Overgrown Green Beans?

My favorite way to eat green beans is to grill or saute them very briefly- so they're bright green and still snappy.  But when I've neglected to harvest the beans for over a week, I end up with overgrown pods that I'm tempted to toss in the compost.  These beans are way too tough to eat nearly raw- you'd get a serious jaw workout trying to get these down.

This is where Southern cuisine saves me.  While I typically shy away from long-simmered vegetables in favor of fresh flavors now, I have to admit there's a place in my kitchen for green beans boiled up until they nearly fall apart.  I just leave out the bacon grease.

I used to sit and eat cold green beans straight out of the can when I was a little girl.  I loved the tenderness of the pods, the way you could split them in half and eat the little beans from inside and, of course, the extreme saltiness of the canned beans.  Even better were canned green beans with little skinned new potatoes (also canned).

So now, when I have overgrown green beans, I just toss them into a pot with some little potatoes (skin on for me, now), a chopped onion, and water to cover and boil away until everything is tender as can be.  A vegetable bouillon cube, sea salt and pepper is all that is needed to flavor this dish.

This past week I served these up with an heirloom tomato salad dressed with olive oil, honey and red wine vinegar.  The bowl of purple hull peas on the side was a last minute addition to the menu- I just dropped the frozen peas into the crockpot with an onion and some water before I went to work.  When I came home, they were perfectly cooked and ready for dinner.

Eat Local Challenge: Day 1

I'm taking a slightly less obsessive approach to the Eat Local Challenge this year. Or at least I'm trying. Last year a few Co-op staff members gave it 110% and ate predominately local from June 1-Sept. 15.

Staring at the avocado, mango, and almond milk in my pantry right now, I'm astonished that I was able to do the challenge for so long. I think there are some normal stages a person goes through in the process of doing the Eat Local Challenge- And I'm starting right back at the beginning. There's the the excited, motivated stage. Then there's the grieving stage (Otherwise known as the "WTF! I though my favorite ___was local" stage). Then complacency. Then self-righteousness. Then a little boredom and the realization that it's not so hard to eat local. Or maybe it's just me that gets emotions all tangled up with my food choices...

Anyways, even though I knew that today was the first day of the challenge, I didn't really prepare. I ate leftover mashed potatoes for breakfast- the potatoes weren't local. And I finished off the last of my PB Chocolate Zigzag ice cream so I would have to make my own local ice cream later.

Luckily, my eating habits improved later in the day!

A Green Bean Meal

The toasted sunflower seeds give this dish extra protein and a nutty flavor that complements the bright vinegar. The seeds, beans, garlic, and herbs are all local. I used a lemongrass infused olive oil that I made last year, but regular olive oil would work well.

4 Tbsp. raw sunflower seeds

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 pound fresh green beans (I used a wax, purple, and green mixture)

4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1 handful fresh dill, chopped

1 handful fresh basil, thinly sliced

Splash of white wine vinegar

salt and fresh black pepper to taste

In a dry cast iron skillet, toast the raw sunflower seeds until golden and fragrant. Set seeds aside. Heat oil in the same skillet over med/high heat. Add the green beans and stir frequently while cooking. It's nice if some of the beans get seared, but you just want to keep most of them crunchy. Add the garlic and cook just 1 minute longer. Remove pan from heat and add fresh herbs, sunflower seeds, and a splash of vinegar (maybe 1-2 Tbsp.). Finish with a generous dose of fresh cracked black pepper and a fine sea salt.

I'll Have the Vegetable Plate...

I had a really nice day today (so far).  

I went to a yoga class this morning and then went to work to teach a class about eating less meat and transitioning to vegetarianism.  It was a fun class with lots of samples- my favorite kind!

Then I picked up some fresh produce and headed home.  I was a little frustrated for a while because our house has been pretty messy lately.  But I sucked it up and just started cleaning.  I don't want to say how long it has been since I've mopped, so let's just say that it's a seasonal activity and winter was not the mopping season.  

As a reward for mopping (why not?), I made myself a super awesome vegetable-centric dinner right before I mopped the kitchen.  Then I took my food out on the deck when I was done and ate while watching the blue jays gather all the food the squirrels knocked out of the bird feeder.  The lilacs and the apple tree have buds on them!

Now I'm relaxing with some Late July Vanilla Bean and Green Tea sandwich cookies, some almond milk, and season 1 of House, MD from the library- I can't think of much that is more fun than that!

My dinner was inspired by some rockin' good food I tasted from the Mississippi Market deli today.  When you work at the same co-op for a long time, the deli food can get kind of boring sometimes.  But I ALWAYS look forward to the spicy cucumber and peanut salad. 

 And now I'm also in love with the Green Beans Pomodoro.  So I tried to replicate them at home.  Sure, I could probably ask our deli manager for the recipe...but that'd be cheating!  It's much more fun this way!

