Week 36 in Review

The Score
Eaters - 8     Compost - 1.5     Carry Over - 0.5

My ambitious plan for week 36 turned out to be a bit too ambitious.  I never got around to the butternut squash soup (after roasting what I had from the previous week's carry over, there wasn't enough squash for both the muffins and the soup), and the Moroccan carrot and spinach salad didn't get made either (but I did enjoy a lovely juice featuring both ingredients).  The lettuce only got partially consumed and hit the compost with some of the cilantro that I couldn't use up before another big batch arrived in the next week's box.  At this time of year with so many events competing for my cooking time, though, I'm fine with the week's results.  Still wondering if we'll ever get to 10(+), 0, 0 for our score, but plenty of weeks left this year to get there. 

The Best

• The butternut squash muffins were moist, delicious and very well received.  The frosting/glaze really puts them over the edge (and would be delicious on any vegetable-based muffin or bread)... don't skip the vanilla bean!

The Good

• The grilled pork noodle salad with cilantro, carrots, basil and mint was delicious.  The recipe features a marinade for the pork; next time, I'd plan on making extra to use on the noodles.

• This is the way that I remember eating winter (acorn) squash as a kid, and it definitely brought back memories.  Unfortunately, my own kids weren't convinced.

The Rest

• I am the only non-lover of beets in my entire family.  So, while they are never a hard sell for everyone else, I'm still looking for the recipe that helps me fall in love.  The recipe for roasted beets with balsamic glaze wasn't it for me (and I didn't get a photo of the finished product) but I'll keep looking.



• I didn't get a photo of this latest batch of persimmons jam, but happily used up the last (I'm guessing) of this season's persimmons in a preserve that we will continue to enjoy for weeks and months to come!

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.

• Another fabulous lunch was a spinach salad with chicken, almonds and apples, tossed in a spicy mango dressing.  Hearty, healthy, and super tasty.

• 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

• While the lemon garlic spinach (with some mushrooms thrown in for the fun of it) was great, the almond crusted chicken was overly garlicky and really greasy (between the olive oil and nuts).

Week 13 in Review

The Score
Eaters - 10.5     Compost - 0     Carry Over - 2.5

With as much travel as we've managed through (both parents on the East coast at one point, though never overlapping), it seems like we did a pretty good job this week.  We did make everything on our not-too-crazy plan, and had a few tremendous hits along the way.   I suppose one of the points of this whole process is to know that - while life will certainly have it's crazier moments - being proactive and planning ahead will allow us all to eat healthy meals at the times when it matters most.  While we have a little more to carry over into next week that we typically do (some summer squash, carrots and cucumbers, and all of the pickling cucumbers), I'm quite proud of what did get made!

 The Winner

• I wasn't here when this got prepared, but this roasted chicken with Carrots, Turnips, Summer Squash and Cilantro was a huge hit with the boys - who asked to take the leftovers to lunch the following day.  The presentation was beautiful as well.

The Good

• The Green Bean bacon bundles is perhaps the best preparation of green beans that I've ever tasted.  I mean we've all had beans with bacon before, but the textures were perfect and with the brown sugar and garlic... all I can say is yum!

• The skirt steak and Cilantro Green Garlic sauce were a perfect match, made all the more fantastic with the addition of some caramelized Sweet Onions and homemade guacamole.

 

• The summer berry crisp (with Strawberries and Blackberries) was a big hit at a gathering of friends, but it was gone before I remembered that I hadn't gotten a photo.

The Rest

• The recipe for the sundried tomato Arugula pesto called for two bunches of arugula, so I figured that my relatively large bunch would suffice.  What I realized after it was made that I probably had about eight times as much as they were calling for, remembering that it's common to find arugula sold in relatively small bunches in plastic herb boxes at the grocery store.  The end result was overpowering and pretty much inedible, though I'm pretty sure the right balance of sundried tomatoes and arugula could be quite tasty.

Week 5 in Review

The Score
Eaters - 12.5   Compost - .5    Carry Over - 0
With my parents in town for the week, we did a great job of eating nearly everything for the first time!  We had a few carrots go uneaten, followed by a week out of town (see Week 6), and by the time we got home they were past their prime and had to hit the compost.  We made some fantastic meals this week, though, and our Oregon visitors really appreciated all of the fresh ingredients that we were able to incorporate into our meals courtesy of our California CSA box!

The Good

• We gobbled down the chicken mole verde recipe that allowed us to use cilantro and the entire radish plant (tops and roots)

 

• The green garlic, lemon salad dressing was wonderful on top of fresh lettuce, spinach, carrots and radishes from the box, and also it was delicious as a spread for bread - yum! 

The So-So

• The swiss chard with green garlic was just ok - the wonderful green garlic was sadly overpowered by the chard and prosciutto

• The steak salad (featuring skirt steak from our meat CSA) was good but while eating it, it definitely felt like something was missing.  I later realized that I had forgotten to add chili paste to the dressing, which I think would have brought the flavors together quite nicely.

The Ugly

• Call me crazy, but the bitter tendencies of the braised greens just did not blend well with the sweetness of the apple and sweet potato.  I give this one a big fat thumbs down (though others in the family didn't feel as adamantly opposed to it as I was)

Week 3 in Review

The Score
Eaters - 6.5    Compost - 1    Carry Over - 3.5
This week I found it very hard to keep to the meal plan.  My husband was on the road Monday through Thursday, and I not only had to take care of all of the cooking, there was also a lot of mid-week running around that was mine to get done.  The end result was that cooking time was significantly impacted, and there was also one less adult to help with the eating.  There were two meals - the penne and stir fry - that I never got around to making so we ended up with a lot of carry over (rapini, tatsoi, as well as some lettuce, carrots and leeks).  This week's cilantro wilted amazingly quickly and went into the compost bin, but fortunately I had some left over from last week's box that was still in great shape and contributed to one of the week's recipes.  I'm just grateful that most of what we do have is fresh enough to carry over from week to week, as there will often be crazy weeks like this!

The Good

• My husband's chicken dish with braised fennel and leeks was amazing... a perfect lazy Sunday meal
• The pork chops with apple chutney were delicious, and accompanied by last week's yummy beets.  I neglected to mention that my husband was SO excited about the way we've been eating with our produce CSA that he decided to join a organic meat, poultry and eggs CSA (more on that another time).  This meal was devoured by the boys, and was the first meal rated (by one) a perfect "10"!

Happy, post-meal beet teeth!

The So-So

• The kale with lentils was quite tasty, but I'm still on the quest for a good tikka masala recipe.  This week's attempt was way too runny, and void of some of the flavors that I was looking for.  The cilantro-mint chutney was alright, but I feel like the addition of yogurt threw the flavors off a bit.  There is still so much to master in this cooking adventure.

The Ugly

• The only unfortunate meals this week were the ones that never got made.