Day Seventeen--Channa Masala

I was back in the kitchen tonight and it was an easy one tonight. I pulled an oldie but goodie out from our vegan days. The good 'ol chana masala.

Chana Masala on top of coconut rice.

This is a super easy dinner to make. I used organic chick peas and spinach. I fry the onions up in a little bit of peanut oil and when the onions start to caramelize, I put in some garlic and garam masala powder and ketchup. The original recipe called for tomato paste and I never have paste in the house. Out of desperation one time I used ketchup and it was good. I was happy that I have just replaced our old ketchup with organic ketchup. Once that cooks for a bit, I then add some chickpeas and a bit of coconut milk (the rest of the can of milk goes into making the rice) and some red pepper flakes. I didn't use as many red pepper flakes as I used to because I wanted Aidan to eat it. After it's salted and peppered I put in a whole bunch of spinach. Then it just simmers until the rice is done.

We haven't had this for a while so it tasted so good. Connor said he didn't like it before he even ate it but we suggested he try it anyway and he ended up wanting a second bowl of it. He does this every time we make this. I don't if it's because he doesn't like the smell of it when it's cooking or how it looks, but he always ends up eating it and loving it. Aidan ate it and said he loved it and said he could have handled it a little spicier. He's so funny. Maybe next time I can ramp up the spiciness a tiny bit again.

That is about all I have for tonight. Tomorrow night I'm not really sure what is going to happen. We are going to a 6 pm presentation by one of my friends and there will be pizza provided. I know the boys will be all over that so I probably won't bother with making anything. I'll just have to wait for the weekend to make my own pizza...which I prefer. Happy cooking!

Day Sixteen--Dinner out

Last night's dinner was supposed to be one thing, but life happened and we had to celebrate it. Connor tested for his next belt in karate and passed with flying colors. By the time class was over it was 6:30 and Tim and I decided to let Connor pick someplace special for dinner. He had earned it from not only his karate class, but he had also gotten up early and gone for his PSSA testing. He was funny because when we told him he could pick he was happy. He says, "I know it's not good for us, but the first thing that popped into my mind was Chuck E Cheese." Tim and I groaned. Connor chuckled and then said, "No, I don't really want it, it's just the first thing that popped into my mind." Chuck E Cheese would be happy to know that their advertising dollars are working well. It's strange too because the kids rarely watch TV anymore. When they do, it's through the tivo and we fast forward through the commercials. It must have been lodged in his brain a couple of years ago. He thought a bit more and then chose La Tolteca. A local Mexican restaurant. I was pleased because it meant I could have one of these:

A JUMBO margarita. It was so good and I really needed if after a couple of very busy weeks.

We were careful and limited the numbers of chips and salsa we consumed before our actual meal showed up. Last time, the kids pounded down so many chips and salsa they were ill by the end of the dinner. Then they were mad that we wouldn't let them get fried ice cream. Both Connor and Aidan were gunning for the fried ice cream this time so they were careful with the chip consumption.

For dinner I had an enchilada dish. The enchiladas were full of crab and shrimp and then covered with cheese. Served with rice. Honestly, my favorite part was the rice. It was really good. The enchiladas were ok. They didn't really have a lot of flavor and I only ate half of them. I should have ordered something with a little more pizazz. I was proud of myself though because I did try something new and didn't get what I usually get in Mexican restaurants.

The kids managed to get their ice creams too. We got two and split them between the four of us. It was a very nice dinner that everyone enjoyed and we all left with smiles on our faces. It was nice to have a night where I didn't have to prepare and clean up after dinner too. Tonight, I am back in the kitchen.

Congrats to my newly yellow belted son. Great job!

Until tonight, happy cooking!

Random Thoughts

The last couple of days I've been mulling things over in my head a bit and doing some reading online trying to figure things out. What have I been pondering? A couple of different things. Eating locally and all that entails. Eating in season. How far to go down the non-processed road. It's all kind of overwhelming right now.

First off, eating locally. I feel that we are slowly getting better at this. I was trying to do some research to see what the general public considers "local". From what I gather, it's food within a 100 mile radius. Now, we get our milk, butter, eggs from the farm that is six and a half miles from our home. That is taken care of. Our grass fed beef was picked up 16.7 miles from here. The bacon and ham steaks that we occasionally get are from a farm 48 miles from here (we pick them up at the dairy farm). In another couple of months we'll be able to get all the local produce we could dream of at our farmer's market. Where I am having my issue is this: fruits like bananas and pineapples, grapes, avocados, lemons, oranges, grapefruits...you know, the things that don't grow anywhere near us. Do we stop eating them? I mean, I don't particularly care of bananas, so I can do without those. Avocados though are a different story. I use limes and lemons all the time in cooking. I actually researched getting a lemon tree and planting it in a very large container so that it can be moved indoors during the winter. The tree alone would cost around 70 dollars and then add another 40 to 50 for a good sized container. I don't think I want to spend that much on something that could potentially fail.

What about things like wheat? I don't have a mill to grind my own flour, and even if I did I don't know of a local source to get wheat berries. I suppose I could do some research on this though. I am pretty sure I can get an attachment for my mixer that grinds wheat. I love to bake and wheat is a big thing that I use a lot. Sugar. I haven't seen any sugar growing around here lately. How far does one go with this eating locally?

