Kay Wheeler Moore

Welcome to my blog

Hello. . .

The Newfangled Country Gardener is for anyone who has a garden, would like to have a garden, or who simply enjoys eating the garden-fresh way. I don't claim to be an expert; in this blog I'm simply sharing some of the experiences my husband and I have in preparing food that is home-grown.

About the author

Kay Wheeler Moore is the author of a new cookbook, Way Back in the Country Garden, that features six generations of recipes that call for ingredients that are fresh from the garden. With home gardening surging in popularity as frugal people become more resourceful, this recipe collection and the stories that accompany it ideally will inspire others to cook the garden-fresh way and to preserve their own family food stories as well. The stories in this book center around the Three Red-Haired Miller Girls (Kay's mother and aunts) who grew up in Delta County, TX, with their own backyard garden so lavish that they felt as though they were royalty after their Mama wielded her kitchen magic on all that was homegrown. Introduced in Kay's previous book, Way Back in the Country, the lively Miller Girls again draw readers into their growing-up world, in which a stringent economic era--not unlike today's tight times--saw people turn to the earth to put food on the table for their loved ones. The rollicking yarns (all with recipes attached) have love, family, and faith as common denominators and show how food evocatively bonds us to our life experiences.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Many of the recommended "5 to 9" get satisfied in this one humble sandwich

If health between two pieces of whole wheat ever existed, it's this sandwich. I’ve held onto this recipe FOR-EVVVVV-ER trying to decide whether it interested me enough to try. Now that I've dined on it (day after day, because it makes so many sandwich halves), I can't imagine why I put off preparing it.

Draining and rinsing the garbanzo beans is crucial to rid them of the extra sodium content and make them less sticky as the food processor purees them along with the water, cumin, red pepper, and lime juice. The fresh parsley processed with the onion and garlic gives the garbanzo mixture an amazingly fresh taste.

Piling on the veggies atop the pureed beans spread on one side of the pita brought a smile as I thought of how many of the “5 to 9” (recommended servings of fresh fruit and veggies we’re supposed to have each day) were being satisfied in that one humble sandwich.

After the sandwiches were all finished, I still had quite an ample amount of the garbanzo-bean mixture, so I spread it on some leftover cornbread instead of using butter. Just as good as on the pita!

Why’d I wait? This unique pita partner is terrific!

Garbanzo Bean Sandwiches

1/8 cup onion, sliced
1 garlic clove
2 tablespoons parsley
1 (15-ounce) can garbanzo beans, rinsed, drained
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon lime (or lemon) juice
4 whole-wheat pitas
2 cups spinach, shredded
1 medium tomato, chopped
1/2 cucumber, medium, sliced and quartered
1 cup carrots, shredded
1/2 cup fat-free ranch dressing

Place onion, garlic, and parsley in a food processor or blender. Process until roughly chopped.
Add garbanzo beans, water, cumin, red pepper, and lime juice. Process until smooth. Cut each pita in half to for 2 pockets. Spread 2 tablespoons of bean mixture into each pita half. To each pita half add spinach, tomato, cucumber, and shredded carrots. Then to each pita half add 1 tablespoon of ranch dressing. Makes 8 servings.


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