Farm Meals...

As we wrap up week twelve of our CSA season I thought I should do another update as to how we have been using up our produce from the farm.  We have received some amazing boxes the past three weeks and some amazing meals have resulted!  I can't even begin to express how grateful I am to have found our farmers.  I love them!!  Here's a look at what we have received...

Week 10 - Cilantro, Collard Greens Cucumbers, Garlic, Green Bell Peppers, Jalapeno Peppers, Mixed Bag o’ Tomatoes, Purple Carrots, Sungold Tomatoes, Sweet Corn, Red Onions, Tomatillos, Yellow Watermelon

 

Week 11 - Broccoli, Cucumbers, Curly Parsley, Edamame, Garlic, Green Zucchini, Mini Watermelon, Mixed Bag o’ Tomatoes, Patty Pan Squash, Rainbow Chard, Sungold Tomatoes, Sweet Corn, Sweet Red Peppers, Yellow & Red Onions

Week 12 - Cucumber, Dragon Tongue Beans, Edamame, Garlic, Green Kale, Green Savoy Cabbage, Mixed Bag o’ Tomatoes, Purple, Rosemary, Sungold Tomatoes, Sweet Corn, Sweet White Onions, Yukon Gold Potatoes

The colors are amazing aren't they!!  Every week I get so excited because there is something new to discover.  And every week, there is something that also arrives that just plain overwhelms us...we've had many phases of this feeling this season.  First it was cabbage, then it was cucumbers, now...the tomatoes...SO. MANY. TOMATOES!!  But that's been OK, it has really challenged me to get thinking and not waste anything!  And I am proud to say that we have not thrown anything away!  Here's what we've done with the tomatoes so far...

Tomato and fresh Mozzarella Salad topped w/ fresh basil and drizzled with Sunflower Vinaigrette

This simple tomato salad was awesome with grilled organic grass fed beef burgers...so light and flavorful.  We also put tomato slices on the burgers themselves!   This only used up 2 tomatoes, though.  I needed to find something that would use up a lot more in one recipe.  So we moved on to salsa!  I've never made homemade salsa before but my mom has and shared it with us.  I can remember how fresh it tasted and wanted to try recreating it myself.  I used a recipe from my favorite cookbook Simply in Season as a guide and here is what we came up with!

Colorful, isn't it? I used an entire pint of sun gold tomatoes and three others from our bag 'o tomatoes that we received.  We also used cilantro, red onion, banana peppers, and green peppers...all from the farm!  This salsa was amazing...even the kids loved it!!

 

My husband fell in love with the flavors as well and devoured the entire batch (about 4 cups!) in only a few days.  So we will be making more of this again this week with our fresh box of produce.  

I used the extra basil and parsley we received to make basil pesto.  I used some on a tomato mozzarella panini sandwich that I made for lunch one day and saved the rest in the freezer for a pasta dish later in the fall.  

We had friends over for dinner last week and I put together these amazing veggie plates...using up the purple beans, more sun gold tomatoes, cucumbers and purple carrots.  I love the colors...very fall looking...

Inspired by a friend, I made a veggie stir fry one night and served it over organic jasmine rice.  I used up the broccoli, sweet onion, purple carrots, green cabbage, sweet corn, and edamame in this dish...

Using up the kale, we had sausage with sauteed kale served with potato cheddar pierogi's...this is a dish my mom made for us all the time as kids...minus the kale...it's a quick easy meal...and much more flavorful with my personal touch of added dark leafy greens!

I spoiled myself one morning after the kids went to school and made myself a rainbow chard quiche with sweet onion and garlic for breakfast...oh the goodness...and I served it to myself on our china just for fun...I'm worth it!

We don't always make meals with our farm box food...the past couple weeks we've gotten creative with some of it and tried making a few drinks.  A simple one I love is water infused with cucumber...

