Happy Food Revolution Day!

Food Revolution Day…have you heard of it?  It’s an amazing cause and a great reason to celebrate (and enjoy delicious food) with friends and family.  And it's happening TODAY!

What?

Food Revolution Day was created by Jamie Oliver (aka the Naked Chef and my food hero).  It’s a day for people to take action and make a stand for good food and essential cooking skills.  It’s a opportunity for people to gather within their homes, schools, businesses, and communities to cook and share kitchen skills, food knowledge, and resources.  This day aims to raise awareness about the importance of good food and increased food education for everyone by focusing on three simple actions – cook it, share it, live it.

The first Food Revolution Day took place on May 19, 2012 with more than 1,000 events in 664 cities across 62 countries. 

Who?

Food Revolution Day is celebrated globally as an individual, or within schools, business, or organizations that want to take part in hosting or attending activities in their area.  Many of these activities can be organized by voluntary Food Revolution ambassadors who play a leadership role across the work in connecting individuals, schools, businesses, and organizations at a local level.

Why?

Cooking skills that were previously passed down from generation to generation, are now lacking in millions of people.  We need to get back to the basics by cooking and eating fresh local produce, sharing cooking skills and food knowledge, and joining forces within our communities to get as many people involved as possible.  Food Revolution Day is our opportunity to get the world to focus on the importance of good food and essential cooking skills, by rallying our efforts to empower people with better cooking skills and inspiring them to cook fresh from scratch.

Where?

Food Revolution Day will happen in kitchens of homes and communities around the world inspiring people to take steps towards a healthier lifestyle.

How?

Get in touch with your nearest ambassador, organize anactivity locally, or attend an activity.

Now go and enjoy Food Revolution Day.  Make a difference because this matters.

Source: http://www.foodrevolutionday.com/about-the-day.html

Roasted turnips

Last Saturday I received an amazing turnip from my CSA share.  I love turnip greens and have a few go to recipes, but I've never had much luck with the turnip.  I cleaned and chopped it and put it in the fridge hoping that I would find a use for it.

I was sitting at work and then it hit me - roasted turnip.  Recently I've been roasting every vegetable possible, so I was excited to give the turnip a chance.  It didn't disappoint.  I thought that it was delicious.  And incredibly easy.

Turnip (mine was rather large)
Olive oil (enough to lightly coat turnip)
Rosemary (also from my CSA share)
Salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Toss chopped turnip with olive oil, rosemary, and salt until turnip is lightly coated in olive oil.  I put all of the ingredients in a plastic bag and just gave it a good shake.  Roast turnips until tender and browned, start checking on them after about 30 minutes.  Try not to eat the entire pan at once.

Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from localfoods.about.com

Spring has sprung!

Every day I see more and more evidence that Spring is finally arriving in Ohio.  The daffodils are finally blooming, the grass is turning green, and the air is definitely warmer.  Another indication, last Saturday we had our first CSA share delivery and I forgot how much I missed it.

I love our CSA share and our farmers.  We've bought from them for years and they are always extremely generous and genuinely concerned about customer satisfaction.  I am sad to hear that they are struggling a bit this year with a family illness and I really hope that they can continue offering shares in the future.

I have to admit that this time of year I love our share more than I do in the summer.  Seems like a strange statement, right?  The thing is, once we pick up our share, it's a lot of work.  I take at least an hour, and most of the time longer, to clean and prepare everything so that it's easy for us to eat during the week.  If I don't take this time, then we end up tossing a lot of it, and what a waste!

Of course I am busy now, but I'm "winter" busy.  I don't mind sticking a movie in for the boys and working in the kitchen for a while.  When the weather breaks, it just about kills me to be inside (and to keep the boys inside so that I can keep an eye on them) while I clean and prepare our share.  That warm area and beautiful sunshine beckon to me as I stand over my sink washing and chopping.

Since I fully realize my struggle, I've vowed to myself to use more and more of our share this year.  I plan to utilize our freezer and I'm already looking forward to fresh summer produce during the cold months of winter.  I'm constantly looking for new recipes that incorporate the vegetables that we receive and to keep meals interesting.  Any tips or tricks are welcome!

