The Produce Ambassador

Follows Clyde's culinary journey through our produce department at Whole Foods Market Evanston South.

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Hey Chicago...lets go for a picnic!

Hey Chicago...lets go for a picnic!

Since the dawn of time man has eaten outdoors.  Who says you have to sit in a room to eat delicous food? 

 So this week I decided since summer has finally blossomed in Chicago, and I would invite my buddy Dylan to the beach for a gluten free picnic! Dylan can't eat "gluten" save for the occasional pizza, nachos, or cakes so I knew that this meal would be great for her!

  I made a terrific dairy free egg salad from the wholefoodsmarket.com using my favorite new product JUST MAYOOO!  As well as Rudi’s bread from our gluten free section to make egg salad sandwiches.  I needed a side so again I went to the handy dandy website, and found a recipe for Texas Caviar. It was easy to make, and with the addition of a little extra salt was perfect for a summer time treat on the beach.

  My lovely assistant Karen* wanted me to highlight some local products so for dessert.  We had blondies and brownies from Defloured. Man oh man...they were some of the best brownies I’ve ever tasted.  I also slapped some Yummy Barney Almond Butter on extra celery for a bonus snack in case we needed it. 

  All in all this was a perfect meal for the beach on a warm summer evening. 

A big thank you to Dylan for eating my food!

Love,

Clyde

*Not an actual assistant

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Portobello Mushroom Burgers & Fruit Popsicles

So this week I returned to my friends Alyssa and Alex from The Freaky Food Friday post.  Since that food was deemed "weird" and "Interesting" I thought I would make them something everyone likes...mushrooms!

  Well not everyone likes mushrooms, but Portobello mushrooms make incredible summertime meat substitutes for your cook out.  I haven't eaten meat in over a year and a half, and I get tired of fake meat, even though I sometimes love it.  Also, tofu dogs never seem to grill the way you want them too.  So in my opinion Portobello mushroom burgers are the best choice.

I went to the website and made a great melon and onion relish to go on top of said burgers.

Alyssa:  That's gross...and I refuse to eat mushrooms.

Alex:  I will eat it because you made it for me.

Me:  I love these burgers!

  I follow the recipes, but I always play with the marinade for any of my dishes. So if you have a favorite then soak the mushrooms in for a few hours and get to work!  I was also without a grill the night we made these so they are great fresh outta the oven as well!

For desert we made popsicles* by blending watermelon, grapes and a touch of honey.  These.  Were. Awesome.

  ***Popsicles are not my favorite, but a close relative to one of my all-time favorite desserts...pudding pops.   They stop making them a billion years ago, and life has not been the same ever since.  If you say the words fudge pop to me you bets get to steppin.

  Thanks to my girls Alyssa and Alex for eating my food!

  Next week...A picnic for two on the beach!!!

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/easy-pickled-melon

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Grab That Mess and Go Ingredients

- Collards

- Small tomatoes

- Mozzarella 

- Red wine vinegar

- Prepared coleslaw from produce

- Pickled beets from Love Beets

- Pre-sliced mishrooms

- pre-washed basil

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Grab That Mess and Go!

Grab That Mess and GOOO

  Oh man!  How many times have you thought, "I needs me some food, I want it to be healthy,  and I want it now!".  If you're anything like me then you think this daily.  We usually turn to pizza, sandwiches, chips,  and things that just aren't that great for us.  However, I am here to prove to you that with a few simple ingredients you can have a healthy meal from the Whole Foods Market produce department that is ready to eat in just under 10 minutes. 

  This week I had collard wraps, pickled beets, and Caprese salad!  All featuring produce,  and vinegar so if you don't like vinegar than get outta my blog!

The beets were incredible and made by Love Beets.  They come in a few different flavors and are among my favorite items in the store.  The caprese salad was also great and I was a bit worried about the fresh mozarella being a little expensive, but it turns out our 365 brand is pretty reasonable.  So I was able to fit it into my budget.

  Now as for the collard wraps I had people asking me allll week how I ate raw collards?!?!  Easy...with my mouth and teeth.  Raw collards are super healthy and good.  I filled them with sliced mushrooms, pre-chopped coleslaw mix, and red wine vinegar.  My guest for dinner Hannah loved them or at least she told me she did which at the end of the day is all anyone can really ask for.

  This was a healthy and filling meal, and I didn't have to even pick up a knife!

  Special thanks to the lovely and incredible Hannah for eating my food this week!  She travelled all the way from North Carolina just to be featured on this blog!

  Next week...popsicles! 

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Kenyan Style Kale & Greens with Carrots, Feta Cheese, and Brown Rice.

Let’s Eat Some Greens Already!

  This week I decided I needed to rock out some Kale and Collards. So, I went to the website in search of recipes that could make these greens taste like actual food.*

*I in fact love the taste of raw kale and collards, but I find that a lot of friends, and customers do not.

The first recipe I chose was greens with carrots, feta cheese and brown rice.  I substituted goat cheese for the feta, because I like goat cheese better. You should feel free to change some stuff out if you see fit.  This was a pretty healthy and low cal dish.  Except for the cheese which was the best part of course...because cheese is the best part of everything, Duh.

The second recipe was along the same lines, and was Kenyan Style Kale and Tomatoes.  Mine turned out much juicier than what is pictured, but it was still suppppper good. 

To be honest these recipes were so easy, and simple, and easy, and awesome, and incredible tasting that I thought...this is going to make for a pretty boring blog post.  But, my friend Dylan was very pleased and we both finished our plates!

