I just finished watching Food, Inc.  Great Movie! The take home message is to buy local, and in season food! If you haven’t seen the movie yet, did you know you can download and “rent” the movie to watch from Amazon for $2.99!  I just realized this!  Right under “Buy”, you click WATCH IT NOW, $2.99 to rent.  

Although I’ve mentioned them before, after watching the movie, I was so glad we buy our meat local (beef and pork at least).  If you live in Utah and are looking for a local meat supplier, you must check out The Christiansens farm for well fed, well treated, organic, and super awesome meat!  Hollie Christiansen is my neighbors- sister.. which is how I found out about their farm. 

Last night, I pulled out our bag of frozen Edamame to snack on while I prepared dinner.  The kids devoured it! I forgot how much they liked this great snack the first time I bought it.  It’s definitely coming out more often this week.

As always, head over to the side bar, or Menu Archives to print the menu!

Don’t forget…. Monday is the last day to enter for Crest Pro-Health supplies,

and FRIDAY is the last day for the V8-V Fusion Visa $100 Gift card!

There are so many different ways to make a smoothie, your kids should never be bored.  While not packed full of fruits and veggies, this smoothie sure made a great treat. We called it the Orange creamsicle smoothie.  I’ve seen different versions on many different websites, but I kept ours simple:

• 1 Cup vanilla yogurt
• 1 cup Orange juice
• 24 ice cubes

Put all ingredients in a blender.

  And drink

(Those are sunglasses that the lenses broke out of. She loves to wear them and “trick” people into thinking she wears glasses.  She wants braces too. Remember those days?)

Eating actual meals (rather than from the bag, or standing at the refrigerator) not only is better for you, but also keeps your house cleaner.

My kids will stand at the pantry, take a handful of Cheerios, and walk away, leaving a trail of Cheerios on the floor, and at the pantry door.  In literally makes me insane.  As soon as I step on Cereal on the kitchen floor, I know they’ve been eating from the bag.

In a span of 30 years, you will most likely eat 30,000 meals!  According to The Pleasure Trap, “anything you are likely to do 30,000 times cries out for efficiency and organization”

The following is our menu plan for next week.  Head over to my sidebar to find the printable version along with the shopping list.  Happy Cooking.

Next week I will post some pictures and recipes to a few items on this menu.

Do you love to plan your menu’s?  Traditionally on a quiet Sunday afternoon, I like to take cookbooks in my room and write our meals for the week.   So, for now on I’m going to start posting my menu plans for you all!

On Friday’s I’ll post a menu plan and shopping list, with a printable version on my sidebar, labeled with the date.  In the shopping list, if I know the best price for something, I will certainly list that too.

To kick off menu planning, I want to share a cookbook with you that I love!!

The Vegetarian Family Cookbook is having their 5th Anniversary Blog Tour!  I love this book!  I highly recommend this book!  Not only does it have great recipes, but tons of great ideas.

Right away I wanted to try the Homemade Nut Butter! I love peanut butter and almond butter, but the healthy versions can be super expensive!

This homemade version was sweet, salty, and so delicious, I had to stop myself from eating the entire bowl with a spoon.

And with permission, I get to share this  recipe. (with my photo’s embedded to show you how easy it was)

Honey/Vegan option

Homemade Nut Butter

Makes about 1 cup

Making fresh nut butter isn’t hard to do, and is a great kitchen project to do with young children, who actually enjoy the process of shelling peanuts. Ideally, use organic nuts. Conventional brands of peanut butter (far and away the most commonly consumed nut butter) almost always contain partially hydrogenated fats and high fructose corn syrup, two unhealthy ingredients. Some brands also contain cottonseed oil, which comes from one of the most heavily sprayed crops on earth. Natural-style nut butters contain the nuts only, and are obviously a better choice, but their flavor and texture are often too intense for younger children.

This homemade version is a perfect compromise, both for flavor and health. For another great peanut butter alternative, see Silken Peanut Spread, page 000).

1 cup shelled roasted peanuts, almonds, or cashews

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon honey, maple syrup, or brown rice syrup

1. Place the nuts in a food processor. Process until the nuts begin to hold together.

2. Add the oil, salt, and honey, and continue to process. Scrape the sides of the container from time to time, and continue to process until the nut butter is at the desired consistency.

3. Transfer the nut butter to a lidded container and keep refrigerated. For easier spreading, microwave for a few seconds before using.

