Like Mother Like Daughter

I talk to my kids all the time about eating food that's good for our body. So, it wasn't much of a surprise when our middle daughter, J, told us about a writing project for her first grade class. She wrote a persuasive letter to the school district's food service director asking him to make the lunches at her school healthier. While other children were writing home to persuade their parents to get them puppies and kittens, J, with some encouragement from her teacher, took a different route. Which is not surprising. J is bold and courageous.

What was a surprise was hearing about the food service director, not only writing her back, but visiting her classroom to discuss some changes in the school lunches.  More whole grains, and fresh fruits and veggies. Less processed "meat". And some healthier options at the snack bar.

While I'm not a huge fan of the school lunches, I do allow my girls to buy lunch once a week. And I don't really limit what they can get. French toast sticks and sausage patties? Go for it. Mozzarella cheese sticks? Fine by me. Macaroni and cheese? Chow down.

No, it's not healthy. Yes, it's processed garbage.  My kids eat good, healthy meals most of the time, what can 1 crap meal a week do? And they love it. They look forward to the days they buy lunch. And to be very honest. I look forward to those days too. It means I don't have to pack them a lunch. It's like a little break for me!

After hearing from J,  about meeting with the food service director, I emailed him to thank him for writing back to my daughter and visiting her school. I also told him of my interest in teaching kids to eat healthy. Later that same day, I received a lovely email back. He explained some of the changes he had already made in the school lunch program. Last year he replaced many of the fried snack items with lower-fat baked products. He made more of the rolls, breads and pizza crusts from whole grains. He even had an article published on Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution website.  

Are the lunches as healthy as they could be? No, there is still plenty of room for improvement. I'd love to see our district using more local produce. I'd love to see them using whole grain pasta.  But I feel encouraged. I believe there is a dedication on the part of our district to improve the quality of the school's foods. And with kids like J pushing for healthier options, the future looks a whole lot brighter for school food.

The Lighter Side of Cream of Broccoli Soup

Here's another chapter in my story of what to eat for lunch. Today I was craving something spicy. I also needed to eat something light. I ate way too much of everything this weekend. Not only did we celebrate Easter. My youngest turned 3 on Saturday. My body didn't need any more cream and butter. Or chocolate, or frosting, or ravioli, or tomato cream sauce, or ham, or hot potato casserole, or, well you get the picture.

So, I found a few small heads of broccoli in the fridge. I decided to make a quick cream of broccoli soup. Without the cream and with lots of  crushed red pepper.

This soup took me 30 minutes from start to finish. Super quick and it was just what I wanted. It felt good putting something healthy into my body and it was perfectly spicy.

No real recipe for this one either. Just a very simple method.

Dice a small onion. I had one of those HUGE spanish onions. The ones the size of a baby's head. I used half. So, dice it up. It doesn't have to be pretty, you are going to puree the soup anyway.

Mince a few garlic cloves. I used 3 pretty good size cloves. Add more or less depending on your tastes. Please don't use garlic powder. Blech... buy some real, honest to goodness heads of garlic. Oh and that stuff in a jar is gross too. Use the real thing. Please.

Cut the broccoli into florets.  Make sure you also chop up the stems of the broccoli too! How much broccoli? I would say about 1 lb or so.

Saute the onions in some coconut oil or olive oil. Add some crushed red pepper flakes. How much depends on how spicy you want your soup. I just kinda sprinkled some in. Leave them out, if you don't like spicy stuff.  When the onions are soft, about 4 or 5 minutes on medium heat, add the garlic.  Saute only until the you smell that fabulous aroma.

Now add the broccoli  and 1 quart (4 cups) of chicken or veggie stock. I use Kitchen Basics, but Rachel Ray makes a decent chicken stock as well. Bring this to a boil and cook until the broccoli is tender. The smaller the florets, the faster this will cook.

Now blend it. You can use a blender, or an immersion blender. Like this one.  I love my immersion blender.

After blending it, I added about 1/2 cup whole milk. I wanted to make this a bit creamy, but didn't want to add cream. You can add milk or cream, half and half, or just leave it the way it is. How indulgent do you want to be?

Season with a bit of salt and freshly ground black pepper. I also added some freshly grated nutmeg. It really adds a nice depth of flavor. The kind of thing that makes people say, "hmmm... that's really good. What's in it?".

That's it. Serve it hot with some freshly baked bread. (Check out my post on no-kneed bread.) Or  a nice salad.

This soup is perfect for early spring in Upstate NY. It's supposed to be cold  and rainy most of the week. Make a pot and your family will thank you. Or they will start crying because they hate broccoli. Oh wait. Maybe that's just my 3 kids. Never mind.

I hope you enjoy the soup. I did!

No-kneed Bread

It's been almost two years since I've purchased bread on a regular basis. Yes, I make my own. No, I don't own a bread machine. I use my kitchen aid to mix and knead and then I let it rise on my counter and then bake it. The bread doesn't last long. But that's a good thing. It means my family eats it all very quickly.

