Homemade Hand Sanitizer (Spray or Gel)

This has been a heckuva week. Concerts, CD sales, car died and needed a new fuel pump, oh yeah, and there’s this big looming holiday where I professionally must produce at the absolute highest level all year for three straight days of insanity while honoring the magical Holiday Family Warmth Imperative at home…

I’m a choir director, among other things. And my choirs are all getting sick. Sneezing, coughs, laryngitis, people with 2-week sore throats. I don’t want to get sick myself (choir directors do not get sick days in December), so I’m staying away from folks, not touching anyone except my family, and trying to wash my hands rabidly. I hate most commercial hand sanitizers; even the allegedly unscented ones give me headaches. So I looked up some recipes online for homemade hand sanitizers. They are basically pretty simple, and boil down to some easy-to-find ingredients (though not everyone has aloe gel in the house, it’s easy to buy, I got a big bottle at Trader Joe’s a year or two ago to put on burns) and about 5 minutes of effort.

*****

Homemade Non-Toxic Hand Sanitizer

In a glass (pyrex?) bowl or measuring cup, mix together:

• 1/4 cup aloe vera gel
• 1/2 cup grain alcohol (er…okay, I guess not everyone has this in the house either…it’s for medicinal uses, really!)
• 10-20 drops antibacterial essential oils

Mix well, funnel into a spray or squeegee bottle.  Shake well before using.

*****

That’s it. Easy as pie.

The nuances: if it’s too thick to spray well (though I have no problems with it), you could add a little distilled water, but not much or you’ll dilute the alcohol too much.  And your choice of essential oils will have a fairly significant effect both on its odor and its efficaciousness. Some favorites:

• Tea tree oil--this is the heavy-hitter, antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal.  Good stuff all around.
• Manuka oil–similar to tea tree, but some say it’s even better at what it does.
• Lemon oil–this can cause skin sensitivity, so use with caution and discontinue if your skin doesn’t like it, but this is a great germ-killer. Orange too, which is a little gentler
• Lavender oil–I know, it smells all gentle and flowery, but it’s a hugely important medicinal oil. I use it liberally in almost everything I make–besides being antibacterial itself, it’s one of the gentler essential oils, which means you can get away with using more of it in a blend without it becoming too harsh.
• Eucalyptus oil–blah blah blah antibacterial antiviral see above. Yet another. (There are lots of these!)
• Rose Geranium–a very powerful medicinal oil, but honestly I find its flowery scent too strong to use for much. On the other hand, a drop or two of this added to a blend you find too medicinally smelling could gentle it up a bit.

My personal blend of choice is probably not the antibacterial heavy hitter it could be, but I use 9 drops lavender, 6 drops clary sage, and 3 drops lemon oil in mine. Mostly because I love this smell, it’s sort of my own personal antidepressant/antistress blend. Which, given my month, is probably going to be as key to avoiding illness as anything else. Tea tree and lavender together would be a good cheap effective blend.

So use it. Or something like it.  And don’t get sick.  And if you get sick, don’t come anywhere near me.

Posts may become a little more sporadic in the coming weeks, and instead of blogging about cool things to do for the holidays I’ll have to actually be doing them. Or I’ll link back to some of last year’s posts–as I recall, last January I had some slightly intelligent things to say…

Oy. God, I’m tired.

Meatless Monday–Supernachos!

Okay, I know grownups probably aren’t even supposed to admit to eating nachos, except at superbowl parties.  (Although, any of y’all who see “nachos” and go “FAT FAT FAT I’m not even going to READ!” might dare to take a look; these are very calmed down on the fat-and-calories front.)

Remember in college and young-adult-hood, when every time you went to the local dive bar with your friends and no one had enough money (or what you had you were determined to spend on as much beer as possible) to buy real food, so you got a giant plate of those fairly horrific nachos, with tortilla chips and loads of cheese that would soak through the chips, and salsa and guacamole and sour cream, and maybe you’d dare someone to eat 8 slices of jalapeno peppers and say you’d buy her another beer if she could do it and not reach for her water glass for a whole minute afterwards, and she did it and didn’t show her agony even though her mouth was on fire, not as much for the free beer as to show she was a real bad-ass?

