As many of you know, we’re big on dips in our house. I find that if you put out a big platter of veggies next to a yummy dip for plunging into, the variety of vegetables you can get into kids’ little bodies increases by….well, a lot! Case in point was the day that I made this Avocado Honey Dip. Chloe had just woken up from her nap and was sitting with me at the kitchen counter while I was concocting this creamy spread. She asked if she could try some, so I made her a little plate with baby carrots, sugar snap peas and pretzels. Chloe dipped a few times and then, in the time that it took me to turn around to grab something and turn back, she had her little arm wrapped around the mixing bowl and the spatula I had used to stir it in her mouth. Eventually I surrendered and let her finish it all.

There’s nothing worse than sending your child to school with a lunch box packed full of fresh veggies only to have them come back home exactly the way you sent them: uneaten. My advice? Add some of this dip and see if it adds to your kid’s fun of wanting to munch and crunch on the good stuff that goes with it!

Avocado Honey Dip (makes 1 cup)

1 Avocado, peeled and pitted
1/4 Cup Whipped Cream Cheese
1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1 Tbsp Honey

1. Place all of the ingredients in a bowl and mash together.
2. Serve with cut up veggies, crackers, pretzels or even as a spread on toast.

I was scouring some of my cookbooks recently trying to find a peanut butter and jelly popsicle. Oh yeah, I said it PB & J pop. Nothing. Ziltch. How was that possible. Ok, maybe there’s one out there, but I didn’t find it and I couldn’t get the thought of making them out of my head.

Cut to me finding a box of 100 Dixie cups in the bathroom cabinet that day. When did I buy these? They must have been there for over a year, but I not a single one had been used. Ahh ha.. I could make the PB & J popsicles in them!

I headed down to the kitchen mixing a little of this and a little of that until I came up with what seemed like the perfect mixture and began layering and then freezing the popsicles.

Cut to Kenya opening the freezer when I was looking an hour later and accidentally dumping the tray of cups over and watching my little experiment poured all of the freezer (if you’ve ever tried cleaning peanut butter out of a freezer I’m sure you can imagine this wasn’t a ton of fun). But after we made another batch and let them freeze (check out the image at the end of this post) you had two kids (and a mom) who happily devoured a batch of PB & J pops loving every last bite.

PB & J Pops (Makes 4 pops)

1/2 Cup Peanut Butter, smooth
2 Tbsp Honey
1 Cup Milk, divided (any type of milk will work)
1/2 Cup Your Favorite Fruit Preserves (I used Raspberry)

1. Combine the peanut butter, honey and 1/2 cup of milk in a bowl and whisk until smooth.
2. Whisk the preserves and the remaining milk in a separate bowl to combine.
3. Pour both mixtures into 2 separate liquid measuring cups for easy pouring.
4. Pour 2 tbsp of the peanut butter mixture into each Dixie cup, followed by 3 tbsp of the fruit preserves mixture.
5. Freeze for 30 minutes.
6. Pour the remaining peanut butter mixture on top. Pok a popsicle stick in the middle of the cups.
7. Freeze for at least 6 hours or more.
8. Serve.

Don’t rub your eyes when you look at the dish pictured above. That is in fact calamari you see and yes, it’s here on weelicious. Now you’re probably thinking:

a. What IS calamari? (Answer: squid.)
b. How the heck do I cook it? (Answer: it’s one of the easier types of fish to prepare.)
c. There’s NO way my kid will ever eat it. (Answer: Don’t be too sure about that.)

Trust me, the recipes that show up on weelicious are never some type of challenge that I offer parents to try and get kids to eat a host of foods they’re never going to enjoy. Quite the opposite, in fact. I have a 2 year old who constantly surprises me with her love of the most unexpected dishes to prove it. The first time Chloe tried calamari we were at one of our favorite Italian restaurants. I had ordered the grilled calamari and she scarfed every last piece of it off of my plate. Minutes after it was all gone she was screaming at the top of her lungs, “MORE CALAMARI!!! “The people at the table next to us looked over as if we were C-R-A-Z-Y! We now hear this familiar refrain from Chloe almost every time we are at a restaurant (whether they serve calamari or not!). Her demands for it became so frequent, I started making it at home and you’d be amazed by how quickly this child can put it away.

