Green Juice

I hope I haven't come across as this perfect mom who only feeds her kids healthy things, because that is definitely not the case. Rachel is a sugar-holic who gets sugary drinks and graham crackers nearly every day and candy whenever she can find it. I am trying to make sure she has a fruit and a vegetable for lunch, and one or both for dinner. This has become more difficult lately, as she has "discovered" that green food tastes nasty. I got her to choke down one bite of asparagus the other day, and she LOVES carrots dipped in ranch, but she won't touch spinach anymore. Meanwhile, Reuben has fallen in love with my spinach smoothies, and prefers them to his regular baby food.


All this has come together at a time when my mom has started ordering baskets of produce each Saturday, and challenging me to make sure it all gets eaten. Basically, we have a LOT of fruit and veggies in the house, and I hate throwing them away. Enter new lunch routine: What's-In-The-Fridge Green Juice.

The rules are simple. Look through the fridge, and the fruit bowl on the counter, and find any fruit that looks like it's not going to get eaten, either because it's on its way out, or it's something no one will eat (green apples, brown bananas, a plethora of oranges, fruit that is more work than it's worth...). Throw it in the blender, along with a heap of spinach and some ice, and let 'er rip! Voila: Green Juice. Rachel hates green food, but LOVES green juice.


Today's recipe went like this:
1. 2/3 apple that someone changed their mind about
2. 1 1/2 c grapes that were hidden under the celery and forgotten about (aka starting to wrinkle but still edible if you could get past that)
3. 1 banana that was more brown than yellow (the browner it is, the sweeter, btw)
4. 1/3 bag of spinach that was a day or two away from being old

Summer Squash

I. Love. Squash.

Last summer we planted two plants each of zucchini and summer squash. We had the stuff out our ears, but it was wonderful. Because of our bounty, we came up with lots of different ways to cook both squashes, all of which are yummy. Basically I got a knack for coming up with new ways on the spot, and I guess it stuck with me.

This week my mom got a bountiful basket, so instead of making the usual for lunch I'm trying to use up all the fruits and veggies she got. She got two summer squashes and about 10 green apples, so I thought I'd experiment with those. I like apples, but not green ones. But I love cooking with green apples, so hopefully they'll all get used up soon.

So here's what I did for lunch today:
1. Dice up 1 summer squash and 1 green apple.

2. Drain 1 and rinse can of black-eyed peas (I sure love me some black-eyed peas). ALWAYS drain and rinse your canned beans!

3. Combine in frying pan with some olive oil and heat everything through.

4. Add a little bit of red wine vinegar (I used the pomegranate infused kind my dad bought...I might have to make that a staple at my house) and let everything cook down for about 5 minutes.

Done. That's seriously it. You could make things more complicated by adding spices, but that's up to you.

Like I said, I just made this up today, so I'm not sure the best way to eat it. It's really yummy just by itself, but I think it could also be a good topper for pasta or rice. I ate it today in lettuce wraps and it was fabulous. I think it would go well in a salad, and it would take away the need for a dressing, which I always love. Why eat extra oil and fat? But what I really want to try is stuffing peppers with this combo. I've never had stuffed peppers, but they're on my list of things to try. Oh! Or in potato skins!

My favorite thing about this meal was how filling it was. I was worried I would crave something crunchy afterwards, but the beans filled me right up so that wasn't an issue at all.