WHAT WE GOT & WHAT I AM DOING WITH IT

Here’s the breakdown from Thursday’s share

Kohlrabi – 1 pc    actually we got several pieces
Fennel – 1 pce       I traded for a big kohlrabi
Carrots – 1 bun     the carrots were kind of small. I put them through the juicer
Cilantro – 1 bun    a big bunch
Escarole – 1 hd      this was a large head
Scallions – 1 bun    traded for more cilantro
Arugula – 1 bag       we got choggia beets
Green Romaine Lettuce – 1 hd    traded for more beets
Green Boston Lettuce – 1 hd

I put the carrots through the juicer and got a small juice glass of carrot juice. I froze the pulp for use in something later.

I’ve made a couple of different versions of raw ravioli, using the large kohlrabi.  I cut it in half and sliced it with my thin slicer (looks like a vegetable peeler, but it’s very wide).  I put my cashew-kale pate and cilantro in the raviolis, and I also made the “chicken pate” recipe from Ani Phyo’s first book and put it in the wraps with some cilantro.

I used the escarole in some wraps with the cashew-kale pate, onion, tomato, cilantro, and lentil sprouts.   I also made a soup with lentil sprouts by dehydrating chopped up  escarole leaves to tender, then adding garlic, olive oil, a little sea salt (!) and black pepper, cilantro, and some red pepper flakes, and dehydrating for a few hours until it was warm.

Well, the lettuce has gone into salads, duh. I also threw some of it, along with some escarole, and an apple, into the blender for a smoothie.  Yuck.  I drank it anyway.  It’s good for me, right?

The beets, you ask?  My beet salad (beets into the food processor along with olive oil, apple cider vinegar, onions, and garlic – with some cilantro!).  I also made a “slaw” with some kohlrabi, beets, apple cider vinegar, onions, extra virgin olive oil, garlic,  and – yes! cilantro! — I put the kohlrabi in the food processor first, and ground it to almost apple sauce consistency, removed it, then put the beets and everything else in, then tossed all in a bowl — the idea was to have white color, but the beets in colored the kohlrabi anyway

My room-mate and I are tentatively back on a two-day meal share plan, so I am planning some fancy kohlrabi raviolo (not sure what will go in them yet), with a sauce of some sort – likely sun-dried tomatoes with something;  a lettuce, escarole, seaweed salad with lentil or sunflower sprouts and a vinaigrette of some sort. I might make the escarole soup again, as well – I liked it, and I will have enough time on Wednesday to do all of the dehydrating.

I’m glad to be back to a one day a week meal share because it gives me a chance to use up stuff I won’t eat all of by myself (I mean, I have been eating all of my share because I have no money to buy other food, but it sure would be nice to have a helping hand, and my room-mate loves salads.)

Of course, we do expect the appearance of sauerkraut somewhere in all of this.  I still have 1/2 qt jalapeno sauerkraut.  I’ll be making more sauerkraut by week end.

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6/14/12 CSA SHARE: What they say we will get

POST #753

WEEK #3 CSA SHARE

This is what they say we will get.  I’m happy to see something I would want to trade if I could score an extra bunch of kale – I really like this toscano, or dinosaur, kale for chips.  If the beets are a reasonable size, I will make my raw beet salad.

Baby Spinach – 1 bag
Scallions – 1 bunch
Toscano Kale – 1 bunch
Romaine OR Red Boston Lettuce – 1 head
Cilantro – 1 bunch
Red Beets – 1 bunch
Bok Choi -OR- Japanese Salad Turnips – 1 bunch

Now,  I’m all about the logistics of getting in there first, to have the best chance at the kale I want.  Tomorrow I’m working until 3pm and it is payday.   I guess I could get the check, run home, change clothes and drop excess baggage, run up to pick up the share, go home and drop the bags, then turn around and go to the bank to make my deposit.  Sounds like a plan! (You are wondering why all the stops at home: I’m in NYC. No car to leave stuff in, and anyway, there would be no place to park it, if I did have one.  I could go to the bank before I go home, but then I would have to stop at the CSA on the way home, with an extra 10 lb bag to carry in addition to the vegetables and fruit.  I could go to the bank before I go home from the CSA, but I’d be carrying a bag of vegetables. I vote for the many forays. Hope I have the energy.)

