It’s still raining zucchini!

Well, maybe not literally, but it can feel that way at this time in the year, when home gardens, farmer’s markets and fresh produce aisles abound with these versatile and prolific veggies.

There is something kind of funny about these little green monsters. It could just be the word ‘zucchini’, which by the way has its roots in the very food-associated Italian language. ‘Zucca’ is the Italian word for squash. Not to get bogged down in an etymology thing . . . the point is that zucchini has been party to many silly jokes, such as:

What is a zucchini’s favorite sport?

Squash . . . of course!

All silliness aside, the zucchini has some serious qualities as well. While we mostly use it in a savory capacity in cooking, it is actually considered an ‘immature fruit’. No. I’m not trying to be funny, although it does have a comedic if not sort of sarcastic sound to it. Even worse is the description of it being the ’swollen ovary of the female zucchini flower’!

Okay, now we’re going to get serious, really . . . the zucchini has a lot of nutritional punch per bite. One cup of raw zucchini is only 3 calories! Those three calories are high in folate, manganese, potassium and vitamin A. According to NutritionData.com, it also has a zero glycemic load.

The zucchini is an old standby in the Americas and archaeologists have traced its origins back to Mexico between 7000 – 5500 BC! An integral part of the pre-Colombian diet, it is still a staple in Mexican cuisine known as one of the ‘three sisters’ – corn, beans and squash.

Odd as this may sound, our current cultural introduction to zucchini did NOT come from our continental neighbors, but from europe! When early european explorers were bringing back booty (after some nasty looting often), they came back with what would make its way back to Italy and be named zucchini, where it quickly gained in popularity. It made its way to France and England too, where it is called courgette.  Along with some other squashes, it belongs to the species Cucurbita pepo and is also referred to as summer squash.

Click here for one of Green Diva Meg’s favorite Zucchini recipes!

eat. blog. be merry!
GD Meg

The fresh berry season is upon us – yipppeeee!

Growing fresh berries may be the most exciting way to gather the little yummies – especially if you have a local bear that becomes familiar with your crop! Until our current house, I’ve always had some berry bushes and enjoyed the picked-off-the-bush freshness of berries for breakfast AND dessert! I tried container strawberries on the deck in the last couple of years, but it was such an unbelievable chore to keep them from the critters, that I gave up, surrendered my succulent beauties to some very happy chipmunks and whoever else was enjoying them.

I love to buy fresh local berries or even pick them myself from some of the U-Pick farms in my area (Northern New Jersey).  Those wonderful farmer’s markets cropping up in a neighborhood near you will be brimming with wonderful fresh berries.  LocalHarvest.org has a wonderful Farmer’s Market locator.

Knowing that berries often get the worst kind of pesticides sprayed on them, I’m careful to find out how they’ve been grown. The Organic Center has posted and published a handy free pocket guide that helps understand when you should only buy organic and when it is okay to buy non-organic fruits and veggies – the  Organic Essentials pocket guide.

Here are a few ways I enjoy berries . . .

 
1. Green Diva Meg’s Special Berry Breakfast
I eat this almost daily during the week – bring my glass container to work and savor it during a morning break (I hate eating first thing in the morning).

Ingredients

1/4 – 1/2 c. Plain Yogurt* (I prefer 2% or non-fat greek or some good organic stuff)
1/8 – 1/4 tsp. Vanilla
2 pkts. Stevia Plus powder (or sweeten as desired)
1/4 – 1/2 c. Granola (obviously your favorite – or NOT. this is optional)
up to 1 Tbs. Ground Flax Seeds
1/4 – 1/2 c. Berries!  (whatever mix you like)

*As you may have guessed, I like to make my own vanilla falvored yogurt, which cuts down on a lot of suger. I try to buy low-sugar granola too and sometimes, I cut out the granola all together, which cuts out a bunch of sugar, carbs, and fat . . . not often enough!

