August 3, 2008
Cooking Marathon Saturday
We arrived home from girls camp on friday and crashed, but I was up early saturday morning to do a cooking marathon. I made vegetable soup, orange muffins, a fruit, cheese, and muffin platter, and made a fridge full of fresh snacks to help us de-tox from a week of s'mores and camp food. It was fun to live on junk for a week, but by the time we arrived home the girls and I were ready for some real food.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 7:38 AM
July 26, 2008
Kamut Muffins
This video is hosted on My Share Page at One True Media:
Go Here to view it
Recipe:
Raspberry Cinnamon Kamut Muffin Recipe:
4 C Freshly Gound Whole Organic Kamut Grain
1/4 C Freshly Ground Whole Golden and Brown Flax Seeds
2 C Brown Sugar
1 C White Sugar
2 tsp Sea Salt
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
6 Organic Eggs
1 C Whole Organic Milk
3/4 C Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Grease 24 Muffin Tins
Fill the tins 3/4 with muffin batter
Drop 2 raspberries and a dollop of organic butter on the muffins, then add 1 tsp of cinnamon sugar mix onto the raspberries. Cover with a little cap of dough and bake for thirty minutes in a 350 degree oven.
These yummy muffins are a crowd pleaser!
Jenny Hatch
The Natural Family BLOG
The Natural Family Company
"Healthy Families Make A Healthy World!"
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 7:00 AM
March 3, 2008
Black Turtle Beans
Recipe:
3 Cups Black Turtle Beans
1 whole chopped onion
3 cloves garlic
Enough water to cover the beans in a crock pot
1 small beef soup bone
10 whole coriander seeds
1 tsp whole brown flax seeds
2 tablespoons sea salt
Cook on high setting during the day and at night either cook at low or warm setting. I watch the water levels and add water to keep the beans covered. These small beans generally cook up in two days, but three is not unheard of. What I usually do is pull out whatever beans I need for one meal, and then add an addional cup or two of dry Pinto beans and more water and let the crock pot go for another day or two. The mixed black beans and pinto beans I then bottle and put in the fridge to use in bean dips and soups.
The bean stock from the pot is an amazing powerhouse of b-vitamins and is a great base for a vegetable soup.
It goes without saying that the soup bone is given to our dog Sammy.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 8:12 AM
October 11, 2007
Whole Wheat, Flax, and Fennel Waffles
This morning I made a video demonstrating how to make Whole Wheat Waffles.
Here is the recipe:
2 Cups FG (Fresh Ground) Whole Red Wheat
2 tsp (FG) Brown Flax
1/2 tsp Whole (FG) Fennel
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
3 tsp brown sugar
1 cup milk
4 eggs (seperate the whites from the yolks)
1/4 C Extra Virgin Olive Oil
After everyone ate, I asked for testimonials about this new recipe with ground fennel. Allison spoke up while we were eating and said, "Mom, did you put fennel in the waffles?" Then like dominos falling, the boys all started moaning about fennel in the waffles. Frankly, I could not even taste the fennel, and Paul gave his two cents at the end of the video. Shelly liked them, and so did Andy, but I felt basically, like it was not a good idea. I like to have everyone rave about my food when I put so much effort into it, and sometimes, even one naysayer is enough to make me pull back and not experiment with recipes. I know the tried and true meals that my family loves and everyone will eat, and they number at about five. Mac and Cheese, Pizza, cold cereal, potato chips, and bagels with cream cheese. Oh, and ice cream.
Anything else, and somebody is complaining. I guess this is just part of motherhood in 21st century, manna from heaven, never been hungry a day in their lives, Americana.
It would be nice to have a little more appreciation and a little less complaining.
Brats.
Here is a picture of the plates after everyone was finished. Wasted food just sickens me.
But I'll keep plugging along.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 4:26 PM
July 20, 2007
Cooking for seven people on a hot JULY day 2007
A Short video of my cooking adventures for the day. Too hot and tired to type out recipes...
And yes, I did have a fantasy of participating on the Food Network "Be the next food network star", even opened up the audition form. When I read....must be able to work 100 hour weeks and stand on your feet 12 hours a day....I clicked on out of the site....I love my naps and my family more than that.
We have enjoyed watching bits of the contest here and there though these past few months. I personally hope Rory wins on sunday because I do not want to see Amy leave her family just to be a television star.
Hey Amy, if you use One True Media, you can be on television on your blog!!!
Here are my cooking adventures for the day...
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 3:57 PM
March 4, 2007
Organic Grain Sale at The Family Baker
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The Family Baker is a business run by Nadine Kerley in Arvada Colorado.
I participated in this annual grain sale for many years when it was organized by Mountain Magic and Nadine recently assumed owernership of the Mountain Magic customer mailing list and offers many of the same products and services.
Nadine is organizing a grain sale right now and if you are local here in Colorado, contact her here for more information about how to order her wonderfully priced organic grains and beans. Orders are due March 6th, 2007
Here is a link to her Home Page - Go Here.
Organic grains should represent the "staff of life" in our daily eating.
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Posted by Jenny Hatch at 7:03 PM
February 22, 2007
Baked Chicken with Brown Basmati Rice and Quinoa
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 2:54 PM
December 23, 2006
Huff Po - Arianna on the Martha Stewart Show
Huff TV: I Visit Martha Stewart and Confront My Fear of Cooking
From her new fearless voices section of the Huffington Post:
With two video clips, the recipe for Greek Holiday Cookies, and some photos this is an excellent entry on Arianna Huffingtons blog.
MELOMAKARONA
2 cups of olive oil
1 cup of brandy
1 cup of orange juice
225 gr of sugar
grated rind of 1 orange
1 kg of soft flour or 750 g of soft flour and 250 g of semolina
2 tablespoons of baking powder
1 tablespoon of baking soda
1 cup of crushed walnuts
cinnamon
2 cups of honey
2 cups of sugar
2 cups of water
cinnamon sticks
Combine the olive oil, brandy, orange juice, sugar and grated orange rind, and beat well. Add the baking powder and soda to the flour. Transfer the oil mixture to a large bowl and add gradually add the flour. Knead and then form the melomakarona into small rounds or oval shapes. Once this has been done, gently press each melomakarono against the surface of a grater in order to leave a decorative pattern on each one. Put the melomakarona in a baking pan and cook in a pre-heated oven for half an hour, at 160 C. Allow to cool in the pan.
In a saucepan, add the honey, the sugar and 2 cups of water. Boil the syrup for about 5 minutes. Skim the foam off the top, add the cinnamon sticks and then pour the hot syrup over the cold melomakarona. Sprinkle with the crushed walnut and a little cinnamon.
Welcome to the wonderful world of cooking Arianna!
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 7:31 AM
December 5, 2006
Whole Wheat Apple Pie with no refined sugar
How to make the crust:
3 cups Fresh Ground (FG) Whole Organic Red Wheat
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 C Olive Oil
1/2 C Water
Preparing the Pie Plates for cooking:
If you would like to see the pie crust in the plates before I added the apples go to this entry on Whole Wheat Sugar Cookies to see a visual. I did not have enough dough to fill up the second pie plate, so next time we make this recipe, I will probably just do one pie and put a double crust with some on the bottom and some laced on top.
The next video clip is of the spices being ground. The recipe for the apple mixture is:
3 lbs of Organic Granny Smith apples peeled and sliced
juice of one lemon
2 C Agave Sweetner
1 tsp sea salt
4 Cardamon Pods (just the seeds)
8 Whole Cloves
1 Cinnamon Stick
1 TBS Whole Flax
1 TBS Whole Fennel
1/2 of a nutmeg fresh ground with a nutmeg grater
I'm not sure why the sound on this video clip did not register, but here is the picture. I used the mortar and pestal to get the cardamon seeds out of the pods and threw them into my electric spice mill with the rest of the spices and seeds.
