Category Archives: Recipes for the Whole Family

The Best Ever Strawberry Jam (Little Added Sugar and No Pectin)

Posted on May 5, 2014 | Leave a comment

I shared yesterday about our family trip to pick organic strawberries at Suzie’s Farm during their “Strawberry Jam.” Well, what better way to use up the strawberries we couldn’t eat fresh than making homemade strawberry jam?

After we made it home, I sorted through our freshly picked strawberries. Most of them were still perfect and gorgeous, but I managed to set aside some that had the smallest of bruising for jam. Here is my trick for keeping strawberries fresh and pretty: I line a pyrex dish with a paper towel (or cloth kitchen towel) and spread them out in a single layer. I don’t wash them until just before eating. These strawberries we picked were so fresh, it didn’t matter, but this can extend the life of store bought berries.

The rest of the berries went into jam! I didn’t have any pectin, and I was curious if all that sugar in most recipes served a vital purpose, so I picked the brain of my neighbor, our local grandma stand-in. I figured she would have pectin I could borrow, but she encouraged me to try without it. Then I found a recipe on Northwest Edible Life (the blog known for the hilarious “Terrible Tragedy of the Healthy Eater.”) Erica makes the case for ditching pectin and uses much less sugar.

Click here for detailed instructions on how to make preserves without pectin.

Here is what I ended up using in our strawberry jam:

2 pounds chopped strawberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon lemon zest

I ended up with a little over 3 cups of jam. I did not “can” them or seal them as I figured we would eat it quickly. (One week later, only about 1 cup is left.) And to be perfectly honest, I am still a little scared of my steam canner!

Any tips for getting started canning?

Strawberry Picking and Green Strawberry Pickles

Posted on May 4, 2014 | 4 comments

Strawberry Picking

Last weekend we celebrated Papa Bird’s birthday with a fun family day at Suzie’s Farm. They held their annual “Strawberry Jam” last Saturday and we all had so much fun, picking strawberries and eating yummy food. Little Bird loved apple picking as a tot and felt right at home with the plants and chickens.

We started off picking organic strawberries. Every plant was filled with the most perfectly beautiful, sweet and flavorful berries. (At home, Little Bird tends to pick all of our strawberries while they are still green and small.) I did get some temporary hives from stinging nettles, but they went away.

Next I sampled strawberry chutney, drank a strawberry and basil kombucha, and made green strawberry pickles with Austin from the San Diego Fermenter’s Club. Little Bird loves them. They are mild, slightly crunchy and have a hint of strawberry flavor. You can find the recipe for Green Strawberry Pickles here.

green strawberry pickles

After all that hard work, I was ready for a grass fed burger made with strawberry jam, and a beet and quinoa salad from Green Truck. The cold and windy weather discouraged our plans for eating ice cream from our friends’ Calexico Creamery, but we took home a pint of (what else?) Fresa and a pint of Mexican Cocoa. Little Bird and I hid out from the wind in a teepee and she gathered twigs and sticks to build a play fire.

Check back tomorrow and I will share the best recipe for strawberry jam! It has hardly any sugar in it and no pectin. The only other ingredient is a lemon…

–> Update: Strawberry Jam now posted HERE.

4 Comments

Posted in Family Adventures, Food, Green Parenting, Healthy Recipes, How To, Our Family, Parenting, Preserving and Canning, Recipes for the Whole Family, Recipes from the Garden, Recipes to Make with the Kids, Seasonal Recipes, Urban Homesteading

Tagged easy farm to table, easy seasonal cooking, easy seasonal recipes, farm to table, vegan, vegetarian

The Best Meals to Freeze Before Baby Arrives

Posted on April 10, 2014 | 6 comments

The first few weeks after a baby is born are the most wonderful, most difficult, slowest, and fastest time ever in the life of a family. Many families feel as though they struggle just to keep breathing. Cooking should be the last thing to worry about. Take out can be great. But nothing is as nourishing as a home cooked meal. Freezing precooked meals can be the best of both worlds when preparing for baby’s birth. Drawing on my experiences before and after the birth of my girls, scouring the interwebs, and picking the brains of some of the best food bloggers and recipe developers, I have created a list (or round up) of the best meals to freeze before baby arrives.

