Friday, June 29, 2012

Healthy Batch & Bulk Cooking

I am back in the kitchen. I am in the kitchen more than just about anywhere else.
It is requiring some planning (and a good deal of music) to make everything flow together. We have a family team of seven again with our precious nieces staying with us.
We have my husband and meself (smile) and our 18 year old daughter, 19 year old niece, 15 year old niece, 13 year old niece and 9 year old son. We also have family and friends over for a lot of our meals so I am looking back into batch and bulk cooking.

We are also trying to bet back on track with eating health, whole foods, cutting out processed and on it goes. This can be a challenge but I am working on it. I am going to the farmer's market every few days and making almost every meal based on what I get there and from my heart sister's garden. Speaking of my heart sister, Debby --- many of you probably feel you know her quite well since I've been sharing tiny bits about her for 14 or 15 years now. I actually shared more on the cleanandcozyhome email list, I think. ANYway, she grows a little to big garden each summer and shares from her bounty ... this year, salvaging what the birds, squirrels, and rabbits don't devour.

She has given delightful eggplants, green peppers, cantaloupe, cabbage, tomatoes and green beans. We have been sauteeing these with Vidalia onions and portabella mushrooms (all cut up or chopped) and using the mixture as a base for quite a few meals.

Savannah (19-year old niece) has fallen in LOVE with this mixture on a warm tortilla with some extra sharp cheddar cheese and scrambled, local eggs.

Yesterday, we had them for the second time and last night, we spread goat cheese with herbs over the pan toasted tortillas and spread left over quinoa, the vegetable mix, and nothing else. It was really good!

I have been buying fresh green beans for .99 per pound so I've been buying two pounds each visit. We have had them as a side to our turkey, onion, and green pepper burgers (I just mixed ground turkey meat with lots of chopped, Vidalia onions and chopped green peppers with some Bragg's Liquid Aminoes, sea salt, pepper, and some garlic powder and cooked on our cast iron griddle) and with a lot of our meals.
We steam them in a cheap bamboo basket set that goes into our wok or simmer in water until they start to get tender. Then we toss them in skillets and cook with worchestershire sauce, soy sauce, sea salt and pepper. Before done, we splash some balsamic vinegear over them and then grate parmesan cheese over before serving. Very good! For people eating bacon (everyone here does other than me) ... it adds the most amazing flavor to these green beans!

I will keep sharing as we go ;)

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