Lunch Box Chronicles: Day One-Hundred and Twenty-Four (On the Meaning of Chicken Soup)

Whether we admit it or not, we all need comfort.  The need comes in all shapes and sizes.  The need may emanate from a cold drizzly spring that has haunted Maine, or from boo-boos and a runny nose on a 9 year old, or from too much homework for a 13 year old, or just from feeling overwhelmed as the 47 year old daughter of an 85 year old mother who needs have become greater than the daughter could honestly manage.  And sometimes that comfort simply cannot be found in others, but needs to be created from scratch.  My youngest honed right in on that need the other day.  "Mom,  I would like chicken soup."   "Really, honey?  I let you stay home from school, but I have soooo much to do....clean out grandma's house, deliver some bagels, do some business planning...making chicken soup is going to take time."  "But, Mom," she pleaded, "Really, I need chicken soup."  The request was reasonable, almost brilliant, and I decided that the comfort for the day needed to made from scratch.

BETH'S EVOLVING CHICKEN SOUP RECIPE
My soup recipes are unscientific, but time tested.  I always start with olive oil, chopped onions, and crushed garlic (with salt) in the bottom of the pan.  After the onions soften and are slightly browned, I add chopped carrots and potatoes.  I then follow with whatever chicken is on hand (frozen chicken breasts this time).  I add more oil if necessary.  Next comes the kitchen sink - i.e., whatever I can find in the fridge or freezer.  This time: sliced mushrooms, fresh asparagus, and frozen green beans.  Spinach is also good.  Keep sauteing, adding enough oil to keep from sticking.  Add a small amount of water to make dark broth.  Then add as much water as will fit in the pan.  Spice as you like.  I used chopped parsley, sea salt, pepper, and basil.   Keep cooking until chicken is done, veggies are soft, and broth is flavorful.

Serve with Spelt Right bread.

The end result: A comforting meal for those in need of comfort.

Be well, cook with your family.  Your children will remember this far more than the multitude of plastic gifts we give  them.

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day One-Hundred and Twenty-Three (A NY Bagel, Really??)

OK, this one is not a recipe, but rather an observation, or perhaps, a rant, about the state of what we call food in the U.S.  On a recent trip to NYC to introduce our healthful SPELT RIGHT bagels, breads, and pizza dough to people in the BIG APPLE with health challenges (diabetes, insulin resistance, inflammatory diseases, etc.) and to spread the word about good nutrition (ok, I am a bit of a proselytiser here), I happened upon a very curious object.

Please see the picture.

The colors drew me in and I felt compelled to buy it.  I just had to show this to my son Spencer, whose health and behavior were so adversely impacted by foods with common wheat (the typical NY bagel), and other foods with wild food colors (the not-so-typical NY bagel).  Once we cleared his diet of anything that eked of this bagel (including foods with common wheat and foods with artificial additives)  this dear child transformed from being uncomfortable and out of control, to healthy, happy, and easy going.  Food is IT!!!  It's one thing we all share in common....the desire to be fed well.

This THING is representative of the sad state of affairs we call a health crisis in the country.   Hey folks, it's a nutrition crisis!!!   A little sense goes a long way.

BTW, this colorful monstrosity is now like a museum piece!  Without any shellac whatsoever, this braid of artificial color and bleached/bromated flour is now like a stone.  It also contains bromates which are really bad for you!!!

Imagine what you would have felt like if this colorful sphere ended up in your stomach??   Perhaps the quintessential lead weight?   You might even say, "I can't believe I ate the whole thing...or, even took a bite."

My solution....eat spelt, your body will thank you.....You will have no regrets!!

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day One-Hundred and Twenty-Two (A Restraining Order to Protect Cake Batter - Happy Birthday O)

Turning 9 is monumental, especially if you were just 8 the day before.  Yesterday, I let both my kids play hooky.  It was supposed to be a stress reliever for all of us in honor of O's birthday - and the fact that Grandma's ER visit and brief stay at a nursing care facility the day before taught us what Dorothy learned some time ago "There is no place like home."

