Awesome Musgovian Chicken and Lentil Soup

Even my pickiest is eating this as a bedtime snack right now.....The recipe says "chicken" but I made it with left over, frozen turkey from the last holiday....

12 c. broth/stock
2 c.(one can) tomato sauce
1 c. hot salsa
1 c. lime juice
left over cooked chicken (maybe 2-3 c.)
lentils (I think 2 c.)
-------------------------
cook all the above until lentils are cooked (20-30 min)
--------------------------
add 2 c. pasta. Cook until al dente.

Musgovian cuisine: this must go, that must go

This makes a HUGE batch because I mostly doubled a recipe I found. I'm trying to cook a HUGE pot of soup/chili/stew early in the week--have some officially for one meal, freeze some for a day when I forget about doing a meal (you'd be surprised how often that happens), and have some left over for kids to snack on during hte week.

Oh, for pasta, I used alphabet pasta because I found a bag buried in a drawer....the kids, especially, the older two, were giddy.

is anyone there?

Just wanted to say that I love my rice cooker.

I read that a crock pot costs 2-4 cents per hour and a stove top costs 35 cents per hour.

Figure a rice cooker must be close to a crock pot

Last night, I warmed up 4 pre-cooked, left over chicken thighs in the steamer, while I made seasoned rice below.

I'm giddy with delight.

Looking for small-footed men???

At least two of you have husbands who are not humongous...

I'm looking for a pair of men's 9 or 9.5 dress shoes, ideally black. To be worn for several hours on Sept. 13th, by Aidan, with his borrowed suit, at his grandfather's memorial service.

The black shoes I bought him 6 months ago for my mom's service are now at Goodwill, because they were 7.5 or 8. HOw dare he grow?

Since we really have no place for him to wear dress shoes (unless he gets to go to a dance with his girlio...although I think you have to be in high school to attend high school dances...not **this** high school, but **a** high school), I hate to purchase another pair, even at WalMart prices.

I'm also looking for a size 16 or 18 dress shirt...white would be safest, but a pattern/stripe would work as well....short sleeve (AAidan hates long sleeves plus I don't forsee a huge cold snap) that he could wear with a suit jacket (dark blue or black-I have a hard time telling-with a barely contrasting pin stripe).

...also at BigLots...

Annie's organic mac and cheese (not that I think it really matters at that level of food) and organic spaghetti sauce (which was really yummy on the Barilla Spinach and Cheese Tortellini for 1.30). All told, tortellini with sauce ended up costing less than $3 for four of us. Also, for those ofyou who buy bread, BL had 100% whole wheat for 1.40/loaf (my kids are begging me not to bring any more panera into our house). And cans of organic lentil soup for $1/can (for me, that's 3-4$ for soup for a meal, probably less expensive than if I made it myself if I include the energy to run the stove, oven, or crock pot.

I love BL.....otoh, they have stopped carrying the DebbieLongWhiteBaskets and are now carrying a modernized version and slightly raised their prices on them. Otooh (on the other other hand), they are a neater look and are still less expensive than the TraditionalDebbieLongWhiteBaskets at Walmart.

Zyrtec at Big Lots

for $2 for 14, 10mg tablets.

Also, puffs plus tissues for $1.60 for 160 tissues (most boxes have 132).

Also basalmic vinegarette dressing (for salad pita) for $1.50.

Our version of Nathan’s Adaptation of Kansiye (Guinean Goulash)

Nathan’s Adaptation of

Kansiye (Guinean Goulash)

2 lb. shoulder roast
1/8 tsp. black pepper
1/8 tsp. thyme
2+ cloves garlic (minced)
1/8 tsp ground cloves
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 12-oz can tomato sauce
¼ cp. Water
3 TBS all natural (no added sugar or salt) peanut butter (softened in microwave)
1 cup unsalted peanuts

Put all in crockpot for I forget how long...till done.

Very Yummy!


Brown meat with onions and garlic.
Add spices.
Combine tomato sauce, water, and V-8. Add to seasoned meat.
Add peanut butter to mixture.
Cook over medium heat for one hour until meat is tender.
Shortly before serving, add peanuts.
Serve hot over brown rice.

ww bread

Found new recipe...YUMMY!

MOdifications:

1/4 c. honey instead of honey and molasses
Add 4 t. vital wheat gluten after yeast
butter instead of margarine


Baked in breadmaker under whole wheat 2 pounds


http://www.recipezaar.com/221429

Quiche

Our version of the quiche turned out great!

Here is what I did:

1/2 head califlower sauteed
1 dozen eggs
8 oz sour cream (didn't quite make 1000 ml, but that is all I had)
salt and pepper
Mix the eggs and sour cream
8 oz. sliced swiss cheese ($1.66 at Kroger right now)
chopped bacon (I get this precooked and chopped at Aldi, don't remember how much)

Layer like a lasagna in a 9x14

Half the califlower mixture
half the bacon
half the egg mixture
half the sliced cheese
Repeat

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.


half the egg mixture

ww flour

Kroger has whole wheat flour for $2.19. Don't know what kind of quality, but cheap:)

Debbie

saving food...