After fresh grinding the spices and juicing the lemon, I threw all of the ingredients in with the apples and mixed them well.
I poured the apple and spice mix into the pie crusts, which I had prebaked for twenty minutes, and then baked them at 350 for about 40 minutes. Here is a clip of the finished pies:
Truth be known only Paul and I ate the pie. The children all chowed down on the other desserts we made that night and would not even try the pies. But I enjoyed eating it for several days, and one morning had a breakfast of pie and some herbal tea. It was yummy. The spices help preserve the pie, and it actually tasted better after it had sat for a couple days in our covered cake plate.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 8:37 AM
November 13, 2006
Thanksgiving Break!
Now that the Democrats have won the house and senate and are charging full speed ahead to ruin our economy and lose the war, I thought it would be a timely thing to take a break from blogging for a couple weeks.
Democrat plan for Iraq...
We have a very busy concert season coming up. Paul and I will be performing the Messiah with the Colorado Repertory Singers and our children all have Musical Concerts in the coming weeks. We also plan to have a great week of Thanksgiving festivities, with ten whole days off school, and sharing wonderful meals together.
To help Celebrate thanksgiving I thought I would share some of my favorite food entries in this post as well as some of my favorite photographs from this past year. Enjoy!
My all time high traffic post! Making Muffins!
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 10:38 PM
October 20, 2006
Barley and Mung Bean Soup with Spiced Kamut Muffins
Cooking Pot with Mixing bowl all clean and ready to go!
Last night I made some Barley and Mung bean Soup with Spiced Kamut Muffins. Here are some pictures and the recipes, with instructions...
Peeled Vegetables
Ingredients for Mung Bean Soup
2 TBS Olive Oil
1 Onion
3 Garlic Cloves
1 Sweet Potato
1 White Potato
1/2 C. Green Mung Beans
1/8 C Whole Unhulled Barley
1/2 tsp. FG (Fresh Ground) Black, Red, and White whole Peppercorns
1 tsp Sea Salt
Stock:
1/2 C Oatstraw Tea
Peels from White Potato
1 TBS Sea Salt
10 Coriander Seeds
4 Cardamon Pods
In a large cooking pot saute chopped vegetables in Olive Oil until tender.
Fresh Grind the Peppercorns in a seed mill.
Soak the mung beans in boiling water for twenty minutes before adding them to the vegetables.
Fresh Grind the whole Barley in a seed mill until it is well cracked, then toss it into the soup pot. Make up the stock pot using the ingredients listed hard boiled in two quarts of water for twenty minutes. Strain this water into the soup pot when the vegetables are soft.
Simmer soup for an hour and then gently blend with a hand held blender. I just quickly blend it until the soup is thickened, but not mushy. Add in the final tsp of sea salt and let it sit for a couple minutes hot in a soup bowl. The final resting phase really incorporates the flavors of this amazing soup!
Paul and I chowed down two full bowls of soup each. Please note it is Vegan, and no animal ingredients were needed or wanted. The little bits of bean and grain made for a complete protein, and gave amazing flavor and body to the soup. By quick grinding the barley and soaking the mung beans for twenty minutes, this soup cooked up rather quickly, and did not need the hours it usually takes to soften whole barley. The simmering temperature I cooked it on was higher than a low simmer, and I did this to hurry the soup, but if you do it, you need to watch it to make sure it does not burn.
With the soup I cooked up some Kamut Muffins with a half cup of Fresh Ground Spices.
Here is a shot of the grains being ground in my electric mill:
Grinding whole Kamut
Kamut Flour
Mixing the dry ingredients in the mixer:
Recipe:
Spiced Kamut Muffins: (Double Batch)
4 Cups FG Kamut Grain Flour
1/2 C FG Golden Flax Seeds
10 Whole Cloves
1/4 Whole Nutmeg
1 whole Cinnamon Stick
2 C Sugar
1/2 Cup Agave Sweetner
2 C. Goat Milk
4 Organic Eggs
1 Cup White Flour
Mix dry ingredients together well, and then start adding in the wet ingredients. Add in two cups of Goats milk.
Here is a shot of my gallon of Agave - if you purchase this larger size container, the costs go down markedly - $25.00 for this gallon at Vitamin Cottage
Organic eggs give an amazing amount of high quality protein to anything you cook them with. After you add in all of the wet ingredients, just mix the dough for a minute or so until it is well mixed. This recipe was a little too wet, so I added in another cup of white flour to thicken it up. Muffin dough should be very thick.
Please note this recipe does not contain any oil, salt, or leavening. It simply does not need it. The muffins have an amazing spicy taste, and although very sweet (I've learned I have to add in the sweeteners to get my children to eat them), they are very nutritious.
Bought this organic cooking spray at Wal Mart.
I use an ice cream scoop to put the dough into the muffin pans, it is much quicker and gets the perfect amount of dough into the small muffin pans. One scoop for the small pans, and two scoops for the large muffin pan.
Muffin dough in the small pan with Dora the Explorer muffin paper. You have to be a little careful about these muffin papers. Jeff, who is twelve opened up his lunch one day and his friends had a field day teasing him about the Dora muffin papers. I bought them for Ben, who at three loves to watch Dora the Explorer...
Finished Muffins - Bake for 20 minutes at 350
The soup and muffins together made a wonderful meal.
Ben eating a muffin!
Jenny Hatch
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 6:45 AM
August 11, 2006
Pinto and Amaranth Chimichangas
For lunch today I cooked up some Chimichangas. My children love to eat Mexican Food, and this is everyones favorite!
For the filling I used a quart size bottle of Beans that I cooked in the crock pot last week. Here is the recipe for the beans. They were yummy!
One large Organic Beef Soup Bone
5 C Dry Pinto Beans
1 C Amaranth
1 TSB Sea Salt
10 Whole Coriander Seeds
2 Onions
1 tsp Cumin
1 TBS Flax Seed
1 TBS Fennel Seed
1 TBS Psyllium Seed
1 TBS Brown Mustard Seed
1 TBS Golden Mustard Seed
1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper
2 Quarts of Water
Mix the Seeds and Spices togther in an Electric Seed Grinder. Add all ingredients to the crock pot and turn the heat up high for the first day. For the next two days cook the beans on the lowest setting. Bottle The Beans and keep in the fridge for up to 4 weeks.
Here are some pictures:
Spices after grinding
To Make the filling for the Chimichangas:
Brown one pound of ground sirloin beef (Sirloin has the highest protein content). Pour one quart of the bean and amaranth mix into the skillet. Add in one box of Frozen Organic Spinach, 1/2 of a quart of Sams Club Salsa (the white corn and black bean is our favorite)
This Salsa is so inexpensive! A whole quart costs less than two dollars and is so tasty! It is chock full of beans and corn and everyone at our house loves it. I use it both in the filling for the Chimmys and also as a garnish.
Fill a white flour tortilla with 1/2 Cup of the filling and place a slice of cheddar cheese on top. Then fold it in thirds and thirds again to make a square shape. I fry them in Olive Oil for about ten minutes. Five minutes on each side at a medium heat. Then serve with salsa, sour cream, rice, and any side dish you like. The picture at the top shows the Chimichanga with rice and a side of Chicken Livers.
Here is a picture of them frying, you can see the white basmati rice cooking in the pan on the back of the stove.
Why add Amaranth to beans?
Amaranth significantly ups the nutritional quality of any vegetarian foods. Even though I cooked the beans with a beef bone, which significantly improves the flavor of the beans, the protein content in the beans is significantly less when cooked without the grain.
