The Kids Cook Monday: Sweet Potato Nuggets

For today's The Kids Cook Monday post -- part of the Healthy Monday campaign -- I've got one of our favorite vegetables: sweet potatoes.

Cracking eggs is a tough skill to master, but so much fun

They're full of flavor and, as Anna wrote last week, packed with beta carotene (and fiber!). We love them roasted with other root vegetables, or sliced up as oven-baked fries.

Another fun way to eat them is in the form of croquettes. A fancy term like that makes my kids suspicious, so we call them potato nuggets. My boys wouldn't touch mashed potatoes -- but a crispy breaded coating makes all the difference. You can mix in almost anything your kids might like (a great way to use up leftovers) then bake or pan-fry them. They freeze well, too, making them a great homemade "fast food" for busy days.

Kids who don't mind getting their hands dirty will have fun making these. My 3-year-old picked chicken-and-apple sausage as his mix-in, and handled everything from cracking eggs to squishing nuggets into shape and coating them with bread crumbs.

Sweet Potato Nuggets

This is a very basic recipe you can adapt to suit your taste. Choose deep orange sweet potatoes for maximum nutrition -- and fun.

2 pounds sweet potatoes, cooked and peeled (see note below)
1 teaspoon butter
salt and pepper to taste
optional add-ins: curry powder, chili powder, chopped meat, chopped chives or green onions, parmesan cheese
2 egg whites
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs (I mix regular bread crumbs with panko)

Combine sweet potatoes, butter, salt and pepper, and any spices in a large bowl and mash with a fork or masher. Stir in any extras, such as chopped meat or herbs. Refrigerate until well chilled.

Put egg whites in a shallow bowl and stir briefly with a fork or small whisk. Put bread crumbs in another shallow bowl.

To form nuggets, scoop up a tablespoon or so of the potato mixture and shape into a nugget or ball. Dip into egg white and then into bread crumbs.

To freeze: Arrange nuggets on a plate or pan and set in the freezer for a few hours. Store frozen nuggets in a sealed freezer bag; take them straight out of the bag to bake.

To bake in the oven (my preferred method): Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Set nuggets on a parchment-lined baking sheet and spray lightly with olive oil or cooking spray. Bake for 20 minutes or until nuggets are lightly browned and crispy.

To pan-fry: Lightly spray a non-stick pan with olive oil or cooking spray. Cook nuggets over medium heat for a few minutes on each side until lightly browned and crispy. (You can also fry them in oil.)

Note: To cook sweet potatoes, wash them well and prick them with a fork. Rub with oil and bake in a 400 degree oven for 30 to 60 minutes or until soft. Or set on a white paper towel in the microwave and cook on high 12 to 18 minutes for four potatoes. Or cut peeled potatoes in 1 1/2-inch chunks and cook in a pressure cooker for 5 minutes.

Finding Love for Vegetables

Harvesting chamomile among the garden veggies

The New York Times just reported on an interesting study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that found Americans aren't eating their vegetables. A quarter of us don't eat veggies three times a day, and all together we're eating half the vegetables health experts recommend.

I certainly struggle: I expect my kids to eat their veggies, even to crave veggies, but I certainly don't model that kind of enthusiasm. The problems the NYT article points out -- particularly the time needed to prep fresh vegetables -- resonate in my home. The kids don't mind vegetables; it's the grownups who tend to dismiss them.

My family has been trying to put vegetables more front and center in our lives and on our plates. We converted a good amount of our tiny yard into a garden, and the edible plants -- which grow with little attention from me beyond watering -- are now spilling over into our front yard. I take one of my boys to the farmer's market each week, and the kids help choose the week's produce. We have more meatless meals. But when we're pressed for time, vegetables are the first thing to get cut from our meals. And they're an afterthought at snack time.

I'm acutely aware that I'm lucky to be able to offer as many good vegetables as I do, and that it still isn't enough. I have enough land and time to grow a modest garden, learning as I fumble through the seasons. I have time to go the farmer's market, and a child who makes the outing easy to manage. The veggies at the market are fresher, taste better, and are cheaper than what I find at the grocery store. I love that food stamps can be used at the farmer's market, but there's still the challenge of finding time for a market visit, getting there, and prepping all that fresh stuff.

The idea of vegetables as "high art," as the Times article puts it, spells big trouble. Snobbery when it comes to vegetables is ridiculous -- and yet I worry I'm adding to the problem when I write here about an unusual vegetable that might be unavailable at a big-box grocery store, or hard to find outside my small corner of the world.

I was happy to see results of another study looking at Alice Waters' Edible Schoolyard program: "Students who gardened ate one and half servings more of fruits and vegetables a day than those who weren’t in the program." You might have seen early this year the Atlantic Monthly's overwrought essay excoriating the program as a detraction from the education of our kids. A schoolyard garden isn't going to solve all the woes of our educational system, but I find it impossible to argue with teaching children how to grow, prepare, and enjoy their own food. You can of course tie in math, botany, reading, and more, but frankly I'm happy enough to see kids learn a bit of self-sufficiency and indulge their curiosity.

