Learning to use leftovers creatively is a wonderful way to add variety to your menus — and save significant $$!! Here are a few meals that we did in our household this past week, mostly accomplished by my daughter-in-law with only a little tutoring. She is quickly learning the art of cooking.

We’ve created “loosely transcribed recipes” to guide you in the process, but truly, these are just guidelines! Use what you have on hand and create your own wonderful, delicious — and healthy meals!

Clean-the-Fridge Stir Fry

Dig through the fridge and find an assortment of odds-and-ends veggies that you want to use up. In our recipe this week (done right before Market Day), we found broccoli, snow pea pods, red bell pepper, carrots, celery, a little cauliflower, some kale leaves, and of course onion and fresh garlic, which we try to always keep on hand. Prior to washing and cutting these veggies, we began cooking a pot of brown basmati rice. Brown rice takes a little longer than white rice, so allow about 40 minutes (instead of 30). The time it takes to cook the rice and prepare the stir fry is just about perfect! Dinner will be on the table in no time.

To serve four hungry adults, we used about 8-10 cups of veggies. As you cut and chop, think in terms of a variety of colors and shapes. In other words, don’t chop everything exactly the same. Variety is good! Take a large pizza pan or tray and “mound” the veggies, so that they are easy to transfer to the skillet.

Your tray might look something like this:

Veggie Prep

Included in the 8-10 cups of veggies is some coarsely sliced onion and 1-2 Tbsp of freshly minced garlic. Fresh garlic adds a lot to any dish that you prepare. It’s worth the extra effort! Organizing your veggies is not only practical, it is also inspiring, when you see the beautiful colors arranged so decoratively on your tray. Time in the kitchen can and should be a wonderfully energizing and enjoyable time.

If you have some leftover chicken, i.e., 1-2 cups, this can be added to your stir-fry (and generally pleases the men around the table!). We used one 8 oz package of Applegate Grilled Chicken Breast Strips. These are precooked, have a nice flavor and are quick! A little spendy, yes, but in a pinch, sure does make cooking easy. And a little bit can go a long way in stir fry.

So you’ve assembled all your ingredients; now it is time to do the stir fry. Heat a skillet with your favorite oil. It could be a dollop of coconut oil, grape seed oil, or olive oil. Just remember with the olive oil, to not heat your pan too high, as it has a lower smoke point than the other two oils. You can “steam stir fry” and minimize the amount of oil you use by adding a tablespoon or two of water during the process.

In stir frying, begin with the hardest veggies first (like the carrots), and add the other veggies until you get to the red pepper and onion, and then they should cook for only a minute or two. You want crisp tender.

Now, for the sauce. We’re talking super-easy here and we splurged a bit and used 1/2 bottle of San-J Thai Peanut Sauce, drizzled over the veggies in the pan, right before serving, just enough for the pan to heat the sauce.

By now the rice was done cooking and veggies were ready to be served over the rice. A lot of them. It was a meal-in-one. It not only was delicious, but it made our consciences feel good to have used up all those bits and pieces in the fridge and have nothing go to waste.

Clean-the-fridge Stir Fry

What stir fry can you make tonight? Clean out the fridge and made something delicious!

All ingredients and supplies available at the Healthy Living Organic Market. Open Thursday and Friday, from 10 am until 6 pm. Sign up to be on our weekly Market mailing list.

Easy Egg Bake

Do you have about 3 cups of leftover rice, perhaps from your stir-fry meal? How about a handful or more of assorted fresh veggies? With some local, fresh (no soy) pastured eggs and some milk, you can make a delicious egg bake. Here’s how we did it…

Grease a 9×13 pan with butter or coconut oil. (Our favorite is the Pampered Chef Rectangular Baker.) Crumble 3 cups of leftover cooked rice in the bottom of the dish. Prepare the veggie layer:

1 bunch (1#) asparagus (or may use broccoli) – 2-3 cups total

1/3 cup onion, chopped

1 medium red pepper, diced

Saute the veggies in a skillet with 1-2 Tbsp butter or olive oil, just until slightly softened. This process is mostly to remove some of the excess water in these fresh veggies and to bring out the flavors. Add the freshly minced garlic. Layer these veggies over the rice in the casserole dish. Then sprinkle with 8 oz grated cheese (use whatever you have on hand, even a combination of leftover cheeses is fine).

