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. 

Pics for memory sake

I want to just post pics of some food, for memory sake I guess, and not write a recipe down. Haha. Sorry for the teaser pics, but if you really want a recipe, I'm sure I can remember what I did if you comment or message me :)

Soup: Beef broth with kidney beans (not canned, but made by cooking with the beef broth) collard greens, carrots, onions, garlic, tomato paste, pasta and spices. 

Soup: Ham bone with pinto beans (not canned, but cooked with the ham bone and spices), carrots, onions, garlic, chili powder, and cumin. 

Soup: Currier Butternut Squash 

Cuban Style Black Beans with Veggie Tortillas

Mmmm, roasted garlic goodness. 

Sweet and Savory Pasta Salad with roasted garlic, dates, quince, olive oil, hemp seed and spinach. 

Grilled peanut butter, honey, and toasted coconut sandwich with a cup o' cold whole milk. 

Whole Wheat Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

Beans, Spinach, Sweet Potatoes, and Carrots

Servings: 8-10 as a side dish, 4-6 as a main dish served over rice or another whole grain. 

It was a super yummy dish that we had with tamales and Spanish rice. My seven year old nephew was over for dinner and kept going back for more helpings. 

Co-Op

1 can Pinto beans, drained and rinsed

1 can Garbonzo beans, drained and rinsed

2 tbs Olive Oil

Salt and pepper to taste 

Farmers Market

3 small Carrots (about 1/2 cup), 1/4" dice

2 small Sweet Potatoes, 1/4" dice

1 small Onion, 1/4" dice

2 Garlic cloves, minced

1 tbs Orange Zest (zest of a medium orange)

Trader Joes

3/4 package cooked frozen Spinach

(I had this in the freezer for like 6 months. He. He. It wasn't frost bitten or anything. I had eaten the fresh spinach I bought last week already, but wanted some kind of green in the dish, so the frozen kind had to do)

Hatch, New Mexico 

2 tbs Green Chili Powder (optional)

Tucson

1/2 cup Water

Directions:

Place the oil in a large sauté pan on medium high heat, add the onion, garlic, carrot, and sweet potatoes. Cook until the onions start to turn translucent then add the green chili powder (you can sub in another chilie or cumin if ya want or use roasted green chilies), salt and pepper. Once the spices are spread out on the veggies, put in the spinach, orange zest, and water and let simmer Covered, on medium heat for 8-10 minutes; then its done and ready to eat. 

Veggie Fried Rice

1-2 servings 

Co-Op-

1 1/2 cups Whole Wheat (short grain, but any length will work;) Rice, cooked

1/3 large Carrot, 1/4" dice

1/4 medium Onion, 1/4" dice

1 medium Celery Stock, 1/4" dice

1tbs Olive Oil

1 Egg

Soy Sauce to taste (about 2 tsp)

Farmers Market-

1 Swiss Chard Leaf, 1/2" strips with stem removed 

1 Garlic clove, minced

Grocery store

1tbs Sesame Oil 

In a medium sauté pan, heat up (on medium high) both oils then put everything except the egg and chard in. Once the carrots start to brighten and soften, about 3 minutes, make an opening in the center of the pan and crack the egg into that spot. Add the chard and mix everything together until the chard starts to wilt; and egg cooks about 2 minutes. Now you're done, eat and enjoy :)

Organic Strawberry Shortbread Whole Grain Cookies

Super tastiness makes 30 quarter size individual whole grain shortbread cookies. You can put a dollup of any fruit on them or or eat 'em plain. 

Shortbread recipe adapted from Whole Grain Baking by King Arthur Flour

Co-Op

1 1/4 cup Rolled Oats turned into flour (throw the oats in a blender or food processor for 30 seconds and viola you have oat flour) 

1/4 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

4 tbs Salted Butter, almost at room temperature 

2 tbs Sour Cream (I highly recommend the "Nancy's" brand)

1/3 cup Unrefined Cane Sugar

2 tbs Strawberry Jam or preferred fruit jam (homemade would be preferred, but I'm not that cool, so I buy "Crofters" brand which I love.)

Directions:

Pre heat oven to 350F. 

In a medium bowl cream together butter and sugar. I use an electric mixer on medium speed for a minute until the mixture starts to look a little fluffy then I mix in the sour cream until it's all incorporated. Add in the flours and hand mix everything together. 

The dough is a stiff dough and does better with a wooden spoon at first, since the dough is still sticky, until you can get your hand in there to mix. I use my right hand in the bowl to push the dough ball into the bowl and work it onto itself for a minute. When all the flour is absorbed the dough is ready to roll into large marble size balls. 

I get 26-30 cookies out of this dough, they're small little guys, but you can make them bigger if you want and get less cookies. 

Place the dough balls on a prepared cookie sheet (parchment, silpat, etc) leaving enough room for ya to smoosh them down and have them still not touch each other. I get six rows of five cookies each. Now smoosh down the ball, leaving a small indent from your finger to fill with jam (if not going to use jam, use a fork to flatten and mark like you would do for peanut butter cookies;). You really don't need more than 1/8tsp of jam per cookie, a tiny bit goes a long way. Once you've jammed them up put them in the oven for 10-12minutes. Softness to your preference. They're good soft (10min) or crunchy (12-15min). 

