Because I know everybody out there is just dying to know what we’ll be eating this week… all my loyal followers! (Hello, you two!)

I hit Wal-Mart last week and escaped under $150 with a big buggy – excuse me, cart – full of groceries. Didn’t have a list, so I am now finding strange discrepancies in what we have (4 loaves of bread, 2 packs of hot dog buns) and don’t have (any meat other than those 2 packs of hot dogs and the 1.5 lbs of round steak). The lack of meat is making me nervous, because, I’ll just be honest here: we eat a lot of meat.

I keep intending to cook less meat-centric meals, and honestly I try, I do, but it seems like whenever I buy one of those gigantic packs of chicken breasts they disappear in one meal. I read recipes that call for “4 chicken breasts” and can only wonder, In what universe does that work?

And I’m not sure what the problem is, since there are not that many of us (5, but 3 of us are under 5 years old) and though we’re carnivorous (obviously) we also are big fans of salad, fresh fruit, vegetables of any kind, and carbs of any kind. I can dine quite happily on crackers, cheese, and a plate of fresh fruit. Or bread and butter. Or a baked potato. Or a big salad without any meat in it. Or pasta with a little a lot of Parmesan and butter.

I think the problem is not our pickiness – since none of us (okay, except for Robbie) are picky eaters. Joe does like having meat at a meal, because it kind of completes it in his mind. That’s fine, and normally I accommodate that, and he’s also super about accommodating my less meat-centric meals, when I do manage to come up with them. But that’s the problem, I think.

I’m not good at coming up with those meals.
My two stand-bys for a meat-light meal are curry and stir fry. both of which we love and both of which I usually make with some meat, just not a lot. But maybe it is a lot and I just don’t realize it? Is 1.5 pounds of round steak a lot for a batch of stir fry that will feed us at least twice, probably three times? I don’t know. I should go look up some stir fry recipes and find out, but that’s the other problem, I guess.

I don’t really follow recipes.

Like, ever. I get ideas from recipes, but I’m not good at shopping for a specific recipe. So I modify the recipes I like to fit with what I have on hand. Usually things turn out fine, albeit different than the original. Sometimes they don’t turn out so well, and I bow my head to acknowledge the greater wisdom of the recipe writer.

Not following a recipe means that amounts are always subject to, er, interpretation. If a shepherd’s pie recipe calls for 2 carrots and 3 potatoes and 1 pound of ground beef, and I have 5 carrots and 5 potatoes and 1.5 pounds of ground beef, guess what I’m going to do? Use everything I got. I figure, hey, we’ll have leftovers. And that’s good, because Joe takes a lunch to work almost every day, and the kids and I need to eat lunch every day, so having leftovers makes that lunch-stuff pretty simple. (I love leftovers that morph, too, like when you make a great beef roast with carrots and potatoes in the slow cooker, and have all the juicy good bits left over to make a fabulous stew for the next night. Everything old is new again.)

Enough rambling about my meat-centric cooking habits. I’m going to try to come up with a menu that will last us for this week without necessitating another run to the grocery store. Fortunately, I do have a bit more, um, meat in the freezer…

Our Menu

• Monday: Chef salad, Asiago cheese bread [I'm going to a Ladies Christmas Party for my church tonight, to which I'll be taking Cranberry salsa, chips, and maybe a caramel cake... depending on how the rest of the afternoon goes, and how much time I spend writing about food vs. how much time I spend actually preparing food.]
• Tuesday: Stirfry with beef, red cabbage, pineapple, and carrots
• Wednesday: Chicken pot pie [church night = one-dish/make-ahead meal night]
• Thursday: Corn chowder, broiled mahi mahi, some sort of veg on the side
• Friday: I’m hoping for eat out or bring-home-a-pizza
• Saturday: Big pot of soup of some kind, egg salad sandwiches.
• Sunday: A birthday lunch at the in-laws! Leftovers for dinner.

Now I don’t feel so bad…

• Pasta Shells for Meat Lovers (2.5# ground beef!)
• Meat Lovers Quiche (more meat than eggs by a long shot)
• Grilled Steak and Arugula Salad (1.5# steak to 1# lettuce)

Image by Alex E. Proimos. Post linked to OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday.

