vegan

Summer Tomato Corn Salad

by

Hello friends!

One of the fun things about focusing on eating fresh fruits and vegetables is that your meals change with the seasons and what is available locally at any given time. In the summertime, the way I cook changes completely. In the winter I tend to make a lot of soups, stews, chili, crock pot meals and heavier pasta dishes. When we have an abundance of local goodness from the farm and our farmers market, I love to eat as fresh and close to the earth as possible.

I actually don’t know if you can really call most of what I do during the summer “cooking”. And this hardly even qualifies as a recipe. But its still one of our favorite summer dishes.

Summer Tomato Corn SaladWhen we make sweet corn, I always cook a few extra ears for this salad. If your corn is really fresh and tender, you don’t even have to cook it! I chop the freshest most delicious tomatoes we have (preferably a mix of sungolds, grape or cherry, and different colors of heirloom tomatoes) and then add the leftover corn (cut from the cob).

Drizzle with a good quality extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and pepper. and a generous handful of fresh basil. Summer heaven on a plate!

This salad is delicious on its own or as a side salad with an organic, pastured chicken breast.

Print Recipe

Summer Tomato Corn Salad

Calories: 235kcal

Ingredients

  • 2-3 cobs sweet corn kernels removed (please use organic, non-GMO corn)
  • Aprrox. 1 lb fresh local summer tomatoes 3 medium tomatoes or a combination of sun gold, grape, cherry and heirlooms
  • Approx. 1/4 c. Fresh basil leaves thinly sliced
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Sea salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

  • Combine corn, tomatoes & basil in bowl. Add extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper & toss gently to combine.
  • Enjoy immediately or store, refrigerated, up to 2 days.

Make sure to check out the Upcoming Events on my website and follow me on Facebook for all of the latest news!

Have a great week! Especially those of you heading back to school this week!!!

XOXO,

Kristi

PS:  If you’re heading back to school this week and need some lunch box inspiration, check out my blog post on Real Food School Lunches in Ten Minutes a Day!

Garlicky Roasted Sweet Potatoes

by

One of our favorite places is our local CSA, Seton Harvest, otherwise known as “the farm”. Of course we get amazing, locally grown, chemical free produce, usually harvested the day we pick it up. But its more than that. Going to the farm to pick up our weekly share, we get to escape our normal routine and stresses and breathe in the fresh country air; visit with friends; pet the dogs; feed the chickens; pick strawberries, fresh herbs, arugula, sungold tomatoes or whatever is in season and available for u-pick; hunt for caterpillars; chase butterflies; climb piles of mulch and make mazes out of bales of hale (yes that was us, sorry Joe and Julie!)

My big kids have practically grown up at the farm and it makes me so happy to see my youngest experiencing her first year running around the farm and loving it just as much as the rest of us do. Perhaps most of all, I LOVE that my kids know who grows their food and where it comes from (not just the supermarket!) and that they love things like eggplant and eagerly ask Farmer Joe when it will be in season and that they love to pick greens like arugula and sorrell and eat them on the drive home.

Garlicky Roasted Sweet Potatoes

One of our favorite places is our local CSA, Seton Harvest, otherwise known as “the farm”. Of course we get amazing, locally grown, chemical free produce, usually harvested the day we pick it up. But its more than that. Going to the farm to pick up our weekly share, we get to escape our normal routine and stresses and breathe in the fresh country air; visit with friends; pet the dogs; feed the chickens; pick strawberries, fresh herbs, arugula, sungold tomatoes or whatever is in season and available for u-pick; hunt for caterpillars; chase butterflies; climb piles of mulch and make mazes out of bales of hale (yes that was us, sorry Joe and Julie!)

My big kids have practically grown up at the farm and it makes me so happy to see my youngest experiencing her first year running around the farm and loving it just as much as the rest of us do. Perhaps most of all, I LOVE that my kids know who grows their food and where it comes from (not just the supermarket!) and that they love things like eggplant and eagerly ask Farmer Joe when it will be in season and that they love to pick greens like arugula and sorell and eat them on the drive home.

One of our favorite events at the farm is the annual sweet potato harvest, when we enjoy a beautiful fall evening of fellowship and digging sweet potatoes. Sadly, kid schedules haven’t allowed us to participate the last couple of years, so these pictures are a few years old, but we have been enjoying the labors of our fellow shareholders this week. When was the last time you dug up a sweet potato and then took it home and roasted it with fresh garlic (also fresh from the farm)? If you haven’t been so lucky, put it on your bucket list and find a time and place to experience this!

Even if you can’t harvest your own sweet potatoes, you can still make these sweet potatoes! This recipe is very loosely based on a recipe I found in Victoria magazine many years ago. I can’t tell you what issue or who the original author was but I do know it was a Thanksgiving recipe and it had crispy sage leaves on top. We’ve kept it simple, just sweet potatoes and fresh garlic, maybe a pinch of sea salt at the end if you think you need it. That’s it. And they are so good.

Garlicky Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Whether you need a new sweet potato recipe for your Thanksgiving dinner or just a nutrient dense side dish for the next time you grill  — these will hit the spot. In a pinch, you can make them without the marinating time, but that is truly the secret to this recipe. Skip it and you will have perfectly fine roasted sweet potatoes. Plan ahead a bit and you will be rewarded with amazingly delicious, crispy potatoes infused with garlicky goodness.

One quick equipment note:  I highly recommend a good mandoline for this recipe and any others involving sliced vegetables. It makes quick work of the sweet potatoes here, and ensures that they are all the same thickness so they cook evenly and at the same speed. I have this OXO Mandoline and love it!

