2016 CSA Series – Week 3

2016 CSA Series – Week 3

CSA SERIESWEEK3

Happy Wednesday! I’m happy mostly because I just picked up another box of delicious CSA veggies from Small Family Farm CSA … oh and the fact it was my last full day of work for the week (#score).

It’s a little hard to handle that it’s close to the end of July already! Though I’m going to keep calling it the middle of July until about July 27th or so… 😉

One thing that I’ve been loving this summer is the delicious CSA veggies and all the awesome new recipes we’ve been creating; and we’re not even half way through the season!

If you don’t follow us on Instagram, make sure to head over and check us out! You’ll get to see what we’re doing with the delicious veggies quicker than waiting around here for a comprehensive post. Plus you’ll see more day to day life stuff too.

Instagram is my favorite social media platform; followed by Snapchat. I don’t even have Facebook on my phone anymore and Twitter…oh Twitter, while I “get it”…I don’t get it. So hard to really follow people and see what their up to and honestly I can never say what I want to in 140 characters 🙂 What’s YOUR favorite? Whatever it is, if you have Instagram, we’d love a little extra love over there. ❤

Without boring you to death and without further adieu…. our recipes from our CSA box #3!!! (Check out Week 1 and Week 2 if you missed them).

Here’s what was in box #3:CSA BOX WEEK 3CSA WEEK 3 Veggies

Clockwise(ish): Lettuce, Cucumbers, Collard Greens, Cabbage, Garlic Scapes, Peas, Kohlrabi, Strawberries, Basil, 2 Zucchini & 2 Summer Squash, Fennel Bulb, Eggplant, & Green Onions.

And here are the delicious recipes we made with it all.

Used the Green Cabbage, Kohlrabi & Green Onions:20160710_175655Before the past couple days, We’d been having some absolutely gorgeous summer weather (not too hot or humid) and we took advantage and made some delicious burgers on the grill. There might honestly be nothing better than a grassfed beef burger cooked on a natural charcoal grill enjoyed while sitting outside. ❤ This coleslaw was the perfect fresh veggie side. I didn’t make and use that much “sauce” because I hate goopy and soggy coleslaw but if you find you want more, feel free to do so!20160711_180542

Kohlrabi Cabbage ColeslawUsed the Lettuce & Strawberries:20160709_192847These strawberries! You guysssss, just as good as the last box and so much better than store bought. They were so good. We used them in both the salad it’self and in the dressing! I had a friend over and this salad was a big hit, she even made it for her family the next night she liked it so much! 🙂 20160709_192816Strawberry Salad with Spiced PecansUsed the Fennel:
So don’t judge me but I’m not the biggest fan of fennel, not that I don’t like it per say but it’s just not something that I crave or really enjoy it’s sort of a “just there” vegetable for me. HOWEVER this roasted vegetable recipe (which was adapted from Bon Appétit, mainly because I’m lazy and din’t have some ingredients) is really realllyy good. I’m a sucker for any and all roasted veggies and the olive oil vinegarette and mint leaves pack a flavorful punch for this recipe. Even if you happen to be in the same boat as me and feel a little MEH about fennel, give this one a try! (Side note, it’s good cold the next day too for lunch!) 20160717_190629Roasted Veggies with Lemon & MintUsed the Peas, Summer Squash, Zucchini, Basil & Eggs:20160712_180932I’m sure I’m not the only one with this problem. I LOVE zucchini noodles but my husband? Not so much. Every time he asked what’s for dinner and I say *blank blank* pasta or pasta with *blank* I get “real pasta or the zucchini stuff?” it’s hard to reflect tone in writing but if you could hear it, you’d know he’s not a fan. This is the perfect solution for us! It mixes in spiralized veggie pasta with regular pasta and I’m not even sure he noticed! It helps it stay a little sturdier and not a soggy mess and keeps all members of our household happy.