…that IS the question.

Our menu for the week

Sunday: (as in, yesterday) Joe made us a huge pot of garlicky, warm smoked sausage and potato soup and french bread.
Monday: green salad with baked lemon chicken (it was going to be grilled, but it’s raining, so never mind), garlic-butter breadsticks.
Tuesday: cheesy, ultimate comfort food: homemade mac’n'cheese {recipe below} with ham, on the side we’ll have stir-fried cabbage and fresh fruit.
Wednesday: we’ll have smoothies for dinner (kids will get leftovers), then snacks with our home Bible study group. I’ll do a tray of olives, prosciutto, cheese, and crackers and either the oatmeal cookies or these oh-my-goodness chocolate butterfinger cookies from Rach’s Blog Bite. Oh my goodness. Chocolate + butterfinger + cookies.
Thursday:So I’m indebted to Rach again for another great recipe: the tortellini salad that sounds amazing. Yum. I’ll do some dill-marinated cucumbers on the side.
Friday:Fajitas with green peppers and onions, pineapple salsa and chips, and some fresh guac if avocados aren’t outrageously expensive. Mmmm.
Saturday:either homemade pizza or grilled brats, potato salad, and red beans.
Sunday:a big pot of chicken and dumplings sound just right. Salad, a tray of fruit and cheese, and maybe some apple pie for dessert, unless I can talk Joe into making some of his amazing chocolate mousse. I think I’m gaining weight just thinking about this meal.

Let’s talk about homemade mac’n'cheese. Actually, let’s talk about any luxuriously comforting creamy baked pasta dish. It all comes down to the sauce, my friends. The homemade, creamy, and, yes, easy to make sauce.

Basic White Sauce

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup all purpose flour
In a large saucepan or saute pan, melt the butter until it is all liquid; immediately sprinkle the flour on and start whisking until the flour and melted butter are mixed together in a lumpy, doughy looking thing. Yum. Looks promising, doesn’t it? Don’t panic. Turn the heat down to very low, or pull it off heat for a moment, and get out
4 cups of milk
Pour in about a cup of the milk, more or less, and whisk away until the lumpy-doughy butter/flour mix has made a saucy mixture with the milk. Keep whisking to get the lumps out. Keep the pan over low heat so the milk won’t scald. Now pour in another 1 or 2 cups of milk, whisk, and then let it bubble until it starts to thicken. Now pour in the rest of the milk, whisk, and keep it over low heat. Give it a stir every now and then. You want to let it just cook on very low heat so it thickens. This would be a good time to season the sauce, so pull out
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
Stir the salt and pepper into the sauce. Now, if you want to, you can add more seasoning. For example, I might add
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried chervil
1 teaspoon lemon zest
if I want a creamy sauce with some good herby flavor and a little zesty kick. Something a little lighter, good for Spring, to pour over pasta with peas, mushrooms, and Parmesan shavings. But today I’m making mac’n'cheese, so light and springy is not exactly what I’m going for. Instead, I’m going to add
1 tablespoon (okay, I’ll probably add 2) minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon dried parsley
Now, once the seasonings are added, you just want to let the sauce simmer a bit so all the flavors meld together and the sauce bubbles away and gets thicker. You’ll want to taste it and add more salt and pepper as needed. (If it’s a bit too salty, don’t worry; you’ll be pouring it over pasta, so you want it to have a good, intense flavor. If it’s much too salty, add another cup of milk.)
That’s it for white sauce. Since I’m turning this into mac’n'cheese, though, we need to add…. cheese. Glorious cheese.

