Meatloaf

Meatloaf. An American classic. How to make ground beef into a non-sandwich entree.

If you can get a good price on ground beef meatloaf is a great option. But why not mix it up a little? I have several meatloaf recipes I use to keep some variety going.

Basic meatloaf is simple. Meat, a binder to keep it from falling apart, a filler to help hold those tasty juice flavors in, and seasonings. The correct method for making a meatloaf is to dump all the ingredients in a BIG bowl and use both hands to mix it up. When cooking it, you're going for an internal temperature of 160 to 165 degrees. Two pounds of ground beef will make a meatloaf big enough for my family with leftovers for sandwiches.

I never measure for meatloaf, but my basic recipe goes something like this:

Basic Meatloaf

• 1 pounds ground beef
• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons onion powder
• 1 tablespoon parsley
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

I find it cooks faster flat than in a loaf shape, so I use a round cake pan and cook it at 400 degrees for about an hour. Drain off the juices. My loaf shaped meatloaf pan with the neeto rack to let the fat drain off will take almost two hours and I'll cook it at a lower temperature, 350 degrees, to keep it from burning.

Auntie's Variation: Add frozen mixed veggies to the meatloaf!

I feel the need to mention that a lot of "traditional" meatloaf recipes use catsup. I don't care for catsup or tomato sauce in my meatloaf, although I'm not opposed to it being used as a condiment. I've also seen milk and cracker crumbs in meatloaf recipes. However your mom made it is just fine!

This next recipe is what I remember of a meatloaf my ex and I had at a hotel once. The grated veggies add a really fresh flavor and juiciness.

Garden Meatloaf

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1 large carrot grated fine
• 2 large celery stalks grated fine (discard the stringy bits)
• 1/4 cup grated or fine-chopped onion
• 1/2 cup oatmeal or breadcrumbs
  
• 1 egg

Bake as above.

When Nana watched the kids last fall we found this one in the fridge when we got back. Or at least, this is my best guess! For months after Nan was here Kiddo always wanted cheese on his meatloaf!

Nana's Meatloaf:

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1 1/2 cups dried stuffing cubes (you could use Stove Top or another mix for the seasonings, what I found in my pantry was plain stuffing cubes)
• 1 can sliced mushrooms
• 1 egg
• 2-3 slices American Cheese

Save the cheese - about 5 minutes before you take the meatloaf out put the cheese slices on top and get them all melty.

Now some fun ones!

Corn Stuffed Meatloaf

• 1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder

• Stuffing Mixture:
• 1 1/2 cups whole kernel corn, canned or frozen, thawed
• 1 cup soft bread crumbs
• 1/3 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Combine ground beef, salt, pepper, and chili powder. On a large piece of wax paper or foil, form beef mixture into a 10- x 12-inch rectangle.

Mix stuffing ingredients. Top meat with stuffing mixture to within 3/4-inch of edges and roll up like a jelly roll. Seal ends to keep corn mixture in. Place roll in a baking dish (with sides). Bake meatloaf at 350° for about 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Note: Soft bread crumbs means "not toasted or dried". Run a couple slices of bread through a blender. I let them sit out for an hour or so so they crumb better.

This is the recipe that actually inspired me to make this meatloaf blog:

Meatloaf Pie

1 pound extra-lean ground beef
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/3 cup catsup
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables
1 3/4 cups water
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
3/4 cup milk
2 dry mashed potato mix

Heat oven to 375°F. In medium bowl, mix beef, bread crumbs, ketchup and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt. Press mixture in bottom and up sides of ungreased 9-inch pie pan. Bake 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in 2-quart saucepan, mix frozen mixed vegetables, water, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, garlic powder and onion powder. Heat to boiling. Remove from heat. With fork, stir in milk and mashed potato mix (dry) until potatoes are of desired consistency.

Remove beef crust from oven; pour off any drippings. Spoon potato mixture evenly into partially baked crust. Bake 10 to 15 minutes longer or until hot.

Gourmet at Home

Broke or not, you still want to have yummy food. Noodles and sauce get old after a while. And how often can you do meatloaf before your family protests?

Is it possible to cook real gourmet food on a WIC budget?

Well, no. Prosciutto and quality aged Parmesean cheese and fresh herbs just aren't in the average noodle and burger budget. But you can take those fancy recipes and adapt them to your budget and still get a very tasty meal.

