Food prep day

I didn't really plan it, but this afternoon I did a giant amount of food prep while the little guy napped. It started with a trip to the farmer's market this morning, where I got some beautiful rainbow-colored Swiss chard. I was inspired by the cold salad a friend made for our post-run meal last night. When I got home to put away my colorful produce (also including peaches, corn, cucumbers, and salsa), I remembered the beets I'd bought last week. They were quickly prepped for roasting, though sadly I waited too long and the greens weren't good to use like I have before:

On to the chard...

Ten stalks of chard got washed, trimmed, and sauteed with olive oil, salt, and pepper, then mixed with sauteed mushrooms, a chopped carrot, a green onion, freshly minced garlic, dried thyme, and crushed red pepper flakes. All of this was mixed with precooked quinoa, and stashed back in the fridge. Dinner side dish/lunch-to-go done.

As the chard-quinoa was mingling flavors and warming through, I started a batch of adzuki beans. They don't require presoaking like many dried beans, and they cook in just about an hour. Great to have available for any number of midweek meals! I'm looking forward to making these burgers, since I also have a few partially-used bell peppers in the crisper.

While the adzukis simmered away, the beets finished roasting. They were gorgeous! Each one just bigger than a golfball, and such a beautiful shade of magenta. I've been craving one of my summer favorites, this beet salad, for a few weeks. For the first time since I started making it, today I toasted the walnuts in a dry skillet before I added them. What a great difference! I used crumbled bleu cheese instead of feta, tossed in some organic celery, dressed it all with olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, pink sea salt, and fresh black pepper, and returned it to the refrigerator. Lunches/snack for me done.

While I was poking around in the fridge, I realized we were out of rice. Thanks to the rice cooker, another batch (plain, white--to feed the gastrointestinally-challenged dog) was ready in a half an hour. Right around this time, two hours after he'd gone down, the little guy woke up. While the rice cooked, I prepped some steaks for The H to grill and stirred up another summer favorite, cucumber-sweet-onion salad. Those two things just get thinly sliced and simply dressed with a mixture of plain yogurt, white balsamic (or red wine) vinegar, evaporated cane juice, sea salt, and pepper. The H and I enjoyed this with dinner, and I was a little bummed I didn't think to make leftovers. Tangy, cool, and refreshing-- the candy onion I used isn't halitosis-inducing at all. Definitely buying more of those at the market! Another dinner side dish done, dog supplement done.

Once the rice was ready, I piled some into the dog's bowl with a scoop of pumpkin and some plain yogurt so he could go to town. The H brought in the steaks, and we sat down to eat. Just then I realized it was the first time I'd sat down since the little guy and I got home from our morning/afternon errands, and my feet were pretty darn tired. But I felt so accomplished! It's a great feeling to have these goodies and makings of meals, along with a stash of my beloved kale-quinoa-chickpeas, in the fridge heading into the weekend. Happy Friday!

Mini meal plan

Do you have a garden this year? How is it holding up in the heat? Our bean plants have all been fried by the sun or eaten, by rabbits I think. The cilantro didn't survive our recent trip to DC. A few of our squash and zucchini plants are thriving. The raspberries shrivel and die before they turn fully red. Our first round of basil--three plants--croaked, and has been replaced by a single plant that is hanging in there. Three tomato plants all have massive growth, flowers, and small green possibilities; I've harvested a total of four golden cherry tomatoes so far. I've never had a big green thumb.

The H and I spent a kidless morning at the farmers' market today and got a few things for this weekend. It was nice to see quite a crowd there despite the high temperature even before noon. Here's what I plan to make next week. It's a pretty sparse plan for now; still trying to work through the fridge and pantry stashes before I stock up on fresh meat and more veggies.

Sunday lunch - shredded beef over rice; cucumber-onion salad
Sunday dinner - quiche with Canadian bacon and yellow squash; caprese salad
Monday - (with friends) seared tuna steaks (chicken for The H); quinoa sopa seca minus bell pepper
Tuesday - grilled honey mustard chicken; lentils & kale *or* kale-quinoa with chickpeas

Any inspiration for the rest of my week? 

I was right...

I had no idea what day it was when we got home! We left for Connecticut on a Sunday, and returned on the second Thursday. For most of our extended  trips, we are gone Sunday through Saturday. When The H travels alone, he gets back on a Friday. So Friday felt like a Sunday to me and Saturday to him. Now that it's Sunday, it feels like...well, something else. I'm all messed up. What a jumble!

The little guy and I made the best of it, however, and made a stop at the farmer's market on Friday for some deliciously seasonal produce. Here's a couple-days meal plan I was able to concoct:

Friday - chicken tacos with cilantro-lime rice, corn on the cob, and homemade pico de gallo
Saturday - my former running partner's wedding! Leftovers for lunch
Sunday - breakfast-dinner for lunch, then homemade pesto pasta with chicken, watermelon, salad in the evening

My lunches on Friday and Saturday were largely composed of this beauty:

A rainbow of tiny tomatoes and fresh mozzarella, both from the farmers market, with basil from my yard and olive oil/vinegar from the co-op. I enjoyed a side of Greek yogurt with local blueberries and raw honey on the side. It was *almost* as good as ice cream. Don't let The H know I said so.

