This is What I Was Made For

I think it's pretty obvious that I have a random obsession with making food cute, especially for Devon's lunches. Today Devon's class is having a holiday party and of course I volunteered to bring something. Now I remember Christmas parties from my days in elementary school. They consisted of a half hour of sugar, sugar and more sugar! So I decided to bring something not so sugary, but still kid friendly and FESTIVE!

So I bought a few bricks of cheese and cut them into Christmas trees, stars and gingerbread men with my mini cookie cutters (which I LOVE!) and I bought some snowflake Ritz crackers. I put them on a platter and presto! a healthy snack.

I was planning on making pumpkin muffins too, but I changed m mind and decided to make apple muffins instead. Don't ask why, I'm just weird like that. But while I was picking up some items I left off my grocery list yesterday I just happened to need to go to the crafty baking isle and they had these way cute mini muffin molds that I couldn't resist. So not only were my muffins deliciously healthy, but they too were cute shapes too!

I'm a big dork, and I'm ok with that. :)

Granola! I Love You!

Today was a good day for baking. It was cool enough outside to leave the backdoor open with the screen shut so the oven wouldn't heat up the down stairs.

But before my baking fun began, I went to Sun Harvest, which is like a mini Central Market, to grab some Fenugreek and check out the bulk bins. Boy did I hit the jackpot! Well, that's exaggerating a bit, I just happened to find a few items that central market didn't carry in bulk. I snagged a mother-load of organic rolled oats, some barley (for baby food), sliced almonds (mmmmmm) and lots of wheat germ. The wheat germ was definitely the best buy. I got about one and a half times as much as you get at the grocery store for about $4 for only $0.55!! Woot!! Sorry I get excited about bargains. It runs in the family......

So back to the granola. I got the idea a couple of days ago to make my own granola bars when I realized I would have to go back to the grocery store to get more for Chris because he is working seven days straight this week and I didn't buy enough during my last grocery visit. So I went to one of my favorite recipe websites (http://www.allrecipe.com/) and browsed about the different ways to make it.

It really isn't as complicated as it sounds. You just mix everything up and slap it in a baking pan. I don't know why I assume most things would be more difficult to make from scratch. Perhaps the food industry has something to do with it. Have you seen the commercial stating that peeling a potato is hard work??? It takes like five minutes to peel enough potatoes for mashed potatoes! Slimey corporations.... Sorry. Tangent.

So yeah. I did it. I made my own granola bars and they're pretty yummy. They turned out a little crispy for my taste, but that's my fault for not checking on them. Mine are flavored with honey, craisins and almond slices. Oh boy, tastey and healthy! Don't you just want to grab one?

Test Kitchen #2

Well, I did more cooking from scratch last night. I made chimichangas! Which I have done one other time, but they weren't too fantastic. But last nights batch was awesome. Chris was very impressed, which is hard to do. So Hooray for me!!!

These had beans, meat and cheese, and yes I do mean my homemade "refried" beans that are not fried. Devon even liked them, until she heard me call it a chimichanga instead of burrito. Why that made a difference I'll never know, but she sure did finish it.

Test Kitchen #1

Well, for the last couple of months I have been collecting tons of new recipes and many of them oddly enough call for the ingredients of fall. Such as squashes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, mmmm. I have had a butternut squash hanging out in my cupboard for a few weeks and I've been pretty anxious to use it in something.

Monday, for some insane reason, I decided to go ahead and cut it up to encourage me to use it soon. So for dinner Monday night I decided we were having pasta with butternut squash and brown butter sauce. So I take the cubed squash out of the refrigerator and pop it in the oven and start cooking the pasta and the sauce. Well, I wasn't very confident with how the sauce turned out so I didn't use it. I just put a couple of spoon fulls of butter on the pasta after I drained it and then added the squash and mixed a pinch of nutmeg.

The verdict. I think the squash should have been cubed a bit smaller (my bad) so it would have cooked a little more tender. BUT it did look so appealing that Devon popped a piece of squash in her mouth without me having to make a bargain for her to try it. She said she didn't like the way it felt in her mouth. Once again my bad. But she did eat all of her pasta which had little tiny bits of squash on it from mixing, so haha she ate it without knowing it, even if it was just a little bit.

