Midweek Menu

I did not plan a menu last week and I hated when it would hit 4pm and I'd be scrambling to figure something out. I was bound and determined not to let that happen again this week.

Yesterday, we picked up our veggie box. In it, we received green tomatoes, collard greens, cucumbers, and oranges. We doubled up on oranges and cucumbers instead of getting carrots and lettuce. Once I know what's in the box, it's time to figure out how to incorporate it into a menu. The oranges are delicious! I'm not sure what variety they are but all three of us have been eating them with breakfast and as a snack. They don't peel easily so Trent is learning how to eat the flesh off the orange smiles.

Monday - Lentils and Veggies

(basically a clean out the fridge day of the veggies we have left from the previous week's vegbox. I loosely followed the recipe, but instead of spinach, I used butternut squash and sweet potatoes.)

Tuesday - Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff with sliced cucumbers on the side

Wednesday - Pork Chops with Collard Greens

(Thank goodness for southern friends because I had no idea what to do with collard greens!)

Thursday - Chickpea and Parmesan Pasta

(I have been wanting to try this recipe for weeks and it keeps getting put off - tomorrow's the day!)

Friday - Homemade Pizza

So that leaves me with green tomatoes... I like fried green tomatoes, but we have more tomatoes than I want to fry. A friend suggested green tomato salsa, so I may have to try that and see how it turns out!

Cooking in Bulk

It has been 18 months since we went from being DINKs to a family of three and in twoish months, we'll be a family of four. It's amazing the impact a child can have on the way you cook. As the primary chef/nutritionist in our family, I try to make the most of our meals. We are fortunate to live in a state where you can actually grow produce year round. So our veggies and fruits come in a CSA box each week, our grains/legumes come in buckets, and our meat comes from a local farmer. My family's health is important to me. If you are what you eat, I'd rather fill my family full of whole grains and naturally grown food than with factory made food. The downside to this is lack of convenience, so the biggest change has been cooking in bulk.

There are days when I just don't have time to cook or a certain toddler is bound and determined to keep me away from the countertops. He literally wedges himself in between me and the cabinets and pushes with all his might against me. It really makes cooking interesting! I know this will be amplified once I add a newborn to the mix. But gone are the days where we have a supply of Tombstone pizzas and Marie Callendar pot pies. So usually one night a week, I cook multiple meals at once. Tonight was my bulk cooking night.

This week's menu:
Monday: Alfredo
Tuesday: Pork Chops and Gravy
Wednesday: Black Bean Quesadillas
Thursday: Chick Pea and Parmesan Pasta
Friday: Leftovers/Clean out the Fridge Night

So today, I made the pork chops and gravy in the crockpot. It smelled SO good. I put it in tupperware for tomorrow because Tuesdays are our busiest day of the week. I made tonight's alfredo, homemade tortillas (for Wednesdays Quesadillas), and three batches of split pea soup to freeze.

Making meals to freeze helps me use up food that might otherwise go bad before I get to it and keeps us from ordering out when I don't get the chance or don't feel like cooking. I also make our snacks. We usually have homemade granola and hummus on hand. Just last week, I found a really easy homemade graham cracker recipe. It's healthy and delicious. We also have quick breads in the freezer.

Quick breads are my favorite! They are great for using up the extra produce we get in our CSA box. I make squash bread, banana bread, peach bread, strawberry bread, zucchini bread, pumpkin bread... you name it, I've probably made a quick bread out of it. Next up, apple bread! It's delightful with a cup of coffee in the morning and easy to pull out when company is coming over for a snack.

Eating this way requires more planning, but we are getting spoiled. Once you start making the homemade equivalents of most foods, you'll find the taste and nutritional value far superior to factory made foods.

Milling My Own Flour

We have been baking our own bread for at least a year now. I primarily use our bread machine and a book called 'Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day.' Both ways provide quick and easy approaches to making really yummy bread. The bread machine also allows me to use the dough setting to make bagels, homemade rolls, etc.

We had been keeping massive bags of flour in the freezer. When I did some research, I found that the majority of the nutrients in flour are lost within 72 hours of being ground. When flour is commercially made, they purposely take out the bran and germ to increase the shelf life. This increases shelf life, but depletes the flour of nutrients. Even more nutrients are lost when the flour is bleached.

When you grind your own flour, the bread tastes delicious! It's lighter, moist and better tasting than commercial comparisons. Plus, there are many different kinds of grains to choose from - far more variety than you can find in the grocery store. I've never been a huge fan of toast, but homemade bread had me eating more, and bread made with freshly ground flour has me converted!

Now before you think I've lost my mind... it is SO easy. The grain mill works just like a coffee grinder. You toss wheat in the top and it shoots flour off the side into another bowl. It takes about a minute. So simple! Since you generally grind the grain right before you make the bread, you do have to do a little bit of math. 8 cups of grain makes 12 cups of flour so it's not a 1:1 ratio - still, it's not difficult.

So far I've made banana bread, a few loaves of sandwich bread and dinner rolls using the hard white wheat. They have all turned out really well. Tonight, I'm going to attempt some squash bread as well.

The first time we bought wheat, we drove about 30 minutes away to a store that sells the wheat. I later found a co-op in our town that we started using instead so we don't have to make the drive. I ordered Rye from the co-op so I'm anticipating its arrival so I can make some Rye bread and Pumpernickel Bread.

And the best perk... having a house that smells like freshly made bread!

Dirty Dozen

The "dirty dozen" list is a list of fruits and vegetables that contain 47 - 67 pesticides per serving. You can eliminate up to 80% of the pesticides you consume, by simply buying the organic alternatives.