That then brings me to wondering about eating seasonally. Obviously it is best to eat food when it is in season. The food tastes better and has more nutrients in it. I have done some canning so I am already planning on gardening and bulk buying at the farmer's market to store food for the winter and next spring. Fruit though is a problem. Right now, berries are in season. I don't really like berries. I can deal with strawberries, but that is all. Tim, on the other hand, would be happy to eat berries day in and day out. The kids and I really enjoy apples. Apples are a fall fruit. Do we eat so many apples in the fall, when they are in season, that we don't want to see another apple until the next fall?

I guess the bigger issue for me is the eating locally than seasonally. I can manage eating what is in season. It will make us appreciate something more after we've not had it for a while. It will give us something to look forward to, kind of like we are looking forward to the next season just about the time we are getting tired of the old season. I understand the importance of eating locally. You support local farms. It's better for the environment to not have to ship food from all over the country/world to sit pretty in a grocery store. The food is in better condition because it's not picked before it's ripe so it can sit in bins waiting to ripen. I guess I will have to do some more reading/learning about it. I'll keep you posted as I figure these things out.

Day Fifteen--Curried Lentils

Ladies and Gents, we have had our first fail. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I chose this recipe. I guess I looked at the ingredients and I liked each of the things in it...but put together, not so much.

Tonight's dish:

Curried Lentils

It was easy to make. It's good for you. Uh, that's all I have to say. Normally, we like curries. We love Indian food. I'm not sure what went wrong here. I think a lot of it was texture for me. After it simmered it was all kind of mushy. Maybe another reason I didn't like it was because I wasn't very hungry when we ate dinner (thanks to my afternoon snack of pistachios). Interestingly, Connor liked it. He had two bowls of it. Aidan was funny. I really didn't think he would touch it. I gave him a bite of mine and he said it was ok, so I gave him a small bowl. Not surprisingly, he had a couple more bites and said, "Mama, I don't think I do like this." I couldn't be upset with him. He was so good and tasted it and I couldn't blame him. Tim isn't home yet so I can't give you his input on this dish. Knowing him, he'll probably like it, which is good because then he can take the rest of it for lunches for the rest of the week. Oh yeah, it did make a lot too.

I will not be making this dish again. Sorry Martha, it's a no-go for our family. You know what the worst part is? All I can smell right now is curry. I'm not really fond of the smell of curry. If it weren't 47 degrees out, I would open windows to air out.

Day Fourteen--Chicken Parmigiana

Well lookie here. I'm actually posting tonight after dinner. What a fine dinner it was too. Are you sitting down? It wasn't a Jamie Oliver recipe tonight. I know, I know, I felt like I needed to branch out a bit. I turned to dear old Martha tonight. I used to get her Everyday Food magazine and it had a lot of good recipes in it. This came from the Everyday Food website.

Chicken Parmigiana over a bed of mixed lettuce.

I made her tomato sauce instead of just buying a jar of sauce. It wasn't as tasty as Jamie's sauce last week, but it did make a LOT. I am not sure what I'm going to with it all. I suppose I will put some in the fridge for pizza and then freeze the rest.

This was a really easy dinner to do. I had it all put together from scratch in about 25 minutes. I made the sauce first and then started on the chicken. I got three organic chicken breasts and I split them in half so it made six cutlets. I browned them in a pan for a couple of minutes and then broiled it with mozzarella on top. Mozzarella. I'm spoiled now by the balls of cheese. I will not buy pre-shredded cheese again. In fact, as soon as I can get my hands on some citric acid I'm going to try to make my own.

The good news about this meal is that Aidan loved it. He even ate the salad and said he liked lettuce. Breakthrough! Everyone loved this meal. I was going to do some writing about eating locally but I don't really have the energy to do it tonight. I'm doing a lot of reading and trying to figure some stuff out. I will write about it soon though. I promise. I think that is all I have now. Until tomorrow, happy cooking. =)

Day Thirteen--Fish Tacos

Posting the day after again. Sorry. I have discovered that the hardest thing about this challenge is making up menus. What a pain in the arse. I want to try new things but I also need to keep in mind that Aidan is picky. I had full intentions of working on the menus on Saturday night but was so tired after a couple of days being outside working in the gardens and volunteering. Sunday morning rolled around and I woke up thinking about it still. I turned to the internet and tried to find some new things. Tim had been saying that he wanted some fish tacos so that is what we had on Sunday night.

Fish Tacos with a side of refried beans.

I have learned to plan fish for Sunday or Monday. I typically go food shopping every Sunday. I'm getting pretty good at making sure we have everything we need for the week and that saves us trips back to the store during the week. It saves money in the long run. I do wonder sometimes if it's better to go every couple of days and get fresh produce. Right now I think it's better that we just drive in once a week. Let's face it, the produce in grocery stores isn't all that fresh. It's usually picked before it's prime and then shipped. Where was I going with this? Oh yeah, fish. If fish is in our menu for the week I try to do it on Sunday or Monday so the fish doesn't sit in my refrigerator and go bad.

These tacos came together really easily and quickly. First I made a guacamole. Then I shredded a small head of cabbage and dressed it with canola oil and fresh lime juice with a little salt and pepper. With both of those things done and set to the side all I had left to do was cook the fish. The recipe called for 2 lbs of red snapper. Wegmans had red snapper for $21.99/lb. First of all, I knew there was no way that we could eat 2 pounds of fish. Second of all, I could not stomach spending 22 bucks on fish. I don't think I've ever had red snapper so I don't even know if I like it. I ended up just getting a pound of tilapia. I know we all like it and I was much happier with the 7 dollars. With the tacos we had some refried beans. I found a can of it in our cupboards and opened it up to heat up and then freaked out. How can I use this in my dinner? I checked the label and was relieved that there were only a couple of ingredients and I recognized all of them. Whew. So, to make the tacos, I took a tortilla and spread it with guacamole then put some of the cooked fish. Then I added a couple of slices of tomato and a handful of the cabbage slaw. Add to the mix a beer and it was a perfect meal.

