Turnip the Beet and Jam!

I take no credit for the clever title on this one - I fully admit that I got it off a tote bag I found at Old Navy - but be honest, would you have opened this post if it just said "Turnips!"? Probably not. A coworker recently described the turnips she gets in her CSA box as "those weird white things I always give my neighbors" which is just sad. A turnip is just as versatile as a white potato in that you can bake them, boil them, microwave them, saute them, or shred them. Really, anything you can do to a normal white potato, you should try with a turnip. From a farmers' perspective, they're cheap to grow and the greens are also great to eat as you'll see below. I especially like mashed turnips which I do just like potatoes only drain the boiled turnips through a rice strainer for a while before mashing because they have more water than a potato, no recipe needed for that one!

Here are two super easy recipes anyone can do with turnips but regardless, give these root veggies a chance next time you see them in your CSA or at the farmers market. In Charlotte, Bell's Best Berries and Rowland Farms both have these beauties from November through whenever they run out.

Easy Peasy Sauteed Turnips (V)
4-5 large turnips, roots and greens removed (peeling is optional!) and cut in irregular ~1" chunks
2 tablespoons olive oil
1-2 teaspoons sea salt or salt of choice

1. Heat a large saute pan with oil in it on high
2. Once up to heat, toss in the turnips
3. Let the turnips really cook on each side before turning, allowing them to get a nice dark color (that's the sugars coming together and is what makes them yummy), about 4-5 minutes total
4. Serve hot

Stewed Crock Pot Turnip Greens (V)
1 large bunch turnip greens (3-4 cups), cleaned well and chopped in ~1" strips
1 cup white or apple cider vinegar
3-4 tablespoons oil olive
Salt and pepper to taste
Non-vegetarian options: if you eat meat or love butter, you can use about half a stick of butter or bones or fat from meat of your choice instead of olive oil (bacon, ham hock, butter, beef broth are all great options)

1. Combine all of the above in your favorite crock pot. 
2. I like to do them long and low but if you have limited time, make sure to stir often and keep the greens wets or they'll char which is not delicious.

Pasta Time!

Raise your hand if you're married. Raise your hand if, while engaged, you registered for a pasta maker. Now, raise your hand if that pasta maker is still in its box, unopened and unused. Yeah, that was me until about a month ago when I learned how easy it is to make delicious, homemade, from scratch, organic and possibly totally local pasta.

All you need to make a basic pasta dough is about 4 cups of flour and 5 eggs. If you want to make vegan pasta, you can use mineral water instead of flour. You'll also need a pasta press unless you're really good with a rolling pin (which I'm not). Put 3 cups (1 pound exactly if you have a kitchen scale) in a large, wide mixing bowl and make a crater in the middle. Put all 5 eggs in the crater and beat with a fork until you can't anymore and have to use your hands to knead it together. The dough won't be uniform and that's fine. Get a bunch of extra flour in a pile. I suggest using a SilPat or clean your counter super well. Take a small handful of dough and knead it a bit. Set your pasta press to 1 and run the dough through. Flour both sides, food it once, then run it through again. Do this 4-5 times or until the dough is uniform looking and doesn't stick to the rollers. Then roll it once at a level 3 then once at a level 5 or 6.

Now you've got dough you can do a lot with. You can cut it in squares and make ravioli, run it through a vermicelli or linguini cutter, or cut in long strips for lasagna. Once you've cut your pasta, lay it out on some clean towels to dry for at least an hour:

The raviolis laid out to dry.

For my ravioli, I took a cup of kale, several mushrooms and 4-5 tablespoons of Parmesan and food processed them. That made about 14 2x2 raviolis which were delicious.

So pull that pasta maker out, get some fresh local eggs, and get rolling!

About 4 2x2 raviolis plus some veggies and crusty bread was more than enough for dinner!

The Great Fritter-Off of 2015

It's March and by now, most of us are getting tired of the winter vegetables that have been in farmers markets for months. Hard squash, endless green-housed greens, and potatoes potatoes potatoes, am I right? So the challenge becomes: how do I make interesting and delicious food with the same ingredients my family has been eating for months?

