Monday, March 29, 2010

What do Dietitians Eat? Menu #8


As I glanced back through my archives of blog postings, I saw that I jumped from What do Dietitians Eat? Menu #7 to Menu #9. What happened to #8? Did I just mis-number my posts or was #8 still sitting in a draft format? The latter and for almost a full year!

So the following menu is not quite seasonal, again it is pushing spring, even early summer, with taste treats that are worth waiting for. Sorry for the extreme delay in getting this posted up!

Menu:

• White Bean and Sage Soup
• Spring Greens Salad (with our own kale, of course!)
• Home-made Crackers
• Applesauce mixed with Stewed Rhubarb


White Bean and Sage Soup
This recipe is a variation of Italian Butter Bean Soup Recipe shared by one of my sister-in-laws and found, along with dozens and dozens of additional recipes, on my website www.CancerRD.com.

(Photo: White Bean and Sage Soup - finish with a sprinkle of freshly-grated Parmesan cheese for a delightful taste contrast to the robust sage.)


(Photo: Sage leaves chopped and frozen last fall - easy to use in place of dried sage when fresh sage is not yet available in spring.)

Spring Greens Salad
(including our own kale, of course!)

Head down to your Farmers' Market to see what is available in your area now. There should be a wide variety of greens.

(Photo: Spring salad mix)

Salad Dressing is easy - Don't spend your hard-earned money on salad dressings that cost a fortune (and many have so many additives, added water, sugars, including high-fructose corn syrup, and undefined 'vegetable oil' that my head spins reading the label). Just splash of any type of vinegar or lemon juice (I used some home-made chive blossom vinegar) with some olive oil.

(Photo: Chive blossom vinegar - directions on a past posting, scroll down to see the photos and instructions.)



I was wondering what I could make ahead of time for a bread recipe and still have it be "fresh" for tonight. I finally remembered how much I enjoyed making these crackers several months ago plus how they stayed dry and crispy for several days.

(Photo: Rosemary Flatbread Crackers - recipe and directions on a previous post, scroll down.)


Applesauce with stewed rhubarb

I see that I don't have any recipe already posted for making our stewed rhubarb, so when our fresh rhubarb is ready to pick, freeze, or stew, I'll make sure I get photos of that. Hopefully, all the rhubarb we transplanted from our community garden to our farmhouse will produce. In addition, we have some old, old, old rhubarb at our current home that also needs to be transplanted (it has been moving around/given away from rootstock many generations ago in Indiana.)


(Photo: Stewed rhubarb with mint leaf - I often mix our stewed rhubarb with applesauce or fresh fruit.)

I finally got our little mint patch trimmed back on a warm day last week. No new growth seen yet, but it won't be long. Then I can dig some up to take out to the farm. Surprisingly, I did not see any mint plants last year. We certainly can find some place to put it where we can also contain it from going wild, like the chives have done!

Although it is a rainy day here today and we plan to work inside our farmhouse still stripping wallpaper, caulking, etc, etc, I love this short quotation because there is nothing better than the smell of the earth, and smelling like dirt, in spring!

In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.
~~ Margaret Atwood

"Cultivate your life - you are what you grow - inch by inch, row by row"


Diana Dyer, MS, RD

4 comments:

Julie Goodale said...

Just one word - yum!

Jen said...

I think I'll have to make that applesauce/stewed rhubarb combination - Dave would really, really love it.

Diana Dyer said...

Applesauce/rhubarb - ahhhhh, just the perfect combination of flavors! Enjoy. :-)

Edible Nutrition said...

the menu looks fabulous! Makes me want to plant chives this season, too!