Adding Amaranth to the beans completes the protein and gives a wonderful full bodied flavor to everything cooked with the beans like chile, tacos, chimmys, and bean dip.
The spices I added in also give a wonderful taste to the beans, and make them much more digestible.
I often get asked how I can stand to be around my family when I feed them so much gassy food. Beans, Whole Grains, etc...are known for causing excessive gas. We really don't have that problem, and I believe it is because the seeds, herbs, and spices I cook with help all of us to digest the foods much better than if we did not eat them. When my kids eat excessive amounts of sugar and chemicals they tend to get nasty gas. But the beans and grains don't bother them. Perhaps it is because I have always eaten these foods while pregnant and nursing and so they are used to digesting them.
The nutritional value of your food skyrockets when fresh whole spices are ground into them as you cook. The fennel especially does amazing things to any food it is put in. Flax and psyllium have been used to cleanse the bowell for generations and used in this recipe do not overpower the flavor of the food as they sometimes do in other recipes.
Sometimes I like to eat a big bowl of beans and grains. It is a great high energy food that keeps me going for hours.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 8:39 PM
August 7, 2006
Menu
These past few weeks I have been preparing a menu to use through the school year which would utilyze our food storage rotation to the greatest advantage. We have a ton of food (literally) which needs to be rotated out. The oldest grains are going on fourteen years old, and we need to seriously start eating it.
Each day I plan to make some dough for bread, rolls, or scones, and also a batch of muffins and/or cracked grain cereal for my family to eat. This will help move our food storage foods into our diet and give greater variety of nutrients and foods. Because I have suffered from food allergies my whole life everything I have studied on how to prevent this in my children points towards a four day food rotation diet, where you don't eat the same food for four days. This menu was really designed to get the greatest variety of foods in our diet. It does not demonize one food over another, nor does it depend on one food to eat each day. Most of America functions on white refined wheat flour and some form of cow's milk dairy products. Wether it's pizza, or cookies and milk, or cereal and milk, or cheese and crackers, so many of the foods we eat each day revolve around the denatured and devitalized wheat berry combined with some form of cows milk.
One of my goals in setting up this diet was to rotate as many foods as possible into each month of eating. With the belief that variety is the spice of life, I figure the more types of grains, beans, seeds, and milks my family eats, the more nutrients they have to develop bone, blood, and brain tissue.
I thought I would share this menu with any of my blog readers who are interested. In the coming months I will occasionally share recipes and pictures as I do the cooking.
Monday #1 – Red Wheat and Sesame with Cows Milk
B - Pancakes
L - Sub sandwich
S – Baked Chicken-Roasted veges/green beans (2 chickens)
D - Apple Crisp
Tuesday #1 – Oats and Brown Flax with Rice Milk
B - Scrambled Eggs
L - Leftover chicken
S - Pot Roast, roasted potatos and peas
Wednesday #1 – Brown Rice and Psyllium with Soy Milk
B - Muffins and Fruit
L - Whole grain crackers, cheese cubes, and veges
S - Sloppy Joes with French fries and salad
Thursday #1 – Rye and Golden Flax with Goats Milk
B - Broccoli Quiche
L - Peanut butter and jelly
S - Pizza with garden salad
Friday #1 – Kamut and Brown Flax with Cows Milk
B - Fried Potatos
L - Turkey sandwich
S - Chinese Feast – with Egg rolls, pot stickers, and rice
Saturday #1 – Spelt and adzuki with Rice Milk
B - Waffles
L – Burritos w Rice/Nachos (Make double batch burritos)
S - Beef Stew with cornbread
Sunday #1 – Amaranth and mung with Soy Milk
B - Cracked Wheat
L – Canned Soup
S - Chimichangas with brown rice and black beans
Monday # 2 – Quinoa and basmati rice with Goats Milk
B – Muffins and Fruit
L – Burritos
S - Italian Sausage Spaghetti w/ garlic toast (Double Batch)
D – Lemon Bars
Tuesday # 2 – W Wheat and Brown Flax with and Cows Milk
B - Omelet
L - Yogurt fruit cup
S - Cheeseburgers and sweet potato fries
Wednesday # 2 - Red Wheat and Sesame with Cows Milk
B - French Toast
L – Chimichangas
S - Chicken Soup with biscuits
Thursday - # 2 - Oats and Brown Flax with Rice Milk
B - Oatmeal
L - Hoagie sandwich
S - Enchiladas with white rice and fresh shredded lettuce
Friday - #2 - Brown Rice and Psyllium with Soy Milk
B - Fried Potatos
L - Cold spaghetti
S - Greek Feast – with Spinach pie and Greek salad
Saturday - #2 - Rye and Golden Flax with Goats Milk
B - Broccoli Quiche
L - Hummus with pita and veges
S - Leek and Potato Soup with biscuits
Sunday # 2 – Kamut and Brown Flax with Cows Milk
B - Yogurt fruit cup
L - Baked ziti or casserole
S - Potato Bar with Chile (Bake double batch of Potatos)
Monday # 3 - Spelt and adzuki with Rice Milk
B - Fried Potatos
L – Spinach pie and salad
S - Beef Stir fry with Lemon Rice
D - Ice Cream Sundae
Tuesday # 3 - Amaranth and mung with Soy Milk
B - Muffins and Fruit
L - Pasta Salad
S - Macaroni and Beef Bake with Creamed Spinach
Wednesday - # 3 - Quinoa and basmati rice with Goats Milk
B - Scrambled Eggs
L - Tortilla wrap with meat and veges
S - Chicken Parmesan with fresh garden salad
Thursday - # 3 - W Wheat/Brown Flax with and Cows Milk
B - Waffles
L - Whole grain crackers, cheese cubes, and veges
S - Chicken Stir Fry with Pasta
Friday - # 3 - Red Wheat and Sesame with Cows Milk
B - Omelet
L - Stuffed pitas
S - Mexican Feast – with pinto bean tacos and nachos
Saturday - # 3 - Oats and Brown Flax with Rice Milk
B - Oatmeal
L – Canned Soup w/ Grilled Cheese
S - Indian Feast – Curry Rice, chickpeas w/ cinnamon/chapitas
Sunday # 3 - Brown Rice and Psyllium with Soy Milk
B - Scrambled Eggs
L – Pizza – Purchase hot pockets (4)
S - Beef Tacos with Spanish Rice
Monday # 4 - Rye and Golden Flax with Goats Milk
B - French Toast
L - Yogurt with granola to mix in
S - Au Gratin Potato with Roasted Turkey
D – Gingerbread
Tuesday # 4 - Kamut and Brown Flax with Cows Milk
B - Cracked Kamut
L - Peanut butter and jelly
S - Twice Baked Potato with Fresh Salad
Wednesday - # 4 - Spelt and adzuki with Rice Milk
B – Spelt Muffins and Fruit
L - Sub sandwich
S - Oven Fried Chicken with Creamed Potato and peas
Thursday # 4 - Amaranth and mung with Soy Milk
B - Omelet
L - Peanut butter and jelly
S - Lasagna with garlic toast
Friday # 4 - Quinoa and basmati rice with Goats Milk
B - Fried Potatos
L - Turkey sandwich
S - Thai Feast – with Pad Thai and Basmati Rice
Saturday # 4 - W Wheat/Brown Flax with and Cows Milk
B - Pancakes
L - Cheesy pita bread
S - BBQ Chicken with steamed asparagus and spinach
Sunday # 4 - Red Wheat and Sesame with Cows Milk
B - Cracked Wheat
L - Baked ziti or casserole
S - Super Nachos with rice, beans and roasted chicken
Special meals for Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and Birthdays
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 11:06 AM
Cracked Wheat Cereal and Flax Seed Muffins
This morning I made Cracked Wheat cereal using Brown Flax seeds and Cinnamon and also some Whole Wheat muffins with Brown Flax.
