Food: What's for Dinner?

Click here for part one: Food, Glorious Food  
Click here for part two: Resources  
Click here for part three: What's for Breakfast?
Click here for part four:  What's for Lunch? 
Click here for part five: What about Snacks?


I appreciate those of you who have told me you're looking forward to this "What's For Dinner?" post; thanks for the encouragement and for reading this series!

When we made the change to eating "real" food, I found that I was able to keep many of our regular dinner meals on the menu rotation, I just had to change up my prep a little bit.  (I feel like I need a disclaimer here, to remind you that I had prepared dinner as a married woman for 13 years giving ZERO thought to ingredients.  Much of this stuff will seem like, "Well, duh." for those of you who have at least given a cursory glance to ingredient labels -- but until 2 years ago, I had not!)

Easy changes to old stand-bys:
Spaghetti:  use single-ingredient whole wheat noodles and jarred spaghetti sauce with only real ingredients


Or, made your own sauce in the crock pot! Y'all know I love my crock pot.  Omit the sugar in this recipe, we didn't miss it.


Dump the Packets:
Ditch the seasoning packets (with their MSG's, preservatives, and loads of sodium) in favor of a well-stocked seasoning pantry.  Make your own seasonings and marinades for tacos, fajitas, chili and soups.  The links are to some of the recipes I use regularly, but a quick Google search yields tons of options.




So before making drastic changes to your dinner menu, take a look at your favorites and see how you might be able to just tweak things a bit!  Small changes count!


What follows are random things I've discovered regarding real food at dinnertime, followed by a list of our menu "regulars":

My kids eat veggies best when I purchase them raw, and then quickly sauté them in butter over med-high heat. Just enough to get them hot, but to keep them crunchy.  A favorite combo is sliced mushrooms, snap peas, and sliced red and green bell peppers.  Don't forget the salt and pepper.


I remember hearing a better-eating-tip that I should "shop the perimeter" of the grocery store, and that's definitely become my reality!

A basic formula of meat + veggie or fruit + starch is always an option!  Figure out how to consistently prepare meat (chicken breast, pork tenderloin, pork chops, flank steak, salmon) so it's juicy and flavorful and that's half the battle.  I don't have 100% success but it's becoming less often that I serve dry, tasteless meat.  I had to figure out what cooking methods work for me.  Ask friends.  Ask Google.  Experiment.

Have some easy "regulars" in your pantry, so that on nights that suddenly turn crazy you don't find yourself in the drive-thru because you don't have time to prepare dinner.  (Our convenience foods include spaghetti, such as pictured above, and soft tacos served on store bought 3-ingredient corn tortillas.)

I have rediscovered my Grandmother's cast iron skillet.  I use it often to sear meats (thin sliced chicken breasts and flank steak specifically) on the outside, then put it in the oven to finish cooking.

Give the kids a hearty after school snack, then give yourself permission to eat after baseball/soccer/gymnastics.  It takes time to make dinner.

And when there just isn't time...the crock pot is a working mom's friend.

Breakfast for dinner is great when there's nothing in the cabinet and no time for a grocery run.  I always have white whole-wheat flour and maple syrup on hand for pancakes.

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And finally....here are a few recipes that always make their way back into the rotation.  An asterisk* indicates it can be made in the crock pot.  (Whoop whoop!)   I believe everything on this list is real food with the exception of the smoked sausage recipe.  We just can't completely quit that corn-syrup-loaded stuff, and have it once a month or so.   Keepin' it real for ya people. 


Roasted Whole Chicken*

Carne Asada with Cilantro-Lime Rice

Pork Verde* (So. Good.)

Smoked Sausage with Potatoes and Banana Peppers

Pork Carnitas


Pan Seared Chicken:
thin sliced chicken breast
butter
mushrooms
green onion
parmesan cheese

Cook chickens breasts in butter in skillet over med-high heat.  About 3 min per side.  Top with sauteed mushrooms/green onion and parm cheese.  Serve with roasted red potatoes.  (Below.)

Roasted Red Potatoes:
red potatoes
jarred chopped garlic
salt
Italian seasoning
olive oil
Quarter potatoes.  Place in 9x11 dish.  Drizzle generously with olive oil and sprinkle with other ingredients. Mix well with hands.  Bake at 400 approx 40 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender.


Cliff Crew Chili:*
seasoning: 2 T chili powder, 1 t. oregano, 1/2 t. salt, 1/2 paprika, 1 t cumin, 1 t ground cayenne
2 lbs ground beef
chopped onion
1 large can kidney beans
1 large can pinto beans
1 large can diced tomatoes

Cook beef and onions. Add all ingredients to slow cooker. Add water to desired consistency.  Cook on low all day.  Serve with green onions (so good with lots of green onions!), shredded sharp cheddar, and sour cream.  Great with homemade corn bread.

