All things Gale: vegetables

Showing posts with label vegetables. Show all posts

Whole Wheat Zucchini Banana Bread

It's zucchini season!! I have been swimming in a sea of fresh zucchini's from our Coop and our CSA farm. Since our vegetables are treated the same as grocery store vegetables, they spoil much quicker. It's either Pluck and eat or Pluck and freeze or you lose the fresh goodness. We did a little of both!!

So we decided to do a zucchini themed dinner/dessert the other night. As soon as my mother-in-law started to grate them, Jason was reminded of something he ate a lot as a kid and loved. So he started grabbing ingredients to throw a little something together. It was a DELICIOUS something too!!! And I made a mental note to thank his mother again for raising such a fine boy :)

Zucchini Fritters

Ingredients
4 lg. eggs
1 tsp. lemon juice
1/4 c. mayonnaise
1/3 c. Parmesan cheese
1/2 c. flour
1 sm. diced (finely) onion
4 c. shredded zucchini
Salt and pepper
1-3 tbsp. each butter
Sour cream and chives for topping on fry cakes

Directions

In a large bowl beat eggs with a fork or wire whip until well blended, then beat in lemon juice, mayonnaise, Parmesan cheese, flour and onion. Stir in zucchini until well combined. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

In a 10-12 inch frying pan (preferably with a non-stick finish) heat 1 tablespoon of the butter over medium high heat until butter melts.

Drop zucchini mixture, 1 heaping tablespoon at a time, into the pan and spread out to make pancakes about 3 inches in diameter. Cook until golden brown on the other side, 3-4 minutes total.

Offer sour cream and chives to spoon onto individual servings.

You know what I love?? When the recipe claims this amount of food will yield 30 pancakes and ours makes 15. I feel like a true-blooded, more is better, over-eating, 1/2 pound burger kind of real American when that happens.

And it always happens...

Okay - so now to dessert. I decided to make some zucchini bread with the other half of the zucchini. I set out to replicate this recipe but using only healthy and traditional ingredients!! And Jason and I were fighting over the last four eggs in the fridge and he won. So I opted for using the overripe banana (which is a good substitute for eggs if you run out) and it was a total hit!! So here you have it.

Whole Wheat Zucchini Banana Bread

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 overripe banana (or you can use 3 eggs)

1 cup coconut oil
1/2-3/4 cup rapadura sugar

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

2+ cups grated zucchini

Directions
1. Grease and flour an 8x8 inch pan (or you can use two 8 x 4 inch pans). Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.

3. Beat banana (or eggs), oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pan.

4. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

And, as always, the taste-testers approved...sort of...

He was much more happy with the cake than the fritters (but he did eat them!!)

Eating local organic food within budget

(This is a re-post from May 11. Blogger ate this post and I had to re-do it. Many of you have already read this one!)

I have recently made some changes in the way we shop and cook. I am moving toward raw, unprocessed goods and a lot more homemade items. I am also making a big shift to find local farmers that do not run farms on as massive a scale as we find at the grocery store. The goal is fresh local produce and goods. But you all know how cheap I am. It has to be at an affordable price.

I see recipes all the time that call for "rapadura sugar," "coconut oil," or "organic blah blah blah." You get the idea. It is all soooooo expensive. I couldn't justify the prices for most of the organic items. Some shoppers have found success with coupons to stores like Whole Foods or shopping sales on Amazon but none of the prices looked good to me. So I just tried to cook as healthy as I could and work within the budget I have. But I was itching to get back to nature and as far away from processed foods as possible. I would just get started using more beans and then find out that dry beans are better??? I would start to cook with honey and find out raw honey is better! I just can't win! The research is fascinating though and I thought that I would like to use all these items, but I can't afford them.

Then my friend Jennie invited me to join our local Coop. This stuff is crazy affordable!!! I can't believe the prices. I am finally able to purchase a lot of the items I would never be able to touch online or in specialty stores. And even when an item isn't organic, I don't mind because the local farmers don't use near as many pesticides as the huge farms tend to use.

Next week I am picking up a gallon of Coconut Oil for $33.15. Try finding one that cheap on Amazon!! I am also picking up affordable maple syrup and raw honey from local farmers. The raw honey is $4.05/lb (Amazon lists it as $10-25 per pound!) The maple syrup is what I am most excited about. Maple syrup for $8.75/qt. (Amazon lists it as $15-25 per quart!)

Here are some things I picked up yesterday:

Coop - Organic Beans

Black: 2 lbs for $3.24

Great Northern: 2 lbs for $3.09

Kidney: 2 lbs for $5.38

Cannellini: 2 lbs for $4.91

Golden Split Peas: 2 lbs for $5.11

Total: $21.73 for 10 lbs organic

Online Organic Beans

Black: 2 lbs for $6.40

Northern: 2.3 lbs for $33.42

Kidney: 2 lbs for $6.67

Cannellini: 2 lbs for $10.71

Golden Split Peas: 2 lbs for $

Total: $69.18 + shipping!!! Wow...

I bought huge quantities of organic coconut shreds and rapadura sugar

Coop - 11 lbs Rapadura Sugar for $23.68 (on the right)

Amazon - 9 lbs of Rapadura Sugar for between $57 and $73 plus $9-15 for shipping!

Coop - 5 lbs Organic Coconut Shreds for $11.19 (on the left)

Amazon - 5 lbs Organic Coconut Shreds for $23.71

I also picked up fresh asparagus, portobella mushrooms, diced mangos, raisins, dried apricots (and nevermind that little jar on the right. I'll get back to that soon!)

...tons of apples for freezing...

...10 lbs of oats for homemade granola, granola bars, and my new favorite Simple Baked Oatmeal

And 10 lbs each of hard spring and soft winter wheat berries!

