Saturday Market & North Port Fishington Cookie Factory

There are 30 vegan cookies in my kitchen, and I can't eat them until Monday.

We'll come back to that. It's a cold, sunny day at Clark Park, maple-syrup weather, and chilly yellow daffodils are in bloom. White sunshine glances off the mud or is absorbed by bare branches. Food is plentiful, sweet and variable. Even the bean-and-spice lady is here, and I think she may be back for the season. She has chickpeas today.

Saturday Shopping List

1 lb of chickpeas
1 bunch of kale
baby spinach
2 heads of green leaf lettuce
a carton of micro-greens
a paper bag of small white potatoes
2 parsnips
1 quart of white mushrooms
1 portobello cap
a 23-oz jar of homemade apple sauce
1 oz. of "chicken seasoning"
a really big butternut squash
a loaf of multi-grain bread

total: about $35


Hadn't gotten a butternut squash in a long time. I'm going to bake it, of course. Going to try to make hummus - that's what the chickpeas are for. I also have a recipe for falafel I want to try. Still did not use the leek from last week, so I think I'll start off the week with a potato-leek soup for lunch.

I also purchased today 30 vegan cookies from a local bakery for my students. Milk & Honey Market special-ordered them for me and they came in today. I would tell you the name of the bakery but I'm afraid to open and look at the cookies. I have to keep them until Monday. Since two days were lopped off of spring break due to snow days, I wanted to bring my kids something for having to come to school those days. And I want my kids to know I like them, and what better way to show someone you like them than by giving them cookies. And I wanted cookies.

UPDATE: I braved a look at the cookies. They look so good! There are ten chocolate chip, ten snickerdoodle, and ten oatmeal-cranberry. They were baked at Philly Kitchen Share on South Street by North Port Fishington Cookie Factory (the name is an amalgam of several northeast philly neighborhoods: Northern Liberties, Port Richmond, Fishtown and Kensington). The baker apparently also makes donuts! And the donuts look good!

Monday

Breakfast (6 a.m.): Oatmeal with raw sugar

Lunch (12-ish): Black bean soup (with corn, potatoes, and stewed tomatoes); Macaroni salad (with carrot, celery, and Vegenaise)

Early Dinner/Snack (6 pm): Tofu Hoagie from Fu-Wah

Snack (9 pm): Multi-grain toast with vegan cream cheese

Late Dinner/Snack (10 pm): More Oatmeal, half a grapefruit with agave nectar

Balance

Breakfast: Grains

Lunch: Legumes, Grains, Vegetables

Early Dinner/Snack: Legumes, Vegetables (and grains, if you count corner-store hoagie rolls, which I wouldn't)

Snack: Grains, Legumes (vegan cream cheese is just soybeans, basically)

Late Dinner: Grains, Fruit

If I could do it over:

I would add fruit to breakfast and a fruit snack around 3 pm.

Spring Market

In a few weeks, the Clark Park Farmers' Market will be a buffet of vegetables I had forgotten about. Over the summer, the variety will change weekly. Carrots in every color of the rainbow, roots that look like they came either from outer space or the core of the earth. Greens tinged with purple, red, blue. Patty-pan squash in three colors. Yellow summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers. Potatoes whose skins are a mix of colors shimmering like an oil slick only to hide a completely different pigment underneath in their flesh. Heirloom tomatoes like your granny grew. People will set out buckets of tall flowers that drip water from their stems when you lift them out. And okra! Okra! My favorite meal will again be okra with tomatoes, and crunchy, salted, sauteed green beans on the side like fries.

Yesterday was the first official market of spring, and already the offerings were more diverse. A lady had potted plants ready to set out in your flower beds. She also sold micro-greens, which you see above. These are new to me. They are packed with flavor. I had two sandwiches with these yesterday. They're pretty, too!

Saturday Shopping List

6 red potatoes
12 small sweet onions
1 leek
1 head green butter lettuce
1 head purple butter lettuce
1 head crispy green leaf lettuce
1 bunch kale
1 lb. white beans
a carton of micro-greens (pictured)
10 orange carrots
6 small red carrots
1 pint white mushrooms
1 portobello cap
1 loaf multi-grain bread

Total: about $30

This morning, we went out walking in the sunshine and came back with 2 grapefruits, 2 cinnamon-raisin bagels, a thing of vegan cream cheese, some rolled oats, and a cup of coffee. Good weekend.

Sixty-Five-Cent Meal

I was almost out of everything. Had the perfect potato, a little bit of falafel mix, and some lettuce. Added some oil and salt to the lettuce and used it as a bed for the falafel, which is spicy and good. The falafel was crispy and the lettuce was crunchy. The potato was perfectly al dente. It really came together beautifully. It was a surprise gourmet meal, because when I first went into the kitchen, I just didn't think I had anything. As far as nutrition goes, this had legumes (protein, the garbanzos from the falafel), green vegetable and root vegetable.

Money: The box of falafel mix was $2.39, so this portion was maybe 40 cents. The individual potato was maybe 20 cents. A head of that lettuce is 75 cents, so that portion was maybe a nickel. So about 65 cents for this meal.

Tuesday

Breakfast: Half a grapefruit. Bowl of oat bran with coconut. Black coffee. The coconut is dried coconut from the lady who sells the beans and spices at the farmers' market. It adds fat to the oat bran. This is also good if you want to add a little cocoa powder and raw sugar but I'm not doing that this morning.

Lunch: Sandwich - portobello mushroom marinated in balsamic vinegar, onions, and lettuce, on multi-grain bread. Avocado.

Dinner: Open to suggestions.

Soggy Saturday Market

I've missed a Saturday shopping list or two. Yesterday, we had a Nor'easter. Just like one of the weekend storms we've been accustomed to, but it's warm now, so instead of snow we had 3.11" of rainfall in Philadelphia. We got to the market late, and everyone was packing up early, but we got all of the things we needed.

Saturday Shopping List

At Clark Park:

2 heads of green leaf lettuce

1 head of soft "buttery" purple lettuce

6 red potatoes

4 sweet onions

1 quart of white mushrooms

1 portobello cap

Total: $10 and change

At Milk & Honey:

1 loaf multi-grain bread

2 bagels

Total: $6 and change

This week, I will be making lentil-sweet potato soup to bring for lunch. Also have been living on balsamic-mushroom sandwiches. I will try to convince Mark to make another black-bean soup. I would love to get out to Weaver's Way again and get that Maine seaweed I didn't get last time. Been thinking about it ever since. I had a bunch of junk food yesterday. A slice of tomato pie from the pizza place across the street from the market. Then later in the day, a veggie burger and fries from Lee's. I'm never having that again, by the way. I know I've said that before. It makes me feel so greasy. But there's something about Saturday that demands it. Especially with homework. Greasy food goes great with homework.

Power Plate: Great idea and recipes.

Another very user-friendly site from the Physicians' Committee For Responsible Medicine:

Power Plate dot org

Simple, diverse, non-overwhelming sampling of recipes, with ingredients you are likely to have.

It's this easy.