Print Recipe

Garlicky Roasted Sweet Potatoes

These sweet potatoes are marinated in garlic and extra virgin olive oil and roasted to crispy golden perfection. So simple and yet so delicious!
Prep Time2 hours 15 minutes
Cook Time30 minutes
Total Time2 hours 45 minutes

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Peel and slice the sweet potatoes into 1/4 inch thick slices. Use a mandoline to make this much easier and ensure your slices will be the same size and cook evenly.
  • Mince the garlic.
  • Put the sliced potatoes and garlic in a gallon size zip lock freezer bag. Add the olive oil. Zip the bag and then turn and massage the bag until the garlic and olive oil is distributed well. You want every slice of potato to be well coated, with some oil accumulating in the bottom of the bag. Lay the bag on one side and let it sit on the counter for at least 2 hours or in the refrigerator up to 24 hours. Turn the bag over a few times. This allows the olive oil to become infused with garlic flavor and gives the potatoes plenty of time to marinate in the garlic infused olive oil. The longer they marinate, the more flavor you will have.  
  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 
  • Remove the potato slices from the bag and lay evenly in a single layer on 2 or 3 baking sheets. The slices can overlap a bit, but you don't want to pile them up or the potatoes will steam, rather than roast, and will be mushy not crispy. 
  • Roast for about 30 minutes, rotating the pans from top to bottom of your oven part way through. At 20 minutes, start checking the potatoes. There is a very fine line between crispy potatoes and burnt potatoes. We like ours just this side of burnt. So it may seem a bit fussy, but I check them, remove any slices that are dark enough, and then put the pans back into the oven, checking every 2-3 minutes and repeating this procedure until they are all done perfectly. If you prefer not to fuss over your potatoes this much, just take them out when the first few are browned but not yet burned and the others are just beginning to turn golden brown around the edges or on the underside when you flip one over. They will be delicious either way! 

Matteo’s Buckwheat Pancakes

by

Five years ago when my son Matteo was diagnosed with intolerances to gluten, dairy and soy, I had a really steep learning curve. For the longest time we lived on clean meat, fruit, vegetables and rice while I tried to learn how to cook and bake with our limitations. In the end, we’ve adjusted quite well and our whole family is healthier for it. Aside from eating a lot more fruits and vegetables (did you know we should all eat at least 9 servings of fruits and vegetables a day?) we’ve learned to enjoy quinoa, buckwheat and a variety of nutrient dense grains, seeds and other whole foods.

Buckwheat isn’t actually wheat at all, or even a grain. It’s an incredibly nutrient dense fruit seed with over 80 vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients including manganese, copper, magnesium, phosphorus and folate. It is low glycemic and high in protein, fiber and antioxidants. Among its many health benefits, buckwheat has been found to help reduce inflammation and lower unhealthy LDL cholesterol, blood pressure and blood glucose levels. It’s a great alternative for those with celiac or gluten sensitivities and a good source of protein for vegetarians and vegans. But you should add buckwheat to your diet even if you aren’t vegetarian and don’t avoid gluten. Especially these pancakes.

Buckwheat Pancakes

These buckwheat pancakes were one of my first successful efforts in the world of gluten free baking so it seems fitting the recipe should be part of my first blog post. There was a time when Matteo would eat them two (or even three) times/day. They’re that good. Kid and in-law approved. The recipe is very forgiving and endlessly adaptable. If you’re used to white buttermilk style pancakes, try substituting unbleached all-purpose flour (or your favorite all-purpose gluten free blend) for one-third to one-half of the buckwheat flour and gradually increase the buckwheat as you acquire a taste for it.

Buckwheat Pancakes

Serve them with 100% real maple syrup (none of that fake artificially flavored corn syrup stuff please!!) And whatever you do, don’t skip the cinnamon and orange extract. Trust me on this one. Cinnamon has many healing properties, and cinnamon and orange are fantastic together and in combination with real maple syrup.

I’ve made several dozen batches of these pancakes in the last week to photograph. As I sorted through all of the too dark, too light or mis-shaped pancakes looking for the perfect ones I decided these aren’t picture perfect, food stylist pancakes.  They’re better. Thick, hearty, nutrient-dense, delicious, four-hungy-kids-waiting-impatiently-for-their-breakfast pancakes. No need for perfection. Your hungry family will love them just as much as mine does.

Buckwheat Pancakes

Print Recipe

Matteo’s Buckwheat Pancakes

Ingredients

  • 6 oz. approx. 1-1/4 c. buckwheat flour
  • 2 oz. 1/2 c. ground flaxseed (flax meal)
  • 1 tsp. Baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. Baking soda
  • 1 tsp. Sea salt
  • 1 tsp. Cinnamon
  • 2 eggs at room temperature* (or flax gel for vegan option, see note below)
  • 4 oz. 1/2 c. Melted coconut oil (applesauce also works well as a substitute in this recipe, it will just make your pancakes a bit cakier)
  • 1 tsp. Vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp. Orange extract
  • 8 fl.oz. 1 cup almond or coconut milk, at room temperature*
  • 1 Tbsp. Apple cider vinegar

Instructions

  • Mix milk and Apple cider vinegar and let it sit for a few minutes.
  • Whisk together dry ingredients. In a separate bowl or a large measuring cup, mix wet ingredients together. Then add to dry ingredients and stir until combined. These are fairly thick and hearty pancakes. If you like your pancakes thinner, feel free to add a bit more almond milk or water to the batter.
  • Lightly oil your pancake pan and warm it over medium-high heat. Cook pancakes 3-5 minutes per side, flipping to the second side when you start to see a few bubbles form.
  • Serve with 100% real maple syrup.