A confession: Although “Fire!” was my first thought, “I should take a picture,” was a close second, just slightly preceding, “Put it out!”

But don’t let that scare you.

There are still a few weeks left of grilling season, in my opinion, and if you’ve never grilled a pizza – let me tell you – it’s marvelous. Not only do you get to avoid roasting your house with the oven on a hot day, but if you love the brick oven style pizza that you can only get at a restaurant, this is as close as you can get at home…without a brick oven in your backyard.

I learned to grill pizza last year from The Happy Housewife, who also had some lovely burnt pizza crust photos on the grill. Take it from us; essential pizza grilling tips:

• Thin-ish crusts, but not too thin
• Keep a close eye on it and follow timing directions
• Small pizzas for flipability
• A thin coat of oil

I have had great success following her directions for pizza on the grill exactly, along with the recipe. The only note I made on the recipe card was “Not too thin!!” after this year’s fiasco dinner.

Sourdough Pizza on the Grill

This year I tried Sarah’s sourdough pizza recipe on the grill, and I can only imagine it would work wonderfully if I didn’t roll it out too thinly. Happy Housewife’s recipe makes six smallish pizzas, so I stretched the sourdough recipe to make four instead of its usual two.

I rolled them out like I do homemade crackers. Crackers! Who rolls pizza dough out as thinly as crackers?! Pshaw. That was not smart. Do not do that.

I like to roll onto something flat, like a cutting board, pizza stone, or silicone baking mat.

We fit two on our grill, side by side. There’s not really an easy way to get them on. Just commit, grab, and flop. Two hands is a good idea. (Although I see someone brilliant commented at the Happy Housewife that you can freeze the rolled out dough 10 minutes and then simply place it on the grill. If only I had room in my freezer for a game like that!)

Grill about 3 minutes on medium with the lid closed. Sometimes you might have to sing the ABCs two or three times if you don’t have a clock nearby. Just stay near the grill!

Brush oil on the top side, then flip. We like to use two spatulas and a prayer to flip the things.

Yes, fast is helpful!

Top the pizzas after another 1-3 minutes on the grill. It’s important to have your toppings ready to go before you put the dough on to pre-cook.

No need to load it down too much. You may have to work around holes in the dough approximately the size of a small goat, especially if you roll the dough out like crackers. (Don’t do that!) If you plan to take pictures of your meal, the chances of it looking aesthetically pleasing plummet. Just so you know. If the crust has more holes than crust, it’s also possible to finish it up right on a baking stone on the grill. Whether you are able to put your pizza directly on the grate or need to use the stone, simply grill on low until melted. It will take longer on the baking stone, but the chances of your dinner falling through the grate dramatically decrease.

Mexican variation: If you have some leftover refried beans around, you can use them instead of sauce, top with peppers, onions, tomatoes (or just salsa) and Mexican cheese, and you’ve got yourself a gourmet pizza to drool over.

This photo is last year’s version. Notice the marked lack of burnt holes? That’s because I didn’t roll out the dough like crackers.

You can also knock off the black parts from the hottest part of your grill that always flares up a bit, and the rest still tastes like summertime in an Italian neighborhood.

I know you want to see this picture (below), don’t you? Just imagine it on the top left of the grill with flames shooting up and Katie shrieking and wondering if she could grab the camera in time…

If you’re up for a culinary adventure, and it’s hot where you live, you’ll love this challenge meal. Pinky swear.

Find the crust recipes here and here. I would add the fresh garlic and Italian seasoning from the Happy Housewife into the sourdough, or at least with the toppings if you forget.

No sourdough starter? I’ve demonstrated my method: How to Make a Sourdough Starter, and you also might be interested in the sourdough eCourse I work with, especially if you are the type of person who likes to see a demonstration and have some hand holding. “Pay What You Can” makes it possible to pick and choose your classes!

Is pizza a healthy food? Figure out using The List: What to Eat, What to Avoid, How to Compromise, one of the summer’s popular posts.

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I’d love to see more of you!  Sign up for a free email subscription or grab my reader feed. You can also follow me on Twitter, get KS for Kindle, or see my Facebook Fan Page.

If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

See my full disclosure statement here.

I’m entered in:

• Kitchen Tip Tuesday at Tammy’s Recipes
• Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop

Hungry for More? Related posts:

1. Sourdough Recipes Galore: Pizza Dough
2. Recipe Connection: Katie’s Frugal Homemade Pizza Sauce
3. Recipe Connection: A Healthy (and Tasty!) Version of Fruit Pizza

Are you ready for some randomness? I often think I should do a Monday Mix-Up like my friend Kelly the Kitchen Kop, but that would be stealing her idea. Well. Your Monday Mission for today is to read this post. For real. It’s still summer vacation in my house!

I’ve got a bunch of random things to share with you, including free stuff, very local sources for raw milk and grassfed meat, some new endeavors for me and a new sponsor for KS. Last, our local school district makes a move in the right direction on the subject of food. Wow!

Raw Milk in Grand Rapids, MI

My milk group just lost a member, which means more driving for each of us. In order to drop out, however, when you live in a state where you must own the cow to drink raw milk, you have to be able to sell your share of the cow. So if you’re in Grand Rapids, MI, and you’re interested in picking up a raw milk share for which you’d have to drive once every five weeks on a Friday, please email me at kitchenstew at gmail.com for more information.

Grassfed Meat in Harrisburg, PA

One of my many dah-ling Sarah readers has a problem: her family doesn’t like grassfed beef. Not a humongous problem, unless you have 115 pounds in your freezer. If you live in or near Harrisburg, PA, and would be interested in purchasing the following local, organic, grassfed beef for $350, please email me for more information:

22 packages hamburger (2 pounds each)
7 packages sirloin steak (2 steaks each)
5 packages t-bone steak (2 steaks each)
6 round roasts (3 large, 3 small)
5 round steaks
8 lb. chip steak
8 lb. dried beef (pre-cured weight)

Where are the Monday Missions?

Someone who kindly took my reader survey told me that she misses the Monday Missions. Awwww… That’s so sweet. The Monday Missions were simply on vacation for the month of August. I thought most people would need a little break from making changes. They will return this Friday.

