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Thanksgiving and To-Dos

At the beginning of this week, my mind was all set to do a VENT post. As things turned out though, there was no time to do a vent post and instead I have time today to give thanks.

What did I need to vent? Oh, the usual. What I thought of on Sunday [...]

“Where’s the meat, Mom?”

Last year, I made a resolution that we would shoot for “optimum” in our diet…. meaning 7-9 servings of vegetables and fruits a day. And I was successful. Note the *I*. For a couple of weeks there I was able to get my servings of veggies and fruits. About half-way successful with [...]

This Week’s Bento Box Menu Lineup: Superfoods

Broccoli, Basil and Prosciutto Pizza (Broccoli, Basil and Prosciutto Rice Salad for Dad)
Orange Sections
Chocolate Spinach Smoothie
Blueberry Yogurt Cake
Turkey Black Bean Enchiladas
Green Salad with Ginger-Carrot-Miso Dressing
Montreal Arm Roast
Vanilla-Flecked Homemade Yogurt (sweetened with agave)
Homemade Granola-Crispy Rice Blend
Multi-Grain Struan, Homemade Almond Butter
Szechwan Celery and Chicken Stir-Fry
Hummus and Crudites
Salmon-Pasta Salad (Rice Pasta for Dad)
Black Bean Brownies
Broasted Tomatoes
White [...]

Cultured Butter Using the DLX

I’ve been meaning to do this for a while. We’ve made butter often enough in our DLX, but I’ve been wanting to try making it with Snowville Creamery’s heavy whipping cream (*not* ultra-pasteurized) since it became available at Whole Foods. The other — also important — reason for making butter is that I’m in [...]

Strawberries from Ohio Brush Creek Cooperative

Twenty-five pounds of these gorgeous beauties. Picked up Saturday from Adam Batson of Ohio Brush Creek Cooperative, at the Montgomery Farmer’s Market. Processed and packed for consumption! And going, going, going…. fast.

First up was the must-have summer treat: Strawberry Shortcake. I firmly belong in the camp of “cake” over “biscuit”. [...]

Dump Cookie Bars

The kids are tired of oatmeal, so today I did a variation of my Choc-Ban-Oat-Cran-Wal Cookies…. except I didn’t want to spend time scooping out cookie dough. Hubby is home helping me take care of the sick kids, for the second day, but the little one woke up early with a terrible sounding cough, reminding [...]

This Week's Bento Box Lineup

Sunday evening, preparing food for the week….

Monday:

Dried figs
Raw almonds
Green and Black’s Maya Gold Dark Chocolate
Spanakopita (Costco)
Edamame tossed with tamari, sesame oil and sesame seeds
Glazed carrots
Pineapple Fried Rice with Prosciutto and Shrimp

Tuesday:

Baked Meatballs with Honey-Ketchup-Mustard-Soy Glaze
Potato Salad
Carrot and Celery Sticks with Ranch Dressing
Light Wheat Bread (BBA)
Pan-Roasted Broccoli with Garlic and Olives
Apple and Cranberry Crisp

Wednesday:

Grilled Scallops (marinated in [...]

Adventure Base 100/Taste of Cincinnati next weekend!

Look at the menu!

My boys (scouts and daddy the scoutmaster) will be volunteers at Adventure Base 100 (that’s a link to the PDF flyer), so the girls (and Nino) are tagging along to sample food.

One strategy to consider: sample everything once. Then the good things twice. Ahaha… I just totalled [...]

Mom's Africa Unit Study Wish List

These are resources I didn’t find in our local library. I’ve gone ahead and requested that they purchase these, so hopefully I’ll be able to read them one day soon. Make good use of your library’s “suggest this purchase” page! These are food-related books but I’m sure I’ll be adding more.

[...]

Where’s The Beef?

By tomorrow evening, our freezer will be filled again… (I do have a few roasts left, from our last order!)

We get our beef from Elizabeth Cox and family. We bought from them for the first time last year. No regrets. Love supporting [...]

Why I'm Not In Love Anymore.

With Panera, that is.

Over the years, the quality has just gone down steadily, After the merger with Au Bon Pain, I was predicting that it would come to this, eventually. And it has . To me and my bread-loving family (the ones that are not allergic to wheat anyway), it’s nothing more now [...]

Support Fresh, Safe Local Food in the Food Safety Bill

Got this from a farmer on the CinciLocavore list:

Scroll down to the bolded portion to find out what consumers can do to help out our farmers.

The Senate’s version of the food safety bill, S. 510, is expected to come to the floor in mid-April. While the Senate Committee made some changes to try to address the [...]

Too Many Brownies, QoTD, Faith Talking, the Menu, Devotion #2

It’s 2:09 am and yes, I’m still awake. Made allergy-free brownies for Aisa’s party with her college friends (+the Walshes) and I forgot that I made it with regular coffee, STRONG-BREWED even… and now everyone’s asleep and I’m still awake. I’m going to be dead in the morning, just when little one will be [...]

Ciabatta and My Favorite Dipping Oil

Ciabatta + My Favorite Dipping Oil

Ciabatta… an improvised one so I don’t have a recipe. I had some leftover poolish from making a celebration bread… so I added some flour and salt, a bit more yeast then some water…. too much flour, added water… which is harder to do so I broke the dough [...]

Once-A-Week Cooking

I’ve tried this before, but this is the first time I actually cooked so much it will maybe last two weeks. Maybe. Remember I have an 18-yo and a soon-to-be-13-yo. They eat. A lot. Or actually they don’t. Because when I cook I usually don’t have enough for everyone — [...]