Chicken Tortilla Soup:*
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed (Use kitchen scissors to cube.)
1 onion finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed (fresh or jarred)
1 can diced tomatoes
4 cups chicken broth
1/4 t salt
1/8 t pepper
1 can green chile
Combine all ingredients in slow cooker.  Cook on low 7-8 hours. Serve topped with corn tortilla chips, sour cream, and cheese.

Great Taco Soup:
2 lbs browned hamburger meat
2 can pinto beans
2 cans whole kernel corn
1 can rotel
ranch seasoning
taco seasoning
Combine all ingredients in crock pot.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours.  Serve with cheese and sour cream.

Many, many great recipes to be found out there.  Those are just a few of the common ones around here!

What should I add to my list of dinnertime standards?

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A few more pics of my packed lunches:

Salad with baby spinach, chopped red bell pepper, cheese, kalamata olives, raw mushrooms and leftover salmon. Drizzled with balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Leftover whole wheat noodles with kalamata olives, green onions, and parmesan cheese. Served cold, pasta salad style.

This was "use up the veggies before they go bad" day.  Cucumbers with red and green bell pepper, sunflower seeds, and  vinegar and oil.  I also had an apple and banana that I ate earlier in the day, and was still pretty hungry when I got home.  Have had to learn that feeling hungry is okay!

Rhythms for Summer

Food: What about snacks?

This is part five in a series.  
Click here for part one: Food, Glorious Food  
Click here for part two: Resources  
Click here for part three: What's for Breakfast?
Click here for part four:  What's for Lunch?

Kids picking strawberries at a local "pick your own" strawberry patch. This was totally out of the ordinary and just for fun --- most of the time our produce comes from the grocery store!

Obviously being forced to pose with their smoothies.

Pistachios.  Making it a teeny bit easier for me to say no to the Snickers bar.

Reading Buddy

Love having a reading buddy. I have to pause every few pages of my book to listen to a funny part of hers...but I don't mind that much. Precious time!

Food, Glorious Food: What's for lunch?

This is part four in an ongoing series. 
Click here for part one: Food, Glorious Food  
Click here for part two: Resources  
Click here for part three: What's for Breakfast?

Food, Glorious Food: What's for Breakfast?

This is part three in an ongoing series. 
Click here for part one.
Click here for part two.

I've shared a little about how and why we decided to shake things up in the FOOD area of our lives.  When we first made the change and took the pledge I was a bit overwhelmed at what exactly to feed the three hungry children and one hungry husband looking expectantly at me for three meals and a couple of snacks each day.  So I wanted to share what has become the new normal around here for our meals and snacks.

Let's start with breakfast, shall we?  Seems reasonable!

 A large, large majority of the time, we have one of these three cereals for breakfast:

• whole-wheat toast with 100% natural peanut butter
• hard boiled eggs
• melons like cantaloupe or honey dew
• scrambled eggs
• plain yogurt with granola, honey, and fruit

Just for fun, here's another on-the-go lunch picture. Sliced avocado with wheat crackers, cantaloupe and grapes, a boiled egg, and a banana. 1.  the crackers are wheat thins which contain sugar and are highly processed; triscuits are a better choice 2.  this isn't enough food to hold me over until dinner. I was ready for a hearty snack when I got home at 3:30.

Food, Glorious Food: Resources

Part two in a series.  Part one here.  

When we set about to change the way we eat, there were a million different directions we could have taken.

Gluten-free? Paleo? Whole food?  Raw food?  Real food?  Grain-free? Clean-eating? What does that even mean?

As I started exploring and googling and figuring out how in the world to break our habits of frozen fish sticks, boxed sugary cereal, and Pizza Hut delivery, I found Lisa Leake.  She writes the popular 100 Days of Real Food blog.  I talk about Lisa to some of my friends almost as if I know her...I don't.  She doesn't know I exist.  But she quickly became my "guru" on all things food. Her site was easy to navigate, and really helped me cut thru the noise and clutter and just jump right in making REAL changes regarding our food and nutrition.  No doubt there are smart people that have ideas that differ from hers, and other websites with just as valuable and helpful information.  But I didn't have the time or energy to wade thru all that, and I just decided her site would be my go-to source as we made this change.

image from 100daysofrealfood.com

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Back to "100 days of real food" for a moment.


An aside for those of you thinking of taking the 100 day pledge like we did:  I must tell you the few ways we cheated on modified our pledge.  (You can find read "Real Food Defined: The Rules" by clicking here., then this list will made more sense.)

