All posts tagged: organic

NATURALLY ORGANIC MENU 3

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We didn’t receive a lot of vegetables in our Naturally Organic this week so our meal plan reflects this. Hope to stretch a few meals so we can have leftovers for lunch but it might not happen. Plenty of fruit to snack on this week though! Naturally Organic Menu 3 Items in bold are from our Naturally Organic box. Hoisin pulled pork with apple slaw on floury baps (pictured) Chicken and leek soup with garlic butter toast Bangers and mash with kiwi caramalised onions (see recipe below) with sautéed garlic silverbeet Spicy udon with beef, onion, egg and cabbage, topped with pinenuts Pumpkin and silverbeet curry with home made roti Orange roasted chicken drumsticks with pumpkin and carrot Apple hand pies with butterscotch sauce and ice cream Butterscotch and banana smoothie I’d like to share a quickie recipe with you that I whip out for bangers and mash occasions. Call it a lazyman’s chutney. It’s chunky and delicious. The flavours of caramalised onion, kiwi and butter work really well together and this would be great with steak, sausages, chops or chicken. This …

Naturally Organic 3

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This winter, I’m testing out a few CSA and produce delivery companies in Auckland. I have already tried Foodbox.co.nz and now I am trying is Naturally Organic. Naturally Organic is a market based in Albany, Auckland and their produce boxes are only a small part of what they offer. Unlike other companies that have a set delivery day, Naturally Organic offer 6 day delivery. Check their website out for specific details for your area, but I can order up to 7 days in advance and get same day delivery Monday to Friday if I order by 9.30am. First impression Our first Two Person Box was overwhelming and the One Person Box wasn’t really enough so this round I requested the Two Person Box with more vegetables than fruit. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen and once again we received heaps of fruit. 44 pieces of fruit! As before the produce is of excellent organic quality and the box was huge but felt a bit empty. I ordered some chicken this week and these were were individually wrapped in …

Naturally Organic Menu 2

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We had one of those weekends where you divide up your day into two-hour slots so you can get everything done. I attended Creative Mornings last Friday and witnessed the entertaining magic of Otis and Sarah Frizzell’s taco truck adventure. Inspirational stuff. When you look upon their setbacks, I think most sane people would have quit long ago. I learned that sheep scrotums taste like bacon. Considering how many sheep we have in this country, perhaps this is a largely untapped market? On Saturday The Koala and I happened to chance upon The Lucky Taco in Ponsonby so we shared four tacos and their flagship rice milk drink. I tried not to fan-girl too hard, I popped my head in the side door and maybe I gushed. Hopefully, Sarah and Otis were too busy to notice. I met up with my friend Vanessa to help her set up a blog and she sent me home with a gang of lemons from her tree. I’m super excited this week to play with the lovely delivery from …

Naturally Organic box 2

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This winter, I’m testing out a few CSA and produce delivery companies in Auckland. I have already tried Foodbox.co.nz and the next one on my list is Naturally Organic. Naturally Organic is a market based in Albany, Auckland and their produce boxes are only a small part of what they offer. Since our last order was a little overwhelming, this round I went for the smallest box and added some fun extras. I ordered the One Person Organic Fruit and Vege Box for $19 plus $7.98 delivery and also added some Māori potatoes (urenika) and onions to bump up the produce to $26.25 to be comparative. The $19 produce weighed 5.4kg (vegetables 2.4g, fruit 3kg) and the onion and potatoes an extra 1kg. Unlike other companies that have a set delivery day, Naturally Organic offer 6 day delivery. Check their website out for specific details for your area, but I can order up to 7 days in advance and get same day delivery Monday to Friday if I order by 9.30am. First impression Even though we …

