Another box of vegetables arrived on my counter yesterday evening (via Ben) so it must be time for a weekly wrap up of our veggie success. We spent last weekend removing glue from our cement floor in the basement which was an extremely messy job, that I am very happy is over. After a very long work day on Saturday, I whipped up another batch of Easy Summer Quinoa. I stepped up the spice level this round, and we both enjoyed it. We also enjoyed a bottle of white wine and an evening free of projects. :)
Monday night after a very long day of work, I arrived home at 7:15 and was STARVING. Luckily, I had put the chicken in the marinade before work for our Greek Chicken Gyros. Ben started grilling the chicken and zucchini when I was about 20 minutes from home, so when I walked in the door all I had to do was whip up the tzatziki sauce. Now, if you read the recipe it says something about letting the cucumbers sit for 40 minutes before your make the sauce. I decided to let mine sit for 4 seconds, while I whipped the food processor out of the pantry. I also didn't measure any ingredients and estimated the amounts of things. Guess what? It was still delicious, and instead of 40 minutes to make the sauce it took about 5. Maybe it would have been super amazing had I let the cucumbers sit for 40 minutes but I doubt it. We had a side of grilled zucchini that Ben sliced and tossed in olive oil before grilling. Travis, my brother in law was visiting, and he decided the recipe was a success as well. After dinner we went out for ice cream where we realized Trav is still about 7 years old and can't eat a dish of ice cream without becoming covered in it...hahaha. It was very fun to have him visit!
About the pictures of this dish....I forgot, my body was so hungry I didn't even remember until Tuesday that I didn't take pictures.
I had left over tzatziki sauce that I ate today on a salad with romaine lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes (from the grocery store) and pita bread. Also, I just realized there was recipe to make your own greek flatbread....that probably wont ever happen, especially not on a work night.
Tuesday night we had burgers with Sauteed Kale and Kohlrabi, the same recipe I used a few weeks ago. This time, I used my new mandolin I purchased at Crate and Barrel and my fingers were not sliced open. It was a rather nice change. Then we spent the night scrubbing the basement floor so we could paint it later in the week. We really have the most glamorous lives!
Wednesday I went to Happy Hour and I ate zero vegetables for dinner. It was lovely, don't get me wrong I love to cook, and I am enjoying our veggies but I love sitting down ordering a beer and some appetizers and having someone else cook. Ben went to his own happy hour and then painted the basement floor- Thanks Ben!!
When I was menu planning, I figured I had Friday off, so why not throw a whole boatload of food on Thursday night. I arrived home from work last night, and made Lettuce Wraps again, Glazed Turnips and Roasted Fennel with Parmesan. The lettuce wraps were good again but this time I used left over Romaine...it was kind of a disaster. The butter lettuce we used the first time worked much better. Last time we had turnips I just put them with some sweet potatoes and totally covered up the taste. This time I glazed the turnips (and burnt a few...I got distracted trying to put the new veggies away) and we both enjoyed them. I also took one of my most dreaded ingredients and made a dish both Ben and I enjoyed. I wont lie, instead of tasting fennel all we tasted was salt and cheese...yum! Next time we get fennel I should probably make something where you can taste the fennel but we ate it, so I will call it a win! I even remembered to take a picture but I just looked at it, and it is terribly blurry. So we will call it a fail on the week for pictures, sorry. Just pretend all my dishes look just like the pictures on the recipe.
What is in the box for this week? A pretty good assortment but just when I thought I was free of the beets....we got more beets last night. Seriously, enough of the beets already. I know some people like beets but I am not one of those people (I think, I have never tried them). I would try them but I am too scared of dying my counters purple, and really don't think potential buyers would be impressed by that, so for now, no beets. But everyone who likes beets, let me know, maybe you will get a surprise gift!
Here is the list for this week:
1. Zucchini
2. Cabbage
3. Beets
4. Bell Peppers
5. Lacinato Kale
6. Sage
7. Carrots
8. Long Red of Tropea Onions
9. Cucumbers
I have some good things planned for this week. I am off to spend the next hour painting the basement floor with my husband. Then we are going out on a date because we both deserve it after this week!
Cheers,
Ali
Friday, July 17, 2015
Saturday, July 11, 2015
A weak week.....
Thank goodness we took a bunch of veggies to the cabin with us last weekend, or we wouldn't have eaten many of them. We brought lettuce, cucumbers, broccoli, and cilantro. We used them in salads, and a veggie tray and poof they were gone. When we arrived home on Sunday night after a particularly long drive, I decided to whip up Easy Summer Quinoa which utilized the kale and zucchini from our CSA and basil from our garden. Ben was not excited about this dish because there was no meat but after 4 days of eating and drinking way too much crap, I decided a veggie filled dish was a good idea. After 2 bites Ben proclaimed that he loved it, and has asked me twice this week to make it again, so we are going to have it tonight for dinner.
 |
| This is a pic of Ben's second helping, we devoured our first bowls and forgot to take a picture! |
We ate the peas and the carrots raw as side dishes this week. I made enchiladas and pizza this week...both of which didn't utilize the CSA. It was a busy week so the new recipes were not happening.
