Experimenting - Making a Menu, Part 4

Life seems to be spinning out of control. (No pun intended as there were numerous tornados in our area today and I spent the better part of the afternoon in the bathroom with my three children. Now THERE's a fun way to spend the day!) At any rate, one of the things that may be contributing to this craziness is that I have a "bee in my bonnet" to find some new recipes for our upcoming menu.

I checked out another cookbook at the library last Saturday and it has definitely sparked my creative cooking interest. The Sneaky Chef by Missy Chase Lapine has basically the same goal as Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld - hide vegetables and other good stuff in foods that kids will eat. I like the layout and design of The Sneaky Chef and am excited to try some of the recipes. (I made our icing for Apple Muffins pink this morning by using Strawberry juice. It was quite yummy! of course, isn't most icing?!)

At a glance, many of The Sneaky Chef recipes look a little easier to adapt to an allergen-free diet than the ones in Deceptively Delicious. (By the way, I tried one of the DD recipes and it was a no-go (Rice Balls). It could have been because I substituted soy cream cheese for the cheddar cheese or flax seed + water for the egg. At any rate, it was a mushy mess.)

Maybe I'll get to experiment with more recipes throughout this week and hone in on some winners for my Spring/Summer menu. I usually go through this phase of trying new recipes when I set out to make a new menu. I like variety and I go through phases where I'd rather not eat, say, Chicken Spaghetti, for a few months. This adds a bit of time to the menu-making, but it is well worth the effort. If I find a recipe that I'd like to add to the menu, I always try it first. There's no sense in adding it to a menu I'll use for 6 months, if it's hard to make or my family doesn't like it.

Just wondering... Do you have some warmer-weather recipes that are cheap, yummy and easy to make? Allergen-free, of course! Please share!

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happy chef image from art.com

the wonders of cast iron

It hit me one day this week that I should be using my cast iron skillets more often. My daughter (the allergic one) was diagnosed with severe anemia in December and so we've been trying to incorporate more iron into her diet.

For some reason, I remembered that I had read that using cast iron in cooking would actually increase the amount of iron in food. I did a quick search and found a great article which shows that "cooking in a cast iron skillet can add significant amounts of iron to your food and into your body."

I was definitely ready to give cast iron another chance. I already have two skillets - one about 12" in diameter, and I'm guessing the other to be about 8". The 12" was given to me new about 10 years ago, while the smaller one was passed down to me by my grandmother. I found a great How-To article on seasoning the skillets and proceeded to do that with both. The smaller one, however, was already well seasoned.

On to the test - I used my skillet to brown with very little oil some breaded chicken balls. The results? Amazing. Each ball was browned nicely and did not stick in the least. (The ultimate test will come when I test my new recipe for Egg-Less French Toast. I'll let you know how it turns out!)

One of the best advantages to cooking with cast iron, IMO, is the low cost of the cookware. I did a quick search online and found Lodge skillets for under $20 each. Since I already have two skillets, I've now got my eye on a Dutch oven and a griddle.

Lodge also makes some nice looking enameled cast iron that is much, much cheaper than Le Creuset (try $53.99 compared to $219.95 for a 6 qt dutch oven). As I have been dreaming of Le Creuset for quite some time, I am happy to find this much cheaper version of cookware.