Quick Meals for Working Moms - Smoked Sausage, Potatoes & Beans

A simple, yet tasty skillet meal to prepare after work. 

Brown sliced smoked sausage (I use nitrate-free smoked turkey sausage) in a frying pan.  To the browned sausage, add peeled and diced organic potatoes and frozen organic lima beans.  Cover with organic or homemade chicken broth.  Season to taste with onion powder and black pepper.  Cook until potatoes are tender.

Sharing this quick meal with:

Balancing Beauty and Bedlam - Tasty Tuesday

Our Mostly Local Thanksgiving Meal

Our Thanksgiving Menu

Herb Roasted Pastured Turkey with Pan Gravy

Rustic Mashed Red Potatoes

Cornbread Crockpot Stuffing

Steamed Green & Yellow Beans

Sweet Potato Casserole topped with Pecans (and homemade whipped cream!)

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Buscuits

from local sources:

Pastured turkey & red potatoes - Cane Creek Farm, Efland, NC

Fresh rosemary - backyard container garden

Green & yeallow beans - Cloverfields Farm, Timberlake, NC & Cedar Rock Farm, Castalia, NC (frozen from summer)

Sweet potatoes - R & V Farm

Pecans - S & L Farm, Louisburg, NC

Cream - Maple View, Hillsborough, NC

Wheat berries for flour - The Grain Mill of Wake Forest, Wake Forest, NC

Thanksgiving Preparations - Cooking A Pastured Turkey

This year for Thanksgiving, I'll be cooking a local, pasture raised turkey for the first time!  I'm finding these cooking tips for pastured turkey to be extremely helpful in my final preparations for the big day. 

Quick Meals for Working Moms - Local Veggie Stir Fry

A veggie stir fry with local, organically grown items from the Midtown Farmers Market

Broccoli - Cedar Rock Farm

Yellow Beans - Rocky River Farm

Daikon Radish - Edible Earthscapes

Stir fry makes for a quick meal on busy evenings.  You can also adapt the recipe to what is currently in-season.  For my latest version, I've been using local broccoli, yellow beans and sliced daikon radish (a new favorite of mine).  Saute the veggies along with sliced organic onion in a pan with about a tablespoon or two of olive oil.  Once the daikon begins to sear, add some organic soy sauce and about a 1/4 cup of water.  Cover the pan and cook until veggies are desired tenderness (I like my broccoli to still have some crunch!).  Serve over organic brown rice.

Enjoy!

   

First Fall Harvest

The first harvest from my Fall garden - red & green loose leaf lettuce and arugula.

Tender and delicious, especially when topped with homemade French dressing.

Market Day - August 28th

From the Midtown (North Hills) Farmers Market

Local apples - Godwin's Orchard

1lb grass-fed beef - Cohen Farm

Rainbow chard - Edible Earthscapes

Tigger melons - Cloverfields Farm

White potatoes & onions - Ball Farm

Bell peppers - Kellam Wyatt Farm

Eggplant, zucchini & squash - Cedar Rock Farm

Market Day - August 21st

From the Midtown (North Hills) Farmers Market

1 dozen pastured eggs - S&L Farm

Stoneground whole wheat flour (ground the night before market!) - The Grain Mill of Wake Forest

2 bars handmade soap - Moondance Soaps

Red apples - Godwin's Orchards

Sweet potatoes and okra - R&V Farm

Onions - Ball Farm

Zucchini Enchiladas with Homemade Sauce

Zucchini Enchiladas with Homemade Sauce

Recipe from Quick Vegetarian Pleasures by Jeanne Lemlin

We enjoyed this veggie dish the other night and it was quite tasty!  A great use for zucchini if you have an over abundance or have been gifted some.

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium local onion, diced

1 large local zucchini, shredded

1 can organic red kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 teaspoon dried oregano

Real Salt to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

8 organic whole wheat tortillas

2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese

For sauce:

1 28 oz. can organic tomato sauce (I used a 6oz can of organic tomato paste with water added)

1/2 cup local, heavy cream

1 large garlic clove, minced

1/4 teaspoon Real Salt

Ground black pepper to taste

- Heat oil in large skillet over medium high heat.  Add the onion and saute 5 minutes.  Stir in zucchini and oregano and cook until tender but not mushy.  Remove from heat and stir in kidney beans, salt and pepper.  Let the mixture cool.

- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  To make the sauce, combine the tomato sauce, heavy cream, garlic, salt and pepper.

- To assemble the enchiladas, pour a layer of sauce on the bottom of 2 large casserole dishes.  Spoon one eighth of the bean mixture along the center of a tortilla, then sprinkle on 2 tablespoons of cheese.  Roll the enchilada and place seam side down in the baking dish.  Repeat with remaining tortillas.

- Spoon the remaining sauce over all the enchiladas and sprinkle some of the remaining cheese on each enchilada.  

- Bake 25 minutes or until hot and bubbly.  Let sit 5 minutes before serving.

