Goal.

One of my goals in cooking is to reduce the amount of processed foods we use as a family. I hate using canned ingredients and premade stuff and convenience foods as a whole.

I don't mind frozen vegetables too much because they are frozen at the peak of freshness and not many nutrients are lost in the freezing process.

But for the rest, I don't believe they taste as good and they are also pretty expensive. I worry about calorie, sodium and fat content. I worry about the health effects of not eating a well-rounded diet, and I want to set a good example for my son for the rest of his life. Lofty goals, huh? There's a reason I called this blog "Fresh Daily."

I understand VERY well that time is at a premium for most everyone, and many people have little time to prepare a meal from scratch every night. But I think it's important to try.

I'm going to work on making meals ahead of time, with fresh, natural, as-much-organic-as-I-can ingredients. I'm going to rely on my freezer as much as possible for my make-ahead meals. I might need a second one even. I want to plant a vegetable garden as soon as we purchase our house, and get most of my produce from there rather than the store. It will definitely be a learning experience, and I plan to document it here.

Orange Chipotle Ribs, amongst other things.

I am a bad blogger.

I've been at my parents' house visiting since last Saturday, and it's thrown me all off kilter. It's thrown my kid's schedule off too. He's not sleeping well.

Poor baby.

My family is hosting a foreign exchange student this year too. My sister was an exchange student last year, and now the daughter from the family she was staying with is the student this year. Does that make sense? Oh well.

Anyway, her parents and siblings from Spain were visiting this same week, and they cooked paella for us. It was pretty amazing, and they wrote down the recipe for us. I shall type it up and post it before I leave. I have to translate it too. Even though I'm not much of a seafood person, I ate it. I'm so proud. And they took a box of Kraft Dinner home with them, which was odd and funny at the same time.

So I promised to teach my mom to make ribs since she never makes ribs. I've made two kinds, but the Orange Chipotle Ribs are the most recent. We ate them last night.

Orange Chipotle Ribs (from here)
--3 pounds pork ribs
--1/2 cup ketchup
--1/4 cup orange marmalade
--1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
--2 T soy sauce
--2 T brown sugar
--2 t chipotle chili powder
--1/4 t cumin
--1/4 t ground ginger
--4 cloves smashed and chopped garlic

I doubled it because I had 6lbs of ribs, but you just basically mix all the sauce ingredients together and pour it over the ribs after you cut the ribs to fit in the crockpot. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours for chewy bones. I cooked them for 8 and they fell off the bone, which apparently no one likes except for me.

This entry alone has taken me 3 days to write. Oh well.

Garlic Bread.

My mom makes the best garlic bread in the world.

No really.

I'm going up to visit my parents with the baby tomorrow, and I know that when I arrive, there will be lots of glorious garlic bread for me to eat.

But I wanted garlic bread now, so I made some.

It's a pretty good substitute.

Garlic Bread.
*lots of garlic, finely minced.
*1/2 cup butter, softened (one stick)
*a little finely grated parmigiana reggiano, if you have it (optional)
*bread to smear the butter on. French is good, sourdough, whatever you like that you think will go well with garlic.

Preheat the oven to 375degrees F.
Chop garlic into itsy bitsy little pieces and mix into the butter. Put as much garlic as you want. I love garlic so I put in a lot. I used about 10+ (maybe 15) cloves for this batch.
Mix in any parmigiana reggiano if you want. I think it adds a little piquancy to it, but it's not necessary if you don't have it on hand.
Butter bread thoroughly. If little chunks stick up, leave them because they toast so delicious.
Place bread on baking sheet of some sort and put in oven.
Toast until the bread is toasted to your preferences. I like a soft golden-brown in the center with a crispy crust. My grandpa likes his blackened. Whatever you prefer.

Om nom nom.

Black Bean Chili

So from yesterday's beans, I added some stuff to them to make them more hearty and also a vegetarian meal. I like to eat vegetarian occasionally, even though I am a professed carnivore, because it's cheaper and better for the environment. My husband doesn't always agree with that, exclaiming when it's dinner time, "There's no meat in this?!"

Anyway, you should try making it. Meat or not, it's still pretty good.

