What is IN the food you eat? (stop looking at numbers and start reading!)

My mother was kind enough to host my family on vacation (hence my lack of posts of late). I think she honestly was nervous after following my blog with respect to meal planning. You see, I don't recall a time in my life where diet soda was not in the fridge at my parents house and it's been AGES since actual sugar went into their coffee (they use that "other stuff" that honestly scares the crap out of me).

All that said, with 6 dinners LOOMING ahead of me I knew I had some harsh critics, 2 people who are VERY set in their ways, and I was likely just as nervous as my mom. It started with a grocery shopping trip with my mom. My mom has always checked nutrition labels for calories, fat, fiber, etc., but during our trip, we talked a lot about the other important stuff on the label...what's actually IN the food you're eating? Like preservatives, dyes, other chemicals...popular diets teach us to look for those magic numbers..."how many carbs/calories/fat grams are in it?" Ok, does it matter if you're not even eating FOOD anymore???

We did not eat food I prepared every night, though we did work hard at sticking to our eating habits and I anchored the trip with 2 successful dinners that my parents liked. I'm not expecting to change the world here, but I think I made some baby steps!

Shown above: Greek marinaded chicken, greens, and homemade tzatziki on flatbread.

Breakfast, how do I love thee...

At 3:15 PM  my first child was born after close to 23 hours of labor. At that point, the nurses kindly told me I could have anything I wanted from the hospital menu and handed me a piece of paper. BREAKFAST PLEASE, I begged.

I could, in fact, eat breakfast ANY time of day. When I was in college, I worked towards my English minor with a creative writing class. I did most of my writings at a place called Brandywine Diner in Schenectady, NY.  Eggs, Cheese, Toast, coffee, pleather booths, and a never empty miniature diner cup of coffee, because when you're 20 years old, at 2AM there are few things better than a never ending supply of caffeine and food. This may have started at an early age. When my mom was too sick to cook on any given night, my dad made us veggie omelets - egg, cheese, veggies, and toast...maybe a little bacon and he knew he'd done his job as a parent. Ok, kids, all the food groups...get to bed! Eggs, veggies, cheese and potatoes were often the dinner of choice when dad worked late, too, which leads to an entirely separate conversation around my mother's frugality when it came to feeding our family.

It's Thursday...so if I showed you a picture of my fridge/pantry, your response would be somewhere between "YOU FEED A FAMILY OF 4?!?!!" and "YOU ARE SCREWED IF IT SNOWS TOMORROW." I stare into my fridge...crap. I start pulling out ingredients that work together. Potato, egg, onion, spinach, tomato, and...cheese.  Ok, that covers nutritional needs...slicing the onion and potato as thin as paper, I cook them up in olive oil and butter. It smells so good at this point. After the potato is COOKED THROUGH I toss in the rest. Dinner was that giant mess in a bowl topped with some Franks Red Hot. Kind of like garbage pizza with just veggies...and egg instead of dough to hold the mess together.  Maybe he was just hungry, but Pete gave it a tie with the sushi we had the night before...ok, he MUST have been starving.  That said it was good and about 1/10th the cost of the sushi.

Dear Breakfast,

I love you.

Love,
Melissa

What's good with bacon?

...Everything. In all seriousness, no, not everything is better with bacon. I haven't tried bacon and chocolate, though I know some people swear it's amazing, but we have made bacon infused vodka - trust me, that's NOT a good idea.

In this case, broccoli rabe is amazing with bacon.  Inspired by a recipe I round for rabe with pancetta and pumpkin, I got to work. I had some leftover thick cut bacon from our trip to the farm, just a couple of pieces, but it was enough to crumble up and saute the rabe in.  Rabe is a very bitter green, so you'll need to squeeze some lemon and add a little salt to it to kill off that bitterness.  While the bacon got nice and crispy, I roasted some butternut squash and turnips. Not wasting a thing, I toasted the butternut squash seeds (to sprinkle on top of it all when it was done)! 

It was colorful and tasty and for a moment, I thought...maybe everything IS better with bacon.

Traditional German food

Wiener schnitzel, spaetzle, and peas...this is NOT health food.  I mean, don't get me wrong, this was an all natural dinner with organic meats and veggies and without preservatives, but it was cooked in olive oil and butter.  Translation: DELICIOUS!

When I got my first apartment, I don't think I knew how to cook any food other than Italian food. 

I was raised in an Italian family. My maiden name is Infurna, as my ancestors in Sicily had the only brick oven in their village. My mother learned to cook from her mother, who learned from both her mother and mother-in-law who were from Abruzzi and Sicily.  I can assure you, there was no tofu in my house growing up.  In fact, I'm 99% sure my mother still hasn't cooked tofu. We didn't really eat anything other than Italian food.  My husband's background is German/Scottish/Welsh and though I know he's appreciated the variety of foods we have, sometimes I get the request for a traditional German dish. 

