Real Food Update and Drink Recipes

My sweet baby bear helping me unpack our goodies from the Farmer's Market last weekend

You've heard me talk a lot about real food lately, but I have to admit that my commitment to the cause waxes and wanes depending on how crazy life is. In general, I'd like to think we've made a lot of progress. We haven't purchased milk or eggs that weren't local in a long time and have far fewer processed junk foods in the house. My husband and kid are still consumers of processed beverages, but I've cut down my Diet Pepsi consumption from 2 (or more!) cans per day to a can or two per week and replaced it with home brewed iced teas and carbonated water that I make with my SodaStream. Our dinners have been well rounded and include lots of fresh local fruits and veggies.

BUT, we still aren't there yet. We tend to fall short during all the in-between times. When the girls and I are out running errands and it's close to meal time...when I miss lunch and am starving as I drive home...when we're all stressed and craving comfort food. It's SO easy to give in and stop at a drive-thru. I pretended I'm still doing a good job by avoiding McDonald's/Taco Bell/Wendy's and only giving in to Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks. Today I'm publicly calling myself out; it's not good enough! 

For the next month (until my Mud Run on October 5th!) I am pledging myself to avoid all fast food. No more iced coffee. No more wake-up wraps. No more cake pops. None of it. I'll let you know how it goes...

If anyone else wants to join me on the real food journey, here are a few simple real food drink recipes you should definitely try out!

Watermelon Mint infused Water

Add 6 oz cubed watermelon and one sprig of mint to a pitcher and fill with water.
Allow to infuse in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Brewed Peach Iced Tea

Slice 4 very ripe peaches. 

Boil 6 cups of water in a saucepan. 

Remove from the heat and add 6 black tea bags. Infuse covered for 5 minutes.

Take out the tea bags and add the sliced peaches. Allow to infuse for 10-15 minutes.

Using a potato masher, squash the the peaches into pulp.

Rest the mixture for 5 minutes.

Strain the tea through a fine mesh sieve into a pitcher and chill.

*If it is too strong for you, add a little bit more water to the pitcher*

Brown Butter and Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies filled with Nutella

Brown butter is, in a single word, amazing. It's my new obsession. I am in love with everything from the mild, nutty scent that wafts from the saucepan as it cooks to the rich, almost caramel flavor it lends to a cookie baked with it. I am featuring the recipe for nutella stuffed cookies in this post, but these chocolate chip oatmeal cookies with brown butter that I made for dessert last week got rave reviews as well.

If you've never had a cookie made with brown butter you can't possibly understand what you are missing. Please, do yourself a favor and make a batch (or two) of these cookies...

I'm not going to over-complicate this post and distract you from the task at hand (baking these cookies ASAP). Go visit Ambitious Kitchen for the full recipe and a great photo pictorial on how to add the nutella.

Disclaimer: My cookies spread a lot more than her's did. I definitely did the full two hours (a little longer) chill time in the fridge and even froze the stuffed dough disks for an extra 10 minutes after the first batch spread and it didn't make a difference. They might have spread because I used white whole wheat flour (I no longer purchase refined white flour) or replaced the white sugar with raw turbinado sugar. Honestly, this whole discussion can be ignored because it did not matter one teeny, tiny bit that they spread. They still were so delicious I wish I was eating one right now...but I can't...because my husband ate the last three hours ago...

If you give a mom a blog...

...she's going to write about her kids and her crazy life.

It's now 9 am. I've been up for over three hours. That's the downside when the baby bear decides to sleep through the night; she wakes up between 5:30 and 6:30 am and is UP for the day. This morning was particularly fabulous because the bug heard me come in to get the baby and was up as well.

The first chore of the day is always nursing and changing the baby. Today I had to do everything with the bug thisclosetome because she was still tired. They were both in a good enough mood though, so I won't complain. I dumped out a bunch of blocks and they built towers while I made their beds and attempted to make myself a cup of coffee (I say attempted because it was at least an hour later before I drank any of it...). This only lasted for about 15 minutes until the bear started roaring for breakfast.

Around this time Daddy decided to make an appearance (I'm pretty sure he was awake listening to us and deciding how long he could use his i-phone and pretend to be asleep...). The next 40 minutes was spent trying to cook breakfast while simultaneously keeping something on the bear's highchair tray so she didn't LOSE HER MIND waiting for the scrambled eggs I was attempting to make. We went through at least a half dozen clementines, a handful of puffed rice cereal, two slices of baked ham, and a few small slices of organic multi-grain bread before the "real" breakfast made it to the table.

By the time I fixed my coffee (now on ice) and a poached egg for myself, the baby bear was LOSING HER MIND because she was bored with eating a little bit of everything in the kitchen and wanted OUT of the highchair. Daddy and the bug were sitting among the breakfast wreckage looking at pictures of ridiculous animals on the computer and the bug was laughing maniacally and declaring, "Show it to Mommy!" every ten seconds or so.

