Fast Food

So I have been gone for awhile. I hope that doesn't happen often and that I will be able to post about once a week. Going ninety to nothing here lately has me inspired for this next post. What do I do when I don't have much time, and what do I do that's easy? I am sure that I will give you a post like this now and again because easy is often necessary. I'll give you a current list of things I've done within the past few weeks.

These ideas and ones like them are my attempt at not defaulting to the standard "easy" meals, such as Hamburger Helper, excessive amounts of PB&J, fish sticks, or frozen chicken nuggets. Please don't feel bad if any of these are staples in your household, but my goal here is to help people come up with alternatives to the norm. Because, let's face it, what the pre-packaged food industry has to offer us is nada in the way of nutrition.

Let's start with the munchkin. He is by no means a picky or light eater. This kid is a bottomless pit. I am always trying to come up with ways to satiate his appetite while not boring him or feeding him garbage. One of the things we do often is eggs. He thinks they are so great, my husband, as well, is a huge fan. I joke that without me it is all they would ever eat. Mostly because my husband can not cook ANYTHING else! We have omelets on average once a week on the inevitable night I forget to get meat out to thaw. Benjamin will finish a veggie/meat filled 3 egg omelet without blinking. Usually what I will do is always add some kind of  greens. For us it is usually kale or spinach. Our standard veggies are mushrooms, sweet peppers, green onions, tomatoes, and zucchini. There is always cheese involved. For the meat, I either use some carne asada steak that I can buy in very small packages for a couple bucks a piece and save for use with eggs, whatever leftover meat I have, or when we are indulging, bacon. If you've read my previous posts you've heard my schpeel on bacon. If you haven't yet, please do. Bacon is serious business 'round here.

Now, this is what munchkin lunches tend to look like. Usually raw, often meatless, with lots of fruits and veggies. This particular one is frozen raspberries, clementine slices, spinach leaves, frozen blueberries, organic Persian cucumber slices, cheese cubes, red pepper hummus for cucumbers, and one scrambled egg. He finished this one off fairly quickly and ate more of something else. If you attempt something like this my best advice to you is to pick lots of different colors. Not only will it be more appealing to your small one but will cover an array of nutrients.

So I am the picky one in my house, and I don't often find something simple for lunch very exciting. I am always wanting a big to-do with my food and that is not always very practical. I have to be excited about my food or I'll end up wanting to eat stuff that I don't need to be eating. This recipe has my heart right now, and I ate nothing else for lunch for a week at one point. There are two versions of it because of mine and my family's differing tastes.

 Please don't be scared if this looks weird. It is so simple and delicious!

Tomato and Mozzarella Salad

Ingredients:

1 tub of cherry tomatoes cut in half

1 block of real mozzarella cut into small cubes

Basil, fresh or in a tube (I use the tube basil for this recipe it is super easy)

Olive oil

Garlic powder

Salt and pepper to taste

1 Avocado diced (optional, at least for me)

Directions:

There isn't much to this. You want to use enough basil to evenly cover your salad mixture. You only need to pour a tiny bit of olive oil if you use the basil paste, but if you use fresh you will need more of the olive oil.

This recipe just needs to be eye balled and made to your taste. There is nothing to it.

Here is the version I make for the boys. They love avocados and I do not. So I make theirs with them for the added nutritional boost and it helps keep them full!

You can look forward to many episodes of easy dinner and lunch ideas. Let's face it, we are real people with real lives and it is not easy to always be a master chef on top of all things keep it wholesome. Keep your head up while we keep working toward that balance!

Veggie Loaded Potato Soup & Cauliflower and Bacon Soup

Yay my first recipe post! I had promised some friends on facebook that I would post this recipe for them after sharing pictures and a delicious description with them.

There is almost always a story to how I come up with some of the things I do.  This recipe is no different. I follow and peruse many different foodies on Instagram, many of which are exclusively paleo cooks or lifestyles. You will hear me talk about paleo often.  Here’s a link with a description if you feel like knowing what I’m talking about.  http://www.multiplydelicious.com/thefood/what-is-paleo/

So Instagram! On an Instagram that I follow I came across a picture, not a recipe, for cauliflower and bacon soup. Now some of you may be going “Bacon! Bacon? But bacon is bad for you!” Eh wrong, not true. Some bacon is definitely nasty but you don’t have to give up on your bacon dreams in pursuit of a healthier lifestyle. You want uncured, no filler, gluten free, no nitrate or nitrite bacon. Yep it exists!! This is the kind I use.  If you have issues with pork, no worries there is a turkey version as well but you still want to be looking for the same attributes. Again, I digress. So I made the cauliflower and bacon soup, without the recipe, just from the idea and it was great!

So that same week I was at the store, with only a few bucks left in my grocery budget or any budget at all for that matter and I grabbed a bag of potatoes, which I rarely do. But let’s be honest if you need to feed people for cheap potatoes are the way to go. I needed a meat to go with them so I decided to go with ham following the same logic that leads to a cauliflower and bacon soap. So now I am making soup. But being the neurotic mom about veggies, I decided it needed to be different than regular potato soap. At least if I am going to make a soup with a seriously carb loaded base then it at least needed veggies. So following the same blueprint for the cauliflower soup and got some frozen squash, frozen broccoli, and onions. Now here is what you will have to understand and bear through if you want to learn recipes on my blog. I don’t really do recipes, so I will attempt to explain things the best I can. Hopefully this is a flaw that will improve over the lifetime of my blogging. 

