Beloved Beaver Island

Posted on June 29, 2016 by Georgina

Beloved Beaver Island

Currently I am relaxing on a beach soaking up the sunshine (don’t worry I scheduled this post, I’m totally unplugged on this vaca).

I’m not in any tropical location or some resort hot spot, instead I’m in one of my favorite places on earth, which is even further north than where I live in Wisconsin. This magical spot? Beaver Island, Michigan.

Ever since I first stepped foot on Beaver Island, my mind has been consumed with the next trip back. It’s sort of indescribable feeling but I know I can’t be alone and people experience this for other places all over the world.

There’s something so special about this place. It’s the largest island in Lake Michigan yet it’s only 13 miles long and around 6 miles wide (in the widest part). There’s ZERO cell reception(no really, ZERO) and people move on “island time”. There’s no rush, there are no plans for your days there, and you can always find a new beautiful spot to explore or stop by your old favorites.

I highly highly HIGHLY encourage anyone to visit it but specifically those in the midwest. It truly is a hidden gem.

We drive around the UP (Upper Peninsula of Michigan) and down to Charlevoix, Michigan where we take a ferry across to the island. Once on the island there are a lot of rental homes, a few motels, and some campsites too! A few years ago we found a home that we really really loved so for the past 3 visits, we’ve stayed in the same one.

Lake Michigan is one of my obsessions in life, wether the Wisconsin or Michigan side, I just love it. The water is deep, there is no salt, there are no crazy scary sea creatures (sharks I’m looking at you) and the sunsets….you guys, the sunsets oh I can’t even describe.

To give you a taste I’ll share some pics from the last visit. Enjoy!

And none of those colors in the pictures have been enhanced or edited….seriously.

Now go research your trip to Beaver Island stat. Hope you all have a fabulous week and I can’t wait to share with you the recipes and goodies from Week 2 of our CSA with you when I get back next week! In case you missed week 1, check it out here.

xoxo

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2016 CSA Series- Week 1

Posted on June 22, 2016 by Georgina

2016 CSA Series- Week 1

Can’t believe it’s almost time to pick up our next CSA box! If you missed our latest post about how we are participating in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share this year, check it out here.

So since we are about to pick up our next box, it’s about time we share with you what got in our first box and what recipes and fun things we did with each of the items!

So here is the haul we received in week 1: CSA WEEK 1 Box Think you know what each item is? Let’s take a look:

Asparagus
Fresh breakfast radishes
Buttercup Lettuce
Bok Choy or Pac Choi
Green Garlic
Shallots
Rhubarb
Herb Pack (Thyme, Basil, Oregano, Sage)
Pea Shoots
Large bag of Spinach in the middle!

I love that we get such a wide variety of stuff in our boxes! It’s fun to experiment with different ingredients and never feel like you’re “drowning” in something and not sure what to do with it all.

Ok so lets get started! I’ll just list out each ingredient and post what we did

Asparagus I honestly love raw asparagus as a snack and the stuff I got was so skinny and beautiful and tender that I was half tempted just to snack on it. But that’s not very fun to share with all of you so I decided to try fermented “pickled” asparagus spears. If you want to learn more about the benefits of fermented foods and the amazing impact they can have on your health, check out our past post, here.

These asparagus spears are fermented and not pickled. What’s the difference? Pickled foods are preserved in an acidic medium, where fermented foods are preserved in salt water with a starter culture. These are sort of quasi pickled because as you’ll see below I used about a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar (make sure it says “with the mother” & here’s my favorite brand) to act as my starter.

If you’ve been wanting to dip your toes into fermenting your own foods but are a little hesitant, this the perfect recipe because it’s so simple, you don’t need any special equipment (just make sure to burp your jar occasionally). Fermented Asparagus 2 These bad boys are good on their own but probably even better as a garnish in a bloody mary! 🙂 Fermented Asparagus Spears Recipe Fermented Asparagus 1 Fermented Asparagus 3 Radishes & Spinach Confession- I’ve never had cooked radishes before. I have always eaten them cold, preferably with a hefty sprinkle of sea salt too. But when I was researching something out of the norm to do with radishes, I came across this Radish & Spinach Pasta dish that looked too good not to give it a try.