Here are the recipes:
Cracked Wheat Cereal (For detailed pictures click on the title)
2 C Whole Red Wheat freshly cracked using a hand crank mill
1 quart water
1 tsp sea salt
2 TBS Brown Flax Seeds
3 Whole Cloves
1 Inch piece of peeled ginger
Muffins: (For detailed steps on muffin making click on the link)
2 Cups of Fresh Ground Whole Red Wheat
1/4 Cup of Brown Flax Fresh ground in a seed mill
2 eggs
1 16 ounce can of pear sauce
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
I mixed all ingredients together and then put them in the muffin papers and let them sit in the pan for about a half hour. This sitting time is really important when cooking whole grains. It allows the wheat to suck up more of the moisture and makes for a really moist muffin.
Bake at 350 for twenty minutes
The muffins tasted great with strawberry jam. Ben likes to eat muffins even more if they have a fun paper shell. I bought these spider man muffin papers at Hobby Lobby.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 10:52 AM
July 20, 2006
Summer Chile
Here is a recipe for a vegetable chile that tastes delicious. I made it this morning for my family and we have been chowing on it all day.
1 lb Ground Sirloin
2 large Onions
3 Garlic Cloves
Brown the beef and onions in a medium skillet
Add
1 large can of diced tomatos
1 quart of pinto beans and brown basmati rice (recipe below) or
2 small cans pinto beans and 1 cup cooked basmati rice
2 eleven ounce cans of V-8 juice
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp dried ground chile peppers
Simmer about 2 hours on low
Serve over white rice, baked potatos, or pasta with shredded cheddar cheese.
I served this dish over potatos and it was yummy!
Pot of chile - next to several jars of my home made pinto beans with brown basmati rice
Secret ingredient - V-8 Juice right from the can
Finished bowl of Summer Chile
To cook up the rice and beans takes about ten minutes of prep and three days of cooking in the crock pot. Please don't be put off by the time involved! Cooking your own rice and beans is well worth the time and effort involved. The taste and nutrition level skyrocket when you cook your own rather than used canned beans.
Here is the recipe:
In a large crock pot put
2 large beef bones (Soup bones found in the meat section of the grocery store)
1 onion
3 garlic cloves
1 1/2 C Brown Basmati Rice
3 C Rinsed Pinto Beans
Spices: (These spices can be added or not, I just bought a new spice grinder and so I have been grinding up a storm) Use dried spices if you can't grind your own.
10 whole Coriander seeds
1 tsp whole brown mustard seeds
1 tsp whole yellow mustard seeds
1 TBS Psyillium seeds
1 TBS Flax seeds
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 TBS Sea Salt
1 TBS dried parsley
Grind up all of the spices and add to the crock pot. Cover with water and cook on the hightest setting for a day. Watch the water level and keep the beans well covered. You may need to add a quart or more of water during the cooking process. After a day of cooking, turn the heat down to the lowest setting and let simmer for two additional days.
I took the bones out of the crock pot after the first day and added in dried parsley.
After the beans were really soft, I put them in glass jars and stored them in the fridge. The beans and rice added to the chile were the perfect addition to the chile and made the meal so quick to put together.
We ate it over baked potatos with fresh cheddar and it was a great summer meal!
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 5:04 PM
July 13, 2006
Spice Cookies
I purchased a new Kitchen Toy recently, An electric spice grinder. I have used my mortar and pestal to gently grind up spices for various recipes, but to get the spices ground to powder takes some real effort and often does not work. My kids hate big pieces of hard spices in our food, and so I have been planning to purchase an electric grinder for some time, and finally used it for the first time yesterday.
Here is the grinder I purchased at Vitamin Cottage.
Ben helped me grind up the spices for this cookie recipe:
Before adding Cardamon to the electric mill it is important to get the seeds out of the pods. I used my mortar and pestle to crush the pods and extract the seeds
Cardamon seeds in mortar
Ben with the ground spices - Cardamon (6 pods worth of seeds), one stick of cinnamon, six whole cloves, one tablespoon of whole fennel, one teaspoon of whole anise, and a quarter of a whole nutmeg.
Yesterday I cooked up several things using whole spelt flour mixed with a half a cup of fresh ground golden flax seeds. Here is a picture of the spelt spice cookies baking in the oven with a loaf of spelt bread wrapped around copious amounts of turkey and cheddar cheese and sprinkled with sesame seeds. We had it for supper last night and it was delicious.
Here is the recipe for the Spelt Sugar Spice Cookies
1 C Butter
2 C Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
3 1/4 C Fresh Ground Spelt Flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Spices
3 inch piece of Cinnamon stick
1 Tbs Whole Fennel
1 Tsp Whole Anise
6 Whole Cloves
6 Cardamon Pods
1/4 Whole Nutmeg
Directions:
First - Grind the spelt flour and grind the whole spices
Cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy.
Add in eggs, vanilla, and spices and beat well.
Gradually add in the dry ingredients and mix well.
Refrigerate dough for an hour.
Bake in cookie bar pan for 25 minutes on 350 degrees.
These cookies tasted best hot out of the oven, but I have been munching on them steadily for the past hour while I blogged and they are really good the next day with a cup of mint herbal tea.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 9:03 AM
July 1, 2006
Meal Planning
Click on the photo to get to additional natural family blog food entries.
MEAL PLANNING:
This summer I will be teaching our four oldest children some basic meal planning and food budgeting.
Our experiment is going to include five days of lunch prep for each child. Michelle, Allison, Jeffrey, and Andrew will each be given five days and $100.00 to prepare a five course meal for our family of seven.
Hatch children in December of 2005
Each meal will include an appetizer, salad, soup, main dish (w/ protein, carb and vegetable), and dessert. Each serving must contain at least 25 grams of protein and the meal must cost less than $20.00 to prepare for the whole family. The children will be encouraged to use our food storage for basic ingredients, but will be required to do most of the cooking from scratch - with just a little help from mom.
I will continue to prepare breakfast and a light supper during the month of July, but the point of this experiment is to take our cooking/teaching to a higher level in terms of nutritional content and staying within a budget.
Paul works from home and most of us like to eat our main meal in the middle of the day, so this month of July is an ideal time to have our adventures in cooking.
Click on this photo of Ben to read about our thanksgiving vacation food adventures last november.
Ben helping in the kitchen.
Click on this link to read about how the children helped prepare thanksgiving supper.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 8:31 PM
April 15, 2006
Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls
Recipe:
One Quart Rice Milk
One Cup Olive Oil
1/2 Cup Brown Rice Syrup
One TBS Yeast
Six Cups Whole Wheat Flour
Mix this in a Mixer for ten minutes
Gradually Add In:
Four more cups of Whole Wheat Flour
2 tsp Salt
When the dough pulls away from the bowl, stop adding flour and let the dough rise for one hour
Punch down dough and cut it in half
Roll out the dough and spread four tablespoons Warm Butter on the dough. Sprinkle 1/2 Cup White Sugar mixed with 1 tsp Cinnamon on the dough
Roll up the dough and cut the rolls in one inch pieces. Put them into a baking pan and let rise for one hour.
Bake 30 minutes at 375 Degrees
Frost with Cream Cheese Icing.
1/2 Cup Cream Cheese
2 tsp rice milk
pinch salt
3 Cups Powdered Sugar
Mix well with beaters and frost the rolls while still warm
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 10:16 PM
March 16, 2006
Provident Living - Wheat Cereal
For the past few years I have taught cooking classes in my home to share the basics of Provident Living with those who attend.
