Bok Choy, Kohlrabi, and Apple Slaw

You may have noticed that things have been pretty quiet around here lately. We just moved, and I simply couldn't keep up with a blog and a move at the same time. But we are now more or less settled and I'm hoping you'll see a little more of me. I'm writing now from the blissful peace of a coffee shop; my husband is giving me some much needed "me time" after a very busy month!

We are a part of a CSA again this year, and we're loving it! Fresh, local, organic veggies, a great community of people, a farm that cares about urban renewal (one of their locations is an abandoned outlet mall parking lot!). So much to love! There is only one thing I'm not loving: bok choy. It's good in stir fry or fried rice, but I'm not in love with it enough to do that multiple times per week. And I'm the only one who likes it in our family, which means I'm really on bok choy overload.

I've been scouring the internet for ideas, and this one inspired me. I added some kohlrabi that was also lingering in the fridge, and it added a nice crunch. It may not be apple season, but I'm totally okay splurging on some out-of-season organic apples to round out this mostly-seasonal dish.

And it got husband approval. Win!

Bok Choy, Kohlrabi, and Apple Slaw

Ingredients:

1/2 a large head of bok choy, thinly sliced

1 medium kohlrabi, peeled and julienned

1 apple, cored and julienned

1/4 c. sliced green onions (white and green parts)

1/2 cup of plain, whole milk yogurt

1/4 cup of sour cream

2 T. white wine vinegar

1 T. honey

1/2 t. garlic powder

1/2 t. unrefined sea salt

black pepper to taste

1 T. poppy seeds

Combine vegetables in a large bowl. Whisk together remaining ingredients in a small bowl. Toss dressing with vegetables. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes before serving.

(Note: Carrot and celery would be a great addition, as in the original recipe. I didn't have any but I might add some next time.)

What do you like to do with Bok Choy?

**This is part of Wellness Wednesday! **

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Two Dinners in One: Tex-Mex Stuffed Zucchini and "Hamburger Helper"

I love it when you get two meals out of little effort. This stuffed zucchini recipe leaves you with extra filling to eat in whatever manner your taste buds desire. We mixed it with brown rice pasta and called it "Hamburger Helper," but you could also eat it over rice, put it in a quesadilla, or use it as a crepe filling.

The stuffed zucchini was just enough for our family of one hungry dad, one nursing mom, and one almost three year old with a good appetite. Double it for a larger family or for company. The leftover filling was enough to feed us dinner the next day with about 2/3 pound pasta.

Bonus: This is a great way to use up overgrown zucchini!

Four Good Reasons For My Blogging Break

Can you guess which member of our family made this mess?
This is pretty indicative of the state of our lives for the last few months.

I haven't blogged since September 7. But now I'm back! I hope that's good news to someone. :) It's good news to me, because I love sharing what's going on in my kitchen with people, and helping them learn to cook healthy food for their families. It's one of my favorite things!

But here's why I've been strangely silent for almost two months:

Four Good Reasons For My Blogging Break (which just ended)

1. No internet. Yeah, that'll do it. Ok, I sort of had internet, if you count a very weak signal from the neighboring college campus. But using it involved clicking "turn airport off" and "turn airport on" countless times, and then reading unhappy messages like "searching for wireless networks" and "invalid password" (even though it wasn't) and "connection timeout." Totally not worth it for anything more than checking email once in awhile. But after 10 weeks of waiting for AT&T to get their act together, we have working internet again!

2. Husband taking the laptop to class.  It's difficult to blog when your husband has the computer most of the day on most days, even if the mysterious Spirits of the Internet are being kind for once. We do have a desktop, but the toddler likes to climb on my lap while I use it and push buttons. No Go.

3. General Busyness. Between having a husband in seminary, raising a toddler, teaching dance three nights a week, and cooking for our CSA pick-ups, I have barely have time to cook dinner, let alone blog about it. But that perhaps could have been overcome, had it not been for number 4....

