Mom to the Screaming Masses

National Pancake Day was Yesterday

Yesterday, my kids were super excited. Apparently, it was NATIONAL PANCAKE DAY, and if you went to a certain "Pancake Restaurant", you could get a free stack of pancakes. Each.

No way, no how. Ain't nobody got time for that. (If you have no idea why I just said this, check out this  video. Seriously – it's my go to whenever I'm feeling down.)

Ahem. Excuse me while I have a small dance break over here.

We tried to do the free pancake thing last year, and it was a disaster. The lines were out the door, service was shoddy, and free pancakes are the only things that are free. Which means that a free dinner out ends up costing me $30. For $30, I could make pancakes at home.

And far yummier ones. Witness example A, Buttermilk Pancakes with homemade caramel syrup. This syrup is straight up stupid good. We don't buy maple syrup anymore - I just make this every couple of weeks and it hangs out in the fridge until it's pancake or waffle time. (Pancakes: 1 1/4 c. flour, 1 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. Baking soda, pinch of salt, 2 eggs, 1 1/2 c. buttermilk 2 Tbsp. melted butter 1/4 c. sugar. Stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder,and salt. Mix the eggs with the buttermilk and add to the flour mixture, stirring only until smooth. Add the melted butter and sugar. Fry on a greased griddle.)

And example B - Beer – braised bacon:

I don't even like bacon, and this stuff is so ridiculously delicious that I could eat it forever. Something about mixing beer and brown sugar, and then coating the bacon in it, changes the flavor up just enough.

For one brief shining moment, I was a rock star to my kids. We had the pancakes. We had the homemade syrup. We had the bacon. There were no lines, no waiting, and although the waitstaff wasn't entirely un-grumpy, it was better than last year.

And sometimes, that's the best you can hope for.

Baking Bread

When I was in junior high, my favorite class was called Home Ec. I took those classes all the way through high school because I loved to cook and bake. Not so much for the sewing aspect of it - I dislike sewing, although I'm fiercely envious of those who can sew. Every once in a while, I get a wild hair and think to myself, "You can make that."

And, I get to see that, no, I cannot. FAIL.

I also was never big on the "design" or "Home Interior decorating" aspect of those classes. For real. Slap some paint on the walls, put up your pictures and let's get on with life.

My house looks good in spite of me, not because of me.

I loved the Childhood Education segment. I always felt most at home with babies and children and at one point, thought I might be a childcare director. OH. HAHAHAHAHAAAA. Life is super funny.

But cooking and baking - now, that's my deal.

I was reflecting on this over the weekend. My mom and my younger boy made bread together, and watching them reminded me of the lessons that I'd learned so many years ago.

Yeast is a friendly sort. It loves warmth, sugar and salt - but hates heat. Bread dough loves to be oiled and massaged. Allow the dough to rest in order to form the gluten - cover it with a warm cloth and allow it to nap for an hour or so.

I mean - who among us doesn't want to be warm, oiled, massaged, allowed to nap and left alone?

I love to make bread. I have a bread machine, but I rarely use it - maybe twice a year. There's one particular bread dough recipe that I use to make rolls for the holidays that is best if it's done in a bread machine. Every other bread recipe, I do by hand. Completely by hand. I'm not sure why - it's not like I think I can do it better. It's not that I think I have "magic hands" or anything.

I just like to do it. The measuring, the mixing, the proofing. Covering the bowl with a warm wet cloth - a little trick that my mom showed me, I think  - and then coming back to a most magical sight - the dough mounding over the top of the bowl.

Then, the punch down part. Depending upon how frustrating a day it's been, that punch down part might be the best part of a day. The kneading, the second rise, sliding the formed loaves into the oven.

And then, of course, the scent of the baking bread and the taste of it, warm and buttered.

I make bread often. Maybe every week I'll make a few loaves - English muffin bread, white bread, rolls, sourdough or beer bread. It doesn't really matter what type of bread, for everyone here eats it all.

I love making bread.

I Want a Muffin with My Coffee

Now, if I could only find the recipe...

A long long time ago, I wanted to find a place to keep recipes - both those I had tried and those I was interested in trying.I bought a 3 inch binder and covered it in spunky wrapping paper, and then contact paper. It was cute. I used those sticky pages - you know, the ones that are terrible for archival work, the ones that trap your pages and don't let go of them, the kind that turn your newspaper clippings yellow and scream, "She's a fraud!!"

