The Last Farm Box

I might be taking a hiatus from the farm boxes for the rest of winter. I still really like them; however, I'm also wasting a lot food. For example, after picking up my box tonight, I came home and had to toss a whole head of wilty lettuce, dandelion greens, parsley, two soft radishes, wilty sage, and chard to make room in the frig for the new stuff. That's A LOT of food going to waste because I was too lazy to cook and instead ate Trader Joe's wasabi peas and sesame sticks for dinner every night last week.

This week's box contained:

Beets (4)

Carrots (4)

1/2 lb Dragon Tongue Shelling Beans (oooh. preeeetty.)

Delicata (2)

Chard

Lettuce (LOTS of it)

Napa Cabbage

Spinach (LOTS of it)

Parsley

Braising Mix (LOTS...)

Sprouts

Rosemary, sage, thyme, mix bunch

Microgreens

Dandelion Greens

First of all, what the cuss should I do with Dandelion Greens!? They don't taste like anything but bitterness. Bleck. If you have a recipe for Dandelion Greens pleeeeeeease share because if I don't use this bunch it will be the 3rd batch that goes to waste. And, what am I going to do with all these other greens? Cabbage and lettuce and spinach and braising mix? (What the f is that?): I need new recipes and I don't want them to be salads- I'm so sick of salads I could punch them (if they had faces).

On the plus side, I am excited about trying the Dragon Tongue beans; they have purple and white marbles shells. I've never seen anything like them. I'll let you know what they're like and share some pics.

Please post some recipes or ideas for me here about my farm box contents so that I don't waste any more food.

Happy Holidays

These are a few of my favorite (food) things

The holidays are here and it only took one trip to my parent's house (where my mom puts out a amazing fresh baked goods every 5 hours) and I already have an extra 3 pounds to carry around on my runs...and no, it's not the type of 3 pounds that can be lost in a lengthy bathroom session. It's 3 real pounds and there are more to come if I'm not careful.

Trying to stick to a vegan, or even vegetarian, diet over Thanksgiving wasn't possible, but I'm not beating myself up over it (though my intestines are still in recovery mode). So, when I came home from the holiday break, and was explaining all this to a friend, he told me that I'm an OPPORTUNIVORE. (It's the love child of "opportunity" and "omnivore" in case you missed that.) Apparently this is a real thing--he didn't just make it up. What it means is that I'm realistic about life and its complications concerning food. Our diets are determined by so many factors: location, finance, travel, allergies, the list goes on and on. So, I'm realistic about the way I eat and make no apologies when I have to veer off my vegan course. When it's possible and I have the time, money and resources to do so, I will always choose vegan. However, if it's inconvenient to others or simply not possible because of travel, I will do what is most logical. So there. Opportunivore. Spread the word.

In the mean time, here a few holiday treats I've tweaked so that I don't feel like I'm missing out on the good old fashioned holiday goodies:

Favorite Thing: Milky Hot Chocolate

New Favorite Thing:

-Heat 1 C sweetened or unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk in a sauce pan

-Add dry, non-dairy, cocoa powder (to taste)

-1 tsp cinnamon

-1/4 tsp nutmeg, allspice, or pumpkin spice (or more to taste)

**Optional: add a 1/4 tsp of peppermint or vanilla extract**

Favorite Thing: Eggnog & Eggnog Lattes from Starbucks:

New Favorite Thing:

Rice Milk Eggnog: It's not as good as the real thing (obviously--what is better than real eggnog?!) But, I found that it's good if you do 1/2 rice milk eggnog with 1/2 sweetened almond milk. This makes it a tad thicker like the real thing. Or, add the "eggnog" to your coffee instead of regular creamer. That is goooood.

Favorite Thing: Apple Pie

New Favorite Thing:

-Peel, core and slice about 4-5 apples to fill an 8 x 8, lightly greased, pan

-Toss with lemon, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg (as much as you like)

-Then toss with 1C of oatmeal or your favorite granola

-Drizzle maple syrup or agave nectar over the top of everything (Put about handful of oats or granola on top if you want a little crunch).

