maybe no more spam for my kiddies...

the long holiday (some call it "thanksgiving," other the national day of mourning...i'll go with the latter) is coming up, and i figured it'd be a good idea to cook off some of the stuff that won't be as good (or not good at all) post-holiday.  among those things was a whole tray of eggs.  what better way to get rid of eggs than fried rice?  ok, maybe i'm the only one who thinks that way...

anyways, today i fed my childses garlic fried rice with spam and eggs.  just minutes after DEVOURING the dish, the kids were off-the-wall wild.  maybe it's the holiday.  maybe it's the spam.  i'm gonna chalk it up to the spam and not serve it for awhile...

whole wheat oatmeal chocolate chip pancakes

i gave gabe a recipe for whole wheat oatmeal pancakes about 2 years ago, and told him when it was perfected that he'd was ready to be a husband (or something like that).  we make breakfast at the youth center every other month, and each time, gabe grows a step closer to perfection with the pancakes!

this time around, erica aided gabe in the breakfast-making, and we had a trinity of whole wheat oatmeal pancakes: pineapple, banana, and chocolate chip.  obviously, the chocolate chip pancakes were the highlight of everyone's day.  erica made a special one for joe that looks like a bear.  see?

whole wheat oatmeal chocolate chip pancakes (serves a bunch or a little, depending on how big your pancakes are!)

3/4 c oatmeal

3/4 c whole wheat flour

1/2 c chocolate chips

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/3 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups vanilla soymilk
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp sugar

-soak oatmeal in soymilk.  set aside

-whisk all dry ingredients together

-slowly incorporate sugar and other wet ingredients, including oatmeal mixture.  do not overmix

-cook pancakes on greased skillet, approximately 1 minute on each side

-top with peanut butter and other such delicious things.

yellowfin tuna deliciousness

my kids ate fish.  fresh fish.  real fish.  fresh fish from the ocean.  AND THEY LIKED IT.  joe's friend caught a grip of yellowfin, and he brought a few slabs in and we had the kids cut it up, season it with a bit of salt, pepper, and chili powder, then i fried it up on the sides and kept most of the mini steaks raw and delicious in the middle.  some of the kids were not so into that, so i cooked most of them up well done.  hey, at least they ate real tuna!

one of the kids asked that I take a fancy food picture.  i know that the above photo is not exactly quality food photography, but whatever...one of my childses designed the plate and put the parsley leaves on top for added prettiness.

(healthy) spam hash!

ok, maybe "healthy" is the wrong word.  can spam ever be healthy?  to say that there's a "healthy" way to serve spam, or a "healthy" version of spam seems moderately blasphemous.  the low sodium and turkey versions are still pretty bad for you, but fellow fatties like to say it's "healthy" to legitimize consuming the loveliness that is spam.  we might as well have the regular kind, yea?  whatever...

erica was craving spam, but we didn't have any regular ole' white potatoes.  i pointed out that we had a plethora of sweet potatoes left over from our last diabetes-friendly dinner, but she wouldn't have it.  "NO!" she exclaimed to the offensive thought of sweet potato invading the perfection of spam/egg/white potato.

i went ahead and made it anyways, with both of my present co-workers (erica and joe) saying that they'd at least try it.  the same recipe as the spam hash with white potatoes was used, except (obviously...) the papas were replaced with the lovely orange camotes.  to bring out the savory aspect of the sweet potatoes, i added a tsp each of chili powder, black pepper and cumin.


the result?  i thought it was pretty good.  the co-workers noted that it wasn't amazing, but it sufficed.  hey, at least you got the beta carotene, vitamins C&E, and ate a food lower on the glycemic index than white potatoes, yea?  yea...

diabetes-friendly harvest dinner: baked chicken breast with mashed sweet potatoes and green beans

yesterday was our closing session for "all life is connected: lifestyle, environment and diabetes," a diabetes prevention and education curriculum developed by indian health service.


the curriculum and the harvest were tied together with a classic meal of sweet potatoes, green beans and poultry.  originally, i was supposed to cook turkey breast with the veggies, but i couldn't find the turkey breast at costco, so chicken it was...

there was nothing fancy nor schmancy about the meal: simple is best.  it's interesting; during preparation, one of my kids asked me "so, are you gonna make a sweet potato pie?"  i responded "no, that wouldn't exactly be diabetes-friendly."  he responded "so?"  sometimes, it takes a while for knowledge to seep through the brains of children (ok, for adults, too...).

baked chicken breast with green beans and mashed sweet potatoes (serves ~12)

chicken:

12 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1/2 c extra virgin olive oil

6 stalks celery, diced

1-2 medium carrots, diced

3 tbsp salt

2 tbsp granulated garlic

2 tbsp pepper

2 tbsp parsley 

1 tbsp thyme

mashed sweet potatoes:

6 medium sweet potatoes

1/2 c (fat free) half and half

1 tbsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp ground ginger

green beans:

2 lb green beans

2 tbsp salt

-preheat oven to 400 degrees F

-combine chicken breasts with oil, spices and such.

-oil two large baking trays (i forget the size, they're big...) and place breasts on them.  sprinkle diced celery and carrots on top.

-cover with foil and place in the oven.

-bake for ~40 minutes or until breasts are cooked all the way through.

-mix green beans with salt.  steam for approximately 10-15 minutes or until tender.

-dice sweet potatoes with the skin on.

-boil until tender (about 15-20 minutes for me).

-discard water and mash sweet potatoes.

-add the spices and half and half; mix.