What To Do With Your Farmer's Market Finds!

Farmer's markets have been in full swing - I have experienced some new things this year like garlic scapes and tropea onions which I have fallen in love with....

so I thought I would share some easy quick recipes using these gems you may have found at the market.  Some I use my Vitamix but a food processor works just as well.

Cucumber Salad

 (print recipe)

Ingredients
2 cucumbers

2 radishes

1 red onion
1 tspn of chopped dill
1 tspn chopped mint
1 Tbspn of maple syrup
1 Tbspn of brown rice vinegar
1 Tbspn of olive oil

Directions
Skin and slice cucumbers, radishes and chop onions.  Place cucumbers, onions, dill and mint in a bowl. Mix dressing of maple syrup, brown rice vinegar, olive oil.  Toss and Enjoy!

 

Gazpacho

(print recipe)

Ingredients

• 1 pint heirloom or regular cherry tomatoes
• 1 cucumber
• 1 tropea onion (or red onion)
• 1 jalepeno (I use seeded but you can unseed for less spice)
• 1 garlic clove
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• cilantro for garnish

Directions
Put first 7 ingredients in the Vitamix or Food Processor.  If using the Vitamix, use in this order (better mixing).  If using Vitamix, put on variable low for a couple seconds then move to high. 
Serve with cilantro and avocado.

 

Edamame/Garlic Scape Hummus

(print recipe)

from Daily Garnish - this is a must read blog btw

I can't take any credit, I was just on a hunt to use my garlic scapes other than sauteing with olive oil and kale.

Ingredients

• 1 container of edamame (I use TJ's already shelled fresh)
• 2 garlic scapes chopped
• 3 tablespoons water
• 3 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons tahini
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• sea salt

Directions
Place all the ingredients in the Vitamix or food processor. On the Vitamix, I did low variable and move to high.  I had to use a spatula and push it down a lot.  I also had to add a little extra oil (I used olive oil as the extra).  Daily Garnish put hers in the food processor for 8-10 minutes, I realized why.  It is important that it goes for a while since it is so thick.  I served this with rice chips - it was so yummy!!

 

Roasted Peppers

(print recipe)

Ingredients
Peppers
Olive Oil
Garlic minced

Directions
Heat Grill till it reaches temperature of 400 degrees.  Cut peppers in half.  Place on grill and flip once charred - about 5 minutes on each side. 

Place peppers immediately in bag (take the air out) and place in fridge overnight or for a few hours.

Once cooled the skin comes off much easier.  Take off skin and marinate with olive oil and garlic. 

Seafood Chard Spaghetti Squash

(print recipe)

Ingredients

1 spaghetti squash
Olive oil
Seasoning

Olive oil
1 garlic scape chopped
1 red onion chopped
Seasoning
2 Tomatoes chopped
1 bunch swiss chard chopped
1 pint mushrooms

TJ frozen seafood mix (calamari, scallops, shrimp)
1 can clams in juice
1/2 cup white wine


Directions

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Cut spaghetti squash lengthwise and scoop out insides.  Rub olive oil and seasoning on squash, place face down on casserole dish.  Fill to about 1/2 inch of water in dish.  Bake for 40 minutes or untill soft.  Use a fork to make into "spaghetti."

Saute olive oil, garlic scape, red onion and seasoning for about 3 minutes.

Add tomatoes, mushrooms and chard and saute for about 10 minutes.

In a separate pan, heat oil to medium heat, add frozen seafood and clams.  After about 5 minutes add white wine and saute for another 5 minutes.  Then add to vegetable mix.  Once spaghetti squash is down add to the mixture and let cook for another 5 minutes so flavors soak in.

Brewtal Beer Club - It's Not Just a Club...It's a Movement - PART 2 - THE FOOD

Part 2 of the Brewtal Beer Club post, if you missed the first post you can find it here.  Part 1 was where I gave you the information on this fabulous new club that will someday turn into a brewery....


