Snow White and the Seven Beets

So...its very amazing how things happen sometimes. We had a birthday party for my two little boys a couple weeks ago. We had family come from all over the state and I had a great visit with my sister-in-law Jaime. I was telling her about all my veggies...and she asked me if I had gotten any beets yet? Huh? Beets? Um no. I was trying to remember if I had excluded them from my delivery options and then low and behold....beets arrived. I remember Jaime telling me about a couple ways she had prepared them and that they were really good. I had to get the recipes from her today!! LOL

Here is what we did;

I took the three biggest beets and drizzled them with olive oil and then then lightly salted and peppered them. I wrapped them in foil and put the on the grill next to the meat we were BBQ'ing.
(We are having some really nice weather here right now.) Jaime said to cook them like a potato and wait until I could easily insert a fork into them.They were on the grill for about 20-30 minutes.

Unwrapped....I could slice the beat with the side of my fork. I had to add a little more salt, but really it was kinda good. Jaime said if I could get the boys to eat enough, their pee would turn purple. I thought they might get a kick out of that, but they werent impressed enough with the prospect of purple urine to finish their beets.Oh well, I personnally will just have to wait and see. lol

The other 4 beets I chopped into small cubes, I sauteed them on the stove with some Olive oil, salt and pepper. Jaime had suggested some onions here...I didnt use onions I added some fresh pressed garlic. In hindsight I think the onions would have given them a little more flavor, but they turned out really well too.  I think of the two ways I prepared them, I prefered the method on the grill. They were much softer and flavorful.

If I get more beets next week, Im going to try pickling them. :o)

Broccoflower from space

     Getting these fresh veggies every week has been a lot of fun. I posted this pic on my facebook page, because...honestly, I didnt know what it was. I was scared. It is something I would have NEVER bought in a supermarket. My friends wer VERY helpful I was told it was a Romanesco broccoli or a Broccoflower.

     Hmmm...I was also given a suggestion to prepare it. So here is what I did;

I cut the broccoflower up in florets and steamed it to the point I could easily pierce it with a fork.
While it was steaming I had prepared a small dish with some melted butter and fresh pressed garlic.
I poured the the garlic butter over the freshly steamed broccoflower and lightly added some salt and pepper.

     It was delicious! The kids were not so sure of it. Im not too worried about the kids. I read that foods have to be introduced several times to a child before they decide if they like it or not. Every time you serve it, they see you eat it, they smell it, they taste it, they are getting to know the taste and consistency. My two bigger kids dont have any food aversions. Im not into forcing my children to eat. There is plenty of healthy options available in my home and we have very few unhealthy choices. The broccoflower was fun and delicious and it will be served again and again. They will like it eventually. :o)

Leeks? WTF?

Week two’s box of fresh produce arrives and most of box one is gone. Except for the Leeks. It’s like Christmas every Friday when I get my box, so I was excited to open and see what surprises might be inside. Ugh. More LEEKS!!  It was like opening a package of underwear on Christmas, when you were expecting a new Barbie. So sure, they weren’t the ONLY thing in the box, there was an awesome Butternut squash, apples and lots of citrus fruits. Okay…I am totally against wasting perfectly good food. So, I popped onto allrecipes.com and found a recipe for Creamy Potato and Leek Soup.

CREAMY POTATO AND LEEK SOUP

Ingredients

6 potatoes,peeled and cubed

1 (14.5 oz) can chicken broth

2 leeks, chopped (I sliced mine)

2 teaspoons margarine

1 ½ cups half and half

Directions

1.     In a medium pot over medium heat, combine the potatoes and broth and allow to simmer for 20 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.

2.     In a separate skillet over medium heat, saute the leeks in the butter or margarine for 5 to 10 minutes, or until tender. Add the leeks and the cream to the potatoes and stir well. You can thicken the soup by using a potatoe masher, but it was really quite good with the chunks of potatoes in it! J

I know this is going to come as a HUGE surprise, but I hate onions. I’ve hated them with a passion my whole life. The only way I’ve ever been able to eat an onion is when it is disguised as an onion ring on a Carl’s Jr Western Bacon Cheeseburger. As I’ve been trying to do a lot healthier cooking at home, I’m finding onions are in just about everything. I’ve learned how to live with them and yes even eat them. (This makes my husband very happy).  I can’t say that IM a huge fan these days, but I’ve realized that they add great flavor to my cooking. The reason I say this is because the leaks reminded me of onions. Giant green onions, lol. Anyways, it was a little scary, but I have learned how well onions cook down, so I had faith and was quite surprised at how well they tasted.

How do you eat that??!!

So, this year I decided that not only would 'I' be more healthy, I was going to get my family more healthy too. I suppose you could say it was a bit of aNew Year's resolution. But it felt like more than that. It is a decision that I've made and a commitment that Ive promised to myself and my family.

A couple weeks ago, Groupon had a great deal for fresh produce deliveries once a week. I decided to take advantage of the deal. Every Friday morning there is a box of assorted organic fruits and vegetables on my porch. It's awesome because once you establish your account you can log in and exclude certain items that you DO NOT want. There wasnt much I excluded, because the whole point of getting some of these items was to learn how to eat them.

This may sound weird to some people but Ive never been a big fan of cauliflower. When I opened my first box there was a wonderful bounty of all sorts of things...and there it was this HUGE head of cauliflower. Oh geez...I wanted to like this. And because of my distaste for certain veggies I'd never introduced them to my kids either. Here we go! I opened up a crock pot recipe book and found a great recipe for cauliflower soup!

Cauliflower Soup

2 heads cauliflower ,cut into small florets
8 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup chopped celery
3/4 cup chopped onion
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
2 cups milk or light cream (I used 1% milk-and it turned out great)
1 tsp Worcestshire sauce

Combine everything EXCEPT the milk & worcestshire sauce and cook in crock pot on low 7-8hrs or high for 3-4 hours.
Using a hand mixer or hand blender, puree the soup. (I accomplished this by using my magic bullet one cup at a time). Mix in the milk and Worcestshire sauce and blend until smooth. Cook on High for 15 mins longer before serving.

This soup turned out great! It was really creamy and the kids ate it!! Shh! Dont tell them it was pratically ALL vegetables!! LOL And it was so smooth and delicious I took leftovers to work and heated it up in a coffee mug. I was able to drink it like a broth.

For those of us using Weight Watchers points, I already did the calculations! If you make this soup with 1% milk, its less than 1 point per 1 cup serving!! YAY!! :o)

This was an awesome way to introduce my family to cauliflower, and now I'm looking for more recipes!

Now Bring on the....LEEKS?? Oh geez.