sweet potatoes!

The day started with frost and leaves falling like snow, but ended sunny and crisp. I turned local apple slices into "leaves" for the boys...
Ryan & AJ's lunches: Tofurky & vegetable rollups on flax lavash wraps; apple slices; peanuts.

We had lots of sweet potatoes from our last farm share, so I used them in two recipes tonight...sweet potato fries, and in burgers. I had leftover rice in the rice cooker so it all just came together with whatever I had...Sweet Potato & Bean Burgers

1 1/4 cups chopped raw sweet potato
1 small onion
3-4 garlic cloves
1 small poblano pepper, chopped (about 1/4 cup)
1 tsp. salt
1 can (15.5 oz.) black beans, rinsed & drained
3/4 cup cooked rice
2 T. olive oil
1 tsp. ground cumin
1-2 sage leaves, chopped (about 1 tsp.)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a food processor, finely chop sweet potatoes, onion, garlic & poblano pepper. Add remaining ingredients and process until well combined.
Spray a baking sheet with olive oil. Plop a handful of burger mix into your palm and form it loosely in a burger shape, then schlep it onto the baking sheet! Bake 35 minutes, carefully flip over with spatula, then bake another 15-20 minutes until crisp on the outside.


Pea Tendrils & Carrots

1-2 T. olive or canola oil
1/3 of a vegetable bouillon cube (or use vegetable broth instead of water below)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 large carrots, peeled & shaved into thin strips
4 cups (a few large handfuls) pea tendrils
1/3 cup water
2-3 T. white wine
1 T. fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

In a large pot or saute pan, heat oil over medium heat. Add garlic & bouillon. Mash bouillon & cook for about 30 seconds. Add carrots, pea tendrils & water. Stir and cover for about 2 minutes. Remove cover, add wine & parsley. Cook, stirring occasionally for another 2 minutes. Remove from heat & serve.

Sunshine Burgers, part 1

You are probably thinking, "She makes her own burgers, so why would she review frozen veggie burgers??" Well, I have 4 kids, and we get busy, and sometimes even I need a break from cooking. But I try not to compromise nutrition for convenience and taste.

I've tried most of the packaged vegan burgers out there. I don't mind soy products if it's soy flour or whole soybeans, or tempeh, or miso...but I try to avoid buying too many things made with soy protein isolates. Sunshine Burgers are soy free, gluten free & vegan. The ingredients are surprisingly simple, made with only organic whole foods. And they taste terrific. An all-around win. They even taste fine if prepared in the microwave.

Check out our friday night addition to preschool's opening night buffet of appetizers:
These Sunshine Burger
canapes were made with
Barbecue and Garden
Herb varieties. Both were
sandwiched in between
toasted wheat english
muffin rounds spread with
Veganaise and homemade
guacamole. The Garden
Herb burger appetizers
also contained thinly sliced
mini red & yellow tomatoes,
arugula, & red onion. The
Barbecue style had melted
Daiya cheddar, red onion &
a tiny bit of organic ketchup.

There was lots of leftover
food when the evening was over...but no Sunshine Burgers!

This morning we were getting ready for homevisits from both Nate's and Maia's preschool teachers. They begin school tomorrow, and the teachers always visit each student at home before the beginning of the year. I needed a quick lunch to make for Ryan and AJ, and I already had the oven preheated from baking breakfast muffins. But the store was out of healthy burger buns this week, so I rummaged around and found some not-so-nutritious crescent rolls that I could warp into an entree.Ryan & AJ's lunches: burger rolls; green grapes; steamed broccoli; baby carrots.

First I pinched together
the refrigerated crescent
roll dough, scored it with
a rotary cutter (like a
pizza cutter), and nuked
a Garden Herb Sunshine
Burger for 30 seconds.
I cut the burger in half,
then into eighths, added
a few drops of ketchup &
cheddar Daiya, then rolled
them up.

I baked them in a 375
degree oven for 11 minutes,
and while they cooled I
prepped the rest of the
lunch food.

I cut one in half and ran
it by AJ to try...he is
quite picky, not so much
about taste, but about
texture. He is the only one
in the family who doesn't
adore veggie burgers.

But he said it was fine, so
I made his lunch the same
as Ryan's and crossed my
fingers. His lunchbox came
home mostly empty; he
ate half of the burger rolls,
so for him, I consider that
successful.

Stay tuned for more Sunshine Burger lunches this week!

Cooking with Kale

Summer is kale season. I take that back, it's ALWAYS kale season. But there are a lot more people growing it in the summer, even though it's one of the cold-hardiest veggies around. We even got kale FROM THE FIELDS in our winter vegetable share last winter! But with so much kale, you need an arsenal of recipes to keep it interesting.

I've created many
permutations of my
kale sunflower patties.
I even used kholrabi
leaves & stems in place
of kale earlier this season,
and added some quinoa
and chick pea flours to
boost protein content
while keeping them
gluten-free. I also switch
the variety of nuts & seeds
around with whatever I have handy, often using walnuts or almonds instead of sunflower seeds. This is a great family-friendly way to use a host of local produce at once.

So here's today's version...and it got raves from the kids, which is always important!

Kale Pecan Patties

3-4 large kale leaves
1 cup pecans
1 large potato, peeled
3 large carrots, peeled
3 sage leaves, chopped
3 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp. salt
1 T. olive oil
1 T. shoyu (naturally brewed soy sauce)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a food processor, add the kale leaves (stems removed) and the pecans. Process until no large pieces remain. Peel and roughly chop the potato and carrots. Add remaining ingredients. Process til relatively smooth.

