For all you Scramblers who celebrate Passover, we know the upcoming holiday can have its dietary challenges.  With the need to refrain from eating chometz, we often hear the complaint, “My family is so tired of matzo and leftovers from the seder.  Help!  Can you suggest some easy, kid-friendly dishes for the week of Passover?”  Well, the Scramble is here to help.  Below, we have some “beyond matzo” suggestions for main dishes and sides to help you get through the Passover holiday!  (All of the recipes below are available to subscribers on The Six O’Clock Scramble website.)

-Baked Halibut with Pesto with Ambrosia fruit salad

-Three Pepper Flank Steak with Red Onions with steamed broccoli and baked potatoes

-Baked Apricot Chicken with Quinoa (which is kosher for Passover) and baby carrots with dip

-French Riviera Salad (without the peas) with Dr. Pragers potato pancakes

-Matzo Ball Soup with a spinach salad with diced oranges and sliced red onion

Menu designed by Six O’Clock Scramble customer service Goddess, Betsy Goldstein

I don’t mean to mislead you with the headline above.  Andrew and I have been happily married for nearly 15 years.  But these days Andrew works in NY all week, leaving the kids and me to eat dinner without him.  In a few months Andrew will be back in town all week, but in the meantime I have a small window to see what many single parents go through at dinner time.  Here’s what I notice about dinner in Andrew’s absence:

• I’m not as drawn to some of the more creative recipes I usually make.  Knowing that I’m just cooking for the kids and me, I’ve mainstreamed our dinners a little more and am less inclined to make a dish that I’m skeptical that the kids will enjoy.  When Andrew’s here, I can be pretty certain that at least two of us will enjoy creative cuisine.  But I am pushing myself to intersperse more exotic dishes into our meal to keep the kids trying new flavors. 
• We have so many more leftovers.  Andrew’s got a big appetite and it’s not uncommon for a dinner that serves 8 to be polished off by 7.  Without Andrew here, we often have half the dish or more leftover.  I’ve compensated by eating more leftovers for lunch, freezing half of some meals, and recycling the food into future meals during the week. 
• I’m tired of cooking and cleaning!  I hadn’t even realized what a big help Andrew is after dinner.  This is giving me the much-needed incentive to get our kids to help me cook and clean up more after dinner. 
• I appreciate my weekly plans and grocery lists more than ever.  Life is even busier without Andrew around, so I don’t have time for extra stops during the week.  Staying organized, especially with food, is helping me keep my sanity. 

You single parents who try to get healthy homemade dinners on the table most nights, as well as take care of all the other tasks of daily life without an adult partner, have my deepest admiration.  I hope The Scramble’s weekly dinner plans and grocery lists make your lives and your dinners a little easier. 

Following the example of the First Family, Celia, Solomon and I are going to the garden store to buy herb and vegetable seedlings to plant in containers on our deck.  We may get brave and plant in a little plot in our backyard for the first time.  In addition to a variety of herbs, I think we’re going to plant cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and bell peppers.  We’re real rookies, so please let me know if you have any advice!

http://www.thegreenparent.com/2009/03/23/march-madness-scrambling-to-find-kid-friendly-vegetarian-meals/

(exclusive post by scramble son, Solomon, writing as Aviva)

Tonight i made this great, very lemony chicken. It was tender and pleasing to the taste buds. My kids cleaned their plates!

btw: Guess which food category (grains, dairy, fruits, ect.) eggs go under? Meats and beans, as i just found out. Who knew?

A subscriber had a question about this week’s Sabra coupon (save $1.50 on Sabra hummus in Vol. 284).  She was hesitant to print the coupon for fear that she would be automatically added to Sabra’s mailing list.  This didn’t sound right to me, so I checked with Sabra and their answer is no–but if you want to, you can sign up for their mailiing list on their fan site.  You can also follow sabra on Twitter @sabrahummus.

While I am pretty sure there is not a gene for salad-making, my sister and I both inherited the ability to make great salads from my mom.  Sometimes our salads are a meal—a hearty lunchtime or dinner salad with chicken, hard-boiled egg or beans, for example—though usually they’re just a great side dish for a healthy and delicious dinner.  Whether passed down by nature or nurture, here’s our basic technique:

• The key is to start with the freshest looking lettuce—I lean toward romaine, Boston or Bibb lettuces or baby spinach.  I wash it very well (few things are as icky as gritty salad), tear it into bite-sized pieces, and use a salad spinner to dry it completely.

• Our favorite trick is to include lots of goodies in the salad.  My preferred combinations usually involve fresh or dried fruit, nuts, beans or chopped hard-boiled egg, and cheese.  (I often follow this guideline:  A fruit, a nut, and a cheese.)  Sometimes I also include diced or small vegetables, such as bell peppers, tomatoes, corn kernels or peas.  In the warmer months, a handful of fresh herbs are a wonderful addition. 

