Avivah Werner

Author: Avivah

  • Ground chicken

    This past Friday, I ran into the store at the last minute (something I rarely do) and noticed that ground chicken was on sale for $1.29 lb.  Hmm, I thought, I smell a bargain.  🙂  So true to myself, I had to buy some – 35 pounds or so; I hate to leave a good deal behind.

    No, I don’t worry about if I’ll like it or how I’ll use it.  I figure that I’ll work that out once I get home, and if it’s inexpensive enough, we’ll have to like it. 🙂   I had just finished placing the last of six large packages of it on the conveyor belt at the store when the woman in front of me noticed it, and asked me what I was going to do with it.  While I was answering her, a man behind us in the next lane asked ds15, who had come along with me, what we were doing to do with it.  Fortunately I had told my son I’d use in the same way I use ground beef, so he had a ready answer. 

    When I was checking out, I asked the cashier if it was a new item, since I didn’t remember noticing it before (though I didn’t find it quickly even when I was looking for it because of it being in the sales flyer).  She said she hadn’t seen it before I checked out, and I was there on the last day of the week long sale!

    I did some online searching for recipes, and came up with some that looked good.  We used one package (five or six pounds) for chicken burgers for dinner on Monday, and they were a huge hit.  (That made enough for two meals for the ten of us, and it cost less than $8.)  I then canned 17 pounds of it, which filled 17 pints.  A pint may only be a pound of meat, but it’s enough to frugally add some flavor and body to a casserole or stew.  And I can always use two jars instead of one for dinner and not be so frugal, so that one canning session should be enough for 8 – 17 meals.  And now it’s not taking up freezer space. 

    My experience so far with ground chicken is very positive.  It is juicy and flavorful – I was expecting it to be more bland and dry, like ground turkey.  Because it’s lower in fat than beef, it doesn’t reduce too much when cooked, so it’s really a bargain, since most of what you’re paying for, you end up eating.  My kids all liked it a lot, and I like that it costs a third of ground beef – I can be a lot more generous with it and make it go a lot further.  Ground beef has small pieces that are easily defined, while this is kind of pasty and mushy (sounds appetizing, doesn’t it?!), so don’t picture it being the same consistency, but it’s very easy to work with.  The difference once it’s cooked isn’t noticeable.

    So why was I seemingly one of the very few people to take advantage of this great deal in the past week?  I think that it’s because many people don’t want to try something new, because they might not like it.  Or they think that if it’s a really good price, something’s wrong with it, or it’s not worth more than that (the ‘you get what you pay for’ philosophy).  We tend to get stuck in our culinary comfort zones, like everything else.

    I checked the online flyer for this week and didn’t see it listed on sale, but I went back anyway, thinking there might be some left at the sale price.  Sure enough, there was – it looked as if no one had touched the shelf since I was last there!  So I did the store a favor and emptied the shelf for them. 🙂  There’s more canning in my immediate future!

    Avivah

  • Soaking and drying nuts

    Last night I decided to try soaking some nuts again, thanks to the encouragement of blog reader Chava.  (Here’s why I soak nuts.)  I had some unroasted walnuts that I thought would work well, so I soaked them overnight in water with sea salt.  Early in the afternoon, I strained them out, rinsed them, and put them in the dehydrator at 145 degrees (my oven doesn’t go low enough and over-toasted the nuts I tried in the past).  And since four cups of walnuts only took up one tray, I chopped up a bunch of purple onions I bought at .29 lb and prepared four trays of those, so the dehydrator wouldn’t be running for just one tray.

    After dinner, I took the tray out, and they were done perfectly.  The kids and I tasted them, and we all agreed that they are good – they hardly tasted any different than they usually do.

    I’m so glad I tried to do this again.  Now that I see how easy it is, and the results are good, I’ll try to integrate this on a regular basis.  The easiest way to do it would probably be to buy and then prepare a large batch of nuts at a time, so that they are all dehydrated at one time.

    Avivah

  • Brown Rice Crackers

    This is a recipe that I’ve seen in several places, but I don’t know where it first came from.  It’s a nice afternoon snack, and is gluten free.  It’s also quick to put together if you already have cooked rice on hand.

    Brown Rice Crackers 

    • 1 1/2 c. brown rice flour
    • 2/3 c. cooked brown rice
    • 1 T. flax seeds (optional)
    • 1/4 t. sea salt
    • 1/4 c. oil (I used olive oil)
    • 1/3 – 1/2 c. water

    Mix all the ingredients until combined, adding the water last a little at a time until the dough holds together.  Roll or pat out thinly onto a baking sheet.  Score into 1.5″ pieces.   Bake at 375 degrees for 20 – 25 minutes, or until golden brown.