Er…me neither.

The thing is, that icky plate of soggy fat-laden nachos can be healthed up quite a bit with a little effort and can even become a really good vegetarian-type dinner. In a hurry.

*****

Bean and Cheese Supernachos

Cover a plate–a non-huge one, preferably–with a single layer of tortilla chips. These can be your regular ordinary chips or choice, baked (less fat) if you choose, or even homemade (baked or fried), though I’ve never tried this. (The single layer part is key for any hope at making this a healthy dinner as opposed to a dressed up snackfest. You can make a really filling dinner of supernachos with maybe 8 or 9 total chips.)

Wait, could we please digress for a moment? My favorite of those “Real Men of Genius” Bud Light commercials: Mr. Giant Taco Salad Inventor:

And…we’re back. We were talking about remembering that we want this to be, at least to some extent, a healthy and body-feeding whole-food dinner kind of thing.

Okay, you have your single layer of chips on the plate.

Over the chips, layer 1/2 cup (or more, it’s your dinner, your appetite, and your calorie count–but these are non-fat, high protein, and really good for you) of black or other cooked dried beans. Again, these can be out of the can (drain first) or something you’ve cooked previously and store as a regular kitchen staple.  (Black beans, by the way, seem to cause less of a problem with…let’s just say, noxious methane emissions, FWIW…)

Sprinkle beans with a little cumin and garlic powder; you can add some red pepper or chili powder to this if you’d like.  Sprinkle with chopped or sliced jalapenos if you’d like…you can actually add any veggies you want here, but I tend to prefer my nacho veggies cold in the pico de gallo instead of heated over the chips, where they risk making them soggy. (Er…if it’s not Monday, and you’re not avoiding meat, this would also be where you’d spread some of last night’s chili or Saturday night’s shredded rotisserie chicken remains around too.)

Over this, sprinkle a reasonable amount of (organic and hormone-free) grated cheese, of whatever kind you like that melts well.  Again, the more cheese, the more saturated fat, so watch that commercial again and make your choice.  (Or just because it’s funny.) And the beans with their seasoning honestly make the extra cheese not as needed for texture and flavor.

Heat in the microwave for about 30 seconds, check to see if the cheese is melted, and then heat additionally at 15 second increments until it looks right. (Don’t just stick it in there for a minute on high, or you’ll have burny bubbly cheese on one side and cold unmelted on the other–trust me on this!)

Serve with lots of really good veggie-laden pico de gallo–i.e. fresh salsa you can either make yourself or buy for way too much money at your local Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s or probably any grocery store, or just cut up some tomatoes and peppers and onions into small chunks and toss them with just enough jarred salsa to hold them together and some chopped cilantro–guacamole, and if you must have something creamy and sour, try a little nonfat Greek yogurt instead of sour cream.

*****

Now, obviously, if you want to really make this a healthy lovely meal with nothing for anyone to complain about–you’d leave out the two worst offenders, which are of course the tortilla chips and cheese, without which this obviously wouldn’t be nachos at all.  But if you wanted, you could skip the chips and put rice on that plate instead, and have a really good black-beans-and-rice kind of thing, and it’s almost as fast as the nacho version if you have some already-cooked rice around.  Or you could compromise and put the rice-and-beans, or just the beans, into small corn tortillas for bean tacos, or larger wheat tortillas for burritos.

But there’s something about those nachos…

Pass the jalapenos, please.

Applesauce Bundt Cake

Okay, I made a bunch of really lovely applesauce…of course, then my kids decided they didn’t like it. Figures. So I have a quart of applesauce and only grownups to eat it.

So I made cake.  This is adapted from a recipe I found here, made a little more healthful…it’s really good!

