Who doesn’t love the sights and smells of a great and local farmer’s market? I have been taking my daughter to the Boulder Farmer’s Market on Saturday mornings, and we are giddy with excitement to see all of the fresh tomatoes, spinach and herbs on each corner stand. But I tend to get ahead of myself and overbuy on fruits and vegetables, scrambling to find delicious and creative recipes at the last minute. And if your gardening has been successful this year and your seedlings have turned into blooming and edible veggies, you might also be looking for some new ways to cook up produce this summer. If this sounds like your summer dilemma, I want to share a few of my favorite fruit and vegetable recipes with you.

I have mentioned 101cookbooks.com in a previous post, but I think it is worth noting again. 101cookbooks.com is a great site to explore many different types of recipes and cooking techniques. You can search recipes by ingredients such as asparagus or spinach, or search by course such as soups or appetizers. This orzo super salad recipe is chock full of summer fresh asparagus, broccoli, cilantro, cucumber and avocado. If you are like me during the winter months in Colorado, this is the type of salad that you will be craving to eat fresh next February!

For most of us, salads are much more appealing during the summer months. But salads can be a nutritional nightmare if you choose unhealthy toppings or dressings. So consider getting more creative at home, and trying to replace high saturated fat salad dressings with a homemade, healthier choice. Take this Vegan Caesar Salad from Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s cookbook, Veganomicon. We made this salad at home a few weeks ago, and it turned out really good - the taste is as close as you will get to a real Caesar salad. We enjoyed this tofu-based salad dressing so much that we continued to use as a cracker/vegetable dip.

Do you have too many avocados sitting on your kitchen counter? The easiest way to use (and devour) avocadoes is to quickly whip up a bowl of guacamole. Since guacamole happens to be #1 favorite food, I have tried many guacamole recipes, and this one by Barefoot Contessa continues to be my all-time favorite. I think the secret to her guacamole is found in step #2—be sure to first spoon out the avocado, add the other ingredients and then chop up everything in the bowl. This allows the avocados to remain nice and chunky, but you still incorporate all the other flavors of red onion, lemons, hot sauce, and so on.

If you are familiar with Eating Well magazine, you know the publication contains beautiful photos and delicious, healthy recipes. And their website is very similar. I recently had a few too many tomatoes and not much time to prepare them. So I found this five-minute recipe for baked parmesan tomatoes. A little parmesan, olive oil, salt and pepper can turn your leftover tomatoes into a colorful side dish.

Do you have any favorite recipes for your farmer’s market produce? If so, please share them with us and let’s continue to support our local agriculture!

So here is the great (and potentially not-so-great) thing about blogging. Different than personal journals or verbal promises, online blogging holds you accountable for your typed words. At the beginning of 2009, I announced my healthiest intentions for the year, and at the top of my list: Grow a Garden.

I remember laughing out loud when I wrote that goal, because any plants under my care have only withered, never thrived. However, at the end of 2008, I had just finished reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, and her book greatly inspired me to join the “locavore” (local eating) movement in any small way that I could. And so I decided that growing my own vegetable garden is the best way to cut back on wasted food resources and costs!

We were lucky enough to already have a sectioned amount of our yard, perfect size for a small garden, on the west side of our house. And my husband grew up working on farms in Ontario, Canada, and he naturally has a green thumb and a love for the outdoors.

Since I live in Colorado, we have the potential for blizzard conditions in April/May, and so it is always recommended to hold planting until Mother’s Day weekend. So last Sunday afternoon, we started our first vegetable garden. Initially, we turned over the soil several times, added peet moss, turned it again, added peet hummus and organic fertilizer, turned it again, used a garden weasel to break up the clay and large chunks, made 3’ furrows and planted our favorite seeds! I love my green veggies, so we planted one row each of zucchini, peas, lettuce, carrots and broccoli. And yesterday, I went to the farmer’s market and purchased two different varieties of tomato seedlings – I wanted to cheat and make a small head start on the tomato plants.

Our vegetables won’t sprout up for at least a few more weeks, but I am already giddy thinking about a hot July day, grabbing the freshest zucchini to make a beautiful salad or loaf of bread with my daughter. As Kingsolver’s book reminds us, it is important for children to understand where food really comes from (it doesn’t grow in the air conditioned grocery store)! So I hope that my 2-year old will pick up some of our enthusiasm and want to grow her own fruits and veggies someday soon. (As an extra incentive to keep her interested now, we added a kids’ water table next to the garden).

I have attached a photo of our vegetable garden – it is difficult to see where the seeds lie, but I am hoping to inspire even the most intimidated vegetable lover. If I can do it, so can you! And if you can’t find the space to plant a garden in your yard, consider growing some herbs or tomatoes in a large pot this summer.

You might think this article belongs on our Gardenaut website, but I can’t call myself a gardener yet – if all goes well with this first project, I might earn that right in August! And if you're looking for more ideas for helping your child understand food origins, check out this great game Z Recommends recently reviewed.

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about my favorite healthy eating books of 2008. Based on some of the new information that I uncovered in these delicious books, I dreamt up some New Year’s resolutions for 2009. I decided that each resolution would encourage my own personal growth and well-being, but I also wanted each resolution to have a longer lasting and friendly effect on my community and the environment.

1. Grow a garden. Okay, let me rephrase that - currently, I can barely keep my bamboo plant alive, which only requires 1x/month watering. But I really want to grow at least one plant in my kitchen, patio or backyard, keep it alive as long as possible and then hopefully eat it. I am finished buying overpriced and over-packaged basil and dill at the local grocery store. I really want to see the beautiful and fresh stuff blossoming in my home, reminding me to whip up some delicious pasta or homemade salad dressing.



2. Read more produce labels at the grocery store and be mindful of the agricultural seasons. Last winter, I bought strawberries in December and blueberries in February, not paying an ounce of attention to the million mile commute the berries had to make to my dinner table. And I hope to buy almost 100% locally grown produce at farmer’s markets next summer here in Colorado.



3. Support local shops. In the past, I have been a total Starbucks addict, supporting the corporate world and selfishly negating my hometown of 100,000 folks in Westminster, CO who always need local support. I have decided to search out a locally owned coffee shop to buy my ground beans and yummy frappucino-like summer drinks. Wish me luck.



4. Get creative with fruits and vegetables. Every week, I get a beautiful box of fruits and vegetables delivered to my doorstep from a local, organic produce delivery service. The box is filled with dirt-covered carrots and fresh out of the ground collard greens. I am giddy with excitement when I open the box every Thursday. But despite my excitement on delivery day, I always end up wasting a head of greens or a few apples. This year, I want to find some new fruit and vegetable recipes - so far, I made “lettuce wraps” this week with my collard greens (similar to the ones you can order at PF Chang’s Restaurant). They were so delicious, and I had no idea those greens could be so crunchy and delicious with a fun surprise inside!

So there you have it, my goals for 2009. As the months go by this year, I will keep you informed of my progress. Do you have any ambitious New Year’s resolutions? Share them and let’s get inspired together!