A simple summer meal, recipe to be posted soon.
I know, I know, I said I was going to post some recipes featuring bananas soon, they are coming! Life has intruded on my cooking and posting routine lately, and put me out of wack. I am looking forwarded to getting back into the swing of normal life again.
But because life has been crazy for our family the last few weeks, I feel that I’ve dropped the ball in cooking the way I normally do. For example, all of us (even including Elena) started craving more vegetables because I just wasn’t preparing as many of them as I normally do.
I decided it was time to revise and revisit the New Year Goals that I had made at the beginning of the year. We think of making goals only once a year or so, but I find it extremely helpful to make goals more often as it gives me the chance to really evaluate myself. So really, this is long overdo.
(By the way, if you read my goals you will get a feel of what type of recipes I will be sharing this summer and I also have some great new things in store for this blog! Stay tuned!)
Many of us feel that summertime is a time to get relaxed and not push ahead in eating healthy and certainly vacation is not the best time to create new habits! But summer is one of the best times to enjoy produce, so it would be a shame to miss it all because of a too relaxed attitude. Besides which, this the the time to stock freezers and can too! Here are my goals for the summer.
My Food Goals for the Summer (to be revised as needed)
My two over arching goals are to plan simple meals based off of fresh produce, and to put up as much food as I can.
- Incorporate as much fresh produce as I can into our meals, taking advantage of farmer’s markets and farmer’s roadside stands. Think “produce dominated” diet.
- Pick fresh berries for my freezer and for fresh eating
- Keep encouraging Elena to drink her water
- Sprout more grains and legumes
- Eat more Seafood as budget allows
- Consider canning tomatoes for winter
- Make and eat LOTS of lacto-fermented food as time and budget allow
So there are a few goals of mine for the summer. What about you? Have any plans and goals for this summer? Do share!
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I want to learn to make lacto-fermented sauerkrat. Pick berries. Go to the farmer’s market often. And also eat more fish and seafood. (yay for New England living.)
I’m also trying to eat a more produce dominated diet for summer. Lately I’ve been doing this by including salads for every meal with different veggies and homemade dressings, and green smoothies every morning for breakfast. I think with the warm weather, my body just sort of begs me to lighten up a bit and eat more fresh food!
I’m looking forward to getting my crock (should be any day now!) to make lacto-fermented kraut, and other l/f recipes with it. I already started my own SCOBY to brew my own Kombucha (thanks to Food Renegade), planted a huge, raised bed garden this year and will be looking forward to the bounty. I’m also planning on making as many homemade REAL foods/recipes as time allows.
and…of course, reading your blog for more ideas and to learn all I can.
Thanks Kimi.
Leesie,
What type of crock did you end up buying? I am trying to decide which type to buy as I am tired of making mine “barrel” style sauerkraut in a bowl. 🙂
Oh yes-lots of plans for the summer(diet wise too):) Lot’s of salads,fruits,yogurts/raithas (less ice creams and juices loaded with sugar) and more outdoor exercises. I wish I could get tender coconut water here-that used to be a part of my summer diet back in India 🙁
I planted my very first garden this year (at my mom’s since we live in a townhouse, but she is only a mile away.) I can’t wait until I can begin eating fresh tomatoes! I also purchased an Excalibur dehydrator (used on craigslist for $20!) and I’m hoping to be able to dry all that yummy, fresh produce for the winter.
I’ve started making crispy nuts and I’m want to start making my own Ezekiel break.
I was a vegetarian for fourteen years so we eat a ton of produce, but I want to try and get my two and four year old to eat more raw vegetables.
Sweta- I lived in India for a while and I miss tender coconut water too. In fact, I miss all the produce. It was so delicious and fresh and available year round!
I am working on my first batch of kombucha. Yay! I’m also hoping to, like you, eat more seafood and fresh fruits and vegetables.
The farmers market is my favorite part of summer! Along with lots of fresh produce I am obsessed with the Indian food stand and mango lassi. My goals are to heal myself through NT beginning with learning to make crispy nuts for the first time, soaking grains for breakfast, and learning to soak and use gluten free flours for baking.
Kimi, are you still avoiding dairy and if so what do you use for soaking/fermenting? I found the lemon juice to be so strong.
: )
I love tilapia for inexpensive yet delicious fish.
Here are my goals:
1. Learn how to do canning. Can tomatoes and cherries.
2. Eat more liver. We have fallen off the wagon. Gonna order a bunch of liverwurst, and make more liver pate.
3. Master sourdough bread, sourdough pancakes, pizza, and pasta. Also whole wheat tortillas.
4. Learn how to make haggis.
5. Learn how to make lacto-fermented root beer.
Here are my goals:
1. Learn how to do canning. Can tomatoes and cherries.
2. Eat more liver. We have fallen off the wagon. Gonna order a bunch of liverwurst, and make more liver pate.
3. Master sourdough bread, sourdough pancakes, pizza, and pasta. Also whole wheat tortillas.
4. Learn how to make haggis.
5. Learn how to make lacto-fermented root beer.
P.S. – Sorry, forgot to tell you great post!
