Delishytown

Cooking is fun. Eating is funner. I cook, photograph and write these recipes. Everything I post on this blog I make from scratch using fresh wholesome ingredients.. I've been cooking since I was a little kid. My recipes are based on trial and error, along with studying cookbooks, family recipes, blogs and cooking shows. Some of the veggies and herbs I use are grown in my garden. Yay sustainability! I'm working on making my yard into an edible landscape. It's really fun to go out in the garden and pick your veggies for dinner!

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8 posts tagged non gmo

Growing Organic Zucchini

Here’s a healthy zucchini plant growing in my friends garden. Zucchini is easy to grow. It likes warm weather and full sun. The large yellow flowers are edible, as well as the zucchini squashes that form from the fertilized flowers.

Conventionally grown zucchini is one of the foods most likely to be GMO in the grocery store, so it’s a good idea to grow your own organic zucchini this summer.

I’ve grown this plant for many years. My main gardening tip for success is that the large leaves tend to be susceptible to fungal diseases. Water them early in the day so that the leaves can dry off. Try to not wet the leaves each time you water, just water the soil if possible. If you do see an outbreak of (usually powdery type) fungus on the leaves, just spray the plant with a milk + water solution, about 1/3 milk to 2/3 water. I planted these with organic compost and organic vegetable fertilizer. 

The best thing about zucchini is that it can be harvested at any stage, from very very small with the flower still attached, to XL used for grating into zucchini breads and muffins.

An easy recipe for zucchini are these crispy zucchini rounds. Just coat sliced zucchini with scrambled egg wash, then dip it into bread crumbs mixed with grated parmesan cheese, seasoned with salt pepper and a little garlic powder and paprika. Spray with olive oil spray and bake at 400 for 20 minutes until crispy. Serve with your favorite creamy dressing or organic ketchup. Yum!

Seed saving is very important, especially since the Big Ag / Big Food creeps are trying to own patents on all the seeds in the world by genetically modifying them. Diabolical! 

These are seeds I saved from a Broccoli Raab plant that bolted in my garden last month. Bolting means sending up a flower stalk. For cold loving plants like Broccoli Raab, warmer temps signal them to bolt and set seeds for the next generation. It’s a Darwinian thing.

It’s easy to save seeds. You simply let your plants complete their life cycle when they’re done producing food. Instead of yanking the spent plants out of your garden, let a few of your favorite ones set flowers, and then set seed pods. These small flowers will attract beneficial insects to your garden, which is a bonus of this process. Allow the seed pods to dry on the plant and then crunch them open. Inside are the seeds for next years crop. I put mine through a mesh strainer to strain away the bigger parts of the chaff. 

Package them up, save some for your next years garden and share the rest. We win!!

Purple Cornmeal Banana Blueberry Muffins

These muffins were a delicious experiment. I bought a box of purple cornmeal from Peru at a fancy Italian deli. This “Farine de Mais Violet”, as it is called on the box, is cornmeal made from a blue corn that’s thousands of years old. It’s organic and non GMO. They say blue and purple foods are really healthy and full of antioxidants. My man and I are trying to eat as many nutritious foods as possible. This box of corn meal was about 5 bucks, which isn’t cheap, but neither is going to the doctor. And it’s delicious! I swapped out some of the regular flour in my favorite banana bread recipe for the purple cornmeal, added blueberries from the garden, and these muffins came out so delicious!  

In a bowl mash 2 ripe bananas, add 1/3 cup room temp unrefined coconut oil, 2 eggs, 1 tblsp vanilla, and 1/2 cup milk. Mix well.

In another bowl, sift 1 cup organic whole wheat flour, 3/4 cup blue cornmeal (or any cornmeal you have) 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 to 3/4 cup organic sugar

Mix the dry into the wet and fold together until just combined. add 3/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries.

Spoon into baking cups and bake at 400 for 15 to 20 minutes until cooked through. Yum!

Black Rice & Black Bean Mini Burritos with Corn and Bean Salad

This was our lunch today! Yum, it was so good. Black rice is good for you, full of  phytochemicals and such. I use organic frozen corn for the corn salad. A lot of the corn grown in the US is the creepy Monsanto GMO corn. That stuff is scarrie. I say no to Monsanto and their plan to dominate food supplies with their creepy monster crops. I digress…

Here’s how to make this yummy plate of homemade Mexican food:

Cook some black rice in plenty of water. It takes about 20 minutes. Once it’s cooked, drain the remaining water off, add the rice back to the pot, cover and set aside.

For the black beans: Chop a small onion, 1 stalk celery, 1 carrot, and a few garlic cloves and sauté in a skillet with a little olive oil. Drain and rinse 1 can of black beans, divide it in half, (add half to a bowl and set aside ) add the other half to the skillet. Add 1/2 c. water or stock, reduce heat,cover and simmer.