These classes are designed to teach the new homemaker (or anyone) how to cook with whole foods. In the class I cook a pot of cracked wheat, a batch of muffins, and a loaf of whole wheat bread. I share the economics of cooking with whole foods, and also give a brief lecture on 72 hour kits, safe water storage, and how to rotate stored foods into your day to day cooking.
I have done numerous posts on this topic for my Blog, but for those of you who are new, here is a primer on how to cook cracked wheat cereal. This is covered in detail during the class. My next class will be on April 8th from 8:30 to 10:00 AM. If you are in the Denver/Boulder area and would like to attend, just email me for directions.
I will also be taking anyone interested on a Family Canning Session down at the Aurora Cannery. If you are interested in learning more about how to store whole foods for long term storage, just click on this blog entry. The canning session will be on April 15th from 8AM to Noon. Just email me for more information.
Cracked wheat Cereal with Butter and Agave Sweetner. A great way to start the day!
One cup of Organic Red Wheat
(Click on the photo to get to the web site where I purchased this mill)
I crack up one cup of Organic Red Wheat to feed my family of seven breakfast. This wheat costs about five cents. If you add in the cost of butter, spices, sweetner, milk or anything else you like to eat with the wheat, breakfast for my family costs about a dollar a day. Compared to any wheat based box of cold cereal, the economical savings of this breakfast are obvious. Most cereal costs about three dollars a box. Add in milk, sweetner, fruit, etc...and the costs go up significantly per serving. I also can't "reuse" wasted cold cereal. Any cracked wheat left in the pot can be put in muffins, bread, or biscuits, and the waste is minimal.
You can make cracked wheat Cereal with just salt, but I like to use a variety of spices to make the wheat taste great! All of these spices help with digestion, which can be an issue if you are just starting whole food adventures. Into one quart of water I put a mix of Flax seed, Whole Clove, Cardamon pods, a chunk of ginger, a cinnamon stick, and grated nutmeg.
After the spices have hard boiled for twenty minutes, you can add in the cracked wheat, stirring constantly as you gradually add it in. The wheat then needs to hard boil for five minutes. I usually turn the heat down to medium and let it go, stirring every once in a while. This boiling step helps to soften the outer hull of the grain, and it quickens the cooking time. I then turn the heat down to a low simmer and let it cook for another half hour or so. Then I put it in bowls and let it sit and cool for five minutes or so. It keeps cooking in the dish while it cools down to "just right".
More on Wheat Cookery
Nobody is talking about it yet, but I feel passionate about parents being prepared for Emergency Childbirth during a Bird Flu Pandemic. Here is a previous Blog Entry on that topic.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 8:34 AM
March 10, 2006
Quinoa Vegetable Stir Fry Delight
Quinoa is a high protein grain. When I eat a meal prepared with Quinoa, I don't feel the need to add meat to the stir fry because the grain is so filling.
Here is my recipe for a great Quinoa Stir fry. I made this lunch for my husband and I the other day. The kids don't like it when I spice up the food so much, so I don't make this meal very often for our family, but when it is just Paul and I, I go all out in terms of spices and flavors. It was really yummy, and we had plenty left over for re-heat the next day. It actually tasted better the second day, as so many stir fry meals do.
Click on the photo to learn more facts about this amazing grain!
Recipe:
2 Cups Water
1/2 Cup Quinoa
1/2 Cup White Basmati Rice
Herbs
Thumb size piece of ginger, peeled
1/8 teaspoon Flax seed
1/8 teaspoon Coriander seeds
1/8 teaspoon Fenugreek Seeds
3 whole Cardamon pods
2 whole Cloves
1 teaspoon Tumeric Powder
1 teaspoon sea Salt
Hard boil the herbs in the water for five minutes, then turn the heat down and add in the rice and quinoa. Cover and let simmer for 20 to 25 minutes.
Vegetable Stir Fry
Saute
one purple onion
one small sweet potato
3 cloves garlic
in 1/8 c. Olive Oil and 1/2 teaspoon of whole fennel seeds
Add in a couple splashes of Balsamic Vinegar when the potatos are soft
1 teaspoon sea Salt
A couple shakes each of ground
Pepper
Thyme
Oregano
1 large bag of Organic Broccoli
1/2 cup of water
Let the water steam the broccoli and reduce, then turn the heat off and let the vegetables sit until the quinoa and rice are finished cooking. Serve the vegetables over the Quinoa.
Preparing the water
Adding Quinoa and Rice to the water
Cooked Quinoa and Rice (the tumeric turns it yellow!)
Adding the fennel seed to the olive oil
Adding in the sweet potato and onion
I slice the garlic right into the pan (yes, my three year old son took this picture)
Saute the veges in the olive oil
When you add the vinegar to the stir fry it tends to stop the cooking action of the vegetables, so don't add it in until the veges are as soft as you like to eat them!
Add in a bag of frozen broccoli
Spoon the stir fry over the quinoa for a healthy and filling lunch.
I pull out whatever whole herbs and spices I can see and put them on a napkin next to the plate. Nobody likes to chomp down on a whole cardamon pod or a chunk of ginger. If you happen to have this experience however, it promises to be one you won't forget!
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 10:19 AM
March 3, 2006
Baked Chicken with Rye Biscuits
The other night I made a Baked Chicken and Rye Biscuit supper. I purchased the chicken at Wild Oats, my favorite health food store.
Click on the Chicken to get to the Wild Oats Store Locater.
I like to purchase sustainably farmed chickens. They are much healthier, and make better meals than chickens purchased just about anywhere else. This bird cost quite a bit ($15.50), but it was enough to create three total meals for my family. After we ate the initial supper, I made chicken soup, and had leftover chicken breast in the fridge for sandwiches.
Before baking rinse the chicken with tap water
Fill the cavity of the bird with vegetables and rosemary herb
Pour Olive oil over the top of the chicken
Vegetables used in this recipe before being peeled and chopped
Chopped vegetables in the baking pan
Herbs sprinkled on the vegetables. I used Thyme, Oregano, and Pepper with a generous amount of sea salt.
I also sprinkled a tablespoon of sea salt on the chicken and then loaded it up with dried parsley, spinach, and chives
The organ meats and neck can be boiled with fresh vegetables, sea salt, and oat straw tea to make a very nourishing stock to be used as gravy or soup stock. I used this pot for soup later in the week.
Hard boil the stock for twenty minutes, then let simmer for a couple hours. Strain and save in the fridge until needed.
Grinding the whole Rye in the electric grain mill.
Adding Rye Flour to mixer
Whole milk buttermilk makes the best biscuits
After mixing pour out the dough onto your board. Dough should be sticky at this point.
Roll out the dough gently.
My Mom taught me that when making biscuits you use a quick hand and a gentle touch for light biscuits.
Rye Biscuits in the pan
I brushed the biscuits with Butter as soon as they came out of the oven. They were perfect with the baked chicken.
Recipe:
Rye Buttermilk Biscuits
3 C Fresh ground Rye Flour
3 C White Flour
1 tsp Baking soda
3 tsp Baking powder
3 tsp sea salt
Mix dry ingredients in the mixer
Add in
1 quart Whole Milk Buttermilk
1/2 C light Olive Oil
Mix until gently incorporated and then turn out onto a board. Gently press dough out until it is ready to be cut. Cut with a biscuit cutter, or a glass, as I used in the picture. I like my biscuits thick and so I leave the dough very thick and the average biscuit cutter is not large enough. I use an upside down drinking glass to quickly cut out the dough.
Bake at 450 for 30 minutes.