Let's take something fancy:

Veal Parmesan

SERVES 4

INGREDIENTS

• 4 veal cutlets, pounded to 1/4-inch thickness
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, seasoned with salt and pepper to taste
• 3/4 cup plain dry breadcrumbs, seasoned with garlic powder, oregano, parsley and freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 eggs, beaten with a little water
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup homemade or canned tomato sauce, seasoned with oregano, parsley, salt and pepper
• 2 ounces mozzarella cheese, sliced
• 4 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Place the flour on a plate or piece of waxed paper. Place the bread crumbs on a separate plate. Dip the veal in the flour to coat both sides and shake off excess. Then dip in the egg wash. Finally, dip in the bread crumbs and coat both sides. Place on a baking rack in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Heat a large skillet over high heat. Add 2 tablespoons of the oil and heat well. Add the veal, being careful not to crowd the pan. Fry until nicely browned, 2 or 3 minutes per side, adjusting the heat if it browns too fast. Remove from pan and do the second batch, adding the remaining olive oil as needed. Spread 2 tablespoons of sauce on each slice of veal. Top each with one-fourth of the mozzarella slices and 1 tablespoon of the Parmesan cheese. Place on a lightly oiled or sprayed baking sheet. Place under a hot broiler on high heat until cheese melts, about 2 minutes. Serve immediately.

Okay. First off, even if you have a fondness for veal, it's really expensive. Ditto on the cheese, usually - if you're just getting a little, compare the per-pound price on the pre-grated cannister to the per-pound on the fresh stuff.

So let's use chicken. You can either get chicken breasts and treat them exactly as this recipe treats the veal (they're thicker, so pound them flat or cook them longer), or buy some prepared pre-breaded frozen chicken breasts like I did. I like the Tyson ones, and found a bag big enough for my family for about $9.

I buy Kraft grated Parmesan at Sam's Club in the REALLY big cannister. It's less than half the price as the smaller container at Safeway, and I use it in lots of stuff, including Hubby's lunch salads. You can also save money by watching for sales on mozzarella in the cheese section at your supermarket. The little balls of mozzarella will be less expensive per pound than the shredded stuff, but if you're only buying enough for the recipe a bag of shreds might be cheaper.

My Chicken Parmesan works like this:

Chicken Parmesan

1 bag Tyson breaded chicken fillets
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (or one slice of cheese per chicken breast)
1 cup of spaghetti sauce
Spray Olive Oil

Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish lightly with oil. Arrange frozen chicken breasts in dish. Sprinkle with Parmesan. Place a big spoonful of spaghetti sauce on each chicken breast (you're not trying to smother them, but you could if you wanted to). Top with the remaining Parmesan, and cover it all with the mozzarella.

Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes, or until chicken is hot through. Serve over pasta.

Gourmet, no. A nice change from tuna casserole? Absolutely!

Carrot Muffins

I was showing off my latest recipe find amongst my Allakhazam coworkers today and got poked for not having it on my blog. So here it is!

I was really getting tired of my usual healthy snack recipes, and wanted something different. At the same time I've been looking forever for something like a breakfast cookie that wasn't full of corn syrup or sugar. Somewhere I my mind carrots got stuck, and then Kiddo somehow decided he wanted carrot muffins.

Go go Google, the first recipe I hit looks tasty, and I'm very pleased with it. The original recipe is here, but I've modified it.



They use a very fine grate for their carrots, which is why their picture looks different than mine; I also don't peel the carrots and apple. I've lowered the sugar and oil, and added some fruit. It's the toasted nuts that really make this muffin fantastic, though. I had pecans left from making fruitcake, and they really make this muffin.

Carrot Muffins

Makes 18 standard-sized muffins.

1/2 cup pecans or walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
2 cups grated raw carrot (about 2-3 peeled carrots)
1 large apple, peeled and grated
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Splenda Measure (the kind that measures just like sugar)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup unsweetened coconut
3 large eggs
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup applesauce
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Place fluted paper liners in 18 muffin cups.

Toast the pecans or walnuts for about 8 minutes or until lightly browned and fragrant. Let cool and then chop coarsely. Peel and finely grate the carrots and apple and set aside.

In a large bowl whisk or sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and ground cinnamon. Stir in the nuts and coconut.

In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs, oil, and vanilla extract. Fold the wet ingredients, along with the grated carrot and apple, into the flour mixture, stirring just until moistened. Do not over-mix!

Evenly divide the batter between the muffin cups and bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. After about 10 minutes remove the muffins from the pans and cool completely on a wire rack. If you want to frost them, let them cool completely.

Eat Your Veggies

If you're like me you still have lots of veggies in your freezer from your garden.

Well, okay, not everyone is lucky enough to have a garden. But I've still got zucchini and pumpkin in the freezer. The zucchini I shredded and blanched, so it's all ready to go in bread, and the pumpkin I cooked and pulped.

I made pumpkin cranberry muffins last week, and I had a cup of pumpkin pulp that needed to get used up. Go go Google - I found a pumpkin waffle recipe on a blog of someone else who did a lot of pumpkin this year!

