Dough Conditioners, Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, and Ferrous Sulfate ... that's the way the breadcrumb crumbles

Garlic Bread Dough in machine

Ingredients for Garlic Bread

Several weeks ago, my mother-in-law came for a visit.  It's kind of tradition when she comes that we (and by we, I mean she) make salmon patties.  We eat them with mashed potatoes, stewed tomatoes, and spinach.  I don't really have any "traditions" from my own childhood so I love that we've created little ones here and there for my own kids.

So, anyway, there we are in the kitchen, doing what we do.  She asks for the breadcrumbs.  I give her the breadcrumbs.  WHOA!  Wait a minute!  Have you ever read the ingredient list for breadcrumbs?  Surprisingly, I never had.  Even more surprising, she never had either.  So, there we are shocked to learn that there were THIRTY-TWO INGREDIENTS!  (Yes, you read that right.) IN BREAD CRUMBS!

Now, I have been blessed with quite a husband.  He's opinionated, loud, and sometimes moody, but one of the many awesome things about him is that his lips stay zipped when it comes to my kitchen desires.  I have the food processor of my dreams and a double paddle bread machine that rocks out loaves of bread that look very much like their store-bought counterparts.  I have a bread slicer, too, so they're even sliced very much like store-bought bread.  This is VERY important since my son is at the age of school cafeteria conformity.

Loaf of Garlic Bread

Back to breadcrumbs.  Since I make my own bread, I've been leaving a few pieces out of every loaf to harden.  Once the pieces are hard, I break them up into smaller pieces and finish the job in the Baby Bullet (I have two of those thanks to those preciously zipped lips) using the milling blade. Once the bread is milled, I dump the crumbs into a storage container and stick it in the freezer.  (I'm not discriminatory.  Whether it's french, whole wheat, garlic, etc., it all goes into the same storage container.)  Voilà!  Preservative-free breadcrumbs!!  It's that easy ...and a fraction of the cost to boot!

Breadcrumbs made from whole wheat, french, and garlic bread scraps!

A note about the milling process, which I learned the hard way.  1)  Don't use a food processor unless you have a special milling blade.  The regular blade doesn't do a good enough job AND the pieces will inevitably get EVERYWHERE.  Use a Bullet, Baby Bullet, Blender, or anything else that has a milling blade; and 2) Break up the hard bread into a bunch of small pieces.  This makes the process much easier on your machine.

Homemade breadcrumbs . . . the best thing since homemade sliced bread!

My Goodness, Moms Make Lunch!

So, here's a round up of lunches from last week.  I tried to do this last night but my laptop died and I lost everything.  Lesson learned.  :(

As I uploaded these pics, I noticed a lot of repeat offenders:  ants on a log, cheddar bunnies, etc.  I'll need to keep this in mind when I sit down to plan our meals for the week.  (I do this every Sunday.  Of course, life happens and sometimes the best laid plans get derailed.)  Nevertheless, there is A LOT of goodness going on here!

First, after mulling over it for months, I finally decided to buy two Rover Planet Boxes.  They really are as good as they say they are!  I love how the compartments encourage portion control.  Even if you allowed your kids to fill it up with their hearts' desires, they can ONLY fit so much per compartment.  GENIUS!  My only complaint is that the sets do not come with any extra seals.  By the end of week 2, we already lost a big dipper seal.  Maybe Baby Bullet spoiled me with all of the extra seals but I feel like those of us spending $60+shipping on a lunchbox should get a little something extra.  Don't you agree??

Also, let's talk about the homemade goodness going on.  The bread, the granola bars, and the chocolate pudding were all made in our kitchen.  My chocoholic daughter wasn't crazy about the "pudding" but put it in a freezer mold and call it a "fudge pop" . . . game changer, folks.  At any rate, these are a few of my favorite things to make from scratch so I will be posting about each individually later this week.  They are healthy, easy-peasy, preservative-free staples.  In the time it takes a mom to schlep the crew to the grocery store, load up all the cart with packaged meals for the week, schlep everyone home, and put it all away, you could literally make all three of these things!  Look at the ingredients on your bread:  My french bread has 5 ingredients and my whole wheat bread has 8.  Look at the ingredients on your granola bars:  No corn syrup or soy lecithin in my granola.  Finally, chocolate pudding.  There's no corn starch, sugar, or artificial anything added.