-Bake at 350 until the juices boil a bit and apples are soft (I have no idea how long that takes, I don't pay attention. I just check on it every once in a while).

** This recipe is also really good with some dried cranberries and fresh slices of pears.**

That's all for now. As I come up with more tweaks to holiday favorites, I'll post 'em.

Please share any healthy versions of classic holiday recipes you might have up your sleeve-- I'd love more recipes to try!

Feeling Sluggish?

I am.

And, I said so to my husband just a minute ago. Says I, "I'm feeling unmotivated. I haven't blogged in a while. I don't want to grade papers. I don't want to do aaaaaanything."

Says he, "It's that time of year."

"Wha?" says me.

"Take some Vitamin D. The sun is going down earlier, you're not getting as much, you need to take Vitamin D3. [Insert name I don't remember] told me about it. It helps."

"Bluuuuugh. Whatehh"-- says me without the motivation to even finish the word.

You might be thinking, "Didn't you switch to a mostly vegan diet? Maybe that's why you're sluggish...(dumbass)."

Well if I'm such a sluggish vegan then how did I run 12 miles today-- and feel really good doing it, huh?

And then you think, "You ran 12 miles? That's why you're tired."

Well that could be.

But, it's more of an emotional tired I think....sooooooo.........

I finally mustered the energy a couple minutes ago, while I was writing this post, to look up Vitamin D3 rich foods--because I'd rather cook and eat something than swallow a pill. I googled "foods rich in Vitamin D3" and this is what I got:

"Fortified milk, eggs, chicken livers, salmon, sardines, herring, mackerel, swordfish and fish oils (halibut and cod liver oils) all contain small amounts."

These are very non-vegan items. Sigh. So I tried googling "plants rich in Vitamin D3" and this is what I got:

AlgaeCal.

It's some South American algae that's being marketed as good calcium and other vitamins (like Vitamin D3).

Maybe I'll get up the motivation to order some...or maybe I just need a nap in the sun.

Farm Box Funness

Behold! The Veronica Cauliflower:

Kinda scary looking isn't it? So prehistoric. Veronica cauliflower has a nutty flavor and is a bit more hearty than standard cauliflower. I like it, even though it sort of scares me when I look at or open the fridge late at night.

If you stumble upon a head of it (Suzie's Farm has some at their booth in the Farmer's Market) try it. It's good even when simply prepared: I steamed it for about 12 minutes, salted it and ate a whole bowl.

Next!

It's the season of squash. I love, love, love looking at squash and fantasizing about cooking one, but rarely do I make a successful dish with one (that doesn't include canned pumpkin--I'm talking the real deal). Well, I finally used one of the little kobacha squashes in last night's cous cous.

1 C cous cous (prepared in vegetable broth)

1 pinch saffron

1 small kabacha squash cooked, and lightly browned in a pan

1/2 C cranberries

1/4 C toasted pine nuts

1 tsp garlic salt

pepper to taste

Why go to all the trouble of cooking and eating squash? Because they're loaded with good shit like Vitamin A, C, K, and some of the B's, Potassium, Folate (whatever that's for), even Omega 3's and protein, bitches! (It's Monday and it's already been a long week...please excuse the real cussing in this post.)

If you're new to cooking squash, read on: First, go crazy on it with a fork (poking holes all around it). Then, place it in a baking dish with 1/4" water in the bottom. Cover with foil. Bake at 350 for at least 30 minutes if a small squash, 45 minutes for larger. It's done when you can easily slice through the rind. Allow to cool then halve and scoop out seeds (rinse and you can bake those too! Yuuuuum). Scoop out flesh and slice or cube.

Other uses:

Top salads and pastas with it, or puree with some creamer, pumpkin spice, cinnamon and agave nectar for a sweet soup treat.

Cute Garden Things

...more like Odd Garden Things. I was meandering around Point Loma Nazarene University's campus the other day and ran into this odd scene. I kinda like it, though I'd never use those materials.

