Keeper of the Home: In the kitchen

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In the kitchen

January 7, 2009: Q&A- Healthy snacks and easy lunches for little ones
Comments: 3 | Categories: Babies , Children , Healthy kids , In the kitchen

I've always thought I was a pretty decent, healthy, semi-granola-y mama, but I'm finding myself stumped lately. I have a 3 year old and can't seem to think beyond the old peanut butter and jelly for lunch. And for my 1 year old, I'm stumped for car snacks. Tomorrow we're...

January 6, 2009: Sprouts -The easiest greens you'll ever grow!
Comments: 8 | Categories: Gardening , In the kitchen , Nutrition

With the lack of my garden and the ability to pick my own salad at any moment, I've been really missing fresh greens this winter.Did you know that growing your own sprouts is not only easy, but wildly nutritious, too? Sprouts are: full of enzymes easily digestible (in part due...

December 5, 2008: Q&A- Confusion with Soaking Grains
Comments: 8 | Categories: In the kitchen , Nutrition

Here's a recent question from my inbox: ...What I am getting is that all grains that I use need to be soaked, whether they are in the grain form or milled (flour) form. To me that would include: rice, barley, wheat, spelt, kamut, oats, wild rice, and then the flours...

November 7, 2008: Two questions for you, ladies!
Comments: 31 | Categories: Babies , Gardening , In the kitchen

A quick thanks to those who joined in the Organic Gardening Carnival yesterday, and I wanted to let you know that if you weren't able to get something up on your blog for yesterday, you can still feel free to add your post anytime this weekend or even later. The...

November 4, 2008: Pumpkin canning
Comments: 7 | Categories: In the kitchen

Phew... I think I might be done canning for the year! (Unless, of course, I decide to take advantage of borrowing a pressure canner to do up some dry beans for convenience sake, and I think I might have heard my husband mention pears this morning... oh well :)I started...

October 31, 2008: Good in the Kitchen
Comments: 34 | Categories: Biblical womanhood , In the kitchen

I haven't been all that happy with the food I've been preparing lately. Not because it isn't healthy, or frugal, or because it takes too much work, or anything like that. Not even because it doesn't taste good to me (because it does).I made a realization, though. Over the last...

October 30, 2008: Beautiful Bread Recipes
Comments: 13 | Categories: In the kitchen , Recipes

During the Q&A last week, I was asked if I had any more bread recipes that I wanted to share, and it was great timing, because I've just recently been quite happy with what I've been making (a very good thing, as I am somewhat baking-challenged). Soaked, yeasted whole grain...

October 24, 2008: Blogiversary Q&A: Round 4
Comments: 6 | Categories: A bit of this, a bit of that , Faith , In the kitchen

Jo Ann asked: I do have a question...what would you recommend when it comes to cookware? I need some new pots and pans and would love to know your opinion on all that's out there.Oh, that's a whole post or two in itself! I am in the process of replacing...

October 23, 2008: Blogiversary Q&A- Round 3
Comments: 0 | Categories: A bit of this, a bit of that , In the kitchen , Living healthy

Donielle asked- If you didn't have to worry about the ingredients or the fact that it was super unhealthy, what is the one junk food you would eat every day?Coffee and ice cream, hands down! Oh wait, that's two. Can I add chocolate to the list as well? :) Willow...

October 17, 2008: Why I've been so busy...
Comments: 12 | Categories: Gardening , In the kitchen

Since getting home from Arizona, life has been a flurry of food preserving. Here's what I've been up to: First, there were pickles to make (you can see, they've already been dug into- I tried to buy more pickling cukes, since I only got enough for 4 quarts from my...

October 3, 2008: A very full freezer, indeed
Comments: 8 | Categories: Frugality , Good stewardship , In the kitchen

When I came home from my favorite natural meat store earlier this week, I was rather surprised to discover this as I struggled to put away the items I had bought: It's nearly full!I know that I've been working hard to fill it all summer (mostly with fruit and some...

September 15, 2008: Life without a microwave
Comments: 27 | Categories: In the kitchen , Living healthy , Natural living

When faced with a serious illness. it's amazing how much easier it becomes to give up certain things. Our microwave was one of those things. When my husband was diagnosed with cancer last spring, it was one of the first things to go. We had already been in the process...