To Cheeseslave:
Canning is easy. It is MUCH easier than the directions make it sound. About the easiest first canning project is applesauce or apple butter. Put whole apples in pot with about an inch of water on the bottom. Cook till apples are soft. Put through food mill (Foley-type mill is good, the big fruit mill that clamps onto the counter is the bomb, but I have done it with just a potato ricer). What you have is applesauce (& compost). If you want apple butter, put the applesauce in the crockpot on low. Add whatever seasonings you like, remembering that the taste will be concentrated in the end product–I use cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice. Cook it, stirring when you think of it, for about 24 hours (till it looks like apple butter to you). Whether you do sauce or butter, put enough water in your big canning pot that it will cover your full jars when you put them in–usually about 4-6 inches will do the job. Bring it to a boil. In a little pot, boil some more water, turn it off, and then put your lids in that pot till you put them on the jars (there is a gadget that is a magnet on the end of the stick that is good to get these out of the water.). Make sure your jars are good and clean. Use the canning funnel to fill them with applesauce or apple butter–I usually fill jars about up to the part where the lid screws on–except that the little jelly jars I fill a little more than that. Wipe off the rim of each jar with a clean damp washcloth (this is important–stray bits of food can and will keep your jar from sealing, ask me how I know), put the lid on, and then put the screw band on good and tight. Put your jars in your big hot water pot, and process 15 minutes for quarts, 10 minutes for pints or jellies–don’t start timing it till the pot is boiling again. Use the jar lifter to get the jars out, and cool ’em on a towel. I like to use quarts for applesauce, pints for apple butter or jam for household use, and jelly jars for apple butter or jam to give as gifts. It’s a lot of steps, but once you’ve done it a few times, it gets easy. Even pressure canning is nothing to be afraid of–it just requires a little more care. Pear butter is done the same way as apple butter, and it’s yummy, too.
Oh–having home-made jams, butters, and jellies is addictive. Once you get used to having your own, you won’t bother with store-bought. There is a book out there on canning jams and jellies without sugar–it mostly uses the low-sugar pectin & fruit juice, but plain apple butter is easier to start with, and doesn’t need sugar or pectin, anyway, as it doesn’t have to “set”.
I want to learn to make fermented veggies, makes jams, pasta sauce/pizza sauce etc this summer. Also get some seeds to sprout as well. I just sprout beans and grains once in a rare while now. I want to increase that and make sprouting a routine.
I am thinking about trying sourdough, but I hate the idea of throwing away all that whole grain flour. Any wisdom there? I also want to keep including beans and chicken broth in our diets – posted about that here: http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2009/06/10/summer-foods-broth-and-beans/ My grandmother might teach me to can tomatoes, so that would be awesome.
My goals are to give up canning (except for maybe tomatoes) and pursue food preservation methods that don’t damage nutrients as harshly – more lacto-fermenting, more brining, more oil preserving and to make it a habit to eat more seafood by figuring our other ways to cut our budget. And to render more fat from suet and leaf lard.
I’ve begun to try and eat seasonally and locally, which, right now is easy. It’ll be more difficult in late July/August when it’s just too hot here for much except peppers. LOL.
I’m also trying to put things in my freezer and can things up. I really wanted to make crispy pickles, but it’s not happening.
My goals:
-To use our dehydrator more to dry our huge CSA share bounty
-To freeze as many of our berries as possible
-To have simple picnic-style suppers and reduce our grocery costs: bread, cheese, olives, simple grilled fish, and millions of varieties of salads
Those sound like great goals Kimi! My goals for the summer are to eat more seafood (I’ve already been eating more salmon and shrimp), to add more variety to my diet in general, and to be more creative with cooking meals (most of my meals are very plain).
I joined my first CSA! We have a freezer full of locally grown and grass fed beef & pork. With the farm fresh veggies coming weekly now, my goals are as follows:
1) Completely finish my farm share of produce each week (ensuring my family and I are getting variety and ENOUGH veggies to maintain a healthy diet).
2) Rely on my ready stock of veggies & meat that are already at home, therefore, saving money by shopping less at the grocery store.
3). ***Long Term (think next year)***Make better use of local produce stands and farmer’s markets to freeze fresh fruits & veggies for winter use.
And I have to ditto Susan on her love of Tilapia. An inexpensive, and in my opinion, highly underrated fish! It has a mild flavor and is very firm. Takes on the flavor of whatever you cook it with and highly versatile for cooking styles.
Sounds like everyone has some great goals! Thanks Susan and Cameo for the Tilapia recommendation. I will have to remember that. I’ve tried it before, but they don’t always have it as the market. So I will keep my eye out for it!
Thank you, Heather! That is so helpful!
When I was in Tuscany, they canned all their tomatoes each fall and they would last them for their sauces all year. They also got their olive oil from a local farm where it was freshly pressed and they got their wine from a local vineyard. And we went truffle hunting with a real truffle hunter and his dogs.
Hi Kimmi,
I am looking to make my strawberry freezer jelly for the year since its time, the hood berries are at the farms and stands. I would like to try to make it with an alternative to organic granulated sugar and what would the ratio be, also would the consistancy of the jelly be the same or would it thinner or ?
Thanking you in advance, Paula
P.S. Thanks Heather about the applesauce directions and what is the name of that book about jellys without sugar.