Wiener schnitzel is traditionally a veal or pork cutlet, breaded and fried, served with mushrooms and spaetzle (a little egg dumpling pasta). The cutlets were dipped in egg, then a flour/panko mixture and fried them in olive oil and butter - then topped them with mushrooms and onion cooked in butter and white wine.  

I'm not going to lie.  Though I HAVE made spaetzle from scratch before, I was going out to a show last night, so I used pre-made.  I HATE doing this, mostly because it's way cheaper to make myself, but it is time consuming. 

Here's a recipe for spaetzle that I've made before:

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 pinch freshly ground white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 gallon hot water
• 2 tablespoons butter

Directions

1. Mix together flour, salt, and white pepper.. Beat eggs well, and add alternately with the milk to the dry ingredients. Mix until smooth.
2. Press dough through a large holed sieve or metal grater.
3. Drop a few at a time into simmering liquid. Cook 5 to 8 minutes. Drain well.
4. Saute cooked spaetzle in butter and sprinkle with nutmeg.

End result was very good even if I did feel a little guilty about indulging in some fried food.

Peace and love and hippie bowls

The hippie bowl "recipe" was built up when my husband and I first started living together at 22 yrs old and, well, living in a cheap basement apartment across the hall from the cheap basement apartment my own parents first lived in in 1973.  We were trying to save for our first place. 

Since then, the hippie bowl has been at least a weekly occurrence in the dinner rotation and is a regular request.  The hippie bowl is never the same. 

It's roughly translated to:
1 c cooked rice, barley, or couscous
1 can of beans (whatever is on hand)
1 onion
chili powder, salt, & frank's red hot

(Optional)
chopped tomato or salsa
skillet roasted corn
shredded cheese
Avocado or guacamole

At its base, this meal will feed 2 people for about $2.  It's yummy, comforting, high in protein and fiber, and low in fat.  Obviously, I jazzed this one up a bit from our $2 version. The corn was blackened in my cast iron skillet with toasted creole seasonings.  The end result was a perfect blend of sweet and savory.

Hot, exotic, a little spicy, and totally satisfying

...What are my weekends, Alex? Yes AND my dinner.  Remember, we're here for the food!  Tonight, I was determined to redeem myself after last night's takeout fail. 

Allow me to back up a smidge to earlier today.  Here's the scene...so, here I am working with my stomach audibly growling, likely over everyone's headphones and Rob turns his chair around. "Hey, I'm ordering Indian food.  You in?" Oh dear LORD did I want in on Indian food.  The restaurant near our office is incredible, but knowing my faux pas last night, I declined explaining my fail with the resolve to cook tonight. Rob goes on to tell me how he's been grinding his own spices of late...making curries.  Now I NEEDED curry.  It was no longer a want.

I put the kids to bed and started flipping thru a curry cookbook I had. Inspired by a lamb and apricot curry, I closed the book and got started. I had apricot, but no lamb...I still had some beef from the farm and I also had some prunes (which go quite well with beef). Perfect...now off to the spice cabinet with me.  Hmmm...no cardamom (right...it's Thursday, limited supplies here) time to make my "heat" from other spices.  I chose a few cloves and a few whole Allspice.

A little oil in the pan, a chopped onion, cinnamon stick, cloves and allspice and it was already smelling awesome.  Then 1 TBS curry powder along with 1 teas each of cumin & coriander. I added the beef and a handful of chopped prunes, some water and started the basmati rice.  After the curry simmered a bit, I decided I didn't like the color, so I added some turmeric for color and some salt and gave it a taste.  Mmm!  I served it over the basmati rice and topped it with cilantro, which is one of my favorite herbs. 

The tandoori roti was a fail, in my opinion.  It was not as airy as I would have liked, though I feel that this could (in part) have been due to the fact that my oven may have needed to be cranked up to 500, perhaps even putting the cookie sheet (or a pizza stone) in the oven to heat it first.  Once I perfect that one, I'll post it!

Love and warm bellies to you all!

Of Mice & Men...

"But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane 

In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft a-gley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promised joy." - Robert Burns

The meaning behind this poem, later quoted in Steinbeck's novel, is basically, "sh*t happens." I'd like to thank my prep school English professor and my numerous English professors in college (I was only a credit away from an English minor), as without them, I may not have remembered the poem.
Now isn't the time to stumble. I'm about to go away on vacation someplace warm...where I'd LIKE very much to wear a swimsuit.  I'd lost 10 lbs eating healthy food and exercising regularly.  This is a particularly PAINFUL New England winter.  Growing up in New England my whole life, I can assure you, THIS is the worst since I was a toddler during the blizzard of '78.  I have good food in the house.  I planned to make empanadas tonight with shredded beef from the farm and red beans with rice, and fresh tomato...but I've been snow bound for 2 days, with 2 children CRAZY with cabin fever, a press release to write, and 2 feet of snow to shovel. I took a breather and baked a loaf of bread.

