I love that Kenya’s into eating sandwiches for his school lunch. I also love that figs are in season right now and they are SO naturally sweet and delicious. Figs are really cheap at our local farmers market, so I’ve been buying tons of them to eat and put in recipes throughout the week. I made a huge batch of fig puree for Kenya and Chloe to put on their yogurt and just to eat plain as a snack, but it’s so flavorful I wanted to figure out something else to do with it.

These fig and goat cheese sandwiches are heavenly. The creamy tang of the cheese mixed with the sweet of the figs, all sandwiched between two pieces of whole grain bread, makes for a magical combination and these sandwiches only take minutes to make.

If you were to send your little one off to school with one of these sammies in his lunchbox, I guarantee he’ll be the envy of all the other kids.

Fig and Goat Cheese Grilled Sandwiches (1 Sandwich or 4 Mini Sandwiches)

2-3 Tablespoons Goat Cheese
3 Tbsp Fig Puree
2 Slices of Bread, preferably whole grain
Butter (if desired)

1. Spread one slice of bread with goat cheese.
2. Spread the other slice of bread with fig puree and place the filling sides of the bread together to make a sandwich (lightly spread a bit of butter on the outside of the bread if desired).
3. Heat a panini press or a sauté pan to medium heat.
4. Cook for 3-5 minutes (on both sides if using the sauté pan, flipping half way through) or until the cheese melts.
5. Cool and serve.

It’s amazing how positively kids react when you do something as simple as changing the shape of one of their favorite foods. There’s obviously nothing that needs improving when it comes to a delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwich, BUT try mixing a bit of cream cheese into the jam, spreading it onto a flat piece of lavash, rolling it into a cylinder and then cutting it into wheels, and it becomes a totally new take on a lunchtime classic that’s even more fun to look at and eat!

Peanut Butter and Jelly Pinwheels (Serves 4)

1/4 Cup Regular or Whipped Cream Cheese
2 Tbsp Jam, Jelly or Preserves
1/3 Cup Peanut Butter, divided
Lavash, preferably whole wheat (can be found in the bread section at your grocery)

1. Place the cream cheese and jam in a bowl and combine until smooth.
2. Spread 1/2 of the peanut butter on a piece of lavash and top with 1/2 of the cream cheese/jam mixture.
3. Roll the lavash lengthwise into a roll and slice into bite-size wheels, about 1 inch each.
4. Continue to make the second pinwheel sandwich and slice.
5. Serve.

Every Sunday when I was little, my parents took us to church. After Sunday school the entire congregation would gather for conversation, juice and cookies. Without fail, all the kids would run up to the table to grab handfuls of pre-packaged, jelly-filled thumbprint cookies. But even as a kid that loved sugary sweets, the mere thought of the jelly in those cookies grossed me out. I would scrape the jelly out and throw it away because it tasted more like strawberry glue/gel than the “all natural” preserves advertised on the package.

Wanting to improve on yet another childhood memory that’s still vivid in my mind AND keep with this week’s Peanut Butter and Jelly theme, I came up with these PB&J Thumbprint Cookies. I’ve recreated many of my unhealthy childhood favorites here in the pages of weelicious, only I always try to come up with a healthy version. What strikes me is how easy it is to make healthy desserts your kids will love without sacrificing taste! Instead of the hydrogenated fats and untold amounts of sugar that comprised the cookies I ate as a kid, I added naturally sweet honey, fiber-packed oats, protein-rich peanut butter and then topped them off with fresh preserves for a tasty, real fruit touch.

My kids were so excited when I put the plate of these fresh baked cookies in front of them, but the best part for me was watching Kenya react just like his mommy used to: by digging out the preserves first. The only difference was that he put them right into his mouth!

PB&J Oatmeal Thumbprint Cookies (Makes about 60 cookies)

1/2 Cup Butter (1 Stick), softened
1/2 Cup Agave Nectar OR 1/2 Cup Honey
1 Large Egg

1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Cup Peanut Butter

1 1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour

1 Cup Old Fashioned Oats

1 Tsp Baking Soda

1/2 Tsp Salt
Jam, Jelly or Preserves

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Place the butter and agave (or honey) in a bowl or standing mixer and beat for 1 minute.
3. Add the egg, vanilla and peanut butter and beat another minute on medium speed or until smooth.

