The Challenge

Using up some of our meat and poultry stores will admittedly
help prevent lack of rotation and tossing freezer burned items. 

At the beginning of the week, Hubs pointed out that we have a "full" pantry and a pretty well stocked deep freeze. He mentioned that we probably have at least a month worth of food. That may very well be accurate. I tend to shop sales and buy in bulk so that I maintain a well stocked pantry. I figure, that way, should our budget tighten or if I'm not able to get to the store for whatever reason for a couple of weeks, we are still usually in a pretty good spot and won't be hungry. Most of my cooking is based on using what I have on hand instead of deciding ahead of time what I'm going to make and then buying food to go along with it.

Thus enters the challenge. Could we actually make do with what we have on hand for a month? How about longer? Well, I'm going to start with a month. The challenge allows me to purchase some things that may not last or we go through quickly like bread (though usually I make my own), milk, and eggs.

Planning this month's meals, complete
with a few trash meals of not so healthy
foods. It's all about balance, right?

I've recently been trying to plan meals better. Not so much to buy for the menu, but create a menu based on what we have on hand. This helps me plan out our meals for the next month, especially if I'm not making purchases for things like meats and veggies. I can ration them out if needed.

No fears, I have plenty of tomato sauce.

One of the biggest challenges for me will be the lack of fresh produce. I'll have to depend on dry beans and frozen veggies for meals. I'll likely have to use some dried fruits for school lunches and snacks like raisins and fruit leather. It's a good thing I have a stash of frozen fruit - it's a great way to store fruit for future fruit leather or fruit snack use.

Another issue that made the timing of this challenge difficult is that I had several of the kids' snack items on my shopping list already. That means I'll have to get creative making snack items for school lunches and snacking at home. I probably shouldn't, but I rely on some crackers for easy, portable snacks, so we'll have to see what I can come up with.

We are nearing the end of the first week of this challenge. Typically breakfasts and lunches are easy, quick things, I don't usually cook for them unless I'm making something simple like an omelet or scrambled eggs. Over the duration of this challenge, I'll share the meals I've prepared and how I manage to make up for lack of easy snack foods for the kiddos.

This week's dinners were/are as follows:

Sunday - frozen pizza (no jabs about health factor here, sometimes I still rely on crappy food)
Monday - chicken chili (crock pot meal due to t-ball practice)
Tuesday - leftovers (I was feeling lazy and we had some red beans and rice and remnants of some other meals hanging out in the fridge)
Wednesday - burgers and fries (homemade burgers and buns)
Thursday - spaghetti and broccoli (ok, I used rotini instead of spaghetti, but it might as well be the same thing; homemade spaghetti sauce, of course)
Friday - teriyaki salmon and green beans (homemade sauce)
Saturday - chicken spaghetti

Homemade raisins, anyone?

Various things I've been working on in the kitchen to prep include finishing off the rest of our tomatoes for tomato sauce, started dehydrating the excessive grape stash for raisins (we were running out of raisins anyway), made two pots of shredded chicken/chicken broth, and made mango fruit leather. I have additional plans for more fruit leather, making fruit snacks, cooking up some dry beans for freezing, making apple sauce with some softening apples I have hanging around, making another batch of yogurt, making bouillon, and mixing up some homemade ice cream because I have some heavy cream that I don't want to go bad. It's ambitious and may not all get done before the week is out, but I'll get started on a bunch of it in the next couple of days.

Sadly, I couldn't even make it one week without a stop at the store. We were out of milk, so I stopped by yesterday to grab two gallons.

Stay posted for more updates as I see how this challenge works out for us!

Homemade Fruit Roll-ups/Fruit Leather

This post originally was seen on one of my other blogs My Mommy Blog about 2 years ago. Fruit leather is still one of my favorite tasty snack for my kiddos. Here is my step-by-step instructions, but really, it's all about picking a fruit, pureeing, adding sweetener (if desired), and dehydrating. Don't forget the pretty pictures. =)

On Cooking for Kids - Homemade Fruit Roll-ups/Fruit Leather

These were blackberry and banana fruit rolls. They looked
much better than they tasted, possibly because I'm not a fan
of super ripe bananas and the ones I used were pretty brown.
The kiddos didn't like them much either.