September 8, 2008: Canning Resources
Comments: 7 | Categories: Books , In the kitchen

(Jars of the most delicious wild blackberry jam I made last week!)As I am only in my second year of canning, I don't feel quite ready to start giving lots of advice and tutorials quite yet, but I've been fortunate to find so many great resources this year, so I...

August 27, 2008: Nourishing Portable Food
Comments: 6 | Categories: In the kitchen , Recipes

I'm actually so thankful for this carnival, as it comes at a great time for me. I'm really struggling with what to send with my husband for lunch lately. I think the reason I struggle with making lunches is because it is not consistent. One week he may only need...

August 26, 2008: Help me out: Grass-fed steaks
Comments: 25 | Categories: In the kitchen

Here's a quick question that came up from our meal on Sunday afternoon... are we the only ones who are finding our grass-fed steaks to be incredibly tough and practically impossible to eat? Up until recently, we just haven't really bought steak, and have stuck to more utilitarian (and cheaper)...

August 26, 2008: What to do with all that zucchini...
Comments: 6 | Categories: In the kitchen , Recipes

Wondering what to do with the gigantic zucchini that are taking over your backyard? Or perhaps you have friends who garden and keep trying to slip a zucchini into your purse each time you visit? For your sake and mine, here is some inspiration for using a plentiful zucchini harvest,...

August 21, 2008: I love gardening!
Comments: 10 | Categories: Gardening , In the kitchen

If I've said it once, I just may have said it a hundred times this year... I love gardening! More precisely, what I love at this very moment is reaping the rewards of all my efforts, as I bring my delicious, organic produce in to my kitchen! Here's my sweet...

August 11, 2008: Goodness gracious, are these ever yummy!
Comments: 1 | Categories: In the kitchen

I had been wanting to make these incredible looking "power" bars for about two weeks, ever since Kimi first posted about them, and finally got around to it this Saturday morning. (These ones are Kimi's, not mine)What was I waiting for? These healthy little bars are so scrumptious, I can...

August 4, 2008: "Greening" your kitchen (the frugal way!)
Comments: 10 | Categories: Frugality , Going green , Good stewardship , In the kitchen

I've been anticipating this post from fellow blogger Michele, of Frugal Granola, on ways to eliminate disposables with simple and homemade options. I appreciate her perspective on simple living (check out her series), and I think that her resourcefulness is a wonderful example. Read on for some of her great...

July 30, 2008: Nutritional Foundations- A tour of my pantry and cupboards
Comments: 14 | Categories: In the kitchen , Nutritional Foundations series

So I've been brainstorming this new series I've recently begun, and came to the conclusion that as I talk about starting with the right ingredients, how to shop with nutrition in mind, food groups and balance for a growing family, etc. it only made sense to begin right here. Chez...

July 29, 2008: Berries for jam
Comments: 6 | Categories: In the kitchen , Recipes

Q: What do you get when you put together 40 lbs of raspberries, another 30 lbs of strawberries and blueberries, gallons of discounted frozen raw milk, sprouted grain buns bought on sale, multiple whole chickens, and a 1/4 of a cow? A: One little deep freeze that is oh-so-rapidly nearing...

July 23, 2008: Q&A- Grain Mills
Comments: 11 | Categories: In the kitchen

Anyway, on to my question. As I've stated I am striving to be a better steward of the blessings that God has given my family. As, I know you are aware, rising grocery costs are making it difficult to maintain our budgets. My family cannot spring for an electric grain...

July 16, 2008: The How-To of Using Alternative Grains
Comments: 4 | Categories: In the kitchen

As I mentioned in my last Baby Steps post on using alternative grains, there are some differences in cooking and baking using whole grains, and it's important to know exactly how to prepare them and how to substitute them into recipes you usually use. First of all, for basic whole...

July 15, 2008: Baby Steps: Using Alternative Grains
Comments: 10 | Categories: Baby Steps , In the kitchen , Nutrition

This week's baby step is: To choose one new grain to introduce to your family! Why this step is important: If you've been in a grocery store bakery lately, you will notice that there is quite the abundance of options: wheat, wheat and wheat. :) Sadly, despite the fact that...

July 15, 2008: Nutritional Foundations- It all begins with the right ingredients
Comments: 10 | Categories: In the kitchen , Nutrition , Nutritional Foundations series

There are exceptions to everything, but I think that this is a very foundational starting place to talk about nutrition and improving the way that you cook for your family. See, I can learn all of the proper cooking techniques a la Nourishing Traditions and find some amazingly healthy recipes...

