Chicken Little

In an effort to save money we have cut down on eating dinners out. Plus, it's easier with Porter to eat at home. I've been slowly getting back in to the habit of making real dinners, as opposed to the cereal or Top Roman that we got used to since our wee one was born. Growing up, my dad was always the main cook in our house, and he's excellent in the kitchen. During his visit here he revived a classic, roast chicken. When I lived at home my dad would make one little chicken last for multiple meals, and now I want to do the same. So, here goes!

My kitchen supervisor

Here she is, all 4.23 pounds. Roasted a la Julia Child and basted in butter. 

Chicken, sour cream smashed potatoes, gravy and garlic asparagus. This was a happy time of  day.

Leftovers, dark meat on top and white meat on bottom.

This is for my dad. Not a bit of her will waste, here is her carcass being boiled into broth.

The result! Beautiful golden chicken broth. Stay tuned to find out what happens with our own chicken little.

Granny Alton came to visit!!

We toured around Ann Morrison Park with Granny Alton and Porter's cousin Quila while Aunt Anna played volleyball.

Porter and Quila

It was a long walk, deserving of a nap.

Aunt Anna playing in a volleyball tournament.

 In more Porter cuteness.

Holding hands with dad at the dinner table.

Porter finally found a willing recipient of his fondness for hair pulling. Turns out Misty enjoys a rough grab, if only she knew what was coming!

Chicken Little Act 3

Pizza anyone? I decided to freeze the broth made from the roasted chicken so I can use it in the future. Tonight, with the rest of the chicken meat, I made BBQ chicken pizza. It was delish!

Ingredients for BBQ chicken pizza: pre-made dough, chicken, BBQ sauce, bacon, red bell pepper, red onion, tomato, mozzarella and gouda cheeses, fresh green onions from the garden.

It was super tasty, although I would use less chicken in the future.

I can hardly believe that my sweet baby is almost 5 months old! My how time has flown faster than ever before. Here are a couple of shots, taken by my friend Ashley, when Porter was 1 week old.

I love my tender little baby so very very much!

Chicken Little Act 2

As promised, I made dinner using leftovers from last night's roasted chicken. Tonight was quesadillas. What I noticed was that the chicken tasted more chicken-y. The roasted chicken has way more flavor than if I bought the chicken breast or thighs in a package, plus it cost less since I bought the whole chicken. I still have some leftover chicken and all of the broth. Tomorrow is a soup day, especially since it's June and I still have the heater turned on.

Tillamook Colby Jack Cheese and leftover chicken, chopped.

Cooking lettuce is all the rage these days, so I thought I would add some lettuce to my quesadilla. It wasn't the best choice I've ever made in the kitchen.

Cheese, chicken and lettuce.

My mom had these awesome mermaid plates special ordered for me at Many Hands Gallery. I love them.

Here are the final quesadillas with a side of salsa.

Porter can read! Or at least turn the pages of a cardboard book, kinda.

Not So Baby, Baby Food

As an homage to the many food blogs out in there, I have decided to do a post about all the food Porter eats in a day.

Breakfast

Organic Bunapi Mushrooms- Porter loves mushrooms, and after reading from Dr.Weil that button and crimini mushrooms can be carcinogenic, I've been looking for alternative shrooms. These are perfect.

Alien planet?

No, just cute little mushrooms.

Onions, bell pepper and mushrooms sauteed in coconut oil.

The already finished banana. This is actually the first food item that he eats each day. If I time it just right, demands for "nanna!" will carry through the cooking of the meal.

I LOVE the Camelbak water bottles for kids. They are the only ones I've found that don't leak, at least when being used properly. Porter sips on water all day long.

We share the sauteed veggies and scrambled eggs for breakfast. P doesn't get cheese on his eggs since the calcium in cheese will brutally rebuff the iron in the eggs. I however, enjoy the cheesy eggs.

Biting the cap off a little mushroom.

Until very recently, Porter only drank water and mother's milk. I've started introducing him to kombucha, just a little at a time. He seems to like it, even though it makes his mouth feel a little sparkly.

Ingredients: organic raw kombucha, blackberry juice, passion fruit juice, and 100% pure love.

He cleaned his tray, as always.

 Snack

He doesn't drink milk, but loves yogurt. I take whole milk yogurt and homemade applesauce  and shake them in a bottle with a straw. Sometimes he'll have kefir instead.

Suck on that Dannon drinkables!

And berries. His all time favorite food, ever.

He also helped me finish off the cucumber in my salad. The lettuce was appealing, but hard to chew without molars.

 Lunch

It's true. I feed my child fruit and veggie packs. He loves them and they're easy for him to eat himself. Happytot is all organic and only contains the actual fruits and veggies. In this case he's having green bean, pear and pea with chia seeds.

Grilled cheese with Tillamook (home of the Baby Loaf) Colby cheese on Alverado St. sprouted grain bread with a slathering of butter.

Snack

He likes crackers a lot. "Cah cah" was his first intelligible word. I'm not a fan of the Plum Super Puffs, but we were trying something new.

Preparing him for Lucky Charms perhaps? Plus, if you accidentally step on one it immediately crumbles into a fine powder that is impossible to clean without getting the vacuum out. I won't be purchasing these again.

