Saturday, November 19, 2011

Week 34 - Be Thankful For What You Got

Thanksgiving is a big deal in this family, as it is for many others.  Since my husband and I both love to cook, the day is truly a family affair and we go all out.  This year, we are extremely excited and very thankful to have our amazing box of produce available to inspire the dishes that will grace our celebration.  With thirteen people to feed, it's great to know that we'll have lots of variety on the table to enjoy!

In the box this week
(top) lettuce, carrots, celery, spinach
(middle) avocados, persimmons
(bottom) green beans, cucumbers, butternut squash, lemons, pumpkin, herb bundle

Thanksgiving recipes using the box
Other Thanksgiving recipes
Do I really have to wait five more days?  With all of these amazing dishes to try, I'm feeling very impatient!
This week's title is inspired by the song of the same name by Massive Attack.

    Friday, November 18, 2011

    Week 33 in Review

    The Score
    Eaters - 9      Compost - 0.5     Carry Over - 2.5

    Another delicious week in the kitchen, with most of what I set out to achieve accomplished.  I didn't get around the the persimmons pudding (though plan to make that this coming week as the persimmons are still in great shape) and we purposefully left the yams out of the plan to save for next week.  We have some avocado, and a bit of the carrots and celery, left over as well.  While some of the lettuce bit the dust yet again, it does feel like we made and ate a lot given last week's hefty box bounty.

    The Best

    The Good
    • In this ode to the pumpkin month, it was great to enjoy a savory pumpkin recipe.  The pumpkin ravoli recipe - broiled in the oven at the last minute with a sprinkle of brown sugar - was a delight.
    • The ode to pumpkin continued with these delicious pumpkin cookies, which really were more like mini pumpkin cakes... light, fluffy, yummy.


    • Used up a couple week's worth of carry over grape tomatoes - both yellow and red - in an easy tomato sauce that was embellished with homemade meatballs and spaghetti.  Those may have been the last really fresh tomatoes of the year... sigh.

    The Rest
    • While radishes aren't really loved by anyone in this family, pickled radishes didn't do much for any of us either.

    Saturday, November 12, 2011

    Week 33 - Fall

    When you've got one soup already made in the fridge, one hand on a butternut squash, the other hand on a soup pot, and yet another soup recipe going through your mind, I guess it's safe to call it fall.  The temperatures have dipped, and the ingredients in the box are definitely supportive of my focus on soup making.  Over the past couple of weeks, I've been making soups for lunches and dinners, and am planning to make at least another couple of soups this week.  Given that it's also nearing Thanksgiving, I may try to carry over at least one item in the box (yams!) in the hopes of using it for a turkey day recipe. 

    In the box this week
    (top) lettuce, celery, carrots, spinach
    (middle) pumpkin, avocados, yams, radishes, apples, persimmons
    (bottom) butternut squash, fresh thyme, marjoram, rosemary and sage

    Meals/recipes for the week
    As I sit and finish writing this, one soup is done, and I'm getting really excited for the rest of the week.  There are so many amazing recipes out there to try, and with so many amazing ingredients at my fingertips, I can't wait! 
    This week's title is inspired by the song of the same name by Miles Davis.

    Friday, November 11, 2011

    Week 32 in Review

    The Score
    Eaters - 9     Compost - 1     Carry Over - 1

    Lots of good eating this week, though many of the meals were my lunches instead of family dinners.  With one sick child, and another one busy with baseball playoffs, there were fewer sit down family dinners this week.  That freedom allowed me to play with spices and flavors that the kids aren't 100% comfortable with just yet.  Although I once again failed to get through all of the lettuce and chard, I do feel like I personally ate a lot of vegetables this week to make up for what everyone else wasn't eating. 

    The Best
    • I stumbled upon an amazing website of recipes this week (101 Cookbooks) and found a recipe for Otsu, a buckwheat noodle salad.  The dressing was amazing, and the recipe allowed me to use a generous portion of cilantro from the box.  Though this time around I substituted sauteed chicken for the tofu, I can see making this delicious recipe again and again with a variety of proteins.

