Servings:  4

Ingredients

• 9oz / 270g soba noodles
• 2 eggplant, sliced into 1- to 1½-inch (2-3cm) pieces
• ½ cup sunflower oil or other good oil for shallow frying
• seeds of one pomegranate
• 1 cup walnuts
• 2 spring onions / scallions, finely sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed in a pestle and mortar with 2 big pinches sea salt
• zest + juice of one lemon
• black pepper freshly ground to taste
• 1 fresh chili, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons brown rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon honey or agave
• flat leaf parsley for garnish

Directions

Cook the soba noodles in a large saucepan of salted water according to packet instructions. Be careful not to overcook – you want them to have a little bite to them. Run them under cold water immediately after draining to stop them cooking any further. Then add a small glug of oil and stir through with a fork to stop them sticking.

Heat the sunflower oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and fry the eggplant. Once golden brown remove to a colander or a tea towel, sprinkle with sea salt and leave there to drain.

To make the dressing, process in a blender the garlic, salt, pepper, zest, lemon juice, chili, brown rice vinegar, olive oil, pomegranate molasses, sesame oil and honey. Blend until you are happy with the consistency. Taste and adjust for salt.

Stir half the dressing into the noodles along with the eggplant and two thirds of the pomegranate seeds, walnuts and spring onions. Top with remaining pomegranate seeds, walnuts, spring onions and flat-leaf parsley. Add more of the dressing until you are happy with the taste.

Recipe from Eden Kitchen.

On the suggestion of a friend, I decided to watch Forks Over Knives last week.  Normally I would slap myself on the hand as I try to change the channel and remind myself of the kind of crazy I get when I watch these sorts of things, but I chose to watch it.  I really enjoyed the documentary over-all, and if there’s one thing I walked away with it was this - the more natural and wholesome your food is before you begin cooking, the better for you it is all-around.

AKA - processed foods are bad for you.

This isn’t exactly news to me.  I’ve been staying away from artificial sweeteners like Aspartame and Splenda for years.  I don’t let my daughter have a chicken nugget unless I can cut it in half and see that it isn’t ground meat.  I do what I can to stay away from fructose corn syrup, even though it’s in everything.  But the part that interested me the most was the study they conducted on the effects of a whole-foods diet on a person with diabetes.  In the specific case they mention they were able to reverse the effects of diabetes completely.  I’m no scientist, and I have no idea what other factors may have contributed to this person’s change, but it was enough to peak my interest.  Diabetes runs in my family as well as my husband’s.

I stand skeptical on the benefits of a completely vegan diet.  I can see the value in eating less meat, but dairy I have a hard time letting go of.  This week I have picked out a completely vegan menu to give it a try, and I picked up some almond milk for my family.  I figure there’s no harm in giving this a try.  If nothing else, it will diversify my cookbook, right?

2-Minute Bean Roll-Ups

Servings:  4
Prep Time:  5 minutes
Cook Time:  30 seconds

Ingredients

• tortilla (I used whole-grain with flax seed)
• avocado
• 1 can of black beans, rinsed well
• fresh chunky salsa OR pico de gallo
• lime OR lime juice

Directions

Place beans on top of tortilla and heat in the microwave until warm.  Top with salsa, avocado, and fresh lime juice.

Recipe from Whole Food Mommies.

That’s really all there is to it.  This is super quick, healthy, and it is easy to adjust to meet your taste.  I actually made rice to put on the side of this but found I really didn’t need it - there was way too much food for two of us.  The avocado met some resistance from my one-year-old, but she tried it - which is a start - and she ate the beans, salsa, and wrap with no complaint (I gave it to her open-faced as she doesn’t quite have the dexterity to handle a wrap just yet).  Next time I may throw a small handful of grapes on the side instead of rice.

