Um, I love local food so much.

Today (and by today I mean July 18th. I borrowed the post from my other blog:) I found out I won the Tucson Food Conspiracy Co-Op's first (hopefully annual) eat local challenge. A happy dance and a whole lot of hehehe's were happening when I found out! The challenge was to use local ingredients in our meals for two weeks and document it all in pictures. Oh how I love taking pictures of food! Not even joking here. I really do love it. haha. On instragram I would take a picture of my food and use the #tucsoneatslocal hashtag. It is awesome to adventure with local ingredients; I highly recommend trying it sometime if you haven't. I'm adding all the pictures I took for the challenge to this post for memory sake. I'll only put the local ingredients I used, mainly because I'm lazy at the moment. If you really want to know what is all in some of them, comment and I'll get back to ya.

Local and organic: eggplant, carrots, zucchini, onions, tomatoes, and whole wheat tortillas (green chili powder is from New Mexico ;)

Local and organic: Whole grain sourdough, egg, tomatoes, kale, and basil (My salt is from Utah ;)

Local and organic: Okra, carrots, onion, garlic, egg, basil, and chives

Local and organic: White peaches, valencia orange (juice and zest), and raw honey

Local and organic: kohlrabi, fennel, eggplant, onion (yellow and red), garlic, jalapeno, tomatoes, and cactus (nopales)

Local and organic: long beans, kohlrabi, zucchini, and basil

Local and organic: egg, kale, oyster mushrooms, shallots, and basil (The plate is even local, I made it in ceramics :)

Local and organic: sweet potato, nopales, onioin, basil, and valencia orange (segments and zest). (The wheat berries are from Utah)

Local and organic: Whole grain sourdough and figs

Local and organic: Tortilla, tomatoes, nopales, onion, garlic, and egg (I made the black beans too :)

Local and organic: kale, oyster mushrooms, onion, garlic, squash, pork fat, dried thyme, dried rosemary, dried sage, and whole grain sourdough.

Local and organic: sweet potato, bell pepper, squash, onion, garlic, fresh rosemary and basil, pork fat, and egg.

Local and organic: Beef, zucchini, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and lime.

I. Love. Food. Especially fresh and locally grown food. I love even more than food itself is that food has taught me so much about God, the world, society, me, and Tucson. 

Food is good. God is good for creating food. I love Him.

*** Also, did I mention I think I've figured out how I can/want to contribute to bettering my community in the big picture?! Hint. Its about food ;) I have a few really cool things I am hoping play out in the next couple weeks. I'll post an update as soon about what they are. Hehe. 

Homemade Whole Wheat Pitas

Recipe thanks to King Arthur Flour. Coming soon.  

Beet Salad

Recipe coming soon

Vegan Banana Bread

Recipe coming soon. 

Verdalagas Salad

Super tastiness right here. 

Recipe coming soon. 

Vegetable Lasagna

This is by far my favorite flavor combo in a lasagna I've made thus far. I made the pictured dish with pure veggies, eggplant slices as the "pasta". I loved the flavors enough to have tweaked the recipe a little a few days later to make a baked pasta dish with the veggies layered on top. 

Tucson CSA

Eggplant

Zucchini

Sweet potato 

Onion

Co-Op

Grated Parmesan Cheese

Olive Oil

Farmers' Market

Garlic

Basil

Thyme

Rosemary

Costco

Canned diced Tomatoes

Recipe and quantities coming soon 

Quinoa two ways: Hot and Cold

Above: Quinoa with cabbage, zuchinni, red potato, green garlic, and tomato with dill, rosemary, thyme, salt, and pepper. 

Below: Quinoa with uncooked kale,apple, carrot, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, salt, ginger, lemongrass, peppermint, licorice root, and pepper (I used a Ginger tea bag from Yogi tea as the spice mix. It had all that good spiced already in it so I opened up the bag and dumped it in:)

Pics for memories sake, #2

Spicy sesame stir fry

Roasted cabbage and carrots with white gravy and toast 

Spicy greens, cherry jam, sautéed sweet potatoe and broccoli stem samich. 

A dinner of potato chips and cherry vanilla ice cream. Yeah, those days happen to me too ;)

Vegetarian Carbanara

Simple and delicious vegetarian carbanara. 

Recipe coming soon

Kidney bean and wheat salad

I made the salad up this morning to go along with the pictured sculptures above because we had critique at school today. An industrialized bean and a one sided wheat berry deserved to be accompanied by the real things in tastigoodnesses fashion. My classmates ended up liking what I made so I'm writing down a recipe for them :) Hi all!

