It's art, duh

This is not a photo of the recipe below. It is a similar-looking pot pie from a good appetite blog.

The work to quality ratio of this recipe is extremely low. In other words, it’s good and it’s easy. Perfect for crazy nights of Christmas shopping til late. This is all you do:

Saute a chopped up onion, carrot and 1/2 of a red bell pepper with a bit of garlic. Stir in about 1 cup of corn,  one can of drained/rinsed pinto beans, a small can of diced green chiles  and 3/4 cup vegetable broth.

Cook on low in your slow cooker for 5 hours.

Then stir 1/2 cup milk or unsweetened soy milk into to 1 cup cornmeal, 1 t baking powder and 1/2 t baking soda and 1/2 t salt. Spoon it over the top of the the carrot mixture.

Cook for one additional hour on low.

Serve with shredded cheddar cheese and a dash of hot sauce.

My produce load - from both co-ops

There are two ways to shop the Crossroads Urban Center Food Co-op. The first is their Monday sales, from 3:30 to 6:30 at 1726 S 700 W. Todd and I wandered in the day after totally stocking up and it was AMAZING. A foody’s dream come true, and so inexpensive. So check that out, every Monday.

The second way is to order for the once a month co-op pick ups. We did this last month and it was SO FUN! First of all, the co-op people took over the First Presbyterian Church on C street and laid out food in a huge semi-circle. Second, there was a funeral going on and it felt a little like being a  movie – a cross between Harold and Maude and The Graduate. Todd and I couldn’t stop giggling  (rest in peace and our condolences to the family). I had Scout with me, and she got tons of attention.

The way it works is you order a share in advance, and then choose a pick up location. We ordered 2 shares at 17 dollars each. We got carrots, pears, apples, oranges, four avocados, asparagus, mushrooms, garlic and at least two heads of lettuce. A HUGE box stuffed with food.

Its fun to go pick up produce with other cool cats who live in your neighborhood. It’s also really fun to NOT go to the grocery store – that place is the bane of my existence. The price is greatly reduced, too.

To compare the two co-ops, they are similar in price. A single share from Muir is about twice as big and costs about twice as much. The Muir group’s food seems to be a little more fancy. The Food Co-op is a little more basic, but not greatly so. Both are committed to providing healthy, unprocessed food options.

The biggest upside to the Muir option is that it is offered twice a month. I can’t get by with produce only one time per month. Our plan is to do every other time – so we will get the Food Co-op food in the middle of the month, and the Muir bundle at the end of the month. Should be just about perfect. Place your order and get more info here: foodco-op.net

Bon appetite!

What I made with my Muir treasures

I’ve been fighting making this confession for a long time. . . but I’m a foodie. And like any good foodie, I put a lot of effort into finding local food that costs less.

This past month I tried out two fantastic options.

The first is Muir Fresh Harvest. My friend Laura Muir runs this litte co-op type thing. You can pick up a bundle of food, which is 99% produce, on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month.

The bundle costs $35 plus tax, and there are several pick up locations throughout the valley. I love it for so many reasons. First, its fun to have someone else provide you with a grab bag of produce, and I like searching for recipes to use those ingredients. It also means less time spent at the grocery store – a task I HATE. Third, I’m supporting my friend Laura and local farmers and grocers. Fourth, it’s a big cost savings. The majority of my food budget goes to fresh produce so I’m excited to have a less expensive option.

Here is what is in our bundle for the coming week.

Taylor Gold Pears (6)
Grapes
Strawberries (1 lb)
Blackberries
Heritage Blend Lettuce (1 lb)
Clipped Green Beans (1 lb)
Red Pearl Onions
Russet Potatoes (#5)
Green Cabbage
Yellow Squash (2)
Zucchini (2)
Grotte Caputo’s Artisan Cheese (8 oz)
White Cinnamon Raisin Bread Pullman Style Loaf, Stone Ground Bakery

And this is what I’m planning on making –

Waffles with fruit topping
Coleslaw (and bbq beans)
Lettuce wraps
Tempeh Curry (recipe – http://artduh.com/2011/07/26/todds-favorite-food/)
Green Beans and Pearl Onions

This is  our second bundle, and the only item I haven’t used up is the lettuce. I need to get busy making more salads.

I love the Muir Coop. It’s exactly like Christmas for a foodie! On Thursday I’ll tell you about another food coop option.

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Editor’s note: Laura is taking the next six or so weeks off for the delivery of her second child. We wish her all the best and can’t wait til she gets back. So wait to place your order til January.

October is hug a vegetarian month. Bring me my hugs right now people!

In celebration of this lifestyle, and because I feel it is my personal calling to keep the domestic arts from being crushed under the behemoth weight of the drive-through window, I’m going to share how to save money by making your own vegetable stock.

It bugs me that chicken stock costs so much less than vegetable stock. I personally value the life of a chicken more than the life of a carrot, so I think that vegetable stock should cost less. But then, the capitalists didn’t ask me. . .

To keep from reinforcing the grocery industry for over-charging for vegetable stock, I am now making my own at home. You need a slow cooker, which, in my opinion, is one of humanity’s greatest invention, rivaling sliced bread and indoor plumbing.