4. I'm pregnant! Yay! We are certainly excited, but that doesn't mean I'm bouncing off the walls. I'm beginning my second trimester and I've just. been. so. tired. I think the nausea is mostly behind me, but I'm still can't-get-off-the-couch-tired many days. So I've had to simplify. I haven't been baking everything from scratch like I usually do, or soaking nuts, or soaking grains much of the time, or even planning meals.  For many weeks, meal planning made me nauseous. Until last week or so, I'd been relying on a day-by-day sort of living in which I ask myself that morning, "What sounds good to eat today?" Usually it's only one thing, like cheesy rice with broccoli, or fried eggs with toast, or indian butter chicken. So that's what we go with. And such last-minute meal-making is not very conducive to blogging, especially when I'm running off to teach and I can't find the camera and it's too dark to take a good picture...you get the idea. It wasn't working.

But I'm hoping several things will help me get this blog back into some kind of groove:

--having working internet again (woohoo!)

--my CSA cooking commitment ending for the season

--the end of the first trimester and a hope of renewed energy

--the toddler suddenly taking awesome afternoon naps most days (he has never been a "good sleeper").

That sounds promising to me. I'm hopeful. :)

Here are some things that are in the works for the coming weeks:

--real food snacks for toddlers (and pregnant mothers of toddlers!)

--my pregnancy food diary (including supplements)

--balancing real life with real food, including some thoughts on a Sabbath for your kitchen (and therefore a Sabbath for you!)

--delicious, seasonal, real food recipes using things like squash, greens, and everybody's favorite...root vegetables! (I'm partial to the rutabaga, myself.)
--informative posts about why we eat the way we do, and why you should too! :)

I have no idea what frequency of posts is gonna look like. We're gonna play it by ear and stay balanced. It will help if I start seeing less of that picture at the top of the post, and more of this (did I mention that dirty dishes have been the cause of several meltdowns so far this pregnancy?):

clean dishes!

more clean dishes!

I'm glad to be back!

Cucumbers Out Our Ears!

Our CSA is currently dominated by cucumbers. This week we got 7 cucumbers and 10 pickles. I wanted to make pickles, but we are heading to Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp and I will not be doing any crazy kitchen projects. (I'll be sure to post a picture of the "kitchen" we have at camp!)

So what's a girl (or guy) to do with so many cukes? Well, all kinds of fun stuff! I made the most adorable Cheddar-Herb Cucumber bites for a party at our house Monday night, and didn't take a single picture. But the recipe is below and I assure you they are quite tasty!

But first, a VERY simple recipe involving cucumbers and blueberries! This is what happens when I decide to make a salad 2 minutes before we sit down to eat dinner. It involves no lettuce (takes too long to wash) and only 5 ingredients. And it was the perfect compliment to our quinoa-sweet potato veggie burgers (recipe coming soon).

If your CSA or garden is also swimming in cucumbers, I hope these recipes help you use them up!

Cucumber-Blueberry Salad

1 cucumber, cut into chunks

a handful of blueberries

a splash of white wine vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

chopped fresh basil and mint

Toss together and enjoy!

Cheddar-Herb Cucumber Bites

Mix together the following ingredients, eye-balling the amounts to get the consistency you want:

softened cream cheese

sour cream or plain yogurt

shredded cheddar cheese

chopped fresh dill, basil, and chives (or whatever herbs you want)

salt and pepper to taste

Spread onto slices of cucumbers or pickles. Serve as a snack, appetizer, or side-dish. (It's also great on crackers or on other veggies.)

One more tip for using your cucumbers: add a few slices to your water glass for a refreshing break from plain water. :)

What's your favorite way to use cucumbers?

This is part of Real Food Wednesday and the Gnowfglins Seasonal Recipe Round-up

Word of the day: Kohlrabi

"I'm going to need some help finding the kohlrabi," said the woman standing next to me at our CSA pick-up last week.

I had never heard of kohlrabi either, until joining our CSA last year. But these alien-like bulbs have been a welcome addition to our dinner table. As a part of the cabbage family, they taste a bit like broccoli, but have a texture reminiscent of an apple. They are satisfyingly crisp when eaten raw, which, in my humble opinion, is the best way to eat them.

Here is what wikipedia says about the origin of the name "kohlrabi":

The name comes from the German Kohl ("cabbage") plus Rübe ~ Rabi (Swiss German variant) ("turnip"), because the swollen stem resembles the latter. The same roots are also found in the German word Kohlrübe, which refers to the rutabaga.