Yep, Friday, not Monday, because they are confused. They’ve been away for quite some time. I have a very challenging mission for you, since you’re all rested up with a month off. (Hint: I will not wait until pigs fly to finish a certain series which will remain nameless! Did you take the reader survey, by the way? It’s not too late!)

Next week will be one last off-schedule week, a Back-to-School Bonanza week of giveaways, from green lunch packing supplies to homeschool curriculums to cookbooks for your fresh college students. What do you want to hear about for back to school? I’m open to suggestions!

After next week, we’re back to normal here at Kitchen Stewardship. Every Monday will have a Monday Mission, I’ll be doing renegade research, and I’ve got a series to run: “Seeking the Perfect Homemade Whole Wheat Bread.” If you’ve got a favorite recipe, do share the link or the recipe in the comments at this post. Thanks!

If you’re new here in the past month, check out all past Monday Missions here.

Free Cleansing Teleclass

Lisa Byrne, whom you met a few weeks ago here, is at it again. In the midst of the enrollment period for her Designed for Wellness eCourse, a 12-week series to help you balance your life via holistic health counseling, she’s offering a free telecourse and a 3rd edition of her eBook, the Real Food Cleansing Guide.

Phew! How she balances everything, I do not know.

If you’ve already purchases the Real Food Cleansing Guide, you have likely received the third edition in your inbox already. If you haven’t, now is a great time. Here’s Lisa on the exciting news:

Lots of Enrollment!

If you’re caught up in the back-to-school spirit, don’t worry – there are three different opportunities to enroll in online classes, open right now! You can find your balance as a stressed out mom, learn how to incorporate real food in your daily life, or enroll your 12&up kids (or yourself) in a nutrition course based on the principles of Weston A. Price. See all the options at my Online Resources I Love page, a fun place to peruse. UPDATE: 15% OFF code for Kelly’s course! (use katie15)

New Ventures for Katie

I’m very, very pleased to announce that I’m a contributing writer for a new eZine called Life…Your Way, a project of Mandi Ehman.

It just launched today, and I’ll be writing for the Green channel, one of ten hot topics with writers from all over the blogosphere. You may recognize names like Jessica Fisher of Life as Mom, Laura from Organizing Junkie, and my green partner, Emily from Live Renewed. I am so honored to be amongst such fabulous women! The site is still working out some bugs, but I predict it will be a big up-and-coming place to be. You’ll be hearing more from me about Life…Your Way as the month rolls on.

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m also teaching a few lectures for the GNOWFGLINS sourdough eCourse. I’ll let you know when my bread and crackers videos go up! If you sign up and make a payment this month, you get such a cool thank you gift – Erin, one of the other teachers and truly a sourdough extraordinaire, took her starter camping and shares some fun clips with us! If you don’t know Erin, go on over and watch the teacher interview videos (week two, I believe) and then get the camping thank you gift. You will just fall right in love with her! Click HERE for more info.

New Sponsor for KS

I’d like to introduce you to Plan to Eat, KS’s newest sponsor for September. Plan to Eat is a meal planning and recipe organization system that I’m looking forward to getting my hot little hands on! It comes highly recommended from some very good cooks and very organized people around the blogosphere, and I’ll be reviewing it soon. I also am working on getting Kitchen Stewardship recipes loaded into the Plan to Eat database, which would make meal planning with my real food recipes a cinch! A big thank you to Clint at Plan to Eat for helping to keep this site a happier place for me, and thereby you, to be – for free.

eBook Reviews

I’ve been so pleased and honored by what people are saying about my two ebooks, Healthy Snacks to Go and Kitchen Stewardship in the Big Woods: A Family Camping Handbook with Real Food Options. (I call that the family camping handbook for short!) You can read eleven real people’s thoughts on the books here. If you’re a blogger, I almost have my affiliate program ready to share! Make sure I have your email for the invitation.

Grand Rapids Public Schools Go Local!

Although I had a somewhat heated conversation about the value of saturated fats with a dietician for the Grand Rapids Public Schools this summer, I must say I was happily impressed with something in the lunch program’s latest newsletter. All the GRPS milk is coming from a local farm, Country Dairy. Even though it’s a factory farm, they’re at least:

1. going local
2. getting all the milk from one farm and pointing it out to parents
3. going on field trips with the kids to meet “their cows”

Let’s pat GRPS on the back for a big step in the right direction!

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I’d love to see more of you!  Sign up for a free email subscription or grab my reader feed. You can also follow me on Twitter, get KS for Kindle, or see my Facebook Fan Page.

If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

See my full disclosure statement here.

Hungry for More? Related posts:

1. Monday Mission: Examine Your Milk Source
2. Monday Mission: Memorial Day Review Week
3. Monday Mission: Seek Out and Avoid Parabens

Need a potluck or party dish to pass for Labor Day weekend? I got you covered. This recipe is so simple, and so in season, you might be growing the ingredients right in your garden, maybe even incorporated into your landscape gardening, like mine.

I’m generally a little relaxed on the portions, so sometimes I wonder if it comes out the same every time. When I made it last week for dinner and to take camping, I asked my husband, “Is it okay?”

He said, “It’s awesome. This dish is always awesome.”

I’ll take that one at face value.

Recipe: Tomato-Basil Pasta Salad

With garden fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic, extra virgin olive oil and melted cheese, the flavors in this versatile side dish will tickle you in their simplicity and balanced perfection. If you’re an adventurous cook at all, by the second time you make it, you’ll need neither measuring utensils nor a recipe.

Ingredients:

1/4+ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 large or 4 small tomatoes (Romas are great, but any tomato works)salt and pepper to taste
1/2 lb. fettuccine, cooked to package directions
1/4+ cup fresh basil, sliced thinly
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
1-2 cups shredded mozzarella (or any white cheese)
Parmesan cheese (optional)

Method:

Put the water on to boil for the pasta while you warm the olive oil over medium heat in a heavy skillet (I like cast iron). Chop the tomatoes and add to the warm oil, reserving about 1/4 to put on the top fresh. Add a bit of salt and pepper to taste. I like freshly ground pepper myself.

