Eating Clean

One of my favorite magazines is Clean Eating.  I am, however, blessed with a husband and child who like meat and potatoes and very few veggies ... they both love their carbs.  I'm always finding ways to sneak veggies and fruit into meals and snacks while limiting the complex carb intake.  It's a battle some days, especially when everyone is in a rush or super tired and frozen fish sticks actually sound good.

Then it hit me.  Eating clean.  It's a trend of sorts, but if you stop to think about it, "clean" is how we're meant to eat. It's how we did eat before modern inventions like aluminum cans and flash freezing. We didn't always have the convenience items in the market like we do now. So, what's so hard about it? In reality, not much as along as you give yourself time to cook some things from scratch and shop the outside of the grocery store - you know, produce, meat, dairy ... and skip the chip isle.

Eating clean takes some planning and organizing in my house, where the week is hectic and we're all moving at the speed of sound until 8:00pm when the world comes to a screeching halt at Noodle's bed time.  Here is what I did last weekend ...

I went to Aldi's ... yes, Aldi's ... and bought fruits and veggies.  Came home, cut them all up so they would be ready to grab and stored them in Pyrex  (that I bought just for the occasion - I don't need much of an excuse to buy Pyrex!)

Even fruit that comes in it's own little plastic containers was stored in glass.  It's easier to store and grab out of the fridge, and it lasts longer.  

I sliced carrots to grab for soups and boiled side dishes for dinner.  I even saved the celery leaf for soups and salads. 

I think my favorite experiment was the salad in a jar.  I saw this idea on Pinterest and had to give it a try. It definitely boosted my veggie intake for the week.  A pint jar holds the perfect single serve salad for lunch, too.  The only thing I would do differently is put the veggies on bottom or layer the contents ... that way everything is all mixed up when it goes into a bowl. 

Yes, that is frozen corn you see on top.  Corn is my favorite salad ingredient ... it adds just a bit of sweetness. Another tip - add the dressing (homemade, of course) to the jar, shake, dump into a bowl, and you're all set!

Here's the best part, Noodle ate all the blueberries in about 2 days, devoured the grapes, and the salads in jars lasted the entire week.  I ate the last one yesterday and it was as fresh as they day I put all this together. I can't say much for the hubs, but ... baby steps.  Another good thing, this kept me from hitting the cookie jar the entire week!

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Tornado Warning

I have a weather radio app on my iPhone that just popped up with a tornado warning for my county. What am I doing? Blogging. Yes, blogging through a tornado warning. I'm the kind who would rather sit on the front porch and watch the storm pass than hide in a basement. Don't get me wrong, I'll duck and cover when the time comes, but it's usually a last resort for me.

I remember my grandpa sitting out on the front porch during thunderstorms and tornado watches ... then we only had them in the spring and maybe summertime ... certainly not in January! As my mother so aptly reminded me just now, my grandma would shuffle all us kids to the basement, grab a crowbar and her purse and follow suit. They were the complete opposite. Somehow, I always manage to escape the basement and sit on the porch.
I think he was always waiting for the next big tornado to blow through.

My grandpa survived what is now known as the Great Tri-State tornado on March 18, 1925. The F5 ripped through 200 miles of Missouri, Southern Illinois, and southwest Indiana taking nearly 700 lives with it. Murphysboro, where my grandpa lived his whole life, got the worst of it as the tornado left a mile-wide track in its wake, killing upwards of 250 people, demolishing most of the town. It left half the town homeless.

My whole life, his post would be on the front porch, leaned back in his lawn chair with feet propped up on the railing. He was as calm as he could be as he waited. I never knew for sure if he was really waiting on the next big tornado, or was just fascinated with the weather. Maybe a little of both.

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Delta Dishes

2013 is off to an amazing start! On January 7th, my Mom kicked off her new privatized destination management and tourism development organization, Moore Tourism Development and already has an onslaught of work to do for clients. She received some great press coverage, so now we're building her brand.  Yes, I said "we". After all, there are two tourism experts in the family!

Part of her endeavors include a regional tourism development approach ... all across the Illinois Delta region. We are celebrating the Illinois Delta in a big way, one of which is a weekly blog about Illinois Delta restaurants written by your's truly. I've always wanted to be a food blogger ... so now I'm doing it! We've aptly named the blog Delta Dishes - 52 weeks, 52 Delta restaurants. We're getting a great response from folks and the restaurants are loving it. We're focusing on unique, sometimes little-know spots that certainly don't get the attention they deserve.

So, if you're in the southern Illinois region, check it out and take a trek to one of our Delta Dishes. If you're not in the area, maybe it's time you come for a visit!

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Poor Man's Lasagna ... with Venison

I don't really know why I call this Poor Man's Lasagna, except that it reminds me of exactly that.  It's also one of the easiest and quickest weeknight dishes I know of ... and it's perfect for ground Venison!

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