Plan B

Lest you think we eat local and organic all the time...

Last night, dinner was an EPIC FAIL of massive porportions!  I haven't had something go SO wrong in the kitchen since, I don't remember when!  This was worse than the lopsided, crumbling, held together with icing confetti cake I made when we were first married.  How Hawaiin mini-meatloaves came out looking like Alpo, is beyond me.

So last night, our cats ate $5/lb local, grass-fed beef.  And we ate $5 pizza from Little Caesars.  Pizza Pizza!

Zucchini Bread

I used the zucchini Dave's coworker gifted us from her CSA box to make this Old Fashioned Zucchini Bread recipe from Plan to Eat.  Very yummy despite a mishap in the kitchen which led to Ashleigh being splattered with zucchini bread batter LOL!

Speaking of zucchini, I spotted my first one growing in our little garden this week :)

Yummy Homemade Ranch Dressing

Ashleigh came home from school yesterday excited not about the field trip her class took, but about the carrot sticks she had at lunch!  I normally pack her lunches and snacks for school, but for the field trip I agreed to let her buy the school lunch.  I never would have imagined the school lunch would spark an interest in veggies in our normally veggie-avoiding princess! 

Along with dinner last night, I cut some organic apples into slices for dipping with local honey and organic carrots into sticks.  As a dip for the carrots, I decided to make homemade ranch dressing.  For the dressing, I started with a recipe for a dry ranch mix on the Heavenly Homemakers blog.  To make the dressing, you add two tablespoons of the dry mix to 1 cup of mayonnaise and 1 cup of buttermilk.  I didn't have any buttermilk on hand, but a google search lead me to an easy substitute - add one tablespoon lemon juice to 1 cup of milk and let stand for 5 minutes.  Worked beautifully.  And the dressing, absolutely delicious!

Homemade Wheat Bread

Homemade Wheat Bread (recipe from Tammy's Recipes)

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.  That's definitely been my motto in regards to breadmaking.  My first several attempts, though delicious smothered with butter, were more like bread bricks than loaves.  So I was beyond pleased to finally achieve an actual loaf!

Have a wonderful weekend!

 

Thinking Victory At Home

Last night, I found myself in a mood. My tired body would have rather been in bed reading. Instead I was in the kitchen, making pizza dough for the next day's dinner, chopping onions and green peppers and shredding mozzarella cheese. A million "to-do's" filled my head. My husband's upcoming surgery, workshops, a school conference, what would I make for breakfast, when would I find time to make BBQ sauce and yogurt, to work on next year's calendar for work. The kids were also being rowdy and kept hopping out of bed. It was just all too much!

But then it came to me, just as I spoke victory at work, I can also speak victory in my home. I could turn this mood around by looking at the positive. I'm so blessed to be in my kitchen making dinner for tomorrow. Some do not know where their next meal will come from. Some other mother, some where in this world is staring at bare cabinets and an empty fridge wondering how she's going to feed her babies. I'm so blessed!

I'm so blessed that God chose me to be the mother of these three children. Some woman out there would give anything just to have one child, but I've been blessed with three. Three healthy, vibrant kids. I'm so blessed!

From the widow's perspective, I'm so blessed to have my husband. And from the perspective of the daughter whose mother has passed on, I'm so blessed to still have my mother with me and in good health. I'm blessed to have our home, to have means to provide for our family and to have the physical ability to do all those things on my to do list.

I'M SO BLESSED!

Eating Local - Sunday Dinner

A Sunday Dinner made with local ingredients

Pastured Pork Chops with Apples, Sweet Potatoes & Steamed Green Beans with Garlic

4 Local, pastured bone-in pork chops (Pine Knot Farms, Hurdle Mills, NC)

Local, pesticide-free Liberty apples, cored and sliced (Cloverfields Farm, Timberlake, NC)

Local honey (The Pleasant Bee, Raleigh, NC)

1/4 cup water

mineral salt & pepper

-Season pastured pork-chops with mineral salt and pepper. Brown both sides of pork chops over medium-high heat.

-While pork chops are browning, core and slice apples. Arrange a single layer of apples in a 9x13 baking dish.

-Arrange browned pork chops over the apples and top with additional apple slices. Drizzle with local honey. Add 1/4 cup water to the baking dish.

-Cover and bake at 350 for 45 minutes (be careful not to overcook - that's always a problem for me with pork!)

For sides

Sliced, local sweet potatoes (Pine Knot Farms, Hurdle Mills, NC)

Steamed, local green beans (Cedar Rock Farm, Castalia, NC) with garlic (Edible Landscapes, Moncure, NC)

All local items purchased at the Midtown (North Hills) Farmers Market, Raleigh, NC.

The TOOL (Towards Organic Or Local) Challenge - Down to Earth

Balancing Beauty and Bedlam - Tasty Tuesday

Homemade Chicken Broth in a Crockpot

Nourishing Bone Broth

With our first week of cool mornings, it's starting to feel like fall again. Friday night football, fall festivals and big, warm bowls of homemade chicken noodle soup. I'm getting ready for soup season (as well as flu season) by stocking the freezer with nourishing bone broth.

Following this recipe for slow cooker chicken broth, I added the bones and necks of two whole, pastured chickens, onion pieces and skins (gives the broth a nice yellow color), carrots and celery stalks and leaves to my 6 quart crockpot. Left to cook in the crockpot all day, the house was filled with a wonderful aroma. Even after the broth cooled, it still smelled heavenly! As if you were about to dive into a big bowl of chicken noodle soup. My crockpot yielded 3 quarts of stock - 2 cups of which I set aside in the refrigerator for lentil chili later in the week. The rest is now in the freezer.