When I first was introduced to fruit leather, I was really confused. It sounded weird. Then I came to realize that it's basically strips of dehydrated fruit and other ingredients made as a healthy alternative to artificial fruit snacks like fruit rolls and other treats that have very little actual fruit in them. Some moms I knew even made their own fruit leather. I was fascinated and as someone that typically has treats in the car, purse, and/or diaper bag for my kiddos, I was really interested in another healthy option that didn't require an ice pack. I hate carrying around fruit, cheese, and other fresh snacks because of the requirement for refrigeration. I don't want to forget something that would spoil in the diaper bag if I happened to leave it in the car - not to mention the fact that I cram my little diaper bag full so to carry and ice pack and other snacks, I'd often have to carry another bag - who wants to do that?

I began looking into making these fruit treats, but was disappointed to find that they required a dehydrator which I did not have. I continued looking for recipes and found that they could be made with some success in the oven. Not mine, apparently. I'd like to offer encouragement to those that don't have dehydrators, but I'm not a success story in that respect. My oven goes to a minimum temp of 170 which is not low enough to dehydrate the fruit without burning ends and leaving the middle soggy. Keeping the door open or cracked to minimize the temp is not only a waste of energy and a good way to make an A/C pointless, but it's also a hazard to little ones when you have to keep it going for 10-12 hours. Not to mention tying up the oven that long. I had a few failed attempts at trying to regulate the temperature to keep it low, turning the oven on and off, opening the door frequently, etc. It didn't end well.

I got a dehydrator. Not specifically for this, but it was one of many reasons (along with setting dill on fire in the microwave while trying to dry it, but that's another story). I'm so happy about this purchase and now I make fruit leather on a regular basis. I've experimented with a lot of different kinds and I have my favorite methods, so here's some more insight on what I've made and how I've done it:

Strawberries & Cherries
- These can be done raw and whole. I've used fresh strawberries as well as thawed, previously frozen strawberries. I've only used fresh cherries, but I'd guess results would be similar with thawed, previously frozen cherries as well. 1 lb of fruit puréed in the blender with about 2-4 Tbsp of honey makes a perfect mixture. The honey is optional, of course, but sometimes if the fruit isn't fully ripe and sweet, it needs a bit of enhancement

Blackberries & Raspberries
- These can also be done raw and I've used both fresh and thawed, previously frozen berries. It's best to strain out the seeds from the puréed fruit when you use these and similar fruits. The seeds are edible, of course, but it does a number on texture. Even if you have a high powered super blender that chops the seeds, you'll still end up with a gritty texture, so I'd still recommend straining. 12 oz of fruit & 2-4 Tbsp of honey

Watermelon
- This one was mostly experimental, but turned out great. After removing seeds, purée the watermelon and strain off the liquid. The fruit leather is then made from the remaining pulp. Don't worry, there is still plenty of flavor. Don't discard the juice, it makes for a nice refreshing drink. I'm not sure on measurements on this, I just filled my blender with chopped watermelon pieces, strained, and added some honey.

Grapes
- Seedless grapes make this a lot easier. I cooked the grapes on the stove on low heat with a little bit of water until they started popping like cranberries and then put them whole in the blender. I then put them back on the stove on low heat and cooked down some more. I've only done this with red grapes, but I'm sure any variety would work. Once the grapes are thickened, you can set them up to dehydrate. 1 lb of fruit 2-4 Tbsp honey on this as well.

Apples & Cranberries
- For these, I set up my homemade sauces. I make unsweetened apple sauce from fresh apples (cook peeled apples with a small amount of water on the stove on low heat, purée once mushy to give a smooth texture), so for apple fruit leather, I just use that and sprinkle on cinnamon and sugar. I had made an excess of cranberry sauce from fresh cranberries for Thanksgiving last year and just used the sauce as-is for fruit leather - worked wonderfully.