July 14, 2008: Cherry picking
Comments: 9 | Categories: Getting organized , In the kitchen

Does this man love me or what?So I've been envying eyeing the lovely cherries ripening on my neighbor's tree the last few weeks. This Saturday, I thought it might be fun to get out and enjoy a picnic in the park with friends, with just a little bit of an...

July 5, 2008: The health benefits of eating raw meat? Part 2
Comments: 5 | Categories: In the kitchen , Living healthy , Nutrition

Continuing on from the first installment of this post... So, should raw animal products be a part of our regular diet?Despite the health benefits that appear to exist, the question still remains whether this is something that we should actually strive to do or not. Though I think the case...

June 27, 2008: The Value of a Chicken
Comments: 10 | Categories: Frugality , In the kitchen

When you're on a tight grocery budget, just how far can you stretch one little chicken? I decided to track exactly what I did with a my last free-range chicken, because I wanted to know the ultimate value derived from it. I started with a box of Whole Chicken Fryers,...

June 25, 2008: Nourishing Frugal Food!
Comments: 2 | Categories: Frugality , In the kitchen

Inspired by the recent rise in grocery costs, and our ever-present desire to cook whole, nourishing food for our families (and encourage you to do the same!), I will be collaborating with Kimi of The Nourishing Gourmet to bring you a carnival that we are really excited about!Actually, it was...

June 24, 2008: Baby Steps: Eating Cultured and Fermented Foods
Comments: 29 | Categories: Baby Steps , In the kitchen , Nutrition

This week's baby step is: To introduce one new cultured or fermented food to yourself (and your family, if you can)! Why this step is important: Though they made not sound all that appealing initially, and I know that this may be a bigger Baby Step than some of the...

June 12, 2008: Frugality with Food, Revisited- Part 2
Comments: 7 | Categories: Frugality , In the kitchen

Here is my continued list of strategies for keeping my grocery costs low (while keeping healthy foods a priority), in the midst of the rising grocery costs:(If you missed the first post, which also explains why I'm going through all of these ideas, you can find it here.)9) Shopping with...

June 10, 2008: Just like eating a rare steak (well, almost)
Comments: 1 | Categories: In the kitchen

I did it! I finally tried serving a raw meat dish to my family at the birthday dinner for my son last night (of course, he didn't have any!). I decided to put it out as an appetizer, in addition to the main meal, so that they could feel free...

June 6, 2008: Frugality with Food, Revisited- Part 1
Comments: 9 | Categories: Frugality , In the kitchen

We're all feeling it. The grocery budget crunch. The shifting economy. The struggle to keep food costs reasonable. It seems that each time I go to the grocery store these days, yet another item that I regularly buy has risen in price. Each time I place my order with my...

June 3, 2008: Baby Steps: Cooking Dry Beans
Comments: 12 | Categories: Baby Steps , Frugality , In the kitchen , Nutrition

First of all, if you're new to the Baby Steps series, you can find out what it's all about here (and welcome!).Secondly, if you didn't catch it yesterday, make sure you check out the "Say No to Kraft Dinner" recipe carnival. The purpose of this carnival was to help you...

June 2, 2008: "Say No to Kraft Dinner" Recipe Carnival!!!
Comments: 12 | Categories: In the kitchen

I dedicate this carnival to all of the moms out there who have ever had one of those days (you all know what I mean), and have been sorely tempted to pull out that box of KD rather than attempt to rack your tired brain to come up with a...

May 30, 2008: Q & A- Eating healthy in social situations
Comments: 11 | Categories: Faith , In the kitchen , Living healthy

How do you handle eating nutritiously at parties, both ones you host and those where you're a guest? We frequently host/attend get-togethers, and I find that I eat way too many high carb or junky foods. Carrie A couple weeks ago, this awesome question landed in my inbox. I've been...

May 29, 2008: Carnival postponed til next week
Comments: 0 | Categories: Baby Steps , In the kitchen

Due to the blog switchover yesterday and issues with my feed (which I really hope to have fixed soon- I'm so sorry to be doing this to you all again!), I thought it might be wise to postpone the "Say No to Kraft Dinner" Carnival until early next week.I'm thinking...

May 28, 2008: Baby Steps: Healthy, fast, convenient meals
Comments: 3 | Categories: Baby Steps , In the kitchen

Welcome back to our 3rd week of Baby Steps to Natural, Healthy Living!! If you'd like, you can read the original intro post, or browse through the first couple of weeks here. This week's baby step is: To create your own list of 5-10 meals that can be made in...

