Posts Tagged ‘chicken’

A garden, a grill and a guy.

5 Comments
Posted 05 May 2010 — by FV
Category As I see it., Evolution Of FV, garden, Really??

Tuesday, May 4th. Gardening day. I would like to share with you some more progress on the garden that the Duchess and I are working on so diligently. I also have a dilemma with which I hope you can help (scroll to the bottom of post if you can’t wait). First, let’s get to the garden.

The progress in the yard has been amazing. The old pool is torn down completely now, (a project started a year ago) the garden in all sprouted and growing and ready for the next wave of crops to be planted and there are tree removal and patio laying plans on the horizon. Today the Duchess and I weeded and then she secured the garden fence and tied lead strings to the fence for the pea plants to climb.

Go Peas Go!!

The garden is slowly, but surely, turning green.

You’ll notice a square in the upper left hand corner that will be the home to more veggies soon like cukes, zukes and peppers. Our indoor seedlings of tomatoes and peppers are itching to get into some outdoor dirt. The space where the pool was is currently a huge sandbox and the old deck has served as a makeshift shed. There’s Choc exploring!

The old pool is missed, but better things are to come.

We decided to cook over an open wood grill. In the ongoing effort to avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup, a homemade BBQ sauce was to be made. I started with onions and garlic.

These were lightly sauteed and then I added one of the few safe non-fresh goods.

Nothing added, just tomatoes.

The recipe called for brown sugar. I am currently against the use of processed sugars, but still have some wool pulled over my eyes and haven’t gotten away from it completely.I compromised with a tablespoon of brown sugar and substituted honey for the rest of the sweetness. I didn’t have Worcestershire sauce so I added a dash of soy sauce. I also had to tinker with the vinegar to honey ratio to get just the right taste. The sauce turned out great and made the chicken just perfect on the open flame wood grill!

I baked some potatoes indoor and seasoned them for a quick stay on the grill with the chicken almost done.

For a vegetable we had roasted cabbage. Just cut into sections drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and bake for about 30-45 minutes at 350 degrees or until the edges start to brown.

Yum!!

Everything about the day was rolling along very nicely until dinner time.

I would like to share with you and hopefully get some feedback on a problem I am having. My middle child, Choc, is a very finicky eater. I am scrambling for solutions to this situation. Yes, I, FV, am experiencing a food problem that I am having a very difficult time solving. Choc is an amazing kid, as I expect you would think I’d say. He is also a child who is stuck in the rut that I rant and rave about all of the time. He is, for lack of a better term, addicted to bad food. If it’s breaded, fried, smothered in ketchup or sugar, he’ll eat it. If not, well, the fight begins. As you may have gathered Choc’s Mom and I are divorced. I have the boys exactly 1/2 of the time. It is my opinion that the boys eat better with me than anywhere else.  Choc is a very intelligent and emotional young boy. He is very artistic and creative. You would think this would translate into food, but it hasn’t. The secret I have is that most dinner times are tainted by his obstinance to eating and my anger rears as a result. This kid can go without eating a single bite rather than eat the food I put before him. I have contemplated every angle of what shrinks might say. Here’s the facts…

1)Choc will eat every bite of a food he likes, i.e. pizza, spaghetti, breaded fried chicken or pork, ground meat from any animal and mostly all vegetables. He will NEVER turn down a sweet snack like cookies, cake or candy, NEVER!  (I don’t want to sound like a bitter ex, but these are the staples at his Mom’s house)

2)Choc will not eat any whole meats like chicken, steak or pork. He will eat fish, usually, and some fruits.

3)Eating seems to be an inconvenience at times for Choc.

4)It seems that, besides sugar, texture has a lot to do with Choc’s resistance to certain foods.

5)I feel like I am going to lose my mind over this issue. My oldest, Bird, is a year away from being a teenager and his appetite is growing everyday, but he really had no eating issues before. My youngest is still very impressionable and seems to follow suit if tensions rise over eating. Choc, sometimes, just refuses to eat.