to make the mac’n'cheese

I generally just use whatever I have in the refrigerator. This week I have cheddar and monterey jack, so I’ll grate enough to make about 2 cups of cheese total and then dump that into the sauce, stirring so the cheese doesn’t stick on the bottom. Once the cheese is melted, the sauce is finished. Now, set the sauce aside and continue on:
Cook 1 pound of pasta (shells, macaroni, mostaccioli, whatever you like) according to package directions. Drain and pour into a 13×9 baking dish or a 3 quart casserole dish or whatever else you have handy that is oven-safe and will hold 1 pound of pasta plus sauce.
Fry up 1 pound of bacon or a couple of big slices of ham, or saute 1 pound of chicken breast, or cook 1 pound of ground beef, or any combination you like, or just leave out the meat altogether. It’s superfluous, as far as I’m concerned, because I’m really just interested in the cheesy pasta, but my husband really likes his homemade mac’n'cheese with chicken and bacon.
Once the meat is cooked, drain it if needed to get off the excess grease, then let it cool enough to handle. Chop it up into bite-sized pieces, then dump it in with the pasta.
Get your sauce and pour it over the cooked pasta.
Now you have options. You can cook it right away, or you can cover and refrigerate it until just before dinner time. Whenever you’re ready to cook, uncover the pasta and stick it in a 350-degree (F) oven. Cook it for 20 minutes, then sprinkle about 1 cup of grated cheese on top (any kind) and let it melt.
Serve. Eat. Don’t count calories for this one.

This post is linked up with OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday.

I know there’s plenty of conversation and controversy over what kids should, how much they should eat, whether you should make them eat or not… We discuss it endlessly, from when to start babies on solid food to how many snacks a toddler should get to the factors of childhood obesity.

I think it comes down to a simple statement: what and how your kids eat is a matter of training. Don’t misunderstand; I’m not saying you should spank them if they don’t clean their plates or force them to choke down a bowlful of mushy broccoli.
And I’m also not saying that my kids are perfect eaters (whatever that is). They prefer a cookie to a vegetable any day, and they push food around on their plates, and they “drop” things they don’t want to eat…
Because they’re still in training.

Food Is a Battleground

I know that experts recommend not making meals a time of conflict. I know that we’re supposed to avoid making food, and whether kids eat it, a matter of discipline. The reasoning is that this is how we create eating disorders later in life, and that kids naturally know when they’re hungry, and that they will eat when they need to.

“Don’t Make Meals a Battle”

Um. I beg your pardon. Let’s start with the first point, “don’t make meals a battle.” Listen, I don’t know what the children of these experts were like, but with a fiercely independent two-year-old, everything is a battle. And how, in the the name of all things that are good parenting, does it help my child for me to be consistent, firm, and “the authority” in all things up till mealtime?

No toddler I know can, or will, separate life into neat categories that way: either you’re in charge or he is, and that’s that. If you do a great job of being a parent up till lunch time, then let him make the calls, all he knows is that somehow he’s in charge now. This is self-defeating behavior for a parent.

“This Is How We Create Eating Disorders”

Let’s move on to point two, “this is how we create eating disorders later in life.” Parental abuse is a cause of disorders (though, by far, not the only factor and certainly not always the cause): eating disorders, emotional disorders, and psychological disorders. But loving, clear, and consistent discipline – about anything – is not a cause of disturbances and disorders. If it were, then our kids would have disorders over everything that requires discipline: emotional disorders about saying please and thank you and sharing things, psychological disturbances over getting dressed, answering questions, and not running in the street.

Kids need training about what is best to eat just as they need training about what is best to say (not things like “Wow Mom that man is ugly!” or “Gimme that toy NOW!”).

“Kids Will Eat When They Need To”

Finally, point three: “kids naturally know when they’re hungry, and they will eat when they need to.” Well, yes, kids know when they’re hungry and mine have never had a problem communicating that. And yes, kids might eat when they need to but they might not eat what they need to. Any kid I’ve ever met will happily live on a diet of soda, cookies, and carbs – exclusively – for as long as he’s allowed. Children may also ignore their need for food if they are distracted, upset, overtired, or trying to be in charge.

I’ll give you a little example: Robbie (middle child, first son, strong-willed) was about 13 or 14 months when he learned to sign “more” and “please” for his food (I started teaching him much later than my other 2). He did it pleasantly and consistently for a few meals, so I knew he understood and remembered. Then we hit a point at lunch time one day and he simply refused. I was feeding him something, I told him to say please, and he would not. He had eaten about half his meal at that point, and I spent the next thirty minutes trying to get him to say please so he could finish his meal.