Yeah. One of those binders.

Over the years, I've added clippings to the binder, pulled recipes that flopped out of it, shoved magaizne pages and recipe cards in pell mell, and referred to it again and again. In the past couple of years, though, Pinterest and my computer have taken over the recipe organization. Pinterest is prettier. The computer is easier. I can use my iPad in the kitchen (if I keep it away from water and such) and that binder - well, it's looking kind of ragged.

Sometimes, it pains me to admit - when I need a recipe, I will look online to see if it's there before I look in my binder - there's no loose pages flying all around, I don't get distracted, there's no "Oh, that recipe was terrible, let me try to pull it off the sticky sheet, no, that didn't work, find something to cover it!" drama that goes on.

Just find the recipe and go.

Yesterday, I swore that I was going to make muffins. My kids eat the heck out of muffins. It's nothing for me to make 3 or 4 dozen and they are gone in ten hours. I'm one of those weirdly odd Want to cook from scratch as much as I can food snobs, which means that I don't buy muffins at the store.

So, muffins it was. I pulled out the binder for the Double chocolate banana muffins that are my kids favorites, and as soon as the first pan was in the oven, the "I've gotta fix this binder!" started.

And among my sifting and sorting, I saw my very favorite muffin recipe - one I haven't made for at least a year.

Peanut butter and jelly muffins.

Yes. I have a kid with a peanut allergy. And I still make these muffins. The pan makes 12, and the only people who like them are me and my big kids - and my FA kid is 13 and knows to stay away. I practice safe cooking practices and everything is labeled.

 But that binder still annoyed me. It's sloppy. It's disorganized - and everyone knows I'm a fan of being organized. There's papers everywhere, and it just makes so much work.

What if I could find the recipe here on my blog, though?  Hmmmm. Now THERE'S a thought.

Without further ado, I present to you: Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins!

Streusel topping:

• 1/3 cup flour
• 3T brown sugar
• 3 T butter, cut into chunks

Muffin batter:

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 1/2 t baking powder
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2/3 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 t vanilla
• jam or jelly (I typically use strawberry jam that I made, but for this batch, I used pumpkin butter)

Combine all streusel ingredients in a bowl and cut (I use my fingers) until it makes a crumb. Set aside.

in a separate bowl, combine the peanut butter, the milk, the oil, the vanilla and the egg. Stir until well combined. Mix in the dry ingredients. Spoon a tablespoon of batter into the bottom of each greased muffin cup (you can use paper liners, but you need to grease those as well, or it's difficult to get the paper off the muffin). Top with a teaspoon of the jam, being careful that it doesn't go to the edges of the batter. Top with an additional tablespoon of batter. Sprinkle with streusel topping and bake at 350 for 20-25 min.

Meal Planning. Again. Still.

One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating. ~Luciano Pavarotti October 19th, 2010

I really like cooking. I enjoy eating good food, love to feel like a rock star when I make something that my family loves, and I REALLY like being able to go into the kitchen and pull something out that I made the day before and enjoy a really good lunch - one that doesn't require a trip to a restaurant.

In short, it makes me feel like a total rock star.

I just don't like having to figure out what's for the next meal every day. If I meal plan, I reason, I might have a better shot at not freaking out at 5:15. So here's what's up for this week(ish), depending upon leftovers and such.

• Chili
• Chicken and Dumplings
• Pork Chops and Cheesy Rice
• Chicken Enchiladas
• Cornflake Baked Chicken
• Pasta Bake
• Roasted Chicken in Lemon Sauce
• Chili Mac

What is on your meal plan this week?

Meal Planning It Is!

It appears that my flaw this past two weeks was in a substantial lack of meal planning.

Well, one flaw, anyway. Let's agree to avoid mentioning the others, m'kay?

I must remedy this. Hmmmm. Maybe I could make it an ongoing blog posting idea - and everyone could contribute. What do you think? Too much work? Stupid idea? Something that might be interesting, or something you'd not want to read and so you'd skip this blog a bit more often than you do now?

Inquiring minds want to know. :)

So, here are the menus for week:

French Dip Crescents with salad - this was tonight and they were OFF THE CHARTS yummy. I used Boar's Head LondonPort and put two slices of each and one slice of Havarti in each roll. So awesome.

Roxanne's Pulled Pork on buns with baked fries and broccoli - which is very similar to a recipe that my cousin Tammy sent me, and I'm going to kinda combine both, bastardize them and come up with something either awesome or ferociously fearsome.

