Homemade ranch dressing

I have a fairly easy time when it comes to salad dressings during our unprocessed months. I'm easy to please with good ol' oil and vinegar.

The winters are hard for me, though; when it's cold, I crave soup, chili, stew...I have a really hard time eating salads. Of course, especially after indulging in a meal like Thanksgivinukkah, salads are especially important!

The one dressing that can make me eat a salad even in the winter is ranch; I love the stuff in the green and white bottle. Look at the ingredient list, though, and it hardly counts as unprocessed. (Although Unprocessed October is officially over, we have been trying to stick to most of rules.)

I found a lot of recipes online that claimed to taste "just like the real thing - or even better!" but couldn't find one that sounded just right. So I looked at what we had...thought about what we liked...and came up with this recipe.


Abby's ranch :)

1/2 c mayo
1/2 c sour cream
1/4 c homemade kefir
1 tsp dill
1 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp garlic flakes
1/2 tsp onion flakes
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

Whirl it all up in a blender! (Still loving my Vitamix.) :)

Many of the recipes I saw called for fresh chives, so I may try adding them next time, but this dressing was pretty perfect as-is.

Leftovers and homemade frozen burritos

One of our family's favorite go-to lunches are frozen burritos. During our unprocessed October, we had to give them up; their ingredient list reads like this:
WATER, WHEAT FLOUR (ENRICHED WITH NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), BEEF, BEANS, VEGETABLE OIL (SOYBEAN, SUNFLOWER, CANOLA AND/OR CORN OIL), CONTAINS 2% OR LESS TEXTURED VEGETABLE PROTEIN (SOY FLOUR, CARAMEL COLOR), ISOLATED PEA PRODUCT, SALT, RICE FLOUR, YEAST, CELLULOSE GUM, GUAR GUM, WHEAT, SODIUM BICARBONATE, WHEAT STARCH, FOOD STARCH, DOUGH CONDITIONERS (SODIUM METABISULFITE, SODIUM STEAROYL LACTYLATE, L-CYSTEINE, MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, DICALCIUM PHOSPHATE), MICROCRYSTALLINE CELLULOSE, SILICON DIOXIDE (TO PREVENT CAKING), CHILI PEPPER, YEAST EXTRACT, MALTODEXTRIN, FLAVORS, SPICES, SOY SAUCE (SOYBEANS), AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, LACTIC ACID, NATURAL FLAVOR, CALCIUM LACTATE. ALLERGENS: WHEAT, SOY.

Yikes!


At the beginning of October Unprocessed, I saw this blog post on Good Cheap Eats about making your own homemade frozen burritos. I finally tried them at the end of the month (the process, not the actual recipe), and we were big fans. I heated up a little olive oil and sauteed some onion. Then I added a bit of spice (cumin, salt, pepper), a defrosted jar of chicken meat from the freezer, and a defrosted jar of black beans from the freezer. I cooked it until everything was warm, dolloped the filling on large flour tortillas, added some cheese (cheddar for the kids and me, pepperjack for the hubby) and wrapped them up. Onto a tray, into the freezer, into a baggie. The next weekend, we threw them into the microwave, just like our old processed kind, and they were soooo much better. Best part about it - it's such an easy process, you can adapt it to such a wide variety of fillings…spicy salsa for the hubby, nothing added for the kiddos….


Well, last night, as I looked into the fridge, there were way too many leftovers...especially considering that we only need lunches for a few days this week...and that there's a fairly big holiday coming up that's going to make quite a bit of leftovers on its own. :)

I'd tried two new recipes from this month's Cooking Light over the past couple days: Slow-cooker Cuban pork shoulder with beans and rice and Chicken and mushroom empanadas. The pork shoulder was ah-maze-ing! We loved it, and it made an absolute ton. The empanadas were good (I hear)...hubby liked them, but they were too spicy for the rest of us. Thus, a lot of leftovers.

So then I thought, why not turn the leftovers into more frozen burritos?! And now we have a freezer full of easy, healthy, and delicious weekend lunches. :)

Unprocessed with kids: Make-your-own ambrosia

The little guy's class has been having a visitor from our local co-op every couple of weeks. The guest teacher talks to the kids about real foods and healthy choices; she shares a recipe, and the kids get to make and eat a snack made with whole foods. I absolutely love that our messages about food are being re-affirmed in school.

Today, the little guy bounced out of school, gripping this paper in his fingers. He could not wait to tell me: they made ambrosia!

The guest teacher's topic today was long energy sweets and short energy sweets...foods that make you feel good for only a few minutes and foods that give you energy for the day. He compared the short energy sweets to our red foods. :) And then they made ambrosia. He read the recipe to me, and I assured him that we had all of the ingredients in our house. He explained that the pictures at the top were long energy treats: a pear, an apple, a banana, and a pea.

When we came home, the kids immediately washed their hands and got out their kitchen stools. We talked about the fact that we were low on plain yogurt (Mommy uses it in her oatmeal each morning), so we were going to "break the recipe into three," as the little guy put it.

Both kids put 1/2 cup plain yogurt into their bowls. We had a little incident when the little girl tried to add her "dashes" of cinnamon...the cinnamon dashed fairly explosively and I had to scrape a bunch of it out of her bowl. Then they both added a teaspoon of honey and a teaspoon of maple syrup. ("The grown-up has to pour it into the spoon because it's so sticky.")

