Julia Child failed me.

Horribly. Miserably. In my time of need, she failed me.  She let me down.

I needed a good recipe for homemade noodles and she failed me. I searched Mastering The Art of French Cooking, I searched under every heading I could think of to search, I searched "noodles", "egg" "egg noodles", and "spaghetti" to no avail.

But Irma Rombauer saved the day and my supper plans. She had the recipe for egg noodles. Which I made into spaghetti noodles. And I learned one thing...

I make a mess when I make noodles.

I used wheat flour, since it is healthier than white. I did add an extra egg because the flour was more dense and I was having trouble getting the dough to ..well....dough. 

I also made my own spaghetti sauce. I simmered it all afternoon and it was quite tasty and the aroma was out of this world. 

To increase our vegetables, I added some cut up carrots, celery and tomatoes to the sauce. To round out our meal, I made steamed mixed vegetables. 

Sugar anyone?

"Many children are supersizing their sodas and getting about 24 teaspoons PER SERVING." (emphasis mine) ~Dr. Don Colbert M.D. in Eat This and Live for Kids

Just how much is 24 teaspoons?

A test!

I am reading Eat This and Live for Kids.  I got the book to read and review on my blog. I've already been in contact with the author about a recommendation in the book and he is changing it!  

The author, Dr. Colbert, states we are "over fed and undernourished".  He also says at birth, there are over 200 toxic chemicals in umbilical cord blood.   And it gets worse from there.  He also states that in his practice his first "prescription" is "water". He says:

Quote

I often tell patients that when they have a headache, the don't have a Tylenol deficiency. When they have joint pain, they don't have an Advil deficiency. When they have heartburn, they don't have a Pepcid deficiency , and if they are depressed, they don't have a Prozac deficiency. In each of these cases, the body is often crying out for water. I treat every patient I see in my practice first with water.

I know I drink adequate amounts of water (and I still suffer almost daily from headaches from the pit) but my girls don't. I'm not sure about Russ. 

So we have started on a health quest. For the month of October, we will not be dining out for ANY reason. I have been stocking up on fruits and veggies. For the most part we eat healthy already. We eat out only about once a week, and I don't cook from a box.   We will also be consuming more water on a daily basis. 

I want to see how we feel after cutting all the junk out, I think we're all so used to feeling bad, we don't know what "good" feels like anymore.  


I will, of course be blogging about this too.  You can either join our journey vicariously, or you can join us in your home. If you do, I'd love to hear how it is working for you! 

Irma Rombauer's Pancakes.

Once again I completely forgot to set anything out for supper.  So this afternoon it was scramble time, time to decide if I am going to quick thaw something out, or scrounge something.

I am not a huge pancake fan. Nope. Generally Russ makes them for breakfast on Saturday mornings and I eat an egg.  Lately I've been thinking about pancakes though. Not like all the time, but I don't know, it's almost like I'm kind of missing them.

Tonight we had pancakes. There was nothing I needed to set out. I had all the ingredients. And was quick and easy.

Usually we make Betty Crocker's Pancake recipe but tonight I was in search of something a little different, and yes I do know, it's hard to be different with pancakes.

I used Irma Rombauer's Joy of Cooking pancakes. I think the recipe is about the same and the taste was very similar.

But it fed my pancake craving for today. So I'm good.

I think the first few cooked funny. Almost look like Charlie Brown's shirt. 

Banana Bread

was a flop. A complete flop.

It seems I can't remember to add ONLY the amount of bananas. I usually just mash what I have and add it all. Today it was two cups, when the recipe only called for one cup.

It just doesn't get done. The outside looks wonderful and the inside is done...if you like your banana bread soft and by that I mean REALLY soft.

So needless to say, no pictures of that. Now of the hat I made......check out http://see-it-take-it-make-it.blogspot.com/2010/09/finished-it.html

Yuckiness

I made one of our favorite one dish meals. We combine sausage, hashbrown potatoes, eggs and cheese. One pan of ultimate deliciousness.

