The Food Code.

It started five months ago with the discovery of Dinner A Love Story and has culminated in rethinking how our family ate and how we didn't. I took inventory of the pantry (more on that later) and decided to get serious about making some changes. Our pantry was in decent shape but it could still use some tweaking. I went back and forth between fad and extreme diets and knew that if this was going to be a successful and meaningful change that wasn't the route. I chose the route of quality, moderation and reality.

Quality. Make sure that we eat the best quality food either organic or local and most things from scratch. The boys adapted easily to this. Out went the Quaker Oats granola bars they loved and in came the home made granola bars using whole, organic ingredients. As the main grocery shopper and the head chef, I have complete control over the quality of food in our home.  I monitor the grocery list a bit more closely and pay just a bit more for organic apples and strawberries. Has our grocery bill increased? Yes, probably by about $25-45 depending on the weekly menu but I would say about 90% of what we have in the refrigerator and pantry is organic or local. We joined a CSA to provide our family with organic and local produce, meat and eggs. Our first delivery will be in 6 weeks and am excited about trying different veggies and learning to cook new meals with them.

Moderation. This is the most challenging for me because when something is delicious it is hard to stop eating. I worked on my mindset and focused more on being comfortable with having another bite but not another serving. The boys have not had much of an issue with this either. Our general family rule has always been healthy before junky so they know to have an apple, banana or glass of milk before they indulge in a cookie. And honestly, the rare time they do ask for a second cookie, we let them have one. I don't want them to feel deprived and they have gotten to the point that they know a third or fourth cookie, as tasty as it sounds, isn't the best choice for their growing bodies.

Reality. Life will sometimes make things more challenging and when that is the case, I don't sweat it. We have pizza night at our favorite local pizza restaurant when we've had a tiresome day and can't seem to get dinner on the table. I have Annie's organic granola bars stashed away in my car to feed my little boys when hunger strikes. I don't stress out over the candy in party bags or the birthday cupcakes served with juice. If we've done our smart eating most of the time then the 10% that we don't follow it is fine.

Where has this gotten us? I sit with the boys for dinner most nights.  Our "selective" eater is slowly making headway on trying new things--he recently gobbled up some fish I made. Our weekly menus are varied enough so they aren't boring.  This was never about weight loss or food deprivation but more of an acknowledgment that we have choices and freedom in how we eat and we are going to exercise them. More than that, I want my sons to grow up with a sense of real and wholesome food. I want them to know what rising bread smells like and have it become second nature to them to reach for a pan as easily as it is to call for chinese food to be delivered.

Once the guidelines were set I turned to Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Cookbook. My weekly menu planning is made easier with the book. I open it up, pick out pasta, meat, poultry, fish and bean recipes and that's that. The grocery list and menu get written on our blackboard and we are ready for the week. I throw in a dessert to keep things fun, a couple of favorite family recipes and leave a bit of room for eating out.

 I feel like I have finally cracked the code to feeding my family. I don't want to sound preachy. I know that every parent does their best to feed their children so this isn't a wagging finger about the dangers of McDonalds and Hamburger Helper. This is, simply, an outline of what helped us. I searched the internet for so long trying to resolve the dinner dilemma and always felt like I was behind. We weren't too far off in the food department but it was often cyclical and that was the big problem. I would go through cooking binges and then not be motivated to make anything more than some scrambled eggs or the same meals from week to week. Once I was able to think of our food priorities and come up with a simple system it worked.

Tell me, how do you get dinner on the table for your family?

Going Green: Resusable Shopping Bags

We've been green for a while now but one of my resolutions this year was to go even greener by attempting to get to a zero waste life. I don't think we will get there (zero waste) but I know that the steps we take to try will have an impact. First thing first. I decided to become militant about reusable shopping bags. We have the larger shopping bags from Whole Foods but half the time they were left at home or in the car. The bigger challenge is actually remembering to use the bags and we gave it a disciplined and strong go for two months before it became second nature to us. I wanted to reduce even more waste and ordered some of these to use for our fruits and vegetables.

They have been great and have sped up my shopping since I no longer have to hunt down the plastic bag dispensers. The boys even fight to take the bags into the store. The moment that I knew I could write about this being a success was when my husband used them on his grocery run.

Flour : Snicker doodles

Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Bakery + Cafe sat on my book shelf for a year before I even thought about trying out any of the recipes. You see, I live a short walk from the actual Flour Bakery and my boys, they love going there. So there was little desire to do anything with the book when the bakery beckons my family at least once a week. We some how got into the groove of making a batch of cookies twice a month to enjoy. Then that turned into adding a cookie into lunch boxes once a week and that turned into me going out and buying a cookie jar to store all of the cookies we baked. We rarely buy pre-made cookies at the store because I prefer to make better tasting cookies for my guys.

