Peanut Butter Gratitude

November is a time to think about blessings, and I should probably be grateful that no one in our family has a peanut allergy, because peanut butter consumption in our house is high. I’m not alone, either—peanut butter is a favorite food for many kids. It’s also a requested item for most food pantries. And with the cost of peanut butter on the rise, even more needed. Our peanut butter of choice is Skippy Natural with Honey. As the Spitfire can practically live on peanut-butter-and-honey sandwiches, this particular product saves us money–even though it’s slightly more expensive–because I no longer need to also use honey in her sandwiches—if I do, they then become “too honey-filled.” I buy it as a bulk subscription from Amazon and buy plain, natural peanut butter for cooking. And I do cook with it. Peanut butter chicken, peanut butter oatmeal…the list goes on.

One of the kids’ favorite meals is a peanut butter pasta I have been making for more than 15 years. It comes from Vegetarian Express by Nava Atlas and Lillian Kayte (a great resource for quick meals), a birthday gift from my first boss. I can make it in the time it takes to boil pasta, everyone eats it happily, and it’s highly adaptable. (Add tofu. Substitute vegetables. Spice it up or down.) It’s also a great way to introduce whole wheat pasta, since the sauce dominates the flavor.

The original, well-loved recipe

Peanut Butter Spirals with Peas

Great for: Quick family meals, pot lucks with no peanut allergies

Prep: 5 minutes

Cook: 8-10 minutes

Serves: 6

INGREDIENTS

10 Ounces spiral/rotini whole wheat pasta

1/2C peanut butter

3/4C water or vegetable stock

2-3T soy sauce

1-2T white-wine vinegar or rice vinegar

1T honey or rice syrup

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1 1/2 cup frozen green peas, thawed

Optional: Chili oil or Tabasco

 DIRECTIONS

1. Begin cooking the pasta
2. Combine the remaining ingredients, except for the peas in a blender or food processor fitted with a steel blade. Process until smooth
3. When the pasta is just about done, toss the peas in to warm them, then drain and transfer them to a large serving bowl. Add the sauce and toss well.

Helpful tip: The peanut butter sauce thickens as it stands. I like it, but you may not.  If the dish sits for a while before serving, or before serving leftovers the next day, mix in more water if the thickened sauce isn’t to your liking.

What is your favorite peanut-butter-based recipe? Share it in the comments.

Seinfeld Cookies

When the Energizer Bunny was a toddler, I checked out Jessica Seinfeld’s cookbook from our library to see if I, too, could be a sneaky chef. I already had a ton of pureed vegetables in ice-cube form in the freezer, and some of her tips were very easy to incorporate, like using carrot or butternut squash puree instead of milk in mac’n’cheese, or melting a cube of frozen spinach puree into pasta sauce. I made several of her recipes and they were hit or miss, so I made copies of the ones I had liked, or wanted to try later, and gave the book back. I came across one of the latter recipes, for chocolate chip cookies, this week and decided to give them a shot.

The result: my kids liked them a lot more than I’d have thought. My son asked me to make them for his birthday party. There are so many chocolate chunks in this recipe that I some ways, the doughy cookie is just a chocolate delivery system. But considering they have just as many chickpeas in them which are basically undetectable, I can live with it. They are very cake-y, and there is no “spread” during baking—it forms exactly as you drop the dough. And yet, I can’t stop eating them.

Chocolate Chip & Chickpea Cookies

Great for: kids

Prep: 10 minutes

Cook: 12 minutes

INGREDIENTS

1C firmly packed light or dark brown sugar

3/4C trans-fat-free soft tub margarine spread or butter (I used Brummel & Brown. Actual Margarine might help the “spread” factor)

2 large egg whites (I used liquid egg white equivalent)

2t pure vanilla extract

15oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (I generally like to remove the “skin” but in this recipe I can’t see that mattering)

2C (12 ozs) semisweet chocolate chips/chunks (You may want to look for fair trade chocolate)