Applesauce Spice Cake

Preheat oven to 350

In a large bowl mix:

• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar (or 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup powdered milk)
• 2 cups applesauce
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Add (just till mixed):

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

Pour into greased bundt pan and bake about an hour, or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

VERDICT: Really good! This is a keeper.

Happy Birthday, Bear (Palaczinta!)

Eight years ago today, I became a mom.  Eight years ago today I first got a look at the pointy-headed purple-faced alien-looking creature who’d been kicking my rib cage over most of the summer and early fall. Now he’s this big tall kid who runs and reads Harry Potter and is too cool to hug his mom in front of his friends…It’s my boy’s birthday.

I told him he could have whatever he wanted for breakfast.  He asked for Palaczinta, a kind of Hungarian pancake like crepes, that my mom used to make for me when I was a kid and which we loved. My kids love them too.   The good thing about making them on a school day is that you can make the batter the night before and let it sit overnight in the fridge.

(Okay, remember my post at the Green Phone Booth about organic healthy whole food vs. organic not-even-remotely-healthy food? This is very clearly not on the right side of that line…be warned.)

Hungarian Palaczinta (makes about 16-18 pancakes)

In a large bowl, lightly beat with a whisk: 6 eggs, 1-2 tsp sugar.

Whisk in 2 1/2 cups milk, 1/2 tsp salt, and about 1 tsp sugar

Slowly add 2 cups flour, a little at a time and whisking well after each addition. It should be smooth and a little thick by the time you’re done.  Add a little more milk if it’s too thick.  I’ve heard that some also add a little nutmeg here, but I forgot.

Whisk in 6 tbs melted and slightly cooled butter. (Yes, that’s 3/4 of a stick of butter.  I told you this wasn’t very healthy.)

Let sit half an hour, or overnight in the fridge.  In the morning, if necessary, add a little more milk or up to half a cup seltzer water and whisk well to thin a bit

to cook:

Heat a 10 inch skillet, preferably with a little curve to the sides, to medium high heat. (If it’s nonstick, you can do this without additional butter.) Pour enough batter in the bottom of the skillet so that you can swirl it around to cover the bottom. Let cook about a minute, till the lacy edges are a little brown and it’s bubbling up a little in the middle, and flip over.  Cook another half minute on the second side, and remove to a plate.  Continue until all the batter is used, stacking the pancakes on each other as you go. (The really high amount of butter in here keeps them from sticking together! Sigh…butter…)

to serve:

To do this the proper Magyar way, you’d fill them with various cheese and fruit and nut mixtures and re-bake them. (Think Hungarian blintzes.) If you are my kids, you drizzle a little honey or maple syrup on them, or smear on some applesauce and a little cinnamon sugar, or jam, and roll them up.  Then you eat them with your fingers, drizzling sticky whatever all over the place and getting it on your clothes.

***

Now okay, I’m sure you could use whole wheat instead of white flour.  And I’m sure you could substitute some neutral oil for some or all of the butter, and probably use a good bit less of it.  But the fact is, these things are so simple ingredient-wise that changing any of the ingredients fairly dramatically changes the taste of the final product; I’ve never tried oil for the butter, but whole wheat for the flour is just not very pleasant in this context. (Maybe you could add some honey or something, or maybe the overnight sit would help remove some of the in-your-face whole-wheatiness of the flour?)

For us this is just one of those special occasion really-not-good-for-you things we do once in a long while.

Happy Birthday, Bear.

I have food on my face. (Mocha-Frappuchino Facial Mask)

I may have mentioned that Crunchy Betty rocks.

