Saturday 23 June 2012

Yogurt and Garlic and Leek, OH MY!

Yogurt and Garlic and Leek, oh my. Yogurt and Garlic and Leek, OH MY!!! While I am not on a road paved with gold, I do live in the land of 'Oz.' (Of course if I did see a road of gold, I wouldn't mind a brick or two in my bank account!)

The chant was ringing in my head as I consumed my newest SUCCESSFUL creation. Which in my mind is a rarity, I get so frustrated and tend to give up, when the idea in my head of what something was suppose to taste like, completely fails. But this week was definitely full of surprises in that department, as I had a few awesome kitchen days.

But, I digress, let me get to my point, and title. Today I went and visited the local farmer's market. A good 10 minute drive, or slightly under (Poynter's Farmer's Market, at Poynter Primary School in Duncraig, WA). I had been informed by my Chiropractor that they sold organic produce there, by an organic company.

Some sort of Leek, I think!
We'd been to this market before, at the beginning of the school year, but the school fete was also underway, and I hadn't been back since (lack of motivation - nothing to do with the market). I liked the market, it was small and quaint. Today's visit lent me to have a bit of a closer inspection of prices and stalls. I was unimpressed with the prices of the organics, as right now I'm really trying to watch our spending. I can do some organic experimenting when I start making money to contribute to household costs again. I decided against spending on organics today, 2 reasons, cost and lack of cash. We only brought about $40 with us today, and figured that'd be enough for whatever produce we needed to get. I must however mention the sheer size of the beetroot (beets) that they did have on offer, WOW, I've never seen anything larger. In hindsight I should have gone back and picked one up, just to give it a taste. We did end up getting a box of produce from another stall. I only wish I knew where the produce comes from - local farmers? I would think so, otherwise that defeats the whole concept of a farmer's market. Anyway I saw this strange leek looking thing (not like the leeks found in North America, but the taste is similar), but it was purple/red in appearance. It had a leek like smell, and was a bit stronger, like the wild leeks my dad liked to find in the spring in Pennsylvania.

Yogurt Cheese Leek Dip
Knowing I had some yogurt cheese back in the fridge, I thought, I'd give making leek dip a go. Normally you'd use cream cheese or sour cream to make a dip, but knowing the taste of yogurt cheese, I thought it would marry well with the wonderful leek flavours. BOY was I right! I can't remember what recipe I was making this past week, but all I remember were the suggestions by reviewers of the recipe to caramelise the onion and garlic before adding the rest of the ingredients, as it really brings out those flavours and helps the flavours to pop. So I thought I'd heed the advice in this creation as well. I sliced up some of the leek and 2 garlic cloves and just tenderised them in a saute pan. I then added it to about a half a cup of yogurt cheese, in my mini food processor. After having a taste (which is the beauty of this style of recipe, ability to adjust to taste easily), I added more leek. I also added some sea salt to help enhance the taste. YUUUUUUMMMMY! If I had a bag of potato chips, I'd have consumed the whole lot in one setting. Lucky for me, we had neither chips nor crackers. But we DID have some sugar snap peas from 2 weeks ago (held up pretty darn good in the fridge, still crisp and yummy), so knowing they'd be even healthier for me, I rinsed them off and gave them a go in the dip. Oh my, I think I've just discovered my new best snacking friend :)

I will have to give the recipe another try tomorrow and write down some measurements to share. It's a fairly easy recipe to make, just by the 'pinch of this, pinch of that' method, but for those of you who, like me, prefer the scientific method when it comes to food, I will write it down and share soon.


Friday 15 June 2012

My 52 Week Food Challenge

After heaps and heaps of reading of various blogs and online articles, my head is absolutely swimming with ideas to change my diet habits and to incorporate the nutrients my body craves, into my everyday life.

While the information is so vary vast, I need to set some real goals to implement the changes, especially if I want them to stick and become true habits and lifestyle changes to improve my health and that of my family.

Here is where the challenge comes in. While the 100 days of Real Food is a fantastic start for me, I want to incorporate fermented foods to get some of that great bacteria into my gut.

I need to do some real reading, and would like to read a few books to assist my journey. So in saying thus, I am giving myself 52 weeks to make the changes, a minimum of 1 change or new item to try or change, each week. Some things may take all week to create, such as sour dough bread, others may take more than a week to complete, such as making fermented saurkraut, but if I start it on one week, I can post it's progress throughout the weeks in between.

In the weeks, I'd like to explore parts of my city where I might be able to source the best organic and/or whole foods at reasonable prices. As I visit places, I will include the throughout the weeks, as I will probably only get to visit one new place per week. But I am hoping to have a great bunch of resources for myself and any friends, family or guests to be able to gleen from.

Week one starts tomorrow, Saturday June 15th, 2012. Let's see what adventures we can find along the way!

Saturday 9 June 2012

The 'Real' Food Search

Lately I've been doing a bit of blog surfing lately as I rabbit trail from one topic to another in regards to food and health. My brain is completely overwhelmed with the wealth of information I've found, but I think I've come to the conclusion that I need to start small and slow.