My breakfast view. Not pictured: bear throwing scrambled eggs into the air by the fistful to my left

Then we cleaned the kitchen (Daddy helped!) and I dressed the bear while the bug went upstairs to play. The bug is still in her jammies, but I'm not ready for that fight yet. Then, a miracle occurred. Both kids went into the playroom and are having fun WITHOUT crying or asking for anything! The bear is in her jumper and squealing delightedly at her sister while the bug is setting up all sorts of crazy make-believe scenarios. I know I am going to have a massive mess to clean later, but I do not care in the slightest. It's quiet and I am enjoying it!

And now I get to the point of this post and where the title came from. I'm planning to throw the bear an "If you give a mouse a cookie..." first birthday party. When I was browsing the internet looking for inspiration I found this silly and appropriate poem another blogger wrote called "If You Give A Mom A Muffin." I told my husband I was going to write "If You Give A Dad A Donut." And this is what we came up with...

If you give a dad a donut,

he'll sit down at the computer and eat it.

He won't notice the baby's stinky diaper,

or the four year old emptying mommy's purse,

or mommy trying to cook breakfast and do laundry and make the beds.

Instead, he'll find a thread about donuts on Reddit.

And chances are,

if he sees a thread about donuts,

he's going to eat another donut.

Mommy and Me Day

Between the ages of 4 months and 2 1/2 years my bug attended daycare five days a week because my husband and I were both working full time. It was something we had to do and it was fine. When I graduated residency in 2011 there was nearly a three month delay before I could start my new job and my bug stayed home with me - we had many ups and downs, but overall it was a welcome change from the hectic days of my training. From December 2011 until this past week my bug has been going to daycare/preschool three days per week and spending one full day and one half day with me. We've done lazy things (watched movies and took naps), creative things (painting and baking), adventurous things (day trips and nature walks), academic things (reading and writing), and boring things (appointments and errands), but we did them together.

This coming week my husband and I made the decision to put her back in a full time program to prepare for kindergarten next year. Part (most?) of me knows this is the right thing to do. She will definitely benefit academically by being in the classroom every day and I am looking forward to having some alone time to be with the baby bear - I took a very short maternity leave and have had very little time with the baby alone. The other part of me is grieving for my bug's rapidly progressing childhood. She's steadily growing up...and away. It is just as it should be, but it still is a little gut wrenching.

I don't regret the way things have been. I actually think we've done a decent job making memories and doing special things together no matter what our schedules were. And, I feel confident we will keep working hard to appreciate our time together. As a celebration of our past and future "mommy and me" time, I took the day off on Friday and took the bug out for the afternoon.

We declared it "her day!" and she got to call the shots. I picked her up from summer camp and told her I would take her out to lunch for anything she wanted, even if it was "junk food." As you can see, she took full advantage of my offer...

Cheese Pizza and Pink Lemonade!

When the NYS museum was open on Mondays (our full day together) we went at least once a month. Then they changed their hours and we really haven't been able to go much. She has been asking me to take her, so that was next on our agenda. As it was gorgeous out, we decided to take a walk around the Plaza before heading into the museum.

Post-pizza, pre-duck chasing pose

Our museum protocol: Carousel, exhibits, carousel

After a few hours at the museum it was nearly time to head home (the baby is still nursing and I was nearing 5 hours without feeding or pumping...), but I promised her one last treat before we came back to reality. After reviewing the options, she asked for soft serve ice cream...

It's definitely not "real food" when you order it by color instead of flavor, but it made her happy...

I'm still a little sad that she won't be with me on my days off, but I think we had a very joyful and special afternoon together to cap off the past two years.

Crazy Times

A year ago at this time I was nearing the end of my second pregnancy and worrying how I was going to adjust to having a 3 1/2 year old and a newborn. I thought it was going to be really hard. The baby came and...it was easy! The transition was nearly flawless. I took on weight loss, complex meal planning, big baking projects, and an increased work load in the office. I patted myself on the back thinking I had this whole working mother thing mastered. 9 months later things are hard.

My four year old is tackling some delayed jealousy issues leading to unpleasant acting out against the baby and regression of her own maturity. Just the other day she unpacked her sister's bathing suit and hid it so the baby couldn't go swimming at my parent's house when they were baby-sitting. She refers to her sister as "the monster" and asks if someone else can watch her all the time. Many nights at dinner she asks to wear a bib and tries to get me to spoon feed her instead of the baby. She's also back to fighting bedtime every single night and gets up in the middle of the night and comes in our room. So that's fun. And the baby? She still wakes up overnight at least 5 out of 7 nights looking to nurse, puts EVERYTHING in her mouth, and will not sit still and play with a toy for more than 30 seconds.

On a personal front my weight loss plateaued with diet changes alone and I signed up for a 5K Mud Run to get myself back to the gym. With all the above going on, the only way I can get there is to get up in the wee hours of the morning (which shortens my already hit and miss slumber) or rush from work to squeeze in a workout. The latter inevitably means dinner will be late and the kids will be whiny and snacking the whole time I cook leading to less consumption of the actual dinner. Which brings me to food. I'm still making a valiant effort to shop local and cook real food. That endeavor is sucking up the majority of any "excess" time I have in the hour after the kids go to bed and the hour before I collapse. 

