It just occurred to me that the Canned Food Alliance's Mealtime.org might be a useful resource for this project.

Considering it's blue-collar roots, it is a very good site, and do I use it for ideas - interestingly, most of the recipes involve hiding the canned item in a lot of fresh food, though.

I've enjoyed this thread, but not yet said so- thanks!

You're quite welcome, Josephine - and thanks for saying so!

Mhays wrote:Considering it's blue-collar roots, it is a very good site, and do I use it for ideas - interestingly, most of the recipes involve hiding the canned item in a lot of fresh food, though.

Yes, they're trying to sell canned food to people who've been taught to consider it inferior to fresh food -- which it isn't, always. They don't have to worry about the captive audience in the food deserts.

However, some of the recipes do fit your criteria or would with some tweaking, e.g.:
Pineapple Rice Pilaf
Salmon Herb Pie
Ten Minute-stroni
Thai Seafood Chowder
Gingered Pear-Peach Sorbet

NBCChicago wrote:Walgreens to Serve as Food Desert Oasis

An expanded food selection in several Walgreens stores is the latest move by Chicago to eradicate so-called "food deserts" in the city: those areas where fresh and healthy food is hard to find.

The Deerfield-based retailer on Wednesday unveiled six locations where customers can find nearly 750 new food items including fresh fruits and vegetables, frozen meats and fish, pasta, rice, beans, eggs and whole grain cereals....

I saw this; I think it's a terrific idea - Walgreens already offers most of the foods I use in my project (it is interesting to note that most drugstores carry WIC foods, which means that legislation does indeed affect the type of products available without requiring retailers to carry them.)

Another, similar project that I like a lot has begun expanding outside of it's area: the Healthy Corner Store Initiative has expanded from DC to Providence. What I like about this project is that it offers educational tools for kids and a "youth leadership" component to make sure that grocers have customers for all that good food.

Education is key to these kinds of efforts - I had heard in one of the news reports that Walgreens was also going to offer some educational materials, including a "prescription" of foods for particular health issues. One issue that desperately needs to be addressed - do people know how to cook/eat the foods they're offering?

Savory Cottage-Cheese Tomato Tartlets



As I mentioned in response to Shorty's request for a high-protein snack, I saw these on 101 Cookbooks. I wasn't able to find where the initial idea came from, but a savory cheese tart with almonds screams Moorish influence to me. I poked around the interwebs for a while and didn't find anything that came close. Anybody see these as strangely familiar? Anyway, these are a terrific quick breakfast on-the-go, kind of a cross between a quiche and a souffle.

Once you've assembled the ingredients, these are relatively simple to make - I recommend using muffin liners in your pan and spraying the inside with cooking spray; these do stick like there's no tomorrow. The muffins are excellent warm for breakfast, or cold packed in a lunchbox.

1 cup low fat cottage cheese
3/4 cup parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup reserved for topping
1/4 cup flour
1 cup almonds, ground
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes*
1/4 cup minced canned red pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dried basil
1/4 cup water
4 eggs, lightly beaten*
1/2 teaspoon salt


Prepare a medium-size muffin pan with paper baking cups, sprayed well with cooking spray on the inside. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. *If you can't find sun dried tomatoes in oil, do what I did: chop your dried tomatoes finely (or grind them in the blender) and rehydrate with the olive oil for 10 minutes. (Otherwise, just mince your tomatoes in oil.)

Combine cottage cheese, flour, 1/2 cup of parmesan, flour, ground almonds, baking powder, sun-dried tomatoes, basil, salt and water in a large bowl. In a separate container, beat the eggs (if you use a product like eggbeaters, this can be a one-bowl recipe*) and then pour them over the first mixture and combine thoroughly.

Pour carefully into 12 muffin cups and top each with some of the remaining parmesan cheese. Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown and set in the middle: cupcakes will rise a bit.