This waffle batter was thinner than I'm used to and made a "floppy" waffle instead of a firm, crisp one. Next time I might reduce the liquid a bit. More oil would also make them more crisp. But the result was a lovely flavored waffle with sneaky vegetables! Oh, be warned, this makes a HUGE batch.

Pumpkin Waffles

2½ cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
2¼ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
4 large eggs, separated
2 cups well-shaken buttermilk
1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted

Vegetable oil for brushing waffle iron or cooking spray

Accompaniment: warm pure maple syrup

Preheat oven to 250°F and preheat waffle iron.

Sift together flour, brown sugar, baking powder and soda, salt, and spices.

Whisk egg yolks in a large bowl with buttermilk, pumpkin, and butter until smooth. Whisk in dry ingredients just until smooth.

In a mixing bowl with a whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites until they hold soft peaks (as in, far soften than the over-beaten whites you’ll see in my picture above). Folk them gently into the waffle batter, until just combined.

Brush waffle iron lightly with oil and spoon batter (about 2 cups for four 4-inch Belgian waffles) into waffle iron, spreading quickly. Cook according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Transfer waffles to rack in oven to keep warm and crisp. Make more waffles in same manner.

I had taken out some zucchini, because Nana sent me these funky, pyramid-shaped silicone cupcake pans for Christmas and I thought they'd be perfect for my Chocolate Zucchini Bread recipe, which I'll re-post here as I've made some healthier modifications to the recipe. The silicone muffin pans had to cook almost a half-hour, instead of the 18 or so minutes I'm used to, but I don't know if that's from the silicone or the shape of the pans. Regardless, my kids got "chocolate cupcakes". Again with sneaky vegetables!!

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups zucchini (grated)
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups flour
1 cup nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Sift all dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, combine sugars, oil and eggs. Add dry ingredients, zucchini and nuts until all are moistened. Grease and flour bread pans. Bake in standard cupcakes tins about 18 minutes, mini bread pans for about 35 minutes. For large bread pans, bake about an hour. Use a cake tester to test for doneness.

Next project: I have a bunch of carrots going limp in the vege drawer. Kiddo told me he likes carrots in his school lunch, but never seems to eat them! I'm thinking of something more like a breakfast cookie than an muffin, we'll see what comes up!

Holiday Baking

It's been an absolute whirlwind around here. On top of the usual adventures of kid raising and budget manipulation, over at Allakhazam we've been gearing up for EverQuest II: Rise of Kunark. It's been a mass of hard gameplay, testing, and data entry. The expansion launched Tuesday with an incredibly smooth rollout, and I'm finally getting to breathe again. The EverQuest II Team did a phenomenal job!

And I see it's mid-November, and I've hardly started my holiday baking! So I've been working with the pumpkin puree I wrote about last time, and I've got dried fruit soaking in rum for fruitcakes (which I'll write about later).

Here's a couple of very nice pumpkin recipes I've found. While pumpkins are not on the market up here right now, where they're in season you shouldn't have any problem finding fresh pumpkin. And there's always that good ol' reliable can of Libbys! Remember, pumpkin is one of those fantastic veggies that hides well in baked goods.

Pumpkin Bread

This was so good the first loaf lasted less than 24 hours!

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 3/4 cups pumpkin pureé (15 oz can)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup fresh or dried cranberries (optional)
  

Preparation:
Combine flour, spice, baking powder, and salt in bowl; stir to blend the dry ingredients well. Combine eggs, sugar, pumpkin, and oil in a mixing bowl. Stir in flour mixture, then stir in cranberries. Spoon into two greased and floured 9x5x2-inch loaf pans. Bake at 350° for 55 minutes, or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.

Iced Pumpkin Cookies:

I made the first batch exactly as written. The second batch I added sweetened dried cranberries and skipped the icing, which my family liked better. I also cut the sugar down to a cup. Next time I'll substitute in some Splenda.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  

• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork.

To Make Glaze: Combine confectioners' sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed, to achieve drizzling consistency.

Berry season!

It's being such a busy summer, as usual. Besides the usual flurry of summer activities focused on getting us out of the house while it's beautiful out, we're getting ready to go to the SOE Fan Faire in August (I may have mentioned it...). So I'm behind on blogs. I still haven't managed to blog about the garden, which is doing phenomenally well due to a lot of rain this summer. The peas are 5 feet tall, the potato plants are easily 3.5 to 4 feet tall, there's more tomatoes on the Early Girls I planted than I can count, and I have a cherry tomato plant that apparently is a small tree and should have been planted alone. We've harvested our second zucchini, we're already through the first crop of lettuce, and I've planted the second run of green onions.

