This week we are featuring four delicious recipes that our niños will surely enjoy helping out with and will also enjoy eating. Explore the anatomy of homemade granola, the flavors of salmon tacos with an avocado-cilantro cream, put together endive spears, and last but definitely not least check out a simple recipe for sweet tamales!

The Anatomy of Homemade Granola

Vanessa of De Su Mama decided that instead of creating a step-by-step of how she made her granola she would document what goes into granola and let everyone work with what they like best. In her post Vanessa not only describes what usually goes into making granola but also gives us tips and descriptions for what works best. Then, it’s up to you and your niños to decide what will go in it!

Salmon Tacos

Brenda of Antsy Hands recalls her childhood days of no-meat Fridays during Lent for her Salmon Tacos recipe. With just a few simple ingredients you can share these zesty tacos with your family. Check out the salmon tacos with avocado-cilantro cream recipe  here.

Sweet & Savory Endive Spears

To celebrate the arrival of spring Ericka of Nibbles & Feasts prepared these yummy looking endive spears. What’s great about this recipe is that it only took her half an hour to prepare and it only requires six ingredients! The end result looks delicious. Share these with friends and family as appetizers or feature them for dinner.

Simple, Kid-Friendly, Sweet Tamales

Many of us have heard about sweet tamales but haven’t dared try to make them yet. If you are feeling adventurous, Veronica of Muy Bueno created this simple and kid-friendly recipe for sweet tamales. The preparation time for these tamales is considerably less than it would be for traditional tamales. This recipe is lots of fun for little ones to get involved. Check out the full recipe here.

These beef patties are full of flavor and juices. They are also kind on your wallet because ground beef can come from some of the least expensive cuts of meat. But these humble ingredients transform this recipe into a delectable and delicious dish. It is also a perfect way to include vegetables into a young child’s diet because the bell pepper and tomato are combined in the beef patty.

Serves 4-6

For the Beef Patties:

• 2 pounds lean ground beef
• ½ cup minced onion
• ½ cup minced tomato, seeds removed
• ½ cup minced green bell pepper, ribs and seeds removed
• 3 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil

 For the Tomato Gravy:

• ½ cup minced onion
• 2 teaspoons beef bouillon
• ½ cup minced tomato, seeds removed
• ½ cup minced cilantro
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1½ cups water

Preparing the Beef Patties:

In a deep bowl combine the ground beef, onion, tomato, green bell pepper, flour, eggs, salt, and black pepper. Mix well and shape this mixture into 18 equal patties. In a large saucepan, heat the vegetable oil over a medium to high flame until hot but not smoking. Brown the meat patties on each side for about 1 minute turning only twice. Remove the patties from the pan and set aside. Keep the drippings in the pan.

Preparing the Tomato Gravy:

Using the same saucepan, reduce the flame to medium, and add in the onion, tomato, flour, beef bouillon, and cilantro. Combine well, cook and stir for about 1 minute, and then slowly whisk in the water. Increase flame to medium high, continue whisking, and bring the light gravy to a full boil.

Final Cooking:

Return the meat patties to the boiling gravy and immediately reduce the heat to medium. Cover and cook the patties in the gravy for 20 minutes.

Love Salvadoran cooking or just want to add more authentic recipes to your repertoire ? Pre-order Alicia Maher’s book Delicious El Salvador on Amazon.

Below you will find something simple, something healthy, and something to warm you up during these chilly January days. Oh yes, and we can’t forget to include a little something sweet. Check it out and share the love.

Taquitos Mexicanos/ Chicken Taquitos

We love this recipe for crunchy chicken taquitos that was shared by Pilar Hernandez of En Mi Cocina Hoy . They are easy to assemble and easy to adapt to each families taste. For the full recipe click here.

Mushroom Soup- Plant Powered Vitamin D!

Have you been getting enough sunshine vitamin lately? For most of us it’s been to cold to go outside and soak up that vitamin D. That’s why Nicole Presley of Presley’s Pantry shared this nutritious mushroom soup recipe and informed her readers about some pretty amazing facts we might not have know about this powerful plant. But you have to check out the recipe to find out!

Albondigas de Pollo {Version Saludable} / Chicken Meatball Soup {Healthy Version}

Elida Aguilera of Simple Y Delicioso shared this healthy spin on the traditional albondiga soup. The days are cold and most of us want nothing more than to make one of our favorite hearty and traditional recipe’s. But we still have that new years resolution to stick to! That’s why this light chicken meatball soup recipe if perfect.

Orange & Avocado Dip

Since eating healthy is one of the more popular new years resolution, Angie of Little Inspiration created this flavorful recipe for those of us who like snacking healthy and tasty. And really, resolution or no resolution who can resist this orange & avocado dip!

Cocadas (coconut macaroons) Filled With Manjarblanco And Nutella

And finally for the something sweet! We couldn’t resist this easy to make treat by Peru Delights. Cocadas mostly consist of shredded cocunut, sugar, egg whites and sweetened condensed milk.  That’s it! Make them bite sized or big enough to share. They are delicious yet they don’t require heavy baking! Check out the full recipe here.

When one of my daughter’s first words was D-d-d-dora I knew there was something special about this character. As a new mamá, I am watching children’s programs for the first time, getting to know what they are about and trying to figure out which are best for my daughter, Little L. Although she just turned 1, I do rely on some TV to help me with raising her bilingual. Little L’s exposure to Spanish is limited, and as I am away from most of my family and my country I appreciate all the help I can get — even when it comes from a 7-year-old cartoon character.