I'm going to post this on the discussion about SNAP as well, but I accidentally stumbled on this very interesting resource at the USDA website: The SNAP-ED Connection

I particularly like the recipe finder function, which allows you to filter the recipes in all kinds of different ways: nutrition goals, speed vs "resource management," part of menu, audience (e.g. ethnicity, age, etc.,) cost, and cooking equipment, which is really important in a situation where means are limited. I plan to start submitting my food desert recipes there at some point.

Also, there is a section on Tips for Involving Kids in the Kitchen

Sometimes, your tax dollars really are at work!

Roasted Chickpeas with Food Desert Za'atar

Sometimes, you just really need a simple recipe that doesn't take that much time and energy but really delivers on flavor. I've found all kinds of roasted-til-crunchy foods really appeal to Sparky: it's the only way I can get him to eat kale or beets. While we have no trouble eating chickpeas in our household, I love the recipes we've seen floating around the internet for them as a crunchy snack food.

However, they are kind of bland on their own, and missing the flavors of lemon and tahini that we often associate with chickpeas Unfortunately, I can say with a fair amount of certainty that sumac is not available in the food desert...I looked up substitution suggestions and found...lemon pepper! While it isn't exactly the same, it will give those lemony notes that sumac brings to the party -so, my recipe for food desert za'atar follows:

1 tablespoon each of:
Dried thyme
Lemon pepper seasoning (check and see if yours has salt)
Sesame Seeds
Oregano

Lightly toast the sesame seeds in a nonstick pan for just a moment, then dump all the ingredients in a blender, and blend until everything is finely ground (it will be a bit clumpy because of the oil in the sesame seeds)

For the roasted chickpeas, drain and rinse a can of chickpeas, and drizzle with EVOO (I do this while they're still in the can.) Pour onto a cookie sheet and sprinkle with a thick layer of za'atar. Salt to taste (remembering that your lemon pepper may have salt) Roast at 450 for 15 minutes or until the chickpeas are crunchy and brown.

Eat as a snack, or add to salads.



027 by michelehays, on Flickr

064 by michelehays, on Flickr
I really wish I had thought of this idea all by myself. You see, I realized that I was quite low on side dishes and vegetables, and I determined that I would use canned green beans for my next recipe. I tried a riff off of green beans and potatoes, with an onion homage to the famous soup-can recipe...and, well, it failed miserably. So I cast my net out wide on the internets, and found this gem.

Of course, a food desert isn't going to have fresh cheese curds - nor will I tolerate canned mushrooms or "gravy packets" for the purposes of this project...so I started by making my own cheese.

I'd been intending to experiment with Indian Paneer cheese for some time; after all, there are a great many terrific South Indian dishes that use Paneer that might fit this project - and besides - if you make the cheese, you control both fat and salt. I found many, many recipes online, so I'll offer you my conglomeration:

Food Desert Paneer

4 cups milk
1/2 cup yogurt or yogurt whey
1 tsp vinegar

Bring the milk to a boil, add the other ingredients and whisk briskly. Adjusting the heat carefully so that your milk does not boil over, continue whisking until you start to see clumps of cheese on your whisk. Stop mixing and wait until the cheese and whey separate completely and you have a milky blob floating in a yellowish liquid. Strain through a clean coffee filter* and allow to drain for a few minutes. Wrap the cheese carefully in the coffee filter (you should have a tuna-can-size disc, enough for about four to six servings) and put it on a plate in the refrigerator with a heavy weight (like a gallon of milk, if you can keep it stable) on top.

I decided that a traditional stock-based sauce would be too bland, so I opted for Sauce Allemande, a sauce thickened by both a roux and a custard.