I will get more details out later, I swear! 'Cause today I'm excited about raspberries.



Grandpa has wild roses and raspberries bordering his yard. He thinned out the deadwood this year and we have new young raspberry bushes coming up everywhere and the rose hips are really thick. He called last week and said "I'm canning the first raspberries!" meaning he's eaten the first ripe ones.

The subdivision Grandpa lives in hasn't been entirely paved over, which is normal here in our neck of Alaska. There's an ally between most blocks that doesn't see a lot of traffic. So Tuesday I went over with a bucket and went scouting. The one area Grandpa recommended wasn't showing a lot of fruit, but I found two other healthy patches and came back with about a quart of berries. Judging from the amount of unripe fruit I saw I thought I'd try back every 3-4 days.

Yesterday Grandpa calls again and says it's definitely time!

So we head over, and Hubby takes one the kids in Grandpas yard while I head out with the bucket.

Now, a few words about picking raspberries in Interior Alaska. Long sleeves are smart, as they have stickers. You're gonna get eaten up by bugs. You'll be picking stickers out of your clothes forever. Because they berries tend to grow in underbrush and like to hang out with rose bushes, which have REALLY nasty thorns.

The fruit grows under the leaves, and if they are crowded they'll grow almost low-bush style, along the ground. If you see one pretty red fruit winking at you, lift the branch up so you can see the underside, I'll guarantee there are more. I used my bucket to hold down brush and grass and ferns that were int he way. You'll get wet if there's been any rain at all, because the underbrush holds the moisture.

The patches I found were so laden with fruit that was so ripe I was losing berries just berries just moving the branches to get underneath them. The berry size varied from teeny where the plats were packed together to ones bigger than what I've seen in the supermarket. All of them were beautiful.

I found a third patch I hadn't scouted as I was headed back with my bucket over half full (it's a big bucket). These were the biggest and best berries I 'd seen yet. I picked and picked and picked and never got close to getting them all. My gaming friends will understand when I say I had one-more-node syndrome, and bad. Eventually I looked at my phone for the time and discovered I'd been out way longer than I planned. I reluctantly walked back to Grandpas house and tried to keep the kids out of the bucket.

Last year I didn't roam as far (and it wasn't as wet a summer) and I ended up buying one pint of berries to make jam. That's not going to be an issue this year. At a rough estimate I have three quarts of berries, and that's more bulk than a grocery store dry quart, because the berries fall apart and compress better after cleaning and washing.

That bag behind them is a gallon bag; the fruit on the trays I just washed about a half an hour ago and is drying to be frozen.

I want to go back tomorrow; that last patch isn't anywhere near picked over and those berries are just ripe.

In the meantime I'm freezing the berries. This isn't hard, you wash them , let them dry a bit on paper towels, and throw them in a Zip-Lock, getting as much air out as possible. It means I don't have to run right home and squeeze making jam into this hectic schedule we've got.

But jam is definitely in our future!

"Real" Nutrition

When Kiddo was in Daycare I used to go around and around with his Daycare Grandma about pre-fab kids' drinks like Kool-Aid and Capri Sun. She thought I was silly worrying about such a thing when I insisted he drink only milk, juice, or water. "They have vitamin C!" she'd say. "They're sugar and red dye number 6!" I'd cry.

I was browsing through one of the many parenting newsletters I get and ran across a link to the article Is That Really a Healthy Snack? I felt a wee bit smug that most of my dietary concerns are addressed here.

Some selected quotes:

Just because the packaging includes the word fruit doesn't mean the snack is healthy.

My kids don't get fruit rollups, or chewies, or any thing resembling them. If you read the ingredients, the first thing you'll see is "High Fructose Corn Syrup" which means that there's more liquid sugar in that item than any other ingredient.

...the crackers certainly aren't whole wheat because real wheat isn't the color of jack-o-lanterns.

Of course we're talking about the florescent cheese and cracker combos, which aren't a bad snack per se, but aren't really a good one either. Better than high fructose corn syrup, I suppose.

What about good ol' Kool-Aid? "Liquid candy," says Dr. Nestle, and Dr. Shulman adds, "Just sugar!"

Ah-HAH! I was right all along! Not that it takes a degree in chemistry to understand what when you add two cups of sugar and a dye packet to water you get... sugar water.

With all the misleading advertising, how's a parent supposed to know what constitutes a healthy snack for her children? Remember these simple guidelines:

1. If your grandmother wouldn't recognize it as a food eaten in her day, it's probably high processed and junky.


2. If a food is wrapped in a wrapper that crinkles, it's probably not a great idea.


3. If the snack comes in colors not found in nature—neon green, arctic blue, bright orange, shocking pink, rainbows, polka dots, or stripes—consider a piece of fruit instead!