I was thinking this base recipe would be good for spiced cookies too. A little cinnamon and nutmeg. Mmmm. Maybe the next batch :)

*** alternate recipes with same base and directions***

PB&J Cookies 

Substitute half of the butter for peanut butter and add 2tbs milk to get the dough moist enough :) 

Roasted and Stuffed Sweet Peppers

I made these appetizers for a pre Thanksgiving party. I wanted a more traditional thanksgiving flavor so I went with thyme and sage as the herbs and oh man, they totally worked. These were super yummy! 

Co-Op

1/4 cup Rolled Oats

1/4 cup Olive Oil

1/2 tsp Dried Sage

1 tbs Parmesan Cheese, shredded

1/2tsp Salt or to taste 

Pepper to taste

Farmers Market 

2 tiny Acorn Squash, or 1 small, cooked and skins removed (refer to my previous weeks produce pics to gauge my definition of tiny size ;)

1/3 Red Onion, 1/4" dice 

1 tsp Dried Thyme

Safeway (grocery store close by)

10 Sweet Peppers, cut lengthwise in half and de-veined and de-seeded. 

I mixed the cooked, kinda mashed and chopped up, acorn squash with everything then put about 1tsp worth of mixture into each pepper half. Put a pinch of Parmesan cheese on each one, cook at 350 for 15 minutes and you have stuffed peppers that taste amazing and are good for the soul ;)

Turkey (dark meat), Sweet Pepper, and Sweet Potato Tastiness

2 servings

Co-Op

1/3 box Whole Wheat Rotini, or pasta if choice, cooked. 

1/4 cup Olive Oil

1 tsp dried Oregano

1/2 tsp Red Pepper Flakes

1 tsp Kosher Red Sea Salt 

2tbs Parmesan Cheese, shredded (optional)

Farmers Market

1 Sweet Potato, baked then 1/2" dice

2 medium Garlic cloves, thinly sliced 

1tsp dried Thyme

Local Grocery Store

6 Sweet Peppers, de seeded, cut in half then sliced

Thanksgiving leftovers from my sister

Dark Meat from 1-2 cooked Turkey Legs, 1/2" dice

Once the pasta and sweet potato are cooked, I put a sauté pan on medium high with the olive oil, garlic, peppers, salt, and turkey. Once the turkey warmed up, about 1minute, I put all the spices in and let the turkey crisp up in the olive oil, another minute or two. Then I combined everything in a bowl and let the flavors meld together for a little bit, then I ate. Mmmm. I wish I made more than two servings, that's for sure!

Produce Nov 14

$18

Grass fed beef neck bones

Swiss chard

Acorn squash

Zucchini

Tomatoes

Tomatillos

Peas

Green chilies

Jalapeño 

Bell pepper

Apples 

And a non edible loofa :)

Savory Pumpkin, Refried Beans, and Veggie Whole Wheat Tortillas

3 Recipes in one post:

Completed recipe directions coming soon...

** Crock Pot Beans **

2 cups of dry beans made about 6-8 servings cooked. 

Co op:

2 cups dry Pinto Beans, rinsed and the bad ones picked out (ones that are really dark, almost black and any that float)

1 Bay Leaf

1 tbs Cumin Seeds

1tsp Kosher Salt

Farmers Market:

1/2 medium Yellow Onion, large 1" dice

1 large Garlic Clove, smashed

City of Tucson: 

Water to rinse, soak, then cook beans in

Directions:

After beans are rinsed soak them for at least 2 hrs before putting them in the crock pot with about 6-8 cups of water, onion, garlic, salt and spices. Turn on low and let cook for about 8-10hrs. I personally don't mind them cooking while I'm sleeping, because waking up to the delicious smell is sooo enjoyable. Haha. This could also work if you started them before leaving for work though. 

Anywho, the beans are soft enogh to mash by hand, but I like my immersion/stick blender. I don't add any oil, I just drain off excess water and purée about 3/4 of the beans then hand mash the remaining 1/4 so there is a little texture with a regular spoon. The beans hold their shape pretty well, but are super soft, so if you want beans for a salad or something, I wouldn't cook them as long. They are then ready to be eaten. The beans hold up well for a week (sometimes longer) if you make sure they're covered in the fridge. 

I'm totally making more, I love having them at the ready for grubbing. Yum. 

 

** Veggie Tortillas **

I use this recipe, but instead of all purpose flour I used whole wheat pastry flour (co-op), olive oil (co-op) instead of lard and instead of water I used hot puréed veggie stew with brown rice. I made the stew last week, but I wasn't impressed with it. It was full of good stuff like beets, carrots, sweet potatoes, and onion and I didn't want to just throw it out, so I puréed it up and saved it for just such an ocassion as this. I did experience a "Lesson learned" momen thought: rice should not be cooked in a pressure cooker, if you want traditional rice texture go with old school stove top or rice cooker :/ it comes out kinda gross otherwise. 

For this recipe, after the dough rested for the 15-30 minutes, I didn't need any extra flour on the counter to roll them out. It was cool :)

** Savory Pumpkin **

2-3 Servings 

I have soooo much pumpkin from breaking down the beast of a pumpkin my best friend have me after Halloween. I decided to roast about 2/3 of it and freeze it. I've been cooking with the remaining 1/3 from raw stage when I wanted it this week. Hence the pumpkin with tortillas and beans :)

Recipe:

2-2 1/2 cups raw pumpkin, cut into whatever shape you desire, aka whatever shape will cook at the speed you want to eat in. 

1 tbs Spice Mix *reference this post

1/2 cup Water

Co-Op

2 tbs Olive Oil

Farmers Market

1/2 medium Onion, medium dice

1-2 cloves Garlic, minced