Home-grown Meals
I decided to feed myself for a day entirely from what I raised myself and it was not only fun, but very satisfying. I know that it is not really that awesome of a thing to eat only what I grew/raised (for only one day) when other people do it all the time, but it was nice to know that I was able to do it. And it is exciting to come up with creative ways to cook the things I am producing in my garden.
*Just a note, that there were three exceptions to the "only from what I raised myself" rule and they were: water, oil, and salt.
So, for breakfast, eggs from my hens and lemongrass tea.
For lunch, steamed millet with pigeon peas (plus a couple of random other beans that I only harvested a few of...). And a variety of vegetables (carrots, liana beans, and winged beans) sauteed with fennel.
And finally for dinner, I made egusi melon seed stew, sweet potato chips (fries), and roselle "juice".
Let me just say that the egusi melon seed stew was very good, but it should have been more soupy. It turned out looking more like scrambled eggs because pretty much all the water got cooked off...which was fine, but not how it was intended to be.
Here is how I made it.
1 c. roasted and ground egusi melon seeds
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 1/2 c. greens, chopped (I used amaranth greens, but spinach would work just fine too)
Cook the tomatoes and greens in a little olive oil for a few minutes. Then, add 2 cups of water. Let the stew simmer until the tomatoes and greens are cooked. Mix the ground egusi seeds with a little water to make a paste. Put blobs of it into the stew. (Theoretically, if you ground your seeds until they were like flour, like in a food processor, they would stick together and be a meat-like texture in the stew. I "ground" them by hand, so my blobs all fell apart. Still, it tasted good). Let the stew simmer for 10 more minutes, add salt to taste, and eat!
If you are using ingredients not grown in your yard, you could always add in some sauteed onions and garlic at the beginning and use broth rather than plain water.
*Just a note, that there were three exceptions to the "only from what I raised myself" rule and they were: water, oil, and salt.
So, for breakfast, eggs from my hens and lemongrass tea.
For lunch, steamed millet with pigeon peas (plus a couple of random other beans that I only harvested a few of...). And a variety of vegetables (carrots, liana beans, and winged beans) sauteed with fennel.
And finally for dinner, I made egusi melon seed stew, sweet potato chips (fries), and roselle "juice".
Let me just say that the egusi melon seed stew was very good, but it should have been more soupy. It turned out looking more like scrambled eggs because pretty much all the water got cooked off...which was fine, but not how it was intended to be.
Here is how I made it.
1 c. roasted and ground egusi melon seeds
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 1/2 c. greens, chopped (I used amaranth greens, but spinach would work just fine too)
Cook the tomatoes and greens in a little olive oil for a few minutes. Then, add 2 cups of water. Let the stew simmer until the tomatoes and greens are cooked. Mix the ground egusi seeds with a little water to make a paste. Put blobs of it into the stew. (Theoretically, if you ground your seeds until they were like flour, like in a food processor, they would stick together and be a meat-like texture in the stew. I "ground" them by hand, so my blobs all fell apart. Still, it tasted good). Let the stew simmer for 10 more minutes, add salt to taste, and eat!
If you are using ingredients not grown in your yard, you could always add in some sauteed onions and garlic at the beginning and use broth rather than plain water.
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