Winter weekend locavore breakfast

A typical weekend breakfast for our family involves pastured eggs, breakfast meat of some kind, a whole-grain traditionally-prepared carbohydrate like oatmeal in some form (or pancakes), homemade yogurt, plenty of butter, sometimes local maple syrup, and a lacto-fermented condiment or beverage. Yesterday (Saturday) we had scrumptious apple pancakes made with locally-grown and milled whole wheat flour (from the Union Square farmers' market) and upstate apples, along with raw butter from our special source. It was a very busy day for me that included getting up early for the raw milk pick-up, rushing home to make pancakes, and rushing out again to go to Union Square for a big grocery haul, then coming home on the crowded subway to put everything away and gulp a glass of raw milk before heading out to the Raindance Farm monthly pick-up where I got some goodies from Siobhan.

Today we had time for a more leisurely meal, which included:
~Irish breakfast sausage with organic pastured pork (from Raindance Farm) -- truly DELICIOUS!!! and with a wonderful texture. I couldn't believe that even the casing on this sausage tasted so good (it was nice and brown from the griddle).
~scrambled pastured eggs from Raindance Farm (Siobhan brought them to me as a special favor; the chickens aren't really laying much yet, but they will be soon as the days get longer).
~oat cakes (made from leftover congealed oatmeal and fried in bacon fat from locally-produced pastured bacon -- and no the oatmeal was not local :( but I hope to begin eating only local oats soon courtesy of Cayuga Pure Organics!). Local maple syrup was served with the oat cakes, along with homemade yogurt made from raw, local, grass-fed milk.
~whole grain spelt & rye sourdough from Hawthorne Valley Farm with plenty of local raw butter
~also some jalapeno sauerkraut from Hawthorne Valley, located in Ghent, NY (I always finish off breakfast with something lacto-fermented or else I don't feel quite right. These foods contain beneficial bacteria and enzymes, as well as increased vitamin content from the fermentation process. The jalapeno sauerkraut is a great follow-up for egg breakfasts as it helps with digesting egg whites.)

Sitting at my computer more than four hours after finishing the meal I still feel good from breakfast! With a meal like this to start the day, often I only need one more good-sized meal, and maybe a snack before bed. This is a huge contrast to how I used to eat: grazing all day long, having hypoglycemic attacks on a daily basis, never able to go out for 10 minutes without packing a snack. And always low-fat, low-fat, low-fat. Not anymore! And contrary to the popular belief that eating more fat will make you gain weight, I actually weigh slightly less than I used to and certainly without dieting (except avoiding processed foods and sugar) -- even in winter, the time when I always packed on a few extra pounds. For Hugo and Ollie, regular meals (3x a day plus snacks) are very important; it's good to keep in mind that everyone is different, with varying requirements for protein and calories.

Feeding a toddler is a contact sport

No one told me it would be like this. As soon as they start to feed themselves, the peace, sanity, and relative cleanliness of mealtime disappears. Suddenly it's all about preempting their every move, scooting implements and bowls of liquid out of the way, keeping glasses on the other side of the table, having several wet washcloths ready to mop up spills and wipe hands and faces, and always always keeping one hand at the ready to refasten the clothes pin on the dish towel Oliver wears as a bib (and I'm using "wears" in the figurative sense -- it's more of an on-again, off-again part of his mealtime attire. Bibs were given up long ago as they 1) cover only a small fraction of the toddler body, and 2) are far-too-easily ripped off immediately.) Oliver now wears a large apron tied around the waist, and the aforementioned dish towel, fastened at the back of his neck with a clothespin. I have learned to place the first course before him just as a I fasten this, or else the clothespin and dish towel are on the floor in no time. And yes, we often go through 2 dish towels and several washings of dish cloths throughout this process.


At lunch yesterday I had a very nice spread for Oliver to enjoy. Here it is, clockwise from lower left: chicken broth with garlic and carrots, veal tongue, raw milk cheddar, salmon bites with homemade lacto-fermented coconut oil mayonnaise, homemade lacto-fermented ginger ale, and lacto-fermented dilly beans (saved for the end as they are a favorite). For dessert we had pumpkin custard.


Feeding Oliver went something like this:

