My husband and I got married young. I was barely 20 and still in art school. We had a teeny tiny apartment in downtown Savannah where the rent was raised every year. We paid a small fortune in parking permits, parking tickets and parking meters. Our budget was pretty tight. For our first 5 years of marriage we were vegetarians, somewhat by choice, but mostly because our grocery budget didn't leave much room for meat. We ate our fair share of soy burgers and veggie burgers, most of which were pretty forgettable. So it was with some trepidation that I... Continue reading

Start These Recipes at least 4 days before you want to eat it Dinner Table Rating 1 thumb per family member Cook’s Rating Accessibility of ingredients, ease of preparation, and affordability As I considered which recipes to be trying out on our tour through Nourishing Traditions, I kept choosing ones that required whey. Once I realized this, I decided that the making of whey would be essential to my ability to cook from this book. So I turned to the recipe for Whey and Cream Cheese. But in order to make it, I first had to make the Piima Milk.....and... Continue reading

I grew up in south Georgia. I practically cut my teeth on a corn cob, and by the time I was five I slurped "bolled greeens" cheerfully (that would be "boiled greens" to anyone whose ear is not tuned to the Southern Hick dialect). When I was in 7th grade my school started serving pizza for lunch. This was, apparently, a big deal in our small town, and the local television station turned out to give some coverage. I was pulled into the line of students whom they wanted to interview. I can still see the slick, clean-smelling, skinny man,... Continue reading

Congratulations to Lisa. She is the winner of the final giveaway in our Jamie Oliver cook-along. We have really enjoyed cooking through much of Jamie's Food Revolution. It has challenged our cooking ruts and broadened what we eat for dinner. We love Jamie's jam jar dressings! It has made eating salad so much easier. We know exactly what is in our dressing and it is really yummy. We eat salad a lot more now. We enjoyed his roast recipes, his stew recipes and his fish recipes. There were a few recipes that we felt were not as good as our... Continue reading

Every year I get a little sad when chili season comes to an end. Here in the Rocky Mountains we can get away with chili well into spring, but by the end of April it’s about time to stash the jar of kidney beans on the top shelf until fall. I get so much joy out of a pot of chili it’s a little embarrassing--the crock full of chili simmering away as I go about my business. The yummy smells assure me that no matter how undone the other things in my day might become, dinner, at least, does not... Continue reading

Good Old Chili Con Carne, pg. 172 Jamie's Food Revolution Much like the fajitas in Jamie Oliver's cookbook, we thought this recipe was very eatable but not like the chili we are familiar with. It tasted like a bolognese sauce with chili powder and beans. I think it must have been the balsamic vinegar and the cinnamon. I am interested to see what you think. Here is the ingredient list. The above link will give you this list in our Plan to Eat account. You can save it to your account and generate your shopping list if you would like... Continue reading

Chicken Chow Mein, pg. 60 Jamie's Food Revolution Chicken Chow Mein on Jamie Oliver's web site As I flip through Jamie's cookbook, there are some recipes that I look at with real apprehension. This is another one. I have never cooked Chow Mein. I have never eaten Chow Mein. I had serious reservations about whether or not my kids would eat it. I hate it when I work to cook dinner and the first words out of their mouths is "Yuck! I don't like that!" This is before tasting it. (I trust I am not the only one who has... Continue reading

Moroccan Lamb with Couscous, pg. 246 I begin some of the recipes in Jamie's book with a certain amount of trepidation. I have never cooked with lamb before and there is not much of in the grocery stores of our smallish town. We have a Whole Foods in the city near us, but I do not regularly make the trek up there unless I am feeling really ambitious or have several special things I need. So I entered the local grocery store with my list, in a bit of a hurry as usually, trying to keep 4 kids happy long... Continue reading

Let's just call a spade a spade--cooking allergen-free is hard. It's twice as hard if you're trying to cook for your family, too. And if you're trying to feed four kiddos without resorting to threats and/or bribes in order to get them to eat their dinner, it's pretty near overwhelming. Ask me how I know. That's why recipes like this one are my best friend--recipes that are allergen-free at the core, but that pile on all kinds of optional gluten and dairy that make dinner seem more palatable and "normal" to my little ones. Actually, they loved this dinner so... Continue reading