Black Bean Chili (adapted from my standard chili recipe).
*4 cups cooked black beans
*1 14oz can petite diced tomatoes
*1 yellow onion, diced
*2 cloves garlic, minced
*2 tablespoons chili powder
*1 teaspoon cumin
*dash red pepper flakes
*1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

You can saute the onions and garlic if you want prior to throwing everything together in the saucepan and simmering until heated through. It's tastier the longer you let it simmer though, so I recommend an hour at least.

Mmmm everyone loved it. And my husband added leftover carnitas on the top because there was no meat in it.

Carnitas, Black Bean, and Cilantro Lime Rice Burrito Bar

So, my first confession: I LOVE CHIPOTLE MEXICAN GRILL.

I love it. Very very much. I wish I could eat it everyday sometimes.

I can't believe that my husband had never eaten there prior to us dating, but now he's addicted too. He even had two burritos in one sitting, and then I took care of him while he was sick. But regardless we still love it.

Anyway, Chipotle is delicious, but not cuisine to be eaten everyday. There's a calorie calculator but you don't want to use it. Trust me. And I know there's a guy who eats Chipotle everyday and has lost over 90 pounds, but don't do that either.

So my Chipotle love knows no bounds.

For New Year's Eve, I decided that I was going to make a Chipotle-esqe burrito bar. It consisted of carnitas, black beans, cilantro-lime rice, and the various accoutrements like cheese, salsa, tortillas, etc.

I say, big success.

Carnitas in the CrockPot. (adapted from AllRecipes and this magazine recipe thing I got at Raley's.)
*1 tablepoon salt (kosher is preferable)
*1 tablespoon garlic powder or two cloves fresh garlic, finely (very finely) chopped
*1 tablespoon ground cumin (freshly ground if you have a mortle and pestle or whatever)
*1 and 1/2 teaspoon crumbled dried oregano
*1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
*1 boneless pork shoulder roast (like 4ish pounds)
*2 bay leaves
*2 cups broth (I used turkey broth since I had that made from Christmas turkey but probably any broth would work.)
*1 lime, juiced

Mix spices together in little bowl and rub all over roast thoroughly. Pour broth and bay leaves into crock and place roast on top. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours. You can turn it during cooking but I think it's okay if you can't. When it's done cooking, remove roast and shred with two forks. Use the broth to moisten the meat as needed. Squeeze lime over meat and then toss to coat.

Black beans.
*1 lb black beans (about 2 cups)
*lots of water

It's just a basic bean recipe. Cover the beans with water and soak overnight, or quick soak by boiling for 2 minutes and then letting the beans sit for an hour or four. When soaking is done, rinse well and cover with about 6 cups of fresh water and simmer for about 2 hours on the stovetop or like 6-8 hours on low in the crockpot. I like to add some garlic for a little flavor. I'm sure you can substitute canned beans if you're short on time. Adding salt adds more flavor, but if you use dried beans don't add salt until the end of cooking, otherwise the beans won't soften!

Cilantro-Lime Rice. (adapted from ChipotleFan.com)
*1 teaspoon vegetable oil
*2 tablespoon fresh cilantro
*2/3 cup white basmati rice
*1 cup water
*1/2 teaspoon salt
*3 Limes, juiced, or to taste.

In a 2-quart heavy saucepan, heat oil over low heat, stirring occasionally until melted. Add rice and lime juice, stir for 1 minute. Add water and salt, bring to a full rolling boil. At boiling, cover, turn down to simmer over low heat until rice is tender and the water is absorbed, about 25 minutes. Stir in cilantro and fluff rice with a fork.

MMMMMMMM we all liked it lots. A fairly good substitute of Chipotle, but I would prefer to go out because then there are not a lot of dishes to wash! My husband liked it better than Chipotle. My son liked the beans okay, but that's about all he can have since he's only nine months old. Cutting them in half made a great finger food for him. Overall, big success.

The beginning.

So this is going to be the beginning of my food blog, a journal of my various escapades and experiments in the kitchen.

I would consider myself a fairly novice cook right now, but I'm working on changing that, step by step, and I hope that my trials will help others just starting out!