The dirty dozen:

Celery

Peaches

Strawberries

Apples

Blueberries

Nectarines

Bell Peppers

Spinach, Kale, Collard Greens

Cherries

Potatoes

Grapes and Lettuce

There's also good news. The following vegetables and fruits are considered the clean fifteen because their outer shell keeps them from absorbing much of the pesticides. They were found to have little to no pesticides on them.

The Clean Fifteen

Onions
Avocados

Sweet Corn

Pineapples

Mango

Sweet Peas

Asparagus

Kiwi

Cabbage

Eggplant

Canteloupe

Watermelon

Grapefruit

Sweet Potatoes

Sweet Onions

CNN recently had an article explaining the effects that pesticides can have on your health. The article can be found here.

Roses, Roses, Roses

Jesse, Trent and I went to the Botanical Gardens on Mother's Day. It is always a gorgeous time to go because all of the roses are in bloom. We had such a good time taking in the natural beauty of the place, the yummy scents of all the flowers, and enjoying a leisurely afternoon together.

"I like this one!"

My favorite rose

Jesse's favorite rose

Glimpse of the rose garden

Such the thumbsucker - This is while running downhill!

The boy who made me Mama

Community Supported Agriculture

The Box
(So excited, it felt like Christmas morning)

The beautiful produce
I already tasted the strawberries - they're delicious!

I am so excited about my first box of vegetables and fruit!! This month we signed up for a share of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). What does this mean? Each week, I get a box of fresh, locally grown vegetables and fruits straight from the farmer. The box usually consists of 6-7 different types of vegetables and fruits and has 3-4 servings of each item. This week we received zucchini, squash, new potatoes, bulb onions, snap beans, lettuce and strawberries. What we'll receive in the box is totally dependent on what is in season. This is different from the supermarket mentality where everything is always in season, but is actually a very healthy way to eat.

Most people realize that I am not a fan of how food in the US gets from the farmer to the table. It's mass produced, they've (the powers that control the majority of the food in the grocery store) seriously limit the varieties of vegetables and fruits available, most food has traveled 1500 miles to get to you, and they use all sorts of bio-engineered/unnatural seed, pesticides, gases, etc. to ripen and grow the vegetable. I don't want to eat a science experiment. I want a naturally grown vegetable and fruit.

Plus, it'll give me opportunity to try different varieties of vegetables. There are so many varieties of vegetables that you never see in the grocery store. I can think of so many different types of squash that I have seen at the farmers market each summer. I'm so looking forward to cooking with different types of foods. It's going to be fun!

We made grilled veggies for dinner and had strawberries for dessert - mmm, good! :)

Homegrown Produce (Happy Earth Day!)

I get so excited each spring when we first start eating from our garden. In our area, the first vegetables to come in are always spinach and chard. It's so fun to go outside and pick the veggies and make them for dinner. I love knowing exactly where my food comes from. In the summer time, we eat caprese salads all.the.time. We grow fresh basil and tomatoes and then I have to buy the mozzarella, but oh that is one of my favorite summer treats. The tomatoes are already planted so give it about 60 days and I'll finally be able to indulge!

We watched a movie called Food, Inc. last night. I highly recommend it. It's a documentary on the food industry in America. It didn't really change my opinion on anything; just confirmed how I already felt. Years ago, I ate McDonalds Chicken Mcnuggets and became very ill. I was constantly throwing up. I couldn't move a muscle without vomiting. This went on for days. I finally got better but people die from Salmonella and E. Coli every year. The food industry is run like a factory and quality control takes a backseat to the four or five large food companies making profits. When I was in nursing school doing clinicals, I met a woman who had her intestines rupture from a meal she ate at a fast food restaurant. Where does this meat come from? The poor woman will have to find a "new normal" for the rest of her life because of a hamburger that she trusted was edible. A good hamburger is still one of my favorite meals. I don't intend to stop eating red meat. But there are a few things that I can do to better understand what I'm eating. Here are some helpful suggestions I found and am hoping to implement at our house. We have already been doing some of these things for a while.

1. Stop drinking sodas and other sweetened beverages
This is one we already do, but I admit every once in a blue moon I'll drink a Coke and boy is it a treat when I do!

2. Eat at home instead of eating out
I love a nice meal prepared by someone else, so we still eat out occasionally. I love restaurants that support locally grown food and actually list on the menu where they purchased the ingredients!

3. Go without meat one day a week
There are plenty of great natural foods out there that provide a variety of nutrients. Be adventurous and try different types of vegetables, grains, legumes, etc.

4. Buy organic or sustainable food with few pesticides.
We're working on this one. We buy some things organic but we are nowhere near all organic. Some things are just plain hard to find organic and other things are a lot more expensive to buy organic. We do organic dairy and attempt to follow the "dirty dozen." Costco does a good job of providing organic foods at an affordable price.

5. Protect family farms; visit your local farmer's market
I LOVE this one. Farmers markets are my favorite. I enjoy the whole atmosphere of fresh produce and homemade sauces and spices. It's easily one of my favorite spots to go in the summer. I'm also contemplating buying our meat this way. You can go here to see a list of local farmers in your area. U-pick farms are a great family outing too!

6. Read labels.
I love to know what's in my food and if it contains a bunch of things that I don't understand, I try to avoid it. There's probably a reason why the companies list an item as xanthum gum instead of bio-engineered additive.


7. Tell Congress that food safety is important to you.
Many of the politicians, FDA advisors, etc. have tie ins to the food industry. Years ago, the food industry was not controlled by four or five large companies that basically decide how we get our food in the supermarket. As consumers we should demand that we want high quality foods that aren't bio-engineered, cloned, given hormones, etc. Our voices can be heard. Even Walmart milk is now rbst free because enough consumers spoke up.