Last night's dinner... and CSA stuff

Last night I scored a heck of a deal. The local Whole Foods had rotisserie chicken for $5.99 and there was a coupon taped to it for a free, 2lb. side salad. Really? Hmmm... So I look at the ingredients for the chicken (which is antibiotic-free, btw). No oil. I confirm that they don't use oil on the chicken. Hmmmmm... so, side salad. I hate cole slaw and macaroni wouldn't be gluten-free, but potato salad? I check... canola oil. REALLY?!?!? SCORE!!!

So I brought it home and threw in some frozen organic cut green beans and voila... dinner plus leftovers. It doesn't get better than that!

The first pickup for one of our CSAs is on Sunday. I'm writing a book on how to "do" a CSA because really, it's a skill. I didn't think of it this way until participating in on online thread about it and someone actually said this. It was like "Yeah--you know what? It is a skill." It's not something you just KNOW how to deal with. Some people pick up the skill better than others, but yeah--totally a skill.

I'm going to write a post on it to help. :) But I'm looking forward to the first collection of veggies of the season. There are likely to be tons of lettuce and kale.

We're also going out to look at a nearly 9 acre property for ourselves. It's kind of "out there" (which is the only way we could possibly afford it) but so far, it looks like a good one.

WHAT. A. SCARE! and NEWS!

I can't even begin to tell you what the last week has been like. Seriously. In short: I tried to synch Google Calendar to my Blackberry and in the process deleted the gmail account which deleted this blog.

I have, over the last few years, come to love some of the WordPress features; but I am now true blue to Blogger for saving my butt with this blog. Seriously.

News, news, news... as I start getting my life back on track post-relocation (although pre-move-to-a-house-we-own), I have decided to make a career out of helping people deal with their health. I've already been doing this word-of-mouth for a long time and I feel so fulfilled by it. I decided to fill in the gaps of my personal research over the years by enrolling at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition's Health Coach program. I start in July.

To that end, I will be keeping up this blog regularly again and I may even start a separate blog for specific issues. I'm excited! I'm also working on two e-books I hope to have published by mid-July and a "real" book next year. :)

I'm also losing quite a bit of weight. All I did was cut my portion sizes significantly. No exercise. No change in diet. Just portion control. I'm down to 172 this morning and wearing a size 12. Now that I've lost so much, I'm actually feeling motivated to move my arse. I even went out and bought a bicycle (an $80 piece of junk from WalMart that is going back :( Who knew?). It is HOT here in IL (and another "who knew?" to that) but I'll figure something out.

So... I'm back!!! :D

It's been a while!

Things have been difficult. Eating has been difficult!!! Life has not been all that chaotic, but I have certainly not handled the mounting changes and losses well. It shows in how we are living.

We have signed up for two different CSAs this year--neither of them are the one we did last year (that one didn't have room at the more local site and I can't do the drive like last year). We also have two community garden plots--each of them is 20'x30' (so we have 40'x30' total). That will give us melon for the summer, pumpkins for the fall, and all kinds of other foods for the winter. I have zero clue how much it will take to carry us through, but hey--whatever we grow will help, right? I planted 36 sweet potatoes, 6 zucchini, 8 eggplant, 24 broccoli, 20 cauliflower, 3 cantaloupe, 3 pumpkin, 6 butternut squash and have yet to plant all the green beans, acorn squash, delicata squash, and onions.

With 2 CSA shares/week, we're thinking that if we don't use it all, we'll preserve what's left over. I wonder how much that will yield.

We are on the list to receive butchered, grass-fed, no-hormone, no-antibiotic beef. I'm thinking a full animal. We're slated for October but they may move us up to July.

I'm not investigating raw milk sources and am going to investigate sheep's milk for the different protein benefits. I'm hoping to make some of our own butter, kefir, and yogurt. I personally can't stand kefir, but...

I planted two blueberry bushes at the new house. Even if they're not good for ADHD, we happen to love them and they freeze so easily.

I'm now looking into what herbs I'm going to plant and which will go in the ground vs. in pots (anything with a Latin name containing "vulgaris" will be relegated to pots).

In the meantime, we continue to search for a home where we might keep the food garden closer to the house and go back to having our own hens for eggs. We're really missing it and they were SO EASY TO KEEP!

Since I'm hoping to go back to feeding us properly, I hope to be updating this blog more often. In the meantime, feel free to search the blog for specific issues, menu plans, or by using the keyword/tags!!!

Menu plan for week of 11/28/2010

PDF version of the menu plan (without recipes)

Sunday, 11/28

• Pre-breakfast: banana

• Breakfast: Crock pot oatmeal made overnight with shelled sunflower seeds, honey & cinnamon.

• Morning snacks: Nuts (cashews or peanuts), seeds (sunflower, pumpkin or flax), and yogurt (protein stuff)

• Lunch: Meatballs (no sauce) with frozen organic veggies (broccoli or green beans)

• Afternoon snacks: Veggies (carrots, celery, zucchini, etc.), and fruit (pears, melon, etc.)