Part of it, really, is learning how to read labels. Sure, the fat and carb count is important, as are the vitamins, but I skip right to the ingredients. What's first? What's second? Ingredients must be listed so that what ever there's most of comes first. The FDA has a handy guide that's not terribly confusing, but I actually prefer this one on Kids Health. SixWise.com has this article on ways manufacturers "clean" their nutrition labels to make them look not quite as unhealthy.

Here's a practical exercise for you. Take a look at Digiorno Pizza-Harvest Wheat Thin Crispy Crust - Supreme. Healthy? Or just junk in disguise?

Healthy Pizza?

I kinda figure there's only so much I can do raising my kids. Love 'em, educate 'em, and give them good nutrition. Okay, that's over simplifying, but it's a nice summary.

Nutrition is about more than vitamins and fiber. It's about developing healthy eating habits while your kids are small that will carry them through their lives. It's about finding ways to get good nutrition into their diets that they will actually like and eat, and about being aware of what is and isn't "good nutrition".

I go on about the goodness of whole grains from time to time. One of the problems with whole grains is the goodness you get from them isn't something you'll necessarily find on the nutrition labels. It's connected with healthy hearts, healthy digestive tracks, and includes iron, calcium, antioxidants, and about a jillion trace minerals. I try to use whole wheat a lot. The simplest way is to substitute half the flour in your baked goods with whole wheat flour. If you're buying your bread, make sure that "Whole Wheat Flour" is the very first ingredient listed. Not "enriched flour" or "wheat flour", if it doesn't say "whole wheat", it's not.

This comes up again because of an interesting article on CNN.com that my husband found. The short version is that they discovered by using longer rise times and cooking the whole wheat dough longer and at higher temperatures, they can make healthy pizza dough. Apparently long rises and high heat causes more antioxidants to develop. And the part of the wheat that develops the antioxidants is not present in white flour.

This is nice, because it applies to all whole wheat doughs. While it's hard to cook at higher temperatures longer for most breads, it's really really easy to do long rise times by doing a refrigerator rise. When you're ready to do the second rise (usually after shaping the loaf), put the shaped dough in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. You may be able to go longer, I've never tried it. A refrigerator rise will also give your bread a smoother texture and fewer bubbles.

If you'd like to try making your own bread, may I recommend The New Homemaker. They have step-by-step instructions with pictures. If you're not fond of 100% whole wheat bread, use half wheat and half white flour instead.

More Recipes

No theme to this one, I just thought I'd post a couple recipes I've run into recently.

I finally found a pizza crust I like. Now these days it's not necessarily cheaper to make your own pizza, but if you do you'll always know what's in it! You can significantly reduce fat and salt if you make your own. I use moose sausage (which is incredibly lean even with 5% suet added), low-fat mozzarella cheese, and fake my own pizza sauce by adding herbs to canned tomato sauce. Substitute half whole-wheat flour for the benefits of whole-grain. This makes one 12-inch pizza; I doubled it to make a cookie sheet sized thin crust.

Quick and Easy Pizza Dough

1 pkg dry yeast (or 2 1/4 tsp)
3/4c very warm water (120-130 degrees)
2c flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Soak yeast in water for 5 minutes. Add flour, salt and sugar and mix to blend. Knead for 2-3 minutes until flour is well blended. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 15 minutes. Roll dough to fit a 12 inch pizza pan. Top pizza with tomato sauce and toppings. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is browned and bubbly.

These cookies aren't quite as healthy as my no-sugar oatmeal cookies, but they're tasty, stay soft, and have lots of whole grains. They also have less sugar than some cookie recipes, and are still quite tasty without the chocolate chips. I don't have the URL, but my hard copy says "copyright Stephanie Gallagher".

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

1/2c all-purpose flour
3/4c whole wheat flour
1c quick cooking rolled oats
1/2t baking soda
1/2t salt
3/4c light brown sugar
1/3c butter
1/3c creamy peanut butter
1/4c nonfat buttermilk
1/3c chocolate chips

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with nonstick spray. Whisk together first five ingredients (through salt) in a medium mixing bowl. IN a large mixing bowl, beat sugar, butter, peanut butter, and buttermilk together. Stir in flour mixture until a soft dough forms. Add chocolate chips.

Roll dough into walnut-sized balls and place on prepared cookie sheets, 2 inches apart. Flatten gently with the back of a fork. Bake 10-12 minutes. Store cookies in an airtight container with a piece of white bread. The white bread keeps the cookies soft.

Give Us This Day

Bread. Basic stuff. Can't have a sandwich without it. It fills you up, holds your peanut butter, mops your egg yolk, and gives you a scooper at dinner.