The meal was a success. Everyone really enjoyed it. The only thing we had left over were tortillas and guacamole. That will make for a tasty snack today. I have some thoughts on grocery shopping that I want to write about/figure out, but I need to get back to school with the wee ones. Perhaps I'll be able to stay awake longer tonight and post again tonight after dinner. Happy cooking everyone!

Day Twelve--Steak and Potatoes

Four years ago we belonged to a CSA in the area. We joined for a half share and every two weeks we would drive out to pick up our amazing organic veggies and herbs and flowers. The kids loved driving out there because they got to chase chickens, see pigs and once in a while go on a horse ride. Chris and Amanda became friends and we loved going out there to pick up our goodies. Then for whatever reason, we didn't join the next year. I think we were facing a possible move and didn't want to get tied into something. A year passes and I look for Chris and Amanda at the farmer's market and they aren't there. We finally touch base again and find out that they are just concentrating on raising beef now. When we were with the CSA we were vegan. That was a year long experiment to try it out. Amanda carefully asked if we wanted to try some grass fed beef. At this point we weren't vegan so we said sure. We bought a 25 lb sampler box. It was delicious. I've never really been a meat kind of person. I liked burgers from fast food places...come to find out that those burgers are just parts of really bad beef full of chemicals made to taste like burgers. Chris and Amanda raise grass fed, organic, pastured cows. We've ordered from them three times now. That leads us to tonight's dinner.

Steak with grilled steak fries and red swiss chard.

We had to figure out how to get 50 lbs of various cuts of beef and 10 pounds of beef hot dogs into our freezer. We still had a little bit of beef left over from our last purchase. We also had a new grill to test out. Thanks Dad B. We decided tonight was a good night to eat some beef and try out the new grill.

I have not made menus yet for this week. Today was a very busy day and I was a little worried about being too tired to cook anything when we got home and not having any ideas of what to cook. While we were out on various outings I ran into the store and picked up a couple of potatoes and some red swiss chard. Tim wanted to get creative and made this pretty tasty chocolate chili sauce to have with the steak. He also did the grilling. I just sauteed the chard in a little bit of olive oil with some garlic. For the fries, I looked up a Bobby Flay recipe. It had like 12 different spices mixed together. I boiled the potatoes for ten minutes and then let them cool off a bit. I cut them into fries and then I put a little bit of oil on them and shook the spice mixture over them and then Tim grilled those too. I also had some baby bella mushrooms and just cooked those up too. It came together pretty easily and we enjoyed a nice dinner outdoors. It was a little cool out but it was a nice dinner.

Now I have to really buckle down and do menus for next week and get my shopping list ready for tomorrow morning. I think that is all for now. Happy cooking!

Day Eleven--Pizza Night!!

Sorry I'm posting this a day late. I have to post last night and tonight's dinners. It's been busy. Last night we head out to pick up our 50 lbs of grass fed organic beef from our good friends that live about 30 minutes from us. It was a perfect spring day and what was supposed to be a quick drop off the check/pick up the beef turned into two hours of hanging out in the back yard enjoying the amazing view and enjoying clean, fresh air. We didn't get home until quarter to eight. Oops.

Thankfully, I had started the pizza dough before we left and it was all risen and ready to go when we got home. Tim rolled out the three pizza crusts and I chopped all the veggies and got them all ready. We have Friday night pizzas down to a science now. I make the dough from scratch which is 100 percent easier now that I have my pretty amazing mixer...thanks dad and Laurie! It mixes all up in the bowl and rises and then Aidan usually punches it down the first time. Then it rises again and then it's ready to go. It really is quite a tasty pizza crust that is just flour, salt, water, yeast, a tiny bit of sugar and olive oil. The one recipe makes three separate pizzas that we usually have for a couple of days.

One of the pizzas with pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, green olives and oregano. I made this one with the left over sauce from earlier in the week that was sooooo tasty.

We rarely buy pizza out anymore. It just doesn't taste as good as when we make it at home and I honestly never thought I would say. I used to love buying pizza at the chain pizzas places and then they kind of got gross and predictable. Then we moved to eating local pizza places and found that our pizzas tasted just as good and were cheaper. Plus they are fun to make. The kids will sometimes get in the kitchen and build theirs and then Tim and I go nuts on ours with the toppings.

I guess you guys better get used to seeing pizzas on Friday night. It's kind of turned into a habit of ours. Pizza and movie night with the boys on Friday night. Last night we passed on the movie because we got home later than we had planned. I'm hoping in the next month we can experiment with making our own mozzarella cheese. I usually buy the pre-shredded mozzarella at the store but really love the taste of "real" mozzarella. I just need to score some citric acid and we will be good to go with that experiment.

Well, that sums up Friday night's dinner. Now I'm going to go post for today (Saturday).

Day Ten--Roasted Chicken and Potatoes

This will be a short post tonight. Partly because I'm tired and partly because this meal was only meh. Tonight's dinner was poorly planned out. I didn't realize how long it would take to finish and we ended up eating dinner at 8 o'clock. Now, we've been eating later lately but this is too late.

