Tiffanie: this week's menu

Happy New Year! Have any eating goals for the year? I'm pretty happy about how I've been integrating whole foods into our diet, thanks to our CSA box. I would like to increase the variety in the kids' diets -- they would prefer that I only feed them cheese and wheat combinations (for the girl) or tortillas with beans and cheese and rice and corn (for the boy). On the positive side, they do ask for a vegetable with each meal if one is lacking, so at least they are getting some good habits. I think I'll be trying out more recipes from Vegan Lunch Box, and trying to get them to eat more soups.

I'm using my Clean Food cookbook this week, and trying to largely choose recipes that I have nearly all the ingredients for already. Frugality! We're going to be keeping a close watch on our expenditures, as part of another goal this year, so my grocery purchases will be remarked upon. :-D

My plans include:

• lentil walnut pate, as a snack food to eat with crackers.
• roasted kabocha squash and creminis, creamy cauliflower soup, baked chickpea pancake with rosemary.
• stuffed squash with rice and chickpeas, tamari-braised mustard greens.
• Goodness soup (sort of a winter vegetable bean soup), and wholegrain pancakes (baked patties of a grain (quinoa, millet, or rice) mixed with some onion and carrot and oil and flour) with applesauce.

Yes, I have many winter squash in my cold garage to eat. The CSA box this week gave me kale, mustard greens, apples, carrots, beets, cauliflower, leeks, and butternut squashes (3!). Tonight I'm using the kale and beet greens in a tofu scramble with yellow rice, and I have many roasted beets already on hand for a salad. The mustard greens, cauliflower, leeks, and the biggest squash are going to be used in the recipes above. That leaves me with many delicious Granny Smith apples, two smaller squash, and plenty of beets and carrots.

I am also going to attempt handmade pasta this week, as I am planning on running a kindergarten cooking class on making noodles on Monday. Looks straightforward enough -- I'm doing the simple flour/egg/water/salt combination, and I'm going to see if it tastes good with the traditional butter and cinnamon-sugar sprinkle (it's what the Italians did before tomato sauce, and is supposed to be very good).

Happy eating!

Tiffanie: this week's menu

First week of kindergarten! Plus one husband who wants to experiment with the vegan paleo diet. I shall bang my head against the fridge a few times now.

Menu plans for the week (ignoring the husband, mostly):

• mushroom tacos and fixings, corn tortillas
• veggie burgers and tater tots, watermelon, macaron cookies
• bok choy and chickpea saute with toasted cashew nuts, quinoa pilaf with currants and almonds
• peanut noodles, baked marinated tofu, beet salad
• millet spinach polenta with sun dried tomato pesto, some sort of salad (more beets?), roasted veggies if I have time

For Mr. Paleo, I purchased some extra items: Field Roast chipotle sausages (vegan), Yves sandwich meats (vegan), Field Roast lentil sage loaf (vegan), brazil nuts, roasted pumpkin seeds. 

My CSA box this week: 

• Strawberries
• Scotch Kale
• Red Cabbage
• Leeks
• Green Oak Lettuce
• Green Filet Beans or Potatoes
• Mystery (Tomatoes, Summer Squash or Green Bell Peppers)
• Dill

I'm going to have to trade that dill for something else. The strawberries will go the first night. The kale may go into a tofu scramble with chipotle jam. The cabbage would be good in this recipe for Red Wine Braised Cabbage with Apples -- you add some Field Roast sausages on top and it's really hearty.

Tiffanie: this week's menu

The deadline slog continues, though my partner is home for most dinners this week (then departs immediately for more work).

Meals this week:

• leftover lal dal
• broccoli and tofu stir fry
• spaghetti and beanballs (again, but I still crave more!)
• mushroom tacos

I'm falling behind on the CSA box... I've got the following haunting me in my fridge:

• purple cauliflower
• at least two cabbages
• two fennel
• lots of potatoes
• little green beans
• some radishes
• summer squash
• basil
• parsley
• lettuce
• kale

I think the cauliflower will be roasted in olive oil. Some of the cabbage will be slaw, as I am loving raw cabbage lately. The radishes go into that or are eaten alone. The squash will be roasted or grated and sauteed for my egg bake dinner-alone favorite. The kale is the flat variety, so maybe I'll turn it into chips... that soup last week with the Rancho Gordo flageolet beans was incredible, but I want to use a huge bunch of kale for that. Deadra suggested an apple and fennel salad... it's that or some sort of healthful root vegetable soup, or roasting them.

