They Serve you WHAT at School???

My oldest daughter started Kindergarten in public school this fall. It’s been such a new and exciting process for her. And for my husband and I too, since neither of us grew up in the United States. We were so nervous about what “real” school was going to be like and whether she was going to adjust and make friends easily. Now, two months into the school year, we’re happy to report that she loves it and so do we! The teachers and administrators are amazing, the PTO is made up of very committed parents and the kids are diverse and (for the most part) come from families where education is a top priority.

But as the saying goes, “into each life some rain must fall.” Which brings me to public school lunch. We’ve all heard about the dismal state of school lunch programs in this country. Some of you may have watched Jamie Oliver’s “Food Revolution” a few months ago and, like me, groaned aloud at people’s attitudes towards food and what we are willing to feed our children. You know all about the obesity epidemic that has been sweeping the nation. It’s so deeply disturbing. One quick look at most public school lunch menus and it’s easy to see one of the causes of this problem.

I have often shaken my head at the appalling stories in the media about school lunches but never had to deal with it directly until now. And I never fully appreciated why it’s been so hard to make the changes needed to provide school kids with healthy and delicious meals but I do now. The crux of the problem is $$$. The sad truth is that for now, healthy meals just cost more than processed food. The school lunch in our district only costs $1.85 per child and even that is too high for some families who qualify for “reduced lunch” and only pay $0.40.



Picture Courtesy Smiling Green Mom



The choices at lunch in my daughter’s school typically range from cheese burgers, corn dogs and pizza to more “exotic” choices like Frito pie, chili and fried chicken sandwiches. The vegetables are French fries and occasionally carrot sticks, some fresh fruit and cookies/cake. There is no salad bar. At least they finally got rid of the flavored milk. What is a working mother who cares about her kids’ nutrition to do? Suck it up and make the kid take her own lunch to school everyday.

So, every Sunday, I struggle to come up with a lunch menu that I can make quickly, will be nutritious and that the world’s pickiest eater will actually eat. I won’t lie: it’s the longest, most painful hour of my entire week. But I have discovered some options that have been a hit.

• Hummus quesadillas – Basically, garden vegetable hummus (preferably one without any chemicals/preservatives) slathered between two lightly toasted whole wheat tortillas and cut into wedges. Great protein and fiber and most kids love it.
• Avocado quesadillas – Same concept as the hummus quesadillas using sliced avocados instead and sprinkled with salt, pepper and a little paprika.
• Margherita sandwiches – Sandwich slices of fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil between a Ciabatta roll or small baguette.
• Hummus with pita crackers, carrot and celery sticks – kids love dipping foods and there’s nothing unhealthy about this option.
• Peanut butter sandwiches – use an all-natural peanut butter and whole wheat bread. Add all-natural preserves if your kids like a PB&J (mine don’t).

All of these take minutes to put together in the morning. Make sure you add a serving of fresh fruit (or natural/organic applesauce) and low-fat milk/drinkable yogurt to the lunchbox for a healthy and filling lunch. I also sometimes throw in a little treat like a few chocolate-covered almonds, some small marshmallows or a couple of madeleines (mine love the ones from Starbucks….but I should get around to baking my own sometime).

In a pinch, I buy the healthy versions of Lunchables from Whole Foods – they come in a plastic container with four compartments: one for cubes of cheese, one for grapes or some other small fruit, one for protein – chicken salad, tuna salad, slices of turkey or ham, and one for whole wheat crackers. It hits the major food groups, is healthy and fast for those days when trying to make a lunch just isn’t an option. And if I don’t have one of these on hand and we’re running late, I give in and let her buy the school lunch which, sadly, makes her day!

More easy lunch ideas to follow over the next few weeks but I’d love to hear your ideas too – so bring them on! Remember, the lunches can’t be reheated, young kids are messy and they only have 25 minutes for lunch.

To follow the school debate more closely, check out Bettina Elias Siegel's blog The Lunch Tray. She gets it but even more importantly, she's working hard to DO something about it - hooray for champions like her!

Build a Recipe Repertoire

Everyone over the age of 15 should have a recipe repertoire. What I’m talking about is a set of simple, go-to recipes for dishes that you love, ones that you know how to cook without looking at a recipe and that you know will turn out perfectly every time. Or maybe they are your “signature” recipes. Ones that your friends and family beg you to cook for them every chance they get. Or recipes that elicit “oooohs” and “aaaahs” when you bring them to a potluck, not knowing how quickly and effortlessly you threw the dish together.

Why have a repertoire? Because everyone, including and maybe especially teenagers, should know how to cook a decent meal to feed themselves and the people around them with some basic pantry and/or fresh ingredients. There’s not always a recipe book at arm’s reach or an open restaurant or your Mom close by.

