Slow Cooker Navy Bean Soup

For a while now I've been trying to incorporate more beans into our diet as a main protein for one meal each week and have been so happy with this navy bean soup recipe, there was no way I could resist sharing it with you.

I have adapted this recipe to suit our tastes and we think it is SO yummy!  My favorite part is how easy it is to put together a nutritious and filling soup for my family.

:: 1½ cups navy beans (great northern beans also work wonderfully)
:: 5 cups water
:: 2 carrots, diced
:: 2 celery stalks, diced
:: 1 medium onion, diced
:: ½lb. ham steak, cut into bite size pieces
:: salt and pepper, to taste

~ Soak beans over night, then drain and rinse.
~ Add all ingredients to slow cooker
~ Cook on high 4-6 hours or low 8+ hours

Could it be any easier?

This soup is wonderful served with cornbread or yeast rolls.

Tip: If I'm running behind and don't get it started early enough, I turn the slow cooker on high while I'm chopping the veggies, boil the 5 cups of water in my kettle and then pour the boiling water (instead of tap water) into the slow cooker with the other ingredients to speed up the process a bit.

This post is linked to: Smockity Frocks' "What's in your crockpot" carnival.

Chicken tortilla soup

Yum!  This is my  new favorite winter soup!  It's easy and so yummy!

What you need:
~ 1 small yellow onion, diced
~ 1 T. coconut oil
~ 4 cups chicken stock (I use homemade)
~ 2 cups of cooked shredded chicken (or more if you like it extra chicken-y!)
~ ½ bag frozen sweet corn
~ 2-3 cans Rotel (original)
~ ½ cup brown rice
~ 2 Tbsp. dried cilantro leaves
~ Salt to taste
~ Shredded cheese (we like Monterey Jack)
~ Sour cream
~ Flour tortillas (approx. 4 8" tortillas)

* In large soup pot, sautee onions in coconut oil.
* Add chicken stock and bring to boil.
* Add corn, rice and cilantro, reduce heat to medium and allow to cook at gentle boil for approximately 45 minutes (until rice is tender).
* Meanwhile, slice tortillas into 1" x 4" strips and bake on a parchment lined cookie sheet at 350 until crispy (be careful, they go from crispy to burnt really quickly!).
* Once rice is tender, add chicken, corn, Rotel and salt.
* Return to simmer and allow to heat thru.

Edited to add: You might need to add water as it's cooking to keep it the proper "soup" consistency!

Serve topped with shredded cheese, a dollop of sour cream and crispy tortilla strips.

Homemade baby food - price breakdown

Last week I gave you a general run down on how to make your own baby food and I'm wrapping up the subject this week with a cost comparison on conventional baby food vs. homemade.

Keep in mind, these are prices in Colorado for mostly in-season produce (typically in-season produce is less expensive, and locally grown or from your farmer's market is even better priced).

The prices below are broken down based on how much Rachael (7 mo.) is currently eating.

*Bananas: 6 semi-large @ $.69/lb. = $3.03

Total servings = 12
*Sweet pots: 2 large @ $1.59/lb = $1.87

Total servings = 12
*Butternut squash: 1 medium size @ $1.49/lb = $3.01

Total servings = 15
*Avocado: 6 semi-large @ $5.99 (bag from Costco)

Total servings = 24

Total spent: $13.90 for 63 servings

Earth's Best baby food jars (this is the brand I would buy if I bought conventional baby food, you may wish to substitute the price of your favorite brand in place of this for a more accurate price comparison):
*1st foods: $.69/jar; 2 jars = 1 serving (63 x 2=126 jars)

Total spent = $86.94
*2nd foods: $.89/jar; 1.5 jars = 1 serving (63 x 1.5 = 94.5 jars)

Total spent = $84.11

Using an average of the two different sizes of jars the difference is incredible.

$85.53
-$13.90
$71.63 (this is the amount I saved for 1 month's supply of food, it is 18% of my grocery budget!!!!)

I have not included the cost of cereal for breakfast (and to mix in when veggies have gotten too soupy from too much water added during pureeing) because Rachael receives WIC, so we do use conventional cereal because it is provided for free. For added accuracy, add in the cost of how many boxes of cereal your little one goes thru in one month and then calculate the difference. It's still substantial if you do buy cereal.