2C all-purpose flour

1/2C old fashioned oats

1t baking soda

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking trays with non-stick parchment (I just used baking spray)
2. In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the sugar and margarine with a wooden spoon or on medium speed until smooth.
3. Beat in the egg whites or egg and vanilla, then the chickpeas and chocolate chips.
4. Add the flour, oats, baking soda and salt and mix on low speed until a thick dough forms.
5. Drop the dough by the tablespoonful onto the baking sheet, spacing the cookies about 1 inch apart. Flatten slightly with a fork.
6. Bake for 11-13 minutes, do not overbake. Leave on cookie sheet to cool and then transfer onto wire rack until completely cool.
7. Store in airtight container for up to 3 days.

By Jessica Seinfeld from Deceptively Delicious

Honestly, this recipe has me thinking I may not to check that cookbook out again, or even buy it. At the least, I need to get back into some of those good habits I had when the kids were toddlers.

Milk at lunch: a black or white issue?

It’s been quite a week in food health research, and it’s only Wednesday! In school lunch news, the New York Times reported that bans on soda in middle school have made virtually no difference in reducing sugary-drink consumption among those students during school hours.

“The study, which looked at thousands of public school students across 40 states, found that removing soda from cafeterias and school vending machines only prompted students to buy sports drinks, sweetened fruit drinks and other sugar-laden beverages instead. In states that banned only soda, students bought and consumed sugary drinks just as frequently at school as their peers in states where there were no bans at all.”

Then, I heard on CNN that a recent study finds fast food purchases increase as consumers rise from lower- to middle-income earners. This finding goes against the conventional wisdom that lower income consumers buy more fast food, contributing significantly to their higher rate of obesity.

“There is a correlation between obesity and lower income, but it cannot be solely attributed to restaurant choice,” Leigh said in a statement. “Fast-food dining is most popular among the middle class, who are less likely to be obese.”

And all of this news is happening during Jamie Oliver’s “Milk Week of Action” challenge, which sets its sights on pressuring schools to take flavored milk off the menu. In light of the news about school soda consumption, I’m wondering how effective this result would be among older children, but I’ve already seen its effectiveness among one sample group: my children.

 

Image courtesy of Food revolution

 

My 4 year old will not drink plain milk. As a baby, he couldn’t digest milk, and so we gave him rice milk until he was two years old. But the switch to milk after he outgrew his intolerance didn’t really “take” like I’d hoped. He gets most of calcium from other sources, but he will drink chocolate milk, which I dilute with skim. I generally feel that it’s better than no milk. However.

This week he started at a new preschool which lets kids buy lunch at the adjacent grade-school cafeteria. All last week he bought a school lunch, and at the end of the week he told me “They only let me buy white milk. And I drink it. And I like it a little bit!” So, for him the lack of choice in the milk department has turned his taste buds around.

The Food Revolution site has a number of ideas for influencing/reducing the milk options at the school your children attend. It can be as simple as writing a letter to the principal, or more involved community action. But only, of course, if you believe that your school should offer only pure milk. What do you think is the best method: milk by any means, or reducing the choice to the healthiest one?  Is it a battle worth fighting? Or, do you think kids will end up consuming the same amount of sugary milk even if it’s removed from elementary schools, the way they do in middle schools? Share your thoughts it he comments, below.

Lentils I have Known

I don’t think I really discovered a taste for lentils until I moved back to Texas and acquired a Moosewood Cookbook—a gift from my vegetarian sister. There are a wealth of lentil-based recipes in there, and I found that I enjoyed them baked, pureed, sautéed—just about any way but raw. I came across a recipe– a contest entry by Jo Irvine of Utah — for a large batch of lentil chili and knew I’d make it during our first cold snap. This recipe makes about 10 cups of chili. If you have a soup swap on your horizon, or need to bring someone a meal, this could be your recipe. There is very little prep involved, and everyone in our house, at least, gives it a thumbs up. It easily adapts to become a vegan chili.

