Quick, easy, healthy breakfast every day

While most of our culture places the greatest weight on the final meal of the day, dinner, we think breakfast needs far more attention than it gets.  Weekday mornings can be hectic, but that doesn't make breakfast any less important.  For a while we were buying frozen breakfast foods, but not only is this expensive, it also exposes the family to those dreaded pre-prepared meals we try so hard to avoid, meals that tend to be higher in salts and/or sugars than their homemade equivalents, and run through a variety hands and machines before landing in our homes, making them more susceptible to contaminents, such as BPA.  You've heard me rant about it before, but this isn't just a rant, it's a simple solution for at least one problem area.  Taking time to make a fresh breakfast every morning is out of the question in our house, so one day every weekend we make a big breakfast of either pancakes or waffles and foil up the extras (foil, remember, can be recycled and is devoid of the concerns associated with plastic wrap) to be dropped in the toaster throughout the coming week.  Make those pancakes or waffles whole wheat for an added health benefit, and add pecans for additional protein.  We top them with fresh fruit for added nutrition!

Whole Wheat Pancakes

Ingredients:
  ● 2 c. whole wheat flour
  ● 3 tbsp. sugar
  ● 1 tsp. salt
  ● 3-4 tsp. baking powder
  ● 1 1/2 - 2 c. milk (depending on how thick you like your pancakes)
  ● 2 eggs
  ● 5 tbsp. oil

Directions:
Mix dry ingredients together. Beat eggs well. Add milk, oil and eggs to dry ingredients. Mix well.  Pour 1/4 cup onto a preheated griddle and flip when bubbles start to pop and surface begins to appear dry around the edges.  Add chopped pecans, blueberries, or other fillers by sprinkling onto wet surface a few seconds after pouring pancake onto griddle.  You can spoon a little extra batter over top of the fillers if desired.  Undercook slightly any pancakes that you wish to keep for plopping in the toaster later in the week.  This recipe makes enough for us to eat on the weekend and have letovers for Calvin during the week, so double it if you need more extras than that.

Monday plan day, 9/14

Organic delivery this week: Mango, black plums, nectarines, celery, spinach, sweet onions, broccoli, Russet potatoes, cherry tomatoes, red garnet yams

Dairy delivery this week: Two 1/2 gallons of 2% milk, eggs

Monday - It's going to be hot again (yeah!) so we'll have Bulghur salad with grilled shrimp and raw broccoli (shrimp from our freezer, broccoli from last week's order, bulghur from our cupboard and other salad ingredietns from our garden and/or veggie drawer).

Tuesday - Beef and eggplant pie.  This was on last week's list, but  we decided to make burgers with the meat I'd thawed instead, so this week we'll make the pie and use that eggplant!

Wednesday - Tomato spinach pasta toss (using Italian sausage from our freezer, tomatoes and spinach from our order, and pasta from our cupboard)

Thursday - Leftover pie

Friday - Picnic dinner at marching band practice!  Slices of cheese, crackers, apples, and carrots.

Saturday - Another tailgating Saturday, which means we'll have fresh fruit, veggies, nuts and granola for a light dinner.

Sunday - Leftover pasta toss

Monday - Conglomerate leftovers if there are any, otherwise it will be up for grabs...

Grocery list - for dinners this week I need nothing, but it will be time to start replenishing our freezer stock, so I'll be lookin for sales.  Other things on my list will include flour, healthy snacks (like granola, baked corn chips, greek yogurt, and maybe salsa), and our usual OJ.  I also need more vinegar, olive oil, and a few other standards.  Have a great week!

Kitchen sink chili

It's not quite chili season yet, but the weather earlier this week sure was misleading.  After spending the better portion of Tuesday standing in a chill rain making our daily round of the construction sites in the neighborhood, Calvin decided that chili was perfect for a chilly day (in fact, he got a real kick out of saying that...over and over and over again).  I think it's a mark of my increasing maturity (be nice, now) that I was able to pull this off thanks to a well stocked kitchen, or at least a well stocked garden:  dried beans in the cupboard, several plants full of ripe tomatoes, onions from the garden as well, and a strange variety of fresh veggies needing to be used in the fridge.  This, as you can probably tell from its eccentricity, is entirely my own recipe.  Imagine.

Kitchen Sink Chili

Ingredients:
  ● 2 cups mixed dried beans
  ● 2.5 quarts water, plus more
  ● 1 large onion, chopped
  ● 3 lbs tomatoes, chopped
  ● 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
  ● ~4 celery stalks, with leaves, chopped
  ● ~2 parsnips, chopped
  ● ~4 stalks bok choy (white part only), chopped
  ● 1/4 tsp salt
  ● 1/2 tsp pepper
  ● 1 tbsp chili powder
  ● 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Directions:
1.  In a large pot combine beans and 2.5 quarts of water.  Bring to a boil for 5 minutes, then remove from heat, cover, and allow to sit for 1 hour.
2.  Drain beans, then cover with fresh water, bring to a low boil, and simmer for 3 hours, adding water if necessary.
3.  Add tomatoes, garlic, parsnips, and spices, then simmer for 20 minutes.  Add bok choy and celery and simmer for additional 20 minutes.  Serve hot, topped (optionally) with cheese, sour cream, and hot sauce.

The joy of this recipe is that you can substitute anything you think sounds yummy for anything you think doesn't.

Poison by dosage

For the many people who might be having a hard time understanding how our regulatory agencies could have been so wrong in their assessment of the chemicals we come into contact with every day, I came across a great interview today with renowned environmental health scientist, Dr. J. Peterson Myers.  The interview was conducted on September 4 by Living on Earth, one of my favorite places for environmental news and insight.  The short of it, as summarized on their own site, is:

"Modern toxicology doesn't typically test chemicals for what they do at low doses. But, sometimes, small amounts of substances can be harmful to human health, especially when it comes to the hormone-mimicking chemicals known as endocrine disruptors. Pete Myers, chief scientist of Environmental Health Sciences, talks with host Jeff Young about what tiny exposures of common chemicals do in our body, and why regulatory agencies don't test low doses."

View the entire transcript of Low Dose Makes the Poison on the Living on Earth website.

Monday plan day, 9/7

Organic delivery this week: Mango, grapefruit, red plums, nectarines, celery, eggplant, acorn squash, carrots, green peppers, grape tomatoes, and beets (7lbs of them by special request-for canning)

Dairy delivery this week: Two 1/2 gallons of skim milk

Monday - Holiday weekend dinner with my immediate and extended family

Tuesday - Farmers' chili (using dried beans from our cupboard, various veggies from this and last week's delivery, and tomatoes from our garden)

Wednesday - Dinner with Jon's family

Thursday - Leftover chili

Friday -Beef and eggplant pie (using beef from the freezer, onions from our garden, and eggplant from our delivery)

Saturday - Another tailgating Saturday, which means we'll have fresh fruit and veggies and some nuts and granola for a light dinner.

Sunday - Leftover eggplant pie

Monday - Vegetarian stuffed green peppers (using peppers from various deliveries and beans from the cupboard)

Grocery list - for dinners this week I need brown rice for the stuffed peppers.  That's it.  Additionally I will need rye flour and caraway seeds (to try a new bread recipe!), and orange juice.  I'll also need more vinegar, onions, and a few spices, all for pickling those beats.  Have a great week!