If you think cooking radishes is weird, STOP IT! It’s delicious and you won’t be sorry. They turn a soft pink color and it sort of enhances their peppery flavor. Plus I mean the recipe also has bacon in it sooooo how can it be bad? CSA WEEK 1 RADISH SPINACH PASTA 1 We used the breakfast radishes (ok we ate a few cold too) and the beautiful spinach as well as a few of the shallots from our box. It turned out delicious. Not heavy at all and surprisingly light for it being pasta and all oh, and containing bacon but it really made for a delicious light summer dinner! CSA WEEK 1 RADISH SPINACH PASTA 2 Radish & Spinach Pasta Recipe **Don’t get rid of your radish greens! They are very nutritious and can be used for any number of things. In salads, in smoothies, in stir frys…I happened to be making some homemade chicken bone broth and threw them in there with it. I’m all for being resourceful and reducing waste!

Butter Lettuce Recently I posted about how much I love salads and how they’re the best super fast and healthy dinner for busy weeknights…aaaaand I still think that 🙂 Butter lettuce is so soft and yet crisp and delicious. I think that these would also be PERFECT for a lettuce cup but this time we opted for the traditional salad route. However the salad we made was anything but traditional. CSA WEEK 1 QUINOA BUTTER LETTUCE SALAD Topped with quinoa, loaded with veggies and dressed in THE most delicious “creamy” avocado dressing ….. you’ll find it hard to believe it’s “just” a salad! Qunioa Veggie Salad with Avocado Balsamic Recipe The dressing isn’t pictured above but it truly is amazing.

Bok Choy/Pac Choi & Green Garlic So another confession (you guys are really making me wear my heart on my sleeve today!) when I saw my farm list Pac Choi on the list for the box, I had no idea what it was. And then when I saw the picture I said to myself, wait…that’s BOK CHOY! Well it turns out, from what I was able to conclude, that Bok Choy and Pac Choi are one in the same. Now you know 🙂

I was very tempted to try to grill the pac choi but it was pretty large and I think that might work better with smaller more compact heads. So I settled on a Ginger Stir Fried Bok Choy & Green Garlic over Turmeric Rice. I had been wanting to try a rendition of some turmeric rice I had come across lately but didn’t know what to pair it with. These stir fried greens were perfect with it. CSA WEEK 1 PAC CHOI & Tumeric Rice 1 My husband doesn’t really do well with meals that don’t have a lot of protein so I threw some nuts, and seeds on top and we were both happy! I used sliced almonds, pistachios, and some hemp seeds. CSA WEEK 1 BOK CHOY & Tumeric Rice 2 Bok Choy Stir Fry with Turmeric Rice Recipe and of course if you’re like me you are addicted to spicy and you top it with chili sauce (& some nutritional yeast 🙂 ) CSA WEEK 1 BOK CHOY Tumeric Rice 3 Rhubarb I am obsessed with rhubarb. My mom and I have a matching cookbook that is dedicated solely to rhubarb. There’s so much you can do with it! I actually already had some more rhubarb just chilling in my fridge waiting to get used up so when I got some more in by box, it was the motivation to finally make something with it.

A coworker of mine had recently gifted me a hunk of her mint plant and seriously it’s growing like crazy in my pot. So I needed to use some of that bad boy and what better way to do that than with mojitos! And what’s better that regular old mojitos? Rhubarb Mint Mojitos ❤We made a rhubarb simple syrup and then put that in some mojitos. But good news is that if mojitos aren’t your thing or drinking alcohol isn’t your thing, the syrup makes a delicious spritzer with just sparkling water as well! These will have their own special post coming soon, but you get sneak peek 🙂
CSA WEEK 1 RHUBARB SIMPLE SYRUP Rhubarb Simple Syrup Recipe CSA WEEK 1 RHUBARB MINT MOJITOS Use the syrup as you would in a “normal” mojito. Make sure to check back for the recipe post coming soon!

Pea Shoots If you’ve never tried pea shoots, you need to. They are such a fun ingredient. They taste exactly like freshly shelled peas and yet are a leafy green! I love the way they taste so I didn’t really want to cook them or drown out their taste with other ingredients.

I tried to make cauliflower steaks (big fail people, big fail) and needed a simple salad to go with. I used these to make a Pea Shoot & Arugula salad with lemon vinaigrette and needless to say, it was the highlight of the dinner and we wished there was more of it to drown out our sorrows of the less than delicious cauliflower 😉 CSA WEEK 1 Pea Shoot Arugula Salad

Shallots CSA WEEK 1 SHALLOTS These were so adorable, if you are one who agrees food can be adorable. I mean look at them, they’re so little and cute! We used some in our radish pasta listed above, some in our stir fried bok choy also listed above, and still have some saved to use in the future.