    The Good
    • Over the weekend, my husband made pork tinga, which was a great hit with the kids.  The crunchy tostadas were the perfect canvas for the avocados, lettuce and cilantro from the box.
    • This lemon green beans with marcona almonds dish is definitely the best preparation of green beans that I've ever made; possibly the best green beans dish that I've ever tasted!  I seriously could have eaten the entire bowl.
    • Fall ingredients like pumpkin and persimmons made for a lovely, moist muffin.  Definitely got me in the mood for Thanksgiving!
     
    • One simple family dinner was linguine with zucchini and mint.  Though I'm still avoiding pasta for the short term, it smelled SO good - and the kids gobbled it up.
      
    The Rest

    Tuesday, November 8, 2011

    Week 32 - Fever

    Time in the kitchen is a luxury when you've got one or more sick kids.  I've got a wicked fever working its way through my house right now and while it hasn't hit me (yet?), it's unclear how much time I'll have to spend making meals.  So, other than one complicated meal that my husband is planning to make, I'm keeping things fairly simple this week and designed primarily for grown up eating.  With sick ones to take care of - and who likely won't be eating a lot of solid meals anyway - simple makes a lot of sense this week.

    In the box this week
    (top) lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, cilantro
    (bottom) green beans, zucchini, apples, persimmons, avocados, grape tomatoes, pumpkin

    Meals/recipes for the week
    I'm hoping these very healthy meals will keep my immune system at the top of its game.  There is never a good time to get sick, and I'm really hoping my time can be spent in the kitchen versus bed!
    This week's title is inspired by the song of the same name by Peggy Lee. 

    Friday, November 4, 2011

    Week 31 in Review

    The Score
    Eaters - 9     Compost - 1     Carry Over - 1

    Our mix-it-up week went really well.  We had some delicious meals, and I had a lot of fun in the kitchen!  The idea of using others recipes as guides really resonated, but allowed for some fun playing around that ended up quite well.  Ingredient proportions are all the more important with baking, but even the bread turned out great.  For the past week, I've been back on an elimination diet for health reasons - meaning that I didn't eat everything that I made - but I was sure to get feedback on the items that I wasn't eating myself.

    The Best
    • I know I'm probably a bit biased here, because this was one of the few items that I could eat this week... but my pumpkin curry soup (based on a combination of this and this) was so delicious that I ran out, bought another pumpkin, and made a second batch!
     

    Pumpkin Curry Soup
    • 1 medium onion, chopped
    • 2 cloves garlic, minced
    • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
    • 1 pumpkin (small sugar), cut in half and seeds removed
    • 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus additional for pumpkin
    • 3 cups low sodium chicken broth
    • 1.5 teaspoons curry powder
    • 1 can light coconut milk
    • salt and pepper
    • Heat oven to 375
    • Coat pumpkin flesh with olive oil or olive oil spray and roast, skin down, in oven for one hour until soft throughout.  Remove from oven.
    • Sautee onion in olive oil for 5-7 minutes, until translucent.  Add garlic and thyme and cook for one additional minute.  Remove from heat.
    • Scoop out flesh of pumpkin and put into a soup pan.  Add in onion mixture, chicken broth, and curry powder.  Heat over medium until it reaches a boil, then simmer on low for 15-20 minutes.  
    • Take soup off heat, and add coconut milk.  
    • Puree in blender, or with immersion blender.  Add salt and pepper to taste.
    • Garnish with fresh basil and/or crushed cashews. 

    The Good

    This zucchini banana bread (based on this and this) finally hit all the right notes - sweet but not using bananas in addition to sugar, moist thanks to yogurt not oil - and was a big hit at home and at a school bake sale!
     Zucchini banana bread (this loaf with walnuts only)
    • 3 eggs
    • 3/4 cup canola oil
    • 2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
    • 1 cup sugar
    • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
    • 3 cups zucchini, yellow or green, shredded
    • 2 bananas, very ripe and mashed
    • 1/2 cup plain yogurt
    • 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
    • 1 cup whole wheat flour
    • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
    • 1.5 teaspoons baking powder
    • 1 teaspoon baking soda
    • 1 teaspoon salt
    • 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)
    • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
    • Heat oven to 325.  Grease and flour two 9x5 bread pans.
    • Beat eggs until light and fluffy.  Beat in oil, brown sugar, sugar and vanilla.  Fold in zucchini, bananas and yogurt until well mixed.
    • In a separate bowl, mix together all dry ingredients. 
    • Carefully fold the wet ingredients into the dry, until the batter looks just combined.
    • If desired, fold in chocolate chips and walnuts (you can use one full cup of one if you don't want both, or nothing at all).
    • Pour into two bread pans.  Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 50-60 minutes.  Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove from pan and let cool on wire rack.