The FASTEST white bread recipe I know, adapted from The Joy of Cooking:
1 Tbs sugar
1 package (2 1/4 t) active dry or quick rise yeast
1 cup very warm water
(Let sit for 5 min) then add:

2 3/4 cups bread flour
1 1/2 teas salt
2 Tbs olive oil

                                                                                
Mix by hand for 1 min (hold back the last 3/4 c flour).  Knead for 10 min. Place dough in oiled bowl and turn dough over to coat with oil.  Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk, 40-45 minutes.  Grease 9X5 loaf pan.  Punch down the dough, form into a loaf, and place seam side down in pan.  Oil the surface of the dough, cover with a clean cloth,  and let it rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk (25-40 minutes).  Preheat oven to 450.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350 and bake for another 30 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.  Remove loaf from pan to cooling rack and let cool completely.

Long story short...I, realized I was missing an ingredient, and too lazy to substitute, I ordered out.  On a scale of 1-10 (1 being the best, healthiest, and most natural choice...I'm going to give it a 5).  I feel like garbage, but I'm not going to beat myself up.  We ALL need a break now and then.  Back on track tomorrow. Lost the battle...winning the war. 

Variety is the spice of life!

You can only have the same foods day in and day out for so long before they start to lose their appeal.  I'm always looking for new foods to try and new recipes to try.  When you add new foods into your diet periodically, your staples can become far more interesting!

I was getting pretty sick of rice and pasta, so I recently added barley into the rotation and I realized that I REALLY like it.  It's chewy, delicious, filling and SUPER good for you! (high fiber, full of vitamins, & antioxidants) 

Last night, I cooked up some of the beef we picked up at the farm along with some mushrooms (what's not to like about beef, mushrooms and barley...) I added some sliced carrots, onions, and baby spinach and served it all over the barley.  The flavors of the foods themselves were so amazing that it required nothing but a little salt. 

And, hey, since we're talking barley...the whole thing went pretty well with a local brew! ;)

Been cooking, eating, and living well...

I suppose I've done more cooking and eating and less writing lately! This weekend we had friends over, so Saturday night I made the lamb stew with fresh meat from the farm, turnips, sweet potato, onion, a couple tablespoons of flour, red wine, water, rosemary and thyme.  It was very thick and comforting, as it slowly cooked for hours in my cast iron dutch oven, which happens to be one of my favorite pieces of cookware.

Sunday morning I prepared a quick brunch for guests including pancakes from scratch that the kids devoured, along with bacon and eggs from the farm. That thick cut bacon from the farm was like nothing I'd ever had before.  It was more similar to pancetta than what we typically call bacon.  Later, I made bagels (a recipe from that "Simple Baking" book my husband bought me after the rice krispy house incident), bread, and a dinner of beans, collars greens, and barley.  Then, I completely crashed, as I'd done all that on literally 2 hours of sleep.

Tonight, I got a request for a low carb meal, specifically chili, so I stopped for some ground buffalo on my way home. Because my kids wanted breakfast for dinner, I used the remaining bacon fat from their dinner to cook the onions for the chili, which was spiced with cumin, curry, cayenne pepper, and allspice and topped with avocado and fresh cilantro.

No idea what's on deck for tomorrow, but I'm thinking about root vegetables...which reminds me...my friend Sarah shared this link with me on facebook and assuming I'm not completely snowed in still, I plan to attend this: http://getoutma.org/farmsharefair/ What's better than fresh local food? Not much.

Meet your Meat...

Whether you are a vegetarian or a meat eater, it's good to know where your food comes from.

I decided yesterday when I did the grocery shopping that I was going to take the kids to a farm to pick up the meats.  Today we went on a field trip to Blood Farm in Groton, MA.  We picked up some lamb (which I plan to use for stew tonight), some beef, some chicken, bacon, and eggs...and a couple of bones for the dog. 

It was an experience for the kids to learn the differences between a small farm and what we buy at the grocery store, especially where my daughter is an animal lover, for her to see animals treated humanely, without hormone treatments, was important.  We don't often eat meat in my house, but I'm now really making a concerted effort to take that trip to the farm when we need some. 

It was relaxing, a lovely drive thru the country, a great experience for my kids, and I'm REALLY looking forward to the stew tonight!

...to say nothing for the brunch tomorrow with fresh eggs, bacon, and fresh baked bread!!!!!

Cook for yourself even if it's JUST for yourself...

My grammie taught me this.  When my grandfather died 20 years ago, my grandmother lived alone, but continued to cook proper meals for herself, 3 meals a day.  She's 82 now and even with a hip replacement, this hasn't changed. 

At one point in time, I ate dinner alone far too frequently.  Now, it's almost never, but I expected to be solo tonight.  My plans were as follows: get the kids to bed, clean the kitchen, and make myself risotto.

Yes...JUST for me.  Usually when I'm solo for dinner, I make a frittata, just as my mother did when my father worked late.  Poor forethought...I had an egg for breakfast.  If you've been following along, remember, I shopped for the week on $50.  Not on purpose, but that's just what was spent and I didn't want to go to the grocery store, to be honest.  I still had some arborio rice in the cabinet, a tomato, bag o' baby spinach, and some peccorino romano cheese (from making meatballs earlier this week), not much, but certainly enough for a nice little dinner. 