Kendra's Hawaiian Meatballs with rice and peas

Cheese Buns - so not a meal but a snacky type thing that I can't WAIT to eat

Lasagna Soup

Beef with Red Wine Sauce with noodles and green beans

Homemade Cheese Pizza - we use dough from Trader Joe's ($1, and yes - I know I could make my own, but this is super good and easy)

Baked KFC chicken - with baked sweet potatoes and salad.

My New BFF

Huh. I titled this post, left it for about, oh, 18 hours - and totally forgot what it was supposed to discuss.

That's embarrassing.

But I'm leaving it, anyway.

So - and I've been rereading my posts from this week, and I use "So," at the beginning of approximately every OTHER sentence, sigh - I've been a tad bit crazy this week, and realized that, as prepared and planned out as I imagine myself to be -

I'm so not.

Specifically, I'm finding myself at 5:30 with cranky, super hungry kiddos and still frozen meat. We've made lots of scrounging meals, which have featured raw veggies, cut up fruits, salads and whatever there is to be found - I'm super lucky that we've always got fresh produce here and the kids eat it like crazy. I made a double batch of lemon chicken and my kids ate it for dinner three nights in a row. No one was happy that third night, lol.

One night  I sent my oldest out for fried chicken - even though I had lots of chicken and fish and stuff that I could have made - but it would have taken too long. So I need to remind myself of the best meals that I can make ahead, in the crock pot or over the course of the day - and I need to make up a meal plan and post it and, you know, stick with it. I need to get back into the "make a ton of stuff ahead and freeze it" mindset that I was in several years ago. 

I wonder - what are some of your best meals that fit these parameters? if you had links or pins on pinterest, I'd love you forever and ever.

 

 

 

--- How do you handle those "tough to discuss" moments with your tweens?

Food and Issues

I was reading a great blog post on Leite's Culinaria - it's one of my favorite places to find recipes and information about one of my most favorite activities - cooking and baking. I originally started reading a post about TV dinners - those frozen foil wrapped staples of 1970's childhood. We rarely had these dinners when we were growing up - but, oh, how I loved them. I always wanted the "Thanksgiving meal" - compressed turkey slices, watery fake gravy, reconstituted mashed potatoes and corn - or whatever dinner that came with the greatest meal component ever - the BROWNIE. 

That overcooked "chocolate flavored baked treat" was the best part of the entire meal.

We only got TV dinners when my mom went to the commissary for a two grocery cart shopping trip and she was too tired to cook the food she'd brought home. I LOVED those dinners, because we'd even be allowed to sit (!) in front of the tv (!!) and eat them (!!!!) I can assure you, that was a rarity.

My mom and her sisters made all of the bread when she was growing up. She grew up without a lot of money. They had cornbread for dinner and biscuits for breakfast, usually served with butter and sugar and jelly. To get a loaf of white bread, right off the shelf when it was soft and squishy, was one of their favorite things to do - and they rarely did it. So when they were able to - it was a real treat. My mom still talks about this.

Once, I had a terrific migraine and puked for hours. The last thing I'd had before I got sick was a cherry flavored lollipop - and to this day, I cannot eat anything cherry flavored.

When I was young - and still, really, to this day - I despised beets. My mom and dad would give me beets on my plate and I'd turn up my nose. I think that it became a power struggle - they'd force me to eat them and I'd refuse - and I really didn't even want to eat the rest of the food, because, you know, the BEET JUICE would get all over the other food. But there I'd sit, until past my bedtime. I'd choke them down, half the time they'd come back up and I'd get a new serving. Sometimes I'd even get those same beets served cold - and congealed!! - the next morning for breakfast.

One of my kids can't stand beef - because the juices remind the child of blood and there's no way in the world that food is getting into that stomach. No way, no how.

My grandpa always had circus peanuts - which weren't peanuts at all but orange peanut shaped candy fluff. My other grandpa, and my dad, dropped peanuts into their soda and drank it. To this day, when I think of peanuts, I remember both of those stories.

It's really funny to me to think about the issues and memories that people have with food. What is a big deal and an issue to me is nothing to you, and your trauma makes me shake my head with puzzlement.

What are your food issues or memories, good or bad?

Lunch Box Woes, Part 3

You've got questions, I'll try to determine some answers...