The kids brought their snack to the table, stirred vigorously, and gobbled up the entire bowlful. This is especially exciting because, along with cereal, flavored yogurts are a favorite that I have found impossible to get out of our house. I was shocked when I first read that flavored yogurts are one of the biggest unprocessed offenders, with lots of added sugar and ingredients that I certainly wouldn't have in my kitchen. I've tried adding homemade fruit jams, vanilla, and honey to plain yogurt, but to no success. Apparently when they make it themselves, it's somehow different...they loved it!

Meat pies with whole wheat pie crust

Do you read Terry Pratchett? We love his Discworld series. We try to get one or two of his novels on audiobooks for our summer travels each year...we just love his dry sense of humor and all of the off-beat culture references.

Anyway, one of his characters is a fairly unsavory fellow, and he pops up selling yucky meat pies in many of the books. Every time I make these pasties, my hubby calls them Dibbler's meat pies. These, of course, are way better. :)

As promised, I took our leftover potroast, and used it to make these pasties. (Hubby was thrilled to discover that after taking out the three cups needed for the pasties, there was still a lunch of meat leftover for him.)

This is a Cook's Country recipe. It was published with their Joe Booker stew as a way to use up leftover stew. When I made the recipe several years ago, we thought the stew was okay, but the pasties were divine. Since then, I've made them with all sorts of similar left overs: stew, pot roast, brisket, etc. They're always amazing.

One of the biggest changes I've made since we began our unprocessed journey is my attempt to eliminate white flour. So, knowing these pasties were on the menu, I went in search of whole wheat pie crust recipes. There weren't that many out there. I found two from Bob's Red Mill, and eventually settled on this one. The other one was 100% whole wheat, and I just wasn't sure I was brave enough to try 100% my first time out.

I had also read recently that you can substitute coconut oil (which is used a lot in unprocessed baking) in place of shortening in pastry recipes. I never buy shortening and usually just replace it with butter, but I have a big tub of coconut oil, and so I was happy to try it.

The crust was easy to work with and absolutely delicious - flaky, buttery, a tiny bit sweet. You would never know that it had coconut oil in it, or that it was made with over 50% whole wheat flour.

Anyway, dinner was amazing. Hubby said he would be willing to eat it every night of the week. Here's what I did:

Whole wheat pasties
pasties adapted from Cook's Country, pie crust adapted from Bob's Red Mill

for the pasties
3 T unsalted butter
1 onion, diced
1/2 pound ground meat (we usually use pork, but only had turkey this time)
1 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp ground allspice
3 cups leftover pot roast or stew (meat, veggies, broth)

for the crust
1 c (4.5 oz) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 c (6.75 oz) whole wheat pastry flour
1 T sugar
1 tsp salt
7 T solid coconut oil
12 T unsalted butter
8 T ice water

1. Melt the butter in a large skillet. Add the onion and saute for a few minutes until softened. Add the meat and spices and cook until the meat is no longer pink, about 8 minutes. Add the leftover pot roast or stew and cook until the liquid has evaporated, 5 - 10 minutes. Put the mixture in a medium bowl, mash it up, and set it aside to cool.

2. For the crust, put the flours, sugar, and salt into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times until mixed. Add the coconut oil and pulse a few times. Then add the unsalted butter and pulse about 8 times, until the mix is coarse, but you can still see chunks of butter. Dump the mix into a medium sized bowl.

3. Add the ice water, 2 tablespoons at a time, and press the dough together with a rubber spatula until the dough starts to hold together. You still want to have sandy parts falling off. Divide the dough into two equal portions, each on a piece of plastic wrap. Use the plastic wrap to fold the dough over on itself several times until it holds together. Then wrap each piece up and put it in the fridge to chill.

4. When ready to make the pasties, preheat the oven to 450, and put a silpat or a piece of parchment on a baking sheet.

5. Roll out the dough and cut it into pieces twice as big as you want your pasties to be. I make different sizes: big ones for the hubby, medium ones for me, and little ones for my little ones. :) Put a large scoop of filling in the middle of the dough (again, the size of the scoop will depend on the size of the crust -- experiment). Then paint the edges of the dough with water, fold the dough over, and use the tines of a fork to crimp the edges. Cut a few vent holes on the top of each.

6. Bake the pasties for 25 minutes. (You can also freeze the pasties on a tray before baking; wrap them in foil, and when you're ready to bake them, just take them out and throw them on a baking sheet. You may need to increase the baking time slightly.)

Enjoy!

We have meat!

I've mentioned a few times in my unprocessed posts that one of our biggest challenges in our unprocessed journey has been meat. We are big meat eaters...hubby grew up in a Western Kansas meat-and-potatoes family, and while I wasn't always a big meat-eater, I have become more so in the past few years. (Starting when I was pregnant with my little guy and developed an absolute obsession with hamburgers...something I'd never really been fond of. Must've been low in iron, or something. Anyway, the obsession lasted throughout pregnancy, and never really went away.)

So while I liked the idea of eating less meat, and eating more lean meat, and eating only free-range grass-fed organic meat...I couldn't really figure out how to manage it. For one, good meat is just so expensive. For another, I didn't really know where to find it. We'd pick up some whenever we went to the farmers market, but we don't go there every week. And our grocery stores don't have the best selection.