I poured a glass of wine and started to cook feeling myself decompress from the day, as I stirred and stirred...it was like meditation.  

Whether you eat alone most nights or even once in a while, don't just stand at the counter picking at cheese and crackers or a cold bowl of cereal...cook for yourself.  Show yourself a little love.

I knew it was you, Fredo.

You know what the kiss of death is in my house?  Stirfry.  Stirfry, to me, requires the response of, "didn't you even try?!?!!"  It's my lazy dinner. 

So, I'll start with my list of excuses...
6:45AM wake up call
6:50AM - 7:20AM shower, dress, make up, dress 2 kids, make 3 beds, funnel 2 kids downstairs for breakfast.
7:20AM - 7:55AM prepare 3 breakfasts, take out the dog, feed the dog, eat breakfast, kiss husband goodbye, clean off MORE snow from the car, get 2 kids in full snow gear and out the door with backpacks complete...detour...search for missing glove...leave 5 minutes late.
8AM - 12:15 AM drop off kids 20 minutes apart for schools and start 1st day at new job.  Leave early to pick up kid 2 at school (1/2 day Wednesdays)
1PM - 5PM - Return home, prepare lunch for myself and son, take out the dog, clean the house...pick up daughter at school. Take daughter to gymnastics return home.
5PM - 6:20PM - Feed the dog, take her out, feed both kids healthy dinner, bathe them, put them in pajamas, read story, put them to bed.  Come downstairs to find husband has arrived. 

I need to prepare dinner.

THIS...this right here is when most people (including myself) say "Screw it.  Where's a menu?"  This is my proof that ANYONE...I mean ANYONE can come home and pull it together enough to make dinner.

I turn around and make stirfry...silently.  It's the LEAST favorite dinner in our house.  It's the I SHOULD have ordered take out dinner.  I pour 2 glasses of wine and keep at it...cooking rice, frying tempeh in the mongolian fire oil I love so much, add steamed veggies and spices.   I'd never made stirfry with tempeh before, and actually...it was a hit!  WOW!  Starting to think I could fry ANYTHING in that fire oil and serve it to my family.  Putting my feet up now with another glass of red and feeling proud of myself for not cracking. 

I've received a few requests for next week including stew/chili given the New England weather. (Point of note: I grocery shop each Friday) If there's something special you'd like to see here, please let me know!!!!

Rising to the occasion...or not...

Ok, I could crack at least a dozen jokes here, but it's a family show.  I'm having a problem with the yeast in my freezer.  It's not working.  Maybe too many drinks...sorry, I couldn't help myself.  So, I tried to make rolls after picking up my daughter yesterday.  They didn't rise, but I assumed this could have been due to the substitution of soy milk vs regular milk in the recipe...a difference in the sugars, perhaps?  Well, today, I noticed the bread was running a little low in the house, so I thought I'd make more of my multigrain bread.  A previously tested recipe with very few changes (olive oil in lieu of butter, which my daughter doesn't like).  Again...it didn't rise.  So, I think I've determined that the yeast is, in fact, the problem.  Now, don't get me wrong, it still SMELLS amazing. My husband mentions in passing that it smells like chacarero bread.  I'm suddenly inspired for dinner...

Brown rice from the fridge (prepared on Sunday), black beans, green beans (also prepared on Sunday), chopped onion and tomato, cumin seed, and ground coriander are all tossed in a skillet and warmed up.  It starts to smell like a chacarero sandwich in my kitchen, which COULD be the best sandwich ever invented.  I scoop the warm goodness into bowls, top with shredded cheddar, Franks Red Hot, and surround it all with chopped avocado.  Heaven! 

This was kind of like one of those Thursday-night-crap-the-fridge-is-empty kind of dishes and with 2 nights left to prepare dinner on $50 this week of groceries purchased (no, I'm not kidding, for a family of 4!), I still have plenty left to eat right for a couple of nights! 

So far, I'm hanging in there this week despite my yeast fail.  Thanks for hanging in with me!

I was the worst scout ever.

I was a girl scout for 1 year and was rather disenchanted with the whole cookie selling and 9 year olds make terrible chefs in the woods...undercooked potatoes with dirt is NOT dinner.  That said, I'm a firm believer that the whole "Be Prepared" motto is a GOOD thing.  Without a doubt, in my life, a little forethought and preparation ALWAYS meant a better time later.  I could go into an in-depth discussion of examples of this, but we're going to stick to cooking for this blog.

When it comes to being prepared, cooking is no exception.  Going back to work this week, I knew I had a lot of preparation to do over the weekend to ensure that:

1. My kids got to 2 different (brand new) childcare locations on time and with everything they need.
2. I was able to continue eating healthy, natural, home-cooked food as often as possible.

So, this weekend, I cooked.  Man, did I ever cook.  Funny, when you prepare a lot of food at once, it's easier than you think.  I made 2 loaves of bread, fresh pasta, tomato sauce, meatballs, a huge container of rice, green beans...I cut up fresh veggies and fruit so they were handy to toss up with mixed greens, beans, and the rice for a healthy lunch.  The photo above includes SOME of what I made this weekend.

