hot mamas and papas - a whole fish fry

real men rock.it.hot in kid aprons.

captain america showed iron man how to fry a whole fish and it was a huge hit.

the kids could not believe there was a real fish in our house.  it went something along these lines:

tommy:  ewwwwww, is that an eyeball mama??l!  i don't want the eyeball.
abbie:  gross, we are going to eat a real fish!?  i don't want the eyeball!!!!
mac:  omg, cool!!!!!  do i have to eat the eyeball?!!

it's part of the disconnect we have from our food source.

bring on the food education - this was a 1st for the mullies kitchen!

kurt and christina found this red snapper at our local mariano's grocery store.  it was so much less expensive to buy the whole fish vs have it filleted (that word just doesn't look right... filleted...)

we had some celebrating to do: christina applied and was officially accepted as a new mundelein food ambassador!  yea baby yea!  welcome to the global ambassador team my dear!!!!

seasoning with s&p.

kurt's fish seasoning plate:
sliced lemons
freshly chopped parsley
minced garlic
sliced red onion.
s&p
evoo

can i get a what what!?

look, it's my homemade ketchup as a salmon marinade!!!

prepping the zucchini for the grill:
evoo
s&p
oregano

freshly picked green beans:
evoo
3-4 whole garlic cloves
s&p
roughly chopped almonds (those didn't make the pic, sorry!)

preheat your oven at 375 degrees and roast em for 15-20 minutes (we didn't have enough room on the grill)

our whole red snapper, halibut filets and salmon.

apron man love!!!!

can't you just hear the them sizzling on the cast iron!!!
shrimp
ghee
s&p

we also roasted up some onions and peppers (simply dressed with evoo and s&p) on the grill.

all gone GONE GONE GONE GONE GONE!!!!!  i cannot believe how better abbie is at trying and eating new foods... never in a million years would i have that thought my little girl (who used to... ehem, puke at the table) would be cleaning her plate like this today.  oh this food change is worth every.stinkin.whine baby and it's actually working!  albeit slowly, my kids' palates are actually changing...

let's just take a moment and bow our heads... cue the music and DANCE!!!!!

cuz i'll have have at least one or more of these "tongue-out-yucks" tonight i'm sure.  

would my family order and eat a plate full of veggies yet?  um, no, not a chance:)  

goal=someday... and i'm trying to take it slow.  patience young grasshoppah!

splish splash, processed food is takin a bath!

i hope your labor day weekend is long and lovely and full of real good food and friends.

cook it UP!!!

xoxo

links to love & bento boxing

a nice quickie post for hump day.

i could not pass this link up.

i love finding other families whose food change stories run parallel with mine.

enjoy!  this one gave me the tinglies:)

against all grain - Cannon's story

in other news...

here is this morning's lunchie munchie bento boxing:

ps

i have easy breakfasts on the brain.

and i want to make these zucchini coconut cookies soon, today maybe? with some gf flour of course:)

omg, zucchini nachos... yes please.

do you like pasta?  we sure do and here's a post to help you find the best.

i'm hungry.


pps

oh and just in case you haven't seen... my entry to become Jamie Oliver's next food tube star:)

yea baby yea!!!!

the trip that started the green juice... and gave inspo for a food tube star entry

good stories are sometimes long stories:)  

i want to tell you how my "Jamie Oliver and Uncle Ben's search for a food tube star" entry was born.  it's always fun to look back on a sequence of events and marvel on how it came together.   

so here goes...

it begins with a little road trip to see my chimmie laura.

this is my favorite spot at her house.  she got me hooked on her morning ritual: these green smoothies.  i have made them before, just not every day... we lingered in our pj's every morning watching our kiddos play in the backyard.

this adventure cleared my head a bit.  there is nothing better than getting out of your own kitchen sometimes!

this was the one night we went out on the town, that's why we look so darn cute.  so of course, we couldn't get our "going out" clothes all messed up!  we donned some aprons, cooked fast and got outta there with her hubby as soon after babysitter arrived.  he had a ball taking these pictures of us goofing off.

she makes me laugh so hard i pee a little.

can you tell we are both obsessed with kale chips?  the butt of many jokes...

made from scratch pizza, ranch and kale chips with some fruit and veggies - a dinner plate of champions.

uuuuuuummmmm you have something on your face...  the spirulina shots came later...

i think these pictures say it all.

laura (with her sweet nutritionist background that i mooch off of) has been telling me about kimberly snyder for months.  and i was like "ok, sure, i have to check her out!"  and i'm pretty positive laura responded, "i'm gonna cut you if you don't!!!!"

