Will this work?

I have this crazy idea for comparing prices on stuff I buy a lot…

 

If I could find a cheap (or ideally, free) address book — nothing fancy or leatherbound, paperback would be fine — then I could use the alphabet tabs to list the product (e.g. baby wipes — file under “B”), the stores I would buy them at (e.g. Costco, Target, Wal Mart), and the price per unit (per baby wipe, in this case) for my preferred brand at that store.  It’s just so hard to keep track of prices in my head for so many products, and packaging is so deceptive when it comes to how much actual product you are getting.

 

This would probably be much easier if I had some fancy electronic device, but I’m a bit Amish when it comes to Blackberries and such.  We’ll see if this actually comes to fruition; I have yet to find a cheap enough address book to make this worthwhile.

My first successful oven roast!

I’m totally embarrassed to admit this, but I had never (until today) roasted a large piece of meat in the oven.  Not even at Thanksgiving.  I usually opt for the crock pot because it’s so mindless, and I’d much rather cook something on the stove than heat up the house with the oven, AND I’m always afraid that something undefinably horrible will happen if I neglect it.  I think my fears are dissipating because tonight’s dinner was a success!

 

I didn’t use a specific recipe, but I consulted two of my favorite cookbooks — Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Cooking — for roasting tips.  I made a dry rub out of salt, pepper, marjoram, onion powder, and nutmeg, seared the Boston Butt, then cooked it at 300 degrees.  It took about three hours, and it was three or four pounds.  Red potatoes, turnips, and green apples (all cut into large chunks) were added to the roasting pan toward the end.  I also roasted my butternut squash for tomorrow night’s dinner on a cookie sheet in the same oven.

 

Yummy pork roast!

 

It tasted great but could use a little color…some ideas my friends had were to add some carrots and celery, or to serve collards as a side.  The bone will be used to make my (no longer vegan) split pea soup later this week.

Menu Plan Monday

 

 

This is my first time participating in Menu Plan Monday (created by orgjunkie), so hopefully I’m doing this the right way. 

 

I’ve been planning dairy-free menus for my family for two years — ever since we discovered my daughter’s dairy allergy.  I’m hoping my weekly menu plans will help others with similar allergy issues!

 

No dairy is present in the actual recipes, but there are places it can be added for those who can have it. Also, there is a lot of pork on the menu this week — which is atypical — but we’re going with it.  Enjoy!

 

Monday – Roasted Pork Roast (Boston Butt — on sale at Publix) with Potatoes, Turnips, and Apples

 

Tuesday – Penne with Butternut Squash, Sausage, and Chevre - I make this dairy-free by pureeing some squash and adding all of the other ingredients, minus the goat cheese

 

Wednesday – Split Pea Soup (from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone; vegan), Italian Bread, Salad 

 

Thursday – Mediterranean Chicken, Salad

 

Friday – Burritos with canned refried beans, boxed Spanish rice, and leftover pork (if there’s any left)

 

Saturday – Leftovers/DIY

 

Sunday – Grilled burgers with Lemon Carrots and Rutabaga (a new recipe for us)

Writing Idea

It just occurred to me that I love the idea of menu planning blogs (thanks to a good friend!), but I can’t use most of them because of our dietary restrictions.  Since my little girl is severely allergic to all dairy products, and my husband has personal taste issues with eggs and cheese, I am limited not just in finding cheap and healthy dinners, but menu planning in general.  I feel like I’ve developed some expertise in this area (or rather, I have nothing/nobody to compare myself to), so perhaps this is the niche I’m looking for? 

Feedback, please.

R & R

We’re having fun with friends in South Carolina…it’s so nice to not have any work with me!  I’ve (subsequently) filled the time, though, with reading blogs.

I forgot ALL of Tommy’s clothes, so he had to go out to Wal Mart (ahh!!) at 7am this morning to buy brand-new socks, boxers, undershirts, pants, and a dress shirt.  I feel horrible.

Suckered again!

Today’s been quite busy – trying to get packed and clean the house while also trying not to neglect my children any more than usual.  I also realized how dependent I am on Wal Mart, as much as I disparage it’s unholy name every chance I get:

1) The whole southeast is out of gas, but where can I find gas when it is to be found?  You guessed it — the station in front of my local Wal Mart.  Yes, I should be thankful for that – and I am — but what if I want a choice?  I didn’t think we were living in Soviet Russia.

2) I don’t make all of my baby food (hey, we’re all entitled to some conveniences), and I especially hate making pureed fruit (too messy!), so breakfast for little Superchunk comes out of a jar.  Well, being the sucker I am for low prices, I bought a few containers of Wal Mart’s generic brand of berries with bananas.  As I peeled the aluminum lid off of a plastic container of the stuff this morning, I gave myself a painful 3/4 inch cut on my thumb.  It bled pretty badly, and since it’s on my thumb, I’m constantly applying pressure to it and getting it wet.  Should I complain to the company?  Of course I should, but I’ll probably forget. 

Maybe it’s time to start making my own pureed fruit.

An Experiment

Thanks to a tip I read on simplemom last night, I’m trying to write down EVERY SINGLE THOUGHT that comes into my head.  I’m not sure if the editor in me will allow this, but here is a breakdown of the first half of my day:

I let the kids play outside in the crisp, fall weather, then after lunch they played sorting games with beans and pasta. Because I have dried beans literally coming out of my ears (like seven different varieties!), I thought it would be cool to cook up a whole bunch of them to puree for baby food. I don’t really have time to soak and cook them before tomorrow’s trip, so I guess that will have to wait.

We’re going to South Carolina this weekend (AND the next two weekends) so my husband can make some money teaching future teachers how to teach.  He’s making a bunch of money for very little work, but it will still suck being stuck out of town with nothing to do all day Saturday.  I must let the greed motivate me on this one.

Back to the beans…I was reading about how to cook them in my favorite cookbook, Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, when I noticed her admonition to “avoid beans that are chipped, split, or cracked, because these are signs of long storage.”  So what about “split” peas, and “split” pea soup?  Is this an old-timey way to use your less desirable peas?  Where did that name come from?  I’ll probably be making split pea soup soon, with my glut of peas and all, so I’m a bit curious.

I had a great phone conversation with a good friend who is currently living in western New York state.  She’s been a vegan for many years, but it turns out she’s also turning into quite the locavore.  We discussed apple-picking, bread making, and sustainablity in general.  It was nice to get some encouragement in humble living — reminding me that the hand-me-down furniture is NOT a liability, but rather a badge of honoring the planet by not plugging the landfills with things that are simply out of fashion.

“…the problem had grown acute with the spread of supermarkets…”

I laughed out loud when I read this line from a NY Times article about the decline of the Mediterranean Diet, but really: is the legacy of American convenience food diplomacy really being played out in the obesity of children everywhere, like on the island of Crete? It’s hard to imagine how little fat kids in the Mediterranean are chowing down on corn flakes and mac and cheese when they have such easy access to local, unprocessed whole foods.  Supermarkets and convenience foods have been a way of life in the US for so long that we have to go out of our way to eat food that is pure and unprocessed.

Old people are funny.

That’s sort of the premise of the documentary, Young at Heart, but it’s very much worth watching.  Watching octogenarians sing “I Wanna Be Sedated” (by the Ramones) is pretty awesome.

Beginnings, Resolutions, Etc.

It’s taken me forever to start blogging (read: publicly writing) again because I don’t have a focus. Or rather I do find focus, but it changes from week to week. So I will probably write about cooking, parenting, music, the environment, and many other random things, but that’s okay.