After much angst, I decided to buy Debbie Meyer Green Bags for fruits and veggies, and, to my surprise, they really do work wonders! I've had bananas for over a week and peaches for 4 days longer than I thought possible (since they were ripe, ripe, ripe when I picked them).

Here someone else agrees with me.

even my carb'o'holics loved it...

Cauliflower Quiche (makes 2 quiche--I was planning on leftovers, but they ate it all)

about 1/2 head of cauliflower, sliced-ish, sauted in olive oil until not raw with garlic and/or onions
1 dozen good eggs mixed with enough fat free sour cream to make about 1,000 ml
add various herbs and spices to egg mixture
grated, good quality baby or mild swiss cheese
chopped bacon (optional)
some more grated or sliced swiss

-------------
in the bottom of each crusts, sprinkle grated cheese (or, for Brenda, in the bottom of a lightly oiled pie pan, glass works best w crustless quiche ime)
add 1/2 cauliflower mixture
sprinkle bacon
add 500 ml of egg mixture
top with slices of cheese (thinly sliced and leaving holes int he top--I did one with small triangles of cheese not touching and one sort of lattice-like)
bake 350 until firm (I think about 30-45 min, but I put them in the oven and told the family to be sure to take them out when done, and who knows....)

Anyway, Nathan is heading back downstairs at 10:30 to eat a piece, I took 3 pieces to the library where Aidan and some friends were volunteening, and they ate it all up, Tynan ate two pieces...Louis has hidden a piece for his lunch tomorrow.........

Of course, Aidan and his friends were starving and may have eaten road kill at that point AND my kids have been living on fair food all week and their bodies must be dying for some healthful food about now. Anyway, it was a huge success, and three of them have said we should have a weekly quiche night.

Need ideas...

OK, in an effort to eat more locally, simply, and healthfully, I need ideas. I've decided to stop catering so much to my kids and husband's quirks...they will eat what I make. 'Nuff said. I've recently spent time with a couple of teens whose parents made them eat what was in front of them, and, by gosh, they are delights to have around, cleaning their plates and being not only pleasant but also enthusiastic about food. I never went out of my way to trick or seduce my kids into brushing their teeth or wearing seatbelts...and they haven't grown up to have power struggles about safety and personal hygiene, so I'm going to stop worrying that I'll lead them into eating disorders...other than the disorders I've allowed them to have by letting them follow their own path regarding food....


So, now I have 1 head of cabbage, 1 head of cauliflower, 2 lbs of fresh green beans, 1 lb of good mild swiss cheese, 6 red/yellow/orange bell peppers, 1 cantalope, tomatoes, a zucchini, and some cherry tomatoes.

Do you think that a quiche with cauliflower/swiss cheese/zucchini?

Good ideas for the rest of the cauliflower? roast it? Roast it and use it in a pasta salad? What about the peppers?

I need to work more to let my kids learn that veggies can be the main portion of a meal and not just side dishes and fillers. If they fill up on veggies, they'd be a lot healthier and I'd be a lot happier (as would they in the long run).

Awesome recipe...very nutritious, full of protein, and most every one loved it

WE'll see how the judge likes it in the morning...

Nathan’s Adaptation of

Kansiye (Guinean Goulash)

1 lb. boneless beef (can use a cheap, cheap, cheap cut)
1 TBS oil
1 lg. onion chopped
½ tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper
1/8 tsp. thyme (rubbed)
2+ cloves garlic (minced)
1/8 tsp ground cloves
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 6-oz can tomato sauce
¼ cp. Water + 1 6-oz can V-8 Juice (low sodium)
3 TBS all natural (no added sugar or salt) peanut butter (softened in microwave)
1 cup unsalted peanuts


Brown meat with onions and garlic.
Add spices.
Combine tomato sauce, water, and V-8. Add to seasoned meat.
Add peanut butter to mixture.
Cook over medium heat for one hour until meat is tender.
Shortly before serving, add peanuts.
Serve hot over brown rice.

great small food print website

even with all the UK references and culture: http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/

Feeding the masses

I'm not talking about feeding hoards of teens this time around, although this would work well for that, too.

L's sister and 3 kids were here for a little over a week and each year it seems they spend more and more time at our house as opposed to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Yet, their schedule is very flexible and dependent upon the needs and desires of the grandparents, obviously. So, one day I was faced with the assumption I'd be feeding some or all of them dinner, oppressive heat, inefficient AC in the front part of the downstairs and no AC (and minimal air circulation) in the kitchen, yet the threat of thunderstorms (minimizing my desire to cook out).

So, I tossed two roasts into the crock pot around 11 pm the night before (after trimming as much fat off them as I could...they were frozen solid when I put them in) along with a bottle of bbq sauce, cooked on low all night. Removed the meat in the morning and let cool a little so I could dig through it....cut it in smaller chuncks (about 4" or so) and picked out as much of the fat pieces as I could. REturned the meat to the crockpot. Kept it on low. Took the crock pot to the deck and plugged it in (a garage would work as well and I've used our front porch when it's been raining--I think I'm the only one here w/o a garage that would work well). By dinner time, voila! bbq shredded beef.