In our first attempt at going unprocessed last April, I didn't meet our meat goal at all. This past October, we did better. I was able to find some organic free-range chickens at a couple of stores, and we hit the farmers market a couple of times. We still defaulted to grocery store meat sometimes, though.

Well, how excited was I when I was contacted about getting a meat share from a local farm?! One of my mom's good friends was planning to split a share of meat with another coworker; when that coworker backed out, they were looking for someone to share with, and she asked my mom, "Would Abby be interested?" She sure would!

We got our meat a couple of weeks ago. It took some rearranging in the freezer, but we were able to clear a shelf for our bounty: 13 pounds of ground beef, two roasts, six steaks, and one rack of ribs.


I defrosted the first roast this week and made my favorite pot roast recipe.

I was a little nervous when after the two and a half hour cooking time, the meat was not fall-apart-tender. With the grocery store roasts, you usually just have to touch it with a fork and it falls to pieces. With this roast, I still needed to work to separate it into servings.

I needn't have worried. I don't normally think of myself as having that discerning of a palate, but I just could. not. believe. the. difference. The meat was so incredibly tender...almost buttery...with the most delicious flavor. It was like a completely different food from the grocery store roasts. The little ones gobbled up their servings and asked for seconds: "Veggies, too?" "NO! Just meat!" I admit that the hubby and I had seconds, too. :)

The leftovers are reserved for tomorrow night's dinner: pasties, and we are so looking forward to it. We'll be using our first package of the ground beef for dinner this week, so I'll report back on that.

If you live in the area, I strongly recommend checking out Rising Moon Farms. I have eye-witness reports that they have very happy cows, and we can attest as to the quality of their meat!

Last night of October Unprocessed

After a loooooong day at work and a quick trip to the grocery store, I came home to make Halloween dinner. We always like to fill our tummies with warm, healthy food before we go out to trick-or-treat.

I pulled some beautiful chicken stock out of the crockpot, grabbed yesterday's crockpot chicken out of the fridge, mixed up some noodle dough, and made chicken noodle soup. Then chopped some apples and made some quick applesauce. Pulled out some broccoli slaw from a few nights ago. Unprocessed. Delicious.

The kiddos made it through about two blocks before wanting to turn around and come home. They happily passed out tiny lollipops, then picked out a few pieces of candy to eat and set the rest out for the Switch Witch. Wonder what she'll bring!

Crockpot chicken magic

It's amazing: in the morning, before we rush out of the house for work and school, I chop an onion coarsely and put it in the bottom of my crockpot. I throw in an organic, free range chicken, sprinkle it with pure salt, freshly ground pepper, and a little paprika. Put the lid on, set it on low for 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 hours (depending on the size of the chicken and when I expect to get home).

When we get home, the house smells amazing. I pull out the chicken and strip off the meat: 4 or 6 cups of gorgeous meat for soups or pasta or.....

I throw the scraps back in the crock, add in a carrot or two, a celery stalk, an onion, a couple of bay leaves, a bit of thyme (1/2 tsp maybe?), about a teaspoon of salt, some freshly ground pepper, and 8-12 cups of water. Set the crock back on low for 12 - 24 hours.

The next day, I strain the whole thing and have 12 or more cups if amazing chicken stock.

All this beautiful, healthy food for maybe 30 minutes of work spread out over two days. Magic.

Unprocessed October: Productive weekend

Cinnamon-roasted almonds, maple-almond-vanilla granola, whole wheat butterscotch blondies (this recipe with all white whole wheat flour, the lesser amount of sugar, and only a cup of chips), homemade chocolate sauce (based off of this recipe), toast bread (made with white whole wheat flour), and whole wheat hot dog buns for a backyard pretend camp-out. (The almonds and blondies were for a house-warming gifts...not that we didn't enjoy the leftovers. :-) And I added a jar of granola to the gift, too.)

Gave these applesauce-carrot whole wheat muffins a try. And discovered a bonus of my new Vitamix. The recipe called for unsweetened applesauce; I cored a large apple, cut it into a few chunks, and pureed it. Then I needed grated carrots, so I peeled a couple, cut them into chunks, and ran the blender on a lower speed. Sweet!

I finally got the little guy his own Planetbox, and we debuted it at the zoo today. The Planetboxes make packing lunches so much fun, and they make eating so much fun, too. The kids love opening them up and evaluating each compartment. Normally I don't get to see their response to their lunches (of course, since they're at school), so it was neat for me to get to see what they choose to eat first and how they go about tackling their lunches.

His: whole wheat pumpkin muffin (from the freezer), apple slices, pickle, pb & j on whole wheat toast bread, and a tiny piece of blondie bar

Hers: pistachios, cashews, apples and peanut butter, pickle, almond crackers, and a tiny piece of blondie bar

I posted this on the wonderfully supportive Unprocessed October 2013 Facebook group, about an unprocessed parenting win this weekend: I have been trying to be moderate in my expectations for my little ones (ages 5 & 6) following October Unprocessed. All of their packed lunches and dinners at home are unprocessed, but when grandparents give them a store-bought cookie or muffin or something, I haven't been freaking out. We talk a lot about food, but I don't want to be so hard core that they rebel whenever possible. I was rewarded today when we went to the zoo and they each received a package of fun-sized skittles. They were so excited! And then after eating a few, they decided they were done and threw away the rest. :-)

Happy Food Day, 2013

One of my favorite recent meals: turkey chili (made with dried beans), whole wheat skillet cornbread with corn kernels and served with local raw honey, broccoli slaw, green salad, and apple slices from the orchard.

