First, as always, tell us how your April Kitchen goals went?
Same as last month (and probably will be again next month!), my main goal was working on my Rookie Class. That and getting ready for our daughter’s First Communion celebration last weekend. Everything turned out great, by the way, everyone loved the food and I think it’s very noticeable when you make things homemade and don’t buy everything at Gordon Foods or Sam’s Club, ya know? Read more about what I served and how I pulled it off in this post from last week, Meal Planning for a Group.
Now, what kitchen goals are swimming around in your brain for May?
New recipes you’re planning to try? A new skill you want to get down? A new technique you want to figure out?
Around here I’ll be…you guessed it, working on my Rookie Class, and also trying to wrap my brain around the fact that my baby boy is graduating. Our 11 year old is finishing elementary school, another son goes to Kindergarten in the fall, and our daughter is the only one without a huge transition coming up, she’s just going to third grade and that’s hard enough on a Mom’s heart. Thank God Kal is going to the Community College for a couple years so he’s not leaving us yet. I tell everyone that he’s not a big enough snot to want him to move out. (I’m convinced that’s why God makes teens such a pain, so it won’t hurt quite as much when they leave us…) Did I tell you that he chose the “buy out” instead of an open house? So we won’t need to plan a big party. We left it totally up to him, but this way didn’t hurt our feelings. 
If you’re planning an open house or any other gathering soon, check out the Real Food Party Planning Guide so you’re sure not to forget anything. It also helps you plan it out ahead of time so you’re not stressed the last day or two before the party.
Please Share!
No Mr. Linky for this one, just comment below. If you do your own post on it, please link back to here if possible and feel free to snag that picture above. (Can you believe I took that one? ME!! Stinky nasty photographer that I am?! Once in a great while I’ll nail it.)
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
May kitchen goals –
1. focus on local meat — just recently watched Food, Inc. with my two teenage sons. Am making it a priority to purchase local, quality meat.
2. Plan family gather to celebrate eldest sons graduation. Somehow he has ended up with two grad parties — we will be celebrating with out of state family on the weekend of his graduation. Have 13 people traveling to spend the weekend with us. Then he will have his official party – “kick off to college”- in August!
April’s goals didn’t go so well — I was sick for over 1 week and my husband was in Germany for over 3 weeks. There was very little going on in my kitchen besides the occasional loaf of bread so the kids could live off sandwiches, fresh fruits and veggies.
Jeanne, there are quite a few of us who go to the farm for meat so I’ll ask you if you want anything next time we go.
I am planning on buying whatever is in season at the farmers market and freeze some for winter. I just picked 18lbs of organic strawberries at a local farm and froze bags of them and made freezer jam.
Oh man! How did you get so lucky to live someplace where strawberries are already in season?! We have to wait a long while yet…
1. Gardening- not in my kitchen, but close enough!
2. Learn to make cottage cheese.
3. Try to stay in the grocery budget!
Chanelle, do you eat cottage cheese plain or put it in something? I’ve never liked it much… (Love it in lasagna though.)
My husband loves it with applesauce.
Cooling Inflammation blog (Dr Art Ayers, PhD) has a post on Aging Gut Bacteria up that inspired me to better cultivate my “inner garden” of bacteria flora by increasing the amount and variety of raw greens I consume. I receive a weekly box of local seasonal organic produce for being host of a CSA pickup point (most if picked within 12-24 hours of when it’s dropped off at my house!), and often I have more lettuce & other greens than our small family of three can use. I try to give the excess away while it’s still fresh, but now I’m vowing to use more of it in green smoothies. I also think this produce is far better than the supermarket produce, as it hasn’t been heavily handled and transported long distances, or stored a long time. I can taste the sugar in my CSA romaine lettuce!
I experimented this weekend and found that green smoothies really don’t have much of a taste. A modest amount of fruit added to the 40+ oz blender makes the fruit taste fruity (but not too sweet). To chopped and rinsed chard and parsley leaves I added chilled blended hibiscus & green tea (cold-infused in the fridge, not brewed with hot water), a bit of heavy cream (TJ’s 40% butterfat whipping cream, NOT ultra-pasteurized and w/o additives and thickeners), a bit of Strauss whole milk plain yogurt (also no added milk solids or thickeners), a very ripe banana, a handful of whole strawberries (green tops and all), and a smallish whole blood orange (peel sliced off) & one cup of ice. I decided I wanted a bit of protein, too, so I added two whole raw eggs, too. If I was trying to use these smoothies as a meal replacement, I’d add a lot more eggs & perhaps more heavy cream to make sure the fat and protein equaled what I consume in a meal.
The first pitcher had bits of orange segments so they could have used some more blending. I didn’t chop off the parsley stems for the second pitcher and a few of the stem bits were present so I’d cut those off again next time.
The smoothies stay green, despite the addition of strawberries and red blood orange. Because of the color son has turned up his nose and won’t try them, but my husband and I have enjoyed them very much. We drank the smoothies from 5 oz glasses with meals instead of water and it took all day to consume the entire pitcher. My husband (he’s English) prefers that aren’t too frosty, so I made sure all the ingredients were very cold (the blender action generates some heat) (frozen fruit chunks are useful instead of ice cubes, too).
Last night my husband and I could detect some very mild gut rumbling and a very tiny bit of “music” (but nothing uncomfortable or bothersome or anything like what happens to us when deviate from our low carb diet and eat bread) that suggests the raw greens are initiating some mild changes in our gut flora (new types, adjusting the balance of species, etc.). I’m taking this as a good sign, but I know I’ll need to continue to “tend the garden” with raw greens if I want to keep the good critters happy. And I’m happy to find yet another way besides salads to add tasty, easy & fast fresh whole greens to my day (that I already had in my fridge) without resorting to a processed supplement.
Also, because I keep the [whole] fruit to a minimum and include some fat & protein, I didn’t find the smoothies wreaked havoc with my blood glucose levels. I’ve been checking with a glucose meter. I have to watch consumption of bananas and oranges in particular, because they are very high in sugar and it can show on my meter.
Anna, I love how your mind works! You’re so interesting to read (as always)!
I already cook gluten-casein-peanut free with as few additives and preservatives as possible. My goal for May is to figure out how to add EGG-FREE to the list. So far, it has been a flop. My other goal is to discover a way to use all the veggies we will be receiving from our CSA…that could be quite a challenge with my crew!
Hi Kelly,
I finally ordered the water kefir grains and got that going. We put in our garden this past weekend. I am growing tomatoes, yellow squash and zucchini. I also put in some herbs to help repel insects. Also working on a flower garden. I am still working on the sourdough starter. I have made sourdough pizza crust, sourdough pancakes, & sourdough crackers. Then I put the starter in the fridge for awhile until I was ready to start again. I took it out over the weekend, thinking I would get it ready for THE BREAD! I fed it & left it out overnight. The next morning I realized I had left the metal top on. I didn’t know if it was dead or not but I’ve been nursing it along & I think it’s going to be ok. After all that work I would hate to lose it.
I’ve been telling my neighbor about our real food diet and Sally Fallon and she bought the NT book. I was thrilled. She saw how my DH lost so much weight while on it. Also, at the farmers’ market last Sat. I talked to a vendor selling homemade jerky. I was looking for nitrate free, which it wasn’t. But we got to talking about diet. His daughter has celiac. I told him to check out your blog, because of all the info and links, & the GAPS diet.