For sides, I mixed frozen (although fresh works just as well) whole green beans with olive oil, garlic, and kosher salt in a disposable aluminim pan, covered and stuck it all on the grill along with a dozen potatoes that I'd chopped, seasoned, mixed with oil, popped into a similar coverd pan. That stuff just needs to cook, so if it had rained, no back and forth tending was required...just put it on and take it off about 30 or so minutes later (you can pre-cook the potatoes in the microwave it you want to).

We put some grapes and melon slices on the table during the meal and told the kids that a fancy bowl of cut up fruit (gonna-rot peaches with blueberries and sliced gonna-rot strawberries) was desert, and we were done.

By the way, I believe for those of us without a cow in the freezer, that roasts are BOGO this week at Kroger.

Oh, and I have enough meat left frozen for 1.5 meals (sandwiches and potato topping?) and enough for lunches or a meal with only part of my family in the fridge--the cousins didn't eat too much because they'd had a late lunch out earlier.

smallfoodprint blog administrivia

First of all, I hope I didn't step on any toes by adding email privilege to everyone...now, any post to the blog should go to not just the blog itself but to everyone's email inboxes. Debbie, I didn't use your gmail address since you use the .rr one for personal email as far as I know.

Second, there is a way to post to the blog via email. I don't know how to do it and can't get beyond contemplating how it might be done. If you want to try to figure it out, log in to the blog, go to "settings" then "email" then scroll down. More power to you if you figure it out.

Third, regarding organization of the blog: There is a "label" option at the bottom of each post in compose mode (bad sentence, but I hope you get what I mean). For this entry, I used the labels "administrivia, email, labels, reply" Posts can be searched by those labels and will be housed under them as well. So, if we used "5-ingredient or less" or "chicken" or "party food" or "101 things to do with zucchini" clicking on that label in the blog will pull up every single post of that topic.

Fourth, there is also a reply function to each published post. So, if I post a recipe and someone else posts a response (a modification, a suggestion, a more specific recipe--since I don't really USE recipes, or a "that was great and my kids ate it all", or whatever), the response will be threaded with the original post (also streamlining the archives and searching of posts).

Questions?

Chicken meal everyone loved

2 t. minced garlic
2 T olive oil
1 T chili powder
1 T. cumin
1/2 t. salt
1 T flour
1.5 c. chicken broth
3 T tomato paste
3 c. diced, cooked chicken
1 green pepper, sliced
1/4 c. green olives, sliced.

Saute garlic till soft
Stir in chili powder, cumin, salt, and flour
Add chicken broth and paste.
Cook 5 minutes on low
Stir in chicken, pepper, and olives and heat through.

I'm the only one who eats olives and green peppers. Everyone else picked them out. But, I thought it was yummy. Thad in particular commented several times on the sauce.

Spaghetti/pizza/meat ball sandwich sauce

I have been attempting to find a tomato sauce recipe my whole family will eat.  I think this may be the beginning of such a sauce.  If you have any suggestions-I'd love to hear!!  This is just a very basic, and easy to remember.

@ 1 TBSP of olive oil

some chopped onion (one small or half)

mushrooms (of course optional)

1 tsp salt

1 big clove of garlic crushed

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano 

sprinkle of pepper

   Saute on med/low above ingredients til totally limp-@ 10 min.

Add 28 oz can of concentrated crushed tomatoes (I use Walmart's brand $.97)

If like chunky, add small can (15oz) of diced tomatoes. (Aldi's for $.45, I think)

Taste.  May need a little more salt if added the diced tomatoes.  Add 1 tsp of sugar for the kids if needed. :)  

I've used this as pizza sauce (with Debbie's delicious pita wheat recipe) and no one complained.  It's a start..... :)

 

ice packs

Brenda is probably already aware of this having had babies at home, but the rest of you might be interested:

you can make your own squishy ice packs for injuries by adding rubbing alcohol to water in a ratio of 1:2 in a zip lock bag and freezing. Or you can fill a ziplock baggie 1/2 with dish soap and freeze.

I suggest double bagging.

Mine lasted years until we moved and I threw them away. The ones I've made recently won't last as long because I didn't have any top quality bags.

pita ad nauseum

So, my flat pitas didn't go very quickly. I ate some as toast yesterday. Slightly dry.

So, tonight, I sliced them in half and put butter, cinnamon and sugar on three and butter and garlic powder on the other three halves. I put them in the oven with dinner (which was at 400) and baked the pita halves for about 10 minutes or so.

Very popular:)

POC

Pita recipe (more)

Be sure to let the balls rise for at least 20 minutes. My first pitas today were tough, chewy, and didn't break apart. The last two were perfect.

YUM!

