The Organic Undergrad is back… and Newly Wed!

Hello all! I realize it has been entirely too long since I’ve posted anything, let alone recipes. Well, I am back, newly wed, and still unpacking. The focus of this blog is still going to be my efforts to cook affordable meals that are healthy and generally college accessible (as I am still in college and am still tired of mac and cheese, ramen, and pasta). I am adding to my blog as well, however. I will also be journaling my attempts to get the apartment completely clean and organized before class starts in a month, all of course on a budget that is barely existent– I don’t have a job. Its going to be fun, so stay tuned! I’m trying my luck at baking some bread today. New post about this coming soon!

Wild Blueberry and Peach Pie with Pecan Crumb Topping

I made a pie. Definitely didn’t make up the recipe or anything fun like that. The recipe is straight from the beautiful book, Pie: 300 Tried and True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie by Ken Haedrich. I’m not going to post the recipe for fear of infringing on copyright, but I will post pictures and tell you that it is absolutely delicious! 🙂 I used my new Emile Henry artisan pie dish and it is a-mazing! I highly recommend this book for pie recipes and very good instruction, the author has obviously made every single recipe in their kitchen and knows how to do it best.

Yogurt and Cooked Vegetables Experiment

I’ve moved into my new apartment, and I’m back to cooking-on-my-own. I don’t have school right now, however, so I have a little more free time to try something creative. Not to say that this is totally creative, but I’ve never tried it before, so there we go.

Initial Ingredients: yellow squash, zucchini

First, I chopped them up.

Then I put them in a small casserole dish.

Then I added black pepper and drizzled honey onto them.

Thinking it might be delicious, I added some sweet curry into the mix.

I put on the lid, and put the entire thing into the oven at about 300 degrees.

Maybe I shouldn’t have put on the lid. I dunno. Anyways, I put them in there for maybe 10 minutes or 15. Honestly, this varies. I’m not sure I cooked them long enough.

I took’em out, tasted one, and decided that goat cheese would go smashingly on them to lighten up the amount of curry I used.

After trying that out, I thought that plain organic yogurt with honey would be a good little addition on the side, a way to sort of cool down and sooth after a few bites (the pepper and curry were a little spicy by the end)

And, to my happiness, it worked!

So I ended up with a pretty delicious meal, that I wish I had added some french bread to.

Non-Dairy, No Sugar, Delicious Banana Ice Cream

It sounds impossible, doesn’t it? An ice cream that has no dairy, no sugar, is totally healthy and guilt-free? Well it’s not technically ice cream. But it tastes just like it and is completely healthy for you.

The secret: frozen bananas. So simple.

All this is is frozen bananas, blended.

How you do it:

– peel very ripe bananas (about as ripe as you can get them) and put them into plastic bags, then freeze them.

– once they’re frozen, use the blender to slowly blend them into an ice cream. (it’ll take some finesse, but isn’t hard). We used 5 bananas and made a rather decent amount.

So calorie-wise all you’re eating is a banana with its natural sugars, nothing added. But it tastes like sugar and milk was added. (So for all you lactose-intolerant people out there who want a quick summer snack–here you go!)

And for added enjoyment, try adding a touch of honey and cinnamon. (:

Preparing for Horn Island

I’m going to Horn Island, off the coast of Mississippi for a week with a group from Memphis College of Art, and I am PUMPED! I finished packing my pack tonight. It looks really good, it’s well packed, and I tried putting it on and it was immediately like an ab work out.

I weighed it, and I think it’s about 45 pounds. Either way, Maybe I’ll re-arrange the camelbak so it’s not quite making me want to fall backwards.

So the point of all of this is to say, that I’m going to be on an island in the gulf of mexico till June 6th, so I won’t be able to post any new things.

If you’re curious about my diet on the island, I can’t say it’s remarkable in any way. I plan on eating a lot of oatmeal, ramen, and bagels. (You do what you can with zero amenities). Wish me luck and keep me in your prayers! I hope the oil doesn’t make it to us while we’re there…!

Quick and Easy Smoothie

When I think of summer, I automatically start tasting smoothies and smelling fresh air. I went to the beach one summer and there was a local smoothie shop with cheap smoothies and me and my friend would end up getting probably two every day and it was awesome.

So I go online and start looking for smoothie recipes when I come home, and all I find are ones suggesting yogurt bases. Most smoothie places I’ve seen don’t have yogurt bases. (They tend to have powder bases which I can only assume is a mixture of sugar and milk or something along those lines) So instead of buying the surprisingly expensive mixes from the store, the kind that only make two and cost about as much as those at a shop, I made my own. And it turned out great! It’s so quick and easy, too.

