Back in Action

Well, I haven't posted in a couple of months. The reason was that shortly after I last posted I found out that (surprise, surprise) we are expecting a 4th child. Well, the long and short of it is that I have had a few complications and have felt really crummy until very recently. Finally the energy is coming back a bit and the nausea is abating.

I have started cooking a bit finally. Jay took over cooking duties for the last stretch and at least we ate good, but there was no planning, as I was not really wanting to think about food much.

However, Thanksgiving is right around the corner and I am in full planning mode. I am excited about my favorite holiday (food wise) and am trying to do as much local as possible. I will post my menu when finalized and in the meantime post a few favorite recipes (both new and old)!!

Good eating and happy holidays!!

Menu Planning Fiasco

So, I fell off the Bandwagon this week. I am still cooking, but boy I didn't have a minute to sit down and plan.

Here is the low down the best I can create.

Saturday we went to the in-laws and ate there at their club pool (garbage food). We regretted it later when we all felt lousy.

Sunday we had taco meat with tortilla chips and sauteed vegetables, refried beans and toppings as well as Corn on the cob.

Monday we cooked a turkey in our electric roaster (a free-range, organic chicken that apparently we stored in my parents freezer and forgot about, it was delicious). Mashed potatoes that we dug up the potatoes at our CSA and gravy. Steamed green beans along side it.

Tuesday we had leftovers.

Tonight I have meetings so it will be sweet corn, green beans and hot dogs (all natural from a local smokehouse).

Tomorrow- Undecided, but probably stuffed cabbage.

Friday--Kids eating at Grandmas, so we will probably take an easy packed dinner to the set up of the conference.

Saturday -We will be at the local HTN conference all day/evening, so leftovers or a packed dinner will be the deal.

Sunday School starts Sunday, so not sure what we will plan, probably Chicken as we need to make freezer space by the 15th when our new delivery of chickens arrives.

Hubby stayed up late last night (as he left this morning for a business trip) making applesauce from a case of juicer apples we got from our favorite local organic orchard. It is so good.

That is it for now, but I do plan to get back on the ball with planning soon.

Lisa

Nourishing Portable Food Challenge

One of my favorite Nourishing Blogs http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/ is having a Nourishing Portable Food Challenge. In light of the fact that I pack lunch for 2 children each day and they both have different requirements and likes/dislikes (my son cannot have dairy) and I often pack my own lunch for a meeting or whatever, I figure I can share some ideas and maybe figure out a recipe to post too.

You can check out all the ideas for healthy, nourishing portable foods at http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2008/08/nourishing-portable-food-challenge_26.html

Usually when I pack lunches I use the Laptop Lunches Lunchbox System http://www.laptoplunches.com/ I love these lunchboxes as they help with portion control and it is waste free which is good for the environment. They are plastic, but are made of the safer type plastics that aren't supposed to leach, for kids I really find plastic to be a necessity. The food presentation is wonderful because they are based on the Bento box style of Japan. When the child (or adult) opens the case, the food is ready and looks appetizing, things also keep from getting squished as they would in a plastic baggie.

I frequently make sandwiches for the children with all-natural lunchmeats or a healthy nut butter and raw honey with slices of organic banana, or sometimes an organic jam.

I also frequently pack homemade trail mix. This is my favorite portable snack as it is made with a variety of crispy nuts (nuts soaked in salt water overnight, then dehydrated to help break down the enzyme inhibitors, phytic acid and other anti-nutrients and make them more digestible), organic dried fruit, and a few organic chocolate chips. It is easy to pack and gives them a good balance of protein and carbs to keep them going. Also, if they don't finish their lunch, this is usually something that they an snack on after school too.

I often put either apple sauce (for my son) and yogurt for my daughter with some fruit on top (in the picture it is some organic tart cherries with organic vanilla yogurt. I also put either vegetable or salad. In the picture it is kale for my son and a salad for my daughter. I also frequently put some pieces of cheese or salami or other meat with a few organic crackers (or sometimes without the crackers).