As if that wasn't enough, did I mention that my patient load at work exploded at the same time our medical record system was updated leading to my inability to finish my charting as quickly and at least an hour of screen time at night to finish my patient notes? Or that our house is still on the market (which is a "surprise" according to the real estate agent that convinced us we were going to sell in a matter of days...) which means I am constantly cleaning to keep things in order for showings. And the icing on the cake? The lot we want to build on becomes available in about two weeks and we will have to start working with them on the designs for our new home. 

Where does my husband fit into all of this? He's here doing his very best to be helpful. He keeps up with the yard work for the house showings and can follow simple instructions for dinner, but the vast majority of his time is spent baby wrangling and stressing out about selling the house/building a new house/moving.

In summary, there's a lot going on. I want to blog because I have many great recipes, party ideas, and parenting tips to share, but I am worn quite thin these days. I'm waiting for the next great shift in family/work/home responsibilities to give me some breathing room...

Gone Phishin'

This weekend is Phish weekend in our neck of the woods. My husband preps for the shows by listening to Phish 24/7 (which is pretty much the normal anyway...) and spending a ridiculous amount of time at the beverage center picking out what beers he wants to bring with him. I, on the other hand, prepare as I prepare for most life events...by baking! In years past I have made sugar cookies or cakes iced with the Phish logo. Last year, I made cookie bars topped with milk chocolate that I piped into the Phish logo. This year I decided to get really creative...

My idea was to create a dessert for each night that was a take on a Phish song. I challenged my husband to come up with the song choices for me. He came up with Bathtub Gin (which will be the inspiration for Sunday night's dessert) and Reba (tomorrow). Tonight was my idea.

As our 4 year old is coming with us tonight, I decided to make a very kid friendly treat - cake pops! Although as adorable as a traditional pop, these are a whole new level of cake pop.The inside is a maple cake crushed together with maple buttercream frosting and chopped up bacon. They are coated with a darker chocolate and topped with caramelized bacon sprinkles. 

What song could these possible be a take on you ask?! Why, Meatstick of course! Because it's meat, it's on a stick, and how could these crazy pops not "shock your brain"?!

5 Great Blog Topics (Or, Reasons I Haven't Been Blogging)

Sometimes I realize that the busier I get, the more great ideas I have for blog posts and the less time I have to post them. Here I'll share the cliff notes version of the roles I've been playing in my recent insanity that I may or may not ever get to extrapolate on...

1. Mommy  - For awhile this blog was meant to be a place to share all of my trials and tribulations as a working mom, but somewhere along the line it became more about recipes, food, and crafts because those are more tangible topics that I can post about in less time with a tired brain. I will say that when the baby bear was first born I made a post about how much easier having two was than I expected. I wouldn't necessarily say my opinion has changed, but each and every month brings new challenges to the parenting and working dynamic that I aspire to share...someday...somehow...
2. Doc -  As I encounter more and more patients, parents, and family with basic pediatric questions (breast-feeding, summer safety tips, nutrition and weight issues, how to handle viral infections, etc) I wish I could feature some here, but my patient panel keeps getting larger and my home time keeps getting slimmer. 
3. Chef - Many of my recent posts have been on "real food", but I have so many more things I've learned that I wish I could share (reading labels, what different chemicals and additives are, etc). I've also been cooking up some really great seasonal recipes that I would love to share if I could add an extra few hours to my day.
4. Party Planner Extraordinaire - If you've been reading my blog, you know I love throwing parties. Most of my big parties thus far have been bug's birthday parties (Elmo, Owls, Bugs, Mickey and Minnie, and Brave), but I did get the chance to throw my sister's Red Sox Bridal Shower last summer.  Now I am working on my sister's baby shower which is fun, exciting, and time consuming. 
5. Phish Fan - Being a fan doesn't sound like it should be a job, but the way I do it is. My husband's planning begins and ends at what beer to bring, but I spend time working on making a kid friendly experience for our older daughter and planning food/snacks to bring for us and any friends we expect to meet. This year I also have to make a "mommy plan" to take care of pumping while I'm away from the baby bear.

So there you have it, five topics that could each make great posts (or series of posts!) that I have no time to share...if only someone could invent a way for me to need less sleep...

Strawberries for every meal

Although I did visit the Farmer's Market and stocked up on basic supplies (milk, eggs, and salad greens) last weekend, this week has been a disaster for meal planning. Between travel, meetings, and family celebrations I didn't get to make many real dinners this week. As I don't have too many meals to share, I decided to focus on one ingredient we used a lot this week instead...

...Strawberries!!

I fondly remember picking strawberries with my mom and sister every summer. Unfortunately, I feel as if the berries weren't treated properly. We would pick a whole bunch of them (because it was fun!), have strawberry shortcake that night, eat a few over the next few days, freeze some, and everything else ended up rotting because we get bored of them.

