Farm Box Turnips

Yesterday I went to pick up my weekly veggie box and there was a change - no more garlic scapes, but now with blueberries and turnips!
The blueberries are gone; I ate them all immediately and got a sore tummy for it.  There was only 3 small turnips, with the leaves, and so I dug some beef out of the freezer and made a stew.  It tastes a bit wintery for this hot weather, but it's good and I think Baby will like it too.

1 yellow onion
garlic to taste
diced carrot
parsley
turnips and turnip tops
thyme
2 bay leaves
stewing beef
tomato soup
brown sugar
olive oil
flour
Worcestershire sauce
black pepper

Saute diced onion and minced garlic in olive oil until soft; add a tablespoon of dark brown sugar and coat.  Add beef, let it brown a bit and add a spoonful of flour to thicken up.  Add 1 can of tomato soup and 2 cans of water, all the carrots, parsley, and turnips.  Add the herbs and some Worcestershire sauce and black pepper for flavor.  Simmer one hour or more, checking the water level periodically.

I found it could use a bit more salt or some bouillon but I left it out for the baby's sake.  The turnip tops are surprisingly tasty, since I don't like the turnip root that much.

Super Garlic Soup

I've been receiving a CSA Box from a farm for the last two weeks, and they have given me garlic scapes in abundance (the shoots and flowers from garlic).  I had to get creative to eat them.  No beans in today's post, though.

On week one, I made a recipe from the New York Times called Double Garlic Soup.  Then, in week two, I ran out of potato and modified the recipe like this:

one handful of garlic scapes, trimmed
one teaspoon of minced garlic from a jar
one clove of fresh garlic (still juicy, not dry - very potent) - sliced thin
one yellow onion roughly chopped
one yam, peeled and diced
milk
butter
chicken stock/bouillon cube
Greens like Kale or Chard
black pepper

Saute all the garlic and onion for a few minutes, in butter.  Add the scapes and 2-3 large leaves of greens and let soften up a bit.  Add yams, then the stock or water and cube to cover everything and simmer for 20 mins.
Put all in a big blender with some milk to taste, return to the pot and warm up again.  Add pepper if you like.

Best soup I ever made!!

Curry and Sugar

Yesterday I heated up a packet of Dal from 'Gits Ready Meals' out of India.

I have made Dal Makhani myself and although the packet was spicier, which I liked, I still prefer my homemade version.  I applaud their list of ingredients, if it is accurate, which is why I bought it.

I stumbled on the blogs of The Food Babe recently and I am glad I did.  Ever since getting pregnant I have been avoiding aspartame but got hooked on Stevia soda ('Zevia').  Food Babe says that the type of stevia in shelved products is often extracted using a long process involving carcinogens!  No thanks; back to water for me.  Actually, I will look at the natural sodas and might just try one that has real sugar once in a while.

Unhealthy Addiction

When I'm feeling snacky at the grocery store I always look for Cinnamon Sugar pita chips.  Yeah, I know, eating a whole bag of bread is terrible, but eating a whole bag of fried potatoes is not good either.
This week, the store had a new brand called Mrs.Palmer's.  They are made in Cranbrook, BC, and they are SO much better than the other brand I always picked up.  The others were hard while these are airy pockets of puffed pita - I'm in love!

On the baby food side, my baby has been enjoying everything I offer him except green beans!  He tolerated them once when slowly mixed into his pablum, but even then just barely.  He ate my homemade mushroom soup that is heavy with dill and even tried to eat pizza out of my hand which happened to have a coconut curry Korma sauce on it, and he didn't mind.  Hope he keeps enjoying the strong flavors!

Toasted Chickpeas Snack

I just made something delicious; here is the recipe:
Toasted Chickpeas

It took a little longer than an hour - I used soaked beans instead of canned, and seasoned them with Thai Kitchen green curry paste.  Next time I will go spicier.

Busy Food Diary

In the last few weeks I have been so busy!  I often eat late, after Baby has gone to bed, and have been making a big salad almost every night.  I add seeds or nuts and feta or Nutritional Yeast, and I dress it myself with either a lemon dressing or a balsamic based one.  In a pinch I have bottled balsamic in the fridge but it contains pineapple juice which doesn't suit my tastes.

Baby is eating pablum, so after I got him used to the brown rice cereal from a box I tried mixing it with applesauce or peas from a jar, which he really liked.  I was gifted a Baby Bullet blender system and have moved into millet boiled with a piece of ginger and puréed with applesauce.  That is very popular and I'll be adding carrots from a jar later this week.

I recently made an Iranian stew called Khoresh Gheymeh and it turned out excellent!  It contains split peas and beef.  That recipe was followed by an Indian Dal of black Urad beans.  I was surprised that it had milk in it, and although I burnt some of it it tasted pretty good.  I am preparing to make the beef stew again, but instead of plain rice a rice with cranberries and onion in it.  Hooray for leftovers I can heat up quickly!

Lastly I would like to point out three packaged foods that I love.  First, I constantly eat Beanitos pinto flax flavour.  They are tortilla chips with no corn, and are non-GMO.  Good alone or with hot salsa - I am hooked on Mrs.Renfro's habanero mango.  Lastly, I was looking for a healthy fast food late at night and discovered Amy's brand vegan burritos from the freezer.  I usually avoid cheese and they have one with simply rice and beans.

Intro

I find that I often have long conversations with people about food, so this blog is a place for me to continue these discussions in more detail.
Am I a vegetarian? No, but I'm into 'health food', whatever that means.  I eat meat and dairy.  I prefer less-processed foods with short ingredient lists even if they are higher in calories (such as butter).
I have mild Polycystic Ovaries, so my new thing is to try to follow some guidelines:  no soy, less meat and dairy, organics, and dark greens like kale.
I like to go to the farmers market and plan meals around what I find there.  I have a baby who will soon eat solids, so I hope to make his foods, and my husband rarely eats my cooking because he doesn't like veggies.  I eat lots of salads and lots of beans.
Looking forward to sharing further!