Summertime Food

This time of year, there is no excuse for eating premade, processed food.

 

There are just too many delicious fresh fruits and vegetables in season!

Since being home, I’ve enjoyed visiting the local farmer’s market and cooking, healthy, wholesome, fresh meals.

Starting my days right with breakfast!

Quark

Peach and Blueberries

Ground flax, ground hemp seeds

Raw oatmeal

Mint

Quark

Strawberries and Blueberries

Ground flax, ground hemp seeds, wheat germ

Raw oatmeal and apricot jam

Midday Lunch Breaks

Arugula and red cabbage

Red pepper, cucumber, tomatoes

Pan seared grilling cheese with Italian seasoning

Balsamic glaze

The more colorful, the better!

Whole grain sunflower bread

Arugula, goat cheese, cucumbers

Balsamic glaze

Dinnertime Discoveries

Steamed beets

Zucchini and mint fritters

Tofu veggie balls

The beets and balls were fantastic… but I won’t even waste my time typing the fritter recipe as it was far from par.

How to Steam Beets

1. Wash the beets with warm water then cut off the top and bottom bits.
2. Quarter the beets, leaving the peel on.
3. Put about an inch of water in the bottom of a pan then add the steaming basket and beets.
4. Turn on the heat and allow the beets to steam for 15-20 minutes, or until a fork inserts smoothly.
5. To peel the beets, put on a pair of disposable rubber kitchen gloves and simply run the skin off. You can also use a paper towel to do the same trick.

Tofu Veggie Balls

Pretty much a veggie burger in ball form.

Ingredients

• 1 block hard tofu, pressed for 15 minutes to release excess water
• 1/2 red pepper, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup parsley leaves, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• 2 Tbsp. sprouts (more on this to come shortly, I used a mixture of fenugreek, lentils and Daikon radish seeds)
• 1 small red onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup raw oatmeal, finely chopped
• 2 Tbsp. soy sauce
• pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 2 Tbsp. sesame seeds
• 2 Tbsp. sesame, olive or flax oil

Method

1. Break apart the tofu with your hands, creating a crumbles. Add the additional ingredients and continue to mix with your hands. Squeeze the mixture until all ingredients are well incorporated.
2. Form the mixture into balls, no bigger than an inch in diameter.
3. Heat the oil in a large, non-stick pan. Add the balls and brown on all sides, turning frequently, being careful not to burn the balls.
4. Eat straight from the pan or covered with tomato sauce in a tofuball sub or top off a plate of spaghetti with these bad boys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fresh, fun, colorful, healthy, summertime food!

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The Bakery is Open

Wow! What a day! What a week!

As I was walking home today, my mind traced back to the very beginning of the morning. The kindergarten students came for a visit to my classroom to be read to by my students. Suddenly I thought, wow, that was today! It already feels like weeks ago! Yes, it has been one of those days! Busy, busy, busy.

I started off with the usual bowl of steaming oatmeal. Topped today with  strawberries, flax, hemp, and almond butter. Accompanied by frothy coffee, naturally.

As I mentioned, the Kindergarten kids came up first thing this morning. It was really cute watching my students care for the younger kids. They did a great job reading with excitement and a variety of character voices. So proud. I was trying to capture the moment by snapping pictures between nose-picking. I really don’t believe I posses the patients to teach that age level. I want to teach about social responsibility… and not in the sense of being aware of where you wipe or don’t wipe your nose nuggets.

The morning continued in a crazy busy way with putting together our class skeleton! We are now beginning a study of skeletons and my students need to learn the bones of the human body. Each kid was assigned a bone or bone group to create for a class compiled life-sized skeleton. It turned out pretty well! I have such a creative and resourceful group of students! Again, so proud!

Morning snack was another White Chocolate Macadamia Granola Bar- so, so good!

Lunch was my much anticipated Beetroot Hummus. I had enough to share with my colleagues. I was surprised that so many people actually tried it. Apparently it was well received as I came home with an empty bowl.

I ate twice that amount of beautiful bright  hummus, almost all of the veggies, and the whole homemade honey wheat pitta. Kim said she could have eaten the whole bowl with a spoon… she’s known to eat a whole jar of Nutella or jam in one sitting. I informed her that this would be a much healthier option.

Fridays are always extra exciting in our class as we have a “Mystery Reader.” Any parent, Grandparent, Aunt, Uncle, neighbor, or older sibling can volunteer to be a Mystery Reader. Before someone comes to read to the class, they create 5 clues. I read the clues and the kids try to figure out who it is before they come. Today’s Mystery Reader was a mom- her son didn’t even look at the book, he just kept staring at his mother with a huge grin. Too cute.

Heading into the afternoon, things didn’t slow down. We went from one mother to another. Another mother came in to talk about our skeleton with the class. She was nervous about doing the talk in English but did a fantastic job! Everyone was completely enthralled as she talked about what exactly our bones do for us. Once she was done and I had the class to myself again, we busted out singing my more advanced rendition of “head, shoulders, knees and toes.” I affectionately call the song “Cranium, clavicle, pelvis, phalanges.” And yes, there are dance moves to accompany.

After-school- pre-tutoring snack was an apple.

Once home, the bakery was opened! Sebastian suggested making Pretend  Paneer Masala for dinner. Since our local grocery store stopped carrying naan bread, I decided to make some myself. The recipe I followed suggested cooking the bread in a grill. It is still winter here so I opted to use the cast iron pan. It worked like a dream!

I did the bread and Sebastian did the rest.

This photo certainly doesn’t do our delicious dinner justice. It was amazing! Sebastian makes a killer masala!

Since I was in bread baking mode I also made another batch of pita bread.

Apparently the cats were curious about the resting and rising pita bread. Luckily it was covered by a towel!

Final bakery production for the evening: 14 buttery mini- naan and 6 pitas.

The Bakery is Closed. Good night!

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