I made Jiffy Rice PUdding (which is out of Whole Foods for the Whole Family):

1 c. cooked rice
1/2 c. cottage cheese
1/2 c. plain yogurt
honey
cinnamon

YUM!

(For the record, Thomas and I are the only ones who will eat this:)

POC

names

The kids were getting a big kick out of our blog names. They wanted me to change mine to something more original, but not use "Sunny D" which is one of my little nicknames.

Once, when we were at Hunan Buffet, I looked at their plates full of fruit and dessert and said, "You are the people of the carb."

Thus, my name.

Clearly, I am in good company, oh Mother of the Carb Lovers.

POC

Miscellaneous

Cheese sticks are at Aldi for $2.89. (Thomas begged, and I even made a special stop for them:)

Kroger is still selling organic Galas for $3.99 bag.

Packables: jar of peanut butter with celery (and other pb dippables like califlower, etc.), trail mix (homemade), pre-cooked burgers (better than drive thru).

Debbie (who hit Taco Bell today and ever so enjoyed her burrito:)

packing food--ideas???

So, I was reading Sara's potato recipes, and was thinking "hey, those sweet potatoes, peeled and chunked, would make a nice packable dish in a cooler...."

We are going to yet another soccer tournament (although I shouldn't whine as I haven't actually attended one this season, just sent Nathan to several with my money). Anyway, I have announced that we will be eating out of a cooler all darn weekend. Now, frankly, I get bored with typical "cooler fare" and I have no ideas. I'm brain dead after already driving nearly 2,000 miles the past week, loading, unloading, sorting, putting up drapes, blah blah blah.

So, my instinct is loaf of bread, egg salad, hard boiled eggs (fast protein to calm frazzled nerves), cottage cheese, cheese sticks or cubes (depending on the price), maybe yogurts (but again depending on price), carrots/celery/broccoli, peanut butter, honey.

However, a tub of sweet potato chunks....that sounds like a plan.
what other, less boring things, could I pack?

Otherwise, i know I'll give in and do drive thru....


desperately seeking ideas dawn

Simple Spuds

Spectacular Spuds

compliments to Brenda

Potatoes

olive oil

salt

garlic power

Poke a few holes in potatoes with fork.   Brush potatoes with olive oil.  Sprinkle with lots of salt, and a little garlic powder.  Bake in oven at 400 (or lower if have something else in the oven) right on the rack for around 30 min-1 hour, depending on size.  Gently squeeze to see if done.  Cool just a bit.  These are so yummy, I can eat them plain, but also love with a scoop of cottage cheese.  Thanks for many delicious "saving grace" meals, Brenda!

Simple Sara's Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes

Olive oil

Salt

Poke potatoes with fork.  Brush with olive oil.  Lots of salt.  Cook same as above.  The cooler they are, the "sweeter" they taste.  Almost tastes like pudding, if totally cool.  I like them right out of the refrigerator.

(Sorry about the italics-can't get out of it! :) )

Bread

I have continued experimenting with bread recipe (one of the earliest posts here).

Yesterday I made the dough (made in breadmaker) into mini pita breads. It is incredible! The secret is to make them relatively thin - maybe 1/2" thick... I made 12 pitas out of the recipe. The pitas split very easily.

Shockingly, there was leftover bread. Today, I took the remaining pitas and broiled them with cheese on top. Very popular!

Sunny D

5 ingredient recipes

Hi Everyone,

I am giving this blog thing a try so bear with me as I am sure  to make some mistakes or take some time to figure it out!

In terms of some 5 ingredients or so recipes, one of my favorites (and Phil's, but not the kids) is Debbie's  black bean salad:

1 can black beans

1 can corn

1 T red wine vinegar

1 T lime juice

avocado

olive oil (i use extra virgin)

red onion

salsa

(Debbie also has as options cilantro, tabasco, or jalepenos)

I enjoy putting it in a tortilla and eating it like a burrito or eating it as a dip with tortilla chips.  Yum!

Family friendly one:  Homemade Hamburger helper

1 lb. ground beef

1 cup uncooked macaroni noodles (I use multigrain or whole wheat)

15 oz can tomato sauce (I often use more - dump almost a whole jar in)

1 packet onion soup mix

1 1/2 c. water

Brown meat and drain fat.  Add remaining ingredients.  Stir, cover and reduce heat to simmer.  Simmer for 15 minutes or until noodles are tender.  

I add grated cheddar cheese on the top and let melt in the last few minutes of cooking.  I also add ground broccoli when browning the meat (but please do not tell my kids - Zachary will never touch it again if he knew!!!).

Salad Pita

Another family favorite (or at least 4 out of 5 will eat it) is a dish we call Salad pita.

