The Happiness of a Well-Stocked Pantry

One of the best things you can do to save money on your food budget, meal plan and reduce dinner time stress is have a well-stocked pantry. With this recent move, my pantry has saved my butt. (for the record, I typed "panty" both times in that paragraph and then wrote "saved my butt" - when I reread it I laughed so hard I snorted). 

Back to the well-stocked Pantry!, money has been little tight around here with all the things you need to get a house up a running. And as you all know, the first thing to get slashed is the food budget. Lucky for me, I had just moved my pantry twice so I knew exactly what I did and didn't have.  Pasta, rice beans, canned chicken and tuna, all of these can be amazing starters for healthy, low-cost meals and they are sitting right there on the shelf waiting for you to choose them. 

Here is a fabulous master list from Frugal Living. Now, you don't have to go out and buy it all at once, that sorta ruins the idea of it being budget-friendly. But keep in mind when you are shopping and find pasta one sale, but an extra one (or two) for the pantry. 

Here is another list, this time for Eating Well. It tends to run more along the health food lines, but we are trying to eat more healthy, so it is a good list to go over and see what your family is in need of. 

Last, and certainly not least, Here is a list from Martha Stewart. But it is crazy long and unless you have the space that Martha Stewart has in her pantry, you probably won't be buying all that stuff anyway. 

If none of this lists work for you, there are about 100 to choose from if you google "pantry list".  I could sit and look at the lovely lists all day long.  Maybe it is time to be sure I am practicing what I preach and be sure I have everything I need. I think we are running low on rice. 

Oh I am so in love with Spelt

When I ordered the some Spelt to experiment with this month, it was just to test out the Spotlight Grain of the month and tell you all about it. But I am going to keep using this stuff. I have used the flour all month in my baking instead of typical whole wheat flour. The end results are amazing the baked goods are so much softer.

Here is an amazing recipe for Spelt muffins, it came on the package of the flour and is from Bob's Red Mill.  They are to die for, and I highly recommend making them.




SAVORY SPELT MUFFINS
High Fiber, Low Cal, Low Fat, Vegetarian.

2-1/4 cups Spelt Flour
1/4 cup Brown Sugar *
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1-1/4 cups Milk
3 Eggs, beaten
1 Tbsp Oil

Directions

Step 1
Preheat oven to 425°F. Grease and flour 12 muffin cups.
Step 2
Combine spelt flour, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together the milk, eggs and oil. Mix wet ingredients with dry ingredients just enough to moisten. Gently fold in any optional mix-ins.
Step 3
Fill muffin cups 2/3 full and bake for 17 minutes, or until light brown in color.

Optional mix-ins: 1/4 cup grated hard cheese or sautéed onions or 2 Tbsp chopped fresh herbs.

Notes
*Honey can replace brown sugar. Add to wet ingredients while mixing.

Hello Fall .. Hello Winter Squash

As of yesterday, it is officially Fall.  I am sure we will still have some warm days before the crisp and cool ones arrive and there is still summer produce a plenty. But let's get ready for my most favorite time of year. 

Autumn!

The market had these wild squash for sale. Aren't they crazy? Do you know you can eat them all - even if they are strange looking. 

If you aren't sure how to handle your winter squash, Food $ense has provided us with a Fact Sheet that can teach us everything we need to know to use these awesome vegetables.


Food $ense also has some Farmer's Market Recipes that I am itching to try. First the Winter Vegetable Hash and then the Acorn Squash and Apple Soup.  I seriously have such a love affair with squash in soups. My mom makes a pumpkin coconut curry soup that will warm you to your toes. I love it!  We even ate it one year instead of turkey on thanksgiving. It was the best Thanksgiving in recent years.

I bought the most lovely pears a few days ago with the intentions to make delicious things with them and then share with you. But the good news and bad news of that is that it was quickly discovered that there were pears in the house and they were consumed before I could get to them.

We love pears around here, they are some of my kids favorite fruits - and that means they get eaten.

One of my favorite lunches in the world is grilled cheese with pear on it. The softer crunch lends it self beautifully to sandwiches and wraps. They add a sweetness to salads and you can use almost anywhere you would an apple - in chicken salad, pasta and desserts.

Here are Food $ense one of our September Spotlight's is the pear and so you eventually are going to see some delicious things made with them.

For you, Dear Reader

Today I turned 4000 page views. It isn't much compared to some of the bigger blogs out there, but I love it, and I love YOU dear reader! 

You make all this possible, and you make me want to be better and braver and try again on the days that I fail. 

September is National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month

That is a mouth full to say, isn't it? But whatever you want to call it, this is one of the most important issues facing out kids today. Nationally, 17 percent of all children and adolescents in America are obese, a rate that has tripled in one generation.

