Egg in a Heart

February is here! What a fun month! I love Valentine's Day. And while it's definitely changed some since having kids, it's more fun too. I've been brought back to childhood memories of craft-filled heart parties, exchanging Valentines with whomever, and returning from a fun-filled day reveling in all the warm thoughts and wishes from others. I'd say Valentine's Day is even better these days; there are simply more people to share it with.

Last year my fabulous mother-in-law gave me lots of heart-shaped cookie cutters in different sizes. This year, I'm putting them to good use!

Growing up my mom used to make me Egg in a Hole. A very simple idea, but it was always so special and it brings back fond memories. I'm so very thankful that my kids are good egg-eaters, especially since they don't eat a lot of other meats. Eggs are wonderfully nutritious, especially if you're careful about the ones you buy. My boy especially loves Egg in a Hole, and the resulting "moon toast" that comes when you save the hole and toast it. I showed it to him one time and said "See? It looks like the moon, right?" and ever since he asks for his coordinating "moon toast" everytime I present his Egg in a Hole!

So to start of February right I figured we'd better try Egg in a Heart. I found just the right size cookie cutter and went to work.

Start by buttering both sides of the bread. Grab your cutter (when I make regular Egg in a Hole I just use a glass) and cut out the center. Place both pieces in a pan. Break an egg into the center.

This part is optional: I don't care for undercooked (i.e. over-easy) eggs, so therefore my kids certainly don't, right? I wait a few minutes for the bottom to set a bit and start scrambling with my spatula. Then after flipping, I make sure to poke the center to get all the juiciness out.

Keep an eye on the cut-out piece because it will probably toast (and then burn) much quicker than the rest. After a couple minutes when the egg is mostly set you can flip it over. Let it finish toasting, find a good time to jab if you like your eggs cooked hard, and then serve it up with a sweet, Valentine's Day-ie smile!

Baked Custard

How many of you got a creme brulee torch (or 5, if you're like us) for your wedding? I kind of wonder how many people ever use theirs. We do, but we really like creme brulee. Can you tell yet what an amazing sweettooth I have? Someone should track the percentage of dessert posts on here. ;-)

I wanted to share this recipe for custard that I'm making for tonight. The ingredients are all wonderfully healthy. If you so choose, at your own discretion, to dust a bit of sugar to the top and torch it then, well then that's another story. But I can tell you that the custard itself is a wonderful treat full of great, whole ingredients.

And it was incredibly easy.

The Recipe:

1 cup whole milk

1 cup heavy cream, not ultrapasteurized

1/4 cup maple syrup

5 egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Grab out a small pan (or, if you're fortunate enough to have one, a small enameled cast iron or stone pot) and start warming the milk and cream slowly over a low flame. While that's heating up, beat the egg yolks with the maple syrup. Add the heated milk mixture slowly to the eggs, beating constantly. Blend in vanilla. Pour into 5-6 individual custard cups that you have placed in baking dish(es). (If you don't have custard cups, I've used my teacups before - just make sure they're ok to go in the oven.) Pour water around the cups.

Bake at 325 for about an hour, until the center is just set and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Chill.

If desired, you can sprinkle some sugar over the top and convert this yummy custard dessert into a more sophisticated Creme Brulee fit for your snobbiest guests. Add some berries for garnish if you like.

Oven-Fried Chicken

I was having one of those days. You know, one of those days: the kind that really don't need further explanation. I wasn't nearly as on my game as usual and there was 4 lbs of drumsticks sitting in the fridge that were going to go bad. So although this isn't the most extravagant thing I could have done with them, it took me 10 (yes, 10) minutes to pull some oven-fried chicken together, all with things already in my pantry that you would probably have on-hand, too. Dinner was on the table (well, on a blanket in the living room, rather. Yup, one of those days.) at 6.

This recipe originally came from Betty Crocker's Bisquick cookbook. I'm proud to announce that we no longer keep bisquick in the house. I can also tell you that I haven't missed it. It just doesn't bother me to measure out 3 ingredients instead of one, especially when it means I have control over those ingredients. So I changed this recipe by making a simple subsititution for the bisquick, and I can tell you that it tastes just as good.

Recipe:

1 Tablespoon butter

2/3 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons paprika

1/4 teaspoon pepper

3- to 3 1/2-pound cut-up chicken (I just used drumsticks this time because they were super cheap)

Heat oven to 425. Melt butter in rectangular baking dish or pan in oven.

Mix all dry ingredients together. Coat chicken in this mixture.

Place chicken skin sides down in pan (pan and butter should be hot).