Here's what we had:

Roasted Chicken with potatoes. Sorry the picture is kind of boring but my creativity was tapped out today. I should have taken a picture of the chicken before Tim cut it up, but I didn't do it fast enough.

The chicken. I spent the big bucks on this chicken. It was organic. It was delicious. It had great taste. I put olive oil on the outside and then salted and peppered it. Inside the bird I stuffed a lemon, garlic cloves and thyme. The lemon and garlic were already warm and juicy because I boiled them with the potatoes.

Lemon and garlic boiling with the potatoes.

I've never boiled potatoes with a lemon and garlic before. After the lemon boiled, I stabbed (fun) it several times and then put it inside the bird. It smelled really good and it really put some lemon flavor into the chicken. I guess my issue with this meal were the actual potatoes. First of all the recipe called for way too many. Second of all, even after being cut up and boiled and then roasted for 45 minutes with the chicken they weren't really cooked all the way through. I have a lot of them left over that will be turned into hash browns over the weekend.

On a good note, Aidan loved tonight's dinner. He ate it all up and said he loved it. Connor didn't eat any of the chicken (too bland for him) but had a couple of potatoes. I think next time I attempt roasted chicken and potatoes I'll just do it the way I usually do.

Day Nine--Warm Lentil Salad

This dinner is a repeat for us. I made it a couple of weeks ago and we loved it so it has been put in our rotation. Yes, it's another Jamie Oliver recipe off of my 20 min meals app. It says it makes 4 servings, but we all had a big plate of it (Aidan had a little bit less) and we still have a serving for tomorrow's lunch which Connor has already claimed as his. It's pretty funny around here in the morning when Tim is making his lunches. There is usually a battle between him and Connor over who gets the left overs. Luckily we had enough leftovers from last night for three of us to have it for lunch today. So, here is tonight's dinner:

Warm Lentil Salad

This is really easy to do. One thing I like about the app is that it is step by step and while one thing is working on the stove, it tells you what to do to prep for the next step. I first sauteed a lot of garlic and thyme together. Then I added 2 cans of organic lentils and warmed them up. I then put a splash of red wine vinegar in it. While that is warming up I made the balsamic dressing. Then I had to cut up some bacon. I used less than the recipe called for. Once the bacon was done cooking, you roast up some torn up pieces of fresh ciabatta bread to make crispy croutons. Then you put everything on top of a bowl of lettuce. Now, the first time I made this I wasn't sure I would like warm lettuce. It was fabulous. It was so delicious. Aidan even ate it. He didn't really eat it last time. This time he tried it again and said that he actually liked it. We didn't push him too much on him. I gave him a very little bit and told him he just had to eat what was on his plate and he did. When he said he liked it I asked him if he wanted more and he gave me a very emphatic NO. I didn't push it. I was very happy with him eating what he did.

It's interesting. We are starting to notice a couple of things. One, it doesn't seem like we are eating as much as we used to. It takes less food to fill us up and we aren't snacking as much as we used to. I'm wondering if it is because we are actually getting nutrients in our food and our bodies are feeling fuller sooner. Another thing I've noticed is that now that we don't have any processed food or snacks in the house at all, the kids are content to eat fruit if they ask for a snack. Aidan has realized that this is how we are eating and now he's more willing to try new things. I don't have to rave about Connor actually eating because he has always been an adventurous eater. He was eating tofu and couscous when he was a year old. He loves spicy foods. He pretty much loves everything. He doesn't like chicken or turkey, but only because they don't have enough flavor. I love the fact he's willing to try new things. He's being a very good example for Aidan and now Aidan is doing much better.

Check out this article.

I found this article today on how to eat more sustainably. It talks about a five week plan to move to eating a more sustainable diet. Oddly enough week one and week two have already been done in our household. There are a couple of books he mentions that I'm going to have to acquire.

Also, if you haven't see Food, Inc. yet, do so. It premieres on PBS this week (April 21st). Watch it.

Day Eight--Baked Pasta with Tomatoes and Mozzarella

Tonight's dinner was a huge success. Win. Score. It was so delicious. It took some planning and part of it was a little more work than usual but so worth it. So, on to the dinner. We had:

Baked Pasta with Tomatoes with Mozzarella.

My first issue that I had with this recipe is that it called for a type of pasta that I've never heard of, nor could I find in the store. Thankfully google helped me out. The pasta was orecchiette. Basically it's a pasta that is shaped kind of like an ear. It's got what looks like a thumb print in the middle. I made my normal pasta recipe...and this is where the extra time comes in... and spent 45 minutes making little pasta ears. The whole time I was making them I was worried that it wasn't going to make enough but it did.

The sauce. Oh, the sauce. It was so good and I think I will use this sauce recipe for every pasta dish I make and I might even use it on our pizzas. It was so easy to make and I was able to use organic tomatoes. Did I mention that it tasted good? Yeah, I think I did.

Dinner didn't stop there though. No. Tim has been whining for a pie lately. I picked up some rhubarb at the store on Sunday. I also picked up some organic strawberries. I made a pie crust first thing this morning and then at lunch time made the pie. I was disappointed with my crust. It didn't really stay together while I was rolling it out and I ended up just pushing it down into the pie plate. It had a crumb top so thankfully I didn't have to put a crust on top. Top the piece of pie with a spot of whip cream (which Connor helped make) and it was the perfect dinner tonight.

To wrap up, all four of us loved this meal. It was easy to make... minus the pasta ears. =) Again, Jamie Oliver, you rock!

