Feeding Family

Family reunions are incredibly fun, exciting, and at times, stressful...especially when it comes to food. The larger the number of people, the more dietary issues and preferences you have to take into consideration when planning meals. Sure, an easy solution is to eat out at a different restaurant each night - that way everyone gets to pick their own meal and you do not have to worry about satisfying everybody's needs. But that can get expensive, and depending on where your reunion is held, you may not have very many restaurants (if any) from which to choose. So what is plan B? How do you successfully feed your whole family? Here is what I did...

This past weekend I had a family reunion with my mom's side of the family. Some of the relatives I had not seen in almost 2 years! I was giddy, eager, and thus volunteered to be head chef and menu planner for the three day event. We were 13 people total, including: 1 vegan, 2 vegetarians, 2 pregnant ladies, 1 obstinately picky eater, and a hodgepodge of random "I prefer not to eat ____". Challenge accepted. 

I spent a few days skimming through cookbooks and magazines, trying to figure out what sort of meals I could make that would accommodate such an eclectic group of eaters. Once again, Bon Appetit saved the day with a wonderful suggestion for large groups of people: taco night. Naturally I heeded this advice and enthusiastically planned a Friday night taco feast. It was an absolute success. Everyone's palates were satiated and their stomachs full. 

Breakfast was much simpler - toast with jam was a perfect fall-back for anybody who did not like or would not eat whatever other options were served. On Saturday I played it safe - fruit salad (how can you go wrong with fruit salad?!), zucchini muffins, and carrot muffins. The muffins were both vegan, but as my uncle (a meat eater) said, "I would have NEVER guessed these were vegan...they are fantastic!" On Sunday I was a bit more adventurous - mini frittatas (half with veggies, half without), whole grain pancakes, fruit salad (again, how can you go wrong with fruit salad?!), and toast. Everyone except the vegan could eat Sunday morning's meal; so I made the lone vegan a lentil and veggie scramble with tortillas on the side (made from Friday night's leftovers). Again, everybody was satisfied. 

Lunch was incredibly easy. One day we went to a typical New England seafood place (most of us had lobster rolls...yum!). But on the other days, our house was fully stocked with all the fixings for sandwiches: four different kinds of bread, two kinds of sliced cheese, turkey, roast beef, three kinds of hummus, cucumbers, tomatoes, onion, alfalfa sprouts, spinach, avocado, mustard, and mayonnaise. Plus tortilla chips, potato chips, carrot sticks, and fresh fruit on the side. People made their own sandwiches and everyone was happy. 

One night the work was cut out for me - we went out for dinner to a favorite local restaurant. No planning or cooking necessary on my end. But Sunday night - the last supper - I had one more meal to successfully bang out. The final product: different types of burgers, fries, and salad. A classic combo that never gets old. And once again, bellies were full. 

Family reunion dinners - sitting down with that big group of people, eating good food, and having lively conversations - are an essential component of any family get-together. It is possible to make meals that accommodate everyone's needs. Some recipe ideas for taco night are below. So please, do not cut corners and just order pizza every night when your extended family has traveled to spend time with you. Show your family some love - make 'em a meal they won't forget and one they can all enjoy together. Feed your family...and do it well. 

TACO NIGHT
make sure to have difference types of tortillas: soft corn, soft flour, hard corn
Fillings:

Cumin & Chili Pepper Chicken

---Cumin and Chili Pepper Chicken (use ground chili pepper instead of Ancho pepper powder)
---Rajas Poblanos

Lentil Taco Filling

---Sauteed shrimp (heat skillet on medium-->add 2 tablespoons olive oil + 2 garlic cloves, minced-->add shrimp in batches - when they're pink and curled, they're done!)
---Lentil Tacos (from Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cookbook)

Sides and Toppings:

---Guacamole (mash: two ripe avocados + 1 tomato, chopped + 1/4 white onion, chopped + 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped + juice from 1 lime + pinch of salt + 1/2 jalapeno, minced - if you want it spicy)
---Pico de Gallo
---Shredded cheese: Monterey Jack, cheddar, and hard Mexican cheese
---Cherry tomatoes, quartered
---Plain greek yogurt (healthy substitute for sour cream...no one could tell the difference!!)
---Radishes, sliced
---Purple cabbage, chopped
---White onion, chopped
---Cilantro, minced
---Tortilla chips!!

100% or Nothin'

What is the point of eating or drinking something if it is not 100% real? I do not want to eat something that looks like a blueberry, tastes like a blueberry, but is only 75% blueberry...what the heck is the other 25%? Chemicals? Artificial blueberry gunk? Play-doh? The same goes for juice. I do not know about you, but I only want to drink something that is 100% juice; because if it is not 100% juice then what else is in it? 

When you are walking down the juice aisle at a grocery store - figuring out what juice you want for breakfast or to mix with your adult beverage over the weekend - it can be overwhelming to make a decision. There are so many choices and dozens of intriguing descriptions. Cran-Apple-Grape! Triple Berry Cocktail! Mango-Pineapple Blend! But as you have probably guessed by now, even though the bottles all look like they are filled with 100% juice, that is actually not the case. 

