There are a few things that we have to have in our kitchen at all times.  Certain food stuffs that this family can not live without.

Most of them are pretty common…apples, Weight Watchers Giant Ice Cream Fudge Bars, eggs, potato bread, Kraft singles, bananas, celery, La Tortilla Low Carb Tortillas, greek yogurt and without a doubt we must always have at least two if not three (or more) bags of frozen edamame in the freezer.

It’s one of the few vegetables that the boy will eat, and it’s one of my all time favorite snacks.It’s a veggie…it’s a protein…it’s a super-food! Plus it’s fun to pop them in your mouth. Cooking them is as easy as putting them in a microwave safe bowl with a few tablespoons of water and steaming for about 3 minutes. You can also find some brands that come in an easy steam-in-bag and it truly does not get any more Real Mom easy than that.

I especially like this brand that comes in these handy individual serving steam packs. So far I have only been able to find these at Walmart and I go there only when it’s absolutely necessary. Like when someone is holding a gun to my head. Or when the hubs is harping on me to stay out of Target. (Because we all know it’s physically impossible to even walk-through Target without somehow spending at least an extra $50)

Edamame is the great equalizer at my house. At some meals it’s the only food that all three of us will have on our plates that are the same. I know…I make alot of extra work for myself. But when you have a meat and potatos man, a non-red meat eating mom and a picky four year old in one house you do what you have to do to keep the peace.

The hubs and I had to hit the local warehouse club this week for our monthly grocery/diaper/formula shopping. We almost always stick to our list these days when we grocery shop now that the girl is here…but we do always take a few minutes to look through the book section for interesting things for the boy. We don’t always let him get a toy but we do always let him have a book if he asks for it..and usually even if he doesn’t.

This week we bought him another Spongebob book that I wasn’t really too happy about it until he sat down and nearly read me the whole thing by himself. Yes! My book plan is working! And we found this cool little cookbook set that has already paid for itself in ‘quality boy and mommy time’.

We didn’t get a chance to use it yesterday after shopping, so the boy did the next best thing. We played ‘the rainbow cup game’ with the cute silicone cups for about 2 hours.  A few hours after I found them on the entertainment center and then later again on my nightstand. At this point even if we don’t ever cook with them they are getting more play time than most of his toys.

We decided to try the Rice Cup Recipe first. Well, I decided. The boy wanted to make the brownies, natch.

It was so simple and should have only taken about 30 minutes including cooking time, but since I was doing it with a four year old…it took a bit longer.

Ingredients per cup:

2 Tablespoons rice

1/4 cup water (or chicken stock)

Directions:

350 degrees for 20 minutes

This is the only rice I had in the house so we made due. In the book the picture shows plain white rice which of course ends up being sticky and looks cute when you turn the cup out on a plate. I was concerned ours might not hold it’s shape, but it did ok.

The boy did not want his work photographed.

Just out of the oven. Had to cook for 35 minutes instead of 20. Probably because this is pilaf.

And here’s what it looked like on the plate:

And here’s what we did while waiting on the rice to cook. We made a pretend solar system in a big pot with our red measuring bowls. Yeah solar system book!

The sweet baby foot on the left belongs to the girl. She just watched and made funny noises the entire hour.

These cups will get used in our house alot. Not only does the boy love anything he made and that comes in a cool shape on his plate, the cups are perfect for calorie and portion control. I’m going to try making some South Beach recipes in these this week too. Egg muffins and turkey meatloaf will cook beautifully in these cool cups. The even work in the microwave for a quick egg in the am.

Highly recommended product.