And we're back!

It's been a little while since either one of us updated this blog, hasn't it? So sorry, we've been distracted.

Controlling gestational diabetes through diet is a commendable feat, and the fact that my wife did it with such fierce determination was truly impressive...but it kind of killed food for us for a time. You know what you eat when you're on a diabetes diet? Meat. So much meat.

I have a reformed vegetarian's pure and holy love of animal by-product, and we're beyond lucky to live close to Duma's meat market (where we were able to buy a 50-lb freezer pack of local meat), but chewing on sinew does get tiresome, especially when there are dietician-imposed limitations on what you can pair with your pound of flesh.

Good--no, great--news is that our little guy is here, he's healthy, and the gestational diabetes disappeared the moment they plopped him into our arms. We didn't jump right back into cooking, of course--having a newborn is a full-time job, so we lived off of pre-made, frozen meals for a few weeks. But, as the blog title up there suggests, we're back!

You know what you can't eat much of when you're diabetic? Bread, especially delicious, homemade, carb-tastic breads. So, since delivered of her temporary condition, my wife has been on a bread-making rampage. She took a bunch of pictures and has promised to write up a post here about pulling steaming loaves out of the oven, so I'll leave the delicious details to her, but suffice it to say we are in bread heaven right now--even the dog couldn't resist a cooling loaf and got himself banished to the back porch yesterday.   

Our little family (well, we're not so little anymore...5 and counting) is rushing headlong toward one of the more ambitious goals we've ever had--self-sufficiency. Or less grocery store-sufficient, at least. We've been looking at farms and dreaming about the day we can have some acreage and a hobby farm of our own but, for now, we're struggling to make things grow out of a ground left soggy by a year of near-record rainfall. Tomatoes split and blighted, the cucumbers turned yellow right out the gate...disappointing, yes, but the broccoli did great, our Kentucky Wonder green beans kept our plates full all summer, jalapeños piled up faster than we could use them.

With frost setting in this week, though, we just weren't ready to watch our remaining crops freeze and die. So, taking a nudge from the ever-wonderful gardenfork.tv, we built a coldframe for our raised bed containing spinach, carrots, chives, and quinoa, and we got it on just in time--this week we saw two hard frosts, but the spinach didn't know what was going on outside and actually doubled in size.

Peek-a-boo!

    It's just some dollar furring strips, three half-inch pvc pipes, and some plastic sheeting--maybe $20 worth of stuff. You should build one for your raised bed, too:



Oh, and, OH! Big ups to food blog A Spicy Perspective, who ran a giveaway for a Kitchenaid mixer with some awesome attachments that we WON. The missus and I are beyond excited to get this lovely piece of awesome into our kitchen (we chose "pistachio" for color)--we are going to make so much good stuff with it.

Basil & Blueberries

This past weekend we drove out to our favorite blueberry farm, Wintergreen Tree Farm,  and three generations of our family picked somewhere close to 12 pounds of blueberries in about an hour and half. That's how long it took for the sun to melt our little ones into whiny exhausted tyrants.  It was worth it. We brought 7.5 pounds of freshly picked blueberries into our kitchen and began rinsing, de-stemming and drying. Now we have two huge bags of blueberries lined up in the freezer that will make January not seem so dull. One bag we'll use for canning blueberry syrup and preserves the other will be nibbled on with oatmeal, cereal, and pancakes throughout the winter.

Basil is in and it is in abundance! While our little herb garden supplies us with enough to pick leaves here and there for meals, it certainly didn't provide enough to make anything wonderful like, pesto. However, my mother-in-law's herb garden is overflowing with giant basil... and she is a good sharer.

Here is my recipe for pesto:

• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 5 to 6 cloves of garlic
• 3 to 4 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• about 1 1/2 cups olive oil
• 1 cup fresh grated Parmesan
• 1/3 cup fresh chives

Garden Day

We worked in the garden today and took some pictures.

Let's start with some broccoli, green beans, and round two of both peas and zucchini, shall we?

 Garden bed two has a lovely assortment of...

 cucumbers...

 lettuce...

  tomatoes...

and peppers.