The vegetable consists of two main parts: the bulb and the leaves. Both are edible, though the bulb is more commonly eaten than the greens. Here's what I recommend doing with the bulb:

1. Cut off all adjoining stems and peel with a sharp knife. (I cut myself the other day trying to peel one with a peeler. I don't recommend trying that.) Be sure to remove all the tough skin.

2. Cut in half and then slice thinly.

3. Make a homemade dip by combining some plain whole milk yogurt, sour cream (I recommend Daisy brand because it has no additives or hormones, and is affordable; of course grass-fed organic is ideal but not always realistic), and homemade ranch dressing mix.

4. Dip your sliced kohlrabi into your homemade dip! Yum!

You can also chop it and put it in salads, or you can cook it. But I prefer it raw.

Now how about those leaves? I can't stand wasting food, especially nutritious food. So I try to use the greens as well as the bulb. I threw some into my homemade chicken noodle soup the other day. You can use them anywhere you'd use other greens. If you don't know what to do with greens, check out this post I did for Kitchen Stewardship: 5 Easy and Delicious Ways to use up CSA greens.

If you're a part of a CSA this year and you had no idea how to use up your kohlrabi, I hope this helps! If not, go to your local farmers market and pick some up; you won't be disappointed! :)

This is part of Monday Mania.

Herbed Potato Salad

The last two weeks we have received the most lovely red-skinned potatoes from our CSA. So I whipped up this favorite of ours. It's a light, refreshing twist on potato salad that I hope you love as much as we do; it's perfect for a summer picnic. And because it doesn't contain mayonnaise, you don't have to worry about it sitting outside in hot weather!

I like to leave the skin on the potatoes, especially when I'm using potatoes that are organic, locally grown, and beautiful! Use whatever herbs you prefer or have on hand; I've sometimes used mint and lemon balm in addition to or instead of the ones listed below.

Herbed Potato Salad

Ingredients:
6 cups potatoes, cut into cubes
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 c. mini onions (tops and bulbs), minced
¼ c. extra virgin olive oil
2 T. balsamic vinegar
chopped fresh herbs to taste (a few sprigs of each): rosemary, oregano, thyme, parsley
sea salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Place cubed potatoes in a saucepan with water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook until tender when pierced with a fork. Drain.

Combine the potatoes with the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl and stir thoroughly. Taste for salt and add more if necessary. Chill before serving, if desired.

This is part of the Hearth and Soul Blog Hop, Real Food Wednesday, Pennywise Platter Thursday, and Recipe Swap Friday.

Tuscan Style Potato Soup

I like soup any time of the year. Especially when I can use locally grown produce from our CSA. This soup is the perfect comfort food, and is full of healthy fats. Our toddler loves it. But he pretty much loves any soup. He must have a thing for bone broth, which is a key ingredient in all the soups I make. (And it's no wonder! Broth is an excellent food for babies and toddlers!)

So on to the recipe. Eat it up and don't feel one bit guilty about the butter and cream and cheese and bacon. Your body needs saturated fat!

Tuscan Style Potato Soup

Ingredients:

4 T. butter

5 mini onions (bulbs and tops) or one large onion

3 cloves garlic

1 t. salt

freshly ground pepper to taste

1 lb. potatoes, cubed (peeled or not, according to preference)

4 c. chicken broth

1/4-1/2 lb. nitrate-free bacon, cooked and crumbled

1/2 c. whole milk

1/2 c. sour cream (additive-free) or plain yogurt

1 c. grated sharp cheddar

a fistful of fresh parsley, chopped

(optional: a few leaves of kale or swiss chard)

Method:

Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add chopped onions with salt and pepper and cook for a few minutes, until beginning to soften. Add minced garlic and cook a couple minutes longer. Add potatoes and broth. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer and cook until potatoes are tender. Puree all but one cup or so of the mixture in the pot.*

Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine over low heat. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.

If desired, you can add a few leaves of kale or swiss chard to this soup. Chop and add after pureeing the potato mixture, along with the other ingredients. Cook about 10 minutes or until tender. If you want to retain the probiotic qualities of the sour cream or yogurt, add that at the very end.

