Yawn. Why must children eat breakfast?

I'm not a breakfast person. I'm not a morning food person at all since adulthood. But even when I was little, I didn't particularly like breakfast food. I'm not fond of eggs. I don't like breakfast cereal except as an occasional snack. I can choke down oatmeal, but I never sit around thinking, "Man, oatmeal would be so good right now." My dad always insisted that there was no reason to designate a food for a certain time of day. So in childhood, there were often pancakes and bacon for dinner or hamburgers for breakfast. I acclimated.

But now, I have these darn kids. And they expect to eat things. And in the mornings! Ridiculous.

So, I suck it up and I feed them. Now that we're not rushing off to school, I feel like I should be feeding them something more elaborate. But to be honest, I just don't want to. My older son doesn't like eggs, so that rules out a quick plate of scrambled eggs and toast. Oatmeal usually goes over well. Pancakes are always appreciate, but I don't always appreciate making them. (But when I do, I make extra and freeze them.) Waffles are the bane of my existence because I am just not patient enough.

Today we did ok. I was up extra early to make something for my husband to take to work for a potluck.    So of course the first thing I did was make coffee. Then I started the food(not like it takes six hours to cook or anything). Then I decided that we need to get some of this fruit moving. I bought a giant pack of blackberries that haven't been eaten, we have a carton of strawberries not eaten, and half a cantaloupe left(that came from our Bountiful Basket). And..... We still have a bunch of those oranges, plus some pears and apples also from the Bountiful Basket. *sigh* How did produce become such a problem?

Anyway. So the kids had a mix of strawberries, blackberries, and cantaloupe with a cup of yogurt. Pretty simple. And they were generally pleasant this morning, so that helps.

Cereal debate, fail.

Did anyone see this about the cartoon characters on cereal boxes? There was a proposal to ban them, but, the government has dropped it.

Government softens approach to curbing junk food marketing to kids, food industry still balks

I wish they hadn't. I wish the ban had happened. I don't understand why we need to entice kids to eat food with cartoon characters. Why can the food not speak for itself? Will kids really NOT want to eat frosted marshmallow cereal if you take the leprechaun away? Or the tiger? Will they suddenly want nothing but All Bran if you do that? Oh! Geez. Would THAT be so bad?

At this point, we don't eat much breakfast cereal. We do eat some, mostly as a snack. And we buy it at our natural food store or at Trader Joe's when we make it there. Almost none of the cereal at Trader Joe's has cartoon characters on the packaging, and there's certainly no commercials for it. The one exception on the characters is this brand, Nature's Path Envirokidz. And you know what? My kids ALWAYS ask for those ones. I don't buy them because they're more expensive and they're gluten free, and we don't have gluten issues so I don't see the point in paying more. But once I tell my kids 'no,' they're more than happy to pick out Strawberry Yogurt Os or Crisp Rice.

I guess that's where I fall on this. Parents should be able to say no, and they should say no. But why not make that easier for them? And make it easier on the kids to make good decisions.

I made a muffin recipe!

I admit to having used a couple of generic muffin recipes as an idea for what I would need on a basic level. But from there, it was all me. Woot!

The picture is pathetic, because I am having camera issues. *le sigh*

Lemonberry Muffins by Nicole, yay!

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups whole-wheat flour

1 1/2-2 cups sugar(your choice)

2 Tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 cups buttermilk

1 cup canola oil(or other vegetable oil)

4 Tbsp lemon juice

1 package(I think it's 12-16oz. or so) frozen mixed berries, thawed

Combine dry ingredients in one bowl. Combine wet ingredients in another(except berries). Then add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, mix. Gently add berries to batter and mix.

Fill 24 muffin cups. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until slightly browned.

Mmmm..... Waffles!

A few years ago, I wanted to buy some cookbooks. I really didn't have any, and still hardly do. So I picked up a few inexpensive ones at Home Goods. Of those, really only one has worked out. And it's this, Brunch: The Perfect Weekend Treat.

I've only tried a few things from it, mostly because brunches for us end up being something that can be made really quickly. As I place a higher priority on cooking from scratch and cooking really healthy, I think I'll spend more time with these recipes.

Yesterday I decided to try out Waffles with Caramelized Bananas. Oh boy. These are the BEST waffles ever! So, I will share the recipe with you. I want you to enjoy as well!

Makes 12 waffles to serve 4-6

Ingredients:

scant 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp superfine sugar

2 eggs, separated

generous 1 cup milk

3oz butter, melted

Caramelized Bananas

3 1/2oz butter, cut into pieces

3 tbsp corn syrup(I used honey)

3 large ripe bananas, peeled and thickly sliced

Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar together in a bowl. Whisk the egg yolks, milk, and melted butter together with a fork, then stir this mixture into the dry ingredients to make a smooth batter.

Using an electric mixer or hand whisk, whisk the egg whites in a clean glass bowl until stiff peaks form. Fold into the batter mixture. Spoon 2 large tablespoons of the batter into a preheated waffle maker and cook according to the manufacturer's instructions.

To make the caramelized bananas, melt the butter with the corn syrup in a pan over low heat and stir until combined. Let simmer for a few minutes until the caramel thickens and darkens slightly. Add the bananas and mix gently to coat. Pour over the warm waffles and serve at once.