Basically, in a blender I add some strawberries and a banana, sliced, add a splash of orange juice as my base, and then throw in a few ice cubes and blend them. No sugar added (there might be some in the juice, but I feel like milk would also work as a base or any other juice, really.) and totally delicious! What I end up doing most days is just adding any fruit I have available in a moderate amount plus some fruit juice for the liquid base and pureeing it. I love the addition of mango, or blueberries… anything, really! Just remember, if you add citrusy fruits, I wouldn’t add any milk products because the milk will curdle.

I like to drink this for breakfast or as a snack after a run. A great way to quickly get over a serving of fruit in! (I’m working on coming up with a concoction that will include some well masked veggies. We’ll see…!)

Avocado and Strawberry Salad

Well, finals week is over and I’m finally home from my freshman year of college. But don’t worry, this doesn’t mean I won’t continue to try and eat healthfully! Finals week was a big blow on my diet. It was hard to find foods to eat that were quick and filling, coupled with my packing up of all my kitchen stuff,resulting in me having nothing to prepare food with, so I ate out a lot. I plan on brainstorming however, and coming up with some tasty and very quick recipes to help get through those midterms and finals for next semester. Plus, I’m going to try and get some ideas together for those of you who live in a dorm situation and only have a sink, microwave, and possibly mini fridge. Now, on to the recipe…

Avocado and Strawberry Salad

– one medium avocado, sliced
– five medium strawberries, sliced
– couple pinches of craisins
– tbsp of brianna’s blush wine vinaigrette (I just used it because it said it was good with strawberries. Basically any vinaigrette will work, of course. I’m just working with what my mom has in the fridge now)

and that’s it! Of course you could add goat cheese, or any number of other assortments. Add some fresh spinach and you got an even better salad! Just from what I named it ends up being about 350 calories, maybe more maybe less depending on how much of what you add in.

Basically, you might not think avocado would go with strawberries, but it is actually pretty darn good. It’s a great summertime dish!

Top Ten Items to Buy Organic

Trying to buy organic foods can sometimes feel confusing and expensive. Which are better? Where can I save? What’re the top foods that should be organically grown? Well here are some answers.

Here are a list of foods that it’s worth the extra bucks to buy organic. Organic foods are free of pesticides and other chemicals, and some foods absorb them better than others.

10. Meat

Think about it–growth hormones  and anything else they give the meat, whatever is stored in them (as in anything that isn’t water-soluble, which is a lot), then goes directly into you. You can’t wash out hormones from meat like you can possibly wash off pesticides from veggies.

9. Dairy

Dairy comes straight from the animal. Imagine–if you’re a nursing mother, you avoid eating anything that might go from your milk into the child and harm it. Would you take growth hormones and other harmful products while breast feeding? So why drink the milk of animals who have been.

8.  Eggs

It just goes along with the others, think about it.

7. Coffee

Coffee, if treated, will have the residues on it–and think about it, to make coffee you run water across the beans. There is no way of escaping those chemicals. Also, as a bonus, organic coffee might tend to be fair trade, so everyone benefits.

6. Peaches and other Fruits with Thin Skins/Skins you Consume

Peaches have some of the thinnest skins, and therefore everything just soaks right in. And also, consider the fruit you consume the skin whole, such as grapes. (And for me at least, Peaches as well). They’re different from say, a banana, with a thick skin protecting the fruit. You eat it straight. And even if you wash it, it’s a very thin membrane and there is the likelihood that it’s soaked in. (This includes juices–organic goes better here too)

5. Potatoes

Potatoes are getting a double dose–pesticide above the ground and the soil gets fungicide. Sweet potatoes, get a little lower than white potatoes, and also they’re absolutely delicious.

4. Peppers, Celery, Green Beans, and Tomatoes

Peppers and tomatoes have very thin skins, and celery and green beans have very high pesticide contents.

3. Leafy Greens

Spinach has the highest number of pesticides, and you’re consuming them straight.

2. Baby Food

Babies don’t like pesticides, so avoid them.

1. Your Favorite

If you’re eating it a ton (like my goat cheese, avocado, and tomatoes…) than it’s better to forgo the cost and make them organic, because you’re consuming so much more of it than normal.

