Red Lentil Soup

Red lentil soup

Lately I’m obsessed with lentils.  Our pantry shelves are lined with them—bags and boxes filled with miniature rounds of black, green and brown.  To those who rifle around looking for more readily edible snacks, my compulsion is slightly puzzling.  A collection of shoes in the closet or books on the shelf is easier to understand.  But mothers have other odd obsessions as well, best ignored, as teens well know; simply shove the legumes aside and move on to the chips.

Loving lentils makes sense to me, if to no one else.  I cook dinner every day for a vegetarian family, and legumes and beans offer us a rich source of vegetable protein that’s essential to our diet.  And beyond the nutrition, they’re a treasure trove of inspiration as well.  I’ve no doubt I could add lentils to the pot day after day, week after week, and never repeat the same concoction twice (unless I wanted to).  One day it’s soup, another a main-dish salad.  Then on to a stew or dal.

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Christine’s Crossing

Creamy Vegetable Soup with Kale

Starting today we’ll be featuring Freshness Farms enthusiast and health coach, Christine de la Cruz in a monthly column called “Christine’s Crossing”.  With Christine’s wellness-oriented coaching you’ll learn how to incorporate Freshness Farms produce into everything from soup to main courses to juice and smoothies—like her sneaky zucchini noodles and vibrant beet and carrot juice.  This week Christine shares how to turn a refrigerator bursting with veggies into a warming potful of vitamins and flavor….

I have a confession to make:  as a health coach, I love to eat and prepare healthy food, but I am a lazy cook.  I don’t really like to follow recipes or spend a lot of time slicing and dicing.  Confession two:  I don’t mind eating soup in the middle of summer.  In summer we have a tendency to mostly eat raw or cold foods, which can be tough on our digestion and cause bloating.  Warm soup is easy on our systems, plus it’s really nice to have a potful of something quick and healthy at the ready when we are hungry!  Making soup is a great way to use up any produce we have overflowing—which we can all relate to in the best possible way.  Right now my fridge is loaded with the last great delivery from Freshness Farms, and I want to use up every last bit, while it’s at the peak of freshness.

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Pupusas with Kale Curtido

pupusa with curtido

In our household summer is a time of grand ambition and limitless opportunity.  Or so it seems, at the outset, with weeks of unbridled possibility ahead.  Notes to self have accumulated steadily since last summer; we’ve got a long list of projects on our hands.  THE LIST.  In January we’re confident that summer’s long, warm days devoid of school (if not jobs) will be the magic elixir to rejuvenate our procrastination-prone existence with newfound motivation.  The story we spin to ourselves goes something like this, “once summer hits we’ll clean out the closets and garage, get into shape, thoroughly weed the garden and repair the drip system.  Then begin the bathroom remodel in earnest while working through the family budget.  Fix the leaky kitchen faucet and degunk the shower drain.  And grow some really fabulous tomatoes, too.”  No problem, there’s still plenty of time.

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Thai Peanut “Noodles”

Thai peanut noodles

This week we welcome back health coach and Freshness Farms participant, Christine de la Cruz, as our first guest writer of this summer season.  Check out Christine’s earlier post on juicing and healthy eating.  This week she shares an ingenious dish that fashions “noodles” from summer squash.  Diners of all ages will adore these sneaky noodles, bathed in a nutty, Thai-inspired sauce—and be none the wiser about their vegetal identity.  

Be sure to stay tuned for more guests throughout the next few months…

Do you, like most Americans, love pasta? I know my family does. Pasta is one of those go-to meals we are all looking for, that EVERYONE will eat. I love pasta too, but it doesn’t really love my thighs. As soon as I eat a comforting bowlful, I immediately feel a bit fluffy and bloated. I don’t like feeling fluffy. Or bloated. Well, guess what? I’ve found a way to have my pasta and eat it too.

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Springy Summer Rolls

Spring Rolls

Whether you call them spring rolls, summer rolls or even plain old salad wraps doesn’t really matter—unless you feel the need to be culturally precise.  Whatever name you choose, Vietnamese-style rice paper wraps are an irresistibly fun and tasty, hands-on approach to pushing fruit and vegetables.  Call it sneaky if you want, but what kid (or adult) doesn’t embrace the idea of choosing the food on their plate—and having the chance to play with it, too?  Pull out all the veggies, Mom.  This is the day you’ve waited for.

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