I made it Thursday night.  And spent Friday in bed, longing for death. Honestly. My dear man asked before he took the girls with him, "Is there anything you need?"

And my response was "Death."

So needless to say my weekend was rather food- and cooking free. But now that I am again fully entrenched in the land of the living, I am chomping at the bit to cook something.

I have some very bad bananas that I will be turning into a bit of banana bread. I can't wait.

Grrrrrrrrrr

The best laid plans often go awry.

Ain't that the truth?!!! I made a roast, with carrots, celery, onion and potatoes. New yukon gold potatoes. I'm talking NEW potatoes. Just picked on Sunday afternoon.

It wasn't done. And I don't mean it was a little pink. I mean it wasn't done, it WASN'T done!  We had sandwiches.

(Which makes me laugh because recently a fast food restaurant had on their sign "sandwitchs")

No picture

But man oh man was it good. If I thought I could pull it off, I might be tempted to make my own recipe book.

The other night I loosely, very loosely followed the recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking when I made roast chicken. You can see it here.  By "loosely" I mean, I look at her recipe and followed it..only as far as setting the oven temperature. After there it was all me. I just didn't have time to baste the chicken every 5 minutes.  But it still turned out lovely.

But we had a lot of leftovers. I think Russ was a little tired of eating leftover roast chicken for lunch because he asked me yesterday, "Can't you do anything with that chicken?" I told him I thought I probably could, and inside I only mildly panicked.

I had Ariana, my oldest, make rice. To say she was thrilled would be an understatement along the lines of, "It's cold in Nebraska in December". Instead of using salt, I had her add one tablespoon chicken bouillon. I steamed some mixed frozen vegetables and the leftover chicken.

I combined the vegetables and chicken, added some butter, pepper, some mozzarella, pepper jack and cheddar.

It was stupendous!!!

Picture Post!!!

If a picture's worth a thousand words.....My supper makes me a millionaire!!!

First course:

Meal:

The Chicken. 

Roast Chicken, baked potato, carrots, vegetable salad and fruit salad.

Last night...

It was "Clean out the fridge night" at our house.

The girls and I had traveled to a nearby town to do some serious grocery shopping. I pondered what to fix on the way home, realized we had plenty of leftovers so I didn't have to cook.

I forgot dear man did not go with us and therefore would be eating leftovers for lunch.

Which means not as many leftovers as I thought.

Some had leftovers and some had turkey/pepperjack sandwiches. We all had veggies and fruit!

Because I rock at making fruit salad. Last night it was strawberries, grapes, bananas and kiwi. I heard it was excellent. I detest strawberries so of course I stayed far away from it.

I'm reading "Eat This and Live For Kids". I am so convicted about our eating habits. None of us have a weight problem (despite what I might say about myself....) but we don't eat healthy. I don't buy processed "food". I don't make meals from a box. But eating vegetables is not something I'm fond of. Fruit is very hard to keep in the house. I did some math the other day and for all of us to get 5 servings of fruit a day means I would need to purchase 1120 pieces of fruit in a month. That is staggering.

But fruit is easy because I like it. Vegetables, on the other hand, are incredibly hard because I don't like them.  I have eaten them, to be a good example, but my girls know I'm only doing it to be a good example. On the days I just can't, not even to be a good example, they know they still have to. So more often than not, I opt not to eat my veggies.

But that has to change. And I know drowning them in ranch (or anything like that) defeats the purpose.  So I'm looking for vegetable ideas. Preferably, of course, ideas in which the vegetable retains it's nutritional value.  Raw carrots I can do. Celery? Forget it. I can put celery in something, so that will help.

So hit with me with your favorite vegetables/recipes!

Biftek Ala Pepperjack

I made the best burgers tonight. 