But if you're going for maximum nutrition for minimum money, I recommend that you don't cheap out on bread. Next time you're in the store, grab a loaf of brand-x super-cheap on-sale bread, and compare its nutrition label to a good brand name. It's a little startling. You might spend two dollars more a loaf for the next brand up, but the nutritional benefits are definitely worth the money.

One of the problems with bread is that when the flour is processed they remove a lot of vitamins and minerals... and then put them back, more or less. The cheapest brands are often little more than fiber and empty calories. On the other hand, spendy multi-grain varieties might be fooling you into thinking you're getting whole-grain benefits when you're not.

Go whole wheat whenever you can. Whole grain breads have astounding benefits that go beyond what you can read on a nutrition label. Eating whole grains has been shown to reduce the risks of heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and obesity.

Seriously, this is one place where your money is well spent, and careful shopping (try your local warehouse club, or see if the bread distributor have a day-old store) can minimize even that expense. Remember: in the United States the only way to be certain that it's really a whole wheat bread is to read the ingredients! Here's a really great article on Whole Grains. If you're paying a bit more to get away from empty-calorie cheap bread, you might as well go for whole wheat and get all those bonuses!

I like to make my own bread, but I don't have quite enough free time these days. Instead I've been making No-Knead Rolls and I've just started making my own Pita bread, both of which are less time-intensive than loaf breads. I make with them half whole wheat flour and half unbleached white flour (100% whole wheat I find very hard to work by hand, it makes my tendonitis flare up). If you find making bread intimidating, Try these very easy recipes. The titles link to their internet source; these have my modifications.

No-Knead Rolls
4 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 cups warm water
1/2 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup shortening
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 egg

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water and set aside to proof (let it sit about 10 minutes). In another bowl, mix together sugar, salt, shortening, and egg with an electric mixer at low speed. Add mixture to yeast, and stir in flour. The last 3 cups of flour will have to be mixed in by hand. Cover dough with a damp cloth, and place in refrigerator. Punch down occasionally as dough rises. You can leave dough in refrigerator overnight. Two hours before baking, shape the dough into rolls. When shaping your rolls, remember that they will double in size. Place on greased pans, baking trays or muffin pans. Let rise 2 hours. Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 8 to 10 minutes.

Whole Wheat Pita
1/4 c warm water
2 tsp active dry yeast
pinch of sugar
2 c whole wheat flour
1 c unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 c water
1 Tbsp Oil
1 tsp salt

Mix yeast, pinch of sugar and 1/4 c of warm water in a small bowl. Set aside to proof yeast, about 10 minutes. In a large bowl, pour in yeast mixture, then flour, olive oil and salt. With a wooden spoon mix in about 1/2 cup of the remaining warm water. Add water a tablespoon at a time as needed to make a firm dough. Knead by hand for about 8-10 minutes till smooth. Wipe a large bowl with a little oil, add dough and cover with plastic. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Punch down dough and knead briefly. Cut into 6 equal pieces. Roll pieces into balls, place on a cookie sheet and cover with plastic wrap.

Let rise till doubled again, another 20-30 minutes. Preheat oven to 400° F. Roll out each ball into a 6-7" round, taking care not to pierce dough surface (or pita won't puff).

Place rounds on a cookie sheet, brush each generously with olive oil, and bake about 6 minutes till tops begin to brown and pitas puff. Note: over-cooked pitas get hard on the bottom, but they still make awesome pizza crust!

I was going to write a blog on making loaf bread, but I realized that when I went to re-learn it (I hadn't made any since high school) I found a great site that laid it all out, with pictures and everything. It took some looking, 'cause the page in The Ugly Green Binder in the Cupboard doesn't have the URL on it, but I found it. If you'd like to learn to make your own real loaf bread from scratch, may I highly recommend The New Homemaker.

Feeding Baby - Make it or Buy it?

Okay, baby food doesn't look overly expensive, but like everything else it adds up. Gerber recommends five fruits and vegetables a day, which is about $3, not counting cereal. The very best price I can get on commercial baby food is $1 for two 2 oz containers (and that's Stage 1, which he's outgrowing rapidly). I know I can pinch that penny harder!

For baby's very first foods I decided to buy commercial baby foods. I made some of Kiddo's baby food and getting purees fine and thin enough for a baby just learning to eat is tough. Oh, WIC provides us with single grain cereals, so I didn't need to worry about that. But once Baby was handling baby food well I decided to see if I could make my own cheaper.

I did have to make a small investment: a food mill. They aren't terribly expensive and I can use it for a long time. It'll be really handy when Baby can just eat mushed table food; I can pop in some of what ever we're eating and he's good to go. The model I got is very inexpensive and probably wasn't designed to last more than a couple of years Why don't I use my canning food mill? The thing is huge, it holds 5 quarts! I also didn't have it when I bought the baby food mill. This baby food mill is designed to come to the table with you if you like.