Cost of dinner: **figuring out**

Day Seven--Chili Corn Chowder

Tonight's dinner was a change in plans. It was supposed to be fish but I changed it kind of last minute. I knew that I would not be home for dinner and I wanted to make something simple for the boys to enjoy. This dinner was actually supposed to be done a couple of weeks ago and we never got to it. Presenting:

Chili Corn Chowder

It was easy to put together and didn't really have that many ingredients. I got the recipe off of my Jamie Oliver 20 minute meals app. I made it early because I had to leave for a Peace and Justice Awards dinner. Tim took Connor and Aidan to karate and then when they got home, the chowder was still warm. I had shredded some cheddar and chopped up some spring onions and a jalapeno for topping.

Reports are that it was pretty good. I didn't have any. Tim said it could have used more spice and flavor. Connor said it was good and I guess Aidan ate half of a bowl of it. There is a little bit left over that I will have for lunch today.

One thing that I have learned in this first week is the fact that I use my little hand blender almost every day. Thank you mom for giving it to me. It has been a lifesaver. I am still in the market for a food processor and I know which one I want. I'm just waiting a couple of weeks or until the need arises to get it. Oh, and another thing I've learned, I enjoy cooking dinner and listening to Fresh Air on NPR every night. Now that I actually get to spend more time in the kitchen it's fun to listen to NPR because the only other time I get to listen is while we are driving.

That is all for now. Happy cooking!!

Cost per meal: **still figuring out**

Cows on Drugs

There is an interesting opinion piece in the NY Times today. Cows on Drugs. No, cattle are not sitting around smoking weed. This author talks about how animals are given antibiotics that we, as humans, use. We then ingest meat, eggs, milk that carries these antibiotics in it. Doesn't sound bad right? Wrong. Now people are becoming resistant to antibiotics. Doctors are trying to treat illnesses with antibiotics and people aren't getting any better. There are people dying (a lot) because their treatments aren't working. Do cows need drugs? No. They need to be pasture grazed. They need to eat food that is normal for them (not corn). They don't need to grow as fast and as big as they can so more money can be made. It's disgusting.

So, yes, mass production of cattle and drugs to make them bigger and disease resistant puts cheaper meat in your plate, but at what cost? At slowly making you and bacteria immune to antibiotics that you might need later to help fight a disease. I'll continue to buy organic, grass fed, pasture raised beef and I'll eat the cost. If I can't afford to buy organic meat then I will eat vegetarian until I can afford it. It's not worth it to me or my family to take the risks.

Day Six--Crispy Asparagus Potato Tart

I realized that when I made the menu for this week that out of six nights, four of them are things I've never made before. This might have been poor planning. We could all be really grumpy by the end of the week from not eating any tasty food.

Tonight I made Jamie Oliver's Crispy Asparagus and Potato Tart. Can you tell I adore Jamie? I love how he uses real food. Yes, some of it might be fatty but you use such a tiny bit of that to get such a crazy intense flavor. This recipe called for Lancashire cheese. I asked the cheese lady at Wegmans and she said that they used to carry it but no one ever bought it. I had done some research on it when I was making my menus last week and learned it was a harder cheese. I picked up some Gruyere cheese instead. The lovely lady at Wegmans said it would be a suitable substitute. I've never had Gruyere cheese and while it is very expensive, it is very delicious. I used half of the small brick that I got for this dinner. Tim has already claimed the other half to munch on with apples through next week. So presenting:

This recipe said it makes 4 servings. Uh, more like 6 or 7. That's great for us though because it means lunches tomorrow. That's always a plus. It was fairly easy to make. The worst part was working with the phyllo dough. I love how it bakes up but it is a royal pain in the arse to work with. It always tears on me when I'm working with it. I suffered through layering it trying not to get too upset with it. It was going to be covered with potatoes so that helped. I would say all in all it took about 25 minutes to prepare. While my potatoes were boiling, I was able to blanch my asparagus and shred my cheeses, and get my layers of phyllo in the pan. Once the potatoes were done it took 5 minutes to get them mashed and everything pulled together. It baked for 20 minutes and I took advantage of this time to clean up the kitchen.

I did go food shopping today and I did keep my receipt so I'm hoping that I can try to start getting cost per meal going here soon. So, all in all, this dinner was great. All four of us liked it and Aidan said that this needs to go into our weekly rotation. He even liked the asparagus. That is huge for him. I don't think it will go into the weekly rotation though due to the cost of the cheese. Connor and I also had a little bit of coleslaw with ours that was left over from a couple of days ago. It was still tasty.

Well, that's all I have for you now. Until tomorrow. Happy cooking.

**edited to add cost: Last night I was able to figure out the cost for this meal. It was hard to figure it out. I figured what each egg cost, what each ounce of milk cost, and then I came to the cheese. Obviously that was the most expensive part of this dish. Tim said I should count the whole cost of the cheese even though I only used half of it because I wouldn't have bought it if not for this recipe. That is what I did so the total meal was $24.29 split up between 6 servings which comes to $4.05 per serving.

Day Five--Pork Chops with Apples and Sage

Wow. I am full. I just finished the most delicious dinner. We are still in Olean and Laurie was kind enough to give me her kitchen to use. Dinner was later than we usually have and it and almost didn't happen.

We ate a late lunch and then 6 o'clock rolled around and we weren't really hungry. I waited until 6:30 before I even looked at the recipes and then freaked out because I was going to need to roast the potatoes for an hour. Oops. I ended up just boiling them and then making garlic mashed potatoes. The rest of the meal came together really fast. Tim came in and helped me for the last part.