Salad (lettuce and any other veggies - red cabbage, broccoli, carrots, etc)

Balsamic Vinegarette Dressing (italian dressing packet, balsamic vinegar, olive oil)

Feta Cheese (lots)

Put all ingredients in a pan on stove and heat over medium flame.  I prefer it a little less cooked -  cheese melts and veggies get a bit tender but lettuce does not become cooked spinach yet.  Although, it turns out that way most  times.  We then put this inside a tortilla, roll and eat. The kids like to dip their tortilla into the sauce or liquid that remains (a mixture of  the dressing, water from the veggies, and melted cheese).  I had this dish in Philly from a street vendor and they made it  with the salad inside a pita - also very good.  This is one way I  can get my kids to at least eat something green once in a while.  And so  quick, easy, and healthy!

Thanks for all your ideas to.

Elaine

5-Ingredient Recipe (5 Can Stew)

OK, you have to have canned goods on hand. The only stickler in my family is the minestrone soup.

1-can of Minestrone Soup
1-can of corn
1-can of tomato (diced, stewed, etc)
1-can of black beans, rinsed (unless you want the black bean look)
1-can of mixed veggies

I do this in a crock pot and about 1 hr - 30 minutes before we intend to eat, I might add corn bread of bisquit batter to the top, re-cover and cook until it is done.

(you could probably add a lot of pureed veggies here....or greens. Spinach would be good) I'm thinking you could get most of the cans at Dollar Tree for 50 cents.

Here's another, which only counts if you commonly have roast around, which we do. You could make your own sloppy jo sauce recipe, too. But I'm always missing something like yellow mustard or that's the day I don't have catsup or brown sugar...(taken from some recipes I recently gave to a friend on livejournal....)

I take a roast or two and pour a can or two of sloppy joe sauce over it, cook the sh*t out of it, and then shred it and use for sandwich fillings. You can also use it later in tortillas or as potato topping. And then if you drain the final left overs well, you can use that meat as the meat in beef stew/soup/veggie and beef soup.

5 or so ingredient recipe

shredded cabbage
sliced cruciferous veggies (thin)
sliced root veggies (thin, carrots and celery mainly)
cooked rice
thickening sauce (I prefer a mix of soy sauce, white wine, vinegar/lemon juice and water mixed with corn starch)
scrambled egg
(peas if you have them)
chili powder
green onions
----------------
make scrambled eggs, set aside
stir fry all veggies, set aside
stir fry rice until dry, season with chili powder
add veggies back in,
add thickening sauce
when nearly thick, add eggs back in
add green onions last
-------------------
OK, this is more a "clean out the fridge recipe" than a 5 ingredient recipe.

Easy, Fast Recipes

1.
Chicken
Italian/Garlic Expressions dressing
Bake at 350 till done

2.
Chicken
BBQ sauce
Bake at 350 till done

3.
Chicken with salt and paprika and garlic

4.
Breakfast

5.
Roast
Beef broth
Whatever else
Crockpot on high for 6-8 hours

6.
Any beans
Cooked rice
whatever else

End of the Month Challenge....

Here's a challenge:

Post your favorite "5 ingredient or less" recipe **of stuff people might already have handy.**

Finding the Silver lining...

Tall One was cooking today, making various faux-German things to take to Grandma's house.

As he was making some sort of sweet and sour green bean and carrot w/onion and apple thing, he managed to sit the PLASTIC canister of SUGAR on top of the HOT burner area on the flat top stove.

PLASTIC + SUGAR --> not easy to remove.

Plastic we've dealt with before. Sugar based we've dealt with before. But the two combined...

Anyway, silver lining....I never liked that container PLUS he was running behind and paid me $7 to clean it up, which will pay for my movie and snack later today.

Hint: hair dryers ARE a kitchen tool

Spontaneous Visitors

You are right, GCG, none of us end up with 12 actual eaters. (I have double digit kids here occasionally, but they really don't eat very much!)

I gave some thought to your situation and certainly spaghetti is an option. I think when we hit that age, I'll start keeping a cooked whole turkey breast in the freezer. That is 4 pounds of meat - probably wouldn't feed 12, but would probably feed 8. Right now, they are $10. How much spaghetti would you have to make? Two boxes - I buy whole wheat and I think those are about $2 box. I have frozen spaghetti sauce I made...probably pretty cheap. Spaghetti is probably cheaper. What about 6 boxes of mac and cheese? Burgers? Tacos?

How many of them spent the night?

Feeding Others

So, I know that I'm the only one with "big" kids here, but what do you do when others suddenly are around for dinner? For instance, Empathetic One invited a friend over today and that ended up including going to see Speed Racer. Then Fourth of Seven joined them. They came home at dinner time. Patience called Empathetic One and wanted to hang out. Knowing that there were other boys here, she agreed to come over. When she got here, she realized that that was **a lot** of boy. So, Empathetic One suggested she invite a Grrrl or two to even things out. Meanwhile, Tall One was planning on going to another movie with Boyz Who Play Soccer and somehow, two had to be dropped at our house because they were "out and about with family" and weren't going home and Another-Sucker-Mom (who, btw, didn't have to go WATCH Harold and Kumar last week with the same kids, so she owes a LOT of driving to me) needed them to be where she could pick them up. So now, let's count....my 3, 2 male friends of middle child, 2 male friends of eldest, 3 female friends of middle child (who, btw, are closer in age to eldest child), me, husband. I think that's 12 for DINNER.