To prepare stock, I toss together the following ingredients in my slow cooker and then I allow it to cook on low all night. It is pleasant to wake up to the aroma of soup filling your home, and in the fall and winter I love to welcome people to my home with the smell of home cooking. The next morning, I strain out the vegetables (press on them gently to release the juices) and then I feed the potatoes and carrots to my dogs so nothing is wasted. I use the stock in recipes like French Onion Soup, Quinoa Corn Chowder and other favorites. The recipe is very flexible, so toss in what you have on hand. When I compare the cost of an onion, potato, carrots and a few dried herbs to 4 to 5 dollars for 32 ounces of stock, I feel like I am budgeting my resources well by making my own. Plus this recipe tastes a lot better than the store-bought variety, has less sodium and is MSG-free.

Recipe:
one scrubbed potato quartered
one carrot (or a handful of baby carrots)
celery stick
2 quartered onions (sans top, bottom and skin)
½ t peppercorns
a bay leaf
1T soy sauce
Some recipes call for a little bit of torn up nori – a seaweed sheet – I haven’t tried it but it sounds good
½ t salt
Anything else you have on hand that sounds good
Enough water to almost fill your slow cooker. Mine holds about 8 cups. If yours holds more, use more ingredients.

Happy stock making! I’ll share some stock-using recipes in the coming weeks.

BBQ Vegetarian Chicken Pizza baked by Jessica Payne

Ever since I got my first bread machine in about 1999, I have loved making pizza and calzones. Making pizza at home is SO much less expensive than buying it. Most of my recipes are bastardizations of someone else’s ideas. But, this is a recipe that really, truly I totally made up. After seeing meat eater after meat eater devour barbeque chicken pizza, I decided to make one for devotees of a vegetarian lifestyle.  Here you go and enjoy!

Pizza Stone
A well-seasoned pizza stone is a critical part of making a good pizza in a regular oven. I’ve had mine for about 12 years. I had another one, but I could never get the seasoning quite right for it, and so I chucked it. Follow the instructions to season it, and the stone will absorb moisture, preventing the gag-inspiring soggy crust. You can also keep your leftover pizza on it in the fridge.

Crust

Preheat oven to 500 degrees with pizza stone inside.

In your bread machine mix
2 cups bread flour
2/3 cup warm water
about a tablespoon of yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

Follow your bread machine’s instructions to make the dough. Mine mixes up dough in just 50 minutes. Yours may take longer.

Sauce:
1 small can tomato paste
1 small can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
1 tablespoon dry oregano
¼ generous cup barbecue sauce

Toppings
Cheddar or sharp cheddar cheese
Defrosted and chopped into bite size pieces Quorn or Morningstar vegetarian chicken nuggets (I use the spicy ones)
Slices of red pepper and red onion

Once bread machine finishes mixing dough, roll it into a round crust. Place (carefully, don’t burn yourself) on the preheated pizza stone at 500 degrees, and poke it with a fork to prevent air bubbles. Return to oven for 5 min to bake the crust. Remove pizza stone and crust from oven and cover in toppings. Return to oven and bake for about 10 minutes, or until the bottom of the crust is slightly browned. Slice it up and eat!

I asked my friend, Portia Early (Smobergirl) to fill us in on the smoothie health craze. Thanks, Portia!

This has been one of my favorite power smoothies I’ve ever made since my kick starting in July 2010. I make one smoothie almost every morning for my overall well being. I bought a Vita-Mix blender after a breakup (don’t ask) and it’s been my new boyfriend for about four years making fruit shakes until I worked with an holistic therapist who told me to make a basic breakfast smoothie with a base of kale, any fruit, maca powder, chia seeds, flax, and hemp protein. I’ve been doing that religiously for about a year.

Here’s my gorgeous, chocolate acai smoothie. Acai is a superfruit from the Amazon, and the way it’s harvested does not harm the rainforests. You can find a puree in the frozen section of most health grocery stores in packets from the brand Sambazon. I also use Amazing Greens powder which has acai, as well as flax and maca. So that’s been pretty convenient for my diet. I also got these gorgeous black and red currents from the farmer’s market which add a sweet-tart luxuriousness.

1 scoop Chocolate Amazing Greens powder
1 packet frozen acai puree
1/2 cup currants
1 cup water
3 kale leaves

You can add ice if you want a thicker consistency.

Cheers!~Smobergirl

Its tomato harvest time and varieties from heirloom to cherry are plentiful. If you have an overflowing garden or even a farmer’s bushel, this is my favorite way to keep them from spoiling before you can use them. In a pinch, it also works with Roma tomatoes from the grocery store.

Instructions:
Preheat oven to a low temp, 250 degrees or less. Chop tomatoes into 1 inch-ish chunks and spread in a single layer across a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray (I use as many cookie sheets as my oven will hold). Sprinkle with sea salt. Bake for 6 to 10 hours until the tomatoes resemble plump sundried tomatoes, but are not black and crispy. Store up to 3 weeks in a Tupperware or baggie in the fridge. Serve on pizzas, in pasta or on salads, or eat them like candy.