It is time consuming though. The actual dough making and kneading only take about 15 minutes or so. But the dough must rise for about 2 hours the first time and then typically needs (not kneads) another rise before being baked. The second rise is shorter, but we're still talking a few hours. Really? Who has time for that? Well, sometimes, on the weekends I do, but most of the time, not so much.

And then I found a method that has changed my life. And it will change yours too! There are lots of different names for this method and many cookbooks for this kind of bread. Most often it's referred to as no-knead bread.

And as the name implies, this method of making bread requires absolutely no kneading. Which is great, but the even better part of this is that you throw the dough into the fridge. In my case, you then pray it doesn't freeze. Then when you are ready, you pull out the dough, cut off a chunk. Give it a brief rise on your counter. Only 30- 40 minutes. And then you bake it for about 30 minutes.

What this means, is that after you get home from work, you can have freshly baked bread in about 1 hr. That is really, pretty amazing.

The very, best part. Yes, better than not having to knead (I don't mind the kneading actually. Believe it or not, I enjoy it. It makes me feel connected to my food.) Better than not having to wait hours while the dough rises. That I can totally do without. The most wonderful part of the bread is the taste. Goodness Gracious Me! And the longer it hangs out in your fridge, the better it tastes. Well, within reason. Can't really keep the bread dough longer than a couple of weeks. However if you wait a week or so, the bread has a real sourdough flavor!

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

3 c. warm water

1 ½ tbsp dry active yeast (instant yeast is ok too)

1 ½ tbsp kosher salt

6 ½ c flour (I usually do 4 c white AP flour and 2 ½ white whole wheat flour)

Directions:

Ok. This can't get any easier.

Put all ingredients in to your mixer. Mix until it's a wet gloppy mess. Only about 30 seconds to a minute. Dump the dough into a large plastic container that you've sprayed greased with olive oil or butter. I find spraying it with oil works the best. I have one of those cool oil misters. You can put whatever kind of oil in it you want. Much more economical than buying Pam. 

Now rest the lid of the container on top, but don't fit it on tight. And let it hang our on your counter for a couple of hours. Do it on a weekend. Or after work. It takes minutes to mix together and then let it rise on your counter while you eat dinner or take your kids to piano/soccer/baseball/hockey practice. After a couple of hours put the whole thing in the fridge. It can stay our for up to 5 hours without harming the dough, so if you are running late. No worries. The dough will be fine.

It's hard to see in the picture, but I use this container only for my bread dough, so I've cut some wholes into the lid. It lets gas escape while it's in the fridge. If you don't want poke holes into your beloved Tupperware, just make sure the lid isn't on tight. It'll be fine.

That's it. Then when you're ready for some fresh baked bread, take out the container. Sprinkle a small section about ¼ to ⅓ of the dough and cut the dough. Then form it into a ball. This takes a bit of practice, but basically you are going to stretch the dough to form a ball. Place it on a pizza peel sprinkled with a bit of flour. Not let it rise for about 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes turn the oven on to 450 degrees. Place a pizza stone into the oven on the middle rack. On the lower rack, place an empty broiler pan . This is for water which will help give the bread a nice crispy artisan crust.

Dust the top of the dough with flour. Don't be shy. Give it a good dusting. Like the snow we didn't have in upstate NY this year. With a serrated bread knife, slash a ¼ inch cross or several parallel slashes. The flour will allow the knife to slash the dough without sticking.

When the oven is up to temperature, slide the bread onto the pizza stone. Also add ½ cup of water to the broiler pan and quickly close the oven door.

If you don't have a pizza stone, you can use a sheet pan turned upside down in the oven. And if you don't' have a pizza peel, you can use a piece of parchment. Then just slide the parchment and bread into the oven. The crust wont be quite so crisp, but it will still be amazing. Trust me!

Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until the bread is nice and brown.

Now, here's the hard part and one that I've never quite been able to do. Wait. You should really wait about 30 minutes to slice into the bread. It's virtually impossible to wait, though. The smell of the bread will entice you to slice into it right away and spread with some butter.

This process sounds complicated. But it's not. I promise. Try it. Now the one thing I haven't been able to do with this dough is make sandwich bread. I've tried, but it just doesn't work for me. I have another recipe for bread. I'll share that soon!

Now, you can cut off smaller pieces of dough and make rolls. Or, add some chopped fresh herbs to the ingredients before mixing it. Fresh thyme and rosemary would be amazing.

Many people ask why I bother making my own bread. It's pretty simple. Go to the grocery store and read the ingredients on the bags of sandwich bread. Usually sugar is one of the first ingredients. Or high fructose corn syrup. And the list of preservatives is both lengthy and unpronounceable. I don't want to eat it, nor do I want to feed it to my family. I like being able to control the ingredients.

And let me ask you this, is there anything better than freshly baked bread warm right from the oven?