yummy bites, crazy crafts and random thoughts by michelle
this past week, one of the members of the Plato family from Plato\’s Harvest Organic Farm , Einstein passed away.
He was a large presence on the farm as is is brother, Plato.
He has been part of the Plato’s Harvest family & CSA community that we have look forward to visiting each week and will be missed.
our Hearts go out to Farmer Dave, Sasha & Plato..
I love food.
Period.
I love to grow food.
I love to prepare food.
I even love to shop for food.
I have certain things that I only purchase at certain stores… For example, I buy all of my bulk items at Whole Foods
I buy my oatmeal, frozen fruit & veggies & cheese & nuts at Trader Joe’s
I buy my Greek yogurt & milk & seltzer at my local Bj’s
And I search the circulars of my local grocery stores for the weekly specials.
like this one!
So imagine my surprise when I was flipping through the circulars and
Whoa!! check out who made the front page 😉
I had completely forgotten that earlier this summer there was a photographer taking pictures of some of the regulars!
This was very exciting to me! ( I get excited quite easily )
This week at Plato\’s Harvest Organic Farm was abundant with all things fall.
More sauce tomatoes!
and flowers 🙂
PUMPKINS!!!!
in honor of Pumpkin Day at Casa Hagg, we bought
Dogfish Head Punkin Ale!
It’s brewed with real Punkin!
Yumminess!
Scott & I went back to The Market this morning, as we do every Sunday morning..
and no one asked us for our autographs 😦
buzz kill 😉
just kidding!
( yes mom, I picked up an extra circular for you!)
happy football Sunday!!
As you know, Alison started school last week, but Ryan had an entire extra week of his summer. His first day back to school was yesterday. If you read my post on Traditions then you know that not only was yesterday a school day, but also
Cookie Day!!!
Ryan’s request for his first day of school cookie was a cookie that my friend , Cheryl, makes only for the holidays.
She brings them to my annual cookie exchange each year
and it just might be Ryan’s favorite cookie of all-time..
peanut butter balls….
:full disclosure to my weight watchers friends.. enjoy this recipe, but don’t plan on anything else for the week in your WPAs.. you won’t be able to stop at one.. trust me 😉
you will need:
*2 cups peanut butter
*2 sticks of butter
*1 pound of confectioner’s sugar
2 cups of graham crackers
chocolate, for dipping
Start by creaming the peanut butter & butter together; add confectioner’s sugar.
OH. YEAH.!!
Stir in graham cracker crumbs.
Chill briefly ( this makes the next step easier 😉 )
Roll the mixture into bite size balls..
chill again.
melt the chocolate either in the microwave or on a double boiler. Dip each chilled ball into melted chocolate one at a time then allow to cool on wax paper or aluminum foil.
*this is where I let you down*
I can’t find the pic of the finished PB balls 😦 and as you can imagine.. they are all gone 😦 😦
I will go through past pictures, because I cam sure that I have a picture of these wonderful little treats all plated up, for for now, just imagine those peanut butter balls of goodness dipped in melted chocolate, then cooled to a nice chocolate crust.
easy & delicious!
Thanks, Cheryl!! for such a great recipe!
FINALLY!! It seems like it’s been forever since I’ve woken to a breezy morning where snuggling under my favorite quilt
with my cup of coffee was even possible….
but his morning was THAT morning! AHH!!
I started by having this oatmeal
It was overnight oats
1 scoop of chocolate amazing grass ( sounds naughty, dontcha think?)
1 teaspoon almond butter
1/2 ripe banana mashed a bit
1 teaspoon coconut butter
a few slivered almonds on top
When I described this to my sister, Jodie , she said, “OMG!, you had a sundae for breakfast!!”
Yes. Yes, indeed I did!
and it was Oh-so-Good!
Farmer Dave & Sasha from Plato\’s Harvest Organic Farm were looking for some help to harvest an early crop of winter squash, so Scott & I headed out to the farm on this early perfect Sunday morning.
The farm has 2 fields; One that we go to each week to receive our share of our CSA.. and a larger field about a mile down the street. Where the squash were 🙂
After a brief tour of the field.. we set out to pick & polish
BUTTERNUT SQUASH!!
( Amanda, did I just hear you squeal all the way from Florida?)
We loaded the squash into crates, load them into Dave’s truck & trailer
we had a picnic lunch under the trees. ( we had heirloom tomato sandwiches with a basil-garlic mayonnaise , I didn’t think to take pictures because I was still in the afterglow of my ‘Sundae’ (pun completely intended )breakfast.. but I smashed a garlic clove & mixed it with some light mayonnaise *Hellman’s* and shredded basil , salt & pepper) on our bread from our bread share.. buttermilk honey.
