great moments in produce part 1

I loooooooooove the farmer’s market!

Why, huge crowd, what are you amassing for?

Farmer’s market visiting chef series!

 

These beautiful flowers will make a nice backdrop for samples!

 

Gazpacho with red pepper coulis…

 

Yummy pretzely bread on top. Don’t mind if I do!

 

Ogle at/buy lots of produce

On our way out, NEW samples. Chilled cantaloupe soup with bacon?! OMG!

 

So random, so good. Deep down I love bacon. Hurray for when it’s ethical.

I rarely post about fruit, just because I tend to eat handfuls of it in a highly informal way. Guys, I eat a lot of fruit.

Look at these gorgeous local blueberries and apricots!

 

Breakfasts are still usually overnight oats, but if I’ve overindulged the night before or am saving room for nibbles at the farmer’s market, I keep it light ‘n fruity.

The cantaloupe we brought home from Chincoteague was the best I’ve ever had. Plus it was super ripe and they had to move it, so it was $2. Sweeeeeeeeet.

Had it with tea ‘n a yogurt bowl!

 

I’m obsessed with yogurt bowls lately (and feel particularly virtuous when I can finish off a container). My much-more-relaxed summer work schedule actually allows me to have an afternoon break, in which I have a snack, and I’ve been eating tons of yogurt bowls. They typically contain yogurt, some kind of fruit (we got a megabox of strawberries at Costco so ate quite a few of those this week), and pecans (nom). For extra morning carb energy, to the breakfast version I added shredded wheat.

 

Succulent.

Lots of veggies, obvi.

Steve has taught me something very valuable: if you have a bunch of disjointed vegetables, just throw them in the same pot and make fajitas. It really is quite tasty!

Like this extravaganza right here:

 

Taco beans I am so unbelievably lazy. I start with minced sweet onion, sauteed in a bit of oil…

Then add canned beans and canned salsa.

To redeem myself, I sauteed up some (mostly) local vegetables (peppers, eggplant- cause why not- and store-bought mushrooms) and seasoned them with just salt, pepper, and cumin.

Everything’s better with cheese. And lovely, (monounsaturatedly) fatty avocado. Mm.

 

There you have it. Taco night. Full servings of veggies, yes ma’am. Those tortillas are Mission brand 96% fat free whole wheat tortillas. They are shockingly tasty. I recommend.

  

My first m-y-o taco. As I am wont to do, I first ate this and then went to town on leftover filling.

 

And, yknow, if you want to go totally idiot-proof on your produce, it’s hard to beat salad.

I like a composed salad for prettiness. This one had a lettuce base, topped with tomaters, black eyed peas (which I throw in salads all the time, and I don’t know why more people do because they’re great in salad), sliced roasted beets, and avocado. With a simple vinaigrette, this was great.

 

Finally, as usual I’ve been grilling TONS! We had a friend visiting from out of town over.

Grilled up some ears of corn, several of which seemed lumpy as  I shucked them. And lo and behold, CORN FETUSES! Crazy.

On that subject, a brief tangent to admire this conjoined twin squash. Oh, nature! So fun!

  

A great summer appetizer: labneh. I cannot get enough. Great with fresh deck-grown chives on top!

Mama made Spanish rice for STUFFED POBLANOS! Got them at the farmer’s market. Totally precious.

Mixed that up with all kinds of fun stuff- ricotta, jalapeno, golden raisins, pine nuts.

Stuffed and grilled. Yum!

Gosh, I just finished writing this post and looked at the plate I’d left in the living room next to my laptop. It held yellow watermelon (mm) rind upon it. Apparently my sister had appropriated the dish for her own snacking… and left behind a piece of mango! Which I just ate! The universe is sending me fruit!