I also frequently send stew, chili or soup in a thermos. The kids always love that. I only send water most days, once a week they can have juice, chocolate milk or kombucha.

I often do a "lunchable" type lunch instead of a sandwich. I just roll up or cut with a decorative cutter pieces of meat and cheese and put those in with some veggie sticks, cut up fruit, maybe some olives, pickles or sauerkraut/kim chi and crackers. The kids love these finger foods.

I also frequently use leftover dinners that may be good cold. Cold pieces (off the bone) of roasted chicken with some hard-boiled egg and maybe cheese pieces along with veggies and fruit. Frittatas are great too, as they are good warm, room temp or cold. They can be cut in a wedge and eaten on the go easily too. They can be any meal (breakfast, lunch or dinner) and can include a variety of ingredients. Meatloaf is also good cold too.

Many friends and family have told me my meatloaf is great. Here is my recipe (the amounts are not real exact as I usually just throw it together), I put frozen organic corn in the middle of the loaf as my dad always did that and the kids get a kick out of it, but if you are planning to use it for a lunch (sandwich or sliced) that does not work so well, so just leave it without the "surprise in the middle"

Lisa's Meatloaf

Note: These amounts are approximate as I just eyeball it (however, it is 2lbs meat)

2 pounds grass-fed ground beef (if very lean, add some type of oil/fat to the mixture)

1 small or half a medium onion, pureed

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon Penzey's beef roast seasoning (or use you favorite beef spice blend or other spices)

1/4 teaspoon sea salt or to taste

1/4 teaspoon black pepper or to taste

1/2 teaspoon organic worcestershire sauce

1 large egg

sprinkle of garlic powder or 1 small glove grated (or finely minced)

1 tablespoon organic tomato ketchup

2 tablespoons salsa

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix thouroughly with hands (I find that works best to get it very well homogenized). Cover rimmed sheet pan with parchment paper or a silpat and mound meat mixture into a free form loaf shape. (If doing a corn surprise in the middle, mound the bottom of the loaf, build up some sides, place frozen corn in middle and cover with remaining meat mixture).

Topping mixture: Mix 1/8 cup of ketchup with 1/8 cup salsa and pour over top of meatloaf to cover completely.

Bake at 400 degrees for approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Note: You can also shape the meat mixture into muffin tins and divide topping over them, reduce baking time to compensate (they will end up with grease puddled into the bottom of the tin, so remove immediately from tin to avoid them soaking it in or getting too soft at the bottom).

Menu Planning Week 5

Ok, so it is Tuesday and I am way behind (in just about every aspect of my life these days which just makes me procrastinate more!).

Well we have been cooking, but just not to organized about it.

Recap: Well we did have eggs, oatmeal and pot roast. Didn't get to much else.

Here is what we have had between last weekend and now: Saturday we had grilled steaks and grilled vegetables with baked potatoes, Sunday we had stirfry with the leftover steak, brown rice, salad and pickles with the last of the corn on the cob (in-laws came for dinner). Dessert was cantaloupe, blueberries and watermelon. Monday we had leftovers (well they did, I wasn't home).

Ok, here we go with this week.

Tuesday (August 26)
Breakfast-Soaked Oatmeal Porridge
Lunch-Bologna, fruit
Dinner: Meatloaf, Fried Summer Squash, Sauteed Red Cabbage

Wednesday (Aug 27)
Breakfast-Frittata
Lunch-Leftovers
Dinner-Pot Roast (need something that can cook while I am gone to the school meeting)

Thursday (Aug 28)
Breakfast -Muffins
Lunch Lunchmeat, fresh veggies, pickles
Dinner -Leftovers (we have to go to orientation for religious school)

Friday (Aug 29)
Breakfast-Leftovers
Lunch-Sandwiches
Dinner-Tacos/Nachos

I also once again hope to get to making some desserts and zucchini bread as well as regular bread (since I am out of bread flour and plan to shop on Thursday evening). I got some wonderful local blueberries at the Royal Oak Farmers Market from Blueridge Blueberry Farm and I really want to make a blueberry dessert. I was hoping to make a blueberry peach crostada, but Rachel ate all the peaches lickity-split (and most of a bag of apples I got). I have enough Gingergold apples to make something, so I'll have to figure out what.

