Popeye's Favorite Sammy

I recently had a conversation with one of my vegetarian friends about the beneficial bioavailability of iron in beets and it got me thinking. Why didn't Popeye gulp cans full of beets as well as spinach? The truth is, he probably did. He just did it off camera.

In honor of my favorite buff sailor's iron fetish, I invented this iron intensive treat. A meal that will make your muscles bulge and your head do that weird exorcist twisty thing. Okay, maybe not. But it does taste super good. :)


Popeye's Favorite Sammy
(1 serving)

1 healthy bun or spinach tortilla
2 spoonfuls delish beetslaw
5 grape tomatoes
handful fresh baby spinach
1 large spoonful fresh ranch dressing

Fresh Ranch Dressing
(This recipe is one I modified from Cooking Light and use regularly. Makes 1 cup.)

3/4 cup low fat buttermilk
1/4 cup low fat sour cream
1 tsp fresh dill, minced
1 tsp fresh basil, minced
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 clove garlic, minced

Mix these ingredients into a bowl and stir well. For a lumpless consistency, throw them in the food processor. I like to make maybe 2-3 times this recipe and keep it in the fridge for salads, etc.

Delish Beetslaw
(~14 servings)

4 beets, cleaned, skinned, and quartered
2 carrots, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 large spoonful organic, raw honey
1 cup water
5 cloves garlic
3-4 inches ginger
ground sea salt, to taste
1 package shredded cabbage from TJ's

Add the water, beets, ginger, and garlic to the food processor and chop fine. Remove to a large side bowl. Next add the carrots, celery, honey, and salt to the food processor. Chop fine again. Add to the large side bowl. Stir all together, add the cabbage, and mix well, making sure the cabbage is well coated in the beet juice. You'll know because all that green is going to turn purple from the beet juice. :) Put the bowl in the fridge to chill. You can eat this plain, as a slaw or salad base. Or you can use it as a ;ettuce substitute in sandwiches, like Popeye's Favorite Sammy above. :)

Sumptuous Stuffed Tomatoes

In my delicious biweekly organic food delivery, I received the following items: fresh tomatoes, spinach, crimini mushrooms, and garlic. While I was perusing my take, considering what I could do with these savory delights, the scent of my little basil pot overcame my senses and gave me the idea for this delicious recipe.

Sumptuous Stuffed Tomatoes
(6 servings)

3 tomatoes, halved
2 handfuls raw pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
1 generous handful fresh basil
2 generous handfuls spinach
3 cloves garlic
1-2 stalks celery
4 crimini mushrooms, washed and quartered
pepper to taste

Set your oven to 350 F.

Take your pepitas and throw them into your food processor, grinding into a semi-fine dust. It's okay if there are some bigger chunks for crunch. Pour out half the ground pepitas into a small bowl.

Halve our tomatoes and scoop out the juicy innards, placing the "shells" onto a parchment paper covered cookie sheet.

Spoon the juicy innards into your food processor along with the remaining pepitas. Add the spinach, basil, celery, garlic, and mushrooms. "Mix" into a paste. You can add salt if you want, I didn't find it needed any.

Using a large spoon to scoop the mixture into the tomato shells. Sprinkle the tops with the saved pepitas. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Go on; have a peace! Have two!

Green Bean "Chips"

Okay. I don't know if y'all have tried veggie chips before. If you haven't, you're missing out on an awesome mouth experience. I first got turned on to these by my mother, actually, who found them in little plastic containers at the little independent market near our house a few years back. Since then, I've seen them showing up more and more. I haven't yet spotted them at Ralph's (though I might have just missed them), but they are definitely available at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. Now, the ones my mom got (way back when) were a mixed bag of green beans, carrots, parsnips, yams, and taro. And every time I see this mix (which is basically every time I go home because my mom's awesome and does that), I automatically go and pick out the beans and carrots for myself. Because I'm greedy when it comes to delicious vegetables.

Here's the only problem I have - they're too darned expensive. Nothing that edible should cost that much per 8 ounces. $7? For a bag that I will probably finish within at the most a day of opening it? No. I think not. And they shouldn't be. Not really. So I put my thinking cap on and invented a way to DIY your own veggie chips. The green beans anyway.

Now, the only way to get the exact crunchy texture of these right is to own a dehydrator (which I don't and I assume most of you don't either), but you can get pretty close just using your oven.

Without further ado, my nummy green bean snack. Guilt-free, tasty, mid-day veggies!

Green Bean "Chips"

~16 oz green beans, trimmed
1 Tbsp olive oil
1-2 tsp Vignalta - Salle Alle Erbe Delle Marlunghe [This is a radical salt with herbs that I like to use on most of my straight up veggie dishes these days. It's just, frankly, awesome. If you want to buy it, you can Google it or click here. If you don't, just use salt. Or whatever kind of salt you want. Sea salt, table salt, garlic salt, onion salt, whatever. :) ]

Set your oven to 395 F.

Trim your beans, drop them in a big microwave safe bowl. Nuke them for ~3 minutes (this is my lazy way of "blanching").

Prep a baking sheet with parchment paper and then set a drying rack on top of it. The smaller grating here, the better.

Add olive oil to the beans and stir well, making sure they all get a nice coating. Shimmy some of the salt in. Stir again. Then, once they're all nice and olive oil/salt-ified, place them on the rack, making sure to leave at least a little space between them all if possible. They won't get as crispy if they're touching. I'm not sure exactly why. Now load them into the oven and bake for about 35 minutes (I put them in for 15 and then checked them every five minutes after that until they got to the right crispiness for me).

Soooo good. :) And best of all, the 16 oz baggie of beans cost me $1.49. Yummy for my tummy; yummy for my wallet.

Alteration:

16 oz green beans, trimmed
1 tbsp olive oil
2+ shakes garlic powder
juice of 1/2 lemon

Follow above instructions. :) Enjoy!