So here's a funny little story for you.

On Wednesday, I had an absolutely horrible day. It started with a 20 minute temper tantrum from the little girl as we were trying to get out of the house (because she lost the race to see who could put on their shoes first). And my day at work made the temper tantrum seem fun.

By the time I got home, I told the hubby, "If ever there was a day for cheating on October Unprocessed, it would be today. I just want to go out to eat and have someone else make dinner and clean up." Hubby readily agreed. "Buuuuut," I continued, "today is national Food Day, and it is THE day to celebrate real food with a homemade meal. So I need to make dinner."

Hubby said, "Seriously, what is more important: your mental health or some made-up holiday that takes place on an arbitrary day?"

"Food Day, of course," I answered, and proceeded to get out all of the ingredients to make our Food Day soup: butternut squash, corn, carrots, kale, quinoa, homemade chicken broth, organic cage-free chicken (original recipe from Cooking Light). I didn't have the energy to make any fancy sides, but we had fresh fruit, crackers and cheese that pass the kitchen test, and organic yogurt. I was surprised by how delicious the soup was; even the picky little ones loved it. Yay me!


At bedtime, the little girl asked me what day it was. "Thursday, October 24," I answered. "No it's not," my hubby broke in; "it's October 23rd."

Whaaaaaaaat?!? But Food Day is October 24th!!! Argh...I banged my head against my daughter's bed until finally she said, "Don't worry, Mom; in my imaginary land, Food Day is October 23rd."


So for the real Food Day, I didn't have any fresh veggies or local foods. But we did enjoy a homemade unprocessed dinner: whole wheat pancakes with frozen fruit, grapes and apples, cage-free organic scrambled eggs, whole wheat biscuits, and sausage gravy. Not quite as impressive, but equally delicious.

And still, a homemade, unprocessed meal, cooked with love and eaten around our family table...and that's what celebrating real food is really all about, isn't it?

Unprocessed October party (and a new project)

The little girl greeted our halfway mark through October with, "I HATE unprocessed month!!"

It's easy to see why when you think about what unprocessed month means to the kiddos. Our dinners are basically unprocessed anyway, so there aren't a lot of changes there, at least not ones they notice. And they don't really notice the lack of unprocessed treats in their lunches (Annie's bunnies or a Simply Fruit fruit stick) because they appeared so rarely.

What unprocessed means to them is: no Oatmeal Squares for snacks (I'm doing pretty well managing the no cereal rule this time!), no going out for pizza or Chinese once a week, no stopping at the local frozen yogurt shop, and no special candy treats when Mommy is around (although the various grandparents have indulged a couple of times, and I didn't say no when they were given tootsie pops at the homecoming parade).

We had a talk about how this month didn't really mean that you couldn't have *any* treats -- it just means that we think a little more about the kinds of foods we choose to put in our bodies -- and really, that's not a bad thing, is it?

For myself, I'm being strict, trying not to "cheat" my own rules at all, but I don't want to micromanage the kids to the point where all they want is processed foods or to where they hate talking about food choices. And I'm not harassing hubby when he chooses to order a pizza when I'm not home or sneak a pop during parent/teacher conferences. Everyone has to make this work for him/herself.

Nevertheless, I decided we needed an unprocessed party today, so I made a cake: I used this recipe from KAF, but subbed in whole wheat pastry flour for the all-purpose. At some point, I'd like to try honey or maple syrup in my cake, but today, I just went with white. It was a party after all. I made a simple vanilla bean ice cream, opting not to use my normal recipe which calls for both cream cheese and corn syrup.

The cake also assisted me with my new baking goal -- at this point, I can comfortably follow a recipe to make just about any bread, cake, pie, cookie, pastry, etc. (Not that I'm an expert or anything, but I don't feel like I have soooo much to learn anymore.) But my cakes and cupcakes never *look* good. So I bought myself a little starter decorating set (I had been using an old one of my dad's with very little success), and have decided to work on decorating. So this cake fit multiple bills.




The little girl declared, "That looks magnificent, Mommy! This is the best unprocessed party ever!"

Unprocessed October: Week one meals

Well, we've just about survived week one of October Unprocessed. I survived dinner at conferences (brought cheese and crackers that passed the kitchen test, and ate the family's stew when I got home), survived my first debate dinner (brought plain yogurt and homemade granola, an apple, and peanut butter), we survived a play intermission (brought our own snacks: fruit sticks and smoothie pouch that passed the kitchen test), and resisted a very tempting restaurant dinner invitation. Here's what we managed to eat during this busier-than-usual week:

Her: leftover whole wheat waffle, maple syrup, pistachios, apple slices, banana-chocolate-pb-kefir smoothie

Him: leftover whole wheat waffle, apple slices, homemade blueberry syrup,fruit-yogurt-kefir smoothie