Bake uncovered for 35 minutes; turn chicken. Bake about 15 minutes longer or until juice of chicken is no longer pink.

Variations: decrease flour & baking powder by 1/2 and add 1/2 cup grated parmesan for Parmesan Oven-Fried Chicken. Or, decrease flour to 1/2 cup and baking powder to 3/4 tsp and add 2 T yellow cornmeal and 1-2 T chili powder for Mexican Oven-Fried Chicken.

I stuck half of the chicken pieces in the freezer for days that I don't have any idea what else to make. And even though it's nothing fancy, the whole family likes it. And, this meal, which provided us dinner and a delicious chicken salad for lunch the next day, cost me less than $5 at regular price, making it a great last-minute recipe.

Dear Sprouts, I ♥ U!

I just got my weekly mailer from Sprouts, and almost missed the "BUY A $100 SPROUTS GIFT CARD!! for only $89.99" sprawled accross the top. (I don't know why my eyes always miss things in big, bold print. It's likely that I might need massive amounts of therapy.)

What a deal, 10% off groceries! Stockin' up!

Packing a Lunch

So when I signed up for this mommy thing, there were a few things about it I knew I'd have a hard time with. I'm not a big fan of menial tasks, and I knew that a huge chunk of my time was to be spent doing just those sorts of activities.

We love getting out and doing things, but it means I have to pack us lunches. I think that's probably my least favorite thing about being a mom. Does it get any more monotonous than packing a lunch?

When I pack a lunch, there are several factors I have to keep in mind. (1) I don't want to spend a ton of time putting lunches together when I'm trying to get out the door. (2) I don't want to deal with messes at lunchtime and I don't want to be any more involved than I need to be when I'm trying to feed myself or socialize. (3) My kids want to eat what everyone else is eating, and this isn't the time to have a battle over food. (4) 70% of the time (and especially at Disneyland) my kids are way more interested in the activity of the day than eating.

Balancing these things is hard, but I've found that there are lots of ways to do this without compromising too much on my principles. I don't mind compromising here and there, but since we're often out at lunch I'm not willing to do that with every time. Today's Disneyland lunch is a good example of what I'll pack for them.
Popcorn is a beautiful thing. What kid doesn't love popcorn? I use extra-virgin olive oil in my popcorn popper and pop about a cup at a time. I sometimes add a little sea salt, or I can leave it plain. My boy gobbles it up either way. It's super easy and healthy, too. I just keep it on the shelf in a freezer Ziploc and it keeps for quite a while. This is a great option because the kids love it enough to be totally okay that the kid next to him is eating fruit snacks.

Yup, right there below the popcorn are my juice blocks. =)

I always have plain yogurt and frozen fruit on hand. I stick some fruit (today it was mangoes) in their with the yogurt. The fruit keeps the yogurt cold and defrosts by the time lunch comes around. I have to help them a little bit with the yogurt, but it's worth it to me. They like it, eat it well, and they get their protein in. I'll sometimes do a different finger-protein instead, but the nice thing about fruit and yogurt is that I never have to guess whether I'm going to have to fight with them to eat it, which has been known to happen with chicken or cheese.

In the snack cup are Annie's Whole Wheat Bunnies. These are the compromise, but it could be much much worse. I chose these because they didn't have any soy, trans fats, or refined flour. The vegetable oil is questionable, but it is expeller pressed. The only real problem is that whenever my son has these, he asks for them every snack and meal time for about a week following. He loves them, which makes them great for packing a lunch. I just have to keep them hidden the rest of the time or he'll be mowing through them (and our grocery budget) constantly!

Also on the pricey side is the freeze dried pears. The ingredients list: pears. I love that! They're sweet and yummy, and I find I sometimes have to pack me some, too, or else I'll accidentally eat them all! They're about fifty cents a pack at Costco, so this again is something reserved just for lunches. Or when Daddy is in charge of a meal. =)

Oh and the glorious banana. Nature's best snack food. No crumbs, easy to transport, and it comes in it's own wrapper. Love, love, love. What else can I say?

What about you? What are your favorite things to put in your kids' lunches? I'd love to know!

Gelatin Juice Blocks

We don't do juice in our home. Our pediatrician was adamantly against introducing juice, which was further backed up by the counseling I took for the gestational diabetes I had throughout my second pregnancy. I finally asked my counselor: "Hey, what's the big deal if it's just fruit?" She explained that juicing fruit takes all the fiber out of the equation and leaves your body processing it the same way it would regular sugar. Furthermore, when you drink a glass of OJ, you're probably drinking more like 4-5 oranges instead of sitting down to just 1, which would cause your blood sugar to spike anyway. Basically, you're better off eating a cookie. Fruit's great, but in moderation, because it does have sugar. All I needed to hear. If my kids are going to have a sugar-rush, I just assume they enjoy a cookie or cake or something really worth it on the rare occasions that's okay, ya know?

