Here's a link to a great article about preserving fresh herbs:
http://www.wikihow.com/Preserve-Herbs
Monday, April 2, 2012
Spring!
I love spring! Mostly because it's one of the few times of year in Arkansas that you can enjoy the outdoors without any extreme temperatures, but also because of the fresh produce! After a winter of beans and potatoes, I'm looking forward to all of the colorful and delicious fruits and veggies that are coming our way!
Last night we had our first taste of some fresh strawberries. I decided to save myself some time and just cut up the whole container so we can grab a handful whenever we want! This morning I sacked up a handful and put in Free Range Bennett's lunch box.
I've also read about some freezer jam recipes that I'm planning on trying with seasonal berries. We were successful with the apple butter experiment, so I'm ready to move on to try new things. Also, homemade jams and apple butter make excellent gifts!
With the recent rains, we've got tons of fresh cilantro and basil growing in the backyard! (That's all the gardening I have time for.) I'm learning how to dry my own herbs so none of mine go to waste!
Last night we had our first taste of some fresh strawberries. I decided to save myself some time and just cut up the whole container so we can grab a handful whenever we want! This morning I sacked up a handful and put in Free Range Bennett's lunch box.
I've also read about some freezer jam recipes that I'm planning on trying with seasonal berries. We were successful with the apple butter experiment, so I'm ready to move on to try new things. Also, homemade jams and apple butter make excellent gifts!
With the recent rains, we've got tons of fresh cilantro and basil growing in the backyard! (That's all the gardening I have time for.) I'm learning how to dry my own herbs so none of mine go to waste!
Monday, March 26, 2012
Rotisserie Chicken Week
One thing that has worked well for us in the transition to cooking with whole foods is making a huge batch of one type of protein and using it in dishes throughout the week.
One of my favorite things to do on a busy week is purchase a rotisserie chicken from whole foods and find ways to make something new out of it every night. It never ceases to amaze me all the wonderful things you can do with a rotisserie chicken!
Yes, we eat ALL WEEK on just ONE chicken. My coworkers all mock me, having the same chicken 4 nights in a row. But we just don't eat a lot of meat. So it works for us. It's easy and cheap and good for you!
Here's how rotisserie chicken week usually goes down at my house:
Night 1: Plain ol' rotisserie chicken, veggies, some sort of fancy bread from the local bakery.
Night 2: Chop up some chicken, some onion, cilantro from the back yard, and put in enchiladas (using my homemade enchilada sauce)
Night 3: Chop up so more chicken and mix with some veggies, homemade cream of chicken soup, chicken stock, refrigerated pie crust (I like Immaculate Baking Company's pie crust) and you have chicken pot pie!
Night 4: Chicken, celery, a little mayo, seasoning and it's chicken salad! (Sometimes the chicken lasts until day 4, sometimes it doesn't.)
Most of these recipes even work double time as lunch the next day!
Some recipes we're thinking of trying this week with our rotisserie chicken:
Curried Chicken, Chicken Tacos, and Barbecue Chicken Sandwiches
One of my favorite things to do on a busy week is purchase a rotisserie chicken from whole foods and find ways to make something new out of it every night. It never ceases to amaze me all the wonderful things you can do with a rotisserie chicken!
Yes, we eat ALL WEEK on just ONE chicken. My coworkers all mock me, having the same chicken 4 nights in a row. But we just don't eat a lot of meat. So it works for us. It's easy and cheap and good for you!
Here's how rotisserie chicken week usually goes down at my house:
Night 1: Plain ol' rotisserie chicken, veggies, some sort of fancy bread from the local bakery.
Night 2: Chop up some chicken, some onion, cilantro from the back yard, and put in enchiladas (using my homemade enchilada sauce)
Night 3: Chop up so more chicken and mix with some veggies, homemade cream of chicken soup, chicken stock, refrigerated pie crust (I like Immaculate Baking Company's pie crust) and you have chicken pot pie!
Night 4: Chicken, celery, a little mayo, seasoning and it's chicken salad! (Sometimes the chicken lasts until day 4, sometimes it doesn't.)
Most of these recipes even work double time as lunch the next day!
