Another Garden Fresh Day

I love it when I walk out to the garden early in the morning and I get inspired to create something new in the kitchen. Today was one of those days. My heirloom beans (2 kinds shown) were going crazy and I really wanted to know what the tiger stripe ones were going to taste like. I intended to let those grow and dry on the stalk for dry soup beans but I tasted one of them fresh and thought they were great so I added a few for color.

Lemon Basil gives a wonderful extra flavor to the beans so try to find some or better yet, grow your own. Herbs are quite easy to grow and can usually take heat and low water conditions of the late summer. Enjoy!

Lemon Basil Green Beans

1 pound clean and trimmed fresh green beans
1 T olive oil
½ lemon – juice
Pinch lemon zest
2 T fresh Lemon Basil – minced- or any fresh basil you can get
Pinch sea salt
Pepper to taste

Boil beans for 5-10 minutes until fork tender. Different variety of green beans cook faster than others. When beans are cooked drain off water and place in a medium sized bowl. Add rest of the ingredients and toss well. Serve warm.

Another cooking option is mix everything together with the raw beans and throw on the grill. That’s what I did.

If you want a cold dish or salad, add about ¼ cup cider vinegar and more lemon juice then refrigerate until chilled tossing a few times before serving.

What is your story Morning Glory?

When I was a younger woman I worked at a deli and we sold muffins called "Morning Glory" muffins. Wow-were they ever tasty! They had carrot pieces, zucchini chunks, walnuts, raisins--they had delicious goodness in them. At the time I did not realize the fact that they gave me heart burn and coated my hands with a shiny film was a bad thing. I just loved the taste of them. So, I was inspired by that love when I picked up the fresh Zucchini from a local farmer--hence my lovely pancakes with dots of green and orange in them this morning.

A few new cool things I tried with these little flat cakes I thought were so great they needed to be shared with you. First, I used rice flour to keep them gluten free, but this time I soaked the rice flour in warm water for 30 minutes. You see, a few weeks ago a woman asked me how to make gluten free items not have the texture of corn bread because her husband did not like that. (Hi Marci!) So yesterday while surfing new recipes I saw a blog post about soaking the rice flour overnight and I thought CRAZY-I must try this! Given that I have low attention span and lack of impulse control, I managed to soak them for 30 minutes. As an aside--I do have some more soaking right now and will wait to prepare perhaps some biscuits or something at a later time.

I also used coconut cream in the batter, just 2 tablespoons so no one needs to close the page and run from the computer. Little tidbit about coconut cream--like avocado fat--this is good for you fat. This is the stuff which helps your body work, smoother skin, faster brain functioning etc. You can purchase it at your local market or pick it up at your Asian marketplace--where I buy mine.

Zucchini Carrot Pancakes
Serves 10
1 1/2 cups rice flour soaked in 3/4 warm water
1/2 cup finely grated zucchini squash
1/2 cup finely grated carrots
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 Agave or Honey
2 fresh eggs
1 tbls Vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of Salt

Soak the rice flour in warm water for at least 30 minutes. It reminded me of the recipe for making slime with water and cornstarch. When you moved the fork around the flour had a firm texture but when you let it sit, it appeared to be liquid. It was magic flour!





While the flour is soaking you can shred the vegetables (fruit?) into a glass bowl. Then add the rest of the ingredients aside from the sodas.





Set a pan on medium heat and grease lightly with butter. While that is heating blend the wet ingredients with the wet flour and add in the sodas. I let this sit for about 5 minutes so everything could meet and meld and agree to taste fantastic.



Adding one ladle of mixture to the hot pan allow to cook until the edges are dry--then flip and cook for a few more minutes. Serve while hot!


Calories Per Serving-145
Fat-3 grams
Carbohydrates- 26
Protein-4

Other good ideas--
- add chopped cranberries and orange zest
- omit sweetener and serve with a savory dish
-make ahead and freeze