I posed this to a friend on a recent visit to Chapel Hill and we decided to mix things up with would with a fritter contest. The only rules is that the primary vegetable had to be seasonal. Here's what we came up with:

Fritter 1:
White Russet potatoes

Fritter 2:
White sweet potatoes

Fritter 3:
Red sweet potatoes

Fritter 4:
Celery root* and carrot

*For those not familiar with celery root, it's that really ugly, alien-looking ball that you can find near the parsnips and carrots in the grocery store and, of course, some farmers markets will have them as well.

The basic concept for fritters is to grate your primary ingredient, toss it in scrambled egg with salt and pepper and fry it up on a gridle. This highlights the flavor of your main ingredient and serves as a great vehicle for fun sauces. My friend whipped up a delicious Greek yogurt sauce with dill and mint. On the table we also had some Lusty Monk Mustard, some standard ketchup, and relish made by a family friend.

Looks like shredded Cheddar, is actually sweet potato!

Here are the three more interesting types, missing the standard fritter made from regular baking potatoes:

The moral of the story is that with a friend, some imagination and a willing audience, you can make any food fun - even if you've been eating it for months!

Delicious Mistakes

Have you ever been really excited about a recipe, gotten everything prepared then realized that your mayo has gone bad or you didn't buy sugar last week like that you thought you had? Have you ever turned that situation around and made lemonade from lemons? The former happens to me often, usually when I think something in fridge is still fresh but it's wilted or I underestimate how much of an ingredient I really need.

Last weekend, I had big plans to make a delicious, traditional apple pie. I often make pies but I don't always go the extra mile of making the crust from scratch. The new apple guy at the Atherton Market had some Granny Smith's that were so beautiful I couldn't help but splurge for a few extras for this recipe. Fast forward to Saturday evening when I have the crust (using butter from Queen City Pantry) and my apples peeled and sliced and in a bowl. I sprinkle in a liberal dose of cinnamon (from Savory Spice Shop), added the sugar and the juice I had in the fridge (this time was grapefruit), mixed it together and poured it in the crust. When I sampled one of the apple slices, however, it was spicy hot. At first I thought my cinnamon was bad but I use it often so I looked closer at the container and realized that I had used cayenne pepper (also from Savory Spice) instead of cinnamon!

Disaster, right? But far be it from me to waste an otherwise perfectly good pie so I put a dash of actual cinnamon in the pie, dotted the top with butter, put the lid on and baked it. To the surprise of everyone (especially me), an amazingly delicious pie that my husband swears is the best I've ever made popped out an hour later.

Don't trust me? Here's the recipe so you can see for yourself.

Spicy Surprise Apple Pie (v)
5 medium Granny Smith apples, peeled, sliced into 1 inch slices, 1/4 inch thick
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoons cinnamon
1/3 cup juice of your choice (suggest grapefruit, orange or lemon)
1 top and 1 bottom pie crust
3-4 pats butter

1. Prepare pie crust.
2. Combine apples, sugar, cayenne, and juice in a bowl and stir to coat apples.
3. Empty apples in pie crust and sprinkle cinnamon then dot top with half pats of butter.
4. Apply top crust and squish rim together.
5. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes then turn down the heat to 325 until crust is golden brown, about 40 minutes.
6. Enjoy warm or room temperature.

Note: I got this awesome pie bird for my birthday from a friend. It's made by Le Creuset and you bake it right into the middle of the pie. It helps cook the filling fully but allowing steam to escape (or something) and it really does the trick!

Comfy Cozy Soup Recipe

I don't know about where you are, but here in Charlotte it's been unseasonably cold and gray the last week. Everyone seems to be coming down with a cold or the flu (yours truly included) and sometimes you just need a good bowl of soup.

I wrote this recipe out for a friend recently who is trying the Whole30 program which doesn't allow grains, dairy, alcohol or processed foods. This recipe is perfect for those following that program but also avoiding meat. It's also super easy and you probably have most of this in your frigerator right now. 