I guess spaghetti? Minimal protein involved (unfortunately, we are out of Aldi ground Turkey, but they did get some more expensive yet less than cow at Kroger).

::sigh::

I wonder how many will sleep here?

Dairy Reduction

I was looking at Debbie's lunch ideas, my family's eating habits, and our freezer, and then thinking (not always a good thing for me to do, but I do it anyway). It appears that **cheese** plays a huge role in my family's food print. We buy a lot of cheese, usually sliced for sandwiches or grated.

But now I'm thinking...calcium, good. What else is good about it? I don't buy organic cheese (nor milk, since I rarely buy milk and no one really drinks it in my family, but Short One who will drink chocolate milk or Skinny Cow). OK, so I'm thinking (and I could cozy up to google and find out for sure, but not today) that it takes about 10 gallons of milk to make one pound of cheese. Clearly not a frugal use of resources since it takes about 50 lbs of feed and 30 gallons of water (I think) to yield about 6 lbs of cheese. They also poop something like 20-25 lbs a day. And none of this factors in the HUGE amount of pus that is allowed in American milk but not Canadian or European (which is one reason why we sell our milk abroad mostly as [unnecessary] food additives not as milk or cheese *or* to developing (aka "3rd world") nations, because we dont' meet the standards demanded in other developed nations)...anyway, I digress....

So, how do I start to make cheese a "sometimes" food? Although I hate consipracy theories, I'm also convinced that the dairy lobby is right up there with the pharmacutical lobbies and that MY best interests aren't THEIR best interests...However, even though I recognize the potential benefits of milk drinking (which can be fat free), I'm just not certain that I should be encouraging my children to eat as much cheese as we consume. Fat free cheese simply is not worth eating. It's gagalicous. Fat is what makes cheese cheese. That's like calling oil-free, fat-free, air popped popcorn a "treat". It's really just a "filler that you don't normally get."

I wonder if my family could do a "cheese free week challenge." (probably not as long as they are working on 4-H projects...4-H is firmly in the pocket of the dairy lobby). Maybe a "cheese free, lunch meat free" week is called for because they eat a lot of lunch meat.

I'm out of town the 22-27 and then at a tournement the last weekend of the month, then out of town again from June 10-18, then the cousins come for 2 weeks....so maybe this would be a better thing to re-visit in July.

Lunch Reply

I also hate lunch.

Any more, the two younger children just graze all day - I have fresh fruits and veggies out. Buzz-cut boy eats cottage cheese and yogurt. GIrly-girl eats tons of toast. Mop-head boy prefers a hot, prepared lunch. I have a list of items they can select from that I am happy to email anyone.

Recently, I put together leftover, cooked chicken, boxed chicken broth, and noodles. That was a very popular chicken and noodle soup (cheaper and better than the canned stuff they love but I won't buy any more).

Also appreciated by picky mop-head boy was previously posted bread recipe, sliced thickly, with a mound of shredded mozzarella. He microwaved it. I prefer broiled.

I make pita pizzas (pita with spaghetti sauce, mound of shredded cheese, broiled till golden), bagel pizza (same deal), eggs (variation with bacon bits, bread chunks, fried in the middle of cut-out piece of bread), and wraps with left-overs.

I got many of these ideas from some Frugalhomies posts a couple of years ago.

I love this blog.

Sunny D

Lunch

I hate lunch. I hate that it is in the middle of the day. I hate that it interferes with business. I hate that it requires clean up. I simply hate it. You'd think with two kids in school this month, that lunch wouldn't be an issue for me, but it is, maybe even more so. I hate what they are fed there, but I can't get it together well enough to prepare packed lunches for them that are any healthier, and certainly not less expensive (what could I feed a kid that costs less than $1.40-$2.00?) OK, pbj an apple and carrot sticks would, but they'd not eat the carrot sticks, only eat part of the apple, and rip the crusts (and therefore half the bread) off the sandwich...

That said school will be out in 14 week days.

And then summer will be here.

And then I'll have to do lunch for all of them, daily, with a new schedule.

What are your tricks for lunch?

A recipe for Brenda's family...

Taking this at face value...that it really does taste like Kraft and did please the non-gluten free husband...this might be something Brenda might try!

----------------------------------
I saw this recipe on Americas Test Kitchens and the goal was to create a homemade mac-n-cheese that tasted like Kraft. This really worked. My kids loved and and my not gluten-free husband said it was very good. I used rice elbow noodles and gluten-free bread crumbs. Everything worked wonderfully. Yum Yum!

http://www.glutenfreeforum.com/index.php?showtopic=1324

Great Banana Muffin recipe....