My kids had some fresh pasta and sauce tonight with a meatball...we've come a long way from dino nuggets for sure. -->

Sorry, I'd post the recipes for the sauce and meatballs, but my mom reads this blog and I'm 99% sure she'd disown me if I put either of those 2 things in print. Love ya, mom!

Mostly naked...

...FOOD that is! This last dish was celebrating the flavors of food as they are.  Salmon with roasted cauliflower and mixed greens.  The salmon was sauteed and "dressed" in nothing more than a little olive oil, salt, lemon, and tarragon.  The cauliflower drizzled in olive oil with just a little salt roasted in the oven at 500 for 20 minutes.  All served on a bed of "naked" mixed greens.

I start my job on Monday.  The real question is going to be how I can keep pulling this off with a job, 2 kids, 5 pets...It's going to take some careful planning.  No more of this whipping up a loaf of bread at 1PM, but I'm even more determined to make it all work.  I'm sure some of you have read this blog so far and thought, "oh sure, that's fine for someone who doesn't have a day job, but cooking/eating like this just isn't possible in the real world."  I expect some stumbles along the way, but I want to prove it's possible.

Hang in there with me!!!!!

Homemade chocolate chip granola bars - hands on time 5 min.

I've never made my own granola bars until yesterday and I'm starting to realize part of this project is inspired by my desire to avoid going outside in the New England weather to the supermarket.

The end result was a tasty, chewy, sweet granola bar.  My kids aren't really into dried fruit, but I may make a grown up version of this with cinnamon raisin or maybe a dried apricot version!  Given this only took me about 5 min of hands on time, it sure beat taking a trip to the store!  Also, as I continue to experiment with these, it's WAY cheaper than the $1.25 a bar they charge for those fancy granola bars in the store!

Recipe:

• 2 1/4 cups rolled oats
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 2 tbs honey
• 1/4 c sugar
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Lightly grease one 8x8 inch pan. 
2. Mix everything together
3. Pack it firmly into the pan and bake for ~20min.  Let it cool before you cut it into bars.  The little bit of leftover, I have in a Tupperware in the fridge.

I have a food confession

I was chatting with my friend Tania this morning, who made my day by telling me how she looks forward to my blog.  She starts by whispering a confession to me about sometimes buying frozen meatballs, with a look of utter shame on her face.  My goodness, woman, cut yourself some slack! 

I have worked hard to eliminate unnatural foods from my diet and cut out as many preservatives and processed foods as possible.  To do this, in a cost effective way, I've had to make MOST things I eat from scratch, but I'm also human, a mom of 2, and I'm about to start a new job, so I'd be lying if I told you I never take a short cut.  I'd be lying if I made wild claims of only shopping at a farmers market or storing my root vegetables in the cellar for the winter.  Sometimes, I take a little help.  Last night was an example of that.  I'd literally been running around all day and I'd had NO TIME to make anything from scratch by the end of the day, so I reached for one of my favorite quick helpers from the cabinet.  Bob's Red Mill Vegi Soup Mix (nothing but a pre-mixed bag of green & yellow split peas, barley, lentils, and vegetable pasta) saved me the trouble of mixing all of those things together from my pantry (and/or stopping at the store) I supplemented it with sliced carrots, chopped celery, half an onion, a few chopped small red potatoes, and ~1tbs of herbs de Provence.  I added some water and sea salt and put a lid on it for an hour, while I sat back and regained my sanity from the day.

The end result kind of looked like gruel - a sort of thing you'd expect a character in a Tolkien novel to be eating from a tin cup - but it was warm and delicious, filling, basically devoid of fat, and all natural.  It also had just a hint of sweetness to it that I didn't crave a sweet after dinner either and I'm actually really looking forward to leftovers for lunch!
 

Comfort Food - A little extra work today can stretch for a few more.

The smell of roasting chicken reminds me of my mother's house.  Growing up, my family had Sunday Dinner every week.  Mom would get a roast chicken or roast beef in the oven before we left for church and when we got home, the whole house smelled heavenly.

I rarely make a dish like this...passing right by the larger cuts of roast and whole chickens for smaller cuts that can be prepared in a hurry (and that are the right portion size).  I bought this on the request of my family for a chicken dinner "like Nonna makes."

When I served it up with brown rice and steamed brussel sprouts it was much healthier and lighter (and less work) than my mother's version, which is often served with mountains of side dishes that are tasty, but offer less nutritional benefits like mashed potatoes, stuffing, and corn.  I also skipped on the MSG laden gravy typically served with this dish.

As a nice benefit....I've got a BUNCH of leftover chicken and brown rice for salads and dinner for the kids now that I've gone 2 weeks sans nuggets in my house.  Not that I'm imposing a diet change for my children, but teaching them these lessons in healthy eating early on in life may just keep them healthier when those nasty colds make their way around school!  So far, no complaints from them either.

I'm not dead, just eating healthy...