Herb Pack CSA WEEK 1 HERBS This might have been my favorite thing in the box! I was so excited to get these goodies. We planted them to let them grow and hopefully (I say hopefully because if you saw my thumbs, they’re black as night) we can use to make various things, maybe they’ll even grow big enough so we can make our favorite chumichurri sauce!

Whew! That’s it! That’s what a week (plus a few days) of food looks like in our house. What do you guys think? What are some of your favorite things to do with the ingredients we got?

Thanks for hanging in there and reading along. Tune in again in two weeks to catch what was in our 2nd box and what we did with it all!

xoxo

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Beet & Green Bean Salad

Posted on June 19, 2016 by Georgina

Beet & Green Bean Salad

Ok. TIME OUT. Tell me I’m not the only one..but my life is FLYING by! We moved into our house a little over a month ago and it’s basically been a blur since then. ~~We’ve~~ my husband has been weeding like crazy, we moved our fire pit, spent wayyyy too much of our savings and income at Home Depot, quickly learned how annoying painting trim is, wasted a LOT of time picking out counter stools, oh the list goes on and on and the “to do” list keeps growing.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s exciting and I love it but it can be overwhelming. We are practicing mindfulness, trying to take our time, and doing our best to remember there is no rush.

Needless to say, quick and easy has been the name of our food game in the house lately.

A few weeks ago we went to the 2016 Burgers and Brews event in Middleton, WI and we had a blast! So many delicious and unique burger and beer combos, but the next day I was craving veggies in a very big way.

I’m a big fan of salads for their versatility and simplicity. For me they can be great ‘clean your fridge out’ meals, no rhyme or reason, just throw in all the veggies! 🙂

For this particular salad I had some beets that were waiting to be roasted and used up. So they were the starting point of inspiration. The dressing is one of my go to’s. I first shared it when we made this delicious salad and it’s just been a favorite since then. ❤

Beets are one of my favorite foods, I know people either love em or hate em but this house definitely loveeeeeeees the beets. It’s hard to not love something this beautiful -> A20160605_142016 Am I right? So pretty! A20160605_182501 Beet & Green Been Salad Recipe 20160605_182100

Salads are the ultimate in flexibility so pass on the things you don’t like and add in your favorites, I’d love to hear your favorite salad ingredients and your variations on this one!

Hope you are enjoying life one day at a time and making the most of summer so far! Next weekend we leave for vacation and I can.not.wait. Tune in next week to find out where we’re going!

xoxo

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How to Peel an Avocado- Fast!

Posted on June 11, 2016 by Georgina

How to Peel an Avocado- Fast!

How to peel an Avocado Ok, so Avocados are everywhere right? Avocado toast…avocado pudding….avocado smoothies…avocado hair masks…. it’s crazy! But I love avocados so I don’t mind one bit.

Guacamole is one of my favorite things in the world and avocado toast is getting up there on my list of obsessions too.

The avocado itself is a wonderful little bundle of nutritional awesomeness! It’s technically a fruit and full of over 20 vitamins and nutrients. It’s high in Vitamin K, Potassium(more than bananas!) Vitamin C, Folate, and it’s also high in monounsaturated fat.

Monounsaturated fat are what people are talking about when they say “good” or “healthy” fats! They are proven to help reduce inflammation and there’s even positive correlation between then and cancer prevention! But one of my favorite things about avocados (and healthy fats in general) is that they’re nutrition boosters! They actually help us absorb the nutrients and vitamins that are in other foods.

Many vitamins and nutrients in our foods are fat soluble which means that they need to be combined with fat in order for our bodies to utilize them and even absorb any of their goodness! These include (but there are many more) vitamins A, D, E and K… along with antioxidants like carotenoids.

So for example if you have a delicious lettuce salad that is full of great vegetables but you top it with a fat free dressing or no dressing at all and just vinegar or lemon juice, many of those nutrients are just passing right through you and you aren’t getting any good stuff from them! Now lets say you add avocado to the salad or an olive oil vinegarette….TADA! You are now able to absorb those fat soluble nutrients and actually reap the benefits of the food you’re eating.