To remind you again, we’re talking here about calamari, not chocolate cake or vanilla ice cream, but they way my whole family enjoys it now, you’d think I was offering dessert.

If you’ve never tried calamari before, it’s time to give it a try because this unbelievably easy-to-make recipe is packed with protein and flavor, is inexpensive and unbelievably scrumptious no matter how old you are!

Calamari Rings (Serves 2-3)

1 Lb Calamari
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Garlic Clove, minced
1/4 Cup Sherry Wine
1/2 Tsp Kosher Salt
1 Tbsp Lemon Juice

1. Rinse, drain and pat calamari dry.
2. Cut calamari into rings and pat dry again with a paper towel to remove as much excess liquid as possible.
3. Heat a large skillet over high heat, add 2 tbsp of oil and immediately add the calamari rings sautéing for 2 minutes.
4. Remove calamari to a bowl.
5. Add the minced garlic, sherry wine, salt and lemon juice to the same skillet over high heat and allow to boil for 1 minute.
5. Add the calamari back into the sherry lemon sauce to heat through for 20 seconds.
6. Serve.

With school and busy schedules revving up again, the need for fast dinners that you can pull off AND everyone will love is even greater. I get tons of requests for recipes from readers every week — both here on weelicious and on Facebook — but for some reason, one that I’ve been getting a lot of demand for lately is chicken paprikash.

Often you’ll find recipes for this classic Hungarian dish swimming in a heavy cream sauce, but by adding just a little more sherry wine than most recipes normally call for and then boiling it down until the sauce starts to thicken, a dollop of sour cream is all you need to make a healthier version that is just as luscious as what you remember tasting as a kid. And while this dish may seem too fancy to be fast and easy, trust me, it is.

Chicken Paprikash (Serves 4)

1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Small Onion, diced
2 Cups Mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 Small Garlic Clove, minced
1 Tsp Paprika Powder
1 Tsp Kosher Salt
1 Lb Chicken Breast or Tenders, rinsed & cubed into bite-size pieces
3/4 Cup Sherry Wine
3/4 Cup Water
1/4 Cup Sour Cream*

1. Heat oil in a medium size sauté pan over medium heat and sauté onions for 3 minutes. Add the mushroom, garlic, paprika and salt, and continue to sauté for 3 more minutes.
2. Add the cubed chicken and cook for 1 minute, stirring occasionally.
3. Add the sherry and water. Bring liquid to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes until the liquid has reduced by half.
4. Turn heat off, add the sour cream and stir to combine.
5. Serve over pasta or rice.

* You can also use low fat sour cream

From the name alone this seems like an unbelievably simple salad to make. And you know what? It is!

Tired of serving a plain steamed green veggie every night, I decided to jazz up some broccoli with a bit of added color, texture and a sweet sauce. At first I wondered if the kids would just eat the edamame, almonds and cranberries and avoid the broccoli, but they ate every bite and ended up asking for seconds.

I usually have all of the ingredients to make this dish on hand as they’re some of my staples. If you don’t have them, they’re worth picking up for whenever you want to enjoy this easy, yet impressive combination. Since you get a protein, a vegetable and a fruit, it’s like a healthy trifecta!

Broccoli Salad (Serves 4)

1 Tbsp Honey
2 Tbsp Mayonnaise
1/2 Tsp Kosher Salt
2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
4 Cups Broccoli Florets, steamed
1/2 Cup Dried Cranberries
1 Cup Frozen Edamame, defrosted
1/4 Cup Toasted Almonds, sliced or slivered

1. Place the honey, mayonnaise, salt, and vinegar in a large bowl and whisk to combine.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and toss to coat with dressing.
3. Serve.

Somehow Kenya ended up “helping” me buy way more ears of corn at the farmers’ market last weekend than we could possibly eat in 7 days. It’s amazing how quickly the items in our cart can grow when my two little helpers get extra excited about what’s at the market. Between all that extra sweet corn and the ready-to-be-picked red bell peppers and parsley in our garden, I decided to make this salad. It’s bright in color and has a ton of texture, so it’s as visually beautiful as it is delicious.