Finally I gave up: no please, no more food. I cleaned him off and got him down. Dinner time came. He sat in his little booster seat and signed please for maybe 2 bites, then steadfastly refused again. Another 20 or 30 minutes, and no change. He went to bed with only 2 bites of supper and I felt like a horrible mother.

Morning. I was so ready for breakfast. I wanted to feed my baby badly. I knew he would be hungry now. I just knew he would sign please and I could stuff his little belly full. Would you like to guess what happened? I offered the food, I told him to say please… and he refused. I say “refused” because I could tell he was making a conscious choice. Once again, I instructed and offered, over and over, for 20 minutes or so. Nothing. No change. Once again, I got him down out of his chair and felt like a horrible mother.

Now: did he need food at this point? Was he hungry? Did he instinctively know he wanted to eat? You bet! Of course he was hungry. Of course he needed food. Of course he knew he wanted it. But what he wanted more was to win, to be in charge, to exert his little will over Mommy.

Lunch time. I was praying. Into the seat Robbie went, and I sat down and I gave the instruction… and he did it. He signed please. He complied, peacefully and happily, with every bite and he ate a great lunch. And I felt like I wasn’t such a horrible mother, especially over the course of that afternoon and the next few days, as I saw a distinct change in his attitude toward me and Joe. He had been whiny and defiant and testing us at every turn; after the missed meals and Mommy’s win, it was like he got it. Oh. They really mean what they say. I can’t push them around.

(By the way, Robbie is still strong-willed, now, at 2 1/2, no surprise. He needs to know we are not messing around, and then he will comply, but if he senses uncertainty or weakness, he will do everything to take charge. He still chooses to test us over food at times; a couple of weeks ago it took him about 20 minutes to eat a single bite of avocado, with me standing right beside him and catching it every time he spit it out…).

My summary is this: Outright defiance deserves clear discipline, whether it is over food or anything else. Food is not a magical, mystical, disorder-laden area in life. It’s just part of life, like wearing clothes or taking baths or putting on seat belts. Children need to be taught the appropriate skills and behavior regarding food, just as they need to be taught skills and behavior for other parts of life. I am not saying that every meal should be a battle.

In fact, I am rather careful to decide when I’m willing to have a battle. Sometimes it’s not up to me; sometimes Mara or Robbie or Zeke acts in such a way that I am honor-bound, as a parent who wants to train according to the Bible, to respond with appropriate instruction and discipline. When that happens, I deal with it as I would any kind of misbehavior. Then we finish eating. When there isn’t any defiance or deliberate misbehavior, we sail along our merry dinner hour as smoothly as we can.

This week’s menu

Wkend: homemade mac’n'cheese with chicken and bacon (courtesy of Joe, our weekend blue-plate-special short-order cook. Love you honey!)
Monday: curry with white rice, green salad
Tuesday: dagwood sandwiches on homemade bread
Wednesday: chicken salad wraps
Thursday: spinach salad with strawberries, avocados, and whatever else looks good
Friday: friends over for dinner. Probably get Joe to do some amazing grill work on pork/steak kabobs, & serve them up with a big green salad, some fruit, and a dish of hot buttered pasta with Reggiano cheese.
And that’s as far as I’ve planned…

—

Linked up with OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday.

Sometimes I complain about living on a budget, but really, I like* the challenge of coming up with good meals for my family without spending a fortune. I find that the limits actually help me to be a little more creative in the kitchen.

We do a lot more meatless meals, which is healthier anyway. I’ve resurrected some old Southern favorites that I kind of forgot about, and they are so good. And I’ve found that the more I make myself the more money I save, plus it all tastes better.

I’ve started grocery stopping once every two weeks instead of once a week; it works better for us, overall, schedule and money wise. Sometimes I have to make a run for fresh produce, and we get fresh raw dairy (milk and eggs) every week.
I’m finding some keys for cooking frugal without sacrificing. See, I’m kind of food-obsessed. I read cookbooks for fun. M.F.K. Fisher is one of my favorite authors, right up there with C.S. Lewis. So if being on a food budget means I have to eat low-quality food, I’m going to rebel. But that’s not what it means. A food budget just means you need to get a bit smarter.

