Food Bank Foodie!

Hey guys!  Dorothy here! I have been woefully absent from this blog so far, but that's all about to change starting...now!

Anyhoo, I thought I'd write about a couple of different things that are delicious and involve vegetables, and also tell you a little bit about the work I'm doing, because it's about food!  Yay!  

So, as many of you know, I have an Americorps position based out of the local food bank here in Bellingham, WA, in which I help coordinate a gleaning project.  Those of you who are up on our ol' pal Leviticus probably know all about gleaning, so the basic concept probably doesn't require much explanation.  Anyway, here in Whatcom County we glean tree fruit from people's trees in their yards, we glean vegetables from farms, and we collect unsold produce from the local farmers market.  Lately, we've been delivering the farmers market goodies (about 400 pounds of veggies) right across the street to a low income housing apartment complex.  Pretty sweet.  Of late we've been gleaning lots o apples, and also potatoes and some carrots.  We also had a huge plum season.  It's been a good year for fruit in Western Washington, happily.  We take the fruits and veggies that we pick to some of about 2 dozen different food banks, meal programs, and shelters in the county.  So far this summer/fall we've gleaned about 60,000 pounds of produce!  For better or for worse, the government and the food banking world measure food in pounds, which often distorts the true value of the food.  For example, at one glean we picked about 40 pounds of blueberries, which if you looked at a serving size or at the market value, seems to be worth much more than the standard government practice of valuing donated food at $1.50 a pound.  

Working at a food bank is AWESOME.  My coworkers are da bomb, and I get to take home all the free food I want.  That plus the food I pick with the gleaners keep my food costs hilariously low.  Also, I get food stamps, so I really never have to pay for food unless I eat out.  Living the dream, my friends, living the dream.  Anyway, constant access to vegetables has made me want to cook with them more, and there are two recipes I make a lot that involve lots of healthy veggies!  I thought I'd share them since some of you guys might be trying to eat more vegetables too.  Also, you can make these recipes with whatever vegetables are in season.

1) Roasted vegetables

This might seem like a really obvious way to cook vegetables, but it really never occurred to me until this year, oddly enough.  Anyway, roasting vegetables is an extremely superior way to cook them! They get really tasty, and you can do it large quantities so you have leftovers.  I like to take a bunch of root veggies (carrots, potatoes, beets, onions, leeks, shallots, sweet potatoes, parsnips, kohlrabi) and some other things like broccoli, celery, chard stems, garlic, etc. and chop them up into large bite-sized pieces.  The longer the veg takes to cook (beets) the smaller you should chop it.  Then coat all the chopped veggies in olive oil with salt and pepper, and layer them in a roasting pan, with as little overlap as possible.  Cook them at 425 degrees for about half an hour or 40 minutes, and you will be loving life in a big way.  Obviously, this method works for just single types of vegetables as well (try roasted broccoli!).  Yumness.

2) Vegetable Curry

Alethea probably knows a much better way to do this than my ghetto version, but here you go.  Another good way to cook all the vegetables listed above is to simmer them in coconut milk in a pan for a while with some curry powder, salt and pepper.  You can start by cooking some lentils or chickpeas in the coconut milk, and then add the vegetables after 20 minutes or so.  You want it to simmer for a while, and remember that some vegetables take longer than others to cook.  This is great with jasmine rice.  Hurrah! 

 Hope that gives you some good ideas. Soon I will blog about a soup I made recently with vegetables and peanut butter that was surprisingly tasty!