Seasonal Growing Chart and Upcoming Classes February 14, 2012

Happy Valentine’s Day friends! I hope you take a chance to love on your body today with some exercise and/or delicious produce (and then go eat a chocolate).

I am squirming in my kitchen chair with excitement as I just discovered the Slow Food First Coast website with the date of their upcoming Farm Tour 2012. The date is for Sunday, April 22nd. They do not have the events up yet but last year’s line up looked awesome. My calendar is marked and I hope to see some of you out there visiting and supporting our local agriculture.

I also found a wonderful tool for you on their website, a seasonal growing chart.  This will help you know what to expect from your CSA or farm deliveries. Click here: Seasonal Variety of Produce

Next week I am teaching 2 cooking classes! I hope you can join in on the food fun. Tuesday, February 21st my colleague Ryder and I will be at Whole Foods Jacksonville cooking up savory chocolate dishes.  Click here to sign up.

Next Thursday, February 23rd, I’m back at A. Chef’s Cooking Studio with an exciting class: How to use your CSA box! I’m working on the recipes now but I am planning on using kale, beets, fennel, radishes, kholrabi, and maybe more. Click here for the Studio’s website and calendar. Call Chef Andrea to sign up.

Have a healthy, love-filled day!

Clean Eating Continues December 5, 2011

After last week’s success in the Braddock version of clean eating, my hubby informed me me that he would like to eat this way every week! Holy moly! It’s a dream come true. Over our 6+ years of marriage I have slowly helped him move from a meat and potatoes man to accepting that meat does not need to be at every meal. Last week I don’t think I made a dinner that included meat at all. Wow. Marriage is so cool. I love growing together. But that is another topic for another blog.

Let me clarify that I am NOT anti-meat in any way. However, research does support eating less as a way to prevent cancer and heart disease – diseases we both have in our family trees.

Our deal for eating”clean” during the week was that we would enjoy whatever we wanted on Friday night and Saturday. Friday night my mom was in town and I cooked us steamed mussels in white wine and sauteed spinach. It was delicious and in no way a far cry from how I had been eating. Saturday night, however, my man and I decided to have some Mellow Mushroom (my favorite pizza in all the world) and a Cami Cake from next door. Although my mouth loved the delicious food, I think the cupcake did me in . I had a bad head ache that night and just didn’t feel right. (Dr. Sears referred to this as your body being “metabolically programmed” to want and need certain foods. When you deviate from that, whether good to bad or bad to good, you feel it.)

On Sunday we woke up ready to get right back to lots of fruits and veggies. We made sure we were stocked up and spent about an hour and half in the kitchen prepping for the week (see Twitter picture from yesterday @Jbraddockrd). This hour and half is the key to being successful for us. If stuff isn’t washed, cut and in a baggie, it probably won’t get eaten. It is now so easy (just as easy as grabbing any snack from the pantry) to grab a fruit or veggie for a snack or for lunch.

Last night for dinner I had fun using up some of the produce we needed to use quick. I had a ton of spinach (thank you Costco),  and califlower, potatoes and kholrabi from my farm delivery. I have never cooked kholrabi and was determined to put it to use. The menu I came up with was roasted califlower and kholrabi mash, spinach walnut pesto on whole wheat baguette, and caprese salad. Everything turned out great and we had a veggie count of 4-5 (it’s hard to tell).  Here are some pictures.

Spinach Walnut Pesto and Califlower Kohlrabi mash

 

Caprese Salad with Balsamic Vinegar

 

To make the mash, I roasted cauliflower florets, cubed kholrabi root, and one cubed potato (skin on) tossed in olive oil and salt and pepper for 25 minutes at 450 degrees. I put all of this in a food processor with about 1/4 cup low fat sour cream and pulsed until smooth. That’s it!

So perhaps this week you will join me in eating cleaner. Beef up (ha ha) your fruit and veggie intake. Take care of your body. You will never regret it.

Clean Eating Day #4 December 1, 2011

Today was a lovely day at home. I don’t get many days where I have nothing to do outside of the house so I really appreciate a whole day at home like today. This also meant that I got to think about my food today, or at least that is what I thought.

Days at home often fly by as they are filled with housework, emails, phone calls with friends, and oh yes, taking care of little Jackson. I enjoyed having my friend Laura over for lunch today and she was on board with my choice for the meal.