*A note on pureeing the soup:

The easiest way to do this is with an immersion blender, apparently. Simply set aside one cup of the potato mixture, puree the rest, and add the cup back in. If you do not have an immersion blender (I'm with you), puree in batches in a regular blender, putting the blended soup into another bowl as you go. Leave a cup of the potato mixture un-pureed in the pot, and then pour the pureed soup back in. And then wash the mound of dishes you just created, and tell your husband you want an immersion blender for your birthday, which is coming up in three days. ;)

This is part of Fight Back Friday, Friday Potluck, Food Trip Friday, I'm Lovin' It Friday, and Weekend Gourmet.

How to use up CSA Greens...

Happy Wednesday! Catch me over at Kitchen Stewardship today, talking about how to use up an abundance of CSA greens. I'm thrilled to be featured over there; Katie is one of my favorite bloggers! Tune in soon for a delicious Tuscan Style Potato Soup, because our CSA has an abundance of potatoes at the moment. :)

Brown Rice Salad with Kale and Roasted Chickpeas

This was a hit at our house tonight! In thinking about something to cook for the CSA pick-up this week (read about that here), I remembered something a friend made once in college: brown rice with kale and raisins. The combination of nutty brown rice, slightly bitter greens, and naturally sweet raisins works really well. So I took the idea and ran with it, inspired by this recipe I found. This is a great way to use up your abundance of CSA greens this summer! It would work well with swiss chard, spinach, or beet greens, too.

If you don't LOVE greens, try this recipe. I do love greens, but I hardly noticed them. If you love them, add a little more! Don't forget they cook down.

This recipe may seem complicated at first glance, but most of the steps involve getting something going and all but forgetting about it. While the chickpeas are roasting and the rice is cooking, wash the dishes or play with your toddler. :)

Brown Rice Salad with Kale and Roasted Chickpeas

roasted chickpeas:

1.5 cups cooked chickpeas

1 t. cumin

1 t. chili powder

1 t. olive or coconut oil

salt and pepper to taste

rice:

3/4 cup uncooked brown rice

1.5 cups chicken stock

1/2 t. salt

greens:

3 cups chopped kale or other greens

1 T. coconut oil

2 cloves garlic (I used garlic scapes from last week's CSA pick-up)

a small squirt of thai hot sauce

salt to taste

other ingredients:

1/4 c. chopped onion (or more to taste)

chopped tomato or bell pepper (optional: use when in season)

1/3 c. raisins (eyeball it)

1 T. olive oil

1 T. red wine vinegar

1/2 t. honey

cumin, thai hot sauce, sea salt, and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Roast the chickpeas.

On a baking sheet with sides, toss together the ingredients for the roasted chickpeas. Cook at 400 degrees 25-35 minutes, stirring a couple times during cooking. Cook until browned and a little crispy.

2. Cook the rice.

Meanwhile, get your rice cooking. I soak my rice overnight or for at least 7 hours using this method. If you soak your rice, drain off the soaking liquid before cooking, and use less than 1.5 cups stock since the rice has absorbed some liquid. If not soaking, simply place the rice in a small saucepan with the stock and salt. Bring to a boil, reduce to lowest possible heat, cover, and cook 40-45 minutes (a bit less if soaked).

Or just use 1.5-2 cups of already cooked rice.

3. Cook the greens.

In a cast iron or stainless steel skillet, heat the coconut oil. Add the minced garlic and cook on medium heat a few minutes until it softens. Add a small squirt of Thai hot sauce (depending on how hot you like your food!). Add the washed, stemmed, and chopped kale and stir. Add salt to taste. Cover and cook for a few minutes until wilted and tender.

4. Make the salad.

Whisk together (or combine in a small jar with a screw top) the olive oil, red wine vinegar, and honey. When everything is cooked, combine the chickpeas, rice, greens, and remaining ingredients in a bowl. Pour the dressing over it. Stir, and then taste to check the flavor. Add salt, pepper, hot sauce, and cumin to taste. (If you salted all your other steps, you may not need any salt at the end. But the right amount of salt is a key factor in a successful recipe, so make sure to check!)

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday, Pennywise Platter Thursday, Frugal Food Thursday, and Full Plate Thursday.

