I'm Not Feeding my Children Anymore.

All right Zoo fans.  Name one hobby that I truly love.  Writing - yes, but that's not the one I'm talking about.

Cooking.  How many bajillions of Wordless Wednesday's have been dedicated to food creations?  How many times have I blogged about baking or cooking or creating new meals?  I really do love to cook.  And of corse I'll continue to cook.  I'm just not feeding my family any more.

See there's a difference between cooking and feeding my family.  Cooking involves chopping, dicing, fileting, sauteeing, broasting, marinading, grilling, and searing.  Cooking means savoring aromas of fresh herbs, breathing in the sharpness of onions and garlics, and tuning in to the sizzle of the butter in a hot skillet.  Cooking can be done slowly while sipping a glass of wine and nibbling on the scraps of hard cheese that fall by the wayside of the cutting board.  The Three Tenors can keep you company in the kitchen and coax smoothness out of the sharpest combinations.  Cooking is relaxing and comforting.

Then I remove my lovingly prepared meal and I place it on the dining room table amidst the bouquets and neat place settings.  I call the family to the table.  This is where it goes from cooking a lovely meal to feeding my brood.

"But I don't like peppers." 

"These aren't the kind of noodles I like."
"You know I don't eat squash."

"Can I have a drink to wash this down?"

"I'm going to pretend to be a race car at the table now."
"Yeah, well, I'm going to scream all through dinner."
"Is it time for dessert yet?"
"Mom!  He's looking at me!"

I've decided that I'm not feeding them any more.  I will cook and they can come and get it.  But I will not be present.  I'm going to be out on the deck with Pavoratti.  Who cares if it's still 96 degrees at 9 PM?  At least I'll be able to dine.

A Mother's Legacy

L.M. Lion and I were watching West Wing (thank you Bravo syndication) the other week and they were talking about the President's legacy. What would his legacy be? How would people remember his time as president.

Of course it went into my brain and I chewed on it and worked it around and I started to wonder. Political officials and celebrities and "big" people aren't the only ones with legacies. Parents definitely have a legacy - a pretty big one if you ask me. But you don't have to have children to have a legacy. Normal people (because parenting is NOT normal - we've established that here at Zoo Suburbia) have a legacy too. I of course was wondering what my legacy would be. I mean, I'm not much more than a mom. Yeah, yeah. Wife, daughter, sister, friend. But my main title in life and the name I go by most often is Mom.

I know what my mother's legacy (so far) is. My mother gave me the gift of cooking. One of my first memories of our "new" house - the house I grew up in - was pulling a chair up to the counter and helping to make a birthday cake. Cooking is so much a part of me now that I have a whole shelf on the bookcase dedicated to cookbooks, the most important one being a copy of the one my mother used to teach me to cook.

My mother also took on the painful task of teaching me how to sew. I say painful because I was not the most patient of students, would get frustrated easily and probably left more porjects unfinished in her sewing cabinet than I actually finished. But now I have a skill that allows me to make my own dresses, skirts, gauchos, capris and who knows what for the kids. Advanced skills? No but enough to make my children happy.

Probably the biggest legacy my mother has given me is how to pray. There is a generally held consensus in our family is if Mom is praying, get out of the way. Something is going to happen. And I try. I try to pray sincerely and powerfully like my mother.

So now I am setting out on my own parenting journey trying to leave a legacy of my own. I will never know what my legacy is but I certainly hope that I can pass at least the lessons that my mother passed to me. After all, who has a more powerful legacy than a mother?

The First Pantry Challege: Chicken Breasts!

My pal Shannon from over at the Motivators threw me the first Pantry Challenge (and inspired pretty much the whole group to clean out their pantries I think! Eek!) so here I go! Here's the message I got from Shannon.

"I loved your ideas with the roast & the whole chicken. I'll have to save them for when I find those items on sale.

OK, here is my challenge for you. I have a freezer full of chicken breast that I got on sale & I also have a ton of dark red kidney beans as well as white rice & pasta(these are things I use very frequently). What can you come up with? I will take as many ideas as you have."

Isn't this par for all of our freezers? We find a great buy on something as versatile as chicken breasts and then stare at it. Yes, chicken has potential but you can only make the same stuffing casserole, broccoli and rice bake, and grilled breast so many times before you are ready to curse Mr. Perdue into oblivion. The same thing can happen to ground beef. So here's my answer to the challenge.

