School Starting...What's for Lunch?

School lunches, fan or not?

Do you let your little bundle of love flesh buy or pack his/her lunch?

If your child packs, what's he/she packing?

What's his favorite school lunch to buy?
What is the daily or average price of your school lunch?

Does your child eat lunch before or after recess?

Does your child eat breakfast?

Smoothie

Needed a smoothie booster!

1/2 c organic frozen strawberries
1 banana
1 heaping T of organic flax seed
1/4 c vanilla low fat yogurt
1/2 cup filtered h20

Blend on high till blended, drink.
I like to use frozen strawberries v. adding ice. Ice gives me a brain freeze, frozen strawberries add just the right amount of chill.

Berry Couscous

Meet my new BFF, a box of couscous.

If you can boil water, you can make couscous. Just chop and dice a few additional ingredients and add them to hot or cold couscous and wa-la! Then send it packing in your kid's lunch and your lunch too!

I buy Near East plain couscous and dress it up with whatever I have on hand. I let this couscous cool a bit in the freezer before I added wild organic blueberries, a stalk of celery, a green onion, parsley, basil, lemon pepper, and fresh ground pepper.

I like sauces, dressings on my food, always have. I'm not talking about a blob of gooey cheese, or an artery clogging mess, but something simple that compliments the dish. So to satisfy my palate I made a simple dressing of 1 T apple cider vinegar, 2 T wild flower honey, 1 tsp whole grain Dijon mustard. Taste your dressing or sauce before pouring it to make sure it is just right, then drizzled it on and stir. I also like my flavors to absorb and blend together, so I refrigerated this dish for at least an hour before I indulged. Couscous can be served hot or cold.

For lunch today I packed a few radicchio and bibb lettuce leaves, plus a side of berry couscous. Berry couscous lettuce leaf roll-ups.

Other Ideas
Couscous plus...:
1. Feta, diced tomatoes, cucumbers parsley, basil, pepper (good hot or cold)
2. Organic strawberries, orange slices, grated ginger, cinnamon, almonds (serve chilled)
3. Sliced grapes, feta, cranberries, parsley, cinnamon, pecans (serve chilled)
4. Cucumber, green onion, blueberry, parsley (chill it)

Drizzle a bit of low fat plain or vanilla yogurt over top, serve on lettuce leaves or just eat it already!

Chicken Soup is Good for the Soul, and a Cold

Soup and Grilled Sandwiches...coming soon!
Nothing like roasted, toasted fresh summer veggies on the perfect bread, and maybe cheese, or egg or fish or meat or ....it's endless and all fabulous. Fab-delicious to be exact!

Fresh Berry and Red Haven Peach Pie

A little Happy Birthday pie with a generous dollop of fresh whipped cream!

Fresh Berry and Red Haven Peach Pie
You can make your favorite crust or use a frozen prepared crust
1 small container of Discoll's red raspberries
1 small container of Discoll's blackberries
1 small container of Discoll's blueberries
3 Red Haven Peaches (I bought my fresh peaches from Beckwith Orchards Cider Mill, Ohio)
2 T white sugar
1.5 T brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 dash of cinnamon
1.5 tsp corn starch
1 T sugar to sprinkle on crust

Wash berries and place in a bowl. Wash, remove peel, pit and slice peaches into 8ths and place in bowl with berries. Add sugars, vanilla, cinnamon and corn starch; stir. Place prepared crust into pie pan and add fruit. Fold down edges. Dampen top of folded edges with water and sprinkle with sugar. Bake until crust is golden brown.

I baked this pie at 325 F convection for 25-30 minutes.

Fresh Whipped Cream
1 pint ultra-pasteurized Heavy Whipping Cream
1 -2 T white sugar

Whip on medium speed until set. Chill. Use generously!

Share with family and friends!

Roasted Chicken

I forgot to take a picture of the roasted chicken before we started carving. Not to make excuses, but I'm going to, kind of. We were starving and the the roasted chicken looked and smelled delicious. So needless to say, the roasted chicken held up it's end of the bargain by tasting delicious. My sister and I held up our end of the bargain by stuffing our faces!

Now I bet your thinking, where did she get that bird, I want one!?

