Thursday, September 11, 2008

Market to Table - September 11, 2008

As usual, last Saturday's farmers market run was a success and I came home with my bike basket overflowing with goodies. Of course, that's when the real work begins. What to do with all that food...

Some weeks are harder to plan that others, but this was an easy week. Ever since I read a recipe on-line about using a vegetable peeler to make vegetable ribbons out of squash, I've been on a roll. I've made yellow squash ribbons, italian squash ribbons, zucchini ribbons, and now potato ribbons. The beautiful thing about all this ribbonage is that they work brilliantly as a pasta substitute. Really, you never miss the noodles and just think of all those extra servings of vegetables! 

The other thing I recently tried was fried rice. I performed my chop and dump routine (basically chop up anything you can find in the fridge and dump it in a frying pan with some olive oil). While the rice was cooking and the veggies sautéing, I hunted around in the fridge for some flavoring. And what to my wondering eyes should appear, but almond butter. A heaping teaspoon melted in with the veggies made a fabulous and hearty lunch, not to mention had all the makings of a serious addiction. Yum!

Those were my most exciting meals, anyway. Here's the lowdown on the collage for the week:
  • Fried rice with sugar snap peas, onions, mushrooms, celery, broccoli, salt, olive oil, and almond butter (local: onions, mushrooms, and rice)
  • Scrambled egg, peaches, and mint-sage tea (local: eggs, milk, peaches, mint and sage)
  • Stir fried veggies including ribbons of italian squash and potato; chopped onions, mushrooms, and celery; and sprinkled with ricotta cheese (local: squash, potatoes, onions, mushrooms, and ricotta)
  • Fresh tuna and red potato salad with vegetable soup (local: potatoes and onion in tuna potato salad; beans, spinach, basil, onion, italian squash in soup)
So the mystery of what to do with all those farmers market finds has been solved. Everything was super easy to make (otherwise, you wouldn't see it come out of my kitchen - sure, I'll admit to being lazy), not to mention both wonderful and filling. Moving from Market to Table has never been better. 

Happy (and mindful) eating!

3 comments:

J said...

You are inspiring me with all your veggie ribbon making. Do you cook the ribbons at all or just top them with sauce? It sounds like a great way to use up veggies and a nice alternative to pasta - which I'm not a huge fan of (I much prefer rice, quinoa, millet, barley, or other grains).

I am a little jealous of your living in Texas, I imagine your farmer's market it going to have abundance for longer than ours will. Does yours go year 'round?

hmd said...

jennifer - yep. I stir fry the ribbons (and any other veggies) in a little olive oil just to soften them a bit. It's absolutely delicious!

Here in Bryan, we do have a year-round farmers market. It's awesome! Last year I ate lots of cabbage and potato soup but I have to say, it was the best soup I'd ever eaten and it was all local. Come January, we start hitting lots of greens, broccoli and cauliflower. It's wonderful to be able to eat local veggies all year round!

Kerry said...

Hi! the "Farmer's Market Report" Mr Linky for this week is up. I hope you'll consider submitting agian! Last week was quiet, but this week is picking up steam again. Come on by and check it out! : http://toeverymeal.blogspot.com/2008/09/farmers-market-report-sept-13th.html