6/7/12 CSA SHARE: WHAT I ACTUALLY GOT & WHAT I AM GOING TO DO WITH IT

I love it when the CSA is in season. It is so nice to go there and see so many happy people picking up their shares. Sometimes they are even friendly.

Yesterday afternoon, I went to pick up my share (early shares are always slim pickings, and overloaded with lettuce-t kinds of things, but… hey! That’s the way it is — they really really want me to start liking salads.

Yesterday, we got:
Baby Arugula – 1 bag
Romaine Lettuce – 1 head
Boston Lettuce – 1 head
Swiss Chard – 1 bunch
Garlic Scapes – 1 bunch
Japanese Salad Turnips – 1 bunch
STRAWBERRIES!  We got strawberries in the box, and I also got strawberries as my fruit share! Yum! Smoothies!

ARUGULA – I decided to keep it. I’m not overly fond of arugula, but I decided to make a raw version of the Greek beet, arugula, and goat cheese salad (I’ll post it later
ROMAINE – I kept it. I think I’ll make some wraps.
BOSTON LETTUCE – I like this stuff well enough.   I can deal with a salad or two a week.  This is a fairly big head, so I might be having three salads. I like to mix in seaweed (I stalk the Japanese supermarkets for sales on the mixed, or else I just get wakame when it is in the bulk bins at Integral Yoga Foods, my favorite natural foods store) and sauerkraut, along with onion, and, if I have it, some red bell pepper.
SWISS CHARD – I am still not ready to even try to like this stuff.  It is high on my yuck scale. I traded it for more turnips.
GARLIC SCAPES– these look weird, but they are GREEN, and they taste like garlic, so I like them.  I chop them up or grind them in the food processor,  and put them in everything as a garlic (they are a part of one kind of garlic).  These will get chopped or ground and put in salad, or go into pates.  Since I was lucky and got two bunches, I will probably experiment with my next sauerkraut, and put some sliced garlic scapes in there with lots of sliced jalapeno.
JAPANESE SALAD TURNIPS – I have no clue why they call them Japanese Salad Turnips (my Japanese room-mate did not recognize them.  When I was testing a recipe with them, she said she had never seen them before).  So, okay, they are all white, where other turnips have some purple on them. Never mind. They are turnips and they taste like turnips. I grind them in the food processor to almost an applesauce consistency, then add apple cider vinegar, olive olive oil, and any seasonings which strike my fancy (usually garlic, sometimes coriander, sometimes Spike)
STRAWBERRIES – These are going in smoothies. I am not really into eating right now, but I know I need some protein, so I will put these into a hemp or soy protein shake in the morning. I am also thinking of making some strawberry leather in the dehydrator.

So! I have things to do with all these vegetables!  I got into a use- everything -in-the-box a few years ago, when the CSA issued a challenge.  I continued it when my job went south – the CSA box was my food for the week (I’d have maybe $5 more to get other food.  Good I have that experience because I am back there now. Smart people who have full-time work tell me about all the things I should do, like save money, or invest in a 401K, but, when you can barely pay the rent, and you have to think twice about what food to get, and you can’t afford your health insurance and medicine copays on top of all that, well, the CSA is very very important — at least I will not die from malnutrition. I feel so blessed that my CSA has jumped in this year and allowed me to make payments as I can.)

Frugal Raw Living

I’m back!
I’ve been under the radar, although I shouldn’t have been.

Sprouting seeds and beans for greens has been a prominent activity here (I always keep a store of seeds and beans, and it’s about time for me to replenish the entire store, as I have been relying on it for my green vegetables and protein almost exclusively)

I’ve also been exploring food pantries (the answer is “the  vast majority do not offer fresh vegetables”, and the only one which should, i.e., my CSA contributes fresh vegetables to them, is very restrictive as to which poor may participate).