This recipe is naturally gluten free (if your ham is, you could use any meat you want to, even bacon!) You could also make it vegetarian by leaving the meat out and using vegetable stock. It would be vegan if you left out the meat, cream, butter, and subbed vegetable stock. Any or all of these adaptations will work for this recipe. These recipes are not a science, just guidelines! Have fun with it!

Veggie Loaded Potato and Ham Soup

Ingredients:

About 1 ½ lbs peeled washed and diced potatoes

8 oz (half a bag) of frozen squash

½ to 1 diced onion or ½ bag frozen onions

About  20 oz frozen broccoli (1 ½ bags)

6-8 cups of chicken stock or vegetable stock (I use “Better than Bouillon” paste it is easier to use it for flavor)

I large ham steak chopped (or any other ham you want to use, it doesn’t matter)

1/4 to ½ cup half and half or cream (optional)

About 1 stick of butter

1-2 tsp of Thyme

Salt, pepper, and garlic to taste

Oh and I added a can of green chiles to mine, totally optional. You could try some jalapenos

FYI: this makes a ton! I have no power over portions when cooking

Directions:

While you are cutting potatoes have the squash, onions and about 2 tbsp of butter with salt and pepper going in a small saucepan, lid on. You want these to really cook down.

Start boiling potatoes in stock, they need to get really soft, you can add some butter here if you desire

After your squash and onion mixture is cooked way down transfer it to some sort of food processor and process

Put your squash and onion mixture back in the saucepan, this is where I added the green chiles. Whats happening here is that you are getting all your flavors happy together before you add it to the potatoes so you don’t end up overcooking the potatoes

Then, to the veggie mix add your diced ham, broccoli, more salt and pepper, garlic, thyme, and cream (you could use a little stock if you wanted to instead or I added more butter too).  You need enough liquid in there to cover your big pieces so they cook, not too much though you have a lot of liquid in the potatoes.

At this point I poured in the leftovers from my cauliflower and bacon soup . GENIUS!

When the potatoes are done transfer half of liquid and potatoes to some sort of food processor and process!

Dump the potatoes back together and when you feel satisfied that your veggie mix is cooked enough and tasty, add to potatoes.

Soup should be relatively thick and chunky

Serve with shredded cheese and/or green onions on top if desired

*Feel free to comment with questions, I will definitely answer them. 

Cauliflower & Bacon Soup

Ingredients:

I large head of cauliflower cut up. Don't waste the stems, use them

8 oz (half a bag) of frozen squash

½ to 1 diced onion or ½ bag frozen onions

6-8 cups chicken or vegetable stock (enough to cover cauliflower in pot)

I pkg bacon cooked and cut up (see rant above)

1/4 cup half and half or cream if desired

Salt, pepper, and garlic to taste

1-2 tsp Thyme

2 tbsp butter

Directions:
Boil cauliflower in stock covered. It needs to get super soft

In a saucepan mix squash, onions, salt, pepper, and butter. Put a top on and let it cook down really well.

Once squash and onions are cooked, run them through a food processor (a mixer works ok for this part, but I recommend a processor, it doesn't matter as much on the potato soup recipe)

Pour pureed mixture into the pot of boiling cooking cauliflower

When the cauliflower is really soft dump most of the water and about half to 3/4 of the cauliflower into a processor.

Pure pureed cauliflower back in with everything else and throw in that bacon and thyme.

Season to taste with salt, pepper, garlic, and cream if so desired and let cook all together a few more minutes so all the flavors get happy together.

*This recipe is gluten free. Just like the potato soup, this is easily adapted to vegan, vegetarian, pork free, paleo, and so on. Also easily adaptable to your own tastes! Have fun with it!

Let Me Tell You About the Beans

I decided to start with this picture because it is an awesome representation of my life. This adorable guy is my son Benjamin whom I will affectionately refer to hereafter as "Benji" or "munchkin". He is now 3 but in this picture he was 2. This guy LOVES to eat and eat a lot! I feel like I never get a break from the kitchen and you know what, I wouldn't have it any other way. I love to cook guys. It is like magic happens when I get in the kitchen, not because I'm so good but because of my serious lack of knowledge, training, and experience. Somehow, my soul always figures out what to do! Like I said, it is magic!

I know "food bloggers" are a dime a dozen these days, and I doubt I'm so special among them but hopefully there will be a few of you that will find me and can either identify with or learn something from me. You will understand my take on food and lifestyle the more I post. I'll be sure to share my thoughts very candidly with you. 

So with that said let me give you a very brief rundown on my food/life perspective. I believe that God created a world that is intended to be a circle of life. That may sound silly but hear me out. All things on this planet serve a purpose in aiding some other entity on this planet. So I believe that food is a resource He gave us not only to keep our tummies full and to taste really good, but also as medicine for us. Theoretically if we could properly utilize resources then we have all that we need naturally and already. I believe He designed the earth perfectly for us. However, I also realize that this society does not make these ambitions easy for us. What, with the bombardment of advertisements aimed at our children for foods like pop-tarts and lunchables. I tend to take a more natural approach to things and am on a journey to figure out how to do that in a convenience driven world. There is the balance the Beans are searching for. Not only will this blog include recipes and food tutorials, but also stories about how we have gotten where we are and where we plan to go from here. No matter what definition or lifestyle you subscribe to or if none at all, I think there will be something here for everyone. I promise, we will keep it light (mostly), interesting, and flexible. To leave you I will share with how I was able to accomplish my first blog post tonight. Enjoy!