Veggie Stew

This recipe fed 8 people. I only had 30 minutes to make it so I utilized the microwave for cooking the sweet potato and turnips so the flavors could stew together more instead of worrying about them cooking in the short amount if time, I also used canned pinto beans because of unpreparedness on my part to have made my own ;) I keep some beans in the cupboard for such occasions. Lol.   

Farmers Market

2 teeny Eggplant (or 1 small one), 1/2" dice

1/2 large Bell Pepper, 1/2" dice

1-2 medium Sweet Potatoes, 1/2" dice

2 medium Turnips, 1/2" dice (I have had these in cold storage, aka back of my fridge in a bag, for like 3 months, I seriously love root vegetables and their ability to last for months if stored properly)

1 large Carrot, 1/2" dice

1 medium Yellow Onion, 1/2" dice

2 Garlic Cloves, minced 

1/4tsp Thyme

Co-Op

4tbs Olive Oil

2 16oz cans Pinto Beans, rinsed

1 32oz can Chunky Tomato Sauce

1tbs Cumin

2tsp Chili Powder

2tsp Paprika

1 Bay Leaf

Salt and Pepper to taste

Plain Yogurt (optional to be added in after stew is in your bowl)

1-2cups Water

In a large pan, sauté the veggies with some salt and pepper, in olive oil on medium high. Once you can start smelling the veggies, add the spices, cook an additional 1-2minutes then add tomato sauce, water, and beans. Turn heat down to medium low and let simmer for 15-20minutes. Check taste and add salt as needed. (If you're using a shallow sauce pan for sautéing, transfer everything into a pot before adding liquids and beans) p.s. The quantity if water depends on your preference of stew thickness, add as much or as little as you would like. 

You could totally turn this into a crock pot meal and have it ready when you get home. You can eat it as is, or we ate it over brown rice, but cornbread would be super tasty too.

Linguini with Fresh Green Beans

Feeds 4-6

I forgot I was having people over for dinner until 30 minutes before they were supposed to be here. Hehe. So I got a pot of water on and started cooking up some veggies. 

Farmers' Market

1lb. fresh Green Beans, trimmed and snapped to 1 1/2-2" pieces

1 small Green Bell Pepper, 1/2" dice 

1 medium cooked Sweet Potato, 1/2" dice

3 medium Heirloom Tomatoes, diced 

1 small Red Onion, 1/4" dice

3 cloves Garlic, minced

1/4 tsp dried Thyme

1 tbs dried Basil (or a few tbs fresh)

Co-Op

1 tbs Olive Oil

2 tbs Butter

1/4-1/2 cup Plain Yogurt

1/2 cup Whole Milk

1 package Whole Wheat Linguini, cooked per package directions (any pasta could be subbed here)

1 Lime, juiced

Salt and pepper to taste

While the pasta is cooking per package directions, in a large sauce pan, on medium high, put in olive oil, onions, and garlic. Once they start to soften, add all the other veggies, some salt and pepper, and cook until they start to soften a little too (about 3-4minutes). Then add butter, milk, yogurt and spices. Mix them all together until the veggies are covered in the sauce. Once the noodles are done, drain off the water and place the noodles directly into the pan with the veggies. Stir everything together until combined. Turn off the heat, put a cover on the pan and let everything meld together for a few minutes. When you are about to eat, squeeze lime juice over everything, add a little salt, stir, and enjoy. 

Produce and meal ideas Sept 26

Santa Cruz River Farmers' Market

I. Love. This. Place. 

I love talking to the vendors, meeting new people, and buying amazing produce. The pic above is $19 worth of produce. Here is what I got in quantities:

Heirloom Swiss Chard - 1 large bunch, $3

Heirloom Tomatoes -6, $2

Heirloom Zucchini (the round little guy by the eggplants) -1, $.50

Eggplant -2, $2

Green Bell Pepper -1, $1

Green Beans 1lb, $2

Red and Yellow Onions -3, $1

Cucumber -2, $1.50

West Indy Gerkins -4, $1

Gala Apples -5lb bag, $5

See why I love it so much?

