Combating the Hungrumpy

**I have been corrected, and have thus corrected my post; the word is hungrumpy, not grumpungry. :)

Yes, that says hungrumpy. As in grumpy and hungry--or hunger induced grumpiness. I credit my clever brother-in-law with coining this phrase (Thanks Bri!), which unfortunately is a common syndrome in our house. My mother-in-law tells the story of my husband, as a child, behaving like an absolute devil prior to a meal. Minutes after eating, she describes the sweet, loving smile accompanied with an "I love you, Mom.". Cute story, and though I've witnessed similar behavior in the adult-Mike, I always suspected it was a little exaggerated.

Until I had my very own mini-Mike named Alaina.

The story is 100% accurate (truly!!), and it happens regularly. I have learned that I need to keep a steady supply of snacks going or hungrumpy rears it's (really) ugly face. Our snacking had gotten into a rut over the past couple months. We don't really eat processed snack foods, and a piece of fruit and/or a small bowl of yogurt was getting old for all of us.

Our new favorite snack is super healthy and quick to get on the table. I've been trying hard to get more veggies on Lainey's "like" list. I had tried cut veggies with dip in the past, and it was always met with resistance. I need to remember more often the "try new foods again and again" rule; I brought out some carrot sticks, cucumbers, and homemade hummus last week, and both girls gobbled it up.

I have played around for a little over a year with different hummus recipes; super garlic-y, cumin, tahini-free, plain, atrichoke...but none of them compared to the store hummus. Then, a few weeks ago I pulled out my recipe book and found this recipe, from my dear friend Amy. It's hummus perfection--creamy and not overpowering; just a perfect blend of traditional hummus flavors. It takes about five minutes to make, and I plan to have this in the fridge all the time.

Lebanese Hummus

1 clove garlic, crushed (I used garlic powder, maybe 1/4 tsp)

1/4 c. lemon juice

16 oz. can chick peas, drained with liquids reserved

1/3 c. sesame tahini

1 tsp. salt

I put all ingredients in a bowl and puree with my immersion blender; add liquid as needed to help puree and thin to desired consistency.

Here's to a hungrumpy free day!

New Year, New Kitchen

My resolution this year has been to get my butt in gear in organize my life. Yes, a pretty hefty goal...I've been cleaning, de-cluttering (as in, several trunkfuls of stuff off to goodwill), meal-planning, making lists...all this organization has actually resulted in having free time--a rare and beautiful thing.

It's hard to meal-plan when you don't know for sure what's in your kitchen, so now that the house is actually clean (see how I've done it in my post here, about my awesome new chore system!), I'm starting to do major projects like cleaning in cupboards and closets.

This was my project on Sunday night:

My cupboard, before...

I buy alot of items in bulk, and have an assortment of unlabeled bags piled all over. A trip to the store for some new glass jars and a couple hours of work later (I got through two cupboards)...

I can actually see all my food, I labeled all the mystery powders, and it just looks lovely!!

Dinner, Fast: Fried Rice

This meal has become one of my weekly regulars, and quite possibly my favorite meal to cook. It's super healthy, full of veggies, and takes about 10-15 minutes to prepare, start to finish. Who doesn't love a healthy, fast meal?!

I've started consistently meal planning each week, and I've really been taking advantage of our freezer. When I cook rice in the rice cooker, I always make a double batch and freeze the leftovers in freezer bags. This is the key for this recipe--cooking rice is not difficult, but when fast is the goal, it just doesn't work.

Now, on to the recipe. As with most of my recipes, I don't measure much, so adjust as you prefer!

First, gather your ingredients:

frozen cooked brown rice (go with brown rice, it's so much healthier and when it's cooked this way it doesn't taste any different!!)

1 bag of frozen mixed veggies--any kind you like

2-4 eggs (up to you!), scrambled and set aside

soy sauce

sesame oil

canola oil

1. Heat equal parts of sesame and canola oils in a large pan (total a few tbsp.).

2. Pour in frozen rice and frozen veggies, stir and cook over medium heat until both are thawed and warming through.

3. Stir in about 1/4 c. soy sauce (more or less), a little at a time, to your taste (my soy sauce, from the Honest Weight Food Co-op, is potent, so I don't use a ton).

4. Push rice mixture to the perimeter of the pan, and pour in scrambled eggs. Continue to stir and cook the eggs through, and mix together into rice mixture when they're set.

Additional soy sauce and sesame oil can be added when served if it needs more oomph. I also sometimes add a generous drizzle of rice wine vinegar while it's cooking, just for a little more flavor.

This is fast, easy, delicious, and a huge hit with both Lainey and Sarah (my 1-year old)...and adults!

