Today was a busy day preparing food for the farmer's market tomorrow. We like to have samples there so that people will have more ideas on how to get their fruits and veggies in every day. We also got our new supplier order in, and put together some pre-orders from that. We tried the new honey Elizabeth told us about from Wee Farms in Vero Beach. It is raw and organic and delicious!
For breakfast at seminary, Darius made lemon milkshakes which were delicious. He made us some more at home so that the kids and Alicia would have some too. We had been wondering how they would taste with greens added, so he put some spinach in it, and it was excellent. Not only did we have a wonderful, tasty breakfast, we felt good about it knowing we were getting at least a partial serving of greens. Another victory!
We snacked on fruit most of the day including delicious grapes, peaches, and mangos. Don, Alicia's father, came to visit her and tried some of our groceries and really enjoyed them. That is something coming from a person who doesn't normally eat like we do. He really liked the lemonade, the kale salad, and the "mac & cheese"; not so much the raisin cheese which is my favorite.
For the market tomorrow we packaged up some raisin cheese, honey almond butter, (celery to have with them), cucumber salad, pesto pasta, Alicheezits, and I can't remember if there was anything else or not.
For dinner we had the pesto pasta with marinated mushrooms. Side dishes were the delicious cucumber salad and a tomato salad made from grape tomatoes combined with the seasoned dried roma slices I made last week. It was pretty tasty. We're still tweaking our lemonade, and the batch we made for dinner was our best yet.
We're really needing to step up the rejuvelac production and are at various stages for 3 batches: 1 final stage of the wheat sprouts fermenting, 1 at the middle stage with the sprouts almost done so they can go into the juice, and one at the beginning stage where I just put the wheat on to soak for the sprouting stage. We also had a batch of cheese we started with some rejuvelac that just got finished today, so really we had 4 batches working at once. Because we pulled that batch, we were able to make a batch of crackers. We decided to call them Alicheezits (pronounced Ali like in Ali McGraw, and cheezits like the cheddar cracker with the main emphasis going to the "chee" syllable) since they are Alicia's creation and they taste like cheezits. The secret is Greek seasoning, so we are looking into making our own blend of it so that we can use organic ingredients. The crackers are really good, so we are going to have to figure out a way to make more of them which is tricky since they have to be "juvied" first. I am going to try to sprout 2 cups of wheat berries instead of one and see if it makes a difference. Never a dull moment around here!
Our final (for now) lemonade was made with 1 1/2 cups each fresh lemon juice and raw agave nectar, 2 cups water (to wash the agave out of the cup), all mixed in a half gallon container. Fill the container with rejuvelac. Serve over plenty of ice. Wow!
Friday, May 29, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Feasting 101
We had to leave early today for Jacksonville to pick up our produce order, so we grabbed some watermelon from the bowl Alicia fixed last night. It was a mighty fine breakfast.
We had fruit throughout the day as we travelled around Jacksonville: grapes, bananas, and mangos (of course) when we got home. Then we got out the preparations for our Spanish meal for dinner: refried no-beans, tortillas, hemp sour cream, and we prepared salsa, guacamole, and ensalada. It was truly a feast fit for a king.
We had fruit throughout the day as we travelled around Jacksonville: grapes, bananas, and mangos (of course) when we got home. Then we got out the preparations for our Spanish meal for dinner: refried no-beans, tortillas, hemp sour cream, and we prepared salsa, guacamole, and ensalada. It was truly a feast fit for a king.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Just a Bowl of ...
For breakfast today, Darius suggested a fruit salad, and it turned out to be a very good idea. I mixed several ripe bananas with a small pineapple, some grapes, and an orange. There was some yogurt leftover from yesterday that was a nice dressing for it. Yummy!
I dug the kale from the weekend out of the fridge in the shed. Out of sight, out of mind. I had forgotten it was there. I had wanted to make a kale salad. It turned out to be very delicious:
Kale Salad
1 head kale, cleaned of stems, and sliced thinly
3 roma tomatoes, diced
1 avocado, diced
EVOO sprinkled around bowl
1 teaspoon salt
lemon juice sprinkled around bowl
Everything is mushed up together. The marinade helps break down the fibers so that it turns out to have a "cooked" texture and more digestible.
I had a small bowl full right after preparation, but the rest went into the fridge for dinner. I also had a few of my beloved mangos.
