30 days of clean eatin' starts now!

Luke and I are on day 1 of our 30 day whole-food diet/cleanse thing. It's about cutting out all the things that can be hard on your digestive system, allergens, etc. So basically, it is eating tons of veggies, meat, eggs, a little fruit, and good fats like oils, nuts, and avocados (we still get to have coffee, which is especially delicious with coconut milk instead of creamer). Here, just read about it yourself:

http://whole9life.com/2010/05/whole-30-v2/

Luckily, friends who have gone ahead of me had some great advice on how to be successful. Preparing meals for days at a time is key, as it is difficult to have to cook from scratch for every meal; fast-foods are basically gone from this (toast, yogurt, etc.). I have decided to make soup, salad, taco wraps, and omelets to feed our family for the next several days. If you are interested in eating this way or are bored, then read on!

Omelets: this was a tip that my friend Grace highly recommended, so I did just what she said. I chopped up a large onion, 3 bell peppers, and mixed it in with 18 eggs and cooked it all up. Now each time we eat eggs in the morning we will throw a handful of fresh spinach on top and nuke it for a minute or so. We ate this with fresh tomatoes and avocados on the side today. Mmmmm.........

Taco Wraps: Sandwiches are a staple in our house, especially as a food to pack for Luke's lunches. A friend recently told me that a leaf of lettuce was a great replacement for bread, but I decided to use the lettuce as a tortilla for tacos instead. Organic ground beef, 2 large onions, 3 bell peppers, chili powder, cumin, garlic, and lime juice made the stuffing. I spread homemade guacamole on the lettuce leaf, added a few slices of tomato, and then a serving spoonful of the meat and veggie mixture, and sort of folded the sides up so it's in the shape of a hard-shell taco.

Soup: I thought that soup would be nice to have around in case I felt as though I were eating too many cold veggies; soup can pretend to be my unhealthy food. This soup is going to be pretty basic: meat, veggies, low-sodium broth, maybe some sweet potatoes.

Salad: I have no grand ideas on the salad, but I have lots of yummy ingredients. Romaine, spinach, blueberries, grapes, sunflower seeds, tomatoes, avocado, etc. I think I will throw in whatever sounds good for now, but I will definitely have to look up some good salad recipes next week before I get totally bored eating salad.

Snacks and Desserts: Basically all I snack on is fruit, really. I do have some nice dipping-veggies that I need to make a dip for, too, but our beloved hummus is not allowed during the next 30 days (so sad). Desserts will be fun to mess around with, because coconut milk is a great yummy healthy fatty ingredient that is just calling me to turn it into some sort of milkshake, with blueberries, or bananas. Who knows what fabulous things can be made? Also, coconut oil (especially extra virgin) has amazingly healthy qualities and a slightly sweet flavor. Sliced apples and cinnamon all cooked up in some coconut oil, should surely satisfy our sugar cravings for awhile.

That's it, I hope you enjoyed reading today. Cheers!

Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti

The famous William Turbyfill, who is more enthused and persistent about the food revolution than I am, is always coming up with healthier, better, DIY recipes. Today he came over with a low-carb low-cal version of spaghetti using spaghetti squash, AND he made his own homemade sauce!

SQUASH:

He cooked the squash in the microwave (as this was the method recommended to him), took the seeds out of it, then just forked through the flesh, which naturally separated into strings that resembled spaghetti noodles.

SAUCE:

He made the sauce by boiling the tomatoes, peeling them, and then putting them in the food processor. The sauce was made before he brought it to my house, so I am not certain of all the ingredients, but I know it had Cayenne, because we both love some kick in our sauce.

THE END RESULT:

This dish was amazing. SO much healthier than pasta, and tastes even better. The texture was delightful, too. Using pasta noodles would have been easier, for sure, so for a quick meal I might not tackle this, but I will make this again, without a doubt. Maybe add some spicy sausage next time. Mmmm.... Try it yourself!