• Dinner: Beef & Vegetables on Polenta altered to remove the marinara sauce and rather than polenta, serve it on top of mashed potatoes, mashed cauliflower, or rice. :)

Tonight, you'll need to make your leftover oatmeal muffins. Freeze whatever is left, but leave out enough for snacks (or breakfast) during the week.

Monday, 11/8

• Pre-breakfast: yogurt

• Breakfast: Frittata with zucchini & onions

• Morning snacks: Oatmeal muffins, banana w/peanut butter

• Lunch: Turkey (or tuna, or chicken) salad on GF bread with a green/lettuce salad

• Afternoon snacks: Veggies (carrots, celery, zucchini, etc.), and fruit (pears, melon, etc.)

• Dinner: Veggie Chili (if you are not Feingold, this is fine by just removing the bulgar wheat) but we're going to make White Chili with some ground turkey (and minus the cheese).

Tuesday, 11/9

• Pre-breakfast: banana

• Breakfast: eggs with nitrate/nitrite and all other allergen-free bacon

• Morning snacks: Nuts (cashews or peanuts), seeds (sunflower, pumpkin or flax), and yogurt (protein stuff)

• Lunch: Deli ham & turkey rolls with green veggies

• Afternoon snacks: Veggies (carrots, celery, zucchini, etc.), and fruit (pears, melon, etc.)

• Dinner: Broiled Chicken & Pepper Sandwiches can be altered to just remove the peppers and put in GF bread, but we're going to do the Chicken with Confetti Rice again:

INGREDIENTS

1 Tbl. roasted garlic butter with olive oil (we'll be replacing this with plain ole EVOO)

1 pound chicken tenders (we'll be using boneless thighs cut into strips)

1/4 cup sliced green onions (we'll be replacing this with diced yellow/sweet onions)

1 cup chopped fresh mushrooms

1 cup grated zucchini

1/2 cup shredded carrot

1 (14-1/2 oz.) can of chicken broth

1-1/2 tsp dried Italian seasoning

1-1/2 cups uncooked instant white rice

DIRECTIONS

1. In a 10-in skillet, melt garlic butter (or rather, heat the EVOO) until sizzling; add chicken and onions. Cover over medium-high heat, turning once, until chicken is no longer pink (6-8 minutes). Remove chicken from skillet; keep warm.
2. In same skillet, combine mushrooms, zucchini and carrot. Cook over med-high heat, stirring occasionally, until tender (3-4 minutes). Add chicken brother and Italian seasoning. Continue cooking until mixture just comes to a boil (5-7 mins).
3. Stir in cooked chicken and rice. Reduce heat to low. Cover; cook until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender (5-6 mins). Season with salt and pepper as desired.

Wednesday, 12/1 CHANUKAH!!! (We have lots of Jewish friends)

• Pre-breakfast: yogurt

• Breakfast: GF pancakes (making extra for the freezer)

• Morning snacks: crackers, potato chips, banana w/peanut butter

• Lunch: deli ham and turkey rolls (Hormel Natural Choice is safe) with some carrots

• Afternoon snacks: veggies, fruit

• Dinner: Roast Chicken with Vegetables. And we'll TOTALLY be doing one of these latkes! Make them with potatoes, sweet potatoes, or carrots & parsnips! In fact, I think I may make some of the carrot/parsnips and freeze the extras for quick & easy side dishes!

Thursday, 12/2

• Pre-breakfast: banana

• Breakfast: Savory Ham Bread Pudding

• Morning snacks: nuts, seeds, yogurt

• Lunch: Tuna salad in steamed, hollowed potato halves with carrot/parsnip latkes.

• Afternoon snacks: veggies, fruit

• Dinner: I seriously can't figure my way around the marmalade in Hot & Chili Chicken but if you're not Feingold--go for it. I think we'll just make some drumsticks coated in some Italian dressing (put dressing in ziploc bag, toss in chicken, close & shake). We'll have some spinach and oven-roasted potatoes with it.

FRIDAY, 12/3

• Pre-breakfast: yogurt

• Breakfast: Quiche--no clue what I'm putting in it yet. Whatever I have around, I guess. But I'll be sure there's enough for tomorrow morning, too. In fact, I can cook this ahead of time and freeze it. LOVE that about quiche.

• Morning snacks: banana w/peanut butter, potato chips, crackers

• Lunch: Leftover chicken. If it's mostly meaty breast meat vs. pieces, I could make chicken salad made with safe mayonnaise (canola-based from Whole Foods or Spectrum brand) on some GF bread and served with some salad.

• Afternoon snacks: veggies, fruit

• Dinner: Savory Meat Loaf using GF breadcrumbs and minus the evaporated milk (we don't even substitute anything for this), ketchup, and red bell peppers--but adding some chopped, fresh mushrooms. Sides of mashed potatoes and steamed carrots.

SATURDAY, 12/4

• Pre-breakfast: banana

• Breakfast: Leftover quiche from yesterday

• Morning snacks: coconut milk yogurt, nuts, seeds

• Lunch: Leftover meatloaf with green veggies

• Afternoon snacks: veggies, fruit

• Dinner: Woman's Day has Guilt-Free Lasagna, but as most of us here know--unh-uh. But in the spirit of pasta, we could instead have some rice pasta with pesto and crumbled sausage!