Vegetarian Lentil Chili

Great for: big-batch meals

Prep: 5 minutes

Cook: 35 minutes

INGREDIENTS

4 14.5-oz cans dices tomatoes

1 15-oz cans red kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 12-oz package frozen chopped peppers and 1 12-oz package frozen chopped onions

(My store doesn’t have this so I subbed the same weight in bags of combined frozen peppers and onions and chopped them further)

2C dry red lentils, rinsed and drained

1/4Cchili powder

(I reduced this to 2T, then added back 1T after it was done so it wouldn’t be too spicy for the kids. It wasn’t)

2T garlic powder

1 8-oz can tomato sauce

1 6-oz can tomato sauce

1/8t black pepper

2C shredded Cheddar or Mexican Cheese (4 oz)—or remove it to make it a Vegan meal

DIRECTIONS

1. In an 8-qt Dutch oven, combine undrained tomatoes, rinsed and drained beans, 3C water, peppers, onions, dry lentils, chili powder, and garlic powder. Bring to a boil; reduce heat; simmer, covered, 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Stir in tomato sauce and paste, and black pepper; heat through.

Serve with shredded cheese and tortilla chips (optional).

Store leftovers, covered, in refrigerator up to 3 days or divide into freezer containers and freeze for up to 3 months.

Love and Best Dishes, Paula

The Texas Book Festival takes place every October here in Austin, and every October I lament my ability to drop my kids at a park and spend the day at the festival. I know, one day in the not-too-distant future I’ll be able to do as I please on any given Saturday, but sometimes the waiting is the hardest part. This year, though, I had a several-hour window of childlessness on Sunday morning and took it as an opportunity to see and hear Paula Deen at one of my favorite Austin venues, the historic Paramount Theater. I was far from the only person with the same thought as this picture of the line to enter, wrapped around the corner and then some, illustrates. (aAd yes, those men are wearing shorts. It’s October in Texas, and we’re still wearing shorts).

Paula’s interviewer was Hugh Acheson (Top Chef Masters!), who took himself pretty seriously, but Paula quickly guided him “down home” for a more grounded conversation. They began talking about Paula’s publishing history, especially her big break, when a Random House publisher dined at her Savannah restaurant and asked for a copy of Paula’s self-published cookbook. The conversation moved onto Southern foods and I’ll share the Paula wit-and-wisdom from this part of the conversation:

• In the south, we show our love with food. “If you die, your family is going to get a pie. If you have a baby, you are going to get a pie. If you move into our neighborhood, you are going to get a pie.”
• Hugh: “I want to make Kimchi rice grits.” Paula: “Have you tried salt, pepper and butter? Throw a little cheese in it, honey.”
• Her son Bobby has a new cooking show that makes her recipes healthier: “I used to say about the Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding, one serving per lifetime. Now, I can have it three times.”
• “We eat more vegetables in the South than any other region of the country”
• In the Q&A, when asked about her husband Michael’s favorite meal: “Oxtail, or standing rib roast. Do you know what Michael looks like? He likes a lot of food.”
• How did food help you with your separation and divorce? “It was because of food that I was able to get my separation and divorce. So, it helped a lot.”

On the more serious side, I was impressed with the women Paula says she modeled herself after. Her Aunt Peggy and her grandmother were her inspirations, and Paula said her grandmother could literally break down a turtle to make the finest bowl of turtle soup. It reminds me to be mindful of cooking and baking with and in the presence of my own kids rather than when they are otherwise occupied, so they might correlate food and family, kitchens and cooking, with family life.

And as bonus, I found out about this dessert blog from my friend Bonnie who I ran into on the way to the line. I am going to make some kick-ass treats.

Are you a Paula Deen fan? I think she’s hilarious, and I really enjoy her children’s cookbooks because they are spiral bound and pre-literacy minded, with incredibly easy recipes that my kids feel confident about following. But, I haven’t bought one of her “grown-up” cookbooks yet. Do you have one you love? Or is Paula not your cup of tea? Leave a comment!

