Family Friendly Food

I can't believe it's been (gulp) weeks since I've posted. A constant stream of company (yes, mom and dad, I'm blaming this partially on you - ha, ha) and an uncooperative USB port on our laptop has put a damper on my usual banter.

Now that things have settled down a bit ('though I still need to address the USB issue), I hope to be back to our regularly scheduled programming!
With the fabulous variety of local fruits and vegetables that are available right now, I've been cooking up a storm and have a lot to share!

We're fortunate (knock wood) that the H-man is a pretty decent vegetable eater. At least when it comes to the usual suspects such as cucumbers, peas, green beans, broccoli, asparagus and corn. I love the fact that he's exposed to new and unusual veggies through our CSA (as well as new and unusual varieties of his favorites).

He's not a huge meat eater, although he is getting better, but I'm told that's pretty normal for a four year old. Pasta on the other hand......he would live on it if I let him! One of our favorite family meals is pasta with garlic, broccoli (sometimes chicken) doused in olive oil, a dash of salt and lots of fresh ground pepper. I was recently able to make this dish with local garlic, broccoli and leftover meat from our first roasted free range chicken (which was beyond delicious). Here's what I do. Note: it's not exactly gourmet cuisine, but I know from talking to friends with toddler to pre-school aged children, finding new and nutritional items to add to your repertoire can sometimes seem daunting.

Prepare enough of your favorite pasta for one family meal, plus some extra for leftovers. During the homestretch of the boiling phase (the last 3-5 minutes or so), toss in broccoli, which has been cut into florets (I add 1-2 cups of broccoli for 1/2 pound or so of pasta).

In the meantime, saute several sliced cloves of garlic in a couple Tablespoons of EVOO. Toss in chicken (I've used raw chicken tenderloins or breast as well as leftovers from a roasted chicken here - both work, you just need to adjust your cooking time accordingly).

Once you drain the pasta/broccoli combo, toss it into the chicken, garlic, EVOO mixture and cook until the flavors meld (we like our pasta to saute a bit too).

Serve it up and watch it disappear!
Bon appetit.