Smoothie Challenge.

Don't hate me. I have a vitamix. Yes, I know, a vitamix. And guess what, it didn't change my life. Everything is the same as it was before except now I have to store my blender on my counter cause there is no room for it in the cabinet. I actually used to drink smoothies a lot. Not crazy often but I would make concoctions with protein powders that were pretty good. But in December, I got the flu and after that, I don't know...I just lost my taste for smoothies. Blech. So, my vitamix has had about a 6 month break. Just sitting on my counter. It probably would have kept sitting there except then someone I follow on facebook started doing a 30 day smoothie challenge.  It got me thinking about doing one too. Now, I can't commit to 30 days, but I did a week. It was fine. I enjoyed my smoothies, but again, it didn't change my life. What it did so is give me another place to use my CSA vegetables, especially those vegetables such as beets and cucumbers that I am having a hard time using up. Beets and cucumbers!  Who knew?  I'm not even going to mention the fact that I've been putting chard and kale in there too. Those are easy but beets and cucumbers!  

For a beet smoothie combine 1 peeled beet, 2 oranges, some sort of raw greens, some mint, and water and blend. This one is good but add ice if you want it colder. 

For a cucumber smoothie add 1 peeled and seeded cucumber, frozen blueberries or pineapple, raw greens, mint and coconut water and blend until smooth. 

Cucumber avocado soup

Everyone has an opinion on cold soup. And they are entitled. I agree that most times it does not sound very appetizing but when you have like 3 pounds of cucumbers in your fridge it changes you. This soup uses two huge cucumbers at once and in my opinion is refreshing and satisfying. It's like eating guacamole with a spoon.  To all those haters out there, you don't know what you are missing. 

In a food processor combine two cucumbers peeled and seeded, a seeded jalapeño, one clove garlic, cilantro, the juice of one lime, and salt and pepper. As the ingredients are processing, stream in about 1/4 cup of cold water. Add more or less depending on the desired consistency. Serve immediately. 

Beet Hummus

I actually got a request for this recipe from one of the two readers of this blog. And this recipe was inspired by the other reader of this blog. I mean, I have all these beets and I've given up on feeding them to my family. What am I supposed to do?  Answer:  make hummus. I got this recipe from Minimalist Baker. First, I roasted one beet. Actually I roasted three but the other two beets will be used to make chocolate muffins. My kids figured out the zucchini bread but they haven't figured out the beet muffins yet. Hee her. At any rate, purree your beet and then to the food processor at your hummus ingredients. However you make it is fine. I used chickpeas, lemon juice, garlic, slay, pepper and tahini. Process while streaming in olive oil. Ta da. Beet hummus. Now, my family still won't touch it but I tried!

Week 8. Good and bad

Another great haul this week. Again a little bit of everything, but nothing too overwhelming except those dang cucumbers. I did pretty good last week again except for cucumbers. Stay tuned!

Kale chopped salad

I just love this salad. It's from Oh She Glows and I've been making it for about a year now. Sometimes the kale can be a little chewy, but by chopping it to smaller pieces it allows it to get a little more tender. The leaves are dresses with a lemon vinaigrette and I always add a little bit of honey to mine. The salad is then topped with craisens and pecan parmesean. Filling but refreshing. 

Red cabbage with pasta

Mark loves red canbage. We actually had a choice between lettuce or red cabbage and I went the cabbage. He loves slaw!  One big issue, I hate slaw 😳. I feel like this recipe gives us a little of what we both like. You sauté the cabbage with onions until it gets soft and sweet, then combine with cooked pasta. Top with toasted pine nuts.  Love the texture. Just the right amount of crunch. Orinigal recipe is from Color Me Vegan 

Week 7 - no picture

We went camping this weekend so I am a little bit behind. I do need to say we ate everything from last week!  This week was similar in that we got:

Red cabbage 

Beets

Basil

Cilantro 

Carrots

Broccoli 

Kale

Zucchini 

And OMG cucumbers. 

This was the first week we got our fruit share and I got peaches and plums.