Garlic and Cream Cheese Goodness (seriously it kinda tasted like ranch dressing and it was good!)

Directions coming soon. 

2tbs olive oil 

2tbs Cream Cheese

1/2 cup whole milk 

4 cloves Garlic, minced

1/2 medium onion, finely chopped

1/2 lb fingerling potatoes, cut lengthwise is half

3 cups chopped Chinese greens, torn into 2" pieces

1/2 large zucchini, medium dice

1 tbs dry dill

1 tsp crushed dry rosemary

1/8 tsp crushed red pepper

1 package cooked whole wheat penne pasta, cooked

Salt to taste

Get a medium sauté pan on medium high heat going with olive oil, onions, garlic, zucchini and potatoes. Cook veggies until browned. Then add everything else, letting cream cheese melt down until you have a creamy sauce.  Add the creamy goodness to the cooked pasta and you're ready to eat. 

This combo of onion, garlic, dill, and cream cheese TOTALLY tasted like ranch! I've now made a version of this, like 3 times, just becaus it was so tasty. 

Enjoy. 

Peanut Sauce Goodness over Veggies

3-4 Servings 

I'm on a peanut kick, humor me :)

Recipe directions coming soon. 

Farmers Market

1 small Spaghetti Squash, cooked

1 small Eggplant, medium dice

1 medium Quince (Membrillo), cored and de-seeded, medium dice

1 medium Red Onion, medium dice

2 large Garlic Cloves, minced

Co-Op

2 tbs Peanut Butter (freshly ground yesterday, so it had the whipped effect still which means you could probably get away with 1tbs traditional pb)

1" squared piece of Thai Ginger (any ginger would work, Thai doesn't seem to be as potent though, so go with less at first if ginger scares ya), grated

2 tbs or add to taste Soy Sauce 

1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes

Traditional Grocery store

6 Sweet Peppers, or 1 Bell Pepper, medium dice

1 cup Water

Organic Toasted Coconut and Peanut Butter Cookies

These dear people are soooo dang tasty!! Thanks inspirational (not so good for us) Halloween candy for being the subject in a conversation that sparked the idea for these bad boys! 

Makes a dozen cookies

Co-Op

1/2 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

1 cup Rolled Oats

1/4 cup Butter, softened 

1/4 cup Peanut Butter (I fresh ground it today and it has no added sugars, oils, or salt, compensate your recipe if you use a on that has these added)

1/3 cup  + 1 tbs Unrefined Cane Sugar

2tbs Maple Syrup (I have grade A, but either works)

1/2 cup + 1/4 cup dried Shredded Coconut (again, no added sugar, oil, or salt), dry toasted 

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Kosher Salt (I just bought the Real Salt brand, pink kosher salt, and I LOVE IT!! Fancy that it tastes great, less actual sodium, and has natural occurring iodine in it too ;)

1 tsp fresh Thai Ginger, grated (powder would work too, start with 1/4tsp and add to your taste preference)

Farmers' Market 

1 Egg

Cream together the butters and sugars, then add the egg and ginger. After the egg is mixed in, add in the dry ingredients. In another small bow mix the 1/4 cup of toasted coconut and 1 tbs sugar. Once dough forms, spoon out roughly a golf ball sized amount of dough. Roll it around on your hand until a ball forms then roll it around in the coconut/sugar mixture. Flatten them out a little on the cookie sheet. You can add more topping of coconut and sugar now it you have some left. Bake at 350 degrees for 7 minutes. 

A great likeness to one of my favorite candies as a kid, the chick-o-stick!! Mmmm. 

Happy Halloween!!

FM this week

Curried Wheat Berry Salad

Recipe coming soon :)

Produce of the week, Oct 10

Lettuce

Chinese Greens

Spaghetti Squash

Butternut Squash

Sweet Potatoes

Fingerling Potatoes

Eggplant

Purple Bell Pepper

Cucumber

Zucchini

Garlic

Gerkins 

Yellow Onions

I want some roasted garlic goodness this week, in some cream cheesy goodness (cream cheese was on sale at the co-op when I went the other day and I didn't want to pass up such a tasty deal!) maybe on roasted fingerling potatoes and zucchini.