For dinner, Alicia shredded up some yellow squash. We topped it with some marinated mushrooms and our "cheddar" we made yesterday. It was the best "mac and cheese" I have ever had, cooked or uncooked. Served with the kale, it was a great meal. Some of us even mixed the kale into the squash, and that was delicious too. Again, a no-brainer!
We just finished up a small bowl of watermelon from a larger one Alicia was cutting up for the seminary students tomorrow. Life may be just like a bowl of cherries as our friend Forrest says. Or a bowl of watermelon...
I dug the kale from the weekend out of the fridge in the shed. Out of sight, out of mind. I had forgotten it was there. I had wanted to make a kale salad. It turned out to be very delicious:
Kale Salad
1 head kale, cleaned of stems, and sliced thinly
3 roma tomatoes, diced
1 avocado, diced
EVOO sprinkled around bowl
1 teaspoon salt
lemon juice sprinkled around bowl
Everything is mushed up together. The marinade helps break down the fibers so that it turns out to have a "cooked" texture and more digestible.
I had a small bowl full right after preparation, but the rest went into the fridge for dinner. I also had a few of my beloved mangos.
For dinner, Alicia shredded up some yellow squash. We topped it with some marinated mushrooms and our "cheddar" we made yesterday. It was the best "mac and cheese" I have ever had, cooked or uncooked. Served with the kale, it was a great meal. Some of us even mixed the kale into the squash, and that was delicious too. Again, a no-brainer!
We just finished up a small bowl of watermelon from a larger one Alicia was cutting up for the seminary students tomorrow. Life may be just like a bowl of cherries as our friend Forrest says. Or a bowl of watermelon...
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
No-Brainer, Really...
Today was cooking day since it has been so long for one of those. Lots of things to catch up on. Lots of cheese waiting to be made. First I pulled off the zucchini chips. I get 1 oz of chips per pound of zucchini (!). Wow, huh? I started 7 more trays of them since we had a goodly supply of zucchini on hand from the market. We ate the whole 2 pounds as soon as I took it out of the dehydrator - yes, they are that good! I also put more soaked and sprouted almonds in so that I'll have plenty of almonds around for honey almond butter.
I also made 4 more tortillas out of some of the zucchini. It takes about 1 zuke to make a tortilla.
3c peeled zucchini
3T olive oil
2t lemon juice
Pinch cayenne
1t ground coriander
1/2t salt
1/2c flax meal*
• Blend all ingredients except flax meal in a high-speed blender until smooth.
• Add flax meal and blend again until smooth.
• Pour mixture onto 2 dehydrator sheets and spread evenly into a circle on each.
• Dehydrate for 8 hours at 105 degrees F, or until able to peel of the sheet.
• Once the dehydrator sheets are removed, return to the dehydrator for 30 - 60 mins, until both sides are dry to the touch but still pliable.
* Flax meal is flax seed that have been ground in a coffee grinder or similar, to produce a fine flour.
These are really tasty and are an excellent substitute for the heavy grain kind. We used some made yesterday for some burritos for dinner with "not fried no beans", and they were delicious. I also got my salsa groove on with another interesting salsa:
1 10 oz. bag frozen corn, thawed
2 avocados, diced
1 chopped sweet pepper
1/2 a pineapple, chopped up
1/2 a large onion, diced small
splash of lemon juice
salt to taste
This made a huge bowl that we ate as salad with some romaine on our "burritos". Good stuff.
Once the dehydrator was loaded up, it was time to make the no-beans and then tackle the cheese. First we made a small batch of yogurt to have with the blueberries. I just made the hemp sour creme and mixed in some honey and vanilla bean. Ummm Umm good. We had that tonight for our FHE treat we didn't get last night. Then we made several batches of "cheddar" since we use it for so many applications. I also started the broccoli marinating so we could have our broccoli cheese soup for dinner. After the cheddar, we finished up with raisin cheese, and then I put the package of mushrooms on to marinate so we could have it with out green spaghetti later in the week. I find mushrooms will hold better in marinade than in their plastic grocery store package.
I shouldn't neglect to mention that Darius made yogurt shakes for breakfast this morning. He wanted to try a spinoff of my lemon shakes. He made a cherry version which was delicious. It really is hard to screw this stuff up. It seems like a no-brainer! We snacked on the zuke chips and fruit the rest of the day until dinner.
I also made 4 more tortillas out of some of the zucchini. It takes about 1 zuke to make a tortilla.
