Seeking to Overhaul the School Lunch Program

School lunches are, for the most part, abhorrent. In the vast majority of school systems, the lunches provided offer little in the way of nutrition, and a lot in the way of empty calories, additives, chemicals, fats, and sugars. Research has shown, again and again, that the diet most schools serve is a direct pathway to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, disorders such as ADD/ADHD and depression, and a slew of other things.

There’s a new program being pushed out of the White House that hopes to change this. It’s not perfect, but it would be a huge step in the right direction. Farm-to-school programs have been hugely successful in the areas in which they’ve been implemented, and children who eat better are not only phsically healthier, but are more likely to succeed academically, too.

Let’s hope this can withstand the pressure by the all-powerful vendors like Aramark and Monsanto. If you’re worried about you child’s nutrition, and the growing rates of childhood obesity, diabetes, and other illnesses, call your local government officials and let them know you support programs like these.

Recipe Review: Chicken Tagine

I’ve really been enjoying preparing some uncommon (at least in the US) ethnic dishes. Moroccan has become a particular favorite of late, and I’m also experimenting with Loation more.  Tagines are essentially very aromatic, hearty stews. Like the curries of India, there are as many tagine styles and recipe as there are people cooking them.  This one filled the house with a mouth-watering aroma, and the flavors were rich but bright.

• 2lbs. Of chopped chicken meat – We prefer brown meat.
• 2 Medium onions chopped.
• 1lb. Carrots chopped into bite size peices.
• 6 Cloves of garlic – chopped.
• 4ozs. Sultanas.
• 8ozs dried apricots.
• 1 Tablespoon of cumin seeds.
• 2 x 2″ pieces of cinamon stick.
• 3 Bay Leaves.
• 1/2 Pint of chicken stock.
• 1/2 Pint of fresh tomato sauce.
• 3 – 6 Dried chillis (depending on how hot you like it).
• 2 Tablespoons of honey
• 1 Lemon – juice of.
• 1 Bunch of coriander leaves – chopped.
• Salt and ground black pepper to taste

1. Now this is the Really Easy Bit.
2. Mix all the ingredients together (no browning) in the Tagine or Casserole.
3. Put the lid on the Tagine (or seal the casserole with a lid or some aluminum foil.
4. Place in a hot oven 400º for 30 Minutes.
5. Then reduce the heat to 300º and cook for a further 2 Hours.

This recipe calls for service over couscous, but I did this over bulgar and enjoyed it.  It’s as easy as it claims to be, very healthy, and really flavorful. I’ll be making this more often, and hopefully next time I’ll get some pictures!

What I Need to Do

What I need to do is start keeping my camera close by again. I am forgetting to take pictures before we completely ruin the table.  I also need to make more of the black bean and banana empanadas we made last night–which I, of course, did not get pictures of.  They were simply amazing. Oh, and more of the clay pot miso glazed chicken. I did’t get pictures of the chicken (though I am going to try to get some tonight when we reheat the leftovers), but I did get the broth:

There’s no real way to make this broth look as yummy as it tasted, but at least I remembered the camera; so, I had to share. To make up for the general browness (hey, it was miso and mushrooms, what else would it be but brown?), I took a minute to snap one of my current favorite lunch items:]

No-fat Greek yogurt, homemade granola, blueberries, strawberries, flax meal, and roasted almonds make a perfect lunch. Lots of fiber and protein, not to mention all the antioxidants and omegas! The almonds keep you full. Mostly, though, I eat it because it’s incredibly tasty.

Crazy Schedules and Crazy Meals

My schedule is a bit crazy right now, as I juggle clients, writing, volunteering, and a home life. My fiance’s schedule has also picked up, and now we’re officially in the “We have to find a hood for your car, NOW!” phase. (For those of you who didn’t know, a deer ran into my car a while ago. Since it’s an older model, finding a hood in good condition less than several hours away has been a challenge; but, it’s looking like we might make the trip to grab one at this point). The car’s not drivable as it is, because the deer broke the hood latch and did some other other damage that means it cannot be safely closed.  With the way things are settling out, it’s gone from inconvenient to undoable; so, this week is focused on finding and replacing the hood.

This is all leading into the crazy food. We meal plan pretty rigorously, and it’s gotten even more important as things get more and more hectic. We need to stay healthy, we don’t like eating out, we want to keep our grocery budget under control. This can get difficult, but we realize that it’s times like these when you have to plan more time to cook, not less. You just have to plan it differently! To that end, here’s our meal plan for the next while:

This week

Groceries for 7 days: $50.00

Tonight: Chickpea saag. Made with local greens, saag is a wonderful Indian dish eaten over rice. The chickpeas (which were cooked up from dried) cominbed with brown rice and yogurt provide excellent protein, while the spinach and rice provide lots of fiber. This was made yesterday, because it’s always better when it has time to sit in the refrigerator overnight!