• Quit centering your meals around meat. Meat should be part of the meal, not the main attraction.
• Eggs are one of the best all-purpose, frugal, and versatile ingredients you can use.
• Presentation matters. Make it look good.
• Serve a little of the more expensive stuff and a lot of the cheaper stuff. Small serving of dairy or meat, large serving of beans, rice, pasta, or seasonal vegetables.
• Buy seasonal!
• Love it? Grow it yourself or buy it in bulk.
• Keep it simple; you don’t need all the variety that you can get at the grocery store.
• Fresh garlic, fresh onions, and a couple of fresh herbs (cilantro and parsley are my favorites) can help you turn the most basic staples into a gourmet meal.
• Borrow from other cultures, those which have built their cuisines on non-wasteful lifestyles.
• Processed foods are the enemy of the frugal cook! Try to buy things in their most basic form.
• Homemade is cheaper! And better!
• Save desserts for the meatless nights.

Here’s my last 2-week menu, that came from a $125 grocery trip. Of course, we had some leftovers and pantry staples already plus our milk & eggs.

dinners:

fried ham, biscuits, cheese omelet and oven fries
beef goulash with peppers and onions, egg noodles
cheesy baked penne with cauliflower
white bean and chicken chili, salad
jerk chicken with rice, black beans, and pineapple
black-eyed peas with ham, cornbread, scalloped potatoes
thai soup with rice noodles
broiled tilapia, salad, 3-cheese crustless quiche
butter-sauteed gnocchi, roasted tomato soup
chicken fried rice
french onion soup, homemade garlic breadsticks
salvadoran stuffed masa flatbread

lunches:

leftovers, boiled eggs & salad, apples & peanut butter, tuna salad, soup
(we get really fancy around here for lunch…)

breakfasts:

ham biscuits
cold cereal
breakfast casserole (make with leftover scalloped potatoes)
muffins (apple cinnamon, cranberry-oatmeal)
homemade granola bars?
homemade raspberry cheese danishes

desserts:

chocolate chip-cranberry-oatmeal cookies
from-scratch chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting
madeira cake
anzac biscuits
homemade graham crackers?

*…but in a recent conversation with my husband I did explain that, to me, being truly (monetarily) rich meant I could go grocery shopping and buy whatever looked good, whatever I wanted to cook for my family, without thinking about the cost. He said that financial riches, to him, meant a huge bathroom with a huge soaking tub & built-in computer & tv for movies…  We all got dreams!

-

This post is linked up with OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday.

I refuse to believe that trading recipes is silly.  Tunafish casserole is at least as real as corporate stock. ~Barbara Grizzuti Harrison

Smart Moves for Morning

1. Get into a breakfast routine. It’s okay to eat the same thing every day for breakfast, and it will help you be prepared and be sure you’re eating something. Switch out week to week if you get bored.
2. Do some prep the night before: get the coffee ready to go, put out breakfast plates, go ahead and unload the dishwasher so it’s not waiting for you.
3. Come in to a clean kitchen. At the minimum: put away food, wipe down counters, and put dirty dishes into hot, soapy water to soak. A step above: wash the dishes or load in the dishwasher. Leave only the dirtiest pots/pans soaking overnight.
4. Pack any to-go lunches the night before when you’re putting food away. You’re in the kitchen already; just get a lunch-sized Tupperware, plop in the leftovers, and put it in a lunch bag along with an apple, side salad, or baggie of carrots.
5. What you eat for breakfast doesn’t have to be “traditional” according to American standards. Try something different: a boiled egg instead of scrambled, chicken salad in a pita, a grilled cheese sandwich, a cup of broth, fresh fruit salad, peanut butter on whole wheat crackers.