I had a family member email today about blender recommendations. Such a great question! I am a huge fan of the Magic Bullet. I have had one for a long time and I have found this to be the best blender for smoothies. It is also affordable at about $50. Another stupendous option, which I do not know from experience but have heard, is the Vitamix. I would love love love one of these mega mixers. It seems that you can throw anything into it and it will pulse it up. It is not cheap though.

So here is today’s day of eating. I will confess that my husband asked me to make cookies for his 7th period class tomorrow and I have definitely had one or two cookies. =) Interestingly, my tummy is not real happy right now.

Breakfast: The usual smoothie and egg on toast

Lunch: I made what I call “Quinoa confetti salad”. It had quinoa, 3 bean trio, chopped spinach, chopped tomatoes, chopped onion, chopped bell pepper, fresh cilantro and parsley, evoo, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper, and craisins. I basically grabbed whatever was in the fridge and it was delicious. I also had some cranberry sauce from last night.

Snack: walnuts and chocolate chips, green tea

Dinner: Black beans and brown rice with veggies, cheese and sour cream. A few cookies.

Eating Organic Affordably, Part 2 October 25, 2011

Just this morning, I had another friend ask me if eating organic was really that important. This reminded me that this is an important topic and I need to finish my little series on it. If you are just jumping in to this conversation on my blog, check out part 1 of the discussion and figure out where you are on this organic-eating journey.

To flat-out answer the question, “Do I think eating organic is important,” I would say yes. If you look at my own food choices, you would see many organic options. (Just a quick reminder though, that my personal way of eating is not the only way to eat ‘healthy’. Each person needs to work out their own healthy eating lifestyle.)

At my Farm to Plate dinner a couple of weeks ago, the farmer of Black Hog Farm reminded me of something that I have been saying for a long time: Local trumps organic. Yes, it’s true. Why? Because local food is the freshest, meaning the highest nutrient content. It also travels less time to your plate which means less preservatives are needed and less gas is used driving it around. You also have the opportunity to get personal with your food. You know the people that grow it or raise it. If you have a problem, you can go directly to them.

Many of the local growers don’t have the means to go through the organic certification process. So they may be following organic practices, but are not able to promote their items as such. But again, when you know your producer, you can just ask them about it.

So all this to say that you should take advantage of any and all local resources that you can. A dollar spent here goes directly back to the producer to continue making high quality food. This is money well spent.

Many of the farmers markets offer a plethora of affordable, local produce options. I would recommend starting here. Produce is probably the most important place to start buying organic. Forget the processed foods for now. Spend the money on the whole, real foods. I would even say this for your kids. To me, processed is processed, whether it’s organic or not. Save the extra dollar or two on conventional processed foods and put it toward your produce.

I am working on compiling my list of local produce distributors and farmers markets to post for you. Check out my “Favorite Things” page for some of these links already.

More to come in part 3. Please post questions that you have about this topic so that I can make sure to answer them.

Eating Organic Affordably Part 1 October 14, 2011

Can it be done? I’ve had a couple of friends ask me can it be done this week. This is a great question and the answer is, yes! It just takes a little research on your part (and my part) to decide what’s the best way for you. The most important thing to remember is that eating more local or organic is a process. It takes time to figure out how to do it for your family. Be patient and start small. It’s a journey.

Here are the things you need to start considering before choosing what and where you will buy your food:

• Will I eat (almost) any fruit or vegetable you put in front in me? This is a diagnostic question for whether you are a good fit for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) or home delivery service. CSA’s are a group of people that pledge to support a farm through their growing season and then receive weekly “baskets” of the harvest. Typically, you don’t get to choose what you get. So if you are going to spend the money, you want to be an adventurous cook and eater. Many home delivery services are also set packages and can’t be altered. There are some, though, that allow you to pick what you want. I have found that you have to order a certain amount to have it delivered (around $25).
• Am I willing to travel for better prices or is convenience more important? Sometimes a longer drive will give you fresher, more affordable produce. For instance, many of our local farmers markets feature excellent prices, but it may not be convenient to you. I think they are worth the drive, but you may not, and that’s ok.
• What’s my budget? Most delivery services or CSA’s are a set price and the range is across the board. If that fits in your budget, then great. If you need to be able to determine how much you spend each week, buying individually may be a better option for you.
• Am I ok with not getting what I want? By this I mean, if you like eating spinach every day, every week, are you ok if it’s not available because it’s not in season or the crop is poor? Sometimes you may choose conventional produce over local/organic simply because it’s only available this way at certain times of the year. This is ok too. (I have to make this choice regularly.)
• Compare your regular groceries to the dirty dozen. Check out this great reference article to see what are consider the most important produce to buy organic. The verdict is still out on dairy and we may never get a “science based” consensus on whether we should all switch to organic. So you get to make that choice for yourself.

