Blackberries!

Blackberries! 

(credit: Jackie Garvin)

They're popping up all over the place now and so prices are kind to your wallet, plus they are so, so good for you. Did you know that blackberries are an excellent source of vitamin-C, which is a powerful antioxidant? Blackberries are low in calories, carbohydrates and have no fat, which makes them popular in low carb and low calorie diets. They also have good amounts of vitamin A, vitamin E, and vitamin K. Minerals like potassium, manganese, copper, and magnesium are in blackberries too. That's a lot of good stuff. 

Cobblers are a delicious Southern tradition, no doubt, but consider a healthier dessert like a Blackberry Crisp instead.  You may have heard this recipe this morning on The Tennessee Farm Table in WDVX...  You can listen any time on demand by accessing the show in the audio archives. (The Tennessee Farm Table airs every Saturday at 9 a.m. If you live in East Tennessee be sure to give it a listen... Host Amy Campbell features lots of great info on the people who grow, prepare, and preserve our regional foods.)  

Here’s what you’ll need:

About 5-6 cups of fresh blackberries, washed

Juice of 1/2 lemon

2 tablespoons honey

2 teaspoons cornstarch or arrowroot powder (use arrowroot powder if you have concerns about GMOs and can't locate GMO-free cornstarch)

2/3 cup brown sugar (you can use less depending on your desired sweetness)

about ¼ cup of cold butter, diced

¾  cup rolled oats

½   cup white whole wheat flour

1/2 cup chopped nuts, we like pecans

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Salt

(Use organic ingredients when possible)

Toss blackberries with lemon juice, honey and cornstarch/arrowroot powder and spread in a greased 8-or-9-inch pan.

Combine brown sugar, butter, rolled oats, flour, pecans, cinnamon, and a dash of salt in a food processor; pulse a few times.

Crumble over fruit and bake at 375 for 40 to 45 minutes.

This will keep in the fridge for a few days and also freezes really well.

Enjoy! 

Do you have a favorite healthy blackberry recipe?  I'd love to hear about it.  Please feel free to post in the comments! 

Dining at Disney - A 'Real Food' Challenge

I’ll be taking a blog break for the next week so we can go on a family vacation and veg (pun intended) out.  

Or will we?  

You see, we’re off to see The Mouse. Will veggies and other healthy food be readily available and easy to find? Will we need to pay an arm and a leg for it? We’re eager to find out if it’s possible to eat real, wholesome food on a tight budget while at Disney World. 

For instance, we probably won't be eating this:

But we may be eating this:

Chances are very good that we won’t find any organic fare at the parks but we’ll do our best to source out fresh, whole foods as much as possible. Our hotel has a fridge but no cooking facilities and we only plan to go to the grocery store once – snacks only.  So, we’ll be limited to park food and close-to-the hotel restaurants for our meals.  

Can we do it?  I think we can. I'm hopeful we can. Check back next week and find out.

Do you have any tips for us on our Disney World food adventure?  Please leave in the comments below...

Organically yours,

Minde

Whatch Cookin' Wednesday - Applesauce

You've heard me preach it, folks:

Buy seasonal food in bulk.  

It's a smart way to get real food at the best prices while at it's peak flavor. I'm over the moon that apples are in season right now. (Seriously, this morning I woke up thinking about rustic apple tarts. No joke.) That means those delicious red/gold/yellow/green/pink fruits are in abundance. And inexpensive.

In my area (East TN), organic apples are about $1.10/lb., which is down from about $2.25/lb in the off-season, and maybe even less expensive if a local farmer has a surplus they want to unload.  What does this mean for my family?  Copious amounts of applesauce!  And yes, rustic apple tarts.

A 25 oz. jar of organic applesauce at my local market costs about $3.60 - 4.00. Ouch. If I ration it carefully (or mix it with yogurt to make it last longer), I might get a jar to last about a week.  I use it in baked goods, we pack it in school lunches, it makes a great ice cream topping... We typically go through about 2-4 jars a month. That's approximately $14.50.

A month...

For applesauce.

Per year? About $175 buckaroos. Super ouch. 

