A Gardening Ground Rule: Eat Your Greens

My roommate's garden is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Remember Fern Gully? Of course you do.

That is actually a pretty accurate depiction of me, as well. 

This is what my backyard looks like. It's amazing. And because my roommate is not a jerk he lets me have all the kale, collard greens, arugula and bok choy that I want!

With this free grocery store at my fingertips, Patrick and I have been eating a lot of greens, naturally. (Of COURSE pun intended).

Yesterday was long. I wanted dinner to materialize in front of me. I finally pulled myself up off the floor (it was so much more comfortable down there) and surveyed the kitchen trying to decide what to eat with our endless supply of greens. 

In the freezer, like a beacon of light and a choir of angels: Morningstar Hickory BBQ Riblets. 

I love these riblets like I love jerky and we all know how much that is!

Of course, then I started thinking about sides and about picnics and barbecues and summertime and bike rides and all of a sudden I wasn't tired anymore. And then I started making dinner and it turned out just like a picnic!

With our riblets we had a mixture of collard greens and kale steamed with garlic and fresh ground black pepper (Olive Garden anyone?), frozen corn steamed with black pepper and a little bit of Earth Balance, cauliflower mash with some pepper-jack Daiya tossed in and my mom's tasty recipe for sweet & tangy coleslaw.

Sweet & Tangy Coleslaw 

(serves 8 - or 4 if you are eating with Patrick)

4 cups finely shredded cabbage

1/4 c. finely chopped onion

1 large or 2 small carrots grated

1/2 c. finely chopped red bell pepper (optional)

1/2 tsp. celery seed (if you have it)

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

2 T. sugar

1/4 c. vinegar

1/4 c. water 

In a large bowl, combine cabbage, onion carrot and pepper. Sprinkle with celery seed, salt and pepper and sugar. Mix well.

Add vinegar and water. Mix well again, cover and chill a few hours or overnight.

Mix well before serving.

I modified the recipe because I didn't want to leave the house. I didn't have carrots or pepper or celery seed. And I used a 1/4 c. of apple cider vinegar and white vinegar combined. I added pine nuts though because I DID have those.  I also didn't have several hours for it to chill. I just made the slaw FIRST and let it chill while I made everything else. I am REALLY GOOD at multitasking. Rest assured, it was still delicious.

And this was dinner:

I poured the extra barbecue sauce onto the cauliflower mash like gravy. I love you cauliflower mash.