CSA Meals 2014: Week 3

Week 3: spinach, cucumbers, potatoes, apples, green beans,yellow squash, lettuce, blueberries, manygrain bread, eggs.

Prep: 
- wash spinach and lettuce
- pack spinach and lettuce in tupperware with lots of paper towels
- put potatoes in a dark cabinet
- eat blueberries

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Meal: Kitchen sink salad
Lettuce
Apple (tossed in lime juice)
Cucumber
Avocado
Brie
Blueberries
Kale stems, green beans, chickpeas (stir fried in garlic sesame oil
Hardboiled egg
Toasted sunflower seeds

If this salad were any more decadent, you'd have to eat it with a spoon.
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Meal: Cheese melt veggie and egg bowl
Spring onion
Kohlrabi
Kale
Garlic sesame oil
Provolone
Hard boiled egg

Chop veggies, stir fry a little in oil. Heap veggies in center of pan, lay provolone slice on top, wait for it to melt. Chop egg small and stir fry it all around to warm egg.  Crazy salt to taste.

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Many meals: Tom ka gai with even more vegetables
Chicken stock
Ginger
Lemongrass
Fish sauce
Lime juice
Green beans
Kale
Spinach
Turnips
Radish
Yellow squash
Baby corn
Rice

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Meal: Balanced Bowl
Egg noodles
Spinach
Steamed zucchini
Braised Stew beef

CSA Meals 2014: Week 2

Week 2: Kale, kohlrabi, bean sprouts, turnips, lettuce, spring onions, zucchini, blueberries, bread, eggs.

Prep:
- wash kale, rip leaves off of stems
- rip stems off of kohrabi bulbs
- chop all the stems into wee pieces
- pack everything in tupperware
- hardboil some eggs


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Meal: CSA Fritters
1 Turnip, grated
1 Kohlrabi, peeled and grated
1 Onion, mandolined and chopped
1 Beet, sliced fine
2 Potato, grated
Lots of kale, ripped up and chiffonaded
Handful of Beet stems, finely sliced
1 Radish , finely sliced

Egg
Salt, pepper
Some white whole wheat flour for glue

Mixed all together, fried in bacon fat, served with garlic-lime yogurt sauce. SO TASTY and deals with leftovers and kohlrabi + turnips. Could have doubled the amount of kohlrabi and turnip and radish, really.

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Meal:  Green things with parmesan and nuts
Kohlrabi greens
Kale stems
Radish
Asparagus
Bean sprouts
Peanut oil
Garlic
Balsamic
Parmesan
Pepitas

Stirfry everything except the parmesan and bean sprouts, add those after removing from heat.

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Many meals: Tom ka gai with veggies
A chicken
Lemongrass
Ginger
Limes or lime juice
Fish sauce
Mushrooms
Kale stems
Turnips
Spring onions
Baby corn (or regular corn)
Rice
Coconut milk

Get a chicken (cooked, or roast it yourself). Strip meat off the boneses. Make broth by boiling  the boneses for a couple hours. Add lemongrass, ginger, chopped limes or lime juice. Boil up to an hour. Remove the lemongrass, ginger, and limes. Add veggies. Once veggies are cooked, add back the chicken.  Add rice, simmer until done. Add 1-2 cans of coconut milk.

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Meal: Tom ka gai with more veggies

Sauteed radish, zucchini, kohlrabi kale stems, and more mushrooms. Added to a bowl of the tom ka gai with veggies above. 

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Ingredient: Sweet mint water
Stevia has  a greenish taste to it. It's fine in baked goods and in anything that has veggies. Ooor… with mint leaves! I cut a big sprig of stevia (trying to get the plant to grow a bit bushier), stripped the leaves off, and dumped them in a jar with a bunch of freshly picked mint leaves (harvested for the same reason). Poured hot water in, shook it up a bunch, let it rest. Shook it up every time I passed through the kitchen.
Tasted. WOW. It's very sweet and minty. I will add it to cookies and things.

CSA Meals 2014: Week 1 cont.

Two more meals and two desserts this week:

Meal: Sliced beef'n'veggies
Radish, finely chopped
Beet stems, chopped
Asparagus, chopped
Beet greens, shredded
Beef, finely sliced (cooked earlier)
Garlic
Relish
Peanut oil

Stirfry veggies in  oil with garlic. Add beef and relish, stir around until heated.

Meal: Bacon-asparagus tilapia
Bacon fat
Asparagus
Capers
Relish
Greens (beet, radish)
Tilapia.



Stirfry veggies in bacon fat. Add tilapia, stirfry until cooked through.

My chocolate mint plant (picked up at Lowes) is growing quite vigorously, as mint is wont to do. Mint is supposed to be harvested regularly to encourage a bushy habit, and conveniently enough, a couple of big sprigs makes enough minced mint leaves to put in a baked dessert...

Dessert: Chocolate Mint Cookies

Almond meal (1/2 c?)
Oats (2 c?)
Flour (1 c?)
Salt (tsp)
Baking powder (tsp)
Cocoa (1/4 cup? 1/3?)

