In Ze French Fridge...Gluten-Free Breakfast in France

My choices would be so flippin' fantastic if I could eat bread, croissants, chocolatines...with butter, real butter that tastes like butter, and my father-in-law's homemade jam. 

Up until today, there has been yogurt. Even at the hospital, I finagled my way

Mama Fitness: Five Tips for Cooking Dinner without Gaining Weight

It's dinner time and you are ready to cook, but dreading the terrible munchies that can accompany this task oh-so-naturally. Here is how to feed your family and not end up blowing your calorie intake for the day.

• Water; drink a huge glass before pulling out any ingredients, keep a second glass handy for the remainder of the job

•  Menu; establish one and stick to it. Don't allow a search through the cupboards and the fridge to distract you from your goal. Glance at the menu, gather what you need and ignore the chips, leftovers and drinks

•  Focus on the task at hand. You are creating a lovely meal for your loved ones. This is a gift to you and to them. Make it a special time each evening rather than a chore (in your mind.)

• Listen: have a podcast or your favorite music ready to go and fully enjoy it. In our kitchen at dinner prep time the choice is between helping or keeping quiet. If a child is helping, give them your time and encouragement...and a job to do!

•  Keep going; don't stop once dinner is cooking. Set the table, sweep the floor, clean out the fridge or a cupboard. 

Bon appetit!!!

FOOD on "Letters from a Small State" Blog

I have the honor of having a guest post on the exquisitely well-written blog: "Letters from a Small State":

 http://blog.elizabethhoward.net/2012/03/14/obsession-duty-love/

It's all about food and love in our home.

Elizabeth Howard is a blogger friend and a wonderfully talented writer. 

To Elizabeth:
I have learned so much from the creating of this post. I have read with attention other guest posts to your blog and learned from your writing and theirs. I was a bit anxious about having something of mine up next to these.

When I read it this morning, I felt heartened. You did a fabulous job editing and formatting my three paragraphs into a visually interesting read that kept flowing.  I see your talent in much more than simply writing. You are an artist! Thank you!

And thanks for having me over to your blog house!

Angela

Dubious Impetus

I bet that anyone who bothered to read about what I had for breakfast last week, maybe the week before,  is wondering; "what?" or "who cares?"

Well, there was a reason behind the folly and menu. I heard a man's voice on the radio saying something idiotic like: "Statistics state that a woman over 40 has to work out for one hour every day just to maintain her current weight. One hour a day at the gym, to not even lose weight? That's crazy! That's why I want to offer you the opportunity to try my super-weight-loss-smoothie. For just $5 a day, you can eat and lose weight too...blah, blah, blah."

With all of my love and respect for people who sell nutritional shakes that truly help people recover health and well-being (and a comfortable weight), I just don't see the point if you know how to eat a balanced diet, or make your own smoothie from fresh ingredients. When one goes from eating hot dogs, soda and chips 3 times a day to a nutritionally balanced shake full of vitamins and good things, it is an improvement. An expensive improvement, but nonetheless better than the aforementioned diet.

So that was my response to the trend of paying someone else to mix up a blend of vitamins and stuff for you: DYI is really not just something you can do, but something it is easy and healthier to do.

This is true in many areas that are taken for granted today as having one way of being done; diapering and cleaning baby bottoms; no wipes? Try running water over the area in a pinch or when the mess is big, (don't forget to take off the socks). Keep a small baggie with a couple of cloth wipes moistened in lavender water for your purse.  Add a little tea tree oil to keep fresher longer. Think outside the box and our current time frame for anything disposable; paper towels, how about a rag drawer or bag? People did clean 100 years ago, and their environmental footprint remained microscopic compared to today. In France, homemakers and janitors still keep "la serpiere", a big, all-purpose, thick rag that can be pushed on the end of a mop to wipe up spills. Rinse, ring and wipe again.

When in doubt, just ask yourself; "What would Ma have done in her little house in the big woods?"

I have many friends who inspire me with their "from scratch" and "make it yourself" lifestyles. I know people who make everything from bread to clothing to pizza ovens. What sorts of things do you do yourself?

Here is another smoothie recipes for you, should you be so inclined to try one:

Collard greens, ripped up; fill the blender
1T frozen orange juice
a handful of frozen berries
1 scoop of protein powder
2 canned pear or peach halves
milk of choice

Cold and Spicy Breakfast Smoothie Anybody?