I was dedicated to not letting that happen this time! We took the kids on Father's Day morning to a small, very reasonably priced local farm and picked 4 pounds of berries. By Wednesday morning every last berry had been eaten and I took the girls back to pick more! Here are some of the delicious ways we enjoyed our fresh berries...

Breakfast - Delicious whole wheat based banana bread incorporating fresh whole berries

Adapted heavily from this recipe

Ingredients

3 very ripe bananas

10 small strawberries

2 eggs

2 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour

1/2 cup natural sugar

1/3 cup unsalted butter

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup brown sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease or spray a loaf pan with butter/oil. Mash bananas in a bowl and set aside.
2. In bowl of stand mixer, cream together butter, coconut oil, and natural sugar. Add milk, eggs, and bananas and mix until well blended.
3. Mix together dry (flour, baking soda, salt, brown sugar) ingredients in a separate bowl with a whisk. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix just until incorporated.
4. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Insert the whole strawberries into the batter - push them in just until they disappear, but not far enough that they are touching the bottom of the pan.
5. Bake for 60-70 minutes.

Lunch - Refreshing yogurt and granola parfaits perfect for lunch on a warm summer day

Homemade whole milk yogurt and homemade granola make this a great "real food" for breakfast, lunch, or snacking!

Dinner - Fresh crisp lettuces, sweet berries, creamy feta, and crunchy homemade croutons topped with tangy honey mustard vinaigrette make this a great pairing with the grilled protein of your choice

Strawberries pair beautifully with the feta and honey mustard dressing in this flavorful side

Honey Mustard Vinaigrette (from Real Food Has Curves)

Mix together all ingredients in a small bowl with a whisk until well blended:

• 6 TBSP olive oil
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 1 mashed clove of garlic
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp salt

Dessert - Rich, creamy strawberry ice cream churned at home with nothing artificial added!

Scaled down and modified based on what I had in my fridge from this recipe

Ingredients

1 cup reduced fat or whole milk

1/2 cup whipping cream

1/2 cup half & half

1/2 cup natural sugar

8oz pureed fresh strawberries

Splash of lemon extract

Dash of sea salt

1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl with a whisk
2. Freeze according to ice cream maker directions
3. Remove to a freezer safe container and continue freezing

Cake Pop Secrets

Before I share these tips, I need to put it out there that I recognize the possible hypocrisy of this post. I've been focusing a lot on real food and cake pops are definitely not real food. Nearly everything I've read about real food acknowledges that sometimes we are going to have foods that are more industrial and less than perfect. With a kid in the house and my own love of baking and decorating, I am willing to admit that cake pops are going to happen. Not as often as I would have in the past, but every now and then I'm willing to let a pop slide by.

After lamenting the loss of many a cake pop in the past, I have finally devised an (almost) fool proof method for excellent cake pops. Here are my tips...

1. Plan ahead! Ideally cake pop making should be spread over 2-3 days. First, the cake should be baked and cooled. Next, the frosting/ganache can be made and combined with the cake crumbs to create the cake balls. Lastly, the dipping and decorating can be done.
2. If using boxed cake mix, replace most of the oil with water to make the cake firmer.
3. Make ganache instead of frosting - the ganache works better as a glue to hold the pops together and majorly elevates the flavor of the pop.
4. After you make them, the cake balls should be refrigerated until firm - at least 4 hours, best if left overnight.
5. Take out your whole container of balls and dip the sticks in chocolate before inserting them into the pops. Once all sticks are inserted, place all the pops back in the fridge until you are ready to start dipping.
6. Keep the chocolate you are dipping in thin by adding a few drops at a time of canola oil.
7. Dip in small batches. Only take 1-2 pops out of the fridge at a time. This will keep the cake ball cold so that the chocolate hardens quickly and smoothly. 
8. If you are drawing anything on (see the lacing on the baseballs) or attaching decorations do it as soon as the outer coat of chocolate is hardened and before the pop "warms up" too much. 
9. After dipping, keep the pops at room temperature out of the fridge. Putting them back in and out creates condensation and stickiness of the pop which makes them hard to wrap up and less appetizing overall.
10. Once wrapped try to keep in a cool, dry, dark place to prevent melting!

Farmer's Market Menu 6/10

I'm going to try and make this a regular feature to help inspire others to really get into shopping/cooking local. To allow myself the time to actually do this, I'm going to keep the commentary to a minimum. Basically, I'll share what I bought and how I used it with photos and links to recipes with modifications.

Pint of Battenkill Creamery half and half
Pint of Battenkill Creamery chocolate milk
Dozen Cornell Farms eggs
Head of Chinese cabbage
Large bunch of cilantro
2 quarts of white mushrooms
1 pound of cube steak
3/4 pound of lamb steak
1.5 pounds hot sausage
Garlic scapes
Bag of spinach

Sunday - Slow Cooker Lamb Curry. I modified by swapping a can of organic garbanzo beans for the potatoes. Next time, I would add more spices to punch it up a bit and decrease the amount of broth to make the sauce thicker. Overall, a tasty recipe.