If you are just starting to cook or are evaluating the recipes in your repertoire, think about trying to master one recipe in every major food group. And keep it simple – the best recipes aren’t complicated but can still be flavorful, delicious and nutritious. Here are some ideas:

• Breakfast
• A classic omelet with herbs and/or cheese
• Savory breakfast casserole
• Appetizer
• Guacamole or a simple dip for chips or crudite
• Crostini
• Meat Entrée
• Grilled/broiled steak
• Roast chicken
• Chili or a stew
• Seafood Entrée
• Grilled/baked salmon
• Shrimp scampi
• Pasta
• Pasta with garlic and olive oil
• Macaroni & cheese
• Vegetable (as a side or a main dish)
• Mashed or baked potatoes
• Sautéed green beans
• Roasted carrots and root vegetables
• Spinach and mixed greens salad with chickpeas, walnuts and a light vinaigrette
• Sweets
• Chocolate dessert (mousse, brownies or cookies)
• Cheesecake
• Fruit pie

Once you’ve decided where you want to start, there are several places you can go to get a recipe so you can learn how to make the dish, try and perfect the technique and put your own unique spin on it.  The best place to start: family. Who better to be able to share with you recipes from your childhood or your heritage to remind you of home or to preserve before they’re gone? Or how about a friend whose cooking skills you admire?



Courtesy Simple Bites

There are always cookbooks (you know how I feel about those) – my suggestion for a great place to start is Mark Bittman’s How To Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food. It’s massive at almost 1,000 pages but don’t be intimidated by the size of the book. The recipes are simple and approachable with the beginner cook in mind. I love that he provides a solid, basic recipe and then variations to elevate the recipe to something great.  A few other great starter cookbooks are Jamie Oliver's Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook, any of the books by the folks at America’s Test Kitchen/Cook’s Illustrated, How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Heart by Pam Anderson and The Illustrated Quick Cook: Easy Entertaining, After-Work Recipes, Cheap Eats which has hundreds of easy recipes with pictures of each dish (very helpful when you are starting out). Simple Bites has this great list of cookbook picks just in time for the holidays.

Or you can eschew the cookbook route and hit the Internet. Here are some great recipe sites/blogs:

Epicurious

Food & Wine

101 Cookbooks (for vegetarian and vegan recipes)

Serious Eats

Tastebook (I will devote an entire post to how awesome Tastebook is soon)

Over the next few weeks, I will share some recipes from my repertoire. I hope you will come back to read the recipes and then try them out for yourself – they are all easy, fast and have my Indian flavor/spice twist. Like these Masala Scrambled Eggs. “Masala” is a catch-all Indian term for spicy mixture whether it's a wet or dry spice rub or just a spice paste. In this case, the masala comes from the addition of hot green chilies and toasted cumin seeds. This is a variation on a traditional Indian egg recipe known as Akoori or Bhurji except that these versions include tomatoes which I think is sacrilege!

Recipe: Lynn’s Masala Scrambled Eggs

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon vegetable or canola oil

½ teaspoon cumin seeds

1 small red onion, minced (about ¾ cup)

2 medium cloves garlic, minced

1-2 medium Thai or Serrano green chilies, minced (or less for tamer eggs)

½ teaspoon ginger paste (optional)

4 large eggs, beaten

1 tablespoon cream or half and half
1-2 tablespoons cilantro, finely chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Heat oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add cumin seeds. When the seeds have browned slightly, add onion and sauté till slightly brown, 5 to 7 minutes.
2. Once the onion begins to brown, add the garlic, chilies and ginger paste and sauté for 1 minute.
3. Add the chopped cilantro, salt and cream or half-and-half to the beaten eggs.
4. Turn the heat to low and add the egg mixture. Using a spatula or wooden spoon, scramble the eggs slowly in circular motions for about 1 minute or till the eggs are no longer runny but still creamy – less than 2 minutes.
5. Turn the eggs out onto a plate and add freshly cracked pepper and more salt to taste.

The eggs are great served in warm tortillas like a breakfast taco or with buttered toast. This recipe can be doubled or tripled easily for a larger crowd. And a side of thick-cut peppery bacon doesn't hurt :)

Cookbooks are my crack.

Here’s the long-awaited (haha!!) second post. It’s been a busy few weeks but then, it’s always been a busy few weeks. Sigh. The kick in the pants I needed to get to writing again was an e-mail from Amazon.com saying that the latest Madhur Jaffrey cookbook has been released. To most people, this may not mean much, but to me it’s only a slightly less anticipated moment than the release of the latest in the Harry Potter series. So, forgive me but I have to gush!

