Day 75 - Pumpkin Muffins

Recipe from my mom's recipe box

We're celebrating today! It's day 75!!!

We had a Book Fiesta to go to at my school tonight so we just got home now at 8:00. I wanted to make something for my class at school. I thought it would be a fun thing to do and since tomorrow is October 1st, my mom said I could make pumpkin muffins for them. I hope they like them! I think they will.

I wanted to do a different recipe than the pumpkin bread Jared made, so I did a pumpkin recipe my mom had in her recipe box. There isn't as much sugar in it as the other one.

Gluten Free Pantry Flour

By the way, I've been a vegetarian for 3 days now. I will inform you how it's going. I am doing awesome right now. I saw a dead fox on the road and it kind of grossed me out, plus I'm against hunting so I'm trying it. Plus because they give the animals antibiotics so they don't work on us. I want to be healthy.

I'll let you know how the muffins are tomorrow!

Good night.

~ Sophie

Pumpkin Muffins

1 1/2 cup flour or gluten free flour mix like Gluten Free Pantry

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 nutmeg, cinnamon, baking power (each)

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup oil

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/3 cup water

2 eggs

Combine dry ingredients, then add oil, eggs and pumpkin. Slowly add water until blended. Pour into greased muffin pans or muffin cups.

Cook for 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes

Day 74 - Stewed Fruit and Crumble

Recipe from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and Jamie Online

Hi, hi, everyone. It's 9:15 and my mom just got home from a book signing. I cooked at, like, 4:00 this afternoon, but now it's past my bedtime, so we're writing a quick post.

Today I made stewed fruit and Crumble. I used plums and a pear which we got from the food co-op yesterday. I'd never made stewed fruit before, but I have made a little crumble before.

This was a very easy recipe. It took about 30 minutes. A little bit more if you do the crumble. It's sort of like an apple sauce, almost, except we used the pear and plums. It was chunky. Stewing fruit is not as easy as it looks. You have to cut all the fruit, which is weird because you really notice the texture of the fruit.

It was juicy. You just cook it with a little water and sugar.

I used sugar in the raw, which my dad uses for his coffee.

When it's done, the fruit is very hot.

You add the crumble topping and then bake it. The crumble topping is just flour, sugar, butter, and oats (we used GF Bisquick).

The crumble topping

I had to get the skin out!

I only had a taste because it's not our dessert night. Yesterday was dessert night. Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday are dessert nights. I think we're a healthy family because we don't eat dessert all the time and we don't go to fast food places.

1 1/2 THUMBS UP

I would have liked it a little less chunky. But it was good.

Day 73 - Everyday Chopped Salad

Recipe from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

Mwahahaha, this is Jared. I'm sorry, but I'm kind of joyous because it's kind of cooler here. It's in the 70s and low 80s and down to the 50s at night. It seems that Sophie and Caleb are in a Halloween-y mood, and it's rubbed off on me so I'm in a Halloween-y mood. I've been reading Caleb spooky stories.

When Halloween gets closer, around the 23rd, or so, we are going to make some sugar cookies with Halloween cookie cutters.

We've made some decisions on the way we're going to do things. We've had to restructure our whole idea because I cannot cook everyday with school and homework and extracurricular activities. Neither can Sophie. So what we decided amongst ourselves is that I will cook one day, and she will cook the next, and so on and so on.

Let me tell you, it is exhausting to come home from school, do your homework, go do art club or whatever, then realize, "Oh, I have to cook and blog tonight, and it's already 7 o'clock." That's happened to both of us on quite a number of occasions and let me tell you, it does not make for a relaxing evening.

So, starting Thursday, which will be day 5 of cooking Jamie Oliver's recipes, we have decided to transition to cooking using his philosophy: to cook healthy, use fresh ingredients, and so on.

In 75 days, we have learned a lot about cooking. We think it will be good for us to branch out and try other recipes and styles of cooking. We will always the Food Revolution and Jamie Oliver!

Tonight was one of those nights when it was hard to cook because mom and Sophie got home at 5:30 from Sophie's sewing class, and we had to do our cooking, and mom had to leave at 6:10, right before we could actually eat dinner to take my brother Sam to driving lessons. I'm not saying we rely on her so much, but we really prefer to have her around and help with things and teach us stuff we don't know.

So with no time, we made a chopped salad from the Food Revolution cookbook.

Super easy. I just sliced some cucumbers and carrots, dumped in some black olives, put lettuce into a bowl, and used our hedge clipper type thing that's actually a salad chopper from Pampered Chef, and choppppppppeeeeedddddd.

2 THUMBS UP for...

Do you think Jamie will understand that we want to branch out, but use his philosophy? Tell us yes!!!

Day 72 - Kedgeree

Recipe from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

Hi Everyone! Hello People.

Today I did not want to cook at all because I had running club, I was really sore, I was tired, and I was, "Aaaaa." So, I, Sophie, did not want to cook at all today.

My mom said, "Do you want to quit your challenge?"

I said, "Mom, you know the answer to that. The answer is no." So I did it.

Jared was off painting because he's taken an interest in art.

My mother, of course, is always prepared. She had found us a fish recipe. This is called Kedgeree. None of us had ever heard of this before, including my mom.

You are probably wondering what it is and how you make it. I will answer that question for you.

This was a simple recipe. Today I learned how to poach fish. You just get the fish and put it in boiling water.

I didn't like touching the fish.

It looked weird and the water turned all white, and I didn't want to eat it.

Put all together. There's rice, carrots, peas, green beans (the recipe just says peas, but we had mixed vegetable, so that's what we used), cilantro, curry (which we haven't really cooked with before), and hard boiled eggs.

Curry tasted a lot like Top Ramen! I don't know if you've ever had Top Ramen, but it's just a noodle soup. I liked the curry. It was good.

My mother said it was pretty mild. AJ, my brother, liked it. Jared and Caleb thought it was okay. My brother, Sam, didn't want to try it.

I think my mother should make him try it. She makes us try everything, but she said he's 16 and can decide for himself.

We will make this again. Everybody pretty much liked it, plus my dad didn't get to try it since he is at some meeting or something.

2 THUMBS UP! Kedgeree is Good!!

Day 71 - Broccoli with Asian Dressing

Recipe from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

Hi Everyone! This is me, Sophie, of course. Let me tell you what I made today. I made broccoli with Asian Dressing.

BTW, I didn't like it at all.

But, today I learned how to grate ginger and garlic, which is very hard. The garlic is in one clove and it's really small, so you have to use the palm of your hand. The ginger was the same. It worked, but it would have been easier to use the garlic press.

First, I cut up the broccoli, but we used broccolini from our food co-op.

It was just like baby broccoli. You get boiled water, and put the cut up broccoli in a colander, and steam it.

While that's steaming, you make the sauce. When the broccoli is done, the sauce is also done, so it all works out.

Sesame oil, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, and a lime, plus the ginger and garlic. That's it. Then you whisk it all together. You can also add chili to the sauce if you want, but we didn't since most of my family doesn't like chili.

Something I've learned from Jamie Oliver's recipes is that you don't have to always have all the stuff, but it still tastes good. We used a lemon instead of a lime today. You can do substitutes.

Like I said, I didn't like this one, but my brother, AJ, gave it 1 3/4 THUMBS UP and his girl friend, Claire, gave it 2 THUMBS UP.