Chicken Chili! Think about it. You brown up those breasts and chop them up fairly fine. Grab your kidney beans and a large $2 can of diced tomatoes and you are on your way. It's different, uses what you have on hand and is really great for the recent weather. Not to mention that you can put it in the crockpot and have a one dish easy dinner. Pair it with my Cornbread and you are on your way!

Cornbread
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk
½ cup melted butter
1/3 cup yellow cornmeal
1 ¾ cup flour
½ tsp salt
2 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda

Blend together sugar, egg, milk, butter and cornmeal until smooth. Stir in flour, salt, powder and soda. Pour in greased and floured (or use a bit of the cornmeal) 9x9 pan. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes.

But Sarah that was a gimmee! So I'll give you some more takes I have. Cheesy Cornball Chicken - this one was an invention from one of my own pantry dives when I was running low and didn't want to head for the grocery store.

Corny Cheeseball Chicken
3 boneless, skinless breast halves
1 can whole kernel corn (drained)
¼ green pepper (diced)
1 med tomato (diced)
1 bunch green onions (diced)
1 12oz package dipping cheese (with or without jalapenos)
6 oz milk
Mexican chili powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Brown chicken in large skillet. In med bowl mix together corn, green pepper, tomato, and onion. Season lightly with salt, pepper and chili powder and set aside. Cut chicken into bite sized pieces and return to skillet. Stir in corn mixture and allow to simmer. Prepare cheese according to package directions and stir into chicken and corn mixture. Pour into oven proof dish and bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until beginning to brown and getting bubbly. Serve with flour tortillas.

There's also L.M. Lion's favorite! Italian Skillet Chicken. Simply brown your chicken breasts and add some quartered fresh tomatoes, garlic, parmesean cheese and Italian seasoning. Top with some shredded mozarella and bake at 375 for 25 minutes or until your cheese starts to brown.

And if you think you have exhausted my chicken reserves you are dead wrong. My favorite thing to do is to grab menu items from restaurants and try to recreate them at home. Some faves around the neighborhood are Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches with homefries; Chicken Cheesesteaks; Chicken Reubens; Chicken Ceasar Salads or Wraps. I'm a huge fan of the gourmet pizzas too. Check out my Faker's Gourmet Pizza's then shake it up to suit your own mission!

A Faker’s Gourmet Pizza
1 premade pizza crust (Boboli)
1 jar alfredo sauce
1 boneless skinless chicken breast half (cooked and chopped bite size)
1 bag shredded mozzarella cheese
Additional toppings:
1 jar sundried tomatoes
½ pkg sliced fresh mushrooms
Or:
½ bag frozen broccoli
½ pkg sliced fresh mushrooms

Place pizza crust on lightly greased cookie sheet. Top with preferred amount of alfredo sauce and chicken. Then add preferred topping blends and cover with cheese. Bake according to pizza package directions or 425 until cheese is browned.

This also works with A1, cooked steak-ums and shredded cheddar cheese; olive oil, Italian seasoning, thinly sliced tomatoes, prociutto, and very light cheese; or blue cheese dressing, chicken tossed with hot sauce, and blue cheese crumbles – obviously served with a side of celery!

So Shannon, even if you don't ever make any of these, I hope it got those culinary ideas flowing. Happy Eats! Any more takers? I'm up for The Challenge!

Mom Tip Monday: Stretching your Fridge

And I don't mean by packing it full of leftovers that will turn into your third grader's science experiment in the next month! I mean making what is in there go further. I know I kind of blended budgeting and menu planning last week but I want to focus a little more on that budgeting part this week.

Two weeks in a row now I have managed to cook once and make at least three meals out of what I made. And for both weeks the starter was only $10. Have I gotten your attention now? Would you like to know how I did it? Of course you would! Because if you could feed your family for 3 days on $15 (including sides and extras) who wouldn't do it?

Week #1.
I made a four pound beef roast (which I got on sale for $10) on Sunday. I dropped it in a pot of beef stock and let it simmer all day. I know it's not the traditional way to cook a roast but I had a plan because I had my menu laid out ahead of time. I made some mashed potatoes and steamed veggies to go with it (all pantry items at my house) and we were set.