I love snicker doodles. When I was an undergrad in Texas, there was a sandwich shop that had the tastiest cookies. Anytime I went there I made sure to pick a giant snicker doodle cookie for dessert. My mind registered snicker doodle cookies as a very Central Texas sort of cookie. But it isn't. It is important, I believe, that snicker doodles have a chewy center--it enhances the cinnamon and sugar topping. This recipe was great--it was easy and yielded the soft chewy center that makes a superb cookie.

 Want to bake some cookies for your family? Check out Flour Bakery Cookbook for the recipe.

TWD | Baking with Julia : White Loaves

Our family runs the spectrum in food tastes. Our oldest is picky, the middle boy is as adventurous as his father and the baby and I like what we like but will sometimes try new things. There is nothing more that we love on our plates than bread. Slathered with peanut butter or hot off the grill oozing with cheese, we know that we can come up with a quick meal if we have a loaf of bread in the house. We went through a phase when we baked a fresh loaf of bread once a week especially through the winter but then we just fell off the bread baking habit.

It was nice to see that the first Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was a simple white loaf of bread. I knew it would be delicious and easy--we have even used the exact recipe from time to time. When it came to bake the bread I made a huge mistake. I started the process without thinking about how busy my day was and that resulted in over-risen bread when school pick up ran late. Combine over-risen bread, two quick moving boys bringing their lunch boxes into the kitchen and one slammed lunch box and we were left with two deflated loaves sitting on the stove. I threw them into the oven knowing that they wouldn't be picture worthy but hoped they would be just as tasty. Forty five minutes later, the loaves were out and a while later sliced. The outer crust was rock hard but the inner part of the loaf was spongy. My boys did not care one bit and gobbled their slices up.

One week later I took another crack at it. I made sure my morning was free and little boys were barred from the kitchen until after the loaves were baked. These loaves were perfect and were made into numerous varieties of sandwiches over the next three days. I think that we may get back into the habit of baking bread once a week.

I followed the recipe as written and the results were fool proof.

Are you inclined to give it a go for yourself? Check out Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan or visit Laurie or Jules, the TWD | Baking with Julia Hosts for this month.

Ad Hoc at Home: Buttermilk Biscuits

 I grew up eating biscuits from a local corner bakery--they were soft and bland but went down easily with a pat of butter on the top. My husband grew up eating biscuits out of the pop open can. Those cans have made an occasional appearance in our home, usually after we bring home a baby and operate in survival mode. Those biscuits out of the can are not my favorite and anytime I serve them to my children I feel a little bad.  I have been on a search for the perfect biscuit recipe. I wanted something that was crunch on the outside and soft and spongy on the inside. We have tried a ton and have never found 'the one.' This morning,  I heard my man tell the boys that he was going to make biscuits. I made my way into the kitchen and took over. I don't mind him in the kitchen you see, but I know that it comes at a cost and that cost usually means cleaning up. So I prefer to do the cooking, thank you very much.

He found a recipe for buttermilk biscuits in Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller and we gave it a go. My! These were the best biscuits I have ever had. They were perfect and tasty and between the five of us and some jam we ate them all up. So go make them now and follow the recipe as it is written to avoid any mistakes. I will add that I used my mixer to combine the butter into the flours and it worked out. The key is to cut the butter into tiny pieces, put the butter into the freezer for a while and then mix until just combined.

I have to tell you, we have made these every Sunday morning for the last month. MMMmmmmm.

Are you interested in giving it a go yourself? Check out Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller for the recipe. 

Just delivered!

Last week, as I drove to my son's school for afternoon pick up, I caught an interview with Dori Greenspan on NPR. Mrs. Greenspan was discussing, among other things, a blog called Tuesdays with Dorie that started with one woman, Laurie and her desire to bake her way through Mrs. Greenspan's book, From My Home to Yours. Four years later and a larger circle of bakers and they had worked their way through all of the recipes. I was so excited to hear about it, but sad I missed out on an opportunity to join in until it was announced that this group of bloggers/bakers was going to give it another go with "Baking with Julia," another of Mrs. Greenspan's books. One hour later, I had ordered my book and decided that I was going to join. The book arrived today and I squealed when I looked at it. The last Tuesdays with Dorie challenge took four years! I thumbed through the book and wondered how long this will take and where this little adventure is going to take me. So here we go, I am MissyMey. I am a happy wife, a mom to three little boys and a bird dog and I like to bake.