Monday plan day, 8/31

Organic delivery this week: plums, apples, grapes, pears, nectarines, yams, broccoli, celery, carrots, garlic, grape tomatoes, parsnips

Dairy delivery this week: Two 1/2 gallons of skim milk

Monday - Leftovers from last week (Monday is probably forever going to be hodge podge dinner night)

Tuesday - Grilled chicken, baked sweet potato fries, and (mock) fried green tomatoes (using chicken from the freezer, yams from our delivery, and green tomatoes from our garden)

Wednesday - Grilled steak, grilled zucchini, and skillet red potatoes (zuccs from our garden and potatoes from a previous delivery)

Thursday - Dinner out with my parents

Friday - Homemade pizza, with cheese and tomatoes for topping (cheese from the fridge, tomatoes from the garden)

Saturday - It's a tailgating day, which means we eat way too much at the tailgate, and then have a very light dinner. This time we'll have fruit and carrots (from our organic order), and nuts or peanut butter

Sunday - Smoked ribs with my parents

Monday - Grilled tenderloins with my parents and my aunt and uncle

Grocery list - For dinners we'll need steak to grill, and that's actually about it this time.  I do need to replenish my flour stock, and I've run out of a couple of spices as well.  Plus I'll need to pick up the usuals, like orange juice and cereal, and I'll keep my eyes peeled for sales.

Sigg makes the list of deplorable companies

I always felt particularly relieved, after discovering the dangers of BPA perhaps a little too late, that Calvin had very few bottles (probably as many as I can count on my fingers) over all the course of his infant life.  When he reached the age of cup drinking we went almost straight to having him drink out of small glasses at home and used the Born Free BPA-free sippy cups when we were out.  Not too much later, in response to Calvin's desire to be get away from the "baby's" sippy cup, we came home with the much touted Sigg water bottle - a metal water bottle made in Switzerland and supposed to be safe from the dangers of BPA.  Supposed to be. 

As it turns out, the SIGG water bottle was never sold as "BPA free", just the whole green freak community (of which I am lovingly part) accepted it as such based on the rather vague comments of the company's CEO.  We accepted that statement because we wanted to, so when the same CEO came out last week to confess that bottles made before August 2008 were coated with a BPA lining, we had only ourselves to blame.   We'd banked our children's lives on imperfect knowledge.  I, for one, hadn't even read the original statement by the company, but had jumped right on the band wagon, trusting the general opinion of the general public, and got just the general end that I deserved–a general feeling of guilt about the amount of synthetic hormones my son may or may not have ingested.  Epistemology–the theory of knowledge and how we really know what we really know.  Is there really any way to know without seeing for ourselves?  All the rest is just based on trust, and unfortunately we are having to trust an industry which has consistently lied to us and let us down. 

Click here to see the EWG's article posted August 27, 2009.

Edamame bread salad

Mmmmm...it's garden fare time!  This is a great meal for using up the beans and tomaotes you have erupting from your gardens, and also a vegetarian dish with lots of flavor and a good side of protein.  The recipe came from Better Homes and Gardens, athough I've lightened it up a bit and added a tad more basil than originally called for, of course.

Ingredients:

  ● 3/4  cup feta cheese
  ● 1/2  cup Greek yogurt or plain low-fat yogurt
  ● 2  Tbsp. snipped fresh basil
  ● 1  small clove garlic, minced
  ● 2  12- oz. pkgs. frozen soybeans (edamame)
  ● 1-1/2  lbs. fresh green beans, trimmed
  ● 2  cups yellow cherry tomatoes, halved
  ● 12  slices crusty country bread, toasted
  ● Fresh basil leaves
Balsamic Dressing:
  ● 1/4 cup olive oil
  ● 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  ● 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
  ● 1/4 cup fresh basil, lightly packed

Directions:

1. In food process combine feta cheese, yogurt, basil and garlic.  Blend until creamy and season with salt and pepper as desired. (If you don't have a food processor you can mash the cheese and yogurt together with a fork then add the remaining ingredients and stir).  This may be made ahead.

2. In saucepan bring 8 cups lightly salted water to boiling. Add soybeans and green beans and return to a boil. Reduce heat and cook, covered, 6 to 8 minutes or until tender. Drain and cool (speed up by rinsing with cold water.  Add tomatoes to bean mixture and drizzle 1/2 of balsamic dressing mixture (see below); toss to coat.

4. Spread feta mixture on bread slices; place slice on serving plate; mound bean mixture on top. Drizzle remaining dressing; top with fresh basil leaves.

Balsamic Dressing: In blender or processor combine 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, and 1/4 cup lightly packed fresh basil leaves; blend until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Recipe shown here with gazpacho soup on the side - another garden great!

Monday plan day, 8/24

Organic delivery this week: Bananas, peaches, kiwi, red plums, nectarines, grapes, corn, cucumbers, carrots, broccoli, sweet onions, zucchini, red potatoes, grape tomatoes

Dairy delivery this week: Two 1/2 gallons of skim milk, 1 dozen brown eggs, 1 tub salted butter

Monday - Leftovers from last week, a little bit of everything (mostaccioli, chicken, etc.)

Tuesday - Dinner at the Chelsea Community Fair

Wednesday - Edamame bread salad (with edamame from our freezer, beans from our garden, and homemade bread, plus a few other ingredients from our cupboards).

Thursday - It's supposed to rain, so Curried chicken and corn chowder (with chicken from the freezer, corn and onions from our order, a few ingredients from our cupboards, and celery from the store)

Friday - Leftover chowder (still supposed to be raining)

Saturday - Dinner with friends (at their house)

Sunday - Homemade pizza (I have a new crust I want to try out)

Monday - Leftover pizza

Grocery list - Greek yogurt and feta cheese for the Edamame salad, celery for the chicken and corn chowder.  We also need orange juice for breakfasts, and a box of cereal.  That's it!  I love having most of our shopping delivered to our door.

Rustic Zucchini Bread

It's that time of year! Our zucchini plants are valiantly fighting powdery mildew (with a little help from their farmer–did you know that a 1:1 dilution of organic milk sprayed on the leaves after dusk does wonders for this ailment?), and are producing at an astonishing pace. I keep remembering last year when all we got was one armload of zucchini before the plants succumbed to the fungus that we are successfully fighting organically this year!

In any case, with so many zucchini on hand, how could I not make zucchini bread? I found a standard recipe online, which we tried as written first, then made it a tad heartier and healthier with my own variations, including substituing whole wheat flour for half the white, increasing the amount of nuts, and decreasing the amount of sugar. I was expecting the worst, but really it was beautifully moist and very flavorful. Better than the original, if I do say so myself.

Ingredients:

● 2 eggs
● 1 cup sugar
● 2.5 tsp. vanilla
● 3 cups grated fresh zucchini, skin on
● 2/3 cup melted butter
● 2 tsp. baking soda
● 1.5 cups whole wheat flour
● 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
● 1 tsp. nutmeg
● 3 tsp. cinnamon
● 1.25-1.5 cups chopped pecans

Directions:

1. Mix together sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Mix in the grated zucchini then add melted butter. Sprinkle baking soda over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour, a third at a time (I mixed the two flours together first). Sprinkle in the cinnamon and nutmeg and mix. Fold in the nuts.

2 Divide the batter equally between 2 buttered 5 by 9 inch loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour at 350, or until a wooden pick inserted in to the center comes out clean (check for doneness at 50 minutes). Cool in pans for 10 minutes. Turn out onto wire racks to cool thoroughly.