    We tried it a couple of days ago for the first time, and everyone was generally happy with it.  My inspiration for making it was having a couple of cups of brown rice left over, and I thought it’d be more fun to make crackers than to have to remember to use it for something else!  We made four times the recipe, but the recipe as written yields 3 dozen crackers.

    Something I’d suggest being careful of is to be sure that your brown rice flour is fresh.  Usually I’d grind it fresh myself, but I happened to have purchased some rice flour when our grinder was being repaired a couple of months ago.  So I used that, but I think it must have been slightly rancid, because the kids commented on a slight bitter flavor at the end of chewing.  It didn’t stop them from enjoying them, but I’d want to avoid that next time. 

    Also, I added sesame seeds to it – the flax seeds had been misplaced so I thought I’d use sesame seeds instead, and as I was adding the sesame, someone found the flax seeds.  So I used both. 🙂

    Avivah

  • Making time for yourself

    >>“If you’re home with your kids all day, every day, how do you have time for yourself?”<<

    First of all, I have to say that I truly enjoy spending time with my kids – they’re great company! Enjoying your kids is critical, but you need to learn how to carve out time for yourself and your needs, so that you don’t get burnt out. You must recognize your own needs as valid and find ways to meet them.

    Homeschooling doesn’t mean being on active duty all day long. There are lulls and quiet periods. There is early morning or later in the evening time, and if you have a husband who can make himself available, then he can be home while you get out.

    How you meet your needs depends on what you enjoy. I didn’t have money for a babysitter when my kids were all little, I didn’t have a husband who had a schedule that made it possible to watch the kids, I didn’t have any friends or family members who could give me a break, but I still found ways to have time for myself. It can be something as simple as some quiet time to read a book, take a relaxing bath, call a friend, or have a cup of tea. The key is to take the time and take it regularly.

    Here’s something I did when I had six kids ages 9 and under, and had all the limitations I just shared with you. I found that a short break in the middle of the day kept me going and I didn’t get worn down. I instituted a daily rest time for every child. I would put the infant and toddler in for a nap, then everyone else had to stay in their beds for an hour. They didn’t have to fall asleep, but they had to stay there quietly. They could read, quietly play a game or do a puzzle (they chose it before rest time), but there was no talking or getting out of bed allowed until rest time was over. This gave me regular daily time to know I would have for myself without having lots of little people around. I don’t remember how long I kept that up – but it was a huge help, and something I would do even now if I felt I needed it.

    Be very careful that you don’t end up using your free time to clean up. I do sometimes stay up in the evenings when the kids are asleep and do some straightening up, but not for long.  I would resent spending my precious quiet time cleaning up the messes of the day. No matter how much you love your kids and spending time with them, you need to have some space for yourself or you’ll end up claustophobic and wanting to put them in school so you get a break.

    Don’t give that quiet time up for something that can be done in the daytime when the kids are awake, with them. It’s that space that makes us able to give all day long, and enjoy it. Lose the space, and you lose the enjoyment.

    Avivah

  • Coconut oil sources

    Here are the companies I’ve ordered coconut oil from.  The first is Omega Nutrition.  I order in five gallon buckets, and you have to call to get the pricing on that.  They may not know what to do with you because you aren’t a restaurant, but just tell them your friend ordered a big bucket and you know it’s possible, and they’ll figure it out.  🙂    They have the extra virgin and regular organic.  I’ve ordered both in the past.

    I more recently discovered Mountain Rose Herbs – they also have two kinds of coconut oil, but only one is suitable for eating (the other is for cosmetic use).  It’s a raw high quality oil.  Their prices for five gallon buckets as well as smaller containers are on the page I linked to, and their prices are lower than Omega.  But you’ll have to clarify about the status of their hechsher (kosher supervision) on your own; they say it is kosher and it is a raw and unrefined product.  But as I said, you’ll probably want to clarify with your lor.  I use it but prefer recommending Omega for this reason.

    Even in large amounts, coconut oil isn’t cheap.  And I’ll warn you ahead of time that shipping is also expensive because the bucket is so heavy – probably about forty pounds or so; figure in about $40 per 5 gallon bucket for shipping.  But – it lasts a long, long time, and stays without needing any refrigeration.  As I’ve said before, I economize in a lot of areas of our food budget, and that creates room to buy the more expensive things like this.  I do kind of dread when I have to place my coconut oil orders, though, because it’s so expensive, even though it’s in the budget!