Monday - Stir-fried Cabbage, Mushrooms, and Broccoli in Garlic Sauce with Brown Basmati Fried Rice. I cooked the fried rice in the pan first, removed it to a covered dish, and then made the stir-fry in the same pot to save dishes. I made the garlic sauce ahead of time and added it to the pan after cooking the vegetables. I just cooked it long enough to thicken the sauce. 

For dessert, bug and I attempted to make some ice cream. This turned into somewhat of a disaster because my ice cream canister wasn't frozen enough and the mixture didn't churn properly. As I had already invested so much time and valuable raw ingredients (milk, natural sugar, half and half, vanilla beans, and eggs) into the project, I froze it anyway. The consistency was off, but the flavor was there. It was essentially a rich, creamy frozen vanilla custard. I served it drizzled with clover honey and toasted almonds.

Tuesday - Spinach and Mushroom Lasagna. I ran into a sale on all natural/grass fed ground beef, so I decided to make this a meat lasagna for my husband. I used Trader Joe's no boil lasagna noodles. I cooked the beef first and added the onions/mushrooms to it. I didn't bother to cook the spinach, I just chopped it and mixed it into the ricotta. I didn't use Romano cheese, I had Parmesan so that's what I used. I didn't add egg to the ricotta mixture. I decreased the total amount of mozzarella to 2 cups. Everyone, including the bug and baby bear, loved this dinner.

Wednesday - I am home with the girls on Wednesday mornings, so we usually have a full cooked breakfast. This week I heated up some frozen pancakes that I originally made on Monday and made us omelettes. I used the egg whites that were leftover from the ice cream experiment mixed with fresh dill, fresh chopped spinach, ham, mushrooms, and feta for my breakfast. 

My husband liked the cube steak we made last week so much, I used the same exact recipe this week. For sides, I sauteed some leftover radishes with a bit of olive oil and then finished them with butter, white wine vinegar, salt and pepper. I also made a simple side salad of chopped organic romaine, organic grape tomatoes, and mozzarella pearls tossed with homemade Italian dressing. 

Thursday - I attended a CME (Continuing Medical Education) training session on Adolescent Reproductive Health (one of my special areas of interest at work) this evening so the family just had leftover lasagna with some simple buttered carrots and baby zucchini.

Friday - I was really burnt out by the end of the week and couldn't bear the thought of cooking another meal, so we opted for some (not so healthy) take-out.

Other special things I cooked up this week were a big batch of plain whole milk yogurt and a dozen whole wheat tortilla shells.

Cooking the FM

It's been a week and I never checked in about what I was cooking with all the products I scooped up from the Farmer's Market last week. Where have I been? Why haven't I posted anything? Kids and exhaustion are my answers.

Life is just really crazy (I'm extrememly overdue for a "mommy" post...) and I can't seem to find the time to share on here as much as I'd like to. I know I don't really have all that many readers, but I like to think of this as my creative outlet and posting makes me happy. 

So, I am stealing 15 minutes this morning and sharing my meals from last week. Between shrieks of, "Mommy! I need - insert ridiculous demand - NOW!", cleaning/cooking non-stop, and dealing with an infant who has discovered the best way to make her needs known is through loud, disgruntled squealing I didn't remember to snap photos of everything, but I'll share the ones I did take. 

Happy reading and menu planning!

Saturday - Get together at my in-laws house and swimming for the first time this season. We ordered sandwiches, but I made the salad pictured in the upper left with organic green leaf lettuce, fresh radishes, cucumbers, shallots, homemade salt and pepper whole wheat croutons, and fresh dill dressing.

Sunday - Marinated cube steak and sauteed mushrooms/onions with organic (frozen) green beans and pasta pictured middle right. We also finished the leftover salad from the previous night.

Monday - Scrambled farm fresh eggs with dill, feta, and mushrooms on homemade pita bread (upper right) for breakfast. Dinner was fajitas made from leftover cube steak with red peppers, onions, and mushrooms, shredded cheddar, sliced avocado, and sour cream served on homemade tortilla wraps. 

Tuesday - For breakfast all week my kids ate whole wheat pancakes that I made over the weekend and froze. I had a conference in the evening so my husband just did take-out for himself and leftovers for the bug.

Wednesday - Before heading to work, I threw some yogurt into the oven to culture. For dinner, chicken thighs and pasta salad with the Rasta Pasta blend, pearls of fresh mozzarella, and organic grape tomatoes. Both were marinated in a homemade Italian dressing. I also threw together a quick dill cucumber salad in a red wine/mustard dressing that wasn't great. I'll tweak the recipe before I post anything about it. 

Thursday - Beet yogurt dip pictured on the middle left for lunch on leftover pitas. For dinner, mild pork sausage sandwiches with the rest of the mushrooms, red peppers, and onions on rolls from a local bakery (with regular refined flour I am sure...) and a tabbouleh like salad made with fresh herbs, quick cooking barley (I was thinking barley instead of bulgar - it turned out pretty yummy despite my mistake!), cucumbers, and feta.