The front of any product - be it a bottle of juice, a box of cereal, or a bag of chips - is an advertisement. The company that makes that product is trying to grab your attention with cool labels, words, and pictures that make you look twice. It is all glitz and glam to make you want to buy that product. The front of a product tells you ZERO information about what is actually in that product. You have to flip the box over - away from the shiny label - to read the nutrition facts label and ingredient list, in order to find out the truth about that product. 

So, when you are walking down the juice aisle and you see a delectable looking "juice", you cannot just grab it off the shelf because it looks pretty and be done. You need to flip the bottle and look directly above the nutrition facts label, which is where it says how much juice is actually in that product. It will say: Contains ___% Juice. You want that % to be 100. If it is not 100, then your eyes need to scan down to the ingredient list and find out what else is actually in the liquid you are holding. What you'll probably read: water, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and some unpronounceable words. 

Juice is already sweet enough...there is absolutely no reason to add any sugar. Remember my post on calculating the number of sugar packets in something? One serving of juice contains enough sugar packets, as is. To give you some perspective: drinking a cup of orange juice is the equivalent of eating three oranges...in one sitting...in probably less than 5 minutes, if you drink your juice fast. That is a lot of sugar in your 8 ounce glass. So, I am totally in favor of watering down your juice. However, YOU should be the person adding the water...not some company. Why should you pay money for someone to water down your beverage? You are getting less juice and paying for water. Instead, buy a bottle of 100% juice and water it down yourself - the bottle will last much longer when you water it down, than if you bought a pre-watered down (and sugared-up) bottle of juice cocktail.

Fortunately, there are some trigger words on the front of "juice" boxes that usually indicate that the beverage does not contain 100% juice. When the beverage has the words cocktail, blend, or the word juice is missing from the cover (ex: Cran-Apple...no "juice" to be found), you can be pretty positive that that beverage is less than 100% juice. Companies like to trick you with phrases like "contains 100% vitamin C" - your eyes see 100% and you feel happy with your "healthy" choice. But flip over the bottle. Scarily enough the cocktail and blends typically contain less than 30% juice, which means the majority of what you're drinking (70-95%) is not juice, but rather sugar, water, high fructose corn syrup, or chemicals. De-lish. Except not. 

I hate to break it to you, but beverages like Sunny-D (5% juice and contains canola oil in the ingredient list), Nantucket Nectar Mango-Orange Juice Cocktail (20% juice), Newman's Own Grape Juice Cocktail (13% juice), Ocean Spray Cocktails (Cranberry Cocktail =27% juice, Cran-Apple/Grape/Raspberry = 15% juice), and Minute Maid Fruit Punch (5% juice), are not the best choices...unless you like beverages with less than 100% juice and more than 70% sugar, water, and chemicals. 

Making your own juice can be fun, but also time consuming (considering you have to squeeze dozens of oranges to get a sufficient amount of OJ). So of course, buying juice is a convenient option. But next time you are deciding what "juice" to buy, you need to remember to look above the nutrition facts label and see how much juice the beverage actually contains. For me, it's 100% or nothin'. 

Meatless Mondays

Which do you think has more of a detrimental impact to our environment: driving your car or eating a 4oz piece of meat? Your first inclination is probably the car...duh! But actually, eating meat (specifically red meat like beef and lamb) is worse for our environment. In fact, eating just one 4oz. piece of beef is the equivalent to driving your car close to 7 miles. Thought provoking?


As you may have noticed, based on the majority of my recipes, I eat a relatively meat-free diet. Am I telling you to cut out meat from your diet completely? No. You may not have any interest in eliminating meat from your diet or even care about your carbon footprint (slightly selfish of you not to think about these things, because your choices today affect generations to come; but whatever, no judgement...). Regardless of your concern for trying to make our planet a better place to live, there is one simple thing you can do: Meatless Mondays. 


That's it. One day a week, don't eat meat, cheese, or fish of any kind. Now you may be thinking, what sort of an impact can this possibly have on the environment (because it seems like such a small and simple change to make)? Well: if you personally don't eat meat one day a week it is the equivalent of taking your car off the road for 320 miles - or line drying your clothes half the time, instead of using a drying machine. And if every person in the USA were to not eat meat, cheese, or fish just one day a week: it would be equivalent to taking 7.6 million cars off the road. 


Also, in case you've been living under a rock, it is worth noting that our nation is currently experiencing a terrible drought. So in an attempt to conserve our limited water to be used in agriculture, the USDA is jumping on the bandwagon of "Meatless Mondays" by recommending that people in the USA not eat meat just one day a week. Why? You may ask. Well, “producing a pound of animal protein requires, on average, about 100 times more water than producing a pound of vegetable protein.” Surprising? Of course, there are opponents to this suggestion - mainly a specific strand of politicians who are endorsed by members of the meat industry. You can read more about the issue and speculate about my opinions of the matter...


I am not asking you to become a vegetarian. Nor am I asking you to stop driving your car. In fact, I'm not asking you to do anything. I am giving you knowledge and now you can do what you want. All I'm saying is that not eating meat, cheese, or fish on just one day a week is a pretty damn simple thing to do; and it has the potential to make some pretty significant changes to our planet in the future and for our country today...