Many people are afraid of fat because they think that it will make them fat (as if that’s the worst thing that could happen to a person) but so so sooo many studies are out there to prove that that is simply not the case. It’s important to make sure you’re eating the right and ideal fats for your body. Stick to mono and poly saturated fats and leave the trans fats on the shelf 🙂

Ok so we can all agree that avocados are delicious and nutritious but what is the best way to prep and peel the damn things? Not that there’s necessarily a “bad” way because as long as you’re getting it into your mouth, how can it be bad? But I have a tried and true way, that is outrageously easy, that many people have said they haven’t seen before so I figured I should share it with the world.

Once you get the hang of it, you’ll wonder how you did it any other way ❤

Steps to peeling an Avocado Let’s walk through each step.

Step 1)

Cut the avocado in half just like you normally would. Use a sharp knife to slice the avocado. Roating the knife, carefully, around the pit using it as an axis then gently pull the two halves apart. The pit should be left in one half of your avocado. 20160521_081415 Step 2)

Gently tap your knife into the pit of the avocado(just enough so it “sticks” in a little bit). Rotate the knife and pit in one direction and the avocado flesh in another. The pit should loosen up and you should be able to lift it directly out of the flesh. 20160521_081438 Just like this -> Now be careful pulling it off the knife! 🙂
20160521_081449 And you should be left with two “pit free” halves of the avocado.
20160521_081512 Step 3)

Next cut each half in half- so you are left with quarters. 20160521_081552 Step 6)

Now starting at one end (the skinnier of the two usually works better) pull the skin away from the avocado flesh. I should peel off nicely in one piece but if it’s still a little “green” (not ripe) it might come off in pieces. Just peel until it’s all off.
20160521_081613 And you’ll be left with a delicious, clean, skin free, hunk of avocado that you can chunk, smash, slice, blend…or do whatever you want to do with!
20160521_081635 See, so easy? Do any of you do it the same way? If not, how do you do it? I’d love to hear if you have a trick that works well too! 🙂

xoxo

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2016 CSA Series!

Posted on June 8, 2016 by Georgina

2016 CSA Series

CSA SERIES I’m so excited to kick off another season of participating in a CSA! This year we purchased a share from Small Family Farm out of La Farge, Wisconsin which is very close to my home town. I love being able to support local farmers, especially ones that are virtually in my back yard! And if I’m being 100% honest, their adorable and fun website won me over. Seriously how cute are those illustrated veggies on their site?!?

Now if you’re a little confused about what a CSA is, let’s start with the basics.

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and is basically a partnership between you, the CSA member, and the farmer(s). CSA members pay the farmers at the beginning of a growing season for a share in that season’s harvest on the farm. In return you receive a box of weekly (or other pre determined frequency) produce directly from the the farm that is delivered to several designated “dropsites” or sometimes you can choose to pick up at the actual farm too. It’s a great way to support local farms, eat local food, and eat healthier too!

One of my favorite things about CSA’s is the diversity of products. Sure you could have your own garden (I totally support and encourage this and want my own next year!) but CSA’s are fun because you can get stuff that you’ve never tried before or things that you don’t grow yourself! Last time we did a CSA (see more about the 2014 season here) we got a lot of things we hadn’t tried and I’m excited for what this season will bring!

Because it’s just me and my husband, and summers are so busy with us rarely home on a weekend, we opted to purchase a Every Other Week (EOW) share from our farm. It’s the same big box of delicious goodies but instead of weekly we pick up every other week. This year in addition to a produce box, we will also be receiving a dozen organic free range eggs!

I am lucky enough to have grown up in and live in an area with a huge focus on local organic farms. I have a lot of options to choose from but there are CSA programs all over the country! There are also some great resources to help you find one near you, if you have no clue where to start.

Fair Share CSA Coalition is a great option for my fellow Wisconsinites! They also have a ton of other great information on their site including local events, volunteer opportunities, recipes, and much more!

localharvest_logo

Local Harvest has information on farms all over the country! They also include some events and farmers market info too.

I love that our farm sends out a newsletter each week to keep members up to date on the growing season, farm life, even farm events sometimes, and of course what’s in our box that week.

My goal for this series to to share what a real CSA experience is like, share new recipes and new ways to use some fun veggies and produce, and hopefully inspire you to either try a CSA or to feel more comfortable with a veggie-centric diet 🙂

Stay tuned for more delicious posts and even a hands on *get your hands dirty* visit to “our” CSA farm later this summer!

Thanks for tagging along and if you have any questions along the way, let me know!!

I’ll be picking up our first box tonight but my farm is awesome and posted a preview of what’s going to be in it this week! unnamed