Category Archives: Organic Mama Cafe

Dec 02
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The Toilet Head Dinner (no – wait, it wasn’t actually from the toilet. ew. maybe i should rename this post…)

By | Recipes | No Comments

Lately, things have been a little busy at our house and I keep finding myself making quick one dish meals with whatever I can find in the fridge. Yet, they’re still filled with healthy ingredients and I am even more happy to say they’re delicious!

Check out this one. It took me about 1/2 hour. It was the end of the week and our fridge was nearly empty. So, it was completely experimental and not gourmet – but it’s a good example of eating healthy with what you have in the fridge. Thankfully, it turned out to be pretty good. And believe me, my experiments don’t always. Just ask my daughter about a recent experimental black bean & couscous soup. I know, what was I thinking? Even our dog refused to eat it!

Here’s what I did…

Cut 2 organic chicken thighs I had in the fridge into small slivers and tossed them in a hot wok with a little olive oil and salt. (We buy chicken thighs sometimes because they’re more reasonably priced than organic chicken breasts.) While thighs have a little more fat, we only add small pieces of meat to a dish of veggies so it’s still a healthy choice.

While the chicken cooked, I cut fresh green beans, two sweet potatoes and zucchini into bite sized pieces, and chopped fresh garlic and shallots. Now, I never liked sweet potatoes as a kid because we always had them at Thanksgiving in one particular recipe, smothered in marshmallows. Sweet on sweet didn’t do it for me. Love them prepared in a savory way.

After I cooked the chicken fairly thoroughly, (10 minutes or so – just till it’s no longer pink and a little browned), I threw in the sweet potatoes, added a little salt and let the potatoes brown a little while I smashed the garlic and cut the shallots into slivers.

Green beans and zucchini went in next and I cooked those till the green beans were done – probably another ten minutes.

I did get a little distracted at this point because my baby (not yet two), who was using the “big toilet” in the bathroom a few steps and in line of sight from the kitchen, started shouting, “I stuck! I stuck!” As I turned to find out what in the world was going on, she wandered up to me with the Elmo potty seat stuck on her head. I burst out laughing (after I said, “EEWW! Let’s not put that on your head, ok?!) and washed her hands and head. So…I think it was ten minutes.  Hahaha~!

Since I got a little distracted I didn’t take a final pic of the dinner but it was actually delicious. I thought I’d miss having some kind of acidic element like tomatoes but the sweetness of the potatoes was just yummy against the green beans and savory chicken. I didn’t put a lot of spices in this one – salt and pepper and the nice flavor of a little olive oil.

Just a little note on the value of sweet potatoes… they’re a great source of Vit A, Vit C, Potassium, Magnesium, Phosphorus and folate. How’s that for a fast, healthy dinner?

Nov 22
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Whip it! Whip it Good! (or, How to Make Homemade Whipped Cream!)

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So, if you are considering buying whipped cream in a can this week, I beg you to reconsider. Making it yourself tastes SO much better and your friends will all be impressed with your amazing culinary skills. Best of all, it only takes 5 minutes (so a little longer than I suggest in the video). Haha!

You can shorten the whipping time by using a stainless steel bowl – and do what I forgot to mention, chill the bowl with the cream in it for 15 minutes prior to whipping.

Enjoy!

Nov 05
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Staying Healthy When Everyone Else is Dropping Like Flies Around You

By | Natural Health, Recipes | 3 Comments

We’ve reached the time of year when the darkness of night comes sooner and lasts longer. In it, I find the  reflective, quieter part of me beginning to surface. I find I’m ready for bed earlier and my body seems to want the rest. Listening to my body is a big part of my staying healthy – and keeping my kids that way. Since it’s getting to be that time of year – when flu and cold season is beginning – I thought a little visit back to what I posted last year about building a healthy immune system might be in order.

How to stay healthy when everyone else is dropping like flies around you. Remember that rest, good nutrition and exercise are the best way to get started on a healthy immune system. As my mom used to say, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Here‘s what I said last year about staying healthy and it still holds.

And, if you’re already in the throes of the season’s sickly woes, here’s a good recipe for chicken noodle soup, click here.

Healthy Blessings.

OM

Oct 26
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Fall 2010 Garden #2

By | Organic Gardening | No Comments

Summers in Arizona can be truly miserable. It’s a scorching, painful but brief interval in a place where we enjoy gorgeous weather the rest of the year. But taking tiny people out in the middle of the town is probably ill advised if you want to avoid their getting heat exhaustion or a bad sunburn! On summer mornings, I get up as early as reasonably possible to go hiking or walking – usually around 5 – and spend only small amounts of time outdoors the rest of the day.

Consequently, when the weather begins to change during our version of “fall,” I find myself loath to come inside at all. I wake up a little later, go on my walk or hike, come home to make the kids breakfast and then go back outside as soon as possible. My favorite thing to do is let the kids play outside while I stick my hands in the dirt and try to grow things.

Thus, I’ve been creating gardens wherever anyone will let me plant!   The latest garden is at my sister-in-law’s  house. Here is what we’re doing there…

Her back yard has an existing raised bed – part of which is part of the structural support for the tall wall behind her house. As you can see, her kiddos have been putting it to good use.

But, she wanted to plant something delicious there so we got to work. Because the dirt serves dual purposes of food growing and structural support, we decided to use the front half of the bed for gardening but leave the back undisturbed.

This existing flower bed was definitely more work – even with lasagna gardening because we didn’t want it to be any taller than it already is – at 3.5 feet. So, rather than building up, we started digging. And – WOW – what hard work!! Unfortunately, this bed had not only been covered with “ornamental rock” – (GRRRR!! I hate that stuff!!!) – it was comprised of very hard clay soil filled with even more rocks.

Good thing I had my sifter with me. My father-in-law made this for me from some wire and wood. It does a great job of sifting out most big rocks so we can still use the native dirt (with amendment of course).

Even with the sifter, there were tiny rocks left. I’m not worried about them because we layered that garden with great stuff – just like my original garden. See the process here.

After about 6 hours of serious work (longer than it would have been if we hadn’t been chasing two toddlers around the yard!), we finally finished the bed and planted seeds. And our lovely new gardener chose to plant lettuce, carrots, broccoli and spinach. We added some bachelor buttons for color and to attract good insects.

Now my sil just has to find time to water 5 minutes a day till the seeds come in and we’ll install a drip system. Bet her boys will love eating carrots from their own garden!