Parmesan Roasted Green Beans

I realized that in the long months on winter, we've been slipping on serving vegetables every single dinner. I always feel guilty when this stuff happens. It's not intentional, but I still feel like I am missing an opportunity to make my kids a bit healthier and introduce them to nature's yummy foods.

Last night I decided to break this trend and pulled out a bag of frozen green beans. Feeling more inspired than the usual steamed with butter, I found a recipe for Parmesan Roasted Green Beans. Yum, right? Super easy, too.

Parmesan Roasted Green Beans

Green beans
Olive oil
Salt and pepper (to taste)
Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place dry (since mine were frozen I patted them dry with a towel) green beans (ends removed) in a bowl. Add enough olive oil to just coat green beans and salt and pepper to taste. Spread on a baking sheet (as single layer as possible). Top with parmesan cheese (we love it, so ours got a pretty good coating). Place in oven for 15 - 20 minutes. Enjoy!

My boys (Jason included) each ate healthy servings. I've never seen them go after green beans like this. They've eaten them before, but not so willingly and happily. I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of the process and final result. I will take one next time and update this post. This will definitely become a regular in our house.

How do you get your kids to eat vegetables?

Chicken Parmesan

One of my favorite parts of recovery was all of the visitors. I had friends and family visiting, some that I haven't seen for years. I can't even describe how happy I was to hang with everyone.

Kate and I were friends during my college years. Never extremely close, but we would hang out one on one. When she moved to NC I was sad to see her go. We kept our relationship going enough to always be able to contact each other (you have to remember that this was long before facebook and other social networking sites), but would lose touch years at a time. Our relationship became much stronger when we started our families and would share our parenting triumphs and follies. It didn't take long to bond and become best friends over emails.

I finally got to visit with her when she came to Ohio after surgery. I was feeling pretty good at that point and was hopeful that we would be able to spend some time together cooking dinner and sharing a bottle of wine, which we always talked about in our emails. We took the opportunity and did just that.

After a brief discussion we decided on Chicken Parmesan. Delicious. Next was a quick trip to the grocery store and we were ready to cook.

Ingredients:
1 sweet onion
1 cup extra virgin olive oil (plus more for frying)
56 ounces whole peeled canned tomatoes
28 ounces crushed tomatoes
20 ounces stewed tomatoes
1 bunch basil
7 cloves garlic
1 1/2 pounds mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese
1 bottle Pinot Noir red wine
3 pounds chicken (we used thighs, the original recipe recommended breasts)
Seasoning (oregano, garlic powder, salt, pepper, etc.)
6 eggs
4 cups bread crumbs (we used homemade, the original recipe recommended Panko)
1 box spaghetti

Heat olive oil in a stock pot, medium high heat.
Dice onion. Add to heated oil, cook for 10 - 15 minutes. Soften onions without turning them brown.
Dice garlic cloves. Once onions turn opaque, add diced garlic.
Add tomatoes. Add 1/2 cup red wine. Add seasoning (we seasoned to taste using my Italian dressing seasoning and adding other spices as needed, the original recipe suggested 1 tablespoon Penzey's pasta sprinkle).
Slice mozzarella into thin slices. Whisk eggs in a Pyrex dish. Add seasoning (we used a healthy dash of my Italian dressing seasoning). Dip chicken in eggs. Coat chicken with breadcrumbs. Repeat until all chicken is finished. Cover the chicken with plastic wrap and place in freezer.
Preheat oven to 400.
Start a boiled pot of water, heavily salted.
Using submersion blender, blend marinara sauce to desired thickness. Pour a layer of marinara on a baking sheet and sprinkle Parmesan on top.
Heat olive oil in large pan. When oil is hot, add breaded chicken. After about 10 minutes, once edges of the chicken start to brown, flip.
Add spaghetti to boiling water.
Layer the chicken on top of the marinara. Repeat cooking chicken and continue adding it to the marinara covered baking sheets. Give the chicken a thin coat of marinara on top. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on chicken. Layer mozzarella on top. Put in oven and set the timer for 12 minutes.
Slice some basil into thin slices (chiffenade).
Add finished cooked spaghetti to leftover marinara sauce.
Continue to check on chicken in oven. Once it is bubbling and the cheese is beginning to turn brown, it's finished.
Pour remainder of wine into glasses. Plate generous portions of spaghetti and chicken and sprinkle with basil. Enjoy!