First Trader Joe's recipe trial went great!

After printing off delicious-sounding recipes from TraderJoesFans.com I headed to TJ's (Trader Joe's) and bought ingredients for 2 recipes: Arugula & Prosciutto Pizza, and Bleu Cheese Meatloaf.

The meatloaf was the easiest recipe ever; quality ingredients and convenience all at once. Literally, the recipe asked me to mix a handful of ingredients together and then bake it. It was really yummy, but did not blow my socks off. I probably won't make it again.

The pizza....oh, the pizza. Mmm.... Of course it would be delicious, it was covered in cheese and prosciutto! Using TJ's pizza dough (which is super cheap and yummy) was so easy and it turned out just perfect. My only complaint about the recipe is the cost. The cheese was a bit pricey, but the prosciutto was ridiculously expensive! The good news is, once you have made pizza this way, it is easy to "wing it" next time, so I can choose a different type of meat that is less expensive next time. Overall, I am certain that TJ's pizza will be a staple comfort food in this house!

Check out the website and plan your meals accordingly. Nothing beats one-stop-shopping!

Trader Joe's Recipes

I heard about this website from a friend, it is fantastic! There are recipes that just require buying a few TJ products and throwing them in a microwave, and then there are intricate gourmet recipes. Either way, TJ is an affordable place to buy good food.

Trader Joe's Recipes

How to shop effectively and cheaply:

---choose recipes first: it is smart to choose all the dinners you want to make for a week, but I usually choose for a couple of weeks (I don't cook every night, we eat leftovers often)

---write down all the ingredients you need from each recipe and buy them all (this is why it is useful using the trader joe's list of recipes, so you know you can 1-stop-shop for ingredients)

---- don't buy anything else for dinner, buy only breakfast and lunch items since your dinners are taken care of! Sometimes, however, I do buy a few items for quick dinners, just in case, like spaghetti and sauce.

fried chicken and pancakes and pasta, oh my!

I am behind on my entries, so I shall write 3 sections, read one or all:

PANCAKES:

So did you know that pancake mix only saves one step in the pancake-making process? It is super easy to make pancakes that are not from a box (which keeps away the big bad additives and preservatives). Actually, any baked good that comes powdered in a box can be made just as easily from scratch.

I don't have the recipe for pancakes on me (my husband actually made them, he is in charge of breakfast) but it is easy to find on the internet. All pancake recipes are pretty much the same and super simple. Luke's secret ingredients that make it fabulous: vanilla extract and cinnamon. Mmm...... But I am still not sure if cooking in butter or oil is better. Luke used olive oil this time and I loved the texture, but it seems like butter might taste even better. Keep your eye out for the next pancake blog.

FRIED CHICKEN:

For a dear friend's birthday, we made homemade fried chicken. Mmm... It took awhile to cook, but was ridiculously easy to do right.

From Emily's famous (amongst friends, at least) recipe, we dipped in milk/egg mixture, then in flour with a bit of Johnny's and dried sage and called it good. I was surprised at the amount of vegetable oil we had to use to fry it in, but it worked! We were freaking out at how much our fried chicken actually looked and tasted like real fried chicken.

Next time, I would like to experiment with some other seasonings and ingredients. I wonder why she didn't tell us to use breadcrumbs. How would that affect the taste and texture? I know that many recipes call for them, so I would like to try it out. I will also like to try maybe some curry powder or chili powder.

Fried chicken: MAYBE not the healthiest of choices, but if you are gonna have junk, it is still better to have it homemade. At least our chicken was washingtonian, vegetarian, hormone-free, and antibiotic-fee. Ahh... I love my reasoning skills. I can justify anything!

PASTA:

Found brown rice pasta at Grocery Outlet for super cheap... score! The texture is slightly different, but the taste is identical and it is much healthier than regular pasta.