For infant foods the food mill needs a little help. I run the veggies through the mill and then I throw them in the blender. I knew from Kiddo that just throwing food in the blender doesn't work well, it leaves chunks of food. But using the mill then the blender makes a nice puree. Add water, formula or breast milk to get the desired consistency. I use the cooking water from the veggies, since formula and breast milk can go bad quickly. If you keep a sink full of hot soapy water ready while you're making baby food the clean up is really easy. Don't let baby food dry on your blender. You'll hate yourself if you do!

By the way, I'm told that a food processor works well for baby food (which makes sense), but on my budget a $12 food mill and my old blender was more practical. When I can finally get a food processor I'm not going to cut any corners, it'll be able to do everything but wash itself. And maybe even that.

When picking produce for baby food I prefer to use frozen veggies and fruits. I can get about five 1/4 cup servings from a small bag of frozen veggies, bringing us below 25 cents a serving if I catch the right sales. They've been processed in such a way to minimize bacteria and maximize freshness. Be sure to get no-salt varieties. Some fresh food seems especially suited to making baby food, like squash. But according to the feeding guidelines our pediatrician gave us, you should not make your own carrots, spinach and beets, as they can contain high levels of nitrates. Commercial baby food has been tested for nitrates.

I avoid canned vegetables and fruits, although they would probably be easier to process to a pulp. Canned veggies usually have salt added and canned fruit is almost always packed in syrup. Baby doesn't need salt and sugar issues at 6 months!

Something I'm about to try is this neato fresh food feeder. We got one for Kiddo a little late, but he enjoyed it while he used it. You insert a slice of apple or banana or other easily gnawed produce onto the base, screw the netted end over, and let baby go to town. Its great practice for self-feeding and can be helpful if Baby is teething. The net half is a pain to wash by hand; fortunately I have a dishwasher.

Starting solid foods has Baby, well, a little plugged up. Not to a distressing degree, fortunately, but you want to act before baby keeps you up all night screaming from constipation. Our pediatrician says that carrots, green beans, and prunes all help keep things moving. Turns out I can't really make any of those from scratch: Carrots are on the nitrate list, my green beans just don't seem to puree fine enough, and it's actually cheaper to buy commercial baby prunes than to buy prunes and make my own. Most feeding plans also recommend starting baby on a sippy cup of water about now. Baby won't guzzle it down; they have to learn to sip instead of suck. If they do get the hang of it fast, make sure your baby isn't filing up on water so they get proper nutrition.

I have bottles and a breast pump left from Kiddo, by Avent. I love the Avent system because they've designed it to grow with you. Their Magic Cup sippy cup spouts and handles also fit on their non-disposable bottle system - everything is interchangeable! While I haven't used bottles with Baby, I got enough sippy spouts and handles to convert some bottles at about a third the cost of getting all new infant cups.

I guess I'm a little obsessive about the whole nutrition thing. The first two years of a baby's development are absolutely critical when it comes to brain and nervous system development, not to mention the huge number of other issues you can avoid with good nutrition. Habits and tastes they develop now are shown to stick for their whole lives. For great information on infant nutrition, visit the USDA's Food and Nutrition Information Center and the American Academy of Pediatrics website.

The Sneaky Vegetable

Like most kids, Kiddo is going through a picky eating phase. Getting him to eat vegetables is, well... short of sitting on him and forcing them down his throat, it's darn near impossible. Duct tape doesn't help, either.

So I've gotten good at the fine art of hiding vegetables.

A note about vegetable quality: It's been suggested that frozen vegetables are the highest quality. Why? Unless you live in an area that grows lots of fresh produce, most produce is force-ripened or picked green and allowed to ripen during shipment. This doesn't allow the nutrition value to develop to it's fullest. Canned vegetables, even the low-salt varieties, almost always have salt added. Frozen vegetables are usually allowed to ripen fully, then they're blanched and flash-frozen. And if you read the labels you can always find no-salt brands.

One of the easiest ways to sneak vegetables is to grate or shred them. Chopping them really fine works too, but who has that kind of time? Grated carrots and zucchini darn near melt away in anything you make. Frozen spinach is a good one too. It doesn't disappear but it's impossible to avoid.

Macaroni and Cheese is a perfect base for hiding veggies on your child. It's got cheese in it, and the veggies stick to the macaroni. If you keep them small enough they don't even notice. I'm an advocate of Kraft Easy Mac, which is dirt cheap at the warehouse clubs (like 28 cents a serving), fortified to the max, and just the right serving size for kids.