Congratulations to Susan F! She is this weeks giveaway winner! She has won a 1 year subscription to Plan to Eat. We are going to take off 2 weeks from our cooking journey through Jamie Oliver's cookbook, Jamie's Food Revolution. We will resume in 2 weeks after spring break. See you then! In our dreams... Continue reading

With a bit of skepticism, tonight we had: Chicken Fajitas, pg. 38 We began this journey as a way to get out of our cooking rut and try some new recipes and techniques. There are some really interesting traditional British meals that I have never prepared including the curries that the Brits are so good at. However, I think that we Americans have a bit more experience with Mexican cooking. Hence my skepticism when I began this recipe. I followed the recipe as Jamie wrote it except that I made the marinade at lunch time and let the chicken sit... Continue reading

We really enjoyed tonight's meal from our cook-along through Jamie Oliver's cookbook, Jamie's Food Revolution: Pork Kabobs, pg. 238 As I started this recipe I realized that I did not have the skewers to make true kabobs. I decided to cook the meat and the vegetables separately and leave my pork in loin chops as I bought it. I seasoned both the meat and the vegetables with the same ingredients and then cooked them in different cast iron frying pans. The whole meal was really delicious and I am usually not a fan of pork. Jamie uses rosemary in many... Continue reading

We are continuing our cooking adventure through Jamie Oliver's cookbook, Jamie's Food Revolution. Tonight we tried: Parmesan Chicken Breasts with Crispy Posh Ham, pg. 242 Best Ever French Beans, pg. 223 These were both excellent, quick and easy. My kids loved both. How can you go wrong with chicken, ham and parmesan cheese! It is almost like a quicker, simpler chicken cordon-blue. I used boneless, skinless thighs rather than breasts because my grocery store only had organic thighs today. The result with the darker meat was very rich. The prosciutto crisped up very nicely but was much better than bacon... Continue reading

For the beginning of our 4th week cooking through Jamie Oliver's cookbook Jamie's Food Revolution I chose recipes that I thought would be a little less challenging. I was very surprised at how much I learned from such simple recipes! Fried Eggs, pg. 309 Fresh Fruit Platter, pg. 320 We love to have breakfast for dinner! So tonight we enjoyed our eggs and fruit in a lovely new way. We eat fried eggs several times a week on toast with a thin piece of ham and a small slice of cheese. It is so yummy. My normal mode of operation... Continue reading

I really like granola. Jamie Oliver's recipe for Granola, pg. 316, from his cookbook Jamie's Food Revolution is really good. It has very good proportions and is in small enough quantities that it is really easy to manage. When I made granola in the past, I tried to make too much at once and ended up burning it, or having too many pans in the oven at once. I like the size of this recipe. I am rather a purist when it comes to granola. Too many different ingredients gets rather muddled to me. I used walnuts, sunflower seeds and... Continue reading

Tonight we prepared Ground Beef Wellington (pg. 156) as we cook through Jamie Oliver's cookbook called Jamie's Food Revolution. We have never had this very British dish before. It was very tasty. I didn't think it was amazing, but it was good. The pastry around it was very light and crispy. It was pretty easy and quick to put together and made a nice presentation. I did increase the temperature from 350 to 400 because the pastry box said to cook it at 400. Jamie says it will take an hour to get golden, and at 400 it was about... Continue reading

So, we had a cheat night. We had some friends over and I needed a break from cooking, so we ordered some yummy pizza. I will make Ground Beef Wellington tomorrow night, but if any of you have cooked this already and you would like to post about it before tomorrow, you can do that on this post. Or you can wait until tomorrow night's post. Happy Friday! Continue reading

For our meal tonight on our cooking journey we had: Baked Cod Wrapped in Bacon with Rosemary, pg. 256 This was amazing! And so easy to prepare. I used mahi-mahi instead of cod so the pieces were a bit bigger than the picture in Jamie's book and had to cook longer. They were so moist wrapped in the bacon and the nice smokey flavor seeped all the way through the fish. The combination of rosemary and bacon is wonderful. This is one you have to try! I would eat more fish if it all tasted like this! We are having... Continue reading