The July issue of O Magazine features a 10-page spread titled "What Are You Eating."
Within those 10 pages are the preferred diets of 10 individuals.
Ranging from a fruitarian to an all-day grazer of junk food, from a carnivore who prefers to hunt and kill his own meat to an omnivore with an appetite for just about anything, the diets are extreme.
The article is worth reading for the shock factor. Apparently some people eat what they eat quite happily and for valid personal reasons -- like the guy who lives on bread, steak and cereal because nothing else tastes good to him!
Whether the 10 (and others like them) are healthy eating what they're eating is highly questionable, but that's another article.
When I finished reading "What Are You Eating," I realized Market to Mouth probably looks and reads as though I'm one of those people who are, quote, "making it hard to feel good about eating anymore ... that subset of -arian, -vores, and -ists who eat not just thoughtfully but righteously."
I confess to being very thoughtful about the food I buy, cook and eat (or this past month, the food I pick from the garden to cook and eat). Though hopefully, I'm not righteous about it; I certainly wouldn't want to make readers feel guilty about what they're eating or not eating.
Being a thoughtful and conscious consumer of locally grown and produced whole, unprocessed food reaps dividends; the most obvious is the benefit to one's health, and then the benefit to the economic and sustainable health of one's community.
For these reasons, I feel very good about consuming and eating thoughtfully and with a conscience.
With that in mind, today's thoughtful meal idea comes, once again, from the garden to the table.
However, it's not exactly a meal, but rather a delicious side of unusual edibles: snap-pea greens and garlic scapes, both of which I've included in a number of posts in recent weeks.
In fact, it was this past Meatless Monday that I posted a recipe for pasta with Garlic Scape Pesto garnished with pea greens (pic to left).I still have some of the pesto in the fridge and I've been using it to dress salads, and as a paste on crackers with cheese and olives.
Garlic scapes (pic below) have a strong garlic - onion flavor when raw, but gently sauteed or roasted in the oven tossed in a little oil, they're not as pungent.
The leaves, shoots and flowers of the snap peas are sweet and tender and taste just like raw snap peas.Find scapes and snap-pea greens at your local farmer's market and then toss washed and coarsely chopped scapes into a skillet with butter and saute until just soft.
Toss washed snap pea greens over the scapes, gently stir for a minute or until the leaves wilt slightly. Season to taste.
To Serve: Spoon wilted greens into a serving bowl. Add a dollop of sour cream. Eat as a side with pasta or baked potato and or as accompaniment to fish or poultry.