a light bulb came on about a week later for something i was dragging my feet on.

one of kimberly's recipes (the nuttty butter spread from her cucumber asian rolls) gave me the inspiration for a beach day cooking festivas with megan, one of my best girlfriends and hot mamas in the mullies.  i figured this might just be a good time to try taping for my entry.  would it work out?  who knew!?  who cares!?  it was gonna happen no.matter.what.  so i just jumped.  

on a friday morning,  megan came over with three kiddos and i had my 3 crazy daisies.  we had a cooking class of 5.  we cooked, prepped and assembled as fast as we could cuz they wanted to hit the beach!  she took all the pictures, took all the video (my computer got in on the action too) and boy oh boy did we have fun.  we just rolled the tape.  she's a teacher, i'm a coach... not a bad team when you're working with kids!  the kids came in and out, others left and played at times...  it was a team effort.  

megan's brother paul (who has a full time job separate from his super.crazy.mad.videographer.skills) edited the video for me.  i found the oh.so.perfect.lightening.from.the.sky music online and sent it to him to use with the footage.  i'll never forget the moment i started listening to "this is the future" ... the song gave me the tinglies:  

oh wow, this sounds like the beetles... 

i love the beetles... 

oh man, this has really good energy... 

and oooooh it's about today being the future... 

kinda like cooking with kids is our future... 

ohhhhhhh the kids ARE OUR FUTURE... OMG *(&&&*^(*&^*&^*&^*&^(&^(*&^*&).... 

i immediately dumped the other "favorited" tracks cuz i knew i had found the one.

here's the part that i'm.still.scratching.my.head.at:  after paul and i discussed what i envisioned, this crazy talented man sent one, ONE draft of the video to me about a week and a half later.  i told him to fix some spelling, add a few more video clips, switch the order of a few and add some pictures at the end.  he dropboxed it back a few days later, all pretty and perfect.  i submitted the entry about 15 minutes after receiving it from him.  i think i shocked him:)  that was it.  done.  he'd never created a video quite like this for the mullies (he collaborated twice before with meg to put these two montages together: our first mullies cooking class and our food revolution suit and tie party).  

paul and meg knew exactly the energy, the message, the story that i wanted to convey (and continue to convey) and he did it so perfectly i could squeeze him (and her) to bits.  it's like we all share the same brain... i think it's because i too have a red headed brother and sister... it must be our families' ginger power.  i put some ginger in my green smoothie this morning.  it's the best stuff ever.

so that's the story of how my food tube entry was born.  chimmie and i spent the most amazing weekend together.  she introduced me to kimberly snyder's awesome orange book of glorious clean food.  i hooked up with miss memories by megan photography for an unscripted beach day cooking adventure.  mr video keepsakes waved his magic wand with his sister's fairy dust and poof.  

we have a pumkin!!!

Monster Gorilla Wrap your Kids

the contest ends sept 1st.

Jamie O and crew will pick 5 finalists the week after closure.

once the finalists are announced, the winner will be decided on most "liked" votes on YouTube. "dislikes" will not count, whew!

so, i hope you "like" it if you love it:)

thank you thank you thank you megan, paul and all my little love bugs.  

i can't wait to do it again!!

xoxo

megalodon bites the bread babes

ok people.

so as you know i was just in denver for an epic weekend.

in my delusional bread babeness, i hoped to show camp1899 the sacredness of the gluten free sandwich bread that i love.  kelli and peter's gluten free flour recipe is a staple in the mullies and i have really gotten into making bread.  new skills turn me on.  i prefer their baguette recipe over the sandwich bread recipe (cuz you only need to use warm water!) and i decided it would be SO FUN to have them buy all the flour... mix up all the flour... and make two loaves of bread.  

NOW.  i was in bread experimental mode.  camp1899 is fully vegan and the cookbook offers an eggless version which simply increases the milk mixture and xanthan gum.  so, this is what we did:

1st loaf=2 c rice milk + 1/2 c light coconut milk

2nd loaf= 2 c rice milk + 3 egg replacer eggs + light coconut milk to equal 2.5 cups

we kept all of the other recipe variables the same like usual.  i make the sandwich bread with eggs and my dairy free milk concoction all the time in my kitchen.  so this seemed to be a flawless plan to see if an egg replacer would be a factor in making better bread.

are you following me? does it even matter if you are!?

both loaves rose gorgeously.  all the way to the top of the pans by the end of the hour of rising.  we had cocktails under their southern style porch, chatted with neighbors and marveled at how cool it was to watch the dough go up up up.

we put it in the oven.

and after a bit this is what happened... sinkage.

and more sinkage!!!!!!