We couldn't eat our yellow watermelon fast enough so we blended this into a lemon watermelon smoothie!  We mixed 4 cups of chopped watermelon, 1 pint of good lemon sorbet, about 16 ice cubes, and a splash of water to get it all moving in the blender...this was a heavenly summer treat we sereved to the kids one warm evening we had a cookout! 

Clearly we have been incredibly blessed with amazing healthy food to create amazing healthy meals and treats!  We are so thankful for our farmers and their hard work...we only wish we lived closer to them so we could thank them in person, help work on the farm, or bring them some of our creations to try for themselves!

I would love to hear what everyone else is preparing with their summer produce!  What's been your favorite meal or treat you have made? 

Farm Meals...

As I promised, I am sharing some of the meals I will be making this week from our box of fresh produce from our CSA farm Driftless Organics. Last night was a winner for the meal and for maximizing what's in the fridge!  There were only a few ingredients in the entire dinner that were not a part of our CSA box.  I used the salad greens, broccoli, 3 weeks worth of radishes, red leaf lettuce, and strawberries.  That's five different vegetables and greens in just one meal!!  Plus I added some organic yellow onion so we ate 6 different varieties. Awesome!

For me, one of the hardest veggies to use in cooking from our box is radishes, and we get a lot of them!  Usually, a new bunch for several weeks in a row.  They have a wonderful color and crunch to them, but often come with a serious spicy kick that can linger for quite awhile in your mouth, especially organic ones, because organic anything always has loads more flavor than conventional varieties.  I do not know very many people that love mad amounts of radish in anything.  My kids won't eat them raw, the flavor is a little too much for their tender tongues.  So I decided to try something new and slice them up and saute them with caramelized onions...which everyone in this house will eat if I do them "just right."

I love the beautiful color in radishes...the deep pinks are so stunning and vibrant!  This radish preparation was a huge success!  All I did was slice the onions and radishes thinly and sauteed them in 1 tbs olive oil and 1 tbs butter (from grass fed cows), until caramelized.  My sweet husband grilled a beautiful barbecued pork tenderloin to pair with this.  However, the barbecue sauce he chose was super spicy so I improvised quickly and we turned this into a lettuce wrap meal, using the red leaf lettuce to cool down our mouths as we ate the pork!  Here it is...

Pork tenderloin lettuce wraps w/ caramelized onion and radish, steamed broccoli, and salad greens.

To round off this beautiful summer supper and to welcome both my husband and oldest daughter home from their 7 day absence I also made a gorgeous strawberry pie as a special treat using the strawberries from our farm box.  I am trying very hard to eliminate all packaged, pre-made foods from our diet and attempted a made-from-scratch pie crust instead of a store bought one.  The kitchen was too warm yesterday so it ended up being a flop but I had an extra one in the fridge waiting to be used up.  I will definitely try this again, though.  The pie recipe I used is a new one for me that does not use any Jello or boxed gelatin, which contain food dyes and extra sugar, as the pie base.  This recipe, from my favorite cookbook, Simply in Season, uses fresh strawberries mashed and cooked with sugar and cornstarch, which is used as the base thickener.  I LOVED it!  So much more flavorful and sweet...and healthier!

And of course, what is a homemade pie without homemade whipped cream flavored with a touch of vanilla??

So there you have it!  This is by far one of my favorite meals we have had in awhile.  It was so fresh, filling and healthy!  And it made my husband smile and sigh with contentment, which melts my heart!

Strawberry Pie
 From Simply in Season Cookbook 

1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
Blend in a saucepan

1 cup strawberries, mashed
1/2 orange juice or water
Add and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir for 1 minute. Remove from heat.

2 tablespoons lemon juice
Stir in and cool.

4-6 cups of whole strawberries (I halved some the of giant ones)
9 inch baked pastry shell, graham cracker crust, or shortbread tart crust
When cooked fruit is cool, gently fold in additional strawberries and pour into crust. Chill for 3 hours. 

