How Much Does Produce Cost in Alaska? & Blender Minestrone

Can YOU guess how much this pile of produce cost? Minus the 4 pluots I ate in the car... and the squash was a different purchase. I guess I should mention that this is all organic, and those are Valencia oranges, and Pluots. I still have produce to order from Juneau. It comes out to about the same,  (freight from Juneau vs. markup in town), I just have more options.

I've got to wait for most of it to 'ripen,' but that will help me control myself. I've been low on produce for a few days, nursing a couple grapefruits and luckily picking from my garden.

On another note! I just LOVE tomatoes. It's always been a favorite. If you do not feel like cooking, chopping, and barely feel like chewing, I've got a great recipe for you! Almost any veggie works!

Blender Minestrone
Veggies:
2-3 Tomatoes
1/4 of Red Pepper
1 Carrot
2 inch piece Zucchini
1 inch piece Red Cabbage
Couple slivers of Onion
1 Garlic Clove
Half handful Parsley (or fresh basil)

Spices:
Pinch Tarragon (totally makes it)
Dash or two of oregano/basil/garlic powder/black pepper
Salt as needed
Dash of Cayenne (as finishing touch-just my thing)

Place tomatoes, parsley, red pepper and carrot in blender. Blend well, but not completely smooth, you want tiny carrot chunks.
Pulse/chop in the rest of the ingredients (so you have slightly larger chunks).

If you have a high powered blender, you can leave it on stir for a while to warm it up.  Otherwise, transfer to a pot, gently warm on low heat.

This soup is a little on the thin side. Two options to thicken:
1) If you have any last season tomatoes jarred, they have this canned consistency that is great for thickening (or just use a good quality canned stewed/diced etc).
2) I like to add a touch (1/8 cup or so) of almond milk once the soup is warm and directly into my bowl (as opposed to in the pot).

SO easy. And it is very satisfying. Change up the spices to your liking. Serve with love! Shown served with my Rosemary Grissini Crackers (recipe coming soon!).

Spring Cabbage Slaw

Picnic Anastasia Island

While I was in Florida, I indulged in fresh produce allll day long. Florida Bananas, Watermelon, Cantaloupe, Blueberries, Strawberries, Peaches, Tangerines, Grapefruit, Kale, Squash, etc. etc. Oh my gosh, the list goes on. I ate SO much fruit. It was heaven. I browsed the Farmer's market listening to live music for well over an hour shopping.

This tangerine tree to the left is at my Aunt's house. I even brought some grapefruits from her trees home with me. MMMmm.  Well, now I'm back in Alaska and produce is a little harder to get. Much less LOCAL produce. So, my diet comes back to a lot of root veggies and greens. Which is great, yes. But I do miss the fresh fruits in a bad way. All of our berries are frozen, our bananas are the conventional gassed kind, and watermelon.. basically doesn't exist. We do get a lot of produce from Washington (Full Circle Farms) and California. We can get greens from the neighboring farm (or from our own once they are ready). This area is definitely bountiful in berries during summer. Looking forward to that! It was much easier to keep a raw food diet in Florida though. Now I'm eating sprouted grain tortilla's and eggs again (loaded with raw veggies) when I'm feeling slack. I definitely rely on more dehydrated raw foods here. I definitely feel the difference in my energy. I ate 5 various citrus fruits alone yesterday. Which are $2.77 lb here. So, that was rather indulgent. It's so much more expensive to eat produce here. :(
Last night I made a delicious Red Cabbage Slaw. I generally avoid all sugar not found in fruits/dates etc. But I did use a bit of Agave in this. I found some very interesting (and disheartening) info on Agave and how your body metabolizes it similar to HFCS. Who knows. For now, until I have time to research it more, I'm cutting it out.

Delicious and Beautiful!

