Bangers and Mash

Bangers and Mash... really is just too fun to say. In my book, that alone is a perfectly good reason to have it for dinner.

Sunday night we decided to enjoy a little of this tasty German combination. Our meal consisted of small bratwurst (made in Germany, but bought at Trader Joes), mashed potatoes (skin on), sauerkraut, big soft pretzels, and spicy mustard. It was a lot of fun and more nutritious than you may think.

For starters, we only had 1 serving of the meat, 3 oz each for Oscar and me, 1-2 oz for the kids.

The potatoes were mashed with chicken stock and a little butter. By leaving the skin on they had much more Fiber, Vitamin C, Potassium, Copper and Iron.

Sauerkraut is also very nutritious. It is a good source of Calcium and Magnesium, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Vitamin B6, Folate, Iron, Potassium, Copper and Manganese. Plus, it's a fermented food and like yogurt, is excellent for gut health. To reduce the sodium content, I'd recommend rinsing it before serving.

The pretzels are just plain yummy. You can make your own... Check out my pretzel blog here. 

Theme meals are great for the whole family. Explore and be creative with something new this week, perhaps your very own bangers and mash dinner. You know it will be a ton of fun to answer when the kids ask you what's for dinner!

What We Ate For Valentine's Day

Yes, the thought did occur to me that not everyone really cares what we had for our family Valentine's Day dinner, but it was really good. Seriously. So here it is... I included the recipes for this kid and adult friendly meal!

Pretzel Crusted Chicken

Butternut Squash Soup

Mixed Greens Salad

Chocolate and Vanilla Pudding Parfaits

Pretzel Crusted Chicken


2 cups whole wheat pretzels
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
Salt and pepper to taste
2 eggs
4 organic skinless boneless chicken breasts


Put the pretzels into a large plastic bag and crush them using a rolling pin or other blunt object. Get the kids involved in this part- its a ton of fun for them! Add the cheese, bread crumbs, salt and pepper to the bag and mix. In a separate bowl beat the eggs lightly. Dip each chicken breast in the eggs then in the pretzel mixture and place in a baking pan. Pour any remaining crumbs on top.


Bake for about 35-45 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Slice and serve!


I used Giada De Laurentiis' Butternut Squash Soup recipe...  I still had some leftover squash from our mac and cheese last week. Instead of the fontina cheese crostini, I just toasted some wheat bread and melted a bit of brie on top (yes... still trying to use up the brie too!) I put the brie side down in the soup for presentation purposes. 


The mixed green salad was just some organic red leaf lettuce tossed with balsamic vinegar, olive oil and salt. 

For the parfaits, I used this chocolate pudding recipe and this vanilla pudding recipe and layered the two in a little cup placing a raspberry on top. As you can see, they aren't "picture perfect" but they were tasty!


This meal isn't too hard to do... the pudding and soup can be made ahead of time and kept in the fridge.


Enjoy!

Daddy Daughter Pretzel Day

Kudos to Alton Brown. And even more kudos to my husband.

Alton for creating such a delicious pretzel recipe, Oscar for having the energy and patience to make it with our almost three year old. And not just once, 4 times already. It has become sort of a "daddy-daughter-pretzel-day" tradition when I have a wedding shoot and am gone all day. I love that Annie has a ton of fun helping and rolling out her own little pretzel. Its also great to come home to one of these soft-baked treats!

Here is the recipe for those of you interested in trying it... we sub half of the flour for whole wheat flour. I also like to top them with cheese and melt under the broiler. It's a little piece of twisted heaven!