As adult blog writers who happen to love everything olive, we started thinking about the importance of healthy eating for the whole family, specifically children.
As you may have already discovered yourself, children are often difficult to please when it comes to meal prep. If you are anything like us you may have spent hours creating a healthy dish, only to find that your child refuses to eat it…
However, it never fails to amaze us how easy it is to talk kiddos into those bite-sized fruits that we so love, olives. Still, we know you’d like to include more veggies into the diets of these special people in your lives, and so we started trying to find olive recipes that accommodated that need.
Here are our top three favorite olive recipes…
Olive Skewers:
Cut a carrot, or a celery stick into thin skewers. Cut cheese sticks in to bite size pieces. Poke a hole in the cheese and in a handful of olives. Take turns placing cheese, and olives on the skewer of your choice.
Southwestern Baked Potato with Olive Topping:
Choose your favorite southwest ingredients. We recommend ground turkey or beef, black beans, sliced black olives, shredded cheese, and salsa.
Add or take away ingredients at will. Set up your potato bar and have a great meal for the entire family!
Last but not least try this incredible, kid friendly recipe…
Mini Greek Pizza Muffins[i]
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
⅔ cup finely chopped onion
⅔ cup finely chopped red bell pepper
⅓ cup whole-wheat pastry flour
⅓ cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1½ teaspoons chopped fresh oregano, or ½ teaspoon dried
1 teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon salt
⅓ cup low-fat milk
⅓ cup crumbled feta cheese
1 large egg, well beaten
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons chopped kalamata olives
Directions:
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and bell pepper; cook, stirring often, until the onion is tender, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl and let cool for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400°F. Coat a mini-muffin pan with cooking spray. Whisk whole-wheat pastry flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, oregano, sugar, garlic powder and salt in a medium bowl. Stir milk, feta, egg, tomato paste and olives into the onion mixture. Make a well in the dry ingredients; add the wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Fill the prepared muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake the muffins until lightly browned, 13 to 15 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature. Make Ahead Tip: Store in an airtight container for up to 2 days. Serve at room temperature or reheat at 350°F. Equipment: Mini-muffin pan with 24 (2-tablespoon) muffin cups. Storage smarts: To extend the life of your baked goods, store them in an airtight container in a single layer or between layers of parchment paper to prevent sticking.
We hope you’ve enjoyed these recipes. We know as well as anyone just how difficult meal planning can be night after night. We hope that your sweet babies have huge smiles on their faces with these new olive recipes, and that maybe (just maybe) these will become household favorites.
We’d love to hear how you make these goodies your very own. And if you’re looking for a great olive oil to compliment other foodie delights, check out our My Olive Tree, Extra Virgin Olive Oil HERE.
[i] http://www.eatingwell.com/recipe/252246/mini-greek-pizza-muffins/