Eating Well
23 Sep 2010 3 Comments
in Recipes, Uncategorized Tags: Flavor, Food, Fresh Food, Healthy, Photography
I suppose I have been lacking inspiration to post on here lately, and finally gathered together a few pictures to share.
I enjoy trying to eat well for each meal. Sometimes I will eat something simple that takes little preparation.
But I like taking the time to cook something, even for breakfast.
Since we raise our own eggs I love to make egg sandwiches.
I load them up with what ever veggies we have around at the time. The sandwich in the picture above was a yummy combination of items from our garden.
tomato, green bell pepper, zucchini, and eggs. And then cheese, spinach and a bagel from the store.
For dinner I try to make a satisfying meal that stimulates the taste buds and nourishes the body.
This was an inspired meal of Crash Hot Potatoes (potatoes from our garden) seasoned with homegrown basil,
A spinach salad with apple slices (apple from our garden) with flax seed sprinkled on top, and a homemade vinaigrette.
A tomato and zucchini layered bake,
which was made up of zucchini, tomatoes, kale sliced thinly, basil and parmesan cheese all layered together in a loaf pan.
When you take fresh ingredients and prepare them with care and love, they nourish your mind, body and soul on many levels.
When we start by respecting ourselves with what we eat, we then respect the world around us and the plants and animals that are feeding us.
As zucchini is notorious for, we have been inundated with a surplus of the vegetable.
We have been shredding it in fine and large shred and putting it in the freezer to use in baking and stir frys over the winter.
We have also been baking many loafs of chocolate zucchini cake to enjoy through the winter and to share with friends.
And then I have been using it in as many meals as possible. I decided I wanted to do some type of Ratatouille with our fresh vegetables.
So I sautéed up some garlic, threw in the zucchini and thin strips of green bell pepper. I allowed them to saute until slightly tender.
Then I threw in the tomatoes to just warm through and release some of their juices to make a bit of a sauce.
I added more flavor with salt, pepper, italian seasoning and a bit of parmesan cheese.
Then I spooned the whole mixture over some whole grain pasta.
If you are passionate about your body and what you put into it, it is not work to eat well each and every day.
Take the time to get to know your food, and where it comes from.
You will taste the difference in quality and energy in foods that are raised in a healthy manner.
And you will feel a vast difference in yourself when you prepare good vibrant food.
Wild Edibles
06 Sep 2010 2 Comments
in Uncategorized Tags: Blueberries, Food, Hiking, Plants, Wild Edibles
We just returned from an amazing hike in the North Cascades. We did about 40 miles along a stunning loop. There are so many amazing things to experience while being out in nature, and food is one of them.
Bernie and I are naturalists, and enjoy learning about the plants and animals that surround us. We study different wild edibles, and enjoy trying some of them when we are out hiking. On this hike we not only were blessed with a bounty of beautiful views, but also a vast number of edible plants.
We enjoyed snacking on wild ginger root (tastes like the ginger you buy in the store, and can be used in the same way, but is a very different plant than the ginger we are used to), wall lettuce, thimble berry, mountain sorrel (a tart plant that has oxalic acid in it), service berry, and last but not least Blueberries!
The blueberries easily distracted us from the rhythm of hiking. Many of the hillsides were covered in blueberry plants (the red hue to the hill in the top picture is blueberry plants). Some areas would have a bounty of berries, and others still were far from being ripe. It was such a treasure when we came across a slope that was dotted with little blue orbs. Mmm!!
Our ancestors used to survive purely on what they could gather from the land, and often now people do not even know that you can eat wild plants. I highly suggest going out and getting to know your wild edibles. I have to put the disclaimer in here to go out with a VERY good field guide and/or someone that really knows their wild edibles. There are many good field guides out there. Start with the more simple edibles (like the blueberries) and expand into the bounty that nature has to offer!
