With all that garden bounty and a tight time budget to the table what to do, what to do... I have a crisper, to my delight, filled with zucchini and peppers along with a garden brimming with grape tomatoes. The sky is the limit with the concoctions one might come up with this bounty on hand. Last night I had a bit of pesto to get used as well so I roasted up the veg to serve along with some pasta with a pesto cream sauce. You could change this up to use up what you have on hand but this is the one I came up with last night:
First - Roasted Veg :
1 yellow zucchini (1" diameter)
1 green zucchini (1")
1 ea. yellow, red and orange pepper
1 garlic head with top cut off
1T. dried basil
1t. dried oregano
generous sprinkle fresh ground pepper
In a glass baking dish toss with olive oil and roast at 450 for 20 minutes, toss add 2 c. grape tomatoes and roast another 20 minutes. When done pop garlic from cloves and mash, toss with veg.
Meanwhile: Cook whole wheat pasta of your choice - I like to use a Penne or tube pasta
Sauce:
In a saucepan melt 1/8 c. butter, and 1/8c. flour, add pepper and salt to taste. Stir for about a minute with wire whisk. Add 1-1/2c. milk simmer to thicken. Add 1/2 c. parmesan.
When everyone is ready: Toss pasta with 3T. pesto, then add cream sauce and about 1/2 veg (pureed if you like). Top with remaining veg.
Serve - yummy!
Monday, September 21, 2009
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Salt...more complicated than I first thought...
Salt, one of the four or for some five basic food taste sensations. Once I began researching salt I was amazed at some of the information I found. Salt really is an incredible resource with multiple chemical and physical properties making possible 14,000 known uses. It has been used since the day of the cave man and has enhanced the quality of our lives in more respects than our tastebuds. Once used by multiple civilizations as a currency, access to this common mineral has been the source of wars and revolutions.
Salt production globally was about 250 million tons in 2006 – only 5% foodgrade – with 6.78 billion people in the world that is an average of 5 g/person/day or 5000mg, frightening......given that the FDA recommends no more than 2400 mg with many other organizations advocating less than 1500 mg. Statistics show that average consumption by our neighbours to the south hovers about 4-6,000 mg/ day.
Contrary to popular opinion most of the salt you consume is not coming out of the shaker, or the grinder, it is part of many of the products we use on a day to day basis. Eating fast food is not the only way to OD although I was stunned to find that a Chicken Caesar salad from McDonalds packs over 1600mg of sodium more than double what you would get from a large fries.
I did a little hands on research in my pantry and there are some unlikely items that pack a nasty punch of sodium - for instance:
Organic chicken stock - 590mg per 1 cup
Organic Tomato Sauce - 280mg per 1/4 cup
Campbell's Chicken Noodle (not proud to have this in my pantry but yikes!)890mg per 1/2 cup
Dare Bear Paws - 2 cookies 240mg per 1pk of 2 cookies
Vector Cereal - 365mg per 1-1/4 cup serving
There are some options to tantalize your taste buds besides the run of the mill table salt. I have been using Sea Salt for years but have recently learned about Himalayan Salt. This salt prides itself on qualities including a high mineral content. Although it is touted for it's healing properties I could not find any substantiated claims to back that up as most sites with information are also selling the product. The claims include that the salt contains 84 trace elements and iron. I have heard that the taste is different and I am looking forward to trying it.
I do cook most of what my family eats from scratch, however I do often use canned veg and stocks. For now, I'll be checking the labels...
,
Salt production globally was about 250 million tons in 2006 – only 5% foodgrade – with 6.78 billion people in the world that is an average of 5 g/person/day or 5000mg, frightening......given that the FDA recommends no more than 2400 mg with many other organizations advocating less than 1500 mg. Statistics show that average consumption by our neighbours to the south hovers about 4-6,000 mg/ day.
Contrary to popular opinion most of the salt you consume is not coming out of the shaker, or the grinder, it is part of many of the products we use on a day to day basis. Eating fast food is not the only way to OD although I was stunned to find that a Chicken Caesar salad from McDonalds packs over 1600mg of sodium more than double what you would get from a large fries.
I did a little hands on research in my pantry and there are some unlikely items that pack a nasty punch of sodium - for instance:
Organic chicken stock - 590mg per 1 cup
Organic Tomato Sauce - 280mg per 1/4 cup
Campbell's Chicken Noodle (not proud to have this in my pantry but yikes!)890mg per 1/2 cup
Dare Bear Paws - 2 cookies 240mg per 1pk of 2 cookies
Vector Cereal - 365mg per 1-1/4 cup serving
There are some options to tantalize your taste buds besides the run of the mill table salt. I have been using Sea Salt for years but have recently learned about Himalayan Salt. This salt prides itself on qualities including a high mineral content. Although it is touted for it's healing properties I could not find any substantiated claims to back that up as most sites with information are also selling the product. The claims include that the salt contains 84 trace elements and iron. I have heard that the taste is different and I am looking forward to trying it.
I do cook most of what my family eats from scratch, however I do often use canned veg and stocks. For now, I'll be checking the labels...
,
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Garden of plenty...
Well summer was a bit slow on the blogging front for me... It was nice to leave technology to the side and focus on the 3D world for a while. Now that September is here it is time to reconvene with reality.
The garden tomatoes are a plenty .... we have some large heirlooms but most abundant are the strawberry tomatoes. I wanted to share a couple of the recipes that have manifested from them...
First is a roasted veg dish that was born out of panic to make something presentable for unplanned dinner guests. I had planned to have asparagus for dinner but with more people at the table the portions would have been too small..so I blanched the asparagus while roasting one large diced red onion with a beheaded garlic head with a bit of evoo and pepper (no salt) for about 15 minutes, then added the 25ish asparagus spears and about 2 c. strawberry tomatoes tossed and roasted for another 15 minutes or so..squeeze the garlic out and toss before serving. It was actually one of the best roast veg dishes I have ever had - thank goodness given that we had company.
The second is a simple soup. First saute a red onion diced in olive oil, when softened add 2 cloves fine chopped garlic, saute 1 minute. Add about 6-7 med. garden tomatoes loosely diced, 1 T. dry basil, 1/4 t. dry oregano, pepper and a dash of sea salt, 1/4t. sugar and enough organic chicken stock to cover. Simmer for about 20-30 minutes. Serve alongside some cheese biscuits. This is also yummy with a bit of dill added to the pot. The kids devoured this one!!
The garden tomatoes are a plenty .... we have some large heirlooms but most abundant are the strawberry tomatoes. I wanted to share a couple of the recipes that have manifested from them...
First is a roasted veg dish that was born out of panic to make something presentable for unplanned dinner guests. I had planned to have asparagus for dinner but with more people at the table the portions would have been too small..so I blanched the asparagus while roasting one large diced red onion with a beheaded garlic head with a bit of evoo and pepper (no salt) for about 15 minutes, then added the 25ish asparagus spears and about 2 c. strawberry tomatoes tossed and roasted for another 15 minutes or so..squeeze the garlic out and toss before serving. It was actually one of the best roast veg dishes I have ever had - thank goodness given that we had company.
The second is a simple soup. First saute a red onion diced in olive oil, when softened add 2 cloves fine chopped garlic, saute 1 minute. Add about 6-7 med. garden tomatoes loosely diced, 1 T. dry basil, 1/4 t. dry oregano, pepper and a dash of sea salt, 1/4t. sugar and enough organic chicken stock to cover. Simmer for about 20-30 minutes. Serve alongside some cheese biscuits. This is also yummy with a bit of dill added to the pot. The kids devoured this one!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
