more on food.....
Proverbs 31:15....."She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls."
I have food on the brain today. (well......every day). A friend on social media posted a request for meal ideas for her family, feeling stuck in a rut......and I made a list of some of my family's favorites for her......and then someone else asked for a recipe so I took a photo of it from my food-stained church cookbook with my smart phone, tagged her in it and posted it. I am so techy savy! (not)
As the seasons change, so does my taste for foods and what sounds good to me.....what is in season.....what makes my family happy. When I am able to serve a meal that is pleasing to prepare, and gets rave reviews from my family.......I feel like I have done a good job in my home and in my proverbs 31 biblical challenge. This doesn't happen ever day. Some days, like today, I pop some frozen processed junk into the oven and serve it up with catsup and ranch dressing and maybe even a root beer......because we have places to go and things to do yet tonight.
My first technique may be helpful to other homemakers and household managers and cooks of the family kitchen......so here it is. When I have an idle hour or so, I choose a cookbook from my closet. I have several church cookbooks, and some staples like Betty Crocker, and a few fun ones. I take time to read through the recipes, page by page and if I find one I would like to try or repeat, I either fold over the edge of the paper, or take a photo of it with my phone. The latter technique is great because then when I am at the grocery store, I just look through the photos and have my shopping list handy. Voila! I don't just look for main dishes. I look through breakfasts, salads, drinks, desserts, etc. until I have a good working list of things to cook. Then I purpose myself to actually prepare these meals in the days and weeks ahead....before I choose another cookbook to work from. If the dish was a real winner I go back to the cookbook and make a smiley face beside the recipe, or write a note, such as "kids loved it" or "church potluck fail" or "no flavor.."......so you get the point.
My second technique is to cook with the seasons. For summer, I make more cold salads, sandwiches, things with fruit. We tend to eat our veggies raw with ranch dipping sauce, and have chips as a "side dish" and smoothies. We make a variety of sandwiches with different breads and different ingredients. We grill often so on nights that my hubby is available I will thaw out some meat and give him complete freedom (and lots of warning) to make it yummy. He always does. for fall, think pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie, acorn squash with butter, brown sugar and pecans, pork roast, lasagna, chili and cinnamon rolls, quiche, and whatever they are selling at the farmers market. I buy fresh cabbage and then just start googling recipes for cabbage. My favorite online website for recipes is allrecipes.com. I bought beets a few weeks ago, did some recipe searches and found one that required boiling the beets, then mixing them with carrot sticks and granny smith apple sticks in a dressing of olive oil, juice of lemon, and juice of orange. Roger tolerated it. I ate it 3 times and the kids wouldn't touch it. Go figure.
My third technique is to identify other food-driven members of the household and to spoil them rotten with food. Last year, we had Grace living with us from Korea and she loved buffalo chicken pizza with olives and onion and mushrooms so we regularly had homemade pizza. She also loved anything Asian so we did stir fry frequently. She and Jeremiah both love deviled eggs so every few weeks I made a batch and just had them in the fridge for snacking and you would think they won the lottery when they opened the fridge and saw that beautiful platter smiling up at them. Grace and Isaac fell in love with cheesecake. I'm more of a cook than a baker but I started making cheesecake from scratch and cannot tell you how much love I got. That love translated into food courage and trust when I made something new. They were more willing to try new foods. Crazy. I know. The non-foodies that live here just tolerate food and eat to live, rather than live to eat. We have a few in my house and that's fine. They get by.
Tonight, I will end the post with a recipe for chicken pot pie because apparently not many people make them. I cheat with store-bought pie crusts because I do not have time to stand and knead dough. Here it is. Try it soon if you want!
1 box Pillsbury pie crust (2 per box)
2 cups cooked shredded chicken or turkey
1 cup mixed veggies: peas, corn, carrots
1 can cream celery or chicken soup
splash of cream or half and half
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
Set pie crust out to room temp and place one into a deep dish pie plate. Mix remaining ingredients together until creamy and fill crust. Top with second crust and pinch the 2 crusts together to seal. Cut slits into the top crust that covers the pie ( I like to make the shape of the cross just because). Set oven to 375 degrees and bake until inside is thick and bubble....around an hour but check often! If outside crust is getting too brown cover the outside with strips of foil so it doesn't burn.
Serve with a green salad or fresh fruit or apple sauce.