I'm wanting to experiment with more fruit, but it will come as time goes on. I'll keep updating this blog with new ideas that have worked.

Ok, so, step by step:

Prepare fruit as described above, filling blender and purée.

Strain if necessary and blend again adding honey (or other sweetener of choice if any). You can see I'm really precise about measuring my honey.

The result after cooking and puréeing or just puréeing should be a relatively smooth liquid. If it is not smooth, blend for longer. If it is too runny, like in the case of watermelon, you may need to strain off some excess liquid so it doesn't run everywhere on your tray.

So, once you have your liquefied fruit mix, pour it out onto your dehydrator sheet. I like to oil mine because my sheets are not non-stick, and believe me, it will stick. Use your favorite oil or non-stick spray. Don't go overboard, you don't want the resultant fruit leather to be greasy.

I prefer not to spread it out too much because it will get significantly thinner as it dehydrates. Thicker pools will take longer, but result in thicker fruit strips, so this is what I prefer. In the picture below, it is spread out much more than I like and you can see it starting to creep out of the holes on the edge of the tray. That equals a big mess.

The temp setting may vary, but I like to do mine around 130 degrees. I do check on it from time to time and lower the temp if the edges are dehydrating too quickly or there are "cracks" developing. Alternately, I will increase the temp if it's going too slowly. The whole process can take 10-15 hours depending on the temp, fruit, and moisture content. In the picture below, you can see a "crack" in the upper left corner of the finished fruit. This is because it dehydrated unevenly. If your heat is too high, this can happen, so if you see it, you can cut back the temp. It doesn't ruin it, but it may not look as pretty and cut up as neatly, so it's entirely up to you.

Once the fruit is done, I peel it off the sheets and cut into 1 1/2 - 2 in strips that are about 3 - 4 in long depending on how big the whole fruit piece is. I like to use a pizza cutter for ease. You can cut them whatever size you like. I used to cut them to about fruit roll-up size and roll them, but I've been doing strips more lately because it's easier. And they last longer since the kids aren't eating such big pieces at a time.

And for a pretty display, you can roll them up and show them off.

I hope this helps if you are ever interested in making some of your own! Once you get the hang of it, you'll be able to make them easily and quickly. Strawberry are by far the most common ones I make, but I enjoy trying new things. It's also a great way to prolong the life of certain fruits that aren't getting consumed quickly enough.

Have you made fruit leather? What fruits and combos have you made?

Homemade Peanut Butter

I think among all the crunchy things that conventional individuals are likely to indulge in, natural peanut butter has got to be pretty high on the list of popularity. Granted, this is pure speculation, but it makes sense that this might be the case considering society's war on sugar. Ok, maybe I made this war up too, but there does seem to be a lot of emphasis on cutting back on sugar and peanut butter is an easy way to do it. Most conventional peanut butters are made with peanuts and sugar among other additives. If you ask me, I think the actual peanut flavor is dulled rather than enhanced by the sugar, but that's me. Either way, you are never hard-pressed to find natural peanut butter at even the most conventional of stores and some even have their own peanut butter machines so you can get it freshly ground in the store.

Crazy, these ingredients, in something
as simple as peanut butter

So why then, if it's so readily available would I make it myself? Well, the reality is that it may be easy to find, but it also can be expensive. A jar of natural peanut butter can run about $4 (at least where I've compared prices) for a 12 oz container. If you go through peanut butter like my kids do at times, that can seriously add up. I mean, my oldest ate peanut butter every day for the first 2/3 of the school year. That's a lot of peanut butter. On the flip-side, I can make approximately the same amount (or a little more) for less than $3. It doesn't sound like a lot of savings, but it can really add up.

Roasted salted peanuts

So, here goes with how I make it. You may be surprised to discover that you don't need any fancy equipment. Just peanuts and a food processor. A storage container is a good idea too. Maybe a measuring cup, but even that is negotiable. 