Local ingredients used: 

Zucchini - Cohen Farm, Silk Hope, NC 

Spanish sweet onion - Godwin's, Johnston County, NC

Heavy Cream - Maple View Farm, Hillsborough, NC

I'm sharing this recipe with:

Balancing Beauty and Bedlam - Tasty Tuesday

Market Day - August 14th

From the Midtown (North Hills) Market

1lb pastured pork Italian sausage - Coon Rock Farm

Okra - Cloverfields Farm

Green bell peppers - Kellam Wyatt Farm

Red apples - Godwin's Orchards

Zucchini - Cohen Farm

Local honey - The Pleasant Bee

Sunflowers - Blue Dragonfly Cut Flowers

Market Day - August 7th & Market Bucks!

Today, we received FREE "Market Bucks" at the North Hills Farmers Market.  A booklet filled with vouchers that could be used like cash anywhere in the market.  I saved $10 using market bucks on these local goodies:

Sprite Melons - Cloverfields Farm

Spanish Sweet Onions - Godwin's Orchards

Yellow Squash & Zucchini - Cohen Farm

Handmade Soap - Moondance Soaps

2 dozen pastured eggs - S & L Farm

1lb smoked jalapeno pastured pork sausage - Coon Rock Farm

1lb grass-fed beef - Cohen Farm

Dyed sunflowers - Blue Dragonfly Cut Flowers

Market Day - July 31st

From the Midtown Farmers Market

Red onions and eggplant - Cedar Rock Farm

1 dozen pastured eggs and green peppers - S & L Farm

Okra and sprite melons - Cloverfields Farm

Heirloom persimmon tomatoes - Edible Earthscapes

Zinnias from Blue Dragonfly Cut Flowers

Market Day - July 24th

Last week was all about the veggies, this week is heavy on the meats!

From the Midtown Farmers Market

1lb grass-fed beef - Cohen Farm

1lb pastured pork sausage - Coon Rock Farm

1 dozen pastued eggs - S & L Farm

1 bag stone ground grits - Carolina Grits & Co.

And Limelight Hydrangea - Blue Dragonfly Cut Flowers

Market Day - July 17th

From the Midtown Farmers Market

Yellow and patty pan squash - Cedar Rock Farm

Eggplant, potatoes, okra and (FREE!) sprite melon - Cloverfields Farm

Round zucchini - Piedmont Biofarm

Rainbow chard - Kellam-Wyatt Farm

Local honey - The Pleasant Bee

Handmade goat's milk soap - Moondance Soaps

Fresh cut flowers - Blue Dragonfly Cut Flowers

Good Boys - Garden Update

My first two Better Boy tomatoes!

My Better Boy tomatoes finally decided to turn red!  Along with the Better Boys, we've been picking plenty grape tomatoes from our little garden.  My zucchini plant was striken down with stalk rot and the cucumbers appear to be done.  But my green pepper and okra plants that were lost in the craziness of the tomatoes, seem to be holding their own. 

I'm thinking ahead now to the Fall, and a garden of broccoli, kale, spinach and chard. 

So, how is your garden growing these days?

Market Day - July 10th

From the Midtown Farmers Market

1 dozen pastured eggs - Kellam-Wyatt Farm

1lb grass-fed beef - Cohen Farm

1lb pastured pork sausage - Coon Rock Farm

Round zucchini - Piedmont Biofarm

Potatoes, yellow squash and green peppers - Cloverfields Farm

Market Day - July 3rd

From the Midtown Farmers Market

Onions, squash, zucchini and okra - Cedar Rock Farm

Potatoes, eggplants, 6 ears of corn - Cloverfields Farm

1lb grass-fed & finished beef, green peppers - Rare Earth Farm

Fresh cut flowers - Blue Dragonfly Cut Flowers

Cool Mint

My poor mint plant has just about succumb to this oppressive Carolina heat!  I clipped off a few unscorched sprigs and leaves, put them ice trays, covered with water and put them in the freezer. 

A COOL, minty treat for these HOT summer days!

Market Day - June 26th

Just needed a few items from the Midtown Market this weekend:

1 dozen pastured eggs & 1 whole, pastured chicken -

S & L Farm

Tomatoes & eggplants - Cloverfields Farm

Onions - Cedar Rock Farm

Fresh cut flowers - Blue Dragonfly Cut Flowers

Seeing Red

Two grape tomatoes ready to be picked from the garden.

The Better Boy tomatoes are being stubborn (or I'm being impatient).  They still have not turned red!

Do you let your tomatoes ripen on the vine?  Or do you pick them before they turn red?

Poor Man's Zucchini "Crab" Cakes

Poor Man's Zucchini "Crab" Cakes

Recipe from Homestead Blessings 

I used the first zucchini harvested from our garden to make these tasty zucchini cakes.

For next week's meal plan, I'm going to try this zucchini cakes recipe from The Pioneer Woman's blog served along with some homemade ranch dressing. 

I hope our plant gives us more zucchini this season!