Mince/crush the garlic and set aside for at least five minutes to allow the allicin to develop for maximum nutrition. (Allicin is an antibacterial agent, best consumed raw, but still has health benefits cooked.) While your pasta is cooking and tomatoes are warming, wash, slice or chop fresh basil until you have at least 1/4 cup. More never hurt!Your goal is to add the garlic and basil more or less at the end of the cooking so they just get an impression of warmth, but not more than a minute on the heat. I usually add both just as the timer beeps for the pasta, then drain the pasta and return to the pot. Give the tomato/oil/garlic/basic a good stir and turn off the heat.

Mix the pasta with the tomato mixture, either in one pot or the other or in a large serving bowl. Add shredded cheese immediately and stir well so that it melts. I usually use mozzarella, but I tried Fol Epi when I had a sample from Ile de France Cheese. Excellent. It wasn’t even shredded, just in small cubes.

Top with fresh tomatoes and additional fresh basil for presentation and added flavor. Parmesan cheese is optional but delicious. Sometimes an extra generous drizzle of olive oil makes it just right.

This dish is fantastic served hot for dinner, cold on a picnic, or any which way in between. It survives being transported in a plastic bag in a cooler but looks fancy when topped with fresh tomatoes and basil. It will keep in the refrigerator for about 5 days but is definitely the best the first or second day. (It’s not in the Family Camping Handbook but will likely make an appearance in the second edition.)

A note on pasta: You may be wondering why Katie is using white pasta, seemingly Meijer brand, which I know you can tell by looking at the picture. Well. I’m all about balance here at Kitchen Stewardship, so although I generally soak grains and make homemade, pasta is one item I have yet to tackle. I’m learning a lot of new sourdough recipes through the GNOWFGLINS sourdough eCourse and someday will tackle pasta, maybe with Nourished Kitchen’s sourdough noodles recipe. For now, I’m okay with using store pasta, either white or whole wheat. Neither are perfect, but then again, neither am I.

Got meat? If you’re thinking of compromising and grabbing some quick frozen burgers for a big party, you might want to think again. Check my Facebook Fan Page for my frightening revelation as I packed up some pre-packaged burgs (and a disgusting amount of nitrate-laden meats and white bread products) for my husband’s dozen-man annual camping trip. I do all the food shopping, so at least they have some fruits and veggies, too…but I think I’m feeding him nothing but salads with homemade dressings and pastured eggs next week!

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend! I probably will not post tomorrow or Monday as I’ll be enjoying the long weekend as well! See you next week for more recipes, including the one I set on fire. Also watch for the back-to-school bonanza in two weeks to learn about green and healthy lunch-packing strategies and get a chance to win a super duper Kitchen Stewardship prize package from a slew of sponsors!

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I’d love to see more of you!  Sign up for a free email subscription or grab my reader feed. You can also follow me on Twitter, get KS for Kindle, or see my Facebook Fan Page.

If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

I work with GNOWFGLINS eCourses as a teacher and PR representative. See my full disclosure statement here.

I’m entered in Pennywise Platter Thursday at The Nourishing Gourmet and Life as MOM’s “Feeding a Crowd” Ultimate Recipe swap.

Hungry for More? Related posts:

1. In-Season Recipe Connection: Cabbage Salad with Goat Cheese
2. In-Season Recipe Connection: Sausage, Kale and Bean Soup
3. Recipe Connection: Wanna-be Lasagna Skillet Pasta

The last of the organic gardening series by Rene of Budget Saving Mom:

How To Be Self Sufficient When You Garden:

We try to be pretty self sufficient, and grow most of the fruits and vegetables that we use throughout the year. We also raise our chickens, guineas and ducks which provide meat and eggs throughout the year. There are a few items that we have to buy each year. We are not able to grow enough potatoes, apples, peaches or pears. So, I include room in my budget to purchase these additional foods.

I buy potatoes when I can find them on sale throughout the year. Apples and pears take up more room to grow than I have, and I am very fortunate to live only a couple of hours from the mountains, where we are able to purchase these organically and in bulk each fall at a very reduced price. I dehydrate and freeze this fruit each year. I absolutely love this time of year. My daughters and I can homemade applesauce, apple butter, cinnamon apples and more. We have the best time together. We work for about a week with the apples and pears each fall. It always feels like the beginning of the holiday season, and the house smells so good! (Peaches come in during the summer, and we buy these locally and preserve them while we are preserving the rest of our garden.)

So, how do I ensure that we have enough food to feed our family with the rest of our fruits and vegetables? This is really important to us, because we do actually rely on our garden (and birds), as our main sources of food.

We have many, many berry bushes around our house. I make sure that we harvest all of the gooseberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, huckleberries and strawberries throughout the summer, and then freeze or dehydrate the extras to last throughout the year. We eat berries almost daily in smoothies, so we need quite a few. I also like to use the dehydrated ones in our homemade granola.

I have slowly added plants over the years, until we now have enough berry plants to provide for our family. (Hint: Huckleberries are not my favorite berry (taste wise). However, they grow for months, and produce a HUGE harvest per plant. They are literally one of the first plants that starts producing berries in the spring AND the last plant to stop producing at the end of the summer/early fall. I love the amount of healthy berries that they provide. I use these in my smoothies with a few other berries whose taste I prefer, and it really helps to stretch my other berries.)

For all other fruits and vegetables, I have tracked the produce that is produced for years, and how much our family needs each year. It is important to track how much food you make each year for several years. Why?? It is common to have 2 normal years, followed by a bumper crop year, and followed by a really slow year. As you track the produce that you produce, you will learn how much produce you need to plant to ensure that you have the amount of produce needed. If you are interested in seeing how we keep track of our food, and determine the amount to plant, click here. Also, if you are interested in seeing how we plan our garden, click here.

To learn how to raise your own chickens, you can check out my seven part series about how to raise chickens here. Chickens can be really useful for a garden. You can feed them your vegetable scraps and bugs from the garden. You can also release them after your summer garden. They will eat your weeds and seeds and till your garden for you.

We actually let them into our garden even during the summer months using a chicken tractor, and they slowly work and fertilize the soil for us. They find the bugs that would overwinter underground and eat them, and the soil is so loose, rich and ready for planting after they are finished. Plus, we are able to enjoy organic, range fed eggs for free throughout the year. (After the cost of feed for the chicks.)