O had the privilege of going to her favorite Japanese restaurant and dragging her mom to Chuck E. Cheese for some 9 year old madness.  Spencer got to skip school in the name of making a cake for his sister's birthday.  My dear friend Kitty was relegated to Grandma watch duty - due to Grandma's sprained ankle.

Perhaps, Spencer should just give up school and start a restaurant.  He has contracted kitchen fever.  No longer is he the secondary sous chef or the kid who gets to crack the eggs. He is the 13 year old man in charge of the kitchen - reeling orders at anyone who dares to cross his path.  "Kitty, get me the onions please - time to make dinner."  "Mom, the cake pans please?"  "Olivia, outta my way....I'm in charge."  This sometimes does not bode well for the now 9 year old who also wants to be in charge.

I can't even guess the recipe Spencer used/created for Olivia's birthday cake.  It was a stunning ALL NATURAL red velvet spelt cake with real butter cream frosting (no confectioner's sugar here....I was completely baffled that he made frosting with granulated sugar...but it was awesome.)  I do know that after Spencer made this wonderful cake, we ran out of butter, sugar, and are now low on Vita Spelt.

Somewhere in the making of this grand cake, the intentions got lost....Olivia wanted a swipe of the batter on her finger: Spencer insisted that the only hands in the bowls would be his; I ran to my third floor office for cover, locking two doors behind me.  Alas, to no avail.  The kids know how to break in, and Olivia came up crying about the cruelty of not getting to eat batter, and Spencer followed later demanding a "restraining order" against his sister so the cake could be finished, or else there would be no birthday celebration at all.

A "restraining order" regarding cake batter?  Has this lawyer, turned baking entrepreneur had too much influence on her kids?????  Have we lost the meaning of the cake???

As the madness ensued, I attempted to maintain some sense of semblance as I was making business plans regarding something or other....I felt for my business partner on the other end of the telephone line, as I bounced between the concept of supermarket orders and the need for a restraining order to protect cake batter.

Olivia's Red Velvet Spelt Birthday Cake created by Spencer

Somehow, without a restraining order, the cake did get baked, and I managed to grocery shop for birthday fare, and make grilled chicken, seared steak, Spelt Right pizza and fitayers, salad, salad dressing and rice (thank you Kitty)....just in time for our expected guests - Kitty, Donna and her two kids and our unexpected guests, my brother and his adult daughter, Caitlyn.   My friends were in awe at the amount of food I made...."Way too much," they said..   I knew better...especially with Spencer, the chef, and Alan my brother in the house.   The dinner was devoured, plates wiped clean.  Thank goodness for the loving dad, spouse, son-in-law, brother-in-law and overall good mensch Tim who made the kitchen spotless after the celebration and all the shenanigans.

The Birthday song, along with the beautiful cake, topped off the evening, and reminded us the meaning of the cake - a family's love for a NOW nine year old girl with a little batter on her finger, and no retraining orders on her record.

Happy Birthday Olivia.  We love you.

The sweet end to a raucous day

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day One-Hundred and Twenty-One (Green and White Spelt Right Pizza - in honor of the coming of spring)

I was very lucky to be invited by my good friend Kitty to a performance by Jazz/Blues Great Ronnie Earl & The Broadcasters at One Longfellow Square in Portland.   The music transformative...the pre-show dinner, divine!

We made a green and white pizza on Spelt Right dough.  This Spelt Right dough is absolutely the best savory dough on the market....I might be a bit biased because I created the recipe, BUT, seriously it is so darn good that once you have it, you will not want to go back to the boring pasty wheaty dough.  I promise!

Green and white in honor of a winter that won't quit and a spring that is fighting furiously to break through.  This is what we see as we peek out our windows in Southern Maine: green and white.