Tip: I picked this tip up from Stephanie at Keeper of the Home. When cutting onions, place cuttings and skins in a bag in the freezer. Then when you're making broth, toss some of the frozen pieces in. A wonderful way to let nothing go to waste!

Menu Plan - July 20th

For the All You Grocery Challenge, I thought I would post not only the items we bought for the week, but also how those items come together for our meals. Menu planning not only saves me time in the kitchen, but takes away the stress of coming home from work in the evenings and trying to figure out what cook when everyone is already starving! And it serves as a reminder of what prep work needs to be done ahead of time - what needs to be defrosted, beans that need to be soaked and cooked, etc.

Dinners:

- Golden Veggie Fried Rice (For veggies, I used organic onions, organic carrots, organic frozen corn and broccoli florets)

- Grilled Hamburgers on wheat buns with Better than McDonald's Oven Fries, Green and Purple Beans sauteed with Garlic & Sliced Watermelon

-Dirty Rice made with Pastured Pork Sausage & steamed organic corn

-Lasagna Rolls using Whole Wheat noodles & Yogurt Cheese and Basil filling (using the filling recipe from Kelly's stuffed shells)

- Quinoa & Black Beans topped with shredded, raw milk cheddar cheese

- Egg Salad with Sardines (a new take on tuna salad, inspired by these two Edible Aria recipes - Sardine Salad Sandwich and Keep it Simple Egg Salad ) Sprouted, whole wheat toast & sliced cantaloupe & watermelon

- Homemade Whole Wheat Veggie Pizza topped with organic onions, green peppers & fresh basil from our container garden


Breakfasts:

Scrambled free-range eggs, pastured pork sausage, sliced cantaloupe & watermelon
Scrambled free-range eggs, fruit salad and sprouted, whole wheat toast w/strawberry spread
Soaked oatmeal

Lunches:

Usually leftovers & sandwiches


I'm An Organizing Junkie - Menu Plan Monday

Soaked Oatmeal Blueberry Muffins

Local, organically grown and certified blueberries

We've been thoroughly delighting ourselves in the seasonal goodness of fresh blueberries. So much so, that we've almost eaten through the entire bucket we picked last Friday! I did manage to set aside a quart bag full of berries for the freezer. But nothing beats the taste of fresh berries in the summertime!

Fresh blueberries in the kitchen means waking up to the smell of soaked oatmeal blueberry muffins in the morning for our family. The recipe is simple, which makes it easy for me to put together before work in the mornings. And the muffins make a great on the go breakfast or afternoon snack later in the day.

Soaked Oatmeal Blueberry Muffins

1 1/4c organic rolled oats

1 c whole wheat flour

1/3 c organic sucanat

1 tbsp baking powder, aluminum-free

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/4 c butter (I use Kerrygold), melted

1 tsp vanilla

1 c fresh (or frozen) organic blueberries

1 tbsp lemon juice or whey (for soaking)


The night before, soak rolled oats and whole wheat flour in 1 - 1 1/4 c water with a tablespoon of lemon juice or whey added. I leave my oats and flour soaking overnight in a plate covered bowl on the counter.

Soaking? According to Nourishing Traditions, soaking neutralizes phytic acid and other enzyme inhibitors in whole grains allowing for better digestion and mineral absorption. Read more about soaking grains here.

The next morning, add the egg, sucanat, baking powder, vanilla and melted butter to the soaked oats and flour mixture. Blend ingredients together. Then slowly fold in a cup of fresh or frozen organic blueberries.

Fill greased muffin cups and bake at 425 for 20 -25 minutes.

Kelly the Kitchen Kop - Real Food Wednesdays
Balancing Beauty and Bedlam - Tasty Tuesday

Skip The Drive Thru

Oven Baked Fries

You can skip the drive thru with these tasty oven fries my 6 year old has proclaimed are "better than McDonald's"!

Better Than McDonald's Oven Fries

6-8 organic russett potatoes - peeled and diced

olive oil

ground black pepper

paprika

real salt*

*I use a mineral salt from the bulk aisle of a health food store, which has the same mineral content as Redmond's RealSalt.

1. Peel and dice organic russet potatoes

2. In a bowl, drizzle diced potatoes with olive oil. Then sprinkle liberally with ground black pepper, paprika and real salt. Toss to coat.

3. Place potatoes on greased baking sheet and bake at 450 for 20 minutes. Flip fries after 10 minutes.

4. Give fries another sprinkle of real salt after removing from the oven.

We love these fries with our favorite Sloppy Joe recipe.

Balancing Beauty and Bedlam - Tasty Tuesday

My Love Language

She gets up while it is still dark;

she provides food for her family

and portions for her servant girls

Proverbs 31: 15

Eight years ago, I did not enter marriage knowing how to cook (or how to do laundry, change diapers or clean house for that matter). My idea then of a fancy meal was chicken breasts baked in tin foil tents with barbeque sauce and two cans of veggies mixed with white rice. My mother was an excellent from scratch cook, but not a very patient teacher. So anything I gleaned from her was done from peering over the kitchen counter. My education in this home art has come in the kitchen through trial and error.

But what once was an uncomfortable setting for me, has now become a means by which I show my love to my family. I take great joy in coming home and preparing hot, home cooked meals for my family even after a long day at work. And I love knowing my husband, the kids and my Mom will get a good, nourishing start to their day with the soaked oatmeal, muffins or sprouted, buttered toast with pastured scrambled eggs I prepared before going to work. It's a bit of me that's left behind during the day and a reconnection when I return in the evenings.

A few of our family's favorite meals

Soaked Oatmeal (The Nourishing Gourmet)

Soaked Sweet Potato Muffins

Feta & Vegetable Pasta Salad

Sloppy Joes with Grassfed, local beef

Dirty Rice with Pastured, local pork sausage

Whole Wheat Pizza with fresh basil from our garden