A Few More Tips

Drying Herbs Without A Dehydrator:

Organic dried herbs can be expensive to buy. However, it is REALLY easy to dehydrate and preserve your herbs that you grow during the summer. Go here to check out how to dehydrate and preserve your herbs without a dehydrator.

Succession Gardening For Small Gardens:

If you are growing a garden in a small area, succession gardening is a great way to grow more produce throughout the year. You just plant produce throughout the year. For example in the spring, plant your peas and other cool weather plants, then pull those up and plant a summer garden. Pull up your summer garden and plant your fall and winter garden. I love using succession gardening, and in the area of the country where I live, I am able to enjoy fresh vegetables throughout the year.

How To Make Newspaper Pots

When you are starting your seedlings, a very economical, easy and green way to make pots, is through making newspaper pots. When you are ready to plant your seedling you just pull off the bottom of your pot, and plant them in the ground. You can check out my video tutorial about how to make newspaper pots here.

How To Use Cornmeal to Control Weeds & Attract Good Worms:

This is a pretty neat trick to help your plants really thrive. Check out how to use cornmeal to attract good worms and keep out the weeds around your plants here.

Rene is due any day now with a baby boy and is on total bed rest, I believe. She’s helping with the preserving as much as she can from a sitting position – this gal is dedicated! Do say a prayer for her and her little one to be born, David. Thank you!

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I’d love to see more of you!  Sign up for a free email subscription or grab my reader feed. You can also follow me on Twitter, get KS for Kindle, or see my Facebook Fan Page.

If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

If you’ve missed the rest of the organic gardening series from Rene of Budget Saving Mom, click here to catch up.

Hungry for More? Related posts:

1. Organic Gardening Series: How to and Benefits of Container Gardening
2. Organic Gardening Series: How to and Benefits of Landscape Gardening
3. Organic Gardening Series: How to Plant Just About Everything (for Next Year)

I’ve truly enjoyed getting to know Lisa Byrne this year, and I’m very excited to help her promote her eCourse, Designed for Wellness. Although all the eCourses by bloggers are very professional and well done, Lisa’s stands out from the crowd in that she’s certified as an holistic health counselor by the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. I’ve priced out consultation sessions with IIN trained health counselors before, and they generally run at least $600 for six months of bi-monthly or monthly sessions (or double that…but who’s counting, right?). Click HERE to see more about Designed for Wellness. You’ll be learning so much in this 12-week course, including:

• Eat the perfect foods for your body in order to feel your best

• Get crystal clear strategies that make taking care of yourself a breeze in a busy lifestyle

• Make space in your life to focus on yourself and get your own inner house in order

• Learn the “golden rule” of every well-cared for woman

• Understand what your body is telling you and never fight against your nature again

Although you won’t have one-on-one sessions with Lisa, there is an interactive forum where you can ask questions as well as interact with fellow students in the course to get encouragement from other moms, PLUS Lisa’s entire philosophy is centered around helping you find the strategies that work best for you as an individual, so it’s not like you’ll be trying to fit a mold in any way.

Registration closes September 17th OR when the class is full (Lisa wants to be able to give enough attention to each mom involved, so she’s not taking unlimited numbers!) for the beginning of the class on the 18th. You’ll definitely want to click HERE to read a more detailed course description, learn about Lisa Byrne, and hear the truly, truly fantastic reviews from her 4-week “Stress Cure” eCourse offered this summer.

from Lisa, on what the eCourse will provide:

It is for moms who have their plates full and feel drained and exhausted at  the end of the day, but want to feel the freshness of true energy again…

It’s for moms who are ready to put themselves back on their list of priorities, while not being expected to check out of their lives and responsibilities in order to make those shifts…

For moms who want more than to lose a few pounds only to gain them back- but want a sustainable true way to nourish their body back to their ideal weight– and ideal way of feeling…

It’s for moms who want the clarity of an uncluttered mind, the ease of balanced moods and a deeper sense of knowing themselves and how to best care for their bodies…

I’m not sure if I could describe a more fitting course for KS readers, who are generally here to “find the balance,” as the tagline at the top of the page proclaims. Holistic health is all about finding your balance, not trying to fit life into a box with one descriptive term on it, nor splitting life up into separate boxes, each with their own category. That’s just not realistic. We kitchen stewards live in the real world, where pressures come at us wearing many hats and masks, all in the same day hour.

I don’t think you should take this course just because it sounds interesting, though. I do believe that moms in need should be the first to sign up…the kind of mom who is always tired, who loses patience with their kids despite their best intentions, whose mind feels scattered and disconnected, and who is always giving to others without taking care of herself…

Wait a minute.

Um. Wasn’t the post “all about Katie” a few weeks ago when I was turning 30? That sounds kind of…familiar…

Would y’all mind if I skipped a few blog posts each week for 12 weeks so I can take the course, too? 

One last thing – I will be honest that this course is bit more pricey than some others I’ve seen in the blogosphere. I’ll let Lisa break the news to you exactly how much (click HERE for details), but I do want to remind you that Lisa Byrne is a trained professional with all sorts of neato letters after her name. The course is modeled on her signature personal coaching programs, just online and more flexible. You get what you pay for, and in this case, perhaps even more so.
To learn more details about the course and hear what other women are saying about Lisa’s courses, check out the Designed for Wellness page HERE. Registration will be rolling until Sept 17 or until class is filled.

Sale Through Wednesday…

A random note: NaturOli, the company that sells the soap nuts I use for laundry, is offering free shipping on orders over $55 through September 8th AND 10% off with the coupon code extra10off through September 1st. They also have some new reduced prices and package deals that will allow you to try a bunch of new natural personal products for not so much cash. Click here for laundry soap nuts and here for the rest of the store. Don’t forget to use that coupon code!

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I’d love to see more of you!  Sign up for a free email subscription or grab my reader feed. You can also follow me on Twitter, get KS for Kindle, or see my Facebook Fan Page.

If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate for Lisa Byrne, which means I’ll earn a commission on any sales through links on this page. I love helping out my fellow bloggers, and the love flows both ways! See my full disclosure statement here.