In a medium-sized bowl, mix the vanilla into the yogurt thoroughly, then add stevia or sweetner and mix well again. Then add granola (or not), fresh berries (cutting strawberries into bite-sized pieces, obviously), ground/roasted flaxseeds, and enjoy!

2. Green Diva Meg’s Easy Berry Crumble
I posted this prematurely (about a month ago). Please visit a previous post for the yummy details!

3. Elegant Fresh Strawberry Dessert
This one comes from my mother, who was well-known and loved for her dinner parties back in the 60s and 70s, when dinner parties were a more formal and regular occurance (at least in our household).

Ingredients

Fresh Strawberries
Sour Cream (could substitute with some good thick greek yogurt)
Brown Sugar

Wash the strawberries, but keep the green tops (unless they are yucky) and keep them whole. If you have enough small individual bowls for each guest, give them one each of a couple of tablespoons of sour cream and brown sugar. Small parties/groups can just share. The goal is to dip the strawberry into the sour cream, then into the brown sugar and eat the whole thing (double dipping isn’t encouraged in a shared environment unless you are all very close and comfortable with that sort of thing).

4. Old Faithful – Berry Fruit Salad
I like to mix up all kinds of berries (color is important – I’m not sure why, but it is – so, I like to make sure I have some red berries AND blue/black berries).

Ingredients

Berries
Peeled/Cored, sliced pears
Peeled, sliced up peaches
Fresh heavy cream (optional)

Obviously, this is a personalized thing. My daughter just LOVES to make whipped cream and so sometimes we go nuts and use it, but it really doesn’t need it.

5. Healthy Berry Smoothie
The basis of this is from Anne Louise Gittleman’s Fat Flush Plan, but as always, I tend to alter recipes to fit my own taste.

Ingredients

1/2 c. Fresh Berries (can use frozen in winter)
1 Peach or Nectarine
1/2 c. Water
1 Tbs. Flaxseed Oil
1 Pkt. Stevia (or other sweetner – to taste)
Vanilla Protein Powder (I prefer Whey, but you can use whatever type you like)

Mix it all up in the blender and enjoy!

Have a berry wonderful time . . .

eat. blog. be merry!
gd meg

Join the Green Divas tonight to talk with Jared Koch, author of Clean Plates NYC, a wonderful resource and guide to the most nutritious, delicious and green food in New York. He and food critic and writer, Alex Van Buren ate their way through this handy book, which is for vegans, carnivores, locavores and foodies all.

BUT WAIT . . .

You won’t just get one great interview, we also have the fabulous Jean Brookwell, our very own TerraScope diva. She has done a special TerraScope for us that is focused on ‘abundance’. Don’t know about you, but I could sure use a little more of that right now!

Please IM us (instructions on the homegrownradionj.org website) or comment here or email us @ info@thegreendivas.com during the show with questions or comments for either of our guests.

Tune in, Click on, Listen up!

Thursday May 28, 2009
7 - 8pm EST
HomeGrownRadioNJ.org

eat. blog. be merry!
gd meg

There’s a new CSA forming in the Morristown area!  This is great news as shares are sold out in several other area CSAs.  What is a CSA?  CSA stands for community supported agriculture.  The basic idea is that a farmer grows for a group of members who have purchased shares in the harvest in advance of the season — when the farmer needs the money.  When the crops come in, the farmer delivers a weekly assortment of organic vegetables, herbs and some fruit.

Now that's farm fresh!

John Krueger is the owner/operator of Starbrite Farm.  He has a BS in environmental science from Cook College and has been farming organically since 2002.

Vegetables are grown in western New Jersey and delivered to Morristown every week for pick up.  The season is 22 weeks long and begins June 18th and runs through November 12.  Membership includes a weekly assortment of 6-10 varieties of organic produce, and members are expected to contribute one 4-hour shift to help with distribution (that sounds like fun!) — hanging out with other folks who enjoy fresh, organic, NJ grown produce.  Interested?  Hurry before the shares are all sold out.   