I typically will buy my peanuts in the bulk foods section at my local HEB (the benefits of living in Texas - unless you are in the Dallas area). I get the dry roasted salted. You could opt for unsalted, but your peanut butter might be a bit bland. You could also go all fancy and get honey roasted. I seriously want to try this sometime, but only for a treat. No way could that be our everyday peanut butter.

3 cups of peanuts make roughly a pound, and this is the amout I typically make at a time. It fits easily into a pint sized mason jar, filling it most the way, but not full - maybe 14-15 fluid oz.

3 cups fills my bowl about halfway.
Don't be worried if you don't have a high
speed blender. I used to make it the same
way in a really basic Black & Decker,
it just takes a bit more time, but the
results are the same.

So here's what you do: put the peanuts in your food processor and turn it on high. You may want ear plugs. Add that to the list of supplies. It is loud. That's basically it. The hardest part is waiting during the loud noise. I do stop mine periodically to check progress and scrape down the sides, but aside from that, it's a waiting game.

Peanut powder

Starting to release oils. Though it may
be the thickness you expect, it is
not ready at this point and will be very
grainy and dry.

When it first starts, the peanuts will get chopped into a fine powder. You may think it's not working, but just wait. The heat built up from the friction as well as the continued grinding of the peanuts will cause them to start releasing their oil and it will start to become more liquid. Once it starts to look smooth, you may think you are done. Don't be fooled. If you taste a sample when it first starts smoothing out, that will be the driest peanut butter you have ever tasted. It needs to go for longer. Don't despair if your processor gets hot, you can alway pause mid-process to let it cool then pick it up again.  Keep processing until it's more liquidy than you think peanut butter should be. When it's done, it will probably pour easier than mayo if you need a viscosity visual. Feel free to taste test for palatability and texture.

A nice shiny thick liquid is what you'll see
when it's ready.

This peanut butter pours easily when
freshly made.

I will be perfectly honest, it likely won't be exactly as perfectly velvety smooth as packaged commercial peanut butter. It may have a slightly grainy texture when eaten straight. In my experience though, once it is in a sandwich or fudge, you don't notice it.

Yum!

That's it. You are done. Yummy homemade peanut butter and bragging rights. I keep mine in the fridge, though it gets left on the counter quite a bit since it's easier to deal with a bit softer and more liquid. I have only ever experienced it separating once, and it was in the fridge, so I don't know what happened there. Regardless, when it comes to storage, Do what feels best to you. I really don't know shelf life since ours is always gone before it goes bad. With mostly fridge storage, ours stays good for at least a couple weeks.

I like labeling my jars with Shapies. It comes right off when
cleaned and leaves no residue like sticker labels.

 Happy grinding!


UPDATE!!!

Just after I finished posting this, I tried my hand at almond butter. The process is the same as with peanut butter, but what I found was that almonds are painfully slow at releasing their oil. Painfully slow. I had to stop my food processor multiple times mid-process to let it cool down. In the end though, I had beautiful, almond butter. I used 3 cups of almonds and about 1/2 tsp of salt. Delish!
 

Homemade Chicken Broth

There was a time not too long ago that I never felt I had a need for chicken broth. Sounds strange, right? Or not, depending on where you are. I basically kept bouillon cubes (or granulated bouillon) around just in case broth was needed, but I rarely ever used them. I'm not exactly sure what triggered the change, likely my discovery of the pressure cooker, but now it seems like I go into a panic if I'm out.

I'll make a broth out of anything. My pressure cooker is my best friend for this. And it all started about four years ago...

When I was very pregnant with my second and my hubby was working off-shore, my father-in-law came into town to make sure someone was around in case I popped. He showed me the wonder of the pressure cooker while he was visiting. Until then, it was a scary and mysterious pot looking thing that stayed stashed in my cabinet unused. When I discovered I could make shredded chicken to have on hand, I was sold. How incredibly convenient! Believe it or not, I still have yet to learn the art of cooking a chicken for shredding in a slow cooker. Oh well.