So what did we have?

Pork Chops with Apple and Sage, garlic mashed potatoes and red swiss chard.

This dinner came together really quickly. I let the potatoes boil for about 30 minutes and then got to work on the rest. I browned the pork chops in some olive oil. Then I put the chops in a baking dish and sauteed the apples in a tiny bit of butter until they turned golden. I put them on top of the chops with a couple of leaves of sage. On top of that a tiny dab of Stilton cheese. I popped in the oven for a few to let the sage meld with the apples and melt the cheese a bit. While the chops were in the oven Tim and I worked on the potatoes and chard. I sauteed the swiss chard in a little bit of olive oil and garlic with salt and pepper. The potatoes were just the boiled red potatoes mixed with chopped up garlic, butter, a splash of milk with some salt and pepper. All that with some Merlot and it is all good. Eating real food isn't that bad. =)

Everyone loved the dinner. Aidan ate the pork and the potatoes and he had some of the chard. He actually said, "I kind of like this green stuff." We're making progress! I do have the receipts from this weekends eats and when we get home, I'll come back and edit with the cost of the meal.

We leave tomorrow morning to go home. I need to make my shopping list up tonight so that when we get home I can go food shopping. Monday night is going to prove interesting. I am going to the Peace and Justice Award dinner where there will be food served. I think I'm still going to go ahead and make the boys dinner. One nice thing with all of our meals so far is that we've had leftovers. This makes for yummy lunches the next day.

I think that is all I have for now. I'm going to go finish my Merlot and start packing up all of our stuff to go home. Until tomorrow. Happy cooking!

**edited to add cost of meal: Total cost was $30.77. Served 6 so cost per person was $5.13.

Day Four--Cool Mexican Bean wraps

Tonight we were cooking in a different kitchen. We got into Olean this afternoon and then went food shopping for tonight's dinner and tomorrow nights dinner. It's always interesting shopping in grocery stores that your not used to. For one thing I found the Stevia that we used to always buy and was discontinued at Wegmans. I scooped up three bottles of it for 38.00. Expensive...yes. It's worth it though. We use it in KoolAde for the kids. We try not to use any chemical sweeteners and Stevia is all natural. I was happy to find it.

Anyway, on to dinner. Tim helped me again. Actually, I thanked him because he has pitched in each night so far and not only is it a huge help, it's fun for both of us to be working together. We went the Mexican route tonight:

Cool Bean Mexican Wraps ala Jamie Oliver

We've made these before so they are a repeat for us. They are awesome. I made guacamole and picked up a container of fresh salsa from Tops. I'm usually not one for store bought salsa. That being said, every time we are in Olean I have to get a container of it. I don't know how they do it, but it is so good. So, we enjoyed a bean wrap with some Corona and I'm pleased that instead of eating out on vacation, we cooked real food.

Not much else to report. Until tomorrow. Happy cooking!

**edited to add cost of meal...Total cost was $33.85. It served 6 so cost per person was $5.64. Not too bad for orgnaic beans and tomatoes. That is about what you would spend for a Value meal and it wouldn't have any nutritional value.

Day Three--Cheeseburgers

Tonight's meal was an easy one. Another dinner off the grill too. I love having warmer weather and the ability to cook outside. I was concerned about making coleslaw without a food processor. As you will remember mine broke yesterday. I grumbled about it and I worried how I would get the cabbage shredded enough to be good slaw. How did I end up getting my cabbage shredded? The good old fashioned way. A knife!

Who needs a food processor?

It made for a nice slaw. I made my own slaw sauce. It is delicious.

The burgers took me all of five minutes to mix up. I used organic grass fed beef that I got at Wegmans. It was a pretty good cost for a pound of beef. I think it was five dollars. Not too bad for 4 burgers. I suppose you could get 4 burgers at a fast food dive but the meat will be full of chemicals and drugs. Yuck. I mixed an egg, some bread crumbs, a half an onion and some cumin and chili powder in the meat and like I said Tim grilled them up nicely.

Super yummy burgers topped with swiss cheese.

It was such a lovely evening out that we all decided to eat outside. We enjoyed our burgers with some baked French fries and the coleslaw. Tim and I also enjoyed some Ithaca Brewery CascaZilla beer. The French fries were kind of an afterthought. I looked around and found some potatoes in the cupboard and sliced them up in my handy dandy slicer.

So, all in all, it was an easy dinner. Again three out of four of us liked it. Aidan didn't like the onions in the burger but we got him to eat half of it. That is a win for us. We are traveling tomorrow to Olean to hang out with my step mother-in-law. She's the best. I have my shopping list to take to Tops when we get there so we can continue our eating real food while we are there. Of course, we might have to sneak some Renna's pizza in for a lunch on Saturday. Renna's has the best pizza.

Day Two--Herby Grilled Chicken Kabobs

Tonight's dinner almost didn't happen. I got started late making it and then catastrophe struck. My food processor broke. Granted, it's been broken for a while and I've been able to manage to use it. Not anymore. Of course, I didn't know that until after I had the bowl full of a lot of stuff. I ended up throwing it all into my blender and using that. It didn't work as well, but it was good enough for what I needed it to do. I guess I'll be shopping for a food processor this weekend. So here is what we dined on tonight:




Herby Grilled Chicken Kabobs

This is another recipe off my Jamie Oliver app. It was easy to put together, minus the malfunction of my machinery. The chicken is organic free range chicken breasts. These little babies are expensive. Around 12 dollars for three breasts. I freaked out the first time, but then I thought that it's not that bad because it feeds four people and if we were to eat at a fast food place, we invariably spend more. The cost doesn't bother me that much.