Brush with butter when just taken hot out of the oven.
UPDATE
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 6:30 AM
February 18, 2006
Lentil, Leek, and Potato soup with Whole Wheat Biscuits
Tonight I made some soup and biscuits and thought I would share the recipes. Very yummy food for a cold day!
Finished Lentil, Potato, and Leek Soup
Lentil Soup in the Pot
Recipe for Lentil Soup:
Two TBS Olive Oil
One large white onion
One large leek
Two large baking potatos
Six carrots
One cup of soaked lentils (For this recipe I used brown, red, and green lentils mixed together)
Three green onions
One small box of Imagine Foods Chicken Stock
1/2 tsp Dried Oregano
1/2 tsp Dried Thyme
1/4 Cup Dried Parsley and Spinach
One tsp Ground Black Pepper
Additional Stock made in a separate stock pot -
One quart of water
One TBS sea Salt
1/4 Cup Oat Straw Tea
One TBS Flax Seeds
Ten Coriander Seeds (Whole)
One tsp Rosemary (Whole)
Stock pot after being drained.
Stock - Made from Flax Seed, Coriander, Rosemary, and Oatstraw Tea
How to make this soup:
Begin by soaking the lentils in a bowl of warm water. Chop the green onions and add them to the bowl. Let this soak for as long as it takes the onions to get soft. Then drain and add to the pot.
In a large pot saute the white Onion in 2 TBS of Olive Oil.
Add in one tsp sea salt. Cook for about ten minutes. While the onions were cooking I peeled the carrots, chopped the leek and rinsed it really well, and threw the carrots, leek, and spices into the pot.
Then I added the lentils and the box of chicken stock. I turned the heat down to medium and let this boil while the second pot of stock cooked.
For the Oatstraw stock put one quart of water into a pot and add in the rest of the ingredients. The Oatstraw, Flax, Sea salt, Rosemary, and Coriander. Let this all hard boil for twenty minutes. Strain it into the soup pot. Then crank up the heat and let the soup boil for a good 45 minutes or until the carrots are soft.
Total cooking time is about 90 minutes from start to end.
I made biscuits to go with the soup.
Esther's whole wheat biscuits.
This recipe is meant to be used with 100% white wheat. My friend Esther gave it to me a couple weeks ago. I doubled it and tweaked it by using 1/2 white flour and half whole wheat and light olive oil instead of butter. They turned out great!
Whole Wheat Biscuits
Preheat oven to 500
Three cups whole wheat flour
Three cups white flour
Two TBS Baking Powder
Two TBS Sugar
Two tsp salt
One tsp baking soda
1/2 Cup olive oil
Three Cups Buttermilk
Mix all ingredients together and turn out onto a floured surface. Roll the dough out gently and use a biscuit cutter to cut out the dough. Put biscuits in a pan that has been greased and bake at 500 degrees for five minutes. Then turn the heat down and bake for an additional 15 minutes at 450.
Cool for 2 minutes in the pan, then invert the pan over into a tea towell. Turn right side up and cool 5 minutes longer then serve.
These biscuits definitely tasted best right out of the oven, but I just ate another one tonight cold and it was still better than most store bought bread.
My secret Weapon for quick soup - Imagine Foods Stock in a Box!
I like to make most of my soup stock from scratch, but animal stocks are messy and really greasy to clean up after. The other day I made a turkey stock from the leftover bones from our supper, and it reminded me of how disgusting that particular job can be! Keeping some of these stock boxes on hand is so nice for soups, gravies, and casseroles! I love the various flavors Imagine Foods has for purchase and most can be bought at any health food store in the soup section.
Whole Wheat Biscuits
I also like to bake double amounts when I make cookies or biscuits, but this recipe can be halved to make a smaller amount. I forgot to take the picture of the biscuits when I pulled them out of the oven. And these two were the only ones left on the plate when I snapped the picture. My family had snarfed them in a matter of minutes!
Paul said he thought the soup was "really good".
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 9:37 PM
February 15, 2006
Cooking and Homemaking Blog Entries
My Kitchen Counter is cluttered with cooking supplies, herbs, and kitchen tools on any given day!
Here is a compilation of the Cooking and Home Making Blog Entries I have put together since starting in July.
One of the main reasons I Blog is to encourage Mothers in the traditional homemaking arts of cooking from scratch, growing herbs, and using natural remedies to heal the family.
Harvesting the Kitchen herbs for cooking
Ingredients for cooking corn chowder from scratch!
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 8:45 AM
December 7, 2005
Pinto Beans
This past weekend I cooked up a pot of Pinto Beans. It takes three days to do them properly, but when they are finished, it is amazing how many meals you can produce with Pintos.
Here are the pictures:
Adding a bay leaf to the crock pot which already contains onions, garlic, and spices
Fill the crock pot up with several cups of rinsed beans. Don't fill it more than half full of beans as they will greatly expand in size and shape.
Cover the beans with water, turn the heat on the lowest setting, and let them cook for three days. I like to check them once in a while and add in water as needed. You always want to keep them covered with water as they cook. After three days they are ready to eat!
I store the beans in small jars in the fridge. Please note these beans are not prepared for long term storage in the pantry. They must either be stored in the fridge or in the freezer.
Finished beans in jars
Ingredients for Refried Beans - Salsa, butter, two jars of beans
Melt the butter in a skillet. Add in the beans and mash them well with a potato masher. Then add in the salsa and let them reduce down to a thick paste. They are now ready to use for bean dip, burritos, or to eat as pintos and cheese.
Add beans and cheese to a burito tortilla
Wrap burrito in thirds and then thirds again
I bake these burritos in the tin foil for about fifteen minutes @ 250 degrees to melt the cheese, and serve them with more salsa. The kids and Paul took these burritos for lunch the other day, and the two jars of beans made eight large burritos.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 6:08 PM | TrackBack
November 22, 2005
Holiday Cooking with Children
Last thanksgiving I was dreading having the children home for ten days of vacation from school. Why? I don't know, it probably had something to do with feeling the need to "entertain" them and keep them busy. But one day before school let up for the holiday I had an idea.
Let the kids cook during the holiday!
Jeff makes turkey tenders from scratch!
I had been wanting to teach much more in depth the cooking skills that I have mastered after many years of effort. The children have always helped me in the kitchen. But to have complete responsibility? My daughters are getting older, and my oldest only has a few more years at home. So I set up a plan where the children would each have two days of meal planning, shopping, and cooking. I told them I would do all cleanup.
What happened is really a miracle.
Our holiday sizzled with excitement and upbeat fun as the children poured over recipe books, internet food web sites (Food network consistently had the best recipes). The kids loved the excitement of trying a new recipe and seeing if anyone liked what they had to offer.
I really noticed an increase of love in our home and each child learned from one degree to another the principle that when we lovingly prepare food for our family, it is one of the greatest offerings of service possible.
We repeated the experiment over the christmas holiday, also with much success.
And during the summer we had one whole month of homemaking skills. Each child had a whole week of menu planning and cooking, being in charge of the laundry, responsibility for tending a toddler, and household chores.
The month long experiment was a little less "fun". We had several bouts of frustrated crying. Certain children were reduced to tears when no one wanted to eat the food that they had prepared (except Mom and Dad), or overwhelm kicked in, or the deadline for the laundry was looming and they had procrastinated and only finished one load.
Jeff cooking lunch for the family
I really tried to back away and let them learn by their own experience how difficult it is to keep a home running smoothly. We gave a twenty dollar bonus to whichever child could do all of the laundry for the week, and have it folded, hung up in the closets properly, beds remade wity clean sheets, and socks matched and put away. Not one child had the gumption to do it. It was just too big of a job. But how wonderful to have them learn that fact. My daughters have been much more proactive about doing their own laundry this year, and all whining and complaining have stopped (well, mostly) about not having anything clean to wear.