I have a kid who is pretty sensory and has a very limited and very specific selection of what he will eat. He's starting school this fall and I wondered what you, as a fellow parent of a sensory kid, would aim for with school lunches. I've made a list of what I know he'll eat: apple slices (red skin), carrots (baby, pre-washed), cucumbers (english, cut in circles), milk or juice, two or three kinds of crackers, oatmeal, most breakfast cereals and the occasional string cheese. He'll eat peanut butter but that's not allowed at school. My gut feel is that school lunch is not the place I want to fight the good fight of expanding his palate and willingness to see, touch, smell and eventually eat new foods. But I am afraid of being judged (he's my 3rd, but I know his teacher and principal).

Hmmmm. I actually see nothing wrong with this list.

Also? Let go of the fear of being judged. You will always, always, ALWAYS be judged by someone. And if you are being judged by someone, based upon the foods that you listed above - I'd be totally ok with that judgement. Does that make sense? That is to say, I'd say you were within your grounds of fear of judgement if you packed a lunch that consisted of a twinkie, sugar cereal and a coke. The above list, though, is pretty balanced, covers the food groups, and, above all -

It's FOOD HE WILL EAT. And, isn't that the point of lunch? To get food into his body?

I know your worry, though, and so here are some of my thoughts.

• Write up a list, with his help, of foods that he agrees are acceptable for lunch. You sign it, he signs it, and it's posted in the kitchen. He packs his lunch - with your help if needed - from the foods on the list. Maybe one day the two of you cut up a cucumber and put slices into small containers, so he can pull them from the fridge. Maybe you buy the pre cut apple slices and you both bag them. I do as much of this stuff as I can, so that when they pack, it's super easy to grab a few containers.
• You are right - school lunch is not where you want to fight the good fight of expanding his palate. Home is where you want to do that - knowing that it will take numerous exposures to new foods to allow him to open his mind up to them - and you don't want the new foods thrown away at school - as well as the thought of him hungry all day doesn't fill you with awesomeness. So allow him to pack what he will eat - give him the power - and let it go.
• You can't do peanut butter. Will he eat soy butter? Sunflower butter? Are you allowed another nut butter? Sometimes kids can't tell the difference, and I've known other parents to successfully swap the pb for soy by combining them. That is, start with pb on a piece of bread and mix in a little soy butter. Each time, reduce the pb a bit and soon it's all soy butter. I've not tried this myself - but other people have reported success.

I'd love to know other people's thoughts on this.

I had a couple of people ask the same questions - lunches for picky eaters - and they kind of go along with this question.

I think you've done this before, but I could use some nut-free lunch ideas for a picky child whose lunch rotation usually goes something like this: peanut butter sandwich, nutella sandwich, cream cheese bagel, repeat. Things she might eat that won't endanger the allergic child in her class would be extremely helpful.

How about: yogurt, hard boiled eggs, tuna in a pouch (I will never ever eat this, but one of my kids inhales it), cream cheese and jelly spread on a tortilla, rolled up and cut into spirals, spaghetti in a thermos, cold pasta salad, fried chicken legs, waffles with nut butter and jelly, french toast sticks, cheese cubes and crackers, hummus with veggies, mini pizza bagels, leftover pizza, cold mac and cheese, pepperoni slices.

Any other ideas?

 

Lunch Box Woes, Part 2

Sandwiches. The very bane of my existence.

True story - one of my kids packed a lunch once, and it contained drinkable Stonyfield Farms yogurt, mini homemade pumpkin muffins, 2 light babybel cheeses, carrot sticks and grapes. The monitor told her to, next time, tell her mom that she needed to pack a sandwich - what she had wasn't a real lunch.

You know, like those Uncrustables and the Lunchables - and all those other "able" things that are just gross.

For some kids, it isn't lunch without a sandwich, and for others, there is no way that a sandwich will ever cross their lips. For some kids, a peanut butter sandwich is the only acceptable lunch box choice, and for others: a peanut butter sandwich can be life threatening.

So let's talk sandwiches and their alternatives. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the choices I've listed below, and share with me some that I may have forgotten.

