Cooking resolutions update

So last week, I tried to follow my breakfast plan and I was pretty successful:

Sunday - I made the sprouted grain pancakes with Arrowhead Mill flour. They were a hit for almost everybody except Sean. But Rick, Josh and Becky really loved them. I made them with coconut oil. The coconut oil I got from Trader Joe's is too strong, I think. That was the one caveat. I got another kind from Whole Foods which I think is a little milder in flavor. Instead of frying up the pancakes in canola oil or some other vegetable oil, I used bacon grease and they turned out well, but I have to be careful of burning. Also, the recipe on the back of the sprouted grain isn't accurate. I add a cup of whole milk (I double the recipe) but then I have to add at least a 1/2 cup of water to get the batter to the right consistency for pancakes.

I've been buying the organic, fake nitrate/nitrite free bacon and saving the grease in an old water bottle that we lost the lid to. It's been working really well.

Monday - slow cooker oatmeal Excellent! I'm eating a bowl right now! I think I'm starting to get in the habit of remembering to soak the oatmeal before starting it in the slow cooker right before I go to bed.

Tuesday - I made eggs and bacon again. But I didn't have time to cook up and freeze for Thursday's breakfast. That made me feel out of sorts.

Wednesday - I made smoothies and everybody liked them (except Becky who thought I'd put too much yogurt in. She can't stand the sour taste of yogurt). I'm just buying organic Greek plain yogurt. Haven't gotten into yogurt making yet! Also, everybody wanted more than just a smoothie for breakfast. They don't want to drink a big milkshake of it. They tended to pour it into our teacups and drink it that way and then want something else. I need a uberhealthy/tasty muffin perhaps to go along with it?

Thursday - I managed to get up early and make Becky a breakfast sandwich before we left for Adler. I didn't bother with the others but I did leave food out for them to eat, just not in breakfast sandwich form. The kids are getting sick of bacon. I need to find sausage they like. Also, Sean misses turkey bacon. Is there healthy turkey bacon out there?

Friday - made a huge vat of the oatmeal and fed the teens (about 20 plus a couple of adults) after the 6:15 a.m. Mass. Wildly successful! Everybody loved it!

Saturday - we did the same old, same old with bagels and cream cheese.

I'm starting the whole cycle over again. Yesterday did the pancakes, eggs and bacon, today the oatmeal. So I think I'm getting in the groove.

For other meals: reading Kelly the Kitchen Kop's blog I saw a suggestion for alternative hot dogs. We always do Hebrew National but even they've got bad stuff in them. Somebody mentioned Trader Joe's uncured hot dogs, so we tried them. The kids LOVED them! Really good hot dogs! Hurrah! A success.

Still haven't gotten around to cheesemaking yet. Hopefully this week at some point!

I signed up on line to join a community farm. They were supposed to send me a contract. I've been checking the mail every day and no contract so far. No mail today because it is MLK day, but if I don't get one tomorrow I'm going to e-mail again. They are just up in Lancaster, PA. I thought it would get here in three or four days. Hope I didn't inadvertently throw it out!

Tomorrow - Tuesday - I'm supposed to bring a meal to a mom who is expecting her 7th child and is having all sorts of health and other issues. Really hard time for her. Anyway, I'm going to try a pot roast recipe from Nourished Kitchen. It calls for parsnips and turnips. I think I've cooked turnips once in my life before (and they were delicious) and I don't think I've ever cooked parsnips. But both those vegetables make me feel all Beatrix Potter-ish. LOL! So we'll see how that works out.

I can't take the time to link things right now. Must finish Latin homework and then go to Latin class. We don't get these holiday Mondays off.

Housekeeping helps and inspirations

Here is a really helpful article on how to use your bread machine if you don't have the accompanying manual.  My bread machine is very old and has been sitting in our back closet for a few years.  I needed this!

I have been frequenting this blog lately.  I love all the different categories.  I'm planning on making everybody homemade Chapstick for their stockings this Christmas.  The recipe is listed under 'green & natural.'

Someone linked to this blog and I have been enjoying it immensely.  I don't live on a farm, but I love read about living on a farm, and I love seeing ways I can incorporate little bits and pieces of farm life into my uber-suburban one.

This blog is a great resource for Nourishing Traditions recipes, advice and inspiration.

And I often turn to this old standby for help with cooking.

About a week ago I decided that for the new liturgical year coming up next Sunday, Nov. 27th, I'd treat it like a regular new year and come up with a resolution.  My resolution morphed into more of a motto, "live intentionally."  Then I stumbled across this wonderful blog and saw that it has the same motto.  Thank you, Holy Spirit!

For going plastic free, this list is great.  I know I've cited this blog a couple of times lately, but I keep going back to it to glean more info and advice.

That's it for now!

Imagining Better Homemaking

I'm trying to ease into no plastic/more Nourishing Traditions habits of homemaking.  It is a sea change for me pretty much.  I live in a convenience oriented, carry out world when it comes to cooking.  It amazes me how much plastic I take for granted every single day.  Try being conscious of the plastic in your life from the moment you wake up until the moment you go to sleep.  You can't even do it, it is so ubiquitous.

