What's For Dinner? Week 2

I think, beginning in 2012, I'm going to start keeping a Dinner Diary like Jenny from Dinner: A Love Story. That sounds like something I should have thought of on my own being as it combines two of my favorite loves: record keeping/journaling and FOOD! I guess I sort of do that already with my weekly dinner posts, but I mean like getting myself a new, pretty log book and journaling daily on what I eat for dinner. (Not like exact portions, just WHAT foods.)

What's the point? It's just fun to look back on! I keep a file of food pictures on my hard drive that I've posted in these dinner posts and it's fun to look back on those for ideas and also just for fun. Sometimes I skim through and think about all the time spent in the kitchen making each of those dishes. Sometimes I see a picture and remember the specific meal time pleasantries (or unpleasantness) or the kids' reactions to that meal. Looking back on what we ate this time last year is also interesting to me. See July week 1 and July week 3 (for 2010). (For some reason, I didn't post a week 2. Hmm.) I re-read those and thought to myself "Ooh! That sounds good again! We haven't had that in awhile." This year (2011) will an even better reference in the future since we're doing so much better eating locally and seasonally, and making use of our CSA harvest.

So why wait till 2012? I don't know. I'm weird like that. I like to start things fresh - especially a new journal - at anticipated transitional times. It'll be like a new year's resolution. If I started right now, I'd feel frustrated (stupid - I know) that I didn't have the entire summer recorded or the the entire 2011 for that matter.

I found Jenny's blog... hmm... actually I don't remember when/how I stumbled upon it. But I follow it regularly now and I always enjoy her writing and love of food. She has two young children and often writes about family meals and introducing new foods to her kids. One of my favorite post titles on her blog is called How to Blow a Small Person's Mind. And this summer, she has started a summer reading series that I can't wait to follow.

Okay, back to my menu for the week of July 9-15:

Let's take a look back at CSA Harvest Week #6 (from July 5th).

This week I used the three tomatoes to make salsa, the lettuce and red onion to make tacos and the kale to make another batch of kale avocado salad as well as kale "chips"! I also made a good old fashioned green salad using lettuce and some of the broccoli. And I tried a new recipe for zucchini corn bread with my lone zucchini pictured above.

We were in Cleveland Saturday night and returned home in the afternoon on Sunday. So I made the salsa and tacos for an easy dinner that night.

Here's my fresh tomato salsa that we topped our tacos with. Tomatoes, green pepper, red onion, garlic, cilantro. Yum.
Getting set up for taco night! Sophie chowed down on this dinner! I love it when she surprises me. :)

On Monday, I served the same BBQ Sausage with Potatoes & Greens from last week again. This smells so good and I love packing leftovers for lunch at work.

Here's a sneak peek of my harvest bag from week #7 (picked up on the 12th). I got a new vegetable this week. I've used it before but this is the first time receiving it in our CSA. It's that tall, green, stalky thing sticking up on the right. Can you guess what it is? Hint: it grows in layers and requires careful cleaning. I've only ever used the bottom of it (not visible here) but you can use the stalky greens too. I'll give you the answer next week when I show the contents of this bag.

On Tuesday evening, I had a super simple and LIGHT meal planned. I found this recipe for Chickpea Salad with Lemon, Parmesan and Fresh Herbs in Bon Appetit magazine. I'd wanted to find some recipes to make use of the herbs I have in my garden (parsley, basil and thyme) and this included two of them. To prepare in advance, I just mixed the "dressing" together in a small container and then added the garbanzo beans (aka chickpeas) just before serving. Lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, basil, parsley and Parmesan cheese make this a super flavorful and light dish.

To go with, I made a zucchini corn bread (again, prepared in advance and baked the night of serving) that I served warm in slices along side.

Both kids loved the cornbread but barely touched the chickpea salad. No biggie. They had other options on their plate and I threw in some peanuts after taking this picture.

My plate. This was surprisingly filling and really, really tasty. (Craig ate leftover tacos.)

We tried kale chips on Wednesday! I've seen a variety of recipes all over for these, but my CSA newsletter suggested washing and cutting into chip-size pieces, tossing with lime juice, olive oil salt & pepper, laying in a single layer on a foil-lined cookie sheet, sprinkling with Parmesan and baking for 15 minutes. Watch them carefully! They should be crisp but not starting to burn. I did these right away and then munched on them while preparing the rest of dinner. They sort of dissolve in your mouth.

Here are the kids plates on Wednesday: grilled cheese, kale chips and sliced plums and nectarines (77 cents per pound at Meijer this week!). They did not eat the kale chips well. Worth a shot, though! Something different.

My plate: grilled cheese, kale avocado salad, sliced plum and nectarine, sliced kohlrabi (raw).

This salad is soooo good. And really good for you! This would be a great thing to eat during pregnancy and/or when trying to get pregnant. Both kale and avocado are high in folic acid, which helps prevent birth defects in babies, especially during the first trimester and close to conception. Just FYI. The pine nuts in it lend some protein and the vitamin C in the lime juice would aid in absorbing iron from the kale as well. A very tasty and nutrient-packed salad!

On Thursday, we went to the beach and picked up a pizza on the way home. So on Friday, I just made a big tossed salad using up a bunch of veggies in our crisper and we pulled together a random meal with this-and-that from our fridge and freezer. (The kids had meatloaf from the freezer stash - almost always a hit.) I used more of that homemade mustard dill dressing on my salad (recipe in a very recent post) and it tasted so good! This might be a new favorite dressing recipe.

We're currently in the midst of another delicious, veggie-filled week with new recipes to share.

Happy summer eating, all!