ZisBoomBah

Anna loved mixing together a nice little salsa that included black beans, corn, tomatoes, the sautéed mixture, and spices.

More confessions from a nutritionally challenged mom…

If you have been following my family’s story on the ZisBoomBah blog, then you already know that I am a self-professed nutritionally-challenged mom. I stay busy juggling parenthood with a full-time career and freelance writing gigs, not to mention school and church-related activities and the myriad projects that come with restoring an old New England home. Meal planning has never been an activity that I have set aside much time for. And quite honestly, there may be nothing on earth that I am worse at than cooking.

But I am trying to change my ways with the help of ZisBoomBah. I realize how important it is that my husband and I give our children, ages 3 and 6, a better foundation for healthy living. They need to get a good understanding of nutrition while they are still young. I really want to make it a priority – and learn to cook something besides hot dogs and grilled cheese – before it is too late. (And just to clarify, my husband DOES know how to cook other things very well. But I get home first and he doesn’t usually have time.)

The last time I wrote, I was excited that my six-year-old daughter Anna had helped me to throw together a quick, but healthy dinner using her ZisBoomBah placemat as a tool. We have been able to do that several times since then. But my next challenge was to actually plan and cook a healthy recipe from the Get Cooking! section of the ZBB website. This made me nervous. I am so notoriously clumsy in the kitchen that I was sure I would mess something up and the kids wouldn’t eat it at all.

Anna, however, who loves to cook, was beyond excited. We looked through the large selection of recipes together, each of which provided all the nutritional information we needed. For our first dinner, she chose to make Black Bean Chicken Quesadillas. I also printed out a few other recipes, and we went to the store to buy ingredients (the shopping list that comes with each ZisBoomBah recipe makes my live a lot easier). Then the kids helped me to prepare dinner.

I was surprised at how well it went. The kids helped me combine a mixture of spices, which I rubbed into the chicken before cooking it in a skillet (I don’t even know what you call that, but I was proud. I have never cooked chicken this way before.) THEN I sautéed onions and garlic – I have never sautéed before either! Then we mixed together a nice little salsa that included black beans, corn, tomatoes, the sautéed mixture, and spices. Anna loved helping with that part. In fact, everything went super until we got to the end of the recipe and I couldn’t figure out where the quesadilla part came in. That’s when I realized that – clumsy me – I had started following the wrong recipe by mistake! We had actually made Chicken with Southwestern Salsa instead of the desired quesadillas. Anna was not amused.

Now…here is where I really impressed myself…to save the day, I simply cut up the chicken we had made, put it between two tortillas with some cheese, added the salsa mix along with some chopped cilantro, and melted it all together. For the first time in my life, I actually winged my OWN recipe variation! And it tasted fantastic! In fact, with this variation, we actually pulled together more food groups than if I had just made the original quesadillas, which did not include corn – our starchy vegetable. It was so great to be able to talk about all the healthy ingredients with the kids as we ate. I felt like a rock star mom.

Kyle and I ate the regular Chicken with Southwestern Salsa dish as it was meant to be, and that tasted great too. Thank you ZisBoomBah, for challenging me to step out of my comfort zone for the health of my family. I am thrilled. From now on, I’ll know how to cook chicken!