Oliver tries a salmon bite and promptly spits it out (sometimes he likes it, sometimes he doesn't). He uses his small spoon to scoop up the mayonnaise and eats it with relish. He wants more, so I give him another serving. Then another. And another. At last he is done, the plate is pushed away vigorously, and he reaches for the broth. Tries some broth, then a carrot, spits it out, pulls the bowl, then pushes it away -- back and forth. I am of course trying to make him stop, and between the two of us tugging, naturally it spills. I swoop in and mop up the mess. Now he is asking for water, but it isn't water he wants, it's ginger ale, just like I have. And no, he doesn't want to drink it out of his little cup, he wants to use a spoon. For some reason I really don't feel like entertaining this for more than 10 seconds, so I take the spoon away and encourage him to drink from the little cup. NO! He starts screaming and gets red in the face. This is the toddler side of Oliver that I am discovering lately and one I REALLY don't like. I promptly turn his chair to face away from the table. He settles a little, and I turn him back around. Next he tries the veal tongue (which he usually likes b/c it is the one meat tender enough for a mostly toothless person to chew) but the bite is too large; he spits it out. I break the piece into tinier shreds. He doesn't want it from my hand, he wants it from a fork. I spear each tiny shredded piece of veal tongue with his toddler fork for each bite that he takes; he eats probably one piece of sliced tongue, which is very good. Suddenly he is reaching for my bowl (I am eating, or rather not eating, my leftover chicken fricassee). I have placed a piece of chewy chicken skin on the side of my bowl, and this is what Oliver wants. He chews on it and sucks the gravy off, then hands it back to me and makes urgent signs for more. He wants more disgusting flabby chicken skin! I fish out another piece for him. Then he tries some chicken meat. Okay, enough of that. He is ready for something else. He has some more mayonnaise, then spies the dilly beans. For him, "eating" dilly beans consists of waving the beans about in the air, biting off pieces, spitting out each barely-chewed piece into my hand, and pretending to gag when a small piece remains on his tongue too long. At least he gets some of the dilly bean juice which is the important part for him at this point (he can't properly chew or digest extremely fibrous vegetables yet).

By the end of the meal he has had:
1) one piece of carrot
2) a tiny bit of broth
3) one slice of veal tongue
4) 4 tsp. of coconut oil mayonnaise
5) chicken fricassee gravy & an iota of chicken (plus whatever he got from the skin)
6) dilly bean juice
7) a very tiny bite of raw milk cheese
8) several sips of homemade ginger ale
9) a few bites of pumpkin custard (the most peaceful part of the meal)

My own meal seems barely enough to replace the calories I expended in feeding Oliver, and I'm a bit exhausted -- but these crazy fast-paced mealtimes are something I will probably look back on fondly, and I'm happy that he is eating such good food. Fortunately there are days when lunch time is peaceful and gratifying, like the day when he discovered how fun it is to eat both fish broth (with shrimp butter) and whole wheat sourdough toast with butter, chicken liver pate, and bone marrow at the same time. That sight truly warmed my nutrient-dense-foods-obsessed little heart!

Eating on the run

It's challenging enough juggling winter coats & scarves, a toddler, a stroller, bags of compost, and bags of groceries all while navigating subway stairs, crowded sidewalks, the farmers' market, and an insanely busy Whole Foods -- not to mention planning and packing meals for when we're out and about! Yesterday we headed into the city to drop off compost, deliver a dress to a sewing client, and stock up at the Union Square Greenmarket and Whole Foods. At the Greenmarket I finally got my mustard greens (yay!); kim chee (from the Korean couple w/the organic mustard greens); grass-fed ground beef from Central Valley Farm (best stuff around, and a bargain at only $5/lb.); raw milk cheddar (also from Central Valley); lots of shallots, onions & garlic; two potatoes; and 4 giant portabello mushrooms (I have been having a craving for mushrooms lately).

By the end of shopping (and Oliver's nap) we were both quite hungry, so I decided to make a makeshift meal with what I had just bought and supplement with some sliced pear from the lunch bag. I had sourdough rye wasa crackers with salame rosa and proscuitto de parma (the BEST you can get, and still semi-affordable); Ollie stuck with the proscuitto. Did I mention this snack took place in the upstairs dining area at Whole Foods? I probably looked completely insane with my package of crackers and the paper-thin slices of proscuitto arrayed on deli paper in front of me. Oh well. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention, and I would wager that my meal was one of the more nutritious being consumed there -- and definitely the most affordable! :)


Later that night, after meeting a friend and fellow health counselor, Angela (www.nourishingworks.com) in Park Slope, I had a late-night snack of the same, but paired this time with mustard greens and kim chee. And yes, I have been craving them so much that I am crazy enough to eat mustard greens raw and straight up -- let me tell you, they are spicy enough to clear all the sinuses in your head! The kim chee, with its exquisite blend of salty, sour, and chili-spice, kept me coming back for more. (If you want to get some of your own delicious Korean-style kim chee, visit the Union Square Greenmarket on a Monday. The booth, which faces east and has its back to Staples (approximately), has a white tent and a big sign that reads "ORGANIC." There will be a man out in front saying "Organic greens! Two for 5!" A pint of kim chee is $5.)

Midnight snack

On Christmas night I felt the need for some cleansing greens. I was feeling a little sticky internally -- it's hard to describe the feeling exactly. I am not referring delicately to a digestive problem or anything of that nature, but I could tell that my body needed a big plate of kale. (Actually, I have been CRAVING mustard greens lately -- the baby kind that are nice and spicy, but not too hot and not bitter, but I can't always obtain baby mustard greens. The only place I know to get them regularly is from the Korean couple who have a small organic produce booth at the Union Square Greenmarket on Mondays -- they have several coolers of organic baby greens. But since I hadn't been there in a few weeks, kale from the local grocery store was the next best option. I am always in the mood for kale, unlike swiss chard, for example.)