Green Beans Pomodoro

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1/2 pound fresh green beans, tipped and tailed

3-4 cloves of garlic, minced

3/4 cup drained canned tomatoes (I had fire roasted ones open)

sprinkle of salt and fresh ground black pepper

2 Tbsp. minced fresh basil

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium high heat.  Add the olive oil and swirl around bottom of pan.  Add the green beans and cook, stirring a few times, until bright green with some browned sides.  Then turn off the flame and add  the garlic and tomatoes.  Let the residual heat from the pan lightly cook the green beans for a minute or two more.  Then sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste and top with the fresh basil.  Serve hot or cold.  

I didn't really write down measurements for the Spicy Cucumber Salad, but here are my approximations:

Spicy Cucumber Salad

1 cucumber, halved lengthwise and sliced 1/4 inch thick

1/2 cup roasted and salted peanuts

1/2 jalapeno, with seeds!

3 Tbsp. cilantro, minced

2 green onions, minced

Sprinkling of seasoned rice vinegar

Salt to taste

Combine everything and refrigerate until ready to eat.  Tastes best after marinating a bit.

Take my word for it

I've cooked up a storm this week, but have nothing much to show for it. You'll just have to take my word for it. I made a Peanut Butter Cheesecake for some friends, but forgot to take a picture. Then I made a tofu quiche for an event and again forgot to take a picture. I was even going to take pictures of some yummy road trip food yesterday again forgot.

Now, I know I could tell you all about these foods without pictures, like how the peanut butter cheesecake batter was so rich that I felt sick after licking a fair amount of batter from the inside of my food processor (Don't worry, guys, this was after your cheesecake was safely in the oven).

And I could tell you about how I got home at 11pm last night after a long day at a Wisconsin Bluegrass festival and still needed to make a quiche for an event at 9am this morning. I almost didn't make it, but then decided I just couldn't pass up an opportunity to make quiche. The crust of a quiche is really my favorite part, so I had to make it from scratch. I filled the crust with sundried tomatoes, (local) broccoli, onions, garlic, and (local) mushrooms. The quiche itself was the tofu, soy cheese, turmeric base from The Garden of Vegan.

But describing food is not nearly as much fun as looking at it (or eating it, for that matter).

So finally tonight I took a picture my dinner!
I love polenta because it cooks up relatively quickly and can be seasoned with anything your heart desires. This polenta has sage and thyme from the garden along with salt and pepper. That's it. The green bean, tofu, mushroom mixture was the best part.

Lately everything I've been making has been seasoned with maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, tamari, and a touch of sesame oil. So guess what the sauce on this is...?

The tofu was marinated in this new favorite sauce and chopped up kinda little. I heated some olive oil in a cast iron skillet and fried up the little tofu pieces, then added the green beans from the backyard. Next I threw in 2 thinly sliced cippolini onions (local), sliced creminis (local), and a pasillo chili from the garden. As soon as the mushroom started to wilt, I poured in the sauce and took it off the heat, scraping up the bits from the bottom of the pan into the sauce.

This meal came together really quickly and I'm hoping it will taste even better in my lunch tomorrow. I was really surprised how much the sage from the polenta really stood out, even with the assertive balsamic vinegar & maple flavors. Yum!

Snap

I just finished teaching my "Vegetarian Trinity: Tofu, Tempeh, and Seitan" class tonight. I think it went over really well. We had barbecue seitan, tempeh sausage, and lemon-herb tofu crisps. So I've tasted and cooked enough protein to last me for weeks! Hopefully these folks will be inspired to give tofu a try again or finally try to make their own seitan.

Tonight I couldn't imagine cooking anything else, so I just picked some lettuce and snap peas from the garden for a big salad.
{Does anyone want any lettuce? I can't seem to use up all the lettuce in the garden and it's going to be bitter soon. How many mixing bowls of lettuce do I have to eat in a day?}

Anyways, the snap peas are just out of this world right now! I picked some up at the farmer's market this past weekend and cooked them up last night with some zucchini and tons of herbs and served them alongside some boiled potatoes.

Then we got in our local snap peas at the co-op...Yippee! They are better than candy. First a crisp, loud snap and then the crunch. Last comes the rich sweetness that you just can't get from sugar. I'm really enjoying them raw or quickly cooked in some Earth Balance and herbs. How do you cook your snap peas?

Ah, Salads

I hate to burst anyone's expectations/stereotypes, but this vegan doesn't usually eat a ton of salad. Sure, I crave salads during the summer, but usually it's the dressing that motivates me to eat lettuce (other raw veggies are more enticing). But since starting this local challenge, I've been eating salads every day.
My garden is bursting with lettuce (butter leaf, romaine, and mesclun mix) and we've got local spinach at the co-op, so I've got to take advantage of it. Plus, the radishes and strawberries are plentiful and both are great on a big salad. This salad has a mix of my garden's lettuces, barbecue seitan (recipe to be used in my "Vegetarian Trinity: Tofu, Tempeh, and Seitan" class next week), cucumber, radish, and chive flowers. The dressing is ranch made with homemade soy yogurt.

