Culinary Zen: July 2013

My Food Philosophy

It starts with realizing your connection with the Earth. The earth will always provide you with the food that you need. Whole food in its purest form. Not chemically laden formulas disguised as food. You will begin to appreciate the people who grow the food. You will not settle for a fruit or vegetable that was grown in the most clean way possible. Because, you see, the energy from these foods becomes a part of you when you ingest it. It's all about conscious eating. Being aware of not only what you put in your mouth but where is comes from. I choose to live a plant based and gluten free lifestyle. This blog is an evolution of sorts. It starts with my dedication to using whole foods and moves into my dedication to a plant based cooking lifestyle. All those recipes you didn't think you could have eating the way I do....Bon Appetite

For more information on plant based wellness, please visit my website at www.pranaholisticwellness.com

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Summer Eats!

rhubarb bars

strawberry goodies

maddy and her stirfry

our fresh bread

This summer is flying by. It has been an interesting summer for us cause we joined a CSA this year. Pickins have been kinda slim still, but fun to make things with what we get....like rhubarb or arugula flowers. I have never had rhubarb in my life, so I settled for rhubarb bars. They were ok...but almost too sweet for my liking. If we get more, I will probably make jam out of them. Speaking of jam..what else can you do when you pick 24 lbs. of strawberries at the farm. We were up to our heads in strawberries a few weeks ago. But, we did get 5 huge bags of frozen berries for smoothies, 5 containers of jam, and 2 dozen strawberry muffins out of it. I have never made jam before, so it was an exciting new experience. Another new experience for me was making bread. I broke down and finally brought a breadmaker. I am hooked! Jackson and I made a loaf of white bread yesterday. So, last night with our salad we had warm bread with chive butter....yum. We have also been making a ton of stirfrys from our farmers market goods. Maddy has developed a stronger interest in cooking, so she likes to make them. It's basically any veggie we get, a protein, and soy sauce on basmati rice. Lastly, I have been making alot of what my mom called bagel dip. I don't eat it with bagel chips though...mostly veggies and kashi 7 grain crackers. It's great cause CSA has been loading us with green onions the last few times now.
Recipes or their links are listed below. Can't wait to see what the CSA brings me next week:)

Strawberry Oat Muffins: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/strawberry-oat-muffins

Chive Butter:
It doesn't get easier than this:
Let butter soften and add in as many cut chives as you would like. I also add garlic and other herbs sometimes. I roll this all in waxed paper in a tube shape and freeze it. Cutting off pads as I need them.
You can also make berry butter by adding fresh berries to the butter. But, you must freeze this one or use immediately. I made the mistake of leaving it in the fridge and the fruit molded.

Mom's Bagel Dip
- One stick of softened cream cheese
- as many green onion tops as you like diced
- a few shakes of season salt
-shredded carrots (optional)
-shredded cheese (optional)