Naturally Organic Menu 1

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This winter, I’m testing out a few CSA and produce delivery companies in Auckland. Currently our delivery is from Naturally Organic. Naturally Organic is a market based in Albany, Auckland and you can view the contents of the box on my post here. A brief menu this week. Plenty of leftovers for lunch though. Naturally Organic Menu 1 Items in bold are from our Naturally Organic box. Spiced pumpkin soup with garlic toast Orange roast chicken with beetroot, pumpkin and carrot Chili bean chicken with kale yellow rice Minted lamb chops with sauteed kale, mushrooms and The Koalas fried potato Cheesy kale and mushroom macaroni with breadcrumb and parmesan topping Grilled pork chops with caramalised pear, sauteed cabbage and potato mash. Beef and bean nachos with cheese Maple French toast with banana and bacon Porridge with banana Hong Kong style breakfast: macaroni soup with ham, fried egg and sliced cabbage. Chinese tea egg salad with spring onion, sesame, bean sprouts, red cabbage, grated carrot and orange   (pictured) Ham sandwich with cheese, red cabbage, bean sprouts and pickle Prawn, red cabbage, carrot and spring onion …

Naturally Organic box 1

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This winter, I’m testing out a few CSA and produce delivery companies in Auckland. I have already tried Foodbox.co.nz and the next one on my list is Naturally Organic. Naturally Organic is a market based in Albany, Auckland and their produce boxes are only a small part of what they offer. Their products are marked organic, spray-free, gluten-free, vegan, sugar-free and local where appropriate, so if that kind of thing is important, you can shop online with ease. They have a huge catalogue of products like baby products, cleaning products, drinks, pantry items and you can get even get Aoraki salmon and Harmony/Freedom Farm pork delivered with your product box. This week I ordered the Two Person Organic Fruit and Vege Box for $30 plus $7.98 delivery. Unlike other companies that have a set delivery day, Naturally Organic offer 6 day delivery. Check their website out for specific details for your area, but I can order up to 7 days in advance and get same day delivery Monday to Friday if I order by 9.30am. First …

OOOOBY 11

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This week our CSA box included: Vegetable 1/2 a Squash 21 Dwarf Carrots 4 Celery Sticks 1 Fancy Lettuce 4 Spring Onion 1 Avocado Fruit 7 Gold Kiwifruit 7 Fuji Apples 6 Navel Oranges Add Ons Wild Wheat Ciabatta Apple Juice 2L The most interesting thing in the box: Nothing was particularly exotic this week, but the nubbly carrots are pretty delightful. Menu 11 There might be some erratic eating this week so I’ve kept my menu plan pretty open in case I spontaneously need to binge on something. Trucker’s meal: Steak, fried eggs, chips and salad with beetroot, lettuce*, spring onion* and carrot* Avocado and cream cheese on ciabatta toast Pan Fried Halloumi with Squash* Spring Salad with carrot*, orange* and spring onion* Minestrone with celery*, carrots*, onion, beans and orzo, served with ciabatta* toast French toast with brown sugar stewed apples* * CSA from this week or previous week CSA Link Party I regularly join a CSA box link party. A link party is a weekly or monthly round up of relevant blog links in …

OOOOBY Box 10 and our “Old Girl”

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We bought our Frigidaire when we first moved from an inner city apartment to the ‘burbs. I got her off Trademe for a song, second, maybe even third or fourth hand and we immediately had her resealed by a pro. This fridge-freezer has moved house with us four times and we reckon she could be from the 1970s, making her older than me. Our old girl had a freak out over the weekend. I wish I had before and after photos to show you, as the stalactites were amazing. We shifted her a few inches to the right and I don’t know if that had anything to do with it, but the top third of the freezer turned into an ice cube with icicles as thick as my wrist. Ice expands and within hours it got so bad that we couldn’t close the freezer door. The Koala came to the rescue, carefully using a hammer as an ice pick and excavated the ice from the top shelf and around the seals. I’m now trying to use up everything in …