Monday - I took the reserved beef stock, now thoroughly flavored from the onion soup spices (also a pantry item) I had added to the roast, and sliced two Spanish onions ($1.50) into it and again let it simmer away. I made some homemade bread to go with it - but even that is only a few dollars at the grocery store if baking isn't your forte. Day Two!

Wednesday - The leftover roast itself was up for grabs. I pulled it off into pieces and put it to (everyone together now) simmer with a bottle of barbecue sauce ($2.59). We served it on the rolls I had thought to make with half of the bread dough and had dinner for Day Three.

Thursday - If you can believe it, Beloved took leftover BBQ for lunch, and we had leftover soup for dinner.

I fed my family for four days on $14.

Week #2
Sunday - Baked chicken ($10) with trimmings.

Monday - Rigatoni with chicken, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, artichokes and spinach. (This is a Zookeeper original so you may need to play with it a little to get the flavors you like.)

Rigatoni & Chicken
1 box rigatoni
2 cups chopped chicken
1 jar sundried tomatoes (reserve oil)
1 cup mushrooms (or less to taste)
1 sm jar artichoke hearts (drain and rinse)
2 cups fresh spinach
2 Tbsp four
1 cup chicken bullion
1/2 cup milk

In a large skillet toss together chicken, tomatoes, artichokes, and mushrooms and heat through. At the same time prepare rigatoni according to package directions. When meat and veggies are heated through remove to a bowl. In your skillet add reserved tomato oil and blend with flour to create roux. Whisk in bullion and bring to a boil. Whisk in milk and allow to thicken. Toss chicken and veggies in sauce, add spinach and allow to rest over low heat while draining pasta. Toss all together or serve by spooning sauce over pasta.


Tuesday - Chicken veggie and noodle soup.

The chicken didn't get me as far because there wasn't as much concentrated meat to work with but I still managed to get out with the $10 chicken and emptying my pantry.

There are a million meals you can make with leftovers like this. Pita pockets for lunches in place of those $7 fast food meals that you (and your behind) don't really like anyway. Grab a flour tortilla, a leaf of lettuce and some thinly sliced roast beef with your favorite dressing or some tomatoes and you have an easy and cheap beef wrap. Chik-fil-A makes the most wonderful chicken wraps. But imagine how much you could save making them at home from LEFTOVERS? It's not a dirty word if you know how to say it!

I haven't had any takers on the Pantry Challenge yet so if you stumbled across something this week that had you saying, "Hmmm?" pass it over. I don't have a mission for Mom Tip Monday for next week so if you have a challenge for me feel free to zip it to me at ineedthezoo(at)yahoo(dot)com and I'll be happy to give you my two cents.

Have a great week and happy leftovers to all of you! Your wallet will thank you!

Mom Tip Monday - Menu Planning 101

It's Monday again! And as promised this week we are working on Menu Planning. In preparation for this post I put up a quick one liner over in the MomDot forum. "What challenges do you face when you are menu planning?" Holy Smokes! The response from my fellow mom blogs was overwhelming so we will be spending more than just one week on this. Remember, if you have a question or you want to hear my take on your challenge, zip it over to me at The Zookeeper's Inbox (ineedthezoo(at)yahoo(dot)com). But more on that later.

This week we're vlogging - aren't you thrilled? It's on the old camera so you may need to spike your volume. And please pardon Orangutan's run by interruption. She's got great timing like that!

So are you ready for The Pantry Challenge? Do some digging and send me your challenge at ineedthezoo(at)yahoo(dot)com. And for those who didn't take notes while the web addresses were zipping by, here they are one more time.

allrecipes.com
kraftfoods.com
and pillsbury.com

I hope this helps you stretch that budget a little and gives you some new ideas for dinner tonight. Next week, Budget Stretchers. How I fed my family for a week for $15! You don't believe me do you? See you next week!

What in the Grilled Cheese...?

Why? Why can I cook the perfect grilled cheese with three children clamoring around my ankles? But as soon as L.M. Lion gets in the door the pan starts sticking and the thing catches fire and turns into a charcoal briquette?

Somedays are meant for going back to bed.

Praise the Lord and Pass the Mashed Potatoes!