Save Time and Money

• Teach your kids to set the table and clear the table. Even very young children can set out place mats, napkins, and silverware. A 3 year old can learn to carefully carry her plate and scrape the scraps off of it, then set it on the counter. A 2 year old can take cloth napkins to the laundry room. Use the help you have!
• Simplify lunches at home for the kids. You don’t need an elaborate spread. Leftovers always work. A sliced apple, a couple of pieces of cheese, and a few crackers make my kids happy. Or try a simple bagel sandwich, leftover veggies and a helping of cottage cheese, boiled eggs and fresh fruit.
• Always figure out dinner before lunch time. That way you have time to thaw meat, ransack the pantry, borrow a cup of sugar, whatever you need to do to get it ready without a freak-out at 5 p.m. And if you need hubby to pick something up on his way home, you can let him know sooner in the day; he can get it on his lunch break if he wants to and avoid the end-of-day rush at the store.
• Buy spices at the local Asian or Indian market. Curry, cumin, cinnamon, cardamom, and lots of others: good quality, low price.
• Don’t buy vegetables and fruit you don’t like unless you have a specific recipe to try with them. It’s a waste to purchase food and let it rot, so go with the stuff you know you enjoy. When you find a recipe that looks appealing with a “new” food in it, try it along with other stuff you know you like. Give yourself a few times of trying before you decide if you like it or not. Familiarity is a powerful part of how we react to food.

Make a Better Salad

Copy the prepackaged salad concept - the ones with lettuce already washed, a little bag of toppings and a little bag of dresing – with your own salad ingredients.

• Wash, dry, and package your lettuce (see here for ideas on best ways to keep it fresh).
• Wash and chop your veggies; sort out your toppings into zip bags
• Make a batch of your favorite home-made dressing for the week.

When you want a salad, just…

• dump the lettuce in a bowl
• tear into pieces
• throw on some veggies
• add the toppings of choice
• and dress.

For a lunch bag, put the lettuce and veggies in a container, then add the bag of toppings and a small container of dressing on the side.

Try these topping/dressing combinations:

• dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, raspberry vinaigrette
• peanuts, shaved coconut,  diced cilantro, Asian lime dressing
• pecans, fresh blueberries, poppyseed dressing
• walnuts, dried apricots, fresh pear slices, poppyseed dressing
• garlic croutons, red pepper flakes, Italian or roasted garlic dressing
• sundried tomatoes, bacon bits, ranch dressing

Give it some heft with one of these babies:

• boiled eggs
• grilled chicken
• broiled fish (tilapia is awesome)
• tuna
• cheese
• beans

Remember that herbs add the zippydidooda. Keep fresh cilantro, parsley, basil, whatever your fave is: throw some chopped in with your lettuce or minced in with your dressing. Yum.

30-Minute Meals

Shrimp Stirfry and Rice. Make 4 cups of rice according to package directions; meanwhile, chop an onion, a bell pepper, and a head of broccoli; saute in oil until crisp-tender; throw in a package of frozen snow peas and some peeled shrimp; cook; season with garlic, pepper, soy or teriyaki. Serve veg-shrimp over rice.

Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce. Cook pasta according to package directions; meanwhile, mince 4 cloves of garlic; heat olive oil in a large saute pan; add the garlic, cook till fragrant; add a 10 ounce can of tomato paste, 2 cups of water, and 1/2 cup of cream. Whisk together; season with salt, pepper, basil, oregano. Serve sauce over pasta.

Sausage Potato Soup. Peel 4 large potatoes, chop, and add to a pot of boiling water; let cook just under a boil for 20 minutes; meanwhile, slice a pound of kielbasa or smoked sausage into pieces. Drain the potatoes, reserving 2 cups of water; return potatoes and water to pot, add sausage and a can of creamed corn. Heat through, add a cup of milk, and season with salt and lots of pepper.

Ranch Burger Soup. Cook a pound of ground beef; drain off grease. Add beef to large pot; pour in 1 quart of chicken or vegetable broth and add whole kernel corn, cooked navy or kidney beans, diced tomatoes (fresh or canned, undrained), and a packet of Ranch seasoning. Add more water if you want it soupier. Cook until heated through. Serve over corn chips, top with grated cheddar.

This Week’s Menu

I’m linked up with OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday; you should be, too!

• Winter Squash Soup, Deviled Eggs
• “ Real Food” Hamburger Helper, Salad
• Cheesy Chicken Quesadillas with Homemade Tortillas
• Creamy Cajun Pasta, Salad
• Broiled Tilapia, Dilled Potato Salad, Sauteed Kale

Image courtesy of Zoha N.