Some recipes we're thinking of trying this week with our rotisserie chicken:
Curried Chicken, Chicken Tacos, and Barbecue Chicken Sandwiches
Monday, February 13, 2012
Bread Machines Are From Heaven!
I finally got to try out my bread machine this weekend! I went into it with the expectation that I'd probably have to try it a couple of times before I got it right, but I was so pleasantly surprised! I made a loaf of honey whole wheat bread and it came out moist and fluffy and delicious! The crust was a little crisp, but that's OK by me. As far as I'm concerned - I'm done buying bread in the store. This was WAY too easy! Free Range Bennett loved it too! He's started putting words together (he's 20 months old) and he said "more bread." That kid and I have WAY too much in common!
Here's the recipe I used for Honey Whole Wheat Bread in the bread machine:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp dry yeast
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil
3/4 cup warm water
follow the directions for your bread machine - sometimes the order in which you add the ingredients matters.
Pictures to follow.
Here's the recipe I used for Honey Whole Wheat Bread in the bread machine:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp dry yeast
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil
3/4 cup warm water
follow the directions for your bread machine - sometimes the order in which you add the ingredients matters.
Pictures to follow.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Score!
We made a trip to Free Range Nana's House this weekend and I scored some loot!
I got a bread machine! I can't wait to start making my own bread! I am truly giddy with excitement!!! As I mentioned before, we've been struggling with trying to find a good bread that's minimally processed around here. Problem solved!!
I also got an electric griddle, which will be great on our pancake making marathons, and little sandwich cutters to make Free Range Bennett's sandwiches into fun shapes.
Oh, and I almost forgot - 2 pounds of Arkansas pecans, shelled and ready to go into some delicious muffins or homemade granola!
Double Score!!!!
I got a bread machine! I can't wait to start making my own bread! I am truly giddy with excitement!!! As I mentioned before, we've been struggling with trying to find a good bread that's minimally processed around here. Problem solved!!
I also got an electric griddle, which will be great on our pancake making marathons, and little sandwich cutters to make Free Range Bennett's sandwiches into fun shapes.
Oh, and I almost forgot - 2 pounds of Arkansas pecans, shelled and ready to go into some delicious muffins or homemade granola!
Double Score!!!!
Grocery List
I thought I'd share what our grocery list looks like now that we've switched to whole foods:
Plastic Cutlery (Free Range Bennett has a party @ school)
Organic Unsalted Butter
Plastic Storage Bags
Organic Whole Milk 1/2 gallon
Frozen Spinach
Feta Cheese
Whole Organic Chicken
Organic Chocoloate Chips
Cream Cheese
Artisan Lettuces
Celery
Carrots
Paprika
Onion Powder
2 Dozen Organic Eggs
Whole Wheat Flour
Bay Leaves
Pears
Frozen Corn
Green Beans (I buy these in the can because I love them!)
5lb bag of red potatoes
1 pint grape tomatoes
2 bunches bananas
1 zucchini
Whole Wheat French Bread
1 pint blueberries
Facewash (not a food item, but included in our total)
1/2 pound deli turkey
Grand total $103
I used no coupons, and most of what I bought wasn't even on sale this week. I do try to shop sales, but it just didn't work out that way this week. And we still did pretty well!
One thing I'm experimenting with is buying one protien source each week and making multiple meals out of it. Hopefully this will cut down on cooking time each day.
What I'm making this week:
Dinners:
Roasted Chicken with veggie pancakes (I'm using leftover chicken bones to make stock)
Chicken Enchiladas
Veggie Quiche and Salad
Eat out 1 night
Chili (from the freezer, leftover from a few weeks ago)
Lunches:
Leftover Enchiladas
Turkey Wraps
Chicken Salad and Triscuit crackers (if there's any leftover chicken)
Breakfasts: (all of these made previously and stored in freezer)
Zucchini Muffins
Mini breakfast casseroles
Homemade granola and greek yogurt
Snacks:
Fruit
Homemade No-Bake Energy Balls
Plastic Cutlery (Free Range Bennett has a party @ school)
Organic Unsalted Butter
Plastic Storage Bags
Organic Whole Milk 1/2 gallon
Frozen Spinach
Feta Cheese
Whole Organic Chicken
Organic Chocoloate Chips
Cream Cheese
Artisan Lettuces
Celery
Carrots
Paprika
Onion Powder
2 Dozen Organic Eggs
Whole Wheat Flour
Bay Leaves
Pears
Frozen Corn
Green Beans (I buy these in the can because I love them!)