Food Desert Sauce Allemande

2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1/2 cup chicken stock
(a shot of white wine wouldn't hurt)
1/2 cup milk
1 egg yolk
Salt, pepper, chili flakes

Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Add the flour and whisk constantly, cooking until the mixture has reached a decidedly tan color. Add the chicken stock (and wine) and bring to a boil; it will thicken - continue to cook and taste for seasoning; add salt and pepper and chili flakes as desired. Cool slightly. Whisk the egg yolk and the milk (I use 1%, it's what I have - traditionally this sauce is made with cream and lemon) in a separate bowl. Add a small amount of the sauce to the egg yolk mixture, whisking vigorously. Again whisking vigorously, pour the tempered egg mixture into the sauce, which should thin out and then thicken again as the eggs cook slightly (you may need to return your pot to low heat for a few seconds - stir, stir, stir!)

To assemble Green Bean Poutine:

Heat 1 can of well-drained green beens by lightly sautéing in a dry skillet. Pile onto a plate and cover with chunks of paneer cheese. Pour on the Allemande Sauce and serve immediately. Serves 2.

*Don't throw out the whey!

I have a guest poster of sorts for the food desert project; I found a recipe I got permission to post from the website Benchfly.com. I don't feel comfortable cross-posting here, but if you're in need of a quick breakfast, I can highly recommend Dr. Barrilleaux's Nearly-instant Oatmeal Custard. Delish!

Now that the November holidays are approaching, creative side dishes for this project got pushed to the front of the line - interesting vegetables, in particular, are really challenging when restricted to canned and dried products.  My inspiration came from Native American tribes, whose nonperishable staples are still used today.  Their staple foods were important for both travel and for trade; thus, native dried maize (corn) and beans were spread throughout the Americas.  Perhaps the most famous recipe using these native staples is succotash, a simple stew made from beans, corn, wild onions, sunflower seeds and animal fat - traditionally bear fat, but once adopted by European settlers, "pickled pork" enters the recipe and most modern versions are made with bacon.

Of course, these shelf-stable staples are still available to us, (well, with the exception of bear fat) even in the food desert!  However, it's always good to have something a little more versatile in your lexicon - say, something that could easily work as a quick appetizer in addition to being a side.  Thus, we employ the versatile artichoke, and make this native food into a one-bite snack.

Food Desert Succotash

2 tbsp dried minced onion
1 tbsp dried chives
2 tbsp white wine
1 can corn, drained and rinsed
1 can beans, drained and rinsed
1 can roasted red peppers
1 tbsp EVOO (or I suppose you could use bacon fat and add crumbled bacon)
1 tsp mustard

Soak the onion and chives in the white wine overnight (alternatively, put them in the microwave for 30 seconds on high and allow to steep until most of the liquid is absorbed.)  Combine the first 6 ingredients and sauté in the olive oil/bacon grease until fragrant; stir in mustard.  Serves 8.  Nutritional Information.  You can also chill this and serve it with a viniagrette as a salad...or move on to recipe # 2

Succotash-Stuffed Artichokes

1/4 recipe Food Desert Succotash
1 8-10 count can whole artichokes 
3 tbsp roasted salted sunflower seeds
1 tbsp french fried onions
1/2 slice bread
Drizzle of olive oil


Cut a small bit off the bottom of each artichoke so it will stand up on its own.  Loosen the outer 2 rows of leaves slightly with your fingers so you can pull out the inner leaves,* being careful that the outer leaves remain attached to the bottom.  


Fill the cavity with succotash, repeating until all artichokes are stuffed.

Break the bread into small chunks.  Add sunflower seeds, bread, and french fried onions to your blender and blend until the bread is crumbled - don't let it become a paste.  Drizzle with olive oil and top the artichokes with this mixture.

Place in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes; finish under the broiler for a few seconds to crisp and brown the topping. (This is an excellent recipe for a toaster oven, BTW.)  Serves 5 for appetizers, or 3 for dinner.  Nutritional Information.

