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<\/p>\n*Disclaimer*….I had this post written and ready to go before I went off the rails for the summer.\u00a0 Rather than hang onto it for a year, I’m posting it.\u00a0 Yes, yes, it’s late.\u00a0 But we still have watermelon coming out of the farms here and I was gifted a whole one by the lovely and wonderful Amanda.\u00a0 It was like she knew I needed this watermelon.\u00a0 It was kizmet.\u00a0 So to continue….<\/p>\n
Summer time was always a happy time.\u00a0 Well, it still is.\u00a0 But summer brought all kinds of treats unique to the season.\u00a0 I’m talking about fruit.\u00a0 Nothing taught me better on how to eat seasonally than being a single parent.\u00a0 They can tell you all the time that eating fresh fruit and vegetables is “too expensive”.\u00a0 Well, sure.\u00a0 If everything you’re buying is out of season.\u00a0 Understand….it’s all lies.<\/p>\n
Now, if you learn how to buy seasonally….which, granted, is easier, I suppose, for folks that farm (or at the very least garden)…..you will cut your produce bill dramatically.\u00a0 I’m not going to lie.\u00a0 It takes practice.\u00a0 And diligence.\u00a0 How many different ways can you make zucchini, anyway?!\u00a0 Amd wtf is a kohlrabi?!\u00a0 And why would I even want eat that weird stuff?!\u00a0 It’s true…not everything can be as grand as a strawberry or a juicy piece of melon when trying to shove fresh produce down your kids throats because you, too, need to feel like you’re doing SOMEthing right.<\/p>\n
I wasn’t raised “eating seasonally”.\u00a0 What does that even mean?!\u00a0 Because when I walk into a grocery store, there are no “seasons”.\u00a0 All the produce is available all the time.\u00a0 This is a trap.\u00a0 Yes, we as consumers have been lured into a produce trap where everything is shiny and available year round.\u00a0 Understand this….this is not natural….and you’ll be fine.\u00a0 All it takes is a little common sense and forethought.\u00a0 And maybe some googling.\u00a0 Like obviously, watermelon is not “in season” in December.\u00a0 At least not in the United States.<\/p>\n
When you buy out of season produce, not only does it not have the best flavors, but it likely was flown in from some other country or continent and the price will be higher.\u00a0 So, yes, in that regard, buying fresh produce WILL be costly.\u00a0 But they don’t tell you that part.\u00a0 Instead, you walk into a store and look around at all the produce that is too expensive, give up, and move on to cheap processed foods.\u00a0 That’s what the food conglomerates want you to do.\u00a0 All you need to do is get a clear focus and pretty soon you’ll be spending even less than you would on processed foods.<\/p>\n
Personally, I always found I could stretch my small dollars on more real food once I figured out the way I was being gamed at the grocery store.\u00a0 The basics of seasonal buying is pretty simple. Once I got better at it, I found myself spending less money in general at the store.\u00a0 And I found myself buying less and less processed products.\u00a0 Several years go, the kid had a science project at school.\u00a0 The directions said, “Bring these items in sandwich bags.”\u00a0 What followed was a list of processed foods.\u00a0 The plan was to set them on fire in the science lab.\u00a0 Seriously?!\u00a0 I had to go buy them because we had nothing on the list.\u00a0 I was like….I’m a single mom!\u00a0 And I’m winning!\u00a0 Yanno, it’s the small things.<\/p>\n
Where was I?\u00a0 Oh, yes….buying seasonal.\u00a0 Basically, citrus is winter fruit.\u00a0 Apples are fall fruit.\u00a0 Berries and melons are mostly summer fruits, and so on.\u00a0 It’s the same with vegetables.\u00a0 Spring is peas and lettuces, cabbages and broccolis….they come back around in fall.\u00a0 Summer is zucchinis, tomatoes, peppers, and the like.\u00a0 Winter is root vegetables and sweet squashes.\u00a0 I mean that’s an over simplification, but you get the idea.<\/p>\n