My daughter Allison said that she had no idea how difficult it was to wash all the clothes, cloth diapers, sheets, towells, and cleaning cloths. And I felt much more respect from all of the children in all areas of our home life, as they realized the many tasks I was "supposed" to accomplish each day.
This year I decided that the children would again do the cooking for this holiday season, and Paul would make our thanksgiving supper. It has been refreshing for me these past four days to relax and not worry about the shopping, meal planning, and cooking. Paul took all of the children to the store on friday night to purchase the ingredients for our meals this week. Allison did saturday and sunday's meals and Jeff has been cooking up a storm these past two days.
Jeff made quite possibly the best french toast I have EVER eaten yesterday. He found the recipe on Emerils web site. The bread was supposed to be a baguette, but Jeff decided to make a loaf in our bread machine the night before (the kids earn points for using food storage in their meal planning). He used the fresh bread with this amazing mix of cinnamon, eggs, cream, sugar, and salt, and slow cooked it. The most wonderful aromas started calling me to breakfast...and we all enjoyed the delicious meal he planned.
I'll take a few pictures later in the week to share more of what the children did. Granted our grocery budget is blown out of the water when the children do the shopping, and we have dessert every day, sometimes twice a day. Premiums are put on frozen foods that just need to be reheated. (Allison made sweet and sour chicken with rice for our sunday lunch. The chicken was from the frozen food section and just needed to be cooked in the oven) Cold cereal (which I rarely purchase) and potato chips round out the diet, and marshmallows are everywhere in fruit salads, rice crispie treats, and sweet potato casserole.
I told the kids they could use any prepared foods they wanted, and really cook whatever they desired. They could offer the family cold cereal three times a day if need be, but that they would have to live with any complaints generated by lack of preparation and effort.
I'm pleased that they mostly have taken this very seriously and have put some quality time into preparing menus and shopping with lists. During the summer, I plan to give them a budget and take these lessons to the next level. But for now they are learning powerful lessons that will serve them for the rest of their lives.
When I was nine I informed my mother that I wanted to cook lunch for our large family of nine (my baby sister was not born yet). I am a middle child, born after three brothers. I have three little sisters, and a younger brother.
Mom asked me what I wanted to make, and I told her I would cook Macaroni and Cheese. She gave me a dollar and I rode on my bike down to the grocery story to purchase three boxes of Kraft Mac and Cheese.
I will never forget my first pasta experience. I put all the pasta, cheese mix, and COLD water in the big cooking pot and turned the heat up to high. It a couple minutes a horrifying scent started wafting over the whole house. Burned pasta, nasty cheese smell etc...
My mom told me that she would clean the pot while I road my bike down to the store to get some more mac and cheese. I remember seeing the same sales clerk and him making some stupid comment about "Wow, you sure do like macaroni and cheese" when I bought the food.
This time I actually read the box which told me I needed to boil the water first. So I waited until that water was boiling and then I threw the macaroni and the cheese mix into the water to cook.
I realized my mistake after I drained the beautifully cooked pasta. Oh, this is when I need to add in the cheese mix, after the pasta is drained.
Once more I road my bike to the store to purchase three more boxes of Mac and Cheese (Snarky checkout guy was wise enough not to say anything) while Mom cleaned the pot and started the water boiling. I don't know how she had the patience and wisdom to let me learn by my own mistakes, but she did and I will never forget it.
This time I cooked the pasta correctly, added in the final ingredients with the cheese mix and offered this hot and tasty meal to my hungry brothers and sisters. I have never been more proud of finishing a task as I was after my morning of effort at the tender age of nine.
I had been thinking about this memorable experience when I made the decision to let the children learn how to cook without my help. The thing is, we are on a tight food budget. Letting children learn can be expensive in terms of food wasted if it is burned or mangled in some way and if we allow them to use expensive ingredients that I rarely purchase. (Jeff bought a whole quart of fresh cream as he is making several recipes that require it). But I had to balance all of that and let my tightwad tendencies relax so that they can have this learning experience. The funny thing is, they are so busy cooking, meal planning, and just living, I have not had one child demand that we do something "fun" in the past four days.
Eating Jeffs lunch - Turkey Tenders, corn n peas, and Pear Sauce for dipping
We have not felt the need to go to the rec center, the mall, or the movies to keep the kids "busy" during this holiday because they are already engaged in something far more exciting and fun than simply being entertained. And I truly have a break from the monotiny of meal planning, and the extra work of cooking three meals a day instead of just two (two hot meals with a packed lunch is my typical offering on monday through friday).
I'm still doing all the dishes and that is fine. I would rather wash my dishes anyway. Twice a year we go to Savers in Boulder to replenish our crockery and plates and I pick up a couple do dads in the form of serving dishes and bake ware. Why do I shop at Savers for this bric a brac? Well, I like to eat off of breakable dishes. China, glass, and crockery up the frequency of the foods you serve. Plastic cookware, plates, bowls, and cups are nice when you have children, but they lower the frequency of your foods. And because I love to serve and eat on glass cookware, we have LOTS of breakage at our house. The sounds of smashing plates and bowls is a weekly occurance.
Tea Cups, water glasses, and serving plates are regularly dropped and smashed - accidentally of course, but I never worry about it because when you have purchased those things at Savers, you really don't care.
I like to do the dishes because then I can control the breakage a little better. What is it about nine year old boys? You send them out to wash the dishes, and soon, crash, bang, and he comes out with a gash on his finger from the broken bowl. Andy has been sporting a large bandaid the past few days.
It has been a nice time, and I anticipate continuing the cooking and homemaking experiments as long as we have children in our home.
Here is an article that claims:
Children Taken out to eat on a regular basis are at risk for heart disease
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 4:51 AM | TrackBack
November 15, 2005
Black Turtle Beans
I was raised on Beans and Wheat. My mother was a great example of cooking with whole foods. We had beans at least once a week in the form of chile, bean soup, mexican food made from scratch, and she always seemed to have a pot of beans simmering on the stove.
My Favorite bean is the Black Turtle Bean...
Measure out three cups of Black Turtle Beans
Rinse them with tap water
Let them soak in some hot tap water while you prepare the pot and herbs
Add one tablespoon of salt to the crock pot
Peel and Prepare one onion and some garlic
Add one teaspoon of Cumin to the pot
Add one fourth cup of Olive Oil to the pot
Drain the beans in the sink and add them to the pot
Add eight cups of water to the pot
Let the beans simmer on the lowest setting for three days. I start pulling out beans to use in recipes about 24 hours after the cooking starts. Today I plan to make enchiladas, and will refridgerate the leftover beans for bean dip and soup.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 6:29 AM | TrackBack
November 1, 2005
How to make Hot Kamut Cereal
When a family begins cooking with whole grains, one quickly learns that the variety of grains available to eat are endless. My personal favorite wheat for Hot Cereal is Organic Kamut. I ate two 25 pound bags of this grain during my last pregnancy. It was the perfect baby making food.
I use an organic Kamut, which is a non-hybrid form of wheat for our breakfast cereal. It is sweet in flavor, nutty, and very nourishing.
If you look at this white wheat next to some Kamut, you can see that the Kamut is much longer and fuller.
This is a picture of white wheat, red wheat, and kamut side by side. Each of these types of grains gives you different nutrients and are mineral rich. All are organic, and are wonderful as a hot cereal.
My 11 year old Jeff likes to help me grind the grains with our roller mill.
The hopper on the mill can hold about two full cups of grain and this is plenty of food to feed our large family a very nutritious and filling breakfast.
