Friday Food Frolic! Garden Pesto!

The basil is plentiful in our garden at this time of year,
so I thought I’d share our favorite pesto recipe.

Basil Pesto
2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
½ cup grated parmesan cheese (optional)
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup pine nuts or walnuts (optional)
2 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper to taste

1. Rinse leaves and add to food processor.
2. Add olive oil. More or less depending on how thick you like your pesto.
3. Add garlic and cheese.
4. Add pine nuts/walnuts.
5. Add salt & pepper to taste.
Sometimes I omit the nuts & cheese and it tastes perfectly fine that way, too!
Tip – spend the $$ on quality pine nuts (don’t buy any from China) or you could end up with pine mouth!

How to preserve all that extra basil? Try:
**Drying**
Rinse the leaves and spread them single layer on a screen
OR
Tie the stems together and hang upside down in a dry, airy place.
Once the leaves are completely dry, crush them up into spice jars.
(Be sure they are completely dry or they will get moldy - yuck!)

**Freezing**
Half make the pesto recipe,
by blending just the basil and oil.
Freeze into ice cube trays
then transfer to an airtight freezer container.
Each ice cube holds about 2 tablespoons.
You can freeze the entire pesto recipe, too, if you want.

Yummy Blueberry Buckwheat Muffins!

Blueberry Buckwheat Muffins
1 ¼ cup buckwheat
1 c whole wheat flour
1T baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¾ cup vanilla coconut milk
¼ cup applesauce
1 cup blueberries
¼ cup agave nectar

Mix dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients.
Blend both together – batter will be thick & lumpy.
Spoon into greased muffin tins (makes 12).
Bake in 400 degree oven for 10-12 minutes.
*Hints*

I eat mine with a little Earth Balance spread on them!
Paper liners will stick to the muffins.

And I like to use Bob’s Red Mill Buckwheat Cereal
and grind it a couple of times in the food processor
before baking with it.

Friday Food Frolic! Garden Pasta Salad

In a good year, we can successfully grow most of the veggies in our own garden.  My girls like to pick the veggies and help make the salad.  In a year that the deer help themselves, our local market supplies all the organic veggies we need for this salad.

I like to use Newman's Oil & Vinegar dressing. It's all natural and tastes homemade, so while not organic, it's a great time saver.  Sometimes Meira will want cheese in it and sometimes not, so I left that optional in the recipe.  It makes a great school lunch - filled with protein and veggies and grains - and doesn't need to be heated, so it sits well all morning in a thermos.

Garden Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

1 box of tri-color pasta

1/4 cup chopped red pepper

1/4 cup chopped green pepper

1/4 cup chopped yellow pepper

1/2 cup thinly sliced & peeled cucumber

1/2 cup sliced green olives

1 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced

1 stalk chopped celery

shredded parmesan or mozzarella cheese (optional)

1 bottle Newman's Own Olive Oil & Vinegar dressing

Directions:

1) Boil pasta according to directions on box. 
Rinse & drain under cold water.

2) Mix all veggies in a large bowl.

3) Pour dressing over mixture,
add cold pasta and mix well.

4) Chill (and add cheese, if using) before serving.

Friday Food Frolic! Pancakes

The little ladies don't always eat a big breakfast. We are always on the go in the mornings and breakfast usually consists of berries & a granola bar or a homemade biscuit & milk.

So on the weekends,  we sometimes like to do a big breakfast and a popular request is Pancakes! My base recipe comes from the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook.  I tweak it to make it a little healthier for the little ladies and this is one recipe that they barely notice the difference!

Weekend Pancakes

Ingredients:

1/3 cup flour

2/3 whole wheat flour

1 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp wheat germ

2 tsps baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg, beaten (or replacement equivalent)

1 cup liquid (organic milk/soy milk/almond milk or water)

2 Tbsp melted butter (or any kind of oil substitution - applesauce works really well)
(I always try to use organic ingredients when possible)

Directions:

1) In a large mixing bowl, stir all dry ingredients together.

2) In a small bowl, mix liquid ingredients until well blended.

3) Pour liquid mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients.

4) Stir until blended, but slightly lumpy.

5) Pour about 1/4 cup of batter into your lightly greased frying pan or griddle. 

I keep mine at about medium-hot.

6) When pancakes have bubbly surfaces, flip over to cook the second side.

7) Serve with maple syrup and enjoy!

This is a great base recipe and can be easily changed by adding blueberries or bananas. If you use "purple" all natural applesauce, you'll get purply pancakes!

Friday Food Frolic! Maple Sugar Candy

Candy is a thorn-in-my-side in my house.
Everyone LOVES it and there are constant negotiations
with the little ladies to get their hands on some. 

So as a sort of compromise, we make maple sugar candy. I
t's good, it's very sweet, and it's not made with all sorts of white sugar and artificial colors.

MAPLE SUGAR CANDY

Ingredients:

2 cups fancy grade-A pure maple syrup

1/4 teaspoon organic milk or cream (can be omitted,

but helps to keep the mixture from boiling over)

wooden spoon

candy thermometer

powdered sugar

Directions:

1. In a large deep pot, heat the maple syrup and the milk or cream over medium-heat until the mixture reaches 233-300 degrees F. on a candy thermometer . The lower the temp, the more brittle and clear the candy will be, the higher, the more grainy it will turn out.

2. Let the mixture sit for about a minute. Stir with a wooden spoon and immediately pour the syrup into a wax paper lined jelly roll pan or into oiled candy molds.

3. Let the candies cool. Then pop them out of the molds or

out of the tray and break into small pieces.

4. Toss with powdered sugar to keep from sticking

and store in an airtight container.

Enjoy!

See ya 2009! Hello 2010!

"Live in the present, and make it so beautiful
it will be worth remembering.”

Here's to 365 days of beauty!

I have been a green kind of girl for what seems like eons, starting way back when I was 12.   For 24 years I have wandered the paths of vegetarianism, recycling, organics, energy & water conservation.  When I have veered off these paths, my body and my conscience has always steered me right back. That being said, it's no wonder that my two little offspring carry that same green bug with them.

My oldest, Meira, who is 8 1/2 years old, is primarily a vegetarian.  She will tolerate chicken and the occasional fish stick, is not fond of anything dairy (except ice cream), and loves pasta.  Since she is my "wild child" and has endless bounds of energy, I am always watching the types of things she eats, attempting to steer clear of additives, colors, & preservatives. My youngest, Morgi, at 2 1/2 years old *was* a veggie babe and has recently taken to stealing meat from her classmates' plates at school lunch.  She guzzles milk by the gallons and loves all fruit. 

Since their dad is a meat eater of all kinds, I try to make sure that all meat/eggs/dairy in our house are organic/free range, etc.  I figure, it's more important to eat consciously than restrictively. I have always said that I would leave the choice to the girls as they grow up.  I try to instill in them a sense of responsibility to their bodies and our world.  Thankfully we live in an area where there are everyday lessons around us - our Lake Erie beach, our playgrounds, our metroparks, and even our own backyard.

So that's a little bit about us and I hope you enjoy reading about our green adventures, as Meira works on her journaling skills and we hone our eco lifestyle.  As we leave 2009 and look back at the things we accomplished, we look forward to the challenge that a new year and new decade will bring.