First Farmers Market of the Season

We have been CSA members for 2 years now but unfortunately ours is taking a break this year. The rising cost of fuel and farming supplies has hit them hard, along with some illnesses so it was time  for them to re-evaluate their business.  They are still growing their delicious fruits and veggies but are instead going to have Saturday Markets at the farm and Pick Your Own days.  I am excited to take the girls to see where our veggies have come from these past couple of years, and to let them pick some of their own foods.

Since I am a firm believer in supporting my local farmers and eating organic whenever possible, we researched a few other CSA's in the area.  We found one and almost signed up but changed out mind at the last minute.  The pickup location was at one of our local farmers markets and we thought if we had to be there every week anyway, we might as well pick and choose what we want then.  In May there will be 4 we can visit between Wednesday and Sunday. They all happen to be at our favorite locations around town and that will offer even more variety.  

Yesterday one of them opened up for the first time this season so my Mom, my oldest daughter, and I headed over there in the morning to see what goodies we could find.  

 Since it is still April there aren't a lot of vendors out there yet.  As we get into May there will be many more.

My helpful shopper was on a mission: She wanted to find the special dog treats we used to get for our beloved Golden Retriever, Fenway.  She thought that Bruin, our new dog, would love them too.  

Found what we were looking for!  We bought Bruin a box of peanut butter treats- and he loves them!

Our next stop was at the Virginia Gourmet booth.  We found some really interesting goodies here!  All of those pastas shown are flavored and totally dairy free!  Most of their sauces are dairy free too!  They really seem to cater to people with food allergies, or those that lead a Vegan lifestyle.  We spent quite a bit of time here taste-testing and chatting with the owners.

I found this new and interesting little treat there:

  I am going to make this into a dessert pasta salad with raspberries and chocolate sauce- yum!

I also found picked up this bottle of Merlot Vinegar:

We got to taste this and it is amazing!  I foresee some very tasty salads in our future!  They also have a Chardonnay vinegar that I will probably get next week.

Of course my little helper found a few goodies for herself too. She loved this carbonated fruit juice - Fruit 66, so much that the owners took a picture of her drinking it to put on their Facebook page.  They made her feel very grownup!  (We also walked away with more than one can of this- it's great for kids or adults)

We  hit up the produce vendors last.  I was very excited to see my favorite farm from last year's market.  They always such a great variety, and their produce is so fresh. 

We spent some time chatting with the owner about CSA's, his business, and other farmers markets he is helping to start up.

 

During our conversation he was chatting with Cat and she told him that tomatoes were her absolute favorite food.  So he gave her this pint of gorgeous tomatoes as a gift.  I've never seen a child so excited about free tomatoes before- but that's my girl!

And who could pass these beauties up?  They were picked that morning, still had the dirt on them from the field.  These babies are going into my strawberry pie very shortly!

After a very successful trip we walked away with: zucchini, tomatoes, white potatoes, 2 pints of strawberries, chocolate fettuccine, Merlot Vinegar, Fruit 66 drinks for the kids, and special treats for Bruin.   Not a whole lot this time around, but we didn't need any greens this time since I am growing my own.  

Do you visit your local farmer's market for get your summer fruits and veggies from a CSA?

Heart Shaped Crayons~ An Allergen Safe Valentine's Day Gift

Valentine's Day is next week and my daughter's preschool class is exchanging Valentines, as most classes do.  Last year we gave each child small boxes of chocolate, the year before that I think I gave out lollipops.  This year there is a child with a severe peanut allergy in the class so I have been staying away from food items. I saw the idea to make crayons a long time ago ( well before Pinterest) but never got around to doing it.  I then saw the idea on Pinterest again, and pinned it as a reminder to myself.  The pin is  pictures, not so much the directions.  They turned out fabulous and my daughter is so excited to hand them out on Tuesday. I have not yet decided how I am going to make the cards, but as soon as I do, I will add that picture to this post.

Valentine's Day Crayons:
You will need:

2 silicon baking pans with heart shapes ( I found mine at Walmart in the Valentine's section)

2 boxes generic crayons ( don't waste Crayolas on this - this generics work just as well)

1 baking tray wrapped in aluminum foil

Directions:
Preheat oven to 250F
Peel the paper off of the crayons .This was the longest and most tedious part.  Break the crayons into small pieces- small enough to fit in the baking cups.  If you can, get the kids to help.