Dinner

Friday nights we get take out for dinner, so this isn't what he usually eats. Typically it's a pile of veggies and beans and whatever he'll eat that Luke and I have. Tonight however, Porter and I shared Thai Green Curry with chicken and rice. He doesn't like meat a whole lot, so this is really the only time he eats it since I slap chop it and mix it with the rice. He seriously loves it. Probably because I ate it so often when I was pregnant. I seriously love it too.

He's getting better at keeping the food off the floor, but with rice it's tricky. He 's also desperate to feed himself with a spoon, which is difficult with this meal. I will tell you that there has been improvement in this arena lately, which means I spend less time on my hands and knees cleaning the floor after meal time.

Not included in today's photo essay is the nursing that happens periodically through the day. I'm no Time Magazine cover model or anything, soapbox up but yeah to answer their question, I'm mom enough. And so are all of my mommy friends out there doing their best to raise happy healthy babies. Soapbox down.

So there it is. A baby foodie's tour of a day in the life.

Real Food Just Got More Real

Have you heard about the Real Food movement? I've mentioned it briefly in a few other posts, but I finally found a reason to do a whole post on it. Emily at Holistic Squid does an excellent job explaining Real Food. You can also check out the work of Westin A Price as the basis for this movement. Dr.Price was a dentist who travelled the world and studied the health of traditional cultures and those cultures who were then introduced to modern foods. The results were astounding. People who eat local, fermented, traditional foods (this included omnivores and vegetarians) were healthy and virtually disease free. That is until they came upon modern food. Then it was straight to food purgatory for them (and us!) For my part I will say that when I look back at what I imagined a healthy way of eating, it was always food in its most natural state. Little did I know that I wasn't the only one who had this vision. (This is just another confirming fact that I am actually normal in all my weirdness. Phew!)

My grandmother, who was raised on a farm in Nebraska during the depression, comes to mind. Forced to eat fresh veggies from the garden and farm fresh meats and dairy, no doubt. My grandma was a hilarious and lovely person, but she was known as the "front room girl" because she preferred to entertain in the front room than be part of the actual farm work. According to my father, once she got off the farm she was all over the ease that canned and pre-made foods had to offer.  Thankfully my dad took it upon himself to learn to cook from scratch, and I was raised eating home cooked meals, fresh baked bread and real butter everyday of my life. Thanks Dad!

Well, it seems we've come full circle in the food revolution. We've gone so far from eating food in it's normal, fresh state, that there is an actual movement that involves eating like our grandparents. This food trend falls in line with the Organic Farming and Farmer's Market movements that are happening all around the country. Slowly but surly we are learning that maybe the reason our nation is so sick, and getting sicker, is because of the vast amounts of absolute CRAP we eat.

Now, I'm no saint. I'm just as addicted to carbs, high fructose syrup, fast food and all the baked goods I can get my hands on as the next person. But I'll be damned if I don't change my bad habits for my health and the health of my family. This has led to shopping and cooking as locally as possible. Trying not to eat out as much, thus forcing myself to cook. It's not so bad though. When I have the time and energy, I actually like cooking and eating my creations. So far I've dabbled in:

• pickling 
• made gallons of chicken broth (I can never go back to the boxed stuff, EVER) 
• eaten the most delicious pastured chicken eggs 
• made homemade jello using juice and this gelatin 
• cooking with saturated fats like coconut oil and butter (not canola or olive oil) 
• committing to growing/eating local and organic produce
• brewing kombucha 

My hopes are that I will eventually get into such a routine of cooking with real food that it will become second nature and that Porter, Luke and I will have diverse happy palates and guts.

A big part of our Real Food deal is meat. There's a lot of it. It's incredibly important that the meat my family eats be raised using non-GMO feed, hopefully eating grass and bugs and rooting around in the soil the way nature intended. They hopefully had happy lives and were treated with the utmost respect before and after their death. To ensure this I talk with the farmer at the market, and thank goodness for the internet and all of the great websites that everyone has.

Current methods of factory farming, feed lots and slaughter houses ARE NOT considered Real Food. When people talk about the raising of animals for food that's bad for the environment, this type of farming is what they're talking about. When animals are humanely raised and slaughtered it can rehabilitate the environment and be a source of good, believe it. For more info, check out Joel Salatin at Polyface Farms and his method of animal husbandry. If you are what you eat, and I eat meat, I want to be happy and healthy. Just like the animals that were raised to feed me.

I came across this series of videos today, they are truly beautiful and informative. They are made by a family who raises and butchers their own pork. It's so well done that I actually shed a tear over the passion that this guy has for animal husbandry and feeding his family and friends. It gives an excellent history of how butchery came about and then he actually shows you how to butcher the whole pig and use each of it's parts. It sounds gruesome, but I swear it's not. It's less messy than an episode of Dexter. There's very little blood, a lot of skill and an overwhelming amount of pride and love for the animal. There are 3 parts, each around 20 minutes. If you have respect for the food you eat, are curious about how it should be prepared correctly or are just into anatomy then please watch these videos.

I don't expect to live in a Real Food bubble, although I've read enough to know there are people who do. What I do expect is to try and make educated choices. Just like in childbirth, parenting and everything else I do. Food is good, it should make us feel good about eating too.


On The Anatomy Of Thrift: Side Butchery from farmrun on Vimeo.

On The Anatomy Of Thrift: Harvest Day from farmrun on Vimeo.

On The Anatomy Of Thrift: Fat & Salt from farmrun on Vimeo.

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All of these photos were taken a year ago, September 2011. 

Porter still loves berries, smiles a whole lot and has lovely big blue eyes.