recent eats

since it's usually dark by dinnertime, it's been hard to get a nice shot of our meals. the other day i was able to capture a semi-sunny picture of our steam-roasted vegetables pre-roasting. we're crazy about brussels sprouts, and i know we aren't the only ones! we really hope to grow some of our own this year, to eat and share.
 



there's the roasted brussels and carrots with rosemary and thyme plus a delicious quinoa salad i made with mango, avocado and coconut aminos. below is another variation with local potatoes. brussels sprouts are so yummy with dried cranberries!



we grew rutabagas for the first time last fall and have been enjoying them in all sorts of vegetable soups with beets and garden herbs.

this soup with red lentils, rutabaga, beets, and carrots was so good. we'll probably have it again this week.
 

i can eat vegetable soup everyday in the winter, especially when it contains lentils. a few weeks ago i sprouted green lentils to make a more easily digestible soup.
 

john has been helping with dinner, and one night he used leftover rice and frozen csa veggies to make us some scrumptious tacos topped with tapitio. mmm!
 

here's a healthier dessert he created for us a few nights ago - sliced bananas with peanut butter and chocolate chips. white chocolate is my favorite.

we are mindful to consume raw fruits and vegetables everyday, and i've been enjoying what i call supplement boats: superfood avocado halves filled with vitamin and mineral-rich sprinkles like pumpkin or hemp seeds, turmeric, kelp powder and nutritional yeast. i'm craving one now!

here's a shot of what i got last week from the whole foods salad bar. i love salad bars!

today i've got dried chick peas cooking in the crock pot, and i'm thinking about making another batch of kombucha tea. i'd also like to get my butt to the community garden to make mashed rutabaga for dinner, but if that doesn't happen i got potato flakes for back-up. oh, and i want to bake chocolate chip cookies for my johnny bear (like i won't be eating half of 'em:). are you making any messes in the kitchen this weekend?

xoxoxo

i spy with my little eye...

something gray!

one hot, sunny day i found kati cooling off in the mint. cutie.

eight thirty this morning i found myself engaged in an exciting game of i spy with the kiddies. again i spied something gray. a rock? no. the driveway? no. that house? no. the mailbox? no.

"I KNOW!" screamed the seven year-old, standing above me where i sat on the step. "your HAIR!!!"

HA! no, your shoes, but thanks for noticing!=)

for those of you here for the food, sorry the pictures are monotonous. our meals have been pretty repetitive but delicious nonetheless. i put the matchstick beets on everything. one of the little ones said to me today, "those again?" yup, and thank you for noticing. (these kids don't miss a thing!=)

zucchini pasta with hemp seeds and nutritional yeast // salad with chioggia beet, pumpkin seeds and raisins. the flowers are edible borage from the garden.

 similar salad with garden snap peas and a variation of carmella's house dressing with hemp seeds

 a flavorful mix of leftover herb cole slaw and beet and arugula salad

happy last day of spring! hard to believe summer is officially here!

xoxoxo

almost too pretty to eat...

what an amazing experience this salad was. a feast for the eyes and palate! the flowers were nice and peppery and the onion flower was delicately pungent. right now i'm imagining the salad with green olives and salivating!

silly story :: growing up, spanish olives were served at every holiday meal. they were unappetizing to me, but i wanted to like them. they were just so cute, and i liked how the adults would stand around and pop them in their mouths before dinner was served.

when i was about seven or eight, i shared this with my mom. she said her pop-pop told her you have to eat seven olives to like them, and sure enough, after forcing seven down while swinging in the backyard, i had a new favorite food.=)

*believe it or not, i'm nearing my 500th post! plus i have over 50 unfinished drafts - this was one started after the july food swap. i really need to do some cleaning up and refocusing around here. i'm all over the place.

xoxo
kelliann

farm to fork

someone needs to create a csa chopped. enough with the weird ingredients on that show - let's see what creative chefs do with a basket of locally grown food. i could really use the inspiration!

muth family farm's organic csa week one: broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, fennel, bok choy, chiogga beets, parsley and dill.

above was my attempt at a creative dinner - salad with strawberry balsamic vinaigrette (lettuce, sliced fennel tossed with dill and olive oil, and sliced avocado, perfectly ripe and oh so delicious).
it was very flavorful and the textures were nice, but it left us feeling hungry soon after. in hindsight i should have added pecans or something. what would you have added?