Same thing

Her: pistachios, whole wheat banana chocolate chip muffin (without the added flavor, cinnamon chips, or walnuts; using all white whole wheat flour), apple slices, turkey roll-ups, banana-chocolate-pb-kefir smoothie

Him: whole wheat apple muffin (using all white whole wheat flour), apple slices, turkey roll-ups, fruit-yogurt-kefir smoothie

Her: banana-pb-chocolate-kefir smoothie, turkey roll-ups, energy bite (dates, chocolate chips, peanut butter, oats, and a little honey), apple slices, whole wheat banana chocolate chip muffin

Him: fruit-yogurt-kefir smoothie, whole wheat apple muffin, apple slices, turkey roll-ups

Hubby and I took leftovers from dinner for our lunches each day, along with a kefir smoothie and a piece of fruit. I didn't get a picture of Thursday's dinner because the kids ate early with Nana and hubby and I ate as we walked in the door from conferences; I made beef stew from ATK's slow cooker cookbook.

Cilantro-lime grilled chicken, mini bell peppers with cilantro-lime-sour-cream filling, broccoli slaw from the new SK cookbook

Grilled chicken, veggie hobo packets (potatoes, onions, mushrooms, zucchini, bell pepper), pear slices

Homemade whole wheat fettuccini with broccoli, leftover grilled chicken, and mushrooms in a homemade alfredo sauce

Homemade chicken noodle soup with whole wheat noodles, grilled cheese sandwiches on homemade whole wheat bread, apple slices, and organic yogurt

Unprocessed October: Challenge accepted!

Well, I’ve decided to bite the bullet: I signed up to participate in the real October Unprocessed challenge, even though it’s such a hectic time of year for us (debate practice on Mondays and Thursdays, debate tournaments most weekends, soccer on Monday, dance on Tuesdays, meetings before and after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I’m still in physical therapy once a week for my never-ending knee injury).

Looking back on our first attempt at an unprocessed month in April, it was fun to see how many things have just become a way of life for us; but there are definitely things we need to work on or go back to.

New ways of life since April:

1. Fresh noodles have become a way of life for us; we haven’t used store-bought spaghetti or fettucini in months.

2. I’ve been cooking batches of dried beans and keeping them in mason jars in the basement freezer, so we also haven’t used canned beans in months. Of course, we don’t use that many beans in the summer months, so this will be more challenging as we move into soup and chili season.

3. Desserts: Hubby and I used to have dessert every night after the kids went to bed. During our unprocessed April, we drifted out of the habit, and we’ve actually never returned. We’ll occasionally have a small dish of ice cream or a cookie, but it is not frequent. And the kids used to have popsicles every night after dinner, but now it’s pretty rare.

4. We have used the farmers market more than ever, and I’ve continued to look for organic fruits and veggies, and grass-fed / cage free / organic meats.

Unprocessed October goals:

1. Return to 100% whole wheat: We’re still using mostly whole wheat (100% in our noodles and most breads), but I’ve gone back to using some white flour (although I usually sub in ½ white whole wheat) in dessert recipes.

2. Demon foods: Recommit to skipping our demon foods: candy and chips for me, pop and chips for hubby, and hubby also wants to change the sides he orders at restaurants, if we do go out (choosing salads rather than fries or tots).

3. Snacks: I need to go back to making snacks, crackers, etc. I haven’t done much of that since we stopped the last challenge.

4. Eating out: We need to cut back on eating out / getting take-out again. We don’t go out often, never more than twice a week and usually not more than once a week, but we have taken to relying on take-out on stressful Tuesdays when I’m with the little girl at dance class until 7:00.

5. Canned foods: Be sure we’re avoiding canned veggies, beans, tomatoes, especially as we move into soup/chili season.

6. Cereal: One thing I realized last time was how bad cereals are; I would love to eliminate cereals from my kids’ diets. They are eating much less these days; it would be great to cut it out altogether.

7. Meat: Now that we’ve begun buying many more organic, grass-fed, cage-free, local, farmers market meats, I’m ready to commit to buying only these for the month. This will probably be our biggest change and challenge.

8. Lunches, my biggest challenge: I’m now making four lunches a day. Eek! I have to keep up with my freezer supplies, especially for emergency lunch situations.

9. Debate tournament dinners: Debate tournaments are notorious for dinners of bad pizza; I'm going to have to plan ahead to bring myself something unprocessed, in the midst of an already busy time.

Deliberate exceptions:

1. Last time, I did try making my own mayo and dressings. I wasn’t super excited by the results, so I’m going to continue to buy the most simple ketchup, mayo, mustard that I can find – making sure that ingredient lists are the same as when I make it myself.

2. I do use chocolate chips for special cookies or treats, but I recently found ones that fit the kitchen test. I would like to try making my own chocolate, just for fun, following this neat tutorial/recipe, via Eating Rules.

3. I'm not ready to completely eliminate white and brown sugars, but I'd like to get back to unprocessed sugars: maple syrup and honey, especially in our desserts.

So...let's see how it goes! Wish us luck! :)

100% whole wheat lunches!

On Monday, I begin making four school lunches each morning because somehow (don't ask me how), my little one heads off to kindergarten this week.

