Fuller Avenue Good Food Box

Ingredients per person: Takes maybe 30 minutes, including the rice.

Put rice on to cook. You'll need maybe a cup per person, but it's a shame not to make extra for later. If you already have leftover rice you can use it.

3 or 4 green onions *or* 1 small onion, sliced or chopped
1 T fresh rosemary leaves, or to taste, ideally fresh but dry works
1 or 2 cups fresh spinach, washed and torn up, and stir-fry until wilted.

1 cup cooked rice
1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled or cubed

Heat the oil, toss in the onion and rosemary and stir-fry a little over medium heat. Add the spinach and toss to coat it with the oil (you may need more), then cook it a bit longer so it wilts. To make it on the top of the stove, stir in the rice at some point and heat it through. Obviously this will be faster if your rice is freshly-cooked and still hot. Serve and top with the feta, which will melt on top of the hot rice and spinach (if you put the feta in the cooking pot it's hard to clean the pan). If you are making at a proper casserole you can layer it in your baking dish or just mix up everything including the feta and heat it through, however long that takes. I microwave it (sorry) which takes less than two minutes. Grind fresh black pepper on top.

This is beautiful with an orange vegetable like squash or carrots.

	Warm Pear and Mushroom Salad
	Ingredients per person: some leaf lettuce (one salads-worth), 1 pear, 3 or 4 mushrooms, a dollop (a tablespoon? two?) butter or margarine. Wash some leaf lettuce and tear into pieces.* Heat some oil or butter or margarine or whatever you use, about 2 tablespoons per person (I used half oil and half margarine) in a frypan or saucepan. Quarter and core the pear (you can peel it or not, your choice) and slice it into the pan. Ditto the mushooms. Stir-fry them until they are done, which is to your taste, and anything from warmed through to burnt crispy is quite acceptable. I prefer mine just warmed through and the pears a little goldy because it's fast. Toss in the lettuce and toss/mix until the lettuce is coated with the butter and warmed. It will wilt a little, but you don't need to let it actually cook. I figure that cooking anything you can eat raw is mainly a matter getting it to the temperature you want. You can add a splash of apple juice or wine or a tiny bit of vinegar while you are tossing, if you like. Pile it into your salad bowl(s) and serve hot. The pears and mushrooms will be at the bottom of the pan, so they'll end up on the top of your salad when you serve it *I try to do this the night before and put it in my lettuce spinner when I'm putting the kitchen to bed, then it's ready when I want it. It'll keep for a couple of days in the fridge, if I don't use it all, and even after that if it's a little brown, who notices in soup?
	Applesauce
	Ingredients: apples, any kind and any amount. Figure two or three medium for one serving of applesauce. Wash the apples, cut them into quarters and remove the cores. Leave the peel on if they are organic and/or if you have removed any pesticide residue to your satisfaction. The sauce will have much more flavour if you leave the peels on. Cook until soft using medium heat with minimal water. Your choice of stewing, steaming, microwaving or baking -- whatever gets them soft. When the apples are nicely mushy, throw them into your blender, skins and all, and blend on high until smooth. Excellent hot or cold, on its own or as a relish with meals. Spoon some into a bowl and add some yoghurt, stir just enough to make it look marble-y -- a great lunch or late-night snack. Add to baked goods, spoon on hot cereal. You probably know about sprinkling some cinnamon on top, but try using fresh-ground pepper instead some time. A pleasant surprise! Different varieties of apple produce different sauces, each with its own distinctive aroma, colour, texture and taste. And all of them better than anything store-bought. You could become an applesauce connaisseur, or a famous applesauce maker. Or you can just eat it all yourself.
	Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Soup