This recipe in particular is a breeze to whip up and will be a fave. I LOVE LOVE LOVE eggs and loveeee runny eggs, but again my hubby isn’t a huge fan. After eating this even he said that it really adds a special something and makes the dish better! You can cook the eggs to whatever “doneness” you want.  I poached mine for just under 4 minutes and his, almost 6. I get a dozen eggs every other week with my CSA box too so this was a delicious way to use some up!20160712_181106Not a great picture, but couldn’t resist a little gooey egg action 🙂 🙂 Spiralized Pasta with Peas & EggUsed the Garlic Scapes & Cucumbers:
Garlic scapes, those crazy weird delicious veggie. For those that may not know, a garlic scape is the stalk that grows from the bulbs of some varieties of garlic plants. If you were to let them grow, the scapes eventually bloom flowers when the garlic plant fully matures. However, they’re usually harvested before they flower so the garlic plant can channel all its energy into producing the actual garlic bulbs. Garlic scapes taste mild like chives or scallions, but with a distinct garlicky flavor. They’re typically available in late spring and early summer. There are so many things you can do with them but to preserve their unique shape and look I just sauteed them whole and topped these delicious bowls with them.

These bowls. ohhhh these bowls. The recipe makes enough to feed 4+ (depending on how much you serve) and since there’s only two of us, I enjoyed two delicious bowl lunches out of this too. I think it got progressively more delicious with each day.20160714_190756Quinoa Veggie Power Bowl with Garlic Scapes

Used the Collards:20160707_180343This was the first meal I made with the CSA veggies from this box. Holy Moly we started out strong. I can’t even pick a favorite part of this meal. The polenta (grits), the chicken, the collards, the toasted coconut…it was all so damn good.20160707_180125Coconut Lime Grits & Curried Chicken

Used the Eggplant:
Didn’t take a picture but we made this bruschetta and it was as good as I remembered the first time I made it.

WHEW! That’s it. Hope you enjoyed a sneak peek into our summer food life.

xoxo

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2016 CSA Series- Week 2

2016 CSA Series- Week 2

CSA SERIES week 2Soooo I’m a day late this week. That’s allowed right? I just got back from vacation on Beaver Island and this week is all messed up anyway (tell me you guys can’t seem to remember what day it is either).

Last night I picked up our CSA box #3 from Small Family CSA Farm! So it’s time to review what we got in the last box, week #2, and what we did with it all!

If you missed the goodies from week #1, check that out here. And here is the delicious spread of what we got in box 2:20160622_175725Do you know what each item is? See below if you’re not sure. 🙂
CSA WEEK 2 BOX

Since I was on vacation I didn’t spend as much time (OK straight up zero time) photographing what we did with each item. I wanted to relax and unwind and while I love blogging, vacation meant a break from that and thinking about it too! So needless to say, this post will be much less extensive and have much less pictures than box 1 (which maybe you like….? Let me know in the comments below.)

Let’s dig right in.

Romaine and Buttercup:
Primarily used the romaine as sandwich lettuce and as a bread alternative for lunch sandwiches and then one night we also made a big salad with dinner. I love romaine for it’s sturdy and crunchy bottom and yet it still has a soft and smooth top but man that butter lettuce is so delicious and such a nice change up. It’s so buttery and smooth and delicious.

Didn’t do anything earth shattering-ly genius with this. We had a homemade pizza and salad night. It was delicious. We filled the salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, salad turnips, and some green onions.

While some might not think lettuce is the most “exciting” thing in a box, it certainly might be the most delicious. ❤

Salad Turnips:
Again, nothing too crazy, these little guys have a really smooth texture and are super delicious raw. We popped a few, sliced, into our salad and I ate a some as a snack too 🙂

Celeriac Root:I loveeeeee celeriac. And for all of those thinking “hey isn’t it a little early for this in the season?”…yes, it is. This is actually left over from winter. I was so excited that I was a little overwhelmed on what to pick to do with it. Soooo as usual when faced with a multitude of options, I freeze up. And actually that’s what I did with the celeriac too. Blanched it and froze it.

What I did was peel it, and cut it up into reasonable sized chunks (like 2-3 inch cubes) then blanched it. Put your chunks in boiling water for about 3 minutes, then place directly into an ice bath. Then place on a baking sheet and freeze for about 30-60 minutes and then pop in a bag or container (the freezing individually on a sheet first, makes sure that the cubes don’t become just one big frozen chunk). That’s it! Now I can just thaw out when I finally decide what delicious thing I want to make!

This is what I want to try, but just maybe when it’s not 90º + outside.

