How do I love thee camping? Let me count the ways. Friends + Fire + Food + Assorted Alcoholic and Non-Alcoholic beverages (I'm sure you can figure out the ratio of these last two by yourselves) = Good times.
Camping also equals an unending hunger, all the time. Those 36 daily drinks each make food important for two reasons. 1) They fill you up so you're not uncomfortable. 2) They've filled you up so the moment you wake up the next morning you're not uncomfortable.
Now, I've never been one to complain about a hangover, or about boozing in particular. As a university student on a campus of thousands upon thousands of students (I'll leave out the name of said university!) I do have a reputation for the consumption of both fine food and drink (and non fine food and drink, and food and drink I've found on the floor of the restroom… etc and so forth). That being said, camping is no big deal for me. Except, as has been established many times, I have a terrible memory (could it be the drinking perhaps?). Who knows? The point is, when the eight of us headed out, we brought enough drink for 5 days, and enough food for the car ride down!
…Crap.
So, luckily enough, I also forgot my girlfriend, and had to drive the 2 hours back into town, the second day, to get her, complete with specific instructions from the other campers Liz is not important. If there's only room for either her or food, bring the food. (To be fair, she didn't want to come for the first night, and I would have had to go back for her anyways).
Needless to say, I got back, grabbed her first (I'm not a stupid person… she scares me much more than going hungry does). I also ran to my freezer and started shoveling things into a black garbage bag, and went back to camping.
Upon returning to the campsite and being beset my drunken campers ripping at my black bag like the ravenous wolves they are, I realized what I had grabbed. Camping grub consisted of;
4 Freezer Burritos (p. 49)
2 Quesadillas (p. 50)
8 Tortilla Pizzas (p. 51)
1 Calzone (p. 40)
Now, this wasn't a huge amount of food for what were now nine people, but it had to do until we all found a store in the town we were outside of. I had previously frozen all of this food. I had made a batch of Sally's burritos, then 8 quesadillas and 8 pizzas in advance for the NFL season that is just beginning to kick off. I don't like my game interrupted by that annoying referee we call hunger.
For the cooking of these, it's probably the simplest thing in Sally's book. Step 1: Have ingredients. Step 2: Place ingredients on top of each other. Step 3: Cook. I don't know if I can get into the creation process in more detail than that.
But we soon learned that have a blazing fire, running consistently for days, gives us an excellent coal bed in which to cook all of these objects. The calzone that accidently was brought sadly went to waste. We tried to cook it over the fire, as we didn't bring a "food" cooler (and refused to give up our "drink" cooler!), but as it was a bunch of uncooked dough and meat, it basically melted through the grate.
But, the pizzas were fantastic (I made the Margherita Pizza, and added thin, large cut, pepperoni on 4 of them, and green peppers on the other), and the rest of the food was probably very good (when we got to them, everything kind of runs together, so I can't recall if it was the food, drink, card game, my friend walking into the tree, the guitar, or the large German Sheppard camped beside us that was able to pick up an inflated basketball in it's mouth, but something was good.)
Needless to say, Sally's food in a pinch kept us alive and trucking for the Labor Day weekend, and isn't that what food is for anyways? Keeping us alive?
Filed under Braden's Bites, Recipe Reviews by on Sep 10th, 2009. 26 Comments. 
So here is the thing…at my kid's last school I was known as the "Hotdog Nazi". Why? Because I was trying to get the hotdog program stopped.
Apparently in that town when your want kids to be well nourished, you want to deny kids any fun. I was actually told that by a teacher. My response (with extreme sarcasm ) "No, I want them to grow up first and foremost, and I want them to grow up healthy and not qualify to be a circus side show exhibit."
We have such a huge problem with children being over fed and under nourished. Children getting Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure… and that apparently is okay for some people, because, hey, I am trying to deny kids fun, right (insert sarcasm here)?
There is absolutely nothing good in a hotdog, and there is a whole lot wrong and bad for you, starting with nitrates and nitrites, one is a preservative and one is a color keeper. Both of these chemicals are known carcinogens. Technically, what they do is form carcinogens in your body. NICE.