I think the biggest change is going to be preparation... I can occasionally fly by the seat of my pants when making lunch for hubby and myself... And I was able to punt with the little guy's lunch a couple of times last year. But she doesn't eat the pre-prepared organic snacks (jammy sammies, smoothie pouches, applesauce pouches) that I used as emergency back-ups for him. And they prefer such different foods. And then I have to take into account time: I need to put in easy-to-eat foods that they can get through in their super short lunch period. And the little guy is much hungrier these days.

Anyway, I need to prepare. Today, I spent four hours of the afternoon making some 100% whole wheat lunch box goodies: Hamelman's toast bread, KAF's whole wheat blueberry muffins (for him), KAF's whole wheat chocolate chip muffins (for her, made with a little less sugar and less than half of the called-for chocolate chips), and KAF's whole wheat chocolate chip cookies (for all of us, made with half the called-for chips, in tablespoon sized for this weekend and teaspoon sized for lunches).

I've started making a lunch schedule, too, which hangs next to our weekly dinner plan. Wish me luck!

Wordless Wednesday: Farmers Market Fabulous

Farmers market fresh-picked corn, the first local blueberries of the season, grilled fresh zucchini and peppers, and local free-range farm fresh burgers

The meat experiment

When we committed to our month of eating unprocessed foods, one of our goals was to reduce our meat consumption, find a local source for meat, switch to grass-fed/free-range, try the farmer's market. I think it was the goal we were least successful with. Mostly because, while committed to making healthy choices, eating unprocessed foods, doing what's best for our health and the health of the planet, I'm also a cheapskate. I've always been. My desires to be earth-friendly are always in conflict with my desire to save money.

Organic produce (especially when using the dirty dozen lists, so not needing to buy absolutely everything organic) isn't that much more expensive. But meat is so expensive, and we eat so much of it. My hubby grew up in a meat-and-potatoes family, and while he's gotten good at appreciating the occasional vegetarian meal, he generally doesn't consider a meal a meal unless there's meat. And our family is full of big eaters, and we like to host dinners, and that adds up to a lot of meat and a lot of money.

But after we returned from our trip out west, I was grocery shopping and (as I always do) debating my meat choices, and I saw this package of organic, grass-fed, free range hamburger. "Oh, why not?" I decided. And then next to it, I saw our normal package of grocery store brand hamburger. Hm...how about an experiment?


I brought them both home. I decided to doctor them as little as possible, so that the flavor of the meat could shine through: about 3/4 teaspoon of freshly ground salt and pepper for each pound of meat.

Grocery store = left, Free range = right

I mixed them lightly and then carefully weighed out 3.25 ounce portions and gently formed them into burgers.

Grocery store = left, Free range = right

Hubby cooked them for the same amount of time. I made our usual buns, but mini versions so we could each try both of the mini burgers.

We tried to explain the differences to the kids, introducing the concept of feed lots and free range cows, talking about the different foods they were fed, and whether or not they're given medicines. Over the course of the conversation, they became Happy Cows and Grocery Store Cows.

Grocery store = left, Free range = right

The verdict? There was a definite difference. The free range meat smelled fresher, tasted meatier and more flavorful, the texture was less chewy/less processed. The free range meat was definitely better. I'm fairly certain that if you gave me a burger at a barbecue, I would not be able to tell you if it was from a grocery store cow or a free range cow. But it's true that in addition to being better for the environment, more humane, and unprocessed, this meat is also yummier.

Grocery store = left, Free range = right

What does that mean for us? I'm not sure, but it was an interesting and fun experiment and will surely inform our future meat choices. In fact, last week at the farmer's market, we made contact with a local butcher and purchased some of his hamburger and bacon; it was fun to talk meat with the supplier, and I'm sure we'll continue this experiment.

Cooking out West

As I said yesterday, we have just returned from spending almost a month with my in-laws. Last summer, their house was in complete disarray; they were in the process of putting in an addition, as well as doing a complete kitchen remodel. Last summer, my mother-in-law moved all of her kitchen into her dining room and survived by cooking with only a microwave. But this summer, we got to enjoy the fruits of the labor, and I enjoyed every minute working in the new kitchen.


While we were there, my in-laws welcomed some friends whom they hadn't seen in twenty years. My mother-in-law and I had great fun preparing a dinner to feed 13 people, centered around her famous garden linguine recipe. I made two batches of Peter Reinhart's pain a l'ancienne (recipe here), most of which I turned into garlic bread. (A couple loaves were left plain for the non-garlic lovers.)

I also baked a batch of these banana split brownies to go with my sister-in-law's homemade Tagalong ice cream.


The next morning, my hubby baked a batch of his famous fancy scrambled eggs (eggs with onions, ham, and cheddar), and, having had both cinnamon rolls and blueberry muffins requested, I made both! I used Peter Reinhart's all-purpose sweet dough recipe for the cinnamon rolls (recipe here) and a Cook's Illustrated recipe (via Tracey's site) for best blueberry muffins. I actually baked the muffins twice over our vacation; they truly are the best.


Finally, we took our annual camping trip to Yellowstone. In previous years, we've just brought cold foods in the cooler and visited Yellowstone restaurants, but this year, hubby decided we should actually cook at the camp site. As we pulled into the campgrounds, dime size hail began to fall on the car, and my intrepid hubby built our fire through a continuous rainfall.

