This Week's CSA and Assorted Other Deliciousness

CSA Share With Tons of Greens

Quiche Made With Chard,
Onions and Spinach

We got the first delivery of the CSA this week.  It included some of the biggest radishes I've ever seen.  In our share we got chard, several types of lettuce, spinach, onions, radishes and bok choy.  I made a quiche with the onions, spinach and chard.

I also made these homemade hamburger buns. They were super easy and, oh my goodness delicious. Right out of the oven, with farm fresh butter from Texas Daily Harvest? Boo-yah, THAT'S what I'm talking about.

Un-freaking-believable Homemade Rolls

For dinner, I filled the rolls with the crockpot Buffalo chicken and served it with a salad made from the fresh lettuce, radishes and onions from the CSA. It was ridiculously easy to make and so good.

Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches and Salad

I might even make some spicy chicken salad with the leftovers or I could make some enchiladas.  Something to ponder.

Comfort Food

Today we got slammed with at least six inches of snow, maybe more. That translates into comfort food.

I made the Whole Foods hamburgers and served them with the organic potato chips. The grill is out of commission, so I baked them instead. They were a hit. There will be leftovers, so either someone can eat hamburgers for lunch this weekend or I can use the beef in something else.

I found out today that the Texas Daily Harvest delivery has been cancelled, so that amount ($41) will go into next week's budget. I'll have to run to the store tomorrow to pick up a few things. No big deal. I'll be way under budget this week. Next week? It's an Urban Acres week, so I'll probably be on the upper end, if not a little over.

Aside from a trip to Colorado in 1995, I haven't seen this much snow since my high school days in Canada. I'm totally over it.

Homemade Organic Pizza Sauce and Pizza

Last week I decided I wanted to try to make my own pizza sauce, instead of using canned or jarred sauce. Plus, I got a lot of little tomatoes in my Urban Acres share. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but decided that if it truly sucked, I could try again.

First I boiled some water, then put the tomatoes (I had sliced an X on the bottom of each one) in for about 20 seconds. The skins came off like butt-ah.



Once the tomatoes were de-skinned (is that word?), I put them in a pot with a diced red onion, garlic, basil, oregano, thyme, about a cup of olive oil, salt and pepper. I didn't really measure, I just threw it all in.


Then I put it on low and let it go. Soon, it became this:

Then, a few hours later it looked like this:


It smelled fantastic! Once it was good and thick, I took my handy dandy immersion blender and did this:


I made pizza dough with my bread maker (which, incidentally, made enough dough for two pizzas). I put the second ball of pizza dough in a baggie with a little bit of olive oil for later use. I figured it would keep for a few days in the refrigerator. My kids love pizza. This is not a problem. Although, I'm sure I could freeze it, too.

I got a pizza stone for Christmas, which was gonna be great. I rolled out the dough, put the toppings on, then dusted the pizza stone with some flour. I put the finished pizza on the stone and put it in the oven. Then I read the directions, which said not to use flour, use cornmeal, since flour can burn. Oops.


The flour problem wasn't a big issue. The pizza wasn't charred and it was gone in 2.2 seconds.

Making Your Meals Work Double Time

This was a quick weeknight dinner this week. I pulled out the trusty crock pot and put 2 pounds of frozen chicken tenders in it, then covered it with several cups of leftover organic soup I made earlier in the week.

I put it on low before I went to bed and it was ready to pop in the refrigerator in the morning. The chicken was super tender and shredded really easily. Later that night I came home and popped the chicken and sauce in the microwave, cooked some brown rice (the quick cooking variety leftover from my days of eating processed foods) and steamed some broccoli from our share. I squeezed some lemon juice on top of the broccoli while it was still in the steamer.

I put everything in bowls, then grated some fresh Texas Daily Harvest parmesan on top and added some hot chili sauce (I left the spicy off of the kids' plates). I also added some soy sauce and ladled some of the soup from the crockpot on top.

It took about 20 minutes to put together and was really very good.

A Quick Weeknight Dinner

This is the quick dinner I put together in about 15 minutes after I got home from work. The dandelion greens and roasted root vegetables were prepared on Sunday night in advance. I chopped up sweet potatoes, carrots and potatoes from our Urban Acres share, marinated them in olive oil, salt, pepper and a splash of balsamic vinegar, then roasted them in the oven until they were golden brown on the outside. Maybe 20-30 minutes?

The salmon was frozen and I put it in a baggie with olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and soy sauce. The salmon marinated while it thawed overnight and during the day while we were at work. When I got home (Stephen was at soccer practice with the kids), I put it in a glass dish and baked it at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes.

While the fish was cooking, I heated up the sides, sliced the banana and the homemade challah bread. (This was the second loaf I made and I'm telling you, it doesn't last but two seconds in our house!)

My daughter thought the greens were too spicy, but she otherwise cleaned her plate.

The picky eater looked at them on his plate like they were from another planet. I did get him to try the potatoes, though, after I told them they were the same as what french fries are made out of. He tried them, but didn't eat more than the bite. He did, however, eat all of his salmon. I was so proud.

A Simple Organic Soup

At my daughter's request, I made soup over the weekend. Soup is really easy to heat and serve during the week.

I never follow a recipe when I make soup. I just use what I have on hand. In this pot I combined fresh produce from my Urban Acres share, a can of organic stewed tomatoes (28 ounces, I think), a can of great northern beans, and 32 ounces of organic chicken stock.

The produce I used included onions, celery, carrots, the stem of the broccoli, and spinach. I added some chopped garlic, garlic and herb seasoning, salt and pepper. I didn't measure, I just threw it all in.