Green Garlic:
One night we made a chicken veggie curry over rice and used a lot of the the box veggies in that. Curry dishes and stir fry’s are some of my favorite ways to use up a lot of veggies and they’re so easy too! The box veggies we used were the green garlic, zucchini, and green onions. We also threw in some broccoli, peppers, and chicken. Perfect quick and healthy dinner!

Kale:
I was that weird kid who loved Kale. I would beg for it for dinner and my favorite way to eat it was steamed/sauted with some balsamic vinegar. One day I learned we had some growing on our farm, I marched right out there and ate it until I had a belly ache. I still love Kale, cooked or raw and everything in between.

A few years ago when Kale chips became a “thing” I thought, omg I have to try those, I will love them!! Then much to my chagrin, I hated them. Seriously couldn’t even eat more than one. They didn’t taste like Kale and there were a weird texture. I was so sad. But everyone seemed to love them and still rave about them. How could this even be possible? I was a real Kale lover.

Then a friend of mine made some while I was at her house and I tasted it and it was really good. I had to give it another try. I researched and researched and came up with a fool proof way to make delicious and extra crispy chips. The main trick I think is to not have the oven too hot and also to make sure you message each leaf with oil, not just drizzle and toss it. Literally you need to make sure that each piece has oil on the whole thing; every nook and cranny. You don’t need a lot of oil to do this, but it just takes time to make sure you touch and coat each piece.

When I saw Kale in our box I knew I had to make Kale chips as the perfect healthy road trip snack for our vacation! My mom, my sister, and I loved them!
Kale Chip#2Kale Chip #1Cripsy Kale Chip RecipeZucchini:
We had one little baby zuch and used it cut in in our curry/stir fry dish.

Peas:
These were so gorgeous and sooooo fresh tasting I honestly ate them as a road trip snack on our way to the island! They would have been good in our curry too, but I hate them all plain 🙂

Strawberries:
There is positively nothing better than fresh strawberries. The flavor and even smell they have is so amazing and power packed that I makes you wonder what the hell those “strawberries” at the store are. Compared to these fresh ones they only have a slight strawberry taste.

I wish I had something awesome to share but we really just ate these like candy. I topped a piece of bread with almond butter and a few of these sliced up one day but other than that, just ate straight out of the pack.

Green Onions:
My sister and I used to eat these bad boys plain. Good ole fashioned Wisconsin supper clubs and salad bars know what I’m talking about! These bad boys with a little cheese spread…mmmmm so good. But we controlled ourselves and put then in our salad and also in our stir fry dish.

Kohlrabi:
I loveeeee Kohlrabi. We had two from our box and I still had one a friend had given me that she had gotten in her CSA but she doesn’t like them. They are so good just to munch on or in a salad. I’ve been seeing a look of cooked Kohlrabi recipes lately and that definitely is on my list of things to try but this time we just cut them up and used them as chips for guacamole. Seriously they maaaybbee better than regular corn tortilla chips.

Dill:
Dill would be great in our delicious fermented asparagus spears from week one or as we were in the middle of Lake Michigan, it would be delicious with some lemon over some fresh whitefish. That whitefish was our intention but in the spirit of honestly, we tried two days in a row to get some whitefish but they didn’t have any! I would have been fine with the Lake Trout but not everyone in the house was up for that. Sadly this dill went mostly unused except for a little in our tuna salad for lunch one day (that was delicious though!).

So there you have it, another week down. I picked up our week 3 box last night and it was seriously PACKED with great stuff. I have so many fun ideas and recipes planned for it. Make sure to subscribe and check back so you don’t miss it! 🙂

xoxo

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Curried Vegetables w/ Creamy Polenta

Curried Vegetables with Creamy Polenta

DSC_9858pmLately I’ve been feeling a little, blah.

It’s freezing outside, it’s the middle of January, I see approximately 7 minutes of sunlight a day, and the list of BLAH-ness goes on.

I still feel a little sluggish after the holidays and my body is still craving fresh and nutrient dense foods.

My favorite recipes are the ones that aren’t “recipes” at all. You can throw in any ingredients you want and really get creative. Some of my favorite examples of things you can do this with are stir fry’s and curries, although there are many more.

This was inspired by something I saw over at Naturally Ella and threw in whatever I had on hand. It turned out beautiful and delicious! DSC_9864pmI love polenta and really think we should eat it more. Especially when it’s creamy and made with really fresh and delicious pasture butter(my personal fav). It’s so simple to make and is the perfect base for a healthy dish.