So now, shredded chicken and it's by-product friend, the broth are now staples at my house. As is pretty much any broth I can save from anything I make up. Got leftover carcasses? Lemme at it! And really, I'm not even all about the whole bone broth thing, I just like being able to use a more flavorful base than water with ingredients I control and without extra preservatives. If they happen to have extra nutrients, all the better!

So, now to the nitty gritty... How do I make it, and how do I use the pressure cooker to do so?

First off, my pressure cooker is old school. I have no idea how to use a programmable one or anything with dials and buttons. Mine has a pot, a lid, and a tippler. That's about it. The lid has a pressure lock that prevents the pot from being opened while pressurized, but that's about as fancy as it gets.

So, basic instructions, start with water. I usually just fill the pot about halfway. Depending on how much additional stuff I throw in, the water level may get too high, so I try to be conservative when I start. I'd rather add more water than have to pull some out. I put the chicken in which in my case is usually boneless skinless breast pieces. I've done a whole chicken, but the bones disintegrate and are sort of a pain to deal with, so I'd rather not do that. Hubs prefers just the white meat anyway, so that's usually what I have on hand.

After the chicken, the aromatics. In most cases, I stick with the basics - carrots, celery, onions, and garlic. If I have something else around that won't otherwise get used, I'll throw that in as well, but in most cases, I'd reserve that for a veggie stock later. Usually it's 2-3 carrots, 2-3 stalks (sticks, branches, whatever you call them - not 2-3 whole heads) of celery with leaves, half a dozen cloves of garlic, and up to about half an onion. I add salt and pepper and that's about it.

I fill up to the top line with more water if needed and close the whole thing up. The heat is turned on high to bring it to a boil and pressurize. This can take about 10-20 minutes. Once pressurized, I'll turn down the heat to medium and cook for 30 minutes. When done, I'll remove from heat and let the pressure drop. I read somewhere that if you let it depressurize on it's own, that it will make the meat juicier since the liquid (and associated nutrients) that have left it will have time to seep back in. If you quickly depressurize (for instance, I can drop the pressure and unlock it by running water over the top), the nutrients will stay in the liquid and the meat will be drier. I can't really say for sure. I think the pressure cooker usually makes a drier meat comparatively and I haven't noticed a difference from fast or slow depressurization, so I usually make the judgment call based on how much time I've got. Since I'm using the meat and the broth anyway, we'll get the nutrients no matter where they end up. When you open it up, it looks like this:

I pull out the meat with tongs, taking care to get all the little pieces I can find that have fallen off. It will literally fall apart on it's own. I'll set the chicken aside to let it cool a bit before handling. Once it has had time to cool, I'll use a couple of forks and pull it apart. I divide it up into zip top bags - usually two chicken breasts per bag - and squash them flat. This way, they stack and store easier in the freezer. In most cases, I label them with at least the date.

I let the rest of the pot sit and cool a bit (well most of the time). Then I'll pour it through a strainer into a holding container. Straining it this way gets all the big chunks out before I refrigerate it. For this purpose, my favorite container is my big 8 cup batter bowl. I usually fill it up and also my 4 cup batter bowl. I have also used large pitchers, so whatever you have on hand will work. Just a big enough container or combo of containers to hold it all. I will typically yield 8-10 cups total. Once it has cooled sufficiently, I put the lid on and put it in the fridge to sit at least over night.

The next day (or the next, or the next), I will put my broth out of the refrigerator. It looks like this. The fat congeals on the top and doesn't look terribly appetizing, but hey, that's me. I skim off what I can and discard it.