Finally, prepare the liquid ingredients as follows: 1 dozen pastured eggs, beaten well with  1 1/4 cups milk, and seasoned with 1 tsp sea salt and freshly ground peppercorns to-taste (1/2 tsp or so). Pour this over the veggies and bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes, or until is set. I like to test my custardy type foods with a clean, thin-bladed knife that is inserted in the center of the dish. When it comes out clean, then the dish is done. Remove from oven and set on a cooling rack for about 5-10 minutes while you call everyone to the table and do any final preparations, like adding sliced cucumbers (unpeeled if you are using organic). Add a muffin on the side and this can be brunch….or a mighty fine supper meal. We thought so. Leftovers were perfect for breakfast the next day, too.

Egg Bake

 Gluten Free Muffins

There are many ways to make muffins. Here is a recipe that we “made up as we went” and it happened to turn out quite nicely, so we thought we would share it with you.

Mix together these ingredients: 2 pastured (soy-free) eggs, 1 cup plain or vanilla yogurt, 1/3 cup local honey, 1 tsp sea salt, 1/2 cup coconut oil (or softened butter). Whisk together until blended (or you may use a hand mixer, but we liked the little workout). Add 2 cups Pamela’s Baking Mix (a wonderful gluten free blend of flours that even gluten lovers will enjoy!). If desired, stir in 1 cup of fresh blueberries (we did!). Spoon into greased muffin tins (Pampered Chef Muffin Stoneware, our first choice!) or regular muffin pan, lined with chlorine-free paper cups (If You Care, our favorite brand). This recipe will make 12 muffins. Bake at 400 degrees….or if you don’t mind a little compromise, bake at 350 degrees along with the Egg Bake. You won’t get quite as high a rise….but it was economical to do it this way and the muffins were still absolutely delicious!

Gluten Free Blueberry Muffin

Pizza – a favorite Stand-by

This is a long post, I know. But sometimes it’s helpful to get a glimpse inside someone else’s kitchen. To be honest, we haven’t been the best at menu planning lately. But with a well-stocked pantry and a refrigerator loaded with plenty of fresh veggies to work with, most anything is possible.

Pizza is a favorite, can be a fun family event — and is also another way to clean out the fridge! So consider pizza for one of your meals this coming week.

Round Pizza

The Crust

This is the recipe that we use for our frozen pizza crust at the Market (sells for $2.95 for a 1# ball). Now, that is the easiest way to go! But if you want to make it from scratch (also easy), you can. We make ours (always) with 100% whole grain wheat flour, or for a VERY SPECIAL TREAT, we make it with Einkorn Original Wheat. (Soon we will be offering this frozen pizza dough at the Market as well.) We have this freshly ground ancient whole grain flour for you at the Market in the refrigerated section. It is most amazing in its texture and flavor. Here are the ingredients:

2 1/2 cups whole grain flour

1/2 tsp sea salt

3/4 tsp instant rise yeast

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

3/4 c. or so of very warm water

Mix the dry ingredients together, then add the olive oil and water. Mix vigorously with a wooden spoon until mixture begins to form a ball. Dough should be soft, not dry, crumbly or tough. Adjust water as needed. Turn onto a lightly floured counter and knead the dough a few times, until smooth. Grease the bowl you were using with olive oil and return the ball of dough to the bowl, then turn the ball “greased side up” and cover with a plate. Let sit for as little as 15 minutes or for as long as a few hours. Punch down and with greased hands (again, olive oil), pat onto your favorite pizza pan. This dough is enough to fit a 10×15 Pampered Chef stoneware pan or Round Pizza Stoneware. Pinch up the edges, then prick the crust generously with a table fork. Bake in a preheated oven at 425 degrees for 8-10 minutes, or until crust looks baked and begins to smell delicious. (It should not look wet.).

