Week 6. Back at it.

Great pick up today. A little bit of everything and nothing is overwhelming. I'm still recovering from being sick and honesty done want any of this, but I have my meal plan for the week and hope to get back on track. 

Beans in a crock pot

Since I am sitting on my butt all weekend I thought I would go ahead and post something. And yes, most people post things on blogs to share with other people but I have found that the posts I write are great reminders on how to do things. So, this post is mainly for me.

I bought some fancy smancy organic heirloom beans from Rancho Gordo. Truth be told, I can't taste a difference with these beans but they do have different varieties that I don't usually have access to.  Such as Yellow Eyes Beans. 

One of the cooking methods Rancho Gordo mentioned was to use a crock pot. Now, I have used the crock pot method before but honestly, I haven't had a whole lot of success with this method. The beans are hardly ever done. Rancho Gordos method was a bit different - not all that different - but I thought I would give it a try. So, I put the beans in my crock pot and covered with a bunch of water, I'd say about 5 inches above the beans. 

One of the major differences with the Rancho Gordo method is that they recommend NOT soaking the water. They say throwing it out is an old wives tale and you ended up losing nutrients and delcious flavor. And I have to say, the bean broth from this is awesome!  To the soaking water, I then added aromatic vegetables. In this case, that was one onion, celery, 2 bay leaves, a smashed garlic clove, and a whole jalapeño. The actual directions say to sauté these but I don't really have time for that, I just add them. 

I let it soak overnight like this and in the morning, flip the switch to high. Let cook all day until about 5 or 6 for donenest. 

The softness of the beans depends on the variety. These yellow eyes were falling apart. At this point I added 1/2 tablespoon of salt. It is very important to salt your beans. This amount with give them pretty good flavor but allow to to season them later if you like. I always like to add smoked salt at the table. 

This does end up being a great addition to a csa meal. I served with brown rice, corn bread, and kale chips. 

Enjoy!  Wish I could eat them now. Ugh!

Week 5: Sick leave

So, I was pretty sick on the day of pick up.  I was still planning on getting my share, but my throat was super super sore and I just couldn't imagine eating anything.  I ended up taking this week off.  A neighbor got to pick up and eat my share and allowed me to sit for 3 days on my coach.  Good times. We will pick up again next week.

Muffins or murder?

Desperate times call for desperate measures y'all. I had two baked beets in my fridge and a family of beet haters. Racking my brain for ideas and remembered a post about using beets to make chocolate cupcakes. Honestly, I don't need cupcakes but muffins are often part of our daily morning routine and I found my tweaking te recipe atMinimalist Baker, I ended up with a great breakfast item. 

I did nave many doubts through out this process. I kept reminding myself that this was no different than pumpkin muffins. But the the bright red color of the batter, I really wasn't sure if I could get my kids to eat them. 

My adjustments were adding more flour to make twelve muffins (who makes 10?  That's ridiculous) and subbing 1/2 cup maple syrup for the sugar. Oh, and I added chocolate chips cause our usual chocolate muffin has chocolate chips and I'm trying to be sneaky. Results were delicious. Maybe borderline of not sweet enough but my kids ate them. They always had a slight slight slight reddish tint but again but kids at them. Here's is one I ate with almond butter YUM!

Week 4: OMG. More Greens.

I had to mentally prepare the entire day before picking up my share. They didn't send a list about what we would get but I was pretty sure it would be more of the same. I was right. Another two heads of lettuce, more arugula, kale, radishes and green onions. We did get some different types of beets, turnips (this may bey only week for turnips so don't blink. Nobody likes them), and cilantro. I was invited to a friends house for dinner and I told her that the only way I would come was if I could bring salad!

Goat Cheese and Beet Salad

Loved this salad. And this is a popular one to do with beets. I have seen many different recipes for the same basic salad. In this version, the beets were wrapped in foil and baked for an hour at 400 degrees. When they were cooked, I peeled the skin off and sliced. I had never made beets this way and I think my husband and kids were pleasantly surprised. My older son said it reminded him of a gummy! They only ate one each, but it's a start.  It was actually pretty simple to put it all together. The dressing was a red wine and shallot vinegrette. Tossed the lettuce with it and topped with the baked beets, goat cheese and toasted walnuts. I baked some potaoes along with the beets to make it a hardier meal and also served with homemade bread. It ended up being a feast!

