Product and/or recipe to find

Today I was CRAVING potato and corn chowder.  Caps important there.  Craving so much I had to make it right away.  Pulled out my trusty recipe that I've had for about 15 years, if not more.  Have not made in a long time.  Could be why I was craving it?  Not sure.  Went to my grocery to pick up the ingredients that I didn't have and was very disappointed I couldn't find organic creamed corn.  Reading the ingredients on the store brand...I put it back on the shelf. And walked away.  No chowder for me, I guess.  Go almost to the register...and went back to the aisle and picked up the store brand, rationalizing that they claim all of their store-brand items are non-gmo.  Wasn't born yesterday, so of course I don't believe it.

On a normal day, I'd hit one of the other two groceries in town, in hopes of finding an organic creamed corn.  Or I'd trek 20 minutes to a store that would most likely have it.  But today it's very very cold (under 20 degrees F) and it's snowing, with an icy mix.  Wasn't traveling too far to satisfy my craving.

While my chowder is a-cookin, I thought I'd ask you all about it.  Anyone found an acceptable, clean, creamed corn?  Going to do some recipe searching tonight.  Put it on my list to search for when I shop.

But tonight, I had to do it.  So this week I might be 85% clean instead of 90%.  But still pretty darn good.  Rest of the ingredients in the soup are organic.   Yes, I use dairy milk which to a lot of people is not "clean."  But it's organic...which is clean to me.  The recipe came from a published cook book, and I do not have permission to copy it here.  But pretty easy to make if you know how to cook.  Onions, garlic, sauteed in butter.  Add potatoes, spices (marjoram, pepper, dash nutmeg, bay leaf,) broth, and a diced pepper if you wish,  Boil, simmer about 20 minutes.  Add can of creamed corn, regular corn, and evaporated milk.  Boil, simmer for a few more minutes.  Remove bay leaves, sprinkle with paprika.  Delish!

Next time I'll try to convince my cravings to let me plan in advance. :D



Happy eating!
Kathy

Simply...Cobbler!

OMG I am so bad.  I got up before everyone this morning, made my coffee and tuned into Food Network.

Little secret about me: one of my weekend rituals is to watch cooking shows every Saturday and/or Sunday morning for my dinnertime inspirations for the upcoming week.  First, I tune to my local news station to catch the seven day forecast.  That's important this time of year, as summer afternoons can be filled with quick rain showers and thunderstorms.  My husband doesn't mind standing next to the grill in the rain, but I do. So once I get an idea of the weather for the week, I'm ready to sit like a lump on the couch and plan my meals.

So why am I so bad?  Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond wasn't on for 5 minutes and I was up making one of her recipes.  It happened so fast I didn't take pictures!  My husband came down as I was putting the cobbler in the oven, I told him how simple this recipe was, and it hit me.  This was the perfect recipe for the blog!!

I've got a finished shot for you, but since Ree does such a good job with her photographs and documenting her recipes, I figured I didn't really need to recreate that here.  A link to her loveliness will do just fine, with a finished shot of my cobbler.

Cobblers can be scary, especially if you use a more difficult base.  Ree points out in the episode that she makes the cobbler that it can be a lot of work should you choose to lay a pie crust over fruit, or if you use biscuit dough (we don't buy the less work, boxed mix of course!) so her recipe is super simple.  The hardest part?  Waiting an hour for it to bake,

So here it is:

1 cup flour
1 cup sugar (I use turbinado for the extra flavor)
1 cup milk (she used whole, I used 3/4 skim 1/4 half and half)
1/2 stick melted butter

Mix, pour in greased baking dish.  Scatter over top your fruit (she used blackberries but I had blueberries in the house so I went with that, as it was an emergency and I had to get this in the oven immediately.)

She sprinkles 1/4 additional sugar on top (I found that to be too much, so I used less) and into a 350 degree oven it goes for about an hour.  Done!

Not only is is a simple dessert recipe for a busy evening (pop it in the oven while you are eating) but it's a quick dish to make when you have unexpected company coming; 5 minutes of prep and it bakes while you are getting ready.