SOUPS TO FREEZE BEFORE BABY COMES

Both Maggie of Mama Maggie’s Kitchen and Laura of Family Spice recommend soups as freezing well.

1. Purple Sweet Potato Soup

Laura has a delicious (and beautiful) recipe for purple sweet potato soup.

2. Clam Chowder

Maggie’s Clam Chowder will freeze well.

3. Beet Borscht

Borscht can be made with beef (which, along with the greens, is good for replenishing iron) or vegetarian, is affordable, and can help with losing baby weight. Enjoy it chunky or pureed, as in this photo.

For more soup recipes, click here.

SAUCES FREEZE GREAT FOR EASY MEALS AFTER BABY

4. Roasted Red Pepper Pesto

Defrost this, or a classic basil pesto sauce, frozen in convenient one-ounce ice cubes, and add some freshly boiled pasta. Step it up with a few shrimp.

5. Ragu

Lisa is a New Zealand-born food blogger, living in Italy. She shares authentic Italian recipes on the aptly named, Italian Kiwi, and this Ragu, a tomato sauce with ground meat, is no exception. She explains why you should never order Bolognese in Italy and why this recipe may not be her husband’s 95-year-old grandmother’s secret recipe, but how it holds it’s own.

CASSEROLES TO FREEZE BEFORE BABY ARRIVES

6. Salsa Verde Chicken Enchiladas

Bri shares a delicious recipe for Salsa Verde Chicken Enchiladas. This is very similar to how I make it, too.

7. Pomegranate Lamb Moussaka

I made a double batch of this recipe before baby was born and was able to defrost and reheat the frozen one in time to bring along to the last session of our hypnobirthing class. (We also brought 7 day old Baby Bird.)

8. Lasagna

Debbie Anderson from San Diego Momma shares, “I’m invoking The Pioneer Woman here…but this lasagna truly is the best ever and freezes well and is amazing and I love it and totally make it.”

OTHER GREAT FREEZER MEALS

9. Crock Pot Balsamic Chicken Thighs

A dear friend of mine brought us a fresh batch of this recipe after Baby Bird #2 was born. It was delicious. And according to comments from Brenda of the Sugar Free Mom, it will freeze well, too.

10. Curry

Azlin is a veritable encyclopedia of world cooking. I asked her about the best food to freeze and she recommended curries. She has several on her website, but handpicked this Massaman Curry, a mild Thai curry. She states that it is one of the milder ones, in case any new moms are worried about too much spice.

11. Beer Braised Pot Roast with Herb Dumplings

Laura reports it freezes well and it just looks delicious!

BREAKFASTS THAT ARE EASY TO DEFROST

Don’t forget the first meal of the day! A big dish, ready to go, can be a blessing, especially when extended family is in town and you don’t feel ready to face a busy, weekend restaurant. A frittata will freeze and defrost well, as well as one of these French Toast/Bread Pudding hybrids.

12. Pumpkin French Toast Bread Pudding

13. Zucchini Bread French Toast Bread Pudding

14. Banana Brûléed Bread Pudding

(Add the Brûlée after reheating.)

15. Frittata

What else would you add to this list? Please share in the comments and feel free to share a link.

6 Comments

Posted in Birth, Food, Healthy Recipes, Parenting, Pregnancy, Recipes for the Whole Family

Tagged freezer meals, healthy cooking, meals for the whole family, Pregnancy

Kid-Approved Brussels Sprouts: Cooking with Kids Continued

Posted on April 2, 2014 | 2 comments

How do you get kids to eat and like Brussels Sprouts? Let your kids help cook them! Little Bird has enjoyed cooking since she was a baby. Last night was no exception. Together we tried out a recipe from the Nom Nom Paleo book that was featured on the Good Food Blog, “Cavolini Al Forno,” a warm Brussels Sprouts salad with a mustard vinaigrette, topped with prosciutto crisps (we used bacon) and crumbled egg.

You can find the full, delicious recipe here. The only substitution we made was bacon for the crispy prosciutto.