Can we say blurry eyes? Holy cow! Let's just see. I comment on an average of 15-20 blogs a day; we've been at this for 11 days now? So I'm up to about 165-220 comments? No wonder my contacts took themselves out last night! But you know what? I'm going to miss it. This has been a real treat! And of course I have added so many blogs to my blogroll! Yay! So here we go!

Sponsors: Day Eleven Blog Party Question is Brought to you by Shishu Style and Mimsi Bags.
VIP BLOGS to visit are Parent Reviewers , Mom Most Traveled, Mommy Zabs, MomStart, HipposToes, Run DMT

This was by far one of the hardest questions of the whole party! I hope the rest of the participants did better than I did.

If you could only eat ONE food on Thanksgiving Day, what would it be? Do you have a homecooked meal for Thanksgiving or do you go out to eat? Does your family dress up?

Yay! It’s almost here! I L-O-V-E Thanksgiving! I should have been a cook. Cooking and baking are my therapy when nothing else will soothe my savage breast (which I baste every 90 minutes BTW!) The warmth. The smells. The challenge. The suspense that it all came out right! I’m getting the giddy shakes already!

Oh yes. It is definitely home cooked here. We start with the stuffing which is packed with sausage, onions, celery, garlic, and mushrooms. We fill the turkey and we peel the REAL potatoes. We stew and relish cranberries. The pies, apple, cherry and pumpkin, are baked first thing in the morning to tempt all day. There is a green bean casserole, baked butternut squash or sweet potatoes, and gravy. The table ends up so full that we pass the plates instead.

In regards to dressing? Promise you can keep a secret? I dress from the waist up – pictures and all you know. But you can bet that my legs are tucked inside some nice, stretchy, comfy-under-any-pressure yoga pants! Oh yeah! It’s not about the waist band for me. It’s about the easy transition from Cooking Nazi to Tryptophan Coma Girl. If you are going to get a really good nap in after your meal you HAVE to be comfy!

And now the moment you have been pining for. If I could only eat one food on Thanksgiving what would it be? I like turkey. I love green bean casserole. Stuffing is killer. But if you are going to give me a plate of anything and tell me that that is the only thing I get all day? Bring on Mount Mashed Potatoes! Dump a tub of butter in the bowl and pass them over with a great BIG spoon! Remember the scene from A Christmas Story? "Show mommy how the piggy eats!" Gimmee those taters and I’ll re-enact it for you!

You may have noticed that there aren’t many full body shots of me around. Mashed potatoes will do that to a girl’s butt!

But I'm curious as to what my readers will pick as their one and only. Hmmm? But I'll warn ya, come after my taters and you may draw back a nub! Don't forget to check out the rest of the bleary eyed party animals over at MomDot and see what leftovers are out there for you!

Who's hungry?

Here it is! Day 4 of the MomDot Blog Party! I took the weekend off to rest my fingers and get my commenting thoughts straight so you guys better bring me some good ones today! I also got out my recipe box so I can rob pillage and plunder today as I run around Bloggy Land. But more about that later.

Sponsors: Day Four Blog Party Question is Brought to you by Bottlewise and Glow Mama
VIP BLOGS to visit are Parent Reviewers , Mom Most Traveled, Mommy Zabs, MomStart, HipposToes, Run DMT

Today's question was a tough one for me.

What is your favorite Holiday recipe? Describe your Holiday table and tell us about your biggest holiday cooking disaster.

This theme takes some real pondering for me. A favorite holiday recipe. Since I cook year round as a hobby I am struggling to find something that I cook only for the holidays.

Turkey? I do roasted chickens for dinners so that is a pretty standard. Cranberries? They are seasonal but there is really no recipe there. Mashed potatoes? Baked Sweet Potatoes? Pies? Green Bean Casserole? All of those are pretty traditional. I am a person who loads up the stuffing with a lot of extras (sausage, mushrooms, celery, onion) but there is no recipe for that either because it is one of my “smell it” recipes.

I would share my Chocolate Chip recipe but a cook with a trademark product never gives away the crown jewel. But on the dessert line there is one thing that I will share - mainly in the hope that someone else will claim it and make them so that I am never called on again. Chocolate Covered Cherries! You know those wonderful Queen Anne delights that you see in the red boxes? Oh yes! I love them! But last year I made them for the first time for a Christmas Eve party and have been saddled with them since. So here they are for anyone who would like to take them off of my To Do list.