Madhur Jaffrey's Latest Release

My love affair with cookbooks all began with the first one I bought at the Book People in Austin in 1995. I was a few short months away from graduating from college and was just getting into cooking seriously for myself, my roommate and my friends. You know….something other than ramen noodles and daal and rice. I wandered into the cookbook section, which was considerably smaller in the mid-90s than it is today, and browsed through the “International” section. There was a grand total of four Indian cookbooks and only one had pictures. "Flavors of India" by Madhur Jaffrey. I flipped the pages, went straight to the pictures and smiled in delight! The photography was lovely and the dishes were so well styled and the food…..aah…made my mouth water and made me so nostalgic for food from home.

I ran to the cashier, paid my $24.99 (a small fortune to a poor college student) and sat in the car with a pen and paper so I could start making a shopping list for the recipes I was going to try out right away. I decided to start big: “Pork with Vinegar & Spices” a variation on a dish that I grew up with and is a special occasion staple in the Indian community that I am from and “Plantain Chips”, one of my favorite snacks growing up – a crunchy, salty and spicy revelation. I made my way to HEB Central Market (the original Austin location on Lamar), where I (again) spent a small fortune on ingredients. Once in the kitchen, I followed Madhur’s directions word-for-word and she did not disappoint. Even with my weak culinary skills, the pork curry was delicious! I remember eating three bowls of the super spicy and garlicky stew with tender chunks of pork and caramelized onions that night and going through almost a whole package of tortillas to soak up the gravy. And the plantain chips? Without a mandoline to slice them wafer thin and my terrible knife skills, they didn’t turn out as crispy as I had hoped but they were still yummy.

After that, I was unstoppable. I cooked my way through “Flavors of India” all through those last months of college and through my first year post-college. Not all my attempts were successful – like the time I served my parents burnt Rogan Josh (a classic Indian slow-braised lamb dish) which they ate without complaint. But I gained so much confidence in my abilities in the kitchen and became so passionate about cooking and eating. Madhur Jaffrey’s recipes and charming prose changed how I thought about food. Fifteen years and over 100 cookbooks later, I can’t wait to get her latest book so I can relive those early cooking adventures.

Do you have a favorite cookbook or one that changed how you thought/felt about food or cooking? I’d love to hear about it.

Here it is. Post #1.

I love food. If I had a dollar for every person who says that, I would be a multi-millionaire. What I mean is, I REALLY love food - not just the act of preparing a meal or eating one but everything around what makes food, how it gets to the table and how it tastes. I enjoy learning and experiencing every aspect of food culture - from celebrity chefs and cookbook writers and food bloggers to dairy farmers and restaurateurs and food critics. Every one of our family’s vacations revolves not around the tourist attractions but around the restaurants and the street food. I get weak in the knees thinking about Eric Ripert (not just because he's hot and has a dreamy French accent) and Thomas Keller (sigh....one day I will eat at The French Laundry). Food in our culture is so fascinating and exciting. It makes me giddy. But lest I lead you to believe that food elicits nothing but joy and excitement from me, let me set the record straight.

I am a full-time working mother in the corporate world. I have a wonderful husband who is almost as nutty about food as I am and is an amazingly talented cook. He works full-time as well so, between us, there isn't much time during the work week to cook with passion and abandon or to eat out for that matter. We need to put a nutritious and enticing meal on the table for our two girls (both under 6 years old) every night and come up with healthy options for our oldest daughter's school lunch everyday (have you seen the food they serve kids in public schools???). We have to balance our love for fiery foods with our daughters' more tame palates. I believe it's so important what we put into our bodies and especially important what we put into our young children's bodies. And I want my girls to develop an appreciation for healthy and good food and a sense of adventure about trying new and different cuisines.

So, what's this blog about? There are thousands of good food blogs out there and I am not going to be winning any "Bloggie" awards. What I want to do is chronicle my family's food journey. I will talk about our struggles to maintain balance in how we eat at home and how we shop at the market. I will talk about the wonderful things we eat when we venture out to restaurants in our amazing food city of Houston and on our travels. I will share recipes from our personal repertoire and our vast cookbook collection (rivals the collection in your local Barnes & Noble, I think!) and will highlight some of the amazing food writing and recipes in the webosphere. I'll share school lunch menu ideas and ideas for kids' snacks. There will be cookbook reviews, discussions on food TV shows (you will likely learn all about my Top Chef obsession) and dish about happenings in the celebrity chef world. I'll share with you my struggle to eliminate the stubborn post-baby bulge without going on any crazy diets. Occasionally I may share something that I think you might find interesting that has nothing to do with food.

I promise to try and post something new every week. I hope you will stop in now and then to visit and read my food ramblings. And if you do visit and decide to read a post or two, leave a comment so I know someone out there is reading! :)