Monday, July 28, 2008

Simple Chinese

People always ask me how I get the boys to eat so many veggies, and to cook them themselves, too.
First of all, we eat a wide variety of foods so they are exposed to tastes repeatedly, but in a different way. Harvard Beets. Pickled Beets. Roasted Beets. Beets in chocolate cake. : ) The boys like (or can tolerate!) beets. The dad *loves* them, Mom is still struggling.
As far as cooking...I try to make it easy for them. Pesto is a snap to make. Really! See our recipe a few posts back. We use pesto on pasta, on pizza, for dipping, and on other veggies (like potatoes).
Recently I came across a product that makes eating veggies easy and fun for the boys. The above shown line of Simply Asia box mixes. I know, I don't usually use box mixes. But, keeping the ultimate goal in mind (making it easy and enjoyable for my boys to make and eat veggies), I gave it a try. While this line is not organic, it is "all natural." The ingredient list shows *real* foods and has real spices in it...not "flavored" products. So, I am comfortable using this tool in our kitchen. While the front box is called "Spicy Szechwan," it is not really spicy. We added red pepper flakes to ours.
The box mix itself is straightforward and easy. You make the noodles, you pour on a sauce. : ) The adding of the veggies was quite easy as well, even though I will be quite wordy in sharing our process.
Parker went to the garden and gathered a variety of veggies....a couple carrots, a handful of green beans, an onion, a pepper, a few pea pods, broccoli, some Thai basil leaves, and I had some left over sweet corn in the fridge, and garlic. We love garlic.
We simply washed and chopped to our liking (for example, we like beans long....so we just cut them in half).
We quickly and lightly stir fried them in olive oil in a cast iron skillet. We start with the more firm and longer cooking items like the carrots and onions. When they were just over half done, we added the green beans and broccoli. When those are done, we remove the pan from the heat and dump in the more tender veggies. They get "wilted" from the heat of the pan (a great thing about cast iron) and the other veggies. Done!
Mix the veggies in with the noodles and sauce and your meal is ready.

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