One Small Victory and One Big Flop

Once a week I go up to my children's school and help the Kindergarteners open up their pre-packaged food: lunchables, puddings, gogurts, etc., and microwave their leftovers from home. 


I don't want to be judgmental, truly I don't, but I have been shocked at what parent's send with their young child to eat for the day. To be sure, there are a few kids who bring good whole foods, and have water to drink. However, there are *far* more children who are expected to survive on pure sugar for the entire day. I always feel kinda sad for the kids later on when they are bouncing around the room or having meltdowns. It's really not their fault. 


My kids began attending this school in Oct (I think) of last year... I explained to them that I would be making the majority of their lunches, but that they could have "hot lunch" on the days that fresh food would be offered, or on special occassions. For the most part the kids went along with this... until we went Primal. Then all of a sudden it was "whhhhy can't we eat hot lunch? I feel sooooo weird not having any hot lunch!" I explained that the standard "Sloppy joe, tater tots, cake and canned peaches" would offer only sugar and maybe a small amount of protein.  (please note I am not bashing the school: I think they do what they believe to be is best.)

The kids grumbled a slight acknowledgment, but still, they wanted hot lunch. I felt for them. I know how much fun that would have been for me as a kid, but in good conscience I just couldn't feed it to them. 

This past Monday the cafeteria supervisor and I were chatting while we waited for the little five year olds to come in. We talked about different lunches and the funny things kids do. She asked how the "diet" was going, and before I could answer she said "I've seen what your kids eat for lunch, and it looks really good! You know, I'm thinking we could probably do something like that for lunch: fresh fruit and vegetables... your kids seem to like the bell peppers..."  Then she said she would need to check the budget, but that she was interested. 

I call seeing people to think differently about food--whether they change or not--a small victory. Yippee!


Now for the big flop:


Tonight I made fried chicken strips and mashed potatoes (cauliflower) with bacon. 


I soaked the chicken breast (cut into strips) in buttermilk overnight, floured it with coconut flour and spices, and then fried in coconut oil. Easy enough. 


I thought the kids would like a sauce, but didn't really have time to play around with ingredients, so I just used a yogurt sauce: 1/2 cup full fat Greek yogurt, 1 tbls Boar's Head Deli Mustard, 1 tsp pure maple syrup. Mix and serve. I thought it was really good... tangy but the syrup balanced it out well (and has antioxidants to boot!)... the kids were split on it. Meh. 


I read someplace that mashed cauliflower turns out just like the real mashed potatoes if you puree the steamed vegetable in the blender. So I riced the cauliflower, microwaved it for seven minutes, and then dumped it into my blender. I added about 4 tbls of butter, some salt, and white pepper and then set it on high. While it was pureeing, I added some milk to it (just as I would do with white potatoes) and let it go for about 20 seconds. 


The result? Mush! It looked like those (horrid) instant potatoes some people make but with too much water. UGH! I thought I needed something to add texture, so I used bacon. What else?  And while the bacon part was great, the other part was disgusting. 


I gave about two tbls to each person. Each of us made a face and tried to swallow it down. I'm not sure if I over-blended, added too much butter, or should have omitted the milk altogether, but man.... blech.


This is the kind of flop which makes me long for the day I could say "this didn't work out. let's get pizza!"

Fried Chicken!

Today I made eggs and bacon for breakfast.  Tom is not always so big on eggs, so I made him a coconut-strawberry smoothie. 


(you know, one of these days I'll take photos of all the food we eat, just for the heck of it)


Amy stayed home from school since she was running a 106.0 fever yesterday. She is my one child who spikes really high fevers. Thankfully, we got it down quickly, had the dr check her out, and found out it's just a virus. As usual. Anyway... she stayed home with me today, so we tried to make mayonnaise for the third time. 


Someone (or maybe a few people) suggested making mayo in a jar.  Here's the method we tried.  We tried this method since it sounded fast and easy. I used Extra Virgin Olive Oil for the first batch, and it was awful. Did not emulsify or taste good. At all. So I went to Google and the consensus seems to be that EVOO is not a great oil to use. Darn. I'm out of avocado oil, and I don't have any other oils (other than coconut which is too solid).  Many people suggested using Light Olive Oil.  Now, for some reason I thought Light Olive Oil is bad for you and you shouldn't use it-- (Though, I happen to have a bottle of it since I bought it six months ago without realizing it's [possibly] bad for you)--I looked on MDA boards and it seemed to be mixed reviews, so I decided just to try it. 


The mayo worked immediately and tasted really good. I was really exited it worked, but there was a slight cloud since I wasn't sure if I was killing myself by eating the Light OO. Anybody know the deal with the light oil?


 So after making the mayonnaise, we made ham and lettuce wraps. It was pretty awesome. 

So for dinner we had fried chicken.  Last night I put drumsticks into a Ziplock bag, and covered the chicken in a pint of buttermilk. I don't know why. That's just what the recipe said to do, so I did it. About 40 minutes before I wanted to cook it, I took it out of the fridge and let it come closer to room temperature before cooking (to help it warm up enough to cook evenly.)   Then I coated the chicken in coconut flour, salt and pepper--knocked off the excess flour, and placed the drumstick in a skillet of hot coconut oil.  Cook for about four minutes per side, then place in a pyrex dish, and bake at 350 for about 35 minutes. 


So the coconut flour gives it a very light hint of sweetness. The color browned up nicely. The skin was not crispy like I thought it would be, so that was a bummer. The inside was fairly juicy though. A little bland, but I think that can be fixed if we just play around with the spices a few times. 


Tom and the kids (except Amy) loved the chicken, which was surprising because Tom does not generally care for dark meat, and I didn't particularly like this batch, so I didn't expect everyone to enjoy it so much. Tom says to put it in the "Family cookbook" which means I can safely make this once a week and everyone would be happy.  


I sauteed the asparagus in a little olive oil and added some salt. Butter is better to use for this, but I was lazy and didn't use butter this time. Cook for about 3-5 minutes (do not cook it to death, people!) and serve almost immediately. It tends to get cold quickly. 


Then I made a hollandaise sauce.  Add three egg yolks, 1/4 tsp dijon mustard, 1 tbsp lemon juice, and a dash of Tabasco to a blender, blend on high until you see it all incorporate. Melt one stick of butter and then add to the (running) blender. It should emulsify immediately.  Poor into a dish and serve warm. This goes extremely well with green vegetables. The kids loooove it. All good fats too!

Veronica thought the dinner deserved a "terrific" sticker.