And, so we made a pizza in honor of the season of purgatory - neither here nor there, neither spring nor winter, just some white and green, or green and white, depending upon your perspective.

Ingredients: GREEN chard, mushrooms, fresh garlic, salt and pepper to taste, EVOO, WHITE mozzarella and provolone grated cheese.  One SPELT RIGHT pizza dough.

Instructions: Fully thaw and rise Spelt Right pizza dough in its bag.  Chop chard, mushrooms, garlic.  Saute in EVOO until slightly limp, but not soft.  Lightly oil a stainless steel baking pan.  Stretch dough on pan until it full covers pan.  Sprinkle cheese over dough, top with veggies.  Bake at 450F oven for 15 minutes or until done.

RESULT:  A divine moment in purgatory.

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day One-Hundred and Twenty (Spelt Coffee Cake the Answer to an April Fool's Snowstorm):

It just AIN'T fair.  Finally, we saw a glimpse of spring.  The brown beaten wet grass in our front lawn and the last remnants of polluted snow banks littered with tar and sand all sang the notes of spring to us.  We could hear it!  The kids even got to take out their bikes for a day or two.  The cats started choosing the out-of-doors, rather than their litter box, to deposit their cat duties.  It was glorious!

But, that all changed.  April 1, 2011, the day that makes us all FOOLS, brought us a whopper of a snowstorm.  School was cancelled, roads were too slick to drive anywhere, and Olivia - now almost 9 - was BORED out of her mind.

"Ahh, honey, please let me get just a little more shut eye...we can rest, stay in, keep on  our jammies."  No doing for this kid.  She was BORED, is BORED, and will forever be BORED, unless we figure something for her to do.

Well, I was NOT going outside.  I've had it.  I am not built for cold, but for some reason, I was born into a 4 season climate with long winters, and moved to 4 season climate with longer winters.  What's the matter with me?  I need to go south.  It is in my blood.

So, what to do?  Well, this almost 9 year old is an excellent reader, and an even better speller.  Just ask her?  How to you spell...PHENOMENAL...well, she'll tell you, and then tell you some more.

I said, let's make cookies...She suggested something better.  COFFEE CAKE...."O.K., Olivia, you get out the cookbook, follow the directions, and get to work."  And, that is what she did.   We modified the recipe just a bit to use spelt instead of wheat, and to make our own sour milk with milk and fresh squeezed lemon.  The result was an absolutely decadent coffee cake - phenomenal in fact.  The problem is our family of 5 ate the entire cake (with a few pieces to spare for some special friends) in less than a day.  Great cake, but we'll make this baby only once a year.  Too much sugar and fat for our daily intake...but once in a while, especially on such a FOOLISHLY snowy April's day, it is the perfect treat.

 Ingredients:
1 and 1/2  cups VITA SPELT organic white spelt flour
1 cup organic VITA SPELT whole spelt flour
1 and 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2/3 cup BUTTER
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon all spice
2 beaten eggs
1 and 1/3 cups of milk with 1-2TBL freshly squeezed lemon juice (let sit for at least 5 minutes)
1 cup chopped nuts (we used a mix of pecans and walnuts)
1-2 TBL organic molasses (optional)

Butter a 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking dish. Set aside.
In a medium bowl. combine flour and brown sugar.  Cut in butter until mixture looks like coarse crumbs.  Set aside 3/4 of a cup for topping.
Stir in baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and all spice into remaining crumb mixture.
In another bowl, combine the eggs, milk and lemon.  Add wet mixture to dry and mix together.  Pour batter into prepared baking dish.  Combine nuts with reserved crumb mixture, drizzle in molasses.  Mix together in crumb form and then sprinkle over batter.
Bake at 350F for 35-40 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

ENJOY!!!  Eat as you watch the snow gently coat the escaping vestige of spring.

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day One-Hundred and Nineteen: ADHD and Hyperactivity in Kids. Help us Spread the Word!