There are so many delicious ideas I’ve seen recently. For starters this one, this one, and this one. Soooo good.  DSC_9881pmIt’s also really easy to make. Take a looksies, and make this this week when it’s freezing out and you need a little warming pick me up 🙂 ALWAYSSUMMERDon’t forget you can use any veggies or ingredients your heart desires!! Experiment and have fun, that’s what cooking is all about 🙂

Enjoy!DSC_9866pm

xoxo

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Roasted Brussels Sprouts & Butternut Squash

Chicken Fajita Pizza

Chicken Fajita Pizza

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Helllooooooo fabulous readers!

So can you believe it’s September? I can’t. Although I’m pretty happy about it. Fall is hands down, 1000%, no doubt about it, my favorite season. Today I went for a walk and it was still a nice day (75) but the air was cooler and the breeze was awesome, and it just got me so excited for Fall to come. I’m all prepped for it. I have THESE amazing new boots in brown (thats dad!!!) and I am just pumped for the first day I can wear them! Also have some new scarves and a beautiful jacket (similar). Not to mention some pumpkin recipes 🙂

Jake and I also have our engagement pictures this fall! Sometime in October so we have that to prep and look forward to! Tonight I’m going to Jake’s football game (he’s the coach) and yesterday the regular season football season started (on a bad note for my beloved pack) but none the less all signs point to Fall!!!!!! And I’m loving every minute.

As summer comes to an end you may be drowning in some veggies (hello tomatoes and peppers!!). Here is a great way to use them up. So delicious. Jake loves anything pizza related and I enjoy that you can make so many different varieties.

I modified the recipe to this a bit- feel free to add/change/remove anything you don’t like 🙂

INGREDIENTS:

1 (11 oz) package Pillsbury pizza dough (although I made my own with this. THE BOMB!)
1/2 cup salsa
1/4 cup re-fried beans
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 1/2 cups red, green and yellow sliced peppers or jalapenos depending how much you like heat!
1/4 cup sliced onion
2 cups shredded cheese of your choice
2 tablespoons freshly chopped cilantro, for garnish

DIRECTIONS:

– Heat oven to 400°. Stretch dough to the size of a jelly roll pan. Or follow the directions of the Pizza crust you are using. Once it’s ready to have toppings do the following:

– Mix together the re-fried beans and the salsa in a small bowl and then spread salsa mix over crust as the base.
– Sprinkle 1 cup of the shredded cheese over salsa.
– Top with chicken, bell peppers and onion and then the rest of the cheese.

– Bake according to crust directions or until cheese has melted and pizza is starting to brown around the edges.

– Garnish the pizza with fresh cilantro and some avocado if you’d like.

Sooo good!

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There you have it! Another delicious pizza idea in the never ending world of pizza possibilities! Thank you for stopping by and don’t forget about the awesome giveaway coming up this month on the blog!!

xoxo

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Links:

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Lemony Brussel Sprouts & Corn

Lemony Brussel Sprouts & Corn

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Ingredients:

1 lb brussel sprouts
2 ears of corn, kernels freshly cut off of the cob
3 tbs olive oil, divided
1/2 lemons-worth of juice
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
salt & pepper

Directions:
1. In a large pan heat 1 tbs olive oil over medium-high heat. Cut brussel sprouts in half and add to pan. Sprinkle with lemon juice, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and generous pinches of salt & pepper.

2. Shake and stir to coat, continue to shake every so often, to enable a caramelized sear but not an over-cook on one side.

3. After about 10 minutes (adding more olive oil as needed), when brussel sprouts are browned, soft on the outside, but a bit hard n crunch on the inside, add fresh corn kernels to the pan.

4. Drizzle 1 tbs olive oil over the corn, sprinkle with more salt & pepper and stir & shake to fully mix.

5. Cook altogether for another 5 minutes, until corn is warmed through.

6. Eat it!

Soooo good. I could have eaten just these for dinner that night. This is the first time I made brussle sprouts for Jake and I was a little scared because I mean C’mon brussle spouts have GOT TO BE one of the most hated/feared vegitables on the planet. I love them and have been known the just eat them raw, but word on the street is not toooo many people are huge fans. Hopefully you like them! and if not, maybe give them another shot with this recipe?!?!?

xoxo

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