	Ingredients per person: 2-3 slices bacon (or more or less, to your taste), leaf lettuce, a handful, and the outer leaves are fine for this, 1 tomato (or a half), 3/4 cup to a cup of water, boullion or stock ( canned or cube or powder). I generally use chicken or vegetable, beef's a little to 'brown'. Miso is very nice, if you have that. Cut up the bacon slices into little strips across, maybe 1/2 inch. Put them into a saucepan on high. While the bacon is cooking, chop up the lettuce into shreds. this is very fast when you sort of roll up several leaves together, then slice the roll, jelly-roll style. Give the bacon a frequent stir while you are doing this. When the bacon is almost done, toss in the lettuce. Stir it with the bacon and cook them together until the bacon is done and the lettuce is wilted. Meanwhile, chop up the tomato (how big? into whatever size you'd like to see on your soup spoon). Add the chopped tomato to the pot, then the stock or water and heat to soup temperature and serve. This also works well in a microwave, I make it for one in a Pyrex 2 cup measure, takes maybe 8 minutes start to finish.
	Very Fast Potato Soup
	Ingredients per person: 1 medium potato (or two small), 1 small carrot (or 1/2 large), 1/2 medium onion (or 1 small), 3/4C milk, a dollop (a tablespoon?) butter or margarine. Scrub the potato and cut into 1/2" dice. Scrub and slice the carrot thin. Put into a saucepan with only enough water to cover and a little salt, maybe 1/4 teaspoon. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for about 4 minutes or until tender. Meanwhile, peel and slice the onion into thin rings or semi-rings. (Note: there's enough time to get a grilled cheese sandwich going, too.) When the potatoes are cooked enough mash them up somewhat in the cooking water -- you'll want maybe half of them left in cubes -- add the milk and heat to soup temperature. It'll take less than a minute because the potatoes and water are already hot. Do not boil or it looks awful. About the onions and the butter: I like to put the onion semi-rings into my soup raw, turn off the heat and just let them steep for a minute or two. I then ladle the soup into my soup bowl and put the dollop of butter on top. The butter melts, making a little golden puddle on the top of my soup, and I put lots of fresh-ground pepper on top of it all. The onions are sweet and still crunchy. My husband finds raw onions in his soup shocking, he prefers his onion rings lightly fried in the butter and puts them on the bottom of his soup bowl and then puts his soup on top of that. What can I say? Tastes vary. It took my mom about a half-hour to make this soup. I've got it down to less than ten minutes by cutting up the potatoes much smaller than she did, reducing the cooking water and not draining them, just adding the milk. It works OK in the microwave, although getting the potatoes and the carrots to be done at the same time is not worth the time saves, IMHO. However, the m'wave does a wonderful job of frying the onions.
	Very Fast Cream of Mushroom Soup
	Ingredients per person: 6-8 mushrooms, 3/4 C soya milk (or regular), a dollop (a tablespoon?) butter or margarine, a good splash Worcestershire sauce. Wash the mushrooms and slice them thin. I have a slicer-dicer I bought at the Ex nearly 20 years ago that does a dynamite job of this. Heat the butter or margarine in a saucepan until foamy and add the mushrooms along with a little salt, if you use it, to bring out the juices. Cook stirring frequently until they are the way you like them. They don't have to be really done for soup. Add the soya milk and the Worcestershire, heat to soup temperature and serve. Have done this very successfully in the microwave, too, made it all right in the soup bowl. Works fine for up to three servings, after that a saucepan's faster.
	Hot and Sour Miso Soup (breakfast of samaurai!)
	Ingredients per person: a forkful (=~ 1 tablespoon?) of miso. I like the full-flavoured barley miso for this soup but any kind will do. Some tofu, "a chunk" -- I cut a 1 lb/454 gram pkg into 8 pieces and use one for each bowl of soup I make. A handful or less crunchy greens, preferably something sturdy and strong-flavoured like rapine, bok choy or watercress; water, Chinese black vinegar, sesame oil, hot sauce. Put the forkful of miso into a small soup bowl, add water until it's half full or a little less and microwave for about a minute or a minute and a half. While that's happening, cut the tofu into spoon or chopstick-sized pieces and wash and cut up the greens ditto. When the m'wave beeps take out the bowl and stir the miso with the fork to dissolve it. Put in the tofu and the greens, top up with water as required and m'wave on high until it's soup temperature -- about another minute and a quarter. Add the black vinegar, sesame oil, and hot sauce until it's as hot, sour and sesame-y as you like. My record for this soup is 3 min and 37 seconds.