We're a month into the school year, and the most excited I've seen my first-grader has been when he's telling me about the bean-growing experiment his class is conducting, and his visits to the school garden. While I can't get him to help in our home garden, at school he was thrilled to nibble on raw zucchini, sample midget cantaloupe and yellow watermelon, and plant seeds for the winter growing season. He learned that while he doesn't care much for the big, thick broccoli stalks common at stores, the slender home-grown broccoli is pretty tasty. I agree -- so I've tucked some broccoli seeds in our small garden.

Small, simple steps.

Does your family eat enough vegetables?

Tips and Gadgets: Super Powerful Foods!

You probably heard about the wonders of some kind of foods. Their power may reside in the mineral or vitamin content.  The anti-aging factor of some other super-duper-foods  is the one that  makes them so special. And their uniqueness also can be just the amazing amount of protein that one plant boasts, even more than some well known sources of protein. But for me, besides all of those precious nutritional elements, the flavor and what I call "cooking potential" also counts a lot on the choice. Here's a list of my favorite super foods, links for further reading and some recipes that include them!

• Almonds - Vitamin E, Calcium, Folic Acid, anti-oxidants. You  - or they - name it. Almonds are one of my favorite snacks, and slowly I am adding them into lots of dishes in my home. Also we are recently using Almond Milk in my husband's diet which excludes dairy. It is delicious and it is said to lower cholesterol.

• Blueberries - Want to grow old without going old? Blueberries are your best friends on the long run. Kids love it, so you'd better be happy with those miraculous berries. Livestrong says that nothing else works as a prevention against many possible diseases in life. Here's one cute recipe to celebrate its powers.
• Broccoli _ Vitamin C, plus Vitamin C and more Vitamin C. The  beautiful broccoli has lots of fiber and brings just goodness to many dishes : no cholesterol, sugar or fat. I always have plenty of it in my refrigerator. It's added to mac and cheese, pizzas , casseroles and the kids now know it it as a every day food.
• Garlic - I grew up believing that no other remedy would work as well on a very bad cold than garlic tea. Yuk, right?!  Later on I found out that garlic can be added to any kind of hot food and its pungent and sweet flavor is just the right seasoning for almost everything. Now, living very close to Gilroy (CA), I am still in love with garlic. And this link  from Web MD proves that the old sayings from Brazilian shamans might have scientific support somehow.

• Green Beans - Versatile, crunchy and loaded with Vitamin K, which is a regulator of blood clotting. Besides lots of other vitamins, green beans add a generous amount of fiber in the diet. Here you can read more about its properties. 
• Oranges _ Both explorers and pirates knew its benefits, and up to now, no fruit is capable to beat the wonderful qualities of oranges. The one in the picture belongs to my very own tree! And I can guarantee that all family benefits from its goodness. Besides the well know protective Vitamin C, it has folate, lots of fiber and even Calcium. As Dr. Sears points out here it is one of the fabulous fruits for everybody - and it's higher content of vitamins is in the rind, and not on the juice so don't clean it all when preparing it for the kids.
• Quinoa _ This is one of my favorite super foods. Its nutty flavor is an amazing addition to many good recipes, and its protein amount is absolutely superb: about 12 grams per 100g of produce, which is quite an achievement for a plant. Also, its history is full of charm. According to the book A Cook's Guide to Grains (Jenni Muir), it was cultivated by the Incas about 5 to 8 thousand years ago and many studies consider it the ultra super food for the future. It is on our table today after the Spanish conquistadores brought it from the ancient native people. Now the scientists know why it was considered a sacred food: besides lots of protein, it brings B vitamins, and many important minerals to your plate. The one in the picture is a bowl of organic red quinoa, my favorite.
• Salmon _ I mostly choose the Alaskan Sockeye Wild catch. The famous Omega-3 oils are all there and latest studies  show that these oils play a definite role on brain formation and healthy hearts. Usually we sear it or broil it to keep its moisture.

• Sweet Potatoes - Its deep orange flesh carries all the beauty of this root. Sweet Potato was found to be one of the oldest types of food in the world, and many sources suggest that its origin is Central America. The main factors that qualify it as super food: huge amount of Vitamin A (Beta-Caroten). It provides more than three times of the recommended amount for our daily diet. One of my favorite ways of cooking it? With olive oil and zaatar, as here.

• Yogurt _ Probiotics _ aka lactobacillus colonize a healthy digestive system - and high protein are the very well know properties of this lovely Make it With Milk product. Here we have a wonderful recipe to produce yours : Darienne has mastered the art of preparing it.