The onion and garlic can be found pretty much at any market this time of year; I used squash or zucchini that I've frozen from the summer because we always end up with so much; and the kale is also readily available but I always get mine from Coto Farms.

Comfy Vegetable Soup (V)
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 onion or 1 whole shallot, diced
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
~1-2 cups consisting of the following: mushrooms, squash or zucchini and/or kale
1 large can petite diced tomatoes
4-6 cups of vegetable broth (depending on how many cups of veggies you add)
Your favorite seasoning - our favorites are tumeric, chili, cayenne, or Peak Lemon Pepper (not together, pick one or two that complement each other)
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Saute the olive oil, onion/shallot and garlic until softened.
2. Add in the veggies and cook at high heat till they have some color on them.
3. Add the tomatoes and about 2 cups broth and bring to a boil.
4. Season then add the rest of the broth and bring to a boil.
5. Simmer on medium-low for 20-30 minutes to combine flavors.

Triumphant Return that Tastes like Chicken

2014 has been an amazing year for this blogger - I got married, traveled to two new countries and several new states, launched a huge software project at work, and finished a second year of adjunct teaching at UNC-C. Needless to say, that's left very little room for writing here, despite no slow down in the amount of cooking I've done.

Now that life has quieted down, I'm back at the wheel and hope to add a bunch of new recipes in the coming weeks and months. I'm going to start with one that I've made a couple times recently, a roasted chicken with local seasonal herbs. The great thing about this is that you can size up the recipe for turkey or turkey breast which I've done twice with great success. It's also a pretty dish that has great leftovers potential for both stock (suggested recipe below) and sandwiches. The chicken, as always, came from Windy Hill, the herbs from Coto Farms who always has an amazing selection throughout the year, and the carrots, beets and turnips are from my friends at the Lomax Incubator. 

A note about herbs: yes, you can use dried herbs and if you do, I suggest getting high quality ones from an actual spice shop. The dried herbs you get in sets from a Bed, Bath and Beyond-type place are probably old and not awesome. However, herbs are really easily grown in greenhouses or just in people's homes so you can usually find fresh herbs all year round locally. Fresh herbs taste and look better in a recipe and really add an element of freshness, especially in the winter when our food tends to have less bold flavors.

Easy Roast Chicken (LPO)
2-3 large carrots
2-3 turnips
2-3 beets 
1 onion
1 whole head of garlic
1 bunch fresh sage
1 bunch fresh thyme
1 bunch fresh rosemary
1 whole lemon, cut in half
1 whole chicken
Butter, olive oil, salt and pepper as necessary

1. Line a dutch oven with olive oil. Cut the vegetables in 1 inch pieces and line the dutch oven with them. Chop about 1 tablespoon of each herb and set aside.
2. Stuff the chicken with the whole lemon, several cloves of garlic, and the rest of the herbs (unchopped is best, use the whole stem and leaves).
3. Soften a couple tablespoons of better in the microwave then mix that with the chopped herbs. You can either rub these over the chicken's skin or, if you're daring, tuck them under the chicken skin (this is ideal, it really keeps the bird moist later).
4. Put the chicken in the pan over top of the veggies. Drizzle some olive oil over the whole bird and tie the wings together with string (optional but this helps it cook more evenly).
5. Bake uncovered at 400 for 15 minutes to get a nice glaze on the skin and then turn the oven down to 350 and cook the rest of the way (the inside temp of the bird needs to be 165 or, if you don't have a meat thermometer, cut one of the legs away some and check for a minimal amount of pink). Cook time really varies based on the size and fat-iness of your bird but this could take up to 2 hours. A good local bird like I had from Windy Hill will only take about an hour to an hour and a half but a fattier bird from the grocery store could take two.

Looks professional, was super simple!