And here are some potatoes, onions/chives, and a lonely--but resilient--carrot.

This little guy keeps watch over the plants. You may know we bought him from Target's toy department, but the birds don't and they stay clear of his rubber wrath.

We've made do with our quarter acre, which has meant getting creative with space, like when we put corn by the driveway...

or enabled a stray pumpkin vine in its attempt to take over the front porch.

Here's some basil from the herb garden, just because I think basil's sexy.

And, finally, here's a shovelful of gorgeous compost.

Backyard cuisine

Hey there! Been awhile, I know, but I wrote a novel and that takes a little bit of time, you know?

Here's what we ate with dinner last night. It's pan-fried potatoes with minced garlic and fresh basil and thyme.

The potatoes were from the garden--we pulled some the other night and they were perfect, pink new potatoes. The herbs? From the herb garden, right outside the kitchen door. We bought the garlic--we don't grow our own garlic because our weird neighbor grows garlic and we don't want him to talk to us about growing garlic. But the rest was all backyard grown, and that's not too shabby, right?

The best part was pitching the dish to our beyond-picky six-year old daughter. It went something like this:

Me: Would you eat potatoes if I fried them in a pan?
Daughter: No
M: Are you sure?
D: Yes
M: They're from the garden.
D: (pauses) Okay then.
D: (few minutes later) Dad? Can you fix these for Thanksgiving dinner? They. Are. Awesome!

Now, I'm no great cook, am only now coming to the realization that you can toss herbs into a meal to give it that "flavor" thing people are always raving about. Watching her scarf those potatoes down and ask for more made me feel like friggin' Jamie Oliver or something, though.

More important than her enjoying a side dish, however, was her responding to the fact that the potatoes came out of our garden--she helped plant those potatoes, checked on them every day with us, and pulled them out of the ground just the day before. We're growing food together. Every day without fail, she runs out and gathers berries, even eating green beans raw--she doesn't eat green beans, but she'll gobble down a bean that she pulled off the plant. That, to me, is something important. She's realizing that food doesn't come from Wal Mart but from the ground, and anybody--even her barista dad--can make food come out of dirt. How far are we gonna take this? I'm not completely sure, but I do know that we're nowhere near the end of the life lesson. I mean, the tomatoes are still green and I think we can coax a few more inches out of those cucumbers.

Wait... Reverse that

It has been a while since anything new has gone up on this blog, and for good reason. Early last week we were hit with some news that greatly affects the way we eat. My gestational diabetes test came back showing some pretty high numbers. I spent three hours with a dietician last Friday and relearned how to eat, at least for the next few weeks. This will change the dynamic of our little blog temporarily... but I'm hoping that the change will also teach me a few things about measuring ingredients and appropriate serving sizes... things that I have been blatantly ignoring.

Today the Mr. did a grocery run like no other. Instead of hovering over the ingredients list on the labels, he compared grams of carbohydrates... something I for one have never done. It turns out all those beautiful organic options in the grocery are way higher in carbs than the other foods. All of summers' colorful vibrant fruit that I've been consuming at a rapid rate, is not a great option when your placenta keeps loads of sugar in your blood. Desserts, muffins, breads... um, yeah... those are going to have to wait a while before they make a comeback into our home.

The biggest change in the diet is the protein. We admittedly don't eat a lot of meat. Now I will be consuming meat 14 times in a 7 day span. This to me.... sounds awful and completely counterintuitive to a natural whole foods diet that I usually try to stick by. It is what it is, and I will do whatever I need to in order keep myself and my little baby inside healthy and safe.

As I flip through the books and guides, I am finding that some things remain true. Herbs. Herbs change a meal into something you remember. Herbs are great for your body inside and out and herbs are naturally delicious. Luckily, our herb garden has been good to us this year.

Saying goodbye to my orange juice has been one of the harder adjustments. I'm working on convincing my pallet that unsweetened iced tea is good.... with a little less honey each time I fill up this jar.

I have a few recipes that I'm working on posting this week. They will be very diabetic friendly and hopefully they will taste awesome and you will love them.

Killing as many birds as I can with this stone.

