October Unprocessed? And One More Recipe

My niece just signed up for the October Unprocessed 2011 challenge, where she's pledged to eat no processed foods for the month of October. The organizer is defining unprocessed food as "any food that could be made by a person with reasonable skill in a home kitchen with readily available, whole-food ingredients." He doesn't require that you actually cook it yourself. Reminds me of one aspect of Michael Pollan's definition of food: "your grandmother would recognize all the ingredients."

I'm kind of tempted, but I also kind of want a break before doing this again. I'm looking forward to breaking out the breakfast cereal in the morning.

9/30 Menus:

• breakfast: flapjacks (Birkett Mills) with "mom's special syrup" (Kestrel Perch/Schoolyard Sugarbush)
• school lunch: a la jardinera with pasta (leftover), frozen grapes and raspberries (my garden), buffalo snack sticks (Glenwood)
• my lunch: a la jardinera with pasta (leftover)
• snack: apples
• dinner: puffballs and lion's mane mushrooms (gathered), fried with butter (Meadow Creek) and garlic (my garden); lima beans in tomato sauce (beans, tomatoes, onion, garlic, parsley (my garden), carrots (Sacred Seed), sunflower oil (Stolor Organics))
• dessert: melon/raspberry/red currant sorbet (my garden, Kestrel Perch, Greenstar bulk local honey)

The lima beans were super yummy; I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. My past experience of limas has been exclusively from cans, and I was not impressed. I've been thinking for awhile that I ought to try them fresh before writing them off entirely, and I finally did it this year. The variety is Limelight. They're white, and shaped like a flatter version of cannelinis. Very prone to premature sprouting, in this wet fall weather -- I used the ones that still looked fresh, tails and all, but composted the discolored ones. They reminded me of the "giant white beans" pictured in a cookbook from Greece, so I used one of the Greek recipes. Good choice....

I asked Sophia how she liked them. She said, "You ought to be able to figure it out without asking," as she dished up a third serving.

Fresh Lima Beans in Tomato Sauce
(Note: I didn't actually measure any of the ingredients. This seems to be another very forgiving recipe...)

• a couple cups of shelled fresh lima beans
• one medium onion, chopped
• one clove garlic
• one carrot, chopped
• oil (the Greeks use a vast amount of olive oil; I used a modest amount of sunflower oil)
• a cup or so of tomatoes, peeled and chopped
• finely chopped parsley
• salt and pepper to taste

Simmer beans in water until soft. Drain and set aside.

Saute onions, garlic, and carrots in oil until soft. Add tomatoes, parsley, and salt and pepper. Simmer 1/2 hour. Add beans, and simmer about 10 minutes more to heat through & blend flavors.