    Avivah

  • Soaking grains, flours, beans, and seeds

     >>Can you explain a little bit about soaking flour (and other grains as well)? Do you use an acid medium? Do you soak all your grains?<<

    Soaking grains and flours is something that traditional cultures have done for many centuries, tapping into an intuitive wisdom that I think we’ve lost.  They didn’t need the scientific explanations of why it was helpful; they must have sensed a difference when they ate things prepared one way or another.  But I found it helpful to learn more about it when I first encountered the idea, which seemed foreign to me.

    Basically, whole grain products and the flours made with them are a source of many nutrients.  The challenge is that they also contain large amounts of phytic acid, which binds with the nutrients when ingested, and escorts them right out of your body.  So in order to benefit from the nutrients, you need to do something to neutralize the phytic acid.  That something is soaking the grains in an acidic medium, and there are a number of options to use: apple cider vinegar or lemon juice, whey, buttermilk, kefir, and plain yogurt are the ones that come to mind, but there are probably others that I’m not aware of.   

     I’ve tried using apple cider vinegar/lemon juice as an acidic medium.  It’s added by the tablespoon (1 T. acv and one cup water: one cup grain) and even though the amounts are small, my kids didn’t like the sour taste so I don’t use that anymore.  I’ve used whey, but that’s not something I often have around. When I made cheese, I had a good amount left over from each batch, and if I get around to making cheese on a regular basis, that would be a good option.  And I have a small amount when I let the kefir I make sit too long and it separates.  To use whey, you use a tablespoon and one cup of water in place of the liquid called for (just like the lemon juice or apple cider vinegar).  But what I’ve preferred using has been either kefir or plain yogurt.  It does change the flavor, but not so much that the kids grimace.  🙂  Seriously, it tastes fine with the yogurt as a soaking medium.  For baking quick breads like pancakes and muffins, it adds a very nice, light texture. 

    I don’t soak all of my grains, though I’d certainly be better off nutritionally.  Some grains are more important to soak than others, since they’re so much higher in phytic acid.  That’s what I focus on.  The highest of them is oats, and that’s the grain that I most regularly soak.  This is very easy – I put half the water the recipe for oatmeal calls for in the pot the night before, and add some plain yogurt.  The next morning, I add the rest of the water and it cooks up very quickly.  When I prepared the baked oatmeal for today’s breakfast, I mixed it up the night before, and let it sit overnight before baking it.  (I’ve been wondering about the value of butter as an acidic medium, since it’s composed of lactic acid, so it seems to me it should work fine, too.  But I didn’t look into that, it’s just my own mental conjecturing.)  The hardest part is planning ahead so that you have the flour soaked and ready to be used when you want it, and a menu plan comes in very handy here.

    The grains we use the most are brown rice, kasha (buckwheat), and millet and all of them are low in phytic acid.  So I don’t soak them, particularly since I usually prepare them for meat meals, and the options for soaking that I like are dairy.  I do usually cook them with a broth that has often been made with an acidic medium, though (adding a small amount of apple cider vinegar when making stock accomplishes this very easily).   

    As far as flours go, I fall very short in this area.  Initially I soaked, sprouted, and then dehydrated wheat before grinding it to bake with.  I was very displeased with the quality of the flour.  It probably would be fine for cakes or cookies, but not for yeast breads.  And it was a long process to prepare it in that way, and didn’t seem worth it for mediocre results. 

    But I do try to soak flour when I can, though definitely not always.  This is only when I’m baking for dairy meals, usually breakfast muffins, quick breads, or pancakes.  I’ve found that soaking the flour overnight gives a very nice light quality to those things, and adds a pleasant flavor, too.  In those cases, I generally soak the flour at a ratio of 1 cup flour to 1 cup  of thinned yogurt or kefir.  Other than this, I don’t use very much flour in our meals.  The main exception that comes to mind is baking challah, for which I unapologetically use freshly ground, unsoaked, unsprouted flour. 

    I also soak beans overnight at the very least, though I don’t always sprout them.  I tend to sprout them more in the summer just because they sprout so much faster in the heat. I never soak or sprout seeds or nuts.  I wasn’t happy with the results I got when soaking nuts, and decided not to pursue that further.

