Recipes Categories
Wednesday
Feb172010

A word about Freecycle

It's exactly what is sounds like—a hybridization of recycle and free—and it's a bit like garage saling any time of the year from the comforts of your home. More importantly it is a community based network of people who care about getting stuff moved in to homes where it will be used, and keeping it out of the landfill. These are things we care about, too, so we joined our local Freecycle group in January. Since then we've found new homes for three boxes worth of stuff from our basement that was slated for who knows where (it failed to sell at a garage sale two years ago, and wasn't the Salvation Army's style), and have given a new home to two phones, a book shelf, a large set of holiday window clings, and, my favorite so far, a huge box of fabric, all for the grand total of zero, zilch, nada.

Being a community based network, Freecycle is different in every location and the value of your local group depends entirely on the people who make it happen. Ours is a very active place. It is run as a Yahoo group and works through group messages—each message posted is a new item either being offered or sought. One of the things I like best about Freecycle is that as a poster of an item I am completely free to choose its recipient; my stuff doesn't have to go the first responder, but can go to the person who is the most polite, seems to have the greatest need, or strikes me as the one who will enjoy the item most.

Garage sales, thrift shops, and Craig's List are a big part of the living green lifestyle—the more stuff that we can repurpose, reuse, or recycle instead of buying new, the more we will save not just in terms of our bank accounts (although that's true, too), but also in terms of materials and energy. And let's not forget how fantastic it would be to decrease our nation's dependency on material objects, too many of which come from other countries. There is a whole world of people out there who care about these principles, and you can find some of them on Freecycle.

Monday
Feb152010

Weekly plan, 2/15

Monday: Leftovers from our Valentines party

Tuesday: Stuffed acorn squash (with Michigan grass fed ground beef, bread stuffing, celery, mushrooms, and homemade veggie stock), wilted garlicky chard, and, of course, paczkis!

Wednesday: Tofu stirfry (with peanuts, brocoli, carrots, and sprouts), rice noodles, and homemade fortune cookies.

Thursday: Garlic bean soup, fresh homemade bread, brussels sprouts (the kid's choice)

Friday: Leftover squash

Saturday: Leftover soup

Sunday: Breakfast for dinner

From the dairy: Two 2% milks

Tuesday
Feb092010

Weekly plan, 2/8

In accordance with my recent Time Warp recovery status, I am just plain skipping last week. It was a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of week anyhow. But I'm back on track (maybe), and ready for a new week. Which may explain why I didn't get the plan done until early this morning and Calvin and I did our usual shopping run in the early stages of today's snow storm, instead of being smart and getting it done ahead of time. Ha.

Monday: Homemade mac n cheese, organic "hot dogs," collard greens, and apples. Totally a kid meal, and made with whatever we had on hand (the "macaroni" was actually noodles in the shape of moose, but that's another story).

Tuesday: Leftover homemade chicken soup (made it on Sunday), fresh homemade bread, brocoli and cauliflower, and fresh pineapple.

Wednesday: Spinach and feta quiche, purple kale, kiwi (vegetarian)

Thursday: Leftover quiche, brussels sprouts, spinach salad, and mango

Friday: Family game night, so homemade pizza it is! We'll top it with our favorite—banana peppers and feta. Brocoli and cauliflower on the side (just blanched, so still finger food), and orange slices

Saturday: Leftover pizza, brussels sprouts, and grapefruit wedges

Sunday: Love is in the air! We're having a valentine's day party so we haven't done our shopping yet, but we're planning on cheese, nut, and crab stuffed shells, arugula quinoa salad, and some pretty fruit on the side, plus tiramisu for dessert

From the dairy: Two 2% milks, eggs, butter, and cream

I'm skipping the shopping list. Will anyone miss it?

Tuesday
Feb022010

Pretty good granola!

Finally! We've been searching for one that we liked, and found this one via the How Does She site, although, as usual, it's been pretty alterred since.

Pretty Good Granola

Ingredients:
  ● 6 C Quick Cooking Oats
  ● 1/4 C Flour (I use whole wheat)
  ● 1/2 T  Cinnamon
  ● ~2-1/2 C Random dry ingredients (nuts, coconut, dried fruit, etc.)
  ● 1/2 C Vegetable Oil
  ● 1/2 C Honey

Directions:
Mix together all the dry ingredients (I used coconut, almonds, pecans, raisins, and cranberries). Combine oil and honey in a small pot and warm until honey is melted. Pour oil and honey mixture over dry ingredients and mix well. Spread mix over 2 lipped baking sheets (the baking elite call these jelly roll pans, I think) and bake for 20 minutes or until brown on top. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pans before breakng up into pieces and removing to a storage container.

Friday
Jan292010

Cranberry oat scones

Somewhere in our genealogy there is a little British. This is evident in how much we have come to enjoy our afternoon tea, Calvin and I. Tea and scones. It's a jolly good time.

Cranberry Oat Scones Recipe

Yield: Makes 8 scones
Ingredients:
  ● 1 3/4 cups flour
  ● 1/3 cup sugar
  ● 1/4 tsp. salt
  ● 3/4 tsp. baking soda
  ● 1 tsp. baking powder
  ● 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
  ● 3/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
  ● 2/3 cup dried cranberries
  ● Zest of an orange
  ● 2/3 cup buttermilk
Egg Wash:
  ● 1 large egg
  ● 1 tbsp. milk

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl place the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder and whisk to combine. Cut in the butter until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add rolled oats, dried cranberries and zest. Mix until combined. Stir in the buttermilk and mix just until dough comes together.

Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and knead a few times, then pat into a circle about about 1-1/2 inches thick. Cut dough circle into 8 triangular sections (like a pizza). Place scones on parchment papered baking sheet and brush tops with egg mixture.

Bake for about 15 - 18 minutes or until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool on racks.

Enjoy! I highly recommend the tea.