Pink Slime Lunch

Love school lunches? The ease of just handing your child a few dollars, they get fed and you don't have to deal with it? Or perhaps like me you would prefer to send a home lunch but your child begs every day for hot lunch. In this day and age there is a huge "Lunch Revolution" lead by our first lady Michelle Obama, as well as one of my personal favorite people, Jamie Oliver. Standing firmly behind his idea that the American "hot lunch" is contributing to obesity and the fact that as it stands now my children's generation will be the first one to ever live a shorter life span then the generation before. They want to change this, and so do at least 700,000 other people. Check out this teacher who ate school lunch every day and blogged it.

Why though? Why are so many people speaking out against school lunch? How did this become a push button issue? Because the hot lunch program is government funded. Schools have to provide a lunch containing a magical formula of protein, vegetable, whole grains, etc. All within a very strict budget, while attempting to get children to eat it.

Its long been an American joke that the lunch line is full of "mystery meat" but in this day and age its actually true.
"The U.S. Department of Agriculture is purchasing 7 million pounds of the "slime" for school lunches, The Daily reports. Officially termed "Lean Beef Trimmings," the product is a ground-up combination of beef scraps, cow connective tissues and other beef trimmings that are treated with ammonium hydroxide to kill pathogens like salmonella and E. coli. It's then blended into traditional meat products like ground beef and hamburger patties." source .

Lovely right? This is only the beginning, think of all of those white meat chicken nuggets/patties your child consumes. that have at least 20 ingredients, some schools use nuggets with over 30. Pretty wholesome right? Good thing they count for a protein and whole grain.

How about the chocolate milk that the kids love and drink daily? Sugar, food coloring and at minimum it contains 5 added ingredients. Healthier then soda you say? Not so much, chocolate milk and sodas have almost the same amount of sugar per serving.

I have made a choice, consciously in the last four years. At first we eliminated processed foods and excess sugar, slowly this led us to primal eating. Eating primal is actually keeping Mr.Sassy off of nexium, and has all of us feeling a ton better health wise. I do not expect a school lunch to cater to this, nor do I expect restaurants I frequent to cater to my life style. What I do expect is whole REAL food that is simple enough for children to recognize and want to eat. This means no more processed food. It means more cooking and less reheating. It means standing up for our kids and choosing healthy foods that help them concentrate and learn and make their bodies feel good.

These next few weeks I am going to delve deeper into the mystery of school lunch and really try to understand what it takes to make a change. Starting with Jamie Oliver's food revolution, I want to know the details, the cost differences. Are the kids actually eating this real food? Or is it a waste of a lot of time?

Some schools -- like several in California -- have taken the matter into their own hands, and have found ways to profit from those efforts. Umpteen school districts have taken part in a decade-long initiative, supported by a philanthropic organization, that provides schools with equipments and chefs who teach cafeteria workers to cook from scratch and produce fresh meals.

Stay tuned, I think this is going to be an interesting research project!

Dr Seuss Monday Meal Plan

Today you are you, that is truer then true. There is no one alive who is youer then you!
-Dr. Seuss

It's Monday, and I really need a plan! We have been busy youtubing Dr. Seuss fun this week, theres some seusstastic stuff out there. Especially the Lorax previews.

Also it is Dr.Seuss week at big sassy's school. So lots of fun activities and food thoughts coming to you based on the lovely and zany Dr. Seuss. And I really need a plan!

We did not make two of the meals last week so they are cycling back on (chili, shepherd's pie.)
I will be making a mason jar meal this week. Actually cooking IN the jar as well as some salads. I am having a hard time being accountable with eating healthy and getting enough vegetables in, so I think if I mason jar salads for myself it will help.

We made roasted broccoli this weekend with dinner and it was delicious. Mr. Sassy's cousin was here this weekend an he and his wife agree that it was better then the steak we ate.
This week we might or might not be here from Thursday morning on, so I am planning a menu based on things we already have in the house with the most perishable being used at the beginning of the week, this weekend we have lots of out of the house stuff planed so no food needed.