I've been making my own smoothies with diverse ingredients for longer than the word "smoothie" existed. Back in high school I worked in an ice cream shop and learned to make an orange julius with a real egg, real milk, orange sherbet and vanilla ice cream. Things have evolved a bit since then; the raw egg was last popular when I was expecting number four, the ice cream has been replaced by healthier ingredients. Now that I have reached a certain, we'll say, amount of years, at times a return to smoothie meals is a way of helping with weight control, as well as detoxing. I have many different ingredients I toss in the blender. I always start with greens of some sort; parsley and kale, spinach, etc. Protein powder, in a rice or soy form, is added, frozen berries, milk. It's an easy way to get a bunch of nutrition and little calories.

This morning's meal was composed primarily of what remained in my bag of greens; mustard greens. To their credit, mustard greens are a known anti-cancer vegetable, they may also be helpful when one suffers from colds, arthritis or depression. Enough good reasons to incorporate them into one's diet, right? Well...

To the mustard greens in the blender, I added fresh strawberries, a tablespoon of frozen orange juice, a frozen yogurt the kids forgot in the freezer, half a frozen banana, ice cubes and a little soy milk. Mmm, it was an interesting mix, smelled like a fresh garden harvest, tasted good until it got half-way down, then the spicy hit. At first it was a sort of pleasant, pinch of cayenne pepper thing. As I drank, it became a little more powerful, still tolerable, but increasingly reminiscent of the "breakfasts" the Mexican cooks would make us when I worked in a Chinese restaurant in college. (These were always hotter when the cook was homesick or mad at a waitress.) I think I may have heart burn all day. I had to wash the whole thing down with an extra chocolate protein drink, life is the pits. I'll stick to collard greens and kale tomorrow.

For the rest of the family, it was a cooking and baking day. The kids woke to the odors of fresh chocolate bread baking (which was not for breakfast, but for park day). They requested bacon and eggs, which were cooked and served. Milk became an issue; we were almost out. You would not believe the panic in a house where children all think they deserve the last glass of milk in the gallon! Really though, there was more like a quart of milk left, enough to do something creative with.  Smoothies for them too, more bananas, no collard greens. I figured that would hold them for a little while. I made a second chocolate bread (my recipe; sort of a challa with Ghiradelli chocolate chips, sprinkled with raw sugar on top) to thank our neighbors who gave us a much-needed desk that perfectly fits the need Lily has for a larger one, such luck, such kindness! I prepared a quick picnic and we headed to the park. It was a fabulous day.

Food and Non-food

What do you eat? We've narrowed it down considerably in our home; we only eat it if it qualifies as food. That, however, is a point up for clarification and debate! What is your family's definition of food? Here is a great post on the less desirable ingredients included in a typical grocery store's aisles:
http://simplifylivelove.blogspot.com/2011/06/scary-foods-aspartame-rbgh-artifical.html

Yogurt and Tooth Aches

Write, no,
housework, medium,
concentrate on anything long enough to be productive, ugh, sigh,

discover new yogurt, check!

Looks like the universe has sent me a number of lessons in the form of the worst tooth ache of my life. There has been little to rejoice about these past 10 days, or so I thought, until I tasted "noosa, finest yoghurt". Let me back up.

Children come down with things all the time. Someone always has a cold or a sore throat or a tummy ache. Poor Alienor, 9, has had repetitive pain in her teeth. She has too many and an "advanced dentition for her age." I have tried to be sympathetic, but sometimes the same refrain was honestly, getting old, "my teeth hurt." Really? Again? That much? 

Yes, it does really hurt that much. trust me. Sorta wrecks one's day, or night. I will be more empathetic to the pains and aches of people of all ages from now on. Who was it that said that there is no better person to have at one's bedside than a hypochondriac? 

Second benefit; a raid on the local grocer's yogurt section yesterday produced a real treat, one I did not think I would ever encounter in the US; fantastic Greek yoghurt. The reason; I needed some extra probiotics in a form that my son would eat because both he and I are on antibiotics. I got some plain, natural yogurt, the kind without the icky gelatin effect. I moved on to a new chocolate kind that Alienor discovered and thought it would be just like the "creme" in France that her mamie keeps them stocked in. It wasn't, more nasty gelatin ruined that one. And I found the new Greek yoghurt selection, it was huge! I bought a couple different brands to try. Now, Greek yoghurt, or strained yoghurt, is special in that it is a thicker, creamier version of yogurt, without the fat. It is strained to remove the whey, leaving it lush and smooth and satisfying. There are many uses for strained yogurt, both savory and sweet. As soon as I got home and the children heard that we'd found new yogurt, they all set into my stock like starving bandits. It looked like I would be returning all too soon to the grocery store. But it did not pan out quite that way. 

