Deadra: Cooking for 5!

Okay it's still for 4, kinda, but now with the added help of a really small person!
It's really a good thing that I like to cook, or it would be really daunting to get back in the kitchen after having had a baby!
So far I've found that it's best to make things that can simmer and have no particular end point time wise, something that doesn't need to be babysat, or have finicky timings.  I've found this includes:
stew, soup, chili, long simmering sauces and bread.  Yeah I've made bread!  I tried my hand at no knead bread and it's so forgiving!  And it's delicious!
I've also made a bunch of miso soups, kimchi soup and mac and cheese.  These aren't long simmering, but they're quick and easy, which works well too.
I managed to make the bulk of Christmas dinner too, which just required  a little preplanning, and spatchcocking the bird, which allowed it to cook super fast.  I had some help with baby holding, so that make cooking easy.  We had our standard Christmas dinner of a bird, a lot of stuffing, gravy, yorkshires and cranberry sauce.  I also made apple pie and Christmas pudding with a creme anglais.  (We set the pudding on fire, intentionally, it was fun and delicious!  Also if you care, vodka will not ignite unless you heat it up first.)
Right after Christmas we had some house guests, so I made a few meals for 8, but that worked out because there were lots of baby holders, so I was able to indulge my inner Martha Stewart and cook it up.
On the weekends I indulge my inner Betty Crocker when Adam can hold a baby so I can bake it up.  I've kept us stocked in muffins, cakes and cookies.  It's been nice to indulge my kitchen goddess, even post baby.  The kitchen is my happy place and even though I might leave it a disaster (I have to baby-hold too!) it does soothe my soul and leave me feeling like I can do this parenting 3 small children thing.
Now to figure out laundry....  I propose throw it all out and start over.

Deadra: New Routine....

Okay it's not so new, but it's more that I'm implementing it officially.  It's call, eat what's in the fridge or starve.  Well it's not that harsh, but that's the general idea.
We all know I love to cook, love it.  The down fall is that I always have left overs, and I have a tiny horribly engineered fridge, which means stuff gets shoved to the back, where is dies a slow, chilly death.  Then I throw it out, and I hate to waste food.  Also there is the cursing, the cursing when I try to add more things to the already overflowing fridge.  So to assuage this I've started having more left over nights.  Which, who knew, makes dinner time so easy.  I don't even fancy them up, I let everyone choose what they want, and they're happy!  Bonus!  And my fridge gets cleaned out!
I wonder how I didn't really clue on to this before, but it's working well.  I still plan my meals two weeks out for the most part, but I work in left over nights a couple times a week.
This domestic diva thing, sometimes just gets easier and easier.  Up next, hunting down and killing all of the dust bunnies that have accumulated.

Deadra: lack of a menu, menu, and talk of kitchen chemistry.

This week Adam is going out of town for a while, and then his parents and brother and his family will be in town, so I suspect I'll make a couple large meals then mostly we'll be going out to eat.  So my menu this week is kind of a lack of a menu, geared towards the small people, there will be mac and cheese on the menu.
For me since I am eating impaired lately I have been following what I tend to want, so there is no planning for that, but it is pretty predictable.  I want brothy soups, bibimbap and milk.  Unfortunately it's pretty hot, so brothy soups are not fun to make!  I'll persevere though!
I've been fermenting up a lot lately too.  I'm plowing through a batch of vegan kimchi I made, I had a continuous brew of kefir water and kombucha going and I just started milk kefir again.  I am also soaking some organic soybeans to make a fresh batch of natto.  The warm weather makes everything ferment faster, so I really need to stay on top of it.  I think I'm going to convert my stone fireplace into a fermenting cabinet, it's nice and cool in there, it'll be perfect for fermenting in the summer months.
Although I have picky eaters for the most part (according to my palate) I am lucky that they like ferments!
Happy eating!

Deadra: Reinventing the Wheel.

I've started making a two week menu, as I discussed a while ago.  I really enjoy perusing my "Food, Glorious Food, Want to Try" pin board on my pintrest account and choosing meals from there for my menu. However, while many of them are amazing, sometimes I need to reflect on what my family loves.  Granted many of the things I make rather harken to what tastes we love, but I need to make things that I KNOW we love.  Today I made soft meatballs with noodles and red sauce.  (tomato sauce)  It was so yummy, everyone stuffed themselves silly and left the table satiated.  There was no begging to try a bite, no Mama getting exasperated from the lack of tasting.  It was yummy and a hit!

My meatball recipe is pretty basic:
1 pound organic pastured beef
1/2 pound organic pastured pork
1/2 cup bread crumbs (or so)
4 ice cubes of liver (shhh this is a secret!)
4 eggs
a healthy shake shake shake shake of Worcestershire sauce
3 or 4 or 5 grated cloves of garlic
salt and pepper
1/2 a cup or so of Parmesan cheese (grated)
oil or fat of your choice for the pan.

preheat oven to 350 degrees

mix the meats and let your cubes of liver defrost, mix
add everything else and mix carefully, don't beat the meat too much
using a small disher scoop the balls onto a greased tray, leaving space between them, careful to not pack the meat in too tightly
bake 20 or so minutes until they are cooked through (I had to cut one in half to check)
 remove from oven, let cool slightly and enjoy!

These are very delicate, not really ones to be tossed in a sauce, rather ones to sit atop your noodles and gently caresses with sauce.  They are tender and delicious!
PS you can't taste the liver!