Today, since I had the ingredients all in my fridge, and since I was going to work from home this morning anyway, I decided to try her Mocha-Frappucino Facial Mask.  My face has been getting sort of dull and oogy, and since ditching most of the commercial products I haven’t really settled upon anything new to keep it life-ful, so I figured what the heck. So here I sit, with a sort of odd mixture of coffee grounds, cocoa powder, yogurt, and honey on my face. Feels sort of weird, but no weirder than any other mask I’ve ever used–what’s more bizarre is the delightful smell surrounding me–yes, this is food I’m wearing on my face.  It’s scary-easy to make, just mix equal parts (I honestly made way less than her recipe) coffee grounds, cocoa powder, and plain yogurt, with half-a-part honey (I did a teaspoon each of the first three and then half a teaspoon of honey, which was plenty for my face for one use), schmoosh them up good, and smear them on your face. Wait a bit, rinse off, while gently rubbing the coffee grounds around to exfoliate. Which I’m going to do now…hang on for a few minutes, okay?

VERDICT: Holy ever-loving Mother of God. I mean, with full out Hail-Mary-full-of-grace-thank-God-for-my-amazing-feeling-face.  (I don’t mean to take her in vain or anything–I’m sure if she had access to this facial mask she’d be just as blown away.) Wow, I totally didn’t expect it to be this unbelievable.  It took me longer than I expected to get back to my computer just because I was standing up there just sort of touching my skin for a few minutes, not quite believing what it feels like. Pores closed up, nice and smoothly consistent all over, no scary tingles or burny feeling or anything. Just plain…lovely.

A couple of notes: First of all, I didn’t take Betty’s advice on two fronts: one, she said if one is going to use recycled coffee grounds one should use ones that were very fresh, like within 20 minutes of brewing. And that due to mess, one should probably rinse it off in the shower.  I did not take these pieces of advice for one basic reason: I didn’t want to try this while my family was home, and sit there with a brown lumpy face at breakfast while I drink my coffee and have them give me crap over it.  So I waited till they were gone, then used the grounds, and washed in the sink.  I do not feel particular caffiene jitters at the moment, and I did not make a huge mess in the bathroom…but one of these days I should try it with non-used, freshly ground beans instead and see what comes of it.

All my friends whom I love–the next time you feel tempted to go out and buy some expensive facial mask or wash or whatever, please, please try this first! Do it when your loved ones aren’t home, you don’t have to tell anyone, just give it a shot. (Er…make sure you’re not allergic to any of the ingredients first, okay?)  It’s incredibly cheap, is ten times better than any store-bought mask I’ve ever found, and believe me I’ve found a few, and it’s AMAZING.

Okay, time to start working. With this lovely smell of chocolate still all around my face…

Meatless Mondays: Easy Pasta Fazool

Why not?  About time I got on the Meatless Mondays bandwagon, and after doing the Curried Lentils and Rice last week, I might as well make it an actual trend.

Pasta Fazool is my favorite “garbage soup” recipe–I go through the crisper drawer to see what’s starting to turn, and chop it up and throw it into the soup. It’s also one of the easiest variations on my staple “can of diced tomatoes plus can of broth plus whatever else equals soup” recipe. (The one I call “ur-soup.” Honk if you know what “ur” means.)

It doesn’t have to be meatless–from time to time I’ll throw a handful of chicken or a chopped up sausage in there, but usually only when there’s leftovers that need eating–it’s just as good from a purely veggie standpoint.  And you could use any other grain in lieu of pasta, or just leave it out; my kids are constantly not finishing their pasta for dinner, so we periodically have little containers of not-enough-pasta-to-do-anything-with, so I toss them into the soup.

