Pics and Recipies From Sundays Farmers Market Experiment

So, as I said, on Sunday I ventured to the farmers market, and tried to see what I could nab for exactly $10. I grabbed a great ddeal of fresh organic produce and tried to make a fantastic breakfast, lunch and dinner with what I got, using only minimally things in the fridge/cupboard which I did not pick up on sunday. It was a success, and I appologize on my end for the delay but here are the pictures and recipies. Who ever said eating healthy has to be expensive? It does not have to be, but it sure can be time consuming to cook for yourself 3x a day!

(be sure and check out the post on what I grabbed for $10 to understand why I love the market)

SO HERE IS WHAT I MADE

Breakfast:

This was the finished product. (The pastry is not shown, i cut it half diagonally and served it once it was warm!) It included coffee, the melon, a bowl of cherries, and sliced potatoes (not sure wether to call these hash browns or scallop-ish potatoes.

I whipped some cream for the coffee, cut the baby melon, and sliced potatoes and cooked them in my favorite cast iron pot with some garlic, onion and olive oil in my cast iron pot. Simple as that. I ground my own fresh cinnamon for the coffee because it has an awesome flavor all to itself. Garnish was a homegrown tomato.
Total estimated cost:

$3

Lunch: Quinoa Salad

The garbanzo beans and the quinoa came from my cupboard (must haves, for any cupboard- I do have a few cans of beans but I do normally carry fresh black eyed peas, pintos, lentils and garbanzos- but i used canned ones for this recipe due to time constraints). I stole the idea for this salad from food stylist Carrie Ann Purcell, but if you check out her recipe, you can see I took this Idea in a different direction:

Chef Everett's Red Quinoa Salad

1 Cup Red Quinoa-- Uncooked

1 Large Can Garbanzo Beans

5 leaves of Kale- Chopped

1&1/2 C. Fresh Tomatoes- Diced.

3 C. Yellow and Green Summer Squash.

Garlic to taste- one or two cloves.

1/2 C. Purple Onion Diced.

1/2 C. Bell Pepper- Diced.

Olive Oil

Cayenne Pepper, Paprika & Curry Powder- 1/2 tsp each
Cumin 1/4 tsp


STEPS
Cook quinoa. Once finished, place 2 cups of it in large bowl with the garbanzos. In large saucepan with hot oil, sautee squash, onion and bell pepper until almost tender (3-5 minutes) add spices, garlic and kale. Add tomatoes when finished, then mix everything to the large bowl. Salt and pepper to taste.

Dinner: Grilled Fish with a Carmelized Onion and Peach Arugula Salad

Dinner was awesome! At the farmers market, I got a whole fish for $2, and a bunch of Arugula for $1, plus I had a peach, so -- I made caramelized onion and peach Arugula salad, and grilled the fish. I bought it of the asian fish truck (certified organic) but it wasn't gutted and they do not label their fish- so I didn't know what kind of fish it was. No worries, I pulled out my favorite cookbook- the Art of Cooking- made by master renaissance chef Maestro Martino of Como. (Its in the public domain, so do not rush off and buy it unless you want to, view it here) In it he tells how to cook every type of fish. Being a whitefish, I grilled it and served it with apple cider vinegar. When I grilled the fish, I gutted it (only because it I did not catch it myself), scaled it, added some julienned garlic clove and a few olives (olives not from the market), salted the outside and wraped it in foil. It cooked for all of 10 minutes and was served with the leftover red quinoa and a lemon wedge.

So I was proud of myself for successfully making an awesome days worth of food (breakfast, lunch and dinner) for two- All for just $10 and some ingredients already found at home. If your not already shopping the farmers markets - try it for yourself!