the hungry bambino: this week's menu

this week's menu

By Sarah Sunday, September 13, 2009 CSAs, dinner menus, farmers market, feeding toddlers, summer cooking, weekly menus

Oh, wow. That's what Pickle has been saying a lot lately: hear that plane? oh, wow! I just unfolded an entire load of already folded laundry. Oh, wow! Or, check out this a hole in the sidewalk - I can stick my finger in it. Oh, wow! And, I'm not going to eat anything except raspberries. Oh, wow!

Oh, no is more like it. Yes, Pickle has finally entered the picky zone. The zone where only one food will do ... for days, a week, maybe even a month. While raspberries are fairly healthful when it comes to obsessions, seeing your beautifully cooked dinner sit, congealing, while your child scarfs down raspberry after raspberry sends me into near convulsions.

Many a day I feel like a short order cook. I make a child-variation of the dinner we're having for Pickle, customizing it to his palate and chewing ability. For instance, he will eat the corn that we're eating with our steak, so I'll saute his corn with a little zucchini and some Sungold tomatoes and serve it with a scoop of fresh ricotta. Whether he eats it or not is totally up in the air, day to day. I was reading some famous pediatrician's article on feeding toddlers and he explained that some days a toddler will eat everything offered to him; the next he will literally eat nothing but a few bites of food, here or there. Just ride with the waves, he said, he'll get what he needs.

Yeah, ride the waves. If only we were swimming! Here's what two of us, and maybe three, are eating this week.

In our CSA/at the market:

Arugula

Beets

Broccoli: regular and Romanesco

Carrots

Cilantro

Edamame

Garlic

Green Beans

Jalepenos

Mustard greens

Red onions

Red lettuce

Sweet peppers

Tomatillos

Tomatoes: Juliettes, heirlooms & Sungolds

Yukon gold potatoes

Watermelon ... haven't found out whether it's red or yellow

Zucchini

Menu: week of 13 September 2009

Sunday: BLT pizza with a beet salad in a red wine/walnut oil-vinaigrette

Monday: Sauteed broccoli with spicy whole-wheat noodles, fried-rice style

Tuesday: Sauteed mustard greens with fresh ricotta bruschetta

Wednesday: Banh mi with spicy pineapple-edamame salad

Thursday: Corn pancakes with tomato crudo and Greek yogurt

Friday: Potato gratin with salsa verde

Saturday: Creamy corn soup

Happy eating. -s

CSAs, dinner menus, farmers market, feeding toddlers, summer cooking, weekly menus

About the Author

Sarah Klein

Author, cook, entertainer and world-class eater of delicious food, Sarah Klein began The Hungry Bambino as a way to capture her evolution as a mother and cook. Sarah's greatest passion is to cook for those she loves; so if you're invited to dinner, you know you're special. When Sarah's not cooking up a storm, she's managing a successful career, playing with her due bambini, rearranging the furniture in her house, or tackling a challenging trail run. She does this all with her partner in crime and best friend and favorite person to cook for: her husband, Chris, or Mr. Klein, as referred to on this blog.