I served them beside the red sauce.

Trixie's favourite Red Sauce.

1 24 ounce jar of organic crushed tomatoes
1/3ish cup of water (this is what I swished out of the jar)
3 or 4 or 5 grated garlic cloves
dry Italian seasoning, basil, parsley all to taste (about 2 teaspoons each)
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon of sugar
 let all simmer together
add 1 or 2 tablespoons of butter, once melted in and everything comes back up to temperature, remove from heat and add a generous squirt of good olive oil.

serve over yummy noodles! (and meatballs!)

Over all the whole dinner took me about 1/2 of an hour to make.

I need to remember this, one does not need to reinvent the wheel to feed one's family food they'll love!

Deadra: Natto

So I am all freaky and like to ferment foods in my kitchen. It's not uncommon to see something brewing on my counter. Vats of vegetables, homemade kimchi, various types of keifer, yogurt, you name it, I'll ferment it. (I've even tried my hand at injera, and failed, miserably).

However I've never really considered making natto, not sure why, I love it and eat it sometimes. (And I would love for my kids to like it, any ideas how to serve it up sweet for them?)

Today I stumbled onto this video, and it looks so easy! Pretty much just like making yogurt! Although I think I'll use my dehydrator to maintain the temperature, and I don't think I need to double tent it and put it in a bag.

I'll keep you all updated! Then I'll share!

Deadra: Menu! and embarking on a grain free diet.

Okay my first menu on here! I've finally gotten my stuff together to get this out to you!

Sunday: Chicken!

Monday: Beef Stew

Tuesday: Beef roast and honey glazed carrots.

Wednesday: Liver and asparagus.

Thursday: Mama's going out for a MNO, so Daddy's on dinner patrol. I suspect it'll be left overs, or soup.

Friday: Lamb ball soup*

Lamb ball soup is lamb meat balls in a chicken and beef mixed broth with tomatoes and greens. It's really yummy.

I'll also try my hand at coconut flour muffins and some almond flour scones.

My 4 year old has been having some digestive issues, so I'm going to start eliminating grains from our diet and if that helps we'll reassess, if we do have any grains I'll be sure to soak them first to make them more digestible.

Essentially a grain free diet is a paleo diet, or a caveman diet. Which means more meat and fat, which makes my husband happy. We'll still consume milk and dairy products, but I'll try to keep them either raw or fermented as much as I can. Hopefully this works so we don't have to either take a more drastic approach or resort to doctors and scary medications. (don't worry so far it's nothing serious, but considering family history, I just want to head this off before it becomes and issue, after all she's only 4!)

My husband is worried about how breakfasts will be since we have a pretty grain heavy breakfast every day, and frankly it's something I worry about too, I suspect the first little while will be difficult, but it will get better. I foresee scones, muffins, fruit and yogurt. He's also worried about eating out. I guess we'll have to curb that for a while, which frankly I am okay with right now, since eating out has become a chore for me.

With a change like this it means I have to be more organized, which isn't scary for me. I am not the best at keeping stuff like this organized. Over all though I don't think it will be too much of a change for us since beyond breakfast we don't eat a lot of grains. I'll still permit some quinoa, buckwheat and amaranth, but I want to steer clear of wheat and the like. (I guess pretty much gluten free.)

I'll keep you all posted!

Deadra: Mexico eating and refried beans

My little family just returned from Mexico where we stayed in an all inclusive resort, which was nice, relaxing and all of those good things. But the food? Was bad! I was so excited to go to Mexico and have some authentic Mexican food, because since I've been living in California I've had tastes of varying levels of authentic Mexican food, and you know, I like it! But the food at the resort was horrible. There were a bunch of different types of restaurants: Asian, Italian, Mexican, French and a buffet. We tried the Asian, Mexican and French and the buffet out of convenience. It was all pretty bad. And now I feel like a total snob. To be fair the food at the wedding was good though, although the stuff the kids were given was pretty slap dash. ("chicken" nuggets and spaghetti?) So I am happy to be home to cook again, and get some healthy food into my family after a week of too many icecream cones and lots of virgin frozen margaritas.

The best food thing about the resort though, was the fresh papaya. How I love papaya!

My 4 year old decided that she needs to survive on refried beans while we on vacaiton, so I figure I should learn to make them.

Today I did just that.

Easy, not authentic, Refried beans.

1 can of black beans, no salt added, mostly drained

dash of cumin

sprinkle of salt

spash of Bragg's or soy sauce

Spill the can of beans into a small pan, with a little of the liquid, and heat,

add seasonings to taste and then mash the little suckers until you have the consistency you prefer.

Serve.

(over brown rice with ghee if you're my children)

yumm.

Menu!

This week I am single parenting, so I plan to have easy meals for me and the little meeps.

I forsee:

chili

frittatas/ mini crustless quiches

homemade banana bread

homemade donuts

homemade cookies

homemade english muffin bread.

and some other things if I can get myself in gear. Mostly the kids want to bake and cooking will take my mind of off being a single parent.

Regarding the banana bread, I am working out a recipe that uses a lot of bananas for sweetness, some unusual grains like teff and a little maple syrup. Also toasted walnuts will be featured.

I tend to find a recipe and then alter is until it's nearly unrecognizable from the original. I guess I could call it my own. Stay tuned for lots of these bastardized recipies, they will feature healthier options (like whole grains and no sugar, but other kinds of sweeteners) and fun other things!