I have the challenge of an impatient eater in my house.  No, I’m not talking about my husband (okay, maybe he counts, too).  My daughter, who is 14 months old, is having some trouble getting the hang of patience.  She sees so little of me during the week that she is clingy when I first get her home.  She insists on staying at my hip until she sits down to eat - a habit I am trying hard to break.  This is a constant war we battle in my house.  I really want her to learn that she’ll get things faster if she can chill for a minute and let mommy finish what she’s doing.  I try distractions, but usually the only ones that will keep her calm are the edible kind and I won’t give her snacks right before dinner.  If daddy was home in the evenings we might be able to fight off the grumpies a bit longer, but unfortunately my husband works a shift that keeps him out of the house until even I am asleep.

Because of this I try to do as much of my prep and cooking before hand.  Anything to give me more time with my kiddo and keep our evenings quiet and stress-free.  That was one of the reasons I picked today’s recipe.  When I get home from the grocery store on Saturday I have plenty of time to prep our meals for the week while Rachel plays with her daddy.  She’ll come back and fourth from the living room and the kitchen to taste little pieces of pumpkin or mushroom as I divide things out and label them for the rest of the week.

Cube Steak Roll Ups

Servings:  4

Prep Time:  10 minutes

Cook Time:  45 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 (pound) cube steak
• 2/3 (cup) chopped fresh mushrooms
• 1/2 (cup) fresh parsley
• 1/2 (cup) chopped onions
• 1/2 (cup) grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 (10.5 ounce can) condensed beef broth
• 2 (tablespoon) cornstarch
• 2 (tablespoon) water

Directions

1. Pound steak thinly. Sprinkle with a handful of mushrooms, parsley, onion and cheese. Roll up and fasten with toothpicks. Brown in a large skillet on all sides.
2. Add beef broth and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes. Combine cornstarch and water to make slurry. Remove steak and whisk in slurry to make gravy.

Recipe from FoodontheTable.com

First and foremost let me say, I really loved this recipe.  Despite the comments on FoodontheTable.com, I felt it was very flavorful.  Even so, I will probably try to find a good spice to bring a little more taste to the meat next time.  Some pepper, or maybe a very small amount of steak rub should do the trick. 

This was my first encounter with cube steak.  It was a little tougher than I would have liked and I’m pretty sure that’s why Rachel didn’t seem to enjoy this meal as much.  I also skipped the cornstarch and water for this recipe - and it held up fine minus gravy.  Next time I may decide to try the gravy again, but today we had enough on our plates without it.  We decided on whole-grain rice and green beans on the side for this meal.  Yummy!

My only real complaint about this meal is the amount of attention it requires.  For a mom with a demanding toddler this one was a little difficult - for us this is more of a weekend meal.  I really felt like I needed to babysit the meat to ensure it browned correctly - the steak is thin and cooks fast so you have to keep it turning.  You may find, as I did, that 45 minutes isn’t needed to ensure your meat is fully cooked.

This recipe has made it in to our cookbook.  It’s fairly inexpensive and the ingredients can be used in multiple recipes so you don’t have to be afraid to over-buy.  I definitely recommend it.

I picked up a “small” pumpkin at the grocery store this week with the intention of freezing some and using it for cooking.  I don’t have much experience with pumpkins other than seeding or carving, so that’s where I started.  I removed the seeds, washed them, and let them dry.  We baked them with a little sea salt on them - they really make a great snack!  With that out of the way I wasn’t sure what to do next.  Farmer’s Almanac had a great guide on preparing a pumpkin for freezing.  We pureed all of it.

Once I got down to the last bit of pumpkin I decided I wanted to have a little fun with it.  I have an old recipe hiding in my cookbook for Christmas cookies.  I love to make them year-round, but I’ve always wanted to try modifying it to make it more seasonal.  Here is the original recipe…

Christmas Cookies

Prep Time:  15 minutes

Cook Time:  10 minutes (varies based on cookie size)

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup shortening
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp grated orange peel
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 4 tsp milk
• 2 cups flour

Directions

1. Cream shortening, sugar, orange, and vanilla.  Add egg; beat until fluffy.  Stir in milk.  Add dry ingredients.
2. Divide dough and chill for one hour.
3. Roll dough 1/2 inch thick and cut into shapes.
4. Bake at 375 degrees for 6-8 minutes.
5. Decorate when cool.

