Food that Surrounds Us!

What types of foods do you utilize that grow in your own back yard? I want to hear about what is gown in your garden, on your deck or patio, or the corner in your kitchen. Do you use fresh herbs and spices cultivated by your own hand?
What about the woods behind your home? Do you forage for mushrooms? Maybe pick huckleberries and wild strawberries? This week we will be focusing on the food around us.
Can't wait to hear about your use of free local foods.

Indoor Adventure

Just wanted to leave a little bleep for now. We have decided to do a bit of indoor planting this year for a small winter harvest. So far we have tomatoes(flowers are on already), bell peppers(first flower), lettuce and garlic. There will be more to come. Can't wait to share with everyone the pictures of our coming winter harvest. Will it feed all of us through the cold months in Michigan.....no.....I wish, but what it will do is provide a bit of fresh home grown produce in our weekly foods.
On a wonderful side note it is a great way to keep the kids interested in fresh home grown foods over the frigid months. We have plans to use this in our science units in the coming weeks.
Pics and updates soon.

Harvest Time 3-Peach Pie #2

Okay so this will probably be the shortest post EVER!
For this alternative Peach Pie Recipe you follow the original except you add 3 tablespoons of Red Wine. I used Cabernet Sauvignon because it was the red that was in the house. If you are not using a sweet red then add an additional 1/8 to 1/4 cup sugar. If it is a sweet red I do not add any additional.

Harvest Time 2- Peach Pies

So my peach pie recipe is VERY VERY simple. I use the recipe for crust on the Crisco website, except that I place the Crisco in the freezer not just the fridge. This year I forgot to grab some more pie tins, so I used my square glass 8x8's to create our delicious dessert. I would not recommend this as a common practice. Rolling crust to fit a square container was not as simple as for a round.
I made 5 double crusts at once, I ended up freezing three for later use this week.

Okay so the filling!
Place peaches in boiling water from 30-60 seconds(greatest discovery in a while) and then directly into COLD water, because we don't want them to continue to cook. Then simple peel off the skins with your fingers. No more peeling with a knife, YEAH!
I worked in small batches so that the beaches would not turn brown while I was still peeling.
Then I sliced them up and took out the stones. Thinking about trying to cold sprout a couple....I will let you know how that turns out.
Next layer your bottom crust on your pan, layer with peaches, I like to cover the crust so well that you can no longer see it. Then I sprinkle with 1/4 sugar, but in saying that I think I use closer to 1/8 of a cup. If your peaches are not sweet and flavorful you may want to add more for your taste.
The carefully place the top crust and pinch to seal the edges. Don't forget to cut vents in your top crust.
I cooked the pie at 400F on the middle rack for 30 min then covered and cooked for another 10. You should always start your cook time at least ten minutes less so 20 min because of the difference in not only ovens but peaches as well.
I then hand sprinkled a little sugar on the top while the pie was still hot to make it shimmer, yes it only makes it look pretty.
Cool, cut and EAT!
Hope you enjoy.
Check back later today for a twist on this recipe using red wine.

Soap

A friend and I were talking about a concern that she has in our schools systems with the use of antibacterial soaps and personal cleaning products. After we both shared our knowledge on the subject we were in agreement. Plain ole soap is better and safer. She is going to share her knowledge with the teacher and school, which is an EXCELLENT things to do.  This is just a quick little blurb on a very large subject, maybe it will spark some questions with you, or get you to think about the products you use a little more closely, or at least I hope that it does. Thank you friend for sharing your concern and suggestion that I post about this subject!

So what's the big deal right? Antibacterial soap will kill all the nasty germs better than regular soap won't it? Don't I want to kill every germ possible on my and my child's hands, dishes, and well everything?

No, no you don't, not like that at least. Antibacterial soap kills more germs, but it kills the good ones and the bad ones. It makes it easier for antibiotic and antibacterial resistant germs to multiple when all germs are destroyed on a surface. Children and adults need to have some exposure to germs in order to build an immunity to them. Now in no way am I saying to not wash your hands. Wash, wash and wash properly some more!! Just not with antibacterial soap. Talk to your doctor or pediatrician about their recommendation for the use or disuse of such products.