Friday - Pizza was the plan! Dough and shredded mozzarella from Roma's Imports in Latham. The bug topped hers with pieces of baked ham, we made ours half and half. The first was a local red sauce topped with the leftover sausage/onions/peppers. The other half was spread with the homemade garlic scape pesto pictured on the bottom right and topped with some sundried tomatoes and cheese.

Homemade Pitas

When I started to focus more on simple, whole foods I began looking for recipes to replace some of the store-brought staples in our house that are laced with chemicals, preservatives, and sugar. Although it takes some extra time and preparation, the end result is SO worth it.

My husband and I really enjoy eating hummus as a snack, but I've been really disappointed by the taste (or lack thereof) of wheat pita bread options at the store. It's even more disappointing when you read the labels and see how many additives there are. So, my search for a better option began. I made a few batches of pita bread from this recipe. Although the bread tasted good it didn't "puff" and form a pocket like you'd expect from a pita (it was more of a flat bread). Today I decided to give a new recipe a try and I am so glad I did. These pitas puffed just right and taste great. You will never accept the store brought variety again after trying these...

Adapted from this recipe over at Mama's Gotta Bake

Ingredients

1/4 cup warm water

Pinch of sugar

Packet of active, dry yeast

3+ cups of whole wheat white flour

1 tsp sea salt

1 1/4 cups warm water

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tsp honey

Coconut oil spray (or oil)

Directions

1. Dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water and let stand for 10 minutes until bubbly.
2. Pour yeast mixture into bowl of stand mixer and add 3 cups of flour, salt, oil, honey, and water.
3. Stir mixture with wooden spoon until moistened.
4. Attach dough hook and mix on low for 10 minutes (you could knead by hand, but I'm too lazy for that). 
5. If the dough isn't coming together after the mixer has been on for 5 minutes, add more flour a TBSP at a time. You want the dough to be cohesive enough that it kind of rolls into a ball around the dough hook.
6. Take the dough out of the mixer and knead it a few times by hand before forming it into a ball. (I sprayed my hands with the coconut oil to prevent the dough from sticking to me for this step).
7. Spray a bowl with coconut oil (or grease with olive oil) and put the dough ball into the bowl. 
8. Place dough into a pre-warmed oven (set to 120 degrees, opened to let the big rush of heat out, and then turned off) or just cover it with a towel and place in a warm place to rise.
9. When the dough has doubled in size (approximately 1 hour), punch it down and divide into 10-12 pieces (depending on the size of the pitas you want). I did this by shaping the dough into a rough log shape, cutting in half, cutting in half again, and then dividing each quarter into three equal-ish pieces. Roll each piece into a ball shape and set aside to rest on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Cover the balls with a piece of plastic wrap that has also been spritzed with oil and set aside for 20-30 minutes.
10. While the dough is resting, place a baking stone (or non-stick cookie sheet) into the oven and preheat to 400 degrees.
11. When the oven is heated and your dough is done resting, prepare a lightly floured surface to roll out the pitas. I sprinkled a little bit of extra flour on each side of the dough, flattened it with my palm, and then rolled it to a rough circle/oval shape approximately 1/8-1/4 of an inch thick.
12. Working in batches of 2-3 (depending on how big your pitas are), place the rolled out pitas onto the baking stone/cookie sheet and bake for about 5 minutes. I really recommend setting a timer for 4 minutes and checking them at that point. At five minutes my pitas were just barely browned, but the puffed tops were firm to the touch. Cook less for softer pitas, longer for crisper pitas.
13. Remove pitas from oven with a spatula or tongs and place to cool on a baking raking.
14. Fill with the stuffing of your choice, cut into wedges to use with dip, or be inpatient and eat one still warm from the oven like this girl right here did! 

Farmer's Market Menu Planning

We do have a few year round farmer's markets (Troy Waterfront Market), but this is really the start of the season to start looking for fresh local products. I try to go every weekend (missed it last weekend because I was in the office) and check out what things are starting to become available. I spend the rest of the week searching out and pinning recipes so I am ready to cook with what I get the following week.This year I've been frequenting the Troy market, but might check out the Delmar one next weekend.  This was the first weekend that my goal was really to buy the majority of my groceries at the farmer's market. Pictured below is what I purchased with links to the vendors that I could remember...

1/3 pound spicy mixed lettuces
Overflowing pint of radishes
About 1 pound of red beets
Bundle of garlic scapes
Bunch of dill
Quart of white button mushrooms
Dozen local eggs
1/2 gallon whole milk
Pint of chocolate milk
1/2 pound "Rasta Pasta" blend
1/2 pound Garlic Basil fettuccine
1 lb mild Italian pork sausage
2 large chicken thighs
1.3 pounds of cube steak

I can't remember the exact prices of everything, but I went into the market with $60 and left with a pocket of change and a single dollar bill. I'm guessing I spent about $57 dollars. Not pictured, but also prominent in my menu planning is a loaf of white wheat bread from All Good Bakers that they generously gave me for free when I was in for lunch on Friday.

