Category Archives: Recipes

Avoid Butter Packaging To Reduce PFOA Exposure

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20 years ago I started shifting my cooking, my pantry and my consumer choices to that which I felt was better and more healthy for me and my family.

At the time, like most folks I ate junk, drank pop, and I wondered why I didn’t feel very well.

The shifts started out small, one thing at a time. Took me two years before I felt my stride.

Since I’ve been an advocate for cooking scratch, eating organic, local and the alternative food market.

Many many years later, I am still making changes and still learning.

Goes to say that healthy living is a life long project, eh??

Last year I stopped buying canned beans and began making my own from dried to avoid BPA found in the lining of the can.  It’s not a hassle at all to make my own!! I save money, avoid the chemical and contribute in a small way to less in the landfill.

Recently in a green moms yahoo group it was shared that PFAO was in the wrappers of butter.

What??

The same chemical that coats teflon is what butter comes in ie; coated food packaging?

Geesh!!!

Beth Terry of a Plastic Free Life shared a link to this post/article.

Part of the article states: Food packaging is an egregious example of hidden PFC exposure.

UGH.

The article further talks about how most of us ( 98%) have traces of this chemical in our blood.

This food packaging chemical leaches into the butter.

Boy that makes me mad.

The solution?

Make your own butter!!

I thought,  I could do that !!

There are three ways I found to make butter, the food processor, a stand up mixer or a in a jar.

Loved the options – and the videos!! I chose the stand up mixer version because he said butter in 10 minutes and he was right!!! Each person had their own little nuance or different way, but the bottom line is it all ends up as butter!!

It was super easy and boy is this homemade butter ever delicious.

 

 

Kale, White Bean, Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup

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My taste palette is shifting to the savory, as the weather begins to shift to cooler temps.

are you finding this too?

this recipe is adapted from the back of a fava bean bag – something about it seemed like it would work with the kale and white beans i had on hand. add the sweet potato and italian sausage and this soup is seriously yummy.

I make my own beans, verses using canned. simply soak over night, simmered – one cup dried yields enough for my soup and enough for an additional jar of beans to freeze in the freezer.

Saute onion, garlic, and 3 links of italian sausage – i use mild, from a purveyor i trust who uses no additives and quality pork.

add cubed sweet potato, rosemary, basil, crushed red pepper flakes, and cracked black pepper

add 4 cups of stock- veggie or chicken, and 1 cup water – more if needed

add white beans, about 2 cups drained and a head of chopped kale

simmer until kale is wilted and potato is cooked through.

I’ve been promising to write this recipe up for here, i truly hope you enjoy!!

Swiss Chard

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the neighbor said take some chard.

happily!!

I use chard everywhere I use spinach. It’s a tad bitter – which I personally like. I adore it cut into strips in a salad, added to a veggie packed frittata and on it’s own I like it wilted w/a bit of garlic and topped w/ hard boiled egg and balsamic!  I use those amazing stems like celery for color and crunch.

Do you have any great recipes for chard??

image by karen hanrahan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cole Slaw

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I get into summer salad making mode and enjoy the fresh noshing on something I’ve made from scratch.

This is a basic cole slaw recipe and I made it up, but it does parallel many you’d find on the web.

4 cups sliced thin cabbage. I used all green this time. I love using both green and purple!

1 thinly sliced green pepper

3 shredded carrots

2 T of grated onion – grated onion to me is magical – completely different flavor, not all those chunks of onion

1/4 C vinegar – apple cider 

1/8 – 1/4 C sugar – based on your personal preference – I use turbinado sugar and less as I like a tart cole slaw

2 T olive oil

2 T of mayo

I splashed a bit of buttermilk on this, cuz i had it around.

Celery Salt and Fresh Ground White Pepper.

The variations for coleslaw are endless – do you have a favorite or unique recipe? Share it!

How Do You Preserve Food?

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This post is for this month’s Green Mom’s Carnival.  The topic is Food Preservation hosted by Abbie of Farmers Daughter Blog

The entire carnival collection of tips and commentary are here.

For those who pickle, can, dry and otherwise preserve food I commend you!

These are things I’ve never done!

I have never had enough garden, an abundance of crop from my own garden, nor the gumption to buy said abundance to then preserve accordingly.

I have always had limited storage, limited freezer, limited budget and or limited time.  I have never thought seasonally in the way that has one say Oh green beans are here – let’s put some up.  ( I believe that’s a canning term ).  Once, just once, I had too many tomatoes from my garden. I made a batch of homemade ketchup.  It made a single jar of ketchup of which I used occasionally when I made meatloaf. I thought I was so cool that I did that!

I have watched and marveled and even enjoyed the labor of many others who have preserved food. I wonder often what might it be like to immerse in a year of, day in and day out peek at life on a farm – actually living the life of local, seasonal growing, cooking, preserving and eating!

Perhaps that is something to add to my bucket list.

To contribute to the conversation this month I can share a few things I do that would ere on the side of preserving food – or the idea of making something for later use.

I became a scratch cook when my kids were itty bitty. I made much of what folks opened a box or can for from scratch.   I never realized I was a genre of sorts until I saw how others cooked or ate for that matter.  Nuking something in the microwave is something very foreign to me.

I make a home made tomato sauce.  I have two kinds: one is a savory meaty kind, the other is a quick chunky sweeter kind.  When I was feeding a family I would double the batch. The first meal was noodles and sauce, the second meal was a casserole ( something like veggie stuffed pasta or stuffed peppers) 1/2 would get eaten, the other 1/2 frozen for later.   There was always at least one jar of sauce to freeze.  Basically I was getting a handful of meals with the effort of one sauce making.  The sweeter sauce I would make in the summer, shorter cooking time, more garlic, fresh herbs – shredded zucchini when they were coming out of everyone’s ears – a perfect summer stove top meal,  plus plenty left to freeze in smaller jars for pizza sauce.

I do this with so many of my cooking efforts. Even now – cooking for one, I still “manufacture” food making sure to make the most of my cooking time.

In my freezer now: garlic scape pesto, cous cous mixed w/ meaty sauce for stuffed peppers, a heat and serve curry sauce for chicken, chicken soup stock, veggie stock.

What is in your freezer and what is your favorite food to preserve??