As far as getting fresh vegetables goes, I’ve been very frugal.  Having eliminated smoothies (far too veggie-intensive) for the time being.  Sauerkraut, as you might imagine, is a big item on my menu most days (I can take a big cabbage or two and ferment the sauerkraut in three days, and have daily sauerkraut for up to  a month or two). I do buy vegetables, but I try to buy things that are a)cheap/seasonal, and b)likely to provide more than one meal.

I shop Fairway in Manhattan (they are offering more and more organic vegetables even on the “mainstream” floor).  Their prices are highly competitive, and, sometimes, their prices on raw organic nuts actually cheaper than those for non-organic raw nuts in other places.  I notice the prices on everything, even the things I don’t buy, for when I go to other markets.
Then I go to the greenmarket at 14^th Street and see if they have anything I want at a cheaper price than I could have gotten it at Fairway.
If I am visiting a friend, and I see a supermarket along the way, I stop in to see what the prices are like (I scored a lb. of collards for $.79 today when I went to visit a friend’s church in the  Bronx — never mind that I will probably never make the 1-hr. trip  there to get more vegetables at rock-bottom prices — You have to figure out cost, and your own rate-per-hour at some point)

There is a really nice co-op, Flatbush Food Coop, in Brooklyn, that I am planning to join this week, because they are like a regular supermarket, but all organic, with very competitive prices. (Of course, I will have to work out with them how and when I can do my coop work service, since my schedule is so erratic, and so likely to change at a moment’s notice – I’m hoping that they have evening slots on Saturday and Sunday nights– those seem to be about the only times that I don’t suddenly get work).  The commute to shop is worth it if I can save some money, and being a co-op member offers vast discounts.  Above and beyond all of that, this co-op allows one to join with a partial payment, and pay off the membership over a year.

So!  What is my advice on maintaining a frugal raw diet?

First, stay as organic as you can. If you have buy non-organic, at least avoid the items on my Eat Only If Organic list.

Actively practice price-comparison. Watch ads, and travel around if you have to (if you have the time and ability), where lower prices would still be reasonable given the inconvenience/travel costs. (I am lucky, living in New York City, and having an unlimited monthly subway pass – the only issue I have to figure  in  is time/inconvenience, and, since I am an ardent reader, this most often becomes a moot point.  You who must consider gasoline costs must factor that in, although, still, often, the commute is worth the effort).

Make things that  you can eat more than once, by varying the combination, or by altering them.  For example:

• I use sauerkraut “as is”, then I also put  it into other creations.  I add it to my raw beets, to soups, and, also, I mix it in with my  cashew “chicken” salad and “tuna” salad.  I also mix it in with sprouts, and put it on top of  pates and burgers.
• Marinated collards or kale debut as is, but, later, they combine with seaweed salads, and, often, toward the end, I mix them into pate combinations.
• Marinated beets are good as is, and later, I add them to seafood salads, sprout mixes, pates, and, sometimes, to smoothies. I also dehydrate leftover sometimes, and use them as sprinkles on salads, or rehydrate them with wakame seaweed to make a delicious salad.
• My big splurge has always been LaraBars.  I can get them for about $1.25, usually.  Nevertheless, recently, since the company has changed hands, and I cannot get any answers from them, I make my own:  dates/cashews/almonds + grated coconut + a drizzle of coconut oil = coconut bars….. dates/almonds/cashews + mashed bananas = banana bars….(I tend to do equal amounts of cashews and almonds, ground up, then add enough soaked, pitted, and chopped dates to make a thick mixture in the food processor – 4 – 6 dates, usually)  I dehydrate at 110 degrees for @ 24 hrs.

I haven’t been making crackers recently, because of the price of nuts, but  I still do use nuts fairly frequently in  pates. (I feel a splurge coming on… I need crackers cheeze.

