Food Fun #3 - Urban Farm & Feed

In my quest to eat more healthy, I joined a farm share. How it works is I paid for farm fresh food from May to October. Every week I have a pick up with a variety of farm fresh foods. Urban Farm & Feed is a family farm that does not spray their food and they raise happy chickens! Each week I receive a dozen eggs and several veggies with a newsletter with recipes.

Several times I have received food that I have no idea what it is! I just post pictures of the veggies on Facebook and my knowledgeable friends clue me in as to what I have.  For several weeks I have received peas (in the pod) kale, radishes, turnips, lettuce, Arugula, and a variety of herbs and edible flowers.

I have made cards with pictures so I can learn to identify them each week and I add some recipes to
the cards. Still not sure what to do with collards or chard, but we have had some fun with learning new recipes. Tonight my son-in-law decided to make kale chips!

Recipe:
Wash, dry and clip the steams of the kale. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Lay the kale leafs out on a pan and drizzle oil on the leafs, add a little sea salt, and bake for 10-15 minutes. It is that easy and taste like sheets of dried seaweed. I liked it!

While he was making that I tried my hand at Roasted Baby Turnips, a recipe that was on our Urban Farm & Feed news letter called "Farmshare Weekly."

Recipe:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a bowl, whisk 1 tablespoon of vinegar with 1 1/2 teaspoons whole-grain mustard (I just used my dried powered mustard), one minced scallion, 1 1/2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley, and 1/4 cup of olive oil (I used my coconut oil.)  Season the vinaigrette with salt and pepper. 

Heat a rimmed baking sheet in the oven. Cut 12-24 baby turnips (2 pounds), stems trimmed to 2 inches; quarter them if they are large. In a bowl, toss the turnips with the 1/4 cup of oil and season with salt and pepper. Spread the turnips on the preheated baking sheet and roast for about 18 minutes, until tender. Transfer the turnips to a platter and let cool. Drizzle with the vinaigrette and serve.

I have made these twice now and really like them. The kids came over for dinner Sunday and my daughter likes spinach leafs over lettuce leafs. We just happened to have some strawberries and blue berries on hand so she made a spinach salad with just the leafs, strawberries, and blueberries. We had some raspberry vinaigrette dressing on hand but I think she ate it plain!

It sure is nice to have the fresh fruits and vegetables in the summer time.

Food Fun #1

My goal with this site is to do three posts a week. On Tuesdays I will try to write something motivational, Thursdays it will be about the food and recipes, and on Saturday/Sunday it should be about exercise. Since I have not started that yet and I am lacking in posts about food, I thought I would write something now.

I grew up in the Oakland, California area. Totally a city girl. I remember in grade school we had an assembly where they brought in a cow so we could see where milk really came from! We did have gardens from time to time, but my mom was a meat and potatoes type of cook. Never had a casserole at home.

Most of my cooking skills I gained in college or after I was married. I married into a farming family. They grew a lot of  potatoes on their 100 acre farm but also had a beautiful little garden. I learned a little and even grew corn and zucchini a few times.

I love vegetables, but never cared for the texture of fruit, so my diet has never been the best. So I am making changes, slowly, but they are happening. To take care of the lack of fruit in my diet, I started juicing off and on about a year ago. I love the flavors of fruit, just not the texture. I try to get up and juice one apple, one pear, one orange, pineapple and carrots in the morning. When I am adventurous I throw in a little kale. I really love this combination and crave the fruit when I go with out it. It is a great way to get my daily allowance of fruit in one drink.

This year, I decided to try my hand at growing some fresh herbs and vegetables. I put in a very small garden that seems to be doing well.  Last night I made lasagna and used all fresh cut herbs in it. WOW, what a difference from the store seasoning packages and it is a lot healthier too. I also enjoy sauteing onions in coconut butter and then adding mushrooms. Makes a great side dish if you like mushrooms!

Recipe for the week:

(Recipe from Urban Farm & Feed in Murray, Utah)

Sauteed Red Russian Kale with Paprika
2 Cups (packed) kale ( center ribs and stems removed, leaves course chopped)
1 Tbsp Olive Oil (divided)
1/4 Cup chopped onion
1/4 tsp Paprika
Generous pinch of dried Red Pepper

Cook kale in large pot of boiling salted water until wilted, about 5 minutes. Transfer to colander; drain. Heat 1/2 of the olive oil in a heave skillet over medium heat. Add onion and saute until soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in 1/4 teaspoon paprika and crushed red pepper; sprinkle with salt (I use sea salt)  Add kale and saute until heated through, about 4 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper and more paprika, if desired. Transfer to serving bowl; drizzle with remaining 1 Tbsp of oil and serve.

I actually liked this. It reminded me of a Korean spinach dish I make. Now you know what you can do with kale!