My Productive Sunday

Since during the week, I'm busy with working, making dinner, taking care of animals, and occasional laundry. The weekend is when I really rock n roll in the kitchen. It is amazing what a girl can get done in one day.....

So this past Sunday, I got the following complete:

The night before, I soaked 1 and a half pounds of dry black beans in the crock pot over night. In the morning, I filled the crockpot up to just below the rim. Put the lid on and turned it onto low. They will cook for about 6 hours. Once they finished cooking I turn off the crock pot and let them cool some. Then using freezer bags, I fill them with 10 ounces of black beans. Leaving the bag open, let them cool to room temperature. Seal the bag and pop them into the freezer. 1 and a half pounds made 5 bags.

cooking black beans

Checked on lil bit and she was busy searching for the missing mitten.....

Back in the kitchen, using my bread machine, I made to batches of pizza dough. Each batch takes 1.5 hours. Once done, I knead the dough on a floured surface, than wrap in plastic wrap. Then pop into a gallon freezer bag and into the freezer it goes. Then repeat with the second batch. Now I have pizza dough that will last two weeks, Friday night pizza!!

Pizza dough mixing

From the farmers' market I bought 8lbs of beef and 2lbs of sausage, most of the beef was popped into the freezer for later meals. I thawed 2 pounds of beef and 1 pound of sausage. Then made a big batch of meatballs. With meatballs rolled and placed on the cookie sheet, pop into the oven for 10 minutes, then pull out and let cool. Once the meatballs have cooled, place on another cookie sheet and place in the freezer. I freeze them like I do berries, separate so they don't become one monster mush meatball. Leave them overnight then transfer to gallon freezer bag. 

Meatballs!!!

While making the meatballs, I was oven roasting bell peppers, tomatoes and onions to make roasted pepper spread. 

Roasted peppers, tomatoes and onio

Blueberry snack time turned into a cute mini photo shoot...she is too cute for words, most of the time.

Roasted pepper spread continued on to simmer, blended and canned for a fall and winter treat.

Canned roasted pepper spread

While the roasted red pepper spread simmered I made and baked two loaves of summer squash bread. One for now and one went into the freezer for this winter.

It was a busy, but not to busy day and at the end of the day I got a lot completed. Not bad for a working mom. Next weekend I foresee making granola, squash muffins and who knows what else. 

a little sass

Do We Care For It?

So I was watching the movie “Dive”, a great documentary about food waste in America. And then, they asked a question, “Do we value the Earth? Do we value all it produces?....Do we care for it?... Has it become another product for us to consume? “  (why would people waste so much? Because we don’t value the Earth and the products it produces)

And with that question sitting on my mind, I headed out to the garden to peddle. As I cleaned and pulled weeds out of my raised bed, and tried to knock as much dirt back to the ground, the question still lingered. Do we value the Earth?

i have mixed feelings about this question, but I know that I value it and I'm teaching my kids that they should too. And this all didn't happen over night, its been since the birth of my daughter in 2010. In my late thirties, I see what we have done and what we need to start doing to fix it. So here are some things that I value and do because I value the Earth.

First, I take extreme pride that we only need to take out trash out to the curb usually once a month and it’s not always full. But my recycling, which is picked up every other week is piled to overflowing and never missed. Knowing that this example I set will instill that my children grow up as waste reducing recycling adults. I've had discussions with my sister over recycling why I do it and why she does not. As she tells me that her kids know that they should, this quote always renders in my head, “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” My kids will recycle because we are teaching them why and because they see us doing it. My two year old is learning about trash, recycling and composting just from having to throw something away.

Secondly, gardening!! Now my little one loves the garden. Upon her first escape, able to open doors, went outside and headed towards the garden. I think it is part of her soul. She has watched the plants grow from seeds inside, watered my plants on the deck, picked strawberries and will soon pick ripe goodness from our garden. Next year, I hope to include her a lot more and plant that seed in her, passing on all my knowledge.

This year I'm keeping track of everything I pick from my garden, so that at the end of the season I can see how many pounds of food I grew. I'm hoping that this year will be my best year ever and I have plans to increase my garden by one raised bed, asparagus is in my future.

Green beans in my garden

Beetles fighting for the love of a lady. 

Three, Preserving. During spring through fall, I spend many hours in a hot kitchen preserving produce to last into the fall and winter, as we wait for growing season. It typically starts with the berries, first strawberry followed by blueberries and then black and raspberries. 

Blackberries growing in my front yard landscape.

Then the tomatoes and peaches will ripen. And there will be a packed pantry filled with jars of tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, pizza sauce, ketchup and salsa. Tomatoes will be oven roasted and frozen, adding the pop of sweetness to my homemade pizza. 

Roma tomatoes

Peaches will make wonderful jam and I may try freezing them this year. Greenbeans and bell peppers then as summer switches to fall the greens, broccoli, apples and pears. I can tell when spring is coming because the stacks of jars are no longer filled, but empty and waiting.

Cucumbers that will become pickles.

