My friend Debbie Koenig has a fantastic new cookbook coming out later this month called Parents Need to Eat Too. The concept is that even though you’ve got a baby or toddler, you can still make great food to feed yourself, even if you’re cooking in just quick spurts, or even with one hand. Debbie also has a great web site with lots of recipes there, so be sure to check her out at DebbieKoenig.com.

I’m giving away a copy of this wonderful cookbook to a random commenter on this post, so be sure to leave a comment so you can win!

Debbie’s publisher has sent me a review copy and will send out the winner’s copy. In full disclosure, by running a recipe from her book and posting about it, I’m entered to win a prize from her publisher. Whatever. I don’t really care about the prize, but I do care about the book, which I think is something so many parents are going to need and use often.

I recently made Broccoli and Cheddar Pinwheels, with some substitutions and everyone in my family enjoyed it. Here’s Debbie’s recipe:

1 pound pizza dough

2 1/2 cups finely chopped broccoli or one 10 ounce package of frozen, defrosted and chopped: you can do this in the food processor

1-2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425 and grease a baking sheet.

Remove pizza dough from fridge 30-60 minutes before you plan to use it.

Steam the broccoli until just tender (5-6 minutes). Cool slightly then combine with cheese, mustard, salt, and pepper.

Roll or stretch the dough to a 10×14 rectangle on a floured surface. It doesn’t have to be exact.

Spread the broccoli mix on 3/4 of the dough, leaving an uncoated portion at one short side. Begin to roll the dough from the short side covered with the broccoli spread and keep rolling until you’ve got a nice, neat log.

Use a serrated knife or pastry scraper to cut it into 8 equal pinwheels. Carefully lay the pinwheels flat on the prepared baking sheet and bake until crust is golden brown and the cheese is melted, 15-20 minutes.

Debbie’s recipe is fantastic as is. I thought I had a bag of shredded Cheddar but when I opened it, it was moldy, so I ended up using a mix of mozzarella, feta and extra sharp provolone.

It made more sense to me to cook the broccoli first then chop it in the Cuisinart with everything else, so I cooked it then dumped it in with the mustard, cheese, and salt and pepper. I also tossed in 2 leftover pieces of deli ham I had floating around. Those were my only changes. Next time I make this I think I will cut the wheel into more and smaller pieces. They were big, like a big cinnamon roll which was fine for a dinner portion, but I might make them smaller so they would work for snacks and lunches.

I loved this recipe. It really was amazingly easy and I can absolutely see being able to toss this together with a toddler underfoot or a between feedings with a newborn.

You must enter by midnight ET on Monday February 13. I’ll randomly and blindly select the winner by random number drawing (numbers assigned in order of comments here). Sorry, offer limited to U.S. addresses only and entrants age 18 and up only. One entry per person. Winners notified by email given when entering, not responsible for email transmission problems. You are responsible for notifying me of your correct mailing address if you are selected as a winner. Contest closes at midnight Eastern time on 2/13/12. Prize is nontransferable and may not be redeemed for cash. MarthaAndMe reserves the right to announce the name of the winner on the blog. MarthaAndMe not responsible for delivery or nondelivery of prize which will be sent by publisher.

My friend Debbie Koenig has a fantastic new cookbook coming out later this month called Parents Need to Eat Too. The concept is that even though you’ve got a baby or toddler, you can still make great food to feed yourself, even if you’re cooking in just quick spurts, or even with one hand. Debbie … Read more

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