The thing about our kids is . . . they’re not us.  While we try to teach them to act the way we think they should, they’re spending their days trying to prove to us that they’re their own person.  Eventually I guess they completely rebel.  That’s called the teen years.  They scare me.

At least I can have a little sway over what they eat, for now.  Hopefully after their rebellious teen years they will have learned a few good eating habits.  Of course, if they don’t like it they won’t eat it, so I try to make the healthy stuff taste good enough even for the most picky.  Does it always work?  No.  But in the case of this Quick Salmon Tikka, it did.  And not only is this recipe delicious, but it’s really very easy.  You slice some salmon fillets thin, slather them with a curry paste, and saute.  Then you make a sauce with yogurt and cucumber, and serve it all over flatbread.

I found this terrific recipe in a terrific cookbook, Jamie’s Food Revolution by Jamie Oliver.  Jamie has taken it upon himself to try to change the way people eat.  Not just kids in schools, either, but adults and families as well.  In this cookbook, he challenges the person who owns it to learn a recipe from each chapter and then”pass it on” by teaching someone else how to make some of them.  The book has recipes tailored to be simple and quick, but with tons of flavor and variety so everyone can make their meals healthier.

Brilliant.

You can find this recipe on jamieoliver.com.

Ahhh, it’s March.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a time when people were more sick of winter.  Did you ever think there could be too much snow?  And the disastrous things going on with the Earth – I know we are all praying that they will come to an end soon.

In my area we have had a cold, wet winter, and though not nearly as bad as other areas, it’s all relative to what you’re used to, I think.  Even though March is always a tease – one warm day followed by a week of cold ones – at least there is a light at the end of the tunnel, the tunnel named winter.

So today I bring you some sunshine in the form of bright, lemony, and garlic-y Baked Shrimp Scampi.  This dish comes from Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics, her most recent cookbook.  In a fun twist on traditional scampi, the shrimp is briefly marinated and then covered in a butter, herb, and breadcrumb mixture and baked.  What you find after baking is a wonderful dish of shrimp scampi with a delicate, crispy topping.  Very different and very delicious.

From the Barefoot Bloggers February selections, this recipe can be found here.

HELP!!  I’m drowning in parent-of-school-age-children-end-of-the-year–hectic-ness!  Field trips, dance recitals, baseball games, school carnivals….STOP!  I need to come up for air!

I’m always so glad to see the end of the school year, not just because I’ll no longer have to get up at the crack of dawn to rouse children that are dead to the world, but also because after the stressful month of May I just need to decompress.

There has still been some cooking and baking going on at my house, but not much time to squeeze in a post about it.  In the few minutes I have this morning before my Thursday takes off like a shot and runs at full speed until 9 tonight, I had to share this month’s first Barefoot Bloggers recipe, Tuna Salad, chosen by Kate of Warm Olives and Cool Cocktails.

In true Ina Garten style, her recipe doesn’t use plain ol’ canned tuna, but fresh tuna steaks, seared to perfection and mixed with an asian-style soy and lime dressing kicked up with wasabi and hot sauce.  Avocado, red and green onion add color, texture and super flavor to this “not your mama’s” tuna salad.

This dish made perfect sense for this hectic month.  The tuna is so easy and delicious simply seared in olive oil with some salt and pepper (I like to oil and s & p my tuna, then let it sit for about 15 minutes before cooking).  I cooked the tuna steaks one night and served them with roasted broccoli and couscous, and then used the leftovers to make the salad for lunch the next day on a bed of baby spinach.

The dressing was very fresh and a little spicy, and was delicious with the tuna and avocado.  I might even add a little more wasabi powder next time, just for fun.

You can get the recipe for this Tuna Salad here, just don’t let the name fool ya.  This is Ina style.