So far I've made:

• a simple green salad using a handful of the radishes tossed with some store bought organic lettuce I had to use up, cucumber, and shallots and dressed with a homemade dill dressing and homemade croutons
• thick slices of french toast (simply whisk 4 eggs, about 1/4 cup of milk, and a generous splash of vanilla then soak your bread slices before cooking in a buttered skillet/griddle - add a delicious crust to the slices by sprinkling one side with organic cane sugar as it cooks) and fried eggs

Check back later this week for more recipe/meal ideas

Gender Reveal Party

This has been a crazy thing for me to wrap my head around, but my little sister is having a baby! A few weeks ago she and her husband went for their 20 week ultrasound and decided to find out the baby's gender. She was very excited and wanted to have some type of fun way to tell us if the baby was a boy or girl. She came up with the idea of making cupcakes with either pink or blue frosting as her "big reveal", but ended up having to work longer hours (and wasn't feeling well) the day before the ultrasound.

I love to plan a party, even a small one, so I volunteered to make the cupcakes for her. I thought it would build more suspense if the cupcakes were colored and we actually had to unwrap/bite into them to see the color, so that's what I did!

I don't know how I managed to take every single photo at an awkward angle, but I did...

Vanilla cupcakes from this incredibly simple, but delicious recipe that  you mix  in the food processor

Pink and Blue!

Ready to bake...

Topped with a simple chocolate ganache to completely cover the cake and conceal the color!

My girls happened to be extra cooperative that day, so I had some fun setting up a little tablescape for her as well. This was a very small scale event (she was just "revealing" to myself, my husband, my daughter, and her step-kids), but could easily be adapted for a full family event!

Pink tablecloth, blue fabric "runner" from my fabric scrap bin, cupcakes on display, and pink/blue gift bags  with a small gender specific gift (baby hats!)

Friday Five: Reasons Pets are AWESOME

I had a different Friday Five planned, but I've got other things on my mind today. My parents have become "snowbirds" and spend their winters in Florida. This year they were gone from mid January through last weekend. While they were gone, my mom mentioned that my childhood cat was "getting skinny" and "refusing her favorite foods" a few times, but I didn't realize the severity of the issue until they got home last Sunday.

Our poor kitty was down to about 5 pounds and on my extremely non-veterinary trained exam seemed to have some tenderness and fullness in her belly. The next day trip to the vet confirmed my suspicions; intertwined GI tumors with no potential treatment. The vet advised my parents to keep her comfortable at home as long as possible, and call if things got worse.

In what I would describe as the best possible outcome she passed sometime early this morning in the home she loved, with my parents (who adore her) and her grown-up kitten (she was pregnant when we rescued her) nearby. Rest in peace Mousey, you will be missed.

In her honor I am sharing five reasons that life is so much better with a pet...

1. They comfort you when you are sad. Sometimes their big expressive eyes say more to soothe you than any words any person could come up with.
2. They wait for you to come home and act SO excited to see you every single day - which totally makes you feel like a rock star.
3. Their warm little bodies next to you can calm you after even the worst day.
4. They LOVE you in exchange for the simple act of meeting their basic needs.
5. They love you SO much, they love (tolerate?) your kids.

Friday Five: Real Food Recipes

For some time now I've been looking harder at the foods I feed to my family. Many times my best intentions have been crushed by the time consuming nature and financial burden of providing real food three meals a day for three (now four!) people. I've also been so lost weeding through all the different claims regarding which foods are REALLY the best that I can't shop without spending hours reading labels and find myself staying awake at night worrying about what I am going to cook the next day.

Finally, I've found a way to simplify matters:

• I buy the highest quality meats, dairy, and produce I can by mini-shopping multiple times per week.
• I'm only buying local dairy from Meadowbrook Farms or Battenkill Creamery and looking for a more local source for eggs.
• I am anxiously awaiting fresh local produce, but I am also accepting the rule that conventional produce is better than no produce.
• I've stopped cooking things like potatoes, rice, or pasta just because I think there needs to be a "starch" on the table.
• Anything I can make, I am trying to make myself including sandwich bread, rolls, pita bread, granola, yogurt, ricotta, etc. I've also started juicing (more on that later...).

I'm premiering my new focus on nutrition with a Friday Five featuring some of the meals I've made in the past few weeks.

1. Crock pot Free-Range, Organic Chicken. Original recipe can be found here - I left out the cayenne pepper to make sure it wasn't too spicy for my bug. The chicken cooks up so tender it literally falls apart when you take it out of the crock pot. The huge advantage of cooking a whole chicken is that I can get at least two meals out of it. The first night we eat it straight out of the crock pot with veggies as a side. Second meal ideas? Chicken salad, chicken/cheese/veggie quesadillas, chicken fried rice, etc, etc, etc!