Spray a metal baking
sheet with olive oil.
Spoon a big blob of the
pattie mixture into your
palm and make a
circular flatish shape,
then plop it onto the
baking sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes, flip with spatula, then bake 20 more minutes. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes.
Makes about 10 patties.

Another fave (and I forget to get a picture) is kale potato soup. It's rather like my potato leek soup, but the leeks are not necessary, which can be handy for earlier in the season when leeks aren't yet big enough for harvest.

Kale Potato Soup

2 T. olive oil
2 medium onions, roughly chopped
6 potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 tsp. salt
a few grinds pepper
4-6 large kale leaves, roughly chopped
3-4 cups vegetable stock
1/2 cup plain almond milk or rice milk

Cook onions in olive oil over med-low hear until quite soft.
Add potatoes, kale, stock, salt & pepper. Cook about 30 minutes or until potatoes and kale are very soft.
Allow to cool somewhat, add milk, then puree soup in a food processor until just smooth.
Serve & add more salt & pepper to taste.

And here's another idea (though I won't share my recipe because it's just not healthy enough, LOL! No need to enable eating battered fried foods...but once in a while, yummmmm. Though I don't know which was less healthy, the food or the sauce I made to dip it in!)

Beer battered tempura
kale! I also made onion
rings while I was at it.
And I used an entire bottle
of locally brewed Harpoon
beer. Pwin!

But for healthier snack fare,
don't forget about good old
kale crisps--quick and easy. Or kale pesto to add to pasta, bread, sauteed veggies, etc. Still nervous to try kale with your family? How about steaming it and pureeing it into a red sauce for pasta or pizza or layering in a lasagna.

Summer is a great time to give kale a try. There are many varieties. Our CSA added a third type this summer, lacinata, otherwise known as "dinosaur kale". Supporting your local farmer's by buying directly from farms or at farmer's markets is a great way to help the local economy. But you may also donate to the Federation of Mass Farmers Markets directly via PayPal. Just visit this link to their website for more information.

Tempeh & Burgers

Friday evening a friend
brought by some food
so I wouldn't have to
cook. The next day
baby Maia was born.
I don't know where
her recipe is from, yet,
but I'm going to dub it
"Mel's Magic Tempeh".
It was either that or
walking on our sharp rock patio in bare feet. LOL.
This kept us fed for 2 days including my post-birth midnight munchie insomnia.

A birth bead necklace sent from some mama friends.

Tuesday:
My husband picked up our CSA share and took this photo...I'll try to decipher what's here:
- 1 head cabbage
- 1 head lettuce
- 1 bunch scallions
- 12 stems kale
- 12 stems swiss chard
- what's left of the peas
- 1 bunch salad turnips
- some basil
- 1 yellow squash
- 1 pattypan squash
- 3 cucumbers
- 1 pint blueberries
- 1 quart green beans
- 1/4 pint red raspberries

Nate, the new big brother.

Wednesday:
Thank goodness for shortcuts and frozen leftovers!
AJ's lunch for camp: cucumber slices, cold spinach, cold tofu, onigiri triangle, raisins, pita chips. Not shown: lemonade, water, and a Luna bar for morning snack.

A toddler dinner:
whole grain flax
pasta w/ sauce; a
piece of summer
squash; blueberries;
raspberries; spinach;
mango pieces...and I
think he brought a
stray Ting to the table
and put it in the corner there, LOL.

Thursday:

Time to put those
farm veggies to good
use!
This veggie burger
recipe evolved from
a veggie pate recipe
in the cookbook
Cooking For Life,
by Cheri Calborn &
Vicki Rae Chelf, which
I believe is now out of print.

It's a great way to use those dark leafy greens. Feel free to substitute collards, spinach, etc. for the kale, or use all kale instead of spinach. Use walnuts, almonds, etc. in place of the sunflower seeds. I'll sometimes add garlic scapes, swiss chard stems or leaves, mushrooms, or different herbs & spices to give the recipe an ethnic twist. Also, if you're gluten-free, substitute another flour or simply omit the flour.

The boys enjoy them as sandwiches, or plain dipped in ketchup. Back when Ryan was a toddler, he used to call them "cookies", before he knew any better.

Kale-Sunflower Burgers

1 pound potatoes (~3-4 small)
4 medium carrots
1/4 pound spinach (~1 bunch)
3 large kale leaves
1 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup flour (optional)
1/4 cup nutritional yeast (optional)
1/4 cup tamari (soy sauce)
1/2 tsp. sage (optional, or substitute rosemary &/or oregano)
1/2 tsp. marjoram
5 garlic cloves, pressed, or some garlic powder
pinch of cayenne pepper
spray olive oil for the baking sheet

Preheat over to 350F.
Chop greens and place in bottom of food processor with sunflower seeds. Process.
Follow with cut up potatoes and carrots, then the remaining ingredients.
You may have to stop it a few times and push some of the ingredients back down to the bottom a few times.
Shape into patties and place on an oiled baking sheet. Bake ~40 minutes, flipping half way through.

Makes ~12 patties.

With my husband back
to work for 1/2 the day,
I had to make dinner
easy on myself: ramen
noodles w/ frozen
broccoli; almonds;
cucumber salad;
orange slices.