Lisa

Menu Planning Week Four

Well, I sort of had a small tumble off the band wagon this week. I just have been so busy that every time I sat down to do a menu plan, I got side-tracked.

Well here is an attempt to rein in the week (which is a crazy busy week!!).

I can't even remember what we ate on Saturday and Sunday, so I'll start with Monday.

Monday (August 18)
Breakfast--Leftover Fritatta
Lunch-Smoked Turkey (lunchmeat from Markowycz), cucumber slices, cantaloupe, homemade pickles and whole grain gluten free crackers, leftover roasted cauliflower and roasted beets.
Dinner-Hamburger Patties (East River Organics hamburger, mixed with local eggs, basil and a few spices), breaded and baked summer squash, , corn on the cob.

Tuesday (August 19)
Breakfast-Smoked Turkey, summer sausage, cucumbers and chips
Lunch- Variety of leftover and some smoked turkey lunchmeat
Dinner-Baked Chicken, Corn on the cob, gnocci (from a local pasta company Tracina's) Leftover Summer squash from last night

Wednesday (August 20)
Eggs-scrambled
Lunch-Leftovers
Dinner-Pot Roast (as I can prep it and let it cook while we are gone in the afternoon and eat real quick before my meeting tomorrow night)

Thursday (August 20)
Breakfast-Fritatta
Lunch-Salad and lunchmeat (or leftovers)
Dinner-Meatloaf

Friday-
Breakfast-Muffins
Lunch-Salad and leftovers
Dinner-leftovers and we are going to a Boy Scout event with hotodogs and smores too.

I also still need to make the zucchini bread, maybe Thursday as I clean my house to get ready for a GS meeting at my house in the evening

Eating Local is so much fun this time of year.

During summer and into fall, I don't have much trouble eating local, and I LOVE the journey!!

Every Saturday I go to the farmers market (Royal Oak every other week usually followed by a trip to the Clarkston Market and just Clarkston on the other weeks). I sometimes go by myself, which is pleasurable to stroll along and talk to all my farmer/vendor friends, including Julie (La Vida Local) at Clarkston. Many weeks I meet or go with my dad. It is a throwback to my growing up years where it was a tradition to go to the market together. Sometimes we take the whole family, my kids love the market!!The smells, the sounds, the abundance of beaconing fruits and vegetables in all their glory, the multitude of colors. It is such a sensory and soul soothing experience!!

We belong to a CSA, so we have an abundance of fresh, local, organically-grown vegetables each week, but I can't resist the market experience. I still manage to spend a good amount on things we don't get enough of (or any of) from our CSA or other fun, yummy items that aren't produce but are local.

This past week I bought 2 dozen sweet corn, a watermelon, 2 canteloupe and a quart of organic, local peaches.

For dinner recently we had Nachos with local beef (from East River Organics) made into homemade taco meat (I don't use a spice/packet for the meat, but a recipe from Cook's Illustrated), Simmon's corn chips, global warming salsa, locally bought sour cream and Rosewood cheese (which is produced in Ann Arbor area) and Eden refried beans. It was so good and very filling.

Breakfast this morning was Fritattas with local eggs (we get them from our CSA and they are locally produced by several area families for our CSA), veggies from our CSA (onions, garlic, summer squash, green bell pepper and carrots from east river organics, they are so good). Hubby made breakfast. We had the watermelon from the farmers market with the frittata.

So it isn't hard for me to do local meals this time of year, in fact basically all our meals are local as we try to use up our abundance of veggies. We had grilled pizzas tonight. The crust was homemade with flour from Westwind Mill (I did use a bit of other flour because Westwind is out of the heartier wheat varieties and I needed a bit more protein content in the dough). The dough only has salt, yeast, water, olive oil and flour in it. The sauce was made from homemade roasted tomato sauce (the peach and melon farmer at the Clarkston Farmers market gave us a bag of their imperfect tomatoes when they heard we wanted to make sauce--thats what I love about building relationships with your growers) with onion and garlic from our CSA added and some spices. The toppings were onions (CSA), pepperoni (Markowycz Meats in Detroit) and cheese. We had sweet corn with the pizzas!!

