Pesto, Sunny Side Up

I love the things that are so easy to make it almost seems like a magic trick what comes out the other side of a few minutes and a few dollars.

We have eggs.  Have I mentioned that yet??  :)  And for me, working from home, an egg + _______ = the perfect lunch (even if the _______ is sometimes just a crackling of sea salt).

I still had a bit of chard pesto that I had thawed out from the freezer (easiest way to make something fancy as far as I’m concerned!  :)  Due to a confused moment of decision I ended up cooking some crumbled tofu (organic firm) in the small frying pan, with a little bit of Mama’s Miracle Dressing.  Towards the end of the cooking time (ten or fifteen minutes) I added in a spoonful of the pesto to get the gorgeous color without cooking any more freshness out of it, and set it aside to cook my sunny side up egg.

We had a few tomato slices left over from burgers with the folks the night before, which I put in the pan for a few minutes to soften them up and make them look more....deliberate than just setting them on the plate ;)  

When my egg was done (however soft you prefer your yolks to be) I nestled it into a bed of scrambled tofu and added a layer of pesto, a crackling of salt and a sprinkling of flaxseed, and snuggled the tomato slices on the side.

Yum, yum YUM!  :)

Pesto, Sunny Side Up

Approximate Price: $2

alfredo tofu and collard pizza

i make a lot of pizza....at least once a week.  i haven’t learned to make the crust from scratch yet (that’s like a real recipe!  yikes!) but it’s the most fun way for me to throw odds and ends together to make something that’s pretty darn hard to mess up.

i had suggested pizza, because we had an open package with one crust left that i knew wouldn’t last long, but even i was verbally skeptical that we had anything to put on it.  shame on me!  i know better......

i had gotten a jar of alfredo sauce at the store recently, and then remembered i had also gotten some tofu...what else, what else, i thought.....sunflower seeds....chard and collards from the garden.....carrots, no.....cabbage, no.....leftover okra and baked eggplant.....garlic.....green onions.....cheese.....

well that was more than enough to convince me!  confidence regained ;)  i sauteed a yellow onion with most of a package of tofu (saving just enough to be able to do a little something with it if i need to this week) and a little butter and bragg’s.  while that was cooking i went out and said hi to the chickens while i collected a few leaves of collards (making sure to thoroughly de-aphid them :).

i chopped up the baked slice of eggplant (not much but why not?) and added it into the mix with the leftover okra pepper stir fry from last night, making sure to remember a few cloves of minced garlic.  all that went on the alfredo dressed pizza crust and into the oven.

it was really good!  it had almost a sweet aroma to it, maybe from the butter and tofu combo?  i sprinkled a little ground flaxseed and cracked salt on top, and ready....set......eat!  :)

approximate price: $5

salsa-cooked quinoa with tofu and garlic spinach sauce

needed to use: a bowl of too-watery-to-actually-dip-chips-into homemade tomatillo salsa

well....it was slim pickin’s this night (as you can perhaps guess from the text above!).  our farm delivery was coming in the morning so i hadn’t bulked our produce back up.  no matter, i am not swayed.  i had the idea to cook some sort of grain in the salsa, so i went with quinoa (as opposed to a wild rice mix).  quinoa is a 1:2 ratio of grain to water, so i measured 2 cups of the salsa and still had a bit left, so i downsized the container and put it back in the fridge.  (downsizing is just fun, no matter what it’s pertaining to ;)

i wasn’t sure if the quinoa would cook properly in a liquid thicker than water, but i was prepared to add some extra H2O if necessary.  i brought it to a boil and then brought it down to low heat with the lid on to retain as much liquid as possible.

we had two carrots, an onion, some baby spinach, and half a block of tofu.  (we also had celery and jalapeno peppers, but i opted out of those.)  i sliced the carrots and put them in with the cooking quinoa (saved me an extra pan) and started an onion sauteing in a medium frying pan with a little butter.  i crumbled (aka smooshed and tore) the tofu in with the onion and added some bragg’s, both for a little color and flavor.  

i almost burned the quinoa, as it’s very quiet about turning sticky and black at the bottom of the pan while the top looks deliciously light and fluffy.  two good things to do in that moment of discovery: turn of the pan and douse it with a little water.  not enough to drown it, but just enough for the hot dry grains to have a drink.