These are the quantities I used, but truthfully suit it to your taste. Change up the beans, grain, veggies/fruit and oil and you can have endless possibilities :)

Recipe:

3/4 cup uncooked Wheat Berries (yields about 1 1/2-2 cups cooked) 

1 cup cooked Kidney Beans (I made them from dry beans in a crock pot the night before, but a can of rinsed beans would work too)

1 small Sweet Potato, thinly sliced then diced up

5 medium Radishes, thinly diced

1/2 medium Onion, 1/4" dice

1-2 cloves Garlic, minced

2 tbs Coconut Oil

1/4 cup Coconut Milk

2 tsp Dill

1 tsp Turmeric 

Salt and Pepper to taste 

Cook the wheat berries like pasta by boiling them in plenty of water, at least 1:3 ratio until they're your desired texture and translucent, meaning no cloudy spots in the center of the berry. It'll take 30-50minutes depending on the size you want them to be because they can absorb tons of water and still retain a good texture. Sometimes I put them in the rice cooker too, your choice. Once cooked rinse them in cool water before adding to other ingredients. 

In a medium sauté pan on medium high add the coconut oil, garlic, and sweet potato. Cook until sweet potato browned and then set aside to cool. (I did this step while the wheat was cooking)

Once all the cooking is done combine all the ingredients in a bowl and you're ready to eat. I guess it could be served as a warm salad or a cooler salad, you decide :)

My version of Fallafels

Friends invited me over for dinner last Sunday, they just had their fourth baby the week before so I wanted to try and make the main part of the meal and bring it with me. When they said they were planning on pita sandwiches, an image of Fallafels popped in my head and I knew I wanted to adventure in that realm. 

They were way more tasty than I imagined and were super filling. 

Servings: 6-8 adults 

Yellow Split Peas

Green Lentils 

Quinoa

Zucchini

Red Bell Pepper

Sweet Potato

Garlic

Coconut oil

Egg

Turmeric

Dill

Salt and Pepper to taste

Coconut sauce

Coconut Milk, whipped

Sour Cream

Dill 

What to do with a pumpkin?

The pumpkin in the left corner is what this post is all about. Good ole dollar well spent. I made pumpkin custard, sesame noodles with pumpkin, and am toasting up the seeds. So much joy in a little orange gourd. 

Three recipes in one:

First step was to roast the pumpkin. I do that by washing it and then putting the whole uncut pumpkin, skin, stem, seeds and all, in the oven at 350 for an hour. Then I let it cool for 20minutes or so. It'll start to collapse on itself a little on the bottom, but alls good. Peeling and deseeding then happen waaaaay easier now the pumpkin flesh is softened. 

I set the seeds aside in a bowl of salted water (about 1cup water and 1tsp salt) , I'll get back to them when I tell ya how to roast 'em. I used a small pumpkin pie pumpkin, they have a better texture, not as grainy, and I've noticed a deeper flavor than the bigger ones. Mine gave me 2 cups total. 1 1/2cups purée and another 1/2 cup I diced for the sesame noodle dish. 

Here are the recipes

Pumpkin Custard (aka pumpkin pie filling)

Recipe from "Root Cellaring" by Mike and Nancy Bubel who credit the recipe to their neighbor Gwen Brandt in the book. 

I made a true custard this time, water bath and everything, but next time I'm putting it in a pie shell :) 10" is what the book says it will fill. This makes 8 servings

Co-Op

1 1/2 cups Milk 

1 tbs Whole Wheat Flour

1/2 tsp Nutmeg, I fresh grated mine

1 tsp Ground Cinnamon 

Farmers Market

1 1/2 cups Pumpkin, cooked and puréed

3 Eggs, slightly beaten 

1/2 cup Honey

Mix spices, flour, and pumpkin then add honey. Beat til smooth. Combine eggs and milk, and slowly stir into pumpkin mixture. Ladle into ungreased custard cups (I used 2"x4" rectangle ramekins and they turned out great. I think any shape would work as long as the depth was no greater than an inch/inch and a quarter).  Set cups in a pan of water (it is easier and less messy to place the cups in the pan in the oven before you pour the water around them) make sure the baking dish is at least halfway submerged too for even heat dustrabution.

Bake at 350F for about an hour. Let them cool then eat them up. 

I learned with this experiment I prefer a shell with my custard, I like more texture I guess. Here is what they say if using the filling for a pie:

Mix all ingredients, pour into a 10" pie shell. Bake 450F for 10minutes then drop temp to 350F for 50 until edges are firm. The center might still be sift, but will continue to cook after you take it out. 

The author says any squash will work with this recipe... Maybe I'll try an acorn squash  and maple syrup combo too. Yummy!

Now savory-

Sesame Noodles with Veggies

Makes 6 servings

Co-op

1 package Whole Wheat Spaghetti, cooked

1/2 small Cauliflower, about 1 cup 1" chopped pieces

2tsp Dried Basil

2tbs Soy Sauce or to taste

Farmers Market

1 cup Pumpkin cooked, 1/2" dice

3 small Carrots, 1/2" dice 

1 small Onion, 1/2" dice

3 cloves Garlic, minced

Regular grocery store

1/4 cup Toasted Sesame Oil

Pretty simple dish. Heat the oil in a large sauté pan on medium high and throw all the veggies in. After a minute add the soy sauce. Once the carrots are softened, about 5 minutes, combine the cooked spaghetti and veggies all together and you're done. Check the flavor and add more soy sauce or sesame oil to taste. I like to sprinkle red pepper flakes on this too. Then eat. Yum!

Now seed time-

Directions coming soon.