Welcome 2011!

Without really planning to, I took a two month hiatus from my blogging here. The combination of the holidays, knitting like a madwoman, and LIFE just caught up with me. I've also been writing on From Scratch Club, which took the little bit of blog energy I had.

This is a new year, though, and I am all about getting back in the bloggy game. This year I have big plans to get organized...this is a pretty ambitious goal for me, as I am just not. The insanity of the holidays actually helped me to notice how difficult it is for me to keep track of everything, and has made me determined to make changes. I realize that I'm only four days into it, but I think I'm doing pretty darn well so far. My house is cleaner than it has been in months, my calendar is organized, I can see the floor of my car, I made it to the gym today, I'm blogging, and I don't feel lost in the shuffle of my day. Now if I can just keep it up... :)

Since some of my readers are here for a recipe, and others are here in hopes of seeing some pictures of my cuddlebugs, I'll do both tonight. First up, a quick and easy veggie side dish inspired by the incredible green beans my sister brought to Thanksgiving dinner.

Dijon Mustard Green Beans

(excellent served warm OR cold)

1 lb green beans, washed and trimmed

equal parts Dijon mustard and olive oil (I used about 1/4 c. of each)

salt to taste

Cook green beans in a large pot of salted water until tender, 5-8 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk together mustard and oil.

Drain green beans and stir in mustard sauce. Season with salt. Serve.

And, last, some photos of my sweet girls...

Getting ready for Thanksgiving and more child labor with the Bissell...

Lainey's first self-haircut...

Merry Christmas!

And, some beautiful shots by Christina Davis, photographer and friend...

Winter Vegetable Hash, Two Ways!

We had Winter Vegetable Hash for dinner early this week, and it was a so-so hit. I loved it, my husband loved it, and Lainey ate it (with the regular reminder of a piece of Halloween candy for dessert if she did....). She didn't gag on it, but she didn't give me my "oooh, Mommmmy, fanks!" that I was hoping for. (C'mon, kid, this is a dinner with raisins in it!) The original recipe was from Allrecipes, and here's what I did:

Winter Vegetable Hash

serves 6

3 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp butter

1 lb diced potatoes

1/2 lb diced mushrooms

2 small squash, partially cooked and diced

1/2 onion, chopped (I used leeks this time)

2 cloves garlic, minced

salt and pepper to taste

1 full cup chopped kale/other greens

4 sprigs of fresh sage (this time I only used about a teaspoon of dried, it was all I had)

1/4 c raisins

splash lemon juice

1 tsp garam masala (I added this on a whim and it was perfect!)

Place oil and butter in a large skillet; add onion and potatoes, cook about 10 minutes, stirring often.

Add garlic and kale. Cook another 10 minutes, stirring often.

Add squash, mushrooms, all seasonings, lemon juice, raisins, and stir well. Cover and cook, adding a little water/oil as needed to cook vegetables fully.

We had this topped with a little grated cheddar, but I would have liked to try topping it with a poached or fried egg. (Sorry, no photo this time, I forgot!)

So, it was a slightly Lainey un-friendly dinner...no biggie, except that I've been meal planning (see my post all about it tomorrow on the other blog I write for, From Scratch Club!!) and my double batch of Hash was supposed to be the main dish for my "leftover" night tonight. I'm really proud of the solution I came up with--probably a little too excited, but I feel like it was pretty darn creative. It was a hit all around (even my 1-year old babe Sarah ate an entire bowl!) and it was a piece of cake!

What did I do, you ask? I turned it into soup. I know the picture looks less than appealing (next time I'll try to shoot the greenish soup not in a green bowl...), but it was good--sorta like a pumped up potato leek soup. I heated all the leftovers in a large saucepan, and put a couple of inches of water in the pan. If you're unsure how much water to add, start with less than you think--you can always add more liquid once it's pureed. Once the hash was warm, I pureed it right in the pot with my immersion blender. I added a few splashes of milk and a little more water to achieve a good consistency, and served it topped with a handful of shredded cheese.

A leftover night success!!

Moe's at Home

I love a quick-to-prepare meal, especially when it's a pretty healthy one! This dinner is a home made alternative to one of our regulars, Moe's. Lainey is a huge fan of burritos, and I love that I can throw in a few extras at home to boost the nutrition of her dinner.

I must give credit where it's due for this one: my dear friend, Keely, inspired me to fix this meal, which not only led to an incredible dinner, but lunches for the entire week. Beautiful. :)

A rice cooker is a big help for this meal--any appliance that allows me to push a button and walk away is a must for me. I cooked the rice late-afternoon, and just kept it on the "warm" setting until dinner time. You don't need to go fancy on this; I have a verrrry basic Salton Rice Cooker that I bought in college for $18 and is still going strong.