i sat down and read for a few minutes while everything cooled a bit, then abruptly announced that i had an idea and walked back to the kitchen, ignoring will’s inquiry as to what it was.  (i like to keep him guessing a little....it’s part of the fun :)  

i took the remainder of the salsa back out of the fridge and put it in the blender, along with a few good handfuls of spinach (that appeared to get the unintentionally boot from this meal and still lay quiet and hopeful on the counter) and a minced clove of garlic.

perfect.  bright green things are really fun.  i put down a layer of the spicy quinoa and carrots, followed by the tofu and onions and a generous drizzling of green garlic salsa stuff.

salsa-cooked quinoa with tofu and garlic spinach sauce

despite the fact that will was not sure what he was eating at first he gave it a verbal “thumbs up” and nod of approval.  

approximate price: $5

potatocorntofublackbeanchard stir fry with mint carrot soup

i did it!  i made soup in my blender!  i probably should not be quite so excited about this, but sometimes things like “make soup in my blender” show up repeatedly on those to-do lists that accumulate and weigh down my poor soul (though not really poor at all, seeing as how i have SOUP! :)  the very act of making it was a big step.

we have carrots.  my goodness do we have carrots.  we get plenty from our farm share and they tend to last longer than the other goodies so i tend to keep them for the end, and often we get more before i’ve used them.  we ALSO have pulled up a few of our own from outside!  (which i hold onto while the chicks feed happily on the feathery green tops :)

we also had mint leftover from a vietnamese breakfast earlier this week, as well as some growing out on the porch.  i always think i should (and will) know what to do with mint, but i continue to find myself passing over it out of sheer lack of confidence.

carrots and mint go together.....i swear i’ve read that...  i couldn’t actually remember the label of all those delicious carrot soups....is it just ginger....i swear there’s something about mint in there....

regardless!  i was determined.  i sliced up about 8 carrots (not wanting to blow the whole bit if i happened to, um, mess something up :) and boiled them in water for about ten minutes.

while that was happening i chopped up half of an onion and put it in a saucepan with some water instead of butter, to get it to soften up instead of blacken.

when i decided they both were soft enough to blend, in they went to the blender (with about a half cup of the water i cooked the carrots in) and then i got to decide what else went in the blender with them.  i went with a drizzling of Bragg’s (why not?), a large (minced) clove of garlic, a handful of chopped mint, salt, and some yogurt.  the only kind of yogurt that graces our kitchen is most often the greek gods’ honey variety.  i went with it.

it was still warm when will got home, so that’s how we ate it, garnished with a bit of fresh mint from our back porch pot.  i let him guess for a while what the spice was, and i don’t actually blame him for not getting it right away.  the mint had a particularly spicy bite to it.  

we both agreed it might be better chilled, but that it was a very good soup debut!  i mused that, just like his songs, anything i make in the kitchen will never be quite the same twice.

mint carrot soup

approximate price: $2

mostly what i had to work with for this one was leftover blue rosemary potatoes.  and not very many of them i might add!  it was towards the end of our farm share cycle and pickings were a little slim for the next couple days.  i am never discouraged.

since i was making mint carrot soup at the same time, and actually stole some of the onion i was heating up for that.  i foraged in the freezer and found some corn (which excited me as i had just come in from fertilizing our soon-to-be corn plot! :)  there was also some tofu to be had....and some black beans in the pantry.  and guess what we also still have growing incredulously in the yard?  i swear we’re breaking some sort of cosmic chard rules here, but until the wrath falls, we will continue to obliviously enjoy the heck out of it! (and so will our chicks :)

really everything just went onto The Big Pan here.  i did start with the tofu, as some of the other things had already been cooked previously, and it’s best if it gets to soak up some heat and flavor on its own first (i think :)  

i gave that a few minutes, then put the potato leftovers in, followed closely by the corn and beans.  the only thing i saved ‘til the end was the chard.  i picked three good sized leaves, cutting them once lengthwise and then into half inch or so strips.  chard makes everything just a little happier (have i mentioned those chicks yet?? :)

i did put a little bit of water into the pan, maybe a quarter cup, just so the chard would have some liquid to soak up, and i covered the pan on low heat while i went outside to hang out with my chickens....assuring will it was ok for a few minutes :)  

potatocorntofublackbeanchard stir fry?

it was a good meal, teamed up with the soup :)

approximate price $5