To make chicken stock later:

1. Keep the chicken and any leftover vegetables (though you might want to remove the beets because they'll turn your stock red) in the dutch oven or other large soup pot.
2. Fill with water until it's covering most of the bird or 1 inch below the rim of the pot, whichever is lower.
3. Add salt, pepper and chopped celery (optional)
4. Place on stove and bring to a boil. Once it's boiled for a minute or two, reduce heat and simmer for up to an hour. Then you can remove the chicken, leaving any meat you still have around, and voila, chicken stock for soups or cooking later!

I'll Make Lamb (With Gnocchi)

Now that I'm eating limited meat again, I'm almost already bored of it. Since I can't eat beef and we chose to limit our pork consumption due to the recent purchase of a family pig, that doesn't leave a lot of popular meat. Chicken is the most likely solution but who wants to eat chicken all the time?

Never fear, Windy Hill Farms has lamb! As do many farms in North Carolina along with goat many places as well. Windy Hill has an amazing lamb chorizo sausage that I just discovered recently. I've made other chorizo recipes here before but I decided to be a little crazy this time. I got some sweet potato gnocchi from Rio Bertolini at the Atherton Market. Onions and leeks are also all over the market these days as well as the standard kale varieties, of which my new favorite is German kale which is strong and a little salty. Throw all this together on a weeknight and we had a super easy meal Hamburger Helper would be jealous of...

Lamb Chorizo With Gnocchi (LPO)
4 links lamb chorizo sausage
2 leeks, sliced thin up to the green part
2-3 spring onions, sliced thin up to the green stem
Garlic, minced, to taste
1 package sweet potato gnocchi
1 large handful chopped kale

1. In a large skillet, heat some olive oil to medium-high. Add all garlic, leeks and onions.
2. Simmer until they've softened then add the sausage (remove the skin).
3. Cook until mixed (note: you may have to help the sausage break up). Add kale, cover and turn heat down to medium-low.
4. Make the gnocchi and cook until just before done. Drain.
5. Add gnocchi to the sausage mixture. Turn once or twice until just mixed and heated through. Don't mix too much or it will break up the gnocchi.
6. Serve hot!

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

Having been largely vegetarian for a couple years, I got super tired of portobello mushrooms being on every restaurant's menu as the only veggie option. Sure, they're great, but use your imagination and make something other than mushrooms! I pretty much ignored them on all menus on principle until now.

Two reasons: first, my nutritionist suggested adding more mushrooms to my diet. They have bacteria in them that are especially good for sensitive tummies and are full of great nutrients. Second, one of the vendors at the Atherton Market has started selling portobello mushrooms from a farm in north Georgia (which is as local as we are going to get around here).

So when I saw these beauties at the market last week, I had to have one. The one I bought was massive - a good 7 inches in diameter! - and really just perfect in every way a mushroom can be. I went online and found a great recipe which I altered somewhat for what I had in the fridge this weekend. The rice, as always, is from Queen City Pantry and I could have easily used my canned tomatoes had I not had some fresh ones left over from an event. This recipe is per-mushroom is easily scalable for a larger batch (I only made one).

Tomato and Rice Stuffed Portobello (v)
1/2 cup cooked rice
1/4 tomato, diced
1/8 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 portobello mushroom, black gills removed
1-2 tablespoons Romano cheese (optional)

1. Place the mushroom gill side down on a cookie sheet. Broil in the oven for 5 minutes.
2. In a skillet, heat oil and add onions and garlic. Cook until soft. 
3. Remove from heat and add cooked rice, tomato and Worcestershire sauce.
4. Spoon mixture into upturned mushroom. Sprinkle top with cheese (optional).
5. Broil for 4-5 minutes or until cheese is a little brown on top.

My Foray Back into Omnivory

If you've been keeping up with recent blog posts, you'll know that I've been instructed by my nutritionist to add meat back into my diet. The problem is that I've committed to eating only local, humanely-raised and minimal hormone meat which poses a problem since most restaurants can't guarantee this. So what's a girl to do?

