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.

Day 70 - Breakfast Eggy Crumpets

Recipe From Jamie Oliver Online

HELLO EVERYBODY!!!!!! Howhaveyoubeen?Ihavebeengood,thanksforasking.

It's day 70!

Quotes from us:

"I think that we've cooked every day for 70 days is a bit misleading because there have actually been about 2 exempt days when neither Sophie or I cooked. One was when my mom did a guest post and the day Caleb cooked for us. So really it's not day 70, but it is, so it's contradicting, but if you have an open-minded mind as a Jedi, then you will understand the ways of the Force...and the ways of counting." ~Jared

"First off, you should know that Jared is just a little...he must know everything. He must say everything that he thinks. But about day 70. I think it's amazing we've accomplished cooking for 70 days. Most kids think cooking is hard and they think only moms can do it. They're very wrong. If you've ever watched Iron Chef, I think you know how many guy cookers there are. And I bet President Obama has cooked at least a hamburger. I think 70 days of cooking is cool. I don't think many kids could cook for 70 days straight. Or, as Jared says, 67 days. I'm proud and think I've done something good in the world. Now, back to you, Jared..." ~Sophie

My prediction yesterday was true. It's been a very good weekend so far. As you can tell I'm having a good day, and if ya can't then... well you need to check your mind.

Just kidding!!!!

Well this was a really good recipe and I loved it. Better than french toast and that's saying something. Well, to make this dish, you just need to soak crumpets in eggs that were beaten together. Then cook some bacon and put the crumpets in the fat and cook it until golden brown.

We didn't actually have crumpets...no surprise there... so we used english muffins. But they're both from England, so no one really cares...except for the people that really do care. If you do care, then I would like to apologize. The english muffins did work spiffingly, which is, indeed, a word.

This is not one of your typical Jamie Oliver healthy meals. Cooking in bacon fat is fatty. So not good...but good. I will definitely make this again, but will do it without the bacon fat and see how that works.

They're Greeeeaaat.

Eleventy-Four THUMBS UP!!! Which is the equivalent of 114.

Day 69 - Burgers & Sliders

Recipe from Jamie Oliver Online

This is going to be a perfect weekend, and since I'm a Jedi, I can tell. I can tell because I had a good day at school today, despite my tooth, because it doesn't really hurt anymore, minus the pressure because there's a little bit of pain when I eat. But it's still better. I have no homework. It is fall, officially. And it was all dark and gloomy today, which I like. It was rainy, which is good.

I'm not like a gloom-demon, I just like the rain and cool weather.

Even though I would not have chosen this particular dish to celebrate the weather, I thought it was good. I like hamburgers, but they're not my first choice.

My first choice is one of the following:

1. pizza
2. Asian food
3. Mexican.

Generally I like a lot of things in those categories. I'm not a huge fan of American food. So I would have chosen one of those genres of food, but before I could say that, my mom had already taken hamburger meat out.

My mom didn't didn't want to defrost a gluten free hamburger bun because we already had a GF hotdog bun out...

...so I cut it in half and made sliders for me using a little tool the Texas Beef Council mailed my mom as part of that luncheon she went to last week (she guest blogged here, remember?).

I thought using that tool was kind of an interesting tool because it makes, like, a perfect circle out of the meat.

What makes these burgers different from a regular hamburger is:

1. They're not processed, per our food philosophy (which is healthy and, like, make your own stuff)
2. You put sautéed red onions in it
3. You put an egg in it (which we bypassed because we didn't have any eggs--shocking!--or egg whites, and even though I went to the neighbors to borrow one, no one was home because they were at the high school football game which we were not at because it's an away game)
4. Cracker crumbs, but we used GF corn flake crumbs
5. Shredded parmesan cheese

I think these were good, but they weren't muy perfecto because:

1. They were too thick
2. I'm just not a huge fan of hamburgers

I give them 1 3/4 THUMBS UP. My dad would have liked more zing, but he still ate 2 of them, plus Caleb's 1/8 leftover.