I also mixed some frozen raspberries with some Non-fat greek yogurt (Chobani) & a few slivered almonds on top. Stir it all together & as the berries defrost, they keep the yogurt cold & then whole thing mixes together.. great for packing ahead 🙂
and some unsweetened iced tea
Really, a perfect ‘fall’ day 😉
On another note, hopefully you have found me here from my previous bloodspot address. I’m really liking wordpress!! There is not anywhere (that I can find) to click a ‘follow’ button, but if you enter your email, wordpress will automatically send you an email whenever I have a new post… Plus, this may be handy in the upcoming weeks.. I foresee a giveaway 😉
I’m off. It’s fondue night at Casa Hagg…. Ryan’s last non-school night for awhile and like his mama.. he loves fondue!!!
Have a happy & SAFE Labor Day!!
xoxo~ shel
I like LOVE oatmeal. Like really, really love oatmeal. So much in fact, that if I could MARRY oatmeal, we’d have been to Vegas YEARS ago!
And the best part…. it is SO good for you!!I’ve been hearing about ‘overnight oats’ for awhile now, but it took me until last month to google it to see exactly what they are…
I’m so glad that I did… I need up finding Kath eats real food. Kerf for short. Not only is she an inspiration for her weight loss story, but her blog is very informative!!!!
So what did I learn there? All about overnight oats 😉
They are basically a oatmeal that you don’t cook! You start by mixing your oatmeal with whatever liquid that you like the night before you want to eat them …
you can use any kind of oatmeal, but for me, I think that these are my Favorite!!!!
I mix 1/3 of a cup of TJ’s quick steel cut oats with 2/3 cup fat free milk.. I mix it in my cute little rubbermaid container, ( with the top on) give it a little shakey-shake and put in them in the fridge and head off to sleep.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
In the morning, take the oatmeal from it’s cute container and that is your base for your oatmeal. The oats will have absorbed the liquid & are now ready to be topped with endless varieties!
I start by defrosting some frozen raspberries
then add the oats, milk & all
I topped it with a little bit of ♥almond butter ♥ ( you could use peanut butter, but if you have the opportunity, & you like almonds, try the almond butter 🙂
This time of year, I am enjoying it cold, but if you prefer it warm, just warm it in the microwave!
This was yesterday’s breakfast..
This morning I topped my awesome oats with
Coconut butter!!
This is a new product to me. It is SOO cool.. It is stored at room temperature, & is the consistency of melted peanut butter but when it gets cold (like when added to my overnight oats) It gets a sort of ‘shell’ like the chocolate shell on an ice cream cone!! It is sooo tasty!! A bit on the pricey side, but I’ve been looking into a way to make it at home, making it far more affordable.
I also have my standard raspberries, 1/2 of a banana, a bit of almond butter & a sprinklin’ of slivered almonds
YUM!! if you look closely you can see how the amazing coconut butter has hardened 😉
I can’t wait for tomorrow morning!
♥♥♥♥overnight oats♥♥♥♥
xoxox~shel
So please, forgive me. It was 95 degrees in my kitchen last night so the fact that I even made dinner was HUGE! I managed to take one picture of the final dish ( which was yummy) but I will walk you through how I prepared
Stuffed Peppers
I began with some wonderful green bell peppers that we received in our CSA share from Plato’s Harvest
http://platosharvest.wordpress.com/
I began by halving the peppers, cleaning out the ribs & seeds, & steaming them in the microwaves for about 4 minutes to soften them.
I actually made 2 different fillings. For both I used sweet italian chicken sausage & crumbled & browned it in a dutch oven.
for filling #1 ( my favorite) I had a cup of frozen wheatberries that I defrosted, I mixed 1/2 of the sausage, 1/2 cup of marinara sauce, 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, 1/2 red onion, chopped & 1 red tomato chopped.
For filling # 2, it was almost the same, switching the wheatberries for brown jasmine rice & the parm for mozzarella cheese
I spread a baking dish with some of the marinara sauce & filled each half of pepper with the filling & placed on top of the sauce. ( I baked all of them in the same pan.)
Sprinkle the tops of the filled peppers with a bit more cheese & a bit of olive oil.
bake in a *gasp* 350 degree oven until the cheese melts, about 10 minutes.
despite that fact that the weather so so dang hot, the peppers really did come out well. Why did I make 2 fillings? Well, I happen to LOVE wheatberries, the chewy crunch just makes me so happy. There was the possibility that the kids may have revolted… and ended up eating PB&J for dinner.
I knew that by mixing in some sauce with the brown rice that they would get whole grains without even knowing 😉
As it turned out, seconds were had by both AND, Ryan even ate the pepper!! mission accomplished!
I’m off to Trader Joe”s.. I need me some edamamee!!
oxox!
barefootgirl in the kitchen 
recent comments