Christmas Cookie Icing

Prep Time:  5 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 cup sifted confectioners sugar
• 1 tbsp cream
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp flavoring
• 3/4 tbsp water

Directions

1. Blend; divide for color.  Spread on cookies.

For my variation I decided to go without the orange, and instead I added 1/3 cup of pumpkin puree and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.  This has made the batter much more gooey and difficult to cut.  I didn’t have the patience to use cookie cutters - instead I rolled the cookies into balls and flattened them out.  I was a little worried that the cookies would not bake correctly due to the consistency of the dough.  We tested the cookies without the icing first - they were WONDERFUL!  We decided to go ahead and ice them, and we used vanilla flavoring instead of the normal lemon we would use.  I also grated a small amount of orange peel for some zest.

This is not the healthiest recipe in the world, but the cookies are soft and flavorful.  My co-workers will be a bit disappointed… I’ve been telling them I’m going to bring some in, but my husband and his friends ate them all!

Today we had shrimp with garlic sauce with whole grain rice.  The recipe seems pretty easy, but it’s for… quite a bit of shrimp.  The recipe serves 6 people, so way too much food for just me and Rachel!  To save some time I purchased peeled, deveined shrimp.  We already had pre-minced garlic, and when I added it I did not measure it thoroughly - I just eye-balled it.  I chopped the fresh parsley - that’s a skill I’m going to have to work on! 

While this was a quick recipe, it wasn’t as flavorful as I had hoped.  We may give this one another try if I’m cooking for more - I wonder if the results would be different if I cooked the whole batch.  Rachel loved it.  I think some zucchini would have a good choice for a side, too.

Shrimp with Garlic Sauce

Serves 6

Prep Time:  15 minutes

Cook Time:  10 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 (pound) shrimp
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• Salt, to taste
• 1/4 (cup) lime juice
• 2 (tablespoon) fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 (tablespoon) olive oil

Directions

1. Peel the shrimp and marinate them with the salt, parsley and lime juice for a few minutes, while you are mashing or chopping up the garlic.
2. Cover the bottom of a deep fry pan with olive oil and heat over medium high heat. Add the garlic and cook just until tender, but do not burn it. Add the shrimp and cook, stirring constantly, for 5-7 minutes or until cooked through.

Recipe from Food on the Table

I first realized I was really in trouble when I found myself standing in the “deli” isle at Target with a pizza Lunchable in my hand debating if it would make a good meal for the next day at work. 

Help! 

I don’t remember when the food situation in my household got so out of control.  When I was pregnant with my now one-year-old daughter I became obsessed with cooking fresh, healthy meals.  Our meat was free-range/grass-fed, our produce was fresh and “organic”, and anything that came out of the box (and there wasn’t much) it never made it in to the shopping cart unless all the ingredients on the label made sense to me.

Now?  We buy Bertolli and Lean Cuisine for two, Steam Fresh bags of veggies slathered in sauces, or I’ll make Tyson’s chicken nuggets for Rachel – something I swore I would never do thanks to Food Inc. and Jamie Oliver.  What am I thinking?!

So now, as I look in my pantry and my freezer and see all of the processed foods filled with fructose corn syrup and lines of ingredients I can’t pronounce, I have decided to make a commitment – to my family, and to myself – I am going to strive to fill our refridgerator with nutritous home-cooked meals.  The only “frozen meals” I want to find in my freezer are meals that I have made and frozen to cook later.  I want us to put a bigger emphasis on health and well-being.  And I will share our story with each and every one of you along the way, in hopes that we can motivate other families to do the same.  And maybe we can learn something from some of you along the way.