Kate's admitted that she's always been a bit intimidated to make Chicken Parmesan. I've never made it. We both thought that this recipe was not only easy, but incredibly delicious. My boys ate a ton of it. She made it for her family shortly after she returned from Ohio with success (cooking and family enjoying). I haven't made it again, but plan to invite some family over for dinner soon and this will most likely be our entree.  Without further ado, treat yourself to this deliciousness!

As written, this recipe makes enough to feed an army. Recipe adapted from Diane's Chicken Parmesan.

What's for dinner tonight

I originally found this recipe on Pinterest and weimmediately fell in love with it.  It isso, so delicious.  Initially the boyswere less than enthusiastic, but it is so good, I couldn’t help but make itonce in a while anyway.  To my surprise,tonight both boys were clean platers and William even asked for more twice!  

Do yourself a favor and make this as soon as possible.  Without further ado:

Garlic Pesto Chicken with Tomato Cream Penne

Marinade*:
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup vinegar
1/3 cup vegetable oil**
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried Italian style seasoning***
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning1 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients and mix well.
*the recipe originally calls for ½ bottle of Lawry’s Herband Garlic marinade.  Of course, one ofthe first ingredients is HFCS, so I opted to make my own.  Original recipe: Garlic and Herb Marinade atallrecipes.com 
**I substituted olive oil
***I used a teaspoon of my Italian dressing seasoning 

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup pesto (luckily I have a family member that makes it,but if you aren’t quite as lucky I strongly suggest making your own)
8 ounces penne pasta
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup chicken broth
8 ounces tomato sauce
1 cup half and half

Cut chicken into one inch strips.  Make slits in chicken strips.  Marinate chicken in herb and garlic marinadeand ½ pesto overnight (or longer).

After the chicken is marinated:

Boil water to start noodles. Pour entire batch of chicken, marinade and all, into skillet and simmerover medium heat.  Cook chicken throughcompletely and the marinade will cook down.

Heat olive oil and cook garlic.  Once garlic becomes fragrant, add remaining pestoand chicken broth.  Simmer until broth ishalf cooked down.  Add tomato sauce andhalf and half.  Simmer an additional fiveminutes.  Toss pasta with sauce.

To serve – plate pasta and place chicken on top.

Recipe adapted from: Garlic Pesto Chicken with Tomato CreamPenne at http://cdargis.tumblr.com/post/18818836004/garlic-pesto-chicken-with-tomato-cream-penne 

Enjoy and you’re welcome!

Smoothies :)

I know that a lot of these recipes and tips sound super easyand basic, but if you’re anything like me, it’s just never occurred to you tomake your own.  I’m constantly amazed atthe food that I can make so easily in my own kitchen that I pay a premium forat our grocery store.  Lots of times Ifeel like smacking myself on the forehead and wondering why I haven’t thoughtof doing these things sooner.  But I didn’t.  In case you haven’t yet, I decided to sharesome of my findings and processes.

I have a huge bag of frozen berries sitting in my freezer.  I really want to make smoothies out of them, but I always find myself running late, short on time.  I’ve been trying to come up with an idea to make the smoothies ready to go and had some issues figuring out how to store everything so that it not only kept well, but didn’t lose that smoothie consistency.  I had an epiphany the other day.  The solution seems so simple that I’m a bit annoyed that it took me this long to come up with it.