This salad just says summer to me, so the time to make some is now!

Grilled Corn & Red Pepper Salad (Serves 4)

4 Ears of Corn
2 Large Red Peppers, seeds removed and cut into quarters
1/4 Cup Red Onion, diced
1/2 Tsp Paprika
1/2 Tsp Kosher Salt
2 Tbsp Fresh Parsley, chopped
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
Juice of 1 Lemon
1 Cup Mozzarella Balls, cut into quarters

1. Preheat grill.
2. Grill corn and peppers for 6 minutes and set aside to cool.*
3. Remove the corn kernels from the cobs and dice the red peppers.
4. Place the corn and peppers in a bowl with the remaining ingredients and combine.
5. Serve.

*You can remove the skin of the red peppers if they are charred.

There is the sweetest, homemade sno-cone stand at our farmers’ market called Sno-con AMOR where the owner (and Kenya’s newest love), Lauda, serves up the most incredible traditional Raspados (Mexican Snow Cones). With homemade syrups in flavors like walnut, coconut and mojito (I almost want to drop to the ground with embarrassment every time Chloe screams, “MORE MOJITO” in a crowd full of parents), these are nothing like the artificially sweetened and colored sno-cones you may be used to seeing. Lauda uses only the freshest, all natural ingredients to produce her frozen works of art.

Recently Lauda has been featuring watermelon-cinnamon as a flavor and it is heavenly. The first time she offered me a taste I was skeptical. Cinnamon and watermelon sounded like quite an unusual combo, but it took just one bite and I was knocked out. So knocked out in fact, that I had to replicate it at home. Given that the kids only see Lauda on Sunday, having granita (very similar to sno-cones) for them at home the remaining six days of the week made me very popular with them indeed.

And no, your eyes aren’t fooling you. That’s yellow watermelon pictured above. The kids can’t get enough of it when it is in season, so I used it to make this cinnamon spiked watermelon granita that tastes almost as good as Lauda’s sno-cones.

Whether you decide to make this with red or yellow watermelon, it’s a super sweet summer time treat that’s filled with AMOR!

Watermelon Granita (Serves 6-8)

5 Cups Watermelon Chunks
1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/3 Cup Sugar

1. Place all of the ingredients in a blender and puree.
2. Place the puree in an 8×8 inch Pyrex dish and put in the freezer for 1 hour.
3. Remove from the freezer and scrape with a fork to break up pieces.
4. Place back into freezer for 1 hour.
5. Remove from the freezer and scrape with a fork to break up pieces.
6. Repeat this process one or two more times over several hours until the
granita is similar in consistency to shaved ice.
7. Serve (cover the dish with tin foil to keep the rest in the freezer).

Every Sunday, our first order of business at the farmers’ market is to go see Marilyn and Eileen, known to us (and pretty much everyone else who loves them) as the “fish ladies”. The fish ladies seem to sell every variety of the freshest seafood under the sun, and while we always try to sample a wide array of the fish they bring, from jumbo shrimp to calamari to red snapper, our most frequent pick is their exquisite wild salmon.

I vary the preparation of my salmon from time to time, but this one is by far the most popular with my kids. It features tons of olives (Chloe’s favorite) and a yogurt dip on the side which Kenya has been known to drink straight from the bowl.

This recipe may look like a very adult way to prepare this omega-3 packed fish, but it’s actually quite simple and packed with flavors that will appeal to everyone in your house.

Roast Mediterranean Salmon (Serves 4)

1 1/2 lb. Salmon Fillets
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1/4 Tsp Kosher Salt
1/4 Cup Kalamata Olives, sliced
1/2 Cup Fennel Bulb, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp Fresh Dill, chopped
1 Small Onion, thinly sliced
1 Lemon, thinly sliced

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.
2. Place salmon skin-side down on a greased, foil lined baking sheet.
3. Brush each salmon fillet with olive oil and evenly top with the salt, olives, fennel, dill, onion and lemon slices.
4. Roast for 15 minutes.
5. Serve with sauce.

