What’s Been Cooking

Yesterday was the quite the lazy day. I was up early to go to the Farmers Market, but for the rest of the day I just lounged around the house thinking of all the organizing we needed to do without doing anything about it. Oh well, we got our peaches!

Lots of fuzzy white peaches. This is the full 10 lbs (less the two I had already eaten). I was kind of surprised as it it doesn’t seem like that much, but it is about 26 peaches.

Not really feeling inspired to organize I deciding hanging out in the kitchen would be a good way to procrastinate…

Using lots of CSA goodies I whipped up some sweet tabbouleh with heirloom tomatoes, corn and basil.

It turned out great! I loved the combination of the the tomatoes, corn and bulgur and, of course the fresh basil made me happy as I’m not a huge parsley fan. This recipe is great as a side dish or could be a full meal if you decided to add some black beans or chickpeas.

Corny Tabbouleh

• 1 cup bulgur wheat*
• 1 cup water
• ¼ olive oil
• 2 T fresh lemon juice
• 2 cups corn kernels (fresh or thawed frozen)
• ½ medium cucumber, diced
• 4 tomatoes, cut into ¼” dice
• 3 scallions (with about 3” of the green stem left on), thinly sliced
• ½ cup basil leaves, thinly sliced
• 1 t garlic powder
• sea salt and ground pepper to taste

Prep

1. Combine the bulgur and water and let soak for about 1 hour.

2. Mix in the olive oil and lemon juice. Then add remaining ingredients and stir gently to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste.

3. Serve right away or store in the fridge until ready to serve.

*Notes: Bulgur wheat can be purchased in a bulk, at a health food store or in organic section of a regular grocery store. I used Bob’s Red Mill packaged Bulgur Wheat for this recipe.

Later in the evening Isaac’s parents were coming over to hear about his trip to Israel and see his photos so I decided to make a little treat for us to enjoy. Zucchini Bread!

I used this recipe from Cooking Light and only made a few small changes – I used half whole wheat flour and half all purpose and also cut down the sugar by using 1/3 cup agave and 1 cup regular sugar.

The bread turned out great, although it could be a tad bit more moist. I will admit that I loved the crunchy edges – I took the end piece just for that reason.

Holy Yum!

I know what you’re thinking- all those peaches and you made tabbouleh and zucchini bread? The problem was that most of the peaches aren’t super ripe yet so I plan to give them a few days.. although I did put them to good use in both my breakfast and lunch today.

Just peachy oats with chopped peaches added to the cooking process along with blackstrap molasses (great way to get some iron in) and cinnamon.

I topped the bowl with more molasses, a couple peach slices and a spoonful of almond butter. And not just any almond butter, this was the freshly ground AB that you pour yourself. What took me so long to try this? Seriously, it’s cheaper than most packaged varieties, you can just the amount you need/want and it contains ONLY almonds (no salt or oil added). Plus, to me it tastes like whipped almond butter- so creamy, rich and delicious. I think I’m in love.

I got this particular batch from my local market, Ellwood Thompsons, but I’ve seen the machines at most Whole Foods. They normally have both peanut butter and almond butter to choose from. I highly recommend trying this stuff out!

Lunch rolled around and I made a Peach Green Smoothie using this recipe by Kristen over at Kristen’s Raw. After loving both this recipe and the Chocolate Cherry Bomb I’m convinced Kristen is the smoothie queen.

I followed her recipe but made a few minor changes by using a frozen banana, swiss chard instead of spinach and adding two tablespoons of hemp protein powder. Overall, I really enjoyed the flavor and it made me think about using more herbs in my smoothies, which I haven’t done much of in the past. I will say the consistency was a bit thin, more like a juice rather than a smoothie and I tend to like my smoothies a little thicker.

The recipe made two smoothies so both Isaac and I had one. I paired mine with a beet, tabbouleh, hummus salad and Isaac slurped his down while heading out the door for frisbee. Before leaving he mentioned that it tasted really good and that he likes thinner smoothies like this one because the thicker ones are just too much. Different strokes for different folks. Next time I’ll know to make mine a bit thicker but leave his as is since apparently that’s how he likes it.

Yum! This salad was amazing. I love beets and the tabbouleh was extra flavorful after sitting in the fridge all night.

Well since I’ve been sitting around the house all day I think it’s best that I give the computer a little break and decide how to do something productive. Hope you are having a great weekend.

Did you do anything fun you want to share – I would love to hear about it. Also, if you have any amazing peach recipes – please send them my way.
-Brittany

Tagged as: Corny Tabbouleh, Just Peachy Oats, Peach Green Smoothie, zucchini bread