    I don’t use wheat germ, or wheat/oat bran, because I think it’s best to eat foods in the complete package, not one part or another.  If I did, I’d try to soak them as much as I could, treating them like flour.  I also stay away from puffed wheat products, and very rarely have rice cakes, because the processing for these foods has been shown to be harmful.  I sometimes have shredded wheat for breakfast or baked wheat crackers (like shredded wheat in cracker form), but I don’t fool myself that they’re healthy.  I consider them treat foods that are best used in small amounts. 

    I’ve learned to adapt most recipes so that they nutritionally conform to guidelines I feel are helpful, though I don’t always post my adaptations when I share recipes.  If something says flour, I may or may not soak the flour as described above, but generally it can be done without drastically changing the recipe. 

    Avivah

  • Weekly menu plan

    Here is this week’s menu.  If there’s something you’d specifically like the recipe for, let me know.

    Sunday – b – oats and milk; d – chicken, kasha, fresh snow peas, julienned jicama

    Monday – b – polenta/oat fritters; l – apple and banana slices with peanut butter; d – chicken burgers, roasted root veg

    Tuesday – b – baked oatmeal; l – cauliflower latkes, cottage cheese; d – yellow squash pie

    Wednesday – b – zucchini muffins; l – princesses (baked meat sandwiches); d – honey baked lentils, corn cakes, roasted cauliflower

    Thursday – b – warm rice with milk; d – CORN (clean out refrigerator night)

    Some days we do more cooking than others – I definitely don’t spend the same amount of time in the kitchen every day.  Today has been a good day for food prepping and we’ve gotten a lot done in the last hour or two.  The baked oatmeal is ready for tomorrow’s breakfast (was supposed to be for this morning, but dd started the fritters before she knew I had prepared the oatmeal and the pan was waiting in the oven to be baked), the chicken burgers are ready for tonight (it’s almost 4 pm right now), the root veggies are all peeled for tonight, and the squash pie filling for tomorrow night is prepared.  I’ll make up the crust for the pie tomorrow and then there’s nothing to do but throw it all in together and bake it.  The zucchini for the muffins is shredded (once the food processor was out for the squash, I figured we’d do everything at once) and I’ll probably make the muffins today so that the shredded veggies aren’t sitting for another day and a half.  I’ll start the lentils soaking today for Thursday’s dinner – I don’t think they’ll sprout well ll in this cold weather, but it won’t hurt.

    We’re also making brown rice crackers for the first time – they’re in the oven now.  I’ll share the recipe with you if they turn out well.  I have about 17 pounds of ground chicken simmering right now that I’m planning to can in the next hour or so.  And I’d like to get some strawberry jam made today, too, but it will depend on how crowded the kitchen is. 🙂

    Avivah

  • What are healthy fats?

    I think that almost everyone knows that margarine is bad for you, though most people probably don’t know just how bad.  In the kosher kitchen, women often feel that whether it’s healthy or not, they don’t know what else they can use for baking.  Others argue that the cheapness of margarine justifies its use, but I don’t agree. It is cheap – and I’m always up for a good deal – but it’s a false economy.

    By shopping carefully for the bulk of your groceries, you’ll be able to create room in your budget for the expensive high quality ingredients you can’t get cheaply.  We got rid of margarine and all so called healthy substitutes (eg. Earth Balance spread) a long time ago. The fun part is that it’s really easy and the healthy alternatives work just as well but taste better. thumb.gif

    We use butter for dairy meals (I stock up when it’s $2 lb), and coconut oil for baking for meat meals. We buy two kinds of coconut oil – a) extra virgin raw, which still has coconut flavor – because of the flavor it is harder to use in cooking/baking; b) organic but with the coconut flavor removed – I use this for all baking. I buy it by the five gallon bucket, and it’s not cheap (though it’s lots cheaper than by the little containers in the store), but I think it’s worth the price for our health – it’s a major factor of why I can now consider the baked goods we eat to be in the ‘good for us’ category.  It seems we keep going through this faster and faster all the time. 

    We use extra virgin olive oil for salads, not much else. When I roast a chicken, I save the gravy in a container in the fridge, and the fat at the top that congeals is shmaltz – great for frying veggies for a meat dish, and the gravy that congeals below the fat is a delicious addition to grains or stews. I do the same thing with lamb and beef, but I use those less often.

    Several months ago, an email friend who follows similar nutritional guidelines that I do recommended another high quality oil to me – palm oil.   I started to look into it, discovered that there are actually two kinds of palm oil – palm kernel oil, and palm fruit oil.  The palm fruit oil has a stronger flavor and color, and I was looking for something that would be a good substitute for the regular coconut oil – specifically, with a bland flavor for baking.  Palm kernel oil was the solution.  I began researching buying it in bulk quantity (it seemed pretty expensive to me to buy in the 24 oz tubs in the health food store) but didn’t see it through – the company that had it certified kosher didn’t answer their phones, and the emails I received in response to my pricing queries weren’t clear.  So I put it on the back burner.