Straightening out Sloppy Joe

I have much to report! I’m back from a NYC vacation, where I mostly ate my way through Midtown, and I have a post or two coming about that edible experience. But wait, there’s more! I heard Paula Deen speak about her start in the cookbook publishing world at the Paramount, and I am writing that post as well. But first! A family meal made from the ashes (OK, not literally ashes) of a failed family meal.

A few months back, I made Sloppy Joes in my crockpot. It seemed like such a good idea, because we like chopped BBQ beef sandwiches in our house, and how is that really so different? And yet, it appears to be very different, because none of us loved the Sloppy Joe. It could have been the recipe, but I suspect it’s the palates. And you know how it is with crockpot recipes—I had a lot leftover. I froze three 12-ounce portions and tried not to look at them when I opened the freezer. But today, a cold front was coming and I felt like making something a little more substantial, since Texas has been so dang hot this year. There must be a good way I can adapt these Sloppy Joes! Chili didn’t seem wise—I needed to make it less recognizable to my consumers. So, I opted for a kind of southwest Chili-Cheese Casserole, and it turned out GREAT! In fact, I only have about a cup left. I only remembered to take a picture after I served it to the kids.

Luckily, I can make it at least 2 more times and it is unbelievably easy now that I have the base of it prepared. Next time you make Sloppy Joes, consider transforming it into this meal the next day.

Southwest Chili-Cheese Casserole

Great for: quick family dinner

Prep: 2 minutes

Cook: 10 minutes

INGREDIENTS

6-8 ounces uncooked pasta (I used egg noodles)

1C frozen corn

1 8-ounce can Rotel

1.5C Sloppy Joe

Shredded Mexican Cheese (amount varies)

DIRECTIONS

Cook the pasta, drain and add to a large skillet, on medium heat.

Add corn, Rotel and Sloppy Joe and heat through. Reduce to low/simmer/warm.

Add cheese. I sprinkled enough to cover it, then mixed it, then covered it again. My single goal is to make this appealing to my children. After they have locked into liking it, I can cut back on some of the cheese for future editions.

Cover, and serve when cheese is completely melted. Will keep on low for a good while. Serves 4-6, depending on what else you are serving.

Mediterranean-style Tilapia and Quinoa

There is a long-running debate in my head about the wisdom and responsibilities of eating fish, since it’s both good for me and potentially bad for me and the earth. I haven’t landed on an ideology, so I’m just trying to eat the best fish I can find for a few meals per month. I had a simple and healthy recipe based around Tilapia, found “Tilapia” that Costco claimed to be responsibly acquired, and bought enough for 2 family meals. The first meal I made follows. Tilapia was heartily consumed by the 3 adults at this meal, and generally rejected by the kids, but they had extenuating circumstances (don’t they always?). I really liked the quinoa, but one man at the table had never heard of it and only reluctantly tried a bite (similar to what happens with my kids on a regular basis). I served it with steamed green beans. I’ll make it again.

Tilapia and Quinoa with Feta and Cucumber

Great for: Quick family dinner

Prep: 5 minutes

Quinoa: 20 Minutes

Fish: 8-10 minutes

Serve:  immediately

INGREDIENTS

1C Quinoa

Coarse salt

Ground pepper

1.5t EVOO

1# boneless, skinless tilapia fillets, divided into 8 pieces

¾ t paprika

1C English cucumber (6oz), peeled and diced

1/3 C feta (1.5oz), crumbled

1/3 C roughly chopped, fresh dill (optional, as I don’t like dill)

2t fresh lemon juice

DIRECTIONS

In a small saucepan, bring quinoa, 2C water and 1t salt to a boil over high heat. Reduce to medium simmer and cook until water evaporates, about 15 minutes.

Transfer Quinoa to a medium bowl and let stand 5 minutes

Ina large, non-stick skillet, heat 1.5toil over medium-high. Pat fish dry and season with salt, pepper and paprika.

Cook fillets until opaque throughout, about 4 minutes, flipping halfway through.