I am reading, for review, Eat This and Live for kids. I really want to get the book Eat This and Live now. I am learning so much. Some I already knew and practiced but other things I had no clue. I'll blog more about it as the review date gets closer and I've read more of it. 

One thing I already knew is just how healthy it is to eat food in as close to a natural environment it really is. I knew it was best to eat your carrots, celery, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, apples, bananas, pears, peaches, grapes, mangoes, etc raw. I know that when you cook veggies and fruit a lot of their nutritional value is cooked out.  I know you're supposed to get 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. That is NOT 5 servings of fruit OR vegetables, but 5 servings of fruit AND vegetables. I fall so short of that. 

So today I was reading this book and was reminded again that I need to set the example for my children in healthy eating.  I had already planned on making hamburgers for supper because we had a late afternoon appointment about 1/2 an hour away.  On our way home from the meeting we stopped at the store, initially to get hamburger buns because the bread is almost gone. I quickly changed my mind though. I bought no bread. None. 

I bought lettuce, tomato, cucumber (and what is with putting wax on my cucumbers? Silly grocer man, wax is for candles not cucumbers) and other fresh vegetables and a lot of fruit.  At home, I put my 2 pounds of hamburger, 1 tablespoon Pampered Chef Parmesean Garlic seasoning, 2 egg whites, 1/2 a orange pepper, chopped, and 1/2 an onion also chopped. I mixed those and put them into the skillet.

Because my meat was so lean, I did have to add 2.5-3 tablespoons of butter to the pan when I turned them. After turning them and letting them cook for 4-5 minutes (really 4-5 minutes a side should be all you need to get them done) I added one slice of pepper jack cheese. (the cheese of choice at our house) I put a lid on the pan and let the cheese melt. I did then check a burger (the last one put in) and when it registered 150 degrees on my meat thermometer I knew they were done nicely. I hate nothing more than an over-done, dry burger. 

Now, I wrapped my cheeseburger in 2 romaine lettuce leaves, and I added 1 tomato slice and one slice of cucumber. It was scrumptious!! I promise you. Oh my. 

To our meal I added sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, spinach leaves and romaine. Some of us put our burger on homemade bread (I think it has to be healthier than store bought). 

As you can see, it isn't me. And it's quite thick. He deemed it excellent though, so who am I to judge?

No pictures...

But last night's supper was simply scrumptious!

I made bread yesterday. Because I'm tired of spending an exorbitant amount of money on one loaf of bread. And we were out. My recipe makes two loaves, I made one loaf as normal, because we needed bread.

In case you missed that earlier.

During the first rising, I browned one pound of hamburger with onion. I added Pampered Chef's Italian Seasoning.  If I had measured I might have added a tablespoon.

When the bread was finished rising, I rolled it out and added the ground beef/onion mixture. I sliced cheddar cheese and added it to the top. Then I rolled it up, pinched the edges closed, put it in a bread pan and let it rise.

While it was rising this time, I made a simple marinara sauce. I used two small cans tomato sauce, one large can tomato paste and about a tablespoon (or two) of Pampered Chef's Sun-Dried Tomato Herb seasoning blend. I let that simmer for the afternoon.  You will need to stir it occasionally.

I baked the bread/meat mixture and served it with the marinara sauce and we had corn. Scrumptious!!

Ska-betty

I made spaghetti a few weeks ago and the sauce, Oh my WORD was to die for. To. Die. For. It was the best.

I made spaghetti on Saturday night and the sauce, OH MY WORD was barfish. And I thought I made it the same way.

So sound off, please, with your favorite spaghetti sauce recipe. And please, no comments telling me to go to the store and get a jar with a label that says "Hunts" or "Ragu" or some other name, open it and heat.

Bad day...

Very very bad day.

So my dear man cooked ham and peas for himself and the girlies while I dined alone...well with Anne Perry, at Chili's.

I stuffed myself to the gills.


Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Tomorrow I cook like a freaking maniac.