This will be enough produce for 2-3 people this week. I try to eat a fruit and veggie with every meal (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) and I use grains as my filler to make the produce go further. I also have root veggies and pablano chilies I haven't used up from my last FM trip, and a spaghetti squash. They're pretty hearty things and will last a bit longer, but Ill try to use them this week too. 

Meal ideas:

Green Bean/Pinto Bean Salad

Apple Lentil Concoction (I got a good looking recipe from the food demo table at the FM:)

Some kind of Veggie Stew with Pablano

I've been wanting to make another peanut sauce with noodles lately, maybe Ill stir fry in some eggplant and zucchini

Quiche, with a whole wheat crust. 

Spaghetti Squash with homemade marinara 

Food is fabulous. 

Sweet and Spicy Fried Okra

 

2-3 Servings if eaten alone, if eaten with rice, make it 4.

 

I wanted something like orange chicken, spicy and sweet, so I figured I could make something up that might do that for me with what I had in the house... Okra was the medium, and I dare say it was a success!

 

Farmers' Market

 

12 Okra, cut into 1/2" rounds

2 large Garlic Cloves, chopped

1/2 Zucchini, cut into 1/2" pieces

1 small Bell Pepper, cut into 1/4-1/2" pieces

1/2 bunch Kale, chopped (any leafy green would work well here, chard, spinach, etc)

 

Co-Op

 

2 tbs Whole Wheat Flour

4 tbs Whole Milk

1 tbs Chia Seeds (optional)

1/2 tsp Red Pepper Flakes

1 tbs Olive Oil (if needed to cook up the other veggies if you don't have any grapeseed oil left in the pan)

1/2 cup Grapeseed Oil (truthfully you can use any oil with a high smoke point)

2 tbs Raspberry (or any flavor) Jam

Salt and pepper to taste

 

 

2tbs Water from my kitchen :)

 

To make the fried okra, combine flour, milk, water, chia seeds, red pepper flakes, and a pinch of salt in a small bowl, forming a goey batter the okra will be placed in. Once the okra is cut into 1/2" rounds, put them in the batter. The batter will be thick, but should cover each piece of okra with a pretty good amount if you stir them around in it; use enough batter so you don't see the green color of the okra or the defined shape. Heat up the oil on medium high in a small saucepan (I don't check for temps with a thermometer, but you totally can. Google temps for frying, I'm being lazy, sorry) until  you see the oil kinda ripple in the pan on it's own. Drop a bit of batter in, the amount the size of a pea, and see if it starts floating right away. If it does, you are ready to fry. I used a fork to get out batter covered pieces from the bowl and put about 6 in the pan to fry at a time. Cook them until the batter gets crunchy and darkens on one side, about 2 minutes, then flip the pieces over, and cook an additional 1-2minutes until the other side is cooked too. Pull them out of the oil and place them on a plate or a metal strainer (you won't have tons of excess oil drain off if you're frying them at the right temp), keep frying away until they're all done.

 

Then, in the same pan, you can add the garlic, bell pepper, zucchini, and kale. Cook them until they soften then add the raspberry jam and heat it up so it coats everything. You are ready to eat when you mix the fried okra with the other goodies. I ate it "as is" because I was in a hurry, but would have thoroughly enjoyed this sweet, sour, and spicy treat with brown rice.

 

I'll for sure utilize the batter idea with other veggies too. Mmmmm, fried tasty goodness. 