4. In a separate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and mix to combine.

5. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix to incorporate.
6. Drop 1 tbsp of the cookie dough onto a silpat or parchment-lined cookie sheet and using your thumb (or index finger if you prefer), make an indentation in the center of each cookie.
7. Fill the indentation of each cookie with about 1/2 teaspoon of jam.
8. Bake for 10-12 minutes.
9. Cool and serve.

We’ve been having a crazy busy summer running around from our house, to camp, to activities all over the city and more. Between work and kids, by the time I get home at the end of the day the last thing I’ve got energy to do is make dinner. Especially when it’s so hot outside.

Thank goodness for the slow cooker (also known as a crock pot)! It really is a mom’s secret weapon in the kitchen. Literally, all I had to do for this recipe was sprinkle a touch of salt and coat the racks of ribs with my favorite barbeque sauce at 8am, and by 5pm me and my two little munchkins were nibbling away on the most tender, meat-falling-off-the-bone barbeque baby back ribs you’ve ever tasted. The best part is, no matter how hot it is this summer, you won’t even break a sweat making these!

Slow Cooker Ribs (Serves 4)

1 – 3-4 Lb. Country Style Pork Ribs, also known as Baby Back RIbs (about 2 racks)
1 Tsp Salt
1 Cup BBQ Sauce plus additional for serving (my favorite is Smokin Willie’s)

1. Place ribs in a crock pot and sprinkle both sides with salt.
2. Pour BBQ sauce over the ribs and coat the ribs WELL with the sauce.
3. Cover the slow cooker (aka crock pot) and cook on low heat for 8-10 hours.
4. Baste with BBQ sauce if desired and serve.

The tips in this video will make preparing these Carrot Snack Sticks a total breeze even if you have no idea how to cook!

We used this to make this recipe:

Microplane Medium Ribbon Home Series Grater

Steamed Zucchini? Boring! Fried Zucchini? Unhealthy! Baked Zucchini Coins? Crunchy and delicious!

There’s nothing more frustrating for moms than when they find themselves making something different for each member of the family. I call it “short order cook syndrome” and one of our goals at weelicious is to help you avoid falling victim to it. I know that when I’m in the kitchen cooking for hours and making multiple meals, it makes me super grouchy, so preparing recipes that I know everyone under my roof will love is paramount.

Kenya and Chloe are big fans of Chicken Pesto Tenders, Wee Nuggets and Chicken on a Stick, but since I’m always on the hunt for new ideas I switched things up and tried rolling pieces of chicken in sesame seeds and then cooking them for a few minutes on each side. Sesame seeds are a great source of magnesium, copper, zinc and calcium and also have a nutty taste, especially when toasted. This dish was a big hit with my gang so I wanted to tell you about it immediately — kid friendly, but also delicious for mommies and daddies.

Isn’t life is so much easier when you can cook one thing for the whole family (and have them all be happy)?!

Sesame Chicken Tenders (Serves 4)

1 Lb Chicken Tenders, cleaned, rinsed & dried
1 Tsp Salt
1/2 Cup Sesame Seeds, untoasted
1 Tbsp Oil

1. Lightly season all of the tenders with salt.
2. Pour sesame seeds into a bowl and coat each tender evenly with the seeds.
3. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a saute pan over medium heat and cook each coated tender for 3-4 minutes on each side or until golden.
4. Serve with Dipping Sauce.

My kids love fruit leather, but sometimes it takes more like plastic to me then sweet fruity leather. This Strawberr-Wee Fruit Leather couldn’t be any easier to make and it’s the perfect use for summer strawberries!

Lucky me that I have a cousin with two growing boys who loves to cook and feed her kids healthy foods. She makes a version of this recipe in a pie dish and has been trying to convince me that her boys absolutely devour it whenever she makes it for them. Although I sometimes find statements like that hard to believe when we’re talking about green foods and highly independent little boys, I’m always game for recipes that defy the odds.