Monday
B- Bacon and Eggs
L-Eat out lunch
D-Leftovers/empty the fridge night
Tuesday
B- Green eggs and ham cups
L-Salad
D-Shepard's Pie
Wednesday
B- Green Egg, ham and cheese scramble
L-Leftovers and salad
D-Roast chicken, roast broccoli, squash (probably butternut)
Thursday
B-Oatmeal
L-Leftovers and salad
D-Chicken soup
Friday
B-Green Egg, ham and cheese scramble
L-Leftovers and salad
D-Man Chili

Here are my Dr.Seuss ideas for this week. Over at Simply Mommies this week they made a cute little Seuss themed play table.
Seusstastic Classroom Ideas



Seusstastic Muffin Tin Lunch



Diy Seuss Hat Snack



Lorax How I Would Help



Goldfish Counting



And Finally The LARGEST collection of amazing ideas. I think there are at least 250, go HERE.

Life, Death and Hermit Crabs

The last few months, it seems like we have had so many adventures and not enough time to talk about them!

Big Sassy started kindergarten, full days. We did our annual apple orchard visit, Halloween nuttiness, visited Santa and oh yes moved 750 miles to a different country. Our new home was "flocked", Sassy went to her first Daddy daughter dance. We have had parties, we have laughed a lot, loved more and even cried quite a bit during it all. But I would do it all over in a heart beat, it was a BLAST!

One of these days I will record big sassy singing Aerosmith Pink, but for now enjoy some pictures and a song!

 The older I get the more I realize that life is not just the achievement of your goals, but rather it is all those little things that happen in between.

The years seem to speed up the older I get, a week hardly seems a long time anymore. I look into my girls eyes and wonder what is going on in those minds, I wish I could just crawl into these moments and keep living them. I wish the book would never end then, when it does, I want to start reading it all over again.

One of the hermit crabs in big sassy's class died today and we had yet another discussion about death and gravy yards. She wanted to know when she was old enough to decide if when she dies she gets to choose where her body goes. I told her whenever she is old enough to want to make that decision. Since she doesn't want to go into the compost heap and turn into dirt like the hermit crab. And she doesn't want to be buried under the ground. She would like to be buried above ground just like her great grampy, in a gravy yard with music, but not with the men who went to war to save the world (veterans) because they are important and should stay together.

 How did I get to this place? When did my little sassy get so big to calmly discuss gravy yards and burying ideas? If this is what 5 brings I cannot even comprehend what 15 will bring. What is my little sassy, full of spunk and energy going to bring? I have no idea and while I can hardly wait to find out I want to stretch out every moment of the time in between.

Sicky Sassy Baby Weekly Meal Plan

I have a feeling its going to be a long week since baby sassy is already sick and knowing our luck, big sas will soon follow. Thankfully knowing this I can plan simple meals that can be made while holding baby sassy or while she is sleeping. Or even when big sassy is whining, quick and simple are the keys here. We are also planning for company this weekend so I am trying to figure out some ideas that are a little more fancy then normal. I like spending time with my company though so I will probably find something simple that comes out amazing. 

On a side note all of the Mason Jar Meals (inspiration and original aha moment from Robin at Big Red Kitchen.) were mind blowing. Mr. Sassy loved them, they stayed fresh even on Monday after making them late Thursday night. I would 100% recommend making these on a Sunday night for a work week. There are some fantastic ideas on Robin's blog for a million things NOT salads! Ingenious. I will be trying a ton of these in the coming weeks for big sassy and Mr.Sassy. Chicken cordon blue, Kids Quiche, Peanut Butter Pie, and some Sliders.

Mr. Sassy's song pick for this meal plan, Chickenfoot . Yeah they do rock.
Monday
B- Oatmeal with dried fruit (we do old fashioned oats, put the dry fruit in while the water is boiling so its nice and soft by the time the oatmeal is cooked.)
L-Salads with mixed greens, craisins, nuts, oranges, peppers, frozen blueberries and balsamic vinegar
D-Chicken Legs and Thighs in oven with BBQ, Crash Hot sweet potatoes, frozen veggies
Tuesday
B-Scrambled eggs and cheese
L-Leftovers
D-Shepard's pie with cauliflower "top" instead of mashed potatoes
Wednesday
B-Eggs and Sausage
L-Leftover shepherd's pie
D-Chicken soup
Thursday
B-Eggs scrambled with ham, veggies and cheese
L-Soup and Salad
D-Ground beef tacos
Friday
B-Scrambled eggs with veggies, ham and cheese
L-Taco salad
D-Chili, salad
Saturday
B-Crispy Potatoes and Eggs (this is so good, we tried it for the first time last week very much a skillet.)
L- Leftovers, salad
D-Steaks on the grill, carrots and broccoli on the grill, grilled potatoes
Sunday
B-Big breakfast, eggs, bacon, potatoes,
L-Salad, leftovers
D-Mr.Sassy's choice, he wins the cook for the night award.