One brand of the "Greek" stuff was eaten, passed around to taste, and given an "OK" review, but with the caveat; "it's not like in France." True. I would use the plain variety of this brand again, in sauces, in salad dressing, even for a sugar-free dessert  with fresh fruit .The chocolate and caramel kind we ate as a special dessert was a huge deception, only Puck even finished it. He finished two or three, so I guess if your expectations are different, it is OK stuff. The problem: it looked just like the dessert in France, it was written in French, but it had been America-fied for sale here, awful. However...the "noosa"; oh my! While it makes no claims of Greekness, it has all of the wonderful qualities of a Greek yogurt. It is creamy, it is delicious, the selection of fruits is outstanding (strawberry rhubarb?!) and it almost makes up for the fact that my crown is fast approaching the "need a root canal" stage...but I'll need to go get some more of the blueberry kind before that happens.

Recipe: Cucumbers in Greek Yoghurt Dressing

Peel, seed (if you really want to do it the French way, this means removing most of the seeds, then soaking in rock salt to remove more moisture, I usually skip these steps) and slice the cucumbers.

Sauce: 2T plain Greek yoghurt

            1T olive oil

            1T balsamic or wine vinegar

            salt and pepper to taste

Mix ingredients of sauce, toss with cucumbers. Bon appetit!

Our New, Permanent Menu for the Week

This was thought up in some haste, just before grocery shopping the other day, so it may not be as perfectly balanced in meal choices as future or past menus have been. Our goal was to write it down and stick to it, simplify this one aspect of life right now. It is basically healthy, includes no non-foods or artificial anythings, and does include easy-prep and advance-prep meals. Bon appetit!

Day:                                                Lunch:                                                    Dinner:

Sunday      sweet potatoes, rice and beans              fried fish, green beans, potatoes

Monday     quesadillas, cucumbers, carrots          hamburgers and fries, tomatoes, lettuce

Tuesday     pasta, tomato sauce, sugar snap peas    chicken, vegetable stir-fry, rice

Wednesday   sandwiches, raw veggies                     Italian sausage soup, salad

Thursday     rice salad                                              lasagna, carrot salad

Friday        salad w/hard-boiled eggs, bacon, bread    pasta or leftovers, salad

Saturday     baked potatoes and ham                          pizza night (homemade pizza)

made ahead, for the whole month: Italian sausage soup, lasagna, hamburgers
prepped ahead: grate cheese for quesadillas, carrots, celery, broccoli, etc. cut up, lettuce washed and stored in containers for the week (dried well in a salad spinner), same day prep; grate carrots for carrot salad, cut potatoes for fries, soak until frying, cook rice and chop veggies for rice salad
dessert: is yogurt or fruit

Leeks, Sardines and Other Odd Foods

We love to eat, we plan our days around cooking for each meal, food means serious business in our house. I imagine if you have tuned in to any of my posts in the past year or so you perhaps might have gleaned this info along the way.

I also think about food. I mean I think about food a lot; things like; "Is baking the best way to cook this? How about making that over the flames in the fireplace? What if I added raw honey instead of white or even brown sugar? How about Stevia or maple syrup?" I also have to wonder, with the number of allergies and food sensitivities that we have; "what will make granola crunchy if I omit the nuts and the corn syrup? How can I make a gluten-free taco pie? Will rice milk work in chocolate chip cookies?" and last, but not least; "how can I include more healthy ingredients in what we eat? Would they notice the flax seed in the smoothie or the spinach in the quiche? Will they eat organic, baked chips?"

I will be talking about ingredients that don't always make the top ten list in American kitchens. I will start out with very simple recipes and move on from there. I will have vegetarian and meat dishes both, as we respectfully consume poultry and meat that comes from animals that have lived good lives in our house. I am having fun already.

So, I am happy to see so many of you have joined me on this food adventure. Get ready for a great journey. We'll share recipes and secrets and enjoy happier, healthier lives while we're at it. Here's to you! (Toasted with a fine glass of Bordeaux, 1988.)

Let's Talk Food

Inspired by a discussion began on The Itchy Homeschooler, I thought it would be a fun challenge to introduce the topic of healthy eating, or even just plain food, real food. In her post, Marlis talks about how out of the ordinary it has become to see a shopping cart filled with fruits, vegetables, beans and meat these days. In fact, it was so exceptional, that an elderly lady complimented her husband on his healthy habits. (My husband would have said she was flirting with him, had he been in his shoes, but then again, he's French.)