Hotdogs are usually extremely poor quality by-product meat (the crap off the floor). Not to mention all the fillers and taste enhancers because it turns out "crap off the floor" is not that tasty. Then they are on a white bread bun, usually ladled with ketchup. Incidentally, 1 tbsp of ketchup has 1 tsp of sugar in it. This combination converts immediately to sugar in the body, which puts them in an immediate spike followed by a crash. Aren't these children trying to learn? And when trying to learn, one should not be in a sugar coma.
We send our kids such a double message. I will never forget going to a performance at our kid's last school. The performance was all about eating well and being active and on the way out, we were handed a flyer promoting that the next Wednesday was "Donut Day". Are they kidding? Why does this not compute for anyone else but me? But hey, for now, this "hotdog Nazi" will continue to fight the good fight, because frankly my kids are worth it and so are yours!
Until next time!
Filed under Eating habits, Food quality by on Sep 3rd, 2009. 2 Comments.
I've always thought that the Pillsbury Doughboy got a bum wrap. Here's a poor fellow that's always getting poked, prodded, slapped, jabbed, and squeezed like so many teenage pimples. But after meeting my dough family, I'm willing to bet that the poor bastard doesn't feel very sorry for himself anymore.
So, in the style of those excellent radio programs from the 50's I bring you:
Braden's Dough Family
It's time to Meet the Doughs. Kitchenville is like any kitchen. Clean, wonderful, full of magic, wonder, and little foodstuffs being processed all day. Yes, truly this is a magical place.
Meet the Doughs, a family unlike any other. This dough family consists of Father Dough, the patriarch of the dough family. Mother Dough, the mother and glue of the organization, and little Baby Dough, the apple of his parents' eyes.
But everything is not right in Kitchenville. A drive by knocking caused poor Father Dough to meet an untimely end on the harsh streets of Kitchenville. He was taken down in his prime on the corner of Elbow and Floorth Street.
Mother Dough couldn't handle it; she stuck herself in the oven and turned it on. There was no one around to hear her BEEP. She died in that oven, leaving poor Baby dough alone with nothing but the overcooked crisp of his mothers remains.
But there still was hope; Baby Dough. Baby Dough worked hard. Graduated from Oven High, where he settled into a nice home in Freezerville. He plans on attending Calzone University come the fall.
But what horrors lurk around the corner for a child with such a tragic past? Most likely, he will find, like so many foodstuffs do in Kitchenville, that the Great Mouth is not so forgiving.
As you can see, I may have messed up a few batches of dough. Attentiveness people! I demand it! The dough demands it. Just think, had I paid attention to what I was doing, I would have had enough do for all three dough recipes. But instead, I have to return to Kitchenville tomorrow to repeat this sad turn of events.
Filed under Braden's Bites, Recipe Reviews by on Aug 31st, 2009. 5 Comments.
Well, I've always seen muffins as the boring mans doughnuts. All of the most interesting people in life eat doughnuts. Cops, prison security guards, nuclear power plant safety inspectors, Homer Simpson. The list is endless. And why shouldn't it be? Doughnuts are delicious. They can be covered in chocolate, sprinkles, butterscotch, and many other wonderful flavors. They can be stuffed with pudding or whipped cream or jelly. All in all, doughnuts are greater than muffins in every way.
So, when my random "page flipping" called for me to make muffins. I died inside a little. Luckily, my book was slightly bent at the carrot chocolate loaf, so it directed me to the carrot muffins (p. 30). (To be fair, had it not, I would have picked the carrot muffins anyways, as my last trip shopping left me with all the ingredients for it).
So, again, I followed Sally's steps, once more looked up "folding" online… I forget things sometimes… and got to work.
I'd like to take this time to mention to anyone saying "but baking is hard and takes time" that you really should look at the level of activity that goes into baking things; You measure an already made ingredient, pour it in a bowl, then repeat. It does get a little tricky when you have to crack an egg or stir… but that's about the hardest part. A 3-year old can stir and break things. I've watched them do it. Honestly.
But, I can't make that much fun of people who think it's hard… these muffins took me two batches!!! I learned today the importance of greasing the tray. My first muffins turned into a disaster when I removed them. The first four came out fine. The rest of the tray didn't. I figured "ok, they're stuck. I'll just turn the tray upside down and bash it until they fall out. "Why didn't I use a spoon to lift them out? I don't know. Why did I not use a knife to loosen them from the tray? I don't know. Why did my non-stick pan let four come out easily and the rest hang on for dear life like Jim Carrey's career after starring in The Cable Guy? I don't know. But what I do know is, bashing a white hot tray, while holding it upside down, with a hot pad for a mitt doesn't work. You're basically just asking to burn your foot… and that's what I did.