 

 

 

Farfalle Pasta with Zucchini and Kale in a Garlic Cream Sauce

2-3 Servings

Farmers' Market

1/2 medium Zucchini, cut rounds in 4ths
1 large Garlic Clove, or 2 medium ones, minced

Co-Op

2 tbs Flax Flour
2 tbs Butter
1 tbs Olive Oil
1 tbs Sour Cream (I prefer Nancy's: Organic, it tastes soooo good!)
1/8 tsp Red Pepper Flakes (optional)
Salt and Pepper to taste


Sunflower Market (chain health(ier) grocery store that carries packaged whole organic foods too)

1/2 box Whole Wheat Farfalle Pasta, aka bowtie, cooked. (I had cooked up the pasta yesterday for lunch and hade left overs, so I stored it in the fridge to be used later. Cooked pasta ALWAYS comes in handy for a quick meal)
1/2 cup Whole Milk, plus 1/2 cup Water (if you use non whole milk, just use a cup of whatever you have)
2 cups of Kale. (I bought the pre packaged organic kale and used 1/3 of the plastic container)

In a medium sauce pan, on medium high, melt butter, add zucchini and garlic and cook until garlic starts to become translucent. Once there, add everything else except the flax flour. Turn down the heat and let everything simmer for a few minutes until the kale softens. Once there, turn off the heat and add flax flour, this is the thickening agent to turn the milk/sour cream goodness into more of a sauce. Once you have the thickness you like, add salt and pepper to taste and you're done.

Super simple, super fast.

If I had parmesan or another hard cheese I would have totally added it, but the pasta was good without it too.

Stuffed Kale

 

2-3 Servings (made 14 rolls)

Farmers' Market:

14 Kale leaves, (I didn't use curley kale, but flavor wise it would be fine... I just don't know about the rolling up part.) 

2 Red Potatoes, cooked and mashed (I utilize the microwave. Who knows if I will use the microwave forever, but I'll let you in a few of my cheat quick tricks right now ;)

1/4 Zucchini, shredded

1/2 medium Onion, finely diced

2 Garlic Cloves, finely diced

1/8 tsp Thyme (this is a super potent herb, utilize less than add more AFTER you taste the filling. You don't want to only taste thyme ;)

Co-Op

3 Tbs Plain Yogurt

1/4 cup Flax Flour

2 Tbs EV Olive Oil

3-4Tbs Butter

2 Tbs cup Wheat Flour

2 Tbs Milk

Salt/Pepper to taste 

Mix everything together except kale, oil, butter, wheat flour and milk. Once the flavors of stuffing is to your liking, start rolling :) About 1 Tbs per leaf. 

Start rolling from the thicker stem side so when you're finished the roll will lay nicely against the other rolls (as pictured) without popping back open. 

Then get bowls ready with wheat flour (season this with salt and pepper too) and milk. 

Roll each piece of kale in milk then flour. Set them aside and get the Oil/Butter heating in a small sauce pan in medium high. 

Once oil is hot, add in a few rolls

The coating will come off a little, or a lot, but if it does come off a lot, you can always pull out the crunchiness and put it right back on a roll. That's the point if the flour in the first place, crunch. 

Once they are browned, use tongs to pull them out and place on a plate... It'll take about 2 minutes per side, just enough time to heat up the filling. Then they're ready to eat!

This was a tasty experiment and I'll try I

 again to make sure the coating sticks better, egg wash or an actual batter? 

Also, these are made for one bite eating like sushi, you try to bite one in half and it  doesn't work so well; the kale is a strong leaf and cooked doesn't tare well. Haha. 

I liked these enough that I'll try to make a version of them again around Thanksgiving, what a great way to use leftovers and get some good veggies (finely shredding ANY veggie should work in the filling), greens, and grains in ya :)

Wheat Berry and Barley Raspberry Lime Salad

This side salad was pretty darn tasty and super easy! It fed A LOT of people! 8 "fill ya up" servings easily. 