Coffee (1/4 c?)
Butter (1/4 c?)
Almond oil (1/8 cup?)
Olive oil (1/4 c?)
Eggs (3)

Mint (three springs of leaves, chopped)
Chocolate chips (1 c?)

Mix all dry ingredients. Add the eggs, coffee, butter and oils, adding more if necessary until dough is appropriate consistency. Mix in the mint, chocolate chips. Bake at 350 for 12ish minutes.
These things are unspeakably tasty. I baked half the batch and ate ALL OF THEM.



Dessert: Beet Cocoa Mint muffins. Yes, you read that right. Beets.
Olive oil
Flour
Salt
Baking powder
Eggs
Beets
Mint leaves
Cocoa powder (LOTS)


Combine all in bowl. Blend with wand blender until mixed. Bake in buttered pan at 350 until done. Serve with mint chocolate sauce.


These are actually really, really good. The mint and cocoa powder add a certain decadence, while the beet adds sweetness but no veggie flavor. Also, please note that this is basically breakfast: flour, olive oil, eggs, beets. Cocoa powder is perfectly healthy, thank you, and mint leaves are also a plant. A+ dessert!

CSA Meals 2014: Week 1

A CSA share is a lot of vegetables, many of which are not your usual fare. For the rest of the CSA season I will document how we deal with all these dang veggies, starting with the week's haul, then detailing what preparation I did after picking up the share, and then the recipes. (We supplement the CSA share with food from farmer's markets and the grocery store, so the recipes aren't limited to the CSA pickup.)

Week 1: Potatoes, apples, mushrooms, kale, beets, radishes, asparagus, lettuce, (traded for more beets), eggs, bread. Good start!

Prep:
- wash kale, rip leaves off of stems. let dry, pack in huge tupperware with a paper towel
- wash beet greens and radish greens, let dry, pack in tupperware with a paper towel
- wash beet and kale stems, pack in tupperware with paper towel
- wash asparagus, set in big mug of water in fridge
- hardboil eggs
- boil beets and potatoes


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Meal: Greened Potato
Garlic sesame oil
Beet greens, chopped
Asparagus, chopped
Great northern beans
Boiled potato, cut in half and the insides kind of mooshed
Cheese, shredded

Stir fry beet greens and asparagus in the garlic sesame oil. Add great northern beans and stir around until heated. Pour over potato and top with cheese.

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Meal: Beets'n'Eggs on Toast
Beet, boiled, peeled, and sliced
Egg, hardboiled and sliced
Mayo
Crazy salt
Hearty bread or toast

Slather bread with mayo. Pile beet and egg on bread. Salt. This is especially good on the many-grain great harvest bread.

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Meal: Beet Asparagus Beef

Beet, boiled peeled chopped
Asparagus, chopped
Beefs, cooked, in whatever form. We had some tough weird steaks that we chopped small against the grain.
Garlic
Peanut oil

Saute asparagus in peanut oil with garlic. Add beet and beef, stir until heated.

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Meal: Curry Lentil Mushroom Kale soup
Celery
Lentils
Bacon fat
Mushrooms (chopped)
Garlic
Kale (chopped)
Sweet potato (cooked)
Lime
Curry powder

Cook lentils in water with celery. While lentils are cooking, melt bacon fat in a pan and add chopped mushrooms, lime, and garlic. Stir around, wait a few minutes, then add kale. Stir to coat, then cover and cook on low for awhile. When the kale is all wilty and cooked, add mixture to the now-cooked lentils. Add sweet potato. Add curry powder to taste.

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Side dish: Greens stir-fry
Butter
Garlic
Balsamic vinegar
Mushrooms, rinsed and chopped
Asparagus, chopped
Boiled radish, chopped
Beet stems, chopped

Saute it all in butter with garlic and balsamic to taste.

CSA Meals 2013: Week 8

 Zucchini, oranges, radishes, onions, green beans, sweet potatoes, spinach, salad greens, sourdough, and strawberry jam.

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Pinkie cheesecake
Sweet potato (3x medium? 2x medium and one small?)
Beet, 1x small
3 eggs
Orange, Juice and pulp and zest
Cream cheese, roughly half a package
Vanilla
Bit of salt
Sliced pound cake for the crust

Lay sliced pound cake in pan, roughly evenly covering bottom. Use wand blender to mix all other ingredients until smooth. Pour over pound cake. Bake at 350 until set.

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Pink potato salad
Potato, chopped
Beet, finely chopped
Hardboiled egg, finely chopped
Zucchini, finely sliced
Green bean, finely sliced
Anything pickled you feel like adding - I put in some finely sliced pickled napa cabbage, pickled onion would be delicious
Mayo + milk
salt

Combine and chill.

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Stir Fry Veggies
Garlic
Peanut oil
Green beans
Garbanzo beans (cooked in crockpot chicken recipe)
Mushrooms
Pickled beet
Pickled onion
Pickled cabbage
Noodles (angel hair)
Ripped lettuce
Chopped peanuts

Stir fry veggies and garbanzo beans in the peanut oil. Add to cooked noodles, top with ripped salad greens and peanuts.