We have the same problem at the check-out that other people mentioned in the above post; the cashiers never know the names of our "exotic" vegetables like leeks, swiss chard or belgian endive. So why are we buying such weird food anyway? Do our kids eat this stuff? Sit down with a cup of tea (or red wine if it's past five), and enjoy the food adventure that is about to begin. If you eat real food or are on the road to doing so again, join in the discussion and share your thoughts. It may not sound easy, but it is worth every second of your time for the way you'll feel and the state of your future health.

When we lived in France, we ate French food, of course. Well, after I learned to cook, that is. Before that, we ate pasta, omelettes and Chinese food because that's all we knew how to make. I went to the farmer's market twice a week to shop for fresh fruits and vegetables, fish and meat and picked up things like flour, milk, yogurt and spices at the supermarket. I bought rice, soy sauce, bean sprouts and fresh litchis at the Chinese grocery shop.

When we moved to the States, childhood favorite convenience food came naturally to fill in the holes in my noon menu. We would have canned soup, fish sticks, frozen pizza, peanut butter and even hot dogs during the week days. A number of years ago, I came to the conclusion that we needed to stop all preservatives, which meant no more processed food of any kind. Ugh, "so much more cooking", is what it felt like. However, once we chose to walk that path, it became habit, just normal instead of drudgery. So much is in your attitude. We became healthier and our budget a little leaner. We continue to refine our diet, removing much of the sugar, eat a lot less grains, less dairy and more vegetables. Saturday is still pizza night and I still bake, just less often.

In this spirit, I thought I would offer easy recipes for those just starting out cooking for themselves and for those in search of a new meal idea, aren't we all? Please share your own meal ideas, my menu is starting to look old!

A word on planning; this is what works for my family. Please take the ideas that work for you and leave the rest. We have five children and little time to think about what to cook twice a day, so it works to have a weekly menu on the side of the fridge that we cook from. We use that menu to write a list each week for the grocery store. We usually pick up milk and produce another time during the week.

As for the children, there are a few things that help to form or reform their eating habits. Example is one. If both parents are on the same page, i.e. no one is advocating, buying or making extra food, it makes it easier. The other is household content. If your house does not CONTAIN any other food, they might eventually give up and eat the healthy food that is available, then again...some kids are very stubborn and very creative, you'll have to rise to the challenge of being equally creative, but not necessarily stubborn.

The first recipe is in the next post.

Churches and Company

In a typical day in a small French town, my life was interrupted with pleasant encounters from the time I left the house at 4pm until 9:00 that same night. Lily, Puck and I went out for a walk. We had two goals; to pick up some aluminum foil for the fish and explore the XIth century church in the village.

Half-way there we met up with Pierre's grandmother, on her way home from having her hair done. Even at eighty-eight, she is elegant and gets around on her own. We walked the rest of the way up the hill to the village, facing the afternoon sun all the way. It did not bother me at all to slow down a bit, it was hot! We picked up our foil, then made our way across the square to the church. Lily had been there before, but she had not been encouraged to stop and look at either the construction or the architecture. We began by examining the steps; ancient, worn down in spots, but not smoothly, the way marble wears down in most churches or castles. These steps were made of limestone and sea shells, looking like a sponge from the front and the holes like craters on the moon. The wall surrounding it is made of similar material, thick, solid, built in Roman times to protect and endure. The church is a beautiful example of a Roman structure, rather squat and rounded, reminding one as much of a fort as a church. We entered for a few moments. The organist was rehearsing and one family was praying, the father walking the stations of the cross on his knees, the daughters lighting candles, the mother sitting quietly. Back outside there were enough lizards to keep the kids amused for ages; little tiny ones that like the warm rocks in the sun. Lily caught one, to Puck's great delight, and they pet it and thoroughly checked it out before releasing him.

Pierre's grandmother, who lives right across a path from the church, invited us up for something to drink. We all had water with mint syrup or orange syrup. Puck figured out enough French to say he only liked the orange syrup, I was quite content. She gave the children flan with as much whipped cream as flan, and chocolate and bread. Following the feast, she called over her neighbor and friend of fifty years to show off her jewels of grandchildren. The two of them are terribly competitive concerning all off-spring, so this was an opportunity not to be missed.

