Who doesn't love a grilled cheese sandwich? They are easy to make and make it easy to please even the pickiest of eaters. For my very first meal with this weeks Farmer's Market finds, I wanted to make something easy but unique. I personally think that this is one of the more surprisingly flavorful sandwiches I have tasted in a while. I purposefully chose some rather mild ingredients so that I could add a little flavor pop with my strawberry habanero jam and not make the entire sandwich too overwhelming. For this recipe I used Sour Dough bread from Kogler Bakery, a few slices of Cream City Markets brick cheese and a generous portion of my Strawberry habanero jam spread on both pieces of bread facing inside the sandwich. I grilled the sandwich on a hot griddle using some avocado oil to create a nice crisp toast for the bread. I paired the sandwich with a few of my Healthy by Design Habanero Garlic Dill Pickle slices and a simple side salad made from the fresh organic butter lettuce, easter egg radishes and mini carrots I purchased from Forever West Farms and topped it off with the juice of a lemon I picked up from Miller Farms stand and some sunflower shoots grown by Sweet Life micro-greens. The drink was made using the take home quart of limon fresca I purchased from Feelin Fresca mixed with a teaspoon of my Blueberry Lemon Lavender jam (it would be easy to turn this into a refreshing cocktail by adding an ounce of your favorite vodka.) From start to finish this entire meal took me about 10 minutes to prepare and 5 minutes to devour. I have to say, I was pretty pleased with this new found quick and easy take on a market fresh grilled cheese sandwich. All of these items can be purchased from Arvada, Westminster, Dillon, Steamboat Springs Farmer's markets every weekend through mid-September or online at ediblemarket.co
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The life of a Farmer's market vendor can be hectic during the summer months, especially when you make your own products and continue to work another job. There is no such thing as summer get-a-ways and lazy Sunday afternoons. Making enough product to during the week in order to ensure you have enough to meet the demands of the busy weekend markets means 10-12 hour days Monday - Thursday every week. Finding the time to make family meals in the summer is challenging. Lately, Grubhub and Postmates has been my go to option for feeding my family of 6. The problem with eating cheaply made takeout food night after night is the toll it takes, not only on your bank account but also your body. Most takeout food is made with the cheapest ingredients possible, they add lots of salt, way too much sugar and god only knows what neurotoxins (MSG and other artificial sweeteners) and other additives are added to keep food fresh. After spending $100 on not very good Chinese takeout after delivery fees, taxes and a generous tip, I decided enough was enough. What is the point of providing others with high quality, healthy food options when I can't even take the time to grocery shop for my own family. We spend 15-20 hours a week at Farmer's markets, this is the perfect time to get my weekly shopping done. I had an idea, why don't I come up with a way to purchase the majority of my items for the week for the market and come up with some new ideas as well as some existing recipes to plan for my week. After all cooking is my passion and more importantly, finding ways to make healthy food taste amazing is what I do! I figured, if I am struggling with finding ways to make affordable healthy meals on the fly, there are most likely several others. Why not share my ideas and help not only my customers come up with dinner ideas but also help my fellow vendors and markets out with an fresh new food blog on farmers market finds related to these specific markets. So here I am, writing my first blog in an attempt to help out my fellow farmer's market fans and vendors.
I was able to find just about everything I needed to plan out a couple of breakfasts and 5-6 dinners for the week over the 4 markets I participate in on a weekly basis. I will focus on more and more products throughout the remainder of the season. I chose the products that I know best at this point in time. The items I found hard to come by at all of the markets were fresh chicken and dairy alternative cheeses and milks. as well as ghee. I will add a few pantry items (salad dressing, spices etc.) as well as some meat that I purchased from a local butcher shop as a "fill your freezer" deal back in June. Overall, I spent about $120 not including own pickled veggies and jams, the meat from my freezer, the few pantry items as well as the 2 Salmon we caught at Dillon Reservoir during a break Friday night between the Friday Dillon Market and the drive to the Saturday morning Steamboat Market. Stay tuned until tomorrow to see how we prepared the salmon in 4 different ways using products purchased at our local farmers markets! |