The answer is: look around you. There are so many local producers of high quality meat in the US, and Charlotte specifically, that you don't have to compromise your values to get animal protein. Thus, I went back to my old friends at Windy Hill Farms and have been trying some of their new or premier products. Last week, I made my favorite tomato sauce from my owned canned tomatoes but added their new ground chicken and some red pepper flakes.  It was incredible, if I don't say so myself.

This week, I wanted to revamp my barbeque pork recipe. I got a pork roast from Windy Hill and used my large crock pot. This time, however, instead of just eating BBQ, I made some fajitas. Here's how I cooked the BBQ after following the above recipe using some rice from Queen City Pantry. You can get taco seasoning from Savory Spice Shop and, if it were a little later in the year, you could also get the tomatoes and cilantro from pretty much any produce vendor in NC.

Pork Fajitas (LPO)

Two good handfuls of pork BBQ, pulled apart by hand
1/2 large yellow onion, cut in 1" strips
Taco seasoning to taste
About 2 cups cooked rice
Cilantro and diced tomato (optional)

1. Simmer the onions in some olive oil or butter until soft.
2. Add the the BBQ and simmer for 5-10 minutes and flavor with taco seasoning
3. Serve with rice, cilantro, tomatoes and Greek yogurt or your favorite toppings.

This made three healthy burrito-sized fajitas using large tortillas.

Game Changer

As even infrequent readers of my blog will tell you, I try to minimize the meat and other animal products that I consume. I started this lifestyle after reading several books and doing research on the commercial meat industry. Michael Pollan, The China Study, you name it and I've read it. For almost three years now, our household has been on a minimal meat diet, replacing proteins with soy milk and tofu.

So mark your calendars because March 13, 2014 was the day my nutritionist told me to eat meat.

Why, you ask? In the course of my appointments with her, she suggested I have a nutrient test conducted and see an allergist to identify any food allergies. Here's what we found out:

• My glutamine levels are low. Glutamine is the amino acid that regulates colon health and you get it primarily from meat and dairy products.
• My B complex levels are also really low. This can cause fatigue, nausea and other stomach upsets. You get B from a lot of sources but the most accessible is pork.
• My oleic acid levels are low. This is the good stuff in olive oil, almond oil, and similar products.
• My allergy test showed a distinct allergy to soy products (like soy sauce, tofu, soy milk, etc).

What does this mean? Basically, by trying to go animal-fat free, I've been poisoning my colon with food that it can't tolerate and depriving it of something that, especially as someone with IBS, I desperately need. By trying to be healthier, I've been making myself sicker.

But what now? I'm still processing all this but the one decision I have made is that I have to start eating meat. I'm not going to go out and order chicken nuggets, but I am going to walk up to the farmer I buy eggs from and tell her that this is the week I want meat too (I'm sure she'll be thrilled).

The good news? Gluten doesn't seem to be an issue for my system but, after doing a lot of research on wheat in the 21st century, there are a lot of things about gluten that isn't great so I will continue to minimize my gluten intake to delicious local breads and pastries from Nova's (it's tough but I'll manage!).

Miso Soup Reimagined

One random but tasty thing my nutritionist recommended to help restabilize my bacteria was miso. I don't know much about this ingredient but I do know I love miso soup so I went to my friendly neighborhood Whole Foods who, in my opinion, has the best soup starters out there. I can take very little credit for this recipe which I got off the box but I was able to substitute several local items that you can find at the market. You can still get kale, which I get from the Lomax Farm where they grow it in a greenhouse this time of year, butternut squash for all over (though it has been less successful this year, says the farmers), and shiitake mushrooms from Cotton Barn Mushrooms. These ingredients are for 4 cups of miso broth so the recipe is easily scalable.

Miso Soup (V)
4 cups miso broth
1 handful shiitake mushrooms, chopped
1 large handful kale, cut into 1/2" pieces
1/4 onion, chopped
1 cup butternut squash, cut into 1/2" pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
Olive oil as needed for pan
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Saute the onions, garlic and mushrooms until coated in olive oil over medium heat.
2. Add kale and butternut squash, coating in the oil, cooking for about 5 minutes.
3. Add the miso broth and bring to a boil.
4. Let simmer for 15-20 minutes or until squash reaches desired tenderness.