We returned home from our half-hour jaunt two hours later, after once again stopping to explore the church and its lizards.

Soon after-wards, the other children arrived with their Mamie and their uncle and cousin. I was just getting the fish, all wiggly and slippery, ready for the oven. This time I remembered to have it cleaned, only to find that the sellers did a hasty job of it. I found hooks in two out of three of them. Three of the kids decided to accept Mamie's invitation to spend the night at her house. There I was with fish sliding all over, threatening to spew fish juice on me at any moment, six munchkins all excited to see each other again and running all over my suddenly small apartment, and I had to pack an overnight bag, quickly.

Once they had left,sigh, I realized that three out of seven of my eaters of fish had just taken off. And the darn things were in the oven. The uncle and cousin were still there; Didier and sweet little Camille, so I inquired if they would not mind staying to dinner and helping us eat the fish. Pierre's sister had to work, so it was just the two of them. They didn't mind, so with a little shuffling (company can't use the table cloth we've been eating on for two days, napkins and wine glasses are de rigeur and must be hunted up, an extra sippy cup, silly things) we were soon all seated for dinner. Camille and her cousins adore each other. She did not want to go home. At 8:30, the two little ones (Puck, almost three and Camille three and a half) were still playing very sweetly with silks and blocks. They were gone by nine and we were ready to settle down for the night.

Here is the recipe for last night's dinner: My online translations are calling "Merlu" "Hake." If you google images for it, you will see what it looks like and what wicked teeth it has. Puck had a blast being "bit" by the sharp little things while I was struggling with hooks and innards. It is REALLY REALLY easy, I bet you even have ideas for improving it, send them please!

Ingredients:

Hake, as fresh as you can find it
White wine
Shallots, chopped, 1/2 per fish
Garlic, minced, 1 clove per fish

Rice
Lardons (or diced prosciutto or thick-sliced and diced bacon)
Chives

Lettuce
Olive oil
Vinegar
salt and pepper

You will need; aluminum foil and a dish, like a casserole dish, that goes in the oven

Clean one good-sized hake per two persons, leaving head and tail intact for aesthetic effect and flavor. Spread out a sheet of foil big enough to completely wrap us one fish. Don't fret if it's not big enough, you can always add another, the point is to keep the juice, wine and bits of shallots and garlic together. Set the fish on the foil, shiny side out. Add a little bit of wine over it, salt and pepper. Cover with garlic and shallots. Wrap up in foil, add a piece or two if necessary to completely cover the fish. Bake at 350 for about 20-30 minutes, test to see if done by actually tasting it, this fish's flesh feel soft but need a little more time in the oven, depending upon how you like it done.

Rice, basmati or jasmine is our favorite. Cook according to directions.

Fry lardons, add chives at the end of cooking, add both to rice.

Wash some nice, green-leaf lettuce, add some leaves of spinach, if you'd like, spin it all out in a salad spinner or in a towel bundled up like a knap-sack, ever-so-carefully, outside over the balcony. Make sure your neighbor is not down below, especially if she is your uncle-in-law's mother and owns the house.

For the vinegrette: the recipe is 3-1, oil to vinegar, which means if you use 3T olive oil, you mix it with 1T vinegar. Salt and pepper to taste. You can get fancy and add 1t mustard, the good kind. You could also choose to add a clove of garlic or a shallot or chives. Use your imagination and, above all, enjoy!

The In-laws Have Arrived

After a wait of seven years and much planning, dreaming and some dreading, my in-laws arrived Saturday night for a month-long stay. This is their first time in the United States, their first time leaving France, and the first time they have visited our family since we moved here in 2001. Such an event!

The last time they visited we had two children, not five, and we lived an hour and a half from their home, not 20. We were not homeschooling then either, and we had not converted to a simpler, more practical way of cooking and eating, and if I was still nursing a toddler, I was hiding it! Oh yeah, and I was not trying to plan the first family reunion in years and years with my family and them too, nor a family trip to Chicago, two birthdays, French Mother's Day, Father's day, shopping trips and sightseeing.

Will I have any hair left when they leave?

It has all begun splendidly, with many gifts and much joy all around. We made a real French meal yesterday for lunch, (at the end of which my father-in-law said only: don't you have any lettuce here?) They helped us in the yard all day. We took them on a walk, made a nice dinner, with fresh-from-the-oven scones and gingerbread in the shape of roosters (the French national bird.)

We are all on our very best behavior, we shall try to maintain this for one short month and all go home with happy memories. Watch for updates.