OOOOBY Box 9

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OOOOBY now offer an organic only box, so this week we’re giving it a test drive. The original box that we usually get is 100% local but not 100% organic. This week our CSA box included: Vegetable Half a Crown Pumpkin 1 Broccoli 1 bunch of Silverbeet 4 Carrots 1 Avocado 1 Fancy Lettuce Fruit 8 Gold Kiwifruit 7 Fuji Apples 4 Navel Oranges 1 Lime Add Ons Apple Juice 2L Wild Wheat Ciabatta The most interesting thing in the box: Colourful carrots. Menu 9 Pumpkin* soup with bacon bits and garlic parmesan croutons (made with ciabatta*) Cheeseburgers with lime* guacamole*, egg, fancy lettuce* and onion served with oven baked fries Salad with yellow and purple carrot*, fancy lettuce, boiled egg, olives, ham, chick peas Parmesan bagels with avocado* and cream cheese Buttery Golden Pan-Fried Flounder with sauteed silverbeet* and mashed potatoes Steak stir fry with broccoli*, onion, garlic and carrots*. Served on noodles Mini quiche with egg, broccoli*, silverbeet* and ham Roast chicken with pumpkin*, potatoes, onion and garlic. Served with rainbow carrot* salad. …

Swoon-worthy Dinnerware

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I swear drinking water or orange juice from a goblet tastes different than drinking out of tumbler. I’ve always noticed that the right bowl or plate makes a meal taste better. Even if it’s all in your mind, it’s there. When you’re eating a rustic meal in the country side of an exotic location, a banana leaf plate makes the experience authentic and delicious. When you’re eating at home, the right plate or bowl for the job makes all the difference. Since as long as I started dreaming about my own kitchen and dinner parties, I’ve wanted a slightly off centre dinner set. Something that is not too ornate or stuffy and has an earthy character. My ideal dinner set would frame a rustic and hearty feast. It would not suggest fine dining and it’s also not so busy that it competes with the food. Flatmates always leave kitchen items behind when they move out so whenever we cleaned out of a flat, we also moved the flat kitchen stuff that had been left behind …

Dietlind Wolf’s work is swoon-worthy

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I’m no food stylist but when you take photos for a blog, you can’t help but look at your food differently. Composition, light, props, colour, texture, shape and white space are some of things I consider when shooting my food. I cringe at the photos I took when this blog started in 2010. But they’ll stay up because they’re a reminder of how far I’ve come. Looking at beautifully styled food is inspirational rather than depressing and my favourite food stylist in the world is Dietlind Wolf who is based in Hamburg, Germany. Her work is truly swoon-worthy. I adore her use of organic shapes, groupings and interesting props from all sorts of places for editorial spreads. Please check out more of her gorgeous displays on her blog dietlindwolf.blogspot.com. Bonus: Check out tomorrow’s post on beautiful, organic and nature inspired dinnerware.

OOOBY BOX WEEK 1

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CSA CSA is a way for locals to support their local food growers and producers but subscribing to a set price per season (or month) in return for a weekly delivery of produce. I’ve written about CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in 2009. Back then I wasn’t in a hurry to sign on because of lack of control over what we received. 3 years on, I appreciate the concept more. CSA is a great way to get variety into your weekly meals with local, seasonal and organic produce. It connects local growers and their communities together in the most efficient way possible. CSA usually involves fruit and vege, but there is also CSA for meat and eggs, and CSF which stands for Community Supported Fishery. In the summer, I adore my walks two to three times a week to the various local markets to buy fresh food. But now that it’s winter, the days are short and cold and it’s dark by the time I get home from work. No part of me wants to leave home and walk …

Purple fleshed kumara

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When I saw these at my online organics shop, I had to buy them. But once they were boiled and mashed, they turned out much darker than I had hoped for. Purple fleshed kumara mash with meatloaf dinner. I vowed to try it again – next time with some white potato in the mix so that the purple colour could pop.

Organic Box

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I’d read about CSA boxes from American foodie blogs so I wondered if there was anything like that in Auckland. I’d never heard about it but I suspected that it was one of those things that wasn’t advertised a lot. I found a few local farms that delivered their produce so I picked one and ordered a box of random goodies for $25. We got apples, carrots, half a pumpkin, potatoes, pumpkin, feijoa, little oranges (or maybe mandarins), a broccoli. I didn’t know what that big green plant was so after some internet investigating, I identified it as kale. Kale isn’t popular in NZ and it was cool to get something in the box that we’d never had before. It was fun to be forced to eat and cook things I wouldn’t usually buy, but personally, I enjoy going to the shop and choosing things. So I probably won’t be doing this again in a hurry.