/strawberry balsamic vinaigrette/

2/3 C strawberries 

2 T extra virgin olive oil 

2 T balsamic vinegar
sweetener of choice, to taste 

salt and pepper, to taste 

blend ingredients well. for a nice touch, add a sprinkle of poppy seeds.

(did you notice my poppies in the first picture? they've bloomed!=)

this summer i'm going to challenge myself to use my produce more creatively and thoroughly, meaning little goes in the compost. plus i want to preserve more - those frozen bags of vegetables from last season saved us many a meal! also, i'd like to get kati eating more veggies. supposedly carrots and zucchini are great for cats! who knew?!

i hope you had a wonderful weekend. john and i took a trip to millville to eat at a yummy vegan cafe called wildlfower, and i took lots of pictures to share! so come back soon, ya hear?=)

scrummy yummy

we're back to shopping at the local produce outlet. this has its pros and cons.

pros + it's so close + it's very inexpensive + i bought the most delicious pineapple there

cons - most of the produce is non-organic - it's an outlet so you're getting the bruised and battered - i bought the most horrific avocados there

yesterday we got some great deals on fresh broccoli, lettuce and raspberries, which has motivated us to get a bit more creative with our meals. (oh, dinners were sad here for a while, my friends. too shameful to divulge here. comfort food delivered to the front door. let's just leave it there.)

this week things are better. we're eating lots of fruit and veggies. our broccoli dish above was steamed in one of those neat baskets then tossed with truly raw almonds and a simple marinade: equal parts coconut oil, tamari and grated ginger. the steamed broccoli would have also been good with just olive oil and salt.

the veggie patty below (topped with hummus and raspberry vinaigrette) is a variation of the delicious "beet this burger" and black bean burger. (i have a horrible habit of tweaking recipes without noting my changes.) the patty had an incredible taste and texture, despite being almost six months old! (god bless my mini food saver and my mother for buying it for me.)

john of all people was raving over this salad. he said it was the combination of the veggie burger and the raspberry vinaigrette that made it. i'm wondering, was his enthusiasm really for the deliciousness of this dish, or was he just excited to be the one who created the scrummy yummy raspberry dressing? hmm...

(ps - i'd like to say thank you to my dad for my new nikon coolpix. i'd been in need of a new camera for quite some time, and this one is the much updated version of the camera i have now. i'm excited to see how it performs in natural light!)

happy friday, everyone!

summer indian meal

while searching online for a raw cabbage recipe, i stumbled upon this curried cabbage salad. indian food is fairly new to me, but i decided to go ahead and attempt a raw indian dinner anyway.

Raw Vegan Curried Cabbage Salad

(serves 4-6) 

Ingredients:

• 1 head green cabbage, chopped
• 1/3 cup shredded flaked coconut (be sure it's raw, if needed)
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 cup cold-pressed olive oil
• 1/4 cup soy sauce (if raw, use Nama Shoyu)
• 3 tbsp sesame seeds
• 1/3 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp curry
• 1/2 tsp cumin

 

Preparation: 

In a large bowl, toss together all ingredients, making sure cabbage is evenly coated. If possible, chill for at least an hour and toss thoroughly again before serving. This will allow all the flavors to mingle and blend.