Spaghetti sauce. Now there's a serious Mom nutrition tool. Tomatoes are one of those magic veggies (you're gonna tell me it's a fruit, right? Bzzzzt, no points for you! Technically it's a berry.) that are packed with all kinds of great nutrition and are usually easy to get kids to eat in the form of pasta sauce or pizza sauce.

Tomatoes have health benefits you can't tie to vitamins and nutrition labels. Studies have shown that tomatoes are packed with lycopene, which is connected to the prevention of all kinds of diseases, especially cancers. Interestingly enough, tomatoes are better for you cooked, as cooking breaks down cell walls, releasing and concentrating carotenoids. Eating tomatoes with a small amount of fat enables lycopene to be better absorbed. Then add that tomatoes are a great source of vitamin A and C, and you have maximum nutrition.

See that bit about a small amount of fat? That's right... meat sauce is good for you.

So, we have cancer and disease fighting elements, works better with fat, tons of vitamins, easy to hide shredded mystery vegetables in, and your kids will eat it... what's not to love about spaghetti sauce?

Hubby makes phenomenal spaghetti sauce. It takes him all day. He chops and minces and sautes and stirs and simmers then sits down to play Call of Duty 2 while I clean the kitchen. (Okay, he's gotten lots better at cleaning as he goes. Love you Honey!) Unfortunately, his spaghetti requires lots of fresh ingredients that cost more than I can spend, so usually we get my budget version. There's nothing at all wrong with my budget version, it's just that his sauce is... so darn good!

$6 Spaghetti Sauce

The basic sauce is cheap to make. This recipe makes a lot, I can get four or five meals out of it. Freeze extra sauce in airtight containers (I prefer containers over freezer bags for sauce 'cause the bags always seem to leak when I thaw them). A note about freezing: my sauce always seems to separate a little and get watery when I thaw it. I add a small can of tomato paste to thicken it up after thawing.

1 #10 can of tomato sauce or puree
1 #10 can of diced or chopped tomatoes
2 garlic cloves, crushed, or two teaspoons of jarred minced garlic
2 tablespoons of dried oregano
1 large can of tomato paste (12 oz)

(#10 cans are the big food service sized cans. I get these at my local warehouse club, total cost for the two cans is about $4.75.)

Throw all ingredients in a really big pot. Cook over medium heat until it begins to bubble, then cover and reduce heat. Let it simmer all day, stirring regularly. Tomato sauces get more flavorful the longer they sit, so keeping it in the fridge overnight is great. Remember to put your sauce in the fridge while it's still hot to inhibit bacteria growth.

Making it $10-$15 Sauce:

Add any of the following or whatever your family likes. Remember that spaghetti sauce will gain flavor as it cooks and sits, so a little goes a long way. Often to save money I'll freeze the basic $6 recipe and add whatever I want to the smaller batch when I thaw it. These quantities are for the big batch.

1 pound of Italian sausage or hamburger
2 bell peppers, any color, diced
1 medium onion, chopped fine
1 cup of fresh chopped mushrooms
1 medium shredded or diced zucchini
1 cup grated carrots (yes, carrots. You won't taste them, they'll just make it a teeny sweeter)
2 cups chopped fresh spinach or 1 cup frozen spinach
1 Tablespoon dried basil
1 Bay Leaf

Since we're doing tomato sauce, let's whip out my Best Kept Secret for sneaking veggies: Pizza.

Pizza is considered "eat in moderation" by my WIC nutritionist because most pizza is high in fat. All the cheese, pepperoni, sausage and stuff has fat, and on pizza it doesn't run off, it sits there to give us all that greasy goodness.

But your kids don't know that! Here's inexpensive kid sized pizzas that are really fast and as an added bonus, kids like to help make them.

Healthy Kid Pizza

For one pizza:

1 Whole-wheat Pita bread round
2-3 tablespoons of tomato sauce or spaghetti sauce
1/4-1/3 cup low-fat
shredded mozzerella cheese
Veggies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Assemble pizza(s). Hide shredded or fine-chopped veggies (small so they can't be picked off) under the cheese. Bake on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

It has nothing to do with tomatoes, but while we're sneaking veggies I have to share this fantastic recipe I found. Chocolate Zucchini Bread. This particular quick bread is very cake-like; you could just about bake it in cake pans and frost it. I adore chocolate, so I use Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa, but regular cocoa works well too.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

1 cup oil
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups zucchini (grated)
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups flour
1 cup nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Sift all dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, combine sugars, oil and eggs. Add dry ingredients, zucchini and nuts until all are moistened. Grease and flour bread pans. Bake in mini bread pans for about 35 minutes. For large bread pans, bake about an hour. Use a cake tester to test for doneness.