Here's what makes this recipe so great:
1. No refined (if you use natural syrup) sugars (although, truth be told, sugar is sugar and Vermont maple syrup frequently is imported from Ohio, so....that means that it was trucked there to be trucked back here, which has its own set of footprint issues);
2. No eggs. Eggs are good. Eggs are great. But it's always nice to mix it up a little.
3. No milk. Organic, Aldi, Wal-mart, local, pasturized, un-pasturized, milk leaves a HUGE footprint because cows leave a HUGE footprint...
4. It's not a picky recipe.
5. It has OJ in it. OJ is great. I love OJ. Pulp it up and have extra fiber. You could probably use prune juice, too, if anyone has those types of needs (which reminds me, I have a great, very healthy recipe for colon blow muffins that I used to make when I was pregnant one time)

----------------------

2/3 c. banana (or whatever...never can have too many within reason)
1/3 c. maple syrup (obviously the real is best, but again, whatever...even corn syrup will work but I prefer grade B local Maple Syrup, although I haven't used it in years)
2/3 c. OJ
1/3 c. oil
2 c. whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt (or whatever)
-----------
mix wet, add dry
bake 350F 20-25 min.

Bread recipe

Posted on BSHEA the recipe for pita pocket bread that was a hit. Here is link: http://www.recipezaar.com/223470

Yesterday, I made the dough in my breadmaker, and then oven baked at 350 for 30 minutes. Very yummy.

This morning, I am going to try baking it in the breadmaker.

Debbie

Whole Grain EFA/Flax pastas, etc.

Brenda mentioned pasta with omega-3/EFA/etc. Maybe one of you knows the answer to this...if heat is bad for flax *oil*, does boiling it for 10 minutes or whatever kill the benefit (and increased cost)?

Brenda, where do you get your kids' oils? I need to get back on that habit again. WE stopped before it even became an habit.

Miracle Soup

NOTE: I'm not big on following recipes....I'm the queen of dump cooking


Miracle Soup (erm...it's a miracle that everyone likes it, that is.....)

In crock pot:
semi cooked frozen white beans (canned or freshly cooked would work as well),
chicken breast or other poultry chunks,
jar of salsa,
can of corn (optional),
frozen pureed carrots or sweet potatoes (optional),
If you need more fluid, add tomato juice/V8
shred chicken before serving

Serve with sour cream, shredded cheese, avacado slices, chopped onion, black olive slices, etc...and baked/fried tortilla strips if you wish

Day 2: add spinach, black beans (any other variety of beans or lentils, I prefer soy or red lentils) and corn, roll in tortillas, cover with sauce of some sort and cheese and bake....and the pureed carrots slipped right past my freaks.

Ramen isn't so shameful...

Although fairly high in fat (yet there are lower fat versions, organic, and whole grain, but then you don't have the inexpensive part of the meal that ramen is known for), you can make ramen inexpensively more healthy and something that a kid can cook:

bring water to a boil.
Toss in a bag of whatever veggies your kids eat (mine perfer broccoli/cauliflower/carrot mix)
bring to a boil again
add noodles
bring to a boil again
drain over chunks of savory chicken (usually we saute a breast and chop up)
add a dollop of olive oil and 1/2 seasoning packet per packet of noodles

And I don't worry about MSG. Besides tempory effects on blood sugar, I can't figure out what is so horrible about it. Seriously, it is a table condiment all over Asia, where some of the healthiest people in the world live and where the elderly are much sharper in general than the elderly here. I've discussed MSG with my Asian students, and they all keep it on their table in a salt shaker. So, I think that while some people may be sensitive, I don't think that there is any way it can be the evil that it is portrayed to be. We are probably more at risk from the toxins in our cars and homes than a little msg on ramen. I wouldn't go out of my way to eat it, but I also wouldn't get my knickers in a twist.

Glutamate is found in nearly all food. It seems to stimulate the "savory" tastebuds...it's what it in asiago cheese that makes it so good in bread, for instance, or what makes mushrooms enhance flavor.

Here's a list of ways we all consume MSG w/o being aware:

Some of the names MSG goes under
monopotassium glutamate
glutavene
glutacylglutamic
acidautolyzed yeast extract
calcium caseinate
sodium caseinate
E621 (E620-625 are all glutamates)
Ajinomoto
Ac'centGourmet Powder

The following may also contain MSG
natural flavours or seasonings
natural beef or chicken flavouring
hydrolyzed milk or plant protein
textured protein seasonings
soy sauce
bouillon
broth
spices

Free glutamate content of foods (mg per 100g)
roquefort cheese 1280
parmesan cheese 1200
soy sauce 1090
walnuts 658
fresh tomato juice 260
grape juice 258
peas 200
mushrooms 180
broccoli 176
tomatoes 140
mushrooms 140
oysters 137
corn 130
potatoes 102
chicken 44
mackerel 36
beef 33
eggs 23
human milk 22

shame and ramen

Well, I know confession is good for the soul...so I must confess to honoring my dd's request for...ramen noodles for "dinner" last night. I did, however toss out the nasty MSG-laden seasoning packet and instead dropped in a few gluten-free bouillion cubes. This choice being akin to my use of stevia to sweeten Kool-Aid. Yes...I have done this. So I was wondering, if there are any "healthier" ramen noodles, such as whole-grain. Someone told me there is low-fat version. I ask this because my husband seems to feel the need to keep buying these, and my children like them for, I believe, the curlyness of the noodles. If I can occasionally use these as a side dish, or come up with some healthy, yet inexpensive recipe to use them in, I can live with them in my pantry. I think.