Now, when I make homemade applesauce the cost goes down to about $1.35 for same-sized jar. Sweeeet. And yummy. That's about $3.50 for about 64 oz. of organic, delicious, good-for-you, proud-to-serve, tunny-pleasing, HEALTHY, applesauce.

Another bonus: It's easy! You can make a humongous batch of applesauce in your Crock Pot with very little effort. (Save for the peeling part but it's not too bad if you've got some tunes goin'. I found that Lily Allen is darn near perfect apple peeling music.) Get the kids in on the act. Let your munchkins measure the spices, how many cups of apples needed, and more. A great math lesson, plus they get the eat the fruits of their labor.

Store your sauce in Mason jars in the freezer (be sure to leave at least 1/2" of headspace) or use the super-easy water bath canning method for long-term preserving.

Crock Pot Applesauce
(Yields about 64 oz. For you bad-at-math canners, that's two quarts or four pints or a quart and two pints.)

-3 lbs. or about 12-15 medium-sized apples - peeled, cored, and chopped. (I use a mix of tart and sweet varieties such as a Gala and Granny Smith)
-4 tsp. lemon juice
-cinnamon
-sweetener - sugar, honey, agave - to taste (we skip the sweetener since most apples are sweet enough on their own)
-water

Tip: Use non-stick spray on inside of Crock Pot before adding apples.  Makes clean-up a breeze... 

Add lemon juice and apples to Crock Pot. (UPDATED 5.1.13 - please note that I no longer add lemon juice! We didn't see any notable difference when we omitted it so now we just leave it out.)

Stir to combine.

Sprinkle cinnamon on mixture, just to cover lightly.

Set on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.

and...

THAT'S IT.  (Told ya it was easy.) We eat as-is -- a little on the chunky side. If you prefer a smooth sauce, blend to desired consistency in blender or Cuisinart. A hand blender used directly in the Crock Pot works great too. (Use water as needed to get the right texture.)

By the way, this applesauce makes great a Christmas gift.  Can it in a lovely Mason jar, add a fun tag and you're good to go.

Organically yours,

Minde

Do you have a fave seasonal Crock Pot recipe?  I'd love to hear about it.  Please post in comments!

Banana Bread - Make Your Own! 10 Easy Ways to Living Affordably Organic

We're nearing the end of Week 3 ("Grow and Make Your Own!") of a 10-Week series of 10 Easy Ways to Living Affordably Organic and I just couldn't resist ending with a recipe.  

I love quick breads.  Pumpkin bread, banana bread, zucchini bread, cranberry bread – you name it.   The ready-made versions can get expensive in your local store ($5./loaf or more!) and are often chock full of sugar and preservatives.  The in-the-box varieties are worse.  I can’t even pronounce half of the listed ingredients.

Luckily, quick breads are easy and inexpensive to make and (big bonus) universally loved by all family members.  It’s a versatile food too, good for snacks, brunch or even for dessert.  The challenge is finding a recipe that isn’t loaded with sugar.  Most quick breads are just too sweet for my taste plus the added sweeteners don’t do any favors for my waistline.  

I found the perfect recipe for banana bread and only had a make a few tweaks to make it work for our taste and lifestyle. (It's adapted from a Mark Bittman favorite.) This bread is low in sugar, incredibly flavorful, very light in texture and taste, and isn’t set-your-jaw-on-edge sweet. It keeps well in the fridge (about one week) and can be frozen up to 3 months.   You can find oat flour in the health food section of your local market.

Thanks to theDelicious for the image!

Banana Bread

1 ½ cup organic all-purpose flour

½ cup organic oat flour (you can also use whole wheat but you will get a slightly denser bread)

½ cup organic unsalted butter (1 stick) – melted

1 teaspoon salt

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder (aluminum free)

½ cup organic honey

2 organic eggs

3-4 very ripe organic bananas

Preheat oven to 350.  

Add melted butter, bananas, honey to blender and blend until smooth.  

Add eggs and blend again. (Set aside.)  

In large bowl combine all dry ingredients – flours, salt, baking powder - and stir well.  

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir gently, just until all ingredients are combined.  

Bake in a lightly greased loaf pan for one hour or until tester toothpick comes out clean.

(For a lower fat version instead of using ½ cup of butter use 4 TBSP. butter and ¼ cup of applesauce.  The loaf will be moister and more compact but still very tasty.)

