Fresh Vegetables and Herbs

Wednesdays have been a painful day for me lately.  I work my legs on Tuesdays and apparently I’ve been working them pretty darned hard because beginning Tuesday night, they begin to get sore.  By Wednesday, it’s painful to sit on the toilet. Not that you really want to know that but …I’m JUST saying….okay..moving on.

Today the workout was back and triceps.  4 exercises, each body part x 15 reps each. Warm up was 20 minutes of treadmill sprints. Following the weights, Shane and I went for a run, about 40 minutes.  We got caught in about a 2 minute down pour then it stopped. It was so warm and muggy out there, the rain felt good.  It was tough getting started since my legs were sore but then the exercise always works some of that soreness out.  Course it returns later in the day but at least there’s a few hours of relief.  Ted thinks I don’t eat enough protein to recover.  It also could be not drinking enough water.  Any opinions?

The veggie recipe of the day uses Okra, Zucchini, and Yellow Squash with crunchy, toasted almonds and pine nuts.

The okra that I’ve seen in the markets lately has looked gorgeous.  Is it okra season? I’m not sure since my familiarity with the vegetable is limited. In the past, I’ve had some bad experiences with the okra getting slimy.  But, as always, I’m up for anything and so I picked up about 15 pods and let ideas fly.  This is what happened in the kitchen when Joanne decided to cook with okra.

Fresh Vegetables with Garden Herbs 

• 1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted
• 1/4 cup pinenuts, toasted

• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp salt
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 1 zucchini cut into rounds

• 1 yellow squash cut into rounds and half rounds

• 15 or so Okra pods, trim ends and slice into 1/2″ circles

• 2 TBS olive oil
• 2 TBS balsamic vinegar
• 1 shallot, minced
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 3 rosemary sprigs
• 1 bunch parsley
• 4 mint leaves
• 4 basil leaves
• 6 sprigs thyme

Preheat oven to 425 F. 

Put the almonds and pine nuts on aluminum foil and toast in a toaster oven on broil until brown. Watch closely as they go from brown to BLACK in an instant!  Mix together the cumin, salt, juice of the lemon, balsamic, and 1 TBS olive oil. Set aside.

Taking each sprig of rosemary, run your fingers down in the opposite direction of what the leaves are facing.

They will fall off. Do the same for the thyme.  Put them in a pile and discard the stems.   Add the parsley, basil and mint to the pile and chop.  Set aside for now.

Slice your zucchini into rounds (cutting in half the larger circles). Do the same for the yellow squash.  Chop the ends off the okra pods and slice into 1/2″ rounds. 

In a saute pan, add 1 TBS olive oil.  Heat on medium high. When hot, add the zucchini, squash and okra, shallot and onion. Saute for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. The okra gets sticky, but that’s ok, keep stirring. Maybe that’s the reason a lot of recipes bread the okra and then fry it?

Remove to a baking dish.  Add the herb mixture.  Add the cumin – balsamic mixture and stir to coat everything.

Put into the 425 F oven for 20 minutes.  Top with the toasted nuts and serve.

The herb flavors are pronounced. The nuts add a needed crunch to this dish.  It can be served as a whole meal offering approximately 15 grams of protein per serving.  This recipe will serve 4 to 8 depending on whether you use it as a vegetarian meal or a vegetable side dish.

As for Wednesday’s agenda, my business partner and I will accompany my father and visit with a local manufacturer.  We hope to tour his facility and then exchange the courtesy.  Looking forward to it.

Have a glorious day!