Beginner's Luck!

Three recipes completed, and all are successful!
The Super Simple Pizza Sauce was zesty and delicious on pita pizzas with either Shredded Rice "cheese" or Mozzarella Cheese. Very easy and really tasty! Recipe made enough for 6 pita pizzas.

Since I had all the ingredients on hand, I went ahead and made the Agave-Dijon Dressing, pg 153 SBK, and wow, is it good! I don't know if I have ever made dressing from scratch, but I will from now on. It was easy and tastes so much better than bottled Honey-Dijon. The SBs recommend it on Spinach Salad, but I had it on romaine.

With two easy recipes under my belt, I decided to make a third. Why not, the boys are asleep in front of the Red Sox game, so what else do I have to do? I chose another recipe simply because I had the ingredients, and my family loves the "regular" variety of Rice Pudding, page 177 SBK.

I was a little worried that mixing brown rice with coconut milk and water would lead to it all burning and mucking up the bottom of my favorite pot. No worries! It took 20 minutes of peeking and giving it a quick stir now and again, and then a full 5 minutes of stirring at the end of the process, but yum-a-licious is worth it. It has a more mild and subtle flavor than store-bought or restaurant rice pudding. You can taste the nuttiness of the brown rice and the spark of the cinnamon. I really like it. Tune in tomorrow to see what the monkey boys think.

I am looking forward to going to my fave healthfood store, Healthy U, to buy some ingredients that I see in many recipes but don't have in my pantry: refined coconut oil, Bragg's Liquid Aminos, and red miso.

Ready, Set, Go!

Okay, I have to admit to being a little sneaky about this. While I love a challenge and like to jump into things with both feet, my husband is somewhat skeptical and conservative. He doesn't want any "food wars" as we call them. That is code for: don't make food that You want the kids to eat, but that the Kids don't want to eat. Yeah, okay. Not!

So, I have to admit that I'm getting started on this project while keeping the rest of the family in the dark. What they don't know, won't poison them. I figure I will let them in on the deal as soon as they have some yummy food in their bellies.

With that in mind, I started with some easily concealable recipes: Super Simple Pizza Sauce, page 157 SBK. It was super simple, and no cooking required during prep time. It smells great!

Step One: I am a newly hatched Skinny Bitch

Charles Caleb Colton said "imitation is the sincerest of flattery," so I am about to flatter several people. First in line are Julia Child and Julie Powell. If you have not read the book Julie & Julia, or seen the movie of the same name, then you are very busy or must not be much of a foodie. The book was a good read, and the movie was an entertaining homage to Julia Child, whom I watched on public television throughout my childhood. I thought Julie's adventure in cooking was such a great idea. I applaud when people take responsibility for creating direction and meaning in their own life. However, I would never survive such an endeavor; there is just too much butter in the world of French cooking. It would kill me. You can check out the original blog by searching Julie/Julia Project.

That brings me to the other people I wish to flatter: Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin. These women are the authors of Skinny Bitch, and Skinny Bitch in the Kitch. You can visit them at http://www.skinnybitch.net/. Now, theirs is a lifestyle I can emulate! Their first book, Skinny Bitch is an irreverant look at food and the industry that creates it. They pave the way for people to adapt healthful and ethical eating habits, but what is so great about their books is how they do it. They don't preach, they write like your girlfriends talk at happy hour, smart and sassy. Very entertaining and enlightening. Their cookbook is written with the same attitude and full of 132 vegan recipes.

So, monkey see, monkey do. I am following in the footsteps of Julie Powell, and want to challenge myself to create all 132 recipes in the Skinny Bitch in the Kitch cookbook.

Why? I have a few reasons for doing this. First, I am a foodie. I have a cupboard full of cookbooks, recipes torn from newspapers and magazines, and enough gadgets to fill every nook and cranny of my kitchen and a few boxes in the basement. I have been impulse purchasing at healthfood stores since I wandered into my first one in Blacksburg, Va while attending Virginia Tech. I never met a mysterious fruit, grain, or menu item that I didn't order just for the sake of trying something new.

Most importantly, I love to cook. I cook for a family of four that includes my husband and my two sons who are 10 and 14 years old. I introduced my husband to vegetables when we moved in together, and I fed my babies homemade organic baby food for the first 18 months of their lives. So, I've been honestly interested in healthful cooking since I had people to cook for.

Now that my kids are out of the macaroni and cheese stage, I'd like to feed my family good food that helps them and doesn't hurt them. I can't control what they choose to eat when they are away from home, but I can give them a good foundation and set a good example at our own kitchen table.

Finally, my last reason for taking on this challenge is that I love a challenge. I love a goal. I have been teaching for 16 years and parenting for 14 years, so I needed to change things up a little. This was my answer.

Let the cooking begin!