Fill each baking cup about halfway with broken crayons. Place the baking tray on the covered cookie sheet and bake at 250F for 15-25 minutes,  or until the crayons are completely melted. (this picture is of my second batch)

Remove from the oven and let cool completely.  They will harden after about 30 minutes.

Remove from the baking cups and you're done!  It really is that easy!  1 box of 64 crayons will make 12 heart shaped crayons.

To make them into Valentine's you can tape them to handmade cards, or premade purchased Valentines.  It's your choice.  I am going to make cards for my daughter's class.

*I am also going to order number and alphabet trays from Amazon and make letter and number crayons for my 1.5 year old daughter.*

Enjoy!

French Toast Casserole

Christmas morning is always spent at our house, since we have the kids and Santa has been here the night before leaving piles of gifts for them. My parents come over very early, we open our stockings, let the girls open their Santa presents, and then take a short break for breakfast. We dive into the rest of the gifts once the girls have eaten. Once all the gifts are opened and the coffee pot is drained, my husband makes mimosas and we go back for breakfast #2 or start on the leftover from Christmas Eve. Since it is a special day, I am always looking for something fun to make for breakfast instead of the same old cold cereal. Before my dairy issue started, I would make quiche-like breakfast pies with ham and Swiss cheese or egg and cheddar cheese. They are called Impossibly Easy pies and the recipes are from Bisquick. They were so good, but I stopped making them once I could no longer eat cheese. I have yet to try them with my "fake" cheese.
I have found that with 3 kids and all the excitement on Christmas morning, cooking is not really an option. I need something easy, something that can be put together the night before and popped in the oven that morning. I happened to come across the perfect recipe in my Family Fun magazine and I wanted to share it with you all. It really is so easy and perfect for Christmas morning.

French Toast Casserole:
Serves: 8
Total baking time:50-60 minutes

This was adapted from Family Fun Magazine. I did change it a bit though. I omitted the nuts, used light brown sugar, extra cinnamon, added a sprinkle of nutmeg to the top, and used vanilla soy milk. The method calls for 2 layers of bread but instead I made this in a large lasagna pan and did a single layer of bread so it was not at all soggy.

Ingredients:
challah bread (can be found in the bakery section)
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon or to taste (I used a little more)
A pinch of nutmeg
8 large eggs
1 3/4 cups vanilla soy milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract




Directions:
1. Grease a large pan (such as a lasagna pan) with cooking spray of your choice.
Cut the Challah bread into 1 inch cubes. You don't have to measure, they just need to be around that size.

2.In a small bowl combine the brown sugar and cinnamon.



3.Arrange the bread in the baking dish. Try to have a single layer- it will cook better and will not be soggy. Sprinkle 1/2 of the sugar mix over the bread.




4.In a large bowl whisk together the eggs. Add the soy milk (or non-dairy milk of your choice), and vanilla extract, whisking until they are well blended.



5.Starting from the sides of the dish and working toward the center, pour the egg mixture evenly over the bread. Sprinkle the remaining sugar mixture on top. If desired sprinkle a little nutmeg over the top.



6. Cover with aluminum foil, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight. To save time I wrote the baking directions on the foil.



7. In the morning, preheat the oven to 350F. Bake for 20 minutes covered, 30 more minutes uncovered, or until the top is slightly golden.I was still half asleep when I put this in the oven since my coffee was not yet done brewing.


To me, this tasted just like french toast. I will definitely be making this for Christmas morning, along with a few other things.

*Adapted from Family Fun Magazine.

Family Fun Night~ Homemade Stromboli

Every Friday night we like to have a Family Fun Night. We started this tradition back a couple of years ago, and we have stuck with it. We do eat dinner as a family every night, but some nights during the week we have somewhere to be- Theatre classes, Scouts, sports. So we set aside Friday nights to spend at home as a family. The girls get to choose dinner for that night, and we either watch a movie, play games, or work on some sort of project together.

Lately we've been on a pizza kick. We've done Bagel Pizzas, and Pepperoni Pizzas, and once we had a Pizza Night with friends. We have found that making our crust from scratch is so much better than buying a premade one. One night we decided to try something a little different and made Stromboli. It was an instant hit, and has become our Family Fun Night meal.

INGREDIENTS & DIRECTIONS:

We make the entire thing from scratch. It is a little time consuming but totally worth it!