Mini Pizza

While the pizza is baking, you can prepare your toppings. Anything goes! We always use a generous amount of chopped veggies (broccoli, onion, red or green peppers – even cauliflower, kale or spinach). You can add a little browned hamburger — or nitrite free pepperoni slices (Applegate Farms). For more specialty pizzas, add fresh mushrooms, olives or artichokes, or whatever suits your fancy.

You’ll need about 1 cup (8 oz) of tomato sauce, pizza sauce or crushed tomatoes. It’s up to you if you want to put the sauce on first, then the toppings, or do the toppings first, and then drizzle the sauce over the top. Sprinkle generously with Italian Seasoning and approximately 8 oz of grated cheese (typically mozzarella, but you can use whatever you have on hand). Bake in the preheated oven for about 8 minutes more, or until cheese is melted and a little golden. Pizza is always best after it has rested on a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes, to allow the sauce to settle and thicken.

Deep Dish Pizza

A delicious tossed salad with homemade dressing can be eaten while the pizza is still baking. There will be no finer restaurant than eating right at home.

Tossed Salad

My favorite way to eat pizza? Leftover the next day for breakfast or lunch. To do this: Heat a little olive oil in a stainless steel saute pan, add the pizza and turn heat way down and wait about 5 minutes. Pizza should be warmed through by then and crust will be very crisp and delicious.

There you go. Three menu options to have fun with.

Time to head to our kitchens!

All ingredients and supplies available at the Healthy Living Organic Market. Open Thursday and Friday, from 10 am until 6 pm. Sign up to be on our weekly Market mailing list.

You don’t have to plant your rows straight to have a garden

I love the beauty of a garden that has been planted according to order: you know, the kind where the small plants are on one end of the garden in straight, evenly spaced rows, graduating to the largest plants on the opposite end of the garden. It is a beautiful sight!

This is how my mother always planted her garden, though over time, it became just a fraction of the size that she tended to when her children were all home and she raised vegetables to feed her family of ten.

Mom inherited the love of gardening from both her parents. They each had their own garden, meticulously planted and cared for.

When our family moved from Indonesia to Mora back in 1992, I had my first real opportunity to try my own hand at gardening. Perhaps it is an inherited passion, but I longed to plant a beautiful garden too. But I met with only a little success. For one thing, the soil in our yard had been spoiled through the use of too many pesticides and there was very little microbial activity in the soil. Secondly, we were blessed (or cursed?) with thistles that outgrew the plants each year. Then, one particular spring, we planted three times due to unexpected frosts in the area. By the time of the third planting, I decided that straight rows weren’t quite as important any more — just get the plants in the ground!

This year I faced a similar dilemma with simply finding time to plant. There was rain, rain, rain on the days that I wanted to plant, plant, plant! Finally, I decided to just get the plants in the ground, rows or not.

And this brings me to the main point of this writing. I learned that you don’t have to plant your rows straight to have a garden. Granted, evenly spaced, parallel rows are a beautiful sight. But it is possible — even though your rows aren’t straight — to have a garden that will bring much joy and produce a bountiful harvest.

My very humble garden reminds me that God is still able to use me, even when I don’t have everything in perfect order, whether it be my family, my life, or my home. Yet I still make it my goal to be more like Christ every day. He reminds me that it is in my weaknesses that His strength is made perfect and that it is in my brokenness that He brings wholeness. No, my rows aren’t all straight, but God has a plan! Like the tapestry viewed from underneath, it isn’t always beautiful, but be assured, there is a beautiful top side that He keeps in view and continues to weave – and He will accomplish the pattern He has designed.

Open House Announcement! (mark your calendar)

There will be two Open Houses on Saturday, June 8th from 1:00 – 4:00 pm.              Ben Lambright and Menno Lambright and their families are inviting us to visit them! These two homes are approximately 6 miles from Mora and about 2 miles apart. So come and visit both families! To read more, click here:

Tuna Pasta Salad

With summer picnics and open houses just around the corner, it’s a good time to review how to make healthy (and very delicious!) pasta salads. We’ve broken it down into several steps.