I liked it, but I didn't eat all the squash because it wasn't cooked enough for my liking. Oh well, next time I will know better, which is good because hopefully next time Chris won't be sick and will maybe try it. Good thing I worked the kinks out. Now I just need to get a handle on cooking sauces. Anybody want to volunteer to teach me?

Keeping Our Roots

I know I'm probably 80% Italian and Chris is around 50-70%. We like pasta, and especially pizza. The other night when Chris had to go into work early and wasn't able to eat dinner with us I took to easy route for dinner. I simply made spaghetti with butter and parmesan cheese. Easy. Cheap. And one of Devon's favorite meals. I also took this opportunity to let Matthew play with some noodles and have a little taste.

Of course he loved it. What baby wouldn't want to make a big mess and eat it up at the same time. Devon and I got a big kick out of watching his amazement and the faces he made.

I'm Bringing Bulky Back

Shortly before we moved to Austin I discovered an awesome place that is pretty well known to most, Central Market. And when we moved here I was so excited that there was one pretty close to our apartment complex. Then I found a second one downtown! It was heaven. Then I looked at the prices and got less excited. Regardless, they have some awesome food! And I love even to just "window shop" (it's odd to call it that when I'm talking about a grocery store).

Recently a friend mentioned that she buys her spices in bulk. And silly me pictured her buying a five pound bag of paprika. Then I found out that she meant from bulk containers. So I went to Central Market to check out their bulk bins. Wow came to mind pretty quick. You can get dried fruit, grains, spices, coffee, sweets, cereals, beans, nuts, sugar, and a whole lot more. Most of this stuff even has an organic option that is only a tad bit more in price, and I do mean like a few cents.

So with some birthday money I recently received, I went to town. Don't give me that look. I can spend my birthday money on whatever I want. *sticking tongue out*

I came home with

some organic rolled oats (for making muffins, cookies and oatmeal pancakes mmmmm) I've already used half of it. :)

a salt and kosher salt,

organic pinto beans,

granulated fructose (which is sugar that is processed less than regular sugar)

and a few spices that I racked my brain to remember the most recent recipes I had jotted down to know what to get.

It was very fun. I can't wait to go again!

Raising the Bar

During the past few months I have been consuming all sorts of information about nutrition and health. I just can't get enough of it. Who knows maybe I'll become a nutritionist and conquer the school lunch systems out here. (when I find the time)

But anyway, my new found hobby is finding new recipes to cook. I've been scouring the rows and rows of cookbooks at the library, searching recipe websites online, and taking notes from friends. I'm even borrowing a technique from my grandma where I copy down all the recipes in a spiral and then make a table of contents at the beginning. It's quite fun and I'm not waisting money on cookbooks that I might only use a few recipes from.

Unfortunately this also means there is potential for yucky dinners from poor recipes, and the only way to know if it is bad is to make it. And there are some pretty bad ones out there. I have attempted twice now to make mac and cheese from scratch and both were horrible. But I'm not giving up! Mac and cheese from a box is insanely processed and I KNOW I can outdo a box.

I have made a few dishes where I surprised myself. And if you know me, then you know I hate to have to touch meat, aside from cutting it. I don't like to eat meat with bone in it so I don't cook meat with bone in it. Poor Chris, this really limits my meals. I have been making baby steps though. Last week I made pan fried tilapia, and it was actually good. I've also made chicken nuggets, chimichangas and my own refried beans. Which I must add that Chris said, "These are better than the can." SUCCESS!!

So maybe I'll get really bold and post some pictures of my new found culinary skills. Although they will never compare to the great Bescow, Chris's best friend. He is actually attending the top culinary school in the US and his pictures of food he prepares makes me drool. Shoot, I am still trying to figure out how to mince garlic properly. One of these days I'll get it right.

I Love Fall

Saturday was amazing! I am so ready for fall. We started out our adventure by going to the farmers market downtown, which I love. The weather was cool and the sun was shining. People were walking their dogs. There were a ton of other families with kiddos and there was a band playing music. I just love the complex simplicity of it all. We enjoyed some good food too. Homemade empanadas, mmmmm. Next week I'll try to be smart and plan the weekly meals so I can get the produce I need there.