    But then I finished my bucket of regular coconut oil, and was dismayed to find a huge price increase when I went to place my order.  So when I went to the health food store (somewhere I rarely go into), I bought several containers of palm oil.  If I hadn’t been tipped off about this by my friend, I would have walked right by it, because of the way it’s labeled.  It’s made by Spectrum, and marked as Organic All Vegetable Shortening – and to me, shortening is a word with only negative nutritional connotations.  But in spite of that, it really is just pure palm oil.   It’s pure white and flavorless, so it’s perfect for non dairy baking.  I went to the health food store on their 10% discount day, so it was a little under $7 for a 24 oz container.

    Some of you may be reading and cringing at the thought of all that saturated fat.  Doesn’t everyone know that saturated fat bad for you?  Actually, it’s not.  If you want to start learning more about fats, what’s good, what’s not, and why, start with this link: http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/index.html.  It’s very helpful in dispelling a lot of the nutritional miseducation out there surrounding fats.

    Avivah

  • Organizing my blog

    In order to make it easier to navigate the archives, I’ve spent a few hours going through all of my old posts and moving them in the categories they best belong in, if that seemed helpful.  I still have to do more, but I’ve sorted through a lot of posts and I hope it will be easier for you to find what you’re looking for in the category you’re looking for it.  I’ve added a couple of new categories, but am still thinking that it would be helpful if there was a ‘saving money’ or frugality category.  The problem with that is so much of what I write on that topic, in my mind pertains to basic homemaking, and that makes it hard for me to decide what category each post would be placed in.  And I can’t seem to think of a good overall name for that category.  I’m open to your thoughts on this!

    It’s been interesting going through a couple of years of posts and seeing all that I’ve written about.  I go through stages of writing about different things – at some points, it’s been parenting, other times home organization, homeschooling, or saving money.  (Tonight my dh told my kids that I write a lot about food – and lately, he’s right!)  I get a lot of questions regarding parenting, which I haven’t written much about recently.  Please check the parenting section of the blog and see if your questions were answered there.  If you don’t see it, feel free to ask and when I have the chance, I’ll answer as best as I can.

    Also regarding homeschooling, I’ve covered a number of topics pertaining to this and if you have questions on that, check those archives.  Hopefully you’ll find what you’re looking for, but if not, again, just ask.

    If you have suggestions for a category that I don’t have but would help keep things more easily navigated for everyone, please let me know via the comments section below!

    Avivah

  • Dehydrating pickled fruit

    This past autumn, I shared with you about the wonderful free fruit that we picked and preserved.  When I started canning fruit, I stuck to the basics: fruit of one kind in it’s juice, and applesauce.  But there were so many appealing looking recipes to try that I finally succumbed, wanting pantry shelves filled with all of those beautiful looking jars, and made a number of interesting looking things.

    Well, it’s several months later, and I can say that was a mistake.  We really like just plain fruit – not chutneys or pickled fruit.  Plain boring applesauce, compote, or stewed fruit.  We have hardly touched any of the other stuff.  I hate all the work that went into it being wasted, but I don’t want to compound the situation by wasting the food and not eating it, too.  And the jars are taking up space that could be taken up with something useful.  So yesterday it occurred to me that we could try to dehydrate the many quarts of pickled apples and pickled pears, and see how that turned out. 

    My son did this today, and so far, the jury is still out on how they like the dehydrated pickled fruit slices.  Only three kids so far have tasted it, and two think it’s great, one thinks it’s terrible.  I tasted it and thought they were fine – different from the plain dried apples and pears we preserved, but still tasty.  The consistency is more chewy (the others were crispy), but fine.  They would probably also be good in some kind of pie or cooked, if I wanted to do that, but I probably wouldn’t.  It’s the keeping things simple thing, again.  🙂  

    One immediate advantage is that dehydrated fruit takes a lot less space than all of those full jars – I didn’t count how many jars there were that are now empty (17 or so??), but however much it was, it will all fit into two quart sized jars by the time it’s all dried. 

    Edited to add: my son discovered that when blended up, the pickled fruit makes fantastic fruit leathers!  Now I don’t feel all that time and effort was wasted, since everyone is enjoying these so much!

    Avivah