New Bun On The Block: Zucchini, Lamb & Avocado Sliders!

In our quest to consciously reduce carbs in our diet, we have come across many delicious and healthy bun alternatives (bun-ternatives?) that have made us never want to eat another bun ever again. Not that bread isn't delicious; it's just that it doesn't even stand a chance in our book against it's delectable competitors, such as the grilled zucchini we used in this recipe. Burgers beware, the mean green bun-killing machine is here!

We made the decision a while ago to try to reduce sugar and carbs when we learned about how the body processes these when found in excess in the body, too often raising insulin levels and storing these extra glucose contents as fat. The dangers of high blood sugar content, and the symptoms that come hand-in-hand with high sugar and carb intake such as weight gain, metabolic syndrome (increasing your risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes) etc. are all unwanted effects that can often be avoided by limiting your sugar and carb intake. An easy and healthy way to do so is to replace one of the largest sources of carbs and sugar each day - buns and other sandwich breads, with healthy and delicious alternatives.

Ingredients: (serves 2-3)

Burger:

Ground lamb meat (1 lb.)

1 red onion, chopped

2 cups of feta or goat cheese

2 handfuls of spinach

1 ripe avocado

1 large zucchini

Step 1: chop onions and spinach finely

Step 2: Add the chopped onions, spinache and feta or goat cheese together in a bowl with the ground beef. Mix well with your clean hands, making sure everything sticks to the meat.

Step 3: Make burger patties out of the meat. Oven instructions: Place them on a bake tray and bake on 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Alternatively, cook them on the grill (best flavor) or stove.

Step 4: Cut those zucchini bun slices! For best results, I found that a medium thickness is best. If the zucchini is cut too thickly, it can be more difficult to eat and get the patties to stay. Grill the zucchini for best results, or alternatively cook on the stove with some olive oil and season.

Also cut the avocado to fit on your sliders!

Step 5: Enjoy your delicious, nutritious sliders, guilt-free!!!!

Pretty In Green: Easy & Delicious Coconut-Mint Matcha Pie!

In my quest to find (delicious, quick and easy) organic, raw and vegan desserts, I discovered a beautiful thing: matcha.

Matcha is green tea in powder form, and aside from it's completely awesome bright green color that ensures any dish that includes it will make a big impression, it's health benefits are huge. From antioxidants, to stress relieving component theanine, to its hunger-repressing elements that can lead to weight loss - this magic green powder packs a mega healthy punch. Since matcha is green tea in a much more concentrated form, it has all the same benefits x 10. When you brew green tea, the water only extracts a fraction of the tea's benefits. When you use matcha in tea or food, you get the whole leaf, 100% of it's fat burning, cancer fighting antioxidant power.

Not to mention all the other super healthy ingredients in this dish including raw honey, flax seed and more! There are many versions of matcha cakes & pies out there. I chose to simplify this quick and easy version as a part of my new series on quick and easy organic desserts. Recipes including matcha run the gamut - everything from ice cream to sushi. Stay tuned to more easy & delicious matcha recipes.

Matcha In Asia & Tea Ceremonies

The benefits of matcha have been known in eastern Asia for centuries, going back to the Tang dynasty in China. The Japanese tea ceremony is often centered around the preparing and drinking of matcha. It is still widely popular in Asia; particularly in Japan, and is still used in these countries for tea ceremony purposes as well as to color food.

Ingredients: (serves 4-5)

Pie Crust

5 tbsp sunflower seeds, ground
5 tbsp linseed (flax seeds), ground
6 Medjool dates

Filling

1 cup coconut shreds
1 banana
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp sweetener of choice (raw honey, maple syrup if you're going for vegan)
about 6-7 mint leaves (use sparingly, mint's flavor is strong and can overpower the pie)
3 tsp matcha green tea

Pie Crust

This was my first time making a dough/crust out of these ingredients. I used a blender set on a high setting to grind the sunflower seeds and flax seeds. To my surprise, the blender I used worked well for this. You can also try a food processor. After the flax and seeds were ground, I added 6 dates to the blender and a little bit of water, and set it on a high setting first to pulverize the dates. Then I left it on a medium setting briefly to blend it up nicely, stirring with a spoon intermittently. Once it looks and feels a lot like dough, spread the ‘dough’ into your cake pan.

Filling

My filling has two layers. Some people use more layers, gradually adding more matcha to each layer to create a gradient color effect. Be careful not to use too much mint. I did this on my first try and it really overpowered the flavor.

Layer 1: Add all the ingredients except the mactha to a blender and blitz until you get them creamy. Scoop out 1/2 of the filling and spread it on top of the pie crust. 

Layer 2: For the other half of the filling, add matcha and blend it well, in the blender or in a bowl. Then spread it on top of the previous layer.

Refrigerate the cake for at least 30 minutes.

Before serving, dust the cake with matcha green tea! Serve and enjoy!

Lessons In Micro-Farming: Knowing When To Pull Early Summer Harvest & Mini Vineyard Update!

Kelly and Cecil showing off the latest harvest!

Marietta Micro-Farm Adventures

This is me and Brandon's second summer working in a community garden (aka the micro-farm). There are only a few people here that really spend time planting, cultivating and maintaining the plant life, so we have a huge amount of growing space. 

Cecil is the resident garden guru, with an impressive amount of horticultural and agricultural knowledge and experience. Cecil's laughter and silliness are highly contagious, and he is definitely one of my favorite people to hang around. 

Mini-vineyard update: the importance of pruning.

We have a mini-vineyard of about 6 long rows of grape vines that Cecil has been trying to coax into producing for a few years. Luckily this summer we have a resident viticulture expert (Cecil's nephew, Ben) who moved all the way from California to come help manage our vines (ok maybe not just for us, but we sure are glad to have him!). 

After a careful inspection, he concluded that there was one major thing we weren't giving the vines that maybe should have been obvious: a good pruning. This means more energy spread out over a smaller area, allowing more of it to be put towards fruit production. This only needs to be done about once a year.

About 4 weeks later and voila! Our little baby buds have turned into gorgeous green grapes-in-training!

Next week we will be transplanting some more wild muscadines to the mini-vineyard. I am really wild about muscadines. Native to the South East, they have a very distinct flavor that makes an incredible wine or jam. In September (or perhaps sooner at the rate these things are growing), I am going to try my hand at wine and maybe jam making for the first time.

Face-high by the fourth of July.

The Corn has grown faster than it's proverbially expected to.

Fully-grown garlic vs garlic rounds (leave them in the ground).

If you've never tasted organic garlic fresh out of the ground, you've got to. But then brush your teeth, please. 

This is what garlic that is ready to take home looks like. You can see all the big ol' cloves ready to throw in a summer stew, or spaghetti, or freshly ground hummus. The uses are endless, and the health benefits are many. 

Below, we have what are called garlic rounds. They haven't bloomed, and they probably won't - keep 'em in the ground until next year and they will blossom into the little cloves you see above! Or of course, you can cook and eat as is.

Baby egg plants and pumpkins are looking cute enough to eat!!!!! But we can't just yet.....

When golden cucumbers reach their golden age....

Sometimes, it's hard for us to tell if a vegetable is ready to harvest - or if it's a little to late to chop it up and throw it in your salad. With a few of our golden cucumbers, we had already missed the buck. 

When green cucumbers turn yellow, they've fully ripened and naturally are more bitter and mushy inside. Not ideal for your lunchtime salad. With golden cucumbers, you can tell they're overripe when they've grown past a normal, grocery store sized cucumber.