In addition the antibacterial ingredients that are truly the part that kills the germs are questionable when deciding whether or not they are safe. My opinion, if you can go natural, then do it!

Here are a few links of information on the use of antibacterial soaps and products.
Basic rundown of what we are talking about-
http://www.naturallifemagazine.com/0602/antibacterial_soap.htm

http://www.naturallifemagazine.com/0602/antibacterial_soap.htm

Sasatsu  M, Shimizu  K, Noguchi  N, Kong  M. Triclosan-resistant Staphylococcus aureus [letter]. Lancet. 1993;342:248. DOIPubMed


More to come on this topic and hand sanitizers later.  Much more in depth and scientific look at this as soon as my put up season is over.

Harvest Time 1

This weekend was very full. Saturday is market day for our city, so we spent some time quickly(we were running late) selecting and purchasing all of our needed produce for this weeks meals and well let's just call them plans.
Our list of items to purchase:
Lettuce
Onions
Tomatoes
Green Peppers
Jalapeno Peppers
Peaches
What we also bought:
Baby cabbage
Plums

The plans for this weeks selections were as follows, salsa, frozen tomatoes(for stews and sauces), frozen peaches for smoothies, and peach pie filling.
As of currently the ingredients for salsa have been used up! Left over tomatoes frozen. Peaches peeled, cut, freezing as we speak. One peach pie made. Three addition pie crusts in the freezer.
Some things still left to finish tonight are rolling and freezing the remaining pie crusts and baking one more peach pie.
I really am thinking that the recipes and the how my day went will have to wait until tomorrow cause this woman wants a long bath and a glass of red. But as with me, sometimes I will multi-task and to oh....what 20 things at once, so you can never tell!!!
Hope everyone had a good weekend and don't forget it is harvest time. If you haven't started to already, then start putting up some food for the cold months to come!!!

"Special" Foods!

Did you know that we eat only SPECIAL tomatoes, onions, and peppers at our house?
Yes we do!
How are they special?
Well, in all honesty, they are not special at all.
Sometimes the boys would complain about eating these listed foods. So the next time we wen to eat them. I said and oh, I decided that we were only going special tomatoes, so you will be sure to like these. Now anytime we have tomatoes in a meal, they always question at some point before they begin eating, if these are the 'SPECIAL' kind or not.
Needless to say my little trickery works and I am able to get the kids to each foods that they don't want to eat, but yet don't detest either. We don't serve the kids any foods that we know they hate, but those iffy foods. The ones were they would rather eat something else, but don't mind this....well at our house hold that qualifies as a you will eat it or go hungry. Now though with our special foods there is not a problem with breakfast, lunch, or dinner on almost all counts now!
Try it for your family and see if it helps and don't forget to let me know how it worked out.