Yum, I will be sad when winter rolls around and the fresh green vegetables and the lucious fruits are gone. We do put up things like tomato sauce, corn (blanced and cut off the cob), berries, and pickles, kim chi and sauerkraut, and jam. We try to do more, but depends on what we can source.

Lisa

Sanford Family Dill Pickles

This pickle recipe has been in my family for Generations!! They are Kosher Dill Pickles made with a salt brine and not vinegar. Garlicky and yummy, they are a family tradition. My dad used to make them with his parents and his grandparents made them too, I don't know how many more generations back they go, but they are the typical recipe for Kosher Garlic Brined Dills, so I am sure our family didn't invent them, but we sure love them!! I grew up making pickles with my dad and when I had kids I taught them the recipe and how to make them (and hubby, who loves them and is a fantastic pickle maker now!!).

This is a great activity for the kids as they can help with all the steps and the daily shake and check is always fun. It is like magic how green cucumbers turn cloudy and dark and turn into sour dill pickles. Pure Magic!!

Sanford Family Dill Pickle Recipe

Per Quart of Pickles

2 stalks Dill -- divided

1 Tablespoon Kosher salt -- heaping

1 teaspoon pickling spice

1 quart pickling cucumbers -- as many as will fit in a wide mouth quart jar

2 cloves garlic (the individual cloves, not heads)-- peeled, to taste (2-3 cloves, more or less depending on how garlicky you like your pickles.-- I sometimes slice up the bigger cloves and cut in half smaller cloves and put the pieces in, that helps give it more garlic flavor.)

1 red chile pepper -- dried (optional, to taste, if you like a little heat add one, for hotter pickles add more dried peppers-- I use dried arbol peppers)

**cold water

For each quart of pickles use a clean (preferably sterile) wide mouth quart jar with a lid and screw cap. Fold up one stalk of dill and push into bottom of quart jar, covering the bottom of the jar (use more dill if needed to cover bottom of jar).

Fill jar with cucumbers, tightly pack as many as will fit up to the lip (below where the threads for the lid start) of jar.

Add one heaping Tablespoon of kosher salt and one teaspoon of pickling spice to jar.

Push cloves of garlic into areas around cucumbers (try to evenly disburse them around jar) and add the hot pepper(s) to jar. Fold up remaining stalk of dill and push into jar on top of cucumbers to cover.

Fill jar to lip (below the area where the threads start for screw top) with cold water, covering cucumbers and dill. Make sure cucumbers are covered, sometimes you have to really fill the jars with water to get the cukes and dill covered, that is ok (just make sure you use a pan under the jars as explained below).

Place lid and screw top on and tighten screw top by hand till tight (you don't need to overtighten). Shake jars to distribute salt and spices and help the salt dissolve.

Place filled jars on counter or table with a pan or several layers of paper towels underneath to catch any possible leaks.

Shake jars once a day and check to make sure lid has not come loose due to the fermentation process. The brine will start to turn cloudy after a while, and the cucumbers will go from bright green to a darker green, this means they are working and turning to pickles. Pickles will be ready to eat in one week (we go 10 days to start), but are even better if you wait two weeks. Refrigerate after opening.

They will last several weeks in the fridge once opened (however, we can never keep them around that long). They will last for several weeks or even longer before opening jars, but they are not actually preseved via a canning method for long term storage. After too long the cucumbers tend to get very mushy. They are best if you eat them 2-4 weeks after making them. Enjoy.

I have attached three pictures of the jars we made. The brightest green is one made today (the picture on the far left), the middle picture is slightly green but darker and cloudy and was made 2 days ago, the last jar (the far right picture) is one that is 9 days old (almost ready to eat).

Lisa