Challenge Continues....

Last night was a bit of a success.....I made some Mexican "Pizzas" which consisted of a corn tortilla topped with a homemade black bean dip, shredded cabbage, chopped tomatoes and some cheese. The kids had burritos with the same shells, beans and cheese. (Oh, and they ate leftover Chuck E Cheese pizza.....hee hee)

Preserving up a STORM!

I wanted to inventory the canned goods that I have made thus far so I can see how many I use up before next year (basically so I can keep track of what I needed more of/less of/etc.) Here's what I have got so far (in cans, this doesn't account for the frozen goodies.....I'll get to posting about those later!)

7 Jars Blackberry Sauce
6 Raspberry Jam
3 Whole Blueberries
1 Gooseberry Jam
1 Currant Jam
7 Strawberry Syrup
6 Strawberry Jam
8 Apricot Halves in Light Vanilla Bean Syrup
2 Apple Slices in Light Vanilla Bean Syrup

Challenge Day 3

Well, I am going out to dinner AGAIN tonight without the kids (this is a rarity, believe me!) But for lunch we were at the local art fair and B1 and I split a bean burrito from the Oregon Peaceworks booth that was quite tasty. B2 decided she didn't like the whole wheat tortilla and "spicey" beans so she ate off of the pistachio nuts, blueberries and Pirate's Booty that I packed for snacks.

Dinner will, once again, be from the leftovers in the fridge, so no rating again tonight.

Boy, I am getting off to a great start, huh?

Challenge Day 2

So......I went out tonight : ) to Mexican food with friends, leaving husband with children and thus absolving self of all responsibility feeding them! I did make them nice plates of grilled chicken breasts, whole wheat spaghetti with butter and steamed cauliflower. I don't know that they ate much of it though -- especially since I discovered a newly made (but not eaten) bowl of mac-n-cheese in the fridge when I got home.

As I wasn't home, there is no rating for today!

Roasting Coffee....the EASY way!

After month's of roasting my own coffee in the oven and creating a plume of smoke (that, for some reason didn't set off the smoke detectors.....which means we need to check their batteries) and a strong aroma in the house that lasted for hours, we decided to upgrade to a coffee roaster. After MUCH online comparisons and reviews I settled on the i-Roast2 as it seemed to meet all our needs and was in our garage sale money budget. I just finished my first batch and it is so glisteny and smells great. I have to wait until tomorrow to try it out!

Day #1 of My Challenge

Day # 1

Dinner Meal: Scrambled Eggs with cheese (Mommy/Daddy version also had bell peppers, greens and onions), Milton’s Whole grain English muffins or toast, Morningstar sausage patties, yellow cauliflower that B1 picked out at the Farmer’s Market this morning.

Mommy rating: Breakfasts are usually a hit with the kids, so I thought I started out easy. However, I had a moment of inspiration when I was cooking the kids’ eggs and I added some sautéed beet and radish greens to theirs. This was a mistake as B2 picked them all out and I had to feed B1’s to her so she didn’t see the “green stuff”……arrgghhh! So much for trying to be healthy!

Kid review (from eldest child (B1)): “I loved it. I didn’t like the green stuff. I would like to have it again without the green stuff. And my sister didn’t like the green stuff either. She said “Blech stuff” and spit it out!”

Locavore rating: 2/5 ingredients were local: eggs, cheese and veggies in scramble. English Muffins and Sausage patties were not local.

New focus on life (perhaps)

Okay, meal planning is a bit of a passion (read obsession) of mine. BUT after a horrible day yesterday and the kiddos not eating ANYTHING that I made I was more than a bit frustrated. I have been trying really hard to eat locally, enjoy whole foods instead of food products and processed items and preserve food for the fall/winter when we don't have access to luxuries such as fresh berries. However, making 3-4 meals at each meal time to appease everyone is NOT working for me. So......here is new focus on my meal planning/life in general. One word:
S-I-M-P-L-I-F-Y. It is my newfound goal in life to make a dinner meal that everyone will eat (at least part of). I realize that I might have to sacrifice some of my previous food goals to achieve this nirvana, but I am hoping to make a slow transition to the healthy locavore-themed lifestyle I would like to live while also cooking meals that we will all eat.

So, without further ado.....here is the menu for the next few days:

Today (Wed): Scrambled eggs with Tillamook cheese (adult variety with spinach, green peppers,
onions - all from our CSA produce share)
Morningstar sausage patties (from freezer Costco stash)
Milton's English Muffins (also from freezer Costco stash, although I think these are
the last ones!)
Thursday: I am going out to eat for the night with some girlfriends so the husband and kids will be on their own with whatever is in the fridge/freezer