Here are some things I've found lunch box successful:

• Cheese and Crackers - String cheese. Cubed Cheese. Spreadable cheese.Whole wheat crackers, Triscuits, etc. This is a pretty self explanatory section.
• Soup - A couple of my kids really, really love soup. If they have access to a microwave, the soup at hands are great lunch box material. If not, try this tip - fill a thermos with boiling water and cap it. Allow it to sit on the counter for ten or fifteen minutes, and then empty the water and fill it with hot food. Cap the thermos and pack it, and that food should stay warm until lunchtime.
• Leftovers - We've done spaghetti or a similar favorite dinner for lunch the next day, using the above "heat up the thermos" tips.
• Cold Cheese Ravioli or Tortellini - This is a terrific finger food for little kids, and if you pack a tiny container of parmesan cheese it's exceptionally fun.
  
• Tortilla Roll Ups - Spread a tortilla with cream cheese or a smal bit of mayo and then add your choice of meat and cheese. Roll the tortilla and then slice it into circles.
  
• Salad - Topped with meat or cheese, sunflower seeds and fruit, salad is good for high schoolers who might slack on veggie choices, but at the same time could also be weight conscious.
  
• Hard Boiled Eggs - Part of the fun of hard boiled eggs is cracking them, right? Well, that, and the little bit of salt my mom gave us. Put the eggs in a saucepan and cover with water. Allow to come to a boil, cover and turn off the heat. Let eggs sit for fourteen minutes, drain the water off and fill the pan with ice. Cover the pan and shake briskly - the ice helps the egg to shrink from the shell and makes peeling a snap.
  
• Yogurt and Mini Muffins - Yogurt tubes and drinkable yogurt can be frozen and help to keep the lunchbox cold. Muffins can be sweet or savory. Even a cup of yogurt makes for a filling lunch - just don't forget the ice pack.  
• Hummus and Pita Chips - It's protein that doesn't taste like protein.

 

Lunch Box Woes, Part 1

Many thanks to those who answered the survey. The results were kind of what I thought they'd be - and then they weren't, at all. 

Please to explain this, Carmen.

I anticipated that there would be parents of children of all ages, and there were. The age range that was the most popular was 7-10, with a second runner up of 11-15. This is the age grouping of my four youngest children. I know that there are many people who read here whose children attend school with my youngest - but you never comment, which I find very interesting indeed - but I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was a substantial number of readers who were either childless or had adult children.

This makes me happy because it means that I am able to engage readers who aren't here for the Mommy content. And, also, makes me feel like I just might be doing something right - which is welcome, indeed, after the week I've had (and it's only WEDNESDAY. SIGH.)

OK. On to Lunches.

i want to start off this series by sharing my number 1 tried and true secret to a successful school lunch.

(And then I'll share #2 secret immediately thereafter.)

 Ready?

Ok, here we go. Secret #1 - Ask your kids for input.

Seriously. I'm so not lying - it's the easiest step, and it's the most often overlooked. We all *think* we know what our kids like to eat - and we are probably pretty close - but there's a lot that we don't remember. And think outside the box. I know in years past my kids have written up a list - I separated a page into protein, carb, fruit and veg - and they filled in the blocks.

They filled them in in a way I'd never imagine. Cold chicken legs? Yup. Pasta salad? Of course. Leftover spaghetti, eggplant parm, or roast beef pinwheels? You'd better believe it, missy. I was also a bit shocked to see things like red pepper strips from my youngest kids and baby carrots from all. Garlic toast. Hard boiled eggs and Stonyfield drinkable yogurts.

Make a list of all of the acceptable foods, no matter how weird/odd/random you may find them. One of my kids loves to take sushi. (I, personally, will never pack sushi for any meal, ever, in my entire life.) Post that list somewhere easily accessible - maybe inside the pantry.

Ready for Secret #2?

Each person packs their own lunch. 

I started doing this year before last year when I was so overwhelmed that I couldn't breathe, and it's honestly amazing. The first week or so, you'll need to help and say things like, "Here are your protein choices from our list - which would you prefer?" and "Do you have a veggie?" 

And, before you tell me that your kid is too young, Riley started packing her own lunch in first grade - and, consistently, she is the most eager to pack it as well as the most responsible.

Bonus! Secret #3 - Organize it before hand.

I take time on the weekends to make cookies and muffins, to cut up a week's worth of cucumbers and carrot sticks and red peppers. I portion hummus into individual cups and make baggies of pretzels and chips for the older kids. I fill water bottles and even separate the cheese sticks. This makes it super child friendly when we pack lunches - and we usually do it immediately after dinner.

Tomorrow night I take on some of your questions and I'll share a couple of easy recipes that we use successfully.