Choose organic ingredients!

Organic means foods that are grown and raised without the use of pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, fumicides, hormones, and anything else that is “unnatural” to the way food is grown. Your liver (the major detoxifying organ in our bodies) will love you for choosing organic, because you will lighten its load of filtering out the free radicals and toxins that come in through what we eat, drink and breathe. (P.S. Organic is also more delicious! The finest of chefs choose organic ingredients and you can too!)

Choose whole grain pastas!

The Market has a great variety of whole grain pastas to choose from. Choose spirals, penne, chiocciole, fusilli…vary your salads with great tasting (organic) pasta. There are also wonderful gluten free pasta options too, so you are not limited to wheat pasta. Always cook al dente (“firm to the tooth”). Your pasta will be more delicious and also have a lower glycemic index — good for diabetics, good for all of us. (Watch for a post soon on a wheat-free salad alternative, made with quinoa.)

Add generous amounts of veggies!

What veggies can you use? Most anything. We like broccoli, cauliflower, broccolini, red and green peppers, cucumbers, carrots, zucchini, summer squash, snap peas, Roma or cherry/grape tomatoes, and of course onion and celery. Vary how you cut or chop the veggies, so as to complement the pasta you have chosen. Veggies can be added raw or sometimes lightly steamed or sauteed to reduce wateriness or “raw” flavor, sometimes objectionable to people who are new to generous amounts of veggies in their cooked salads. (Note: when using organic veggies, we never peel! I wonder how much we are saving in our food costs by not peeling?)

Choose a healthy dressing!

Toss your salads with a made-from-scratch dressing with ingredients such as organic cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil (the best olive oils are always found in dark colored glass bottles), fresh garlic and herbs, lemon juice or a specialty vinegar, seasonings and sea salt. Your salad will be heart-healthy and delicious!

Salads also are made with mayo — and our mayo of choice (if not making from scratch) is Soy-Free Vegenaise by Follow-Your-Heart. You may have noticed that we use soy-free products. That is because (1) non-organic soy is the second largest genetically modified crop in the US (behind corn), and because soy is believed to be a hormone disrupter and implicated in major health problems. (A healthy soy product is one that is organic and fermented.) To learn more about soy, click here.

Add something special!

This might be cubed cheese (our favorite is Organic Valley Raw Sharp Cheddar) — or wild-caught whole Albacore Tuna — or chicken breast. Something special.

Serve  on a generous bed of greens!

Serving your salad on greens not only greatly enhances the nutritional value, but also makes a beautiful presentation. Greens that we like to use when serving a large salad are Romaine and leafy green. If serving individuals at the table, we like to heap a mound of baby lettuces (i.e., Mesclun Spring Mix) and then top with the pasta salad. It’s beautiful and delicious.

Today we feature an old-fashioned salad, often served at summer picnics and church potlucks, but reinvented with healthier ingredients and with a definite gourmet touch. It’s creamy, with perfectly cooked al dente pasta, and has won our vote for great summer salads!

You’ll find this salad in our Deli fridge this week, or pick up the ingredients to make your own. You can find all ingredients at the Healthy Living Organic Market, open Thursday and Friday from 10 am – 6 pm. Contact us.

Creamy Tuna Pasta Salad

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Serves

6-12

Ingredients

• 1 - 16 oz pkg penne rigate pasta (I used Bionaturae Organic)
• 2-4 Tbsp extra-virgin cold-pressed olive oil
• 3 cans (6 ozs each) wild caught albacore tuna, solid, drained (not flaked or chunk)
• 1/2 cup red onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup celery, diced
• 8 ozs. sharp cheddar cheese, cubed (I used Organic Valley Raw Sharp Cheddar)
• 2 cups soy-free Vegenaise (or homemade mayo (made with extra virgin olive oil))
• 1 cup (6 oz) frozen peas (I used Alexia Frozen Peas)
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground peppercorns, or to taste