	Pineapple Smoothie
	Ingredients per person: 1/8 pineapple fresh or frozen, a handful (=~ 1/4 cup?) raw cashew pieces* (quite cheap at Evergreen on Roncesvalles), 1/2 C or so water or you can use some ice cubes if you want it colder, 1 cup soya milk or milk-like substance of your choice. Sweetener if you like, whatever sort you like. Put everything into your blender or VitaMix and blend away. Takes about a minute in my VitaMix, a regular blender will take longer. If your blender won't demolish the cashews satisfactorily, you could use cashew butter instead. Makes a big mug and some over for seconds. Also works with many other fruits, eg. strawberries are nice, apricots are wonderful. I make it with tomatoes and a bit of basil sometimes. Why not? * Pineapple freezes nicely so when I cut up the beast I put the 1/8's I am not using right away into little baggies and freeze them for very fast smoothies later on.
	Dutch Red Cabbage mmm, sweet and sour with apples and rice. Substantial winter fare!
	Ingredients: these amounts will make probably 4 generous servings. If made in a crockpot you should really make double this amount. One of those dishes that's better the second day, easily keeps for a week in the fridge and reheats splendidly. half a red cabbage, shredded coarsely 2 - 3 apples, cored and sliced 2 T brown sugar salt and black pepper 2 cups water 1/2 cup rice, uncooked (any sort will do, but brown rice makes this a really hearty dish) 1/4 C vinegar, more or less to taste 1 T butter or margarine In a oven-proof or microwavable casserole or a crockpot (depending on how you plan to cook it), put a layer of shredded cabbage, a layer of sliced apple, sprinkle on some of the raw rice, repeat until all is used up. Pour the water and vinegar over all and stick the lump of butter on top. Either bake covered in a 300 F oven for about 3 hours, or microwave covered on full power for 5 minutes (until water boils or is close to it), then another 15 minutes on 60% or 70%, then let sit for another 5 min or so or cook in a crockpot on low for about 6 hours (crockpot time is for a double recipe).
	Cole slaw and variations.
	Basically just shredded cabbage mixed with mayonnaise or oil and a bit of vinegar. Nice to add: peanuts and/or peanut butter (you can mix it with the mayo, and maybe a squeeze of lemon or lime and a dash of crushed chillis) raisins or other dried fruit salted mixed nuts, you chop the big ones if you like. chopped or grated apple grated carrot curry powder red and green cabbage shreds One nice combination: shredded white or green cabbage with chopped parsley, redskin peanuts dressed with oil with a touch of vinegar and a sprinkle of sugar. Another nice combination: shredded white or green cabbage, diced apple with the skin on, sliced onions, with mayonnaise.
	Greek-ish Rice and Spinach with Feta Casserole
	Ingredients per person: Takes maybe 30 minutes, including the rice. Put rice on to cook. You'll need maybe a cup per person, but it's a shame not to make extra for later. If you already have leftover rice you can use it. 3 or 4 green onions or 1 small onion, sliced or chopped 1 T fresh rosemary leaves, or to taste, ideally fresh but dry works 1 or 2 cups fresh spinach, washed and torn up, and stir-fry until wilted. 1 cup cooked rice 1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled or cubed Heat the oil, toss in the onion and rosemary and stir-fry a little over medium heat. Add the spinach and toss to coat it with the oil (you may need more), then cook it a bit longer so it wilts. To make it on the top of the stove, stir in the rice at some point and heat it through. Obviously this will be faster if your rice is freshly-cooked and still hot. Serve and top with the feta, which will melt on top of the hot rice and spinach (if you put the feta in the cooking pot it's hard to clean the pan). If you are making at a proper casserole you can layer it in your baking dish or just mix up everything including the feta and heat it through, however long that takes. I microwave it (sorry) which takes less than two minutes. Grind fresh black pepper on top. This is beautiful with an orange vegetable like squash or carrots.
	Thai-style Pork and Bananas -- a stir fry

	Tutti-Fruitti Smoot'ie