Start thinking through these things and assess where you are in the organic/local journey. And you don’t need to be far into it. It will unfold for you. If all you can afford is to buy 1 or 2 items organic/local, then great. That’s a wonderful start.

More to come…

A New Farm to Love October 8, 2011

Thanks to my wonderful friend Alison, I have just (as in 1 hour ago) discovered a new farm with delivery of produce and meat. I am so pumped! Nothing really gets me more excited than local, high quality food.

The farm is called Black Hog Farm and it’s located in Palatka Florida. I just signed up to be a customer so I will report how it goes as I get a feel for it. They offer small and large produce baskets, eggs, pork, chicken, and beef. I am hoping they offer an open farm day soon so I can see it for myself.

Most exciting of all is that they are having a farm to plate dinner at Pastiche on Saturday, October 15th. 1 – I am so there. 2- I’ve never been to Pastiche so I am even more “so there”. 3- They are featuring their food and local beer. Need I say more.

Find the farm on facebook  because their website is not functional yet.

I hope to see some of you at Pastiche on Saturday!

Another Farm Visit January 23, 2011

This weekend I have been in Ft. Lauderdale Florida visiting friends and family. My mom discovered a lovely farm/market for us to visit this morning, Marando Farms. Apparently they grow and produce most of their own stuff. All the food is labeled for origin and type. The selection was pretty incredible; the prices were high though.

This “farm” was also a sensory experience as you can walk through their hydroponic growing areas, chicken coops, and pig pasture. Nothing gets me more excited than a good farmers market. The energy around this place was contagious. You could tell people loved coming here. I give 2 big thumbs up.

Here are some pics from my experience:

Marando Farms

Golden Beets - Still don't really like beets but these are beautiful and hard to find.

 

I bought a couple of their herbs displayed here.

 

Veggies growing hydroponically

 

It's pretty fun to pick your own eggs out from this thing.

Beautiful rainbow carrots. So many people have never seen these beauties before.

Pigs!!!!

One of my very favorites, purple potatoes, along with avocados.

I love that we can get strawberries in January in Florida.

Maybe There is a Good Reason to go to Gainesville… July 13, 2010

For the past few days I have been at the Florida Dietetic Association’s Annual Symposium and have heard some great speakers. Today I had the pleasure of hearing Chef Bert Gill, of Gainesville, talk about his 3 restaurants and his commitment to using local and sustainable ingredients. It was really cool to hear his passion for this purpose but also hear about his struggles in convincing people that it’s important. So, if you every find yourself in Gainesville please visit his restaurants and support his cause. From what I hear, the food is excellent. Check out the websites because he has a tons of great recipes and even video demos. If anyone has been to any of these restaurants, please post some comments.

www.mildredsbigcityfood.com

www.tiamogainesville.com

http://www.newdealcafegainesville.com/Default.aspx

The Present Moment July 6, 2010

No, this is not a post about some deep thought I had today. The Present Moment is an amazing restaurant I tried today thanks to a suggestion from my friend Joan. The restaurant is a vegan, organic, and basically raw food restaurant. Many of the menu items would probably scare away some but I thought is was extremely innovative.

The Present Moment Cafe, located near King Street and US1 in St. Augustine

This is my first experience with a restaurant like this, so I was not sure what to expect. The menu had some crazy combos of flavors to create some traditional-like foods. Notice the entree called “Tacos of Life”. I almost felt like if I didn’t order that, I would be missing out.

We (my friend and I) ordered a sampler platter which included the massaged kale and avocado salad, the viva burrito, sunlight burger, and land and sea salad. It was a lot of food and I would recommend this choice so you get to taste a little of everything. It was quite the experience and I would recommend it to anyone who thinks being a vegetarian is boring.

The sampler platter

Check out this great article June 24, 2010

I think this news is totally awesome. I can’t wait to see more of this happening!

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/business/2010/jun/23/b-gard23-ar-229066/