Call Jamie at 973.699.1913 or Liz at 973.984.2432.

Want to find one in your neck of the woods?  Go to LocalHarvest.org

Nancy Masotto, Executive Director of the fast-growing Holistic Moms Network, will be on the show with the Green Divas tonight. The Holistic Moms Network is a national non-profit organization that aims to help connect, inform and inspire parents (not just for moms!) about holistic, natural and green parenting.

As one of the earliest members and founder of the Morris County chapter, Green Diva Jen has been part of this wonderful network of conscious parents and has seen it grow into an amazing national network.

We are thrilled to have Nancy, who is extremely busy as a mother and the nurturer of this wonderful organization.

We have a guest green diva in the studio tonight – Leslie Joy of Joy Organic will sit in for Jenifer.

Thursday, April 30, 2009
7 – 8pm EST
HomeGrownRadioNJ.org

Send in questions via comment here or IM us during the show. IM instructions are on the upper left corner of the homegrownradionj.org website.

eat. blog. be merry!
GD Meg

Is there anyone NOT sucked into the whirlwind of earth day hype?
Is there anyone that isn’t thinking of how they can get their green on?
Is anyone else feeling overwhelmed by it all?

Us Green Divas area all about easy does it! If we make earth day more of a lifestyle and simply start by making one green improvement from wherever we are on the big green super highway, sustainable living habits seem to sprout like hearty organic weeds and multiply. Before you know it, you’re talking local sustainable agriculture at your favorite new potluck dinner club!

I started with food. Yum.

The low-stress way of doing this, is to know you don’t have to do it ALL. Just pick one that resonates with you and start there. It should be fun and bring you some joy. This is NOT about adding stressful activities to your lifestyle, but adding some thoughtful and hopefully more meaningful activities to the things you already do anyway.

·         Learn about your local farmers – find them, meet them or at least read up on what they are growing and producing and what methods they employ.

• Join a CSA – Consider buying a share in a local Community Supported Agriculture, which helps a local farmer or farmers and you get delicious very fresh, local veggies regularly throughout the growing season! Here is a website to learn more about CSAs and search for a CSA near you!
  
• Go to your local farmers markets – there are so many new local farmers markets springing up everywhere. The season is just about to begin. Find a farmer’s market near you!

·         Question your local supermarkets – talk to the manager or produce manager about the source of their produce, how much of it is locally produced, organic, etc. If you ask them nicely to use more local growers (and get some friends to pester them as well), they might just do it!

·         Get educated about regional, seasonal foods – It is difficult to go totally seasonal, but there is evidence that it is better for our health to eat regionally and seasonally. Just becoming more aware is a start. One New Jersey natural foods caterer, Burden Free Foods is working on a delicious 100-mile menu that will highlight and use food within a 100-mile radius!

·         Become a conscious carnivore – look for meat that is humanely, naturally, regionally (if possible) and consciously produced. It will likely be more expensive – eat less meat, add more whole grains and veggies (won’t hurt you). Read my post ‘6 Reasons to be a Conscious Carnivore‘

·         Grow something – even if you don’t have a yard or even a balcony or deck to pot some veggies, you can grow herbs on a window sill. It’s fun, it’s miraculous, and is a great reminder of the connection of where food comes from and how good it is fresh. Or as an alternative, you can volunteer for a public garden group and help green your community.

·         Start a dinner club – this has all kinds of possibilities and potential implications. You can do it in connection to an organization or just a social group of friends – either way, it is fun and has a way of growing (organically of course) into something interesting and nourishing both physically and mentally. This idea was inspired by my favorite foodie organization, Sustainable Table, who made buttons for Farm Aid 2007 that said, ‘Bring back the potluck!’.