A New Adventure

 

After 6 years of living with Irritable Bowel Syndrome, I decided it was time for a change. I have such a long list of things I avoid eating I could write a book (or a long blog) and am tired of having to cancel social events because of pain and other unfortunate symptoms. I asked around and found that a family friend in the area is not only a nutritionist part time but is also incredibly knowledgeable about IBS. Our meeting and her suggestions have sent me a new food journey which has also renewed my vigor for writing about new recipes.

Though I came away from our first meeting with a veritable laundry list of suggestions, good foods and bad foods, the biggest take away so far is that the amount and type of gluten and soy in my diet could be a huge contributor to the imbalance in my GI system. So the first order of business is to cut out refined grains, gluten products and the mass amounts of soy milk and tofu that I eat. I'm hoping that this is only temporary because really, a life without bread? I'll take the bloating and cramps, thank you very much.

Month One of the new diet has included a lot of recipes which I'll start recounting over the coming weeks. The real trick though is replacing some items like bread, pasta, crackers, etc that I get from the farmers market with other local items. This first recipe was very easy because Windy Hill has an amazing selection of sausage, there are lots of butternut squash still available, and Queen City Pantry just started selling vegetable stock. I also got most of the spices (as well as almost all the spices in my kitchen) from the Savory Spice Shop.

A note about meat: avid readers will know that for 2-3 years, I have been avoiding meat except for locally-grown or other conscientious meat options and even those only rarely. One suggestion from my nutritionist is to introduce small amounts of meat on a regular basis. Thus, you'll see some more meat recipes, all of which I plan to make with locally-available protein options.

Roast Butternut Squash Soup with Sausage (LPO)

3-4 pounds butternut squash,

2 large carrots

1 small onion

3 cloves garlic, peeled

Olive oil as needed

1/2 pound sausage (I used Chorizo but the book suggests mild Italian)

4 cups broth or stock

1/2 teaspoon of each: cinnamon, ground ginger and allspice

1 bay leaf

Toast almonds as garnish (optional)

1. Cut the squash, carrots and onions into 1" pieces. Combine them and the peeled garlic into a large bowl, coat with olive oil, salt and pepper.
2. Bake them on a cookie sheet at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes until the squash is easily pierced with a fork.
3. Put the sausage on the stove in a large stockpot, turn on medium and cook through.
4. While sausage is cooking, put all veggies from the oven into a blender and blend about half way. Put half the broth/stock in the blend and blend completely.
5. Combine the remaining stock and the veggie puree with the sausage in the stock pot, adding the spices and bay leaf.
6. Bring to a boil then simmer for 10-15 minutes and serve. 

Recipe source: Against all Grain by Danielle Walker

Pimento Cheese-Stuffed Peppers

Is your mouth watering yet? Because this post's promises are all going to come true...

While at the Atherton Market last night, I ran into a new (to me) vendor, Coto Family Farms, that had an amazing variety of peppers as well as herbs, squash, tomatoes and gourds. They have your standard bell peppers but they were also selling some beautiful anaheims, seranos, jalapenos and pimentos which gave me the idea for something I've never tried from scratch: pimento cheese.

So with my trusty smart phone, I looked up then and there a recipe for southern pimento cheese. I found one that not only uses pimento peppers but also jalapenos. Since just down the aisle Queen City Pantry (formerly Simply Local) sells amazing cheddar cheese from Ashe County Cheese, I knew I had about half of what I needed at my fingertips before walking out of the market. I also had the requisite amount of my homemade mayo which I make from Windy Hill Farm eggs, olive oil and lemon which gave this pimento cheese a real citrusy kick. Below is the recipe for the pimento cheese but I then stuffed some halved anaheim peppers and baked them at 350 for about 10 minutes to soften the outside. This was half of our meal but would also be great as an appetizer.