Tips for those with problems digesting whole grains.
Let the cracked grains soak in some water over night.
Cook the grains with some peppermint leaves or a thumb size piece of peeled ginger.
Drink a large glass of water thirty minutes before breakfast to aid digestion.
And, finally, recognize that going from a refined diet to a whole foods diet takes time, and some digestive cleansing and discomfort is very normal.
Tip: Those who are gluten intolerant often have a magnesium deficiency.
Jeff grinding the Kamut
Prepare the cooking water with one quart water, one tsp sea salt, flax seed (about one tablespoon), a cinnamon stick, cardamon pods, and cloves. Hard boil this water for twenty minutes to extract the oils from the spices and seeds.
When the water has hard boiled for twenty minutes it is ready for the cereal. I usually just leave the spices in the water and let them cook along with the grain. It is easy to fish them out before serving the cereal.
Adding in the cracked Kamut.
Ben stirs the Kamut with a whisk - Ben loves to "help" in the kitchen.
The cereal will be finished after twenty minutes of simmering on a low temperature.
Ben likes brown sugar on his Kamut.
I like to put organic Agave sweetener on my cereal.
This breakfast cost about a dollar to make for my family of seven.
This cereal can be made without any of the spices or seeds, but they add a nice flavor. I usually eat a large bowl of this cereal and it gives me plenty of energy until lunch.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 10:38 PM
October 6, 2005
Red Raspberry Leaf Tea
A few weeks ago, I did a major harvest of my herb garden. I dried the herbs and made Red Raspberry Leaf Tea. Yesterday I went out again to see what sort of growth took place over the past few weeks and was surprised to see that many of the herbs had come back strong, especially peppermint and red raspberry, so I did a second harvest. It is supposed to freeze for the first time this week, and that is always the best time to gather in the herbs.
Jenny Cutting raspberry leaves for Tea. I cut the tips about two to three feet off the end of the branch.
If you look closely you can see the place where I cut a few weeks ago, and the new growth that has happened since. These new leaves are ideal for tea.
You should bunch the raspberries together and hang them upside down for the most nutrients in the leaves.
It is great to have a good tea pot in which to steep the herbs. I also use a little mesh basket that allows me to use dried leaves that are home grown.
This bag was put together after my first harvest
This tea basket has a spring action on the handles which makes it very user friendly.
Just fill the basket with leaves
Pour boiling water over the leaves
Or pour boiling water right into a large tea mug
After the herb is finished drying in the upsidedown position, just put on a pair of sturdy gloves and gently ease the leaves off the stalks into a bowl. Then I gently crush them with the gloves on. I keep the leaves in a ziploc bag until I use them in my teas and in my soup stocks.
Here are some great links about the amazing raspberry leaf! Go Here and Here
I believe it is the most important herb for mothers!
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 12:44 PM | TrackBack
September 13, 2005
Rotating Food Storage
For years I have been trying to find an easy way to rotate our food. I have used a variety of food containers, and after much trial and error, have finally come up with the system that seems to work best.
I purchsed Restaurant Quality containers that stack and are see through at Sam's Club. These containers will hold ten to fifteen pounds of food. Which translates into holding the wheat from two and a half number 10 cans. I love being able to put so much food into the containers, and being able to see how much is left, as it helps me to know which foods need to be replaced when I am lugging cans up from the basement.
Here is a photo of my kitchen Food Storage Shelves. (And I do have additional Foods in bins at various locations around the kitchen)
The bins contain a variety of foods:
White Wheat
Red Wheat
Black Beans
Brown Basmati Rice
Kamut
White Flour
Spelt
Whole Oat Groats
Brown Sugar
Quinoa
Flax Seed
Powdered Milk
White Sugar
Refried Bean mix
Yellow Corn
Pasta
Oatmeal
Pinto Beans etc..
Here are the shelves from a different perspective:
And the same picture blown up even bigger.
I know this may seem like a huge amount of food on these shelves, but I can easily use up all of the wheat from both the red and white wheat bins in one week! I am constantly refilling these bins, and this is the most user friendly system I have yet come up with.
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Posted by Jenny Hatch at 5:02 PM
Making Muffins
Whenever someone asks me what I feed my kids every day, I often reply, "Muffins". These kid pleasers have been a staple in our family since I first purchased a wheat grinder back in 1989.
I thought I would use this post to outline the steps to making great muffins from scratch. I made up this Vegan Recipe this morning, and took pictures as I went along.
First I started with a simple recipe:
4 C Freshly gound Whole Wheat Flour
1 tsp Sea Salt
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 C Brown Sugar
1 Can Pear Sauce (I used Pear sauce because I have several cases of it on hand, but applesauce will also work)
1/2 C Olive Oil
1/2 C Water
A Bin of Organic White Wheat next to my Whisper Mill Wheat Grinder
Grinding the Wheat
Adding more wheat to the mill
Measuring the flour
Adding in the Soda, Salt, and Powder
Measuring Baking Powder
Mixing Dry Ingredients
Adding in Pear Sauce
Adding in Olive Oil
Adding in water
Gently Mix the dough until it is all wet
I use an ice cream scoop to put the muffin dough in the pans
Finished muffins. Just after I pulled these out of the oven, my husband and kids were leaving for the day, and they snatched them up before I could get a picture of the whole pan of finished muffins. This recipe makes two full pans of muffins, and they need to be baked at 375 for twenty minutes.
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Posted by Jenny Hatch at 4:37 PM
Mixing Milk
We have a couple hundred pounds of Powdered Milk in our food storage, and I have been trying to find ways to use it more in our day to day life. Recently I have started mixing powdered milk with whole milk and the children report that it is indeed drinkable.
I used Reverse Osmosis water to fill half of a gallon pitcher.
Then added in 1 1/2 cups of Powdered milk, and mixed it up well with a whisk.
Then I poured a half gallon of Whole Milk into the pitcher and mixed it up, and after chilling, the milk is ready for drinking or for use in recipes.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 4:08 PM
August 31, 2005
Lunches
Since my children started school this past week, I have made the goal to make most of their food from scratch. It's healthier and saves lots of money. Since they don't seem to like home made bread sandwiches because the sliced bread seems to crumble and is a random mess of thick and thin slices, I decided to make large rolls for them to slather with peanut butter or cheese or to just eat plain with a salad or some soup. I made a batch of these rolls last night, and thought I would share the recipe as well as some pictures.
Ben holding a roll:
Andrew likes Turkey and Lettuce on his roll"
The Ingredients for the Rolls:
I was blessed to have a mother who used a wheat grinder to freshly grind grains and make bread every week. This powerful example made it easy for me when I married 17 years ago to continue in this tradition with my own family. I blew out the motor on my first machine a couple years ago, but it was replaced by A Whisper Mill which I use now almost daily in my cooking.
Last night I fresh ground the organic red wheat in the Mill, with just the tiniest sprinkling of Flax seeds.
Then I put three cups of whole milk in my mixer and slowly started mixing it on low with one cup of hot water, 1 cup of Olive oil, 1/2 cup of honey, and two teaspoons of yeast. Then I began adding in the flour one cup at a time until it was thick but still wet dough, (about 6 cups of flour).
I let the dough rise for an hour, and then added in another cup of flour, and four teaspoons of salt with the dough hook attachment. After it was well mixed I let it rise for another hour (Every time you let dough rise it is easier to digest, and the B vitamins go up markedly).
Then I shaped the dough into the rolls you see in the picture and let them rise for another hour on the cookie sheets. Then I baked them at 350 degrees for thirty minutes. I store them in a plastic container and let the children make their own lunches with whatever sandwich fixing they like best.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 8:32 AM