The only way I'm going to improve things is by perseverance and baby steps.  This is gonna take time!

I've come up with a 3 week menu plan to help me.  My biggest changes are to make bread instead of buying it.   I am asking for this bread machine for Christmas.  The other thing is instead of buying canned soup, I'm going to get in the habit of making some once a week.  I need to get non plastic containers to store my stock in, though.  That's the first thing.  I figure I'm in the experimental phase right now.  Trying to figure out how to accomplish this.  I'm trying different bread recipes and exploring different recipes for soups.  When the new year comes in I'll implement fully, God willing.

3 Week Dinner Plan:
Sunday:  Rick gets to pick dinner - he's pretty predictable though - he likes hamburgers, hot dogs, steak, roasts and seafood.
Monday (Chicken)  Week 1:  Roast Chicken, Week 2:  Chicken Parmesan, Week 3:  Breaded Chicken breasts (from NT cookbook)
Tuesday (ground beef)  Week 1:  spaghetti; Week 2: meatloaf; Week 3:  chili
Wednesday (soup) Week 1: potato cheese soup;  Week 2:  some variation of chicken soup; Week 3:  Chowder of some sort
Thursday - pizza night - sometimes carryout; sometimes homemade
Friday (meatless) Week 1:  fish;  Week 2:  Mac and Cheese;  Week 3:  omelets
Saturdays - this is kind of a free for all:  leftovers or carry out or some recipe I feel like trying out.

I know I have to plan at least two easy dinner nights - Thursday pizza night and Saturday's free for all, just because I know I'll burn out if I try to cook every single night.  I just don't have that much Suzie Homemaker in me!

The big changes will be:
making bread
making my own stock and making soup weekly

For breakfasts:
Sunday -bacon or sausage, eggs, pancakes, waffles or french toast
Monday - oatmeal (gotta soak it per NT - another habit to get into!)
Tuesday - smoothies (made with homemade yogurt per NT - this intimidates me!)
Wednesday - eggs and toast
Thursday - oatmeal again
Friday - smoothies again
Saturday - bagels

Lunches:
Sunday - we usually have a big breakfast and an earlier dinner so lunch is kind of dig around the fridge and eat leftovers or make yourself a sandwich.  We usually still have some bagels left so some one usually has that for lunch.
Monday - Dunkin' Donuts - they only use paper for the most part in their carry out.
Tuesday - left overs/sandwiches
Wednesday - leftovers/sandwiches
Thursday - quesadillas (I want Rick to make me a tortilla press and learn how to make them from scratch.  I understand this isn't that hard if you have a press.)
Friday - leftovers/sandwiches
Saturday - leftovers/sandwiches

The lunch menu seems pretty uninspired, doesn't it?

Because of these changes I have this long Christmas list of things I want!

1.  New really nice bread maker
2.  French Press coffee maker (I hate my plastic one)
3.  An enamel dutch oven
4.  A hand blender (our old one broke about a year ago)
5.  A Tortilla press (I hope Rick makes me one!)

Sean and I are going to get into cheese making.   Sean's into this whole anti-plastic Nourishing Traditions things right along with me.  He's been going grocery shopping with me a lot.  And he loves cheese.  He's very dismayed at the fact that all cheese is covered in shrink wrap, so we've decided to learn how to make our own via the New England Cheese Making Co.  We plan to get the starter kit.  Again, this will happen after the Holidays.  Too overwhelming to start it now.

Non-plastic stuff you can get at Trader Joe's

When I first went in, it seemed to be a sea of shrink wrap and plastic containers.  Everything frozen is in plastic, of course.  But I did find some stuff I was pleased with.  I didn't include canned items because you just don't know if they've been treated with BPA.  Also, I didn't include anything in cartons that looked like they've been sprayed with plastic.

Bunches of bananas
paper bags of apples and pears
large red peppers that weren't wrapped up like most of the other stuff in the salad section
Glass jars of:
cherries
peaches
pears
applesauce
artichokes
hearts of palms
marinated mushrooms with garlic
sliced sun dried tomatoes
Greek white beans
bbq sauce
teriyaki sauce
tartar sauce
cocktail sauce
dijon style mustard
pasta sauces
peanut butter
almond butter
all sorts of jellies and jams
maple syrup
salad dressings
olive oil
flour
spices
cake, quick bread and muffin mixes
tissues
automatic dishwasher detergent (I love their brand!)
automatic washer detergent
bars of Dr. Bronner's Castille Soap
coconut oil
vinegars
cream cheese
Kerrygold butter (they have the best price for this in my area)
eggs
apple juice
Orangina in those cute little bottles

Getting Rid of Plastic

So last week I read this book, Boys Adrift.  One of the issues the author discusses is the endocrine disrupters that are prevalent in plastic.  These plastics leach low level doses of estrogen-like chemicals into our foods.  In Dr. Sax's book he looks at how these low level does effect the development of boys.  He ties it to a lack of drive and the skyrocketing numbers of boys being diagnosed as ADD.  He briefly discusses how it might actually effect a boy's sexual development.  People have linked this to all aspects of male sexuality from current low sperm count in the developed world's male population to an environmental cause for homosexuality.  I need to research all this further.  But the idea that plastics, something so ubiquitous in our lives nowadays could being doing something so harmful to males and to our whole society as a result, scared me deeply.  Add into this the prevalence of birth control pills, the hormones of which get into our water, along with the rise of soy everywhere (soy had estrogen in it as well) no wonder men are at sea when it comes to figuring out who they are and what their roles should be.  I wonder if this isn't behind the shift in how we perceive gender even?