5lb bag of red potatoes
1 pint grape tomatoes
2 bunches bananas
1 zucchini
Whole Wheat French Bread
1 pint blueberries
Facewash (not a food item, but included in our total)
1/2 pound deli turkey
Grand total $103
I used no coupons, and most of what I bought wasn't even on sale this week. I do try to shop sales, but it just didn't work out that way this week. And we still did pretty well!
One thing I'm experimenting with is buying one protien source each week and making multiple meals out of it. Hopefully this will cut down on cooking time each day.
What I'm making this week:
Dinners:
Roasted Chicken with veggie pancakes (I'm using leftover chicken bones to make stock)
Chicken Enchiladas
Veggie Quiche and Salad
Eat out 1 night
Chili (from the freezer, leftover from a few weeks ago)
Lunches:
Leftover Enchiladas
Turkey Wraps
Chicken Salad and Triscuit crackers (if there's any leftover chicken)
Breakfasts: (all of these made previously and stored in freezer)
Zucchini Muffins
Mini breakfast casseroles
Homemade granola and greek yogurt
Snacks:
Fruit
Homemade No-Bake Energy Balls
Friday, February 3, 2012
Updates
We've been transitioning to whole foods at my house for a little over a month now. We chose to transition to whole foods gradually for a couple of reasons:
#1 - I didn't want the food we already had to go to waste.
#2 - I don't know how to cook anything unless is comes in a box.
So over the last month, we have been eating SOME processed foods, just to get rid of things and help ease the learning curve.
This change has been difficult to say the least, but I believe that true change is a process and not something you can do overnight.
Here's some updates on the progress at my house:
- We gave family members and friends some of our processed foods that haven't been opened. Everything else has it's own shelf in our pantry so we know what we need to get rid of. Some things, I just threw away. Hate to waste food like that, but I'm not going to lose sleep over throwing away that last little bit of salad dressing.
- I have a freezer stocked full of homemade zucchini muffins, mini breakfast casseroles, and homemade pancakes for us to grab in the mornings. I also have some homemade apple butter to put on our pancakes so we don't have to use sugary syrups.
- Also in the freezer, we have some frozen meals that I made a double batch of. These are great for busy nights, all I have to do is take some frozen chili out of the freezer and heat it up!
- I have made huge batches of homemade enchilada sauce and cream of chicken soup. We make casseroles and Mexican food a lot so I made giant batches of both of these and froze them in 12 ounce portions.
- For those nights when we have a sweet tooth, I have a batch of homemade cookie dough in the freezer. Turns out that with homemade cookies, we get full after just a couple of cookies and we don't feel the need to gorge ourselves.
- Our pantry is mostly filled with the basic baking ingredients, canned tomatoes (with little or no salt), whole wheat pasta, coffee, tea, beans, and peanut butter.
- We no longer use white sugar or any artificial sweeteners. With our morning coffee or tea, we will have a spoonful of honey or maple syrup instead.
- Free Range Hubby and I are BOTH off of sodas completely! YAY!!!
- I have arranged a trade with friends so that we can diversify our homemade food supplies.
- My mother is giving us a bread machine for us to start making our own bread. I just don't have the time to go to multiple stores for our food so I figure making our own will be the most convenient. I can't wait to try it out!
- I have a few basic recipes that the family likes for us to cook throughout the week. Some of our new favorites include homemade granola, no-bake energy balls (see previous post), refried beans, and fried rice.
We still have some processed foods in our house. Some I'm OK with. Every once in a while, I just want a bowl of sugary cereal. But we've found brands like Cascadian Farms and Mom's Best Naturals that make yummy sugar laden cereals that are made with ingredients we can actually pronounce. And they're delicious! I'm also a fan of Annie's foods for Free Range Bennett. Their snacks still contain many ingredients, but they again are all ones you can pronounce. These products I'm just not ready to part with. But I believe moderation is the key.
