Author Archives: Melissa | Growing Green Nutrition

In season

If you buy really fresh (i.e., picked that day, or maybe the day before) local sweet corn, try eating it raw for a refreshing treat.  Fresh corn (sans fungus) graced our dinner plates last night, and I was well into my ear when I thought to take a picture.

We’re also enjoying local blueberries and peaches.  In honor of the peaches, we baked some sweet biscuits*.  For a delicious and relatively healthy treat, crumble a biscuit, spoon on fresh peaches, and top with a bit of whipped cream.   I often add some of the juice from the peaches and a bit of milk (soy milk works fine) to get it just right.

*Our sweet biscuit recipe comes from 1000 Vegetarian Recipes by Carol Gelles.  If you’re looking for a good cookbook, vegetarian or no, check this out.  It is our go-to cookbook for delicious main dishes, baked goods, soups, and much more!  If your library has it, you can take it for a test run, or look for a used copy.

Thyme for lunch

Last weekend, I attempted to recreate the delicious borscht I enjoyed at Local Harvest Cafe.  My first thought upon tasting my creation?  Major flop.  Great sadness ensued.

But not all was lost.  The leftovers tasted good — I learned a few things in the process of coming to like it.  First, you can serve borscht warm or chilled, but I HIGHLY recommend chilled.  Second, add creamy white stuff, either sour cream or yogurt (pictured above) — this is important!  Third, it’s kind of a salty soup.  I’m a bit of a salt-phobe, so this one is hard for me, but again, important here.

I enjoyed the leftover borscht (properly chilled) for lunch today, along with a quickly concocted rice-lentil salad.  I started with leftover cooked lentils, to which I added brown rice, cucumbers, raw garlic (minced), olive oil, fresh thyme, s&p, and a bit of leftover vinaigrette from a previous salad.

Garden confessional

A few weeks ago, for my own sanity, I opted out of the commuter gardening.  I needed a break.  I’m still taking that break, but the garden and master gardener are going full tilt.  I’m going to take a break from my break this weekend in order to help with the potato harvest.  Goodness knows, we’ll need all the help we can get.  Last year we planted 15 pounds of potatoes and harvested 200 pounds.  This spring we planted 40 pounds of potatoes — you do the math!

Fleet maintenance

I’ve always been a practical shoe kind of girl, but it took Matthew’s urging to get me into Birkenstocks.  Before I tried Birks, I never realized that, no matter how “comfortable” the shoe, pretty much all shoes are not shaped like feet.  The toe area should really be the widest part of the shoe, not the narrowest!

My feet carry me lots of miles, both walking and pedaling, and I want that to continue for a long time.  And I don’t want bunions!  Foot shaped shoes equal healthy, happy feet 🙂

I own two pairs of sandals and one pair of clogs.  Add in Matthew’s, and we have quite the collection.

On the green side, these shoes can be re-soled, so you can keep a pair around for awhile.  I pulled our fleet out a couple of weeks ago to carry out some preventive maintenance on the cork foot beds.  Buying durable goods and making them last is a good green investment.

Summer eats and treats — Part 2

Tom and Jo invited us to dinner on Sunday night.  Grilled pizza was on the menu — a summertime classic! 

My pizza contribution involved a combo of homemade pizza sauce and pesto as the base, topped with red bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, and walnuts.  Tom suggested the walnuts, and they added a lovely crunch.  I added some small pieces of fresh mozzarella, keeping it low cheese.
 And for dessert, homemade ice cream sandwiches, featuring triple chocolate cookies and strawberry ice cream!  As we feasted, a summer storm rolled in, and we’re finally getting some relief from the heat.  Ah, summer.