Chocolate Covered Cherries
1/3 cup butter, softened
2 1/4 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons milk
2 teaspoons cherry liqueur
2 (10-ounce) jars maraschino cherries with stems, drained
1 (8-ounce) package semisweet chocolate squares
1 tablespoon shortening

Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy; gradually add powdered sugar, beating well. Add milk and liqueur, beating until blended. Shape sugar mixture around cherries, coating completely, and place on wax paper.

Microwave chocolate squares and shortening in a 2-cup glass measuring cup at HIGH 1 1/2 minutes or until melted, stirring twice. Dip coated cherries by stems into chocolate mixture, allowing excess to drip; place on wax paper. Let stand until firm. Store loosely covered in a cool place 1 week or until centers soften.

I have been very fortunate to have avoided disasters (unless you count the time Mom was cooking for me at my house and couldn’t figure out how to turn my oven on). On the other hand, if anyone has a good gravy system to share I could use it. The Lion is a little weary of asking for two lumps on his potatoes.

Good luck! And happy kitchen clean up!

The First Ask the Zookeeper!

So I asked some of my friends to help me out and pose some "Ask the Zookeeper" questions. Did I say they were my friends? Because looking at the list of questions I got I'm beginning to wonder! So here we go!

Cooking and baking are a passion of yours and I know that you refer to them as your "therapy." How did you discover that love? And what is your favorite thing about it?

When I started staying home with the exhibits 18 months ago (wow!), I had to fill the time. I went from working 60+ hours a week to being home all day, every day. There is only so much cleaning and decluttering you can do before you are scrubbing paint off the walls. So I started to look for recipes and meals that I could make to make more of our budget and to break up the monotony of beef, chicken, fish sticks! Playing with recipes and subbing things out quickly became a challenge to meet.

What do I love about it? The smell! You know you have a recipe right when you can come in from being outside and get hit with a smell that makes your tummy rumble. Do I eat what I bake? Actually not very much. I eat my meals and I have a cookie or two but I love to give them away or share with the neighbors.

The magic babysitter fairy has taken your kids on a trip to LaLa Land for the day and you have all day to yourself to do whatever you want. What are you going to do?

Sleep in. Take a shower without someone banging on the door or pulling back the curtain. Read a book. Watch one movie from beginning to end. Do my yoga without someone hanging off of Warrior 3. Take another shower in peace just because I can. Eat a grown up meal (no chicken nuggets, corndogs, bologna, or PB&J) without someone asking for a bite. Write a while. Sew a while.

Miss them like crazy!

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? (This friend must have missed my rant about what a bogus question this is!)

Mo will be 10, Tuck will be 8, Munch will be 6. Hmmm. I will probably be going back to work finally! Something part time so I can still be with them after school but enough to keep my brain busy during the day. We will probably also be getting ready to move out of this house because we will be bursting at the seams!

Where will you be sitting when Mo graduates high school, near the exit to make a dash bc you're bawling your eyes out or on the isle standing proud and telling Tuck to behave that's his sister or front row screaming when Mo's name is called.

I'll be somewhere in the middle sniffing into a tissue hoping no one sees me. Tuck will be a surly teenager getting ready to graduate the following year so he won't be much trouble. But I don't think I could bring myself to be the screaming parent. I'm just not THAT outspoken!

What will life be like when the zoo closes in 18 or so years?

I'm scared to even think! It will be just me and the grumpy old Lion and the security dog of the day. I hope it will be a fun time for both of us. I hope we will be that couple who will still have dinner on the deck with neighbors and go to concerts and who can still spend time together and apart without freaking out.

What would it be like if you had a 4th permanent exhibit?

Bwaaaaah Ha Ha Ha! Huggy jacket time for this Zookeeper! The Lion has campaigned in the past for extra exhibits and one night in mid migraine I told him that if finances allowed I would possibly reconsider. Not so much! I am quite happy with this little Zoo I have and sometimes I even feel like I might be in control. That being said, if another surprise came along, I would have an adjustment and the Zoo might get a little angry and cranky for a while but I would eventually come around. I love children and I know that I can rise to any challenge. I'd just like a different one for once!