Spring Cabbage Slaw
1/2 Red Cabbage sliced into thin shred
1 Carrot Shred
1/8 cup Raisins (soaked)
1 Leaf Kale Shred
1/4 cup Cubed Cucumber

Dressing:
2 Tbs Red Wine Vinegar (or ACV)
1 Drizzle of Olive Oil (or sesame if your feeling like asian slaw)
2 Tbs Onion Chopped
1 Clove Garlic
1/4 Tsp Celery Seed or Salt
3-4 Cranks of Ground Blk Pepper
1/8 Tsp of salt (or more to taste)
1 squirt of Agave Nectar (could use honey)

Process all dressing ingredients until onion is tiny.

Mix all veggies in a bowl, add dressing, stir. Let sit for 10 minutes at least in fridge. Enjoy!

Mexi Spice Carrot Hummus & Wild Rice Collard Wrap

The Flight Path My Produce Makes

Here in Alaska, produce can be a challenge to get. And once you receive your produce, it may or may not be 'good.' Ordering in season definitely helps. 

Here is my latest produce order story: Last Thursday, I updated my produce list in Word as usual,  and faxed it in. The Safeway I order from shops for me (charges a minimal fee) and takes my produce to the airport. The airline then flies my food over and I pay bush shipping and freight costs to them. Well, first of all my card was undercharged by about $60, so I knew that once again, I wasn't getting everything on the list (they rarely call to discuss the order). This time I sadly did not receive: chard, kale, collards, cherries, among a few other things. At least I got in spinach. Not to delay the story any longer, but an example of how it goes here is the grapes I ordered were $17 (for 2lbs) and the apricots I ordered were $14 (for 2 lbs). Now the grapes aren't in season, but I love them so much. They normally come in squashed and 'bad' and become treats for my chickens. The grapes came in delicious and perfect this time (so happy), but the apricots are tasteless, the 3 apricots out of the bunch that weren't rotten all the way through. Last weeks apricots were SO amazing, so I ordered double, paid more, but got less in the end.

Anyway! We had quite a bit of snow, no planes came or went from Friday to Sunday afternoon. I spend about $100-$150 a week on produce. I can 't remember how much I used to spend in the lower 48.. so it's hard for me to know if that's a lot.  Of course in the summer, root vegetables are very easy to grow here and I have a better chance at produce that is in season in WA and shipped to Juneau. There are ways to eat local here. Fish, Moose, berries etc. I'm just frustrated I can't get leafy greens half the time, the other half of the time, not one grocery store in Juneau will have say beets, my favorite.

Well, on the bright side of things; those grapes are delicious! And not having produce even Saturday, forced me to be creative with what I had left. A few collards leaves and a few carrots among my produce drawers. I invented some carrot 'hummus' wrapped it in a collard leaf with some wild rice I had sprouted and drizzled some hot pepper oil on top. Voila! It was delicious! & Nutritious~

Mexi Spice Carrot Hummus & Wild Rice Collard Wrap
2 carrots
1 Tbs tahini
2 dashes Cumin and Chipotle powder
1-2 grinds of salt
2 collards, stem carefully cut out
1/4 cup wild rice (soaked/sprouted) or reg rice, whatever you want!
1 Tbs Hot Pepper Oil (easy to make, take ground red pepper, like the pizza shaker kind, mix 1 tbs to 2 tbs oil and let sit at least 15 minutes.. after a week or so it is really strong and beautiful)

Process the carrot, tahini, spices and salt until smooth(ish) then spoon onto the end of a collard leaf, spoon on some rice (or whatever veggie) and roll up, cut in half.. drizzle with oil, Enjoy!

Beet Chocolate Cake

Also thought I'd share the delicious (naughty) dessert I indulged in every day for 4 days last week (while I waited out the frostbite warning advisory-I'd like to keep my eyelids and nose thank you).  I made up for it with XT. Vegan Beet Chocolate Cake. "Enough Said" as they say... Well, but I have to say YUM! Of course I had tiny pieces. The body runs better without flour and sugar.

I jumped right back in to running, but not my routine. I found fun ways to get back out there. Running Sunday to a craft (bati) party, with an iron strapped to my camelbak; taking a needed rest yesterday and today running to the post office with my orders and taking the long way back. Fun, and it was double duty!