• For fruits, I lean toward oranges, apples, pears, dried cranberries, strawberries, halved grapes and avocado—I’ve even been known to use blueberries.  For nuts, I prefer walnuts (glazed or plain), pecans, pistachios or pine nuts.  For cheese, I like Parmesan, feta, Gorgonzola, blue or goat cheese.  It’s cheaper to crumble the cheese myself, but if I know that time will be tight I buy cheeses already crumbled at the supermarket.  For softer additions, such as avocado and goat cheese, I add them after tossing the salad so they don’t get squished at the bottom of the bowl. 

• Finally, we use just a little bit of high-quality dressing, store-bought or homemade (a simple combination of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and Dijon or honey-Dijon mustard works well) and toss the salad thoroughly just before serving it.  You don’t need much dressing, because the array of ingredients gives the salad lots of flavor. 

Do you have a favorite salad dressing or combination that I should try?  Please let me know by sharing it on the Scramblog or Facebook.    

St. Patrick’s Day Special:  Sweet Glazed Corned Beef and Cabbage

Prep (10 minutes) + Cook (3 1/2 hours!)

8 servings

In your supermarket this week, you may notice packages of corned beef down the aisle from the green beer and shamrock cookies.  Corned beef, or cured brisket, is often part of meals celebrating this Irish holiday.  This recipe, from my mother-in-law Barbara Goldfarb, makes an irresistible family meal.  It’s easy to make, but cooks slowly, so it’s best reserved for a non-Scrambling evening—or leave all the work to your slow-cooker!  By the way, this is higher in fat and sodium than the usual Scramble fare, so best to make it an annual indulgence.  Serve it with spicy or grainy mustard, and boiled new or red potatoes.  Wash it down with green beer or milk! 

1 corned beef or brisket (3 - 4 lbs.)

1/2 yellow or white onion (slice the onion thinly crosswise and use 3 of the slices)

1 bay leaf

1 stalk celery, sliced

4 – 6 cups shredded green cabbage (optional)

5 Tbsp. ketchup

1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard

3 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 Tbsp. butter or margarine

Put the beef into a Dutch oven or other large pot and cover it with cold water, with about 2 inches of water over the meat.  Bring it to a boil over medium-high heat.  Add the onions, bay leaf and celery to the water, and simmer it gently, partially covered, for 2 1/2 – 3 hours, until the beef is tender (it will pull apart easily). The meat will SHRINK.  Check the water level periodically, and If you need to, add boiling water to keep the meat covered.   

After about 2 hours and 15 minutes, add the cabbage to the pot with the meat, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Combine the ketchup, mustard, vinegar, sugar and butter or margarine in a small saucepan and bring it to a boil.  Simmer it for 1-2 minutes, and then remove it from the heat.  (Meanwhile, start the potatoes.) 

Drain the meat and vegetables and return them to the pot.  Spoon the ketchup mixture evenly over the meat and bake it for about 10 minutes, until the edges turn brown.  Slice the meat across the grain into thin slices and serve it with the vegetables in the pot. 

Scramble Flavor Booster: Serve it with creamy horseradish sauce or spicy mustard. 

Slow Cooker directions:  On the bottom of the slow cooker, place 8 small red potatoes (and a bag of baby carrots, if desired).  Place the corned beef on top with the onion slices, cabbage and bay leaf.  Cover with water as above and cook on High 6 hours or Low 10-12 hours.  Remove the corned beef from the crock pot and put it in a baking pan.  Finish it as above.

Side Dish suggestion:  To make boiled new or red potatoes, in a medium pot, cover 1 – 2 lbs. new or red potatoes with water, add about 1/2 tsp. salt, and bring the water to a boil, reducing the heat to a gentle boil.  Boil the potatoes until they are fork tender, about 10 - 15 minutes, and drain them.  Toss them immediately with 1 Tbsp. of olive oil or butter, 1/8 tsp. garlic powder, and 1/4 tsp. lemon pepper seasoning.

Nutritional Information per serving (% based upon daily values):

Calories 400, Total Fat  27g, 42%, Saturated Fat 9g, 45%, Cholesterol 95mg, 32%, Sodium 2240mg, 93%, Total Carbohydrate 12g, 4%, Dietary Fiber 1g, 4%, Sugar 12g, Protein 26g

Environmental Working Group has released it’s updated Shopper’s Guide to Pesticide, which you can download here. 

The list can help you decide which fruits and vegetables are worth buying organic, if you have to choose.  For the full list of all 47 fruits and vegetables tested, click here.