Little Bird is only 2 1/2 but there were many, many steps of this recipe that she was able to do:

Wash the Brussels Sprouts
Move the Brussels from the colander in the sink to the cutting board
Move the trimmed ends and loose leaves into the compost
Salt and pepper the Brussels
Massage the sprouts with oil
Pour olive oil from the measuring cup into a jar
Place the chopped shallots in the jar
Put mustard into the jar
Shakey, shakey, shake the jar of salad dressing
Carefully put raw eggs into a pan
Peel hardboiled eggs
Crumble bacon
Stir the salad together

Basically, she did everything but the knife skills and taking things in and out of the oven. To me it is just common sense: kids enjoy eating things they make! Her Papa loved the dish, too, and she just shone watching him enjoy it.

You can find more recipes to make with small children here:

Making Cheese with Kids — Chèvre is fun to make, like a science project.

Making Cheese with Kids Part Two — Kids love rolling and shaping logs and adding their favorite toppings, like cranberries.

Easy Homemade Kale Chips “Kale Crunchies” — Another great way to get greens in their diet, Plus who doesn’t enjoy shaking the bag?

Baby Bird’s Applesauce — Recipe for the youngest of babes, 6 months old and up.

Raw Energy Bites — Includes tactile fun and licking sticky hands.

What do your kids like to make?? Please share in the comments. Links are fine.

2 Comments

Posted in Food, Recipes for the Whole Family, Recipes from the Garden, Recipes to Make with the Kids

Tagged brussels sprouts, cooking with children, cooking with kids, nomnompaleo, paleo

Banana Brûlée Bread Pudding

Posted on March 8, 2014 | Leave a comment

Ta da! Banana Brûlée Bread Pudding! Made with challah, a toddler and love. I haven’t shared many recipe posts since Baby Bird #2 joined us. Baby is actually very easy tempered. It’s Little Bird that keeps me busy! Fortunately, she loves cooking and is legitimately a big help in making our bread pudding/french toast combo (you may remember the Pumpkin Bread Pudding French Toast or the Zucchini Bread Pudding.) This morning she buttered the pan, beat the eggs and milk, and ripped up the challah and added it to the pan (only stealing a few bites!)

Bananas are a common addition in our house, but the brûlée topping is something I have been playing with since seeing a friend on Google+ share her Panettone Pudding which she brûlées to make it all that more. Lin uses a blow torch, but since that is one of the few gadgets my kitchen lacks, I finish the bread pudding under the broiler (or the “bread and butter pudding” under the “grill” as she says) to get that crisp brûlée top. The first go got a little too burnt, so check it frequently!

My mom texted a picture of her homemade challah last night. (Yes, she texts now, crazy.) I did not make challah from scratch. But I did remember that I had half a loaf in the freezer. For those in San Diego, Charlie’s Best Bread makes a great challah, very light, eggy and sweet. And for those not in the know, challah is simply the best bread for french toast and bread pudding. Add a little vanilla ice cream, and take the Banana Brûlée Bread Pudding into dessert!

Banana Brûlée Bread Pudding Recipe

2 Tablespoons of butter
1/3 to 1/2 loaf of challah or other bread (at least one day old)
6-8 eggs
1 1/2 cups of milk (any milk or milk substitute will do but I like whole milk)
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
(optional) 1 Tablespoon of sweetener of choice
1 banana, thinly sliced
1-2 Tablespoons of sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F. Take a stick of butter and liberally rub the bottom and sides of a large baking dish. Tear challah into small chunks and scatter in the dish.

Beat the eggs, and then mix in milk, vanilla and cinnamon. You may not need much sweetener if you are topping with the sugar crust. Mix well, then pour over the bread. Top with the banana slices. Bake about 20-30 minutes until just completely set in the center (by set I mean it looks solid vs. liquidy.) Remove from the oven and liberally sprinkle with the sugar.

Melt the sugar with a blow torch OR turn the broiler up to max, and put the pan on the closest rack. After 2 minutes, check every minute until the sugar melts and turns brown and then take out and let cool slightly. Enjoy!