Per tablespoon:

Calories: 64 Total fat: 5  g Protein: 2 g Fiber: .8 g

Carbohydrates: 3  g Cholesterol: 0 g Sodium: 35 mg

TIPS:

• For peanut butter, dry-roasted peanuts from a jar work just fine, but using freshly shelled roasted peanuts results in a more vivid flavor.

• If children other than your own will be partaking of this snack, make sure that none are allergic to peanuts—it’s a more common allergy than you’d think, and can be quite serious.

• This won’t work in a blender—a food processor is a must.

Isn’t that a great recipe!  All her recipes are easy and family friendly.  So, now the giveaway!

One reader will get their own copy of The Vegetarian Family Cookbook!  Leave a comment and I’ll choose a winner this weekend!

The best thing about the raw food movement, is the simpleness of food prep! If you can use a knife or a blender, you can do raw food.

I went to a raw foods class at my local health food store last week, and they made for us some Jicama fries.  I thought they were pretty tasty.  I was excited for my kids to try them, but I guess they weren’t as excited as I was.  They were actually pretty stubborn.

“I want my fries cooked!”

“They aren’t french fries! They are different.  Its from a Jicama, not a potato”.

“I only like fries from potatoes”. 

You know the drill.  So maybe call them something other than fries, so they are judged on their own goodness, and not by comparison to the familiar.

But once again, I like to share anyway, for all you RAW-some parents out there who have kids a little more compliant than mine.

The raw food teachers used a fry slicer to cut their jicama up, but mine just must not be sharp enough. It was so much easier to just use a knife.

After Jicama was sliced we added to a bowl and mixed with

• olive oil
• salt
• garlic powder

 and wa-la!  No cooking, just coated with seasonings and done.  We ate our fries with some black bean burgers.  The friends I went to the class with thought they were great.  You can decide!  Let me know if you OR your kids like them.

Don’t forget to enter to win the Amazing Grass Kidz Line of smoothie mix-ins.

I am ready to plug back in!  Not only to the computer, but to more mindful eating!  It has been a crazy 2 weeks.  Full of distractions, parties, feasting, playing, socializing, working, and eating.  As fun as it all is, isn’t it nice to be back into a routine again.

Today’s idea is apple chips!  For some kids (and parents) with fruit texture issues… this one is for you.  My flip-flopper does not like cooked fruit, but crunchy or crispy she can handle.  So we sliced up some apples to make into apple chips.

• First boil apple juice with either a cinnamon stick or cinnamon. 
• Then we sliced apples as thinly as possible. (crosswise so the core was in the center.  No need to seed it, they just fall right out)
• Then we boiled the apples in the apple juice till they were somewhat transparent. 
• Then we took the apple slices out of the boiling juice, and patted them dry.
• I laid them on a cookie rack (the kind you cool cookies on) and placed the entire rack in the oven at 250 degrees.
• We baked until they were dry and slightly browned.
• Final product:  Delicious apple chips!! So much tastier than potato chips.

  Come back tomorrow for a giveaway!!

Friday: Exercise Ideas

Can you think of any better exercise than farming?  Our poor kids don’t get the opportunity to take part in such rigorous hard work.  Sometimes I wish we lived on a farm, just to teach my kids some good life working skills.   

And then came the opportunity!   Just west of us, our church owns 3000 acres, where they grow wheat, corn, and hay (I think).  On Saturday morning (it was a little rainy), but we got our medical gloves (we don’t have gardening gloves, but we have lots of medical gloves) and our rain jackets and headed over there.

For two hours we piled sage brush for burning, and moved rocks.  There was kids from 1 years old, to probably 80 years old there helping.  Even a wheel chair bound guy came.  There was something for everyone to do.  And it was HARD WORK.  I can run 12 miles and feel great, but bending over and throwing sticks made me exhausted.  The kids did great though. They never complained once. In fact they had so much fun doing it, they weren’t even asking to go home.

What can we do in regular old suburbia to teach us the skills of rural life?  I suggest:

• Let your kids help with yard work, no matter how old they are.
• Clean up your parks nad neighborhoods!!
• help an elderly neighbor maintain their yard.
• Walk more often than drive places.
• Watch Little House on The Prarie  

When kids work hard, they feel good about themselves!

Don’t forget to enter the giveaway.

