pasta pucks and a kale sale...

two quaint little terms regarding our latest attempts at healthy, toddler-acceptable food. i do suppose we're lucky--lucy has a pretty accommodating palate. i chalk this up to (the aforementioned) luck, along with the fact that we're constantly exposing her to new foods. we don't ever make her a separate meal--she eats what's being served, with perhaps an addition of yogurt, fruit or cheese if it happens to be something not so toddler friendly (like salad). it's very rare that she walks away from the table without a contented tummy. 

with that said, i have been having lots of trouble figuring out what to serve for lunch. we always used to have leftovers, but because we're trying to cut down on waste (and expense), we've started cooking in smaller batches. which means there aren't always leftovers on hand. there's only so many days in a row i can offer cheese & crackers or a pb&j before starting to feel like i'm not doing my best as a mom. 

and then, on an evening when we'd made way too much pasta, the ever-clever jeremy had the idea to freeze the leftovers into lunch-sized portions for lucy. my standard muffin pan worked perfectly. now when we're on the go, i just pull out a "puck" (organic pasta, sauteed spinach, fresh mozzarella chunks and organic pasta sauce), toss into a reusable container and we're all set. thawed by lunchtime, and she doesn't even seem to mind eating it cold if need be. stew and chili would also be great "puck" meals, though they'd probably have to be heated before eating. 

next up: kale chips. a vendor at our farmer's market was having a "kale sale" and i took this opportunity to try my hand at making the  kale chips i'm always reading about online. it couldn't be simpler--just wash and dry the kale, then tear into pieces, avoiding the tough middle stalks. toss pieces liberally with olive oil and salt, and place in a single layer on a cookie sheet. cook at 400 degrees until crispy--about 10 minutes. there seems to be a fine line between undercooked and cooked-to-a-crisp. i found that tossing them around on the pan halfway through cooking helped to get them all done evenly. the result is a healthy "chip" that everyone under our roof enjoyed--lucy included. 

i would warn against making too many chips, as they didn't keep all that well. i had luck placing the slightly-soggy day old chips back in the oven for a re-crisping, but they still weren't as good as they were straight out of the oven the day before. have fun!