What's For Dinner? Week 3

Another bountiful vegetable bag!

This was the last for the regular 20-week season and I had my picture taken by a newspaper photographer who was doing an article on CSA's and Riehm Farm. He took pictures of me getting my bag and then exchanging something (chard? I think?) for another squash in the "exchange box". I have winter squash coming out of my ears right now though. ;)

The 6-week extended season started last week and we've gotten two bags so far. I will miss this when it ends for the winter!

Contents: 1 brown bag of red skin potatoes, 2 green peppers, 1 onion, 1 bunch broccoli, 1 butternut squash, 2 acorn squash, 3 ears corn, 1 bunch green onions ("bunching onions"), 1 bunch lettuce.

We have been eating so much butternut squash lately!

On Saturday morning, I made my favorite Golden Winter Soup (from Cooking Light) to serve for lunch. I've been making this since Will was a baby and I absolutely love it. It calls for butternut squash, potatoes & leeks, so it is perfect for making use of our recent CSA foods.
Everything gets sauteed in the pot and then I use my immersion blender to blend it all together with chicken stock and half-and-half. To go with, I made a batch of my favorite Pumpkin Walnut Biscuits from Family Fun. These are so good with a little butter and a drizzle of honey!

On Saturday night, Casey & Wes were supposed to go to her 10-year class reunion. So I had Mya & Stella for dinner in the evening. I always like to serve breakfast for dinner when they're over because I know everyone will eat that well. ;)

So I made a batch of Weelicious Pumpkin Waffles (these make a LOT!) and served some fruit and yogurt on the side. See? Didn't I tell you we've been eating a lot of squash? I'm not kidding. And there's lots more to come! It's so funny how we get overloaded on whatever the seasonal fruit or vegetable is at each stage of the year. But I guess that's how God and mother nature intended it.

I love the rest of these cousin pictures.

Not the best of Will, but I love this of Stella.

This one of Mya reminds me of ME when I was little. ;)

Okay, let's put 10 seconds on the clock and see how many fake smile pictures we can get of Sophia. LOL

After the kidlins were finished, they played while I made my own plate. I sauteed some apple slices and walnuts in a tiny bit of butter and then glazed them with real maple syrup at the end before topping my own pumpkin waffle with them. I've done this for the kids before and they don't like it as well as I do. So this is my treat. Yum!

The rest of the waffles were placed on wax-paper-lined cookie sheets and frozen in a single layer before popping all into a gallon freezer bag and using for easy school morning breakfasts for the next couple of weeks. Will's been on a waffle kick over pancakes lately so I LOVE this! It's so easy and healthy. I'm getting ready to whip up another batch for breakfast this coming weekend and do the same thing.

I tried a new slow cooker Sweet and Sour Pork recipe from Robin Miller of Food Network on Sunday evening. Another good use of our CSA potatoes and the kids ate this pretty well. I made tossed salads to go with to finish off our garden tomatoes and use some CSA lettuce. Sophie ate some pumpkin puree mixed with applesauce since she's not a big salad eater and we all had bread and butter.

For Monday (karate night), I had prepped my favorite homemade Mac 'n Cheese recipe from Tyler Florence of Food Network. The sauce is all sharp white cheddar (as a roux) with fresh chopped parsley stirred in.

And then after it's baked, you put on a top layer of sauteed bacon, onion and thyme. Heavenly!! I put the onion & thyme only on one side because I knew Craig wouldn't like it as much.

Sophie and I devoured it, but Will and Craig aren't such fans of this version. I think it's because the cheese tastes more like real cheese and not the unnatural smoothness of fake, liquid cheese. Bummer. It really is amazing.

CSA broccoli on the side.

"Pumpkin Pie-sicles" for dessert! Made with... more butternut squash. Called "pumpkin" because with the pumpkin pie spice added, they taste like frozen pumpkin pie.

Tuesday was Craig's birthday and we did steaks on the grill, salad, corn and ice cream with strawberries. His fave. :)

Okay, I know this is kind of a lot of pasta for one week, but this was another recipe on my want-to-make-soon list from my big fat binder of recipes... and I had so much butternut squash to use! I made it last fall too and loved it. But I planned this for a night Craig was working later because I knew he wouldn't like it and he just ate leftovers of something else.

Spaghetti with Roasted Butternut Squash (from Better Homes & Gardens)

The recipe seems like a lot of garlic, but when it roasts, it's very mild - not overpowering at all. There's also walnuts, pecorino cheese and green onions in it. Deeeelicious!

Again, Sophie was my great eater and loved this meal.

Will ate the pasta but left the squash. ;)

As you might imagine, there were a lot of leftovers from this week's menu so I was taking lots of leftovers for lunch and using them to fill in the remaining dinners for the week.