When it was time to plan her first birthday party and pick a theme, it was a no brainer: Dora the Explorer.

Not only does Little L adore Dora, I think she is an incredible role model for adults as well. Dora loves her familia and is proud of her culture; she is a great team player, cares for others, she is forgiving, adventurous but cautious, and is always trying to save the day. The fact that she is not only Latina but also bilingual just makes her even more extraordinary and a perfect example for Little L. I want my daughter to grow up with a kind heart like Dora’s and to be proud and confident to speak English, Spanish and why not Spanglish as well.

As a Latina food blogger I pay a lot of attention to the food I serve, so for this fiesta, I created a menu that was kid-friendly and that represented our Latino heritage. I took this as an opportunity to tell a story of our culture and language. Regardless of planning a Dora theme or not, we can all use food as a channel to engage and enrich our guests. To make the celebration and the menu more personal, I suggest you look into what matters most to you, what makes you unique and what you want to share about it. In this case, it was all about representing a side of Little L’s background that is friendly, lively, colorful, vibrant, diverse and welcoming. I was born and raised in the Dominican Republic and although that is what I am most proud of about my heritage, I realize Little L is going to grow up in a country where she will be mostly seen of Latino descent not just Dominican. So I incorporated a menu that was going to give a tour of the Americas including other Latin American countries and the U.S.

The idea was to use the menu as a map (Dora’s map) for guests to go around the party almost like on a scavenger hunt looking for dishes and food items listed on the map. The labels for the food served were written in español and in English. We encouraged guests to try to read and say terms they were not familiar with out loud, can you say ‘agua’?. This exercise became a fun part of the party and fostered great discussions and lots of learning from both sides. I think it’s an idea that can be applied to any party, so I want to share the menu I created for you to use at your next Dora or Latin inspired theme party.

In this HungryFoodLove post, I have included recipes, ideas and a printable PDF version of the map for you to download. Enjoy!

To check out Melissa’s post with a printable of the map mentioned above click here

Two or three weeks ago, my boys and their father went on a much-needed road trip to visit family in Kansas City. When they came back, I overheard Primo and Secondo talking about how they’d eaten rice and beans while they were away. “Rice and beans?” I asked my husband. “Where did they eat rice and beans?”

“At my brother’s,” he answered matter-of-factly.

My husband’s Midwestern family traveled to Costa Rica for our wedding nearly ten years ago. They’d never been there before, and like most of our American guests who were there for the first time, they loved gallo pinto, the Costa Rican version of rice and beans, doused in local Salsa Lizano, often served with sour cream, eggs and tortillas for breakfast. And like many of our guests, they came back to the U.S. and gallo pinto immediately went into their regular breakfast and dinner rotation. Some brought Salsa Lizano back with them, others were excited to realize they could find it locally. Some add mushrooms, roasted red peppers, and other non-traditional ingredients.

This is an area in which, I’m ashamed to admit, my children’s bicultural education is sorely lacking. I make delicious tamales at Christmastime and I’m often asked to take my refried beans to parties. But really, that’s about it. I don’t remember the last time I made gallo pinto or arroz con pollo.

It’s partly due to the fact that I never really learned to make a lot of these traditional dishes. When we lived in the U.S. in the seventies, my Costa Rican mother — a great cook — learned to make taco salad, chicken-tortilla casserole and three-bean salad, and these were staples of my existence even after we moved back to Costa Rica. If we wanted white rice and frijoles molidos, we had lunch at Abuelita’s or at one of my aunts’.

So my children aren’t exposed to all that many of the traditional foods I grew up with, because I don’t make them. If anything, they eat food from other Latin American countries—buñuelos drizzled with honey after Spanish school, pupusas, empanadas and salteñas, all of which are cheap and plentiful in our area, and also delicious.

I should probably experiment a little more, get away from quesadillas and fish sticks a bit and make things like arroz con pollo and Caribbean-style rice-and-beans like I used to. I realize, though, that I’m not going to magically become the cook my Abuelita was, that work keeps me busy and out of the kitchen, that my reality is just different.

Still, though, I’m trying to incorporate some simple foods that remind me of my childhood. We eat gallos — avocado, refried beans or scrambled eggs, you name it, stuffed into a corn tortilla — on a regular basis, and it’s the simplest dinner ever. And I’ve become a bit obsessed with panela (the brown, unrefined sugar that I knew as tapa de dulce), which was one of my favorite things when I was growing up.  I make a syrup out of it and use it on pancakes, drizzle it over oatmeal, and  I even use it instead of honey or maple syrup when I make granola or peanut butter cookies. The flavor never fails to evoke mornings at camp, where after a cold shower outdoors in the dark 6:00 a.m., we were rewarded with a steaming tin cup full of aguadulce. A hot beverage never tasted that good.

So I try to add some of the Costa Rican foods of my childhood, but I don’t feel guilty when we break into the fish sticks. My children are not me, after all, and they will have different memories when it comes to food, different memories from my own. And that’s okay, because although when I think of gallo pinto when I remember my childhood, I’m just as likely to think of chicken tortilla casserole.

{Image via Labiascovegmenu}