May 23, 2008: Book Review (and a Giveaway!): Sue Gregg ’ s Whole Grain Baking
Comments: 86 | Categories: Books , Giveaways , In the kitchen

I have been promising a review of Sue Gregg's book "An Introduction to Whole Grain Baking... with Blender Batter Baking & the Two-Stage Process" for quite some time now, and at long last, here it is! The day that I finally broke down and bought this book was one when...

April 25, 2008: Frugal Cooking Carnival!
Comments: 12 | Categories: Frugality , In the kitchen

At long last, the greatly anticipated Frugal Cooking Carnival is here! My challenge in doing this was two-fold--1) Trying to figure out how we could eat more frugally than we usually do (without sacrificing nutrition- it's only worth it to me to be frugal if I can keep nutrition a...

April 22, 2008: Q & A: The necessity of a low grocery budget
Comments: 9 | Categories: Budgeting , Frugality , In the kitchen

Here's a comment from my recent post on rising grocery costs that I wanted to respond to: Do you have that low of a grocery budget because you have to or because you want to (ie: pay off your mortgage faster?) Because sometimes I think we spend so much time...

April 18, 2008: Cost-per-serving for dinner menus
Comments: 7 | Categories: Frugality , In the kitchen

As promised, I've worked this week on some more breakdowns of the cost-per-serving for meals, particularly dinner dishes. If you missed last week, I broke down different breakfast dishes into the cost-per-serving, in order to compare them. This all stemmed from my original post about needing to find a way...

April 10, 2008: Breaking down meals into price-per-serving
Comments: 22 | Categories: Budgeting , Frugality , In the kitchen

Tedious as it may sound, this is what I've been working on in my "spare" time this past week (I use that term extremely loosely). As I mentioned last week in my post about working with rising grocery costs, I thought that it would be useful to start to take...

April 8, 2008: All you ever wanted to know about oatmeal!
Comments: 16 | Categories: A bit of this, a bit of that , In the kitchen , Natural living

Today's kitchen tip is a quick lesson in soaking and cooking oatmeal. Recently, I've been asked multiple times what kind of oats we use, and to explain the details of how I make our breakfast cereal, so here goes... For the longest time, we have been buying organic rolled oats...

April 4, 2008: Rising to the challenge of higher grocery costs
Comments: 5 | Categories: Frugality , In the kitchen

Am I the only one who has felt an increasing difficulty in making the grocery budget stretch to keep our family well fed? It feels that each time I visit the grocery store these days, yet another item on my list has gone up in price, and I'm struggling to...

March 29, 2008: Q&A: Resources for learning about whole grains
Comments: 1 | Categories: Books , In the kitchen , Living healthy

I would like to learn more about whole grains and how they can be used. You seem to be knowledgeable in this area, and I was wondering if you could recommend any websites or books that would help me out.Jennifer The books that have been most influential for me in...

March 27, 2008: Q&A: More questions about plastics
Comments: 3 | Categories: Good stewardship , In the kitchen , Living healthy

Okay, this plastic scare has me paranoid now! I know we have nothing to fear, but we are to take good care of our family. SO, my questions are: is it only beverages that we are to worry about or all food? Can I still store my dry goods in...

March 25, 2008: Simply sprouted grains
Comments: 11 | Categories: Frugality , In the kitchen , Nutrition

There are so many different kinds of gadgets out there for sprouting: special sprouting jars and mesh lids and home sprouting devices... I've been sprouting grains and legumes for a couple of years now and I have never purchased a single piece of special equipment in order to do it...

March 24, 2008: Raising Healthy Eaters- Simple and nutritious snack ideas for kids
Comments: 3 | Categories: In the kitchen , Raising healthy eaters , Recipes

As this series draws to a close, I thought it would be helpful to share a list of our favorite, healthy and easy-to-make snacks, and I've given you the opportunity to do the same below. If you have missed any of the posts in this series on Raising Healthy Eaters,...

March 21, 2008: Why all the fuss about soaking grains?
Comments: 0 | Categories: In the kitchen , Nutrition

You may have noticed that I often refer to soaking grains before cooking them, and have wondered what's up with that. If you're already using good quality (even organic) whole grains and cooking them thoroughly, why would you need to add yet another step to your cooking? Aren't you already...