What's For Dinner? Week 4

I'm not an extremist with food.

I don't (usually) buy organic or "hormone-free" or "cage-free". I've never had my own vegetable garden and the percentage of produce I purchase from a farmer's market is embarrassingly small (i.e. one trip per month this summer). I often take "shortcuts" in cooking from things like boxed chicken stock or canned, diced tomatoes or instant (brown) rice. But I do have an appreciation and passion for good, real food and, after reading this article... I want to do so much better. That article makes me never want to eat anything that's not 100% from scratch ever again. LOL Some people may read the article and feel insulted or defensive, but I love it. The writer, Michael Pollan (author of "In Defense of Food", which I definitely plan to read now), made me laugh, nod my head, and made my jaw drop numerous times. There are so many pieces of media out there about this subject and I am (recently) so motivated to dig deeper and learn more:

-the Slow Food movement (whose local chapter - I just found out - happens to do food demos at our big, local farmer's market)

-Food, Inc. movie (I've heard of this, but have never seen any promos)

-The Urban Conversion (check out this show's promo - it's just in the beginning stages yet - but the main guy is the husband of a girl Craig went to high school with - very interesting topic)

-"Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" book by Barbara Kingsolver

Anyway, I love being in the kitchen and cooking not only for my family, but for myself. Cooking is very fulfilling for me and I love the satisfaction I feel by preparing and eating a meal with my family and loved ones. I rarely buy boxed, processed food items (especially from the freezer section) and I have never fed my kids "fast food". I pack my lunch for work every day. But even MY habits, which I think are pretty good for a full-time working parent, have plenty of areas for improvement. I DO feel like the older I get and the more I learn and try for myself, the more I improve my/our quality of eating. If I had the support of my husband, I could definitely see myself going considerably more extremist with food... but that will never happen. Craig loves boxed/fast food - he wants it to be terrible for him and he wants to cover it in sauce - which is crazy because that is not how he was raised. But I am SO motivated to teach our children what good food is... what REAL food is. I want them to learn to at least prepare meals for themselves (even if they don't love to cook) and to appreciate natural, healthy, quality food. These days, that seems like an impossible feat but I'm sure as heck going to give it my best effort. So that's a big topic that's been on my mind lately and I'd love to learn more about it. I'm even following a couple blogs that are fantastic resources about other families trying to do the same. If you have a chance, read (or at least skim) that article I linked at the top. It's awesome.

So, here's what's been on our dinner table this week:

1) Saturday - Both weekend mornings we ate up the yogurt pancakes I made on Thursday morning before Will's field trip day. Something I've noticed since we've been making our bigger weekend breakfasts is that cereal is not nearly as satisfying anymore for me. I used to LOVE cereal! I still eat it of course, but my weekday ritual lately has just been to warm up a pancake or two and eat them plain while I'm getting ready for work. Even on weekends, I use very little syrup anymore. We usually fill them with lots of healthy things that keep me fuller longer and I especially like to incorporate a little protein into them with nuts or yogurt, etc. Saturday night was our fondue with friends.

2) Sunday - I asked Craig what he'd like for his birthday dinner on Monday and his response was... wait for it... Vito's pizza. Well, it was his choice so that's what we did on Monday. But I made a nice Sunday supper to compensate: penne with braised short ribs and steamed broccoli. One thing that article (above) addresses is how Americans have such an interest in watching Food Network television, yet not actually cooking. Well, this was a FN recipe that I printed after watching a recent episode while home sick. :) I thought it was very tasty. Sophie ate it well and Will took a few bites without too much complaint. I thought Craig liked it okay but then he pitched a fit when I suggested we eat leftovers on Tuesday. Good grief. Anyway, the ribs are braised for 2.5 hours in red wine and beef stock with tomatoes, onion and garlic so the flavor is like a very rich roast (not bbq or marinara as the picture may appear - I didn't put Parmesan or parsley on top as the recipe suggested) and then you puree the cooking liquids into a rick, thick sauce to toss with the shredded meat and penne.

3) Monday - pizza as Craig requested for his birthday.
4) Tuesday - Sunday's leftovers with complaints from Craig. :(

5) Wednesday - I tried a Family Fun recipe called Autumn Chicken using their versatile crispy chicken cutlets. Mmm! Sooo good. And it was actually a pretty big success. The chicken cutlets were fantastic and I could see them going well with many different flavors. The autumn chicken has diced butternut squash and golden delicious apples that are roasted with an apple cider glaze and then served alongside (or on top of/underneath) the chicken. Sophie and Will both ate it well. Craig skipped the squash/apple side and just dunked his chicken in leftover honey mustard from our fondue. Of course. So overall, I was very pleased with this meal. It was super easy - I diced the squash and apples on Tuesday night and made the chicken cutlets entirely on Tuesday only to "warm" them as suggested with the squash/apples. So it all came together quickly on Wednesday, which is just the way I like it.

6) Thursday - leftovers again.
7) Friday - lemon pepper pork tenderloin (store bought) with a charred pineapple bourbon marinade (also store bought), more steamed broccoli (we've been on a broccoli kick since Meijer sold it 10 for $10), and homemade honey wheat bread. This was the meal I had planned... and yet I was feeling super guilty about it after reading that article on Friday afternoon. As I was "preparing" it (a.k.a. spooning the marinade over the top before plunking it on a roasting rack and sticking it in the oven), all I could think about was "high sodium, sorta-processed meat... high sugar, majorly-processed marinade". That article also addresses what defines the actual, physical act of "cooking" and how it has changed in the last 60+ years. Marketing companies now target "dump and mix" food items as "cooking" and people consider the act of combining two or more processed ingredients as "from scratch cooking". Ahhh! So this was my shortcut, "cheater" meal of the week and I don't have any excuses. :) But at least I did go out for a run while the meat was cooking for 50 minutes. I only ran for 23-ish of those minutes. ;)

Hope you're having a lovely weekend. Happy eating!