3c peeled zucchini
3T olive oil
2t lemon juice
Pinch cayenne
1t ground coriander
1/2t salt
1/2c flax meal*
• Blend all ingredients except flax meal in a high-speed blender until smooth.
• Add flax meal and blend again until smooth.
• Pour mixture onto 2 dehydrator sheets and spread evenly into a circle on each.
• Dehydrate for 8 hours at 105 degrees F, or until able to peel of the sheet.
• Once the dehydrator sheets are removed, return to the dehydrator for 30 - 60 mins, until both sides are dry to the touch but still pliable.
* Flax meal is flax seed that have been ground in a coffee grinder or similar, to produce a fine flour.
These are really tasty and are an excellent substitute for the heavy grain kind. We used some made yesterday for some burritos for dinner with "not fried no beans", and they were delicious. I also got my salsa groove on with another interesting salsa:
1 10 oz. bag frozen corn, thawed
2 avocados, diced
1 chopped sweet pepper
1/2 a pineapple, chopped up
1/2 a large onion, diced small
splash of lemon juice
salt to taste
This made a huge bowl that we ate as salad with some romaine on our "burritos". Good stuff.
Once the dehydrator was loaded up, it was time to make the no-beans and then tackle the cheese. First we made a small batch of yogurt to have with the blueberries. I just made the hemp sour creme and mixed in some honey and vanilla bean. Ummm Umm good. We had that tonight for our FHE treat we didn't get last night. Then we made several batches of "cheddar" since we use it for so many applications. I also started the broccoli marinating so we could have our broccoli cheese soup for dinner. After the cheddar, we finished up with raisin cheese, and then I put the package of mushrooms on to marinate so we could have it with out green spaghetti later in the week. I find mushrooms will hold better in marinade than in their plastic grocery store package.
I shouldn't neglect to mention that Darius made yogurt shakes for breakfast this morning. He wanted to try a spinoff of my lemon shakes. He made a cherry version which was delicious. It really is hard to screw this stuff up. It seems like a no-brainer! We snacked on the zuke chips and fruit the rest of the day until dinner.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Asian Night
We worked very hard much of the day, so it was good that we began our day (after a few hours of light work) with the banana mambo. Our bananas are ripening fast, so that is another good reason to have this special breakfast. It's the bananas with almond honey butter on them, plus raisins and sunnies. Ummm, Ummm, good!
Our dinner consisted of zucchini shredded with peanut sauce. We also mixed in some shredded carrot, julienned yellow pepper, and julienned mango. It was great. We still had cole slaw and ensalada left over from the weekend, so Alicia mixed them into a salad with some romaine hearts. It was really good even though it sounded a little weird as we were talking about it. I'm a big fan of cabbage all of a sudden, I don't know why.
Mock Peanut Sauce
1 recipe almond butter (about 1/2 cup if you don't make your own)
1 1/2 T lemon juice
1 T maple syrup
1 T nama shoyu
1 t crushed garlic
1/2 t grated fresh ginger
dash cayenne
dash salt
water to blend (approx 1/2 cup)
lasts 5 days
In the dehydrator, I put 2 more pounds of zucchini rounds to see what the dehydrated yield would be. The tomatoes turned out perfect as did the other things from yesterday. I made some tortillas to have with the sunflower seed pate tomorrow. I have some cheese that needs mixing, but it's late, so I'll have to do that tomorrow.
Last night I made the honey almond butter, and everyone went crazy over it, so I am dehydrating soaked and sprouted almonds like nobody's business so that I can keep up with the demand. I was hoping to have some for the seminary kids tomorrow.
Our dinner consisted of zucchini shredded with peanut sauce. We also mixed in some shredded carrot, julienned yellow pepper, and julienned mango. It was great. We still had cole slaw and ensalada left over from the weekend, so Alicia mixed them into a salad with some romaine hearts. It was really good even though it sounded a little weird as we were talking about it. I'm a big fan of cabbage all of a sudden, I don't know why.
Mock Peanut Sauce
1 recipe almond butter (about 1/2 cup if you don't make your own)
1 1/2 T lemon juice
1 T maple syrup
1 T nama shoyu
1 t crushed garlic
1/2 t grated fresh ginger
dash cayenne
dash salt
water to blend (approx 1/2 cup)
lasts 5 days
In the dehydrator, I put 2 more pounds of zucchini rounds to see what the dehydrated yield would be. The tomatoes turned out perfect as did the other things from yesterday. I made some tortillas to have with the sunflower seed pate tomorrow. I have some cheese that needs mixing, but it's late, so I'll have to do that tomorrow.
