons baking soda
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350*
   
2. Mix all the ingredients, except the chocolate chips, in an electric mixer on low for 30 seconds scraping the sides of the bowl constantly.
3. Mix on high for 3 minutes.
4. Add the chocolate chips and mix with a wooden spoon. 
5. Lightly grease and flour a round pan. Pour the batter in the pan and bake for 40 minutes

Frosting

• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• 3 tablespoons milk

1. mix until smooth

Now for the assembling part...

1. Let it cool completely for 1 hour. Yes this is hard. This is even torture when you have a toddler who helped you make the cake and is asking you every 3 seconds if he can have a bite.
2. Cut pieces of wax paper and place around the cake stand so that you don't get it dirty. After you frost the cake you can remove the paper. Also, place a little frosting in the middle of the cake stand just so when you place your cake on top it won't slide. Don't I sound super profesh? I actually saw this trick on one of my food podcasts. Don't remember which one, but it's a good tip that makes you sound smart.
3. Carefully flip the cake out of the pan.
4. Ice it with the frosting and voila. cake. Super-duper-1 million calories- kid bouncing off the walls- cake!
   

Banana With Peanut Butter- OCD style

My son is going through that phase where his hands can't be dirty or sticky. He washes his hands multiple times a day. Even OCD toddlers need to eat so I figured out a way in which he can enjoy eating bananas with peanut butter without getting peanut butter on his fingers.

I use a straw to make a hole through the banana. Then I put a tablespoon of creamy peanut butter in a little plastic baggie and squeeze the peanut butter inside the hole. It's a banana filled with peanut butter.

Fried Cheese Wontons

What's that?
The only thing better than cheese is fried cheese?

I know.

I believe in healthy, make your bowels run regularly food, but I also believe that any food you make has to be GOOD food. If you want to have a healthy relationship with food, and your kids to have that as well, I do believe you just have to eat good food. And fried food has its place.

I do not want to raise a daughter that has to scrutinize the fat content on her nutrition labels (although checking for organic and non-chemical ingredients if okay) or blot her pizza with a napkin before she eats it. I do not want a daughter that thinks she has to fit into size 2 jeans and wonders whether her arms have too much muscle to look feminine.

I want a daughter who thinks McD's food is disgusting but doesn't hesitate when a plate of fried cheese wontons are passed her way. And that same daughter is going to think that kale salad is gorgeous and mushrooms belong in her dinner. And she'll also believe that the best cookies are ones made in her oven.

Real food is real good.

My brother and I used to fight over these. My mom only made them if she ran out of filling for gyozas but still had more skins left. These were the first gone at the dinner table (even though I love gyozas).

Fried Cheese Wontons

1 package of wontons, gyoza skins, or mandoo wrappers (usually about 25-40 skins, depending)
1 8 oz block of sharp cheddar
water as needed
canola or vegetable oil

Cut the cheddar into 1/2 inch square pieces.

Wrap each piece in a gyoza skin as shown. Keep some water in a small bowl and run a wet finger around the outside edge of the skin to make the edges stick when you wrap it. Put a little water on the final edges as you wrap it around to really seal it.

Heat 1/2 inch of vegetable oil in a pan (amount of oil depends on the pan-- if you are making less than 10, use a very small fry pan) over high heat. Not the highest setting, but close.

Once the oil feels very hot, place the wontons in the oil and fry until golden. Flip once (about 2 minutes each side). The trick is to fry it hot enough that the wonton fries up quickly but doesn't let all the cheese melt out. The cheese will melt out if you leave it in the oil for too long.

P.S. These are just as good with a leaf of spinach around the cheese, or even cream cheese. I have a plan to make some with apple and cream cheese.

Happy New Year Soba

Soba, or buckwheat noodles, is a popular dish to eat in the New Year. I like to think that I'm becoming more Japanese as I age so I follow some Japanese food traditions.

This is a lovely spring or summer dish as well, because it is traditionally eaten cold. However, I know some of you are sitting in snowstorms and I can firmly say that this is excellent as a warm dish. I prefer it cold, no matter what the weather, because I can eat it more quickly. And I am always eating quickly.

My daughter ate more than I did and she tried to drink the soup base by itself, but I don't recommend that.

With soba, you dip one bite of noodles in the "soup" at a time. The soup is stronger and more like a dipping sauce. Don't let the soba sit in there for too long-- just dip and put it in your mouth.

Soba noodles with dipping sauce
serves 5-6

1 8 oz package soba noodles (buckwheat noodles found in an Asian market)
1/2 C soy sauce
4 T sugar
4 T mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine)
1 C dashi (1 t dashi powder/bouillon in 1 C water)-- in a pinch I've used chicken broth with ok results
2 green onions/scallions finely sliced (white and light green parts only)
3 T sesame oil, divided
optional garnishes: cut pieces of seaweed, sliced cucumber, sesame seeds, spicy red pepper flakes, grated ginger

1. In a small saucepan over medium high heat, warm soy sauce, sugar, and mirin until just barely simmering. Stir and do not let boil. Add dashi and heat until hot. Take off burner and let cool down before cooking noodles.
2. Boil 8 C water over high heat. Add noodles and stir. Cook until tender, about 8 minutes. Drain in a colander and rinse well with water.
3. Put icewater and ice cubes in a large bowl. Put noodles in icewater. Stir around.
4. In small dipping bowls, put 1/4 t sesame oil in each bowl. Then ladle 1/2 C soup into each bowl. Put a few tablespoons of scallions on top of each bowl. Optionally put sesame seeds, spice red pepper flakes, and or grated ginger on top of this.
5. Take noodles out of the ice water and place about 2 C worth of noodles on a plate and garnish with seaweed. Serve with cucumber on the side if desired.