About Shaina

Shaina Olmanson is the home cook and photographer behind Food for My Family, where she shares recipes, tips, opinions and her philosophy on food as she wades through the process of feeding her family, her friends and anyone else who will let her. She strives to teach her four children how to eat well: seasonally, locally, organically, deliciously and balanced.

Avoiding Monosodium Glutamate: One Family's Story on SimpleBites.net
by on May 1, 2013   •   41 Comments Nourishment

Avoiding Monosodium Glutamate: One Family’s Story

Three years ago after a day spent with the in-laws, I tucked my son into bed. Minutes after walking out of the room, he stumbled in the dark, unable to stand. From there he spiraled to losing his vision, and we headed to the emergency room, rushed through the double doors, a barely breathing shell of my child delivered to doctors.

In the next 18 months we would visit the hospital three times. Each time started the same and ended with an emergency room visit, intubation, drug-induced comas, and a stay in the pediatric intensive care unit.

For the past 17 months, however, we have stayed clear of all of those things.

The answer for us, temporary as it may be, came after a long drive and a visit to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. While looking for answers and getting a “probable” diagnosis, I noticed that some research showed sensitivities to glutamates could be a cause of migraines. While not a cure, the doctor did agree that removing all instances of monosodium glutamate from his diet could help to decrease the frequency of the hemiplegic migraine episodes we were experiencing.

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by on March 6, 2013   •   56 Comments Bakeshop

Honey Wheat Sandwich Bread: Tackling the lunchbox

Wheat-Bread-Shaina-Olmanson-foodformyfamilyWritten by Shaina of Food for My Family.

I can still hear the tin of my Voltron lunchbox echo as I swung it up onto the long, laminated tables and plopped down on the long blue bench. Carefully I would pull out the packaged contents of my lunch: peanut butter and honey or ham and Swiss on wheat. A random mix of fruit and vegetables accompanied them, but each day my mom would press fillings between two soft pieces of bread, tuck them into a red Tupperware container with a white lid and slide it into my lunch box.

My children don’t often have sandwiches tucked into their lunchbox. This is not because they don’t fancy two slices of bread filled with a variety of meat and cheeses, spread, lettuce, and a pickle spear side. It is more due to the fact that I have not been good at baking sandwich breads that fit my sandwich bread needs: soft, evenly shaped for slicing, not too dense, nor too sweet.

Instead, I buy them infrequently when I find myself near a suitable bakery, and in between I stuff their sacks with alternative items: Frittatas, soups, fried rice, pasta salads, tortilla wraps, and baked oatmeal.
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by on January 9, 2013   •   22 Comments Dinner

Keeping warm with Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Roasted Red Pepper Soup with Parsley Cream via SimpleBites.netWritten by Shaina of Food for My Family.

The newness of the New Year is wearing off. The holiday glitz and glitter is starting to fade into the background, replaced by the long days of January: cold and crisp. Bodies shuttling around from house to car and back again, icicles forming on the tip of your nose in the time it takes you to escape the heat-filled car and run to the door. Glasses fog relentlessly as you try to run errands. Sun streams over bright white snow, and then it collapses in the West as a dark blanket of night settles on the landscape.

It’s the nighttime in winter that seems to swallow me whole, forcing us inside to the lit areas of the earth. The sun long gone, we huddle together and stay warm under our tiny roof. It’s a season that has me looking to collect those around me and keep them close.

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by on November 14, 2012   •   39 Comments Holidays

Honey Pomegranate Glazed Brussels Sprouts

All of the Thanksgiving dinners we attend (three in total, the first happening back in October) are large, with the total mouths-to-feed count hovering around 25. As such, no one person is ever left with the sole responsibility of making a meal to feed the crowd. Instead, we communally share the job, signing up for dishes and drinks, each bringing the classics or surprising everyone with a bit of a twist and a deviation from the norm.

There will always be plenty of green bean casserole, and the hosting party provides a giant roast bird, possibly even a ham depending on the side of the family. Warmed bread is served slathered in soft butter, and a bright array of side salads and vegetables run down the center of the table. Potatoes are mashed and aunts and cousins argue over whether they should be laced with garlic or kept plain jane for their gravy river.

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by on September 19, 2012   •   23 Comments Preserving

Crushed Tomatoes: Canned or Frozen?

Written by Shaina of Food for My Family.

Here today, gone tomorrow. Or so the saying goes. The tomatoes that seem to fill every square inch of my farmer’s market will surely be around for another week, but then they will slowly disappear, being replaced by an overabundance of winter squash and pumpkins. The pumpkins are coming.

What’s been priceless to me during the long winter months, however, is having those tomatoes around. Store-bought tomatoes simply do not sing as do their locally-grown counterparts. They lack the depth and character of the heirloom varieties that stare back at me in my backyard and on the farmers’ stalls. They are devoid of flavor. (In my opinion, at least.)
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