Sauteed Coconut Cauliflower with Black Bean Salad

I’ve been absolutely submerged in a stack of Country Living magazines that my sweetie’s mum and gram have passed on to me.  Ok, it’s not JUST Country Living.....there’s also some Martha Stewart and Good Housekeeping, but I love them.  I have about 100 pages dog eared of crafty endeavors I’d like to implement while my honey is away.....let me tell you, this do-it-yourselfer can do a lot of damage in seven weeks! ;)

Anyway, one of the things I read was something on a group of super veggies that are supposed to be totally amazing and healthy for you (which is my other favorite thing to read about) and cauliflower was among them, so the next time I was at the store I picked some up.  I’ve been allowing my meals to be tremendously simple, just cooking for myself, but they’ve still managed to be tasty and nourishing so far!

I made the cauliflower my main dish, really just wanting to enjoy the unique flavor that I don’t get to taste very often (and when one usually eats cauliflower it’s raw on a plastic tray with some sort of uber creamy dip).  My big splurge for the day was organic unrefined coconut oil ($11 for a 16 oz jar) and cooking the cauliflower in it seemed like the best idea ever, so I did.  First things first though, I steamed the bite sized florets in a colander over boiling water for about 5 minutes before putting them in a pan with a few spoonfuls of oil.

Then I went outside to continue waging war on fire ant hills (in bare feet because this week’s swarm attack rendered me unable to wear shoes for a few days), and ended up leaving the pan unattended for longer than I meant to.  I swear I’m not irresponsible.....it was on low.....I mean, the worst thing that could happen was burning my dinner.  And it turns out that a little burning was exactly what my dinner needed.  Lightly blackened, if you will (and only on one side of course :)

I added a splash of Bragg’s (which I’ve gone back to--just for cooking--after realizing that we go through a bottle of soy sauce in, um, NO time at all), and a spoonful of nutritional yeast once the pan was turned off.  It got topped off with fresh green onions from the porch and served with a black bean salad (which is my fancy way of saying salad with black beans on it).

Aaaaaaaaand this is probably what I will make every night until the rations are gone.  

Sauteed Coconut Cauliflower with Black Bean Salad

Approximate Price: $5

Yam and Broccoli Stir Fry Over Brown Rice

this started out as yams and a separate stir fry, but as often happens they were converged in a moment of decision.

i started out chopping up the two medium sized yams we had into 1/2 inch or so cubes and putting them into boiling water.  next, i put 1 cup of rice in a saucepan with 2 cups of water to bring to a boil (once boiling turn down to simmer with the lid on).  then, i proceeded on as i always seem to do, with a chopped yellow onion in a lightly buttered frying pan.  

our veggies for the night were red peppers and broccoli, so i chopped and put the peppers in soon after the onion.  to soften the broccoli up before putting it in the pan i used a colander atop the boiling yams to steam them for five minutes or so.  once the broccoli was added to the stir fry i minced two cloves of garlic to toss in as well (if too much of the surface area of the pan is bare the garlic can burn easily).

when the rice was soft enough i mixed in a few spoonfuls of mama’s miracle dressing, some sunflower seeds and some ground flaxseed.

i scooped the rice onto plates with a heap of stir fry drizzled with my pesto-less chard pesto (leftover from red pepper and chard pesto-less pasta with grilled eggplant) and sprinkled with flaxseed.

served with a side of kale chips.

yam and broccoli stir fry over brown rice 

approximate price: $6

***in general, i’m pretty sure that the sum of orange and green things mixed together become suddenly less appetizing than their parts.  the last dinner i really messed up (see HERE :)  involved orange and green and i had an “uh oh” moment thinking i had done it again.  it tasted plenty good, it just didn’t look so pretty....the flaxseed evened it out a bit though.

leftover turkey soup

oh my GOODNESS did we have thanksgiving leftovers!  bless the wallaces’ hearts, it took five days just to get it all under control.  i am most certainly grateful for such abundance (as things are still making their way into smaller containers and into the freezer! :)

there were two turkeys that had been carved down and i volunteered to keep one of them to try my hand at making soup stock.  i didn’t want to let it go to waste if i could help it, though getting a large turkey carcass to fit in a pot with two inches of water covering it was trying indeed!  

*i’m not a strict vegetarian.  i don’t eat a lot of meat either, and like to know where it came from and how it lived before i put it into my body.  i run into some moral trouble when it comes to things like processing a turkey carcass.  if i’m going to eat it i feel i should darn well be able to deal with it in its less than romantic state (not to mention be able to face its life--and death--before it was presented to me as food).  and this endeavor was definitely less than romantic.  

that said, i brought the pot to a boil and then turned it down to simmer, leaving it for several hours.  if the water level got too low i added a bit more in and stirred it occasionally.  it went into the fridge overnight and the next day i heated it enough to liquify it again, then had to dig through and pull out all of the bones and less than desirable bits.

i gotta say, this kinda tripped out a bit.  i mean, nature doesn’t skimp out.  there were a million and a half parts to that bird and every bone, tendon and muscle served a very specific purpose.  what an absolute work of art, what a perfect being of beauty, and what a thing of awe that we can be nourished by it.  i have never felt so much respect for an animal that was my food before, and i think that has become difficult with such a separation between us and the process.  meat lines the grocery store coolers and we don’t have to think any more about it than that.  

i feel that a close connection to our food is important regardless of what we eat or don’t eat.  i have the most amazing chickens in the world running around my backyard and i am blessed with incredibly beautiful and nutritious eggs every morning.  i get to go out in my bare feet (with my babies clucking behind me every step) and pull cherry tomatoes from an accidental plant that now needs a fourth cage to hold it up, clip okra from a tiny forest, and break chard and collard leaves from their plants with a crisp and unparalleled satisfaction.  it’s an awe inspiring thing, and i love and respect it as such.

so.  back to my miracle soup.  i heated it up a third night, finally ready to “finish” it, and added several cups of water to mellow out the richness.  really, it didn’t feel like it was lacking much of anything.  it smelled divine and was thick and beautiful.  i cooked up some spiral noodles to throw in and minced 3 or 4 cloves of garlic.  there was the last of a sad looking head of fennel in the bottom drawer so i added that for a bit of green.  

that was really all.  there's enough for half a dozen meals and then some.  i’m glad i took the time and energy to make something wonderful out of something that would’ve been easy to deem disgusting and throw away.

leftover turkey soup

approximate price: if you’ve already got a turkey, then free!+a half bag of pasta

*it is never my intention to tell anyone what they should or shouldn't eat, and i'm not advocating for any kind of diet, other than creativity and using what you have.  this adventure happened to involve some emotion, so i have shared that as part of my process.