...but after a night of partying with friends and limited sleep, by dinner the next night, I stared blankly into my freezer silently praying fish sticks would magically appear so I wouldn't have to cook.  If my husband had suggested delivery, I would have accepted with open arms.

Instead, I begrudgingly opened the cabinets and tossed a bag of colored pasta on the counter and sigh.  Hmmm...no one heard me.  Yup.  I'm cooking.

Out next come a yellow pepper and onion from the fridge and cannellini beans from the cabinet and cooked them up in olive oil and garlic.  I tossed it all together when the pasta was done with some leftover chopped fresh mozzarella (from the pizza) and leftover mixed greens from the risotto.

Though it tasted good, in the end, I felt like I'd failed.  I felt bored in the kitchen and like I'd completely slacked off with respect to dinner.   So, I'm going to dig into a new book my husband picked up for me...the sequel to the first Clean Food book that originally inspired me and treat myself to a night of a more traditional roasted chicken dinner tonight.

Wings, Guacamole, veggies, chips....

It takes more time to make your own wings than call the delivery place, I'm not going to lie.  Making wings is a time consuming process.  First, they need to be coated in a mixture of flour, garlic powder, salt, & cayenne pepper.  Let the wings rest in the fridge for ~1hr.  While the wings were sitting in the fridge, I figured that would be an opportune time to make some guacamole.  I love avocados more than goat cheese...I know...it's a serious obsession.  Avocados are full of great stuff, but also packed with fat and calories, so as much as I'd love to just dig in with a spoon, I won't, but they are delicious, which is why when I make guac, I mash the avocado with nothing more than a clove of garlic, a little sea salt, and juice of half a lime.  Now, back to those wings...speaking of everything in moderation.  Those wings I previously mentioned get coated in a mix of half a cup of butter and half a cup of franks red hot.  Throw them in the oven at 425 for an hour (flipping once half way), then put them under the broiler for a few just to get that EXTRA crispy goodness.  I'm sorry to say, I don't have a good picture of these wings...why?

Because this was all that was left of the 6lbs of wings by the time I took out my camera.---->

THIS is why you need the veggie sticks!  Balance, people.  I need a salad.  ASAP!

Last night...risotto...later today...clean eating footbal snacks?

Presentation is like body language...it speaks volumes before you open your mouth.

Where risotto holds it's shape very easily, you can really impress someone with your presentation and it is so delicious and rich tasting without a lot of fat.  This risotto was made with diced sweet onion, crushed garlic, sliced portabella mushrooms, chopped kalamata olives, and steamed arugula.  Toss everything in the skillet with a little olive oil & butter (except arugula & rice), then toss in the risotto and prepare it as directed stirring in the arugula at the end.  To plate it, pack it into a small bowl and put the plate on top of the bowl, flip, remove the bowl..VOILA! (you may have heard I'm a fan of goat cheese - yep didn't hurt this recipe a bit and it goes VERY well with the olives)

Football is typically synonymous with shoveling junk food into your body (or it has been at my house anyway).  So, later today, I'm going to make an attempt at HOMEMADE football food with all the flavor...without the artificial colors and preservatives that come in a bag of cheesy poofs.  I also have more bread to make, so...time to get crackin' on that!

Friday night pizza night!

When Friday night rolls around, the last thing you want to eat is something that feels or tastes healthy.  I'm typically out on Friday and/or Saturday night, so the last thing I wanted was to feel like it was another weeknight come dinner time.  So, I made pizza.
That said, I was not craving your average pizza sauce.  I wanted tomatoes, which in all reality, should be considered a luxury in New England in January.  (especially given it's -1 deg F here this morning).  Yesterday I picked up a container of mini heirloom tomatoes and fresh mozzarella.  This 100% hands down beats a jar of over salted tomato puree any day of the week.  I cooked them lightly in olive oil, fresh oregano, and a little sea salt while my dough finished rising.  I prepared a whole wheat pizza dough.  Though, I would use HALF of it next time for a thinner crust.  This recipe resulted in a very THICK Sicilian style crust.

Dough:
1 1/4 tbs active dry yeast
1 c warm water
1 pinch sugar
1 1/4 c all purpose flour
2 c whole wheat flour
2 tbs olive oil
1 tsp salt

(Tip: Warm mixing bowl before starting) mix yeast, sugar, and water.  Let it sit for 5-10 minutes until it gets foamy.  Knead in the rest of the ingredients and let rise (covered in a warm spot) for ~45 min.  Punch down and spread out on a lightly oiled stone or cookie sheet to bake.  Top with sauce & cheese and bake at 475 for ~20 min.
Finish with a chiffonade of fresh basil.

Eating healthy makes you more attractive

Yesterday, my husband shared a great article with me on a study of how a diet rich in veggies of all colors can help improve your skin tone.  Click here to check out the article.  I thought this was pretty cool and was part of the inspiration for dinner last night. 