The possibilities are endless with this Coop!! If you are looking for a Coop near you, check out Heavenly Homemakers blogpost "What Health Food Co-op is near you?" for a huge list.

Doesn't everything look better in a jar??

So, now that I have all the items in my house and most of the research on soaking beans and grains is done, I just have to figure out how to use this grain mill????

Wish me luck!!

CSA Fridaaaaaaayyyyyy!!!!

I love CSA Fridays. I wish it had been sunny and dry so we could have played a bit with the animals. But, here is all the swag we picked up!

I am a monthly share this year so I was spoiled with a few extra items.

Like these fresh eggs!!

I also received a small container of homemade chevre and a bag of homemade egg noodles made with fresh eggs and local grown wheat. So exciting!!!

We also got lettuce, baby spinach, kale, scallions...

...oregano, radishes, aspargus (GONE!), and broccoli.

I absolutely love CSA Fridays. You never know what you are going to get. We are having guests for dinner tomorrow night so I'll be making a salad with: caramelized onions, bacon, grapefruit, chevre, baby spinach and my absolute favorite salad dressing!!

Jason is making brisket:

I will probably be too busy in the morning, too stuffed in the afternoon and too drunk in the evening to post tomorrow. But I have big food posts coming soon!!

Organic vs. "Toxic" food

I am super cheap. I have a real tough time shelling out for organic items when they are double the cost of the less cool "toxic" stuff. I am not entirely certain that buying regular produce is going to give me cancer. But now that I do a lot of home cooking and am responsible for nourishing my family, I like to try my best to keep my family healthy.

We are fortunate to have a local Co-op in the area and an awesome Farmer's Market during the warmer months. I haven't needed to rely on either of them because we belong to a CSA and take a 3 minute drive to see our local farmer Carol and pick up all the fresh produce we need!! I also have an amazing husband who grew me an entire garden full of delicious foods this past summer!

I also took a trip to a farm last week with my friend Jennie to pick up a 1/2 of a cow! We are now stocked up on grass-fed organic beef for the next 6 months for $225! Not too shabby. We have healthy meat and are supporting our local farmers. But I also picked up 2 frozen chickens from this farmer. The cost? $15.00...EACH??? I'm not even sure where to start with that. But the Mennonite farmer and his wife needed the money more than I do. They had 11 children!!!!

In the winter we buy lots of frozen veggies. I don't buy a lot of the fruits or veggies that have traveled 6,000 miles and are still somehow alive on my grocer's stand. Except for bananas. We love bananas.

Then, my blogger friend City Wife, Country Life posted a 2 part series on organic farming that succinctly stated exactly how I feel about organic farming! I am all about local farmers who you meet, shake their hands and can call when you run out of food.

I wanted to share what she discovered for anyone interested. Her perspective is unique because she is married to a farmer. Enjoy!

An Ugly But Real Look into Organic Farming: Part 1

An Ugly But Real Look into Organic Farming: Part 2

(Check out her love story while you're there. It's top notch entertainment!!

Tasty Tuesday: Brussels Sprouts!

If they are on my plate, I will eat them. However, in all grocery shopping, I'm the decider!!! So it's a good thing we belong to an awesome CSA program or veggies would be cheesy covered goodness every day.

We received a huge bag of small Brussels sprouts in our last CSA share and I found a very tempting and super simple recipe on 101 Cookbooks.

Golden-Crusted Brussels Sprouts

24 small brussels sprouts

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for rubbing
fine-grain sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup grated cheese of your choice

Trim the ends off the sprout and slice them in half. Rub them with a little olive oil. I just put them face down on a plate with some olive oil and moved them around so they all got a little.

Heat some olive oil over medium heat and put the brussels sprouts in face down and sprinkle a little salt over top. Cover the pan and cook for about 5 minutes (until they are soft).

Then comes the delicious part!! Turn up the heat a little and brown them! Flip them a bit to get them browned all over, sprinkle some pepper and some cheese on top and serve!

When I started cooking, if I had any clue the level of deliciousness, I would have taken more pictures. This was one of the only photos I snapped before they were completely gone!!

Elena actually preferred them to her Mac'N'Cheese!

And I'm including this video for 2 reasons. 1: Because I find my own children eating food wildly entertaining. And I am quite certain I am the only one :) But it's my blog and I can. And 2: Because three-quarters of the way through, Leo does this amazing dancing spin move and gets like 3 revolutions in there! It was pretty sweet.

Tasty Tuesday: Stuffed Acorn Squash

I have been waiting all year to make our favorite recipe!! Stuffed Acorn Squash! I made it for the first time last year when I received 20 acorn squash from our Crop Share and had no idea what to do with them (I was only just starting to cook foods other than boxed Mac'N'Cheese.

So, I found this recipe on Cooks.com and modified it a little bit to make our most memorable meal. It turned out to be a great way to get us both to eat our veggie!!

INGREDIENTS
3 small acorn squash
1 lb. ground beef or turkey
1 large onion, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. paprika
1 cup dry stuffing mix
1 cup chicken or beef broth
melted butter

DIRECTIONS

1) (Optional) Lightly sautee the onion in a small amout of oil or butter until translucent. Add the garlic during the last minute.

2) Combine ground meat, stuffing, chopped onion, garlic, paprika and broth. Mix lightly but well. Season with a pinch of salt and black pepper.

3) Wash and cut squash into halves; remove seeds. In a large pot, boil the squash partially, with the cut portion facing down in an inch of boiling water. Boil for 5 minutes, then remove and brush liberally with melted butter.

4) Stuff each squash with meat mixture.

5) Pour melted butter over the top of the meat. Be generous! Lots of it will fall off the squash anyway...right?? ;) Anyway, the healthiness of the squash cancels out the butter. Promise.