Directions

Step 1.	Bring water to boil in a large kettle, add 1 Tbsp sea salt, then add pasta and cook al dente, as per pasta directions. I usually cut time back by 1-2 minutes to reach the perfect texture.
Step 2.	Meanwhile, drain the tuna, chop the onion, dice the celery and cube the cheese. Set aside.
Step 3.	When the pasta has finished cooking, drain, lightly shake or toss to be sure the water has drained out of the penne pasta. Return pasta back to the pan and drizzle with the olive oil.
Step 4.	Add the onion, celery and Vegenaise to the pasta and toss together. Add the tuna and lightly fold in, together with the cheese cubes.
Step 5.	Lastly, fold in the peas. Check seasoning and adjust to taste. Serve on a generous bed of greens, with tomato and cucumber slices on the side.

Today I visited Ben’s shop outside of Mora and saw our completed Barn. It is beautiful! Solidly built construction. Finished size is 12′ x 20′ – we won’t regret the larger size.

Cost of the building is $4,115 (oversize barn shed, plus heavy duty ramp). Custom built — just the way we wanted it. We won’t move it to our land until Ben’s four power pallet jacks arrive, which will ensure a safe “landing” off the truck to its new home.

The paint was custom mixed for us by Ace Hardware and they did a marvelous job!

Do you need a small out building? We highly recommend Ben. He trained with the finest of his Amish brethren in Virginia (East Coast) and has carried on this rich heritage right here in Mora. To view basic pricing, download pricing page: Price List – May 2013. Receive 5% off your order, whatever your specifications. Print coupon here: Save 5% off list or custom built prices

Or contact us to set up a time to meet with Ben. (Be sure to print your coupon and bring with.)

Now, for the pictures of our barn!

Front view of Barn:

Notice the plank for rolling equipment into the building. It’s not going anywhere — it’s heavy!

Front & Side View

Back & Side View

When the building is here on-site at our home, we invite you to come and take a look!

Market Hours are Thursday & Friday, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes breakfast can be dinner…and dinner can be breakfast? It’s fun to think outside the box and it’s practical, too. Here are some ideas from our household to yours… Dinner, breakfast, brunch or lunch — you choose!

View and print this week’s Market coupons: Soon to be posted! 

Fluffy Coconut Pancakes

This recipe was discovered when we had some special dietary needs going on in our household, requiring the elimination of most grains. That can be a tough chapter — but these pancakes will truly satisfy! We can’t take credit for this recipe, as the author worked hard to come up with a beautiful and tasty grain-free pancake. It’s absolutely delicious and fit for a queen! (To view original recipe, visit here.)

View or print our recipe here.

Angie’s Omelet

Need another idea? What about the versatile omelet? Last week after a long day at the Market, my sweet DIL surprised me with this one. Deeelicious!

This is an especially creative process, as you can put just about any combination of veggies that you desire into this omelet. You don’t really need a recipe, but if you’re new to omelet making, here’s how this lovely omelet was made:

To view or print recipe, click here.

Time for one more……how about this one?

Black Bean Mexican Pita Pockets

This recipe was born out of short-on-time and short-on-planning. But when you have a well-stocked pantry and a little creativity, truly anything is possible!

Black Bean Mexican Pita Pockets

To view or print recipe, click here.

View and print this week’s Market coupons: Soon to be posted! 

Visit the Market this week and find ingredients for making all of the above!!

From our home to yours….

Dianna

Building happy, healthy families one meal at a time!

I’m pretty excited. We ordered a 12×20 Barn!! It will be delivered in a week.

How did we place an order? We met with Ben (from the Amish Community here in Mora, MN) and showed him a photo copied from this website. He then asked us about size and placement of windows and doors, roofing and siding. It wasn’t too difficult and we relied heavily on his experience in our decision-making. He wrote up the order, we paid 10% down…..and construction on our Barn began immediately!

It’s a great time of the year to put in your order, as Ben is just getting started with his business. The early orders get first priority and are done quickly. The turn time on our Barn is just two weeks! Our Barn will look like this….but with our choice of colors and larger than the one shown.

Watch for a post in a week with an update on Dianna’s Barn….with photos!

To view Ben’s Buildings and get pricing, visit here.