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 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.

Week 29 in Review

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

It's definitely starting to feel - and taste - like fall.  Our meals this week were of the heartier sort, and went over very well as the days start to get darker and cooler.  With the exception of the lasagna, everything was fairly quick in terms of preparation and was consumed at one setting.  Although it's hard these days to find time for meals that take more than an hour to prepare, having lots of leftovers made for a lot of tasty, easy lunches later in the week.  I'd love to find a way to make more time-intensive dishes like the lasagna on the weekend after we pick up the box.  Food for thought for future meal planning efforts!

The Best

• We all loved the chicken and grape skewers served with a quinoa pilaf.  The flavors were fantastic and it was simple to prepare.

 

The Good

• In all honesty, I was a little scared of the kale, zucchini and pinto bean enchilada recipe, but it was really yummy.  Next time, I would chop the kale even more (I left some pieces too large), but this will definitely be made again.

In process

Enchiladas after baking

• Before really reading this recipe, I was thinking that I'd just be layering in slices of tomatoes, but in reality the first step was making a tomato sauce with the tomatoes that I had.  So while the fresh tomato lasagna took a good hour to prepare (plus additional baking time), the end product was great!

• This salad was simple but good, and incorporated lettuce, cilantro and avocados from the box!

 

The Rest

• I was really hopeful that this watermelon cocktail would be good, but it was actually way too sweet.  The triple sec overpowered the deliciously sweet watermelon, and I couldn't even drink it.  Most watermelons just don't taste as good, I guess, as the ones we've been getting in our box.

Other Fun

Planting a fall garden with my son at his school

 

My other son's class has their turn to plant

Week 28 in Review

The Score
Eaters 9.5     Compost - 1     Carry Over - 0.5

This week I found myself straying a bit from the plan, due to changes in plans and changes in ingredients.  Once I had last week's bounty in hand, for example, I felt compelled to make a spaghetti alla checca with the firm, meaty tomatoes that we received.  I also had a small crop of home grown tomatillos that I needed to harvest in order to get the beds ready for a fall planting, so that sent one meal down a slightly different pathway.  The basil lost it's gusto fairly early in the week - which meant no pesto later - and some of the lettuce bit the dust as well.  All said and done, I kept things fairly simple in the kitchen this week, leaving enough time to prep the garden beds and get a good start on my fall garden.  We now have carrots, radishes, broccoli, garlic, shallots, leeks, kale and peas in the ground.  After a short mid-October heat wave, a number of the seeds have already sprouted and it looks like things are on their way!

The Best

• This chopped salad - inspired by Nancy Silverton's recipe from Pizzeria Mozza - was so good, I could eat it every day (if only it didn't require so much chopping).

The Good

• Using our garden tomatillos and garlic from the box, I threw together some chicken enchiladas after making a delicious roasted tomatillo salsa.  It was great warm in the enchiladas, and the leftover cold salsa was great with chips.  Delicious guacamole with the box's amazing avocados made for a wonderful garnish.

 

• I could eat whole wheat pasta alla checca with fresh tomatoes, garlic and basil all the time, if only my family wouldn't mind my constant bad breath.

• Our brunch was cancelled, so we lost our excuse to make watermelon mimosas, but we ate up the tomato basil quiche even though it got all little overcooked around the edges.

• The zucchini fritters were very tasty, though my frying skills still leave a lot to be desired.  The recipe suggested really squeezing all the liquid out of the zucchini, and I don't think that I got enough of the liquid out.  The outsides were nice and crispy, but the insides were a bit too wet and gooey.  

Week 27 in Review

The Score
Eaters - 11     Compost - 0.5     Carry Over - 0.5

We're all loving these fall boxes.  Having a bunch of ingredients that require very little preparation time is just what the doctor ordered for these busy fall days.  That said - after more than a month of over scheduled weekends - I was finally able to spend a good portion of a day in the kitchen this past weekend.  That really set me, and the entire family, up for a successful week of meals that made the most of the fall ingredients.  The results weren't necessarily fine dining, but everything was enjoyed and very little was left to waste (a bit of basil hit the compost, and one avocado is carrying over into next week). 

The Best

• Though I often struggle to use up the salad greens, making two salads for a weekend dinner with friends was a great way to both consume and enjoy both lettuce and arugula.  We had two amazing salads that simply showcased what our CSA box is all about.  

The Good

• Fall strawberries are in, and they give the summer ones a run for their money.  They are indeed perfect, sweet berries for a fresh strawberry pie.  

• Last week's dud turned out to be a delicious bread once made correctly.  The zucchini, carrot, banana bread was embellished only slightly by the addition of pecans in one loaf and some dark chocolate chips in the other, and made for a delicious dessert all week.

