Summer – Page 2 – Fresh Family Food

Fresh and easy guacamole

June 26, 2015July 9, 2015 Sonya Quick

Give your child the gift of healthy avocados by making some super fast guacamole.

Now spice-loving, Mexican-food-purists might get upset. This guacamole contains no spice. Not one little bit. My little boy is pretty sensitive to spicy food and it makes it easy on his whole system to avoid chili peppers.

Feel free to add diced fresh or roasted hatch chiles or jalapeños. You can make a separate chili-free batch just for your little ones or pile it on for spice-loving kids. Around here it’s easier to make just one big batch of guacamole and then add hot sauce on our individual plates.

If you’re worried about the calories in this green fruit, just check out this article talking about the health benefits of avocado.

Cilantro pesto with roasted spaghetti squash

March 26, 2015July 9, 2015 Sonya Quick

There’s something about cilantro that can make a gray day sunny and a sunny day even better.

It’s such a vivid shade of green and it’s flavor is just as bright and cheery.

And recently my friend Michelle contributed some Q and As for the blog. One of the questions she asked was if I had any recipe suggestions for spaghetti squash that did not involve making it pasta-like.

And maybe you’ll say that pesto still makes it pasta like. Well, sure. Kinda. But usually cooks are roasting spaghetti squash into tender little pasta-like noodles and topping it all with normal tomato sauce.

Cilantro pesto is far from normal.

Tex-Mex bowl with Spanish rice and BBQ tofu

March 6, 2015July 9, 2015 Sonya Quick

Tex-Mex started out as a nickname for the railroad that traveled between the America and Mexico (the train route was shortened on tickets). Now it serves as a nickname for American-Mexican hybrid dishes. More specifically with a Texas influence.

And wow, combining these two cuisines yields amazing results. Sweet hickory barbecue sauce with cumin-tomato Spanish rice. Yellow cheddar cheese with pico de gallo.

So here’s my take on Tex-Mex. A bowl filled with awesome.

Spanish rice, black beans, barbecue sauce-grilled tofu, cheddar cheese, corn and pico de gallo.

Watermelon-pineapple pico de gallo

February 18, 2015July 9, 2015 Sonya Quick

While the northeast is doused in snow and ice, this pocket of the southwest has been showered in sunlight. Yes, 80-degree weather in the middle of February. Life ain’t bad.

And that means a respite from hearty soups, tummy-warming pasta and layered casseroles.

I’ve had the Pioneer Woman watermelon pico de gallo recipe saved for months. Just haven’t felt it was the right time to make it. Plus, I knew I wanted to modify it a bit to make it toddler-worthy (no peppers).

While this one is both child-safe without spice and it gives a taste of the islands, with the adding of some orange and pineapple.