None of this is meant to imply that my kids NEVER have juice, fast food, junk, or condiments.  They're kids and that stuff is a part of childhood.  But, I can tell you that they eat A LOT LESS of it than I did growing up.  With very little effort on my part, my kids had pretty healthy lunches this past week.  I found a way to make them even healthier by extracting the whey from plain yogurt, which I will post about at a later date.  (We're still experimenting.)  But, the whey is used to make homemade mayonnaise, which can then be turned into the base of homemade ranch dressing. 

Moms Make Lunch . . . what goodness is going into your lunches this week?

Monday - salad w/ranch, blackberries, string cheese, boiled egg, and a pretzel.

Tuesday - cheese sandwich on french bread, grapes, do-it-yourself ants on a log, chocolate pudding, and a few cheddar bunnies.

Wednesday - strawberries, almonds, celery w/peanut butter, tiny cherry turnover, cheddar bunnies, cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread.

Thursday - carrots w/ranch, whole grain crackers & cheese, ants on a log, grapes, and a few cheddar bunnies

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Friday - celery w/ranch dip, turkey & blackberries, pasta salad, grapes & a mandarin, and sunflower seeds.

Say Cheese!

 

I have a 10-year-old son.  That's a double whammy:  He's old enough to have his own thoughts & ideas but, like most men with a strong opinion, doesn't get concepts like "time & place" and "enough is enough."  For whammy reasons, I really try NOT to food shop with him.  However, there are occasions that we go together and nobody leaves the store quite the same. Nobody.

So, there we are in Kroger.  "No!  You can't have Frosted Flakes!" "No! You can't have a box of Red 40 gummy blobs even if they are shaped liked Patrick and Sponge Bob!" "No! You CANNOT HAVE GO GURTS!!!!!!"  Our path of destruction eventually leads to the deli, where I order a pound of White American cheese (with tissue paper in between because I really don't like when it sticks together).  His turn for an objection.  HE likes Yellow American better!  (OF COURSE YOU DO!)  So, we start arguing about how it tastes the same and Yellow American is just dyed White American.  I personally can't tell a difference so I challenge him to a taste test right there in the deli.  He actually chose White American three times.  Convinced I was deceiving him, we had a third party administer the last tast test.  Ahhhh...sweet victory!

Nevertheless, my precocious child challenged me to prove to him that Yellow American is actually dyed. How do I know they don't just bleach Yellow American to make it white? Do they dye cheddar, too?"  Ummmm...I dunno.  So, I did some research and turns out I was a little right and a little wrong.  I imagined some scientist dunking a big ol block of cheese into a bath of FD&C Yellow #5.  Turns out that there scientist is dunking that big ol block of cheese into a bath of Annatto (okay, maybe there's no bath).  Annatto (aka the Poor Man's Saffron) is a natural food coloring that comes from grinding up the seeds of a tropical achiote tree.  Strangely, the fruit itself is inedible.  Further, the stuff is found in all sorts of other foods, including vanilla ice cream, butter, and cheddar cheese!

Just because it's not Yellow #5 doesn't mean it's not bad for you.  It IS a food additive and there have been reports of severe allergies, migraines, IBS symptoms, etc. linked to it.  So, if you suffer from any of these symptoms, and you haven't been able to figure out why, maybe Annetto is your answer.

Once upon a Facebook post...

This is the Facebook post that led to this Blog:

I know I sound like an annoying broken record (so I've heard). But, I ONLY do this because I'm passionate about it & if I can encourage just ONE family (other than the one stuck with me) .... I've been doing a lot of research lately on alternative sweetners (sucanat, coconut sugar keep coming up). Based on my collective research (new & old) as well as conversations I've had or even overheard, the running theme seems to be that once we're sick, the doctors are telling us to eat clean in order to fight the (sometimes life threatening) disease or ailment at hand. An ounce of prevention, right? So, I'm going to keep posting and sharing my kids' lunches, our dinners, about organics/pesticides, GMOs, plastics, sugar, food additives/dyes, preservatives, anything and everything NOT because I just want to "show off" what I know or what I've made but because I want to pique your curiosity enough to MAYBE make a change that could be helpful to you or one of your loved ones (possibly without you even knowing it). This is my thing. I don't have a blog because I don't know to put one up. My posts are never hateful or political (which seem to go hand in hand), rarely religious, may occasionally be a tad silly or immature (that's how I roll...see! kidding!). If this annoys you, so sorry. Not really. Delete me. Block me. Whatever you must. But before you do, please bookmark the updated dirty dozen & clean fifteen.  Here's the link:  Updated Dirty Dozen 

In response to this post, I received enough positive encouragement to go on and give this shot.  So, Welcome to "Oh, My Goodness!"