Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Family Nutrition

Mission: Family Nutrition

One of my goals for this year is to eat healthier.  I deliberately left it a vague because I wasn't sure what changes I wanted to make.  I tend to start out with hugely drastic goals and then give up because it's too much.  This time I've picked one goal for for this month.  I want us to eat more fruits and vegetables.  So... I've put up a chart for each family member to check off how many servings are eaten each day.  My hope is that this will make us more aware what we are eating.

I'm linking this post up to Coming Clean: Confessions of An Imperfect Parent: Mission Family Nutrition.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Outback Restaurant

Dh took me to an Outback Restaurant last night for a date night.  This was a first time for me.  Can I just say that their food is outstanding!  They served us these little loaves of a dark bread first.  I remember looking at it and wondering if the bread was going to be hard.  Not at all.  It was soft and had a slightly sweet taste.  Dh and I ate almost 3 loaves of it.  Can we say...piggie, piggies? 
For the main meal I had a 7 oz. sirloin steak, garlic mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetable.  The steak had this exceptionally yummy seasoning and was so tender the meat practically shredded as I cut it.  The seasonal vegetables were a mix of the freshest broccoli, carrots and squash. And the garlic mashed potatoes?  Oh my, my... I am a huge mashed potato fan...could eat them everyday.  These mashed potatoes were outstanding.  Every bite was a wonderful mix of potatoes and garlic.  My hips don't want to know how many calories I had...I just know that I am definitely going back again! 
Big thumbs up Outback!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

English Muffin Bread

Today I tried a new bread recipe that I saw over at A High and Noble Calling. It turned really good...after a failure for the first try.



Here is what happens when you don't proof your yeast...those little packets are not always reliable. (My daughter thought it looked like playdough). And yes, that was after it was cooked!




And here is what happens when you do things right.



This recipe is definitely a keeper. I have all the ingredients in my food storage and it was not difficult to make.

Here is the recipe:

Recipe makes 2 loaves. To get the true english muffin texture, make sure you don’t over mix and there is no kneading. This is one bread recipe I don’t use my Kitchen Aid on! I put my ingredients in a mixing and use a wooden spoon to mix it by hand.
6 cups of flour
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 cups of milk (I only had instant dry milk and it came out fine)
1/2 cup of water
1 Tbsp sugar 1 tsp. salt
Grease two 8″ loaf pans and sprinkle with a little cornmeal to coat the bottom and sides.
Combine 3 cups of flour, yeast and baking soda an set aside.
Warm the milk, water, sugar and salt until just warmed. You can do this in a saucepan or microwave.
Combine the milk and flour mixture using wooden spoon. Add the remaining three cups of flour and mix.
The dough will be very sticky and hard to work with, so just scoop it out and put evenly into bread pans. I try to shape the tops a little with my spoon. Sprinkle with a little more cornmeal.
Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes.
Cook in a 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Take out of pans immediately and cool on a wire rack.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Cooler Weather Cooking

It's been very cool in the early mornings here lately. Cool enough to need to keep windows closed. It put me in the mood to cook (and warm up the house). I baked some turkey breasts and wings I found on sale the other day. Some of the wings will go to my mom and the meat from the breasts will be sliced and chopped up for meals during the week.



I also made a big pot of rice (the pot behind the turkey) that will be used throughout the week.

I made a big batch of pancakes for breakfast...thinking that there would be a lot of extras to freeze...ummm, not in this house...



Everyone must have gotten the memo that it is colder...and the cold makes you hungrier...because out of a batch of 35 pancakes this was all that was left...

Monday, September 21, 2009

Menu Plan Monday

This weeks menu will include:

Monday: Ground turkey, rice,veggie
Tuesday: Stirfry with pork, rice, veggie
Wednesday: DD23rd b-day (out to eat)
Thursday: Pasta, veggie
Friday: Pizza (ordered from Little Caesars-ds15's fav)
Saturday: Can I say I have no idea? We have a friend visiting from Seattle and we might just go out to eat. Still waiting to talk to her....
Sunday: Baked chicken, mashed potatoes, green veggie,bread



Monday, September 14, 2009

Menu Plan Monday

Monday Spaghetti, salad, bread

Tuesday Scrambled eggs, rice, veggies/fruit

Wednesday Macaroni and cheese with hot dogs, veggie

Thursday Leftovers (it’s my bunco night)

Friday Pizza



Friday, August 14, 2009

Food Preparedness Challenge

I started the food preparedness challenge 12 days ago that is going on over at Preparedness Pro.
This is day 12 for us in the challenge. Here is what I’ve learned:
1. I have a lot more food than I thought (about 6 months in most areas).
2. A large amount of the food is stuff that is to be used in making things from scratch.
3. That sounds good…unless you are the main cook and hurt your finger to the point of infection and can’t make a lot from scratch because it is downright painful.
4. We didn’t have enough comfort/snack items.
5. As soon as we get moved in I’m going to get a garden started back up because we ran out of fresh veggies very quickly when not able to go to the farmers market.
6. I don’t have enough cat food.

I’m posting this early because we are having a moving sale tomorrow and an unexpected family visit on Sunday. This has been a good experience.

Friday, July 31, 2009

Cake Mix Applesauce Muffins

For Food Storage Friday I whipped up a batch of these today. I got the recipe over at The American Homemaker. They are delicious!
In my short term storage I have a bunch of cake mixes I got on sale for .50 a box and I'm trying to figure out some different ways to use them up. The applesauce in it is also some I home canned last year.

Photobucket

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Solar Cooker Challenge

So here I go adding another challenge. Over at Preparededness Pro a challenge has been issued to prepare your meals in your solar oven for two days. Today I made the rice for our meal and a peach cobbler. This is the second time I've made rice and each time it comes out sticky. It was still edible but I'd like to figure out what to do to make it a little more dried out. Or is that possible? Hmmmm....



The peach cobbler was very good as usual...although I think I'll use a little less butter and none of the juice from the can so it's not so soggy on the bottom.

Menu Plan Monday

Breakfast: Oatmeal
Biscuits and eggs

Lunches: Leftovers (I’m at work so the family feeds themselves)
Pb&j’s, fruit
Tuna sandwiches, fruit

Dinners: BLT tortilla wraps
Pasta with ground beef/ salad
Spaghetti/ cornbread/ salad


Desserts: Applesauce coffee cake
Peach cobbler


Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Small Thing


Todays Small Thing was to do something square to improve your home sanctuary. Sooo...I made brownies! My family really liked this assignment. As you can see from the picture...one disappeared before I could even get to the camera.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Peanut Butter Balls





Todays Food Storage Friday recipe was very simple. The Hawk (age 14) actually put together this one. This recipe uses only three ingredients...peanut butter, powdered milk and honey.....one cup of each. Yummy!

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Menu Plan Monday





Menu Plan for the week of March 23-27th

Breakfasts

Oatmeal and o.j.
Toast and eggs or bacon
Cold cereal
yogurt

Lunches

Lunch meat sandwiches
Tuna sandwiches
Peanut butter and jam sandwiches
Pasta
Leftovers

Dinners

Cornish hens, pasta, veggies
Breaded fish, broccoli and rice
Burritos
Chili and rice
Chicken tenders, veggie

Snacks for the week

Brownies
Popcorn
Homemade fruit leather

Linking back to I'm a Organizing Junkie http://orgjunkie.com/menu-plan-monday