CSA Week 8

Tags

beets, carrots, celery, corn, cucumber, green beans, meal planning, onions, peppers, what's in the box

Like everywhere else in the country, it’s freaking hot here. Most of the time, I like my food hot (temperature wise). It takes some strong influences to get me to crave cold food. And a week of temps flirting with 100 has done just that. Salads are certainly the name of the game around here as of late. This week we’re trying out some new ones and falling back on some favorites.

We’re also using the remainder of last week’s cabbage to revive one of my husband’s quirky favorites: runzas (a pocket sandwich made with cabbage and ground beef). He likes his fancied up with bacon, barbecue sauce, and cheese. I make them with homemade whole wheat dough.

 

beets, carrots, green bell peppers, cucumber, onion, celery, corn, green and wax beans

• Sunday: stuffed green peppers
• Monday: chocolate beet muffins / tropical cucumber salad / runzas with corn on the cob
• Tuesday: celery and carrot tossed with sesame or green bean and celery salad or apple and celery salad with walnuts
• Wednesday: yoyo
• Thursday: oven baked chicken strips with potato and green bean salad
• Friday: pizza (with whatever toppings we can scrape up, be it veggies, herbs, stuff from the freezer)
• Saturday: TBD (probably one of the other salads above)

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CSA Weeks 6 & 7

Tags

blueberries, cabbage, carrots, celery, corn, CSA, cucumber, green beans, kohlrabi, pepper, potatoes, what's in the box, zucchini

I am two weeks behind on posting CSA weekly hauls and meal plans. I wanted to at least get these pictures up before tomorrow, when we pick up week 8.

For week 6, I was only home two days out of the week, so John ate most of this, and some of it carried over into the next week.

celery, zucchini, cucumbers, potatoes, blueberries, green beans, kohlrabi, corn

A few recipes we did make:

• Potato and green bean salad
• Carrot kohlrabi slaw
• Blueberry cucumber smoothie (plain yogurt + banana + chia seeds)

For week 7, we tried to get back in our groove after the craziness of the last four weeks: trip to Milwaukee, both sets of parents visited, 4th of July, my work trip to Minneapolis. Now we’ve got a few weeks to just stay home and enjoy our regular meal planning, cooking, and of course, eating.

zucchini, corn, celery, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, green pepper, cucumbers

In addition to the haul above, we also got green beans and mushrooms this week, which we gave to friends. Here are some recipes we made:

• Shaved zucchini with pine nuts and parmesan
• Zucchini, carrot, and potato pancakes
• Sauerkraut
• Chicken stir fry with green beans
• Greek salad
• Quesadillas with corn, black beans, onion, and green pepper
• Celery chopped and frozen for later use

CSA Week 5

Tags

beets, blueberries, broccoli, green beans, kale, lettuce, meal planning, onions, what's in the box, zucchini

Rain. That’s the story around here. Our area in Delaware ended the month of June with 12+ inches of rain. It’s been coming down in sheets for weeks, and it’s humid as all get out (whatever that means). It makes me nervous for our CSA farm and how the crops are going to fare. Here’s hoping July brings some drier air and sunny days!

Bugs are the other story around here. A couple weeks ago, I stumbled upon this article and it resonated with me in kind of a funny way, thanks to our CSA experience. John and I often talk about how our expectations for food are very different from the grocery store versus buying directly from the farmer or growing it in a garden. At the store, you only pick up the apple with no bruises and the pepper with even coloring. And bugs in your grocery store produce? No way! We’d freak! But, on the flip side, I found three worms tonight in our CSA broccoli alone. I still get a little squeamish, sure. But I pull those little guys off, put them outside, and continue to clean and prep. It’s just goes to show this stuff isn’t sprayed to death with poison. And it’s almost like I have a soft spot in my heart for those little bugs that live such a happy life amongst our delish veggies. What a weirdo, I am!

blueberries, lettuce (two types), beets, broccoli, kale, onions, zucchini (two types), green (and wax) beans

Recipes we’re going to try out this week (with it being a holiday week, I’m not too concerned about planning each day in detail):

• Salads (my favorite is simple balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and feta cheese, maybe some chickpeas or walnuts)
• Kale tomato pasta (added grape tomatoes)
• Beef and broccoli stir fry
• Green beans greek style
• Roasted beets and sweet potatoes
• Zucchini pizza boats
• Zucchini ricotta fritters
• Beet green blueberry smoothie
• Whole wheat blueberry beet muffins

One thing I am looking for: green bean recipe suggestions. Last year I got really sick of them, and I’m sure we’ll get lots of them again this year. It’s not that I dislike beans; I’m just not very creative with them.

CSA Week 4

Tags

blueberries, chard, green beans, kale, kohlrabi, meal planning, onions, what's in the box, zucchini

We’re trying to get back in the swing of things after two crazy weeks. I can’t believe we’re already in the last week of June. Our CSA haul is starting to look more summery and I can’t wait to start seeing more variety in colors. So excited about the blueberries. I’m eating them by the handful and I’m sure they’ll find their way into yogurt with granola as well as smoothies.

chard, blueberries, kohlrabi, spring onions, kale, green beans, zucchini

Here’s what we’re eating this week (you can probably guess we’ve got feta and cilantro in the fridge):

• Sunday: Brought green bean salad with basil and balsamic (subbed feta for parm) to dinner at friends’ house
• Monday: Easy pad Thai
• Tuesday: Kale, swiss chard, chicken, and feta salad
• Wednesday: Steak with roasted red potatoes and Syrian green beans with cilantro
• Thursday: Stir fry with chicken, carrots, snow peas, kohlrabi, onions over brown rice
• Friday: Cod baked in foil with zucchini and tomatoes
• Saturday: Zucchini brownies (for a party)