Mandioca!

Hello Readers! Time for another yummy recipe for those little toddler tummies! Today's food of the day is....Mandioca (man-dee-oh-ka)! Most of you probably just said "huh?" which is totally understandable. This little known food is a carbohydrate staple in Latin and South American countries and is positively delectable.

I spent some time in Paraguay when I was in high school and this funny root was served in a bread basket at Every. Single. Meal. All. Summer. Long. Yes, I got tired of it after awhile but upon returning to the US of A, I found that I craved it something fierce. After some searching, I found that it is also sold under the name of "yuca" (you-ka) or "cassava" root and is available at many world markets. For more info on the root, check out the wiki.

So, how do we feed this great, filling carb to our picky Littles? Very easily! Much like a potato, mandioca is easy to prepare and can be used in a variety of ways. Below is the basic cooking instructions, followed by a few suggestions for meals which my choosy diner inhales. Have fun trying this awesome new food and ENJOY!

Basic Mandioca Cooking Instructions:

Peel off the brown, waxy mandioca peel, down to the white stalk. Make sure all the pink underside of the peel is also removed, leaving only the white flesh. Peeling is best done with a butter knife because, though the root is very hard, the peel cracks off easily.

Cut in half width-wise and then slice length wise. Place in a large pot of cold, lightly salted water and bring to a full boil. Boil until a knife can go all the way through the root and it is tender, but still firm (about an hour to and hour and a half, depending on the size of the root). DO NOT OVER COOK. Doing so will leave it rather mushy and unappetizing. Drain water and pull the hard, stem-like vein out of the center of your mandioca pieces and it's ready to eat!

Mandio-Chiriri (Ava's FAVORITE!)

1 stalk chunky-diced mandioca
2 tbsp. butter or olive oil
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup shredded white cheese (mozzarella or a heavy goat cheese works well)
1 stalk finely diced green onion
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper

Grease a skillet with butter or oil. Pan-fry the ALREADY BOILED mandioca chunks until lightly browned. Add in egg, onion and spices and cook as you would scrambled eggs. After eggs are cooked (no glossy parts left), add in cheese and stir until melted. Enjoy with fresh tomato salsa or some avocado on top!


Mashed Mandioca

1 mandioca root
1/2 stick of butter
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper

Prepare mandioca as mentioned above, but allow to boil longer until very soft and not firm. Using a hand mixer, blend mandioca until smooth. Add in butter, salt and pepper and mix until well blended. Serve in place of mashed potatoes.

Olive you!

Hello Readers! Today I just wanted to talk about snacks. Everyone loves a good snack (my personal favorite is some jalapeño hummus from Sunflower Market on a thick tortilla or gordita-YUM!) but for our picky eaters, finding something tasty AND nutritious is hard. So, I give you the ultimate toddler super snack: OLIVES!

Black, green, purple, red, olives are awesome! They're full of healthy fats (monosaturated) and are boasted to have Anti-Inflammatory Phytochemicals (check out this article to learn more). Not messy and easy to take on the go, olives have become my go to snack for Ava. If your Little is more inclined toward salty snacks, try the green olives with pimento (be sure to have them drink LOTS of water!). Ava likes any and all olives but she prefers black (just the ones from the can). 

I know every mother in the world has said "don't play with your food!!!" at least once, but I found that playing with olives was the first step in getting Ava to eat them ravenously. It's easy, just take your Little's hand, place an olive on the end of each finger (their little fingers are the PERFECT size for this!) and then eat one off. Encourage your Little to try the same and within a few seconds, all of the olives will be gone and they'll be begging for more! Try it, have fun and (as usual) ENJOY!

Cheers and Happy Olive Munching!
     

Recipe #1--Ritzy Potatoes Au Gratin Cassarole

Hello Readers!

Well, here it is, time for my first recipe! As many of you know, finding foods for a picky kiddo is ROUGH. Ava's difficult because she will eat fruit and veggies all day long. A parent's dream right? WRONG! Because all she wants is celery sticks and cutie clementine oranges, she has a lot of trouble gaining weight. Couple this with the baby/toddler food no-no's (this has a great list with all of the unsafe foods from birth through age 3) and we're very limited as to what goes in her tummy. To help with this, I came up with a special potatoes au gratin recipe which she loves and is calorific enough to pack on an ounce or two. It's great for the whole family (my husband inhales it) and can be blended up to a paste consistency for itty bitty diners. Give it a try, let me know how you like it and, most importantly, ENJOY!