There you have it, a voyeuristic sneak peak into what the Sassy Family is eating this week. Remember a meal plan does not have to be complicated. Plan one day, or maybe plan one meal a day, it doesn't have to be crazy. The key to a good meal plan is to be honest and to make food you love and your sassy kids love. If that means you plan Kraft mac and cheese and hamburger helper then so be it. If that's what you eat, be honest with yourself and write it down, the ingredients you need and plan it. Some times I mix it up, I make Mondays meals on Thursday cause I don't want what I planned. But its OK, since I already did the shopping and have the ingredients I can do that, if I don't make a meal one day I can make it next week.

Back up plan, meals for when you really don't have a minute

I have these days some days where I try as hard as I can and nothing can just go properly. Big sassy is late for school, little sassy cries all day, the house is filthy, dinner isn't planned ahead and big sassy comes home crying and starving. These are the days that I need some kind of back up plan. I need to be able to throw SOMETHING edible together that is filling, tasty and the sassy girls will eat.

Here are my top 10 back up plans. most of these are fairly primal. They are not fancy, but they will help you avoid the drive thru or delivery man. I do not have any salads listed on here but that is an awesome idea as well, the sassies do not view salad as an acceptable main dish item and we tend to serve it as a side item. Fish is also a very easy quick cook, especially when you already have it in your freezer but big sassy thinks that fish and seafood is poison and will not knowingly eat it.

1. Don't cook the veggies. Worry about your meat, chicken legs, meatballs whatever. Just throw some carrots, cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes and apple slices on a plate. Dip away in whatever is in the fridge, balsamic vinegar and oil, Italian dressing, sour cream mixed with any type of season salt/seasoning, almond butter....seriously don't limit yourself.
2. Speaking of that, just do a tray. For some crazy reason the sassies love this more then words can say. Roll up lunch meat, chunk pieces of ham or salami, slices of cheese or string cheese, olives, raw veggies, pickles, any single item in your pantry, cupboard, fridge that is edible and throw it on the platter. Pour some types of dip out honey mustard, Italian dressing whatever else you love. Set out forks/spoons and dig in!
3. Frozen ground beef. Chuck it into a pot, put about 1/8-1/4 cup water in (depending on pan size, just enough to cover the bottom.) put a lid on it and randomly check on it scraping off the cooked parts. Not very fancy but it gets the job done. I can trick my kids into eating "veggie noodles" by peeling the green off of zucchinis and then peeling them into long noodles (stop before you get to the seeds, then peel the other sides.) boil until just before fork tender. Throw the ground beef on top of these, heat a jar of pasta sauce and pour on top. Always keep this on hand ALWAYS, even if you are crazy like me and make your sauce from scratch each time, buy the best jar you can find/afford and save it for this moment.
4. Frozen ground beef, cook as above but this time season with taco seasoning and serve on either homemade primal taco shells or as a taco salad. I keep some tortilla chips (bad, bad primal mommy) on hand for an emergency such as this.
5. Fajitas either in lettuce wraps or just as a "cooked salad", cut up 2 peppers, 1 onion, 1 zucchini, throw some oil in a large frying pan, start cooking at medium high heat sprinkle with a pepper blend of mixed seasoning. stir frequently. Then take a London broil (or sub chicken), sprinkle with same seasoning as vegetables, heat a large frying pan or better a grill, and throw the meat in/on. (keep stirring your veg) let cook at a medium high heat until it begins to brown (no burning allowed.) Flip and cook the other side. test temp. 155 is prime to remove and let rest for 10 min, then slice and serve with the cooked veggies, sour cream and shredded cheese.
6. Steaks, always the most awesome fast meal. Preferred on the grill but doable in a pan. Season with whatever you have, salt, pepper, rosemary, garlic etc. Grill or pan fry until done. Cut an acorn squash in half, spoon out seeds, put a spoon of butter and sprinkle of cinnamon inside the cavity. Put the squash in microwave safe dish and cover with plastic wrap, microwave for 10 min. Test by poking a fork into the thickest part of the squash (inside!) if it goes in really easily its done, if its really hard still give it another 5 minutes and retest, if its almost there give it another 2 minutes. Once done scoop out the flesh and place in a bowl, add salt, butter and cinnamon to taste.
7. Thai red curry leave out the cornstarch its unnecessary, add in 1/4 teaspoon of fish sauce and 1/4 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil. Not necessary but those are the "secret" Thai ingredients. Also fry in coconut oil not olive! Grate (yes grate) cauliflower or you can cut it into chunks and food process until it looks like grains. Stir fry in coconut oil to give you some faux rice to put this on.
8. Burgers, any which way. Ground beef, worcester sauce, BBQ sauce, fave seasoning salt, smell to make sure it smells "seasoned" if not add more seasoning until it does, if it doesn't smell seasoned it will not taste it. Form into patties pan fry or grill. Steam veggies or quick fry some veggies as a nice side.
9. Stir fry, something i'm not so great at but wish I was. Amazing stir fry breakdown HERE.
10. Primal sausage stuffed squash amazing idea, and so good. Nice creamy squash and the flavor of the sausage is awesome too. I use less greens other wise big sassy insists i'm trying to feed her "grass" and won't eat it.