Southern Style Pimento Cheese (v)
2 cups shredded medium cheddar cheese
8 oz cream cheese
1 pimento pepper, diced
1 jalapeno pepper, diced
1/2 cup of mayo
1/4 teaspoon of each of the following: garlic powder,  ground cayenne pepper, celery salt

1. Combine all in a large bowl.
2. Using a hand mixer, blend for 20-30 seconds or until the cream cheese is completely mixed in.
3. Serve immediately and keep refrigerated.

I served the stuffed anaheims with a sliced tomato from the Lomax Incubator Farm and fresh salsa and chips made with more tomatoes from Lomax. I then made a tomato and pimento cheese sandwich for lunch the next day.

Easy Peasy Meals

One of the biggest complaints I hear about local food is that it takes more time to prepare raw ingredients than pre-made or out of the box meals. This is true but should not scare away those that haven't gotten their frying pan or dutch oven out of the cabinet for months. With just a couple common ingredients, you can make almost any local vegetable delicious. Here are some of my go-to preparation methods when I'm not following a specific recipe or can't just throw a salad together. I've listed some vegetables I prepare these ways off the top of my head but the options are endless!

Olive Oil, Garlic and Onion (V) 
This method works for summer squashes, zucchini, turnips, rutabagas, mushrooms, peppers, and many bitter leafy greens (ie bok choi). I use a normal yellow onion but if spring onions or garlic scapes are in season, throw those in too. Soy sauce is another good option to add an Asian-inspired kick to the meal, especially if you're going to serve this over rice like I usually do.

1. Heat oil in a large frying pan or skillet on high.
2. Mince garlic and onion and add to the skillet. Cook till onions are soft. (If you want to add meat, add it with the onions and garlic and cook till almost done).
3. Add your vegetables, hardest ones first. Toss in the oil until covered then stir often until they reach your desired tenderness. 

I made both zucchini and bok choi for this meal with basmati rice.

Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper in the Oven (V)
For your winter squashes, harder vegetables, or those that just don't soften adequately in a skillet, this is a great low-fat method. I use this for beets, winter squashes like butternut and acorn, and any and all potato varieties. It really allows the vegetables' natural flavors to shine.

1. Sprinkle olive oil in a brownie-sized baking dish.
2. Cut desired vegetable in approximately 1" pieces and place in pan. Drizzle with more oil, salt and pepper to taste.
3. Cook at 375 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until they've reached your desired tenderness. For harder vegetables or large pieces, cover with tin foil for the first half of the cooking time then remove to get a nice outer coating on the veggies.

Cheese or Greek Yogurt (v, LPO)
Cheese can save so many meals from being boring and we have some amazing cheeses in North Carolina. Cows, goats and sheep live all over the U.S. so no matter where you live, you probably have access to local cheese. For those that are watching the calories, try Greek-style yogurts instead, also available from many dairy farmers. Yogurt can often be added to sauces to both bolster the flavor as well as the portion and protein content.

Pasta:

1. Cook pasta till it's just on the raw side of al dente.
2. Follow the olive-oil-onion-garlic method above, then toss the pasta in the frying pan with the onions. 
3. Put whatever cheese or yogurt you have and stir in a bowl then add the pasta and mix. For hard cheeses, shred the cheese first. Stir until covered.
4. Optional: place entire bowl in the oven to warm through.

Grains:
One of my new favorite recipes is this one that uses quinoa, an ancient grain that's incredibly good for you, and kale which is abundant this time of year.

1 cup raw quinoa
1 1/4 cup water
2 large handfuls of kale, sliced small
3 tablespoons pine nuts
Juice of half a lemon
1/4 cup goat cheese

1. Boil water then add the quinoa. Let simmer at medium-low heat for 10 minutes covered.
2. Add the kale just on top of the quinoa and leave covered for 5 more minutes to soften the greens.
3. In a ceramic bowl, place lemon, pine nuts and cheese. 
4. Add the quinoa and mix well. Salt to taste.

This is one of the easiest meals and has lots of protein!