Juice blocks are my only exception. And since I make an exception, I make sure I'm making it worth my time. I get this juice at Trader Joe's, because it has things like spinach, broccoli, and spirulina listed on the ingredients. Sure, it's listed far below the apple and pineapple juice, but I'll take it. And, ugly as it is, my kids enjoy every last bit of it!

This is really, REALLY easy. So if you've never made gelatin blocks from scratch before, let me show you. There's simply no reason to go for the boxed Jell-O after you see how easy it is.

As far as gelatin goes, I bought this stuff here on Amazon. It was a great price for gelatin, cheaper than Knox packets from the grocery store, and I know it comes from beef. Knox doesn't disclose on the package where their gelatin comes from, so I've got no clue. Gelatin is great because it helps your body be more efficient at processing protein. Since grass-fed beef is expensive, we don't eat it too often. My kids aren't huge meat-eaters anyway. So gelatin is an important part of our diet, allowing us to get the most we can out of the meat we do eat.

It's just 1 Tablespoon of gelatin for every 1 cup of juice. If you're using Knox packets, there's 1 Tablespoon in each packet. (If you want to make regular gelatin you'd eat with a spoon, it's half that.) I use 4 cups of juice in my 9x13 baking dish.

Measure out 1 cup of juice and pour into your 9x13 dish. Then measure out 3 more cups into a pot. Turn the heat on. Once the juice is well on it's way to boiling, sprinkle your gelatin over the cold juice in your dish and let it sit for 1 minute. Here it is, just gelin':

After a minute, add the boiling juice to the dish and stir for about 5 minutes until the gelatin is dissolved.Cover and put in the fridge for about 3 hours. You can speed up the process by putting it in the freezer for the first 1/2 hour.

Cut 'em and scoop 'em, and that's it!

A Mama's Prescription for Uneasy Tummies

This winter we were up at the in-laws' cabin with my husbands whole family. 4 of the 9 of us ended up feeling not-so-hot that first night. I won't go into details, but let's just say I sure wished I could throw up like some of the others did! Never been much of a puker, myself...

I decided some gingerale was in order. Unfortunately, any store-bought gingerale I've seen does not have any ginger in it these days! Can you believe it?! Even dearly beloved Trader Joe's. Since ginger is known to settle the stomach and is the key reason people turn to gingerale for tummy upset, I set out on a self-imposed mission to make my own!

Recipe for Homemade Gingerale:

1 cup ginger root, grated

3 cups water

1 cup raw honey

natural mineral water (Perrier is naturally sparkling mineral water, Pellegrino is water with CO2 added)

lime (optional)

lime wedges (optional)

Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan. Add ginger. Reduce heat and let simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit for 20 minutes. Strain the ginger out of the liquid, discarding ginger. Mix in honey.

Make individual drinks by mixing 1 part ginger/honey solution with 1 part mineral water. Add a squeeze of juice from a lime and garnish with a lime wedge, if desired.

CAUTION: Homemade gingerale packs a powerful punch! You might need to adjust the ratios to meet you preferences. My picky husband did consume this, but he needed it watered down a little bit. And, he even admitted that it made him feel much better. If you know my husband, he's not one to make this sort of admission lightly!

And since this recipe makes quite a bit, I poured the extra ginger/honey mixture into these ice cube trays and froze it. The cubes now wait patiently in the freezer for the next stomach ailment to enter unwelcomed into our home.

Comfort Drink

It's still cold, rainy, and wet outside. I'm not complaining! I love change and, since I've spent pretty much most of my days living in Southern California, this comfy, dreery weather is a welcomed change for me!

I decided to join the masses and make myself a mug of cocoa as I gear up for the peace that awaits as the children nap. (I'll have a fire going, shortly.) But I used all-natural, healthy ingredients and, of course, fair trade chocolate. So I'll take my cocoa less the guilt, please!

There's not much to this story aside from the ingredients I chose. I'll tell you about them and let you find the ratios that work for you.

The chocolate comes from Sweet Earth Chocolates. You can find fairtrade cocoa powder at other places, but I buy a lot of my chocolate from this place because it's the best place for chocolate chips. I did recently see them at Sprouts, but they were very expensive. Fairtrade is very important to me and I think it should be to you, too. Chocolate is a luxury, so I would first do without than buy something I don't need that is tainted by the blood of child slavery. If you'd like to know more about this, you can check out Stop the Traffik for starters.