So there you go, some quick ideas to get you through that slump. These are also fantastic things to add to your weekly meal plan so that you have a really fast meal on those days you are home late or have after school/evening activities.

And to be honest sometimes we do drive thru dinner, yep we do. My kids know the inside of happy meal box, some days that's just our reality. Check out Paleo Fast Food for some ideas to keep in mind for those times you do get stuck in a drive thru line.

Mr. Sassy's Brownies

Poor Mr. Sassy, he had to work a double shift yesterday 8am-12pm, and the poor man wasn't able to bring any food. Yeah big whoops, that's totally points off my wife of the year title. See Monday is shopping day and I hadn't really PLANNED what to do with Mr.Sassy working....totally my bad.

So I nicely brought him a salad bar lunch, and brought him his MAN CHILI for dinner. I thought since the poor guys he works with had all been sitting around staring at each other all day maybe I should make them something nice. Since I really wanted to bake and cannot eat anything I bake since I'm trying really hard to do a Primal 30 day challenge. Us Sassy girls whipped this up.

Definitely something you should have been eating All Your Life.

Yeah, it really is all that.

Ultimate Chocolate Chip n' Oreo Brownie.

Say it 5 times fast, I switched the basic cookie recipe around but besides that this is straight from Kevin & Amanda and they have 110 variations for all seasons. They really are lovely people and she puts so much care into all she posts and does. Go make a batch of these then while eating them browse her blog.

Ulitmate Chocolate Chip n' Oreo Brownie

For bottom cookie layer

2 cups flour

3/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar (light or dark)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup butter softened (2 sticks or 1/2 lb)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1-2 cups chocolate chips

Oreo Cookies any type

Brownie mix any type. You can replace the oil with butter for a better flavor.

(preheat oven to 350 f)

1. Cream all the sugar and butter together
2. Once fluffy looking (should take 1-2 min) add eggs on at a time, mix thoroughly

3.add vanilla and continue mixing

4. slowly add in flour, baking soda and salt

5. mix in chocolate chips, stir until combined

6. Line a 9x13 rectangular cake pan with parchment paper

7. Mix thoroughly then spread into a 9x13 pan

8. Place Oreo cookies on top of the cookie dough

9. Make brownie mix according to package

10. Pour on top of the Oreo/cookie mixture spreading carefully.

11. Cover with foil (do this I forgot.)

12. Bake for 30 min

13.  Remove foil bake for 15-25 min

Remove from oven and allow to cool completely. Brownies will be gooey when moist but will be very easy to cut once they cool down.

Man Chili

Conversation over breakfast this morning
Big sassy "Mom, how old is our house?"
"umm its 134 years old honey"
big sas " so that's really old right?"
"right"
"when is it going to die then?"(said in super sad pathetic voice)
wth? "umm well houses don't die honey, they you know, fall into disrepair, burn down and other things."
"oh so our house will live to be 1,000 then." and then happily went back to eating her eggs.
Strange sassy.

