Tips and Advice - Raising Foodie Kids

We are honest to goodness museum quality carbivores in my house. Bread. Pasta. Rice. We devour them all. We are particularly partial to breads from all over the world: naan, pita, paratha, Nan-e Afghani, injera. If there's a carb to be had, we're having it. I don't much like South Beach, the Miami hot spot or the diet. I'm Indian so there's no way this girl's gonna live without rice. I've been dabbling in new grains to expand our stand by repertoire. Couscous is an easy crowd pleaser, though it's a veritable mess under the table after that meal. Thankfully our new dog, Lark, does help suck that up with his drooling oral vacuum that now. I also add barley to soups and have some Israeli couscous on hand to try out. My latest star at the dinner table is quinoa. Say it with me: kee-NO-wah.

The boys devoured it. From what I could tell between mouthfuls of exuberant mmmms..... I think they liked it. Mac Daddy has already packed up the leftovers to take to work for lunch tomorrow.

Quinoa with Fresh Herbs

• prepare 1 cup quinoa (It expands like my waistline between Thanksgiving and Valentine's Day so a little goes a long way!)
• Chop one tomato, handful of Italian parsley, handful of fresh mint, small bunch of fresh chives, half a smallish red onion.
• Toss with cooked quinoa.
• Squeeze juice of one lemon.
• Season with salt and freshly grated pepper to taste.
• Mix in small chunks of feta cheese.

Serve as a filling accompaniment or add some sliced grilled chicken and make it a meal!

I used my Ninja Kitchen to speed up the prep, but the hand chopped bits would have been great too. The fresh lemon is the key to this oil free dish.