Hungry for More? Related posts:

1. A Monday Morning Cup of Coffee with Lisa Byrne

How do you get nutritious food that tastes amazing? For me, I visit my dearest friend.  You see, I can tell you how to make a nutrient-dense meal, and my friend and her roommate are both connoisseurs of great flavors and fine cooking. The complement is perfect. I had the rare pleasure of visiting them all the way in St. Paul, Minnesota last weekend, and let me tell you: there were many-splendored feasts of all kinds.

Not only did we get to cook together a little, but we spent two hours at the local Farmer’s Market (yes, this is what I do for fun even when I can’t buy any produce – she made a Farmer’s Market Bingo for 5-year-old Paul that I hope to offer as a free download sometime soon); had an amazing dinner at a local restaurant that served grassfed beef and had chicken and duck liver pate on the menu in two places, which pretty much tells you everything; discovered a tiny bakery that only makes traditional sourdough bread with spelt and rye (I had a conversation with the owner about sourdough rise times, coconut oil, and soaking grains, oh, yes I did!); and relished the fact that at midnight, we were flipping through recipes and talking about food.

Above are our meals out Saturday night. A-maze-ing. I truly savored every bite (and not only because no one asked me to refill their milk). My first experience with fennel, and I’m a big fan as it turns out!

These girls are amazing: they threw a St. Joseph’s Feast Day dinner party that would make St. Joseph himself proud (and satisfied and nourished, too!). Someday I’m going to get them to guest post about how they throw a dinner party…maybe a week-long series with a wine pairing lesson.

Vacations and kindred spirits do a soul good! (And so does four hours of alone time on a Sunday afternoon, during which I managed to eat lunch, go for a bike ride, shop at my favorite spice store, read a spiritual book and a food book while laying in the sun at a park, go for a half hour walk, visit the cathedral to pray, chat with a friend on the phone, AND lay down for a 20 minute rest. I kid you not. It’s amazing what a mom can do when she has no kids around!)

I also had the pleasure of meeting Micaela Preston, author of Practically Green and Mindful Momma, in real life. We “talked shop” while our boys played on the most incredible playground I’ve ever seen…and neither of us took a picture. What kind of a blogger meets another blogger and doesn’t take a picture? (The distracted kind who like to talk. Me!)

But I digress. I’m seriously digressing. This post is supposed to be about brussel sprouts. Brussels sprouts? Apparently they’re “Brussels sprouts,” as a red line spell checker and a Swagbucks search just taught me. Huh. Now I’ve learned something new.

I don’t remember when I learned what Brussels sprouts (they sure sound like “brussel sprouts”!) actually looked like, but I’m pretty sure I was a full grown adult. I always thought the famed sprouts of hated childhood fare were the little sprouts on a salad bar and proudly proclaimed that I liked them.

Who knew they look like little tiny cabbages on a stick?

They taste like cabbage, a little bit, and they’re actually divine when properly prepared. This recipe is my friend Cheryl’s standby, which she will make every week until Brussels sprouts go out of season at the market. It’s from a cookbook called Simple something-or-other….but that’s not very helpful. Perhaps she’ll help me with the title and I can edit that out. Seriously Simple.

Recipe: Tasty Brussels Sprouts

1. Drizzle some olive oil in a skillet.  Add a pat of butter and heat both on medium.

2. Slice your sprouts in half lengthwise and arrange face-down in the pan.

3. Once they begin to brown, use a spatula to mix them up.  (I used to turn them all individually to get both sides, but this is lots of unnecessary work.) The cookbook says it’s all about the browning, that this is the step that takes a hated childhood side veg and vaults it to its spotlight placement.

4. Add 1/4-1/2 cup chicken broth and a pinch of sugar (less than a Tablespoon).

5. Grind on some salt and pepper.

6. Cook on medium high one minute.

7. Cover and cook two more minutes.

8. Uncover and turn the heat up a bit to get rid of the excess liquid and finish the carmelization.

9. Serve.  Mmm…mmm…good!

No brussel sprouts for your kids? What ARE you going to pack in their lunches? Find TONS of ideas by clicking here: Healthy Lunch Packing Ideas.

Be honest now…you’re salivating over these pictures of Brussels sprouts, aren’t you? They look SO good! I am getting better at food photography, in spite of my ancient camera (pats self on back…taking care not to drop said camera…again).

If you’re not sure how to pick great Brussels’ sprouts, talk to your local farmer at the Farmer’s Market. Use these 10 Questions to Ask Your Farmer as a guide to strike up a conversation!

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I’d love to see more of you!  Sign up for a free email subscription or grab my reader feed. You can also follow me on Twitter, get KS for Kindle, or see my Facebook Fan Page.

If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

There are affiliate links in this post. See my full disclosure statement here.

I’m entered in Pennywise Platter Thursday at The Nourishing Gourmet and Vegetarian Foodie Fridays at breastfeedingmomsunite.com and What’s on Your Plate at Good Cheap Eats.

Hungry for More? Related posts:

1. In-Season Recipe Connection: Tomato Basil Pasta Salad
2. In-Season Recipe Connection: Mexican Stuffed Peppers
3. In-Season Recipe Connection: Grilled Pizza (Sourdough Option)

You want to make homemade green cleaners, but you’re not sure how to fit it in your schedule? I’m dishing out at Simple Organic today about my green cleaner routines (which really, are hardly time-consuming enough to even call a routine). Find the encouragement you need to get your green cleaners in order HERE:

There’s always so much I want to do for my family, and sometimes I just get overwhelmed and can’t possibly add “one more thing!” to the list. Know the feeling?

If you’ve been tempted to move to greener cleaners but just can’t take the plunge because you’re worried about the time it will take, let me ease your anxiety.

You don’t have to set aside a time to “make” homemade cleaners or even think of putting it on your list, anymore than you would write “open new bottle of Windex” on your to-do list. You wouldn’t. You’d simply grab one from the linen closet when your Windex bottle ran dry, or add it to your grocery list.

It’s all the same with homemade cleaners, if you keep it simple.

Click HERE to read more…

In Other News…

• My friend Amy at The Finer Things in Life is having a new little one this fall, and Donielle at Naturally Knocked Up is hosting a Virtual Baby Shower for her!
  
