Kale chips really are good!

I am working on a CSA farm this summer, and we have begun harvesting and distribution. This week the take-home was:

1 bag mixed lettuces.         1 bag kale.          1 carton snow peas.           1 bunch radishes.             1 bunch turnips.       1 bunch pak choi.          Handful broccoli .        Herbs - spearmint, pineapple mint, oregano, thyme, farrow 

I have been hearing so many people and blogs talk about how kale is bitter and hard to cook, but kale chips seem to be wildly popular. And they are amazingly easy to make! Then when searching recipes for turnips, I kept "turning up" (haha) mashed potatoes and turnips recipes. The pak choi lends itself well to stir-frying, add in some extra veggies and you've got yourself a meal! So my good (brave) friend and I embarked upon a cooking adventure to use up most of the farm food.

Mashed Potatoes & Turnips:

2 large potatoes, diced

3-4 turnips, diced

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup butter/margerine

1/4 cup cream cheese or sour cream

Garlic powder

Step 1: Thoroughly wash veggies. Dice potatoes and turnips into small pieces. The smaller, the faster they cook.

Step 2: Put the potatoes and turnips into a pot and cover with water. Get to a rolling boil, then boil for 20 minutes or until soft.

Step 3: When soft, drain and place in a large bowl. Break big chunks with a fork.

Step 4: Add wet ingredients, and blend well. Add as much garlic as you like!

 

The turnips have a soft taste to compliment the starchy potatoes, and of course you can experiment with other milk products and butter and spices or salt. But honestly, after you get used to the first few bites, mashed vegetables au natural tastes like nothing else! And it is delicious. We both had seconds.

Pak Choi Stir Fry:

1 bunch pak choi

1 large carrot

~2 cups snow peas

1/2 cup broccoli

2 tbsp olive oil

Step 1: Thoroughly wash all veggies. Dice the carrots and broccoli into bite-sized pieces. Put the oil into the pan and put on medium heat.

Step 2: Add veggies in order of firmness, carrots and broccoli first, then snow peas, then pak choi for the last 5 minutes. Stir and keep covered throughout.

About 10 calories per serving, mostly from the oil! You can also steam the veggies.

 

Kale Chips:

1 head kale

2 tbsp olive oil

~2 tbsp sea salt

Option seasonings - we did one batch with chili powder to spice it up

Step 1: Tear the kale leaves from the main stem, and tear into bite size pieces.

Step 2: Place in a bowl and drizzle olive oil, in small amounts. Toss until just coated.

 Step 3: Lay in single layer on a cookie sheet. Bake at 300 for ~20 minutes, tossing once. When chips are just beginning to turn brown and are crispy to the touch, they're ready.

Crispy, healthy Kale chips!

These chips are light and airy, but totally delicious. It's a strange sensation your first bite, but I guarantee it won't be your last!

Dinner fresh from the farm!

Cous cous vegetarian stuffed peppers

So I'm going to a dinner party, and planned to bring my old standby, stuffed peppers . However, at least one of the guests is vegetarian, and I am also trying to eat a more vegetarian diet. So I decided to get the best of both worlds, and make both! 

Veggie:

3 bell peppers (any color)

1/2 cup cous cous

1/2 cup boiling water

1/2 cup asparagus, cut into 1 inch pieces

1/2 cup broccoli

3 large baby bella mushrooms

1/2 onion

1/2 cup diced red bell peppers

Lemon juice, soy sauce (optional)

Garlic powder, cumin, sea salt, olive oil

Step 1: Add 1/2 cup boiling water to 1/2 cup cous cous and microwave 3 minutes.

 Step 2: Cut up all the veggies while its cooking.

 Step 3: To cooked cous cous, add about 1 tbsp garlic powder, 1 tsp cumin and 1 tbsp olive oil. Fluff well & set aside.

Step 4:  Add a tbsp olive oil to a frying pan, and begin sauteeing veggies, hardest one first. Broccoli and asparagus, then peppers and onions, and finally the mushrooms. I added a squirt of lemon juice and a dash of soy sauce too.

 Step 5: Add cooked veggies to cous cous and mix well.

Step 6: Stuff the peppers with the mixture. Cook in oven at 350 for 1 hour, or a Crock Pot on high for one hour. Sprinkle with cheese if you like.

 

Tonight at the party we will see how well I did! I snuck a spoonful while stuffing though, and it tastes pretty darn good. I included some shots of my meat-eater stuffed peppers too, just to make you drool a little! =)

Cooking the meat and rice

Cooked meat & onions, rice, and tomato sauce stuffing!