Lemon & Dill Dipping Sauce (makes 1/2 cup)

1/2 Cup Plain Greek Yogurt
Juice of 1/2 a Lemon
2 Tsp Fresh Dill or 1 Tsp Dried Dill
Pinch of Salt

1. Place all the ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine.
2. Serve.

My husband is an incredible storyteller. He comes up with the most elaborate, entertaining tales that would keep even the most fidgety kid engaged. Every night, we take turns telling the kids bedtime stories. While hubby comes up with these super creative tales that have a lesson or moral woven in to boot, my stories are generally straightforward travelogues along the lines of “Mommy and Kenya Go to Paris” (you think I’ve been reading too much Madeline?). In my stories, Kenya and I roam around far flung locations like Paris, looking at the Eiffel Tour, touring Notre Dame and eating everything from croissants to crepes. Of course food gets more detail than anything else in my stories, and so Kenya usually asks if we can make the things I talk about so fondly.

Last week we had a crepe making extravaganza, preparing them three mornings in a row. Crepes are so easy to make and the kids love being surprised by the different fillings I offer them. In my Paris story, I talk about eating banana filled crepes with Nutella, but instead of buying a jar of the famous hazelnut-chocolate spread they use in France, we decided to make our own homemade version.

Whether you decide to spread this insanely delicious and addictive treat on Graham crackers, strawberries, crepes or even, I dare say, eat it right off the spoon, this version of homemade nutella will make you feel like you are on vacation in France. And chocolate for breakfast? That’ll keep your kids more engaged than the best story!

Chocolate Hazelnut Spread (makes 1 1/4 cups)

1 Cup Hazelnuts
1/4 Cup Agave or Honey
2 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
3 Tbsp Hot Water

1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
2. Place hazelnuts on a baking sheet and toast for 15 minutes.
3. Remove hazelnuts to a kitchen towel, cover and rub to remove the hazelnut skins.
4. Place hazelnuts in a food processor and chop for 30 seconds.
5. Add the remaining ingredients and puree.
6. Serve with crepes or as a dip for fruit.

For me, one of the great sites and smells of summer is a big basket of fresh peaches. We love eating them so much in my house that I tend to go a bit overboard at the farmers’ market every Sunday and buy way more than we could possibly eat in a week. As the days go by, some get bruises while others become uber soft and juicy. Unless you want to eat peaches for every meal there’s nothing you can really do with them except….make fruit leather! If you think my kids like eating peaches, you should just see how excited they get for this homemade fruit leather. They go through it so quickly I tend to make about three batches a week, but one of the great things about this recipe is that it stays good for weeks, if not longer.

Got a little over zealous like me at the market and now you’re sitting with several pounds of super ripe stone fruit — and no where near enough time to eat them before they spoil? Peach fruit leather is your answer!

Peach Fruit Leather

4 Ripe Peaches (skin on)
1 Tbsp Honey

1. Preheat oven to 225 F degrees.*
2. Rinse and remove seeds from peaches.
3. Place the peaches and honey in a blender and puree until smooth.
4. Pour the mixture onto a parchment lined baking sheet and spread with the back of a spoon or spatula in a large rectangle (my rectangle was 11 x 15 inches) making sure that the thickness is completely even.
5. Bake for 3-4 hours or until dry and not sticky to the touch. Remember, cooking times will vary depending on how thick you spread your mixture and how much water (juice) is naturally in the fruit.**
6. Set aside and cool at room temperature; it takes several hours for the fruit to soften up. Note that when you first take the fruit leather out of the oven, the edges will be a bit dry and crispy, but if you allow it to sit out for several hours it softens up nicely.
7. Cut with a knife, pizza cutter or scissors into strips, keeping the paper on if desired, then roll the leather into “roll ups”.
8. Serve.

* If you choose to use a dehydrator, cook the fruit leather at 135 degrees for 5 hours.
** Every oven is different, so the cooking time maybe less than 2 hours if your oven tends to run hot.