  First, this is such a cool idea. Second, they’ve lined up a slew of very. very. cool. giveaways, including a Moby Wrap (my ultimate favorite baby carrier, click here too see it in my Baby Gear category), a nursing tank, and others being added every day. Click here to join in!
• This week’s GNOWFGLINS sourdough eCourse lesson is up! I totally need to find time to sit at the feet of the master and learn this spelt sourdough bread – Wardeh makes cinnamon swirl loaves, hamburger buns, and about every other variation of bread you could think of. I have yet to do a sourdough bun…but I’m willing to learn!

  Enrollment is open all the time, so you can take the classes at your leisure and catch up on sourdough tortillas, cakes, and no-knead sourdough bread. The Pay What You Can philosophy allows you to pay after you view the course, based on the value of what you learn — plus you can simply take the weeks that interest you and skip the others! Click HERE to sign up today!

• My latest reason for loving MadeOn Hard Lotion’s three-ingredient lotion bar? Airplane travel. It was lovely to be able to just pack my normal lotion without worrying about a 3-ounce or less bottle of a liquid lotion when I visited my dearest friend in Minnesota last weekend. (We actually went to a store that sells REAL sourdough bread! Can you believe it? Of course I had a lengthy conversation with the owner…)

  MadeOn’s new products also include hair butter and a diaper cream (still in the works, I believe). I’m starting to think my frizzy "no ‘poo" hair might need a little "buddah" instead of just apple cider vinegar conditioner. I’ll let you know if I try it! Click here to order or read about the ingredients you could eat!

• Have you checked out Lisa Byrne’s eCourse called Designed for Wellness yet? I’m so excited to see the extension of her Stress Cure 4-week free eCourse from this summer. As a certified holistic health counselor, Lisa is sharing so much knowledge and personal attention in this course. You can read her course description HERE or see more of what I think at my Online Resources I Love page.
• One more fun sale to be aware of: NaturOli, the company that sells the soap nuts I use for laundry, is offering free shipping on orders over $55 through September 8th AND 10% off with the coupon code extra10off through September 1st. They also have some new reduced prices and package deals that will allow you to try a bunch of new natural personal products for not so much cash. Click here for laundry soap nuts and here for the rest of the store. Don’t forget to use that coupon code!

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I’d love to see more of you!  Sign up for a free email subscription or grab my reader feed. You can also follow me on Twitter, get KS for Kindle, or see my Facebook Fan Page.

If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

Photo by Rowdy Kittens

Disclosure: I am a teacher in the sourdough eCourse and make some commissions when you pay within the first month after clicking through from KS. MadeOn is a paid advertiser receiving their complimentary mention for the month, and there are a few other affiliate links in this post. Thanks!

Hungry for More? Related posts:

1. Monday Mission: Green Cleaners Resolutions
2. Monday Mission: Try Something New (Green Tea, Pomegranate, Artichoke, Cranberry Juice)
3. Simple Homemade Gifts: Healthy Salad Dressings and More

I just can’t stop making soup, even when it’s ninety degrees outside. You may think of soup as purely a winter thing, but with all the fresh produce coming into my house (from the Farmer’s Market…remember, the organic gardening series were all guest posts!) I can’t help but make some of my favorites. 

This soup is fantastic in the winter, too, and often gets made when spinach is abundantly on sale in the grocery store (spinach makes a great substitute for the kale). However, it’s the dipping sandwiches that make this soup really special, and any tomato found in a grocery store is less than subpar. It’s got to be a summer thing.

(For other ideas to include broth and/or beans in your summer fare check out this post:  Ways to Use Broth and Beans in the Summer)

Recipe: Sausage, Bean and Kale Soup

(Recipe by Rachael Ray)

Ingredients

2 Tbs Extra-virgin olive oil …and when is someone going to tell RR that EVOO is not very stable for sauteeing?!?
1/2 or 1 lb. bulk Italian sweet or hot sausage (can use roll sausage)
1 medium onion, chopped
2-3 carrots, chopped
1 large potato, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bay leaf
2 cans white beans, drained and rinsed
salt and pepper
4 c. fresh kale (or other leafy green like spinach)
2 quarts chicken broth or stock
Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Romano, to pass at table

Method:

Heat medium soup pot over medium-high heat (medium-low if using EVOO!).  Add the oil and sausage and brown.  Add veggies, bay leaf and beans.  Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cook 5 minutes to soften veggies.  Add greens and wilt.  Add stock and cover.  Raise heat and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes.  Serve with grated cheese for topping.

Recipe Notes:

• Any ground meat can be transformed into homemade sausage with the right seasoning blend. Adjust spice to taste with cayenne.
  
• You can leave the peels on the potatoes for nutrients, especially if you have organic.
• Allow the crushed garlic to rest for 7 minutes before heating for optimal health benefits; don’t overcook.
  
• I always encourage dry beans when you can; see how to cook them. For this recipe, you can use anywhere from 3-5 cups of cooked white beans. I make the whole bag and simply store any leftovers in the freezer!
  
• Of course you’re going to use homemade chicken stock, without question, right?

The Dipper

See that dip? It’s truly the sandwich that takes a good soup up to “great.” Layer sliced tomato, mozzarella cheese, and fresh basil (or alternately, a spread of pesto) on a sandwich. Brush the outsides with EVOO, either heated gently with fresh crushed garlic in a frying pan first, or take the easy route and use EVOO and garlic powder.

Grill like you would any grilled cheese OR on a George Foreman like this chicken wrap, and prepare to be amazed at what happens when grilled cheese grows up. It gets sophisticated. The way the flavors blend together with the soup is simply divine.

Have you seen my new eBook page? Click HERE to read new reviews of both books: Healthy Snacks to Go and the Family Camping Handbook. And be sure to check out the new Designed for Wellness eCourse, for busy moms to get their balance from food to sleep to stress! Lisa Byrne, holistic health counselor, dished an interview with me yesterday.

What to do with the rest of the sausage:

• Sausage Spinach Pasta Toss
• Sausage Zucchini Bake

Other Summer Soup Recipes:

• Cream of Vegetable Soup
• Garlic Soup
• Katie’s Simple Cabbage Soup with Secret Super Food

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I’d love to see more of you!  Sign up for a free email subscription or grab my reader feed. You can also follow me on Twitter, get KS for Kindle, or see my Facebook Fan Page.