·         Patronize restaurants that use locally grown, organic foods – this makes a statement. There are more and more chefs coming around to the concepts of sustainable, local agriculture. Three local, sustainable food chef activists that are worth learning more about (and eating in their delicious establishments!) — Alice Waters of Chez Panisse, Michel Nischan of the Dressing Room and Judy Wicks of the White Dog Cafe. 

·         Love the food you prepare – find a way to de-stress, slow down and enjoy the food preparation process. CAUTION: this may produce heightened awareness about the quality of the food you use and create a desire for higher-quality food sources!

·         Eat at least one meal per week with your family – whatever type of family you have, whether it is traditional or a group of friends. Create a sense of family around a well-loved and thoughtfully prepared meal (you don’t have to do it all yourself, remember POT-LUCK works).

eat. blog. be merry!

GD Meg

Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle, Inc. a highly creative and successful super-sustainable company that was born of worm poo and plastic soda bottles.

This Hungarian-born, Princeton dropout has been wildly successful as his original organic fertilizer idea has blossomed into a new business category that he calls Sponsored Waste.

Tom has teamed up with various manufacturers, such as Stonyfield Farms, Clif Bar, Kraft Foods, and Frito Lay to collect packaging waste to create various products such as clever bags for fashion and practical use. He does a lot to help highlight causes in his highly PR savvy process and works often with school groups and other community organizations.

If you haven’t heard of Tom, you’ve probably heard about TerraCycle.

Tune in to hear this brilliant young entrepreneur who is creating a new standard for business and the manufacturing life cycle.

Thursday, April 16, 2009
7 – 8pm EST
HomeGrownRadioNJ.org

Send in questions via comment here or IM us during the show. I understand some of you were trying to IM us last week and didn’t get through. I’ll make sure to turn it on! IM instructions are on the upper left corner of the homegrownradionj.org website.

eat. blog. be merry!
GD Meg

Brown rice has always been a staple in our household. From fall to spring, we cook at least one pot of brown rice per week. My kids have come to regard it is the basis of a quick and delicious meal and have since they started eating solid food and I mashed it up for them, which was a fairly long time ago, since my baby is 16 and my oldest is 24. So, as I ate my 12,526th bowl of left-over brown rice for lunch, I was inspired to consider a wee bit more on this potent grain.

Great for girls!
There are many reasons to love brown rice. According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition who published a Harvard Medical School / Brigham and Women’s Hospital study, women who consumed regular whole grains, including brown rice weighed consistently less and were 49% less likely to gain weight compared to those eating foods made from refined grains.

Good for everyone
1 cup of brown rice offers over 27% of the DV of selenium, which is essential to thyroid hormone metabolism, antioxidant defense systems, and immune function. Selenium has been shown to repair DNA and synthesis in damaged cells, it inhibits the production and spread of cancer cells, and induces an awesome self-destruct sequence that the body uses to eliminate bad or abnormal cells. Go Selenium! But wait, there’s more! Selenium teams up with vitamin E to create a powerful antioxidant system that not only helps to prevent cancer, but also heart disease, and decreases symptoms of asthma and the pain and inflammation of rheumatoid arthritis. Oh yea, the oil in whole brown rice lowers cholesterol. Can it eliminate cellulite and bad hair days too?????

There are many good nutritional reasons to eat more brown rice, but I’m not going to get into all of them here and now, but I will offer you a good link to learn more about the nutritional analysis of brown rice. And of course a couple of recipes . . .

GD Meg’s Favorite Brown Rice Recipes

Easy Brown Rice Pilaf

Ingredients
1 – 2 Tbs. olive oil
1 bunch scallions – cleaned and chopped, using as much green as you like
several mushrooms – sliced (optional)
1 red pepper – chopped finely (optional)
2 – 3 cloves garlic  – crushed (not optional as far as I’m concerned, but amount certainly is)
2 cups long grain brown rice*
2 – 4 cups chicken broth*