I use raw milk for drinking, but it's very expensive. Trader Joe's has unhomogenized milk that is pasteurized, so I sometimes mix it with the raw stuff and use it for cooking. There's just no sense paying $16/gallon for unheated milk that I'm just going to be heating up anyway! If you can't afford either option, definitely look for milk that is not ultra-pasteurized. Ultra-pasteurization is a violent process that heats milk to 280 degrees for 3 minutes, the end product devoid of important enzymes and nutrients we drink our milk for. Ordinary pasteurization heats milk to 180 degrees for 30 minutes. It's not a great option, but it beats ultra-pasteurized hands-down! If you want to learn more about the subject of pasteurization (why we started pasteurizing milk, what it does to the product, the benefits of raw milk, how to determine if your unpasteurized milk is safe, etc.) check out the Real Food book on my bookshelf. She's dedicated a lot of her book to this topic.

And, of course, our good friend agave nectar. Agave is an all-natural sweetener that does not raise your blood sugar. There are other appropriate sweeteners you can use: pure Grade B maple syrup with it's multitude of nutrients, and raw honey which has anti-viral properties among other things. I usually choose agave, though, since it doesn't affect blood sugar.

Chicken Patties

I have been searching for a good replacement for the frozen chicken nuggets I used to buy. Since they quickly became our go-to dinner, I just stopped buying them. Yup, cold turkey. Even though the box toted "All Natural" across the top, the ingredients list revealed hydrogenated oils, refined flour, and there's no way that meat came from cage-free chickens. No big deal every once in a while, but since these were being consumed in bulk on a regular basis I set myself out on a mission to change that!

I got distracted from my search when I found a recipe for Chicken Patties in my Nourishing Traditions cookbook. I strayed off-course for these babies when I noticed the recipe listed things like spinach, onions, red peppers, and other veggies my kiddos won't touch with a 10-foot pole. "Why not?", thought I, and I gave them a try.

Here's the recipe:

2 lbs ground chicken*

2 cups whole grain bread crumbs*

1 cup cream

3/4 cup cooked spinach, chopped and well drained*

1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped

1/2 red pepper, finely chopped

2 eggs

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp dried thyme

4 T butter

4 T extra virgin olive oil

Soak bread crumbs in cream. Mix chicken with bread crumb mixture, spinach, onion, pepper, eggs and seasonings.

Form into patties.

Saute about 7 minutes per side in butter and olive oil, or until cooked through.

Now, here's the scoop. This recipe has got lots of ingredients I don't normally keep on hand, lots of chopping, and some prepwork. But, the cooking is minimal. This is a GREAT recipe for freezing. I didn't even double it (since it was my first time making it) and was able to freeze enough for probably 2-3 more family meals, more if I just need to pull a patty out for the kids. Next time I will definitely at least double this meal, because the whole family enjoyed it and meals like those are sure hard to come by!

Here's my patties, separated by parchment paper, ready to freeze:

*About the ingredients: The ground chicken at my local market was "all-natural", but didn't say anything about what the chickens were fed. So, for the same price, I grabbed a package each of boneless, skinless, organic, free-range chicken breasts and thighs and had the butcher grind them for me. To make the bread crumbs, I just lightly toasted a few slices of my whole-grain bread and pulsed them in the food processor. The recipe actually took more bread crumbs than it called for. I had spinach on-hand, so there was no need to buy a bag of frozen stuff. Not a bad idea if you don't love cooking spinach, but anytime I've used frozen spinach for a recipe it's been a pain to drain so it's almost easier to just cook the pre-washed, bagged spinach.

Like I said, our whole family thoroughly enjoyed this! I made a white-wine cream sauce for Jon & I, and he went to town making a lovely presentation of it. And here's a pic of the girl num-num-numming away:

Rain Calls for Lemons

So it's rainy outside today. Rain means lots of things in the Sudduth house. It has always meant cozy, inside, sleepy days. With the advent of children it has meant stir-crazy days filled with lots of creative activities. For me, today, it just seemed like lemons were in order. We've been getting lemons in our produce box, and I've yet to do anything with them.

My mom makes the best, no the BEST, no THE BEST lemon bars ever! Trust me, I've tried others. Nothing like reaching for something that looks to be just as good, my mouth watering expecting that yellow, perfectly tangy, perfectly sweet yummy goodness when reality hits. That's just not my mom's lemon bar! No, Corner Bakery, your lemon bars do not even come close. Well, today I decided to do the unthinkable: change the recipe. I wanted to make lemon bars a little more healthy. All the yummm without the guilt, ya know?

