Tag: food

Posted in Blog

How Our Children’s School District Saved My Sanity

Posted on by Stephanie Spinapolice

This may be a controversial post, but I decided to share it anyway. This offering has helped save my sanity lately while the kids have been in virtual school and my husband and I have been working from home.

There’s no denying that I hate food prep, meal planning, cooking food that people end up complaining about, and then cleaning it all up. I especially hate that this whole meal process occurs three times a day. It’s one of my least favorite chores.

That’s why, when our school district started offering free weekly pick up of food for the children, I jumped at the chance to skip some meal prep and shopping. I make it a point to swing by each week to pick up the available meals.

Our county has committed itself to offering free meals to all students, regardless of need, for the school year. They are now providing breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner along with beverages. On top of all this, you get a weekly vegetable from a local farm with an accompanying activity to do with the kids. There’s a frequent rotation of school pizza and french fries, but also cucumbers, apples, oranges, squash, and beans.

Admittedly, my husband and I have been incredibly lucky throughout the pandemic to have stable incomes and jobs that allow us to work from home. I don’t take that for granted, and I recognize that we don’t NEED to take advantage of the free food offered by our school district. I don’t feel entitled to it, but – goodness – it is a nice benefit and wonderful support to a family working from home with children constantly underfoot.

It is such a relief to not have to think about every meal every day while adding a bit of variety to the boy’s diets. (Before this, I was limiting breakfast to cereal only and lunch to peanut butter and jelly, so this has to be better, right?)

I share this information because our family has really benefited from this offering, and if it’s available and potentially helpful to others, I hope they leverage it. It’s also important to highlight that everyone could benefit from a helping hand, even this momma. I’ll be the first to admit that there are still many days in this house when it just feels like we’re trying to get through each day in an attempt to balance work, school, and family. It doesn’t always work out. Having support like this definitely helps, and I’ll take all the help I can get.

Posted in Blog

Friday Fav: Nice Cream

Posted on by Stephanie Spinapolice

Move over, banana bread. You had your time to shine during this pandemic. Now it’s time for nice cream!

What is this deliciousness? It’s a non-dairy ice cream alternative made with bananas that hits the spot without all of the added sugar.

There are tons of flavors and varieties that you can find online, like here and there. My favorite is Cherry Garcia, made with only frozen bananas, frozen cherries, and chocolate chips all thrown together in a food processer until creamy. I think I lean toward this flavor because it is not one of my preferred ice cream flavors. (I mean, I’d never pick it if there was anything with chocolate ice cream available. Let’s be real.) Since I’m not comparing nice cream with its ice cream step brother, it stands alone and provides a guilt-free dessert that satisfies.

Based on this picture, I’m clearly not a food blogger.

The links above provide some recipes, but I don’t really follow a recipe anymore. After my mother showed me how to make nice cream, I just eyeball it based on the number of servings I want to make.

This is by no means a food blog, so you won’t find a traditional recipe blog post here. The directions are to literally put all of the ingredients into the food processer and blend until creamy.

However, here are a few tricks I’ve learned.

Image courtesy of Mr.-4-Year-Old
  1. Ripe bananas provide the best flavor. I just plop the entire unpeeled and brown bananas into the freezer and wait for the urge to strike for dessert. When I’m ready to make nice cream, I leave the bananas on the counter for a few minutes, then use a knife to peel away the skin.
  2. You can just drop the cutup frozen bananas, some frozen dark and sweet cherries, and a small handful of chocolate chips into the food processer and have dessert in a matter of minutes. If you want to get fancy, add a splash of vanilla.
  3. If you find the ice cream is too thick, add a bit of non-dairy milk. I use almond milk, but any milk or its alternative would work. Oftentimes, I don’t have to add anything extra.
  4. We have used semi-sweet chocolate chips in the past, but I found these Hu dark chocolate “gems” at Costco that are on point. I highly recommend them.
  5. Speaking of Costco, there you can also find a large bag of frozen dark sweet cherries, which is helpful when you plan on making lots of nice cream like our family.
  6. Personally, I think it’s best eaten the day it’s made. You can freeze leftovers, but I don’t like the ice crystals that form in the nice cream at that point.

So there you have it! I share in the spirit of giving during a time when many people likely have New Year’s resolutions to eat healthier. It’s not only my Friday Fav but one I share with my entire family.

Happy Friday!