See you next week for Week 4 - Be a Fan of the Meal Plan!

Organically yours,

Minde


Do you have a favorite go-to recipe for quick bread?  Share here!

Whatcha' Cookin' Wednesday - "Quinoa" (it's a 2-fer!)

I'm forever changed.

I finally discovered Quinoa.

I've often seen it in the store and wondered what the fuss was all about. I always thought it was pronounced "KIN-oh-ah." (Wrong. It's "KEEN-wah.") One of my fave people, who is also a vegetarian and food writer, has written about it and still I resisted. Not sure why.

So, the other day we were at Whole Foods getting oats out of the bulk bin and there was the Quinoa. I decided to buy a pound and give it a whirl.

It's AMAZING.

Just like tofu, Quinoa takes on the flavor of whatever you add to it. It's a grain that you cook like rice. It's easy to cook, yummy and so GOOD for you.

Check it out:
Its protein content is very high (12%-18%), making it a healthful choice for vegetarians and vegans -and kids that won't eat meat. Unlike wheat or rice (which are low inlysine), quinoa contains a balanced set of essential amino acids for humans,making it an unusually complete protein source. It is a good source ofdietary fiber and phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. Quinoa is gluten-free and considered easy to digest.

You can make plain quinoa or add lots of yummy stuff - whatever is in your pantry. Endless combos... My twins scarf it up! It's great kid eats since you can add whatever food(s) that is striking their fancy this week. Add raisins! Or nuts! Cheese! Seriously, the possibilites are infinite.

Listed below is the basic recipe for cooking Quinoa and also one of our faves: Quinoa with sun-dried tomatoes, black beans, chicken and garlic.

Buy some. Today. And eat lots of it. Your body will thank you.




QUINOA
(Basic cooking instructions to yield approx. 3 cups of Quinoa)



1 ½ c. of Qunoa
2 c. water
Salt to taste

Rinse quinoa with cold water. Use a fine mesh filter/colander or coffee filter.
(Quinoa is coated with a natural substance called saponin that protects the grain by repelling insects and birds. Rinsing the quinoa is important to avoid a raw or bitter taste. You can tell if there is saponin by the production of a soapy looking "suds" when the seeds are swished in water. If you are using Ancient Harvest Quinoa you can skip this step. It's already rinsed!)

Add quinoa to water and bring to boil. (A fine, white spiral appears around the grain as it cooks.)

Reduce to simmer and cook until fluffy, about 15 minutes.

and....

Quinoa with sun-dried tomatoes, black beans, chicken and garlic

1 c. of cooked Quinoa
1 Tblsp. olive oil
½ c. diced sun-dried tomatoes (use the kind that come packed in oil, NOT dried)
½- 1 c. diced chicken (optional)
1 c. of black beans
2-3 cloves of garlic (or more!)
½ t. cumin
Salt to taste

Sautee chicken and garlic in olive until cooked, about 5 minutes. Add sun-dried tomatoes and beans. Stir well. Add quinoa, cumin and salt. Stir until heated through.

How Sweet It Is

I might be the neighborhood freak.

I don’t allow my kids to eat sugar.

Sure, they eat fruit, and I use honey and maple syrup to sweeten breads and granola bars and such, but I absolutely don’t allow them to eat processed sugar. So… No cupcakes, cookies, popsicles, etc. They’ve never had a Coke or a candy bar or even an M & M.

They had their way with homemade cupcakes when they turned one…

…but none since. (And, quite frankly, I’m not sure how much of the cupcake actually made it down to their tummies. They were more interested in the Mess Factor then the Eating Factor.)

Please understand that I’m not passing judgment on folks that choose to feed their kids sugar; we just don’t feed it to our kids. My reason is simple: I want to keep their little bodies as pure as possible; for as long as possible. I’m certain there will come a time (especially if they attend a traditional school) when they will trade meals and end up eating something that I would never offer. (And they will survive it, I’m sure.) But for now I’m in control and I choose to leave sugar out of the equation.