Today we are settling back into our routine after a 3 day excursion driving through beautiful Kentucky. The laundry was tackled yesterday... today is meal preparation for the week.

We returned home to a totally stressed out dog, and even though he was more than well taken care of by my in-laws, he is still a bit psychotic. I won't go into details, but lets just say our dog Charlie will be eating a special diet for the next few days until he gets back to somewhat normal.

So the morning started off with boiling chicken and cooking rice for Charlie's tumultuous tummy.
I pulled 3 chicken breast aside for us to make some delicious chicken salad for lunch for the Mister and myself.

Balsamic Chicken Salad
3 cooked chicken breast
1 - 2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup of relish or chopped up pickles
about a 1/3 Cup of mayo (enough to just barely cover the chicken, not coat it)
salt & pepper
fresh basil and oregano leaves
serve over fresh greens with diced roma tomato

Makes enough for 2 to 3 servings depending on the size of the chicken breast you use.

I saved the broth from the cooked chicken to start my stock for the week. I may as well as make it while the stove is still hot, right? I tossed in the remaining bulb of garlic that was trying to root itself right there in the basket, along with the bottoms of a few celery stalks since the girls were having ants on a log for lunch. Finally, I threw in the bottoms and tops of the carrots I was preparing for the next two weeks.  I tossed half the peels in the stock and the other half in the compost.

Our family eats about 5 lbs of carrots in 2 weeks. I shred a third to use for salads, soups, stir-fry and baked goods that we will eat during the week. Another third is cut into carrot sticks to snack on when the mood strikes and the final third is sliced, blanched (5 to 7 minutes) and frozen.

We ended up with 3 jars of broth. This will last a little over a week for us.

When we returned we found ourselves with some very dark strawberries and 4 brown bananas. Since we are all out of nuts I went with a new version of the banana bread I usually make.

Smoothie Bread
4 mashed bananas
1 Cup blueberries
3/4 Cup strawberries
1 Cup all-purpose flour
1 Cup whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 Cup oats
1/3 Cup flaxseed
1 egg
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoon baking soda
1 Cup sugar
3/4 Cup brown sugar
1/2 stick butter

Bake 350 degrees for about an hour. Makes 2 short loaves.

I used the remaining strawberries to make a strawberry vinaigrette for salads this week and a bit of strawberry syrup for pancakes.

I set aside about a cup of the rice I made for Charlie this morning to make rice pudding for breakfast tomorrow.

Rice Pudding
1 Cup cooked brown rice
1/4 brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 Tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 Cup almond milk

Cook over medium heat 15-20 minutes.

Marathon cooking day... but at least we have a good start for our week.

Making Ahead

Our herb garden is in serious abundance these days. Time to make pasta sauce!

Simple Sauce:
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 onion, chopped
2- 3 T olive oil
about 1 lb of ground beef
7 roma tomatoes
handful of shredded carrots
1 celery stalk
handful of chopped fresh spinach
handfuls of basil, oregano, thyme and parsley
salt & pepper
1 tspn half & half
1 tspn sugar
water (or broth)
parmesan and mozzarella cheese

In a large pot saute onions and garlic in olive oil. Add ground beef and cook until done. Chop 3 roma tomatoes and toss them in pot. Chop the remaining 4 romas and toss them in the food processor or blender and blend to an almost but not quite smooth consistency. Add the pureed tomatoes and other veggies to the pot. Chop herbs, taking out stems (unless you don't mind them). Throw in pot with remaining ingredients. I add about 1/3 Cup of water or broth to thin out the sauce a bit. Cover and bring to boil.Then lower heat and let simmer for about 20-25 minutes.
Cook your rotini... I used about 3 Cups, give or take.  When the pasta is near done, drain and toss in the pot with the tomato sauce, mixing the noodles and sauce together well. This is a good time to give it a taste and add any additional spices you might think it needs. In my case, it was salt and some fresh basil. Remove pot from heat and place in casserole dish.

I layer my noodles and sauce mixture with parmesan and mozzarella cheese. Bake 30 to 35 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

This makes about 12 servings, which will feed our family of four 3 times. You can divide it up and freeze it or just have a pasta-eating marathon for the next few days.