Each month, a charter member of the Brewtal Beer Club is responsible for food....guess who volunteered first for food???

I had been foaming at the mouth the day Mike said there would be a beer club and we can make food...all I was thinking about was different ways  of incorporating beer into food and how to make an entire menu....and fall, which is my favorite time of the year - this was going to be perfect!!

I should pre-face this by saying this is not my normal detox/gluten-free/vegan friendly/healthy recipes I post.  Everyone needs to cheat!

The Menu

Ten-fidy Pot Roast

Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale Beer Bread

Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale Mac-n-cheese

Rogue Chocolate Stout cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

I even made little signs and I taste tested everything before - you know just to make sure....

Ten-Fidy Roast Recipe

(Printable Recipe)

This can be found at one of my previous posts.  But I am going to re-do it here cause I just figured out the snazzy button that says "printable recipe,"




Ingredients: 
3.5 lb beef roast (seasoned with sea salt, Trader Joe's 21 seasoning salute)
1 large shallot
8 garlic cloves
A couple swirls of vegetable oil
4 potatoes (peeled or unpeeled) - chopped
1 onion chopped
4 carrots - chopped
2 celery sticks
1 box of beef broth
1 pint of Ten-fidy
Fresh parsely

Directions:
Let meat sit for about an hour after you seasoned it to let it soak in.

Heat a few swigs of olive oil on high and sear for about a minute on all sides of meat.
Put meat in the crockpot until ready.
Add some more olive oil and scrape with a wooden spoon, add in garlic, shallot and onion until softened (about 3 min).
Scrape again and put into crock pot.
Add 1 box of beef broth, potatoes, carrots, celery.  Arrange the vegetables around the meat. 
Add in the pint of Ten-fidy use a wooden spoon to stir and move to make liquid uniform.

This is the best picture - truly shows the motor oil consistency of Ten-fidy

Add fresh parsely.  Put on low and cook for about 8 hours.

When ready, take meat out and break apart/slice and put back into the crock pot and serve!

Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale Beer Bread (adapted from Bruery)
(Printable Recipe)
All beer bread recipes are the same general concept.  I wanted to make this pumpkiny so I decided to use Smuttynose since it isn't overpowering and has a nice spice palette and we had it in our keg.


I did want to mention, the second time I made it I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of white and wheat flour so that it was healthier, and you can make this vegan using Earth Balance butter.  I may play with some brown rice flour and oat flour to see if I can make a good GF version but I digress...

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt
12 oz pumpkin beer (I used Smuttnose Pumpkin)
1/2 cup pumpkin puree (I used Whole Foods Organic)
2 Tbsp light margarine, melted

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, combine the flours, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Slowly pour the beer into the dry ingredients, stirring with a wooden spoon as you go.  Add in the pumpkin and stir just until combined.

Spray loaf pan with PAM or other cooking spray.  Pour 1/2 margarine in bottom of pan.  Use the wooden spoon and pour batter into the pan.  Pour remaining margarine on top of batter evenly. 

Bake about 60 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown on top and done in the middle.  Remove from oven and let cool.


Serve with a mix of maple syrup, margarine and cinnamon....

Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale Mac-n-Cheese
(Printable Recipe)
Again, this is nothing new, just a standard mac-n-cheese but adding the beer, because you add beer you need to allow some thickening before baking.

Makes 2 casserole dishes.


Ingredients:

2 boxes orecchiette or bow-ties
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour
8 oz milk
16 oz brown ale
8 ounces shredded sharp white cheddar cheese
8 ounces shredded sharp yellow cheddar cheese
4 ounces grated gouda
1/2 cup romano cheese, grated
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 cup Panko bread crumbs


Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cook pasta and drain just before 2 minutes of being cooked since it will cook in the oven as well, it should be a little harder than al dente.
Make a roux by heating the saucepan over medium heat, add butter and then once melted whisk in flour.  Cook until slightly golden for about 2 minutes. 
Add milk and beer while whisking.
Add cheeses and stir until melted. 
Turn heat down to medium and cook for about 6 minutes or so until thick.
Mix pasta and cheese mix and pour into two casserole dishes. 
Toss panko bread crumbs with paprika, and sprinkle on top.  Bake for 20-25 minutes.