Friday: Beer-roasted chicken, with EVOO glazed potatoes and vegetable. This whole chicken will provide meals for us one night, and lunches/sandwiches for a few days. We’ve got lots of yummy local potatoes in our bin, and we’ll pull out some frozen veggies. To round things off, we’ll have a big green salad with balsamic vinegar and oil.

Saturday: Banana & Black Bean Empanadas. This is a dry-run test for the crust recipe I’ll be using for one of my clients later this week. Healthy, full of protein, fiber, and potassium (which we both need more of with our current levels of activity), these will be served with a spicy yogurt sauce and green salad. A few will go in the freezer for lunches later.

Sunday: Clay pot miso chicken, served with vegetables. I’ve wanted to try this recipe for a while, and becaues it’s largely hands-off, this is a great time. It’s got over a pound of mushrooms in it! I even have a clay pot! This will give us some more leftovers for the coming week.

Monday: Indian Chicken. Yes, it’s a lot of chicken in the menu, but it’s the easiest thing we’ve got right now. Healthy options we can deal with are outweight variety in meats at the moment. And, we love this dish’s spice and freshness. Lots of green peppers and onions!

Tuesday: Sweet potato and black bean burritos. This is a revamp of a favorite from a great restaurant in Ann Arbor called Seva. They do a squash and black bean version; but, since we have more sweet potatoes than we have any idea what to do with, we’re using those.

Wednesday: Leftovers. Neither of us is really home this day at the same time, so we’ve planned things to give us leftovers for lunches and dinners.

Thursday: Shape-It-Up Meatloaf, served with whipped sweet potatoes and veggie. This is a super-healthy meatloaf, with spinach, black beans, oats, and TVP.  We love whipped sweet potaotes, and we’ll see what’s fresh at the market for a vegetable

Friday: chili. I’m going to be cooking all day, and need something that can just be tossed into a crock pot.

The reality of this meal plan remains to be seen. There are several things going on that could easily change some or all of it, but we’ve hopefully arranged it so that we’ll have enough leftovers in the ‘fridge of freezer that it won’t end in us eating out.

Another All Local Feast

I didn’t get photos of the venison (gifted to us by my nephews Josh and Willie), and the photographs of the rest aren’t spectacular due to technical difficulties (meaning I’d screwed up the settings on my camera and couldn’t figure out how to reset them); but, the food was amazing.

The menu was a fresh baby greens salad, wilted orange-glazed kale, olive-oil roasted sunchokes, and broiled venison with a coffee dry rub.

Tonight will be venison with cauliflower-potato puree and veggies. All local. Yum!

GMO Foods Linked to Serious Organ Damage

Organic News today is reporting on some of the first re-analysis of Monsanto’s GMO food study data. Monsanto didn’t want this data out, saying “proprietary information” could be stolen. The European food safety authorities made this data public anyway, against Monsanto’s wishes, in 2005. It’s taken this long to get a comprehensive new look at the data, and the results are not good.

I highly recommend this read to everyone. It’s too important to ignore.

The Dishes So Far

While I a m not getting photos of everything on the menu plan, I did manage to snap a few.

The first series is the salmon and blue cheese polenta:

Above: The polenta was baked in my favorite cast-iron skillet. THe light browning on top is the parmesan cheese. Since the oven in our new place isn’t heating as well as it should, the crust never totally browned; but, it was still tasty. Below: The finished product, which was served with  a dollop of light sour cream and a garnish of avocado.

Below is a quick snapshot of the Lime and Peanut noodles I served with the Thai Salmon patties. I didn’t get a picture of the patties, but they were  great with the sweet-and-hot sauce!

Tonight it’s UC’s turn to cook, and Thursday we’ll be having dinner with friends; but, look for more photos of the meal plan soon!

Frugal and Foodie

Thanksgiving is over, and it’s time to hop back on the frugal food wagon! As many of you know, there are now four adults to feed in the house. We share our gorgeous, huge new home with another  couple that we’ve known for years, and are keeping the budget down by also sharing food. Here’s the next two week’s dinners (some of it in pictures).

November 30th – December 6th

Monday: Venison Sausage and green lentil soup, with homemade bread. One of our favorite soups for winter meets my brother’s venison stash. We were given some ridiculous amount of venison this year (which is fantastic, since we love the stuff), including these fantastic sausages. They were tender and spicy, giving a deep, warm flavor to the soup. As I’ve mentioned before, lentils are a great source of lean protein, are high in fiber, and a very frugal-but-satisfying dinner. We used homemade stock for the broth, and then paired the soup with some of UC’s homemade ciabatta bread. The total cost for the four of us was less than $2.00. If we’d had to buy the sausage, it would have been about $4-5 total.