A blister and a tube of polysporin later, I finished my second batch, complete with greased tray. They came out fine, I put 10 on a plate (I ate two!!! I hadn't had breakfast yet) as I went to my room. I yelled out to the roommates "Muffins are just made, grab one if you want). I have 3 left now, and I'm currently eating one of those. I guess muffins aren't so bad. I'm going to ask Sally to create me a recipe which allows me to stuff these muffins with jelly though.
P.S.
Making the Chocolate Chip Carrot Loaf batter and putting it into muffin trays works fine too. 375F, 20 minutes. I did this with the little bit of batter I had measured out incorrectly from the other day (the batter keeps in the fridge fine).
Filed under Braden's Bites, Recipe Reviews by on Aug 24th, 2009. 2 Comments.
I have challenged myself to try every recipe in Lunchbox Love. Day One was all about getting ready. It's Day Two and I have already made something. Chocolate Chip Carrot Bread (page 26). Now, as not a huge fan of either carrots, or chocolate chips (sue me), I was hesitant going in, but I decided that I needed to hit every recipe, Julie and Julia style (I just learned today that this was [is?] an actual movie, so don't give me too much guff).
Sally's recipe did make two batches as promised, the first I stuck to her original steps down to the letter, the second, I added some finely chopped apples to the mix (about half an apple did it).
IT WAS NOT HARD. There is a reason her most complicated recipe in the book is like 6 steps long. This one promised 5 steps, and literally took 5 steps. I'm almost positive her "prep" time counted both the trip home from the market and the laying out of ingredients in perfectly organized rows. I timed my prep time (yes, I timed it because I'm that committed to being a jerk, I was hoping it would take me well over her suggested 30 minutes, just so I could make fun of her again). My total prep time; 22 minutes and some change. The hardest part was the 3 minute internet session I needed to learn what "folding" was (apparently, it's literal).
Finished product turned out fine (it's not hard to throw ingredients into an oven, truly, its not, so you can't really mess this one up). Her recipe took about 65 minutes in there (my oven is old… really old). My modified version took about 70.
Roommate taste test [there's four of us] comes out about 50% for hers, 50% for mine (I liked hers better personally), but it just goes to prove, that her recipes really are interchangeable and modifiable according to taste.
All in all, we'll see what happens, and good or bad, I'll let you know… just wait until I have to put mayonnaise in something!!! that's when the fireworks are going to start! disgusting, disgusting mayo.
Filed under Braden's Bites, Recipe Reviews by on Aug 24th, 2009. 1 Comment.
I was facing imminent "fatness" when Sally came along with her book. Having known Sally for my entire life, I've grown quite fond of making jokes that rile her up. I also enjoy teaching her kids bad things that will get on her nerves (sadly, they already know not to ask her if she's 60 yet).
Recently, I learned she wrote a book. Even more recently, I learned that the book was about healthy cooking for children. Considering that I'm as close to a child as I'll ever be, and understanding that regardless of age, good food is still good food, this lazy 21 year old decided to go for one last joke.
"I'm going to make every single thing in your book and send you ways to improve it." Sadly, this is not an uncommon thing for me to say to Sally. I wanted to get her goat. But, being as committed I am to a joke, I usually go through with things until I get bored.
That being said, I sat down and read through her entire book one evening, and started sending her "my corrections". From there, I actually sat down to cook something. I flipped to a random page, and started cooking.
Before I talk about what I made, I should point out, that as a broke university student, I don't have much money, so that first trip to the grocery store was going to set me back a little. I moped to myself for awhile about why "all my jokes seem to cost money". Then, my roommate pointed out, that all of the ingredients that I need to buy are used in almost all of the recipes. "Great!", I thought, "at least this one trip will give me enough supplies to feed myself for a week or so".
So let me break down some math for you. The trip to the grocery store cost me about $140 (including all the pans, hand beaters). Not too bad, considering that is about what I was spending on crap food for a week. Then, when I did some more math (geez I hate math), the amount I bought will create eight of these recipes with some odds and ends left over. That may seem unrealistic, but remember, buying bulk is going to cut your costs down by minimum 25% and give you 50% for product, especially if you get the same item from a "no name" company (look at the ingredients if you need to, but flour itself costs a lot more if you buy name brand flour… non!?!).