White Bean Dip with Garlic Scapes

Yesterday I cooked the first dish of the season for our CSA share from Eighth Day Farm. I'm acting as "chef" for the season, whipping up dishes for members to try, using the veggies they're receiving each particular week. We're hoping this will help people learn what to do with unfamiliar vegetables, and give them some fresh ideas when they get zucchini for the sixth week in a row. :)

The season has started out a bit light, due to heavy rains rotting out a lot of their crops. I feel so bad for these poor farmers who are having a rough start to the season. But it makes me grateful for Community Supported Agriculture; by paying at the beginning of the season, members are supporting the farmers in good times and in bad. You might think, "Whoa, that's risky!" And, it is. It helps when you know and trust your farmer. I know they are working hard and doing their best, and I want to help them make it. Because in this world of industrial farming and depleted soil, we need farmers who are doing what they are doing!

So, despite a table holding only a basket of garlic scapes, I wanted Eighth Day's members to be able to cook something delicious this week.

Hold up, Garlic WHAT?

Garlic Scapes! They are amazing! These fellers shoot out from the garlic plant during the spring and form a gorgeous curlicue. If you harvest them, they help the garlic grow better. They taste like garlic (big surprise) but a bit milder. You can chop them up and use them as you would garlic, in any recipe. Here is a recipe that showcases their delicious pungency without being overpowering. It's very tasty with homemade crackers, which I'll post a recipe for another time.

Notes: Quantities are totally up to you. Taste as you go, and you will have success! Using three or four garlic scapes yields a comfortably strong garlic taste (in my opinion) on the day you make it, and it gets more garlicky over time. If you're not sure you like a strong garlic taste, use one or two.

White Bean Dip with Garlic Scapes

3-4 Garlic Scapes (or a couple cloves of garlic), roughly chopped

Juice of 1 lemon (to taste)

Salt and Pepper to taste, start with 1/2 t. salt and a several grinds of pepper

2 cups cooked white beans (great northern or cannellini)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (to achieve desired consistency)

In your food processor, combine chopped garlic scapes, lemon juice, and salt and pepper. Process until scapes are finely chopped. Add beans and process to combine. Add a few tablespoons of water if it seems dry, and then add enough olive oil to achieve a dip-like consistency. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding more lemon juice, salt, or pepper to taste. Serve with crackers or veggies for dipping.

Have you ever cooked with garlic scapes? What did you think?

This is part of Real Food Wednesday. Check it out for great real food recipes and ideas!

Be Inspired to Eat More Vegetables

I'm not sure if we can call this an easy change. So it's not a part of the Easy Changes You Can Make Today series. But you should check that out, anyway, if you haven't yet. This is more of a lifelong shift in your thinking and lifestyle, and it won't happen overnight. But it is so worthwhile!

This is about vegetables. And eating more of them. And liking it.

Some people just don't like vegetables. And of course it's not as simple as just EATING them, you have to buy them and prepare them and convince your family to eat them, too.

Here's my vegetable story.

I don't think of myself as being super picky as a child, but I didn't like onions, peppers, tomatoes, cauliflower, beets, mushrooms, or summer squash, and I don't think I ever tasted artichokes, avocados, brussels sprouts, kale, swiss chard, bok choi, kohlrabi, turnips, parsnips, rutabaga, sunchokes...or who knows what else (and many of those I didn't taste until last year! I was missin' out!). Once or twice my beet-loving father paid me a quarter to taste a beet. I thought it tasted like dirt. (To my delight, Caedmon LOVES beets. But they make his diapers scary for a few days.) I also had issues with fruit for awhile, so much that my brother would tease me by calling me "Joanna Banana Strawberry Kiwi Fruitbowl Dancer and a Half." (thanks, bro.) I did love bananas and cantaloupe, but that was about it until a friend convinced me to try her orange in third grade. :) I eventually conquered my fear of berries, too.

But it wasn't until I was in college and heard a speaker talking about nutrition that I started liking more vegetables. She told us how nutritious vegetables are for us, and I guess I believed her enough that my mental taste buds changed. This is why I think it is so important to talk to your families about food and nutrition! I'm living proof that your thinking can change your perception of taste! (The speaker was set against animal products, however, so I started drinking soy milk and stopped buying meat...which I wouldn't recommend doing. Now it's raw milk and grass-fed meat for us, and we're sticking with it.)

