YOU JUST DONT KNOW IT YET

April 14, 2011

Fast Food

YJDKIY is going to be doing a series of posts over on the Green Kitchen about fast food, so over the next week I'll be testing out some quick healthy meals that don't involve the drive through!

Start off with a healthy tomato soup choice. Not only is this Pacific Natural Foods version organic, it is also light sodium. Choosing a low sodium soup can be difficult because of the limited variety, but is critical to making this a healthy meal. I also highly recommend the creamy version!

To kick it up a little, and add extra veggies and protein, a can of black beans and two handfuls of fresh baby spinach.

Bring the soup to a boil in a large pot, add in the beans and some spices. I chose cumin, pepper, and garlic powder. Reduce the heat to medium and add the spinach. Let it boil 1-2 more minutes.

Make a whole wheat grilled cheese on the side!

Prep-time: 5-10 minutes
Cook-time: 5-10 minutes

April 12, 2011

New Linky Lou Who

YJDKIY's other blog, Green Kitchen, has been getting some linky love lately. In addition to the initial location on Salisbury Postables, you can now find me on the following:

FarmCarolina (under blogs)

Salisbury-Rowan County Farmer's Market (under articles)

The Bread Riot (under my very own tab: Emily's Green Kitchen)

Now there is no excuse not to know what is going on! :)

April 11, 2011

Grandfather ~ Valle Crucis

YJDKIY headed up the mountain last weekend. And it was hot, even for the mountains. Go on, ask me how hot it was?

So hot the cows were skinny dipping! ~~A few~~, er ~~gobs of~~, er some shots from the rest of our trip! Yay for Dollar Days at Grandfather Mountain!

(see you there in October!)

April 9, 2011

Taxing Week!

Just kidding! I filed my taxes on February 5!

SUNDAY: Grilled fish, zucchini & potatoes
MONDAY: Spicy Tofu Soft Tacos
TUESDAY: Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup
WEDNESDAY: Penne with Shrimp & Veggies (other cooker)
THURSDAY: Grits & Greens Casserole
FRIDAY: Spinach-Feta Stuffed Chicken, broccoli

Saturday Summary

that's pretty stinkin cool

new crime trend alert

don draper on demand

the north face has an amusing 404 error page (as does UO)

bhldn has moodboards…collective awwww and le sigh

YJDKIY has certainly had our share of these!

the best part is she was tackled by another patron!

yeah but after the novelty?

underwhelming

gaaaaaaaahhhhh a. dor. able.

did you Notherners know Jack Donaghy was hocking Weggies?

April 8, 2011

Local Eyes-Bigger-Than-Stomach

But is it strawberry season (almost), can you blame me?!

April 7, 2011

Broccoli Salad Redux

Broccoli salad is a staple at Southern potlucks and cookouts. The recipe usually consists of a 1/2 c cup of broccoli and 1 cup of mayo and 1 cup of sugar....and some bacon. YJDKIY can't really bring myself to ever eat that, although I guarantee you half the people eating it are proud to be eating their vegetables for the day!

Oh, I see you've met my secret ingredient for this redux.

And here is it's best friend.

Local!

Mix some of each (the plain Greek yogurt is pretty tart, so I added one more squirt of honey to what you see here), add a little cider vinegar.

Add some chopped red onion.

One head of broccoli. I blanched this for about 1 minute, but you don't have to do that - raw is just as delicious.

One minute tops! Then a cold water bath to stop the cooking and keep it crispy.

Instead of the traditional sunflower seeds and raisins, YJDKIY went with pumpkin seeds and dried cranberries! MMmmmm sweet & tangy!

April 6, 2011

Wiiiiiiiiiilson!

After HT put jicama on VIC, the next unusual thing that came up on sale were these:

Tomatillos!

YJDKIY grabbed a few to try out salsa verde. Tomatillos are related to tomatoes, and the fruit is surrounded by a paper-like husk. They are a staple of Mexican food, and although known as green tomatoes, thy should not be confused with actual green tomatoes (like the fried kind).

The husks are really amusing when flipped, enter the post title.

See the resemblance? But, while amusing, they are extremely annoying with a sticky slimy coating between the husk and fruit. LOTS of washing required.

To make salsa verde, you can either roast or boil the de-husked fruit for about 5-7 minutes. I chose to boil since that was easier and quicker.

While they were cooking, I combined sweet yellow onion and garlic

Cilantro, pepper, lime juice (not much, they are already super tart), a dash of cumin and garlic salt, and about 1/2 teaspoon of sugar in the food processor. Add in the tomatillos when they are soft and cool enough to touch.

All pureed and ready to serve with crunchy salty corn chips. If only we had them! :-S

April 5, 2011

Scene and...

...well, scene, because you can't really hear the blog. Updates from The Ave:

The flowers are blooming! I think this is the best iris showing yet!

You'd never know its in the ugliest part of the yard. :P

Do you see what I see on that close up? Evil green dust aliens? ME TOO! Hello pollen season. Grrr.

Random flowers from an unlikely subject. Do you know what this is the bloom of?

Some ornamental kale planted in October that was left to do it's thang.

And in other news, these guys are coming along well. They spend about 3 nights a week in their hot house. The other nights they retreat to the top o the fridge because there are things like severe thunderstorms that cause school to be canceled and frost advisories for April 5.