Great news!  The FDA has just announced that it is considering banning certain food dyes (specifically Red 40 and Yellow 5), because of a possible connection between the consumption of these additives and hyperactivity in children.

Of course, this isn't news to us.

We've been talking/writing/blogging about this issue for years ever since our son began experiencing health and behavioral problems when he was 3 or 4 years old.

Those of you who have followed our son's story know that he is now a healthy, thriving 13-year old. But that wasn't always the case. When he was younger, his health and behavioral issues were so severe that doctors suggested he had everything from ADHD to Asperger's Syndrome.

And every diagnosis came with a drug solution.  HOGWASH!

We weren't buying it. Instead, we started paying close attention to the relationship between what he ate, and how he behaved. It took us several years to figure it all out, but by eliminating artificial colors, flavors and sweeteners, along with removing industrial wheat from his diet (and adding in spelt), we were able to completely turn his health and behavior around.

No drugs. Just good - and real - food.

So we couldn't be happier to hear that the FDA is finally catching up with Spelt Right on the issue of synthetic food additives and their negative effects on our kids.

This is such an important issue - Please help us spread the word!

Also, check out some of our past articles on the relationship between synthetic food additives and hyperactivity in kids.

Down East Article on Spelt Right and Its Mission

http://www.feastnh.com/articles/900538-236/womans-use-of-spelt-in-sons-diet.html?CSAuthResp=1234%3A%3A5000%3A1%3A24%3Aapproved%3A0F4585785573305EC4153626DBD917C5

So, here is picture of the kid, now 13, additive free for 6 years, always

 drug free, all natural diet, and one of the sweetest brightest folks I know.  

He is an incredible chef.  Last night's dinner was made completely 

by Spencer.  Marinated beef tips with a reduction sauce, sauteed tofu, 

tons of garlic, fresh veggies, special homemade sauces, all in a stir fry. 

 Diet change has been worth every moment.

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day One-Hundred and Eighteen (On Being GOOD)

Scanning world events, I remind myself that I have very little to complain about.  Japan and its honorable people have been swallowed by a big wave; the unleashing of nuclear radiation is an unimaginable horror; the turmoil in the Middle East continues with airstrikes against Libya and the unending wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  The world is turning upside down.  Those of us sensitive to its woes feel the sting even if we are not personally experiencing it.


And despite all of these horrors and feeling the sting only from afar, I am thankful for a moment with a bit of normalcy, a moment when you feel the world is o.k., just because there are good people and good events and good things to eat.  


GOOD.  That is how a friend described me today, and that simple description made me smile, while temporarily placing my personal challenges aside and keeping the onslaught of world events at bay.


GOOD is GOOD.  It is important to reflect and appreciate that GOOD people exist even in the midst of world chaos and personal struggles.   The GOODNESS magnifies the more it is shared.


It is the GOOD in others that strengthens us during challenging times and the GOOD that we can offer others that can help ease their pain.


Today, I received two very special gifts from some very GOOD people.  One is a gift certificate for a massage with my favorite Masseuse from two folks in the banking industry who have watched as I have tried, sometimes with success, but mostly with many roadblocks, to build this passion I call Spelt Right Baking Co.   The other, a much bigger gift, was a life boat, and a line of oxygen, to help me stay afloat while I enter unchartered territory to grow this business that has become my obsession.  For all of these, I am thankful.

Today's very GOOD recipe.  Grilled veggies inside of a Spelt Right Pizza Dough Bun.   Fully thaw and rise a Spelt Right Pizza Dough Cut into 8 equal balls.  Slightly flatten balls, coat lightly with EVOO, and place on grill.  Once browned on one side, flip and brown the other.  Make sure bread is baked through through.   Grill vegetables to your preference, add  goat cheese. Yum.


And appreciate that GOOD FOOD is EXTRA GOOD when made with Spelt Right.  For the health benefits of SPELT, please check out this link.