We did okay on the CSA items....here is what we have left: the beets (surprise), scallions and parsley. The scallions and parsley I should easily be able to use this week, and GREAT news...I found a home for the beets. I found at least 2 people at work who like beets so they are getting a lovely delivery on Monday. It is the only veggie we haven't tried that we have received....so not doing too bad.
Thursday came fast this week- all the sudden it was time to get more veggies. My usual 2 minute commute to pick up our CSA box took about 20 this week because a bush decided to crash into some concrete barriers and block the main road in and out of downtown Mound. I was dedicated to getting our veggies though, took the back way to the pick up place and was successful. Here is what is on tap for this week:
1. Kohlrabi
2. Hakurei Turnips
3. Zucchini
4. Cucumbers
5. Lacinato Kale
6. Lettuce
7. Peas
8. Fennel
Fennel and turnips are going to be the challenges to cook with this week but I think we can come up with something!
Cheers,
A
Thursday, July 2, 2015
Going Strong
Well we made it through week 2 and we are going strong. I am actually really enjoying being challenged to cook with ingredients I would have never purchased. Ben and I are discovering we really do like a lot of vegetables we didn't think we would. This week I was especially dreading eating collard greens, more on that later. Let's start at the beginning.
On Sunday Ben and I spent the majority of our day working on our basement tearing up the remnants of vinyl/linoleum flooring that was glued to the cement floor. Terrible project and I am very glad to be finished with it. Ben did 2/3 of the work, and I would work shifts. At one point I begged to go to the grocery store (my least favorite place on a Sunday), in order to take a break. Luckily Ben loves food just as much as I do, so I was granted a free pass to run to the grocery store.
Sunday night as a reward for our hard work, I whipped up a locally grown meal (for the most part). I picked fresh basil from my overgrown pot of basil on the patio and made Grilled Chicken with Basil Dressing. I actually followed the recipe for the most part, I omitted the fennel, and used boneless chicken breasts but other than that I followed the instructions. Last week we were just dipping our toes into the world of Kale and Kohlrabi, so this week I decided we need to try them more natural. I made Sauteed Kale with Kohlrabi. The only change I made was replacing the salted pistachios with unsalted roasted sunflower seeds. I have to say this is one dish I would absolutely make again, in fact I could eat a bowl of it right now (and is 5:50 in the morning). I definitely do need a mandoline slicer to slice the kohlrabi. I used a box grater that had slicing blades on the side. While the Kohlrabi came out fine, it took my thumb about 3 days to recover from being sliced open then covered in lime juice when I juiced the limes. As with everything else, I am not a graceful cook. We rounded out our plate with grilled garlic scapes. I didn't use a recipe for this, just brushed them with olive oil and grilled them in our veggie basket on the grill. They have a very mild garlic flavor and were fine...I wouldn't purchase them, but if we get them in our CSA box again I wouldn't be upset. We also split a bottle of wine (locally grown at Trader Joes) to celebrate finishing the basement....yum!
Ratings:
Basil Chicken: Ali-8, Ben-7
Sauteed Kale with Kohlrabi: Ali-10 (Lets take a moment and appreciate this, I started out 2 weeks ago claiming to HATE Kale). Ben- 8
Grilled Garlic Scapes: Ali-5 Ben-6
On Monday, the food I was dreading was up for cooking. We made burgers on the grill (locally grown at Costco- ha!), with Sweet and Tangy Sauteed Collard Greens, and the left over Sweet Potato Turnip Swirl I made on Friday. I had a heck of a time finding a recipe for collard greens that seemed even a tiny bit healthy, every recipe contained bacon (which here is a confesssion, I don't really like bacon) or a ton of cream cheese. Don't get me wrong I love unhealthy food, love it, dream about it, eat it pretty frequently but the point of getting the CSA box was not to figure out how to eat vegetables covered in bacon mixed with a brick of cream cheese. So I searched for recipes with collard greens without bacon and stumbled upon the recipe linked above. In this recipe I used Olive oil instead of vegetable oil, and replaced the 5 tablespoons of melted butter with olive oil. This recipe was pretty good but I would decrease the amount of dressing by 50%. Our collard greens were dripping in dressing. I do realize this is my fault for just dumping the whole thing of dressing I made on the greens, but then I poured a ton of it off the greens and it was still dripping in dressing. The balsamic vinegar gives the greens a nice kick, and Ben and I were both pleasantly surprised not to hate Collard Greens.
