CSA Basket and Menu Planning

I haven't done a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) basket post in awhile, and we're transitioning from summer to winter produce, which means different recipes (though I know that transition isn't as severe here in southern California as it is elsewhere in the country), so I thought I'd blog our last basket and last two weeks' menu plans that came from it.

Here's all the produce in the basket:

Wow. Our baskets just get so . . . green, come winter.

I'm sure it's good for us.

And here it is, spread out on our counter:

Here's what was in the basket:

-green beans

-cilantro

-three heads of lettuce

-cucumbers

-parsley

-basil

-chard

-carrots

-avocado

-winter squash

-broccoli

-eggplant

-peppers

-garlic

-grapes

-oranges

-grapefruit

-apples

-nectarines

And here are the dishes we got out of that:

-pasta with basil, peas and Parmesan

-tenderloin with broccoli (this actually became chicken with broccoli on the side, I think)

-cilantro chicken with brown rice (so good!)

-frittata with green beans, served with salsa and biscuits (Our oven was on the fritz for a long time, but my husband fixed it - the stud! - and now I can make frittata again! This meal was all about celebrating the return of the oven in our house. The green beans were chopped small and added to the frittata itself, adding a nice juicy crunch to the dish.)

-meatball and chard soup

-squash and apple soup (it's terrible, but I made this and we didn't eat it. We had ice cream for dinner instead. Oh well. It was just that sort of day.)

The fruit became snacks. The parsley got chopped up and thrown into pasta for lunch. The avocado was made into guacamole for snacks by my husband. The lettuce and cucumber were also snacks (as salad and crudites) throughout the week.

And we just got our next basket, which looked pretty similar, but also had a pumpkin, a bunch of purple bell peppers, some plums, tomatoes, leeks and kale.

I made the basil into pesto last night, and I'm thinking about making Potato-Leek Flatbread with the leeks, and possibly picnic caviar (a family favorite) with the peppers. I might also give kale chips another go, since I have an oven and all. Hopefully this time I won't burn them! (Kale chips take careful watching, since they're so thin and thus burn easily.)  And we've got tons of chard, so I'm planning on using some of it in a crustless quiche tonight (good recipe, btw, but you can use about half the amount of cheese they suggest, and twice the amount of chard).

Anyone else out there enjoying some fall produce?

-Jess

CSA basket this week and menu planning

(The water bottles in the back are part of our earthquake supplies. We don't actually regularly drink bottled water.)

I missed posting about our basket last time it came; sorry!  But here's what we got yesterday:

-baby garlic <-- This is great! It looks like green onions, but tastes like garlic, just milder. Last time we got it, we used it on eggs. Super-yummy.

-garlic

-parsley

-cilantro

-lettuce: red, romaine, and iceberg

-chard

-beets + beet greens

-carrots

-radishes

-avocado (to Adam's joy)

-tatsoi (I know, I'd never heard of it either)

-celery, with lots of leaves

-tomatoes

-grapfruit

-potatoes

-apples

-pears

-satsumas

-oranges

-lemons

And what are we going to make of it? Well, as usual, the fruit is going to be snacks, as are the radishes, the beets and the carrots, and possibly some of the celery.

Then, we're having:

-mongolian beef (baby garlic & garlic) (and I use ground beef for this, and serve over brown rice)

-taco salad (uses cilantro, lettuce, avocado, tomato)

-chef salad (uses lettuce, parsley, tomato, carrots and celery)

-pasta with sausage and swiss chard (I'm going to stick the chard, the beet greens and the tatsoi in here - we have company the night we're having this, so I'm going to make a big batch)

-Vietnamese Fried Rice from the More With Less cookbook (Uses lettuce, parsley, and whatever else needs to be used up - this is a great use-what-you-have recipe. You can toss any extra veggies or meat you happen to have in here.)

-pork with celery, Greek Style from the Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines (uses LOTS of celery with leaves)

I just realized I made no provision for the potatoes. But potatoes always come in handy, and if nothing else, we'll roast them and have potato oven fries and cheese for lunch some time.

Anyone found any good recipes recently? particularly for greens? I'm still having trouble figuring out what to do with all these greens. And lettuce (hence all the main dish salads this time around).

I'm sure eating all those leaves is good for us. Alllllllll those leaves.

peace of Christ to you, 

Jessica Snell

menu planning with our csa basket

I blogged about getting our first official CSA basket here, and now I've menu-planned, and we've starting using all those green goodies.

A lot of them are just going to be straight-up snacks. This includes the kiwi, pears, grapefruit, apples, oranges, celery, cucumber, beets (roasted and sliced) and persimmons.

On Friday, the green onions and the basil (yes, all of it!) went into this pasta dish. I tweaked it by adding some canned mushrooms and Chinese five spice powder (star anise, cinnamon, cloves, fennel and pepper). It was SO GOOD.

Tonight we're using the green beans in this yummy red Thai curry. If you serve it over brown rice, you'll get a hefty dose of protein, but if you want a little more, it's great with salted cashews sprinkled on top. (btw, cashews can be bought at a decent price at both Sam's Club and Trader Joe's - if you buy the "bits and pieces" versions.)

The curry recipes is something I've made before, and it's fast becoming a favorite. It also looks like it would be easy to tweak it to include whatever fresh veggies you have on hand. Since I used up all my fresh basil on Friday, I used frozen-in-a-tube basil for the curry. (This ends up being a remarkably good value. It's sold refrigerated, but you can freeze it after the first use and it stays good. Much better than the $10000/oz., four-leaves-to-a-box version it's sold next to in the grocery store.)

The zucchini became chocolate zucchini bread, and I must admit, it's the best (i.e., least zucchini-tasting) zucchini bread I've ever had. I let the kids try it this afternoon, and they started bargaining to have it for breakfast this week. (I said yes. I'd still rather they eat it than me.)

The chard and beet greens I cooked up together and froze to use later in the week in quiche and in bee-bim-bop. (Yes, that children's picture book contains the recipe that we use. And it's really good - both the recipe and the book. Also - and this isn't the biggest reason it's a good book, but it's something I like - the family in the book prays together before they dig into the yummy, yummy meal.) The carrots are destined to go in this dish too.

The might-have-been-kale that I'm now guessing was actually collard greens got much too crispy when I attempted to make crispy kale. But the marinade was good, so I'm going  to try it again sometime and watch it more closely.

Finally, the cabbage is going into this unstuffed cabbage casserole.

And the flowers are still looking pretty on my counter. :)

peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell