We eat dinner as a family every night, at this point I don't think that we would even think of doing anything else. The kids like to set the table and then make a big deal about where everybody is sitting (some nights everyone wants to sit next to mommy and some nights it's daddy). My husband likes to eat healthy but sometimes he doesn't want to eat brown rice and greens like me and the kids do every night! So... when he goes out of town we have a really big HEALTH FEST!
There are so many things you can make with brown rice and kids always like it! I think mostly because it's easy to eat and they can feed themselves. But when Dad goes out of town we all say "YAY! time for a big pot of brown rice!" I think that just about anything is good with brown rice so whatever you are making you can add it... but here are some suggestions.
I have a previous post on making rice which is "Brown Rice 101" click here for the details because there is a really nice and extra healthy way to make brown rice (and you can get some seaweed in there without kids knowing about it!). Start with the brown rice and then here are some meal ideas that are fun and kids love it!
MEAL 1
-brown rice
-steam any greens ie. kale, broccoli or carrots and sprinkle with homemade gomasio (recipe here)
-tofu with onion and shoyu - saute onion with a bit of oil in a iron skillet, cube tofu and add to pan and saute at medium heat for quite awhile and try to brown it, then add shoyu or tamari (I like to dilute it with 3 parts water to 1 part shoyu, to equal about 1/2 cup)
MEAL 2
-brown rice -steam kale with gomasio
-roast a chicken with salt/pepper, garlic and lemon for about 45 minutes - 1 hour
MEAL 3
-brown rice, make with a little extra water or if you are using leftover rice steam it or warm it up with some more water so that it's pretty moist use an egg and mix it into the rice and roll rice balls (or I make little patties because I can't get my rice balls to work!) and fry them in a medium heat pan -- these are brown rice croquettes, they are terrific when made with millet as well but now we are talking about brown rice! you could even take a small piece of umeboshi (the plum you used for cooking your rice) and put that in the center.
-take your kids favorite greens saute, dissolve a tablespoon of kuzu (available online at the kushi store) in about a cup of water and pour into pan, add a dash or two of tamari, cook until the kuzu becomes clear and thick (if its too thick just add water) and pour this over your croquettes.
-you can add seitan to this dish as well for some protein and kids LOVE seitan (I really like the Bridge brand, it's delicious and tastes really moist and yummy)
MEAL 4
Fried rice - just use your favorite greens chopped up small and an egg, and I like to add a bit of miso (just dilute a spoonful in a cup of water and pour it in at the end--don't boil it--just until it gets warm) and put some gomasio on top - this is really the kids favorite!
I will say that there are people who think that macrobiotic food uses too much salt so you just need to be careful of this, we don't like salty food so we really don't use much, but just try to be aware and use shoyu, tamari and miso sparingly until you figure out how much you like.
In the past I have had many comments from people trying to find these ingredients but if you just go online to the kushi store they have everything and you can be pretty much assured that it is fresh because they go through it pretty quickly.
If your kids don't like tofu (but really any kid I know loves it!) try 'snow dried tofu' or try different brands they all taste different (but it should be organic--soy beans are not good if they are not organic) or use Seitan.
Good things to have in the pantry are:
-shoyu or tamari (tamari is less salty)
-umeboshi plums (I keep them in the fridge)
-kombu seaweed (used for making brown rice or when soaking beans)
-gomasio (homemade is best--you can control the salt and it tastes nuttier if you make it yourself)
-tofu
-gomasio
good luck and happy cooking!
