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
No comments:
Post a Comment