Farmer's Market Clearance Section

I'm an avid shopper in the clearance section of the Farmer's Markets. I can usually find throw away tomatoes, onions, cantaloupe, bananas, peppers, apples..geez you name it they clearance it. I try to check on it a few times a week, some days I end up leaving with nothing and other days I have huge bags full. Yesterday I found some gems, two 10-lb bags of tomatoes 1.99/each, 2 cauliflowers .99/each, 2 cantaloupes 1.49 for the pair, 10-lb bag of green beans/1.49...yum! Nothing was damaged just needing to sold before being over ripe.

Today I sliced some chunks of cantaloupe some for the fridge and some for the freezer.We pulled these out of the freezer and snacked on them after being outside in the heat. These were great because they were only slightly frozen from only being in the freezer for an hour.

Speaking of freezers I seriously need to consider buying a deep freeze. With all the vegetables and fruits we are growing in our garden, picking at the local farms and buying at the farmer's market we won't be able to keep up with it all. Need to freeze!

As for the tomatoes..well I decided it was probably best we made a tomato sauce with spaghetti squash noodles. My son's favorite dish! I decided that this time around I would try to make sauce the proper way, which meant removing the skin, seed and core. I typically would just remove the core and throw it all into a pot to cook, but then you get skins and seeds in your sauce. I don't really mind, but I wanted to give the "correct" way a try. I discovered very quickly the easiest way to remove the peel...
Score the bottom of the tomato with a paring knife
After you remove core, let them soak in hot water in the sink.
After 10 minutes soaking you can start peeling the skin, opening the tomato and removing the seeds.
Then put in a blender or food processor
You end up with a smooth, delicious puree!
With this puree you could create dishes other than tomato sauce. Think cold or hot soups, salsas, thick tomato juice, dips, the list is endless..tomatoes are used in so many recipes! As for using it as a sauce I may have to add some store bought tomato paste because we like our sauce a bit thicker. I have the sauce cooking on low in my slow cooker to see if it will thicken. It tastes amazing though with fresh oregano, basil, sauteed onions and garlic! Oh yum, dinner is going to be good!

Lastly, there is a great contest give away happening over at Color Wheel Meals for an Ascenta Health product! Check it out!

Chocolate Mishaps and Pasta Goodness

(Tonight's dinner: Zucchini-Pineapple Pasta)
Sometimes not following a recipe and just going with whatever flavors you think will compliment each other turns out to be a delicious meal. There have been times where I've added too many of one ingredient or flavors that just weren't meant to be. When I make those kind of mistakes (lets call them that) I try to mend them by either adding a few more ingredients or creating a different dish with my mistake. I'm not a fan of wasting food and to be honest I can't afford to waste food, who can!?

Tonight's dessert was created due to a "mistake." I made a mistake while un-baking this chocolate treat. I ended up adding too much raw honey, which overpowered the flavor and made it lose it's truffle like texture. Instead of feeling disappointed, since the ingredients for this recipe are not cheap, I tried to work with what I had. Feast you eyes on....

(Tonight's Dessert: Oreo-Brownie Ice cream)
In a food processor, I added a couple frozen bananas and a few little pieces of my chocolate mistakes. Blended it until ice cream consistency and threw on a few crumbles of chocolate to top it off. It was a delicious, rich, chocolaty dessert! It reminded me of oreo ice cream with chunks of brownie mixed in, hence it's name. I'm just happy something delicious came out of a potential "waste" of raw chocolate goodness.

Even though I had some bad luck this afternoon with the chocolate, tonight I made one of the best dinner's I've ever had. Go figure :) Tonight's dinner had four easy components...

1. Pasta Noodles
1-2 cups of spiralized zucchini (you can use squash, carrot, or whatever you prefer)

2. Marinara Sauce (A recipe that I have memorized from "Raw Food Made Easy" by Jennifer Cornbleet.)

1 ripe tomato

1 red bell pepper

1/2 cup of sundried tomatoes

2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 clove garlic (optional, if you sensitive to raw garlic)

1 tsp of dried Oregano

1 tbsp of fresh Basil (I used dried basil)

Blend everything together in a food processor until it creates a nice sauce.

3. Veggie toppings

I used a handful of...Mushrooms, kale, carrots, green onions, and sundried tomatoes.

Basically take whatever veggies you have on hand that you enjoy on pasta and throw them in the food processor. Pulse a few times, but don't go to far that it becomes watery. You want a diced consistency.

4. Pineapple Marinade
This totally made the dish. Cut up chunks of pineapple, squeeze half a lime, add salt and pepper. Mix together all in a bowl!

Assemble the dish in layers like in my photos or blend it altogether. I blended my dish together after eating about half of it and oh my it was even better! The pineapple's citrus flavor with the sauce is so amazing.
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I guess what I learned from being in the kitchen today was to not lose hope. A culinary mistake can turn into something new and wonderful :) Oh and I rock at making raw pasta dishes!

Enjoy your eats!

~Maggie