William came over and made some homemade sauce that was super easy, cheap, and delicious. Basically used some canned tomato sauce and canned chopped tomatoes and added some onion, green pepper, and cayenne pepper. Superb. Why do we ever buy pre-made sauce? It costs so much more and tastes, often, more bland, than homemade sauce.

Next time, I will try to use fresh tomatoes instead of canned if they are in season.

The Perfect Omelet!

For less than $1 per omelet and an endless possibility of ingredient combinations, omelets are cheap, yummy, healthy, and could be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner. The food revolution is not only about cooking at home, but about convenience without compromise and saving money. So here we go!!

William Turbyfill has been on a similar path as I have been lately. In his blog, Two Guys Who Talk, he has been on a theme lately called Road to AwesomeTown which includes lots of information he is learning about eating healthy and cooking from fresh ingredients. Check it out to find out about making spicy crazy awesome barbeque sauce and more!

Also, like me, William follows Jamie Oliver, and learned some of his omelet tricks from watching a clip of Jamie's on Amazon.com and came over to share this with me! Some things (like how many veggies to prep, when to add what, whether or not to add milk) are up to the individual, but the key factors to making the perfect omelet that are a must are:

1. Cook in butter, not oil. Mmmm.....

2. As soon as you put the eggs in, mix the liquid around so there are no pockets of air and the entire bottom is covered. This helps to cook it evenly. Just make sure you pan isn't too big. (My pan was a bit too big, so my omelet broke, which is why I am covering part of it with my hand in the picture, so you can't see the gaping hole.

We used fresh spinach, green peppers, onions, tomatoes, and the must-have sriracha sauce. As we scarfed them down (so yummy) we discussed other ingredients that would be so yummy. Feta cheese, avocado, cream cheese, etc. So once you get the basics down, get creative go crazy with it!

A happy ending for the lentils after all!

The magical Julie Rex came and made some croquettes with my lentil mesh, and it turned out great! The only thing I did wrong was make the patties too thick. And, we discussed that these croquettes, made slightly larger, would make an excellent meat substitute for hamburgers.

Side note about meat: Something you will learn about me over time is my desire to lessen the amount of meat I eat. Partially because I know how ridiculous it is that Americans eat such absurd amounts of meat, but mostly because I desire to buy meat that isn't full of fatal chemicals and hormones, and that gets expensive. So any way to substitute meat in a meal is a good idea!

Lastly, the excess liquid from the boiling lentils, carrots, and celery made a beautiful broth to make soup in the near future (and tasted amazing mixed in with mushed carrots to make my baby food). Also, I have excess onions, carrots, and celery already chopped from this project, and that, I learned from the soup guru Grace Sullivan, is a great base for many many soups. Stay tuned for that lesson!

Lentil Disaster!

So, I had all these lentils and wanted to make something fabulous. I thought lentil soup was too boring, so I went for a fancy sounding recipe "Onion and Lentil Croquettes". Sometimes I need to do be overly ambitious just to put me in my place. Beginner recipes only from now on.

So, the first problem I encountered was when I decided to triple the recipe. My thought is that I should make loads of extra whenever I cook, and freeze it, so that I always have "convenience" foods on hand. Going from frozen pizzas to cooking every single night may not be realistic so it is a good idea to have freshly made dishes with fantastic ingredients, frozen and ready to make a quick dinner any time. But, in this case, making so much made it very challenging to cook. My stovetop looks like it is a stovetop for ants. There is only 1 large burner, and I am pretty sure that it is unusually close to the other burners because fitting a large pot next to a pan is nearly impossible and quite frustrating. Not to mention that my front small burner smokes every time I turn it on (cannot figure it out) so I can't use that one.

Besides the tiny stovetop, everything was going quite well, but then time became my quickening threat. I had finished cooking the main part of the recipe and thought I was almost done, when I looked at the clock (7pm) and then looked at the rest of the recipe, which was not almost done, and then proceeded to allow a creative variety of nasty phrases come out of my mouth. I am pretty sure that my daughter will grow up associating swearing with the smell of home cooking. So, Luke went and got some sandwiches from the deli (a feeling of utter defeat washing over me) and I wrapped up the food to finish the next day.