This is an issue very close to my heart as I have two children who struggle with this issue. I am happy to say that in the last 6 months the changes that we have made as a family are starting to make a difference in their lives. These modest successes make us want to work even harder towards our goals. Childhood obesity affects children not just physically and puts them at risk for serious health problems, but psychologically as well. This issue can negatively affect every area of their lives.

Here are some wonderful tools that we have been using along with the Food $ense program that I have been using that can help make the changes in your families life to help your children with this issue.

Let's Move!  I love this website, It has great ideas on how to get moving and have fun while you are doing it. It has great ideas for kids to take initiatives on their own like joining the Presidential Fitness program or providing kids an Action Plan of their very own so that they can feel in control of their choices and start good habits.

COAM - This month has its own website. They have an online toolkit that you can download.

HealthFinder  Here are ideas to not just get yourself and you family healthy but always ways to be active in your schools and community for better health all around.

My Plate Kids But this website is my kids' favorite. It has games, activity sheets, songs and ideas to help them get moving.  My kids want to be healthy when they are given the information they need. They want to feel good and be happy. This website gives them the tools they can use to educate not just themselves but to help our family and their friends.

Concord Grape Freezer Jelly - From the Grapes.

The house we bought has come with some pretty fun surprises. We have grapes - two kinds of them. These purple concord grapes and some green table grapes. 

I haven't had any trouble figuring out what to do with the green grapes. I just go outside and pick them, bring them in and wash them and we gobble them down.

These purple grapes on the other hand, I haven't know what to do with them. They aren't good to eat, they are sour and kinda have a slimy texture under their skin. My parents grow them in their own yard and growing up we called them "booger grapes" and all we did was throw that at each other.

 I very much didn't want to waste them, and since I had them I figured I had better use them up.  I watched a few you tube videos on juicing concord grapes. That didn't look so hard. So I decided that is where I would start.  

I washed the grapes in the sink and then pulled them off their stems. 

Then I added them to a great big pot and cooked them down.  I used my potato masher to break up the ones that hadn't already popped open and to smoosh them into giving me all their juice. I used my biggest pot and added grapes until it was about half way full. ( I had so many grapes I had to do this process three separate times. Slowly heat the grapes until they are at a good simmer and then cook them for about 10 minutes. When they are done, you should start to get some foam along the top and the juice will be a gorgeous purple / blue color.

Prepare a colander lined with cheese cloth over a large bowl, or use a very fine sieve if you happen to have one.  Laden the cooked juice and grapes into the colander and let it strain until you are left with just mashed skins and seeds in the cheese cloth and all the juice had drained into your bowl.

I got the juice all done around noon and I didn't have to be anywhere until 2:30, so I decided I would hurry up and make the juice into jelly.  We aren't big juice drinkers around here and it made me sad to think that all my hard work was going to be guzzled down and probably not even liked because it didn't taste like "store juice".   

This is the recipe that I used, because it called for juice instead of the fruit. It turned out amazing. This morning we had toast with grape jelly and it was delicious. 

There are some things that I learned that I will do differently next year. Like being sure I cut the cheese cloth lots bigger than I think I need to. And to not use a wooden spoon to stir the mixture because it stained it purple. And to not wear a shirt that I care if I get grape juice splatters all over it.

Serving Size is in Your Hand

Fresh Tomato Salsa with a Twist

My parents had some very good friends that went on vacation recently, and they needed someone to pick their garden while they were gone. How is that for the luckiest job of the week?!

I came home with the most delicious tomatoes, yellow squash, cucumbers, and onions.  I hardly even had to think about it, making salsa was a given. So I ran to the store for peppers and cilantro and busted out the knives and cutting board. 

 Really, the only difficult part of making salsa at home is all the chopping. But if you are lucky enough to own a hand chopped or food processor your salsa making job just got a whole lot easier

I wore gloves to chop the Jalapenos, but that is my choice. If you are nervous about preparing jalapenos, HERE is an excellent information sheet that has lots of great tips. 

Fresh Tomato Salsa

Yield:about 6 or 7 cups

Ingredients:

6 to 8 medium tomatoes, diced

½ medium red onion, diced

1 can black olives, drained and diced

2 (4 oz.) cans diced green chilies*

2.3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

½ teaspoon garlic powder

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

Combine tomatoes, onion, olives, and green chilies in a medium mixing bowl. Add vinegar,

Garlic powder and salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Serve immediately or refrigerate and

Serve chilled. Serve with tortilla chips or alongside a fresh Mexican dish.

*If you want to use fresh green chilies you can roast them whole, under your own broiler,

Until the skins are blackened. Place in a plastic bag to sweat. Then peel away the skins,

deseed, dice and add to your salsa. For a hotter salsa add some jalapeno peppers as well

 I used fresh peppers because they are in season and I like to taste of the fresh tomatoes with fresh peppers.