For dinner, I'd prepared hobo packets. Hubby was expecting the traditional simple ground beef, potatoes, carrots, and a little butter, but since I was preparing them at home, I decided to go a little fancier. I was inspired by this post on 100 Days of Real Food, and I used her marinade (olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, basil, thyme, oregano, and salt). In the packets, I included chicken sausage, onion, potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, and a green pepper (only in hubby's...the rest of us don't like peppers). With our packets, we had yogurt and fruit. We, of course (we were camping after all), enjoyed s'mores for dessert.

For breakfast the next morning, we made campfire eggs-in-a-nest, which was about the most delicious way possible to start our day.

An unprocessed month: goal assessment

Goals:

1. Completely eliminate our demon foods: candy for me, pop and chips for hubby. SUCCESS!
2. Cut down or eliminate snacking and desserts (especially the unhealthy ones). SUCCESS! Much less snacking, many fewer desserts, and all of them have been unprocessed: popcorn, homemade crackers, 100% whole wheat cookies.
3. Bake all of our bread products (buns, loaves, crackers, pizza crusts, etc.). Of course! :-)
4. Switch back to lean meats; attempt to buy some from the farmer's market. (Although, I know we'll probably still use mostly grocery store meats, even with their added ingredients.) --> Sort of. A lot more chicken, no sausage or bacon.
5. Focus more on fruits and veggies; more salads. --> Pretty much.
6. Make all cookies, crackers, etc, from scratch with real ingredients. SUCCESS!
7. Use more whole grains (sub brown rice for white; whole wheat flour for white flour). Super big SUCCESS! Maybe the one I'm most proud of.....
8. Grate cheeses ourselves to avoid stablizers added to shredded cheeses. YES!
9. Cut back on eating out (not that we do that much anyway); be more conscious and careful when we eat out. YES! I think we ate out maybe two or three times. I stuck to salads; hubby cheated a bit. Events at the kids' school were the hardest, where the only options are pizza and (very processed) popcorn.
10. Cut back on our reliance on meat; one vegetarian dinner per week? --> Sort of. Veggie burritos, cannelloni

Other thoughts, ideas, and plans:

1. We'd initially talked about doing only two weeks, but after reflecting, we realized that it needs to be longer to actually have a chance of changing our patterns. So we're going to do a month. --> Four weeks, Sunday to Sunday
2. We wanted to wait until after the Easter candy was out of the house, and I know you're not supposed to start changing things on a Monday, so we agreed to start on April 7. --> Yep!
3. I am willing to cut back, but not totally eliminate sugars. --> Yep!
4. I am going to attempt to make all of our sauces: ketchup, mustard, salad dressings, mayo, but I'm not going to beat myself up if I don't have time. If we have to purchase, I will read the labels carefully and select the most unprocessed I can find. --> Made mayo and dressings; used purchased "simple" ketchup
5. I will attempt to make all pasta from scratch, but if necessary, will buy the most unprocessed I can. --> BIG SUCCESS! NO store-bought pasta!
6. I did not realize the extent of added ingredients to our canned beans and tomatoes; I will try to start using more dried beans and frozen veggies. --> Yes, dried beans and frozen veggies; still used canned tomatoes
7. I would love to go back to making my own yogurt, but I'm not sure I'll have the time. If I don't, my usual plain yogurt already fits the kitchen test. --> Didn't have time; just used plain yogurt
8. For the most part, our cheeses, butters, milk, cream, peanut butter, maple syrup, and honey already pass the kitchen test. --> Yep, still true
9. We will continue to use/cook with vital wheat gluten, wine, table salt, olive oil, safflower oil, corn starch, and some seasonings (sriacha, soy sauce, etc.). --> Yep, although we did start choosing our oils more carefully, and I did manage to stay away from corn starch and bottled seasonings; I did use regular chocolate chips in one recipe

Colorful parenting

In the car last week, the kids were asking about going out for ice cream this week (after our unprocessed month was over). That was one of the hardest things of this month for them: our favorite little corner ice cream shop opened this month, and we couldn't go get our first cones. Anyway, I asked them, "Once our unprocessed month is over, does that mean we should go back to eating whatever we want, lots of processed foods?" They both said, "No!! We'll still eat mostly green foods, but we can have red foods sometimes as special treats."

A couple of weeks ago, on 100 Days of Real Food, they posted a guide on how to talk to kids about food. They provide a great conversation starter, using the analogy of race cars needing the right kinds of fuel. The article ends with this idea of thinking of foods in terms of a traffic light: GREEN foods are those that are the best for our body, whole foods, unprocessed, make your body feel and work the best. YELLOW foods are those that are okay to eat sometimes, but you don't want to eat too much or too many. RED foods are those you want to avoid as much as possible (I like that they don't say that you can NEVER have them, since never never works). Red foods have bad ingredients like artificial food
dyes, hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, and things you can't even pronounce.

The kids jumped on board. We grabbed a sheet of white paper and three crayons and started brainstorming foods from each category. Of course water and vegetables and fruits went into green. The little girl was thrilled that milk was a green food. Then we moved on to yellow, things that aren't the best for us, but it's okay to enjoy sometimes: mommy-made cookies and cakes, ice cream, packaged crackers. We actually pulled a few boxes out of the cupboards to check ingredient lists. Finally, we listed red foods...the kids were sad to see their favorite icee-pops, fruit snacks, gummy bears on this list, but they had fun thinking of things to add. They were more excited by how many of their favorites made the green and yellow lists.