I’ve added a few tricks since then.\u00a0 Like growing your own herbs…it could take an initial investment of about twenty bucks, but you save so much over the course of several months.\u00a0 Like knowing which produce you can buy now while it’s in season and save for later when it’s not.\u00a0 Like which apples will stay crisp the longest, etc.\u00a0 The hardest lesson was not giving in to ridiculous notions of lemon tarts in July when lemons cost a fortune.\u00a0 Sure, lemonade is delicious in the summer.\u00a0 If you’re willing to blow a wad on lemons, which I am not.\u00a0 So we drink iced tea, which also cuts out the sugar.<\/p>\n
I know, I know….enough blathering and get on with the recipe already!\u00a0 Once I got my kid into eating salad, the world was wide open.\u00a0 Suddenly, nothing was off limits.\u00a0 How’d I get salad into a child, you ask?\u00a0 Well, with bacon dressing, of course.\u00a0 Did you not see my last Single Mom Chronicles post?\u00a0 After that it was a breeze to make salads.\u00a0 This one has watermelon.\u00a0 Obviously.\u00a0 I mean, it IS summer time.\u00a0 Go ahead!\u00a0 Splurge on that seedless one!\u00a0 My melon had seeds, as you can see, because it came from DC Modern Roots farm.\u00a0 They also grow microgreens for me so the pictures show arugula microgreens.\u00a0 I had some leftover from an event so don’t freak out about it.<\/p>\n
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Oddly, my kid enjoyed fresh spinach.\u00a0 I feel very lucky about that.\u00a0 This particular salad is made with arugula, but it’s totally easy to swap in baby spinach for the less adventurous greens eater in your house.\u00a0 Many recipes on the internet include feta.\u00a0 Unless you eat feta on the regular, skip it.\u00a0 I didn’t want to spend five dollars on a single ingredient like feta.\u00a0 I used shaved parmesan or romano because it was way cheaper and we actually used it in many other dishes.\u00a0 And you just need a little bit to add a salty fat note to the salad.\u00a0 Today, I love blue cheese in this salad and so I used it for the pictures.<\/p>\n
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Sunflower seeds are a nice addition and they aren’t expensive.\u00a0 A handful costs less than a dollar and it lends a nice crunch, but not an overly powerful flavor.\u00a0 I always wanted the watermelon to be the dominant flavor…especially with a kid.\u00a0 And there’s really very little dressing with this salad because the melon is so juicy.\u00a0 I just whisked a little olive oil with some rice wine vinegar.\u00a0 It’s really just to gloss the lettuce leaves rather than be it’s own flavor component.\u00a0 The watermelon juice lends a fantastic flavor to the rice vinegar, which isn’t bitey at all.\u00a0 Any light vinaigrette works, though.\u00a0 We have sweet onions in the farm stands here and I like the addition of a sweet onion in this salad, which is another very affordable option.<\/p>\n
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What I love about watermelon, is the fact that you can use up the rinds.\u00a0 I’ve done pickled watermelon rinds, watermelon rind jam, and turned my hollowed out shells into serving bowls and marinating vessels.\u00a0 Yes, marinating vessels.\u00a0 You, too, can have watermelon marinated chicken on the grill!\u00a0 I also toss the rinds out to the chickens.\u00a0 They eat them right down to the skin.\u00a0 I love it.<\/p>\n
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I especially love the low price of this salad AND that if I get a big melon, I can use the red portion twice because this salad only uses half of a large melon.\u00a0 I’ve let the other half go for dessert at another meal, or it can be dressed and grilled as a wonderful side for bbq.\u00a0 Muddle a few cubes with a can of seltzer water for an instant soda without all the garbage in popular soda brands.\u00a0 This salad costs around ten bucks if you already have the fixings for the dressing.\u00a0 Using only half the melon cuts that bill in half, too.\u00a0 Best of all….it’s a fantastic serving of greens and fruit without having to cook anything.\u00a0 Winning!<\/p>\n