Macaroni and Cheese

We had Macaroni and Cheese (and I capitalize that in all reverence) - Kraft even - for dinner last night.

Debbie

P.S. I did find an organic Mac and Cheese that my kids like at Big Lots this week for $1.

Grace

Having grown up in a home that religiously (I'm not sure if the pun is even appropriate) said grace--and many of them--

from "Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts, Which we are about to receive From Thy Bounty through Christ, Our Lord, Amen"

to singing "''Tis a gift to be simple..."


to the simple "good food, good meat, good God let's eat"

to the classic "God is great, God is good.Let us thank him for our food.By his hands, we are fed.Give us Lord our daily bread.Amen"

to the Classic folk version "The Lord is good to me and so I thank the Lordfor giving me the things I needthe sun and the rain and the apple seed.The Lord is good to me"

to the time when my parents were socially liberal "For food in a world where many walk in hunger;For faith in a world where many walk in fear;For friends in a world where many walk alone;We give you thanks, O Lord. Amen"

to the basic "Come Lord Jesus be our guest, let this food to us be blessed. Amen"

to the musical (and sung to the tune of "Edelweis,") "Bless our friends,Bless our food,Come, O Lord and sit with us.May our talkGlow with peace;Come with your love to surround us.Friendship and loveMay they bloom and glow,Bloom and glow forever.Bless our friends,Bless our food,Bless all mankind forever. "

to one of my favorites: "In a world where so many are hungry,may we eat this food with humble hearts;in a world where so many are lonely,May we share this friendship with joyful hearts. "

to my juevenile delinquent sister's favorite: Rub a dub dub; thanks for the grub; yeaaa God!

to the one we usually said at breakfast and lunch: Thank you, God, for loving me.Thank you for my family.Help me to learn more each day, To be kind at work and play...

to my mother's favorite: Thank you Lord for happy hearts for rain and sunny weather. Thank you lord for this our food and that we are together. Amen

to the one we said in school..."Thank you for the world so sweet. Thank you for the things we eat. Thank you for the birds that sing. Thank you, God, for everything. "

And as Episcopalians, we didn't say "amen" we "amened" it...."aaaaaaahhhhh-mehhhhn"

And my kids don't have any of those traditions (and I'm thinking not having to have memorized the Book Of Common Prayer as a young child has negatively influenced their educational skills).

So maybe: Today may we appreciate this food and remember those who are hungry. May we appreciate our family and friends and remember those who are alone. May we appreciate our health and remember those who are sick. May we appreciate the freedoms we have and remember those who suffer injustice and tyranny. Peace on earth. Amen

It sure beats, "OK, who has to be at practice?"

...I would love some sort of tradition with my family. Most of these aren't appropriate. Maybe I need to investigate some dharma centered blessings

Food at the H-S house this week...

So, Tall-0ne is doing an international cooking project for 4-H this year. I love cooking projects, especially now that he's old enough to take projects with real food that really benefit the family.

While 4-H cooking projects are billed as "expensive," at least we get to consume the by-products, unlike the dang electricity project someone did a few years ago where we dropeed $100 at RadioShack on day 1!

This past week/end, Tall-one did "Mexican" in honor of Cinco De Mayo: Queso Dip (which I loved and no one else), Arroz con Pollo (picture included), and a gazillion of Empanadas Dulces (he made over 100 of them) out of whole wheat flour (let's just say that some things call for white) and I recyled my miracle chicken soup into enchiladas--and even included those pureed veggies some of you are so gung-ho about). Then tonight, Tall-one moved on to Italy and made Minestrone and Grissini (aka breadsticks) for dinner and then also pre-prepared Manicotti which he will cook and serve with Insalata de Romana (salad) for tomorrow.

He's moving on to Germany for Friday...anyone want to come to dinner? We just inherited a lot of flatware and I said we either had to get rid of some of it or start entertaining and The Man of the House (TMOTH) said "entertain."

BUI (blogging while...)

Ummmm, O.K. So...like, this is like...totally my first blog, like...ever! I was sorta hoping for something more profound, but I have been out celebrating Cincquo dee Moyyo with my husband. This is the celebration of the Mexcquiam peoples, like totally defeating the aliens invaders, and like WINNING!!! YEAAA for them! So...I ate some high fiber beans, and found them to be economicalyy yummy, as was the rrrrrrrrrizzo (rice in Ammmmericcan). So, anyhooo...I'd better go and get the "ninyoz" to bed . Perhaps tomorrow I can post about what the most economical brands of Tequila and headache reliver are. Sorry about that prepositional thingy there , Dawn.
Love, Brenda
aka "That's Senorita to you pal! "