Okay, eight days of food, 140 dollars. Not including that most of these recipes invoke majority leftovers which equal (as I can sit down and eat 3 large pizzas in one sitting and still retain my 175lb awesomeness) another three days of food. 11 days for $140.
What was a spending on crap food? $140 bought me a week, but only about one meal and a snack a day. So I was also buying Wendy's, McDonalds and Taco Bell (the three closest joints to my house). I would spend about $10 at each of these places every other day [they are delicious, and I have no intention to stop going entirely]. So for seven days of food, I was spending about $180 on garbage (there's no doubt that hot dogs and tacos are unhealthy, I dare anyone to say different).
Finally, that breaks down to about $12.75 a day for Sally's cookbook, as opposed to $25.70 for groceries and fast food. It's already looking up and I hadn't even made anything at this point.
Filed under Braden's Bites, Food quality by on Aug 24th, 2009. 9 Comments.
I have always had four main passions in life: video games, movies, eating and girls. As you could probably see, the first three of those items don't really lead to a greatly healthy life, and they actually can hinder the fourth. Luckily, I was blessed with a stellar metabolism that never ceases giving me never ending joy.
Of course, metabolism fluctuates, as does ones self image. I would go through stages, as I assume everyone does, where I feel I didn't look my best. It was at these parts in my life I would decide to make changes. Being fairly lazy, I would simply change what I ate until I forgot what I was doing, or like most people, I ate something I shouldn't have and ended up falling off the wagon.
Being in my fourth year of university I've consumed my fair share of garbage. Fast food is the best food for this lifestyle. Unquestionably. Along with the liquor and pizza consumption, one notices the weight gain. When I made my own food, it was usually a cheese bun with a hotdog on it, covered by a pickle. "I'm eating healthy… look, starch, dairy, protein and vegetables!"
So, being unemployed (stupid recession), bored, broke, and hungry, I found I have a lot of spare time, oh, and a long-term girlfriend (slightly bragging, slightly about making a point). With this spare time, I'm sitting a lot, drinking a lot, and eating only garbage. Why did I mention the girlfriend? Our agreement is that we stay together no matter what… but excessive weight gain (fatty style) has always been the deal breaker (had I known that this was a two way street, I never would have made her agree to it).
But still, my metabolism has been saving me. But then I learned that said girlfriend hits the gym every other day, and goes running every night. Now you should see where the predicament comes in.. if someone's getting fat here, it's going to be me.
It was, and still is, time for a change in lifestyle. The first and easiest change I can make is to change my diet. Even if I miss the gym, at least I won't be ingesting 200 tons of sugar and fat each day.
Filed under Braden's Bites by on Aug 24th, 2009. 4 Comments.
Baloney!
So here is the thing. We are trying to raise different kids. Maybe we are naive but we are trying to expose our kids to a lot of different things so that they have a well rounded life. We want them to experience things that are not particularily the norm in hopes that they will not accept everything at face value and just go along with what everybody else does. Okay I will admit it, I want them to question things no matter what (sometimes this backfires when they question me, but that is something I can live with). Perhaps it is the rebel in me but I like that my kids are different.
We certainly want to see them see the value in buying high quality food
I have never taken my kids to some well known fast food chains and I am Mcproud of that. We do not eat processed food of any sort. Because of Tyson's peanut allergy we have always done this, and for us it is just normal. It has never seemed strange, but I know that many people of thought it odd the way we eat. This was driven home to me one day when a friend was over and she is an older woman and she was chatting with the kids and Tyson said something funny as he usually does (frankly some days it is a darn good thing that that kid is funny or he would not have lived to see 8). She started to laugh and then said, "Oh Tyson, you are full of baloney!" He looked at her funny and then turned to me and said, "Mummy, what is baloney?" I smiled and thought, okay I have succeeded.
When I was a kid we had a ton of baloney
My Mum put it in sandwiches in our lunches, but the best is every Saturday lunch she would batter it and deep fry it!!!!!…AAAAHHHHHHH!!! I cringe at the thought! and you should be too! The fact that my child had no idea what it is, did my heart proud. My Dad was a butcher and everytime we ate a weiner or baloney he would say, "Do you know what is in that? If you knew you would not eat it." Yet oddly enough we still ate a ton of it. It was cheap I guess.