I bought some bulk yellow split peas at the co-op too and I'll try for an eggplant and bell pepper soup or chutney combo. Yellow and purple food together? Yes please. 

I'm sure I'll use the greens sautéed with olive oil, onions, and garlic with some pasta... Maybe I'll Carbanara style the noodles with egg for a creamy type sauce... 

I signed up to bring something tasty to my church "Talent Show", maybe I'll make the butternut and caramelized onion soup again. Its super easy, with minimum ingredients for such a high yield, and super tasty!

A salad or two will be made with cucumber and homemade dressing too. 

I'll try and cook up the spaghetti squash and maybe make some marinara for it with whatever veggies I have left and some canned whole tomatoes. 

I'll post pics and recipe ideas for sure if I have success :D 

Yay for $18 adventures at the Farmers' Market!

 

Buckwheat Soba Noodle Soup

I might have a slight obsession with my pressure cooker now that we have become friends... Long story, but about 8 years ago I had one explode in my face, ALL my own fault, and got second degree burns, I've since healed and learned people, pressure cookers are ahhhhmazing!!! Especially for a gal who likes soup that takes only 30 minutes from start to finish, but tastes like it could have been cooking for hours. Mmmmm.... Tasty soup. 

Farmers Market

1 medium Onion, medium dice

4-5 medium cloves Garlic, minced

1/2-1 whole roasted Pablano Pepper, 1/4" dice

Co-Op

1 bunch of Curly Kale (about 8 lrg leafs worth), de-stemmed, cut into 2" pieces

2 medium Carrots, peeled, 1/2" dice

4 tbs Soy Sauce (or qty to taste preference)

1 whole package (2 packs come per package) Buckwheat Soba Noodles  (refrigerator section, Anne Chuns brand)

1/2 Lime, juiced

Costco

1 cup dried Shitake Mushrooms

In a large pressure cooker, place 10 cups of water along with veggies, except Kale) (you can eat the stems of the kale though, just clean them well, chop them up and add them here. They're tough and only soften with longer cooking times than leaf) and soy sauce. Lock on lid, bring to boil and let steam for 15 minutes. 

Once depressurized, add noodles and kale leafs then stir gently until kale brightens in color and noodles seperate, check for salt and enjoy. 

Spaghetti Squash Salad

This made 4 servings, because I used a smaller squash. Use a bigger one and you obviously can feed more. Lol. 

Simple and delicious! No joke, I was a little scared it wouldn't taste all that good, but I guess you really can't go wrong with simple ingredients and garlic :D

Farmers Market

1 small Spaghetti Squash

1 medium Cucumber, 1/2" dice

1/2 medium Red Onion, 1/4" dice

2 medium Garlic cloves, minced

1tbs dried Basil (fresh leaves dried out ;)

Co-Op

1 16oz can Chickpeas (Garbonzo beans), rinsed

1/3 cup Plain Yogurt

2 tbs Hemp Seeds

2 tbs Butter

1/2 Lime, juiced (abt 1tbs)

1/8 tsp Red Pepper Flakes

Salt and Pepper to taste

I cooked the spaghetti squash in my pressure cooker, it sped things up and kept my kitchen cooler, but you can totally boil it traditionally on the stove top. Make sure you DONT cut the squash LENGTHWISE in half, but short wise (lay the squash down horizontally on the cutting board with the stem parallel to the counter, then cut in half) This will creat longer spaghetti like noodles. If you cut length wise in half you'll get super short ones. 

I placed the squash, de seeded, but skin still on, in a few inches of water with salt, turned up the heat and let the pressure cooker, once steaming, go for 15minutes. I then drained off excess water, and used tongs to get noodles out of the tough skin. 

Then I put butter on hot noodles, allowing it to melt and be mixed with them before I combined everything. I made sure the noodles were sepeated, added salt to taste and was done :)