Ingredients

·  5 yellow (or Russet, whatever your preference) potatoes, sliced into 1/4 inch slices

·  6 tablespoons butter

·  6 tablespoons all-purpose flour

·  1/2 teaspoon salt

·  1/4 teaspoon onion powder or granulated onion

·  1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

·  4 cups milk

·  2 and 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

·  1/2 sleeve Ritz crackers

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Coat a 1 quart casserole dish (glass is best) with cooking spray, olive oil or butter (whatever you prefer). 
3. Layer half of your sliced potatoes into bottom of the prepared casserole dish.
4. In a medium-size saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Mix in the flour, spices and salt, and stir constantly with a whisk for one minute. It will be a paste-like consistency. Pour in milk SLOWLY, whisking constantly to avoid lumps. Cook until mixture has thickened (about 3-7 minutes). Stir in all but 1/2 cup of your cheese and continue whisking until melted (about 1-3 minutes).
5. While still hot, pour half of your cheese sauce over the potatoes and then layer the other half of your sliced potatoes. Crumble Ritz crackers on top layer of potatoes and pour remaining cheese sauce over it. Sprinkle with leftover 1/2 cup of shredded cheese. Cover the dish with aluminum foil.
6. Bake 1and 1/2 hours in the preheated oven and then remove tin foil. Bake for an additional 25 minutes or until the top layer of cheese is melted and slightly browned. Enjoy warm and refrigerate remaining portion immediately after.   

On Second Thought....

After thinking for awhile, I realized how much I would have to cover with talking about my parenthood. A blog like that would have so many topics, would jump around too much and just be.....messy! As you can see from my retitling and new description, I'm going to focus this blog on one of my favorite hobbies: cooking for Ava! Ava's a picky eater, something which makes me cringe to admit. I never was picky and only dislike onions (something about the texture is SO GROSS to me but I like the flavor) so having a child who barely pecks at her food is hard for me. When her weight gain began to suffer, I had to start finding other foods and options which would entice her into eating. So, dear readers, this is going to turn into a food blog! I will discuss and post recipes and techniques for food preparation which will be sure to get your little ones eating healthy and balanced meals. I hope you enjoy these recipes, directly from my kitchen to yours! Happy reading (eating?)
Cheers!
Jo Anna

Welcome!

Hello Readers!

First, I'd like to welcome you to my blog! The following is a little background history on me, my husband, and our daughter and why I feel like blogging about my mommy experience is beneficial to me as well as to you, my awesome readers.

My husband Rhett and I went to elementary school together for my 3rd grade and his 5th grade year. I was obsessed with him and he, of course, didn't even realize I was alive. After he left for middle school, I forgot he existed (ah, the inconstancy of childhood romance!), moved through school and two years later went on to middle school myself. We had no contact for ten years.

Fast forward through those ten years and we meet again, at our former elementary school where I was working as an aide in the infant/toddler classroom and he was doing handy-man maintenance for the school grounds. From day one we started talking, hanging out and within a week we were “officially” dating (July 13, 2007—not that I remember dates or anything…).

We got married in August of 2009 and shortly after we found out we were going to have a baby. That baby, our Ava, was born in March 2010 at a whopping 8lbs. and 21.5 inches long. Here is where our story really begins.

Ava is now a rambunctious 22 month old who absorbs life like a sponge. She teaches us so much every day and we feel extremely lucky to be the parents of such a wonderful child. From tips to soothe an upset infant to toddler organization tricks, I feel like documenting our experiences in blog form will be a great way to pass on helpful hints to other families. It will also be an outlet for me, somewhere I can come lay out both our successes and failures, can connect with other parents and families, bringing us together on this journey of parenthood.

I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I will enjoy writing it! Thank you and welcome!

Cheers!

~Jo Anna