For the Corn and Bean Salad: Rinse 1 cup frozen corn (to speed up the thawing process) add to the bowl with the reserved black beans, along with 1 small minced shallot, 5 or 6  chopped sun dried tomatoes, 1 small crushed garlic clove. 2 tblsp rice vinegar, 2 tblsp red wine vinegar, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, a drizzle of olive oilsalt and pepper, 1 tsp ancho chili powder, 1/2 Cup fresh cilantro, chopped, and a sprinkle of paprika. You could also add a pinch of red pepper flakes if you like it spicy.

For the mini burritos: Place some of the cooked rice, the thickened bean & veggie mixture, and a little cheese on one end of a blue corn tortilla and roll it up. Wrap with foil and bake at 350 for about 5-10 minutes until piping hot and melted. 

Chop iceberg lettuce, tomatoes and avocado, and lay them on a serving plate, top with the corn and bean salad, sour cream or plain yogurt, and a few olives, and of course the mini burrito hot out of the oven, yum!

Vegan Popcorn Balls

Happy Halloween! I made these for a little friend who is coming by to trick or treat today. She’s vegan and also doesn’t eat sugar. So, I came up with this recipe so she could have something sweet on Halloween.

I don’t have an air popper. So I started by popping 1/2 cup organic popcorn in 1 tblsp canola oil in a  large covered pot. I shook the pot around frequently to prevent the popcorn from burning on the bottom of the pot.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, melt together 1 tblsp Earth Balance buttery spread, 2 tblsp organic maple syrup, 1/4 cup organic honey, 1/4 cup organic agave syrup. Heat these together til they start to bubble. Let it simmer for a few minutes to thicken.

 Add 1 tsp vanilla extract and simmer for another minute.

When your popcorn is all popped, transfer to a mixing bowl, add 1/4 cup dried cranberries,  and salt to taste. Pour the sweet mixture over and toss to coat evenly.

Once it’s cool enough to handle, form into balls. I really had to press mine firmly to get it to stick together. 

These are scrumptious!

Peanut Sesame Noodles with Crispy Ginger Veggies

Chop 1 small purple eggplant, 1/2 sweet onion, 1 small carrot, 1/2 zucchini, 1 small bok choy, 2 garlic cloves, an inch of fresh ginger, grated, .about 10-15 green beans

Stir fry the veggies in a skillet with a bit of peanut oil, starting with the densest veggies. I started with the onion and carrot, let them cook and soften a bit before adding the eggplant and green beans, then add the fresh chopped garlic and some freshly grated ginger, add the zucchini and bok choy  last because they cook the fastest.

Meanwhile boil a pot of water and cook some buckwheat noodles.

In a small bowl combine the juice of 1/2 orange and 1/2 lime, add 2 tblsp peanut buttter, 1/2 clove crushed garlic, salt and pepper, 1 tsp soy sauce, and mix with a fork. Drizzle in some sesame oil till smooth.

Once your noodles are cooked, drain them and mix with the peanut sesame sauce

Serve the noodles with the crunchy veggies

yum! 

Orange Ginger Apricot Chicken

Yum! This is the best chicken ever. It’s so tangy and sweet, but also savory and completely delicious!

I don’t have a picture of this right now. It was too dark to take a photo when It came out of the oven last night. I’ll make more tomorrow and take a photo.

Here’s the marinade:

Mix the juice of 1 orange, with 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 teaspoon sesame oil,  1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar, 2 cloves garlic crushed, 1 inch of fresh ginger, grated, salt and pepper, a shake of red pepper flakes, (less than 1/8th tsp, or more if you like hot and spicy), and 2 big tablespoons of organic apricot preserves. Mix it all together. There’ll probably be some chuncks of apricot, but they melt away in the oven.

Marinade organic chicken pieces in this mixture for about 2 hours (or longer) in the fridge. I turned mine halfway through. If you do it in a Ziploc bag it might be easier, but I was out of Ziploc bags.

Bake at 350 till cooked through, goldeny & glazed. Yummy.  Best chicken ever.

Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce

I have lots of tomatoes growing in my garden right now and they seem to be ready to harvest all at once. Here’s a really easy and delicious way to use a bunch of tomatoes. Oven roasting brings out the sweetness of the tomatoes and onion. You can freeze the leftover sauce to use in a lasagna or a pot of chili.

If you don’t have garden tomatoes, this recipe is great with store bought plum tomatoes. 

Cut tomatoes in half and put them in a shallow roasting pan. I use a glass, ceramic or enamel pan for this sauce and avoid metal.

Slice a sweet onion or shallot and add it to the pan. Smash open a few cloves of garlic, no need to chop or peel.

Drizzle about 1/4 cup olive oil over the tomatoes, garlic & onions and toss the whole thing with salt and pepper.

Bake at 350 till bubbly. Squeeze the garlic from the peels.

Serve over pasta with fresh basil and cheese.

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