Lisa: What We're Eating: June 2012

Been busy eating and not posting.

I had the chance to get two free weeks of produce/grocery delivery from a new service in our area, so have been enjoying trying it out.

Here's what we've been eating.

-Crock-pot pulled pork on toasted French rolls with barbecue sauce

-Roasted carrots

-Roasted Yukon Gold potatoes

-Grilled Salmon (a weekly standard), cous cous and broccoli

-Pan-fried Pork Chops with Gravy - This comes together in less than 30 minutes with minimal prep, so it's a regular in the meal rotation.

-Sugar snap peas

-Roasted zucchini "coins" sprinkled cheese and broiled (per kids' request)

-Yogurt, fruit and granola "banana split"

-Home made granola with slivered almonds, pepitas, pecans, coconut oil, chia and shredded coconut

-Kale chips - first time making these, did it with sesame oil and salt, and kids loved them (as did I)

-Broccoli-cheese mini-quiches

-Strawberry-banana-spinach and strawberry-banana-kale green smoothies

-Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, cherries, peaches, nectarines, pluots, tangerines

-Strawberry agua-fresca

-Fresh guacamole

-Roasted beets with goat cheese

-Baby squash

-French toast, pancakes, crepes, dutch baby

Organic Grocery Delivery Box, Week 1:
Broccoli, avocados, white nectarines, blueberries, carrots,
Yukon Gold potatoes,  green leaf lettuce, cucumbers, Super Rich peaches,
Valencia oranges, Zee Fire nectarines, strawberries

Grocery Delivery Box Part 1, Week 2:
Peaches, carrots, baby golden beets, Valencia oranges,
zucchini, Gold Nugget mandarins, Zee Fire nectarines,
blueberries, strawberries, Lacinato kale, Romaine lettuce

Grocery Delivery Box Part 2, Week 2:
Pastured eggs, Strauss cream top organic milk, spinach

Pastured eggs. Kids loved how they were all different.

Roasted Carrots

Roasted Yukon Gold Potatoes

Crock-Pot Pulled Pork Dinner

Brunch: Scrambled Eggs with salsa and fresh guacamole,  Valencia oranges

Lunch: Israeli cous cous salad with mozzarella, tomatoes,
basil, cucumbers and balsamic dressing; broccoli cheese mini quiche,
strawberries and grapes

French toast topped with cottage cheese,
strawberries and blueberries

Tiffanie: working through the CSA box

I bought a flat of strawberries from my CSA today. I didn't really think through how to use them all, so I've been trying out things today. I made a batch of freezer jam, sliced some up with sugar and vanilla and maple syrup to spoon over cake, and started a batch of strawberry shrub (an acidic fruit syrup, to mix with sparkling water or wine). I'll taste the jam in the morning and decide whether to buy more pectin and make a few more batches right off.

My fridge is completely full, to the point that it looks dark when I open it. I need to get some of the bulkier items out! So this post is to brainstorm how to use the box quickly.

In the box this week: blueberries (yay!), turnips, cauliflower (huge!), red butter lettuce, red onions, squash, kale, carrots.

The blueberries will be gone tomorrow, probably sprinkled on cereal and yogurt.

The cauliflower will pair nicely with the tarragon in a pot pie, with mushrooms and an olive biscuit crust. I love that dish! Now that the weather is cooling down it won't seem inappropriate. It may be too big to use entirely, but I can roast what remains.

The CSA newsletter came with an ayurvedic recipe for turnip curry. It sounds pretty good -- it has some onion, a lot of turnips, turmeric, cayenne, cumin, garlic, and salt and maple syrup. It makes a very large amount (it uses 8 cups of cubed turnips!), so I'll halve it to try it out.

The butter lettuce is gorgeous, it would be a crime to not eat it quickly. So I'll just have to make salads every night. I made a batch of balsamic vinaigrette today, so that should be easy. Some grated carrots would go nicely on it.

I'm starting to have so many carrots on hand that I should make a grated carrot salad, and perhaps also a carrot soup.