Here's her recipe:

~ Sift together 2 cups flour and 1/2 cup powdered sugar. Add & combine 1 cup melted butter, and then press into the bottom of a greased 9x13 baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes @ 350 degrees.

~ Meanwhile combine: 2 cups sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 4 eggs, 4 T lemon juice (from real lemons, and if comes in a bottle and is self-proclaimed "Real Lemon Juice", it's not from real lemons) and 4 tsp (or so) grated lemon peel.

~Pour over warm crust and stick it back in the oven for 25 minutes. Chill, and before serving cut into 2" squares & sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Here's my new (and hopefully improved) recipe:

~ Blend: 2 cups whole wheat flour, 3 oz agave nectar, 1 1/2 sticks butter. Press into the bottom of a greased 9x13 baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes @ 325 degrees.
~ Meanwhile combine: 1 1/2 cups agave nectar, 1 tsp baking powder, 4 eggs, 4 T lemon juice (from real lemons, and if comes in a bottle and is self-proclaimed "Real Lemon Juice", it's not from real lemons) and 4 tsp (or so) grated lemon peel. (I got enough juice from 1 lemon, but needed 4 to get enough rind. Buy 4 lemons, just in case.)

~Pour over warm crust and stick it back in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Chill, and before serving cut into 2" squares. Sadly I omitted the decorative powdered sugar.

So I gotta tell ya, my updated version of one of my favorite dessert recipes is pretty darn close. I used the agave substitution suggestions here very carefully and it seems to have worked great. They aren't nearly as pretty, and perhaps a bit more crumbly. If making for guests, you may want to use unbleached flour and a lighter agave (I used blue agave) for aesthetic reasons only. I will definitely be making these again. Enjoy!

About Mmmwah

A few people have suggested me starting a blog. Sounds like a great idea, but I'm not really that into blogs. I can never remember to read them, and honestly, would much rather meet for coffee than spend another second in front of the computer catching up. That said, the idea of having one place to send everyone when I get emails about a certain topic does appeal to me. So... stop by, stay if you like, get cozy, and pretend we're talking over coffee, sound good?

A little about me:
~ I am a child of God. This is number one for a reason. I am not ashamed to tell you that my relationship with Jesus Christ absolutely defines me and is core to who I am. I bask in our blossoming relationship and look forward to how He grows and stretches me in ways no one else can.
~ I have an amazing husband. He's really great and I love talking about him! His name is Jon. I encourage you to get to know the guy if you're ever blessed with the chance. He's God-fearing, hardworking, loving, loyal, affectionate, passionate, and he fights honorably for our family. He is an amazing father to my children which, I've got to admit, makes me fall more and more in love with him every day. Which brings me to...
~ My kids: I love them. Love 'em, love 'em, love 'em. We laugh, we cry, we go wild, we pull our hair out; all in a days work. Mothering is so very different than I'd always dreamed it to be, and oh-so-much better. My son was born in 2007 and my daughter 15ish months later. I love them equally but for completely different reasons. I love to talk about them, too, but I guess that's not really what this is about. We'll save that for a real coffeebreak sometime, K?

So, what do I do that is so blog-worthy? Well, I've invested quite a chunk of my life lately into finding out how I can feed my family wholesome, time-honored food. OK, let's go back a little further. I wasn't exactly a cook when I got married. And since my firefighter hubby was home during the day while I was at work, he started out as our family chef. After a little while some friends and I started a meal exchange group. We'd each mass produce one recipe and once a month get together and exchange them. So, basically, I learned to cook in bulk and freeze things. As time went on, I started questioning conventional cooking practices and wondering if it's really the best idea to be eating some of the things our generation has become accustomed to eating. Over time, I've read several books and developed my own way of taking care of our family's nutritional needs. I use old fashioned recipes, ingredients, and wisdom, and have incorporated my well-learned habit of cooking a lot and freezing for future use. So even though these recipes are more involved and time-consuming, I probably spend less time in the kitchen overall the average mama.


Lastly, I do not have it all figured out! In fact, I'd venture to say I don't have much figured out. Keep that in mind as you're browsing. This is a learning process for me and part of the intrigue is that I'll be kept accountable. Those who know me best will tell you I'm very opinionated, and I don't apologize for that. But as much as I cling to my convictions, you can know that I value yours and am absolutely open to the Lord (albeit, painfully) changing my mind about things. I'm not sure where this will go and what sorts of things will end up here, but I thought I'd give you that just in case!