1.  We use store bought bread.  I have neither the time or desire to bake my own bread, don't have a local source to buy bread with less than 5 ingredients, and I'm not willing to give up having bread for sandwiches.   I purchase whole wheat bread made without high fructose corn syrup and I'm okay with it.

2.  We do not buy locally sourced meat.  This is mostly a budgetary decision.  I purchase the higher end "hormone free" meat the grocery store offers.

3.  We do not always buy organic or local fruits and veggies.  Again, mostly a budgetary decision.

So there ya have it.  You may have to tweak the pledge a bit to make it work for your family, but don't think if you can't or don't want to do it 100% of the way you can't do it at all.  Make firm rules that work for your family and then stick to those.  Other than the "cheats" I mentioned above, we followed  everything else in the pledge and we feel great about the positive changes we've seen as a result!


Stay tuned for upcoming posts...

What's for Breakfast?

What's for Lunch?

What's for Dinner?

How do I get my kids to eat this stuff?  

What are the benefits of eating whole foods?  [AKA: Will I lose weight?]

my lunch today:  oatmeal in a thermos, with strawberries and pecans grapes string cheese water (I travel for work and don't have access to a microwave or fridge, thus the thermos.)

Food, Glorious Food part 1

The Cliff Crew made some changes a couple years ago regarding what we eat.  We were pretty deeply entrenched in convenience foods (frozen chicken strips, with instant mashed potatoes and gravy is one example of a go-to meal I would throw together on a busy baseball night), and we needed a change.  Getting healthier meant some major shake-ups in our shopping, cooking, and eating-out routines.

I think the impetus was that Jonathan and I started feeling our age a bit - tired, no energy, aches and pains - and decided we needed to try changing up our diet.  My dear friend Cheri had already jumped head first into the world of whole foods, and she was a great source of encouragement and wisdom. (I've mentioned before I rarely make positive life changes from something I read in a book; I'm a relationship girl and need to see things lived out in front of me. No different in this situation.)   We made a 100 day pledge and went all in - basically, nothing processed or packaged, no fast food, no white sugar or white flour for those 100 days.  It was really hard, and really worth it.  (I had myself a nice little Diet Coke addiction, so in addition to the food changes, I was going thru Diet Coke withdrawal.  I might not have been the most pleasant person to be around the first week or four.)

Since that first strict 100 days in January 2012, we have ebbed and flowed, and feel comfortable in our new normal of eating "whole foods" (fresh fruits, fresh veggies, meats, dairy, whole grains) about 80% of the time.  We live in a city with an amazing restaurant scene, and give ourselves the freedom to drink an occasional sweet tea, or have some biscuits and gravy at Mama's Boy, a piece of Praline Cappuccino Cheesecake at Last Resort, or a basket of fish and chips at Trapeze...but for everyday normal life we eat "real" food, and avoid processed sugar, white flour, and preservatives/chemicals.

I wanted to do a series of food posts for a couple reasons.  One reason is that I can feel that 80% I mentioned above slipping a little bit in the midst of an increasingly busy life. I'm hoping posting/thinking about whole foods will help rekindle my commitment!  Another is that I want to share the recipes and meals that have worked for us as we made this change.  A facebook post I made a few months back about being "Diet Coke and fast food free for one year!" sent a barrage of questions my way asking "How?!?!?" So, stay tuned!

Planned Upcoming posts:

Resources:  Websites with great information and whole food recipes

What's for Breakfast?

What's for Lunch?

What's for Dinner?

How do I get my kids to eat this stuff?  

What are the benefits of eating whole foods?  [AKA: Will I lose weight?]

So, welcome to our fridge!  It's not perfect.  (Yes, that's french onion dip.)  (I told you...we're at about 80% and slipping.)  Hope you enjoy this series of posts!

I am that mother.

That sign on the granola? Necessary for the safety of my children.

Mama gets grumpy when I find an empty box! I need it to go with my yogurt and blueberries. (When the kids are nice to me, I share.)

Lost at Last

You've never seen a kid baby a loose tooth like this girl. Her top right tooth had been wiggling for a sweet forever. She wouldn't bite anything normally - she either tore everything into small pieces, or gnawed things with her back teeth. Very attractive.

But at her brothers baseball game a few days ago it FINALLY came out. The rest of us were so glad. We were tired of watching her eat meals like a barbarian, with mess all over her cheeks from messily placing the food all the way to her back teeth.

At lunch today I served apples, and I heard the boys saying "Lauryn! Just BITE it normally! You don't have to worry about your loose tooth anymore!" Wouldn't ya know it...her other top tooth is loose. Deemed incapable of biting into apples once more.

I'm Starr Cliff. A domestically-challenged mom, climbing over mountains of laundry to bring you my stray observations and amusing stories about my kids. (more)

 

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