I'm cheap: CSA, part trois

YAAAAAWWWWWWNNNNNNNN!!!!! Good morning. I promised you breakfast. I know. Today, skip the coffee. Coffee leaves your body in an acidic state. Your best body, mind and soul can take a break from it, just for today. I promise you won't miss it.

Hello? Are you still there? Beuller? Did I lose you? I hope not. Okay. This is going to give you a jolt, but not from caffeine. This jolt is from nutrients and minerals coursing through your veins. And your body will thank you with tons of energy and no post-caffeinated crashing!

Spare parts ready for juicing!

Take your spare parts:
1. Kale/broccoli/kohlrabi stems
2. The core of a pineapple. Yes. Start saving these now too!
3. The leaves of your celery

Pineapple core is no longer tossed away.

Add in one non spare part (optional): Lemon

Throw these all through your juicer, and you have breakfast. If you don't have a juicer, you can blend them in a vitamix/nutribullet/blender/etc and strain through a nut milk bag. If you don't have one, you can use an old tshirt instead. But you should really get a nut milk bag. They come in very handy for lots of things! This is my favorite of all I've tried. It has the tightest weave!

Pineapple crushin' on some cruciferous stalks!

Pineapple does an excellent job at covering the overwhelming green taste of the leaf stems. Lemon gives it a little zing.

I know you're probably thinking "I will be starving by 9, if I had only this for breakfast". And I get that. I'm a nursing mom and have to eat 2-3 breakfasts/day. But, often times we feel hunger simply because we aren't getting all the vital nutrients we need to sustain our bodies. Sometimes I can go until 2/3 o'clock on just my morning juice. Tis true. But always listen to your body. What works for me, might not work for you.

If the idea of green juice just makes you want to hurl, you can use those stems as a crunchy veg to dip into some hummus.

So, let's see, we got snacks for the week and one breakfast out of our csa so far.

I still have a ton of kale, beets, scapes, kohlrabi, snap peas, etc. to get to. Stay tuned.

I'm cheap: CSA, part deux

Part of our weekly CSA share.

In a continuation of this "eating on the cheap" segment, I am still talking CSAs. If you forget what we got this week, take a peek here. So, we got all this produce. Now what? Normally, when you see big leaves on your broccoli, you'd snip them and toss them. Same with kohlrabi. Maybe even with beets. But those pieces and parts are all edible. Not just edible, but delicious!

When I looked at my pile of veggie kingdom pickins', I went straight after those leaves ... you know ... the broccoli & kohlrabi ones I used to throw away. Well, not anymore. They now become my snack of the week. Chips. Yes, green/nutrient dense chips. And here's how.

BROCCOLI & KOHLRABI LEAF CHIPS: The simple version
First, cut them off your stalk.
Next, trim off the stem. The stem, if left on, will become a twig when done. So, it's best to cut them out to avoid feeling like you're eating sticks.
Make sure leaves are dry, then toss in olive oil, seasonings of your choice, sea salt and pepper.

 

Broccoli & kohlrabi leaves being tossed in their marinade.

Work the oil and seasonings into the leaves with your hands, making sure every bit of the leaves is covered.

Next, throw them on a dehydrator sheet and dehydrate overnight at 105. If you do not own a dehydrator, you can make these in your oven by putting it on low (anything under 350) and watching them closely for a few minutes. It usually takes less than 8 minutes, and they burn fast. So, keep a close eye on them.

See those in the second row? That's the brocc/kohl leaves ready to crisp!

And voila! You've got a tasty snack for the week. If you're not a vegan, you can toss in pecorino romano. I bet that would be tasty. I don't eat cheese, personally. But my mom does. So, I tried this out with her, and sent them home with her. She liked them.

brocc/kohl leaf chips - vegan

While I was at it, I decided to do the same with half of my kale. Green chips don't last long in my house (mainly my fault ... and Finn's too). So, extra are always welcome.

kale about to be turned into chips ...

I keep these stored in my fridge in the summer, because we have no AC, and the humidity can sog them up again. If they do sog on you, just dehydrate them for a bit again.

I have a few kale chip recipes that I love. I love these simple ones when it's hot, because they aren't heavy with rich flavors. And, I'm a busy mom. And I'm guessing you are a busy person too. And simple reigns king in my house, yo. Sometimes, I mix olive or coconut oil with stevia or honey and cinnamon and make "cinnamon sugar" chips. Hey, don't knock it till you try it.

