Real Food, Real Delicious

In honor of the Real Food Challenge, i thought i'd repost this, my husband and my FAVORITE of seasonal dishes: Pesto Kale! I've been making this dish the past two Winters, and have honed it to absolute perfection, though am always willing to put in whatever ingredients are freshest for a brand new and even better absolute perfection!

This particular evening's version of pesto kale was soooooo good, and was a glorious tribute to the mission statement behind the real food challenge.

Grown in my garden: Serranos (frozen from late summer), garlic, pesto (frozen from last fall, made with local pecans), onions, home canned tomatoes, and of course: the kale!

Sourced locally: Buddy's all natural chicken sausage. Minimal ingredients. Locally made. Natural and delicious.

Non local ingredients: Olive oil, the cheese in the pesto, salt and pepper.

Feels pretty great to grow it, make it, eat it, and enjoy a nutrient packed, uber fresh and easily put together meal. Fist pumps all around.

*** Update: made this favorite dish again last night with ground turkey and mushrooms. OMG. Even better. Always cook the meat first with the onions/garlic and tomatoes, then add the pesto and other veggies (mushrooms) and end by adding the kale and cook until wilted to your satisfaction. Nom nom nom.

This post can also be found at the super fantastic blog hop: Simple Lives Thursday.

Wholesome Wednesdays: Real Food

I did not participate in the Real Food Challenge last year, but think i will this March (despite this March being intensely busy and full of WAY too many things to think about). Since we already eat pretty much solely what i refer to as 'real food' the challenge shouldn't be too hard for us. Depending on the parameters the ladies at Not Dabbling In Normal and Chiot's Run, among other participating blogs set: we should be fine doing what we usually do. 

Some foods we'll be cutting out: soda, sugar free gummy bears. Some foods we may cut out depending on the rules: Annie's Macaroni and Cheese, Morningstar Farms Veggie "Chick'n" Nuggets.

Those are really some of the only 'pretend' foods we eat around here. I've been meaning to try Marigold's SUPER SECRET chicken nuggets soon. Our chickens are laying so we have plenty of 'free' protein to take advantage of. My garden is finally growing, thanks to some excellent composted horse manure from Dripping Springs, some improved weather, and more careful attention to actually WATERING it, so i'll have my own lettuce big enough to eat in a week or three.



I didn't participate in the challenge last year because i was afraid that the term 'challenge' might encourage people to go all out for a short while, then fall back into old habits once the challenge was over. I read and followed the challenge, though - and it truly seemed that the people participating or reading were truly concerned with developing a system for a new way of living and eating. I love to set a good example, and eating real food (and growing it if possible) is one of my great passions. At the gym ust yesterday, a young mother expecting her second child stopped and asked me some questions about growing a veggie garden. A. I just love it that people ask me about this stuff! B. I just love that i know enough now to be helpful. I recommended an easy way to start, some easy plants to start, and some tasty plants that grow well here and would be fun for her and her kiddos to plant, harvest, and eat.  I'll be participating in the challenge to help spread the good word about eating 'real food' while also growing as much of it as possible.



Would you like to join the challenge this year? For the month of March, head over to Not Dabbling In Normal and their sister sites for a fun, healthy, and wholesome challenge - sure to increase your knowledge, immune system, and pride.

Pizza From Scratch

Thank you, Heather for sending me this recipe from the Bread Bible! This crust was easy, fit into my day's schedule, and DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!! I'm serious. I wanted to save leftovers. This was not possible due to the level of delicious. Had to be eaten. All of it. Right away.

Anyhoo, i got up around 9 (yay for weekends with puppies who sleep through the night with no accidents!) and put together this dough (into which i added about 20% whole wheat flour and some dried herbs), leaving it out for half an hour, then popping it into the fridge. About an hour before cooking time i took it out of the fridge and stuck it on a pan that i should have greased more as i had a hard time dislodging the pizza for serving later. Every single ingredient i used was from my garden or a friend's who i made mozzarella with that morning. Not my best batch of mozz, but we were highly distracted by puppy playtime and neighborhood gossip.
For this batch of pizza i used the following toppings:

• Roasted garlic cloves
• Roasted thai eggplants with olive oil, smoked paprika and salt
• Multiplying onions
• Fresh diced tomatoes
• Fresh diced bell pepper
• Fresh diced red ripe serrano pepper
• Salt and pepper
• Pesto sauce
• Bunch genovese basil, few leaves lemon basil, pinch walnuts, pinch romano cheese, salt, generous drizzle garlic infused olive oil

I remembered that my stick blender had this handy dandy food processor attachment - worked great for this small batch of pesto without having to dig out the big food processor. I baked the crust for 5 minutes, popped a huge air bubble, slathered with pesto, topped with toppings, baked another 5 minutes and voila! Deliciosa! Paired with the very odd but cool film "Something Wicked This Way Comes" we had a most excellent Sunday night.  Once i have a more active life filled with fence building and other laborious chores we'll have to make this a Sunday tradition! For now, my mostly sedentary self will only indulge in this recipe on special occasions. I hope to increase my 'bread' repertoire more, and this was a good start to help me build my self confidence.

The bottom got nice and crispy but not burnt, the dough complimented the toppings perfectly, a little bit of spinkled cheese and salt tied it all together: groans of satisfaction filled the room.

Do you have a favorite pizza crust recipe?

Egg Bake: Healthy and Fresh Dinner or Brunch

Our ladies are still laying like champs and i had a surplus of eggs as none have been purchased lately (some available!). I decided to try out a totally made up recipe utilizing the eggs, raw milk in the fridge, and fresh veg/herb in the garden. Here's what i came up with:

• 8 eggs
• 1/3 pint raw milk
• Salt, ground flax, hemp, pepper, dried oregano
• Drop of truffle oil
• Bunch garlic chives, diced
• Chopped tomato - i think i used about 5 porters and one Japanese Triefel - about 3 regular tomatoes
• 2 serranos, sliced
• Bunch fresh basil, chopped
• Dollup of left over gazpacho
• Small onion, diced
• Cheese would be great - but i didn't have any

I used a round pyrex - this made a very thick bake, i think it would have cooked more quickly if i'd used a dish with more flat surface area. This shape also caused the veggies to float to the top, a wider dish would have mixed things more evenly. I didn't mind though.
Spray the dish, or coat with butter or olive oil. Mix eggs and milk in a separate container- you don't have to scramble, but break up the yolks. Add dry seasonings and truffle oil to the milk/egg mixture, mix, then our into the cooking dish. Add the veggies and fresh basil - scattering them evenly. Cook until the middle is cooked through - stands up to squishing from above with no liquid escaping. There will be moisture from the veg, but no runny yolk and the 'casserole' will be puffed up some. 
I waffled the temp around from 375 to 400 and cooked for about 30 or so minutes - time will depend on the size of your cooking dish.

This served the two of us heartily: high protein, lots of great vitamins and minerals, and very low carb - unless you count the roll i gave the husband ;).  Would be great for brunch, but was awesome as dinner too. I drizzled the plates with a little homemade mayo and some homemade habanero sauce which both added some nice zest. I didn't use any cheese, and didn't really miss it. Often i feel that cheese just adds calories but that its flavor isn't overly noticeable. Cheese is good for holding the texture together, but we both agreed this was tasty without it.

What's your favorite thing to do with a whole lot of extra eggs? Cook them on the spot, or store them for the lean months?