2. Homemade Chicken Stock with the leftovers from above. Recipe can be found here. I used some of the stock right away to make a delicious chicken, alphabet noodle, and vegetable soup and froze the rest in ice cube trays so I have a freezer bag full of stock cubes on hand when I need them.

3. Eggplant stacks with homemade ricotta. Eggplant slices were pre-salted to draw out the water and then prepped with egg wash, dipped in homemade whole wheat breadcrumbs, and pan-fried in olive oil. Ricotta and fresh basil were sandwiched between the slices and topped with marina sauce and fresh mozzarella before baking. This was delicious and I can't wait to try it again with fresh eggplant this summer.

 

4. Cobb Salad tweaked from a recipe found here. I added shrimp because the bug loves it and shrimp made the salad into more of a "meal" for my husband. All of my produce was store-brought organic, but I can't wait until we start getting fresh, local tomatoes and cucumbers to make it with. I used feta cheese instead of blue cheese because I always have it on hand. The salad dressing recipe was delicious with either red wine or apple cider vinegar and feta instead of blue cheese, but I recommend reducing olive oil to 2-3 TBSP.



5. Homemade yogurt! In the past, one of my co-workers and his wife told me that they made their own yogurt. At the time I was confused and slightly put-off by the idea. After reading up on the technique, I realized how easy it was and decided to give it a try! I followed the instructions here, but halved the recipe as it was my first batch ever and I didn't want to waste milk if it didn't work out. I started with whole milk from Meadowbrook Farms and Stonyfield Organic Whole Milk yogurt. I've been eating this for breakfast all week with bananas, frozen berries, and homemade granola. If I really want to sweeten it, I add a swirl of maple syrup or honey. FYI - I never used to look forward to eating yogurt for breakfast because I would always feel hungry an hour later - this is SO not the case when you have real yogurt made from real milk.

 

Here's a listing of some of the reading and viewing I've done recently to help me along:
Nina Planck's Real Food for Mother and Baby
Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma
Real Food Tastes Good
100 Days of Real Food
Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead
Hungry for Change

Brave Party: Details, details, details!

I have to admit I have been struggling with getting the rest of my party details up here. This isn't yet classified on the DSM, but I think I am suffering from my annual case of post-party depression. Each year I spend months and months planning and prepping for bug's birthday party and then I invariably end up disappointed when it's over. The day of the party things get too crazy and I don't get to properly display, enjoy, or photograph all of the projects I obsessed over.

When I settle down to share the party details on here, I realize how much is missing from the photos. Then I get sad. So silly, but so true. I think I am finally recovering because I had a new event to plan (more on that soon). Anyway, here are the photos I have of all the extra details I haven't yet posted about.

I made the frilly tablecloth decoration I pinned from here and decorated the TV stand with Brave plush toys from the Disney Store

Birthday banner made using the Cricut Pretty Pennants cartridge.
I also created a very cute bunting using the Cricut and some bias tape that decorated the stairs leading into the party, but we have no pictures. Maybe I'll post a separate tutorial for that because it was so cute and so easy!

Birthdays aren't complete without balloons! We clustered bunches of 3-4 balloons and tied them up around the party space

I've been planning this party long enough that I picked up the garland and the fancy glittery stars hanging on the light from Target after christmas for literally pennies.

I dennoted all the "party rooms" by making decorative banners over each doorway. The doors were also labeled with fun Brave themed references such as, "Queen Elinor's Closet" for dress-up, "The Crafty Carver" for arts and crafts, and "Mor'du's lair - Do Not Enter" for my messy supply room. 

View of the decorations from the downstairs looking up.

My husband's uncle works for a bottling plant, so he gets me empty plastic bottles and any color cap I want to make these with any drink I want in them. Fun!

I included this photo to show the fun "Conversation with the Birthday Girl" I printed out (you can see it right next to the cellphone held by my cousin with the gorgeous curly red hair). I stole the questions from this blog.
 

Brave Party: Activities

During my planning for this party I read a handful of blog posts about Brave themed parties in which the hosts planned a "Highland Games" event for the party-goers with archery and caber toss contests. Our kid guests were all under the age of 5 (with the exception of my sister's step-kids who are significantly older) so I wanted the activities to be at their level.

For games, I made my own cut-out archery game with homemade felt arrows to match the party colors and wrote a very simple three step treasure hunt. I originally intended the prize from the treasure hunt to be the party favors (bear stuffed animals), but ran out of time to plan out how to execute it. I just stuck with Brave fruit snacks as the prize at the end. I'm not going to post the clues I wrote for the treasure hunt, but if someone reads this and wants them, please contact me!

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For crafts I set up my old bedroom with two crafts. One table was set-up with string, wooden beads, multi-colored plastic beads, and plastic bear claws to make bear claw necklaces. I didn't realize until it was too late that the string I bought frayed easily making the necklaces difficult for the little ones to string:-( The other table was set up with cardboard crowns, markers, crayons, glue, glitter, gems, and Brave stickers to make crowns. The kids really seemed to enjoy decorating themselves (and their parents) with stickers and playing with all the gems!