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

Produce Goodies this Week

$20 well spent. 

Oyster Mushrooms, LOCAL!!! Yay!!! 

Swiss Chard

Kale

Onions

Red Potatoes 

Sweet Potatoes

Pears

Apples

I also have a pumpkin a friend game me on Saturday to use this week and an eggplant and some beets left from last weeks shopping :)

So this is the week for roasted garlic goodness maybe with pumpkin, eggplant, and lentils...

Then Pasta with garlic butter, oyster mushrooms, and kale for sure!

Swiss Chard, maybe with a spicy beet and brown rice stuffing...

Rosemary Potatoes with pears... Or a potato pear soup with rosemary! 

I love food. Adventures for sure this week. Yay!

Acorn Squash and Parmesan Pasta

Makes 1-2 servings

Truthfully when I put this together and tried it hot from the pan, I wasn't impressed, HOWEVER when it cooled it was pretty darn tasty! I will stick with it as a cold pasta dish instead of a hot one because truthfully I ventured eating my serving only after a taste testing, very adventurous and willing to try my food friend, told me it was really good. Haha. They didn't lie, it was, but only once it cooled ;)

Co-Op

1/3 package Whole Wheat Pasta, cooked (any shape will work :)

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded or grated 

3tbs-4tbs Olive Oil

2 tbs Maple Syrup

Salt to taste

Farmers Market

1 Small Acorn Squash, baked (or microwaved) skins removed, deseeded, and chopped in 1/2-1" dice

*the squash might break apart like a baked potato, but that's ok. It's going to get thrown in some oil to crisp it up and help hold it together in bigger pieces :)

1 Clove Garlic, thinly sliced

In a medium sauce pan on medium high heat put in a 2 tbs olive oil along with garlic and diced acorn squash. Cook until squash is browned on both sides, about 4 minutes. Then add maple syrup, stirring until everything is coated, after it's coated turn off the heat. Finally to the pan, or the bowl you're going to serve pasta in, add hot squash, cooked pasta, additional 1-2tbs olive oil, Parmesan cheese, and salt to taste. 

Then cool, eat, and enjoy.