10/28/10 CSA SHARE: What they say we will get and what I think I will make

Here’s what they say we will get:

Arugula…1/4 lb.
Golden Beets…..1 bun.
Daikon Radish….2 pcs
Sweet Potatoes….3.5 – 4 lbs
Green Cabbage…1 hd
Toscano Kale…..1 bun.
Guy Lon (Chinese Broccoli)… 1 bun.
Leeks….2 – 3 pcs
Mixed Red and Golden Delicious Apples

I love golden beets – mainly because they don’t stain your hands.  One of my students has reported that she added lemon juice and ginger to her grated beets – that sounds like a good thing to try out.

Toscano kale is also called lacinato kale and dinosaur kale.  I wonder why it has that many names.  I find it funny.  Regardless, I think I will make some more kale chips .  The chili/cheddar-cheezy ones I made a few weeks ago were really yummy, and the “smoked jalapeno” cheezy ones I made were very nice and spicy.

It’s time to make Amazing Sweet Potatoes again.  Yumm!

I’ll be making sauerkraut this week, of course.  What else to do with cabbage?  Perhaps I’ll make a little coleslaw, as well. We’ll see.

Daikon Cheeze Bites!  I’ll use my usual cheddar cheeze instead of the fancy one I originally posted – the usual one has fewer ingredients, so is cheaper and easier, and I like it better.

RAW BEET RECIPES

I love beets.  Always have, even when they only came from a can.  Now that I know about raw beets, I love them all the more.Although I keep trying new recipes, I have my favorites that, when I get beets in my CSA box, show up on my table at least once a week.  I am very partial to my very simple “Famous Beet Salad”– it is easy to prepare, and tastes divine (even people who don’t like beets like it)

Here are my five favorite beet salads.  (In the interest of not repeating the same blog entries again and again, I’ve given links to the pages the recipes are on.)  Enjoy!

KOHLRABI/BEET/CARROT SALAD

MARINATED MASSAGE GREENS

MY FAMOUS BEET SALAD

SOUTHERN PICKLED BEETS

BEET/CABBAGE/CARROT/APPLE SALAD

BEET RECIPES: for the raw in you

Here are three raw vegan recipes for beets

MY FAMOUS BEET SALAD
I love this recipe and eagerly wait for beets in my CSA share!  It has the taste of a Southern-style beet salad, is quick and easy to prepare, lasts for at least a week in the refrigerator, and is easy to chew.  Best of all, whenever I prepare it, people ask for more.  I usually take it to parties because I know that people will like it and become curious about raw vegan food.  (Last year, I made it for a cooking demo, and some people who said they hated beets tried it at my urging, and asked for more!)

1-1/2 beets (I had a big one and a small one about 1/2 the size)
1/4 onion
1 T apple cider vinegar (or more to taste, for sweetness)

* Finely grind the beets and the onion in a food processor.
* Add apple cider vinegar and mix well.
EAT

NOTE: You can eat this as is (it is about the consistency of a coarse apple sauce) or
you can use it as part of a salad, or wrap it in a leaf, if it is dry enough.  I have even used it as an ingredient for raw sushi.

•    You substitute turnips, or even combine beets, turnips, and maybe carrots.
•    If you fancy, you could add herbs or garlic.

SOUTHERN PICKLED BEETS
I’m calling this Southern because I grew up in the South, and that’s where I know it from, and I haven’t ever seen anything like it here in Yankee Territory.

2 lg beets, peeled and very thinly sliced
1/2 onion, very thinly sliced
2 T apple cider vinegar
1 T extra virgin olive oil (optional- I just like olive oil in almost everything)
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and marinate for at least one hour. (The longer the beets marinate, the softer they will be)

VARIATIONS:   I have made this with a combination of beets and radishes, and I have also substituted turnips for half the beets.

BEET/CABBAGE/CARROT/APPLE SALAD
2 beets, peeled and grated
1/2 lg head of cabbage, shredded
3 carrots, peeled and grated
1 C of raisins
1 apple, diced
1/4 C lemon juice
1/4 C oil
1/4 C water

* Mix all ingredients thoroughly.

NOTE: This is from my Passover recipe collection.  It is a delightfully different take on a traditional salad.