    I wasn't able to eat it, but the frittata (based on this and this) went over very well with my family and was quite nice to look at!
    Frittata with Bacon, Potatoes and Swiss Chard
    • 5 slices bacon
    • 1 bunch Swiss chard, stems removed and chopped
    • 3-4 small potatoes, blue or red - cut into chunks and boiled until soft
    • 1 clove of garlic
    • 6 eggs, beaten
    • 1/2 cup ricotta
    • 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
    • red pepper flakes, if desired
    • salt and pepper
    • Heat oven to 400
    • Cook bacon slices in oven proof fry pan until crispy, remove from heat and cool
    • Leaving 1 tablespoon of bacon fat in pan, saute Swiss chard until wilted.  Add in garlic and potatoes, and cook for two more minutes while chopping up the bacon into small bits.  Add bacon bits back into pan.
    • Whisk ricotta into beaten eggs, then pour over mixture in pan.  
    • Cook in oven for 8 minutes.  Egg should be mostly done at this point.
    • Switch oven to broiler
    • Add parmesan and red pepper flakes (if desired), then put under broiler for one to two minutes until cheese has melted.  Salt and pepper to taste. 

    The zucchini banana bread (based on this and this) was another thing that I couldn't eat this week, but it was a big hit at home and at a school bake sale!
     Zucchini banana bread (this loaf with walnuts only)
    • 3 eggs
    • 3/4 cup canola oil
    • 2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
    • 1 cup sugar
    • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
    • 2 cups zucchini, yellow or green, shredded
    • 2 bananas, very ripe and mashed
    • 1/2 cup plain yogurt
    • 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
    • 1 cup whole wheat flour
    • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
    • 1.5 teaspoons baking powder
    • 1 teaspoon baking soda
    • 1 teaspoon salt
    • 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)
    • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
    • Heat oven to 325.  Grease and flour two 9x5 bread pans.
    • Beat eggs until light and fluffy.  Beat in oil, brown sugar, sugar and vanilla.  Fold in zucchini, bananas and yogurt until well mixed.
    • In a separate bowl, mix together all dry ingredients. 
    • Carefully fold the wet ingredients into the dry, until the batter looks just combined.
    • If desired, fold in chocolate chips and walnuts (you can use one full cup of one if you don't want both, or nothing at all).
    • Pour into two bread pans.  Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 50-60 minutes.  Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove from pan and let cool on wire rack.

    I did eat a lot of this vegetarian lentil soup (based on this and this), which helped me get into the spirit of autumn.
    Vegetarian lentil soup
    • 1/2 pound lentils, placed in a large bowl and soaked in boiling water for 15 minutes
    • 3 tablespoons olive oil
    • 2 large onions, chopped
    • 2 leeks, chopped
    • 3 cloves garlic, minced
    • 4 stalks celery, diced
    • 3 large carrots, diced 
    • 1 bunch of spinach (4-6 cups), finely chopped
    • 1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme leaves
    • 1 tablespoon salt
    • 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
    • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
    • 6 cups low sodium vegetable stock
    • 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar or lemon juice
    • Parmesan cheese (optional)
    • In a large soup pot, heat olive oil.  Saute onions and leeks for 15 minutes, then add garlic, celery, carrots, and thyme and cook 10 more minutes. Add spinach and saute until wilted.
    • Add lentils, salt, pepper, cumin, and vegetable stock.  Bring to a boil over medium heat, then lower heat and simmer for one hour.
    • Add vinegar/lemon juice and check salt and pepper.
    • Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and/or a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

    The pesto pasta with green beans dinner didn't end up requiring a look at a recipe after all.  Our pesto was based on this (minus the walnuts), though I tend to wing it these days when assembling pesto.  The green beans were steamed, then I added some smoked chicken and parmesan cheese.  The boys ate it twice this week.


    Also thrown together without much ado was a chicken salad, eaten by my husband on a baguette, but by me salad-style with spinach and avocados.  I made a simple mustard vinaigrette (olive oil, red wine vinegar, dijon mustard, fresh tarragon) and combined it with chopped cooked chicken, minced shallots and slivered almonds.