Fresh Salsa(pico de gallo)

This is my favorite kind of salsa, I make it constantly throughout the summer. You can adjust the spice level to your liking by adding more or less jalapeno.


Ingredients:
4 tomatoes, quartered and seeded and chopped
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
1/2 white onion chopped
1 jalapeno, chopped(remove the seeds and white rib if you don't like heat)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
juice from 1 lime
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon cumin


Make It:
Mix all ingredients in a large bowl and place in refrigerator for at least an hour. Stir and Enjoy!

Butter Carrots and Rutabagas

Well this is my first stab at serving rutabagas to my kids, and they loved them! I'm starting to think my kids will eat anything with butter and honey on it. If only my parents would have thought of that. Just kidding.


Ingredients:
1 rutabaga, pealed
2 carrots, scrubbed and pealed if you want( I don't peel mine)
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons salt

Make It:
Cut rutabaga in half, then slice into chunks. Slice carrots. Bring a pot of water to boiling add rutabaga and carrots and cook for 6 minutes. Drain and add butter, salt and honey. Stir to coat. Enjoy!

No Mayo Coleslaw

I am a big fan of cabbage in any form, and I eat normal coleslaw all the time. When I saw this recipe I thought huh I never even considered making coleslaw without mayonnaise, but I will try anything once. I really enjoyed it and hope you will too.

Ingredients:
2 cups green cabbage, sliced
2 cups red cabbage, sliced
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
juice of one lemon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
4 green onion, chopped


Make It:
In a large bowl whisk together oil, vinegar, honey, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Add cabbage and green onion to bowl. Toss to combine. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours. Enjoy!

Smothered Cabbage

This recipe for smothered cabbage is meat free, and different from every other recipe I have seen for it.

Ingredients:
1 head cabbage, cut up
1 onion cut into slices
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup beef broth
1 tablespoon creole seasoning

Make It:
In a large skillet with high sides melt butter, add onion and cook until softened. Add cabbage and vinegar, stir and cook for 2 minutes. Add beef broth and creole seasoning, stir. Turn heat to low, cover and let simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Enjoy!

Roasted Cauliflower

Ingredients:
1/2 head cauliflower, cut into individual florets
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/4 teaspoon white pepper

Make It:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Toss all ingredients in a large bowl until combined. Pour all onto a baking sheet and roast for 30 minutes, stirring after 15 minutes. Enjoy!

Asian Slaw

Ingredients:

1/2 head cabbage, shredded

1 mandarin orange, peeled and sectioned

1 carrot, shredded

1 or 2 scallions, chopped

1/4 cup asian dressing, any kind will do, add more if it seems to dry

Make It:

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Toss to combine. Enjoy!

Winter Vegetable Puree for Baby

This recipe makes enough to fill an ice cube tray,

a jar, and a serving to be eaten as soon as its ready.

Special Note: If your baby is under nine months old, don't add the broccoli(it is harder to digest) and blend it until smooth.

Ingredients:

3 golden potatoes, peeled

1 broccoli stem, sliced, and boiled until tender

1 large sweet potato or 2 small, peeled, and cut into pieces the same size as the potatoes

1 butternut squash, roasted, and meat taken out

1 cup apple juice for thinning

Make It:

In a 375 degree oven roast potato and sweet potato, for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Cut into smaller pieces. Put potatoes and sweet potato into the blender with apple juice, blend until smooth. Add butternut squash, blend until smooth. Add broccoli and blend until mostly smooth, leaving it a little chunky. Put into an ice cube tray and freeze for later use. Enjoy!

Tips on beets

From what I have noticed not to many people like beets, and others have no idea what to do with them. So here is a little help. First off you can eat the whole thing greens and all. I chopped the beet greens up and tossed them with mushrooms, and green leaf lettuce, you can use any lettuce, and balsamic dressing.

The stalks i'm going to saute with celery and broccoli as a veggie side dish. The beet part takes a little prep but then it can be used in all kinds of recipes. Preheat oven to 375. Take beets and cut off greens and stalks and save, cut off root and discard. Wrap each beet in foil, place on a cookie sheet and bake for an hour or until a fork goes in with ease.

Allow to cool then remove skins. Removing the skins is tricky because they stain. If you have kitchen gloves wear them, I don't so I used plastic sandwich bags to cover my hands, and removed skins over the trash can.

At this point you can use them in a salad or in any beet recipe you have, or you can store them in the fridge until you are ready to use them. Enjoy!

Beets & Red Onion with Feta

Ingredients:

3 beets, baked until tender and skin removed, cut into wedges

1 red onion, cut into wedges

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

feta cheese

Make It:

Heat oven to 400. On a cookie sheet toss beets and onion with vegetable oil. Roast until onions are tender, about 20 minutes. Sprinkle with feta, as much as you like, and put back in the oven. Bake for about 5 minutes until cheese is melted. Enjoy!

Fennel & Carrot Saute

Ingredients:

1 fennel bulb, sliced into thin pieces

2 carrots, sliced at an angle

1/4 cup water

pam

1 tablespoon chopped dill

1 tablespoon butter

pinch of salt

Make It:

Heat a skillet over medium heat, spray with pam, add veggies to pan, and saute for 1 minute. Add water to pan, simmer for 5 minutes, or until water is gone. Add butter and salt to pan and toss to coat. Enjoy!