Note:

For the soy sauce portion I used two tablespoons of Bragg's Liquid Aminos and two tablespoons of water. The sesame seeds I used were roasted and therefore not raw.

 savoy, my favorite cabbage

the cabbage salad was nicely balanced and incredibly flavorsome. the longer it sat, the more intense the flavors became. however, it lacked color.

delicious but blah-looking

so i added a carrot from the garden, spiralized.

cosmic purple carrot - orange on the inside - cool, but not as cool as the solid purple carrot i had anticipated

muuuch better=)

further online searching led me to a yellow squash curry recipe. with intentions not to turn the stove on,  i made a dressing to coat raw patty pan and eight ball-squash (using angela's eggplant caponata for inspiration).

raw curried yellow squash
serves 2-4

ingredients

about 2 C yellow squash, chopped

dressing:
1/4 C packed diced tomato
1 sun-dried tomato
1 medjool date
3 T olive oil
1 T apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp red curry powder
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/8 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp turmeric
pinch nutmeg
pinch cinnamon

fresh cilantro, to garnish
salt and black pepper, to taste

preparation

blend dressing ingredients until smooth. toss with chopped squash and garnish with cilantro. for best flavor, allow squash to marinate a few hours or overnight.

 sweet yet sophisticated. and super yummy.=)

this raw corn chowder? not so yummy. tired of recipes, i made the decision to just wing it. it had such a bitter taste, we couldn't even eat it.

ah well, you know what meatloaf says...

two out of three ain't bad.=)

(had i known in advance, i may have tried to make raw samosas with coconut wrappers and mango chutney. can i get a YUM?!)

strawberry spinach salad

1 bunch spinach
1 pint strawberries, sliced
1/2 C pecans, raw or toasted
1/4 C olive oil
2 T apple cider vinegar
2 T red wine vinegar
1 1/2 T agave nectar
1 T poppy seeds
1 T sesame seeds
1/8 tsp paprika

combine spinach, strawberries and pecans in a salad bowl. mix remaining ingredients and pour over salad before serving.

garden salad with wild violets

hyacinths and raw lasagna

our hyacinths are in full bloom, and boy do they smell nice!

two were toppling over, so i brought them inside. one is decorating my desk...

and the other's in the kitchen.

the ramekin raw lasagna i prepared yesterday worked like a dream. carmella's fabulous recipe from delightfully raw filled four ramekins, with just enough pesto, tomato sauce and spinach leftover for four pizzas. i doubled my cashew cheese recipe instead (carmi's calls for raw macadamia nuts, which i can't find) and felt the lasagna could have used a tad more nut meat, though i did steal some for "sausage" pizza topping last night.=)

upon arriving home today i popped the lasagna ramekins in the dehydrator at 110 degrees, and in two hours they were ready to go.

eggplant caponata topped my garden salad, and johnny boy sauteed asparagus in garlic and olive oil. (garden update coming soon!)

needless to say, my nose and belly are very happy today. i hope yours are too!=)

today's eats

for lunch i threw together a really yummy salad of cooked chick peas, artichoke hearts and sun-dried tomatoes over spiralized zucchini ribbons with olive oil, hemp seeds and black pepper. (breakfast was coffee and raisins, and no, i wasn't trying to make myself go number two!=)

as a mid-afternoon snack, i enjoyed one of my favorite green smoothies: banana, strawberry, apple, lemon, kale and chia seeds.

this evening i made raw meals for the rest of our busy week - lasagna, eggplant caponata and pizza. the pizza we had tonight was made using leftover ingredients from the lasagna, which was pretty convenient. i stored the lasagna in four ramekins so we can get two easy dinners out of it.

raw eggplant caponota minus olives, capers and celery, but still yummy!

mushroom and "sausage" pizza

pesto, cashew cheese, raw tomato sauce and spinach

a local supermarket was going out of business and i decided to stop in just to see what they had. they must have known i was coming because they saved one big container of the most delicious, soft medjool dates, marked seventy percent off! john and i stuffed some with walnuts and pecans for a sweet bedtime snack. yum!=)

what did you have for your bedtime snack?=)