Kale Chips and Radish Salad

This was my Mothers Day meal. Yes, I cooked it myself, thank you very much but since I had to cook, I took the opportunity to use up some more produce. The kale chips are and old standby. My older son and I love them. It's a good way to use some some greens in a different way. I tear into but size pieces, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, then bake for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees. Check half way and then frequenly and stir to prevent burning. I did forget my number one rule about greens (greens cool down!) so I ended up with leftover kale. I froze the whole leaves on a cookie sheet and then placed in a Baggie. I'll be able to use this kale either in smoothies or in soups in the  future. The radish salad was inspired by one I saw in The Kind Diet. Just flipping through it jumped out at me because radishes are just something that is hard to use up!  In this salad, I could use several all at once!  I made some Isreali Couscous and cooled. Added the sliced radishes, parsley, and green onions. Made a simple lemon vinegrette and combined. Turned out pretty well and leftovers were just as delicious the next day!

Arugula Pesto Pizza

I had arugula from this week AND arugula from last week. Time to do something with it and fast. Whenever you have a lot of something to use up it may not be possible to eat it all during normal family meal time. If that happens, it is time to find a way to process your vegetables for long term storage. The problem with the greens of spring is that they can only be used fresh. Luckily, arugula is one of those items that you can make pesto out of, and you can freeze pesto!  To make my pesto I used about four cups of fresh arugula. Add about 1/2 cup cheese, the juice of one lemon, one garlic clove, salt and pepper, if you have some, add some basil. And if your arugula is really bitter, I'd add a bit of honey. Combine all ingredients in a food processor. Once chopped finely, stream in olive oil until desired consistency.  You can use it on sandwiches, pasta, or pizza. I spread my pesto onto pizza dough and then add smashed potatoes. In this case, I also added some microgreens. In three weeks, this was my first time using these. Oops. I froze the leftover pesto in ice cube trays and will used them on future pizzas or maybe add to soups when an Italian flavor is needed. 

Unfortunately, after two huge double batches of pesto, I still had arugula left!  Argh!

Week 3 - "Lettuce" eat some salad

Oh my word. That's a lot of leaves, am I right. And in a normal week and I would be so excited to make a salad out of all of them. Two HUGE heads of lettuce. Arugula. Kale. More microgreens. (yay). Keep in mind that I still have from last well: a small head of lettuce, arugula, microgreens. I need to come up with a plan. And fast. And eat some salad!  Or something. 

(Help)

Roasting Radishes - what??

I have heard of roasting radishes before, I just never tried it. That's a little surprising because roasting vegetables is one of the easiest, er, tastiest ways to prepare veggies. But radishes?  Not so sure. Radishes are a tough vegetable to use. You get a whole bunch, you use a few in a salad, you get more the next week, now what?  My CSA actually sent a link about roasting radishes and here I was, the night before my next share's pickup with a whole bunch of radishes to use up. So, I tried it. And, it wasn't too bad!  I ate all of mine and my kids at one each. My husband was honest. He ate a few but left most of his plate. Oh well. Easy to make though. I cut them in half, drizzled olive oil, salt and pepper, and baked at 400 for 12 minutes. It did go well with my bok choy stir fry. I may make it again if needed, but should try some other things first!

Spring Salad

The easiest thing to do with all the lettuce I have gotten is of course make a main dish salad. The problem with the main dish salad is how do I get my kids to eat it?  They actually might stuff a couple of leaves in their mouth by accident, but that won't be enough to keep them full until breakfast the next day. I made a salad based on a similar one from Iowa Girl Eats. For my kids and husband, I actually baked bonelss chicken thighs with salt pepper and a few spices. For me, I roasted chickpeas also with some spices. Everyone got a mound of lettuce on their plate, and at the table, I had the chicken, chickpeas, but also roasted cashews, mango, and the big kicker - fresh bread!  Usually I make my own in my bread machine, but due to time constraints I used french bread from the grocery store instead. The bread is my secret weapon. I always have it as a side when serving soups or salads for dinner. That way, I know there will be at least one thing that everyone likes!  I made a simple lime honey vinaigrette dressing and dinner was served. Everyone got to put exactly what they wanted on their salad and some (Andy) just ate bread. Oh Andy!

Week 2

Few different things this week like green onions, radishes, and Swiss chard but got more bok Choy, lettuce, and micro greens. You know, I didn't even use my micro greens from last week?  Totally fail. Wonder if I will get to them this week!