Beans, beans...

One of our favorite summer vegetables is fresh green beans. I got some at the farmer's market last week, since the ones I planted (yes, very late) aren't even growing yet. When we bought them, the little guy was munching them raw! I had a different idea in mind for dinner last night, though. We started eating beans prepared this way a few years ago when I stumbled across a recipe online.

First, sauté diced onion in olive oil. Then add the beans. If you have more beans than I did (one pound) do half at a time.

Stir around so the beans get covered in the oil; season to taste with salt and pepper. Then let 'em sit there and get all black and blistery. Tasty, right? :) The onions get sweet and caramelized, and the beans get *just* tender, but not mushy in the least.

We served these with grilled local beef burgers and cheese from our great state.

Summertime, and the livin' is CHILLY!

The high temperature yesterday was barely into the 70s. It was breezy and sunny, and perfect--as close to fall as we'll get for the next few months! My favorite. I celebrated it with a trip to the farmer's market AND by looking ahead to *real* fall weather and registering for my first full marathon in October! (FYI, a marathon is always 26.2 miles--always. Anything less is not a marathon; anything more is an "ultra"marathon.) I've been following an 18-week training plan for the past 2 1/2 weeks, so it was about time I officially registered. Wish me luck!

Lunch was a lovely little autumnal beet-green-and-poached-egg skillet topped with crumbled goat cheese, sea salt, and black pepper. Those odd little yellow-green things are garlic scapes and green onions, from last week's trip to the market. I chased it all down with a warm, steamy mug of Oregon Chai. Cheers to summertime fall!

Spring has truly arrived!

Know how I know? The little guy and I went to the FARMERS MARKET on Wednesday!

I was happy to see "my" egg person again, selling large and jumbo dozens for $0.50 less than I get them from the local food co-op. When we run out mid-week and co-op pickup night is a few weeks off, this is a great way to supplement.

We also picked up a bunch of fresh asparagus, some of which I roasted for lunch with olive oil, sea salt, and pepper (but forgot to take a picture of), some gifts for Mother's Day, and a cute little basil plant.

My attempt at basil-from-seeds did not, shall we say, go well.

The new plant will get repotted in fresh soil and take up residence in a pot--eventually with some other herbs--on my back porch, where I can move it into the sun or out of the rain as needed. The old one, that has been "growing" since January (I know! I'm not very green-thumby), will get pitched into the garden.

Oh, and since it was "ten o' clock snack time" the little guy and I shared a delightfully gooey fresh pecan cinnamon roll. We've been fortunate to have access to local food throughout the winter, thanks to the co-op, but I love market season and I'm glad it's back!

Now *this* is fall!

The weather here today is nothing short of blustery. Tree-whipping, raindrop-slinging, shutter-shaking blustery. And I love it. This weather inspires a menu based around comfort foods. So long, cold salads. See you next year, outdoor grill. Bring on the CrockPots and roasting pans! To be fair, I do use my slow cookers year-round, but nothing says "fall" quite like a big simmering crock of chili and a pan of cornbread in the oven (too bad I made that last week, when the cooling temps suddenly jumped to 80 and humid...)

In keeping with my newest endeavor of local clean-eating whenever possible (it only seemed a natural progression) I picked up a few new things at the farmers' market last week. Selfishly, it's nice to see the crowds starting to thin (much easier to push a stroller and keep track of a sticky-fingered small boy while juggling my bags), though I know that means people aren't supporting the local farmers as much as they do the summer. I don't want to be just another fair-weather supporter, so I'm currently trying to get The H to let us join the local co-op.

Anyway, one of our latest pleasures has been enjoying palm-frond sized leaves of chard as a "nest" for farm-fresh eggs. I first tasted chard at our anniversary dinner a few weeks ago at a local-food restaurant, and I loved it. Amazingly, it was not hard to reproduce that great flavor and buttery texture at home. I love the guy who sold me the chard; he has consistently given me great advice regarding how to prepare his produce (he's the one who gave me sorrel for free a few months ago, simply because it would complement the dinner I told him I was planning) and the portions he sells are a remarkable value. The eggs, from another local farm, were a wonderfully creamy addition.

Tonight I will attempt to cook a market-bought spaghetti squash to go with our balsamic-marinated roasted chicken breast. This was supposed to be last night's dinner, but a too-long trip to the grocery store necessitated other plans. It's just as well; the howling weather outside much more perfectly matches the fall feel of this meal. I'm planning to stir up a spinach-barley risotto for another side. And tomorrow, it's off to the market again to get more eggs and whatever other treasures are there.