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Infused Honeys
Rosemary infused honey
Coffee infused honey
Lavender infused honey

Put honey in a jar with the desired infusion (coffee beans, lavender buds, rosemary leaves) and wait. Turn the jar periodically. It's hypnotic.

Pictured: slowly draining out the honey.


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Wine stewed cherries and apricots
Cherries
Apricots
Shiraz to cover

Simmer until fruit is all squooshy.

We at this on paneer, it would be delicious with paneer on crepes.

CSA Meals 2013: Week 7

 Zucchini, potatoes, salad mix, green beans, mushrooms, beets, spinach, eggs, and my dear mother and grandmother selected Lemon Lavender Pound Cake instead of bread. O woe.

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Rum sauce for lemon-lavender pound cake 
Rum
Cream
Bit of brown sugar
Bit of flour

Heat the cream and rum, stir in brown sugar. Sprinkle flour into cream and stir well. Heat gently until a bit thickened.

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Pickled Beets'n'Onions
Boil beets until easily pierced with a fork. Slice into small chunks.

Add sliced onion, sliced beets to the pickling cabbage (from last weeks).

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Lazy Paneer
Milk
Vinegar

Pour milk into microwave safe bowl. Add 1 tsp vinegar per cup of milk. Heat. Stir. Spoon curds into strainer.  Drain more time for firmer curds, less time for more spreadable curds.

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GreenProtein Sauce
Bacon fat
Garlic
Beet greens
Spinach
Almonds
Balsamic
Cannellini beans
Olive oil
Water as needed for blending



Melt bacon fat in large pot, add garlic. Add beet greens and spinach and scoot them around until wilty. Combine everything in blender.

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Beet Stem Stirfry
Green beans
Beet stems
Hardboiled egg
Mushroom
Pickled napa cabbage (from previous weeks)
Peanut oil

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Garlicky Green Beans
Green beans
Garlic
Manzanilla olives
Peanut oil

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Lazy meal: soba noodles with peanut sauce
Peanut butter
Fish sauce
Soy sauce
Lime juice
Ginger powder
Brown sugar

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Coupla Stirfry meals
Sweet potato, onion, what the heck else; with ripped up salad greens and bean thread noodles. I MADE THIS BOWL.

Peas, corn, bell pepper, carrot, mushroom, zucchini, pickled cabbage; with meatballs, ripped up salad greens, and rice vermicelli noodles. I LOVE THIS BOWL.

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 helping!

CSA Meals 2013: Week 5

Chard, apples, onions, oranges, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, sugar snap peas, parmesan sourdough, eggs.

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Mildly Green Meatballs
~ 2lbs ground beef
2 eggs
Several dashes of Worcestershire sauce
Couple handfuls of spinach, wilted in the microwave and lightly blendered
Many shakes of parmesan

Combine all ingredients and form into meatballs. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until cooked through.
Word to the wise: if you purchase fattier meat, because it on sale, bake these in a dish with sides. Cleaning rendered fat off of an oven heating element is No Fun.

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Wine fruit sauce
Wine
Oranges
Tangerines
Apricots

Cut peel off of oranges and tangerine, slices into chunks. Add oranges, tangerines, and apricots to wine and stew until chunks are falling apart. Wand blend into a sauce.
We ate this on an unsweetened sweet potato pie.

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Green sauce
bacon fat
chard
spinach
parmesan

Wilt spinach and chard in bacon fat. Wand blend. Add parmesan to taste.

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Red sauce
Tomato
Olive oil
Rosemary
Thyme
Garlic
White wine

Combine all and simmer until tomatoes all apart. Wand blend.

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Stop and Start Shepherd's Pies
Start pie:
Green sauce
Onions, carmelized by cooking in oil for awhile
Parsnip, fried in peanut oil until tasty
Zucchini & mushroom, sliced and cooked in peanut oil until softish
Turkey, shredded
Mashed potatoes

Stop pie:
Red sauce
Onions, carmelized
Celery, lightly sauteed in peanut oil
Peas, frozen
Turkey, shredded
Mashed potatoes

For each pie, layer in a pie crust (or a pie pan) in order of ingredients. Smoosh mashed potatoes in a general layer on the top to sort of .. seal it. I covered each with saran wrap, then a bag, and froze.

Bake ~30min at 350 or until mashed potato tips turn brown and pie is heated through.

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Corn dog muffins
1 c white whole wheat flour
1 c cornmeal
2 eggs
Blob of honey
1/2 c olive oil
1 c milk +1 tsp vinegar (let sit for a few minutes before adding)
Small slices of cheese
Hot dogs cut into rounds

Mix everything but the cheese and hot dogs. Fill muffin cups halfway, then drop hot dog slices and a slice of cheese on top of the batter, then cover with more batter. Bake at 375 for 24 minutes.


Grapefruit paneer muffins
Grapefruit (zest, some pulp, juice)
Paneer (from 4 c whole milk + 4 tbsp vinegar + 4 min in microwave)
1/2 c olive oil
1/2 c applesauce
2 c www flour
2 eggs
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
Vanilla

Combine all ingredients and spoon into muffin cups. Bake at 350 for 24 minutes or until knife comes out clean.

Muffin tins, bake at 350 20-24 min