Of course, if you leave out the pasta, I guess it’s not pasta fazool any more…

Easy Pasta Fazool

• In a saucepan, saute a chopped onion in a little olive oil till soft; add a clove or two minced or crushed garlic and saute till golden and fragrant. (I love it when recipes, in the context of garlic, talk about doing something to it “till fragrant.” Is garlic ever not fragrant?)
• Add other veggies as desired–cut up bell pepper, squash, eggplant, carrots, celery, whatever. (NOT spinach!) Saute till just softening.
• Pour in a can of diced tomatoes and a can of broth; whatever broth you like is fine. Heat to simmer
• Add a can of white beans, drained.
• Season with a pinch or two each oregano, thyme, and/or basil. (NOTE: If you like the taste of Italian sausage but want to go veggie, take about a half-teaspoon fennel seed, crush or chop lightly with a knife, and add. This gives the soup that “sausagy” flavor!)
• Let simmer 10-30 minutes, depending on when you feel like eating.
• 5-10 minutes before serving, add a cup or so cooked pasta. Also a good time, if you wish, to dump in 1/4 cup or so prepared pasta sauce; this thickens and corrects the seasonings nicely, but is not essential.
• 3 minutes before serving, if desired, add a handful frozen spinach and/or a tablespoon prepared basil pesto sauce.
• Serve sprinkled with grated Parmesan, if desired.

Good stuff–like I said, it’s one of our essential “staple” meals through autumn and winter.  This is our first time since last spring eating it, since summer doesn’t feel like soup weather–but it was nice to get back to an old friend.

Meatless Mondays: Curried Lentils and Rice

I honestly cannot be bothered to photograph my food, so please pardon me. (Unlike my brother, whose vacation photos consist largely of pictures of what he ate…)

But one of my favorite REALLY EASY things to make when I want something seriously health-ful, easy, meatless, and requiring not many ingredients is this lentil-and-brown-rice dish–delicious and easy, good complete protein, whole grain, just absolutely nothing bad to say about it.

Curried Lentils and Rice

In a saucepan with a lid, bring 4 cups of water to a boil. (You could use broth if you’d like.)

Add

• 1 cup brown lentils (rinsed and picked)
• 1 cup brown rice
• 1 tbs or so curry powder or garam masala of your choice
• 1 28 oz. can (or quart jar) diced tomatoes with their juice

Stir and bring back to a simmer; cover and simmer for about 40 minutes or until rice and lentils are cooked but not mooshy.

That’s it. You may want to play with the amounts of spices, you may decide to add onions or garlic or sauteed mushrooms or other veggies.  You may wish to omit the tomatoes. You can do pretty much whatever the heck you want; it’s still delicious. The lentils and rice take about the same amount of time to cook (don’t substitute white rice, or it’ll go to mush before the lentils are done!), and all that really matters is having two cups of water to one cup of lentils/rice.  This makes about 7 cups, which would probably feed 3-4 people, or 2 with lunch leftovers…

If you don’t have curry powder or garam masala–you can make do with your own spice blend, even if you don’t have all the ingredients.  Curry powder recipes are available all over the internet, but basically they seem to be a combination of coriander, cumin, and turmeric, with maybe a little cayenne if you like the heat. (I happen to love Pensey’s hot version…)  Garam Masala, an Indian spice blend, is another where there are about as many versions as there are Indian grandmas who make them, and it’s a lot like curry only you usually have some “sweet” spices like cinnamon, cloves and/or cardamon, and leave out the turmeric. (By the way, to really do this right you’d toast the spices in the pan first, then grind them, and THEN start the rest of the recipe; I really don’t ever do that…)

Which is to say, if you have cumin and cinnamon but not the others, throw some of that in with some black pepper, and it’ll probably be delicious. Futz around with spices, and don’t be afraid to mess things up.

Enjoy!

Grilled Cheese for Grownups (and olive tapenade recipe)

Okay, I had the most delicious sandwich for lunch today…

Took two slices of whole wheat Italian bread. Smeared some delicious Kalamata olive tapenade on one of them. Put a slice of Havarti cheese on each half.  Put them in the toaster oven to toast and melt. Squished it together into a lovely sandwich…It was delicious.

If you don’t have (or don’t like) the tapenade, pesto would work just fine, or a couple roasted red peppers, or some giardinara…Grilled cheese need not be Kraft on Wonder bread, you know.

And by the way–in case you either have never had tapenade or think it’s too much trouble, would you like to see how easy the recipe is?