Co-Op

1/2 cup Barley

1 cup Wheat Berries

2 tbs Raspberry Jam

2 tbs Olive Oil

2 tbs soy sauce

1 medium Carrot, shredded (I used a fine grater, but get it to the size you like)

Sunflower Market

1tbs fresh Lime Juice

Farmers' Market

1 medium Cucumber, seeded and diced

1/2 Zucchini, shredded (I used a fine grater, but get it to the size you like)

1 small Bell Pepper, diced

Cook the wheat berries and barley by putting them in a pot with 4 cups of water and 1 tbs of soy sauce. Boil on high for 20-25 minutes or until the berry is plump, a little chewy, with no crunch whatsoever left. Drain and set aside to cool (or run it under cold water to cool it if you've prepped the veggies already and want to put them directly together)

Prep and cut the veggies while the grains are cooking. Put the raspberry jam, lime juice, olive oil, and the other tbs of soy sauce in a lidded container then shake the container until the sauce is well combined. Once grains are cooked and cooled, combine everything and you're done. 

The sour-sweet was really good with the savory-sweet butternut squash and caramelized onion soup. I utilized this filling for inspiration, but truthfully, the soup only had 3-4 ingredients- water, beef broth(this is optional, but adds a deeper flavor), a large butternut squash, and a medium onion caramelized. I threw the squash and liquid in a pressure cooker on high and let it steam for 15minutes, then added caramelized onion and pureed it all with my immersion/stick blender. Salt and pepper to taste and that's it.

 

I dare say that the dinner party went well that I made this for, I fed 5 missionaries from my church + my mom and myself. Perk of dinner, I got to teach one of the missionaries what a wheat berry was and a Sister commented on how she usually doesn't like vegetable soup, but she loved this one and actually wanted the recipe. Lol. Success.

Telling you my story

Hi all who visit my blog! I wanted to let y'all know that I created a new tab up at the top of the blog titled, "This is why I choose to buy, cook, and eat this way". This tab will link you to my story of transformation into a healthier person written on my personal blog :)

I felt it was important to share the message of ones ability to change. We have so much control to become who we want to become, and sometimes we just need to be reminded if that. For me I needed to learn to eat better so I could become healthier. 

May God bless and answer your prayers too. 

Sarah

9/12/13: I just heard this on NPR and it made me happy, I thought I would connect a link to it so if anyone else is interested in reading/listening to it.

Pesto Pasta Salad

When you mix pesto with almost anything, it turns out super tasty!! I even tried it on watermelon and it was amazing :)

 

Servings 2-3

My Kitchen with help from the F.M. and C.O. :)

2-3 tbs homemade Pesto 

Farmer's Market

1/2 medium Nopales pad trimmed, 1/4" dice

8 Cherry Tomatoes, quartered

1/2 medium Cucumber, 1/2" dice

*basil and garlic for pesto were from here

Co-Op

2 cups Baby Spinach, torn up a little

1/2 package Whole Wheat Penne

Salt to taste

*olive oil, Parmesan cheese, and walnuts for pesto were from here

Cut the veggies while the pasta is cooking, per package instructions, and mix veggies together with pesto, except spinach, in a medium mixing bowl. Place spinach in whatever container you're going to strain the pasta in, once the pasta is cooked strain over the spinach (which wilts it), then mix the pasta, spinach combo, with the other goodies. 

Let the flavors meld together and add salt to taste. 

Meal done in less than 15 minutes. Yes!

Lentil Soup

I made my own beef stock with the neck bones I bought from the farmers market a few months back. I crock potted them with water, carrots, onion, garlic, celery, salt, peppercorns, bay leaves, and some balsamic vinegar (which added a really good richness to the stock) for a day on low. I then turned the heat up and let the stock reduce down for an hour or two. I made the stock condense down enough that it took up less room in the fridge because I knew I could add more water to it when I was ready to use it. When it was done cooking, I split it in two, half to the fridge, half to the freezer for a future date. 