Here's the rough recipe.

2 cups brown rice

4 cups water

1 can black beans

salsa

sour cream

avocado

grated cheddar cheese

1. Put rice and water in rice cooker with a splash of olive oil, and cook.

2. Drain and rinse one can of black beans. (any type of bean can be used)

3.. When rice is cooked, stir in about 1/2 c salsa; it should be just enough to give the rice some color and flavor.

4. Stir in black beans. I very roughly mashed about 1/3 of the can before stirring in, just to help it all come together a little more; totally optional.

Now, assemble as desired. I made Lainey a burrito--spread the rice mixture down the center of a whole wheat tortilla (I found the Archer Farms brand at Target actually has almost no gross ingredients and they're still soft and delish). Sprinkle with cheddar cheese, a few big dollops of mashed avocado (full of good fats!), a drop or two of sour cream, and any other desired fillings (lettuce, tomato, extra salsa...). I sprinkled in a handful of crumbled kale chips--you can get pretty creative. Roll the end up, fold the sides in, and roll the rest. To contain the mess, I usually then wrap the whole thing in a piece of foil that can be pulled down as the burrito gets eaten.

For my dinner, I made a rice bowl. Rice and beans topped with salsa, cheese, and sour cream. If I had lettuce on hand, I would have made the whole thing a taco salad. This is what I love about Mexican themed dinners--the same handful of ingredients can make an endless possibility of meals.

My Little Helper

This is a non-food post, but it's kinda, sorta food -related. I have been meaning to share this for quite some time, so tonight's the night! I made a pretty awesome kid-in-the-kitchen discovery. It's this beauty, from Bissell:

I bought this a year or two ago in hopes of having something to easily tackle the mess that was (well, still is...) my kitchen floor after every meal. I hate the feeling of crumbs stuck to my feet, and that's a tough pet peeve to have along with a toddler.

Anyway...the vaccuum itself is really nothing terribly special. It doesn't pick up huge bits of food, but it helps with most dinner messes. It's designed to be a dust-buster type, hand-held vaccuum, but it also has a handle that can make it like a little sweeper. Oh, and it's five pounds...very light for one of these things. Here's the beauty: when assembled as a floor vaccuum, if the handle is removed, it is now a perfect child's vaccuum.

I was able to clean up dinner, get the baby changed for bed, and clean up all the toys in the family room during the time Lainey spent vaccuuming the kitchen for me. I was thrilled to have help, and Lainey was thrilled to be the one who "cleaned the whooooole kitchen!". This doesn't count as child labor, right? :)

Autumn Perfection: Triple Ginger Cookies

I feel like my brain wants to start every post lately with some comment about how much I love the Fall. I'm sounding less than creative, but it's so true. I LOVE the Fall. And one of the main reasons I love the fall is for all the amazing foods that just taste so much better when the weather is cool. The smell of soup simmering on the stove all day, warm apple cider, sweet squash, root vegetables....sigh. LOVE LOVE LOVE!

One Fall Food that graces my kitchen counters on a verrry regular basis are these incredible Triple Ginger Cookies.

In my husband's world, a cookie is not a cookie without chocolate, so I confess that I bake these quite selfishly for myself. I've never been a big gingersnaps person; they're tasty, but I could never get into that extreme crispiness in a cookie. This, however, is the perfect blend of the gingersnap flavor with a very chewy cookie. They are delicious, and healthy--whole wheat flour, honey-sweetened, loaded with ginger to help you fight off all those nasty cold germs floating around this time of year...I literally can't get enough of them.

The "triple" ginger comes from three different forms of ginger baked into these beauties, so be sure to serve these to kiddos with a big cup of water or milk. Lainey enjoys them, but I do get an earful of "my tongue is tingling, mama!" every time she eats one.

TRIPLE GINGER COOKIES

2 1/2 c whole wheat flour

3 tsp powdered ginger**

1 tsp cinnamon**

1/2 tsp ground cloves**

dash of nutmeg**

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

tiny pinch cayenne pepper (yes, trust me!)

2/3 c honey

1/2 c oil

1 egg

1/2 c molasses

1/2 c chopped crystallized ginger

2 tbsp fresh grated ginger

---display-worthy crystallized ginger---

**I buy my powdered ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves from Wild Thyme, in Ballston Spa...they sell bulk organic herbs and spices for a FRACTION of what you'd pay in the grocery store, and the quality is incredible.