Instructions
Saute the veggies till they wilt slightly (adding scallions last unless you are using only scallions). Add the crushed garlic with the rice and stir it all well so that oil is relatively evenly distributed. Don’t wait too long to get the chicken broth in there. I use the ‘knuckle’ method for figuring out how much fluid to cook my rice in as taught to me by my big sis Lisa – have enough fluid so that when you stick your first finger (pointer) straight into the mix, the very tip of your finger should touch the top of the rice and the fluid should come to your first knuckle. I know you’ll want to know how to adjust for different sized fingers, but honestly, it seems to work for ALL sizes. I have no idea what magic makes this work, but it does – every time.  Bring the mixture to a good rolling boil and jam a good tight lid on and reduce the heat to it’s lowest setting and set the timer for 1 hour. Don’t peek at the rice until it is done.

*don’t really have to measure if you use the knuckle method described above.

What to do with leftover brown rice you ask?

Meg’s Leftover Fried Rice!

Ingredients
Scrambled Eggs – enough for each person being served to have at least 1
1 Tbs. Fresh Ginger – or as much as you like
1 – 2 Cloves Garlic – or as much as you like crushed
1 – 2 Tbs. Coconut Oil (the kind best for high-heat cooking)
Veggies! (choose your family favorites – we like carrots, peas, onions, mushrooms, peppers and sometimes even corn – try to proportion slightly less than amount of brown rice)
Cooked Brown Rice – as much as you like, proportion according to veggies
Cilantro – chopped to taste
Chopped/Slivered Almonds or Nuts – to taste

Instructions
First thing, whip up your scrambled eggs as per your favorite method and put aside in a covered dish to keep warm. If you have a wok, this is a great time to use it. If you don’t, just get out your biggest, best saute pan. Warm up the garlic and ginger in the coconut oil and add in the veggies one at a time till they are all cooked, but not overly so. Add the rice and eggs and stir it good making sure everything is heated thoroughly. After done cooking, add cilantro and slivered almonds or nuts as you like.

Please share your favorite easy brown rice recipes!

eat. blog. be merry!
GD Meg

I received this beautiful blue mug from Terra Keramik, a socially and environmentally responsible ceramics manufacturer that uses renewable energy and energy efficient clays. Everything is designed and produced by Felix Volger, founder and creative director, who personally signs every piece in platinum. Apparently, the production of tableware can be seriously detrimental to the environment. Terra Keramik has gone to great lengths to minimize their impact on the environment. Read more about Terra Keramik’s sustainable manufacturing practices.

eat. blog. be merry!

This delicious wintry salad/slaw was concocted by committee – myself, Dorothy Mullen and Cynthia Mutterperl – a couple of Sundays ago. We were all in Dor’s kitchen on a very snowy Sunday for her monthly Suppers dinner. Usually there is a larger group, but Cindy and I were the only silly (and fortunate because we had an awesome dinner!) souls that didn’t stay home because of the weather.

We had a great discussion about blood sugar issues and the benefits of being gluten free. We are all working on eliminating wheat and gluten from our lives. Dor has developed some fascinating curriculum about her work with nutrition and blood sugar among other health concerns. Go to the Suppers website to learn more about what she is up to.

The rest of the meal consisted of delicious jazzed up rice and beans and roasted butternut squash with roasted onions and garlic – yum. But, here’s the recipe for:

Sunday Supper’s January Root Veggie Slaw Recipe

Ingredients
4 – 5 cups shredded root veggies cleaned/scraped (carrots, parsnips, beets – we threw in green beans for fun. I suspect kale would work too.)
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup white balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup sesame oil
2 T. ginger
3 T. toasted sesame seeds
10 drops liquid stevia (or to taste)
1/2 head roasted garlic

Instructions
We used a food processor with the shredding thing to pretty quickly get the veggies prepared. We happened to have roasted garlic prepared for another part of dinner, so if you don’t have time to roast garlic (which takes almost an hour), just use a couple of heads of crushed raw garlic. Mix it all up and enjoy!

eat. blog. be merry!
GD Meg