If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

I’m entered in Real Food Wednesday!

Hungry for More? Related posts:

1. Recipe Connection: Sausage, Bean and Kale Soup
2. In-Season Recipe Connection: Mexican Stuffed Peppers
3. Recipe Connection: Sausage Zucchini Bake

Happy Monday Mornin’!

I’m absolutely delighted to invite you to sit down at a virtual table with a virtual cup of…whatever you drink in the morning (I’m a water gal, myself)…with me and Lisa Byrne of the Well Grounded Life and Designed for Wellness. I’m acquainted with Lisa through our work with Simple Living Media and Simple Mom, and I must say, it’s such a treat to bump into another real food blogger with whom I haven’t previously been acquainted.

Sometimes it’s easy to believe that there are just twenty or so people blogging about whole, traditional foods who don’t trust the low-fat food pyramid. In the wide world of the Internet, certainly there are always more fish in the sea! I’m very pleased to introduce you to Lisa. Make yourself comfortable; stay a while; let’s get to know each other.

I asked Lisa some interview questions, and she took time out of preparing for her upcoming eCourse, Designed for Wellness, to have a chat with me.

Kitchen Stewardship: You released a free eBook about breaking the sugar habit, which may or may not have made me feel a little guilty for the love of sweets I may or may not be admitting to here. What’s your personal “sweets” history? Did you have a turning point when you decided to break the sugar habit, or was it a gradual shift?

Lisa Byrne: Oh, Katie!  We totally do NO guilt here!

So my personal sweets history– well, really isn’t “history” because I still enjoy some sweets in my life.

That being said, I used to have much more intense sugar cravings than I ever do now. I can remember a time when a pint of  Ben and Jerry’s ice cream was a single serving– and that would often be many days in a row   Or when I’d have candy daily or some kind of high refined sugary thing almost every day– sometimes many times a day.

The true shift for me happened gradually.  I say true shift because, I also used to go on stretches where I would ban anything sweet to eat– and then, predictably the will power would fail and I’d come intensely back into the over-consumption mode.  It really is just basic psychology of saying no to something for too long generating a whole lot of interest and energy toward that thing.

Somehow, organically, I began to simply get reacquainted with my body. I began to really listen and pay attention.  I began to actually taste what I was eating.  This was probably the first step in even realizing that I had an unhealthy relationship with sugar.

The next step was to not make sugar forbidden.  And instead I started simply focusing way more on bringing foods that made me feel great and energized and clean into my diet.  Later when I trained as a health coach this concept was termed “crowding out”, but I had done it for many years, and I knew how powerful it was and how much it really worked.

Focus on bringing good in. Pay attention to how things actually make you feel without judgment.  Identify if you are using food as a replacement for something– and then fill that thing with something more appropriate.

I know this seems to simplify the issue.  I also know that sugar issues have deep physiological strongholds on our body as well– and that there are many things we can do nutritionally to help break those physical addictions.  But if we don’t tend to the psychological reasons as well, the issues are never truly resolved.

KS: I had no time to take your amazing free stress eCourse, because, of course, I’m not stressed out at all. Ahem. Actually, I’d love the cliff’s notes! Do you have a “3 best tips” for moms to reduce their stress throughout the day?

Lisa: Great question, and yet, I’ll have to answer a slightly different one. I can share with you what I’ve come to learn about myself and how to reduce my stress.

One of the things the course did was take you through a process that allows you to create the toolbox that works for you in terms of reducing your stress and preventing it from the get go.  So while I could list out 3 really good tips “in general”, what is truly life changing is when you take the time to determine what YOUR three best tips are — and how to make sure you can use them effectively in the life you are living.

When it comes to stress and getting into a stress spiral, there are a couple things I tend to do.  I almost always make sure I’m simply not hungry. It’s a big one for me, when I let myself get famished or poorly fed for too long, stress is one of the first things that take over.  So I’ll grab some kind of substantial food– for me I’ve found that tends to be something that has healthy fats and some protein in it.

The next thing I do is check in with what thoughts are running through my mind.  I often need to disarm negative thoughts patterns and replace them with more true and helpful thoughts.

Finally, if my stress issue seems to be feeding off of my kid’s and their actions or reactions to me– then I purposefully get down to their level, quiet my voice, soften my eyes when I speak to them and let them know I want our day to go differently. I may simply add some lightness to the situation with a tickle or a silly face– or I may need to ask them for a hug and apologize for how I’ve acted.

I have other things too– but those three I tend to use most often!

KS: What are your qualifications/certifications for teaching the eCourse? Can you explain a little about your professional training?

Lisa: Well, I have a background full of science.  My undergrad degree is from Cal Poly State University in Biochemistry with a minor in Nutrition and Metabolism.

In college I was on the pre-med track and volunteered in Kenya, Tanzania and Guatemala doing work in the area of health and nutrition with communities of women and farmers.   These experiences led me to pursue public health instead of medicine and I earned my MPH in Social and Behavioral Studies from Boston University.

But those experiences also were the foundations of my deep beliefs in traditional, cultural wisdom as well as knowing that true health stems not from managing our disease, but from increasing our wellness through taking excellent care of ourselves.

Too many people today are scattered, exhausted and on the brink of serious illness because their lifestyles are not in balance– and when I see other Moms like this my heart literally aches, because I know how difficult it is to raise children and keep yourself cared for as well.

This passion led me to the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in NYC where I became certified as a holistic health counselor.  I’m doing the work I love and that has tremendous meaning and value to me.  It allows me to stay at home with my children and still grow and contribute in the world…and teach eCourses like Designed for Wellness.

KS: I’m very curious about your professional practice outside the Internet. Can you tell us about what your job entails as an holistic health counselor?

Lisa: Well, I only began my blog (and so the internet part of my business) about a year and a half ago– and that’s because I landed the health columnist position at Simple Mom!

I began holistic health coaching solely in person.  I would lead individuals through coaching programs – either face to face or via phone consulting, teach classes in the community, lead workshops and host a community TV show on healthy living.

Once we began having lots of little ones (I had three kids in four years), I knew that raising my family and staying home was a top priority and that it was going to take the lion’s share of my time and energy.

