Week 7 in Review

The Score
Eaters -11.5   Compost - 0.5    Carry Over - 0.0!
Sometimes life surprises you.  I was pretty sure that - given all the limitations of my current 'elimination' diet - the meals this week were going to be awful/bland/nearly inedible, but it turns out that we had a week of mostly delicious meals.  What I was lacking in 'typical' ingredients I was able to make up for with a bunch of delicious produce, along with some great recipes and a bit of creativity.  I certainly wouldn't want to have to eat like this all the time, but for a couple of weeks, I can handle it.  With all that we made, we got closer than we ever have to using up everything before the week was out!  We just have a bit of rosemary left that will be hitting the compost, despite its use in three recipes this week (we also have a huge supply available to us in our backyard). This week, for the first time, we also have some 'in process' pictures to share!

The Good

• Fresh organic chicken (from our Health Family Farms CSA) with a herb marinade that featured Rosemary and Bunching Onions - we ate it up so quickly that we neglected to get an 'after' shot

• The Zucchini-pineapple bread was a HUGE hit (though I have not been able to have some myself)!  I added a cup of shredded Carrots to the recipe, so the cooking time ran over a bit, but the bread was moist and gorgeous, speckled with hues of green, orange and purple from the veggies

 Before

 After

• The curried zucchini soup was simple, summery and scrumptious (and was even enjoyed by one of the boys!)

• The chicken and spinach pasta was simple - perfect for a Thursday night when everyone was starting to run out of steam (including the cook).  I snuck in some rice/soy pasta noodles so I could eat it too, and no one seemed to notice.  I knew it was a huge success when one of my guys - who typically finds ways to avoid eating any kind of cooked leafy greens - gobbled up the pasta and had seconds, spinach and all!

The So-So

• Nothng too exciting about turkey burgers, but the purple lettuce and carrot salad along with the butter lettuce on the burger (no bun for me) made for a pretty plate.  We also all enjoyed the fresh baby artichokes that I had picked up at the farmer's market when picking up our CSA box

• An impromptu lunchtime meal with buckwheat soba noodles (an allowed food) allowed me to use up the rest of the Bunching onions and some farmer's market asparagus (in place of the peas called for in the recipe) - super simple, quite yummy

The Ugly

• Tried my best, but still not a huge quinoa fan.  Lots of flavors (perhaps too many) going on in the Moroccan quinoa pilaf... between that and the textures, it wasn't a favorite

• The Rosemary white bean dip went wrong for a couple of reasons: 1) I accidentally added back too much of the liquid from the beans, making the texture way too soupy; and 2) given the elimination of lemon due to my citrus restrictions, the dip was missing a key flavor.  I will likely try this again once I'm back 'on' all foods