Tag Archives: summer

Green Bean Salad

Posted on by Erin

I really thought this dish would be a big winner with the hungry masses at the dinner table. They like every ingredient in it–green beans? Check. Hard-boiled eggs? Double check. Pickles? Check. So I was really surprised when we had to bribe them with dessert to finish their veggies.

The Sweetie Pie enjoyed his serving, and finished the Pickle’s serving (who decided that having dessert wasn’t worth the price of eating his beans). I’ve come to rely on my nose to “taste” these recipes for me, since my diet restrictions don’t allow me to eat eggs or mayo. My olfactory senses gave it a thumbs up, so I’m not sure what went wrong. But I present it here as a dish that pleased the adults at the table, if not the kiddos.

I came up a little short on mayo and substituted some plain yogurt. It worked great. I don’t think I’d go so far as to substitute all the mayo with yogurt, but if you’re wanting to cut calories, you could get away with swapping out part of it.

I also used my french cut green beans here, since I still had a bag in the freezer. They worked out nicely.

And I chose to use rice vinegar, since the recipe doesn’t specify which vinegar to use. I thought the little bit of sweetness would be a nice addition.

Plan to Eat users, click on the recipe title to import the ingredient list into your account.

Green Bean Salad

Source: More with Less by Doris Janzen Longacre (adapted)

Ingredients

  • 3 cups cooked green beans, cut into 1″ pieces
  • 4 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
  • 1 medium organic onion, diced
  • 1 large dill pickle, chopped
  • 2 Tbs vinegar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2⁄3 cup mayonnaise

Method

For instructions, see page 254 in More with Less by Doris Janzen Longacre **

** While it’s technically legal to repost recipes, we don’t feel it’s ethical to post copyrighted recipes from the same source for weeks at a time. I’m providing the ingredient list to use in creating a shopping list. We here at the Plan to Eat blog apologize for any inconvenience. If you don’t already own the cookbook, and don’t wish to buy it, most libraries have a copy on their shelves. Thanks for your understanding.

Cucumber Salad

Posted on by Erin

I really struggle in the winter to come up with something fresh to serve as a salad. Those tasty baby greens get kind of pricey in January, and I can only serve so much spinach salad. This cucumber salad was something new and tasty for our dinner table, and we all loved it.

I used mayo in this version, which was yummy. But I know some people are put off by mayo, so you could also use sour cream (as suggested in the recipe) or you could use plain yogurt (whole milk yogurt is going to give you the best results). I also used about a teaspoon of dried dill in place of the fresh, because we lost the garden dill to the snow many weeks ago.

When I tasted this after mixing it up, it tasted way too salty and I made a note to decrease the salt next time. But once it sat for about an hour in the fridge, it was actually just perfect. I’m not sure what the science is behind that, but either reduce the salt to 1/2 teaspoon, or make sure to give yourself time to let it sit before dinner-time.

We had a small amount of cucumbers leftover and I was suspicious that it wouldn’t keep until the next day. Surprisingly, it was just as tasty. I mixed the remaining cucumbers and all of the dressing with some spinach and made a small salad to go with lunch. It was fabulous.

Plan to Eat users, click on the recipe title to import the ingredient list into your account.

Cucumber Salad

Source: More with Less, by Doris Janzen Longacre

Ingredients

  • 1 large cucumber, thinly sliced
  • 1-2 Tbs fresh dill, chopped
  • 2 Tbs mayonnaise, sour cream, or yogurt
  • 1 Tbs vinegar
  • 2 Tbs oil
  • 1⁄2-1 tsp salt
  • pepper

Method

See page 249 in More with Less. **

** While it’s technically legal to repost recipes, we don’t feel it’s ethical to post copyrighted recipes from the same source for weeks at a time. I’m providing the ingredient list to use in creating a shopping list. We here at the Plan to Eat blog apologize for any inconvenience. If you don’t already own the cookbook, and don’t wish to buy it, most libraries have a copy on their shelves. Thanks for your understanding.

 

Garden Vegetable Curry

Posted on by Erin

It’s been freezing here at nights, and so I brought in the remaining produce from the garden. Which means I found myself (again) with a fridge full of zucchini and tomatoes. I chose this dish for dinner in an effort to make some room in the fridge again.

It was fairly tasty, and while no one raved about it, no one complained about it either. I’ll take it as a passing grade.