But, rest at least a little easier, here are ten foods that aren’t so bad to buy non-organic…

(In alphabetical order…)

Asparagus, Avocado, Bananas, Brocoli, Cabbage, Kiwi, Mango, Onion, Papaya, and Pineapple

(As a heads up, I basically got this information straight from HowStuffWorks.com’s podcast Stuff Mom Never Told You, entitled, “Are Organic Foods Healthier?”, which got it from the article on HowStuffWorks.com, “10 Foods You Should Buy Organic.” Plus some additional reading… )

The Joys of Grocery Shopping

First off, let me say, I love grocery shopping. Something just feels right about spending money on good food.

It costs an average of about $50/week to feed one person. As one of my goals as the “organic undergrad,” I’m trying to buy all my food at Whole Foods and not go over budget. My budget being between 40 and 60, because some weeks you need more food than others, and it all averages out to $50 or so. I went grocery shopping this week for a total of $53.99. Not bad, right? I’d say it’s about average. It’s definitely not bad if you consider that I’ve gone a week-and-a-half without groceries, not just one week.

Also, I can’t wait to finally head to the farmer’s market. Memphis has a district called Cooper-Young, my favorite area in midtown and Memphis. It’s historic and it’s thriving with locally owned shops, restaurants, and cafes. They have a farmer’s market that’s on Saturdays from 8am – 1pm. (Plus here’s an article about it)

So in my groceries this week: cereal, soymilk, tea, bread, orzo, and tons of fruit plus some veggies (my all time staples, tomatoes and avocados). I thankfully still have an entire zucchini and yellow squash left from last week, and half a green bell pepper.) Also notably on my list, peaches!!

I love peaches. They’re probably my favorite fruit, and have been since I was a little kid. My family is from South Carolina, and so on our way down to visit the family over the summer, we’d always stop at the road-side stands selling fresh peaches in baskets, and you can’t beat fresh South Carolina peaches. These peaches, sadly, aren’t from there. But I’m heading down in almost exactly two weeks, so hopefully I can get a big basket then.

Some foods in the grocery store seem too highly priced to really invest in for the week. So what foods do I not mind splurging on?

answer one: Cheese. Specifically, goat cheese. I get a semi-soft Cabra goat cheese that I take small pieces from or crumble. It’s not like slices of cheese to cover a sandwich, it’s more like buttering bread. I go through a small wheel every two weeks or so.

answer two: Avocado. They tend to be between one and two dollars per avocado, instead of per pound. But they’re so good for you, and so delicious. I use about a half to a whole avocado a day, so it’d be too hard to say no.

answer three: Tea and Coffee. There’s such a big difference between good teas and good coffees and their worser counterparts… the taste alone is worth it to me.

things I haven’t been able to convince myself are worth buying:

answer one: Really expensive juices. The kind that are $5-7 a pop. Maybe some day, but I’ll stick with water and tea for now…

answer two: packaged meals, like tv dinners. I’m never full after them, and then I’m stuck with having to make something completely new afterwards.

And as a final mention to this weekend. This (as seen in the map) is what I’ve had to deal with all weekend… Memphis probably had 7 different tornado warnings yesterday. I’ve drawn where I am. All the red is what was on us yesterday and last night till about 4am. I’m just glad to have groceries now. 🙂

Spinach Salad with Zucchini and Yellow Squash

I have this theory, that if there’s goat cheese and craisins, almost anything can taste good.

Not to say that this salad would’ve tasted badly without them, just the sweet and tangy flavors help me get through my still growing tastes for everything else in it.

I’m nearly out of groceries this week–tomorrow’s my grocery day, and I would’ve gone today if it hadn’t been for the 4 tornado warnings we had periodically today in Memphis. (As a result, I’ve spent a good few hours sitting in a damp and slightly flooded laundry room underneath my apartment…). So thankfully I still have stuff left in my fridge for dinners, just not what I would normally fix. thus, another, need-to-buy-groceries meal!

So here’s what I made:

– organic raw spinach
– organic yellow squash
– organic zucchini
– organic goat cheese
– sweetened and dried cranberries (they aren’t craisins, these were in the bulk section at whole foods. I like them because there’s nothing added to them except the sugar (not high fructose corn syrup) ).
– italian vinaigrette dressing (I haven’t made my own yet–this stuff is left over from my pre-health food days, so it’s kraft and has HFCS in it. But I’m planning on finding a good recipe for my own soon.)

Voila. It was pretty filling, since I made such a big plate of it. And for desert, I made a gluten-free brownie mix (thanks to Kerry and her children!). Now, I’m not allergic to gluten, but what I like about gluten-free products is that many times they’re free of the additives of regular foods. Plus it tastes just like regular brownies. Since gluten-free products tend to be very allergy-conscious, it means I can use a box mix easier with less guilt. More about my chocolate allergy later… (I have my suspicions about how it’s not real.)