So with the help of the blog '100 Days of Real Food', I think I'll start there, with low or no processed food, which of course has always been in my sights. I've downloaded 4  x 7 day meal plans from her site. The plans are fantastic and are also geared at the budget minded. Last week I was able to implement Meal Plan 1 with some minor adjustments. The recipes were fantastic AND easy to execute! I'm not sure how I'd go when I start working full time again, but if we stick to meal plans, it will be easy enough for either one of us to cook each evening. PLUS I won't have to wonder what I'll pack in my lunch each day, as I'll have already planned, shopped and cooked it for the next day!

Week 1

Last week's plan was shopped at Drover's Food Markets in the Northern suburbs of Perth (Wanneroo). They aren't far from where I currently live and the prices are fairly reasonable. They aren't organic, but they aren't from the supermarket, where food isn't always picked fresh and ripened properly either. I really wanted to go to the Wannero Markets, but I didn't check the opening times. Assuming it was 8am, that's when we arrived, only to find out they didn't open until 9am. *Sigh*. Drover's isn't a true farmer's market as such, with only one shopping option for fruits/veggies, one for meat (wholesale) and fish, but it's all in one place, and presumed to be fresher and more ethical (in my mind anyway) than your big supermarket chains.

We walked away on our first week of shopping for Menu Plan 1 with almost all of what we needed in the way of fresh foods. About $45 in fruit and veggie, $30 in fish and seafood (we like to get the good fish since I really don't like 'fishy' tasting fish - so we got about 300g of pink snapper for about $20), and about $12 on a free-range fresh whole chicken.

I had a feeling we'd get better bargins with more of a farmer's market, so during the week, I did a tiny bit of research focusing specifically on organic farmers markets. I found a place in East Perth from 8-12 every Saturday (Perth City Farm Organic Growers' Market). I also found the Subi Farmer's Market under my google search for organic farmer's market. I have yet to check that one out, maybe next week!

Week 2


Week 2 of shopping for the new plan and this time using '100 Days of Real Food', Meal Plan 2 for our shopping. We had a rough time getting out of bed this morning, but eventually made it out and showered for a late 10.30am start out the door headed to the Perth City Farm Organic Growers' Market. It was a small market, but definitely had clearly marked organic produce.  We forgot to hit up the ATM machine, so didn't end up buying anything, so we just had a bit of a squiz at the joint. It definitely looks promising! It also has a bit of a cafe area as well. Adam suggested that next time we come, we get there early and have a bit of brekky while we were there. I'm game for that! As we were leaving, I was reminded of the cooking show on TV 'River Cottage' with Hugh Fearnley. The concept was to be able to live self sufficiently using locally grown produce and wild foliage and the like to supplement. (Side note - I see there is a Ted Talk with Hugh on sustainability - I MUST check it out and will report back on another post with my thoughts and a link!)  Point being, the feel gave me a very homey sort of feel about it, the whole concept of community coming together to share their excesses of bounty with their neighbours. Small time farmers, etc. I found this pretty comforting as I am always seeking to stay away from large corporations when it comes to food. Give my non-GM organic foods anyday!

Walking away empty handed this week from a promising market, we made the decision to head south of Perth to Fremantle, where there was a guarantee of fantastic fresh market produce available. It's a bit of a drive from where we live in the northern suburbs, but after today, it was worth it.

With today's produce, we ended up with a total costing of $18.00. Yup, huge difference. I was able to pick up just over 2 kg of tomatoes for $3.50 to make my own pasta/pizza sauce. And the TOMATOES....Ooooh MYYYY!  When was the last time I saw them so red?! It's the one thing I really hate, and complain about with tomatoes at a supermarket chain, they aren't quite ripe, GRRR!!! They aren't green, but they are fairly pale in colour, so frustrating to miss out on nutrients. Needless to say, I was excited to see some perfectly ripe tomatoes, not too red, but just right. I also bought some bread from Lawley's Bakery. They even had bagels, so I had to buy some to try them out, see if they were genuine Jewish boiled bagels (yum!). As of yet, I have not researched the integrety of the ingredients from the bread and their baking methods, but I shall do that soon. However, they had a stall at the Freo Markets, so thought I'd give it a go, and bought some sliced wholemeal bread ($7 with bread and 2 bagels). There weren't any meat markets in Freo, so we just got out veggies and headed out.

Oops!  Nearly forgot - I did find some raw honey! I've seen so much mention of raw honey, but hadn't been able to source some until today! We bought a small jar to taste test. It's about $18.90 per litre, me thinks that sounds ok! I've not been able to find much information online about this company except that they sell it at the Fremantle markets, but for now, this might be my stuff to use.

While I've done a few non-processed or 'hippy-like' this week with food, I will have to save it for another time, as I'm gently reminded that my last University literature review (4,000 words) is due on Monday and I only have an outline in my head about it all, let alone all the reading that will be involved. On that note, I shall save my other findings for another time!