Stir cucumber and feta (and dill), 1t oil, and lemon juice into quinoa. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve plated, or family –style (as I did).

What are your favorite fish meals? Have a fish-eating quandary or resolution to share? Let me know in the comments.

The Gift of Food

After the Energizer Bunny was born, I was lucky enough to have wonderful friends, neighbors and fellow AustinMamas bring dinners for our family for 6-8 weeks. I’d learned a few lessons from receiving meals after the birth of the Spitfire, and I had insight into the process after delivering many a meal to a family who had just welcomed a new baby.

The Energizer Bunny will lull you into a dream state with his cuteness, allowing you to momentarily forget that he was up partying all night

For these gifts of food, my rules were thus:

1. Thou shalt not schedule more than 3 meals per week. People bring over too much food, more often than not, and  we’d need space in our week for leftovers. Plus, sometimes I just want to eat cereal for dinner.
2. Thou shalt not freeze food from unknown origins. I have a no re-freezing policy. If the meat was thawed and then cooked, the end product will not go back into the freezer no matter how tempting it is to save leftovers for a future date.  Certain members of my family do not have iron stomachs and re-freezing previously frozen meat is just asking for trouble that no new mama needs. And, asking someone if they used frozen meat is, in my opinion, ill-advised. I don’t want to make anyone who brings me food feel awkward about what they have brought, and House says that everybody lies (also: It’s never Lupus). Sometimes people brought store-bought items like rotisserie chicken or Rudy’s BBQ, and those were treated like anything we bought ourselves.
3. Thou shalt not be picky. I don’t like raw tomato, for example, but I’ll eat a Caprese Salad if someone is nice enough to bring it to me. Because the rest of my life is going to be figuring out what’s for dinner.
4. Thou shalt not attempt to lose the baby weight until the free meals stop. See above.
5. Thou shalt ask for the recipe post-haste. Some of my family’s favorite meals came from these gifts, and I enjoy thinking of those days home with a newborn and the person who thoughtfully brought me the meal whenever I look at or cook from those recipes.

One such favorite items was a dessert from a friend whose daughter is a close friend of the Spitfire. She warned me that they were fattening, and I let her know about my 4^th rule. These Peanut Butter Bars are AMAZING. Bring them to a friend sometime! I’m posting the recipe the exact way she emailed it to me, below. And, now that I’m re-reading the recipe, I plan to make them again this weekend!

Margaret’s Peanut Butter Bars

Blend to creamy- 1 C Brown sugar, 4 eggs, 1C peanut butter 1/2 stick butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla.  Add 1 1/2 C flour, 2 C oats 1 teaspoon baking soda- Grease square baking pan- bake 25-40- mins at 350. Not a low fat food item.

Blood & Chocolate

This is not a post on how to make a creepy chocolate bar gag gift for Halloween. It’s about how the fair trade movement can make you distrust the longest, most faithful and comforting boyfriend you’ve ever had: chocolate.

Did you know October is Fair Trade Month? Because I did not. I innocently thought I’d check into it and then…oh no, my eyes! I can’t now not know ¾ of the world’s cocoa is supplied by Ghana and the Ivory Coast, where child labor and even child slavery—through a trade with the child’s relative or kidnapping — is employed. These are not just teenagers doing this manual labor for little or no pay, but also children under 10 years of age. Food is Power has a detailed and substantiated article on this practice.

I read through quite a few blogs on the subject and grew more and more resigned to the fact that this practice is not something Jane Consumer can turn around, and also: Halloween is going to be a bummer. Am I going to prevent my kids from eating their chocolate in the interest of fare trade? Is there any chocolate I can buy for Halloween, guilt-free?  Every blog, it seemed, fell back on the same familiar saw: buy fair trade chocolate. Here are my issues with this tactic:

1. You can buy bars at Whole Foods and other specialty stores, but if you want to buy small chocolates, you probably need to buy them online.
2. Fair Trade chocolate is pricey. So, only those who can afford to buy it can eat chocolate without supporting child labor? Because NOT eating chocolate? Off the table.
3.  I am skeptical that it tastes awesome.

