PICKY, PICKY, PICKY

How many of you cook at home?  As a stay at home mom, I'm the primary cook in our household.  I've been married for 9 years and have a 5 year old son and a 2 year old daughter.  Our family is complete.  I wasn't much of a cook when my husband and I got married.  We spent a lot of our first year or two eating out.  Along the way, I've learned a thing or two.  I'm not the best cook, but I think I could manage an award for most improved.  I love to bake and am a better baker then cook but my husband doesn't often get in the moods for sweets!  From my sweet tooth perspective, it's hard for me to even imagine!

If you have a sweet tooth like me, try this recipe here for these yummy looking banana caramel cupcakes pictured below!

Anyway, I sometimes find cooking a meal in our household frustrating.  My husband is a picky eater.... He hates tomatoes and doesn't like a lot of vegetables.  That limits a lot of easy meals!  And if any of you have children, you know how picky they can be from time to time.  I myself, am not a picky eater.  I like most foods.  Cooking in my house is definitely a challenge.

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One of our favorite meals that we can all agree on, are TACOS!  Luckily we all love tacos in one form of another and that's an easy but delicious meal to make!

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We also do indulge a little bit with takeout.  We have a family tradition of PIZZA FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT every Friday.  We usually pickup a couple of pizzas at a local pizza place or sometimes make them at home.  We get to eat dinner in the living room (which is not something we normally do) and watch a movie perfect for our little ones! Pizza isnt always the healthiest option but we've really enjoyed having a consistent family tradition each week that are our 5 year old son really looks forward too!

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Do any of you deal with picky eaters or limited skills in the kitchen?  I'd love to hear any of your go to recipes or personal favorites?  Or tips with how to cook for picky people!?  Or maybe you have some fun family traditions you either grew up with or are incorporating into your family now?  I'd love to hear!

Radicchio Pizza with White Truffle Oil

This is what I had for dinner, so yummy and good for you.  I've been eating more brown rice with my meals.  Trying to get a good amount of grains in my diet.  Alicia Silverstone, in her book The Kind Diet, suggests brown rice as a good and easy way to get grains.  I also just picked up some pearled barley which is a great grain as well.  I'm interested to give that a shot.  Hopefully it's good! The rice is just paired with my sauteed veggie mix of zucchini, green pepper, and I added a few sauteed onions too after this photo, simple but delicious!

I also recently made The Kind Diet's  

Radicchio Pizza with Truffle Oil

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Above is a picture of Alicia's, which looked so yummy, I had to give it a try!  Here is the recipe:

  

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Total time: 30 minutes

Servings: 2

• 1 large head radicchio
• 1 tbsp. of olive oil
• 1 pinch of fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 tsp. of White truffle oil, to taste
• 1 fresh pizza crust (preferably a healthy, whole grain one)

Steps

1. Cut the radicchio in half, then slice each half crosswise into thin ribbons (as thin as possible).
2. Dress with olive oil, salt, pepper, and a few dashes of white truffle oil to taste.
3. Preheat the oven to 415 degrees Fahrenheit.
4. Toast the pizza crust in the oven for 7 minutes, or until it is heated through and slightly golden, but not crunchy.
5. Scatter the dressed radicchio over the pizza crust and return to the oven for another 3-5 minutes, until the radicchio is warm and just starting to wilt.
6. Serve immediately.

I had actually never heard of a radicchio before, have any of you??  

This is what it looks like:

I ended up buying two because I thought they looked rather small.  I only needed about 1 and 1/2 though.

Aren't they sorta of pretty after being cut open?

 It took me a while to find a whole grain crust.  I finally found a good spelt one! 

The pizza was so easy to put together.  That's my type of recipe!  How about you?

I was a bit worried though, about how flavorful this pizza would be so I added some red onions to top it off.  

This is the first time I've ever used white truffle oil.  I was very excited to try it because I've heard how tasty it makes everything.  To be honest though, the flavoring of it was not all that good!  It made the radicchio taste funny to me and my husband.  Maybe I put too much on?  It didn't seem like much to me, when I was mixing it in.  Have any of you used White Truffle Oil before?

Other then the white truffle oil the pizza was very good!  My favorite part was the spelt crust!!!  So yummy!  I would highly recommend using a spelt crust for any type of pizza recipe!

I've definitely been enjoying trying out new foods and recipes lately.  Have any of you tried anything recently that you either loved or hated??  Any amazing stories of cooking successes in the kitchen or total failures?  lol  I'm sure it would be fun to share! :)