Love it!  My township is having Fourth of July fireworks tonight, so a blueberry dessert is just the thing to get the holiday week going.  If I had strawberries to add too....yummm.  May need to hit the farm market later today and make another one.  I am so bad.

Here is the link to view the recipe from it's original source, the lovely Ree Drummond:
Ree Drummond's Blackberry Cobbler Recipe

My lovely cobbler, fresh from the oven:

Happy eating!
Kathy

Pots and Pans

Morning!

I'm siting here watching Ree, the Pioneer Woman, cook up some very yummy chicken based dishes today.  I love watching cooking shows, if not for the recipes, but for the tools they use in the kitchen.  I get lots of great ideas for things to add to my already packed drawers and cabinets.

Speaking of a packed kitchen, is anyone decluttering?  My kitchen is already organized, so I am currently cleaning each item as it come up on the challenge; taking out all the pots and & pans and scrubbing down the inside & outside of the cabinet before putting everything back where it came from.  I'm not a big "stuff" person, so my kitchen is pretty streamlined.  We'll see what happens when next month we leave the kitchen and head into other rooms.

But I digress.  As usual.  But not really...since I was talking about the cabinet with my pots and pans, and that's the title of this post, right?  Right.

I love the tools they use on cooking shows; and I find myself wanting each and every one of them.  I've been married almost 25 years, and some of my pots and pans have been around that long, but they were high quality when we purchased/were gifted them so they have lasted.  And lasted.  And lasted!  I really want some new ones, but can't justify the expense when I an work with what I have. Sigh.

So here is my wish list:

a pasta pot - the kind that you pull up the strainer and the water stays in the pan

a dutch oven - the kind that you start the meal on the stovetop, then put the whole pot in the oven

That's it.  For now.  I'm not asking for a lot, right??  Just a couple items... :)

Happy cooking!
Kathy

Happy 2015!

Well 2015 is here and time for everyone to make resolutions they won't keep.

For 2014, my resolution was to spend more time with friends, so something fun each month, and to continue my food journey by seeking out healthier places to eat out.  I was pretty successful in the first two; the second was much harder.  Luckily I live in an area that is growing in natural foods,

So for 2015 I am going to continue with 2014 resolutions, but have added one more; decluttering the crap that has accumulated over the years.  I found this great site that helps you organize this process by giving you one small task each day.

Wanna try?

2015 Organized Home

It's simple; sign up via e-mail or visit their website daily; you can download a calendar that you can print out each month for your daily task.  How much easier can they make it??

Good luck; let me know how you are doing!!
Kathy

New Recipe Search

As I plan forward the "veggie" portion of my meals, I find myself to be very uninspired.  I am tired of eating the same old steamed veggies over and over.  Since I cannot eat high fat foods, adding butter or nuts to my portion is taboo.  My kids love garlicky butter on their veggies, especially on broccoli, but I usually end up pulling out a portion for me first, then if I want more I am out of luck. 

So yesterday I went to the library to look through some cooking magazines.  I am very excited, I brought home 11 different issues.  Three of them are vegetarian, and the other eight are from "natural" magazines, so I am hoping to find some inspiration.  So today, while the hubby is glued to the NFL playoff games, I will be reading. Can't wait!!

Happy searching, Kathy

Meals Week of December 30th

Dinners for the week:

(before you judge, this was the week when I created our new advance planning "plan" plus we were coming down from the holiday high and massive leftovers. I did not go near a store.)