Tuesday- Creole catfish, with apple & onion hash, mixed vegetables, and salad. This is a bit of a splurge meal. I love apple & onion hash, and since we have apples coming out our ears, this was the perfect time to make this great side dish.

Wednesday-Thai Salmon patties and hot-and-sour sauce, with miso-peanut noodles (whole-wheat), and a veggie. Canned salmon is another great source of tasty, lean protein at a good price, and mixed with TVP it’s an even better price. I’ll whip up some miso-peanut sauce (with a touch of lime), and grab a veggie out of the freezer to round things out.

Thursday- Mexican pinto beans and brown rice. I’ll be using some of our (huge) store of dried beans for these. Coupled with the brown rice this is a great, spicy dinner with lots of vitamins, protein, and fiber. There will be a salad on the side for  more greens.

Friday: Shape-It-Up Meatloaf with whipped sweet potatoes and a vegetable. My most-requested recipe, currently, is this meatloaf. Low in fat and calories, high in flavor and nutrition. Made with lean meat, oats, TVP, spinach, black beans, onions, peppers, mushrooms, and spices, this meatloaf has converted even the most hard-core meat eaters! This looks better baked, and tastes better than it looks period; but:

Saturday-Salmon, mushroom, and vegetable polenta. We love creamy polenta in the winter. It’s hearty, and when you toss in loads of vegetables, canned salmon, and some smoked black sea salt it’s also tasty and healthy. We’ll be using some of the wild mushrooms we collected this year:

Sunday-Venison Chili with cheddar & sour cream cornbread. My special chili gets a twist with venison (thanks, Dan!). Pinto, white, and black beans (soaked and cooked) will make this stew fun and flavorful.

December 7th – 13th

Monday-Salmon and blue cheese pasta. We’ll be making homemade, whole-wheat pasta if all goes well, then topping it with salmon and vegetables in light blue-cheese, parmesan, and lemon sauce. It’ll look like this, but with the addition of salmon:

 

Tuesday-Spanish braised chicken thighs with brown rice and salad. This one-pot meal is reminiscent of paella! Deep, rich Spanish flavors, lots of chicken and vegetables, all cooked with brown rice in a wonderful sauce.

Wednesday-Sweet & Sour Tofu. Our favorite tofu from Twin Oaks Commune will sit amid peppers, broccoli, and other vegetables in this Asian dish.

Thursday-Venison Roast with root vegetables and salad. The leftover root vegetables will be used to make the stew you’ll see later on in the menu.

Friday-Whole wheat pizza night. UC is making whole-wheat crust, our friend Adam is making the sauce, and we’ll all top our pizzas with our favorites. Mine will be light on the cheese, heavy on the roasted broccoli, onions, and TVP. UC’s will be heavy on the cheese and pepperoni.

Saturday- Roasted root vegetable stew. This is another great winter soup. Roasted root vegetables are pureed into a creamy soup, served topped with parmesan cheese and olive oil:

Sunday-Kufta on pita, with the fixin’s and cucumber salad. This Middle Eastern vegetarian dish combines lentils and bulgar for a complete, lean protein:

Right now, we’re spending about $100/week to feed 4 adults.

What’s your meal plan this week?

Holiday Break

Thanksgiving is upon us, or will be shortly, and I will be off the blog until Monday, November 30th. I will have very limited email access, but you can always email me or reach me by phone.

Have a wonderful holiday!

Romantic Dinners for Two!

With the holidays fast approaching, many people are scrambling for that unique gift for their special someone. A gourmet dinner tailored specially to your sweetheart’s tastes is the perfect way to say “I love you.” For Christmas, Valentine’s Day, anniversaries, engagements, or other celebrations, let me help you make it a night to remember.

Dinners are designed just for your special person–no mass-produced meals! Local, flavorful foods mean rich, wonderful flavors, too.  Proposing? Let me find design the perfect way to surprise her with the ring.  Anniversaries can be designed around your wedding theme, complete with a home-baked cake! Give that new mom a night off with a quiet and romantic dinner she can really enjoy, without any cleanup.

I’ll serve your dinner in formal chef’s whites, and additional server is available for an added touch of class.  Dinners include appetizer, soup or salad, entree, sides, and dessert with your choice of gourmet beverage (coffee, exotic flavored teas, and more!).  Cheese plates, wine pairings, and more are also available to tailor your dinner experience.

Romantic breakfasts and lunches are also available, as are picnic lunches! Special diets, including locavores, are always welcome. For more information, email me at chef at shwankie.net.