Roasted broccoli

This really was the best broccoli of my life.

Don't wash the broccoli (I know, I know but the temperature will kill everything.) Cut into pieces, toss with olive oil and salt. Bake at 400F (the recipe says 425, but I used my toaster oven) till the edges brown. That is all I did since I was making it for the kids - I decided to spice it up later which I never did because it was incredibly good with just salt and olive oil.

My daughter could not have enough of it. She just kept going and going and asking for more. My son ate it all but wasn't as crazy about it as her.

Frozen spinach from Cascadian Farm

It's frustrating with fresh spinach - no matter how much I wash it I always end up with some sand after cooking - that dreadful grating noise at the bottom of the dish. Of course, a few grains of sand didn't kill anyone (at least not that I know of) but we are talking about my kids here. Besides, frozen spinach is just so much easier to get on to a plate (the real reason I confess.)

I mix it with lentils or a carb and they eat it up.

Colocasia or Taro root

Colocasia is the only vegetable the twins get to eat fried. For now at least. Cooked in a liquid they tend to be slimy which the twins absolutely hate. A traditional Indian recipe calls for them to be stewed in tamarind which reduces the slimy-ness. The stew though is spicy and the twins are not at that spice level yet.

When I tried to bake them, they came out rubbery! So any tips on cooking them slime-less will be very welcome.

Petit brussels sprouts

Being inspired by Mandy's twins, I decided to introduce brussels sprouts to the twins starting with these petite ones - really, some of them were the size of a cheerio!

The kids did not like them either whole, cut-up, fork-mashed or pureed. I mixed the puree with some garbanzo cubes and they ate it very very reluctantly. About half way through my daughter threw up the whole thing.

They eat enough of other veggies so I will lay off the brussels sprouts for some time.

Pepper melange a trois from Trader Joe's

The twins like the flavor of bell peppers but reject them steamed or pressure cooked. I think it's the skin they don't like. So I still puree bell peppers. This pepper melange a trois from Trader Joe's looked so colorful I had to buy it. Of course, once cooked and pureed it looked like tomato puree but the smell was wonderful.

This pepper puree mixed with mashed hard-boiled egg yellow is one of the twins favorite lunch items. Since they cannot feed themselves egg yellow (too crumbly) and don't really like it if I feed it to them this works perfectly.

Cauliflower

After cleaning and cutting, I pressure cook the meristems. When the twins were younger I used to puree, but now it's just potato masher-ed and food cubed. For lunch and dinner I either add another food cube or a carb.

The twins do not like cauliflower steamed/pressure cooked or pureed/mashed yet. They will only eat it with something else.

Hearts of Palm

Hearts of palm? But what if they have an essential micronutrient like pantothenic acid that my twins need?? Why yes - sometimes Iam paranoid like that.

They taste very much like artichokes. Some of the pieces are soft enough to be fork mashed but not others. So I puree all of them - just to be safe. Then into the food trays and then the freezer. I heat the cubes up like any other vegetable - nuke in the microwave. My daughter puckered up at the first spoonful but finished it without any fuss.