Lasagna & Fresh Bread

Today was a LONG day of cooking, but it was definitely worth it.
On the menu? Lasagna and homemade baguettes! (Click for recipes - courtesy of The Pioneer Woman & Steamy Kitchen - check them out!)

We started with the bread. Nothing we didn't already have sitting around (well, ok, we were out of sugar, but still...)

Nice, ordinary ingredients.. Flour, sugar, olive oil, yeast, salt, and some water.

Chickie likes to be the one to pour the ingredients in, so I let her help measure them out and pour them in. She managed not to spill them all over this time!

She even stirred most of it herself. Usually she gets bored and walks away, but since we had to wait for the dough to rise twice, she managed to actually do most of the cooking for the bread all by herself!


She loved stretching the dough out and putting the tomatoes & olives in (we decided against whole garlic cloves.) Notice the change of clothes? It's magic!
No, really, we just had to let the dough sit out overnight and she managed to not wear the same clothes two days in a row for once. (She tries!)

The finished product. We made a few without tomatoes or olives, knowing Chickie wouldn't eat it if they were in there. (Turns out I'm not too big on them being in there, either.)

The verdict? She loves the bread!

it taste yummy!

Now on to the lasagna...
Again, nice, simple ingredients in the sauce.

Ground beef, sausage, canned whole tomatoes & tomato paste, garlic, basil, parsley, and a bit of salt.

The recipe doesn't say to, but I let this simmer for a few hours so the flavors blended and the tomatoes broke down a bit. We're not all fans of big chunks of tomatoes here, and it helped a lot. I'll admit, Chickie didn't help with this part, aside from getting out the can opener, but I'm not comfortable with her around a hot stove anyways.

The cheese mixture was pretty simple, too. Cottage cheese, couple of eggs, Parmesan cheese, parsley, and again, a little salt.

She did all the mixing for the cheese. My mom was SURE that, once she saw what was going in this, she wouldn't eat it... And swore she wasn't a big fan of cottage cheese in lasagna. Oh well...

The finished product, since I forgot to get pictures of the assembly... I actually used twice the noodles and made it in two pans... There was more than enough meat sauce & cheese for both!

We had my sister over, so it got dug into pretty quickly. Everyone seemed to love it, even if there was cottage cheese in it! (I was surprised at how well it melted - almost better than ricotta would have, at least from my experience.... but it's been a LONG time since I've made homemade lasagna.)

Chickie managed to eat almost all of her noodles, though I think the meat was a little spicy for her. (Next time, I'll use a mild sausage instead of the hot - but it was good to try.)
And Chickie's summary of cooking and dinner...

cooking was fun!
my dinner was yummy!

(Yes, she types those little bits herself - it's part of the deal with doing this blog. She cooks, she eats, she types a little... and in exchange she gets to look at pictures of herself and share them online. Vanity, thy name is Chickie. But, hey it works!)

And tomorrow... We have lasagna again! And the next day, too! At least it really was one of the best lasagnas ever.

How bad is it?

In preparation for tomorrow night's first cooking post, I decided to take a look at the fridge, freezer, and pantry to see just how bad our dependence on processed foods is. The results are pretty sad, really. We REALLY need some help here.

So, just how bad is it?

Well, let's look at Exhibit 1.Notice the oh so healthy homemade snack she's eating? Yeah, I don't see it either. Pop Tarts. 2 of 'em. And she ate them both. But, surely, this must be just a once in a while thing, right?

Well, let's move on to Exhibit 2 and find out - the pantry.


Notice the 4 boxes of pop tarts, the 4 jugs of shake & pour bisquick, the many, many boxes of hamburger helper, pasta-roni, scalloped potatoes, and mac & cheese? The entire shelf of snack foods that are nowhere near healthy (aside from the single lonely jar of applesauce?) And, you can't really see it, but down among the never-used cans of veggies on the bottom shelf is a HUGE can of pork 'n beans, just waiting for "chili" night.

So, the pantry is in pretty bad shape, but even with canned ingredients, the right seasonings can make a world of difference. How about the spice cupboard?
I give you... Exhibit 3.

Our lovely cupboard contains.... Cooking spray, oil, macaroni (used to make hamburger helper mixes stretch), baking soda, rice, hot cocoa mix & tea, bisquick, flour, pancake mix, sugar... And a variety of spices, most of which are over a year old - with some even older than Chickie herself! This is a sad, sad house so far...

But what about the fridge & freezer? Surely there must be something in there that's can make up for all of this!
Moving on to Exhibit 4...

Now, we see things getting a little better... Sure, there's lunch meat and margerine and a half-used can of bean w/bacon soup... But there's leftovers from real meals (seriously - homemade leftovers!) and fresh salsa, some apples, cheese (though that does include american 'cheese food'), eggs... and 3 gallons of milk. It looks tolerable... until you open up the freezer.

Let's start with the good... There's a half-used bag of frozen chicken breasts, a lb of ground turkey, a lb of ground beef, a jar of yeast, and waaaay in the back... A bit of homemade pasta sauce from when we visited last summer's farmer's market and brought home some yummy fresh veggies. But what REALLY gets used and replaced semi-weekly? Chicken strips, fish sticks, frozen mac & cheese, hot pockets, frozen pancakes, ice cream... Tons of convenience foods loaded with preservatives and fillers and all that fun stuff.

Now, I'd go on about the bags of Cheetos and unending boxes of sugary breakfast cereals, but I think I've made my point. We eat WAY too much processed junk here, and not enough good, homemade food.

So, what does Chickie herself have to say about the foods we eat? Let's ask her.

mac and cheese it taste yummy!

And when asked what would happen if we couldn't eat anything that came in a box, in a can, or in the freezer....

wed be hungry!

So there you have it... Our diet consists of boxes, cans, and frozen items... And macaroni & cheese is one of the most important foods in this place. (Seriously - she would be very, very upset if she couldn't have it at least 2-3 times a week.)

Here's to changing this family's 'convenience' habit!

Hi!

I come from a family where Hamburger Helper and Bisquick biscuits constitute a 'homemade' dinner. One where chili consists of a can of chili mix, some ground beef, and a can of pork 'n beans. One where steak is harder to chew than rubber, vegetables are not just optional - they're rare, and Chinese food is outlawed simply because "you won't like it."
As an adult, I've done my best to push my limits when it comes to food, and I like to think that I've done a good job. There's still things I don't like, but I know that through trying them, not just because they sounded gross (though there are a few things that, just the thought of them makes me sick.. but they're few and far between.)
Unfortunately, I have a 6-year-old who doesn't share these viewpoints, partly due to the fact that my mother lives with us - and is even pickier than most children. She's grown up on boxed mac & cheese, frozen nuggets, and canned ravioli partly due to my mother's shopping habits (she does most of the grocery buying), and partly because I'm always so busy.
This blog is part of my attempt to change this.
The plan is simple. Start with cooking 1-2 nights a week, and involving my daughter, who we'll call "Chickie." Do as much as we can with fresh, whole ingredients (though I make no guarantees that we won't used canned cream of chicken soup or something along that line) and simple recipes that she can help with. And, to encourage my 'ham' of a daughter to learn how to cook AND to try new things... Blog about our attempts - with pictures.
So, wish me luck... With this family, I'm going to need it!