Using my baby food containers (once again) I froze yogurt.  I really love having these ingredients in one ounce, premeasured cubes.  I took some cubes (my preference is three ounces of yogurt) and added fresh spinach (just make sure that it’s totally dry), fresh kale, avocado, frozen berries, and anything else that I like in a smoothie.  Store in a plastic bag or mason jar and freeze.  The night before I just dump one of the bags into my Magic Bullet, place in the refrigerator, and blend in the morning.  I’ve also separated the berries and added them frozen to make the smoothie a little more frosty.  Even better if you have some fresh ingredients ready to throw in at the last second.  We seem to always have some left over vegetables on hand that I can add.  Delicious smoothie in seconds.  It’s the perfect quick breakfast or easy snack. 

Evil little packets

My husband, Jason, is so addicted to those little packets.  You know the ones that you findat the grocery store?  Sometimes they’rea powder and sometimes they’re a sauce, but they are those evil little packetsmeant to spice up your meal.

Jason’s on board with the organic eating, but this is onehabit that I just can’t get him to break. I’ve at least gotten him to avoid HFCS, but sometimes he gets so excitedwhen a new one comes out that he totally forgets to check and has to buyit.  I’ve given up on the otheringredients that I have no idea how to pronounce or what they actually are.

I really don’t understand this addiction.  Everything that we’ve ever made from scratchis far superior to the processed packet. I’ve mentioned before that I keep quite a few of powdered seasoningmixes on hand.  He really has no reasonto buy these packets, yet I just can’t get him to stop.  Even tonight, after I came home, he ran intothe kitchen to grab that little packet of sauce and show me what he had foundtoday.  

I still can’t help but to cringe a little every time I seeone.  I usually try to grin and bear it(and not read the ingredients list).  Theybring him such joy.

Homemade chicken stock

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am trying to make some simple everyday staples (at least in my household) from scratch. The first weekend I successfully made breadcrumbs. This week was supposed to be homemade pie crusts. I was looking forward to it, but the tried and true recipe suggested by a dear friend required a food processor. Since my cheap food processor quit on me, that will have to wait. Instead I decided to make my own chicken stock.

I ended up cooking three whole chickens (just baked them in the oven) for my freezer meals. After I carved them, I stuck anything remaining (including skin) with carrots, onions, celery, garlic, salt, and pepper. Actually, I just used the pot instead of my compost bin while I was chopping vegetables for some recipes. I just filled up the pot with enough water to cover everything and simmered about four hours. When it cooled down a bit, I strained the stock and refrigerated overnight. In the morning I was able to take a nice layer of fat off the top and was left with the delicious stock. 

About the straining…I don’t have a good strainer, so I just used our colander. It worked, but in the future I will definitely invest in a decent strainer to eliminate some of the pieces. For a first attempt it wasn’t terrible, but I would like it to be more of a clear stock that is sold commercially.

I used what I needed for my recipes and froze the remainder. Those baby food trays are coming in handy yet again! Now I have it premeasured in one ounce cubes and ready in the freezer. I did find that I needed to cut it with a bit of water for chicken noodle soup, but I was happy that I was able to stretch it even more.

I plan to start using my limp, not so fresh vegetables for vegetable stock. Although these would usually go in the compost, I still feel like I’m bringing new life to something that would normally just be disposed of. It’s so easy to throw into a big pot, add water, and simmer. 

Just like the breadcrumbs, the flavor is unbelievable compared to the prepackaged stock. Happy simmering!

Making breadcrumbs

I apologize for my lack of posts.  As we all know, the holiday season hasarrived which for me brings additional commitments and busier weekends.  Between shopping, wrapping, decorating, andgeneral cheer, I feel like the hours in each day have gotten even shorter.

My sweet littlest guy has decided to be just like his bigbrother and give up all baby food.  Ihave quite the stash in my freezer and I felt like I was just getting in thegroove of making it again.  He startedthrowing the biggest fit when he wasn’t served the exact same dinner thateveryone else was eating.  When he pairedthese fits with refusing baby food, I knew that my pureeing days wereover.  Luckily he pops out teeth like it’snothing and we have nine and ten about to arrive any day now.

I’ve been cooking numerous freezer meals to prepare for my upcoming surgery.  Each week I decided totake something that we use regularly and make it myself.  Nothing too difficult, not so much tochallenge, but more of an eye opener of how easy this can be. 

