What's For Dinner? Week 3

{June 11-17}

You know, having these veggie bags each week is such a great lesson in how meal planning should be. As Bon Appetit Magazine puts it: "It's like Grocery Shopping: The Reality Show. You're not going to get tomatoes and asparagus year-round... Consumers make a commitment to buy exactly what is produced; and it provides great lessons in seasonality and supply and demand... One of the best things about subscribing to a CSA is that you'll inevitably end up with ingredients you've never thought to buy or cook."

Also from the Bon Appetit website I found this page with recipe suggestions for foods that are likely to show up in a late spring CSA box. They did a whole week of posts in early June with CSA-geared recipes, but I can't find an exact link to that. The one I provided is pretty close though.

I also found a really cute blog written by a self-proclaimed "Farmer's Market junkie" with wonderful ideas for seasonal recipes. Her profile reads: "This blog is the marriage of my fanaticism over eating locally and seasonally and my sometimes perfectly successful attempts at cooking delicious food. I'd like to be one more voice in support of the movement Pollan, Kingsolver and Waters helped turn me on to... Support your local farms!"

Okay, so let's take a look at CSA bag #2... picked up on Tuesday, June 7th.

In it, were: 2 tomatoes, green onions (which they refer to as "bunching onions"), asparagus, a head of green leaf lettuce, kohlrabi, and a cucumber.

That weekend, the first thing that came to mind with those luscious tomatoes and green leaf lettuce was simple: BLT's! You can't go wrong with BLT's. I like mine with sliced avocado, which I learned from my sister-in-law.

The other tomato and some green onion got put into homemade salsa for Will's party and the remaining lettuce has been the base for salads and the topping for taco and chimichanga leftovers from the party later in the week.

Kohlrabi! Ah, kohlrabi. Aside from one time recently, I hadn't had it in years, I don't think. But it tasted just as good as I remember. I trimmed the green leafy stalks and tossed them. A conservationist might call that wasteful, but I've had to really make an effort to consume all the produce that is coming into our home lately and I had no idea what to do with those greens. Then you just peel the outer layer of that white colored ball at the base of those stems and slice it up. My grandma always used to sprinkle the slices with salt, but I find it just as good without. It has a cabbage taste and reminds me of the stalks of raw broccoli.

The cucumber got sliced and eaten plain with other raw veggies and also as a salad topper. And some of the asparagus went into a soup, which you will see further down.

Our weekend breakfast this time was:
Lemon Sour Cream Pancakes with Buttermilk Syrup
Following our strawberry picking adventure on Sunday morning, the kids and I came home and ate a picnic lunch in the backyard. They got pb&j, an assortment of fruit, bell peppers and a slice of cheese.

The umbrella from the water table fits nicely over our picnic table and we're enjoying outdoor lunches more often.

My lunch consisted of leftover Bok Choy Fajitas from last week, sliced up kohlrabi and a slice of cheese.

Sophie was super snuggly this day and kept scooching her hiney closer and closer till she was almost in my lap. She loves to give hugs and tell me "I wuh you, mommy." Melts my heart.

Such a perfect, beautiful day with my two favorite little people.

For dinner on Monday night, Craig grilled up some chicken breasts, seasoned simply with salt, pepper and garlic powder and we topped them with our favorite peach salsa (recipe somewhere back on my blog... someday, I promise to figure out a good organizational side bar to reference old recipes) making use of some of our CSA green onions and the peaches and peppers that were on sale at Meijer. We had corn on the cob on the side and something else that is slipping my mind.

On Tuesday, I tried a new soup recipe that is totally boring to look at and only slightly better in flavor than it appears. I think my biggest complaint is that it is too thin. I'd like a little more body to this soup. (Asparagus and Potato Soup from Kaboose website.) I used my CSA asparagus and some leftover Yukon Golds from my potato salad last week. The recipe calls to top the soup with some garlic croutons. This was actually tastier the next day and even tasted fine at room temperature. I have to tell you: I packed some pretty stellar (no-heat-required) lunches for the week during my breastfeeding conference and this was one of the things included.

The rest of the week, as I already mentioned, we spent our meal preparations using up things in our refrigerator. It was overflowing after Will's birthday party and I can't stand that. I always pride myself in my no-food-left-behind policy (haha!) and I love to create meals out of a smorgasbord of leftovers and fresh produce. Here's an example of one of Will's plates: fresh strawberries and apricots, green beans, grape tomatoes, chicken with peach salsa. He finished all but a little bit of the chicken.

And Sophie's on the same day: fresh berries, green beans, strawberry muffin (post coming soon), cooked butternut squash with cottage cheese (still one of her faves). Honestly can't remember what all she ate, but my guess is she left the green beans. Green vegetables are totally hit or miss with her (quite often rejected), while squash is the one thing I am guaranteed she will like.

My plate: there's a beef and bean chimichanga under all that lettuce, tomato and cheese... plus two wedges of bean, cheese and green onion quesadilla leftover from one of the kids' weekend lunches.

No picture of Craig's plate (sorry), but he ate leftover tacos and BLT's quite happily.

Hope you're all enjoying the lighter, more relaxed, menus of summer too!