Baby Bok Choy Soup

2 Baby bok choy, 6 large mushrooms, 1/2 head garlic, 3 tbsp soy sauce, 4 eggs, 1 tsp salt, 12 cups broth, package of wheat egg noodles, chow mein to top

Collards

 

Its the little things that make you proud. Today I was proud of both Lilian and myself. My accomplishment? Lillian asked for seconds of my collard greens, and then snuck some extras in her mouth. The main ingredient? Collard Greens right? No, PRESSURE COOKER. Pressure cookers are fast and make it easy to fuse flavors together. I filled the cooker with a carton of Herb Wine Chicken Broth (Vegans, don't worry, you know what broth to use) a can of organic chopped tomatoes, onion poweder ( ran out of onions), salt, pepper, olive oil, and pressed garlic. I probably only cooked all of this at the most 10 minutes after achieving pressure.

In other news, without going into detail, I turned my Dill from this weeks share into a delicious Dill-Tahini Sauce from the Veganomicon (only reason I'm not repeating it here, other than copyright issues is my kids are asking for my attention, I highly recommend the book, http://www.theppk.com/nomicon.html .

Chard & Corn Soup & More

The other night my daughter came home from what must have been a wonderful lesson on nutrition because she wasn’t

interested stir fry Chinese food, which she loves, but ate two bowls of salad (red leaf lettuce from share and tons of avocados from share).

She then said, “Daddy, lets have corn and chard soup tomorrow”. I had never done it, but we gave it a go. I used chicken broth as

a base, but certainly vegetable broth would work just as well. The ingredient list surpassed the original request, and it turned out to be a

delicious soup.

Corn: Corn is a great item to let kids participate in. Lillian had a great time shucking the corn. Miriam showed some raw food

inclinations when she grabbed one of the shucked pieces of corn, took a bite, and then took about 3 more. More than usual for

any food (with the exception of chocolate chips of course). We cut the kernels off of the ear and through it in the pot.

Chard: Chard is so beautiful just to look at. I let Lillian cut the leaf portion off of the stems. After washing and cutting the chard, I

chopped it up in the food processor. I find that most greens I work with do well after being chopped, they cook faster and are easier to handle by the kids.

Onion: I let Lillian peel the onion, which as great until her eyes started stinging. Again, chopped in the food processor and put in the pot

Carrots: Peeled, chopped in the food processor and into the pot

Celery: Chopping up celery in a food processor is a great way to work celery into a soup. It becomes more of a seasoning than just big chunks of celery and it cooks faster

potatoes: We simply hadn’t cooked our potatoes from the week before so we chopped them into cubes and through them in.

I added some pepper as well and that’s it.
Well I also chopped up leftover chicken breast which was yummy as well, but not essential.

Tonight we used our green peppers, sweet onions & garlic in a pasta sauce and pressure cooked our green beans

Oh honey you brought me Kale!

About this picture, we had last weeks wilted kale in the refrigerator.  I still haven't decided what I wanted to do with it, but it depressed me to see it in such a sorry state.  I cut off the bottoms of the stems and plunged it in a glass of water.  At the end of the day I had a beautiful re hydrated kale bouquet.  If I don't cook it, it at minimum makes a refreshing decoration in my kitchen. I'll probably steam it tomorrow night or make Kale chips for the kids.

For breakfast the kids had this weeks strawberries in their oatmeal.  Also for breakfast we had banana/strawberry shakes (with Rice Dream) .  At lunch time, Lillian requested apples slices with frosting (very good and unhealthy).  Miriam had cut up apples with honey and cinnamon.  I hadn't cooked the artichokes yet so I boiled them for about 20 minutes in a stock pot with water, apple cider vinegar and salt (Joy of Cooking suggestion).  The kids weren't responding to the artichokes so I ate everything edible myself for lunch.

For dinner I pressure cooked the sweet potatoes and blended them with apple juice, some margarine and a little brown sugar.

I also made a salad using the baby lettuce, avocados, tomatoes, onions, and tomatoes.  For the dressing I used the French dressing in the Joy of Cooking (lemon juice, garlic (from a few weeks ago), salt, olive oil, and Dijon  mustard.

I forgot to mention that we had breaded and fried Tilapia partially using our eggs from the share.

That's it!

Squash

An acorn squash can be cooked whole, if pierced a few times, in the microwave in about 8 minutes. This was  a great way to make a quick complement to our meal tonight.  Also this morning we did our weekly, weekend (when available) juice squeezing to complement our weekend pancakes.  Juice squeezing, if you use the old fashioned glass juicer doubles as an opportunity for kids to help out, either juicing or pouring the juice through a filter.  I use the filter that comes on top of our measuring cup, it keeps out most of the seed and some of the flakes.

Unhealthy Zucchini for the children

Who says Zucchini can't be unhealthy. With the right amound of flour, water and oil, you can turn almost any food into a delicious nutritional nightmare. Hopefully all that Lillian will remember is that she absolutely loves Zucchini. This was made last week.

In other news, yesterday I stir fried the Bok Choy from this weeks share, with onions, margarine, shrimp, angel hair pasta, soy sauce and some Ginger. Big Hit!

Tonight, we had turkey hotdogs wrapped wih Crescent Rolls and Broccoli from last weeks share. I steamed the broccoli as I usually do. Both of the girls found the brocolli to be delicious, as did I.

As always, we continue to consume apples, bananas and pears on a daily basis.

Potato and Leek Soup

This week's share had potatoes, onions and leeks.  We took the hint and Valerie cooked a delicious leek soup. We don't normally go 100% organic, but we came close. As Lillian is allergic to dairy, we used organic rice dream and a can of coconut milk in place of milk and vegan organic Smart Balance margarine.  We toasted some bread and made bread crumbs to top it off.  Yummy.  In other news regarding our share, we squeezed fresh orange juice this morning and continue to consume apples, at least twice a day. The strawberries were eaten yesterday all by themselves.

Today's Share

Lillian hasn't had a plum in a while so we were excited to see a few plums.  She had one on the ride home.  Miriam's eyes lit up with the arrival of fresh eggs.  Of course I fried her two right away.  This week we got both potatoes and leeks, I'm thinking there is potato and leek soup in our future, but I haven't settled on any recipes yet. The Kale will most definitely be converted into Kale chips.

Today's Recipe: Carrot Cabbage Tai Inspired Soup

This recipe is an adaptation of a braised cabbage recipe from the Joy of Cooking.  I shredded one whole cabbage in a food processor and also a bag of carrots.  The original recipe called for chicken stock but we had Tai Coconut Chicken Stock from the grocery store in the refidgerator.  After some consideration I decided this was the way to go. I boiled the carrots in a bout 2 1/2 cups of the Tai Chicken Broth and 3-4 tablespoons of butter.  After about 7 minutes, I added the shredded cabbage on top.  I found I had to add a little more broth.  Then I covered this and let it simmer for about 8 minutes.  The result is a very yummy vegetable dish that the kids  love.