Cooking in the midst of Craziness

There's still 2 more days until summer officially begins (according to the calendar), but I already feel the busyness taking over.  It seems as though the last month or so has come and gone without so much as a blink of the eye.  There are friends to see, holidays to celebrate, trips to take, and tasks to do.  Yet still, even when life is crazy, it's mandatory that we still eat.

What we eat remains in question.  I always strive to make homemade meals, to leave eating-out for special occasions.  To be perfectly honest, since my last recipe post I can probably count on one hand the times I've actually cooked dinner (which is why there is a lack of recent posts!).  However, I have found that there are tricks and shortcuts to keep us eating healthy, homemade food as often as possible.  I hope that I continue to practice these things when our family grows and life gets even crazier than it is now.

Some tips for cooking during crazy seasons:

• Slow cooker meals - I LOVE my slow cooker.  I got a 6.5 qt all--clad, ceramic insert slow cooker for Christmas from my parents.  My only complaint is that I don't use it enough!  However, for a family of 2, I've found that I can prep a meal before bed, put it all in the crockpot in the morning, and have it ready for dinner when we get home from work with leftovers for at least 2 more meals.  http://crockpot365.blogspot.com is a great resource for recipes, as is allrecipes.com
• Freezer meals - back in the winter when life wasn't quite so busy and we were actually home on weekends, I spent some time making freezer meals such as lasagna, enchiladas, soup, and pizza dough.  Next year, I will make more, but they have been a lifesaver (as long as I thaw it the night before).
• Mix & Match - I try to make a big batch of something on my non-busy day so that we can eat it for the majority of the remaining nights.  However, this can get boring.  So, I make a large batch of say, rice, and then make chicken for 2 nights, beans for 2 more until the rice is gone.
• Eat with Others - Majority of our crazy life comes from trying to spend time with friends and family.  If we see people during a meal, it allows fun preparation and a combination of cooking AND craziness. Also, generally speaking, if we have people over, the favor normally gets returned and we can have dinner at their place another night of the month.  It's a good system.
• Take a break - I have to let myself slack every once in a while.  That means eating cereal or popcorn for dinner occasionally, having people over for pizza with a coupon, or making it "fend-for-yourself" night.  This is vital to crazy-life cooking survival.

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Grass-Fed, Pastured Meat

I've been looking into local sources of organic, grass-fed, pastured meat... for those of you who are interested and in the Corvallis area, this is what I've found so far, but have not yet investigated prices or purchasing:

At Abundant Life Farm, our goal is to provide a better tasting and healthier product for consumers who care about the food they eat and how it is raised—food from the abundance of life God provides—true food for life.

Our layers, broilers, and turkeys are moved daily to fresh pasture and are fed a high quality, custom feed locally mixed to our own recipe. Turkeys are available for Thanksgiving. Now available is pasture raised duckling. Fresh broilers are available during the summer; frozen broilers are available year round.  Brown eggsare available year round. All of our poultry is processed by hand in our state inspected poultry processing facility, so we can verify the safety and cleanliness of our product from start to finish. 

Our salad bar beef is moved daily to fresh pasture. Pastured lamb and pork are available periodically throughout the year. Having learned first hand from pasture pioneer Joel Salatin, we are adopting his model to the Pacific Northwest. All of our beef, lamb, and pork are available by the piece or by the side. 

Abundant Life Farm, Scott and Marilyn Jondle, 16055 Gilliam Road, Dallas OR 97338. (503) 623-6378. E-mail: ALFarm@q.com.

Afton Field Farm is located in Corvallis, Oregon and owned by Tyler and Alicia Jones. Tyler is a graduate of Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farm apprenticeship program and the farm is adapted to Salatin’s philosophy and multi-species rotational grazing methods. 

We offer pastured poultry, beef and lamb, and oak savanna pork. The animals spend the majority of their lives outside and are moved to fresh pasture daily or as needed. The beef and lamb are strictly grass fed. All other animals—layer chickens, broiler chickens, turkeys and hogs— forage a portion of their diet from the pasture and woods and are supplemented with custom grain mixes milled locally. The hogs are often finished on apples or acorns. We also keep bees and have honey available.

Afton Field Farm, Tyler and Alicia Jones, 3375 SW 53rd Street, Corvallis OR 97333. (541) 738-0127.
Website: http://www.aftonfieldfarm.com/.  

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Bald Hill Farm is a family farm, owned and operated by the Martin and Heeter Families. Our philosophy is: Good for You, Good for the Animals, and Good for the Environment. We believe in raising quality, healthy meat for our community. Our animals graze on several hundred acres, free to roam and eat all that nature intended them to. We use no hormones, feed antibiotics or by-products. 

Bald Hill Farm Office & Store, 5700 SW Reservoir Avenue, Corvallis OR  97333. (541) 753-3500. E-mail: info@4BaldHillFarm.com. Website:http://www.4baldhillfarm.com/.

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Lake View Farm is an all natural, family operated farm located in the beautiful Willamette Valley in Oregon since 1928. Over four generations, striving to improve with each, we currently find ourselves producing  REAL Milk, Old Fashioned Pasture Fed Chicken, Grass Fed Beef, Plump Holiday Turkeys, Farm Fresh Eggs, Tender Spring Lamb, Chevré and Fresh Lean, Milk Fed Pork.

God has shown us the advantages of wholesome food produced in a naturally seasonal, sustainable way. This has provided us with the opportunity to grow quality food on our family farm. We are committed to supplying the healthiest products possible by providing nourishing feed and quality care for our animals. To us, this means a clean, low stress environment, plenty of fresh air and sunshine and all the grass our animals can eat.

Lake View Farm, 29540 Crook Drive, Halsey OR  97348. (541) 369-2393.
E-mail: lvf.realfood@gmail.com

The website http://www.eatwild.com/ is super cool... I feel a new obssession coming on!

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