Feel Good Food

We are 10 days past Nico's bug and he's finally interested in food and boy is he interested. The other night I made a shredded zucchini sautéd with garlic, butter, olive oil and a little heavy whipping cream - and it was delicious!!! Thanks Julia Child!!!

After dropping our oldest off for skiing today, I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things and loaded up on zucchini! Lots of laundry folding today and every cell in my body screaming for sleep because having an ill toddler means he got in the habit of nursing, pretty much nonstop all night every night for the last 10 days. I am exhausted and hungry! While I don't follow a diet, clearly my usual foods are not keeping up with me. 

Knowing that after a long day of skiing in crappy weather, our daughter, Sayla, was likely going to be very hungry, I debated stopping at Dandy's and getting burgers to go because I was so tired and hungry! It took some willpower to just come home but I told myself that a good quality protein and vegetable rich dinner would save me the extended exhaustion of a junk food hangover. AND not going out until my husband is home for vacation means rewarding the family with take-out Thai (which in my favorite).

As soon as ski gear was put away, I set the oven to preheat at 350F. I got to work on shredding some cheddar cheese (a staple here) and two zucchini. I salted the shredded zucchini is get out as much water as possible. As the zucchini rested, I finely chopped an entire broccoli floret and steamed it while I beat three eggs. Squeeze water from zucchini with a clean towel or cheese cloth. After draining the broccoli I let it cool a few minutes so it wouldn't cook the eggs before I had it all mixed together. Then I added almond meal, a little kosher salt, thyme and oregano.

(feel free to click through the photos)

Once mixed together it has the consistency of meatballs, or oatmeal (if the meatball idea is a totally foreign concept). Form a nugget shape and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment and lightly oiled with olive oil. Bake for 15 minutes or until they turn a slight golden color.

Yes, these nuggets are very green. If your kids don't already eat a lot of green food they might look at you like you are ordering them to eat mud. But don't worry. The best advice I ever got in reference to feeding our children came from a great pediatrician. She said "give it to her 20 times, you'll probably throw it away 20 times, but then one day they'll just eat it like they've been eating it their whole life." And sure enough, it worked and since the age of two our daughter eats a couple handfuls of spinach a day. I love these nuggets and they really make me feel nourished and all the protein was just the pick-me-up I needed to power through this day. I'll keep serving them to the kids a small amount at a time and hopefully they will love these almost as much as a dino nugget.

Here's the best recipe if you are just using broccoli, but the zucchini threw in an extra challenge so my adjustments follow.

Ingredients:

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (I used Tillamook because we love it)

2 zucchini shredded, lightly salted and drained

1 broccoli floret chopped and steamed (or 1.5 cups of frozen and steamed broccoli)

3 eggs beaten

1 cup almond meal (or breadcrumbs if you prefer)

pinch of salt, two dashes of thyme, two dashes of oregano

Cook in a preheated oven at 350F on a lightly oiled parchment covered baking sheet for 15 minutes or until done.