Crespelle al Pesto ai Carciofo (Crepes with Artichoke Pesto)



Remember those artichokes I had you save last week? Well, today's the day we're going to put them to good use in a two-in-one fancy date-night recipe you can put together or use with other foods - and you can even get the ingredients at your nearest (decent) 24-hour drugstore! If you got hungry and ate the artichokes instead, don't worry - you can use a half-size-jar of marinated artichokes and get the same results (or get a whole one and double the rest of the recipe.) So, we begin with:

Artichoke Pesto:

1 small jar artichokes, drained and rinsed (or the leftovers from last week's recipe)
1 tsp minced jarred garlic
1/4 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp dried parsley
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1-2 tbsp olive oil



Place all ingredients in a food chopper, blend until you have a chunky paste.Nutritional information. Serves 8 as a dip, a topping for crostini, or as a pasta sauce...or as a filling for:

Crespelle (crepes)

Combine the following ingredients in the blender until completely incorporated:
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1 cup flour
3 tablespoons melted butter

Batter should be quite thin and pourable, almost the consistency of cream; add water or milk as needed. Allow to stand for a minimum of 20 minutes (an hour is better, but I'm impatient)or for up to 1 day in the refrigerator.



To make the crepes, heat a little butter in a large nonstick frying pan. When the butter is bubbling, lift the pan off the heat, pour about 1/4 cup of batter into the center of the pan, then, quickly but carefully,* swirl the pan around like a gyroscope so that the small circle of batter widens into a large, thin circle. (Here's another video that's more succinct.) When the crepe starts to pull away from the pan at the edges and the top is dry, flip it carefully with a large spatula, loosening it underneath a bit first.



Don't worry, since there are so many variables with crepes (viscosity of batter, heat of pan, timing) consider your first two "practice" crepes and eat them right out of the pan if they aren't aesthetically pleasing. Stack your crepes on a plate - they won't stick as long as they are warm (and if you refrigerate them, they will unstick from each other if you warm them slightly in the microwave or a low oven.) Crepes also freeze well provided you put parchment or wax paper in between each crepe - but I can't resist them and never wind up with leftovers. Makes about 15 crepes. Nutritional Information.

Crespelle al Pesto ai Carciofo

Put a thick line of the artichoke pesto down the center of your crepe. Top with a shredded melting cheese, like mozzarella or queso chihuahua. Fold one side of the crepe over the filling, and then roll your crepe towards the open side so that it forms a tube. Place your tube seam-side down in the pan; continue filling and rolling crepes until your pan is almost full. Place your pan on medium heat and cover it for about 3 minutes. Remove the cover and turn the crepes, allowing them about 2 minutes per side to crisp up.Serves 5. Nutritional Information.

Serve warm.




*PS - Two quick ways to clean a blender: 1. throw in dishwasher. 2. Pour extremely hot water and a bit of dish soap in blender, blend, dump, repeat until blender looks clean - then blend plain hot water to rinse.

Evil Dead Pasta



I've been wanting to try dyed noodles with beets for a while, and had some Labneh left over from my previous recipe, so I thought I would combine the two ideas.

Blood Pasta:

1 can shredded beets
1 bottle red wine (any variety)
1 tbsp salt
About 2 cups water
Pasta of your choice - I used linguine

Drain the beet liquid (reserve the beets for the sauce);into a large pot (I use a 3.5 qt); combine with, red wine, salt, and water; Bring to a boil. Add pasta and cook according to the directions on the package. Drain, reserving about 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid.

Brains and Bones Sauce


Labneh bones*

Reserved beets
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup pepitas or pumpkin seeds
Olive Oil
1 tsp jarred garlic
Reserved pasta water


Pour about 2 tbsp of olive oil into a skillet; toast the walnuts and pepitas until they are fragrant. Add the garlic and beets, saute for 2 minutes or until heated through. Add a small amount of pasta water to bring the sauce together.



* Labneh Bones: knead about 1/4 cup of really well-drained labneh with a tablespoon of dried parsley and a teaspoon of dried chives. Pull off about a tablespoon of flavored cheese, roll it between your fingers into an oblong shape, and pinch the ends flat to make "bones."

Serve the dyed pasta topped with the beet sauce and scatter a few Labneh bones over the top.

Don't forget the words!

(Allow the maniacal laugh/noodle slurping contest to begin!)