We’ve never had an issue with it because we’ve never introduced it into their lives. People seem to be amazed at this. “How do you do it?” they ask. I guess we’ve never really thought about it. We’ve never offered so they don’t ask. Easy peasy. For instance, on Halloween this year they collected “treats” (we didn’t call it candy) and did not ask to eat anything even though they were allowed to play with their loot afterwards. They were curious about the packaging but didn’t understand the “candy” thing.

I had a moment of pause this Saturday. We attended a small birthday party for a neighbor kid friend and I was a little concerned about what to do when it was “Cake Time.” We’ve been to plenty of parties but they’re usually large, crazy affairs and the cake seems to be lost in the birthday whirl of chaos. This was the first time that they were just two of maybe 7 kids, the cake would take a much bigger spotlight than ever before. As the cupcakes were being handed out a neighbor mom mouthed to me. “How are you going to handle this?” I didn’t know… (Praying?!?!) Turns out I didn’t need to come up with a game plan… I gently steered my kiddos away and they bounded down the hall to play with balloons. They didn’t ask about the goodies, or seem to miss not being part of the sugar-eatin’, cupcake-enjoyin’ group.

Crisis averted.

For now.

It’s going to be interesting to see how the “No Sugar” dictum will do once the holidays hit with full force.

We’re headed down south to spend the holidays with Danger Dad’s family. They are big Gingerbread House folks. Making it, decorating it, EATING it. It’s a HUGE tradition and I don’t want my kiddos to miss out. DD’s mom even suggested decorating the house this year with dried fruit but, really, even I can agree that's just sacrilege.

So, I will go with the flow and see what the kiddos want to do. I wouldn’t be surprised if they weren’t interested or maybe took a small bite and decided, eh, it’s not that great. (Gingerbread is a bit spicy and they may not like it, who knows?)

Stay tuned. :)

Whatcha' Cookin' Wednesday - Pumpkin Bread

In honor of Thanksgiving, and in honor of keeping things SIMPLE at Thanksgiving (don't we get a little wacky with the food, people?), posted below is the yummiest, easiest and healthiest Pumpkin Bread recipe around. Most pumpkin breads are no more than glorified cakes with cup and cups of sugar to each loaf. Not this one. Only ONE cup of honey for two loaves.

Lovely.



The kiddos LOVE it. And we do too. And it freezes well. (And did I mention it's really, really good?)

Enjoy. :)

Pumpkin Bread
(yields two loaves)

1 cup honey
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
16 oz. of fresh, roasted pumpkin (or one can of solid-pack pumpkin) [ed. note: Roast fresh pumpkin by halving and removing seeds then place flesh-side down on cookie sheet lined with foil coated with non-stick cooking spray. Bake at 400 degrees for one hour or until soft and mushy.)
4 eggs
4 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon of ground cloves
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

In Cusinart or blender mix honey, eggs and butter. Add pumpkin. Blend well. Transfer mixture to big bowl. In seperate bowl sift together dry ingredients. Stir into pumpkin mixture. Divide batter equally between two well-greased loaf pans. Bake at 350°F for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Let loaves cool in pans for 10 minutes; invert pans to remove loaves and allow to finish cooling on racks.

Quiche Me

My other passion: FOOD. This is my recipe for Crustless "Kid" Quiche. It's the one that was featured in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution last September in the article about homemade baby food and healthy eating for young kiddos.



It's ultra-yummy, ultra-easy and a great way to sneak veggies into kiddos.



Enjoy!



CRUSTLESS KID QUICHE

8 servings
Hands on: 15 minutes
Total time: 1 hour, 15 minutes

5 eggs

3/4 cup whole milk

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon mustard powder

1 cup grated organic cheese, such as cheddar or mozzarella

1 cup steamed veggies, such as broccoli, peas, corn, carrots or spinach

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl, mix together eggs, milk, flour and mustard powder. Spray a round 9-inch cake pan with nonstick spray. Distribute cheese evenly on bottom of pan. Top with layer of veggies. Pour egg mixture on top. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. When cool, cut into eight wedges and store in refrigerator. Serve cold or heated. Cut into cubes, so toddlers can feed themselves. Discard any leftovers after 3 days.

Per serving: 131 calories (percent of calories from fat, 61), 9 grams protein, 4 grams carbohydrates, trace fiber, 9 grams fat (4 grams saturated), 150 milligrams cholesterol, 145 milligrams sodium.