Anyway, rather than go into a long dialogue, I'll take the easy route and just show you some of the things I ate this week. So here goes - from Market to Table...
Vegetable soup, steamed green beans and potato salad - as you may remember from last week, I was in the mood for a new batch of vegetable soup, so I cleaned out the veggie drawer adding celery and carrots (non locals) as well as onion, zucchini, spinach, basil and rice (local). Seriously good stuff - lunch or dinner. Here, I served it... what am I talking about? It's not like I had a dinner party... As you can see, I also stuffed my face (much better) with steamed green beans (local) as well as some potato salad (potatoes and onions are local). VERY filling!
Veggie rice, fried sweet potato, and steamed green beans - I decided to get creative with the soup and finish off the local, raw spinach in the fridge. I took my last jar of veggie soup and dumped it in a sauce pan with an extra 3/4 cup of rice, the raw spinach left from the farmers market, a little water, and the runoff from steaming the green beans (maybe a cup's worth of liquid). I let it all simmer on the stove for an hour, maybe just a smidgeon longer and voila - beautiful veggie rice. The sweet potato (I picked a big one so this is only 1/3 of it) was cut into bite sized pieces and fried in a little olive oil - SUPER yum! And of course, no meal is complete without my steamed green beans. Mmmm.
Fruit salad - Time to mention some local fruits! As I reported on Monday, Tammy (faithful reader, commenter, and friend) gave me some of her canned local peaches at the farmers market on Saturday. As soon as I came home, I pulled out a baggie of local strawberries to thaw. Before long, I had this gorgeous fruit salad - peaches and strawberries (local), bananas and plums (not local). There was enough fruit salad for two of these containers and I ate on it for the better part of this week. Mmm.... sweet, yummy fruit...
Sammies - Finally, one of my favorites: Sandwiches! That's two slices of my homemade, 100% whole wheat bread (yeah, I'm still having issues with the consistent thickness of my slices), mayo, sliced hard boiled egg (local), onions (local), tomato (not local), and mustard greens (local). I'm a basic kind of girl and there's nothing more basic, nourishing, filling, and comforting than a REALLY good sandwich. I never get tired of them and wow, was this one good! Hmm. Some of that fruit salad would round out that meal nicely...
So that's what my culinary week looked like. One of our neighbors brought over three huge italian squash from their farm so watch out for squash ribbons in homemade pasta sauce coming soon!
Happy (and mindful) eating!
9 comments:
Amazing...it makes me hungry just viewing your post. I can almost smell green beans and a faint hint of strawberry.
This week I decided that I would try to not use the microwave to see how it may be affecting my health/well-being...the jury is still out on that one. I have been using the steamer a lot--I mean, how else do you cook and consume pounds of veggies easily? I took the local spinach, squash, bell pepper, tomatoes, herbs, and non-local cabbage that I had left and steamed them all. This is a real time saver because I keep it in the steamer container and reheat it easily by just putting it back on the previously cleaned base. If I can make cooking easy, I can break free of the microwave. I mean, microwaves weren't even invented until I had been cooking for many years(I began cooking when I was about five (now 37)with a stool to raise me high enough to reach the stove, back in Michigan-scrambled eggs and fried bologna(yuck)but it was cooking). We got our first microwave when I was about fifteen, we had absolutely no idea how to use that thing...it became a coffee warmer and leftover heater but now I question the wisdom of using the durned thing, several years and microwaves later.
signed,
New Crusade Tammy
Yummy, I just ate lunch and your Market to Table post has successfully made me hungry. Especially those fried sweet potatoes and your delicious looking (and ever present) green beans.
I agree too, a good sandwich can't be beat, and I love the sound of yours. I was never a "BLT" girl (and I don't like fake meat so especially not now that I am a vegetarian), and would have never thought to put egg on a sandwich. That I can dig.
I am looking forward to drooling over your squash ribbons!
ttammylynn (the crusader) - we use the microwave quite a bit, the steamer too. The only concerns I've had are with the steamer is that it's made out of plastic and of course there's the whole thing about heating plastic up. I suppose some day there will be clear evidence as to how the things we use affect our health. In the meantime, how do we know? It's all so overwhelming. Keep me updated as to how it's working out!
jennnifer - the sweet potatoes are wonderful! They made three servings and I just had the last of them for lunch. And that was only one potato. I have a whole drawer full of them. Mmmm.
I was never big on fake meat either. Couldn't stomach boca burgers. I preferred some of the morningstar farms veggie burgers though. You just have to wonder about all those jicky ingredients though so I tend to do with out. The eggs are a great substitute if you like boiled eggs. Just slice and place on your bread (if you put it right on top of the mayo it holds in place nicely). Hope you enjoy!
For vegetarian food, Amy's is tops in my book(some of her stuff is soy, gluten and dairy free). You can't really put it on a sandwich, though.I would be tempted to do a mini-omelette of mushroom, pepper, onion and tomato, possibly use salsa as a condiment and toast the bread for a sandwich, or do avocado, tomato and alfafa sprouts. I was vegetarian long ago when your only choice was Nature's Burger--a grainy mix you add water and let it soak and then form a patty and cook it(I still crave that stuff sometimes). I was never really fond of tofu. Morningstar farms isn't too bad but I don't tolerate soy well anymore. Most soy is now GMO and that can't help the situation. If you ever looked at frozen diet dinners, they are packed with soy, all of them. I can't eat that garbage...Healthy Choice, Smart Ones, Lean Cuisine...apparently that is how you cut calories these days in America, eat soy...yuck. And then I guess you're supposed to microwave the plastic trays, yikes.
I've thought about buying a flavorwave oven(Mercola.com sells one), but I have tons of appliances and cookware I never use already...perhaps one day...or perhaps I could just break out my barbeque pit or my crockpot and go old school. My glass stovetop doesn't feel much like cooking sometimes...
Oh, and HEB has Rio grapefruit grown in Texas and soon oranges too(not organic but local). Farm Patch had persimmons grown in Texas but mine are still ripening on my counter, so we'll see how they are if they ever get ready. Farm Patch also has local sweet potatoes if you should need some at some later point.
ttammylynn - I'm not big on frozen meals either. Too many ingredients in them (most of which are too mysterious). But you're right. Amy's makes some good meals. I've had her mac-n-cheese and the veggie lasagna and thought they were both good (and they had REAL ingredients). It's expensive though so it's a rare treat.
Your crock pot sounds like a great alternative. There are tons of good recipes on-line and it would be conducive to your busy work day. I used to make all kinds of stuff in a crock pot when I cooked (100 years ago :). Mmmm.
How I cut our homemade bread is kind of weird, but I get nearly perfect slices with this method.
Place your bread on its side. That way you are not blocked by the mushroom top of the bread. See, easy schmeazy!
cooking lady - hey! That's a great tip! I'm going to try it next time. Thanks!
Aw, the sandwich looks great. I've NEVER thought of using greens that way. My garden runneth over with greens right now too! Shan
Going Crunchy - the greens are actually very good on sammies. Give it a shot and let me know what you think. I also used them as a wrap around chicken salad (watch for a photo this coming Thursday. It was FABULOUS!
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