Lunch and Dinner Receipes

try heavenly homemakers.com. She makes everything from scratch and plans out her entire menu for the week including breakfast and snacks. Her stuff is delicious!

We have recipes on our blog that are great for daycare applications because they are allergen-free (and also kid-tested). www.welcomingkitchen.blogspot.com

Here are two easy crock pot recipes that are complete meals:

Beef and Potatoes w/ Rosemary

Ingredients:
1 lb. red potatoes, medium, cut in fourths
1 c. baby carrots
3 lb. chuck roast, boneless (beef)
3 Tbs. Dijon mustard
2 Tbs. fresh rosemary, chopped
1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves, chopped
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
¼ c. onion, finely chopped
1 ½ c. beef broth

Directions:
Place potatoes and carrots in slow cooker.
Trim excess fat from beef. Mix mustard, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper; spread evenly over beef. Place beef in cooker. Sprinkle onion over beef. Pour broth evenly over beef and vegetables.
Cover, cook on low heat setting 8-10 hours, until beef and veggies are tender.
Remove beef and veggies from cooker using slotted spoon; place on serving platter. Skim fat from beef juices in cooker if desired. Serve beef w/ juices.

Tuscan Chicken and Artichokes

Ingredients:
2 pkg (9 oz each) frozen artichoke hearts, defrosted and divided (I just used canned)
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 can (14 oz) reduced-sodium chicken broth
2 lb skinless, boneless chicken thighs (I used breast)
1 tsp. Mediterranean or Greek seasoning
½ tsp. kosher salt
¼ tsp. ground black pepper
1 medium zucchini, sliced
1 c. halved grape tomatoes
1 pkg. (11 oz) dry whole-wheat couscous
Chopped parsley, optional

Directions:
1. In a 3 ½ or 4-qt. show cooker, combine one pkg. of artichoke hearts, onion, garlic, and broth. Add chicken and sprinkle with seasoning, salt and pepper. Cover and cook on high for 3 hours. Then place zucchini, tomatoes and second pgk. artichoke hearts in the cooker; re-cover and heat for another 15 minutes, or until veggies are cooked.
2. Remove chicken and vegetables with a slotted spoon; cover w/ foil to keep warm. Stir the couscous into remaining liquid. Cover and cook 5 minutes, or until the liquid is absorbed. Sever chicken and veggies over couscous. Top w/ parsley if desired.

Enjoy!
J.

Hi, S.--

I'm going to direct you to a website that I direct many clients to (I'm a holistic nutrition coach)...it's www.whfoods.org, World's Healthiest Foods. The recipes are simple, delicious, a nutritious because they are based on whole, natural foods versus processed, packaged food. They even have pictorial how-tos that are very helpful (e.g. how to cut kale.)

Hope you find lots of new favorites here!! Try his basic salad dressing recipe...fabulous in itself and also a great base to get creative with by adding other herbs.

Best to you!

T.

I cut up real brocoli , put into a lidded pot, and add 2-3 T of soy sauce, boil for 8-10 minutes. yum.

Carrots: cut them into thin sticks, then put in a fry pan. add just enough water to cover. boil for , I dunno, 5 minutes, or until just starting to get tender. drain water, add equal amounts of butter and oil (1/2 T of each?) and stir fry a few minutes. Salt and pepper at end of cooking.

I like to make fried rice. I cut my carrots into cubes and prepare as above. remove them to a plate. Then cube zuchini, stir fry, remove to plate. Then onions, (green, or diced white) into a pan with butter and simmer low( so they dont burn) and toss, cook, toss, cook. Add all these goodies (usually about 1.5 cups each) to 8 cups of ALREADY cooked steamed rice. mix them in a huge pan, and add yoshidas sweet and savory sauce, some melted butter, and cajun seasoning, to taste. I usually spoon it into a lasagna pan to serve. I like to lay baked thighs on top or cubed chicken breast.
Goes good with tri tip kabobs too..

Tri tip kabobs:
get a tri tip roast from the store. put it on a cutting board and cut 1/4 inch slices against the grain. throw it into a ziploc gallon bag. Add kiomans bottled teriaki marinade, coving all meat completely (or to make your own: soy sauce: brown sugar, garlic powder, sesame oil. Don't worry about amounts, just throw it in there. ) squish the bag to mix, then place baggie in large bowl, top side up, and refrigerate overnight. Next day dump marinade and squewer the meat onto metal squewers. I fold my meat in half before i sqeuwer it, to keep it from rolling when turing on the grill.When I squewer, I go in and out of peice 2 -5 times. It looks like a riuffle edge when I am done with it. place on jelly roll type cookie sheet and take to hot grill. cook, and baste with tri tip mop mixture . Once it comes into house and right before serving, mop one more time with sauce. OMG SOOOO good.

Tri tip mop mixture: mix together 1/4 bullseye bbq sauce to 3/4 yoshidas sweet and savory sauce.

Kraft.com has alot of great recipes as well as www.hillbillyhousewife.com

I made up a simple snack recipe the other day that my toddler (and husband!) loves. Just simply mix equal parts of peanut butter and vanilla yogurt to make a "dipping" sauce for apple slices. My toddler calls it peanut butter dip and will eat an entire apple with it. It's yummy and would make a nice snack for your day care kids. Good luck!

Good morning S.,

I love the website tasteofhome.com. There are some great recipes. Hope this helps you out a little.

J.

My daycare children seem to really love when I put a section of hot dog into a muffin cup of cornbread mix and bake. Makes a homemade corndog!
I use a mini muffin pan (from Pampered Chef, I'm a consultant).
They also love breakfast for lunch from time to time since usually they don't eat a true breakfast for breakfast but instead cereal or yogurt type items.
Hope that helps, my mind has gone blank but I will let you know more if I think of them.

Quesadillas are super easy, especially if you have a pancake griddle. You can use all natural ingredients: cut up chicken or beef, salsa or tomatoes, scallions, crumbled bacon, cheese, cook it on the stove top and serve with mashed avocado/guacamole, or sour cream or salsa.

Hi I make a dish called a taco casserole, which is simple quick, an easy, ingredients are ground beef, salsa, taco chips, can corn, an colby monteray jack cheese. The amount of meat depends on how big a pan you want to make, if a 9 x 13 pan the half of a side of family pack of ground beef. Cook meat till done, drain off grease, mix in a bowl with one can of whole corn drained, 1 jar of salsa, hotness is your choice, or you can even buy chips an salsa from a mexican resteraunt in your area, which is what I do since it cheaper than buying each at store. 1 cup of either miracle whip or mayo. Mix all. Crush in hands enough chips to make a layer on bottom of pan, then add meat mixture, colby an monteray jack cheese on top of that. Repeat the above till you are out of meat. Cheese is never enough in my house as they are cheese freaks as i put it never enough for them. So I usually use 2 family packs of cheese.

Updated

I also wanted to tell you about a way for the kids to eat pork chops without a fight. I bread my chops in the egg an milk mixture, but instead of straight flour I add a scoop of sugar an place it in plastic bag with flour an shake then bread as normal an fry. Pork chops come out very tender an totally different taste that same ol same ol. You cannot use a bowl as the sugar does not mix up with the flour in bowl for some reason but does in the bag.Best of Luck. D.

S.,

I sell Celebrating Home and we have a bean pot and I have an entire cookbook of recipes that I can send you. Even if you don't have my bean pot you can make these dishes, many very easy to make, yet delicious too! We have put together all types of recipes, so if you would email me I would be happy to send it to you. It is in Word Document form, let me know if that works for you. Email me at ____@____.com

L.