The Adventures of 'The Kidds'

Daniel loved this dish. It’s a combination of recipes from the Carnation evap milk label and the Campbell cream of chicken soup label, plus online recipes. I made half the recipe in an 8×8″ glass baking dish, the following recipe is for 9 x 13 and allows you to use up the contents of the cans mentioned above

2 chicken breast halves, pre-cooked and cut into bite-size pieces*
1 and 1/2 cups instant white rice
1 16-oz package of frozen brocolli, thawed (enough to break apart and spread)
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 can (12 oz) Carnation evaporated milk
8 oz cream cheese
1-2 tsp curry powder, to taste

Grated cheddar cheese for topping

Grease baking dish. Mix the liquid ingredients and curry powder well, preferably in a separate bowl, and pour into dish. Add the rice and chicken, top with the brocolli. Cover with foil and bake at 350ºF for 25 minutes. Take out of the oven and sprinkle with cheddar cheese, bake for another 10 or so minutes, until the cheese is bubbly.

Let sit for about 10 minutes before serving.

If you notice, there aren’t any seasonings, we season to each person’s taste at home and don’t add salt to most of our dishes so that Daniel can eat it too. Also, the cream of chicken contains a fair amount of sodium; Campbell now makes a Healthy Request™ version that has half the amount of sodium found in the regular one.

*Alternatively, you can use uncooked chicken and non-instant white rice and extend the initial cooking time to about 50 minutes. You should probably lightly brown the chicken first if you do this.

For this recipe, I microwaved the chicken breast to cook it. Just place the chicken on a ceramic or glass dish, microwave 30 seconds, and flip; repeat until thermometer reaches 165º in the thickest portion (you may have to cut off thinner parts to prevent them from overcooking). As a disclaimer, the meat may not cook evenly throughout using this method and you’re not supposed to use this cooking method for kids under 5, but since I was then placing it in a dish to bake in the oven (for 50 minutes) I felt it was safe to do

Here is a yummy recipe for a baby-friendly beef cabbage soup. I was just trying to find a use for my Kroger Frozen Vegetables, Fiesta Style (which had brocolli, chickpeas, a couple types of beans), and it turned out pretty well.

1 lb lean ground beef
1 T olive oil
1 small onion
3 cloves garlic
2 cups low-sodium beef broth (I actually used homemade stock I had lying around in the freezer)
1 15-oz can of diced tomatoes
8 oz of tomato sauce
1 cup water
Mrs. Dash garlic & herb seasoning
1 bag frozen mixed vegetables
1/2 head of cabbage, sliced into small pieces

1 cup of dry shell or macaroni pasta, cooked according to package directions

In a dutch oven or large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Sauté the onions until soft. Add garlic and cook until fragrant. Add ground beef to brown. Drain excess fat, add tomato sauce, beef stock, and water. Bring to boil, add Mrs. Dash to taste, add frozen veggies and simmer for 30 minutes. Add in the cabbage in the last 10 minutes of simmering, and stir in the cooked pasta before serving.

Pretty good, no salt!

Well, Don just bought around 15 lbs of country-style pork ribs (from the shoulder) since it was on sale at Meijer a couple weeks ago. This cut of pork is best cooked under low heat for a long time; many people put it in the crockpot or grill it under indirect heat for a few hours. In Filipino cuisine, it is one of the suggested cuts for pork adobo.

I was trying to find a recipe that doesn’t take more than 2 hours so I combined a couple recipes I found online and it worked out great! It was super easy:

2 to 2.5 lbs country style ribs
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce
1/3 cup orange marmalade (or Mango Jam, or whatever fruit preserve you happen to have, just stick close to orange-colored ones)

Line a baking dish with foil and spray nonstick oil. Place the ribs on the prepared dish. Mix the sauce and marmalade, pour over the ribs. Cover with foil and bake at 325ºF for 1.5 hours. Take off cover, raise temp to 400ºF and bake for 15-20 more minutes to brown.

The cut we had still had some bone and a layer of pork fat/skin, which added lots of flavor. Yummy!!! If you are familiar with Pata Tim, it tasted very similar (I guess because of all the pork fat). If you want to decrease the fat content, you could prepare this a day ahead, refrigerate, and take off the solidified fat layer.

I was hosting playgroup the other day and needed to make some snacks. I had the Pillsbury Quickbread Blueberry mix, which I made, but I wanted something that I could eat, as my doctor wanted me to try being gluten-free for the next few weeks. Since I hadn’t gone gluten-free shopping yet, I had to make stuff from what was in our pantry.

I had a couple cans of tropical fruit salad, some condensed milk, but alas, no table cream for a true Filipino salad. While perusing the contents of my pantry, I noticed a box of Minute Tapioca which I had been meaning to use to make pie (obviously, I haven’t). Then, I noticed the packs of coconut milk powder that my mom sent over. This got me thinking….Hmmm….tapioca pudding+coconut milk powder=Yum! But would it work with fruit? Why not, they’re all tropical, yes?

It turned out great! Here’s the recipe if you’d like to try:

2 cans tropical fruit salad (14 oz), drained

1 recipe Minute Tapioca, prepared according to package directions (6 servings).

1 packet coconut milk powder (150 g)

Add the coconut milk powder to the pudding after removing from heat. Mix well and cool. Stir in the fruit salad and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

Makes about 5 servings.

Here is the recipe we used for the Cinnamon Rolls on Christmas morning.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cinnamon-Rolls-I-2/Detail.aspx

I think next time we do this, we will do like it says to make the rolls the night before and then just bake them in the morning.  I think we might need to update this recipie a little to make the roll a little sweeter, but otherwise it was pretty good rolls.