• We continue to eat up this kale, onion and potato frittata every time that I make it.  The sprinkle of smoked paprika on the 'grownup's side' made it extra yummy for some of us.  

• There wasn't a lot to this Chinese chicken salad, but it was a good way for us to eat up our lettuce this week!

• Though not in the meal plan, I had some help making fresh yogurt this weekend.  It's easy enough that my son could manage about 80% of the process.

The Rest

• Sadly, this black eyed peas recipe fell a little flat.  They certainly tasted fine, but could have been any kind of beans simmered with ham hocks.  (They were served with some leftover tomato arugula salad).  

Week 10 in Review

The Score

Eaters - 11    Compost - 0     Carry Over - 1

Once again, we have lettuce carrying over into next week. It sometimes seems funny to me that the one vegetable we most commonly ate in the past is the one that is often the last to get eaten up these days. A boring old salad just doesn't seem to be cutting it these days. What did get made this week seemed to be all about balancing and playing with different aspects of the ingredients: sweet and sour, umami and salty, chewy and tender, hearty and light. Though not a lot got made as compared to a typical week, what did get made was all quite yummy. 

The Winner

• Though not officially 'from the box,' we all love the blueberry meyer lemon marmalade that was made out of berries from our weekly trip to the farmer's market, as well as lemons from our backyard. For more on the fun we had making marmalade, have a look at blog entry Lemon Drop! 

The Good

• Our weekend dinner straight from the farmer's market was our first dinner eaten outside this year! The grilled Zucchini and Zebra Potatoes were the perfect accompaniments for a juicy barbecued steak.

• Crispy prosciutto was delicious with the spinach and basil. This frittata was the best one yet.

• Simply sauteed Sugar Snap Peas with Green Garlic were a great addition to fresh Basil pesto pasta. The heartiness of the whole wheat pasta rounded out the dish quite nicely.

The Rest

• Experimenting in food preparations continued last weekend. In addition to the fantastic marmelade, we tried a second batch of pickles, along with some yogurt and fresh bread. We liked last week's pickle recipe better, the yogurt was a bit runny, and the bread didn't rise quite like it seemed it should have, but it was still a really fun couple of days of cooking!

Week 9 in Review

The Score
Eaters - 10.5     Compost - 0     Carry Over - 1
Lots of amazing eats this week, fueled by a lot of amazing spring goodness!  I had a chance to make a few things that I've never made before (pickles, fresh berry pie), and all in all had a week of really successful recipes.  Nothing was overly complicated or time consuming, and for the first time in this process almost every recipe was eaten and enjoyed by all.  We still have a bit of lettuce left over, but I'm hoping to use that up in my lunch tomorrow.  Other than that, we've put away quite a bit of produce this week.

The Winner

• This was a tough one, but I have to say that the Strawberry almond challah french toast tasted like something that you'd get in a fancy restaurant for brunch, but was super easy to prepare.  Just remember, substitute almond extract for the vanilla in the recipe, and sprinkle with some slivered almonds for french toast that tastes like an almond croissant.

The Good

• Last week's Basil was so fragrant, and the leaves were larger than any basil I've ever seen.  With such perfect raw materials, the Basil pesto pasta with Zucchini and mint was a huge hit with both our family and the visitors that we had over for dinner that night.

• Also a big hit (not surprisingly) was the fresh Strawberry pie.  With perfect berries, not much effort was needed to turn out an amazing end product.

• Easy to make, good to eat.  The homemade garlic basil dills were so much easier to make than I ever would have imagined, and (though designed to be kept in the fridge, vs. stored long term) only required a day of waiting before eating.  Thanks to my sister-in-law for the pickling advice for this newbie!  One jar is already gone, so we'll need to be revisiting this recipe when we get more Pickling Cucumbers in our box.

• Oh, Sweet Onions.  How sweet you are.  The grilled sweet onions in contrast with jalapeno jack cheese made for a yummy yet simple quesadilla.

• This Spinach salad felt a bit like a deconstructed omelet.  Fresh, crunchy spinach with some hard boiled eggs and bacon, topped with a vinaigrette, seemed much heartier than a salad typically would.

The Rest

• The sesame chicken with Sugar Snap Peas was good, but the peas looked a little brown by the time recipe was done.  The whole thing could have used a bit of a 'kick', too.  

• This Zucchini bread is delicious, but I still can't get over that the recipe calls for 3 cups of sugar and a full cup of oil.  Even doubling the zucchini (which increased the cooking time by about 10 minutes), I'm left feeling that this 'vegetable' bread is really just fat and sugar.