A few food thoughts for today…

- Be wary of any miracle food. Olive oil, fish, leafy greens, apples, whatever. Doesn’t mean the food isn’t good and good for you, but no one food is the miracle cure or diet key.

- All things in moderation.

- There is no perfect “diet.”

- Think about food on a “real food scale” according to the processing/prep needed to make something edible. On this scale, the “most real” food would be fruits and vegetables (requiring the least preparation) and then fresh milk, dairy products, and meats and grains kind of on an even keel. You could get really technical by breaking down cooking time etc., but that’s not the point. The point is just think of how fresh and “natural” a thing is when you eat it, and go for those on the fresher end most often.

- There is more to life than what you eat.

- Be simple.

- Be fresh.

- Enjoy your food.

- Stay close to the earth and close to home.

- Consider nutrients, genetics, and a changed environment. A tomato today isn’t the same as a tomato 50 years ago.

- Consider your cooking style, region, background, budget, time, and energy when planning your food and menu and eating lifestyle.

- I hate diets.

- I love food.

- Routines help when you’re short on time and/or willpower. Same thing for breakfast, same thing for snack…

- Drink more water.

- Emotional, mental, spiritual state and lifestyle are part of your “diet.” They affect you physically.

- Nobody in the past had it perfect, either. We can learn from our ancestors, but we shouldn’t just copy them blindly.

- Any diet requiring elaborate preparation, special tools, or expensive ingredients is not going to happen in my life.

- I refuse to feel guilty about food.

- Availability does not mean a food is worthwhile.

(I’m no food or nutrition or diet expert. I just love food and I love being healthy.)

Here’s my menu for this week:

• chicken stir fry (boneless, skinless chicken breasts, loads of fresh broccoli, onion, green pepper, and homemade sweet & sour sauce with fresh chopped pineapple. All over white rice.)
• broccoli cheese soup a la bread co (carry over) (if I get it right, I’ll post the recipe!)
• beef fajitas (thin sliced lean beef sauteed with green pepper and onion, served with shredded lettuce, homemade mango salsa, and roasted garlic)
• winter squash curry and rice (I’ve been craving curry. Can’t wait for this: chunks of acorn squash in a rich coconut-milk curry sauce with lots of garlic and onion, topped with raisins and peanuts and fresh diced cilantro.)
• roasted tomato soup and whole-wheat gnocchi (still deciding if I’m going to put the gnocchi in the soup or serve it, buttered, on the side.)
• garlic-citrus tilapia filets, sauteed mushrooms, and kale. (i have no idea what to do with the kale…)

Routine Meals:

• breakfast (for me) – grape nuts, a banana, and milk. oh, yes, and let’s not forget the coffee.
• breakfast (for the kids) -  granola/cereal bar or a mini bagel, banana, and milk. Zeke gets mushed banana, a bottle of raw milk, and a mini bagel. He eats a lot.
• breakfast (for Joe) – raisin bran
• (yes we have exciting breakfast around here!)
• lunch (for me and Joe) – salad with grilled chicken or a boiled egg, leftovers
• lunch (for the kids) – almost always a combo of fruit or veg (apple, baby carrots), a few carbs (crackers), and protein (cheese, peanut butter, leftover meat). It’s enough for them and is easy for me. Zeke eats the pureed version of veg, fruit and/or protein and a few crackers.

Happy Cooking, Happy Eating

Sometimes, when it comes to food, the simplest is the best.

Let’s talk about soup.

I love soup. Soup is my friend, except in summer when I’m in a state of perpetual sweatiness. Then the only soup I’m into is gazpacho, ice-cold, but during the other three blessed seasons of the year, me and soup, we’re tight. We’re buds. We’re close.

I could happily eat soup every night, but I don’t because 1) sometimes I’m lazy and I like just throwing chicken breasts in the baking dish and voila! dinner; and 2) my husband likes soup, but not quite as much as I do, so I try to be nice and make stuff besides soup too; and 3) a 3 1/2 year old and a 2 year old eating soup every night is too hard on my kitchen, and the cleanliness thereof. I don’t like wiping soup off the floor every evening. (Did you catch that “sometimes I’m lazy” bit, above? That comes into play again here.)