Kalamata Olive Tapenade

In a bowl, a blender, or your food processor, put a jar of pitted Kalamatas, drained. Add maybe 2-3 cloves minced or crushed garlic (or about a spoonful of the stuff-from-a-jar) and maybe a tablespoon of capers if you have them and feel like it. Drizzle in maybe 2-3 tablespoons olive oil.  (And heck, if you are missing any of the above? The only ingredient you really can’t live without is the olives.)

If using a bowl, you need your immersion blender–you just, well, blend.  Till it’s blended. Then you eat it.

If using a blender or food processor, well, same thing. Won’t take very long; it needs to spread but should still be a little chunky.

That’s freakin’ IT.

Seriously easy to make, really delicious.  Smear this on a grownup grilled cheese sandwich, or serve as a dip with crostini or pita chips, or toss with pasta…go to town.  And when you don’t know what to take to that dinner party as an appetizer? Get (or make!) a baguette, slice it up, and serve with some of this tapenade.  People will think you very classy and capable, and unless you are one of the thousands upon millions (not) who reads this blog, no one will know how easy it is. (Or if you don’t even want to do that, do the baguette, and serve it with a little olive oil and Parmesan with a few red pepper flakes; looks very chi-chi, and people will love it.)

How about y’all? Anyone got any delicious variations on Grownup Grilled Cheese? What do you put on it?

And see? I’ve just given you a good Meatless Monday recipe to try for tomorrow.

Chocolate Egg Custard in the microwave

Last summer at some point I made it my mission to figure out if I could really make “baked” custard, that lovely smooth comfort food to end all comfort foods, in the microwave.  And I succeeded--I’ve had me a lot of comfort since then, and while I suspect the inconsistency of my results has more to do with egg size than anything else, it’s never bad, just sometimes better than others.

What shocks me is that it took till last week or so to wonder if I could get similarly successful results with a chocolate egg custard.  It seems like a no-brainer, and I suppose at some point I wondered idly if it would work, but I never actually tried it.

Till last night.  Oh man, you gotta give this a try. Tres classy, tres easy, and it doesn’t have much in the way of unhealthy stuff, unless you think eggs are bad for you. (Well, and there’s the sugar…)

So: Chocolate Custard in the Microwave (single serving–doubles easily!)

• heat 1/2 cup of milk in the microwave for about one minute, till it is hot but not boiling
• In a small bowl, custard cup. or smallish coffee cup, mix 3 level tsp. sugar and one heaping tsp. unsweetened baking cocoa. Optional: add a few drops of vanilla extract, a shake of cinnamon, or a pinch of instant coffee.
• When milk is hot, pour just a little into the sugar/cocoa mix and stir to form a paste.
• Break one egg into the sugar/cocoa paste; stir well until combined and egg white and yolks are well blended.
• A little at a time, whisk remainder of hot milk into egg mixture, pausing often to combine. (This “tempers” the egg; it mixes without curdling or cooking.)
• Microwave on low power (2-3) for about 3.5-4 minutes, depending on your microwave.  Your mixture should never actually come to a boil, but it should basically be “set” on top. (There may be a little puddle of liquidyness on top even if the rest is set; don’t worry about it.) (Note: the first time you try this you’ll need to supervise closely, and you’ll have to do it again if you later decide to try doubling or tripling the recipe. You want the whole thing to be gently puffing, but if the liquid in it comes to full boil the custard will start to curdle.  It’ll still taste nice, but it won’t have that velvety texture.) When you take it out of the oven, it should jiggle a little like set gelatin, but not be firmly set; and remember it’ll keep cooking for a few minutes after you take it out.
• Chill at least half an hour before eating, if you like it warm, or a few hours for cold. (No way around this; it has to finish setting and cool down a little before you cut into it.)