We served this with the optional hard-boiled eggs on top. I forgot to put them on for the photo and by the time I remembered, I’d already eaten my curry. Such is the dinner-hour in our house. If you’re not a fan of hard-boiled eggs, you could add some cottage cheese or cashews or dhal for protein. I also found a few chutneys in the fridge, so we served our curry with those and a dollop of yogurt.

I’ve left the ingredient list pretty much the same, but you should know that I kind of added whatever veggies I had that needed to be used up–zucchini and lots of tomatoes being the primary ones. I liked the extra tomatoes and thought they added more of a saucy element that was nice. I also discovered I was out of curry powder, and used 1 tablespoon of red curry paste instead. It was tasty, but I think we would have preferred the curry powder in this dish.

Garden Vegetable Curry

Source: More with Less by Doris Janzen Longacre

Ingredients

  • 3 T oil or ghee
  • 2 medium organic onions finely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • 2 T curry powder
  • 1 t tumeric
  • 1 t whole cumin seed
  • 1 c chopped tomatoes
  • 1 medium head cabbage chopped
  • 3 medium carrots diced
  • 4-5 small potatoes cut into cubes
  • 3 c green beans
  • 1 t salt
  • 1 T lemon juice
  • 8 hard-boiled eggs peeled and halved

Method

Refer to page 134 in More with Less.

On another note, I’d like to add a few thoughts on the spirit of More with Less. A couple of dear readers commented on my introduction post that I’d misunderstood the purpose of the cookbook. I’m so glad to be wrong on this point. I live in a place that prides itself on its eco-consciousness. I often find accusatory fingers pointed at me and my large-ish family. Other friends with large families have felt the same. So when people start talking about reducing footprints and limited food resources, we get a little defensive.

One reader turned me on to this companion book. I’ve requested a copy and am so excited to start reading it. I’d like to understand better the true spirit of the cookbook, in order to get the most out of the recipes. It’s not required reading for our cookbook tour, but if you want to join me I welcome your company.

The Busy (or Lazy) Mom’s Guide to Food Preservation

Posted on by Erin

I know the thrills of garden produce are gone when my kiddos start groaning every time they see me chopping zucchini or green beans. The tomatoes they never seem to tire of, but they seem to lose enthusiasm for everything else by mid-September.

I’ve spent about ten years experimenting with different ways of preserving my garden bounty. Early on I really enjoyed making up different jams, salsas, compotes and chutneys. I still enjoy making those, but as the years passed and the demands of home and family compound I look more for the utilitarian methods that require very little time and effort. Here are my favorites. You will need only a few basic supplies:

  • shredder (a food processor works well, but you can do it by hand if you prefer)
  • steamer (this can be as simple as a colander set into a big pot)
  • lots of zip-top freezer bags in whatever size you prefer
  • permanent marker for labeling your goodies
  • some freezer space (I know! This is the toughest one for me, too.)

Zucchini is always on my list of end-of-summer veggies to process. Shred the zucchini using a coarse shredding blade on your food processor. Measure into quart-size plastic freezer bags, label and freeze. I like to freeze zucchini in one-cup portions, but if you have a favorite recipe that calls for a different amount then freeze that much in each bag.

If you really want to you can draw out some of the water before freezing by salting and squeezing your shreds. But honestly I never do this. I let it drain after thawing and haven’t had problems with it.

Tomatoes I used to have a complicated process of peeling, chopping, and canning my tomatoes so that I could use them throughout the winter. I would usually do a batch of tomato sauce, too, which required me to get out my foodmill and spend lots of time boiling off extra water from the tomatoes. No longer! Last year a friend of mine and I were working together to put up some veggies. She had several bags-ful of tomatoes at her house and didn’t know what to do with them until we could get together. I mentioned that I’d read somewhere that you could freeze them whole and suggested we try that. Friends, I have not looked back!

After thawing from the freezer, the skins slipped off so easily and they were a piece of cake to chop. You wouldn’t want to use these in a salad or something fresh like that, but they are tasty and easy to use in soups, chili and the like.

I recommend spreading your tomatoes on a cookie sheet and popping the tray in the freezer. Once they’re frozen, drop them into a zip-top freezer bag, label and freeze. If you just pop them all in a bag and freeze them that way you will have a solid chunk of tomatoes and will have a hard time getting one or two out without all the others.