Be sure to visit Frugal Friday for more wonderfully frugal tips!

Bittersweet

After 6 months, it is time for Rachael to bid adieu to mommy's milk. If you've been reading here for a while, you know that she hasn't nursed since we were in the hospital, so that means that I have been exclusively pumping for just under 6 months - and I have three kids.

In the early days, I thought about just giving up (cold turkey) EVERY SINGLE DAY. I just kept telling myself I could make it another week and up until recently, it worked. After some recent out of town travels and full day outings, I've realized that it's just too much to keep up with now. Imagine keeping up with 3 kids, the house, running all of the errands, feeding the baby AND pumping every 3 hours - 5/6 times per day - at roughly 30 minutes per session (this includes rinsing pump parts and storing milk). Lugging my pump around and pumping in really odd places (the van, grandparents' home) and having to plan so much ahead for everything has gotten the better of me.

I've cut back to 3 times a day and I'm dropping one pumping each Saturday. In just over two weeks will be the end for me. Rachael has been receiving a bottle of formula at bedtime since she was itty-bitty and I have enough milk stored to gradually switch her to formula over the next month.

One of the more difficult parts of this change is that I will never again have the pleasure of providing this type of nourishment for a child - because there will be no more children for me (at least not biological children). In the end, I know this is what is good for my family right now. I am thankful that I have been able to provide the best nutrition for her as long as I have.

Stocking the freezer

I have been a busy little beaver today! Since I will be having a c-section next Friday - yes folks, I'll have THREE children in 10 short days! And to tell you the truth, I haven't freaked out yet! Probably because I have no time to freak out and that's probably a good thing. I'm not even really nervous. My head does swirl occasionally when I think about schedules and Michael only gets 10 days off work and Jacob goes to preschool 2 days a week and I only have 1 week of practice before I have to get him there on time (along with feeding and dressing everyone!!).... But, all-in-all I'd say I'm doing well.

I sat down a few days ago and made a list of meals that I wanted to go ahead and prepare and get in my freezer for those first few weeks (we'll also be getting a few meals from my MOPS group) and today I made the first batch of meals.

Here's what I made today:


This is chicken enchiladas!! I bought these disposable pans because I didn't want to tie up all of mine in the freezer and they have lids that are handy to write with a permanent marker what's in them! On this one I wrote what it is and the thawed bake time/temp. I think I went back and added the frozen time also.

This is not the healthiest meal - I used store bought flour tortillas and sauce - but the chicken is left over from a whole chicken I made recently.

I also made a smaller pan of these for our neighbor's friend because her son is in the NICU - he was born at 28 weeks nearly 2 weeks ago and I'm betting figuring out what to eat (AND take care of their toddler) just isn't a fun thing right now.




This lovely meal is zucchini parmesean. And it's a tad healthier than the enchiladas. I used fresh zucchini and battered (using spelt crumbs) and sauteed it in coconut oil. Cooked some whole wheat pasta and sadly used a jarred sauce. I layered it in the same way I would layer it on my plate if I were eating it immediately (pasta, zucchini, sauce and cheese).




This is just a quick pizza-ish thing. It's store bought hoagie rolls, sliced in half, topped with pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese and pepperoni's on some. I froze them on these cookie sheets then transferred them into 2 of the same size disposable pans. I put 2 layers in each pan and separated the layers with foil.



I made all 3 of these while the boys were napping today and even got the dishes done and the counters cleaned up before they woke up! However, all of that meant I was standing for a solid 2 hours and at 37 weeks pregnant that's not great for the back. So, the kids are outside playing and I'm sitting down typing this post (yes, I can see them!!).

I also already had navy bean soup, 3 servings of meatloaf and chicken and quinoa stew in the freezer from making extra when I made those meals the last time. And there are 2 frozen pizzas.

Here's what I still have planned for the freezer:

* Brown a batch of taco meat
* Zucchini/carrot muffins (the boys and I LOVE these, Michael doesn't really care for them - he's strange!)
* Shepherd's pie

Also, I'm asking for suggestions on other meals (preferrably ones that incorporate more veggies) that work well as freezer meals to pull out and heat in the oven.