This was awesome but even better was taking the Ten-fidy pot roast juice and pouring it over mac-n-cheese.

Rogue Chocolate Stout Cupcakes

(Printable recipe)


Ingredients:
Cupcakes
3/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa
2 cups of sugar
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 tspn baking soda
pinch sea salt
12 oz of Rogue Chocolate Stout
1 stick of butter, melted
1 tbspn Trader Joe's bourbon vanilla (this gives a really nice flavor)
3 large eggs
3/4 cup light sour cream
Icing
2 (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups of confectioner sugar
1 tspn bourbon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, mix with a fork cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.
In a second mixing bowl, combine beer, butter, and vanilla.  Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. 
Mix in sour cream until smooth.  Gradually mix dry ingredients into wet mix.

Line tins (depends on how many based on size - I made 24).  Scoop batter into cupcake tins until 3/4 full.  Bake for 12 minutes, rotate pan.  Bake another 12 minutes (TOTAL TIME 24 min).  Make sure set in middle.

I made a simple cream cheese icing.  In a medium mixing bowl cream the cream cheese and butter, add in the confectioner sugar and vanilla.

To top of this wonderful night - I met the most "interesting man in the world."

Stay tuned for Part 3 - MissFancyPant's Fall Beer Selection!

Recent Obsessions - Volume 2: Clean Eating While Training

I dedicate this post to my grandpop who dedicated his life to eating healthy.

About a month ago, my grandfather past away at 95.
He was such an interesting man. He always led a healthy and active lifestyle. He started swimming later in his life when my aunt (a former Kona Ironwoman) needed swim lessons. As he developed gout in his leg he swam until one day he fell at the pool. Instead of giving up on fitness, he developed a home gym in the living room and dining room where he attached resistance bands and had hand weights to continue to be strong. His plates were always colorful with veggies and fruits. He told us the secret to everything was wheat germ.

When he passed, my aunt asked if I could type up his essay that he wrote for her for a class. As I read this well thought out story of his life I understood the values and mantras that he passed on to us "onions" - He was the Original Big Onion (aka Cipolone). Eating lots of fruits and vegetables!!!

Here was a short exert from his story.

"Today, it is recommended that we eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. That was no problem for us. Our standard diet is what is now referred to as the Mediterranean diet. The vacant lot next to our house was planted for several years with vegetables and cultivated by mostly Mom and Grandpop with the help of us kids doing some weeding and picking off bugs by hand to be burned in an open fire which was permissible then; no permit required. Pear trees and a sour cherry tree was also out there. This supply was supplemented by vegetables and fruit brought home from the farms on which we worked.

For several years, pop cultivated an empty lot near our house with a tracter he built from a chopped 1925 Buick sedan and a rear axle and transmission from his Model T Ford truck. He planted it in sweet potatoes which lasted us all winter. We had baskets of potatoes stacked up on the steps of two stairways and enough to fill a spare upstairs bedroom. My uncle called us potato eaters for a long time."

He goes through this story, talking about Sunday dinners and how they preserved food for winter by sun-drying their tomatoes to make tomato paste.

It was a different time then but some things don't change. I wanted to share some "colorful" and healthy recipes that have been getting me through some long training sessions.

Quinoa Salad with Roasted Beets, Chickpeas and Oranges

(recipe from the Gluten-free Goddess blog - here is the link - http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2011/01/quinoa-salad-with-roasted-beets-chick.html

If you are looking for the power meal - look no further, this has beets to help us with endurance, complete protein with quinoa and chickpeas and some Vitamin C with the Oranges. I love this meal - I make the whole recipe and use it for some recovery meals after swim, bike or run.

