About The Country Wife Blog

Showing posts with label greens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label greens. Show all posts

Friday, April 14, 2023

Food Friday: Grits and Greens, Sort Of, In The Instant Pot

 Recently I purchased ANOTHER cookbook!  Be A Plant Based Woman Warrior by the Esselstyn ladies.  I thought I would start with breakfast recipes, even though I was dying to try some of the sauce recipes. (No, even though I have referenced Amazon as a source, I am not going to get even the smallest commission. )

This morning I made my first try...though it was not from the cookbook. I did get the idea from the cookbook.

Because I wanted to use the Instant Pot, I read a few different people's suggestions on how to do it. I made a bastardized combination of several of them.

Since I wanted to cook with pot in pot, I found a two-quart pyrex bowl and got out the 8-quart Instant Pot. In the Instant Pot I place the trivet then 2 cups of water.

In the glass bowl I placed 1 cup water, 1 cup milk, 2 teaspoons onion-flavored Better Than Bouillon, one small finely diced onion, and 1/2 cup old-fashioned "grits" which turned out to be cornmeal once I really looked at the package. Oh well.  Since I had already put the cornmeal into the water mixture I became philosophical about the probable failure of the project.

So moving on, I added about 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper then about the same amount of pink Himalayan salt from the grinder, plus about 1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese.  After mixing rather well I put the lid on and set the Instant Pot to HIGH pressure for 15 minutes and let 'er rip. After the pressure came down naturally,  I removed the cover, stirred the mixture, and called Dear One to come and eat.

Since I wanted to add greens, I steamed a few leaves of kale stripped from their stems in the microwave for 5 minutes.  That part was not an unqualified success.  The kale came out nice and green but mostly like green leather.  Still, I filled my bowl halfway full of kale leather then spooned on the grits/cornmeal.  It tasted really good.

Because I am such a nice little wifey and knowing Dear One's probable response to this I put one tiny leaf of kale leather in his bowl and gave him a chance to serve himself one teaspoon of the grits before putting any in his bowl.  His first teaspoonful seemed good so he served himself a reasonable serving in the bowl. He did eat the little leaf (and I do mean LITTLE LEAF!) of kale with the first teaspoonful.

Because I had already tasted the mixture and found it fabulous I served myself frugally...leaving another half serving in the bowl so Dear One could have more if he wanted it.  Turns out he did!  He finished it off.

This is something I will make again and again, assuming real grits taste as good!



Monday, December 23, 2019

Munchie Monday: Collards!!!

Finally!!  The collards are being harvested. I am so glad. I have such a great memory of one time we went to some southern place for a vacation and stopped at a farmers' market.  There was not much there but there WERE collards.  We/I bought a bunch of them which totally filled my arms.  The cost was $3.00! 

When we got back to the resort unit I got out a giant pot, added a little oil, chopped onions, and garlic then added a bunch of water and chopped collards and let it cook.  I thought is was pretty good and have been hungering for them ever since.

Collards ready to chop.  The spine has already been stripped out of each leaf.
On Friday after the YMCA class I put the Dorr Farm in the GPS and made my way out there.  There is a lot of farm land not that far from where we live. It was a great trip.  It would not be fun if it had been raining or if it was currently raining.  There was a sign that said: "Road subject to flooding."  Yikes.  And the road to the farm was not in perfect shape that very day! After rain early in the week...

Anyway, I did get a big armful of collards and brought them home.  Also sweet potatoes, cabbage, and broccoli.
Collards chopped, washed, and stuffed into the Instant Pot.  One whole bunch was chopped!


After 58 minutes in the Instant Pot, this is what is left!  They really do moosh down.

After chopping one of the two bunches of collards into bite-size pieces I put them in the 8-quart Instant Pot along with a quart of vegetable broth and cooked the heck out of those babies.  Actually I cooked them on high for 58 minutes...the same length of time we use for making vegetable broth.
Collards and Tajin on a small bowl of grits.  Yummy!

Once they were cooked, I made a serving of grits, put a big spoonful of the greens on top then sprinkled with Tajin.  What a great meal!  What a great breakfast!  Lunch and Dinner, too!  I love this stuff.  They are so tender and delicious. Amazingly, it holds me for hours.  Such a great thing.

This was totally vegan...no ham bone or fatback or other fabulous pork-y thing.  The nice girl who helped me at the farm suggested seasoning the collards with Goya ham seasoning.  Piggly Wiggly had those packets so I used them.  Tasty.  Probably too salty but...

You will probably notice the absence of Dear One mentioned here...he is not a fan.  I do hope that eating them every day does not turn my skin green like eating tons of carrots turns your skin orange.

Monday, March 11, 2019

Munchie Monday: Quick and Easy Green Juice

Lenny Gale's YouTube channel is so instructive and motivating to me.  He and Shalva put up lots of good recipes.  The latest one I have tried is his Green Juice recipe.

Mine was a little different than his, but it tasted really good anyway.

This uses a high speed blender.  I don't know if a less powerful one will do the trick to liquify everything.  Maybe if run a lot longer...?

This is how I made it because of what I had on hand:

In the blender put in this order:
1.5 cups of water
1 cored apple
1 peeled banana
a small chunk of fresh ginger
2 small dried up peeled clementines
a big handful of chopped raw kale, stems and all
3 cups ice (the ice needs to go on top)


Turn it on to blend on high for 90 seconds, then pour out into glasses. 
NOTE:  This is NOT a thick smoothie, but is in actuality green JUICE, just like Lenny said!


Because I was unsure of the taste, I only poured half a glass for Dear One and for myself.  It was really good!  Dear One liked it, too.  There was leftover juice which I put in the refrigerator to drink later.

Thanks, Lenny and Shalva!  #lifeisnoyoke

Friday, March 23, 2018

Food Friday: Power Greens and Onions--Sautéed

The tummy has been a little off for a while so I decided to go back to the old standby: dark leafy greens.  This time I got some baby power greens at Costco.

For breakfast I peeled an onion then cut it from pole to pole.  After slicing it as finely as I could I put it in a little extra virgin olive oil in the cast iron pan and started it on medium heat.  After about three minutes I added about 8 ounces of the power greens, stirred them around, then covered with the lid and left them for three minutes.

After removing the lid and stirring again, I shut off the burner and let them sit on the residual heat for another five minutes. 

Luscious breakfast!  Truly.

I think I will make more for supper....