In the kitchen, lately

I spend a large portion of every day in our kitchen. Preparing food, feeding little boys, washing dishes, wiping down counters, getting snacks, baking, feeding the sourdough starter...and the list goes on, with all the planning, chopping, sautéing, baking, roasting, washing. So many verbs for this room!

As such, food is something I spend a lot of my time thinking about, so I thought I would share some of our recent favorites, in the kitchen. Some of these recipes I have been making for years, and some are more recent discoveries. I like having a little catalog, of sorts, of the meals and snacks that I make most often in this season of life.

Breakfast

Although Nicholas and I rarely deviate from our fried eggs and sausage, I prefer to have some carbs with breakfast, typically in the form of a homemade sourdough bagel or sourdough biscuit.

The boys prefer my recipe for baked peanut butter oatmeal, nearly every day. Finn likes it warm with jam, while Cooper prefers it cold (yes!) without jam.

• Sourdough biscuits from Little Spoon Farm (I ferment overnight)
• Sourdough bagels from Farmhouse on Boone (also fermented overnight)
• Baked peanut butter oatmeal from a previous post on my blog (I like the organic sprouted oats from One Degree)

Lunch

We really enjoy eating leftovers from the previous evening's supper for lunch. In recent years, I find myself heating up leftovers in the skillet or saucepan on the stovetop, more often than not. It truly feels more efficient for me, rather than the trips back and forth to the microwave to check the temp and stir to prevent hot spots in the food (or forgetting that I even heated up my food). With soups in particular, they taste as good or better than the day I made them once reheated on the stovetop.

We will also do bagel sandwiches for lunch, or I will take odds and ends from the fridge and scramble some eggs with leftover cooked protein (bacon, a sausage sheet pain meal, etc.) for a skillet-type meal.

Supper

Inspired by a friend, I recently made a list in my bullet journal of all of our favorite meals – the ones we come back to time and again. So on days when I feel uninspired about making dinner, I can reference that list for a little inspiration.

• Chicken pot pie soup from the Clean Eating Couple – this is a recent find, oh my, it is so good. I make the instant pot version. We like our soups to be very hearty with lots of protein, so I add more potatoes and a lot more chicken (boneless thighs, per our preference), to bulk it up a little. And since I like sage in pot pie, I add a little of that. The blended potatoes with broth at the end make it so creamy without feeling heavy, and I typically pair it with my homemade sourdough bread.
• Chicken and veggie stir fry with rice – this is my own recipe that I should get around to sharing one of these days! A simple stir fry with a sweet and savory sauce, and it reheats really well for lunches.
• Crispy honey orange fried shrimp from Foodess – I have been making this recipe for years! The flavors and textures are so good. I make some modifications: avocado oil instead of vegetable oil, wild caught shrimp, coconut aminos subbed for soy sauce, whole eggs whisked instead of just the whites, and tapioca flour subbed for cornstarch.
• Quiche Lorraine from Grazed and Enthused – This recipe is delicious. I follow it pretty closely, but I sub in a long-fermented sourdough pie crust (I like to make a large batch of pie crust and freeze it, and then I par bake the rolled out crust before adding the filling), and I typically use raw milk cheese from our farm store, rather than the exact blend of cheese she recommends.

Snacks and desserts

I love to bake, so there is often a baked good or two (or three) in the pantry. These are our recent favorites:

• Homemade granola recipe from my blog – I make this weekly, usually timing a fresh batch for the day of our raw milk pickup. A bowl of this with some raw milk is Nicholas' absolute favorite snack. I love it too.
• Pumpkin bread – It's not pumpkin season, but we often have canned pumpkin in the pantry, so I make this often. The spice in this bread is so balanced, and it's become our favorite quick bread. I sub in avocado oil for the vegetable oil, and I frequently make a double batch and freeze the second loaf. A perfect bread with coffee for fika!
• Sourdough snickerdoodle cookies from Little Spoon Farm – a recent find that I made on a whim and they were delicious! I made the dough and shaped it into individual balls on one day, and then I just bake them the next day.
• Sourdough chocolate cake from Farmhouse on Boone – We just had a birthday celebration in our little family (more on that to come in a post soon), but I made this cake and oh my goodness it is good. I opted to bake a single layer in a 9x13" pan, since I love a good, unfussy cake. It is definitely decadent, so it felt like the perfect birthday cake for our littlest guy.
• Vanilla chia seed pudding – I actually enjoy the "tapioca-esque" texture and subtle sweetness. And Finn loves it too. I just do a ratio of 1 cup raw milk : 1/4 cup chia seeds, with a splash of vanilla and maple syrup. Stir immediately. Let sit for a few minutes, then stir again to make sure chia seeds are evenly distributed, and store in the fridge to allow for the pudding to "gel."

These are all the recent favorites that I can think of right now, anyway. I love a pantry full of prepared food, and I after a bustling day in the kitchen, I love the feeling of "putting the kitchen to bed" each evening.

And I always enjoy hearing what meals are favorites in other peoples' homes, if you want to share!