Need to get organized?? Hop over to my sisters blog . She’s giving away a FRANKLIN COVEY organizing system.  Awesome!  A $90 value.

WEDNESDAY: Dinner

If I post alot about beans, it is because I literally try to think everyday how  I can add beans to our dinner.  I think beans are amazing and taste so delicious (sorry Cathy-who disagrees)! We used to NEVER eat beans.  Then about 2 years ago, knowing what a food powerhouse they were, I’ve been trying to include them more and more. 

So, with my recent love of beans (literally the last few years), I’ve been experimenting with beans.  But this was my first attempt at a Minestrone soup.  I’ll be honest, the kids did pick through their soup and ate the parts they liked.  I could have chopped the zucchini up a bit more.  But Wade (my husband) thought it was literally the best dinner I had ever made!  EVER!  Quite frankly, I was shocked.  Here is the recipe.

To accommodate the carnivore, I browned some ground beef separately from cooking the soup.  When dinner time came, I asked each child, meat or no meat in your soup?  One chose meat and I put it at the bottom of his bowl, and poured the soup on top.  The other two chose no meat, and so did I. 

Kids like having choices, even at dinner. It doesn’t mean you have to cook up a separate meal for them.  But giving them options usually makes meal time less contentious.

Thanks for entering the Stonyfield yogurt giveaway.  Random.org chose Katie who said: I’ve always wanted to try Greek Yogurt!!  Stay tuned for my next giveaway on THURSDAY!!

Monday: Breakfast

Generally when I make eggs, I never use all the yolks.  I make the egg  for egg sandwiches with 2 whole medium eggs and 5 more egg whites.  I also add a splash of water ( I think it makes them a little fluffier and easier to work with).

Sandwiches are perfect for kids.  No utensils required! I love cookie cutters designed for sandwiches (especially for ketchup boy who likes crust cut off). 

So this time I cooked the egg in the entire cast iron pan, as if I were making an omelette.  then I slid the sheet of cooked egg out onto a cutting board and cut the eggs out. 

Eggs are a great food for your kids. If you’ve had rain all week like us, you’ll appreciate eggs have naturally occurring Vitamin D!  Eggs are an inexpensive source of protein, and they are delicious.  For more benefits of eggs, see my post here.

We can’t forget fruit for breakfast. One problem I have with smoothies, is if all the kids aren’t awake, I’m not about to run a blender!!  Waking up the flip-flopper before her time has critical consequences that last the ENTIRE day!  PLUS, the motor in my blender is melting slowly and is not going to last much longer. 

So instead, I popped open some canned pears (in their own juice) and included them next to our egg sandwiches.  3 food groups represented for breakfast = success!

Other egg ideas:

• Microwave them
• One-eyed monsters
• Hard-boiled

So don’t forget, have a balanced breakfast today and your kids will love you for it.

Wednesday: Dinner

As a mom with young kids, dinner is the meal you can’t get out of.  Breakfast can slide (toast/ cereal), lunch can be thrown together in a hurry with whatever you have on hand.  But most kids (and husbands) expect something a little more substantial for dinner.  I keep thinking, once they all move out of the house, I will be able to eat salad every night and no one can complain… Ahhh the life!

Here is how dinner shakes down at my house.  I make a delicous, one pot dish.  Some will eat it altogether, but there is always one (usually ketchup boy) who must have everything seperated after its completed. 

For this dinner I had bow tie pasta

This one pot dish had

• walnuts
• bow tie pasta
• chicken
• feta cheese
• celery
• and red onion.

The dressing was

• Orange juice
• Lemon juice
• olive oil
• dried mustard
• sugar
• salt
• and rice vinegar

Of course, all of it had to be seperated when it hit ketchup boy’s plate.  Thank goodness for divided plates!  This meal would have been so much better without the red onion. Its much too strong for my kids.  The flavor kind of took over the entire dish.

This dinner was Crusted Chicken, mashed potatoes, and another sweet salad.  The crusted chicken was

• chicken thighs
• dipped in a mix of egg whites with dijon mustard
• Then dipped in a bread crumb/ parmesan cheese mix. (for a tutorial on making your own bread crumbs, go here.

For the salad dressing I used:

• 1/2 cup pureed strawberries
• 1/2 cup raspberry vinegar
• 1 TBL honey
• 1 TBL olive oil

I’m working today because my husband is home.  Its the one day a week I get a break from making dinner.  He always has something delicious waiting for me when I get home.