Delish! Somehow the chocolate version worked better than the vanilla, maybe because of the extra body the cocoa powder gives or something? But it was delightful.  Seriously, you gotta try this.  I mean, look at the ingredients! Milk! Egg! Cocoa! (er…sugar! but it’s your own sugar, and you control how much!) You want a chocolate fix, forget candy bars or pre-made high-calorie desserty things, just go for THIS.

(UPDATE: curious about the whole different-consistency-with-cocoa thing, last night I did another experiment and made vanilla custard again but followed these chocolate-custard directions, using a heaping teaspoon of powdered milk instead of cocoa…the result was superb, and it had the same richer consistency as the chocolate version only without the chocolate–and much less of a tendency to overcook/curdle.  A few more calories, yes, but not much, and it’s a great improvement!)

How old is that burger?

To this post from Mom Goes Green I can say naught but…eeeeew. (The eew isn’t to the Mom herself, whose blog I thoroughly enjoy! Just the content…)

*******

(Excerpt:)

I have a story that NEEDS to be shared…

I recently attended a local PTA Council meeting and went to a special session on “Health & Nutrition”…The presenter began by asking everyone to pass around a plate that held a McDonald’s hamburger and Burger King fries….When I was the (un)lucky recipient of the plate my stomach churned even more than expected.  Everything looked dried out and completely unappetizing… as if they had been sitting in a low-heat oven for a few hours. 

After the plate made its rounds, the presenter asked for thoughts about the “age” of the food.  Guesses ranged from a few hours to a few days.

Guess what?  That burger & fries were four and a half years old… yes, I said YEARS!

They had never been frozen, never been refrigerated, never received special “treatment”… they just sit around in their original containers.

The point?  There was no mold, no decay, no visible bacteria, no growing “green fuzzies”.  Nothing.

******

Again I say, eeuw.

Just another reason why, if one must eat burgers and fries (and yes, I totally admit I sometimes love a good burger), making them yourself is a much better idea.  As I’ve said before, the whole balancing act of the household nutritional gatekeeper is about on the one hand providing healthy and nutritious food for one’s family, and on the other providing it in such a way that they won’t immediately run out to the nearest MickeyDee’s the second they are out from under your thumb.

(A curious thing happened to me, an avowed chocoholic, when I got my first really good Swiss milk chocolate bar–I think it was a Lindt bar with whole hazelnuts, a ginormous thing.  I absolutely fell in love with my first experiences of Good Chocolate and even overdid it a bit at the time…but since then, Hershey bars and Milky Way and their entire ilk just hold no appeal for me at all.  That is the nutritional gatekeeper principle I’m talking about applying to our families here.)

Burgers are burgers, hot dogs are hot dogs–although lots of the health and environmental impact (remembering that there’s pretty much no way to make beef a “good” environmental choice) can be mitigated by paying attention to where the meat comes from and how much preservative Goo may be added. (We get a brand of hot dogs with no preservatives and only about seven ingredients, from Trader Joe’s, but there are lots of choices.) And if you look around the internet, lots of people have their own advice regarding how to make a “fast food” burger at home.  My new mission is to figure out how to make really good oven-baked french “fries.”  I’m not there yet, but it’ll happen, wait and see. Ditto the sought-after Chicken Tender–the kids can still detect the homemade ones a mile away.

What I did start doing, once I got really sick of the icky smell of canned non-stick cooking sprays, was to abandon them entirely and either use straight vegetable or seed oil (takes only about half a teaspoon to grease a loaf pan, if you use clean hands to spread it around the surface rather than a towel or something else it will soak into) or my own homemade cooking spray.  You can look on the net and find tons of opinions on how it’s best done, but it basically comes down to a couple of tablespoons of oil in 8 ounces of water, in a clean spray bottle.  Store in the fridge (because oil and water together scream “resort town!” to bacterial nasties) and shake well before using, and there you are.

It’s a little thing, of course…but every little step, right?

(Okay, now I hear that hazelnut chocolate bar calling me from the kitchen cabinet…)