Look, these things I know. Kids won’t starve themselves. I know my divorce has put some stress on the kid’s lives. I am not some crazy foodie parent putting vegan-friendly-organic-burger-shaped patties in front of my boys. We’re talking about meat and potatoes. I’m not looking for a litany of reasons this is happening, I’m looking for ways to break this trend of irrational food resistance. My dear Mom, TooRedLyn, would have just strong-armed the point (and the chicken) into my head. I am trying to avoid that method.

So, for the sake of my dear Choc, does anyone have any ideas I could try? I am humbly awaiting your advice.

“How does this make you feel?” -Siggy Freud

FV

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A bone to pick.

3 Comments
Posted 04 Mar 2010 — by FV
Category As I see it.

A distinguished dignitary dubbed dubiously the “Duchess“, desires a deduction during dashes to the local dead digestible meat department (just down the aisle from the delectable dairy department). The Duchess demands to know if she should dole out extra dough for organic chicken. A downright daring discussion, I do declare.

That was fun.

Is it cost effective to buy natural or organic chicken? Well, quite simply, if you have half a brain and the use of at least one of your arms, yes. First, let’s talk about the difference between the mass produced “un-natural” chickens and the natural, or organic, ones.

Here is a look at what is mostly available in stores…

These birds don’t have any room to move, they get covered with and often eat their own feces and they are pumped up with antibiotics to help their bodies deal with the horrible conditions and all sorts of growth accelerators to make them huge and go to market faster. Yum! I’m no PETA member, I love me some meat, but this is just disgusting and more proof that money means more than quality.

Often the birds grow faster and bigger than their legs can support…

Yep, pretty shocking. The industry can’t be completely blamed. We as consumers are part of the problem, too. We are gluttonous and demanding. “Give us more! Charge us less!” We should change our mantra to “Give us quality! We’ll eat less because we’re tired of being fat slobs and if we eat less, we’ll spend about the same because even though the price of the better quality chicken is higher, we’ll be buying less because we’ll be eating less because we won’t be fat slobs anymore!” But, that wouldn’t fit on our T-shirts because we’ll all be thin, right?

Back on track now. Organically or naturally raised chickens are alotted more space, better living conditions, proper food, and no antibiotics or growth hormones. Just chicken.

Don’t they look happy and tasty?!

So, should the Duchess purchase the organic or natural chicken? Of course.

The next business at hand is a way to actually save money buying organic. Stay with me here. This week at Giant Eagle, fresh, boneless chicken breasts from the doomsday chicken farms are $3.79 per pound in the value pack, $3.99 in smaller portions. (You can also get the frozen variety for $2.49 per pound. These are “enhanced with 15% chicken broth.” You’re paying for the broth per pound, but it evaporates during cooking, so you lose. Do I need to go on?) So, $3.79 per pound. The natural, antibiotic, free range boneless skinless chicken breasts are $5.29 per pound, Whoa! Calm down.

Here’s some free advice. The naturally produced, bone-in, split chicken breasts are only $3.29 per pound.

“But FV, they have bones!”
“Yes, my friends, chickens have bones.”
“But, FV, aren’t I paying for those bones, per pound?”
“Yes, you are, but you can use those bones.”
“But, FV, how do I use them, they’re attached to the meat.”

Alright, enough. First, you could just bake, bread, fry or boil your chicken with the bones intact. Easy way out. You can dry the bones and toss ‘em in your compost pile. Next choice would be to debone your chicken. Don’t worry, it’s not hard. I’ll show you. Once the bones are removed you can boil them along with the skin and make some great stock for soup or other recipes. The bones can make their way to the compost pile just the same. This saves even more money because you won’t be buying the stock or bullion cubes at the store.

Check this out…

watch?v=MYQLlPJ8vjc

There, you can do it! So, yes Duchess, it is more economical, healthier, and better for the environment to purchase the naturally produced fowl.

Report back to me when you have tried this.

Don’t cut yourself,

FV

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