Home grown/home cooked

[Chicken lady]

I'm working on my relationship with food, and I'm trying to eat more homemade and locally grown things and use up everything in my garden (but if it goes by the chickens will make it into eggs.)

Not because it's cheaper, but because it's better for me and it tastes good. For example, the locally grown strawberries I picked ripe myself were so much better that the "bred for shipping" ones I bought today.

I'm also trying to loose some weight with my healthier eating, but the "tastes better" part isn't helping.

I decided to stop buying breads and desserts for a start. Then I made bread tonight and ate three slices hot - one with homemade jam. I could eat the whole loaf!

So anyway, things I have a lot of right now - milk, and I make cheese, eggs, spinach, lettuce, radishes, endive, green onion, sorrel, chard. Also have some rhubarb, black raspberries, and Shitake mushrooms.

Easy adds are flours, rices, sugar, salt, and a variety of spices.

Anybody have any easy suggestions for healthy meals based on those? Besides salad and omelettes.

[Tussiemussies]

Are you following any specific diets? I have some great meatless cookbook recommendations!

[Chicken lady]

I'm a semi-piscatarian (vegetarian who sometimes eats fish/shellfish) and allergic to cow milk, but I have my own goats to sub dairy with, so bring it on!

Dh is on board with the plan. He would like to be eating less food with labels. Or at least with labels that are not over 1st grade reading level. (ie. canned fruit - fruit, juice, sugar)

Mostly I'm looking for ideas like - what can I do with these radishes besides put them in salad? I always plant too many.

[lessisbest]

Swiss chard can be used in a frittata or gratin, stir-fry, and you can roast the stems. Sorrell can be used in soup, quiche, and even replacing basil in a pesto recipe. Lots of greens can be used in pesto.

Are you dehydrating your greens? They will add greatly to your fall/winter diet. I add dehydrated kale, and other greens, to soooooooo many things, even things like meatloaf and meatballs, pasta sauces, soup/stew, smoothies..... I read a recipe for Sorrel Drink that uses dried sorrel.

Nearly everything on your list can be a candidate for a pizza topping. We have a homemade pizza nearly every Sunday night and it's a good time to clean out the crisper drawer. I have been making tabouli with quinoa (gluten-free) and adding nearly any kind of greens I have on hand.

FYI: You will destroy the crumb of a loaf of bread if you cut it before it's completely cool. Starches need to set as it cools and cutting it too soon will leave a gummy loaf. Set a timer for 40-minutes and walk away from the loaf until it's completely cool and go do something constructive while it's cooling to take your mind off of it. Over-consumption of any type of food is wasteful, not to mention gluttony is still on the list of the seven deadly sins. Self-control is a good virtue to have, especially if you are trying to lose weight. Look at each of those slices as a serving (1-oz. slice = 1 grain/cereal serving) and calculate how many servings you need each day. We follow the old Basic-4 and only consume 4-servings of grains each day. Before going gluten-free we used one 1# loaf of homemade 100% whole wheat bread per week for 2 adults.

Check out vegetarian and vegan web-sites and cookbooks (check your local library for cookbooks).

[Chicken lady]

I know not to cut the bread. I did it anyway. Self control is not my strong point.

Sorrel pesto? Do you think that would freeze?

[Float On]

I don't think I would of left it alone either Chicken lady. Warm fresh bread just is about the only way I'll eat bread. We don't keep commercial bread in the house so when I make it, it's gone quick. We keep small tortillas for lunch wraps.

Do you look on pinterest? I don't get into all the boards, have a few private ones. But I typed in radish recipes and was pretty amazed at what popped up: pickled (said it was great to add to tacos), roasted (looked yummy), cucumber/radish salad with greek-yogurt dressing, even a radish butter to add to a fresh warm loaf of bread.

[Chicken lady]

Roasted radishes?! See, now there is an idea that would not have occurred to me and it makes the radishes a vegetable side by themselves...

I don't get on pinterest. My dd has been cooking once a week this summer and she loves pinterest, so through her I've gotten the idea that it's mostly about presentation. And everything she chooses requires out of season/processed ingredients and/or multiple bottles of sauce. I'm still trying to teach her that instead of "honey mustard" she can combine powdered mustard, vinegar, and honey.

Her breakfast was cereal and cow milk. Dh breakfast was homemade pound cake and coffee. Mine was homemade bread with store butter and homemade strawberry jam and coffee. I love my dh. He looked at me and said "aside from the sugar, is there any reason I shouldn't eat this for breakfast? I said "butter?". And then he ate it.

[Float On]

Her breakfast was cereal and cow milk. Dh breakfast was homemade pound cake and coffee. Mine was homemade bread with store butter and homemade strawberry jam and coffee. I love my dh. He looked at me and said "aside from the sugar, is there any reason I shouldn't eat this for breakfast? I said "butter?". And then he ate it.

We kind of eat whatever we can find for breakfast. If I don't make a pan of eggs then it may be pizza or dinner leftovers. DH eats a big bowl of veggies every morning. Today....I had the last bit of the flan I made yesterday. It's got a lot of egg is my excuse.

I have found that if I type in "simple" in my recipe searches then I don't get as many odd ingredients, so I find a lot of things I can make with what I've got.

[jody]

When I make bread and cool it completely, I slide one loaf into a saved bread wrapper and put in the fridge. Once it is cold, I can slice it into thinner slices than I can when its room temp. I use this for breakfast toast. It toast up very crunchy. I spread with butter and sometimes jam, but its the crunch that I so dearly love!

[Tussiemussies]

Hi again, I have been vegetarian for over twenty years now, and now am moving into Veganism. The Veggie cookbook thst is so great is "American Wholefoods Cuisine." The recipes use simple ingredients and taste great...a lot of good ideas. The only thing I have found is that in their soup recipes they call for water, but I make my own veggie broth and use that instead. The soups are great!

The other cookbook that is great is called "Bean Banquets", which has fantastic bean recipes that you can use as a main course etc.

Hope this helps to get you started! Christine

[Chicken lady]

I'll have to check the library for the wholefoods cookbook. I currently have a cookbook glut that I am working through. Most of the recipes are fancier though, and require more "boughten" ingredients.

Dh is not a vegetarian and doesn't like beans, so I keep those to a minimum.

Today I spent all afternoon making ricota and mozzerella, so I am tired of the kitchen and punting with noodles, leftover sauce, and broccoli. The sauce is home made though.

[Chicken lady]

Roasted the radishes and added sauted radish greens for dinner tonight - with black rice cooked with shitake mushrooms that i grew, and some chopped almonds. It was good. Dh got a pork chop too. Finished off with cherry pie made from cherries from our trees. Dh asked if there were any more strawberries and when I said "half a container from the store" he said "never mind."

Lunch was an egg salad sandwich with home grown and canned pickles, and breakfast was bread and jam again, and a banana. I think I'm doing pretty well. Got lettuce coming out my ears though. More salads I guess.