Hop on over to Rocks in My Dryer for more people who need help solving life's conundrums!

Yummy granola recipe

I actually made something I saw on tv.... I was watching Tyler's Ultimate (Tyler Florence) on Food Network while the kids napped yesterday and he was making parfaits with homemade granola. The granola looked yummy that I scavenged my kitchen and it turned out I had everything needed to make this granola (with a few minor changes)!

I changed up the recipe just a little from the original.

Here are the changes I made:

* I substituted sunflower seeds for flax seeds because I didn't have any flax
* I used 1/2 brown sugar and 1/2 maple sugar instead of all brown sugar
* I also did not add any dried fruit to it because I had to leave the house as soon as I took it out of the oven and by the time I came home 4.5 hours later, it was obviously already cool and I couldn't be bothered!
* Because I live at high altitude and things tend to take FOREVER to bake, I baked for 20 min. on the recommended 300F and then raised the temp. to 325F for the remaining 20 minutes and it turned out perfectly!!

You should give it a try. It was super easy and turned out to be very yummy. I even had some in my yogurt this morning!!!

Oh my spelt bread heaven!

I made homeade bread for the first time today. Well, that's not true really, I've made quick breads before, but never real bread (you know the kind that actually have yeast rather than baking soda/powder and salt and you have to knead them and let them rise, etc)!

The bread I made was spelt bread and I used this recipe. Let me just say that it was super easy and much quicker than I thought it would be. Since I don't have a bread machine I thought it would take ages to do all the kneading and rising, etc. But I was pleasantly surprised by this recipe.

It's actually suppose to be baked in two 9" pans, but I had one 9" and one 8" and the 8" one puffed out the top and was really tall (that's it in the photo)!

This is the yummiest bread I have ever tasted and it's totally 100% healthy!! The spelt makes it so light and fluffy and the taste is perfect. Because I live at high altitude (6,500') I had to alter it just a little and ended up using around 5 1/4 cups of flour rather than 4 1/2, but if you live at high altitude you already know that you must add more flour (or less liquid) to make baked good work properly.....

Why am I making homemade bread? For two reasons:
1) It's way cheaper and this recipe made more than a commercial loaf of bread. I figured it up to be $1.70 for this recipe and the commercial (non-hydrogenated, non-high fructose corn syrup) loaves costs $3.17. Yikes, that's a savings of 54% per loaf!
2) Eli was recently diagnosed with asthma (he currently has pneumonia to go along with it) and now that I actually know what has caused all of his lung issues (croup as many as 10 times and RSV at least once, but I think 2x) since he was little I am going to start combatting the illness 'holistically.' Right now he is using a nebulizer with steroids to get his lungs back to normal since he's been really sick and I really don't want him on medicine for the rest of his life when asthma can be directly related to diet. He also has severe eczema which is also directly related to food sensitivities. Wheat is a huge contributing factor for both ailments (along with dairy, soy and sugar). We already don't do soy products for various other reasons, so I'm going to start testing him for sensitivities to those other items listed. I'm going to completely cut out everything on the BAD list (over a period of time - not gung-ho because they might revolt and not eat at all if I did that!) and see how he does and then we'll add things back one at a time every couple of weeks to see if I can determine what his sensitivities are. The eczema will probably be easier to figure out, the lung issues may take more time. Or this may be a permanent dietary change for all of us.

So, I tried the spelt bread recipe today to see if we would like it and if it would be a viable option for a wheat alternative. I also made homemade pizza yesterday with a spelt crust and homemade sauce and it was sooooo yummy. I really like the flavor of spelt, have I already mentioned that!? We will also be experimenting with non-wheat pastas and I bought rice crackers today and the boys really liked them. As far as sugar goes, I already use stevia some and another organic non-refined sugar so I think we'll just have to get accustomed to the stevia (contrary to what the research says, I DO think it has a bitter aftertaste....) and start using that as a sugar replacement. The dairy will be the hardest for Eli (I don't mind so much for myself because I only tolerate cow's milk in my cereal and have been on a dairy free diet before and milk and cheese alternatives are fine with me). Eli loves cow's milk and cheese, etc, however, I've known for a while that he had some sort of dairy sensitivity because he drinks lactose free milk. We'll probably switch him to almond milk (YUMMY!!!!) or rice milk with alternate cheese as well. We've also added a calcium supplement to the boys' regimine since we won't be taking in as much dairy. They now get a probiotic, multi vit., whole food supplement, calcium and cod liver oil daily.