Someday, I'll do a post on just kale chip recipes. I've tried a TON, and I have a few that'll win the hearts of even the most DIE HARD veggie loathers. I promise. 

So, now I have a pile of stems from my broccoli and kale. (DON'T TOSS THESE!) They are going to become breakfast tomorrow.Yes, breakfast.

Breakfast plans?

I will save the broccoli stalk too, once we eat the florets. I keep them in a container in my fridge and let them pile up over a month-ish. I'll explain that one later. My basic idea for you, is how to use every part so that you can get the most bang from your buck. Life is expensive. Feeding growing offspring is ridiculously expensive. And nobody wants to work 80 hours a week. Little things like this add up over a month and can shred your grocery bill. I call it "youponing". I'm not a couponer. There are rarely coupons for things that I use or eat. So, I had to find a different way to save. And I'll be peppering those ways throughout this blog as long as I'm alive and kickin. (Which will be a very long time with all these greens! Lucky you!)

I'm cheap.

Cheapy cheaperson, here. Yes, tis true. If I were a hip hop artist, my name would be "Thrifty Cent". I'm frugal as they get. I'm not cheap in the gratuity sense, but cheap in the "if I can find a way to do this myself instead of spending money, I will" way. If I spend a dime on myself, I writhe in guilt for days. When you've lived an entire life of financial struggles, you end up this way. But, this fact is what triggered me to start this blog in the first place. Being broke has its perks. For one, you know every free spot in town. You enjoy every moment of just laying in the grass under a tree with your kid. You become thankful for every bite or a full fridge. And, you learn how to DIY. And I am stubbornly DIY now. I actually like my creations so much, that, if I won the lottery tomorrow, I'd still make them instead of buying them. Lastly, you find a use for every last thing that you do buy ... or grow. 

When I began the NovaNalu blog, I wanted it to cover 3 things: Eating, praying and loving. So, I want to spend the next few posts talking about the "eat" part and how to obtain foods on the cheap. Namely, produce. Why? Because produce is the most expensive part of a grocery trip, aside from meat. 

I want to give you ideas of how to use every part of your produce, even the extra bits you'd normally throw away. I'll even throw in some snack food ideas, to keep you from buying pricey snack foods too. NN is NOT a foodie blog. So, if you're not into this sort of thing, stay tuned, and I'll give you some love in the next post or two.

For today, I will talk about CSAs. For those not familiar, CSA stands for "community supported agriculture". In a nutshell, it's locally grown foods from smaller farms that produce a variety of items for you to pick up each week at a specified location. CSA season is now through summer and a little into fall. There are a few CSA options out there. LEAF has several options. Fresh Fork is another local Cleveland CSA. Some offer only veggies and fruits, some have meats and dairy included. We do the City Fresh CSA available through LEAF. 

City Fresh has a single share (feeds 1-2) for $15/week and a family share (feeds 3-4) for $28/week. Also available is a "limited income" option for those of you (us) who aren't as financially blessed. The limited income option is only $9/week for the single and $16/week for the family share. It doesn't take much to qualify. We didn't even have to prove our income. They just basically have an honor system and go on faith. And I like that. It makes me feel like we are a community, and we are taking care of each other. And it gives those less fortunate an opportunity to feed their family nutrient rich foods for pennies. Beats the ramens, anyday! 

Here's a sneak peak into our share for the week. We got: kale, broccoli w/leaves, kohlrabi w/leaves, snap peas, dill, beets w/greens, onions, lettuce, garlic scapes, a qt of strawberries, apple butter ... I think that was it. I didn't get them all in one shot, because I was super ambitious in creating things with it. But here's some of what we got. 

A few of the goodies from CityFresh this week.

These snap peas could fit into the "love" category instead of the "eat" category...and the "dessert" category instead of the "veggie" category. 

Kale. King of greens. Can I get a witness?

So, you see, we got plenty of eats for one week. Not bad for $16. And even at $28, it's a steal. 

Over the next week (CSA goes from Thurs to Thurs) I'm going to share a few tips on how to use each bit of these yummy greens. 

With a happy belly, 
Steph