It does, however, inspire the creative side of me. I haven't done much but look at my garden recently. I need to pull weeds and rip out these strange purple-flowered plants that strangle the life out of everything in their way: I call them snagglebushes. It's officially fall, so I should plant some stuff for winter, too. Maybe squash? My eggplants are almost ready to harvest and my tomatoes are still hanging in there...though everything looks a little bedraggled.

I have some little f'er of a bug that eats the crap out of all my herbs. It's really making me angry. He only strikes the day I decide I need something, so I end up walking out to the garden with my scissors and then swear like an asshole at the plants for being little pansies and allowing some cussing bug to eat massive holes in all their leaves. I'm thinking I need frogs.

Where do I get frogs in bulk for cheap?

Cuss!

Yesterday, since it was Halloween, I decided to be all cute and Martha Stewarty and make caramel apples using the apples off our tree. As I was picking I nearly grabbed the one thing capable of keeping me away from the garden forever, and it's only the size of a quarter...

This Guy:


I simultaneously gagged, hyperventilated and whined like a dog in distress as I took this picture...
1. Why doesn't it have a face? 2. Why does it have hair? 3. Or are those spikes? 4. Why is it in my tree? 5. uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh. 6. Cussing cuss cussity cusser.

One Month Vegan, One Day Meatan

I went into this whole vegan-thing with the plan that I would do my best to stick to an entirely vegan diet. It's been a little over a month now and I have to say that I really like the way vegan-eating makes me feel. I found that as a result of restricting my diet to mostly plant-based foods, it's caused me to look at the world in an entirely different way...and amazingly I don't feel that I am missing out on anything by not having meat or dairy products. I by NO means have followed veganism perfectly, but I do try to make more responsible choices every day about what I'm putting in my body--and this idea has extended into other areas of my life as well (which I can talk about in a different blog).

In the last month I have done the following:

1. Discovered an entire world of grains that I didn't know existed: millet, wheat berries, farro wheat
2. Stopped relying on caffeine in the mornings to get me going and happy
3. Maintained my level of fitness-- AKA: I haven't become one of those anorexic-looking malnourished emo veganites that I was a afraid of before.

On to other news: Last night I went to a dinner party where the host made spaghetti with homemade meatballs-- cooked in bacon fat. I ate them. They were delicious! Does this make me a vegan no more? For the night, maybe. But, one of my goals since the beginning in taking on this lifestyle was to never inconvenience anyone else or place judgment on others for their diets. Had I rejected the meatballs, I would have been implying that my ideas of a diet are better than theirs. Even though I would never think that, it's still the way it would come across. I then followed the meatballs with a slice of non-vegan applesauce cake. It too was delicious (though I bypassed the ice cream).

Was it worth it? Well, I paid for this sudden change in my diet at work today. I had a few extra trips to the bathroom (except during the two-hour lock down we experienced...that was pure torture!) and I woke up feeling sick to my stomach this morning. But, it was worth it.

It was worth it because I shared a great night of food with friends that was untainted by the particularities of my diet.

As for tonight's dinner, I found my farm box veggies nearly gone. So, I improvised and came up with a pretty good mishmash here. We'll call it...

Out-of-Fresh-Produce Mishmash (Serves 2)

1/4 C cooked millet
1/4 C cooked red quinoa
1-2 C veggie broth (add as needed to cook the grains)
1/2 C garbonzo beans
1/2 C frozen peas and carrots
1/2 C onion, finely diced
1/2 C savory tofu. diced
1/2 C tempeh, diced
2 T soyaki (from Trader Joe's)
salt & pepper to taste
fresh or dried herbs to taste (I used some fresh marjoram i had in the fridge)

In a medium sized pot cook the millet and quinoa in the broth with spices. When the liquid is nearly gone, add the peas and carrots, garbonzo beans.
While the millet and quinoa are cooking, saute the onions until almost browned, add the diced tempeh and tofu and brown. Add the soyaki and stir for 1 minute. Then, stir this into the millet and quinoa mixture for a couple minutes--allow the flavors to fuse.