Fourth, going to the Farmer’s Market. It is a true love, to see what produce is new for the week. Planning meals of the bounty and knowing all the food is from down the street. I've recently started walking up to the market, fifteen minutes there and back is also good for me.

Here is one of my bundles from the farmers market.

Spring, summer and fall means that windows are open as much as possible, until the high heat days in summer. The house gets the winter stink blown off with every breeze. And the clothes hang from lines dancing in the sun’s heat and slight breeze. I love nothing more that fresh sheets off the line, draped on my bed.

Clothes on the line.

Upon the arrival for our, my first, child, my husband and I discussed and decided pretty early on to use cloth diapers. Our reasons for making this choice, was for the money it would save us and for environmental reasons. Every diaper ever made including the ones I wore are still rotting in the landfill. We first started off using plastic covers and pins, but I soon discovered a new modern take on cloth diapering. There are wonderful things called Snappies, which replaces the need for pins, so you will never stick your child. 

Cloth covers with interchangeable inserts, wet bags, adjustable covers and cloth diaper services. Now we have a cloth diaper serve in my town, The Diaper Fairy, and the owner is wonderful. Along with her services she also holds regularly class to go over cloth diapering, how to, her company’s services and information for those who want to wash at home. 

We are now deep into potty training, using thick cotton underwear instead of training pull ups. With summer on its way, we use a cloth swimmer pants. So for the cost of less than one package of "swimmer diapers", we have a reusable swimmer diaper. As the diaper fairy says, "If your diapers not cloth, its garbage."

So these are a few things that I do for my family and for this wonderful planet we live on. Hopefully this will inspire you to do a little something to show you value the planet. Our planet needs all of us to care and not consume everything that it offers. We need to find a balance of respect.

So what do you eat?

The way we eat has become a foundation of who we are. A person could be any of the following and I’m sure there are other new definitions being created as I speak.

Vegetarian – someone who lives on diet of plant based foods, eggs and dairy.

Vegan – someone who consumes only plant foods such as vegetables, grains, legumes (beans and peas), fruits, nuts and seeds. Avoiding all animal foods including meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy, and honey.

Flexitarian –  someone who eats vegetarian or vegan most of the time but eats meat and animal products every now and then. Also, could be called a semi-vegetarian.

Locavore – someone who eats food made near where they live, usually within 100 miles.

 

In the winter of 2010, after the birth of my daughter, I started getting interested in watching documentaries. My first one was Food Inc., after viewing the film, I had a desire to start making better choice about the food my family ate.

So for defining purposes, my family is a Flexitarian with a lot of Locavore and Homegrown thrown in. And to keep things interesting, my step-daughter is also a Chickenarian, one of those new words/terms I mentioned above. We have a 2 chicken flock in our backyard, they give us eggs and after they are done producing eggs. They will become well….dinner. So after time to think about this Avery at the ripe of age of 9 decided to stop eating chicken all together. Avery will be turning 11 in February and is still chickenless.

In the summer of 2011, I moved and expanded our failing first garden. In the garden, I grew tomatoes, melons, carrots and peppers. The garden did wonderful and in 2012 we made and installed all raised beds and expanded the garden just a little. We grew tomatoes (several varieties), peas, cucumbers, green beans, greens, lettuce, peppers, carrots, pumpkins, herbs, blueberries and raspberries. The garden did fantastic, leaving me with the planning of this year’s garden.

I shop every Saturday at the Farmers’ Market, where I try to get and plan the majority of my meals around. I also stock up on produce during the peak seasons to preserve for the winter. I preserve through hot bath canning method, blanching,  freezing and drying.

I buy Kentucky flour from a local store, so that I can make bread, pizza dough, pie crust, cookies, desserts and homemade pancake/waffle mixes.

Veggie Skillet (includes: onion, potato, kale and eggs)

Our meals consist of a heavy vegetarian diet, I personally feel that it balances out of all the good things to eat. I try to purchase mainly local meat, and from the grocery store organic meats. Another reason we eat a lot of vegetarian meals is because of the cost to purchase organic meat.

The majority of our meals are made from scratch after work. I try to plan leftovers for lunches over the next couples days and for a dinner, if there is enough. It is challenging to make this effort everyday with the world around me throwing convenient food at me. But this is something that is key to making healthy food for my family. And we may not eat until 6:30-7:00 o'clock some nights, but its worth the wait.

Homemade Pizza (includes: homemade dough, tomato sauce, red pepper, dried tomato, spinach, sausage and cheese)

 

Now I’ve watched many more documentaries that help keep me focused on the little things I can do that will make a big difference in my family’s diet. Both of my kids are not picky eaters. Both drink water and some milk with very little or no soda or juice. My step daughter’s diet varies from our, because she is at her mom’s house half of the time.

Vegetarian Quesadilla (includes: cheese, black beans, corn, red pepper, onion and tomato)

Now we do have things in our house that are not “healthy”, these are mainly for the kids and my husband. In our pantry you’ll find potato chips, Dortios (at times), little Debbie snacks and some sugary cereal. We are a work in progress.

I try to always keep in my mind a quote from one of Michael Pollen’s books, “You can eat all the junk food you want as long as you made is from scratch.”