Sauce:

1 can plain tomato sauce

1 small can tomato paste

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon basil

pinch of sugar (to cut the acidity)

Let it simmer on the stove while you get the rest of you ingredients together.

Toppings:

While you are letting your sauce simmer for a few minutes, use this time to get your toppings together. For this we used:

Ham

Deli Pepperoni

Green Pepper

Onion

Mushrooms

Veggie Shreds cheese

You can put whatever you like. Since I am not allergic to Casein I can use Veggie Shreds, but if you have a milk protein allergy you could use Daiya cheese instead. I have heard it is a great vegan cheese alternative, but I have not yet been able to buy it where I live.

I like to get all my toppings chopped and ready to go before I start on the dough:
Dough:

1- 3/4 to 2- 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 envelope (or 2 & 1/4 teaspoons) pizza crust yeast (we use Fleischmann's- the recipe for the dough is on the package)

1 1/2 teaspoon sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup very warm water

3 tablespoons olive oil

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 425F.
In your stand mixer combine the 1 cup flour, package of yeast,sugar, and salt. Add water and oil. Mix together using your dough hook attachment




Mix all the ingredients together until they are well blended. Gradually add 1/2 cup of flour until a dough ball is formed. If needed, add additional flour to form the ball.

On a floured surface, knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic- about 4 minutes.

Roll out onto a lightly greased baking sheet. (I also cover the pan in aluminum foil to save on cleanup time.)


Spread a thin layer of sauce on the dough and add your cheese alternative. Put your toppings on one side of the crust.
Fold one side of the crust over to cover the side with the toppings. Fold the edges over and pinch together. I like to brush mine with a little olive oil and sprinkle basil and oregano on top.
Cut 3 slits in the crust.
Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.


*For Vegans or Vegetarians you can omit any meat and fill it with veggies instead. *

**I have found that dairy free cheese melts better when it is inside something or covered, which is why this stromboli works so well. **

What are some of your favorite pizza toppings?

For the Kids~Homemade Apple Chips

We belong to a Summer and a Fall CSA , and last week we got a huge bag of locally grown apples. Along with that we also got a bag of tangerines, sweet potatoes, broccoli, white potatoes, and a head of cabbage. If you aren't part of a CSA, I highly recommend finding one and joining.

Since we have so many apples right now, I decided to turn some of them into apple chips for the girls. My kids love dried fruit, and they love apples so this seems to be the perfect snack for them.
I originally saw this idea on Pinterest, then looked up several other recipes to see different variations. I put together a few different ideas and came up with my own:

Ingredients:
Apples
Ground Cinnamon
Nutmeg

Directions:
Preheat oven to between 235F and 250F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or wax paper.

Wash your apples. Core them but leave the skin on. Slice thinly if your corer doesn't do it for you.




Sprinkle with cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg. I did not add any sugar at all- some recipes do, but apples are sweet enough in my opinion. Plus, these are for the kids and I want them to be a healthy snack, not loaded with sugar.


Let cook for 1 hour. At the end of the hour, take them out and flip them. Put back in the oven and cook for 1 more hour. Your total cooking time is 2 hours so not too bad at all. I put these in the oven before I started on dinner, and they were done in time for a pre-bedtime snack.



I have to make more today- the girls have already finished these off. Luckily we got another bag of apples with our delivery this week.

An added bonus- they made my house smell AMAZING!

Quick & Easy Pancakes

We eat a lot of pancakes in our house. A LOT. As in once a week at least. Sometimes for breakfast, sometimes for dinner. My girls- all three of them- love pancakes. And so do I- they are so easy to make, everyone gets to eat them the way they want to. My oldest daughter likes to make peanut butter and jelly pancakes. My middle puts either syrup or honey on hers The youngest eats them plain. I like mine with buttery spread and honey. Usually we pair them with fruit and scrambled eggs for breakfast, and for brinner we'll have bacon, eggs, and hash browns. I always make extra so I can keep them for breakfasts for a few days too.


I adapted this recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. It is listed as a Buttermilk Pancake recipe, but there is a variation posted beneath it where you can omit the buttermilk and use regular milk so I just sub my non-dairy milk. I add a few extra ingredients to mine as well.


Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 1/2 cups vanilla soy milk (or non dairy milk)
3 Tablespoons cooking oil
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch of nutmeg



Directions:
1.In a large bowl combine your dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, salt.
In a small bowl lightly beat the egg, add your soy milk and oil. Combine the two. We like our pancakes on the thinner side, so I always add more soy milk to the batter and thin it out. Once you have gotten your desired consistency, add in your cinnamon, vanilla, and nutmeg (if desired).