Abundant Harvest Box and Farmers Market

In the box this week I got a head of cabbage, a head of escarole, 3 beets, butternut squash, fennel, broccoli, carrots, popcorn, apples, oranges, mandarin oranges, bell peppers, and marjoram. From the farmers market I picked up red onion, mushrooms, green beans, lemons, and a loaf of cheddar garlic bread from Great Harvest Bread Company. The weather is changing and we are getting new things. At the time our bodies our fighting off colds and flus we get citrus loaded with vitamin c. I don't have a recipe to use the lemons this week so i'm going to freeze the juice to save for when I need it. Beets and fennel are new so keep your eye out for the new recipes.

Honey Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients:

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into bite size pieces

1 shallot, diced

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon butter

salt to taste

Make it:

Boil or steam sweet potatoes until tender. Heat a skillet over medium low heat, add a spray of pam and shallots to pan. Allow shallots to cook over low heat until soft. Add butter to pan, once it is melted add sweet potatoes, toss to combine. Add honey and salt and stir to combine. Enjoy!

Roasted Orange Vegetables

Ingredients:

1 yam or sweet potato, peeled and cut into bite size pieces

1 butternut squash, peeled cut into pieces a little bigger than bite size

2 carrots, sliced into small pieces

butter

1 tblsp. vegetable oil

salt

Make It:

Make sure your squash pieces are biggest and carrots are smallest, because the squash is softest and will cook the fastest. Preheat oven to 425. On a baking sheet toss all vegetables with vegetable oil. Place in oven and roast for 20 minutes, until all are tender, the carrots will be the hardest so I check them. Dot with butter and sprinkle with salt, lightly stir to combine. Enjoy!

Abundant Harvest Box and Farmers Market

This week in our box we got apples, pears, shallots, gold potatoes, yams, turnips, broccoli, cabbage, butternut squash, arugula, radicchio, carrots, rosemary, and dill. From the farmers market I picked up green beans, grape tomatoes and yellow grape tomatoes(Kili was very excited to still get tomatoes) oranges, red and yellow onion, and mushrooms.

Abundant Harvest Box and Farmers Market

In the box this week we got fuji apples, pears, a head of red leaf lettuce, a pound of spinach, two sweet potatoes, potatoes, 1 bunch cilantro, 2 heads of broccoli, 1 avocado. From the farmers market I got 1 dozen eggs, green beans, corn, apples for applesauce and apple crisp, bell peppers, and oranges.

Abundant Harvest Box and Farmers Market

In this weeks box we got 1 bunch bok choy, 2 bunches carrots. 1 butternut squash, 4 bell peppers, 4 italian sweet peppers, 2 yellow onions, 1 head radicchio, grapes, 4 apples, 4 pears, 2 avocados, 1 bunch arugula, 1 bunch tuscan kale, 5 yams, and lots of persimmons. At the farmers market I picked up 2 pounds of apples, portabella mushrooms(which I stuffed) and eggs.

Homemade Diced Tomatoes

This makes 2 1/2 cups of tomatoes. Take 10 roma tomatoes cut the stem end off then cut in half. With a spoon scoop out seeds and place skin side up on a cookie sheet. Turn broiler on high. Drizzle some olive oil over the top of tomatoes and toss around so they are coated. Place under broiler for ten minutes.

Take them out when the skins are wrinkly. And look like this.
Allow to cool then remove skins and chop up tomatoes to desired consistency. Enjoy!

Abundant Harvest Box and Farmers Market

It was a really good box this week, lots of new stuff!

1 head red leaf lettuce, 1 head napa cabbage, 5 baby turnips, 7 small zucchini, lots of red potatoes, 1 pound of spinach, 4 shallots, lots of pears, 12 persimmons, 1 bunch dill, 3 eggplant, 1 butternut squash. At the farmers market I picked up mushrooms, red and yellow onions, apples, green beans, and 3 red bell peppers( i'm thinking the bell peppers are going to be ending soon so i'm trying to stock up).

We are making applesauce again this week, the kids ate everything we made in two days last week. I also bought another 20 pounds of tomatoes, so I will be busy cooking those up this week.

Abundant Harvest Box and Farmers Market

I was to busy saturday to take a picture, so here is the list. In the box we got 1 bunch collard greens, a spicy pepper mix, 4 bell peppers, grapes, green beans, 4 zucchini, 1 huge yam, red potatoes, apples, pomegranates, and radishes.

It is officially apple season, I love it. At the farmers market I got organic fujis to make applesauce and pippins to make apple pie. I also got mushrooms, bread, red and yellow onions. I get the bread from the great harvest bread company, their bread is fantastic.

Abundant Harvest Box

This weeks box contained 3 eggplants, 4 zucchini, 1 head of cauliflower, 4 bell peppers, 3 bunches of grapes, 1 head baby bok choy, 1 carton cherry tomatoes, 1 bunch arugula, 1 head romaine, 17 red potatoes, and 10 pears. I also went to the farmers market this week and got a big bag of green beans, apples, fresh ginger, celery, scallions, chinese string bean, and mushrooms.