The kale... I don't really need more salads, but a raw kale salad would be tasty and healthy. I'm eating a tad bit more cake than I should these days, so a balance is welcome.

The squash is also becoming a problem. I still need to make my baked egg nestled in zucchini. I guess it'll have to be for lunch tomorrow. The kids aren't interested in roasted zucchini as much anymore, but I'll keep making it (I like it!). I suppose I could make another cake?

I foolishly bought a bunch of broccoli to make a stir fry with tofu, and that is taking a lot of room. I still have most of a bag of fantastic wild arugula; I marinated mushrooms with balsamic vinaigrette and put that on the arugula with toasted chopped almonds, and it was delicious. Perhaps I should keep doing that...

So, to summarize:

• Thursday: make a raw kale salad. Process lots of strawberries into jam, assuming it tastes good. Eat the blueberries (assuming the kids let me eat any). For lunch, use some zucchini to make the baked egg dish. For dinner, make a cauliflower mushroom pot pie. Make some salad.
• Friday: make the turnip curry for lunch. Make the broccoli stir fry for dinner.
• this weekend: try to consume all the leftovers...

Tiffanie: so many veggies

Thanks to the busy week of running a day long school event, hosting my in-laws (and sampling many new local restaurants), and losing nearly two days to the installation of my new wall oven, I have two weeks of CSA veggies to power through!

Here's what I think I have lurking in the fridge:

• kohlrabi
• spring onions
• spring garlic
• kale
• swiss chard
• rhubarb
• carrots
• beets
• zucchini
• cilantro
• fava beans (thankfully, shelled by the kids)
• red lettuce
• scallions
• bok choy
• a few spring peas in the pod

The five year old has already claimed the zucchini for roasting (he loves them). The bok choy is going into my chickpea cashew saute tomorrow. I'm tempted to make a fava mint salad, or a simple vegetable soup with fava beans. The rhubarb is going into a strawberry crumble, hopefully tomorrow morning. I think I'll saute the chard with the spring garlic and keep it as a side or a quesadilla filling. The beets are small, so I may eat them raw in a salad, or roast them in the oven while the crumble bakes. I think I might make another raw kale salad, it was really good with toasted pine nuts. The CSA newsletter recommends doing a quick pickle with the spring onions (sliced thinly), then putting them on pretty much everything. Sounds good to me! The kohlrabi is a new vegetable for me... they are gorgeous! They sound versatile, like mild turnips.

My CSA box this week

Italian Parsley
Yellow or Red Spring Onions
Red Butter Lettuce
Kale: Scotch or Lacinato
Collard Greens
Strawberries or Oyster Mushrooms
Rhubarb
Artichokes

Interesting mix of veggies! I've never used rhubarb before, but I imagine that a dessert could be made with it and strawberries. :-)  Maybe an easy crumble? I need my new oven!

If I get the mushrooms, I'll garlic fry them up and put them on top of lentils and fried onions. That dish was so very tasty I want to eat it again. And this time I'll add parsley!

I think I'll steam the artichokes and make a mustard vinaigrette to dip the leaves into. That's the only way I've ever eaten whole ones -- what do you do?

The collard greens belong with black eyed peas, in my mind. Nice easy meal.

I might make the kale into a raw salad, since that is such a great way to eat kale. Last time I added toasted pine nuts, which was very good.

CSA Box this week

Salad Mix (4 different baby lettuces)

Carnival Squash

Red Russian Kale

Bunched Chantenay Carrots

Fennel

Celery root

Broccoli di Cicco

My CSA, High Ground Organics, just started up their spring session last week. They give me a box of whatever is ready for harvest, so it's always different and interesting. I enjoy the challenge of using random vegetables, so I've stuck with them for four or five years now.

Possible plans for this box: the salad mix will probably become salad. The squash will either be a soup or roasted. Maybe stuffed? The kale may become a raw salad, it's been a while since the last one. Carrots get into soups and are eaten raw. The fennel is tough for me, I'm not a fan of it. I may just chop it up and use it in a soup, same with the celery root. I have some good winter root vegetable soups in Clean Food, they're very healthy! I'm assuming this is broccoli (not sure what the di Cicco means), so I may put it into a tofu stir fry or make it into a side dish salad.