The next day:

Advanced recipe books assume that the reader knows a thing or two. Like, how hot the stove needs to be and how much oil is needed for frying. Thank God I had just watched a video on Jamie Oliver's iPhone app that taught how to stir fry (never use olive oil for frying, it smokes). But, after I had burned a whole set, then I realized they weren't getting cooked evenly throughout. Luke tried to help me, but I just gave up. But, the stuff tastes good, actually, and it calls to be served with ketchup, so I have been treating it like meatloaf (similar consistency) and it will get eaten.

Lessons learned: only try recipes taught by friends, from Jamie Oliver's iPhone app (is as simplified as it gets), and the Martha Stewart magazine that looks delicious! Try more advanced recipes later! Also, thrift stores are a great resource for cooking gear, as well as Ross. My kitchen is almost functioning!

...just a quickie

I did not attempt any great challenge for dinner tonight (frozen veggies, canned refried beans, rice, and pre-seasoned meat). But, I did think it was worth mentioning that recently I have learned that everything Mexican has cumin and chili powder so every time I make anything Mexican I incorporate these seasonings. I put it in the rice, which did give it some extra flavor, but it only made me wish I knew how to make authentic Mexican rice. So, here is a challenge for me, soon! A good friend of mine is going to show me how to do this as well as make homemade refried beans as soon as her Mother-in-Law visits from Mexico. And maybe tamales, too. Stay tuned!

Welcome!!!

Welcome to my blog! This is the first of many entries that I will be making. This blog will be a journal of my adventures of learning how to shop for and prepare healthy, fresh meals for my friends and family. I have absolutely no experience in the kitchen whatsoever, but have been finding myself more and more convicted of the food I eat.

Part of my new revelation stems from becoming a "stay-at-home-mom", as I have ample time to prepare meals, the desire to learn to cook and eat well, and want to be able to pass this onto my daughter. It was one thing to fill my body full of Taco Bell and ice-cream, but it would be selfish and unethical to pass on that lifestyle to my child, who relies solely on me for her nutritional health.

Other factors that have influenced me lately, as I have begun looking deeper into issues surrounding food, have been movies, media, and television. Did you know there have been several documentaries about the food industry that will inform you about the disgusting reality of the food we eat? So disgusting, in fact, that once you begin finding out the truth, it is impossible to go back to the way you used to eat (which is a good thing). By far, the most amazing source of inspiration for me has been Jamie Oliver. He has been the famous "naked chef" for quite some time, starring in t.v. shows and specials in the U.K. for quite some time, but has recently come to the U.S. to start a Food Revolution. Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution television show will conclude after 6 episodes, but after one, my heart was changed for good. I knew that I had to be a part of the revolution. Even if all I ever do is cook healthy meals for my children, I know that I will have done something huge.

I am the third generation of people in this country who has not cooked regularly at home. My grandmother's generation was delighted to take full advantage of the modern conveniences of it's time. My mother's generation was dramatically more reliant on these conveniences as more and more households consisted of two parents who worked full-time. T.V. dinners made in the microwave, boxed, canned, frozen, pre-made meals, etc. became the welcomed norm for every meal. Since then, these convenience foods have gotten even worse, being packed full with toxic preservatives and artificial ingredients. What the average person in America is eating on a regular basis no longer resembles food, but is more like a product of man-made "stuff" that passes as food.

If I can learn the truth about food, and learn to buy food that is real, made of real ingredients, and learn to prepare the food in my tiny, outdated kitchen, with a result of meals that actually taste good, on a consistent basis, then anybody can do it! My hope is that my blog might influence just one other person to try to change, to make better choices, to face their fears in the kitchen and have the courage to give the finger to the large corporations that are killing us with their poisonous convenience foods and to eat well.

Viva La Food Revolution!!!!