Thursday nights are kind of funny in our house when it comes to food.  I often run the fridge and pantry down to empty every Thursday as part of an old habit from having to wait until a check came in to grocery shop.  Now, I take it as a bit of a challenge to make something delicious.  Last night was no exception.  For the record, the fridge and pantry are now full.

Last night's dinner was a win!  Remains of red chard, a sweet onion, the last of the carrots from the soup this weekend, half of a tomato, and a can of cannellini beans cooked in a little bit of olive oil with a dash of salt.  I was reminded that we don't have to load up our food with salt laden spices all the time to get flavor.  GOOD veggies have a lot of flavor on their own!  I served this over Trader Joes Harvest Grains, which I LOVE.  My husband gave his a spritz of the Braggs Liquid Aminos I mentioned previously.  Rarely is a Thursday dinner something I'd make again (purely because I'd unlikely have whatever melange of foods I made dinner our of), but this would be an exception. 

So, I would like to take a moment now to thank: my husband for his inspiration not just for this dinner, but continuously thru this, and my friends Bernadette (who sent me a TON of recipes for inspiration), and Ned for promoting my blog (thus reminding me to keep it going and cheering me on)!

Pane Toscano

Nothing helps to shake off the cold like a nice warm slice of fresh bread and my daughter was begging for some soft white bread for sandwiches after I'd made a loaf of multigrain bread.

This was my first recipe I've tried that required a sponge starter, so I started this process Tuesday night and I followed the King Arthur Tuscan Bread recipe, which was fantastic! It's true, there's not a lot of flavor to this bread, though you could probably add 1 1/4 tsp of salt to fix that, but last night after shoveling, it was the perfect treat, warm and dipped in a mix of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, crushed garlic, & pecorino romano cheese. YUM!!!!!

I haven't bought store made bread now in 2 weeks and I honestly don't miss it.

Finally, last night, I whipped up a tofu stirfry over brown rice. A quick and easy one definitely, but I was SPENT from a long day. I use Mongolian fire oil to saute the tofu to give it a spicy kick. I'm a huge fan of this stuff. I also recently discovered, via some neighbor friends, Braggs Liquid Aminos, which I spritzed on the stirfry instead of using a stirfry sauce or regular soy sauce. Oh, man, is this stuff good. It's like high end soy sauce...I'm telling you...this is the good stuff.

Now, so far this year, my clean eating along with taking 20 minutes a day to get a short, but intense work out in has resulted in a loss of 6lbs! The primary changes in my diet/lifestyle have been eating more vegetables (of every color), cutting out processed foods/preservatives as much as possible (I finally killed off my coffee mate vice), and adding just 20 minutes of exercise a day. 3 small changes that have had a big impact.

Ignoring take-out cravings

For those of you who were following along on facebook, I decided to make my own Indian food tonight after irrational cravings for some take out.

Truth - this was NOT take out. It was not the oily, delicious, creamy sauced, fried goodness I craved.

Truth - I firmly believe the good karma in my decision to make healthy food at home was rewarded by the 3lbs that finally dropped off the scale.

Truth - it was REALLY good and I was stuffed LONG before cleaning my plate and the only added fat to my chicken breast, rice and veggies was a small amount of olive oil to keep the food from sticking to the pans, but in the end, I will likely need to re-season my cast iron pans tomorrow.

Well - here's what I made:

Tandoori Chicken:
2 TBS Garam Masala - I didn't have this on hand, so I had to make my own. Garam Masala, I understand, is like an Italian family sauce. Every family has their own sauce. They all include the same basic ingredients, but none is identical. That said, you can buy this mixture in the store. I was trying to save a buck since, I already had my husband picking up a few missing items.
Plain Yogurt (I used fat free)
Boneless chicken breast (this is what I had on hand)
Juice from half a lemon
grated fresh ginger

Marinade the chicken in all of the above, then roast in the oven at 450 for 30 minutes.

Raita:
1 cucumber diced
1/4 red onion diced (very small)
more of that plain yogurt
Juice from half a lime
a pinch of cayenne pepper
chopped cilantro

Mix everything together and toss it in the fridge to set while you do the rest.

Curried Cauliflower: (this was what ultimately filled my belly to the point of skipping out on half my rice)
sauteed sweet onion
1 tbs curry powder
grated ginger
entire head of cauliflower chopped into florets
Olive oil

I roasted the cauliflower in the oven with the sauteed onion, curry, ginger, and olive oil at 425 for about 20 minutes, then added a little extra crisp in a hot skillet with olive oil at the end.

Finally - I used mixed veggie and wild rice basmati from Trader Joes. This was a MISTAKE. Yuck. I should have just used PLAIN basmati rice with some fresh lemon & cilantro. I think I'm losing a taste for rice with added "flavor."

All in all, despite the rice, it was really good and I'm full and I don't feel gross (to say nothing for the few things I was missing only cost me ~$10 instead of the $30 it would have cost me to order out)!
And...my house smells incredible.

My great-grandfather was a goat herder

...that is 100% true and perhaps explains my love of goat cheese and why I feel it has super powers...or maybe it's just because goat cheese is friggin' delicious.