I sauteed the veggies first, then added the canned ingredients and brought everything to a boil. Then I reduced the heat and let it simmer for a while. Maybe 30 minutes. I added about 8 ounces of organic cream from Texas Daily Harvest at the very end.

Then. I pulled out one of my new kitchen gadgets. (Admittedly, I had to google it when writing this post to see what it was actually called because I'm too lazy to walk into the kitchen to look.) It's a Cuisinart Smart Stick Immersion Hand Blender. It sounds way fancier than $25, but it's not.

So I grabbed that Immersion Hand Blender (I can't bring myself to refer to it as a Smart Stick) and beat those vegetables into submission. So much faster than a blender and way easier to clean.

I had some leftover homemade parmesan bread that I sliced, sprayed with cooking spray and then toasted in the oven until they became giant croutons. I added some organic parmesan (from Texas Daily Harvest) and voila, soup with cheese and croutons.

A slightly less sophisticated plate, this is what I served to the kids. There's a salad made with goodies from the share (dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar), as well as some more fresh fruit.

Another quick and easy weeknight meal.

How Our Family Operates

I cut and pasted this from an email I sent my sweet husband earlier today. He is usually in charge of getting dinner started since I get home last. He requires very specific instructions.

"Stephen-

Here is what is for dinner:

· Pork loin steak, in whole foods wrapper, top shelf of refrigerator. Just add some seasoning and either bake it on 350 until it’s done or cook it in a little olive oil in a frying pan.

· Use the steamer to steam broccoli (it’s already chopped and ready to throw in the steamer, in a baggie, bottom left drawer in refrigerator). Put a little lemon juice (bottle in door of refrigerator) and grated romano cheese (plastic sprouts container, top shelf of frig) on top.

· Slice up some pears (on the counter, they should be ripe).

The dogs are out of dog food, so I’ll pick some up on my way home."

He did an awesome job. The pork loin was the most tender thing I've eaten in forever. Stephen chose to bake it and it was delicious. I'm hoping to make it back to Whole Foods before the sale ends. I got it for $2.99 a pound, and the one I bought was slightly less than a pound.

Fabulous, it was, I tell you.

Chicken, Rice and Broccoli Bake

This was basically a free for all. In other words, I sort of followed a recipe for Easy Rice Pilaf, but adjusted to make use of more produce and added chicken to make it a one-dish meal. I used the following ingredients:

• Chicken Broth (2 cups)
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 stalk of broccoli, including stem, diced
• 1 cup of long grain brown rice
• 2 tablespoons organic butter
• 3/4 pound chicken breast tenders
• Seasoning of your choice (rub mix, poultry seasoning, salt, pepper, whatever)

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium high heat. Add the onion and broccoli and cook them until the onions are translucent.

Add the brown rice to the pan and cook until it's light brown:

Add the chicken broth and cook until it comes to a low boil:

Add it all to a small baking dish, place the chicken tenders on top. I put some pepper, sea salt and garlic salt, and Memphis Rib Rub on top of the chicken.

After it is assembled, cover it with foil and bake it in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or until the chicken is cooked.

We added some shredded cheddar cheese after I took this picture. You can add it or not. But, this was really tasty and there were leftovers for Stephen's lunch.

Homemade Chicken Nuggets

I found 100 Days of Real food and have been following her blog. I borrowed her recipe for homemade chicken nuggets and modified it by substituting panko bread crumbs for her whole wheat bread crumbs. I used 1/2 pound of chicken thighs and 3/4 of a pound of chicken cutlets from Whole Foods.





I put the egg in one bowl and the dry ingredients in another. Once the chicken was breaded, I threw them in a frying pan with a little bit of olive oil.

Here's what we ended up with after just a few minutes:

I served these with roasted butternut squash and homemade apple sauce. The kids were very happy with this dinner. It made about 40 nuggets (give or take, this is just an off-the-cuff guess because, honestly, I didn't count them.)

This is a definite do-over.

Stuffed Organic Squash

As part of our Urban Acres share, we got these babies:


Yeah, I didn't know what they were either. According to Urban Acres, they are called Eight Ball and One Ball Squash. Who knew?

I followed the recipe for baked stuff squash they provided with my share and that's what we had for dinner Sunday night. The kids liked the stuffing, but weren't fans of the squash itself. Baby steps, right?

How'd I make it? I cut the squash in half, put them in the baking dish and added some water to the bottom. I baked it covered at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes until they were tender.


While the squash was baking, I rounded up my other ingredients and started chopping. I prepped 2 green bell peppers, 1/4 of an onion, and 1 small One Ball Squash (or whichever one is yellow).


Then, just for fun I looked at what else was in the refrigerator. I pulled out some carrots and this little green pepper I got from one of my colleagues (she is a master gardener). I have no idea what kind it is, but it's awfully cute, don't you think?

I added a little olive oil to a saute pan and let the veggies do their thing. I added a dash of salt and pepper and said to myself, "Self, it needs something else." So, I added some herbs de provence. I don't have a clue what is actually in herbs de provence, but I like to say it out loud. I sound tres magnifique. (My friend who is fluent in french is probably cringing right now.) A few minutes later, I added a dash of soy sauce.

Once the vegetables were done, I cooked some turkey sausage, added back the vegetables and the brown rice remaining in the bag (about 2 cups). I stuffed the squash with the stuffing mixture and voila:

This was a really great way to start the week. Stephen took the leftovers for lunch the next day. This is definitely something I'll make again.