Week 48 in Review

The Score
Eaters - 9     Compost - 1     Carry Over - 0

This was a fairly normal week in the kitchen... we made a few great meals and some salads, and easily got through most of the box.  It was also the week that I cleared out the last bits of our fall home garden crops, so I had a few home grown ingredients to use up, as well.  This was the first year that I planted onions; they ended up being spicy and delicious!  I wish I had more space in full sun to grow produce, but I'm happy I can get something out of the small corner that I've got.

The Best

• It was a lot of fun taking the tatsoi from the box, the last bits of veggies from our home garden, and then adapting the following tatsoi recipe to make a buckwheat noodle stir fry.  The kick from the fresh onions really made the dish!

 Raw materials

Buckwheat noodle veggie stir fry

The Good

• The roasted parsnip and butternut squash soups both had a sweet yet savory flavor, and were well accompanied by the freshly made tarragon oil.  Somehow the consistencies got slightly off, however, making it quite difficult to nail the presentation of two half bowls of soup.

• The carnitas turned out perfectly, with the orange flavor really shining through.  While we made a roasted tomato salsa to top it, the tomatoes were a bit too 'green' in flavor and it didn't quite augment the meal as well as I had hoped.  We also topped the carnitas with roasted purple onions, cilantro, avocado, and homemade pickled radishes.

Week 46 in Review

The Score
Eaters - 10.5     Compost - 0.5     Carry Over - 1

This week's test to see if I could use the box up went fairly well.  The week's meals weren't as gourmet as some have been, and there were a fair number of repeated concepts but - bottom line - we successfully used up most of the box without working to a meal plan.  Meals were often randomly thrown together using an ingredient or two, but not necessarily following a recipe.  We are carrying over a few radishes and celery stalks, and ended up composting a bit of cilantro, but all in all, not too shabby.  Honestly, I like to take more of a planned approach, but it's nice to see that it's still possible to make good use of the box when I might not have time to think ahead. 

Nothing this week was revolutionary, so I'm going to divide the results up by the time of day that they were served.

Breakfast

• We took the final slices of last week's cinnamon swirl bread and made a lovely french toast with fresh strawberries.

• We took the kale and some left over potatoes and made a breakfast frittata served with fresh squeezed orange juice. 

 

Dinner

• We took the parsnips and roasted them along with some baby potatoes and carrots, then tossed all the veggies in olive oil, fresh rosemary and garlic. 

• I sauteed a few parsnips, celery, potatoes, black beans, and corn, and then used that mixture as the filling for some enchiladas served with a super quick tomatillo cilantro salsa.  This was definitely a 'use up what I've got' recipe, and it worked surprisingly well!

 Prepping the filling

 The final product, with cilantro on top

• The broccolini and spinach from the box were paired with some peas and onions from our garden, as well as some mushrooms from the store, for a delicious stir fry. 

Week 45 in Review

The Score
Eaters - 11     Compost - 1     Carry Over - 0

Valentine's day made for a great occasion to use up a bunch of ingredients from the box.  That meal alone featured spinach, celery, oranges, parsnips, and marjoram from the box, and made for three fun and flavorful courses.  Interestingly, however, it wasn't that meal that was the highlight of the week; perhaps that much good food all at once makes it more difficult to pick a favorite?  All in all, it was another great week.  We did get through most of the box, though ended up having to compost a few stalks of celery that went rubbery and one avocado that just didn't ripen. 

The Best

• This Italian wedding soup (featuring kale and fennel) was a huge hit with the entire family.  It wasn't super easy to make, but the savory, fennel flavored broth was worth every bit of effort.

 The Good

• Valentine's dinner started with a lovely parsnip soup.  This flavorful soup - with a little olive oil drizzled on as garnish - will definitely be put into rotation when parsnips are in the box.

 

• Dinner continued with this delicious spinach, celery and orange salad with candied almonds.  I'd eat this every day.

• We finished our meal with roasted chicken featuring a marjoram pesto, served over egg noodles.  I don't think I could have eaten one more bite by the time we were done!  

The Rest

• Though I can't say this featured anything from the box, my other valentine's week goal was to make cinnamon swirl bread for my kids.  It was definitely the most complicated baking project that I've ever taken on, but the final product was amazing.  Can't say that I'll do this every year, but was a fun labor of love for my mini Valentines.

 The dough after its first (of four) rises

 Adding in the 'swirl' mixture

 Filled dough is cut and braided

 Baked loaves

 Delicious swirl bread with golden raisins