On Christmas day we had blueberry pancakes (yes, with frozen blueberries - gasp! - so unseasonal), and the most delicious bacon from a local farm. I think blueberry pancakes are so yummy that I don't even put maple syrup on them. For lunch we had nachos (a rare indulgence!) with beans (cooked in bone broth), avocado, tomato, black olives, salsa, and lots of melted cheese and raw sour cream. Delicious!! At dinner we shared 1.5 lbs. of pork spare ribs with my homemade BBQ sauce (recipe forthcoming!) and a baked potato. We also had a little cabernet sauvignon (a very cheap bottle, I will admit) heated for several hours in the crock pot with a cinnamon stick, whole cloves, honey, and slices of pear and orange. I would estimate the alcohol content was reduced to less than 1%, so I wasn't feeling imbalanced from alcohol, but from all the other stuff, probably the excessive amounts of salt and the sugar from the wine (and the lack of vegetables!).

Whatever the reason, the kale really hit the spot. All you have to do is rinse and chop several leaves, steam them until bright green using a steamer basket, top with butter, and enjoy! You may also add a little sea salt if desired.

Food diary

In case you have ever felt curious to know exactly what I might eat in any given day, I am going to share my food diary with you today (not that I actually keep a food diary, I am just writing everything down here for once). I didn't really cook much today, just did a fair amount of snacking on little bits of things here and there, making meals out of what I had on hand. Here is the rundown (now you will see how weird I really am!):

oatmeal w/butter, coconut oil, maple syrup & milk
kombucha (b/c my stomach felt slightly unsettled)
chicken liver pate and butter on crackers (was out of ww. sourdough)
chicken broth
leftover stuffed pepper w/brown rice & ground beef w/organs
pinto beans refried in lard, w/salsa, sour cream & blue corn chips
beef tongue (from a friend -- delicious!)
jalapeno sauerkraut
raw milk w/raw egg yolk and 1/2 tsp. maple syrup
homemade apple muffin w/butter & salame rosa (Italian cured salami)
high-vitamin cod liver oil

Most of these things were very small portions, just a few bites in some cases. I am quite amazed at the variety here! If you were to look in our refrigerator you wouldn't think there was much of anything there, and the pantry only has things like dry beans, but somehow there was enough to eat.

Oliver had:

raw milk & cod liver oil
cheddar cheese
chicken liver pate (he kept eating more and more! I couldn't hold him back)
pumpkin custard (home-cooked pumpkin w/eggs, milk, maple syrup & spices)
refried black beans w/salsa and sour cream
beef tongue
scrambled egg
boiled carrots w/butter

Oh the things we used to eat!

As recently as last winter many of these foods were regularly in our house... I find this worthy of both a wry chuckle and a horrified shudder!












I think it's worth pointing out, with all the current debate raging about vegetarianism being good for the environment, that all of the packaged items above are "vegetarian" -- in fact, many of them were purchased by us on a regular basis because Hugo was following a vegetarian diet! How is this a better way of eating for the environment? Obviously being a "junk food vegetarian" is a far cry from eating a diet based on local seasonal plant foods (which is clearly MUCH more sustainable and environmentally-friendly though not necessarily health-supporting), but even so it's not too often that we hear much discussion of this issue. It is far more lucrative for the food company executives to fatten their offshore bank accounts by selling cheap soy -- all the while claiming it's healthy and "green." Makes me see red!

Have I told you lately...

...that I LOVE raw dairy? Yesterday was the monthly pick-up night through our local buyers' club. I had ordered the following (all raw of course) - keep in mind this will last us about 4 weeks. The total cost (with 16% delivery charge) was about $180:

• 3 gallons milk (this is always whole milk, no nasty low-fat variations allowed! whole milk not only tastes better, it's actually really good for you unlike low-fat dairy)
• 3 lbs. butter
• 2 pints cottage cheese
• 1 pint sour cream (Hugo says this is like the sour cream in Mexico!)
• 2 quarts yogurt
• 1 quart light cream (for making ice cream)
• 1 quart kefir (an effervescent, tart drinkable yogurt)
• 1 lb. cheddar and 1 lb. monterey jack
• 1 lb. pork breakfast sausage links (pasture-fed, like all Abner's meats)
• 1 lb. ground goat meat (tastier than beef!)
• 1 dozen pastured eggs (for my friend Sarah who was delighted last time by the deep orange color of the yolks)
• unpasteurized apple cider vinegar
• 1 pint kim chee
• 1 quart maple syrup
• 2 large sweet potatoes (Oliver LOVES them)

As always, it was an adventure getting all this booty home! First I went to Sharon's with Ollie to make ice cream (more on that later). Hugo came to pick us up and carry the food home. Of course the whole way back he was wondering why he married me... In case you're wondering, yes, that entire rolling cart is filled with raw dairy and farm products and weighs well over 60 lbs. Aren't husbands great? :)

*Note added 1/19/10: our requirements have grown with Oliver -- we now need about $150 worth of these foods every two weeks! Gone are the days when Ollie drank only tiny amounts of raw milk.