Now, the soup was really this simple

4 cups of Beef Stock, plus 2 cups of Water

3 Medium Red Potatoes, 1" cubes, or diced to your size preference

2 Large Carrots, peeled, 1/2" cubes, or diced to your size preference 

1 Small Yellow Onion, sliced thinly, or diced if you'd prefer. 

3/4 cup Dry Lentils

Salt/Pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in a crockpot, place on low for 5-6 hours and you're ready to eat. You could do this on the stove top too, it would cook in less than an hour if you had it on medium, letting it simmer, but that would heat the kitchen/house up tons. I like set it, and forget it type soups :) Utilize the stove top if its cold though :)

I used a smaller crock pot, this soup made 4-6 servings, but you could totally make it to feed more (or less) by adding (subtracting) more veggies (any root vegetable would work with this, cabbage would too!) and stock (or broth). 

I added some shredded Monterey Jack cheese, but any cheese should be tasty if added to a bowl of hot soup. Parmesan or gouda would be good too; So would a dollop of sour cream or Greek yogurt. 

I really do love soup and adventuring in my kitchen. 

Farmer's Market Finds September 6

Yummy! Yummy! I'm excited!

Watermelon ($2.50 people!!)

Cucumber

Nopales

Okra

Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes

Onions

Basil

Thyme (Im going to dry some if these out so I have some fresh organic stuff with my dry spices)

Raw Honey! Its always a pricey trip when I buy honey, but guys, its really REALLY good! And it lasts about two months or so if I don't do tons of baking. 

I made some broth a few days ago, I see a tasty onion and potato soup in the future...

Maybe I should make a fresh mix of nopales, tomatoes, and basil with cooked barley or wheat berries too...

And a cucumber, tomato, onion, and butter sandwich... 

Then fried okra? I haven't ventured to play with these little guys before, but I want to try. Maybe with a sweet and spicy type dipping sauce? With rice?

I also bought walnuts awhile back, maybe I'll make PESTO! Mmmmm, pesto!

Whole wheat, oatmeal, flax flour, raisin, chocolate chip cookies

I was craving a cookie, so I made some with what I had at the house

This made 24-28 medium sized cookies (about 1 1/2"-2" circles once pressed out a little). I wouldn't make them any bigger, they might be too crumbly if they get too big. They're a perfect amount of cookie in the medium realm anyway.  Mmmm, coooookie. 

Co-Op

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour*

2 cups rolled oats*

1/2 cup flax flour ( I have organic flax seeds, but I had already ground, non organic and wanted to use them;)

1/2 cup butter* at room temperature 

1/2 cup raw local honey (my favorite brand is only sold at the farmers market, but they have good raw honey at the co-op too)

1/2 cup raisins*

1 egg*

Regular Grocery store 

1tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon 

1/4 cup chocolate chips (I only added these to half the batch, make it 1/2 cup if you want them in the whole thing)

Cream together honey and butter, then mix in egg, spices, and baking soda/powder. Mix the flours, oats, and raisins/chocolate chips in a separate bowl until combined and then gradually add, 1 cup at a time, of mix into wet mixture with a wooden spoon. 

If your dough is too sticky, add more wheat flour, 1tbs at a time, until it looks like this.

 It should pull away from the bowl more than stick to it.  I live in the desert and usually don't have the problem of too wet/sticky of dough, but I know it might happen in more humid climates, so be warned. 

Scoop out dough either in balls like this 

squashing  them down a bit to widen them out, these cookies do not spread when cooked, or just use a regular spoon to grab some dough and place in a clump on the cookie sheet (which is what I did for the finished cookies pic at the top). 

Bake at 350 degrees, in a pre heated oven, for 7-8 minutes. The edges will be a nice golden brown. Take them off the pan after giving them 30seconds or so to cool, cook just enough to move them to a cooling rack.  Allow them to cool for a couple minutes before you eat 'em. 

Just an FYI: these cookies PRE chocolate chips are not super sweet, they're really good with just the raisins, but totally get sweeter for obvious reasons once the chips are added.