Sunday: grilled ham steak with side of brown rice

Monday: breaded chicken cutlets with canned corn & canned string beans
          (I use bread crumbs from my local bakery)

Tuesday: corned beef (made in crock pot, OMG the best way) with potatoes & carrots

Wednesday: pasta alfredo (clean recipe here: Elise's alfredo sauce) and salad

Thursday: empty the fridge & freezer soup
         (home made chicken broth, ground turkey, spinach, pasta, string beans)

Friday: pizza (my kids are going thru withdrawals)

Saturday: shredded honey chicken sandwiches with lettuce & tomato (recipe: Slow Cooker Shredded Honey Chicken) 1st time trying this recipe, will let you know how it came out

Happy eating!! Kathy

Planning meals in advance

How many people out there actually plan their meals in advance?  I find that it is so much easier to eat healthy when my meals are planned ahead of time, instead of throwing things together at the last minute.  Notice I said healthy, not clean.  Since I don't keep any prepared foods in the house (with my few exceptions, of course) I can't make a box of Stove Top Stuffing if it's not there. But I do find myself offering up veggie-free meals more often that I would like, since I never got to the farmers market.  I shamefully admit to serving protein only plates every now and then.

I got to thinking about how I could do better, and was reminded of when I first went back to work full-time.  My kids were young, they were in before and after school care, and my hubby was working far away. By the time we got home, I cooked, we dealt with any home work not done, we were all exhausted.  I ended up home sick a couple days and got this wonderful idea to plan out my meals a month ahead of time.  I printed out a free calendar I found online, inventoried my pantry & freezer, chose the sides that went with each meat, and even stuck little round stickers on each item as it got chosen for a meal with the date on it!  Yeah, I went a bit overboard but it guaranteed that something I was planning on using did not get used by the hubby for a snack or something. 

I listed out our favorite meals, scoured my cookbooks for others, and ended up with 30 days of pre-planned meals that I repeated every month.  Some favorites were served twice in a month, but otherwise there were no complaints of eating the same thing again, as there was a month between servings.  I was able to put together a shopping list for each week of the month, which made my life so easy!! It sounds like a LOT of work, and yes it was, but I had an entire day to myself and once I put my mind to it, it was worth all the trouble setting it up.

The biggest plus to this: I hung the meal calendar on the wall in the kitchen and never had to answer the "what's for dinner?" question!!!  I was able to keep this up for a whole year, then my hours changed, I stopped bringing as much work home with me, and I had more time to plan on the weekends as my son stopped playing football, so I stopped planning that far and just took it one week at a time.  We also found that with my extra income we were going out a bit more...maybe the fact my kids were older and better behaved in restaurants a factor too.

So now I need to use that concept and translate it into our current lifestyle.  I found a set of the calendars and could not believe how much processed stuff was on them, YUCK!!  We also have our new set of health issues to deal with too.  This is what I came up with:

5 week rotation (will skip week 5 if not needed but necessary for January)
each meal contains a protein, carb & veggie

Sun: pasta meal with salad & either meatballs or sausage for the pre-diabetic hubby
Mon: poultry meal with side of carb & veggie
Tues: beef meal with side of carb & veggie
Wed: pork meal with side of carb & veggie
Thurs: combo meal (ex: soups, stews, casseroles, ravioli, tacos - meals that put all 3 groups together)
Fri: pizza (had to give into the kids plus I need a day off)
Sat: protein repeat with side of carb & veggie (repeat pattern: chicken, beef, pork, chicken, beef)
   or leftover night. 

I am planning out my meals mid-way thru the week before.  I buy a lot of my meats from Costco, so I will take my calendar with me when I make my monthly trip there as well.  I find that if I just buy meats, then deal with what to do with them later, I am uninspired later on.  Soooooo...if this works out as planned, I can plan at least the protein portion of the month very easily!!!

To start myself out, I am using up what is in the freezer.  I made an inventory, and plotted in what I have.  Which was not a lot, just enough for another 9 meals, so next week I will head to Costco, take my time & my lists, and be creative!  I am reading about more and more "clean" products being found in their aisles.  I am hoping to offer as much variety as I can with what I do with each protein.  I am using chicken the most, since it is lowest in fat, easiest to buy natural, pretty decently priced, AND is the most versatile!!  I'll keep you updated as we go along.

I am guessing, my family will not even notice every Monday they are having chicken. :)

Happy planning!! Kathy