Special Thanks to my friend Dylan for eating my food!

Until next week,

Clyde

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/greens-carrots-feta-cheese-and-brown-rice

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/kenyan-style-kale-and-tomatoes

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Freaky Food Friday!

Freaky Food Friday!

  Many times while working in our produce department customers will often say things like, "how do I cook this?", "what is this thing?", and  "where is the bathroom?”.  I usually reply with, "let’s go to google®!”  Instead I decided to just try and cook these things myself.  For example, can you roast an entire brussels sprout stalk?  The short answer is, "you can, but it turned out to be not worth the trouble?".

  I ventured across the street to my friend Alex's house, with my buddy Alyssa, and we gathered 'round to eat weird and freaky foods.  This week’s menu consisted of star fruit, horned melon, ugli fruit, eggplant, dates, and brussels sprout stalks. 

  I got a handy dandy tip from our Store Team Leader Niki to roast the eggplant with dates to give it some sweetness, and add some pizazz. I roasted them for about 25 minutes until they were a soggy golden brown, and the dates were extra chewy.  "The flavor was there but the texture was off" said my buddies.

  I also roasted the b-sprout stalks in a lovely spicy coconut mango marinade from our produce section. Super good, but I would never roast these on the stalk again.  However, it's hard to totally mess up b-sprouts, and they turned out ok.

  I used the ugli fruit, star fruit and horned melon to make into a futuristic salad. Which we called Clyde's Futuristic Salad from Outer Space...its outta this world!

  *Did you know that salads were invented by the scientist Peter Von Rooter as a way to get his kids to eat more Ranch Dressing?  That crazy Von Rooter!*

  Anyway, all in all is was a crazy meal, but we had fun eating it!

  Thanks to my buds Alyssa and Alex for eating my food!!!

  Until next week! – Clyde Produce Ambassador

  *This is a fun fact made up by Clyde. It is not a true statement or representative of Whole Foods Market.

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Me and my sis the "Vitamix Master"

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"We kick it root down with Kensley, sister to the Produce Ambassador for Whole Foods Market Evanston South". - Clyde Produce Ambassador 

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Family Dinner in North Carolina

This week’s journey took me all the way down South to my home state of North Carolina!  I decided that what my family needed was a big dose of roasted root vegetables.  They decided that they wanted the Carrot Ginger soup from last week’s blog.  I told them absolutely not, then they said they were paying for the everything, and we agreed to have both.

I bought the roots in the handy dandy root bag that we have in the produce department.  It's meant to be made into soup but you can also just roast and enjoy.  I went a little rogue this week and didn't go off of a particular recipe from the website.  Instead I sliced and diced the roots.  Then I tossed them in olive oil, a few pinches of salt, and a smidge of honey to make them extra caramelized. 

My sister Kensley, who works at Whole Foods in NC, also made one of her staples.  Kale salad with Soy Amino dressing. 

  So, once everything was cut up I roasted the roots at 450 for around 20 minutes on each side.  I use the eyeball method with most of my cooking. Sometimes you can’t trust the same temps from oven to oven.

  As you can see everyone was happy! 

Special thanks to Kensley, Ashley, Michael, Anne, Kai and Milo for eating my food! 

 Until next week, this is Clyde saying, “ put your roots in the ground and keep reaching for the stars”!

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Organic soup mix for the next Produce Ambassador dinner!

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This week's dinner!

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This Weeks Recipes

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/carrot-ginger-soup

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/orange-and-avocado-salad

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/banana-nice-cream

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Carrot Ginger Soup, Avocado Orange Salad, & Banana Nice Cream

Carrot Ginger Soup

Avocado & Orange Salad

Banana Nice Cream

  Carrot Soup was invented in the late 1700's and used as a currency in many parts of the world. Ginger was later added to ward off various trolls and goblins as we all know it tends to do. ***

  So, this week I decided to make a meal for my friends Jaci, Aaron, Dylan, and Natalia! Jaci and Aaron were kind enough to host at their beautiful home right here in Chicago, Illinois.  To go with the soup I decided to make Avocado and Orange Salad and for dessert Banana Nice Cream!  After Jaci told me numerous times that she hated bananas she said the rest sounded lovely. I said “I don't care you'll eat it and you'll love it”.  

  Anywhooo I came over with my groceries in tow and started cutting the various veggies.  Aaron and Jaci had recently taken a knife skills class, and informed me that I was doing everything wrong.  As this seems to be an ongoing theme in my travels, I stood back, and let Aaron go at it with the knife. Jaci had admittedly forgotten most of everything she had learned in the class.

   The Soup was super easy to make as we piled the carrots, potatoes, onion, and ginger into the pot along with the veggie broth.  I will say that in all my cooking for this blog I have added extra salt as I feel that most recipes kinda lack in the salt department.

  Next was the salad and let’s be honest, a salad is just a buncha stuff chopped and thrown together so that was also super easy.  The salad dressing took a bit of skill. But again...these recipes are pretty simple. The Banana Nice Cream was a great alternative to regular ice cream and a lot less fattening..  

  All in all great food was enjoyed by all!  Thank you to all my friends for eating my food and see you next time on Clyde's Produce Ambassador Blog!

  *** Fun Fact invented by Clyde and is not true or representative of Whole Foods Market. 

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Picking out avocados

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Shopping for the Muchos Mango dinner.

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Recipes for This Weeks Mango Dinner

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/pickled-mango-spears

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/mango-quinoa-salad