My dear friend Colleen and her husband Les (and clan of six) gave me this (dead, phew) bird after a fun filled weekend at their place in Indiana. The bird was frozen in a block of ice and took three days to thaw. I could have starved before it thawed, but I didn't because they gave me other yum yum goodies for the ride home. Let's just say I ate a bag of Dove chocolates minus four, in the first two hours of driving. I won't admit to anything more, but I wish the scale read less. So their frozen gift became my birthday dinner, and boy was it tasty!

Prepping the bird was a piece of cake! I was feeling lazy and didn't want to go to the market, so I opened the refrigerator door for the 100th time that day and opted to use the ingredients I had on hand. I'm so smart and resourceful. After I dressed the chicken I realized I needed a side dish, you know, the perfect shoes to go with the dressed bird. I decided to go with fresh from the field sweet corn.

Tie on your apron and start shucking. Shuck corn and place in a 9 x 13" plan with 1-2" of water, cover with foil. I added the corn during the last half hour of roasting the chicken. Heaven.

Roasted Chicken
1 thawed fresh chicken from a dear friend (not certain of the weight of this chicken. 10lbs?)
1 lemon, sliced
salt/pepper/seasoning
3 sprigs of parsley
2 medium size leaves of basil
1 small sprig of Greek oregano
5 carrots, washed and cut into 2" chunks
5-8 cloves of garlic, peeled and whole
3 stalks of celery, washed and cut into 2" chunks
8 red new potatoes, halved
1-2 T butter, melted or at least soft


Preheat oven to 350F bake or 300 convection.

Rinse the inside and out, remove any pinfeathers and pat dry. Place chicken in a baking dish or roasting pan. Salt (1/4 tsp) and pepper (3-4 cranks) the cavity. Place 3 cloves of whole in the cavity. Slice one lemon and squeeze the juice into the cavity and then stuff the lemon quarters into the cavity, along with 1 sprig of parsley.

Wash and prepare all the vegetables. Arrange vegetable around bird in roasting pan. Brush the outside of the chicken with melted butter, salt and pepper taste. I also generously seasoned the outside of the chicken with a lemon pepper too. Sprinkle chopped herbs on top of chicken and/or under skin. It's now ready for the oven.

I cooked this chicken for 1 hr at 300 F convection, reduced the heat to 250F convection and cooked for 1 hr, then 30 minutes at 300F convection. I had to turn the heat down because I had to run an errand and did not want the chicken to overcook while I was away. When done, the juices should run clear and the minimum internal temperature should be 165F for 15 seconds. Cover the chicken with foil and let rest for 15 - 20 minutes after removing from the oven and before carving.

Thanks Les, Colleen and family! XXOO

Zucchini Bread

Every summer my grandma would make loaves of zucchini bread from one monster zucchini. Let me clarify, she would make the BEST EVER zucchini bread from one monster zucchini.

Her zucchini bread was so cinnamony and I am a fan of cinnamon. I would say my favorit part was the crunchy outer top layer followed by a tender- moist center, ending with a full flavor of cinnamon. Simply delicious. The bread was perfect plain, but add a thin layer of cream cheese to a slice and talk about a little slice of heaven.

She was a wonderful lady. I am sad to say she died last year. She was 102 years of age. So in her honor I made six monster loaves, three different recipes, of zucchini bread from one monster zucchini I bought at the local farmers market. Each recipe very good, but her bread will always be the best.

Zucchini Bread
3 eggs (or 1 whole egg, plus whites of two eggs)
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil (or 1T extra virgin olive oil and 1/2 c fuji plain applesauce, homemade)
1 T vallina extract
1 tsp salt
2 cups grated zucchini
2 cups flour (I use 1 c all purpose and 1 cup Hodgson Mill Insta-Bake whole wheat flour)
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1.5 T cinnamon
1 cup walnuts (optional)

Cream eggs, sugar, oil, vanilla, and salt in mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add zucchini; mix well. Add flour 1 cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Stir in baking soda, powder, cinnamon, and walnuts (optional). Spoon into greased and floured bundt/tube pan or 2 loaf pans.
Bake at 325 F for 1 hr.

If you have left over zucchini, freeze it! Shredded zucchini freezes/thaws wonderfully.

Happy summer!