Mashed Potato and Veggie Stuffed Mushrooms and the October Eat Local Challenge

So I was browsing 28 Cooks awhile back when I came across one of her recipes for stuffed mushrooms. At first I thought she had stuffed the mushrooms with mashed potatoes - come to find out they were stuffed with cream cheese. Well I thought the idea of stuffing a mushroom with mashed potatoes sounded mighty good, so that's what I did!

We topped these with a variation of Veganomicon's Mushroom Gravy - basically, I used what I had on had. That gravy made the cookbook worth buying.

Note: This meal was made before the October Eat Local Challenge started - I am just behind as usual. ;-)

The local booty legend:
no asterisk = grocery store
* = farmer's market or The Root Cellar
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms




























Mashed Potato and Veggie Stuffed Mushrooms

6 large mushrooms, stems removed and rinsed

The mashed potatoes:
4 red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into large cubes *
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
2 tbsp Earth Balance
1/4 cup rice milk
garlic powder
dried basil
black pepper
salt

Preheat oven to 350.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add the potatoes and garlic. Cook for 25-30 minutes, or until soft. Drain the potatoes.

Transfer potatoes to a large bowl. Blend potatoes and remaining ingredients together with a mixter or potato masher, adding more rice milk if necessary to reach desired consistency.

The other stuff:
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced
1 small yellow onion, chopped **
2 cups of chard, chopped *
1 tbsp safflower oil

Heat safflower oil over medium heat in a medium sized skillet. Add the carrots and onions and stir-fry for about 10 minutes or until carmelized.

Add the chard in batches, covering with an oven proof plate or lid to steam if necessary.

Stir veggies into the mashed potatoes.

Spoon a few tablespoons of the potato mixture into each mushroom.

Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes.

Let cool for a few minutes and top with mushroom gravy if desired.

These were seriously good, seriously. I wish folks around the Mid-Missouri area would grow more "common" mushrooms - button and portobello, things like that. I would eat stuffed mushrooms more often if I could find them locally.

Anywho, onto the October Eat Local Challenge. This challenge is put on by the cool folks who run EatLocalChallenge.com. They have hosted multiple local eating challenges and given great information and resources for folks who want to participate.

As you all know from the garden and local booty updates, we try to either grow our own or eat locally as much as possible already anyway. But there is always more that we can do, and ways we can creatively change our eating habits and also discover new foods. I like that this challenge allows for reasonable exceptions and it goes very well with the go local portion of the Unplug Yourself initiative.

You can see our exemptions on the side bar of the blog. Most of them are self explanatory. We have since found local beans, some other local staples (still no brown rice), and will consider them as options when we run out of our existing stashes of these things.

On top of the exemptions on the side bar are things that are non-local, not exempt, but that I already had on hand, such as olives and other canned goods that I had before signing up for the challenge. Also, if we go out to eat, we will go to a local restaurant at the very least, and one that tries to source locally at best.

Each week when I post the local booty updates I will do a dual Eat Local/Unplug Yourself update as to our progress and how well we have been able to stay within the parameters we set for ourselves.

If you are interested in participating in the Eat Local Challenge for the month of October as well, I'm sure it is not too late to sign up. You can sign up for the challenge here.

Well, it is late, and we still haven't had supper, so it is getting to be that time around here.

'Til next time.