thoughtful consumption

• sweet potatoes
• arugula
• honey
• apples
• lettuce
• alfalfa sprouts
• kale
• eggs
• lemon balm
• garlic
• par-cel
• chervil
• edible flowers

Store orders

I went a little crazy on the online store this week. I needed honey, wanted garlic, and craved some herbs for tea. Then there was the goat cheese sale. I’m a sucker for a sale in general and flat-out incapable of ignoring a sale on goat cheese.

• plain (a total misnomer!) goat cheese
• catnip
• garlic
• honey
• onion-chive goat cheese
• orange mint

Arugula salad

We enjoy our arugula raw as salad. We’ll mix it up with the lettuce and add sprouts, goat cheese, and toasted walnuts. A fruity vinaigrette is the best dressing with arugula.

Sweet potatoes

I foresee a bunch of meals made of salad and baked (or microwaved) sweet potatoes. Microwaved sweet potatoes are quick and delicious. Wrap them in plastic wrap and go. For two little sweet potatoes, I cook them for 4-6 minutes turning once. This week my sweet potatoes are all little. Bigger ones can take as long as 10 minutes. To find out if they’re done, squeeze them with a towel or an oven mitt to see if they’re soft. (Not your bare hand! They’ll be hot!)

Sweet potatoes are also good for you. They’re high in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds. Here’s more nutrition information.

Kale

The dark green kale looks so nutritious. And fairly tasty, too. That’s as far as I’m willing to go with kale although many people eat it for taste alone. We’ll cook it with raisins and pine nuts and with pasta, garlic, and parmesan. Kale also makes superb artichoke dip.

Tea herbs

The lemon balm, catnip, and orange mint are for herbal tea. Catnip tea is nice at night for calming down. (Of course, it could be a placebo effect. If it is, shhhh. Don’t tell me because it’s working.) Catnip tea by itself is kind of dull, but the orange mint and lemon balm will help with that. The orange mint smells so good!

One nice thing about tea herbs is they don’t have to look pristine to be used for tea unlike herbs used for garnish. So I’m hopeful I can get through all of these lovely herbs in time.

Non-tea herbs

I’ve still got some parsley leftover from last week, so I’m thinking about trying tabouli with a combination of parsley and par-cel. In my bag were a couple of par-cel stems without leaves. I assumed that means I can use the stems, too, right?

I tried searching for the answer on Google, but the confusion between “par-cel” and “parcel” made it difficult. I’m going for it and will let you know what happens.

The chervil and the edible flowers will probably become a girly afternoon snack along with some goat cheese and toasted pita wedges. The flowers (and the chervil) could go in salad, too, but I think they’re too fun for that.

I wish we had beets. Roasted beets with goat cheese and chervil sounds really good to me.

Garlic hoarding

I’ve got three and a quarter big heads of garlic! Woo-hoo! I’m going to slice some up, sauté it really slowly in olive oil, dump it over pasta, top it with Parmesan, and get kisses from Chris. Hopefully before he eats all the garlic.