That said (why, I don’t know, I just felt compelled to give you a little discourse on the soup-eating habits at my house),
I decided to make French Onion soup the other night for dinner. I love French Onion soup, but I’ve only made it a couple of times, and the last time was just a flop. I don’t know what went wrong, but it was just kind of blech. I decided to try again.

I started with some well-seasoned chicken broth I had leftover from cooking chicken. It was that yummy thick kind of broth, with a healthy dose of garlic salt and pepper. I got that reheating in the slow cooker while I started the olive oil heating in my big saute pan.

And now we interrupt this program for a word about olive oil. Confession: I don’t really like olive oil. For a person who collects cookbooks, reads M.F.K. Fisher, and spends inordinate amounts of time thinking about, talking about, and dreaming about good food, not liking olive oil is akin to sacrilege. But there, I’ve said it. Something about olive oil is just very heavy and a little too much. Maybe I’m buying the wrong kind (on the cheaper end, okay, we’re a family of five on a budget), maybe I’m using it the wrong way. Don’t know.

But I’m trying to get more of the “good fats” (omega-3) and fewer of the “not-so-good fats” (omega-6) in our regular cooking and eating habits. Hence, I put the butter back in the refrigerator, with a sigh and a tearful gaze, and I glugged in some olive oil instead. In go the thinly sliced onions (2, large) and the finely chopped garlic (2 whole heads) and then I doused the whole mess thoroughly with Worcestershire sauce (lots of glugs) and pepper and garlic salt (I like garlic).

And it smelled like heaven in a saute pan.

Meanwhile, my broth had gotten all soupy and delicious-smelling again. I added about half three-quarters of a carton of Swanson’s organic chicken broth (bought on sale at the little discount food store down the road, oooh yeah!). I let the onion-garlic-olive oil montage simmer on low for twenty minutes or so, then dumped it into the broth, popped on the lid, and kept it on low till dinner time. Four hours later,

it smelled like heaven in a slow cooker.

Joe ladled ours onto slices of provolone, and the cheese was all melty and stringy, and we devoured the bubbly, garlicky, cheese-laden French Onion soup alongside leftover beef fajitas,

and it was like heaven in a soup bowl.

I don’t know how I’m going to top that this week. Oh wait, yes I do. This week I’m going to attempt a recreation of one of my favorite soups: the broccoli cheese from Bread Co (St. Louis, Panera, Atlanta…). Mmmm. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Anyway, here’s my menu, and if you’re looking for another dish for yours this week, I recommend French Onion Soup.

Menu:

• Chicken, carrots, and corn in the slowcooker (that’s tonight; Joe made this yesterday and it cooked all night and it smells delicious and now I don’t have to cook dinner! Yes, my husband is awesome, thank you very much. By the way, this bring me to a question I’ve been pondering: does anyone have a regular “husband’s night to cook” or “mom’s-night-off-so-we-eat-out” time in the week? I’d like to institute something like that but not sure exactly how to work it… advice?)
• Breaded tilapia (carry over from last week), salad with marinated cucumbers, some kind of veggie side.
• Fried rice, sweet and sour veggie stir fry
• Turkey filets… have to do something with those turkey filets in the freezer. What do you do with turkey filets?
• Artichoke pasta (carry over) with some kind of amazing pasta sauce. Alfredo? Cajun cream sauce? Tomato basil? Jury’s out. Anyone have other ideas? Not sure what sauce goes best with artichoke pasta since I’ve never had artichoke pasta before.
• Tuna Salad Lettuce Wraps. This will be our quick meal for Wednesday night, when we have worship practice and then cell group.
• Broccoli Cheddar Soup! I can’t wait, but I need to go buy broccoli… and maybe cheddar.

I just realized I’ve got (potentially) 3 vegetarian meals planned! And 2 with fish (tuna and tilapia). I think I’m getting better at not planning meals around a big hunk of meat.
Here’s to happy meal planning!