The chicken is marinated in a mixture of cilantro, mint, garlic, a chili pepper, green onions, lemon zest and juice. The skewer consisted of the chicken and zucchini. Tim was kind enough to grill it for me. While he was grilling the kabobs I made the salad. The salad was easy. Romaine lettuce, a half of a cucumber, an avocado, green onions and basil. It is dressed with English mustard, olive oil and red wine vinegar. I had never had English Mustard before. It is so good. It is a little spicy, but I like spicy things so it's all good. We had this all with whole wheat pitas from a local bakery.

Tim and I loved it. Connor enjoyed the pita and the kabobs but didn't like the salad. He didn't like the avocado in it. Aidan ate a pita and a bite of chicken and a bite of lettuce. In the past we've allowed him to eat something else if he didn't like dinner. We are putting an end to that. If he doesn't eat what we are having for dinner then he will go hungry. I will worry if he starts to lose weight but until then I think he'll get the hang of eating what we are eating.

I had my first freak out today about this whole "eating real food" thing. It was when I was trying to plan next weeks menus. Part of the problem is that we are going out of town this weekend. We are lucky enough to have a home to stay in and I'll be able to cook while I'm there, but I always feel weird working in someone's kitchen. Add to that the fact that I will have to do the grocery shopping in a store that I'm not used to. I don't know how their supply of organic food is. I don't know if I'll be able to get the grade of meat that I want. We'll make due. We always do, but it just adds a little stress.

Speaking of menus. I hate doing them. I know they are a necessity. It makes it much easier at dinner time if I have an idea of what I'm making and have everything I need for it. My problem is that we are boring eaters most of the time. We find certain things that we like and then we tend to repeat them. I worry that this could make for a boring blog. I had five different cookbooks out today pouring over them trying to figure out what to do and ultimately ended up getting most of my ideas and recipes online. I'll post links to them when I can.

Well, my kitchen is closed for the night. Time to put the wee ones to bed and then I can relax. Happy cooking.

Day One--Shrimp Linguini

This was our dinner last night. I am going to have to figure out posting. Some days I might post dinner right after we eat it, and then some days I might just post the next morning. Obviously I'm posting last nights dinner now.

This recipe came from an app that I have on my iTouch. It's Jamie Oliver 20 Minute Meals. I love this app and I've used it a LOT. It can flip between serving 2 or 4. It has step by step procedures and it has pictures with each step.

Shrimp Linguine

This did take only 2o minutes to do. I used my fresh pasta. It had garlic, basil, a green chili, cherry tomatoes, olive oil, salt and pepper. The cherry tomatoes were organic and were so sweet. The basil was off our one of our many basil plants. Tim and I loved it. Connor liked the pasta and the shrimp but does not like the texture of the tomatoes. He ended up mixing a little pesto in with the noodles. Aidan, my tough to please little guy, liked the noodles and ate a shrimp and some basil. He liked the noodles but was not fond of much else. Not surprising. I will say that he is much more adventurous with his "no thank you bites" these days. As for the cost of this meal, I'm not sure. I will probably start tracking cost next week when I'm more organized. I don't have my receipt from this weeks shopping. I know I spent roughly 4o dollars at the dairy for milk, eggs and ice cream. That cost includes my bottle deposit because I forgot to take my empty bottles back. I think Wegmans was 140 dollars. Not too bad considering it included fresh flowers. Next week I'll keep my receipts and track what each meal costs.

Organic food. There is a lot of angst when I buy organic. Obviously there is the cost issue. We all know that buying organic foods is more expensive. There are weeks when I buy exclusively organic and then I have shell shock when I check out. Then there are weeks that I pick and choose what I buy organic. There are some things like carrots and celery that I buy organic all the time because they are top offenders for use of pesticides. For now, I'm going to put what I use that is organic. If I can get to the point of using exclusively organic then I'll let you know and won't feel the need to say it. I have a lot of thoughts about buying organic that I will share through the year. I must pace myself now though. =)

Well, I suppose that was day 1 of 365. I wasn't sure when to start this but I might as well just start it now. I'm a classic procrastinator and my fear holds me back sometimes, but not this time. I'm hoping I'll be able to post day 2 tonight. If not, I'll post it tomorrow morning.

Homemade Pasta

I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who wonder what's the big deal about homemade pasta? Sure, you can get a box of pasta in the store fairly cheaply and it sits in the cupboard until you need it. Shouldn't that concern you though? The fact that you can put something away and it won't go bad. Food (real food) will go bad.

Up until last week I had never made my own pasta. I'm not sure why. I'm usually pretty adventurous in the kitchen but had not tried pasta yet. Last week I finally did. I was scared to do it, but I wanted to try it and conquer my fear. I found an easy recipe for it in the River Cottage Family Cookbook. Two ingredients. Flour and eggs. That's it. I went to the cupboard to look at a box we had in there and there were seven ingredients in it.

So, I Facebooked my trepidation and let all of my friends know that I was going to make pasta. Then I went out into the kitchen and did it. You know what? It was easy. I was worried I wouldn't be able to roll it out to the desired thinness the cookbook said. It said I had to roll it so thin that if I put a newspaper under it I would be able to see the print. I've never worked with a dough that did that. It is usually too sticky to do so. This wasn't. This was the most fun I've had in the kitchen for a while. The dough was so stretchy. I was able to move it around and it didn't tear. I was able to get it so thin that I was sure it would either stick to my board or fall apart as I moved it. None of that happened. When I cooked it up I was so excited that it only took two minutes to boil. And when we ate it, oh my, so good.