I decided to take my cousin’s original recipe, make a few tweaks to the ingredients and then cook them in mini muffin cups instead of a pie dish, because it cooks faster (and after all, what kid doesn’t like something mini?). As for my my initial doubts about the kid appeal of this recipe, after watching Kenya repeatedly walk by the cooling rack to grab three of them within 15 minutes and Chloe scarfing down four at dinner, I realized these could be one of the all time greatest kid and parent friendly recipes I’ve ever made. Delicious, healthy and SO easy to make. My cousin gets total props for this kiddy culinary hit!

Spinach Ricotta Bites (Makes 20 Bites)

2 Tbsp Butter
1 Small Yellow Onion, chopped
1 Garlic Clove, minced
2 Large Eggs, Beaten
1 Cup Ricotta Cheese (low or full fat ricotta will work)
1/2 Cup Mozzarella Cheese, shredded
1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese, Grated
1 10 Oz Pkg Frozen Chopped Spinach, defrosted and drained WELL (I use my hands to squeeze as much liquid out of the spinach as possible)
1/4 Tsp Salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Melt the butter in a sauté pan over medium heat and cook the onions for 4 minutes until tender.
3. Add the garlic and cook an additional minute then set aside to cool.
4. Whisk eggs in a bowl and stir in ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan cheeses.
5. Once combined, stir in spinach, salt and cooled onion and garlic mixture.
6. Pour the mixture into lightly greased mini muffin cups.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the filling is set and golden on top.
8. Serve.

It’s not that I can’t wedge a slice of pizza into Kenya’s LapTop Lunch Box, it’s just that it can be a bit of a challenge. When kids open their school lunch, the first thing they’ll likely judge their food on is it’s appearance, so a piece of pizza that’s been smashed to fit in the box, doesn’t seem like the easiest sell — no matter how much they love it. That was part of the reason that I came up with these Pizza Pinwheels. If you tune in to weelicious enough, you know that we make a lot of pizza in our house and coming up with new recipes for how to present it besides the everyday slice with tomato and cheese is part of the fun for me. These pinwheels are really like a pizza “sandwich” because the filling is savory, kind of like a ham and cheese sandwich, but much cooler looking. They almost dare you not to eat them. It’s also a versatile recipe in that you can substitute your fillings to fit your mood. Whether you decide to replace the ham with turkey or chicken or even go with just traditional red sauce and cheese, these Pizza Pinwheels will have your kids coming home from school asking for more!
*If you decide to buy a LapTop Lunch Box, put the word ‘weelicious’ into the code and get 10%off!

Pizza Pinwheels (Makes 35 Pinwheels)

1 16 oz Pkg. Ready Made White or Wheat Pizza Dough *Let dough come to room temperature before you roll it out.
2 Tbsp Dijon or Yellow Mustard
1 Cup OR 8 Slices of Ham, without the rind, chopped fine
1 Cup Mozzarella or Cheddar, shredded

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees
2. Roll out pizza dough until 1/4 inch thick and the shape of a large rectangle (about 18 x 12 inches).
3. Evenly spread 2 tbsp of mustard on the dough.
4. Sprinkle the ham and cheese on top of the dough.
5. Starting with end nearest you (the long end of the rectangle), roll the dough away from you, creating an even cylinder as you go (similar to a jelly roll).
6. Lightly sprinkle some flour on top of the roll (so it’s easier to cut) and using a serrated knife, cut the roll into 1/2 inch discs (pinwheels).
7. Place pinwheels on a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet and lightly press them with the palm of your hand to slightly flatten and bake for 12-15 minutes.
8. Serve.

*After rolling up the dough, cut the roll in half and freeze for later. When you are ready just take it out and let it thaw to room temperature then cut them into pinwheels and follow the steps 7-8. Or you can just cut the entire roll in pinwheels and place some pinwheels on a baking sheet, freeze for 30 minutes then place them in a ziploc bag, label and freeze. But be sure to always let the pinwheels come to room temperature then bake.