Big sassy begged to watch you tube Sophia grace this morning. This kid cracks me up I forgot how funny she is to have around all day.

Last night was man chili for dinner, and since I completely had nothing in the house to pack Mr.Sassy for his lunch. I hand delivered a serving of man chili and a pan of the most decedent brownies ever. He claims he shared, I'm not so sure.

Man Chili is basically bean less chili (therefore making it primal) with as much meat as you like/want thrown in for flavor. Since yesterday was shopping day and it literally took the whole frigging day, I had to throw this all together in the midst of insanity. The meat went in frozen to begin with so just note that if you carefully cooked it up/browned it first then it would be a thousand times better.

Man Chili

(easily doubles)

adaption for crockpot included

2 Carrots

1 smallish onion

1 zucchini

1lb ground sausage

2lbs steak cut into chunks or stew beef

(plus any try any other type of meat, chorizo, hot sausage, Italian sausage, lamb, bison)

2 large cans of tomatoes (use already chopped if doing a quick less then 4 hour cook or whole if cooking for a long time)

1/2 small can of pumpkin

2cups of stock, beef, chicken or vegetable, pick your favorite (we use beef bone broth)

1/4 cup  BBQ sauce (we use DINOSAUR BBQ)

Chili Powder

2 Bay Leaves

1 tablespoon Worcester sauce

2-3 cloves Fresh Garlic

1 teaspoon marjoram

1 teaspoon oregano

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

salt and pepper to taste

optional can of beans (drained and rinsed)

optional can of green chilies (for spicy sassiness!)

 Leave out the zucchini, carrot and pumpkin if you are lowering all carbs. You will need to add an extra small can of tomatoes or an extra cup of stock.

Brown sausage(and any other ground meat) in the pot you want to cook the chili in (unless you want to use the crock pot, then just use a large frying pan) remove, then brown steak/beef plus any other type of meat you will be using in this same pan. You want the ground meats to be cooked through and the other types of meat to be be at minimum browned. This will be cooking for hours so it will all cook through have no fear.

You can cook it all together, you will not get the same flavor as with following the directions but sometimes a girls got to do what a girls got to do!

While Browning the meat, peel the carrots and cut the ends off the zucchini and carrots. Grate them all.

Chop the onions and press or chop the garlic as well.

Add the onions, zucchini and carrots to the pan along with all the meat, cook until the onions begin to turn translucent. At this point if you want you can add this all to a crock pot. Add the tomatoes, pumpkin, stock, BBQ sauce and if you are using them, the can of beans. Stir well, then begin adding spices. I purposefully did not give an amount of chili powder, please add roughly 1 teaspoons. About 30 min before serving, taste, if a stronger "chili" taste is desired add more. Also please smell all your spices/herbs before cooking with them. Its neat to smell something and realize later on how that taste and smell plays into your food.

If your counters/stove/pots all look as messy as mine, it is a success so far. Bring the chili to a boil,and stir, lower the temperature until you have mild bubbles (simmer). This means you have frequent small bubbles that seem to just happily be there. If they are large, popping strongly or seem at all angry, turn the temperature down. You WILL burn your chili to the bottom if its too hot. If you put into a crock pot don't worry. Stick it on high for 5 hours or low for 7-9.

This can be cooked at a higher temperature on your stove top if you watch it carefully, this will take about 3 hours. On a nice mild bubbling temperature it can go 6 hours. Or longer

Chili is done when the steak/beef shreds easily and the chili has good flavor. *(this means shove a spoon in your food and taste it. Just do it.) You may add in more BBQ sauce, chili powder, garlic or anything that else looks good.

The Sassies love this chili and thankfully they have no clue that its full of pumpkin, zucchini and carrots. These can easily be left out without affecting the chili at all, this will lower the carb content. We eat primal  but don't worry about the carbs in vegetables especially for the sassies. If you remove those vegetables you will need to add an extra small can of tomatoes to replace the liquid you lose.

I top with shredded cheddar cheese and sour cream. The girls have to have Frito's corn chips or the refuse to eat it! You can easily do it without any of the above, or add on top onions, peppers, whatever floats your boat or gets your sassy kids to eat it!

What do you top your chili with?