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!