What I didn’t expect, though, was the early struggle I felt toward finding a way to keep my own passions and interests alive and growing while devoting so much of my time and life to raising my children.

What I learned about myself is that I needed to keep creating and contributing to the world the gifts and passions I had in some way or I was simply not being the best person I could be, which directly related to the mother and wife I was being.

So I intentionally chose to shift my career path in a way that connected me to other mothers, had tremendous flexibility, and focused on the things I enjoy most in life, which was holistic nutrition and wellness.  After starting the blog, it seemed clear that developing online courses and coaching opportunities was a perfect fit.

In so many ways keeping this part of me alive is helping me live balanced, healthier and inspired.  And these are all the things I want for my children…things I want to be modeling for my children.

KS: Let’s talk food. I know you have a whole eBook on using Real Food to cleanse your system of toxins and get it whipped into shape, and I’d love to hear about your food journey. How did you get introduced to/trained in the real food philosophy? What’s your basic balance of foods that you want to make sure you get every day?

Lisa: I would have to say that I first got convicted to the philosophy of real food through my faith.

Way back before I had ever heard of the term Real Food or traditional wisdom, I became convicted (in awe) of the wonders of our body. We really are brilliant beyond imagination.  The functions inside every cell of our body are like a whole universe happening in order to keep us alive and remove danger from our systems.  It’s incredible.  And the more I studied our body the clearer it was that nature provides foods perfectly suited to meet all our needs, heal our imbalances, and keep us resilient and strong.

Because I believe the same Creator created us and created what we needed to stay well, the concept of real foods and our ability to determine how best to prepare those foods by knowing our bodies and collectively gaining wisdom passed down traditionally, was a simple extension of my faith.  And it’s actually where I got the name for the course Designed for Wellness!

Katie, thank you so much for having me here at your wonderful blog home.  It is such an honor to be interviewed by you!  I love the work you do and the consistently incredible quality of information you provide!

I just love this gal more and more every time I read something she’s written. She had an absolutely inspired article at Simple Mom this month about avoiding the “short order cook” temptation as a mother of many children with varying tastes. I’ll share more with you in coming weeks about the new eCourse, but for now…thanks for getting to know Lisa Byrne with me. It’s been a delight!

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I’d love to see more of you!  Sign up for a free email subscription or grab my reader feed. You can also follow me on Twitter, get KS for Kindle, or see my Facebook Fan Page.

If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

Disclosure: You bet I’m an affiliate of Lisa Byrne’s! She and I were talking about interviewing each other even before I knew she had an eCourse coming…but I’m absolutely thrilled to help her promote her work. It’s exciting to have a trained holistic health counselor working with moms online! Oh, right…a disclaimer is supposed to tell you that I will make a commission off any sales from these links. But that’s not really why I interviewed Lisa.

Hungry for More? Related posts:

1. Monday Mission: It’s Organizing Week
2. Monday Mission: Use Less Refined Sugar
3. Monday Mission: Revisiting Super Foods

I’m not usually a fancy cheese girl.

It tantalizes me, really, and I’ve always loved raising my status in a group by going bold and ordering a meal with goat cheese in a restaurant. Other than goat cheese and feta, however, my cheese experience pretty much begins with cheddar and ends with mozzarella.

When Ile de France Cheese offered to send me some samples, I wasn’t even sure what to ask for. I got goat cheese, brie, Fol Epi (???), and some very, very stinky cheese that I gave away to Jen at Big Binder Blog, who really likes stinky cheese.

I was seriously intimidated.

In case you haven’t noticed, my recipes all use…cheddar or mozzarella. Have I said that before? Repeating myself if a bit like the cheese selection in my refrigerator…

I did manage to use all the cheese, and in spite of my fears, I enjoyed experimenting, although I didn’t go very far outside my comfort zone. I mainly adapted recipes I already had to include fancier cheese. Just goes to show you don’t have to try something radically new to try something new.

I’m working on focusing on in-season produce this month, since the Farmer’s Markets are bursting with fresh veggies here in Michigan, where the growing season has finally caught up to the eating season.

Cabbage.

Cabbages can be huge, especially if you always go for the biggest ones to get your money’s worth when they’re priced individually instead of by the pound. Sometimes it’s hard to know how to use the whole thing when you’re not a sauerkraut maker. (Pity I’m not; my 100% Polish grandmother used to have a fifteen-gallon crock to make hers in. Isn’t that fabulous?)

I like using about half to make Simple Cabbage Soup with Secret Super Food, and the rest for Beef and Cabbage Pockets from The Nourishing Gourmet. However, it’s really nice to have more than two recipes for a massive head of cabbage (which is actually pretty healthy, not like iceberg lettuce like I used to think).

Recipe: Cabbage Salad with Goat Cheese (or Feta)

This simple salad goes together in minutes and is a welcome change from a lettuce salad each night at dinner. Cool, crisp, with a little bite, cabbage salad will refresh you, even if you don’t like coleslaw!

Ingredients:

1/4 head cabbage (or less)
2-3 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
1/2-1 Tbs. balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic, crushed
salt
dill
goat cheese (or feta)
optional: Add sunflower seeds and/or shredded carrots for color if you’re serving a crowd.

Method:

Shred cabbage with a sharp knife. Drizzle EVOO and vinegar on top and mix well until satisfied with the saturation. Add more to taste. Sprinkle salt and dill over the top like this: and mix in with the garlic. This recipe is not for those who love their measuring spoons! Add goat cheese or feta to taste.

The salad lasts well a day in the refrigerator, and somewhat well for a few more days, but it’s definitely best freshly made!

Does your cheese intimidate you? What do you do with the fancy stuff?

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Have you seen my new Online Resources I Love page?

I’d love to see more of you!  Sign up for a free email subscription or grab my reader feed. You can also follow me on Twitter, get KS for Kindle, or see my Facebook Fan Page.

If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

Check out Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade and Frugal Fridays at Life as MOM and Recipe Roundtable at Big Binder.

Hungry for More? Related posts:

1. In-Season Recipe Connection: Tomato Basil Pasta Salad
2. Recipe Connection: Katie’s Simple Cabbage Soup with Secret Super Food
3. In-Season Recipe Connection: Sausage, Kale and Bean Soup