The next step is another strain and storage. My fancy set up for this includes a coffee filter, a funnel, and a pitcher. I love the fine mesh of the coffee strainer. It makes this part so much easier by trapping all the extra bits of fat or larger chunks of pepper and the random sludge that is inevitably left in the broth. I pour it through the strainer into the pitcher. The funnel is basically to help keep it from being messy and it has a nice rim that helps the whole system prop nicely at the top of the pitcher so I don't risk dropping the filter in. Once strained the final time, I'll then measure out two cups at a time and pour it into freezer bags. I label them and lay them flat for storage. In the freezer they go! I like to do 2 cups at a time because that is roughly equivalent to a can of broth and many recipes call for 2 cups. It just makes my life easier. As an added tip, it's a good idea to put your bags in a bowl as they defrost. Random holes seem to appear in the bags, likely from bumping corners, but to avoid broth loss when defrosting, I usually place in a bowl or container just in case there is a hole somewhere in the bag.

In a future post, I will show you how I make my own powdered bouillon. You read that right. Many people will show you how to make bouillon ice cubes, but I go as far as to powder it. Keep an eye out for that post!

Until next time...

Homemade Chili

"You make your own chili?" I get asked. "What recipe do you use?"

Um… Recipe?

Well…

The truth is I don't think I've ever made chili the same way twice. There are basic components that I add every time I make it, but something is always a little bit different and the end result always has its own unique flavor.

Tonight's meat selection was 1 lb pork sausage,
1 lb ground beef, 1 lb ground venison

On a typical weeknight when I'm cooking for family of four, I start out with 3 pounds of meat. This is definitely a high meat to person ratio, but for the purposes of chili that's just how it works out. Of course, that also means plenty of leftovers for easy lunches for several days. The actual meat that I use changes depending on what I have in the house. I almost always have at least 1 pound of sausage. The other 2 pounds are usually some type of burger. My favorite thing to use is game meat, especially elk because it adds is a fantastic flavor. Venison would be my second favorite. Of course, there are plenty of other types of game meat that I have yet to try which could create a truly phenomenal chili, but I'm thankful when I can get game meat because neither my husband nor I hunt. 

Next on the list is tomatoes. This is where I "sneak in" veggies because my family typically doesn't care for them. As such, I prefer to use my own homemade tomato sauce. When I make it up, I usually store it in pint-size mason jars and one jar is plenty for the 3 pounds of meat. Because my homemade tomato sauce is whole fruit tomato sauce with several other added veggies, we get the benefit of all of the fiber and all of the goodies that those veggies and fruit have to offer.

The next component of the chili is where I fail as a Texas citizen. I typically add beans. Everyone knows real Texas chili does not have beans. While I still tend to prefer my chili without beans, I add them as another attempt to add more veggies, especially fiber, to the diet of my boys. We'll just ignore right here that I don't even consider mature beans to be a real veggie anyway. I typically opt for small red beans for my chili, but I've used pintos in a pinch. I like to cook up a bunch of dry beans all at once and store in pint-size mason jars. 1 jar works for this amount of chili.

So that pretty much covers all the major components the next thing which certainly can't be left out would be the seasonings. So here are the seasonings that I typically use for my chili.

What, measure? Nah...
I mostly just season to taste. I
couldn't tell you actual amounts.

Notice anything strange? You probably do. While I do use the typical chili powder and garlic salt in a large quantities in my chili there are several other things that I add. Also not particularly surprising are the onion powder and pepper. Given that I use sausage and garlic salt (and likely salted the beans), there really is no need to add any more salt to this chili. I like to add oregano because well, hey, lets add more healthy nutrients! Also, something I learned from making spaghetti sauce from my mom - don't underestimate the spiciness that you can get from oregano. May sound strange, but it adds a nice touch. So, here is where the unusual ingredients come in. I use a dash of cumin, because well, I like cumin. It adds a unique flavor, but it's one of those things that are added such that you get the undertones, but don't really taste it or smell it above anything else. It blends nicely, but it has to be used sparingly. Even more sparingly used is the cinnamon. One might think that cinnamon doesn't belong in chili, but the tiniest amount can help balance out the flavor. The tiniest amount is all that's needed. You won't taste or smell it at all (unless I added too much), but it really helps to round things out. This was a suggestion from my hubby and I thought he was off his rocker when he mentioned it the first time, but wouldn't you know, he was right.

