Most of the recipes on this webpage have been on our lunch menu this year or offered as a snack.
Please try some of these recipes and let me know what you (and your kids) think! Drop me a line with your comments/questions at Kristina@traversechildrenshouse.org.
Chicken Noodle Soup
2 yellow onions (diced)
2 ribs of celery (diced)
2 carrots (diced)
¼ C Butter
¼ C Flour
2 qts Chicken stock
3 C Diced Chicken (cooked)
1 pound pasta (cooked, rinsed, set aside)
1 t Fresh chopped sage (less if dry)
1 t Fresh chopped thyme (less if dry)
1 T Fresh chopped parsley (don't use dried)
Salt and pepper to taste
Sweat the onions, carrots, and celery in the butter until soft. Stir in flour, keep it moving so that it doesn't burn. (2-3 minutes) Add chicken stock and stir vigorously to reduce the risk of lumps from the flour. Bring to a boil. Add chicken and pasta. Bring to a boil. Finish with herbs and salt and pepper to taste. Serve.
Chicken and Corn Chowder
1ea. Carrot (diced)
1 ea. Yellow onion (diced)
1 rib Celery (diced)
3 ea. Red skin potatoes (diced)
2 cl. Garlic (minced)
¼ C Butter
¼ C All purpose flour
6 C Chicken stock
1 C Cut corn
3 C Heavy cream
1 T Chopped parsley
1 t Chopped thyme
2 C Chopped chicken
Salt and Pepper to taste
Sweat the onions, carrots, celery and garlic in the butter until soft. Stir in the flour. Cook for 2-3 minutes to cook the flour. Add the chicken stock and stir vigorously to reduce the risk of lumps for the flour. Bring to a boil. Add the potatoes and chicken and cook until the potatoes are soft. Add the corn and continue to cook 3-4 minutes. Add the cream and return to a boil. Cook for another 3-4 minutes. Stir in the thyme and parsley and remove from the heat. Season with salt and pepper to taste and then serve.
Alternate substitutions: To make a crab chowder, substitute crab for chicken and vegetable stock for chicken stock.
Ratatouille
You will need:
Tomatoes
Eggplant
Onions
Peppers
Garlic
Yellow Squash
Zucchini
Olive oil, salt, pepper, and fresh basil
- Determine how much you plan on making.
- Gather half of the final amount in tomatoes, ¼ of the amount in yellow squash and zucchini, and the remaining amount shared among eggplant and onions with a touch of carrots, peppers and garlic to taste.
- Keep tomatoes together, group yellow squash and zucchini together, and group eggplant, peppers, onions and garlic together.
- Keeping the groups seperate, toss each group with olive oil, salt and pepper.
- Roast eggplant, pepper, onion, and garlic mixture for 30-35 minutes at 375, or until tender.
- Roast yellow squash and zucchini mixture for 15 minutes, same as above.
- Roast tomatoes for 15 minutes, same as above.
- Toss all three together, salt, pepper and fresh chopped basil to taste.
- Serve with cous cous, or eggs or on its own.
Basil Pesto
No nut version
(for pasta ,or anything else you want to eat it with, possibly a spoon?)
Basil
Olive Oil
Lemon Juice
Salt
Grated Parmesan Cheese
- Place picked, washed basil leaves in food processor (pack it full if you can)
- Press on, as machine is running, drizzle olive oil into processor until basil is pureed.
- Add a touch of lemon juice to retain color.
- Add Parmesan Cheese to reconstitute consistency. (something that slowly slides off a spoon, not drips)
- Adjust flavor with salt.
- When adding basil to pasta or potatoes, etc.- coat pasta lightly with olive oil and then begin to mix in pesto until throughly coated. Adjust to taste- some like a heavy pesto taste, others prefer a light flavor.
- Pesto can be frozen
Making a Spanish Tortilla....
Spanish Tortilla is a traditional stapel, used mainly in central Spain. It is usually served cold, but can be enjoyed hot as well. Spanish tortillas are typically made entirely in a saute pan and flipped on the stove- this version is easier and can put in the oven while you are making the salsa and setting the table.
You could google Spanish Tortilla and follow an exact recipe -or- you could do this:
- Find the size pan you want to use. (anything oven safe)
- Gather up olive oil, potatoes, onions, eggs, salt and pepper.
- Thinly slice enough potatoes to fill the pan, set aside.
- Rough chop oniona, 1/4- 1/3 the amount of potatoes. Example: 4 pounds potatoes, 1-1.5 pounds of onions.
- In a saute pan with enough olive oil to coat, carmelize the onions. Saute the potatoes until they are translucent. (you could also brown them if you really wanted to :)
- Toss together and put in a lined pan (parchment paper works really well) . If you use cooking spray, that would work as well. Scramble enough eggs with salt and pepper to taste, so that when you pour the egg mixture into the pan it fills up to the level of the potatoes but not above.
- Bake at 375 (convection) or 400 (conventional) until center temperature reaches 165 and tortilla appears firm when shook.
- Using a flat surface, such as a cutting board, cover the pan and then flip the pan and board over turning the tortilla out onto the cutting board.
- Cut and serve with fresh salsa.