I suggested hanging the sign in the kitchen, but my little guy grabbed it out of my hands: "No! I need to hang it in our room so we can look at it all the time and remember!"

The kids ask all the time now what color foods are. We've even made up some variations...the little girl's favorite almond crackers, for example, we called yellowish green, because they have more than five ingredients on the package, but they're all healthy. On the other side are mommy-made brownies, made with white flour...they're closer to yellowy-red (or orange). This has been such a great teaching tool for us.

Reflections on an unprocessed month

I'm sitting here, eating leftover (restaurant) pizza, reflecting on our month of unprocessed eating. We set the goal of a month: April 7 - May 7, but ended up with a month defined by four weeks (Sunday to Sunday). Hubby's sister and her family were in town this weekend, we all wanted to go out to dinner together, her kids really wanted pizza, we had settled on our favorite pizza place as our celebratory end-of-the-month dinner...so hubby and I looked at each other, and decided to call it.

We didn't call it the end of unprocessed, though. We called it the start of "our new way of life."

Hubby and I are both feeling better physically and we've both dropped a few pounds. I feel like my system is cleaner. I feel better thinking about the food we're eating; looking at our shopping cart this past weekend, I said to the kids, "There are only two processed foods in this whole cart!" The kids had fun looking through and identifying...the little girl's favorite cereal and a package of whole wheat tortillas. (I've loved making my own tortillas, and they're delicious; perfect for tacos and fajitas. But I cannot get them uniformly large and round, which makes them really hard for our favorite veggie burritos.) It makes me feel so good to make these choices for my family.

The month has made me reflect on some of our non-cooking food choices. I've finally purchased reusable produce bags, which I've been looking at for a long while (we already use reusable grocery bags). I bought a new set of cleaning cloths to help reduce our use of paper towels (not that we use many anyway; we already use cloth napkins) and chemical cleaners (again, not that we use many).

We've learned that just about everything is processed. It was impossible (at least in terms of the effort we were willing to give) for us to go totally unprocessed. But we got really used to reading ingredient lists, looking for organic (but still reading the ingredient lists since not all organic foods pass the kitchen test!). And if we picked a food that was technically processed (some of the canned tomatoes, for example), we were making a conscious choice, and the foods were as close to unprocessed as we could find, with just the addition of "natural flavors" or "citric acid" (two ingredients which sound innocuous, and which I was surprised to read weren't as good as they sound).

I've become a(n even more) compulsive label-reader, and having read as much as I have, it's impossible for me to buy an item with ingredients I've never heard of when there's a better choice right next to it. And I've gotten familiar with which brands to pick, so shopping isn't taking me quite as long. I have finally jumped on the organic bandwagon, studying the dirty dozen list and being willing to pay more for organic produce. (And feeling very grateful that we are privileged enough to be able to afford to do this!)

This lifestyle takes a lot of planning: not just the meal planning which I was doing already, but the inability to cop out and go out to eat after a long day...needing to have unprocessed meals ready in the freezer for those emergencies. We also noticed the necessity of going to more stores: Costco and Trader Joes for great prices on organic produce, Whole Foods for specialty ingredients, unrefined oils, bulk bins. Plus our normal big grocery store for reasonable prices on anything we can find there. Now that the weather's nice, we'll add the farmer's market to the mix, too.

This is getting more natural...we've gradually added more to the list of unprocessed foods we're buying. Hubby hadn't even considered the processed nature of the flavored coffees he drinks, but when he ran out, he instinctively reached for the plain, fair trade stuff.

The kids have also become good label readers - counting ingredients, asking their grandparents if certain foods are processed, making an informed decision that they want a little processed cereal. The little guy has completely bought into mommy-muffins and mommy-Popsicles again.

We are excited to be able to go out to eat again...it's one of our favorite special treats. But I think we'll be more conscious about what we order. Last night at the pizza place, we ordered a big salad and ate that before the pizza arrived, in the hopes that we'd fill up more on green food. I'm excited to make some goodies with white flour, even though I'm very happy with how adjusted we've gotten to 100% whole wheat tortillas, pizza crusts, rolls, muffins.

Overall, this month has been great. I'm proud of how well we did, even with challenges like the stomach flu, injuries, conferences, and long days. And I'm really hopeful that we can continue to live by the lessons we've learned.

Unprocessed pizza

One of the keys to our unprocessed success this month has been planning ahead ~ knowing what's for dinner ahead of time, having all of the ingredients ready in the house, avoiding last minute scrounging. However, tonight, I had nothing on the menu and our fridge is looking pretty bare.

Suddenly I thought about one of our go-to dinners: pizza! I had a couple of crusts in the freezer, but they were from a couple of months ago and were made with half white flour. I decided to give the KAF whole wheat pizza crust another try, since it had made such delicious calzones and crackers. I had some homemade pizza sauce in the deep freeze, and some fresh mozzarella left over from our calzones. We used black olives, mushrooms, pineapple, and red onion for our toppings; the only one of our usual toppings we couldn't use was pepperoni.

The pizza was delicious, even better than our other go-to recipes. And completely unprocessed!