So, to put it all together, I typically put the tomato sauce in the crock pot, add a bunch of the spices, and stir it all together. I put the crock pot on high and let it work on heating up. Then I brown the meat. I usually do just one pound at a time simply because it's easier to handle with the size of my fry pan. I strain off some of the fat, but I don't stress about it too much, especially if I'm using mostly venison since it needs all the extra fat it can get so it's not too dry. I add the meat to the crock pot stirring after each addition. After all the meat has been added, I usually switch the crock pot to low. I'll taste test every 30 min or so to see how everything is coming together and add more spices if needed. The chili will sit for several hours or just one depending on how on top of things I am and how early I started.

Fritos scoops are the best for eating
chili sans spoon. =)

Chili in my house is always served with Fritos and cheese. If you are weird like me, you add sour cream. I passed this on to my kids. Hubs is not amused.

So, there you have it. Yummy chili! If you try it yourself, don't stress if you don't have all the things I do. Make it your own. If you are more crunchy, you'll skip on the Fritos and use organic meat, cheese, spices, etc. If you are less crunchy, feel free to use canned tomato sauce and canned beans. It's all good. =)

Yum! Lots of sour cream. I know I'm unusual on this one.

Not crunchy, chewy

I'm a bit of an anomaly. In the social circle I joined after becoming a mom, I learned a few things. Breastfeeding is considered "crunchy," as are cloth diapering and baby wearing. All three of these I did, so as a result, I identified much more with the granola moms than with more mainstream or conventional moms. In this mom journey, we learn. We learn how to parent and we learn about ourselves. Sometimes that means taking sides and being on top of hot button topics and sometimes that means just trying to stay above water.

So here we were, crunchy moms of suburbia. Honestly, at first, I didn't even know what the terms "crunchy" and "granola" meant, but I figured it out. Turns out, many if these crunchy individuals also are pretty passionate about health and nutrition too. Now, here, I could definitely get on board, as nutrition has long been a passion of mine. Now granted, my main focus has always been nutrition for our furry friends, but there is a decent amount of crossover - though not all standards hold true. 

Fresh fruits and veggies, you know, so you
know I'm legit.

Through my fellow crunchy moms I learned about all kinds of mysterious things like kombucha and quinoa, phytates and lacto-fermentation. And that's when I feel my education really started to pick up again and my passion for nutrition developed a new spark. You see, I was a science major in college, so I am a fan of science. And granted, while many things change as we discover more about this world of ours, the internet has made available a veritable Pandora's box of information. We all sludge through what we can, trying to find the truth, which often sends us down a rabbit hole never to return. Other times, it merely acts as confirmation. Ok, let's be honest, no matter your original stance, you can almost assuredly find someone or something to back it up, hence the danger. But I digress. Regardless, my exploration of nutrition started expanding more than it had before.

Ok, so, what does all this mean and why on earth am I rambling on in a blog. Well, you see, I have decided on a set standard for the nutrition for my family (ok, maybe a soft standard). As guided and challenged by my fellow foodie compatriots (you know crunchy people with a passion for food), I've climbed over many, many hurdles to land where I am now and I'm still growing/changing. It has involved a lot of research - if you acknowledge at least a few scientific sources available on the internet, challenging ideas I've heard, learning new things, strengthening my cooking skills, and trying to keep a level head when faced with claims that pretty much everything is going to kill you. So, along those lines through various discussions about the latest food concerns and fads and swapping recipes and kitchen secrets, it has been suggested that I share some of what I do in my kitchen. So, here it is, Chewy Granola (the anomaly) - where I hold to ideals of home cooking from scratch and trying to part with processed foods but refuse to give up my zebra cakes and frozen pizza (because ironically, I hate cooking, so fast dinners when I'm slacking are a must). I'm a little granola, but not enough to be the crunchy kind.