While this salad (and all the others) have been amazingly delicious and fresh, I really want more than lettuce, radishes, cucumber, and beets on my vegetable plate. So I was thrilled to find these babies ready in the garden today:

While these are the lone snap peas large enough to pick, there are more on the vine that are a promise of vegetable diversity to come. I'll enjoy these in my lunch tomorrow!

*Sorry for the lack of posting lately- my blogging is divided amongst three sites right now. As soon as we "go live" with the co-op's Eat Local blog, I'll post a link for you to enjoy my and my co-workers' fun with local eating. The Eat Local America blog is here.

Sprung

Spring has officially sprung when we get ramps, fresh peas, and sorrel in at the co-op. I really wanted to make a side dish that combined all three of these lovely spring vegetables- so here's my creation:

Spring Sorrel and Peas

1 Tbsp Earth Balance
6 ramps, chopped (green portion discarded)
1/2 cup fresh English peas, shelled
1 bunch sorrel (about 2-3 cups)
1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves
black pepper
sea salt
1 tsp. Veganaise (optional)

Heat the Earth Balance over medium heat in a small saute pan. Add the ramps and the English peas and cook for about 3 minutes. Then add the sorrel and thyme and cook another 3 minutes, or until sorrel has wilted. Finish with several grinds of black pepper and salt to taste. If the sorrel is too lemony-tart for your taste, try stirring in a tsp. of Veganaise. The creamy texture works well with the peas and cuts some of the tartness of the sorrel.



The surprise standout of the meal, however, was not the sorrel and peas (Duh, Liz, these kids are 8 years old).

But it wasn't the pasta and "meat" balls (made from leftover blackeyed peas and rice) either. It was the roasted green beans and carrots! We all loved these and were so sad when we couldn't have seconds...So I suggest making a lot.

Roasted Green Beans and Carrots

About a pound of green beans, trimmed and cut in half
2 carrots
2 Tbsp. olive oil
coarse sea salt
black pepper
a touch of fennel seed, crushed (optional)
1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar

Heat the oven to 400F (perhaps for "meat" balls, too?). Cut carrots crosswise into 3 sections, then thinly slice them lengthwise. Toss the carrots and green beans with the olive oil in a cast iron skillet or other oven-safe dish. Sprinkle with sea salt, black pepper, and just a pinch of crushed fennel seed. Roast for about 5 minutes- or until carrots and green pepper are just tender. Finish with balsamic vinegar and toss to coat. Serve immediately.

Everyday Foods

I have few random food pictures from the last week...I tried to think of a theme for them all, but I don't think there is one. Except maybe everyday foods for us. Okay. That will work.
So here they are:

This was a snack plate I put together for the kids and I last week. It includes carrots, celery, apples, blood oranges (amazing right now!), and pecans. The dip was just a mix of tahini, garlic red pepper miso, soy yogurt, and tamari. It's amazing how a great dip can make a couple of 8 year olds devour a plate of veggies!
This is just one reason why I love my sweetie so much. It takes a lot of love and an amazing amount of restraint to save the last one of these to bring home to me. Mike made these for his coworkers last week- Hot and toasty Lifestream gluten free waffles with melted peanut butter, melted chocolate chips, and a scoop of Rice Divine vanilla ice cream on top! Wow! It was hot and cold and chocolatey and so peanut buttery that my whole mouth stuck together.

This stir-fry broke all expectations with its deliciousness. I don't aim high when cooking on Monday and Tuesday nights. These are our busiest night when the kids have extra homework. So I didn't expect much and was pleasantly surprised. I marinated some tofu with tamari, garlic, and sesame oil and baked it for about 20 minutes. Then I stir fried broccoli, carrots, and green beans and mixed up a sauce of all the leftover marinade, orange juice, ginger and cornstarch. This one is a keeper.

This was my dinner tonight. I made a ratatouille out of some zucchini, eggplant, and tomatoes that were about to go bad. This really hit the spot served over top of some pasta with some Parma- and it only took about 20 minutes.
Now the ratatouille would have been delicious with some Spicy Italian Sausage added to it. But I figure that if I've already eaten 2 entire sausages dipped in dijon mustard for lunch, I should probably not eat any more today! I tried taking about 6 pictures of this sausage and Trouble kept jumping up and getting in all the pictures. So they are all blurry and serve as evidence that kittens like vegan sausage almost as much as I do.

Tonight was my "Shopping Co-op on a Budget" class at the co-op. It went really well- we had a full house and some folks even stayed afterward to say how much they appreciated it. I think this one is a keeper (plus, it's free and you can't argue with that). With prices of grains and soy going up, I'm starting to think about expanding my garden this year. (As if I needed an excuse to do that).