 I also chopped up an avocado and put it into a bowl and then scooped some salsa over it. The taste was heavenly.

Does anyone else need me to come and pick all their tomatoes?

Dried Fruit From Your Oven

Quick Bread with Spelt Flour and Applesauce

I wish you could smell how amazing this is smelling. 

I seem to be accumulating summer squash at an alarming rate around here. I don't even have a garden, but somehow I have the stuff coming out my ears. 

Oh so much Yellow Squash

I think the kids (and myself included) are getting a little tired of the them stuff. That means there is only one thing left to do - 

Bake with it! 

 I got some spelt flour in the mail yesterday. It happens to be the grain of the month at Food $ense.     I have never used it before, I have actually only heard of it a few times. So I have a lot to learn about it.  How exciting is this you are going to be learning right along with me. 

Spelt,  also known as Dinkel wheat or hulled wheat, has been around since medieval times, but has recently found begun to flourish as a health food.  It has a good amount of nutrients, but still contains gluten so it is suitable for baking. It makes particularly good flat breads because they can become crisp without becoming hard. 

Here is my first attempt at baking with Spelt Flour. 

Ingredients 

• Types of Cooking Oil

3 eggs, beaten
2 cups white sugar
1 cup applesauce
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups Spelt Flour
1 1/2 cups regular flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
2 cups shredded summer squash

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease two loaf pans.

In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the eggs until fluffy. Beat in the sugar, oil, and vanilla. Gradually mix in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Fold in the squash. Transfer to the prepared baking dishes.

Bake 45 minutes in the preheated oven, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Buckle Down! says my mom....

Life seems to be saying something more along the lines of "Buckle UP!".

Today I was sitting on my couch staring across the kitchen floor. A kitchen floor that I will be honest with you was mopped  last night and still somehow looks like the aftermath of Hurricane Alice. I can see dirty foot prints where she walked before the floor was dry and what I am hoping are chocolate chips dropped from her granola bar she had this morning.

Ezra started Preschool this morning, he was the last one to start and he could hardly wait. Lex and Jett started two weeks ago, and the suspense has been killing me. He was so excited to leave today and have, "just you and Alice will be home, mom.".  When did things become so terrible around here that my children were scrambling to leave me? All the other kids at preschool were clingy and teary looking anxious and fearful, Ezra barely let me walk him to the door. He probably would have driven himself if he had been able to find the keys.

We have been in the house for a little over two weeks, What is the timeline for having to be unpacked and not look like you have ever intention of living out of those moving boxes for the next... well..... forever?  I keep trying to chip away at the mountains of cardboard that seem to occupy every corner of every room and even the middle of a few rooms. But this weekend Joseph emptied the storage unit and now I am buried all over again. This time, not just in things that are mine and I want to keep, but lots of things that I don't quite know what else to do with. OY! My headstone will read,"she was killed by all the things she couldn't bare to part with."

Piano lessons are starting, so are dance and singing. The school is calling to remind me I am already behind on shots and lunch money.  The peaches on the tree in the backyard are threatening to ripen this weekend and demand to be dealt with. OH! and I have two family birthdays this week too.

Life is such a roller coaster ride, you are flying up and down and sideways and screaming with laughter most of the time - most of the time, because sometimes you really are screaming with terror.

Blueberry and Mango Quinoa Salad with Basil Lemon Dressing

Blueberry Mango Quinoa Salad with Lemon Basil Dressing Recipe

Serves about 2

For the quinoa: 1/2 cup quinoa
                                       1 cup water

Be sure and rinse your quinoa before you cook it. To get rid of the bitter saponin coating that covers the grains.   Let your quinoa cool before you add your fruits and dressing just before you are ready to serve it. 

 For the fruits and veggies: ½ cup fresh blueberries

                                                                   ½ cup cubed ripe mangoes
                                                                   ½ cup cubed cucumbers
                                                                  1/2 tablespoon dried cranberries

 While the quinoa is cooking, combine the fruits in a bowl and refrigerate till you are ready to serve the salad.

For the lemon basil dressing:  1½ tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

                                                                          2 tablespoons lemon juice

                                                                          1/4 teaspoon lemon zest

                                                                          10 Basil leaves, chopped finely

                                                                         Salt and pepper

Whisk together all the dressing ingredients, except the chopped basil. Refrigerate till you are ready to serve. Chop and add the basil to the dressing just before serving. If you add it earlier, it will go black.

Add half the dressing to the quinoa and mix gently.

Assemble the salad just before serving – toss the quinoa, fruits and cucumbers together. Serve other half of the dressing on the side. Serve  immediately.

The flavors, textures and colors of this salad make an amazing combination. You won't able to get enough of it. Be aware, the recipe is only for "about 2" servings and that won't nearly be enough.