It’s nearly time, lets pepare!

Wow, every time I think of how much longer we have to go I get really excited and really nervous at the same time!

So 2 weeks left: 2 weeks to prepare; 2 weeks to make sure I have everything, 2 weeks to install the car seat, 2 weeks to fix the cradle we were given; 2 weeks to get enough sleep! Oh my goodness 2 weeks is not long at all when you think about everything that has to happen before hand…

One thing I am trying to get a handle on is preparing some frozen meals for when the baby is here and I won’t have time to sort out dinner. So I got a few different recipes online but mostly from The Test Kitchen of Melissa Fallis:

All of them are slow-cooker recipes (because my amazing Mother-in-law has already made us some frozen meals for the oven). I have no clue yet how any of these taste but I am sure it will be lovely cause they all sound delicious. So these are the choices (each recipe makes 2 meals, which I split between 2 freezer bags): Mediterranean Pork Chops, Teriyaki Chicken, BBQ Chicken, and Beef Stew.

Mediterranean Pork Chops:

1/2 cup of olive oil

2 cup of chicken stock

4 Cloves of garlic, chopped

1 Sweet potato

2 Tbsp. Paprika

2 Tbsp. Chicken seasoning

2 Tsp. Dried oregano

2 Tsp. Dried Basil

6-8 Pork chops

Split all ingredients between 2 freezer bags

Cook on low for 8 Hours

Teriyaki Chicken:

6 Carrots

1 Red onion

1 Can chopped pineapple

2 cloves Garlic

2 Potatoes

2-3 Chicken breasts (you can chop it up if you like but it will just fall apart in the slow-cooker)

1 Cup Teriyaki Sauce

Split all ingredients between 2 freezer bags

Cook on low for 8 Hours

BBQ Chicken:

2 Green capsicums

1 Red capsicum

1 Zucchini

2 Onions

4 Potatoes

4 Cloves garlic

2-3 Chicken breasts

400g Tomato sauce

1 Tbsp. Worcester sauce

1 Tbsp. Sugar

1 Tbsp. Dried Mustard

¼ tsp. salt (per bag)

1 Tbsp BBQ sauce (per bag)

Split all ingredients between 2 freezer bags

Cook on low for 8 hours

Beef Stew:

1 Green capsicum

1 Chopped onion

2 Chopped carrots

2 Chopped garlic

2 Potatoes

1 Kg Beef (I bought the Beef chuck for slow cooking)

1 Can tomato paste

2 Tsp. paprika

¼ Tsp. Black pepper (per bag)

2 Cup Beef stock

Split ingredients between 2 freezer bags

Cook on low for 8 Hours

A few notes:

* Write on the bags before you fill them

*Press all the air out before you freeze them

*You don’t need to defrost them but if the ingredients are hard to get out of the bag just run it under some warm water for a bit to loosen it up.

* One of my bags had a hole in it so I would suggest pouring in any liquid over the sink and pouring in the sauces first means it won’t leak out when you are trying to squeeze the air out and seal them.

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Organic vs Non-organic

I can’t believe what I have just read on the wonderful soil association’s website (http://www.soilassociation.org/Whyorganic/Health/tabid/59/Default.aspx).

Apparently the FSA had recently (July 2009) published an “organic review” claiming that there are no benefits to be gained from eating organic food! I can’t believe that a government body can be so irresponsible (actually maybe I can), how can they claim something like that, they seem to be completely ignoring the fact that most effects on health caused by pesticides, herbicides and insecticides are all LONG-TERM!

Not to mention what the effect of this awful method of farming is doing to our environment!

I was very pleased to read the Soil Associations response to the report: “We are disappointed in the conclusions the researchers have reached. The review rejected almost all the existing studies of comparisons between organic and non-organic nutritional differences…”.  They also went on to question the fact the report “failed to include  the results of a major European Union-funded study involving 31 research and university institutes and the publication, so far, of more than 100 scientific papers, at a cost of 18million Euros, which ended in April this year.

The European Union research programme concluded that:

• ‘Levels of a range of nutritionally desirable compounds (e.g. antioxidants, vitamins, glycosinolates) were shown to be higher in organic crops’
• ‘Levels of nutritionally undesirable compounds (e.g. mycotoxins, glycoalkaloids, Cadmium and Nickel) were shown to be lower in organic crops’.”

This all saddens me so much as we are once again being fed information that we are just supposed to take as fact, when the proper research and investigations where not done in an adequate manner!

ARGH!!! Ignorance makes me SO mad (and deeply disappointed)