Meal plans for saving! (money AND my sanity)

Dinner is a drain. There, I said it. I get really tired of making dinner. It happens every gosh darn day! Sometimes I wish we could take a day off from dinner. But alas, the kids and the husband won't hear of it!

I used to be a non-planner when it came to meals. I would buy staple ingredients every week and freeze whatever meats were on sale that week, buy shelf stable items as I could afford to stock up, and buy way too many vegetables that would end up going bad before I used them.

It was wasteful, but at that point we were eating all conventionally grown items, so we could 'afford' the waste. Now that I've placed a priority on natural and organic items, the price tag is higher. In order to make up the difference, we had to eliminate waste.

And that's where meal planning comes in. Each week, I plan out the next week's dinners. Lunches are easy.... Leftovers go with the husband to work, Ansel and I eat leftovers if we have them or we eat something easy like sandwiches, and Kadin takes a sandwich to school each day. Breakfast is basic staple items.... oatmeal, cereal, eggs, bacon, etc. So those are just a regular part of my shopping.

This has definitely simplified my life. Because I know what I will be making for dinner, I find it easy to start dinner preparations earlier in the day, or overnight if necessary. There is no last minute panic about what to eat. I also don't wait too long to start, then realizing what I had decided on will take more time than I have available. I can also plan the more time consuming meals for the days of the week when I have more time to devote to them. It is really a load off my mind, AND, I find myself almost never wishing we could just order pizza or go out to eat.

I think I'll start posting my weekly meal plans, and then updating the blog most days about how things have turned out. Here's this week's plan:

Wednesday: Rotisserie chicken(the store-made kind, our natural foods grocery has them on sale), baked potatoes, and steamed broccoli.

Thursday: Pasta with bolognese sauce and salad.

Friday: Chicken mole, rice, and corn.

Saturday: Chicken rollers(a sale item at the store), ravioli(another store sale item), and salad.

Sunday: Burritos(this is a big batch make ahead item) and salad.

Monday: Red lentils, palak paneer, and rice.

Tuesday: Thai pasta salad.

I made bread last night, and will be keeping up with that this week. I also plan to make snickerdoodles for the boys and granola snacks for Ansel, as well as protein bars for the husband.

Off to the store we go! Let's hope I stay under budget again!

It's carbolicious!

Bread day! I don't really intend to make copious amounts of bread in one day again, but that's how it all happened and to be honest, it really wasn't that bad..... I made three loaves of bread, all different, yesterday. Wow! And two were 'real' bread.

I started out by making another loaf of the white bread I posted about last time. This time I made it for my neighbor, who is scared of using yeast. I've told her it won't bite her, but she doesn't believe me.

As that dough was rising, I started my next dough.

I purchased this cookbook, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day a couple of weeks ago and have been slowly gearing up to start following their plan. There's a pretty lengthy chapter in the beginning about ingredients and materials and supplies, and yes, I actually do read things like that.

The basic idea is that they have master dough recipes that you make and store in the fridge until you're ready to bake. The dough will stay in the fridge for up to five days. As you need to, you pull off a certain amount of dough, manipulate it slightly into what type of bread you want to make specifically, let it rise, then bake. No kneading! (in almost all cases) And it only takes five minutes when you actually use the dough. Making the master recipe does take a bit of time, but really not even all that much.

Now, if I can manage to just set up my routine to do this, we'll be golden. You can make anything. There's different variations to the master recipe in this book. Some use all whole wheat, some a combo of wheats, some use various other grains as well. The one I decided to start with was the Soft Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread. It makes four pounds of dough, which makes two loaves of sandwich bread. We mostly use bread as sandwiches and toast, so this is perfect for us. It also shows an easy way to make hamburger or hot dog buns using the same dough, so that's great.

I'm not going to post the recipe, because these aren't available online. There are some on their website which I linked above, and a lot of libraries also have their cookbooks.

This is what went into the master recipe.

Here's the dough, all mixed up, before it rose.

This is the part of the dough I used(half of the total) to make one sandwich loaf last night. You simply cut off the amount you need, flour the outside a little, shape it into whatever you're making, then put it in/on the pan to rise.

And the finished product! I am seriously amazed every time something comes out looking the way it should. I expect failure, and am totally impressed with every success.
I am happy to report that today the boys and I had sandwiches for lunch using this bread, and it's GREAT! Tastes like fancy bakery shop bread. So exciting! I used to spend $5+ for something like this up in Virginia without batting an eyelash.

After mixing up the master recipe dough yesterday, and after baking the neighbor's bread, I got started on banana bread. My whole family likes banana bread, and I like not wasting things(like overripe bananas). It also makes for quick snacks or breakfast, so that comes in handy.

The recipe I usually follow is pretty simple. I don't put nuts in mine because the kids tend not to like nuts in things. I was the same way, so it doesn't bother me to accomodate this one.

Banana Banana Bread

One of the tips I picked up somewhere along the way, which is useful and I actually used this time, is if you're short on banana per the recipe, fill in the difference with applesauce. I was short about 1/3 cup of mashed banana, so I used one individual serving size of applesauce. You can't taste the applesauce, but it continues with the appropriate moisture and texture, so it works very well.

And the finished product! Making banana bread is super simple, so I didn't bother with step-by-step pictures. You just mix stuff together, pour in a pan, and bake it!