Hooray Dad

Category: Recipes

All the recipes I want my kids to have when I’m gone.

  • Homemade Chicken & Turkey Nuggets

    So our toddler loves chicken nuggets, and it’s important for us that our little girl gets as much protein as she can.

    BUT! We don’t love all the ingredients in store bought nuggets.

    Hence we are making our own now—with a twist! I’ve swapped in 50:50 chicken and turkey to give the meat a little more complex flavor. This recipe is great because all the measurements are just estimations—it doesn’t have to be precise. On the next go I’ll be giving the breadcrumbs a try for extra crispiness.

    Anyway, she didn’t reject them so it’s a win all around! 🤠

    INGREDIENTS

    STEPS

    1. Prepare a bowl of flour with seasoning and spices
    2. Melt the butter on low heat to avoid burning it; transfer to another small bowl for dipping
    3. Mix the ground turkey, ground chicken, egg, and seasoning in a bowl until you have a nice clumped up ball that sticks together
    4. Preheat your oven or toaster to 400ºF / 200ºC
    5. Form a ball of meat and flatten it into a nugget-looking disc; about 1/2″ thick
    6. Dip the disc into the butter to coat; use your fingers to ensure full coverage
    7. Transfer to the flour bowl. Flip and roll it around to get a nice even coating of flour
    8. Set onto a baking pan; parchment paper optional
    9. Repeat steps 5-8 until you’ve used up all of your meat
    10. Optional: the flour may start to saturate from the butter and meat moisture—feel free to give the nuggets another dunk into the flour bowl to enhance the coating
    11. Spray the nuggets with a high-smoke point oil—we use avocado before baking
    12. Bake your nuggets for 25-30 minutes; check that internal temps of 165°F / 74°C are reached for safety!
    13. Remove, cool, and enjoy! Sauce it up how you like

  • Broccoli Cheddar Smash Bites

    A girl needs more broccoli. Certainly our toddler does.

    Tried this broccoli cheddar smash that I saw online and was surprised how easy it was to make. Mom and dad were fans, but it looks like the little lady might need a few more chances to acquire the taste.

    She liked the cheese at least. Might add some garlic next time to spice things up. Definitely see this becoming a staple in the house to keep our vegetables up.

    Ingredients

    • bag of frozen broccoli
    • cheddar cheese block
    • mozzarella cheese block
    • paprika
    • garlic powder
    • cumin

    Steps

    1. Rinse the frozen broccoli. Soaking in vinegar for a few minutes optional.
    2. Bring a medium pot to boil.
    3. Boil the broccoli florets for 3-5 minutes—we don’t want to overdo it here.
    4. Blanch in a bath of ice/cold water.
    5. Cover a sheet pan with parchment paper.
    6. Grate a layer of cheese onto the pan.
    7. Spread the now-cold broccoli in a single layer all over the cheese with enough space to flatten down the florets.
    8. Smash the broccoli as flat as you can using a jar or heavy glass.
    9. Give the florets another sprinkling of cheese.
    10. Dust the bunch with whatever spices you like.
    11. Bake at 420ºf / 215ºc for 25-30 minutes.
    12. Remove from the oven and break the florets apart as they cool.
    13. Enjoy!

  • Hella Easy Overnight Oats

    As Dad, my job in the mornings is to prepare brekkie for the little one as well as their lunchbox for school. This leaves me little time to get my own breakfast going, which is why I like to keep our fridge stocked with overnight oats.

    I can bang out a week’s worth of oat meals at the start of the week and dip into them whenever I’m feeling peckish.

    The chia seeds are such a cheat code for loading up on fiber and omega-3’s to start the day. When we eat them we usually add a generous scoop of peanut butter and a handful of fruit—blueberries or bananas usually.

    While this recipe already replaces cow’s milk with nut milks, you can make this extra lactose-free by dropping the yogurt from the recipe.

    For jars, we’ve recycled our Santa Cruz Organics peanut butter jars to use for our oats, but mason jars or any other container works just fine. I like the uniformity. You can tell we eat a lot of peanut butter.

    Ingredients (per jar)

    • 1/2 cup of rolled oats
    • 1 tbsp chia seeds
    • 1 tbsp or more of yogurt
    • 3/4 cup of milk or milk alternative.
    • Water to top off

    Steps to make overnight oats

    1. Add the oats, chia seeds, and yogurt to a jar
    2. Add the milk and/or water until the dry goods are covered
    3. Cap the jar and shake well
    4. Store in the fridge overnight. You can eat them after 20-30 minutes if you’re craving it now.

    Optional mix-ins

    I like to add these right before eating so they don’t get soggy/stale/overripe.

    • 1-2 tsbp of granola
    • 1 tbsp of peanut butter or other nut butter
    • 1/2 banana, sliced
    • Handful of blueberries

  • Homemade Organic Chickpea Blueberry Pancakes

    What toddler doesn’t love a good blueberry pancake? This dad loves them too, which is why I make them almost every weekend.

    However, our toddler is on the low end of the growth chart, so we’ve been looking for ways to increase the nutritional content of this deliciously carb-heavy dish.

    Enter the chickpea. Chickpea flour is our way of piggybacking a lot more protein into the batter. A single cup of chickpea flour has around 20g of extra protein.

    Long story short—our toddler loved them!

    Recipe

    Cookware

    We’ve updated our kitchen to use all stainless steel or glass in order to eliminate as much plastics and non-stick surface exposure as possible.

    • Large mixing bowl
    • Measuring cup
    • Fish turner or spatula
    • Stainless steel pan

    Ingredients

    Wherever we can, we will use organic supplies. For animal products, we will look for pasture-raised and/or 100% grasssfed.

    • 2 cups whole wheat flour / organic
    • 1 cup chickpea flour / organic
    • 2 tsp baking soda
    • 1 cup Greek yoghurt / a2 organic
    • 1.5 cup milk / 100% pasture, organic, whole
    • 2 tsp vanilla extract / organic
    • 3 tbsp brown sugar / organic
    • 6 tbsp melted butter / organic, unsalted
    • 2 eggs / pasture, organic

    Steps

    1. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl with a well scooped out in the center. This is a great step for your little sous-chef to help with.
    2. Melt the butter in your pan, transfer to well in bowl. Keep the pan on low heat for later.
    3. Add milk, yoghurt, vanilla extract. Stir together
    4. Beat the eggs in a separate container, then pour into the bowl mix
    5. Fold it all up until well-combined, but not super smooth. You want a little clumpiness, but no bundles of dry flour.
    6. With a spoon and silicone spatula, scoop out a wad of batter onto the pan at the 12 o’clock position. Use the spatula to flatten the batter a bit if it doesn’t spread out evenly.
    7. Repeat around the pans edge, spacing the batter discs out so they have room to expand.
    8. While the batter is still fresh, add your blueberries, pressing them into the batter. Great if you can get it completely into the batter so that the blueberry juice doesn’t run out onto the pan when you flip it.
    9. Flip when the bottom is a golden brown. Use the fish turner to take a peek—you can usually tell it’s ready to go when air bubble holes start appearing in the top of the batter. Be patient and only flip once!
    10. Remove when both sides are nicely browned, but not burnt.
    11. Repeat 6-10 until you’ve used up all of your batter and blueberries.