Today I made it again. I took pictures of the steps so that I could share with you how easy it is to do.

Step One:

Sift the flour into a bowl. I don't have a sifter so I used my strainer. Works like a charm.

Step Two:

Make a well in the center of the flour.

Step Three:

Add the eggs. Organic Free Range eggs from our local farm.

Step Four:

Whisk the eggs and start pulling flour into the middle. I whisk it a bit and then just use my fingers to mix it all together.

Step Five:

Drop the dough out onto a floured board and knead for a few minutes, until it's not sticking to your fingers.

Step Six:

Wrap the dough in a damp tea towel and let sit. The cookbook says to sit for 15 minutes, but I usually let it sit for 30 minutes to an hour. I've read that the longer it sits, the better it is for making the dough stretchy.

Ok...break time. Your dough is resting now. This process has taken me about 10 minutes to do. Probably just under ten minutes. During the break time I clean up the mess I've made with the flour. I am a messy flour thrower in the kitchen.

Step Seven:

Unwrap the dough. I cut my dough in half so that it is easier to work with. I do not have a pasta making machine. I don't have the thing that pulls the dough through and then cuts it. I can buy a a pasta attachment to my mixer if I want, but right now I'm having fun doing myself.

Step Eight:

Roll that baby out. It really is a lot of fun to work with. It doesn't tear. It stretched right out, no problem.

Step Nine:

I cut my dough in half and flipped one half over on top of the other half and then just sliced the dough into strips. The recipe I was making tonight called for fettuccine so I made them thick slices.

Step Ten:

It's drying time. Don't you love my handy dandy hangers? I work with what I have. I'm not sure about the purpose of drying it out. If you are going to use your pasta right away I don't really think there is much of a need for it. If you are going to store your pasta for a couple of days then you should dry it out. I dried it because it told me to...plus I liked walking into my kitchen and seeing it all hanging. It made me feel all domestic.

That's it. That is all there is to making pasta. It is so easy and fun to do and tastes great. I hope everyone will try it at least once.

Thoughts

Intimidated. Time constraints. Fear of commitment. Overwhelmed. Confused. A whole year?! What about travel? All of these thoughts are rattling around in my head right now.

For a while I've been trying to figure out where to devote some of my passion. I want a cause to work for and be proud of. I want to do something that will make a better place for my boys to grow into strong men.

I dabbled in politics. I then remembered why I was much happier oblivious to politics. The whole scene of politics just makes me frustrated and angry. Two feelings that I'm not particularly fond of.

There is one thing that I invariably come back to. Food. Food should be a simple topic but it's not. Actually, there are a lot of politics involved with food. Government looks the other way while corporations genetically modify our food, depositing their big fat checks from said corporations.

What happened to plain old farming? What happened to eating in season? What happened to buying from local farms? Hell, what happened to having a garden in your yard? Why are fast food companies allowed to advertise on a network of cartoons? Why do people wonder why obesity is on a dramatic rise in the U.S.? I think the answer to that question is tied into all the other questions.

So, here I sit. Wondering. Should I or shouldn't I? Do I blog about eating real food? I'm intimidated because I don't know if I have the ability to eat local, organic "real" food. Can I take my kids to a store and NOT come home with "treats" (processed crap) for them? Can I go to the farmer's market and buy enough of the right fruits and vegetables to satisfy my family?

Then there are the time constraints. Not really an issue through the summer months but when school starts back up in the fall, I"ll be teaching a second grader and a fifth grader. That leads to my fear of commitment. A whole year? 365 days? A dinner made from all natural ingredients every night? Right now part of my brain is saying, "I give you two weeks--a month tops." Another part of my brain is saying "Shut up. I can do this. I have to do this for my health and the health of my family." I wonder if I should be concerned about the voices?

Overwhelmed and confused go hand in hand. I know that I want to get all prepackaged, name brand, so-called "food" out of our diets. To what extent though? How far do we go? Take bread for instance. Bread is typically flour, water, sugar and yeast. Ah, here is my first problem. I have no problem baking bread. In fact, I love making bread. When I bake bread I use unbleached all purpose white flour. Hello...it's processed. Flour is just a ground up grain. If it's white flour then it's had all of the nutrition ground out of it. Baking with whole wheat flour is tricky. Not only is it harder to bake with, but how do I trust that it is in fact whole wheat? How can I trust packaging when most packaging is a lie? Do you see my problem? I'm sure there are other out there wrestling with questions like this.

I think my plan right now will be to make this a work in progress. We will start with dinners. That is the one meal that we all sit down and share together. This is the big meal of the day. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to switch over breakfast and lunch too. I'll have to figure out traveling, but I'll deal with that when it comes.

In this blog I hope to share how I (a normal mom trying to feed her family) can take fast food and processed food out of our diet. I will share what I'm doing and how much it costs. I will share how long it takes to prepare. I am hoping I'll be able to report that everyone loved the food, though I have my doubts about Aidan, my picky eater.

So, that's it. I am going to get started on this and hopefully show that real food can be made and we don't have to buy what big corporations are pushing on us. We can buy locally. We can grow our own food. We can support local farmers and it can all taste good.

Now, I'm off to the kitchen.