Oh well, they loved us and did the best they could. I choose to go by the motto of "when you know better you do better!" Ignorance is not bliss, but in this case when it comes to Tyson and baloney, ignorance is bliss for a Mummy who is trying to do better when she knows better.
Until next time.
Filed under Eating habits, Family habits, Food quality by on Aug 6th, 2009. 2 Comments.
Green Smoothies
So I am having a conversation with an aunt the other day and I was sharing with her that we have been doing green smoothies now every morning and cannot believe the health benefits that we are experiencing. I was telling her how great we have been feeling. To my shock and disbelief and probably horror, she responds with, "Well I don't know Sally, can you get too much greens?" When I was able to recover and pull my jaw up off the floor I responded politely (and let me tell you that took a little effort) with, "Oh, I doubt it".
So here is my question. Have we become such a processed food, crap eating society that we would question greens consumption and not other things that truly are harmful to our health?
It is interesting but no one seems to question whether you can get too much pop, or chips. Very few question margarine or other plastic food like my all time favorite processed cheese spread (if I could banish the world of this nasty product I could die happy)! No one seems worried about the amount of processed and packaged food that people buy boat loads of every week. Food that is devoid of any nutrients. Empty calories that do harm and definitely no good. That seems to be the norm and no one bats an eye.
Are we that weird that we eat green smoothies and eat a whole food diet? That thought truly scares me. I am not suggesting that everybody do things my way, but I would really like to see people go back to the kitchen and cook food from scratch and be aware of what they are putting in their bodies and to think about the nutrient level and not just filling the hole!
AAAh, okay I will step off my soapbox now and breathe.
Until next time.
Filed under Eating habits, Food quality by on Aug 6th, 2009. 1 Comment.
I would like to start out by introducing myself!
My name is Sally J King and I have written a cookbook on healthy eating for kids called Lunchbox Love, but most importantly I am a mom. I am a mom with two growing boys I am no different to you. I do not have a cook or a live in maid or nanny (frankly, that would be me). This 'soapbox' is where I can let loose on my passions about food and feeding our kids well and exposing the truth about food. So this is how my story began.
I went into this "motherhood" thing very naively
I, frankly, had delusions of grandeur of 2 am feedings where I would gaze lovingly down at my child at my breast and cherish every moment… NOT! I was not prepared for breastfeeding to be so hard and I sure was not prepared for a child who was allergic to everything I put in his mouth. He had eczema so bad he was a "scab" from head to toe. At night he would dig divets in his chest from the itch. Then came the peanut allergy discovery at 18 months. I had to be obsessive about reading labels and checking out ingredients. I soon discovered that all these ingredients with unpronounceable names were a problem. I just knew that they could not be good. I soon became very informed on what they were and what they were not, and good for you was not part of the equation!
When my oldest son started school I saw what was being sent for lunches and I was shocked
The teachers would call me and marvel at what he would eat and what I was sending. Armed with my knowledge that I had gained and seeing what kids were eating I knew I had to do something, thus, "Lunchbox Love" was born. I soon began really researching what was in food, and what all these unpronounceable ingredients were and what their purpose was. I learned very quickly that the only purpose they served was that of the so- called "food" companies (I use the term "food" loosely). They were cheap fillers, dyes and nasty preservatives.
Actually, my friends they do not serve us at all. They harm us and what is more they harm our kids because they market them straight to kids. That made me mad! It is all about money and absolutely nothing to do with the health or well being of our children. There were days when I would just scream, "aaah, I did not want to know that!" I knew that I could not take it back, so I plugged on forward and adopted the mantra which is "With knowledge comes responsibility". With the growing number of children suffering from obesity and being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes I knew that these companies needed to be outed and I was "Mom" enough to do it.
What are all these ingredients?
I will get into some of these unpronounceable additives and hopefully offer you some alternatives and some time saving advice on how to make it all happen. So I would say to all you moms out there lets together and "Be the change we want to see in the world", because our kids and their healthy futures are so worth it.
Filed under Allergies, Food quality by on Jul 14th, 2009. 4 Comments.
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