I wanted to write a post about it, but I didn’t feel like I could offer up any ideas that I can really get behind. To my great relief, Forbes published an article this week that asks, “Is Your Candy the Product of Child Labor?”  E.D. Cain, bless his heart, voiced some of my own concerns and followed up with ideas for old-fashioned citizen action: pester the companies.

The answer to this from many quarters has been fair trade – but is fair trade a viable solution? I suspect not. If prices for fair trade goods are higher than prices for non-fair trade goods, all this will do is lead consumers with more purchasing power to buy the fair trade goods while most consumers stick to cheaper brands

If consumers can’t exactly vote with their feet, and free trade itself is a net good for the developing world, than what can we do about things like slave labor in Africa being used to provide cocoa to candy manufacturers in the Western world? Consumers can and should pressure corporations to adopt more ethical business practices and labor standards. Activists and journalists can write about injustices across the developing world.

Here are links to the contact pages for the top chocolate producers in the U.S.—Mars, Hershey, Ghirardelli, Nestle,  Kraft Foods and the Curtiss Candy Company  if you want to encourage them to support fair trade chocolate. Meanwhile, I’ll think about switching my secret chocolate drawer contents to fair trade chocolates. But only if it tastes awesome. I’ll do a taste test and report back.

Do you have a fair trade chocolate you can recommend to me? What other steps can I take to support/encourage fair trade practices in chocolate manufacturing?

Brunch Staples: Santa Fe Egg Bake

We host our share of dinners with friends, but with young, tired kids and early bedtimes, evening isn’t always optimal for entertaining. We’re a lot more likely to have a successful meal with guests if it’s a weekend brunch.  Even in the heat of a Texas summer we can eat on our back deck before noon, and the kids can play in the backyard and subsist on bagels alone if necessary.

I have a few staples in my brunch repertoire, all borrowed from family or friends. Today’s recipe is an egg bake that is incredibly easy, can be prepared up to 24 hours in advance (and can then be frozen, to be thawed and baked at a later date with no harm—just prep it in a dish lined with wax paper, freeze it, lift the “bake” out, wrap it in wax paper and then foil before deep freezing. When ready, thaw slightly, remove wax paper, pop back into the original dish and bake). Best of all, it is almost idiot-proof.

 I acquired this recipe after brunch a dozen years ago at our friend Scott’s house, and I am asked for a copy of it almost every time some has brunch at our house (I have never NOT served it for brunch). Turns out, it’s originally from Betty Crocker!

This image shows up on at least a half-dozen pages from a search for "Santa Fe Egg Bake"

Santa Fe Egg Bake (serves eight)

INGREDIENTS

4 C frozen southern-style hash brown potatoes

1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed

1 C fresh or frozen whole kernel corn

1 C frozen stir-fry bell peppers and onions

2 C shredded Colby-Jack cheese (8 ounces)

2 T chopped fresh cilantro (I never include this, though)

8 eggs (or Eggbeaters)

1 ¼ C milk

¼ t salt

¼ t ground red pepper

DIRECTIONS

1. Coat a rectangular 11×7 baking dish with cooking spray or similar. Mix first 5 ingredients together in the dish. Sprinkle half the cheese (and cilantro, if using).
2. Mix last 4 ingredients in a bowl until well blended. Pour evenly over mixture in dish. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top. Cover and refrigerate 2-24 hours.
3. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake 55-60 minutes or until fork/knife/toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Really, you can probably eyeball it. Cover with foil if cheese starts to burn before it’s done. Let stand 5-10 minutes before cutting.  

If you serve this with a number of other items buffet-style, it’ll feed a lot more people. It naturally slices into 8 servings, but those pieces are really big and a lot of your guests will cut them in half.

I place a bowl of fresh salsa on the side for topping, which is the best way to eat it, but that’s the Texan talking.

What are your go-to menu items for brunch?