A little extra

Today for lunch we had grilled chicken, steamed carrots with rosemary and caramelized onions, and brown rice. Desert was individual Pear Pies!  Not only did we have a good for us meal, it was easy on the pocket book and with just a little more effort now, it will save me tons of time next week. The entire meal cost aprox. $3.95. There are five of us in our family so that equals 79 cents a person. 
First off how to prepare today's meal.
Chicken breasts should be thawed before they hit the grill, but if you forget you can place them on the grill still frozen just choose the lowest heat setting and the highest grate.  Cook your brown rice as per teh directions on the box or bag. Next cut up a med to large size onion and place in skillet with enough water to cover the bottom. Saute until beginning to become opaque. Clean and cut your carrots how you like, we shave ours with a vegetable peeler because I find it more time efficient then trying to scrub them all clean. Place them in the skillet with the onions, add 1/2 cup water, 1 tps of garlic powder, or one fresh clove minced, add 1/2 tsp dried rosemary or about ten spikes of fresh(remember to crush before putting in pan). Simmer on low until carrots are tender.  Don't forget to check your chicken often and to turn it over. Make sure to either temp check it or cut to make sure ALL pinkness has left the meat. Layer chicken on 1/4 to 1/2 cup rice and side with the carrots and onions(for those that don't like onions, just leave off the plate.)
Desert!
Either canned or fresh pears can be used. You will need one Pear for every two pies.  We used fresh today because they are in season, but make sure when using canned that you purchase the ones in fruit juice not syrup. When you initially make individual pies you will need to purchase pre-made crusts, unless you have mini pie pans. Make sure that you save, wash, and reuse the pans the next time. Take your pears and quarter them removing the seeds and hard core. There are three ways to go now, you can either poach them in a pan on the stove or in the microwave, or in the oven. Today we used the microwave, but I will explain each one.  Pears need to be placed with a little water 1/4 in a microwave safe dish and heated for 1-2 min depending on the size of the pear and the microwave. There is nothing wrong with doing short spurts and checking it often.  Remove pears from microwave(be careful HOT!!), and cut into small pieces. Place in pie crusts and sprinkle with Cinnamon and nutmeg, serve warm.  For the stove cooking just place the pears in 1/4 water and poach until soft. With the oven method, I place in 1/4 water and put cinnamon and nutmeg on them before putting in the oven. I use the oven for the pears when I will be cooking another item with them, or immediately afterward. The recipe for the homemade crust(after you use the store bought) is fairly simple. You place graham crackers in a zip lock bag and crush with a rolling pin. Mix crushed graham crackers with your choice of low fat/no fat spread until clumps can be made. Each spread is a little different so just add a small amount at a time adding more when necessary.  Press into pie tins with fingers or a spoon.
Our boys LOVE having their own individual pies, so we make them often with a variety of fruits!

Now how to save time and money with this recipe. Plan your meals with whatever foods are in season, both Pears and Carrots are still available from our local farmers market. Buying things in season saves tons of money! Carrots and onions are great ones to freeze, so when I cut them for a fresh veg. recipe I always cut extra to be frozen for soups or stews in the coming weeks. It makes the time I have to spend on prep in some cases 0! Just makes sure that you label your freezer bags so that you know what you are planning on using those vegetables for and if you are planning out your meals a week or more at a time, you can even place the date of usage on the bag, so you will be sure to grab the correct one!

Please let me know your thoughts and comments on today's foods!

Moderation and Balance

Everything in moderation and in balance.  Sunshine is good for you, but it can also burn.(Yes I know sunscreen, but that's not the point). Sleep is rejuvenating, but too much sleep can throw off your internal schedule for sleep and wake, and other things, but that is a whole different blog topic. There are many things that we do in our daily routine that are good for us in moderation, but the excess of it can be poor for our health and sometimes pocket books.

This same principle applies to what we eat and how we get activity. Sugar filled snacks and deserts are okay when they are eaten occasionally instead of throughout the day or after every meal. They become a special food that is a privileged and something that is eaten on special occasions, cake and ice cream for birthday parties. It allows us to savor the food more, to enjoy the way it touches our palate and raise our senses.

Raw carrots are good for you, they are high in fiber and vitamin A, as well as others, but in excess they are poor because they are high in natural sugars.  So great to eat but in moderation and balance with other healthy foods, but not the best stand alone food for extended eating.

This blog will show how we as a family try and balance our dietary needs with moderation as well as burn off the calories with exercise and downright FUN!.

Beginnings

It is always easiest to just start at the beginning. My name is Janel and I am the mother of three small boys all 4 and under. Nutrition is very important to both my husband and I and we want to make sure that we pass that on to our children. We attempt to model good eating behaviors and exercise, and well as teaching them why it is important to eat healthfully and get plenty of exercise.
I will be sharing some of our recipes, tricks to sneak in extra fruits and vegetables, as well as ways that we have found to loose weight without trying, save money on food, and get the needed daily exercise.
Neither my husband nor I have a degree in nutrition or fitness, but we believe in moderation in all that we do and that translates into our eating and lifestyle habits. Remember that each person's nutritional needs varies so talk with your doctor or nutritionist for expert advice about diet and exercise.
I hope that you stop by often to see what we have been eating during the week and what fun ways we have found to stay in shape.