So there you have it! Round 1 of "Ask the Zookeeper!" If you have a question for the Zookeeper you can send it to ineedthezoo(at)yahoo(dot)com.

Mom Tip #52

Plans are NEVER set in stone – even if you ARE the one who made them.

I think one of the biggest challenges of motherhood is being constantly and faithfully flexible while maintaining your sanity. You can plan a full day and an hour after announcing the plan, the whole smash is shot to pieces and you have to roll with it like the champ you are.

Take my day today. I got up this morning (after sleeping so fitfully on the couch with a teething baby all night) bright and early. The girls were cooperative while getting ready for church. The boys were still in bed but I had a brief conversation with L.M. Lion.

Me: So you are going to carve the pumpkins today, right?
Lion: Sure.Me: Would you pick up a newspaper when you go to get the carving kit while I’m at church? I want to check the sales before I go do the grocery shopping this afternoon.
Lion: I thought I was going to BJ’s (shopping club thing).
Me: When do you want to do that?
Lion: I’ll go tomorrow before I go to work.
Me: Awesome. But get a paper anyway because we need produce and some non-BJ’s stuff.

That settled the final plan was I go to church. I come home, drop off children and run to do grocery shopping while he has quality time with the zoo. I come home; he goes to watch football with his buddies. Then we have a nice family evening carving pumpkins at home.

I came home from church to two boys still in PJ’s, my kitchen trashed from pumpkin guts, no one has had breakfast and my paper has already been torn apart. But I am Mom. I can be flexible. So I scramble to restore order to the kitchen while stewing pumpkin, toasting seeds and making PB&J’s for lunch. I look up to see L.M. Lion in the kitchen door dressed to head to football. Huh? What about the grocery store? Take them with you. When they have been trying to kill each other all day? Not on your life! Well, you’ll work it out. Deep breath. I am Mom. I can be flexible.

Three hours later he comes home. You haven’t been to the grocery store yet? No. I was waiting for you to get home to watch the children. But I was going to go to BJ’s. I thought that was tomorrow morning! I decided to do it today. And you called to tell me when? Well, can you go so I can have the van? Not everything is going to fit in my car. I am Mom. I can be flexible. I grabbed Marmoset and out the door we went for a sprint through the grocery store.

I came home to no progress on the pumpkin front and L.M. Lion napping on the couch. Do I need to mention that BJ’s is happening tomorrow? Two of the three pumpkins got done and dinner was called on account of whiplash.

I am Mom. I can be flexible – just give me a little warning, would you?

The Zoo got a Bear!

No, it is not a new, permanent exhibit! Thank heavens! Though it seems that the whole Zoo is campaigning in that direction in spite of multiple public announcements from the Zookeeper about wasted breath and not being crazy! Anyway, back to the Bear!

We had a guest the past two days. Barney came home from OAT with The Orangutan on Monday and has been going everywhere and doing everything with us.

Unfortunately he had to go back to OAT this morning but he was a very polite house guest and didn't eat much so I can't complain. Makes me feel bad for her other toys though. She actually kicked her favorite doll out of bed last night to make room for Barney.

Feeding Time at the Zoo!

Well, here it is. Time to feed the exhibits and you are out of ideas. I thought maybe I would give it a good old college try and share some ideas with you on a weekly basis. We'll call it Feeding Time at the Zoo.

This week's menu:
Monday: Dump a Can Veggie Soup
Tuesday: Clear the Cabinet Shepherds Pie
Wednesday: Pass the Pasta Chicken Alfredo
Thursday: Freezer Diving Au Jus Sandwiches
Friday: Forgive me Family Baked Chicken

Here's the recipe for Dump a Can Veggie Soup (featured at The Bowl for Wordless Wednesday) but if any of the others peaked your interest let me know and I'll share those too!

Dump-a-Can Veggie Soup
1 lb + stew meat cut up into bites
1 10 oz can of diced tomatoes (lightly drained)
2 cans each corn, green beans, diced potatoes (lightly drained)
2 whole carrots chopped
¼ white onion diced
3 cloves garlic minced
2 cans beef broth
Dump in a stew pot and let it go for a few hours. Season to taste with salt and pepper.