Easy, Kid-Friendly Blueberry Vinaigrette

My kid is working on learning to enjoy eating green salad, because healthy.  So we found a way to use the blueberries that we picked and froze last summer to make a super tasty and very PURPLE salad dressing that makes eating salad fun awesome. You simply blend the 4 ingredients together, using a regular blender or immersion blender, food processor…or any machine that will purée the ingredients into a smooth dressing.

Ingredients

1/2 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (if frozen, thaw)

1/4 cup white vinegar

1/4 cup honey

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or vegetable oil

Directions

1. Combine all of the ingredients with your blender

2. Strain, if you want.

3. Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.  Shake before pouring.

Super Easy Teriyaki Sautéed Mushrooms

This is an incredibly quick, easy, and DELICIOUS way to prepare a batch of sautéed mushrooms to use as a topping on just about anything! It is also extremely inexpensive and the ingredients are likely things you already have in your refrigerator.

I like to put these teriyaki mushrooms on veggie burgers, but I also love them in a rice bowl or noodles, or with other vegetables.

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced

1 clove fresh garlic, smashed and finely chopped

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon Teriyaki sauce (such as Mr. Yoshida’s)

1 tablespoon red cooking wine

Black pepper to taste

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and olive oil together. When everything is melted and it starts to get a little bubbly, add in your fresh garlic and stir quickly. Never let your garlic burn.

2. Immediately add the fresh mushrooms and sauté to let the mushrooms cook a little bit. About a minute or two. They will shrink down slightly.

3. Once the mushrooms are starting to get hot, add in the red wine and teriyaki sauce. You can add extra teriyaki sauce if you like. When the sauce starts to bubble, turn the heat down to simmer. Gently stir everything for about 4 more minutes.  Add some fresh ground black pepper to taste.

4. Use the mushrooms immediately, or let them cool to store in the refrigerator for later use. 

Magic Mojo Easy Spaghetti Sauce for Picky Children

My sensitive kid is currently finicky about textures in his food.  He likes sauces that are "smooth with no chunks" and no pieces of unidentifiable herbs or vegetables.  While we are working on helping him broaden his horizons to include more variety and chunky things in sauces, in the mean time he helped me create this great recipe for spaghetti/pizza sauce.  It is simple enough for a kid to assemble, extremely inexpensive, and so tasty!  The credit for the inspiration for this goes to a wonderful and gracious lady/blogger mom, a.k.a. 4hatsandfrugal.com , who also has finicky kids.  We started with her fabulous make-ahead pizza sauce recipe and adapted it to our tastes to be a quick spaghetti sauce.

Ingredients:
1 small can (6 ounces) of tomato paste
1 cup warm water
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 to 1 tablespoon ground oregano (should be like a powder, not leaves)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

How to make it:
In a medium sauce pan, combine the ingredients (my son measures and combines in the pan for this part).
Turn the heat on to just under medium and continually stir as the sauce heats up.  Make sure it's smooth.  We like to use a whisk; It works great.  It takes just a few minutes before the sauce starts bubbling. Then, turn it way down to simmer while your noodles (or whatever protein/vegetables) are cooking.

We like to put it on Italian Bucatini, which is a large, tubular spaghetti type pasta, and then chop up a baked, crunchy vegetarian "chicken" patty to put on top.  Then we top it all with some Parmesan cheese.

If you are the type that mixes sauce into pasta and mixing before serving, this recipe makes enough sauce to cover an entire 16 ounce package of Italian Bucatini noodles.

SO EASY. SO TASTY. SO YUMMY.

Oh my stars, Pickled Red Onions, I love you. Jump on my food.

Quick and Easy Pickled Red Onions:

You will need:

1 good sized red onion, sliced into super-thin, longish strips

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1 cup water

1 head of garlic - use as many cloves as you like, from 3 to the whole head.  Peel, crush, and chop the garlic.

1 bay leaf (optional)

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

black pepper (optional)

crushed red pepper (optional)

In a medium saucepan, pour in the vinegar and water.  Add the salt and sugar, black pepper, red pepper, bay leaf, and garlic.  On medium-high heat, stir the mix until the sugar and salt are dissolved.

Add the onion slices and toss everything around lightly.  Keep the heat on medium-high and cook the onion mixture for 3 minutes - no longer than that.  You want the onions to still have a little crunch, but not be raw.  I set a timer to keep myself on track, and also because I am one of those set-the-timer-for-everything people.  It's just my way.  I'm Time Girl,

Stir the onions slightly while they heat up.

Turn off the heat and use a slotted spoon to transfer the onion/garlic pieces to a clean, dry, pint-sized mason jar.  Then, pour in as much of the spiced vinegar liquid into the jar as will fit to cover the onions.  Leave about 1/2" space from the top of the jar.  (Do not overfill.)  Screw the top on, finger tight.  This is not true canning, by the way - this is just a refrigerator recipe.

There you have it.  The tastiest, tangiest, and sassiest condiment you have ever made yourself.  You can put pickled onions on hot dogs, tofu dogs, hamburgers, bean burgers, sandwiches, potato salad, frito pies, chili, tacos, fish, tuna salad, you name it. Any munchies that need to be gussied up, really.

Here's another magical thing about pickled onions:  You can amend the spices in the vinegar mix any way you like.  You can add pinches of cinnamon, cloves, coriander seeds, lemon zest, lime juice...anything you like, and it will still be AMAZEBALLS.  I personally like it peppery but still on the plainish side, because I like to taste the garlic and onions.  But that's me.

Try this on some fish tacos and fall in love.  You're welcome.