And this issue with plastic is completely separate from the horrible pollution/waste aspect of it!  I used to half-heartedly recycle my plastic, but often would get lazy about it.  Now I feel super guilty about it.  I think I read only 7% of plastic actually gets recycled into another use!  That's a lot of non-biodegradable garbage we are leaving for our children!

Anyway, this made me look around and see just how much plastic there is EVERYWHERE.  And much of it is food related.  In my fridge every single slice or block of cheese is wrapped in plastic wrap.  My turkey, ham and bologna is too  In my freezer, my quarter of grass-fed, hormone free beef is all shrink wrapped in plastic.  My milk is in a plastic jug.  Even my orange juice, which I thought was safe because it is in a cardboard carton, isn't really.  That cardboard is not coated in wax anymore.  Nope, now it is sprayed with plastic!

We have plastic cups and plates, and cereal is packaged in plastic inside its cardboard box.  And those organic bags of salad mix I get, thinking they are so healthy?  Bagged in plastic!  It is truly everywhere!

So googling around I found this wonderful blog: http://myplasticfreelife.com/  This young woman is a pioneer in plastic free living.  Of course she doesn't have children and she lives in Oakland where everyone is probably pretty green anyway, so this kind of change for her is probably not nearly as difficult as for others, but still she has many practical suggestions and for the last couple of days, I've been visiting her blog and gleaning lots of advice.  I think she's even started her own plastic free store.   I love entrepreneurs!

So I made up a list of things I could do in my home to at least get us on the road to having fewer plastics in our lives.  I'm starting with plastic that comes in contact with food:

1.  No more plastic grocery bags.  Terry (from the site above) says to keep canvas bags in your car so you have them with you whenever you stop into a store.  She keeps a little foldable one in her purse even.  I'll have to look around for one like that.  Often times I'm too forgetful and I leave my bags at home and wind up getting new bags at the store.  Also she says don't put your produce in plastic bags.  Just put them directly into the reusable nonplastic bags you've brought.

2.  I am from now on buying milk, cider and water in glass only.  This is more expensive because the only place I know to get these are at Whole Foods which is so pricey it makes me want to scream!  However, I'm also going to check out Trader Joe's and see what they carry.  As for OJ.  I've decided it is better to buy a bunch of oranges and squeeze it myself.  My little juicer (not the fancy electric kind but the kind with a glass jar and the special doohickey lid that you rub half an orange over to juice) is half plastic (the top part) so I'd like to get one that had no plastic on it at all.  Where can they be had?

3.  I will only buy eggs in cardboard cartons.  Lately they seem to be selling them more and more in plastic cartons.

4.  For leftovers, use a Corelle bowl (I hope that is safe!) and aluminum foil.  I'll just try not to let the foil touch the food.

5.  I want to start buying things in bulk.  I went to whole foods yesterday with this in mind, thinking I'd get some healthy snacks.  However, every single bin the bulk food was stored in was made of plastic!  So I passed on that for now.

6.  I decided to get out my bread machine and see if I can make sandwich bread instead of buying the stuff wrapped in plastic.  I tried to make my first loaf in many years and it bombed.  It just didn't rise properly.  I'll try again this afternoon.

7.  I'm going to buy foil wrapped butter and foil wrapped cream cheese.  Maybe I'll get ambitious and start making my own butter and cream cheese!  I'm laughing at myself because I am not very good in the kitchen so I have doubts about ever really making cheese.

8.  Cheese is really hard to find not tightly ensconced in shrink wrap.  I could try to make some of this as well (dreaming very unrealistically big here!) or I could try to buy cheese that is in wax still.  Terry suggests buying a big wheel and splitting it with friends.  That might work.  I did find a really yummy bleu-brie cheese yesterday that was in a cute little wooden container.  Inside it seemed to be foil wrapped. So I got that.

9.  I'll try to buy things in cans that are labeled BPA free.

10.  Stonyfield yogurts come in plastic that is made from corn.  Dr. Sax talked about this as a good alternative.  Apparently the stuff made from corn doesn't have the estrogen in it like the petroleum byproducts do.  I'll have to look into that.  Plus it is a renewable resource and recyclable, so it is a good alternative, it seems.  I do want to try to make my own yogurt eventually.

11.  No more bagged salad for me!  I'll just have to make my own.

12.  I want to buy some stainless steel containers to use for storing cheeses and lunch meats.  I can always reduce the amount of plastics leached by at least taking them out of the plastic containers right away and maybe disposing of the pieces that came into contact with the plastic.

In the meantime I'm going to be cleaning out my kitchen and trying to figure out how to accomplish this mammoth change!