A friend was visiting a few days ago and as I was cooking lunch she asked, "So, do you have as much trouble eating vegetables as I do?" And I had to think about it. No, I guess I don't have trouble eating vegetables. And here's why: vegetables inspire me.

What?

No, not the vegetables at Meijer, though Meijer does have a pretty good produce section. Not a side of canned peas (sorry, dad) or a "vegetable medley" where the carrots are...spongey? The vegetables that inspire me are the ones that fill the tables at the Holland Farmer's Market. The ones my parents grow in their garden (I dream of being a real gardener like them!). The ones that I load into my reusable shopping bags week after week from the CSA I belong to.

Real people, working in connection with the earth, help these vegetables to grow and produce food that nourishes our bodies. Isn't that amazing?

Oh my. So much to say. Please, if you never have, read The Omnivore's Dilemma. Learn about Polyface Farms (also featured in Food, Inc), where farmer Joel Salatin (he's a little crazy, but he'd tell you that himself) has been an instrument in the process of the land being transformed from desolate to abundantly fertile. It taught me that the hands-off approach that is a part of the green movement (all we humans can do is bad, so just keep your hands off of the earth and we'll all be better off) is seriously not the answer. No, it is God's design that we serve the earth, and if we are responsible and loving, the earth will be better off than it would be if we just left it alone. And think about it: we can't leave it alone! We are utterly dependent on it! But the crazy thing is that it is dependent on us, too! We can help to increase its fertility and diversity, and in return it will give us food to nourish our bodies and minds and families and friendships and economies. Praise God!

Now do you see why vegetables inspire me?

And of course this goes beyond vegetables. This applies to all our food. (At least all our REAL food. Chemically processed food is not inspiring.) But most people don't need to be inspired to eat more cheese or meat or fruit or grains. For some reason, vegetables are the toughest. But I'm fairly convinced that if we are more involved in our vegetables, we will want to eat them. If we realize that there is a miracle involved in a tiny seed growing into a huge plant that bears fruit and feeds us, we might start appreciating their unique flavors and textures a little more.

So here is what I suggest: This summer, find local vegetables. Go to localharvest.org and enter your zipcode. Chances are, someone grows food somewhere nearby. Of course organic is best, but any vegetables are better than no vegetables, and if you read The Omnivore's Dilemma you'll learn that Industrial Organic (the organic produce you get at the grocery store) is not exactly good for the earth (though it is certainly better than "conventionally" grown food). [disclaimer: we DO buy some produce from the grocery store, and I'm okay with that. We just try to get MOST of our fruit and veggies locally and in season.]

If you want to take a leap of faith, join a CSA. WHAT'S A CSA??? It stands for Community Supported Agriculture. You pay a farm a set fee up front and receive a share of what they produce throughout the growing season. You are committing to supporting the people growing your food, and you are also saying, "Even if the weather sucks and some of your crops fail, I still want to support you because I'm grateful that you are growing good food." One thing I like about CSA's is that you are forced to bring home and eat vegetables. Even for a vegetable lover like me, it's kind of overwhelming to go to the market and try to figure out which vegetables to buy for the week. I guess I enjoy having some fixed factors in my meal planning (which is also why I use meal "themes"). Also, many CSAs provide recipes to help people figure out what to do with the vegetables.

And that leads me to my next suggestion to help you on your vegetable-eating journey: Keep reading my blog! This summer, to my utter delight, I have the honor of being a "chef" for our CSA. Each week I'm going to bring a dish for people to taste and an accompanying recipe. I will also be posting the recipes on my blog to benefit anyone who reads it! They will be simple, do-able, yummy recipes to help you learn how to use vegetables that you've never encountered, or help you know what to do when zucchini is coming out your ears. :)

There are also several cookbooks out there that are arranged seasonally to help you make the most of your local vegetables. The one I have the most experience with is Simply In Season, which I definitely recommend. Go to your local library and see what they have! Find one with simple recipes and beautiful pictures. Bring it home and be inspired. And if you end up feeling overwhelmed instead of inspired, keep tuning in to my Easy Changes You Can Make Today series. Any change is better than no change, and you don't have to do it all at once!

What is keeping you from eating more vegetables? What have you enjoyed about eating locally and in season? How have vegetables - or any real food - inspired you?

This post is part of Monday Mania and Real Food Wednesday.