Lemon Herb Salad with Artichokes and Avocado
This salad is my latest favorite and pick-me up. I either add Roasted chicken, grilled chicken, white fish, or chickpeas for some added protein. The fresh herbs and lemon really make this a "happy" salad. I couldn't help but smile when I ate this and then repeated it for about 3-4 times that week...


Spring Mix
Chopped scallions
Chopped basil, dill, cilantro and flat leaf parsely
Chopped avocado
Canned artichokes in brine
Lemon
Olive Oil
Sea Salt
Pepper

I literally just squirt a lemon on the salad, a few swirls of olive oil and sea salt and pepper. It is amazing!




Mediterranean Spaghetti Squash
Spaghetti Squash
Cherry tomatoes
Artichokes in brine
Balsamic Onions (I used Trader Joe's frozen in a bag)
Garlic
Yellow peppers
Olive Oil
Dried Spices (red pepper, parsely)
Scallions
Basil
Flat leaf parsely


Roast a spaghetti squash. 1/2 the squash, scoop out flesh, rub olive oil and seasoning. Place squash face down in about an inch of water and roast at 375 for about 45 min.

In the meantime, saute onions, garlic, peppers, cherry tomatoes.

Use a fork to make "spaghetti" from the squash, add veggies, and fresh basil, parsely and scallions.

Very delicious. I served this with Weyerbacher Double Simco beer...so good...

Tempeh Salad and Marinated Aduki Beans

Tempeh Salad
Both of these recipes were adapted from (Clean Food by Terry Walters)
1 8oz tempeh
1 carrot shredded
1/2 red onion chopped
2 tablespoons sweet pickle relish
1 tablespoon capers
1 tablespoon parsely
2 tablespoon canola low fat mayo (vegan)
salt and pepper

Cut tempeh and steam for 10 min. Remove and allow to cool. Crumble tempeh into small pieces. Add remaining ingredients and stir to combine.

Marinated Aduki Beans
2 cups cooked aduki beans
2 carrots shredded
1/2 red onion
2 tablespoons of sesame seeds

Marinade
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon fresh ginger
1 teaspoon tamari
1 teaspoon brown rice vinegar
1 teaspoon brown rice syrup

Rinse beans in colander and drain. Place carrots and onions into bowl. Bring 2 cups of water to boil, pour over carrots and onions for a min and drain. Add carrots and onions to beans.

Separate bowl, whisk marinade. Pour over bean mixture and stir. Let sit for 15 min before serving.

Clams and Spaghetti (updated)
One Monday night, I had a hankering for my mom and dad's spaghetti and clams. I had been at Trader Joe's and picked up their canned clams to try them out.

I sauted the garlic and onions in some olive oil, adding some crushed red pepper. I also added some portabello mushrooms and yellow pepper - they were both close to going bad, little did I know this was the update the old recipe needed. I added the clams, and about a cup of Italian dry white wine. I used something that was also drinkable. I let that simmer for about 15 min while I cooked some wheat pasta.

I added flat leaf parsely and cheese - it was delicious.


Foiled Fish and Veggies

This is probably the easiest on the go recipe you can do. I take a filet of a mild white fish and drizzle with olive oil, sea salt and Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute.

Put that on a large piece of foil.

In a separate bowl take baby spinach, onions, garlic, red onions, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, peppers and add balsamic vinegar and GOOD olive oil and sea salt and pepper. Mix well.


Place salad over fish and wrap up loosely in foil. Place in the oven for about 15-20 min at 350 degrees.

Awesome!

Stay tuned, I am finalizing Volume 3: Spring/Summer Beer List post!!

If you are looking for other fine recipes visit my brother's (@big_onion on twitter) site at MrOnionsNeighborhood - he is the creative one in the family in cooking and makes phenomenal meals!!