I'm going to cheat for December...

Okay... so, meal planning seriously kills me. But as I do it, I see how easy it is to slip into repetition with foods. Of course, doing this blog and seeing that monotony is what got me to meal planning in the first place.

But here's the thing: MANY of the existing recipes "out there" could be altered to be perfectly fine. And since Woman's Day creates an entire month of dinner ideas, I'm going to blog about altering THOSE for dinners. Let's see how it goes at least...

I'm also going to attempt to make a printable for your fridge. Not sure if it will work, but again--gonna try. I think I picked the wrong time of year to try to tackle this stuff!

Ah... leftovers

I have to give props to my friend, Paulo, who pointed me to this awesome way of using all the leftovers! If I had regular mashed potatoes, I might actually do it since I'm going to cart my leftovers to my neighbors house tonight and that might be a great way to get the kids to eat them! :D

But dinner went really well yesterday. It was, by far, the most relaxed holiday meal we have ever hosted. Everything was done a touch early and the kitchen was cleaned in waves, as needed. Our guest has a 12yo adopted son (he's been with her since he was a baby) who is a profoundly picky eater. She told me she'd feed him before they came, but when they arrived, he hadn't eaten--he was going to try our food. We were all pretty surprised! INCREDIBLY gentle and polite child, but a seriously picky eater. I felt HORRIBLE that he picked at the turkey on his plate and asked for ketchup--and we didn't have ANY! UGH! And his mom was equally, visibly heart-broken that she didn't think of it, either. To be honest, we usually DO have it in the house. *sigh* They brought a small container of milk for him to drink and she drank our lemonade. It worked out well!

I have seriously no clue if the turkey turned out okay. Because I'm "sample sizing" as a means of portion control for the holidays, I couldn't fit turkey. :/ And I made this recipe for mashed sweet potatoes with coconut milk. It was yummy. The stuffing turned out way better than I thought it would. We wound up using regular bread vs. GF (although it was Breadsmith--so the ONLY allergen was gluten, which we are not completely free of at all times). I had gotten the GF bread cubed and dried only to find that it wasn't supposed to be dried! GAH!!! I couldn't find a recipe using dried bread that took less than an hour--so I had to cave and use gluten bread. :( And it desperately needed salt. I also threw all the spices into the cooking veggies instead of waiting... and I used more than they asked for because I had rosemary, thyme and oregano in the house.

This morning, I ate the three remaining crostinis with balsamic roasted pears and gorgonzola for breakfast. Mike and the kids ate eggs (worthy of note that Mike ate the rest of the crostinis plus half of a brie en croute last night after the kids and I went to bed >:( ). I figure the cheese was protein for me.

Also worthy of note that the Whole Foods stuff used canola oil. When Mike placed the order, he said they read all the ingredients to him and he "cleared" them, but couldn't remember specifics. Mike is pretty spot-on with knowing what's a problem, so I wasn't worried about it--but I WAS curious what kind of oil it was. :)

OH! And my pumpkin pies didn't cook well because stupid me didn't read that it said to use LIGHT coconut milk and I used the regular/really thick stuff. Oy... Mike dug into it last night, though, and said that the center was just very creamy. I haven't looked at it yet, but I'm anticipating a flood in the spot left by his piece because when I stuck a butter knife in the center, it was way more liquidy than pudding-y. Live and learn. But he said it was absolutely delicious. Good to know.

I'm going to wait until tomorrow to make broth with the carcass. I had no idea how critical bone broths were to good health, but I'm learning (and ordering bones from the butchers). More to come on that topic. :)

Thanksgiving... so far...

Has included a piece of panettone between me and my little guy. I couldn't resist. Neither could he. It is a FULL. BLOWN. ADDICTION for me. :/ And it's full of stuff that neither of us should be eating (wheat, butter, raisins & citrus) but no soy or corn--which are the worst offenders for us.

My pies are in the oven... LATE. And I dried out my GF bread chunks only to find that the recipe didn't call for dried out bread. Likewise, I didn't read the frozen GF pie shells to see that they needed to defrost to room temperature before using them. Thankfully the dishwasher just finished "dry" mode and about 10 minutes in there did the trick! :D I did not, however, follow the pie directions properly: I added the spices, honey & brown sugar to the beaten eggs instead of to the pumpkin... and then noticed that most of the brown sugar stayed behind when I poured it all into the pie shells. Oy... I'm batting a thousand--right?

Breakfast was eggs today because I have no clue why, but I didn't do the oatmeal last night.

Mother of the year--right?

Kids had yogurt for snack already. Both of them. Remarkably, the baby FINISHED one! YAY!

Okay... gotta prep the bird, 'cause the MINUTE those pies come out, the bird goes in. Company comes at 3:30pm and I had planned to eat at 4:30pm the latest. I'm not sure if I can keep to that schedule yet, but I THINK I can if I get off the computer RIGHT NOW to prep that bird!