Co-Op Recipes

According to my father, the 11th commandment in the Bible is, "Thou shall not waste food."  His teaching resonated in my mind as I picked up my co-op bag full of fruits and veges and wondered, "What in the world am I going to do with all this food?!?!"  To top things off, Andrew is out of town this week which means I am left to eat it all by myself.  I quickly thought of recipes I could make that included vegetables. The first one that came to mind was my Garden Salsa recipe that my mom makes every summer.  This would get rid of some of the corn, peppers, limes, cilantro, and tomatoes.  There were two vegetables I hadn't ever cooked with- avocados and artichokes.  I don't like avocados, plain and simple.  The only way I've had avocados was in guacamole and sliced.  Eh.  After searching, I found a recipe for avocado pound cake.  Yummy!  Here are the three recipes to use with your co-op produce.  I'm still searching for an artichoke recipe. Maybe I'll donate those to someone at work.  If they throw them out, at least I can tell my dad it wasn't me.

Garden Salsa

This salsa is soooo yummy and nutritious.  

It's also good on fish and as a topping to tacos.

3-4 Tomatoes, diced             

1 Onion, diced             

1 Pepper, diced

1 Ear of Corn, cooked and cut off cob

1 Can Black Beans, rinsed

Pepperocini Peppers, chopped (amount to taste) 

Pepperochini Juice (amount to taste)

2 Tbs. EVOO

Juice of 3 limes

Chopped Cilantro

1 tbs Sugar or Splenda (or to taste)

S&P to taste

Chop all ingredients into medium bowl and stir.  Salsa will seem dry at first, but will "juice up" as time goes on.

Avocado Pound Cake

Modified from Joy the Baker

Makes 2 9x4x3-inch loaves

This cake is super moist and yummy.  It tastes almost like a super sweet cornbread, 

and would be tasty with some chopped strawberries and whipped cream.  

It does turn out a little green, but the taste of avocado is completely hidden.

Tips:

1. For a Gluten Free cake, substitute teh all-purpose flour with gluten free all-purpose flour.  Place batter in cake pans rather than loaf pans, as the cake tends to fall.

2. For avocados that are not ripe yet, place in microwave on 50% power for 30-45 seconds.  Remove flesh and place in food processor to mash.

3 c. All-purpose Flour

1/2 c. Yellow Cornmeal

1/2 tsp. Salt

1 tsp Baking Powder

3/4 c. Unsalted Butter, Softened

2 c. Sugar

1 c. Splenda

4 Large Eggs (room temperature)

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

3/4 c. Buttermilk

3 Small Avocados- just over a cup to a cup and a half of avocado, mashed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour two loaf pans and set aside.

In a medium sized bowl, sift together flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder and baking soda.  Set aside.  Set the four eggs out on the counter to come to room temperature while you beat the butter and sugar.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter on medium speed until softened and pliable.  Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.  Add the avocado and beat another minute to incorporate.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure that everything is thoroughly mixed.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating 1 minute after the addition of each egg.  Beat in vanilla extract.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and add half of the flour mixture, all of the buttermilk, and then the rest of the flour mixture.  Beat just until combined.

Divide the dough between the two loaf pans and place in the oven.  Turn the oven down to 325 degrees F.   Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean.  I checked my cakes every ten minutes or so after the 30 minute mark.   Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Fruit and Chicken Romaine Salad

There's no real recipe for this one, but I thought I'd used some of my lettuce, strawberries, apples, grapes, and carrots for my salad tomorrow at lunch.  I topped it off with some slivered almonds and will add chicken to it tomorrow.  Yum Yum!