Any suggestions from anyone who has cured/controlled their own or their child's asthma by diet alone would be greatly appreciated. I already have one friend who has done this with her 2 children and walked another friend thru it and all have been symptom free for over a year now! Not even a sniffle or winter cold for the first friend's kids (don't know about the other friend).

Holy Nalgene Bottles, Batman!

Ok, so it's not as bad as I make it sound. Really, I only had 3 pieces of really bad plastic in my entire kitchen but those three pieces were all 3 of my water bottles that I take to the gym each week...... and I found no other plastics (tupperware type stuff and drinking cups included) that was on the AVOID list (except for the entire stash of Avent baby bottles that Jacob and Eli drank out of for the first 8-9 months of their lives [I didn't actually check the bottles because they are in the crawl space, but on the link I provided below, they are listed as a #7, you can bet I'll be checking that out as soon as I can get into the crawl space]). Tell me, what good is it feeding your children breastmilk if the bottle you're feeding them with could be poisoning them. Good thing I'm not going to be working out of the house with this one and don't have to worry about bottles.... If I do, I'll invest in some new ones that are safe - or maybe even the glass ones.

Here's the scoop: Avoid plastics #3, 6 & 7 and if I'm not mistaken, 7 is the worst (the one with high levels of BPA). Everything else is suppose to be ok. So take a guess as to which one ALL of my culprits were, yep, #7.

I found this link that was really helpful in determining a few of my items that didn't have numbers on them.

~*~Edit on 4/24: Stephanie at Keeper of the Home wrote a wonderful post today giving some more information on BPA and possibly being able to return your #7 plastics for a full refund!

Menu Plan Monday - 4/7/08

I'm succeeding so far! I know, it's only week 2 that I've been doing Menu Plan Monday but I'm really enjoying menu planning. Plus, as I mentioned in last week's menu, it really helps the budget.

I've recently taken the time to make a list of all of my master meals (basically any meals that I prepare all the time and the family enjoys). I've categorized them by what type of entree they are (chicken, beef, no meat, bean based, etc.). This has helped me tremendously in not having to think of what meals I have to choose from when I'm planning my menu for the week. I have it all right there in front of me. I also made a list of all sides that go over well in our family. It's really nice to have it all right there in front of me in a notebook (and my recipe box to use when actually cooking) and I can basically just pick and choose my entree and sides. I try to alternate the type of protein we have - so we don't have chicken 4 days in a row. My new goal is one new recipe per week (to gain some variety). I'm finding I like my new system very much!!

As for last week's menu, I did make everything on my menu! And we even had one new recipe the lemon chicken with dried figs. I really enjoyed it, but Michael said he didn't really care for the sweet figs with the onions, cilantro, garlic and lemon juice. So, I'm sure I'll make it again, but next time I will probably leave out the figs because I'm sure the sauce will be really yummy even without the figs!

On to the menu:

* Monday: Chicken and quinoa stew (new recipe) and also this will be the first time we're trying quinoa. I have no doubt I'll like it, but we'll see about the rest of the crew!

* Tuesday: Green salad (with whatever veggies I have on hand) with chicken on top

* Wednesday: Sloppy joes served on 100% whole grain bread

* Thursday: Baked lemon pepper Tilapia with steamed veggies and rice

* Friday: No meal. Michael is taking Jacob to opening night of the local AAA baseball team with some friends. It will just be Eli and I, we'll probably eat out for a date!

* Saturday: My free day - if I need to make lunch it will be tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches

* Sunday: Meatloaf with roasted potatoes and green beans

Homemade yogurt

I made my own yogurt today and I feel so accomplished!! I was also totally astonished at how easy it was and how extremely inexpensive (I'll detail that later) it was.

I used my Super Baby Food book for guidance. In it the author, Ruth Yaron, explained in detail how she always made her own yogurt for her children - among all the other healthful things she did/does.