Farm Meals...Day Three

There was a specific smell coming out of my refrigerator this morning that was making everyone in the house cringe. I soon realized it was the broccoli we had gotten from our farm share a few days ago. When ever I have broccoli, I always wait to use it and always end up with a smelly fridge. Mental note...use your broccoli the day you bring it into the house!!

The broccoli was still good...it just wanted to remind me it was still uneaten in there! So for lunch I made this...

Broccoli Gratin with brown rice and spelt breadcrumbs

One of the best things I do and highly recommend is prepping everything you need for your meal before you start to cook it. It may take a few minutes longer, but man does it make a difference! Having all your ingredients ready before you start cooking can save you from burning it, messing up, and lots of stress as you try to manage it all at once. And if it looks organized and pretty, it will be more fun to cook!

See??

As you can see, there are a ton of veggies in this dish. I used eggplant, yellow squash, zucchini, red pepper and spinach. And you can mix and match! Just because you don't have an ingredient called for in a recipe doesn't mean you can't make it at the last minute! Just find something else to substitute it with. Use the recipe as a guide. You don't always have to have it all perfect and followed to a tee. So here's the finished product...

Grilled vegetables with cheese tortellini...

This recipe is fabulous for summer! If you have a lot of veggies to use up this is a sure winner! Click the link above, make it, and tell me what you think!

Farm Share Meals...Day One and Two...

We have had some pretty amazing meals the last 24 hours using some of the greens and vegetables from our farm share! I am always amazed at the taste difference between organics and conventionally grown foods. I can't even describe how different they are. Switching our food to all organic has been an awesome experience. The burst of flavor and texture you receive in your mouth is definitely worth any extra expense (not to mention the fact that you are eating chemical and hormone free foods). So what did we eat??

This was dinner last night...

Sauteed kale and yellow squash tossed with soba noodles and marinara sauce, topped with grated parmesan cheese...

And lunch today...

Toasted tomato sandwiches on sprouted grain bread with salad greens topped with yellow squash...

And for dinner today...

Open-faced burger topped with raw sharp cheddar cheese and sprouts with green pepper and carrot "fries"...

We are seriously enjoying this farm food. The fresh and light fare has been perfect for our warm summer days. The more I have produce in the house, the better I get at using it up. I am finding that the more I eat, the more I want, and the more creative I get at making our meals!! It's been a learning experience for sure, but with a little practice I have been creating exciting new meals each week!

And here's a little eye candy for you to drool over until my next meal post highlighting vegetables...this was an experiment last night I tried from a raw food recipe book I recently purchased on one of our vacations this summer.

Key Lime Bars..."ice cream" made from raw cashews, juice from limes, and agave nectar. Of course it was topped with homemade raw cacao syrup (amazing!). Not exactly anything from the farm share, but I thought I would share anyways!

Bounty...

I've written before about how much I L.O.V.E my farm share. Last winter, my husband and I made the investment and bought a share at a local organic farm. From June until October we get a share of the crop each week. It's been fantastic! Just look at the beauty we received yesterday at our pick up...

There are a ton of greens in here....kale, salad greens, swiss chard, spinach, and basil! We also received eggplant, tomatoes, scallions, patty pan squash, zucchini, cucumber, yellow squash, hot peppers, orange and white carrots, purple cabbage, pickling cucumbers, broccoli, and green pepper.

So what does one do with all this produce? You are not alone if you come home from the store or the farmers market with produce and then let it go bad in the refrigerator because you just aren't quite sure what to do! This week I will share with you all the creations I come up with and show you how to make the most out of all those vegetables! With a little bit of planning, you can have fabulous meals all week long that are delicious as well as nutritious! I will be posting often so be sure to check back often! It will be a fun week sharing with you how I feed my family each day!

And here's a peek from dinner last night...

African Pineapple Peanut Stew (using the swiss chard) served over brown rice

Click on the link above for the recipe. I added lean ground turkey for added protein. Try it! It may not look all that appealing, but it's fantastic, and filling!