So here’s another attempt at parsnips with maple. The soup from the other day tasted good, but the texture just wasn’t right. I figured I had a better shot at this recipe from Simply in Season because who doesn’t love roasted parsnips?
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I used to think I hated beets. Turns out I just don’t like canned beets in those weird jelly-like slices. When I started getting them in my CSA, I’d steam them when I made rice. The juice made the rice a pretty pink, and when they were steamed they didn’t have the funny taste I remembered from my childhood.

For this recipe from Simply in Season, I didn’t have the greens (in the store they’re sold without them), so I substituted a bunch of kale.

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This week, I was really worried that I’d have to report a gain. I had my monthly, er, blip. Luckily it came off and then some, so I netted a half pound loss for the week. Better than a gain!

In my weight loss class we are focusing on fiber this week. So for my recipe I knew I wanted something high in fiber. Also fast. Don’t you hate it when you know you’ve seen a recipe somewhere but can’t remember where? I *know* I saw Chai Oatmeal in someone’s blog, but I couldn’t find it in my reader. So I Googled it and found a close approximation to what I had in mind at shape.com.

It’s just regular oatmeal, only with chai spices in it, plus some oat bran thrown in for good measure. If you’d like the detailed recipe, click the link above. Mighty tasty!

Please share your healthy recipes below!

As a Calvinist, it feels a bit weird to toot my own horn. So I want to tell you right up front that this was prompted by a party thrown by a fellow blogger at Serenity Now. It was actually quite hard to think of reasons from the reader’s perspective. I mean, I get to learn how to cook, lose weight, and meet lots of great people (both online and offline). Hard to top that. But here’s the list I managed to come up with:

1. Simple ingredients. One of the things I love about cooking through Simply in Season is that there are normal ingredients that are fairly inexpensive. I hardly ever buy processed, packaged foods at the grocery store any more. When I read Julie & Julia I was really glad I chose this cookbook! Cow hooves? Expensive cuts of meat/seafood? You won’t find that here.
2. Local focus. I love the challenge of using ingredients that I get in my CSA, which are obviously local. I have found that my posts are helpful to fellow CSAers who are also trying to figure out how to use their more “interesting” vegetables (aka Hillbilly food, as my mom likes to call it.)
3. Approachable. I love reading other locally-focused, whole food blogs, but sometimes I get the feeling that I’m not local/organic/Weston Pricey enough. I hope everyone, no matter where they are on their food journey, finds recipes they can enjoy and can jump in and explore the issues that can sometimes be intimidating. Please flame me if I ever come across as Judgy McJudgerson!
4. Regular posts. Lately I’ve been wondering if I post too much . . . then again, I need to get this cookbook done! At least you won’t come to my blog and wonder where the heck I’ve been.
5.  Nutrition information. This is one of my only pet peeves with Simply in Season. I know that the recipes vary, but it helps to have a starting point. I’m counting calories, and I appreciate other blogs/sites that post nutrition info, so I take the time to calculate it for the recipes I post.

If you have any other compliments or complaints, please post them below. I aim to please!

Maple Parsnip Soup, I really wanted to like you. You were so quick and easy, I was able to fit you in while spending 40 minutes on the treadmill. You feature some of the best produce that Michigan has to offer–parsnips and maple syrup.

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It’s here! Well, the introduction anyway. I’ve been working on The Local Cook’s Guide to Making the Most of Your CSA Share, and in the  meantime have decided to release the introduction as a free ebook.

What’s a CSA? Community Supported Agriculture is a system where you buy a share of the farm at the beginning of the season, and then during the season, each week you get a “share” of the farm–usually a few baskets of vegetables that were grown on the farm.

What’s included in the free ebook?

• Is a CSA right for you?
• How to choose a CSA
• Planning for the upcoming CSA season

Now is the perfect time to be planning for and putting deposits down on a CSA. To get your free ebook, simply subscribe to my weekly newsletter.

After you’ve had a chance to read it, let me know what you think, and what you’d like to see in the full book!

This post linked to Real Food Wednesday

This is another one of those recipes from Simply in Season where I read it and was like “huh?” But when I started to add the herbs, it all started to come together. I hope that someday I’ll be able to figure all these herbs out, and what flavors they help meld together.

This recipe was made much easier by my new food processor – just whirred up the sweet potatoes, onions, and garlic, sauteed, added the herbs, and almost done!

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Yes, this is made with cornmeal and not a box It’s very tasty and the corn keeps it moist. DH LOVED this, he had several helpings. Another winner from Simply in Season. Would it have been better with real corn fresh from the cob, in season? Yes. But DH wouldn’t have eaten any less.

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You know, it was SO tempting to not just use some of the leftover barbecue sauce from last weekend’s brew and BBQ. But I wanted to be true to the recipe from Simply in Season. So I made the chicken, and with the remains of the homemade BBQ still in the skillet I added 1/2 C of water and let a head of collards and a head of kale steam while the chicken baked.

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Part of the purpose of this blog is to explore issues surrounding how what we eat affects those around the world. I received this story recently from a friend in Cambodia. It’s amazing to me how much we can learn from people we think we are serving!

vegetable garden and well

From Esther Matharu, CRWRC-Cambodia:

Health is a big issue in Cambodia. Many people in the remote villages suffer from malnutrition due to lack of knowledge and ability to grow vegetables during the dry season, when the rice has been harvested and the cows and buffaloes are left to roam around the dry fields, searching for food. Vegetable gardens need to be enclosed from the wandering animals, but the main problem is water. It is no use building capacity for vegetable planting if there is no source of water. Hence the integrated approach to development listens to what the villagers say and provides skills on community mobilization, to build wells, for example, with partial funding from those who lovingly donate to our programs, as well as contributions from the villagers in order to ensure sustainability of our programs. But also there is the question of using chemicals. This is often offered as an option to increase yields of vegetables and rapid growth of animals. However, farmers in the villages are increasingly rejecting this option, for a number of reasons.

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