I bought a yogurt starter from Whole Foods rather than using premade, commercial, plain yogurt as my starter. The starter came with 6 packets of freeze dried live active cultures for $3.99. I used 2 packets in my first batch because it's one packet per quart and I used 2 quarts of milk. I will reuse my own yogurt as my starter for the next many batches (probably several months) so won't dip into my store bought supply for a while.

So, the basics of what I did are as follows:

* Scald the milk (bring it to a boil (or 185 F) SLOWLY in a stainless pot) I just stuck my candy thermometer on the side and let it slowly heat to 185

* Removed from heat - left the thermometer inside and let it cool to 115 F

* Sat the thermometer on the rack in the oven and preheated my oven to the lowest temp. it would set for (it's all digital and 170 was the lowest it would go), then turned it off and cracked the door until the temp. dropped to 120 (ideal incubation temp. is between 100-115).

* Poured a little milk into one of the jars (I just used pint -16oz- mason jars) and mixed in the two packets of starter and stirred until the starter was dissolved.

* Returned that back to the pot and mixed it all in well

* Filled each jar appx. 3/4 full and put the lids on (pretty loosely)

* Placed all jars inside a rectangle cake pan for stability then sat the pan in the oven and turned the light on.

* The oven was cooled to around 115 and stayed there for the duration of the incubation -5.5 hours- the light being left on kept it just warm enough after the initial preheat to keep it at a perfect temperature for the bacteria cultures to activate.

I know all these steps seem really complicated but really it was super easy. The only thing it required was me planning to make the yogurt on a day I would be home all day and just keeping an eye on the temp. of the oven.

It's been in the fridge since about 4:30 this afternoon cooling and I have just now tasted it for the first time and it's pretty good for a first-timer! It's a little stronger than I would normally like (but a little honey mixed in will fix that), which means I kept it a little too warm. Next time I think I'll just turn the oven light on while I'm doing all the prep and by the time I get ready to put it all in, it should be just the right temp. - no preheating and then cooling the oven. Trial and error.....

Here's the best part of making your own yogurt: I get my milk for free thru a state program for low income families (US residents will know this as WIC) and since I'm pregnant now we get so much milk that we can hardly use it all (I get 5 gallons/month, Jacob gets 2 and Eli gets 3), so essentially all it cost me to make this yogurt was $1.33 (for 1/3 of the yogurt starter pack I bought). I would normally buy organic 6oz containers of yogurt and those are $.99 EACH. So I basically saved $7.60 for 2 weeks worth of yogurt. I know it doesn't seem like a lot to some of you, but trust me, it is a lot to us - that's $15 extra/month added back to my grocery/cleaning supply/diaper budget. And because it's so much cheaper we can actually use more than we normally would - this means extra parfaits and smoothies for us. YUM!

Menu Plan Monday

I'm following the lead of another Laura and posting my menu plan for the week. I have been writing out my weekly menus off-and-on for a while and decided that its better for the budget to stick with it. This way I buy only the foods I need to make the next 2 weeks worth of meals (or use things I already have) and any snack or kid type things we've run out of since the last grocery shopping adventure. I only shop 2x per month for the big stuff and try to go once in between each major trip for fresh fruits and veggies, so this will definitely help me buy more intentionally. I'm really anticipating the first Tuesday in May, though, so I can start shopping at the local Farmer's Market each week for locally grown produce at a much better price than the organic items at the health food store.

So here is my menu for this week:

Monday - pancakes, eggs, toast (we love to have breakfast for dinner on occasion)

Tuesday - Homemade tacos with all the trimmings (including homemeade salsa!)

Wednesday - Lemon chicken with dried figs and steamed veggies

Thursday - Shepherd's pie

Friday and Saturday - we typically eat out or use up what's hanging out in the fridge on Friday and Saturday.

Sunday - chicken enchiladas

I typically try to make something on Sunday thru Thursday that will provide left overs for Michael to take to work the following day. However, tonights meal of pancakes/eggs will not make leftovers. I need to use up some eggs and I have to go grocery shopping still (which I will do after dinner tonight).

We are also trying a new recipe on Wednesday and I will let you all know on next week's menu post how it was and if everyone enjoyed it.