Live. Laugh. Love.: What's For Dinner? October Weeks 1&2

{Week of September 29 - October 5}

CSA bag:

Contents: 2 big heads of lettuce, a head of cabbage, 4 sweet corn ears, a red pepper, and onion, a pint of grape tomatoes, a bag of potatoes and Concord grapes for our fruit.

On the menu this week:

1) cabbage roll casserole

2) tacos

3) big salads with chicken strips

4) BLT's

5) homemade granola

Mmm. The granola was soooo good. Definitely need to do this more often. We served it on top of yogurt, pumpkin pancakes, and ate it as cereal and just a snack.

Recipe (from The Mom 100 Cookbook, recommended by the Weelicious lady, Catherine McCord):

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

2 large egg whites

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp kosher or coarse salt

1/2 tsp grated orange zest

4 cups old-fashioned oats (not quick-cooking)

1 cup chopped unsalted nuts, such as walnuts, pecans, pistachios, cashews or almonds

2 cups mixed chopped dried fruit, such as apricots or prunes, and/or dried cherries, blueberries, cranberries, and raisins

-Preheat oven to 275.

-Place the honey, syrup, egg whites, oil, vanilla, cinnamon, salt, and orange zest, if using in a large bowl and mix until well blended. Set 1/2 cup of the honey mixture aside in a medium-size bowl. Add the oats and nuts to the large bowl and mix with a spoon or your hands until everything is well combined and coated.

-Add the dried fruit to the reserved 1/2 cup of the honey mixture and stir to combine. Set the dried fruit mixture aside.

-Spray a rimmed baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Spread the oat mixture out on the prepared baking sheet in a thin, even layer. Bake the oat mixture for 30 minutes.

-Add the dried fruit mixture to the oat mixture and stir well with a spoon or spatula to combine. Spread the granola out again in an even layer. Bake the granola until the oats are golden brown and crunchy, 40-45 minutes, stirring it once more halfway through the baking time but leave some clumps! Let the granola cool on the baking sheet on a wire rack.

{Week of October 6-12}

CSA bag:

Contents: more lettuce, a bunch of cilantro, beets, leeks, radishes, potatoes, tomatoes, hot peppers and a bag of apples for our fruit. This was also our final bread week of the season. We got a roasted red pepper and garlic focaccia, a spelt sandwich loaf, and a "snail" bread with cranberries, citrus and cinnamon.

On the menu this week:

1) pumpkin waffles served with apples and granola for weekend breakfast

2) chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese

3) an awesome new recipe from the Dinner: A Love Story cookbook: baked sausage with apples, potatoes and onions... So perfectly, seasonally delicious, easy and well-received! Served with a dollop of whole grain or Dijon mustard and a slice of spelt bread with butter. YUMMMM!

Recipe:

-Preheat oven to 425. Combine 3 cups whole small potatoes (I just cut regular baking potatoes into chunks) and 1 onion, chopped in large chunks, in a large baking dish and toss with 1 tablespoon olive oil, the leaves from 4 sprigs of thyme, salt and pepper.

-Place 4 sweet Italian pork sausages on top of vegetables. Bake uncovered for 45 minutes, until sausage is brown on top. using tongs, flip over the sausages and bake for 10 minutes more.

-Meanwhile, chop 2 Granny Smith apples (unpeeled), and toss with a little more olive oil, salt and pepper. Scatter the apples around the sausage, drizzle 2 tablespoons cider vinegar over the whole dish, and bake for 5 more minutes. Serve with dollops of spicy brown or Dijon mustard.

You see? Just rough chopping a few things into chunks on 1 cutting board, put into 1 pan and combined with oil right in the pan. So it's low maintenance with dishes AND effort. And we LOVED it!