I needed super powers to save dinner last night. The end result was a dinner I called skittles (based on the "taste the rainbow" slogan because it had SO many beautiful colors). Now, since New Years, I've prepared every meal I've eaten...along with many meals my husband has eaten, and every meal my kids have eaten. I figured out as I laid in bed last night I'd prepared close to 50 meals over the course of a week. No wonder looking at a chicken breast, some veggies, and a single sweet potato I was near tears. My husband suggested take out. It had been kind of a rough night to begin with and I had prepared a wonderful soup for lunch consisting of 2 colors of split peas, lentils, barley, carrots, and celery. Served with the last of the bread I'd made the other day with just a smidge of goat cheese spread on it.

I was determined, though, and I was going to make something tasty out of this pile of ordinary ingredients and so I began...
I cut and cooked the sweet potato and mashed it with a little butter and salt.
The chicken was sauteed in butter, olive oil, and taragon.
The veggies (red pepper, broccoli, cauliflower, and corn) were steamed.

Once I plated it all, I crumbled goat cheese on the chicken and steamed veggies. SAVE! Well, that and a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. It was all so good and I was REALLY glad I hadn't just given up and ordered out.

$5 at a yard sale...

That's how much my Grammie spent on this pasta machine and I love it...$5. It still has the sticker on the box, which is entirely in Italian. It costs me about 50 cents to make fresh pasta for 2 of us for dinner. Fresh does not have to be expensive.

The processes of kneading dough by hand and scrubbing my pans have become meditative.

To respond to my husband's pleas for some traditional Italian food, which, when we first lived together, was all I knew how to cook, I decided to make fresh pasta with a bolognese sauce for dinner. Yes. I have a box of pasta in my cabinet, but it was a pleasure to make it fresh.

Recipe:
1 cup all purpose flour
2 eggs
1 pinch of salt

You don't actually need a pasta machine, though it helps. You can roll the dough out flat, GENTLY fold it and slice it into ribbons of equal thickness.

Bolognese sauce:
Chopped onion, carrot, & celery cooked in olive oil
1/2 lb of ground beef
Add ~1/2 cup of red wine & reduce
Add ~1/2 cup of milk & reduce
Add 1 can ground peeled tomato
1 small handful of fresh chopped oregano, salt & pepper

Top with chiffonade of fresh basil.

I fear baking.

I love to cook and I'm a fairly good cook. It's baking I fear. Cooking is an art. Baking is a science. Chemistry in fact. I had a good chemistry tutor in high school, thank God...but I digress. I've had a great deal of baking disasters in my day, one of them (an epic rice krispy treat explosion of marshmallow) jokingly referenced in an inscription for a book my husband gave me called "Simple Baking: Step by Step."

I've recognized I have to conquer my fear of baking as part of this project and that includes baking my own bread after noticing how long it takes for your average sandwich bread to go stale. Here is my first yeast bread of this project, which I baked yesterday.

Recipe:

• 3 cups white flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast (I got a sack of it for the freezer for winter)
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 pinch sugar
• 1 1/2 cups hot water

Knead until mixed. Let rise for 1 hr. Punch down. Let rise 30 min. Punch down. Let rise another 30 min and bake at 425 for 30 min.

Pretty simple I'd say, though I think the end result is a bit drier than I'd like and needs a bit more salt, though all in all, not bad for a first run and the house smelled like heaven!

Dinner was a much greater success. (Photo below). Kidney beans, black beans, roasted corn, and SPICY salsa over a mix of brown rice, black barley, and daikon seeds.

All in all, I'm feeling healthier with a lot more energy, though I think the drastic change in diet may be causing a bit of havoc on the tummies in our house! So, this weekend I'm going to have to consider a few meals a bit easier on the stomach without sacrificing my goals here. Homemade pasta perhaps???

Changing my relationship with food

And so I begin this project in 2011 where I am doing my best to change my relationship with food. 4 years ago, I had gallbladder surgery. Before and after my surgery, I carefully thought about everything I ate, primarily because eating the wrong foods caused a great deal of discomfort. Over time, my strict behavior slacked off and my body adjusted to more and more unhealthy foods. Now 4 years later, I found myself back at putting some pretty unhealthy foods in my body, mindlessly picking at a snack while unloading groceries, etc.

As a first step, my husband purchased a book for me called "Clean Start" to re-introduce us to healthy eating, then restocked our cheap pans with a few new cast iron pans. I found a great local health food store called Debra's Natural Gourmet where I could get some of the less ordinary foods and could buy grains and spices in bulk. And so I begin. No, I haven't COMPLETELY eliminated all preservatives and what not from my diet, but I'm trying my best to slowly fade them out. This blog exists as a way for me to keep myself honest, share my recipes, and share my journey.

The photo above was last night's dinner:
1 can garbanzo beans sauteed with 1/2 chopped sweet onion, crushed garlic, grated ginger and olive oil.
Steamed veggies: Yellow carrot sliced, baby carrots, green beans, & sliced red bell pepper
1/2 cup of trader joes mixed grains