Green Beans I like to do a quick blanch in the steamer and then freeze. This year I’m “frenching” my beans before I freeze them. My family really enjoyed this method of Sally’s and this will make my freezer to table time even faster.

Cut your beans into whatever length you want. Get your steamer going and steam the beans briefly, about three minutes is all you need. Rinse them with cold water and spread out on a towel to cool and dry. Drop into a zip-top freezer bag, label and freeze.

Carrots I handle the same way as my beans. Chop or shred into whatever size you want. Drop them briefly into a steamer (again, three minutes should do it). Rinse with cold water. Spread onto a towel to let them cool and dry. Bag them up and freeze.

Peaches, Plums and other Stone Fruits freeze well. I usually do one small batch of jam or preserves and then freeze the rest. Because one the fruit is in my freezer, it’s already prepped and I can easily make another batch of jam in the middle of January, when it’s not so gorgeous outside. For all of these fruits, simply remove the stone (for plums or apricots, I cut them in half, but peaches get cut into eighths). Plums get dropped straight into a bag and then into the freezer. The peaches I steam briefly, let them cool and dry, and then freeze them in freezer bags. If I’m feeling ambitious I will peel my peaches first, but really it’s not neccessary.

I’ve read that you can freeze peaches whole (just like I described for tomatoes above), but haven’t tried this method. I’m so curious though, and the next bumper crop of peaches we get I’m going to give it a shot.

Berries aren’t usually on my list since we tend to just eat them up straight out of the garden. But on the occasions that I’ve needed to, I spread them out on a cookie sheet (so they don’t stick together) and put the sheet in the freezer. Once they’re frozen put them into a zip-top bag, label and freeze.

I’m curious to know what your preferred methods are? Do you have any simple preservation tips that I don’t know about? Please share with the rest of us in the comments!

Zucchini Fritters

Posted on by Erin

Start This Recipe about 1 hour before you want to eat it

Dinner Table Rating
1 thumb per family member

Cook’s Rating Accessibility Ease Affordability
Accessibility of ingredients, ease of preparation, and affordability

Well, friends, the final score is in and the zucchini won this year. This is my last attempt at using some of it up before putting it all in the freezer for the winter (more on that later). But what a great recipe to end on! Sally calls these Zucchini Cakes, but I prefer to call them fritters. I have a hard time thinking of anything with onions in it as “cake”.

I know that photo just looks like a pile of greasy sausage from IHOP, but really, these fritters were a hit. They came together in a jiffy and everyone at the table liked them, especially the Peanut who would shove a bite into her mouth and then scream at you until you put another bite on her tray. Even the Pickle saw them cooking and said “Yum! Dat wooks good for dinner!” The only thumb withheld is my own, due to my food allergies.

I’m thinking of cooking up a big batch of these and trying to freeze them. I’d love to be able to pull these out with some of last week’s tomato soup. What a fabulous, instant dinner for the chilly days ahead.

Zucchini Fritters (Nourishing Traditions, page 411)

  • 4 cups grated zucchini
  • 1 tbsp sea salt
  • 4 eggs lightly beaten
  • 1 small organic onion chopped
  • 2 cups whole grain bread crumbs
  • sea salt and pepper
  • 1⁄4 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1⁄2 cup Parmesan cheese
  • 4 tbsp butter
  • 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1. Mix zucchini with salt and let stand 30 minutes. Rinse well with filtered water and squeeze dry in a tea towel.

Salting veggies is a good, easy way of drawing out some of the liquid. When you’re trying to get little patties of zucchini to stick together in a frying pan, having too much water is a little counter-productive. When my zucchini is cut into chunks, I choose not to salt as it doesn’t seem to make much difference. When it’s shredded, I salt. Even after salting, I had a little puddle of liquid in the bottom of my bowl after I’d fried up all the fritters. Just leave the liquid in the bottom and don’t mix it back in.

2. Mix with eggs, onion, bread crumbs, cheese and cayenne pepper and season to taste. Form into cakes and saute a few at a time in butter in olive oil.

I don’t really prefer butter for frying, since the milk solids tend to burn quickly and then make the food taste burnt. I would use all oil next time, or perhaps a combination of olive oil and coconut oil or palm oil. If you want the butter flavor you could use ghee, which is butter with the milk solids removed.

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to be freed from the tyrannical demands of the zucchini plant. Come back on Sunday and I’ll show you my preferred (read: EASY!) way to freeze all the rest of it so you can whip up zucchini bread all winter long.