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

well, does it taste good?  yes, but not the texture nor the density that was expected.  oye.

so, our bread babeness bombed.  big time.

the egg replacer was bubkiss... didn't matter a lick.

why did it sink after rising so great!?  did we not cook it long enough?  the inside was super doughy and moist and just turned into a brick.  so, i am ON IT!!!  i will not rest until i figure out how to make a vegan loaf of bread for my bunny and her mate.  peter and kelli, i need help:)  this bread babe adventure is to be continued...

so what happened after that?  after we cried about our failure as bread bakers?

well of course, we turned on a little discovery shark week action.

and got sucked into megalodon.  i'm so mad i could spit.



ps

just found out peter and kelli will be coming out with a dairy free, egg free version of the sandwich bread... oh oh oh oh oh... megalodon!!!!!!!!!!!

homemade ketchup and korean taco night

this post is long overdue.

you might be saying to yourself, "the only thing in common homemade ketchup and korean tacos should have together is their first letter."

well let's see about that...

have you ever made your own ketchup?!  abbie de-stemmed and cleaned a huge bunch of ripe tomatoes from our garden.  we have a plethora of tomatoes this year and i decided to try jamie o's homemade ketcup recipe!!

mullie recipe notes:
used 1.5 c organic vegetable stock.
used 1/2 tsp ground cloves (didn't have whole cloves).
added 1 c pureed beets.
omittted fennel (didn't have any).
subbed dried basil instead of fresh basil (booo didn't have any).
subbed 1 c organic coconut palm sugar instead of regular sugar (then added a little more to taste).
used 1 c red wine vinegar (then added a little more to taste).

i had some leftover pureed beets from our red velvet escapade and i wanted red ketchup!

emersion blender love fest...

this sieving business takes a while...  my forearms were quite tired:)

the fixins for my korean taco night!

oh MAAAAAN, this stuff is GOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!  totes to the bbq sauce.

pretty awesome looking, right?  

and how does my homemade ketchup make a play in all of this?  i did not have gochujang which is korean red pepper paste.  so i figured, but of course!  i can use my homemade ketchup... i like to live dangerously.  

i can't wait to pick up some actual gochujang and taste the difference.

all of the recipes can be found in gywneth p's it's all good cookbook.

here are my notes and a link to two other blogger's posts that loved it all too!  

want to see some unaltered recipes?  find salsa and bbq sauce here and the slaw here.

tweaked korean bbq sauce

notes:

1/2 c apricot jam 

1/4 c homemade ketchup 

1 T organic tamari sauce (this was only supposed to be 1 tsp, but i goofed and it tasted great)

1 tsp toasted sesame oil

1 tsp fish sauce

3/4 tsp garlic powder (next time 1 clove minced garlic)

it whisked together just fine.  i grilled some local and sustainably raised organic chicken:  three breasts and 8 thighs.  i followed her directions on how to cook, turn and baste several times.  i rarely use the grill and i was so proud of myself!!  i sliced it all up and mixed the white and dark meat on the serving platter.

tweaked korean slaw

notes:

2 T evoo

2 T fresh organic lemon juice (or lime like the recipe suggests)

1/2 tsp fish sauce

1.5 c shredded organic green cabbage

1 c shredded organic spinach (kale, romaine or chard would all work well here)

3 T organic yellow onion (or red onion like the recipe suggests)

2 scallions, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced

3 T roughly chopped cilantro

2-3 tsp toasted sesame seeds

tweaked korean salsa 

notes:

about 2 cups homegrown cherry tomatoes halved

1 small organic yellow onion, diced

1 T evoo

2 T homemade ketchup 

3/4 tsp garlic powder (i ran out of fresh, so next time 1 clove minced garlic)

2 scallions, green parts only (i just used the rest of the scallion from the slaw!)

pinch of sea salt

so how did the family like it?  three enthusiastic thumbs up=me and my parents.  we LOVED it.  the combo of the bbq chicken, salsa and slaw was incredible.  four thumbs sideways to down=chris, mac, abbie and tommy.  i got all of them to eat one full fork bite of the combo.  no one showed "yucky faces" while swallowing, but no one would go for a full taco with all of the ingredients...  too scary for them still.  they instead opted for a gluten free tortilla with only chicken which was a resounding 4 thumbs up.  ugh.  next time, i am making the tacos up with a smidgen of everything on top, cuz that's.what.we're.having.for.dinner.

i am still chipping away here at the vege-phobes. 

onward and upward... this here chicky is not giving up.