Scooping the filling into the peppers

Mmmmm stuffed bell peppers!

Vegetarian Stir Fry

This is one of my favorite go-to meals because: 

a) it is quick

b) it is easy 

c) it is cheap

d) it is different and delicious every time! 

Stir fry is great because it is so versatile. Basically it's rice and whatever else you want to put in it! I'm sure I will be stir frying a LOT this summer, because I'm working on an organic CSA farm (http://www.facebook.com/schoonerfarms) and will have a ton of fresh veggies once the growing season gets into full swing. Also, I'm trying to eat at least 2 full days a week vegetarian, for health purposes. So anyways, here is the stir fry du jour.

Ingredients: 

1/2 cup white rice ($2 for 24 oz)

2 large baby bella mushrooms ($1 for the pack)

Handfull snow peas (Free from the farm)

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped ($1 for pepper)

1/2 large carrot, shredded ($1 for 1 lb bag)

1/2 cup small broccoli pieces ($1 for a head)

1 stick celery (~1 for 2 lbs)

2 tbsp each soy sauce, olive oil, Worcestershire sauce

Garlic salt

Total cost: ~$2

Step 1: assemble ingredients, put oil in a frying pan on low. Boil water for the rice.

Step 2: Dice up all the veggies while the rice cooks.

Step 3: Begin cooking veggies, toughest one first. I put in the broccoli for about 2 minutes alone, then the celery and peppers, then the carrots and peas, and finally the mushrooms. It helps to add a few tbsp water and cover tightly to steam them for a few minutes.

Step 4: Add the cooked rice and sauces, fry everything together for a minute or 2, and enjoy! There are endless variations of this, you can add as much sauce and different kinds or none at all, you can scramble an egg or add meats if you like. This is also very frugal and budget-friendly because you can use up all the odds and ends of vegetables in your fridge before they go bad!

Thai-style tilapia and pak choi

I love Thai food, and recently came across a recipe for Thai-style steamed fish. So of course I took it and made it my own based on what I had in the house. I had just brought home some fresh pak choi (an Asian vegetable like cabbage?) from the farm I'm working on. I also had one more tilapia fillet in my freezer, and a lemon in my fridge. So...

Ingredients:

1 tilapia fillet

4 small bunches pak choi, rinsed and roots cut off

1/2 lemon + juice

Garlic powder

Sea salt

Thai red chili spices

Olive oil

Aluminum foil

First, roll up the sides of the aluminum foil a bit so the oil doesn't run out. Pour about 2 tbsp oil in, add a bit of spices. Put the tilapia on top, and another sprinkle of spice. Then squeeze half the lemon juice, and add a slice or 2 for good measure. Arrange the pak choi around the fish, sprinkle garlic and sea salt over it all.

 Roll up the sides and seal the top, leaving space for steam to circulate. Put in the top part of a steamer.

 Let this cook for about 20 minutes, or until the greens are wilted and the fish is white and flakes with a fork.

The greens have a tangy bitterness from the lemon juice, and the fish's natural flavors complement the bite of the red Thai chili spices. It smells lovely, and tastes fantastic! Plus it is only 400 calories!

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 1
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 403.4

• Total Fat: 30.6 g
• Cholesterol: 55.0 mg
• Sodium: 2,553.3 mg
• Total Carbs: 13.9 g
• Dietary Fiber: 6.6 g
• Protein: 26.4 g

Steak salad

In summer, everything tastes better on the grill. So when craving beef, it is only natural to want to grill a steak. I don't have pictures of them, but I wish I did. Because I came home to a pound and a half steak that was bigger than my head! That's what I get for letting my manly man boyfriend plan dinner. So there was a sizable chunk left (of mine anyways) for the next day. Since we had also bought a head of romaine and I work on a farm, a salad with steak on top worked wonderfully. The farm I work on had radishes by the truckload, and some wild leafy greens that I had harvested 2 days before. Add to it the last leftovers of a veggie tray from a Memorial Day cookout, and a beautiful salad took shape.

Ingredients:

4 oz steak

2 cups torn romaine

1/2 cup leafy greens

1/2 cup baby carrots

2 radishes, sliced

Handful broccoli florets

Balsamic vinaigrette

Put all the vegetables on top of the greens, microwave the steak slices for a minute and top with 2 tbsp. balsamic vinaigrette. Tasty and super healthy! Of course, you don't need the steak on top if you're vegetarian or vegan. You can also use any other kind of grilled meat if you're into that. =)