Then after that we went to the library, also downtown, to get Devon new books for the week and me too. Man let me tell you, I could seriously spend all day there looking at books and be perfectly content. It is so huge. I just love it. I got some new recipe books and a book on preserving food, because that just seems like an awesome thing to do.

Then after that, yep it was a busy day, we went to the Austin flee market, which is conviently on the way home from downtown. It's a buck per car to park, if you hadn't noticed this whole day was pretty cheap. We walked around, had some ice cream. Then we headed back home. When we got home Matthew was passed out and stayed asleep for another hour. So I watched Cars with Devon while searching for new recipes in the library books I got. It was just so mellow and exciting at the same time. I loved it. It was a great family day.

Baby Food

So I have kept my word about making Matthew's baby food. It is actually easier than I imagined. Since I use the ice-cube tray technique to freeze his food I make at least one tray's worth of whatever it is I cook. So far, I have made green beans, carrots, apples, peaches, butternut squash, and cauliflower. He's loved everything, except the cauliflower. But I'm not giving up on it yet, I'm going to combine it with other foods to see if it tastes better to him that way. He's such a little champ. And for the record, Friday is the 19th, which means the little man will be seven months old! I just can't believe it!

So my point here today was to toot my own horn, because I'm worth it.

Yum Yum!

So I'm sure you are all just dying to know if I went through with my previous blog and made Devon a cute healthy lunch. Here it is!

That's what I'm talking about! We've got some rotisserie chicken lunch meat, whole wheat crackers, grapes and black berries, and clementines. I know what you're thinking, "Where's the dairy and veggie?" Well, Devon isn't big on raw veggies so tomorrow I will put in some cooked carrots in there. I just didn't have time to cook some. And the next time I go to the store I'm going to grab a small container for her to bring milk in.

But isn't that CUTE! I just love it. All it consists of is a small tupperware container and silicon cup cake holders. Something I didn't mention before is that this is also a great way to have a waste free lunch for all you environmental gurus out there. What's not to love? So go on, tell how awesome this is.....

What's for Lunch?

Here's to my new found devotion to being healthy! I've mentioned before that Austin is a pretty big hippy city, filled with health nuts of all kinds. When we first moved here, I had an odd encounter with a extreme health nut at a park. I was sitting with Devon eating some grapes and a sweet little boy was begging with his eyes. So I asked if he wanted a grape, so I gave him one and he went back to playing. His mom saw him take the grape and stormed over to me and asked, "Was that an organic grape?" I was pretty baffled and said no. She flipped! Claiming that people in Austin have a higher standard for their children. I thought this was outrageously hilarious (and still do). However, now after consuming many articles, books and advice (from sane people) I can see why she would want organic for her boy. But come on, one grape isn't going to send his pure body into toxic shock.

I know what you may be thinking, "Hey Michelle, lover of Taco Bell. You want to be a health nut?" Alas, it is true. Thanks to some inspiration by some awesome friends I have in my Sunday School class, I do want to live a more simpler and healthy life, and I especially want the same for my children. (I'm still getting used to the plural form of that word. Hard to believe I have two now.)

My class is called the Honeymooners and it's filled with mom's and mom's to be (and dad's too). They are indeed the greatest examples for me on my quest to health nut central. Recently I was introduced to this insanely cute way to pack healthy lunches for school using laptop lunches/bentos. Click here for some examples. I don't feel like explaining it, so just to take a quick peek. Beware if you have kids you may get hooked!

So since my thoughts are consumed with how to make cute healthy lunches for Devon, while we were at the library I got a few books with good recipes for healthy stuff to make for her as well as some books with baby food recipes. Yep I have been making his food too. :) I Found this book I absolutely LOVE! It's called Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children. Not only did it have great recipes, it has a ton of info about nutrition for kids. Above all I love the facts it slips in about the food we (as in Americans) eat, like McDonalds. For example:

• A chicken McNugget may be white meat, but it is mashed up with over 50 chemicals and additives.
• McDonalds french fries have very little in common with a potato. They contain more than 10 ingredients, including flavoring that comes from a beef source and trans fat, sugar and salt.
• In 2000, government agencies spent about $48 million to promote nutrition and health for kids, but McDonalds spent 14 times that amount - $665 million - to advertise its food.

So that's that. Hmmmm I think I see the number of happy meals in Devon's future dwindling.