I let my batter stand for about 10 minutes and come to room temp or so before I use it.


2. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter onto your preheated griddle, or a greased heavy skillet.


Cook on one side until the bubbles in the batter don't close up, or until the sides start to turn golden.



You can omit the cinnamon, vanilla, and/or nutmeg if you would like. I have also done vanilla and dairy free chocolate chips (more of a special treat or dessert pancake). We have topped these with peaches, fried apples, sauteed bananas... the possibilities are endless.

*Does your family do breakfast for dinner? If so, what is your favorite thing to make?*

Chicken Noodle Soup~ to Cure What Ails You

It's that time of year again. No, I am not talking about Thanksgiving and Christmas, I am talking about cold and flu season. It is upon us again. Blech. Anyone who has kids, especially more than one, knows that the sick season takes on a whole new meaning when you are a Mom. I read somewhere that the average child get between 5-6 colds per year! That's amazingly awful news. Luckily, my kids don't get that many, but we still get a couple a year. Since becoming a mom 8 years ago I have dealt with my fair share of sick kids: colds, ear infections, RSV (that was NOT a fun one), Strep, bronchial spasms, Pneumonia, the Flu, the dreaded stomach bug, Roseola, and various other mysterious undiagnosable illnesses that all kids get. Looking at that list it would seem my kids are sickly. They aren't! Spread those out between 3 kids and 8 years- it's not too bad of a track record.


My go-to food whenever I am sick has always been chicken noodle soup. It tastes so good when your throat is raw, your nose is stuffy, and your head is pounding. But the canned stuff isn't the real thing, and can be pretty gross (at least in my opinion). Yes, it's easy and ok in a pinch, but it can be oily, high in sodium, and lower in nutrition. I prefer to make my own and my kids ask for it whenever they are feeling under the weather- they call it Mommy's Magic Soup. This week we had our first cold of the season. The Middle One brought it home from preschool and shared it with the Little One, and then the Big One. Luckily it's been a fast mover and pretty mild. But the girls still wanted Mommy's Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup to help them get better faster.

This is a super simple recipe. It is not a gourmet soup, it's a comfort food. Oh, and there actually isn't any chicken in it:-) It's veggies, broth, noodles, and a few spices and that's it. But it does the trick. It is intended to be as easy as possible, and to be made quickly.

Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Onion- half of a small one, diced
4 large carrots-sliced
4 celery stalks-sliced
2 32 oz boxes of Organic chicken broth, or if Vegan, vegetable broth
2 cups Water (or more if needed)
Ground gingers- start with a teaspoon and add more to your taste
Thyme- again, a teaspoon then add more as needed
salt and pepper to taste.
noodles of your choice


Or for vegetarian or vegan:




Directions:
1. Heat the oil in a pot on medium high heat. Add your chopped veggies. Let cook until the onions are translucent, stirring often. Be careful not to burn the carrots.


2.Add 1 box of broth, 1 cup of water, ginger, Thyme, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and let simmer until the carrots start to soften.





3. Add your noodles- last night I used the rest of a bag of Fusilli I had in the cabinet. Use roughly 1-2 cups of noodles. As they cook, you may find you need to adjust your liquids. You can either add more water for a blander soup, or more stock for more flavor. I usually add half of another box of broth and 1/2 cup of broth. Adjust your seasoning as you go, to your taste preferences. Every time I make this soup it's a little different. I don't measure my spices anymore, I just eyeball them and go by taste.








This, along with a glass of orange juice, helped my girls feel better last night.

The soup does not last well overnight because of the noodles, they tend to soak up all the liquid. It is best eaten fresh. What I will sometimes do is make the broth, and reheat portions and add noodles so we can keep it around for a day or two. Or, what I am going to do this week, is make up a few batches of the broth and freeze it. That way I will have it already made when I need it.



*This is also good to make if you are recovering from the dreaded stomach bug. I use rice instead of noodles ( to go along with the BRAT diet: Bread, Rice, Applesauce, Toast). Either cook the rice separate, or use 5 minute boil-in-a-bag rice, otherwise you will lose all your liquid. I don't use onion, since that can be hard to digest. I also cut the veggies up much smaller and let them cook down. Carrots and ginger are good for calming the stomach.*

What's your go-to sick food?