The first weekend I made my own breadcrumbs.  I hated buying the premade, but it was justso easy.  I lucked out and found someorganic bread on clearance at the grocery store.  I bought three loaves, which was way toomuch.  I will never have to buy or makebreadcrumbs again!  I placed the sliceson a cookie sheet, being careful to not overlap, and dried them in the oven at300 degrees.  It took about 15 minutesand I flipped the slices about halfway through. After the bread cooled down, I threw the pieces in a food processor andwatched them crumble.  You can decide thelevel of chunkiness.  My food processoris incredibly cheap and I’ve never liked it much.  After the first batch it died on me.  I guess I know what I’ll be asking for thisChristmas!  Anyway, without that frustration,the process was incredibly quick and easy. I almost seasoned the entire batch, but at the last minute decided thatI would season them as needed.

My recipe for seasoning (this is an Italian seasoning):
1 tablespoon garlic salt
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 ½ teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 tablespoon dried parsley
¼ teaspoon celery salt
1 tablespoon salt

(adapted from allrecipes.com “Italian Dressing Mix”)

This makes quite a bit of seasoning.  If you prefer it as a finer powder, just giveit a spin in a Magic Bullet.  I don’tmind the big parsley, basil, and oregano flakes so I just leave it as is.  I keep this seasoning, ranch dressing powder,and taco seasoning on hand in mason jars. It keeps me away from those packets of chemicals and it’s just aseasy.  I use approximately 2 teaspoons toflavor 1 cup of breadcrumbs.

To store breadcrumbs, just use a glass jar or Ziploc bag andplace them in your freezer.  They’ll be readywhen you need them!  The seasoned versionis incredibly tasty in meatballs and meatloaf. Just like anything else made from scratch, these are so much better thanthe premade store variety.  Enjoy!

Making food for babies and people older than babies

Oh dear, sweet blog, I swear that I haven’t been ignoring you. I really just haven’t had anything to report.

I am still making baby food, but realized that the era will be coming to an end in the near future. The little man prefers feeding himself tiny bites with his fingers and is desperate to use the spoon (or at least have enough control over it so that he can wave it in the air or bang it on the tray or do whatever else he wants with it). So, my days of pureeing are numbered. I am a little sad, as this made me feel more of a part of my son’s nurturing where I feel that I miss out on so much.

There is an upside to not making baby food – I can focus my efforts on making food that the entire family can enjoy. I really want to make my own bread. I would love to get my husband away from the white Wonder bread and I have been dreaming up yummy combinations that I can’t wait to try. Hopefully I will have the time and the tools to begin this project soon. I am also anxious to try canning my own spaghetti sauce and pizza sauce. I have daydreams of a weekly family night involving the entire family making homemade pizzas together and watching a movie together afterwards. Of course my child will have to be a little older to help out and appreciate a movie, but that’s why they are currently daydreams. Making and canning my own pizza sauce will help make this dream easy and doable, plus give us a fresh from the garden taste in the middle of the cold Ohio winters.

I have been buying mostly organic groceries for a couple of months now. Cheese and meat has been an obstacle, because of cost and availability. Luckily our Farmer’s Market has an organic cheese stand that is wonderful. It takes all of my power to not spend my entire paycheck there. Unfortunately it is only available during the Farmer’s Market, so the off season will still be a challenge. I still can’t find a good solution for meat, so I have been serving vegetarian meals a couple of times a week. Eggs were also costly, but availability was easy. I thought eggs were going to break me, but luckily I have a co-worker that has chickens and has been selling eggs to me at a much more reasonable price. I have become pretty proud of my organic pantry.

 We are still undergoing the slowest move in the history of moves. This is not only draining our energy, but also our bank accounts. Fixing and replacing to make the new house livable has come before any green changes that we would like to make. So, sadly, I have not begun to compost or recycle or do anything else that I want to do in the new house.I really didn’t expect the move to stall my green efforts so much. I plan to continue to make little changes whenever I see the opportunity and the funds and hope that some of my bigger changes can come into effect by the end of the year.