Last night I made the honey almond butter, and everyone went crazy over it, so I am dehydrating soaked and sprouted almonds like nobody's business so that I can keep up with the demand. I was hoping to have some for the seminary kids tomorrow.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Sunday Must Have - Mango Salsa
Let's see. Saturday we worked the market all day. The red flame grapes are wonderful, and we are all so glad to see them again after about 6 months with no grapes. I'm not a big fan of blueberries, but we got some very nice ones. I was going to make some parfaits, but we have very few left, so we'll see.
I had a lot of lemons left over, so I decided to try a tip I got from a dehydrator newsgroup. I sliced some up very thinly and dehydrated them on a teflex sheet. When we tasted the finished dry product, they taste like a lemon drop candy without the sugar. There is a small amount of sweetness there anyway. It was a very surprising discovery because I was going for a dried product I could whirl up in the food processor to make a lemon "powder". It will be fun to experiment with it.
I also put some sliced yellow peppers and zucchini in there. Today I did some tomatoes. I like snacking on these items, and the peppers work great in recipes - they add flavor to wet product without diluting it.
Last night we had our pesto on shredded zucchini. Oh my, that is good stuff. I have a pound of basil left over from market I am going to make into pesto. I'm excited to do a little more experimenting with it.
We are going to step up the rejuvelac production. We are using a lot of it - about a half gallon a day. I want to do some videos of that this week.
Today we made a delicious salsa for lunch that involved 1 yellow pepper, chopped; 2 mangos cut in small pieces; 1/2 onion, chopped; parsley; lemon juice; 1 cup corn; tomatoes, chopped, as desired for color and taste. It was fantastic! We used it as a filling with lettuce leaves or tortillas. We also had some ensalada which rounded our lunch out well.
I had a lot of lemons left over, so I decided to try a tip I got from a dehydrator newsgroup. I sliced some up very thinly and dehydrated them on a teflex sheet. When we tasted the finished dry product, they taste like a lemon drop candy without the sugar. There is a small amount of sweetness there anyway. It was a very surprising discovery because I was going for a dried product I could whirl up in the food processor to make a lemon "powder". It will be fun to experiment with it.
I also put some sliced yellow peppers and zucchini in there. Today I did some tomatoes. I like snacking on these items, and the peppers work great in recipes - they add flavor to wet product without diluting it.
Last night we had our pesto on shredded zucchini. Oh my, that is good stuff. I have a pound of basil left over from market I am going to make into pesto. I'm excited to do a little more experimenting with it.
We are going to step up the rejuvelac production. We are using a lot of it - about a half gallon a day. I want to do some videos of that this week.
Today we made a delicious salsa for lunch that involved 1 yellow pepper, chopped; 2 mangos cut in small pieces; 1/2 onion, chopped; parsley; lemon juice; 1 cup corn; tomatoes, chopped, as desired for color and taste. It was fantastic! We used it as a filling with lettuce leaves or tortillas. We also had some ensalada which rounded our lunch out well.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Pizza!
Shredded up 15 large onions for 9 trays of crispy onions. Tried our pizza tonight with the buckwheat crust, pesto, crispy onions, sliced tomatoes, and marinara. It was surprisingly good. (I had not expected to like it.) Actually it was delicious, and this is coming from someone who is not fond of buckwheat.
Made the no-fat milk shakes for everyone today, and it was a hit. No complaints. So the high fat versions are out the window. These really agree with me. Darius went on a juicing spree doing several quarts of every juice available, so we'll all be quite juicy for the next little while.
Too tired to post recipes tonight, but I'll get to them along with pictures soon. Things have been very hectic with the kids moving down, so I'm assuming things will get back to normal when we get all of that out of the way (whatever normal is).
Made the no-fat milk shakes for everyone today, and it was a hit. No complaints. So the high fat versions are out the window. These really agree with me. Darius went on a juicing spree doing several quarts of every juice available, so we'll all be quite juicy for the next little while.
Too tired to post recipes tonight, but I'll get to them along with pictures soon. Things have been very hectic with the kids moving down, so I'm assuming things will get back to normal when we get all of that out of the way (whatever normal is).
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