I have food on the brain today. (well......every day). A friend on social media posted a request for meal ideas for her family, feeling stuck in a rut......and I made a list of some of my family's favorites for her......and then someone else asked for a recipe so I took a photo of it from my food-stained church cookbook with my smart phone, tagged her in it and posted it. I am so techy savy! (not)
As the seasons change, so does my taste for foods and what sounds good to me.....what is in season.....what makes my family happy. When I am able to serve a meal that is pleasing to prepare, and gets rave reviews from my family.......I feel like I have done a good job in my home and in my proverbs 31 biblical challenge. This doesn't happen ever day. Some days, like today, I pop some frozen processed junk into the oven and serve it up with catsup and ranch dressing and maybe even a root beer......because we have places to go and things to do yet tonight.
My first technique may be helpful to other homemakers and household managers and cooks of the family kitchen......so here it is. When I have an idle hour or so, I choose a cookbook from my closet. I have several church cookbooks, and some staples like Betty Crocker, and a few fun ones. I take time to read through the recipes, page by page and if I find one I would like to try or repeat, I either fold over the edge of the paper, or take a photo of it with my phone. The latter technique is great because then when I am at the grocery store, I just look through the photos and have my shopping list handy. Voila! I don't just look for main dishes. I look through breakfasts, salads, drinks, desserts, etc. until I have a good working list of things to cook. Then I purpose myself to actually prepare these meals in the days and weeks ahead....before I choose another cookbook to work from. If the dish was a real winner I go back to the cookbook and make a smiley face beside the recipe, or write a note, such as "kids loved it" or "church potluck fail" or "no flavor.."......so you get the point.
My second technique is to cook with the seasons. For summer, I make more cold salads, sandwiches, things with fruit. We tend to eat our veggies raw with ranch dipping sauce, and have chips as a "side dish" and smoothies. We make a variety of sandwiches with different breads and different ingredients. We grill often so on nights that my hubby is available I will thaw out some meat and give him complete freedom (and lots of warning) to make it yummy. He always does. for fall, think pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie, acorn squash with butter, brown sugar and pecans, pork roast, lasagna, chili and cinnamon rolls, quiche, and whatever they are selling at the farmers market. I buy fresh cabbage and then just start googling recipes for cabbage. My favorite online website for recipes is allrecipes.com. I bought beets a few weeks ago, did some recipe searches and found one that required boiling the beets, then mixing them with carrot sticks and granny smith apple sticks in a dressing of olive oil, juice of lemon, and juice of orange. Roger tolerated it. I ate it 3 times and the kids wouldn't touch it. Go figure.
My third technique is to identify other food-driven members of the household and to spoil them rotten with food. Last year, we had Grace living with us from Korea and she loved buffalo chicken pizza with olives and onion and mushrooms so we regularly had homemade pizza. She also loved anything Asian so we did stir fry frequently. She and Jeremiah both love deviled eggs so every few weeks I made a batch and just had them in the fridge for snacking and you would think they won the lottery when they opened the fridge and saw that beautiful platter smiling up at them. Grace and Isaac fell in love with cheesecake. I'm more of a cook than a baker but I started making cheesecake from scratch and cannot tell you how much love I got. That love translated into food courage and trust when I made something new. They were more willing to try new foods. Crazy. I know. The non-foodies that live here just tolerate food and eat to live, rather than live to eat. We have a few in my house and that's fine. They get by.
Tonight, I will end the post with a recipe for chicken pot pie because apparently not many people make them. I cheat with store-bought pie crusts because I do not have time to stand and knead dough. Here it is. Try it soon if you want!
1 box Pillsbury pie crust (2 per box)
2 cups cooked shredded chicken or turkey
1 cup mixed veggies: peas, corn, carrots
1 can cream celery or chicken soup
splash of cream or half and half
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
Set pie crust out to room temp and place one into a deep dish pie plate. Mix remaining ingredients together until creamy and fill crust. Top with second crust and pinch the 2 crusts together to seal. Cut slits into the top crust that covers the pie ( I like to make the shape of the cross just because). Set oven to 375 degrees and bake until inside is thick and bubble....around an hour but check often! If outside crust is getting too brown cover the outside with strips of foil so it doesn't burn.
Serve with a green salad or fresh fruit or apple sauce.
Comments
Post a Comment