Author Archives: Melissa | Growing Green Nutrition

No rest for the weary

Don’t get me wrong, I love all of the fabulous produce coming in from the garden and from farmers’ market purchase, but dealing with it all is A LOT of work, and it just doesn’t seem to stop.  The fridge can only hold so much, and fresh produce only stays good for so long — a demanding combination!

I spent significant portions of the last two days dealing with the influx (and more time being very stressed about it).  I’ll share just a sample of the craziness.

I chopped and blanched carrots for freezing.  We grew 10+ pounds of carrots in six square feet of garden space — not a bad yield!

I roasted eggplant to make baba ghanoush.  (By the time I finished with everything else yesterday, I didn’t have the energy to actually make the baba ghanoush, that’s on the list for today.)

An axe or circular saw would have been an appropriate tool for splitting this spaghetti squash.  Fortunately, that was the hardest part.  I transformed the squash into a dish that was a huge hit at the vegetarian potluck last night 🙂 (stay tuned for the recipe, another simple and delicious creation).

Speaking of the vegetarian potluck, our friends created some fabulous dishes —  so fun to try new things and share ideas and inspiration!  Mmm, the green chutney.  The chef intended it to top the dumplings, but I intentionally ended up with green chutney on about half the food on my plate.

Now it’s back to the kitchen for this girl.  First to scratch up some lunch, then to tackle that baba ghanoush.

Heirlooms

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This meal featured heirloom varieties of tomatoes and beans.  I steamed extra beans when cooking a previous meal, so the purple and green beauties were ready to add to the salad: arugula,  sunflower seeds, dill goat cheese, and homemade honey mustard dressing.

The tomatoes hide the pesto (also made in a big batch ahead of time) on the pasta, but it’s there.  With some of the prep work (snapping and steaming beans and making the pesto) done ahead of time, we created a delicious and elegant meal in no time at all — perfect for a busy weeknight!

Oh Glacier, where art thou?

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A year ago, I was in a much better place:

Iceberg Lake - the water really was that amazing shade of aqua

For some nice cool reminiscing, see my Glacier vacation posts (here, here, and here).

Clothing optional?

St. Louis boasts a multitude of outdoor entertainment in the summer, most of which is free.  We favor the Whitaker Music Festival at the Botanical Garden and The Muny free seats.

Last week, we ventured out to our first Muny show of the season, The Sound of Music.  The first few shows really didn’t appeal to me this year, and, though I wanted to see Cats, that week ended up being pretty busy and it just didn’t happen.

I insisted on biking, despite the fact that it made a late night even later.  The actual time difference between biking and driving there is pretty minimal for us, but I know the biking will leave me too keyed up to fall asleep immediately.  Ah well, we enjoyed the show, and riding home under a full moon was worth it.  It’s hard to properly enjoy the night sky from inside a car.

Anyhow, we scored some good tickets to Footloose tonight.  Actual tickets, not free seats!  The only problem?  101 degrees.  Actual temperature.  Add in heat index, and we’re looking at 110+.  Does The Muny have a policy against nudity?

Taking sides

I was unaware of the strict separation on my plate until I looked at this photo.

On the left: Green beans and Chinese red noodle beans (see this post for the beans before I snapped them into bite-sized pieces — 12 inches long!), steamed for 5-7 minutes, then tossed with seasoned rice vinegar and a touch of sesame oil.

On the right: Sauteed bell peppers (red, orange, and green), onions, corn, and edamame* with grilled summer squash served over brown rice.

*I’ve tried to grow edamame twice now, with little success, but my father-in-law shared some of his beautiful crop.  We steamed a big batch in the pods, then ate some straight out of the pod and shelled the rest for this dish.