I'm still working on ways to incorporate some of our favorite foods into our new whole foods lifestyle. Condiments are a big challenge. I love ketchup. I'm still trying to decide if I want to try a couple of less processed brands or make my own. I have some salad dressings that I can't wait to try once we run out of the processed stuff. And I'm still trying to figure out how to either make my own tortillas or find a store that sells minimally processed ones. We still have pizza every couple of weeks, and I don't see a problem with that. And when we eat out, I try to choose dishes that I know will be less processed.
Again, this is all a process. But I'm thrilled about the progress we've made. I've found a love of cooking that I didn't know existed within me, and I feel better than I've felt in a long time. I can't wait to see what the next month has in store!
#1 - I didn't want the food we already had to go to waste.
#2 - I don't know how to cook anything unless is comes in a box.
So over the last month, we have been eating SOME processed foods, just to get rid of things and help ease the learning curve.
This change has been difficult to say the least, but I believe that true change is a process and not something you can do overnight.
Here's some updates on the progress at my house:
- We gave family members and friends some of our processed foods that haven't been opened. Everything else has it's own shelf in our pantry so we know what we need to get rid of. Some things, I just threw away. Hate to waste food like that, but I'm not going to lose sleep over throwing away that last little bit of salad dressing.
- I have a freezer stocked full of homemade zucchini muffins, mini breakfast casseroles, and homemade pancakes for us to grab in the mornings. I also have some homemade apple butter to put on our pancakes so we don't have to use sugary syrups.
- Also in the freezer, we have some frozen meals that I made a double batch of. These are great for busy nights, all I have to do is take some frozen chili out of the freezer and heat it up!
- I have made huge batches of homemade enchilada sauce and cream of chicken soup. We make casseroles and Mexican food a lot so I made giant batches of both of these and froze them in 12 ounce portions.
- For those nights when we have a sweet tooth, I have a batch of homemade cookie dough in the freezer. Turns out that with homemade cookies, we get full after just a couple of cookies and we don't feel the need to gorge ourselves.
- Our pantry is mostly filled with the basic baking ingredients, canned tomatoes (with little or no salt), whole wheat pasta, coffee, tea, beans, and peanut butter.
- We no longer use white sugar or any artificial sweeteners. With our morning coffee or tea, we will have a spoonful of honey or maple syrup instead.
- Free Range Hubby and I are BOTH off of sodas completely! YAY!!!
- I have arranged a trade with friends so that we can diversify our homemade food supplies.
- My mother is giving us a bread machine for us to start making our own bread. I just don't have the time to go to multiple stores for our food so I figure making our own will be the most convenient. I can't wait to try it out!
- I have a few basic recipes that the family likes for us to cook throughout the week. Some of our new favorites include homemade granola, no-bake energy balls (see previous post), refried beans, and fried rice.
We still have some processed foods in our house. Some I'm OK with. Every once in a while, I just want a bowl of sugary cereal. But we've found brands like Cascadian Farms and Mom's Best Naturals that make yummy sugar laden cereals that are made with ingredients we can actually pronounce. And they're delicious! I'm also a fan of Annie's foods for Free Range Bennett. Their snacks still contain many ingredients, but they again are all ones you can pronounce. These products I'm just not ready to part with. But I believe moderation is the key.
I'm still working on ways to incorporate some of our favorite foods into our new whole foods lifestyle. Condiments are a big challenge. I love ketchup. I'm still trying to decide if I want to try a couple of less processed brands or make my own. I have some salad dressings that I can't wait to try once we run out of the processed stuff. And I'm still trying to figure out how to either make my own tortillas or find a store that sells minimally processed ones. We still have pizza every couple of weeks, and I don't see a problem with that. And when we eat out, I try to choose dishes that I know will be less processed.
Again, this is all a process. But I'm thrilled about the progress we've made. I've found a love of cooking that I didn't know existed within me, and I feel better than I've felt in a long time. I can't wait to see what the next month has in store!
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