Heat oven to 350°. Mix all dry ingredients in one bowl, set aside. Mix all wet ingredients in another bowl. Mix wet and dry together.

Gently stir in crystallized ginger and fresh grated ginger.

Drop by the tablespoon onto cookiesheet (I have nonstick, so I don't grease mine) and bake 8-10 minutes. They WILL be soft, DO NOT OVERBAKE! Let sit on cookie sheet for 1-2 minutes, then move to cooling rack to cool completely.

---oops...still working on cracking eggs...---

Creamy Veggie Pasta

I've been slowly working my way out of my cooking rut...sleep deprivation (cumulatively over the past three years) combined with a busy schedule leaves me in no mood to spend much time on dinner. The good news is that moods like this force me to find more relatively easy, sorta fast-to-prepare recipes (no matter what, when cooking with fresh veggies, there's always peeling/chopping to deal with...maybe I can hire a sous chef? :) ). I found this recipe and modified it as usual, to create this delish dinner.

It was supposed to be a one-pot, boil everything all together deal, but I decided that taking one extra step to saute the veggies would make it less mushy and more tasty. I was right. Yum! We all loved it, the girls devoured it, there were barely any leftovers. Here's Lainey making her "mmmm!" face.

Creamy Veggie Pasta (vegetable measurements are approximates because I adjusted as I went; you may need to adjust slightly to your taste!)

2 small zucchini, sliced thin

1 small summer squash, sliced

2 cups mushrooms, sliced

2 large handfuls spinach

1/2 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 c milk

1/2 c parmesan cheese

2 tbsp butter

salt and pepper to taste

6-12 oz. macaroni (I like to use less pasta than recipes usually call for, or more veggies--my goal is to make the meal equal parts pasta and vegetables)

1. Cook the pasta.

2. While pasta is cooking, saute veggies in olive oil. I started with onions, then added garlic, mushrooms, zucchini, and squash. Once they were all tender, I tossed in the spinach to wilt.

3. In a large bowl, mix milk, parmesan cheese, butter, salt and pepper.

4. Drain the pasta and immediately pour into serving bowl. Toss to coat all with cream mixture.

This is another recipe that would work with just about any veggies you have on hand. Even frozen vegetables would work, just do as the original recipe suggested and toss it right in your pasta pot.

I hesitate to ask due to an historical lack of responses, but...I know that mostly anyone who reads this blog is a friend. So please, if you have a fast(ish), easy(ish) recipe that you love, please share it!

Rhubarb Cookies

In my house, with the cool weather come lots of warm soups, and lots of baking. I've really gotten in gear this week with both, and today's baking experiment REALLY paid off. I cut and brought in the little bit of rhubarb that I managed to grow in my garden this year--what an amazing plant. The leaves on these stalks were incredible...I'm not a very good photographer, so it isn't the best photo (the apple is for a size reference!), but look at the size of this leaf!! (They actually grow much bigger than this, but my plants were transplanted this Spring and took a while to recover.)

I've realized recently that baking a healthy sweet treat makes a huge difference in my snacking and sweet-cravings all week. When I don't have something baked at home, I still get a sweets craving, and end up getting cookies at the McDonald's drive-thru...mmm, but ick. :) If you're trying to cut back on sweets, try some healthier baked goods at home and see if it helps you, too! (try baking one big batch of something Saturday or Sunday, then you're set for the week...or at least a few days :) )

Back to today's treat: I didn't want to deal with a rhubarb pie, so I hunted for a rhubarb cookie recipe and found this, from thefoodspot.com. I made a few modifications, as always, and these cookies came out waaaay better than I expected. I got nervous once they were in the oven that substituting honey would not give enough sweet to counter my rhubarb's tart, but the sweet level is perfect (unless you ask my husband, who believes a cookie isn't complete without chocolate chips...if you are a fellow chocolate lover, it would definitely work in these cookies).

Rhubarb Cookies

from The Food Spot

2 cups flour (I used half whole wheat, half all purpose)

1 1/4 cups brown sugar (I used honey)

8 tbsp butter (I used half butter, half chia gel)

1 egg

2 tsp milk

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup dried cranberries (had none, used raisins)

1 cup rhubarb, finely chopped

1 cup chopped walnuts (only had 1/2 cup)

Preheat oven to 350°. Beat wet ingredients in bowl until smooth. Mix in dry ingredients, then stir in rhubarb, raisins, and nuts. Spoon out about 2 tbsp. cookies onto a greased cookie sheet, and bake for 12-14 minutes. Cool one minute on cookie sheet, then move to cooling rack.

Delicious, healthy, and even pretty with those flecks of red rhubarb!