Ratings:
Sweet & Tangy Collard Greens: Ali- 6 Ben- 6
Lets review how we did this week, here is what I have left from the box:
Broccoli, Cucumbers and Cilantro that are going to the cabin with us
Green Onion that will hopefully still be good
A little of the speckled romaine lettuce (we used this in salads, on sandwiches but not main dishes)
Green Onions
Beets from week one
So far I have not let any vegetables go into the garbage.....so I am considering it a success. The box for this week that we pick up today is loaded with goodies, nothing I am scared to cook.
Here is the list:
On Sunday Ben and I spent the majority of our day working on our basement tearing up the remnants of vinyl/linoleum flooring that was glued to the cement floor. Terrible project and I am very glad to be finished with it. Ben did 2/3 of the work, and I would work shifts. At one point I begged to go to the grocery store (my least favorite place on a Sunday), in order to take a break. Luckily Ben loves food just as much as I do, so I was granted a free pass to run to the grocery store.
Sunday night as a reward for our hard work, I whipped up a locally grown meal (for the most part). I picked fresh basil from my overgrown pot of basil on the patio and made Grilled Chicken with Basil Dressing. I actually followed the recipe for the most part, I omitted the fennel, and used boneless chicken breasts but other than that I followed the instructions. Last week we were just dipping our toes into the world of Kale and Kohlrabi, so this week I decided we need to try them more natural. I made Sauteed Kale with Kohlrabi. The only change I made was replacing the salted pistachios with unsalted roasted sunflower seeds. I have to say this is one dish I would absolutely make again, in fact I could eat a bowl of it right now (and is 5:50 in the morning). I definitely do need a mandoline slicer to slice the kohlrabi. I used a box grater that had slicing blades on the side. While the Kohlrabi came out fine, it took my thumb about 3 days to recover from being sliced open then covered in lime juice when I juiced the limes. As with everything else, I am not a graceful cook. We rounded out our plate with grilled garlic scapes. I didn't use a recipe for this, just brushed them with olive oil and grilled them in our veggie basket on the grill. They have a very mild garlic flavor and were fine...I wouldn't purchase them, but if we get them in our CSA box again I wouldn't be upset. We also split a bottle of wine (locally grown at Trader Joes) to celebrate finishing the basement....yum!
 |
| Yes, my chicken is half gone...I forgot to take a picture earlier :) |
Ratings:
Basil Chicken: Ali-8, Ben-7
Sauteed Kale with Kohlrabi: Ali-10 (Lets take a moment and appreciate this, I started out 2 weeks ago claiming to HATE Kale). Ben- 8
Grilled Garlic Scapes: Ali-5 Ben-6
On Monday, the food I was dreading was up for cooking. We made burgers on the grill (locally grown at Costco- ha!), with Sweet and Tangy Sauteed Collard Greens, and the left over Sweet Potato Turnip Swirl I made on Friday. I had a heck of a time finding a recipe for collard greens that seemed even a tiny bit healthy, every recipe contained bacon (which here is a confesssion, I don't really like bacon) or a ton of cream cheese. Don't get me wrong I love unhealthy food, love it, dream about it, eat it pretty frequently but the point of getting the CSA box was not to figure out how to eat vegetables covered in bacon mixed with a brick of cream cheese. So I searched for recipes with collard greens without bacon and stumbled upon the recipe linked above. In this recipe I used Olive oil instead of vegetable oil, and replaced the 5 tablespoons of melted butter with olive oil. This recipe was pretty good but I would decrease the amount of dressing by 50%. Our collard greens were dripping in dressing. I do realize this is my fault for just dumping the whole thing of dressing I made on the greens, but then I poured a ton of it off the greens and it was still dripping in dressing. The balsamic vinegar gives the greens a nice kick, and Ben and I were both pleasantly surprised not to hate Collard Greens.
 |
| Oh yes, there was cheese on top of the potatoes and collard greens. Ben is from Wisconsin, we LOVE cheese. :) |
Ratings:
Sweet & Tangy Collard Greens: Ali- 6 Ben- 6
Lets review how we did this week, here is what I have left from the box:
Broccoli, Cucumbers and Cilantro that are going to the cabin with us
Green Onion that will hopefully still be good
A little of the speckled romaine lettuce (we used this in salads, on sandwiches but not main dishes)
Green Onions
Beets from week one
So far I have not let any vegetables go into the garbage.....so I am considering it a success. The box for this week that we pick up today is loaded with goodies, nothing I am scared to cook.
Here is the list:
Curly kale
Red romaine lettuce
Parsley
Beets
Carrots
Cucumbers
Zucchini
Peas
Scallions
Okay I lied, there are more beets this week. Help me out people, what do you do with beets?
Happy 4th of July!!!
Cheers,
Ali
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