Quick Fix

Well, it's no secret I've been slacking on trying out/sharing recipes lately.  I am struggling a little bit with the timing of the CSA pick up.  It's really not a big deal, but previously, I would go through magazines and cookbooks on Sunday, see what looks good and make a grocery list/meal plan based on my findings.  Now we get the mystery box on Tuesday afternoon and every week I say "I have to make a plan and go shopping on Tuesday or Wednesday" and I don't.  So far though, it hasn't mattered.  We almost always have rice, pasta, or some other grain on hand.  Meat is usually cheaper when you buy in bulk so we've had that on hand.  With a big o'll box of veg we've been doing just fine....but I haven't been trying out recipes.  So here are some of what we have been eating.  These don't require a recipe so see what you think~

This is a sampling of this week's box.  We're just getting started on it, but there are plenty of uses for leafy greens and root vegetables.

This salad rocked.  A meal in itself, it contained three types of lettuce, leftover grilled chicken, fresh cilantro, a little corn, a few black beans, some avocado, shredded cheddar, tomatoes and a few tortilla chips in there for crunch.  It was dressed with a little bottled taco sauce and a dollop of lite sour cream, garnished with chives.  Totally satisfying, no cooking involved (except for the chicken cooked a day or two before).  The kids love this too.  Don't be afraid to offer a "big salad" to the kids for dinner.

Here we have fried rice.  We had a bunch of steamed rice left over from the fabulous 40th birthday party Nelsy had for me (we had really good Thai and Laotion food).  Fried rice works best when the rice is leftover so if you have time some evening, cook up some rice and throw it in the fridge when its cooled to use another day.  In this dish we used the napa cabbage, scallions, carrots and spinach.  There is also some broccoli, bean sprouts and egg in there.  Use a little soy sauce or Hoisin sauce to season it with.  Oh, there's pork loin leftovers in there too!  Again, using leftover meat and fresh veg for a quick fix.

Top with a little Sriracha and you got yourself a really tasty, quick meal.  This stuff is pretty spicy but I'm hooked on it.

Next we have what Nelsy and I call "High Pasta", which was a menu item at one of our favorite brew pubs in Eugene, OR.  It's been so long since we had it at the High Street Brewery and Cafe that I can't remember exactly how they did it, but this is our version.  Cook up some pasta of your choice, toss with a few spoons of pesto (Remember when I advised you to make some with that extra basil and freeze it?  That would be handy now).  Then you toss it with a huge pile of fresh spinach (because a big pile wilts down to next to nothing!) and I like to add black beans too.  Then you top it with fresh chopped tomatoes, shredded parm, fresh basil and a few toasted pine nuts.  That whole meal takes about 12 minutes to make.  Not too shabby.

This week we had a few things that we had never cooked before.  Those white ones are called salad turnips and the purple thing is kohlrabi. 

We peeled and chopped the kohlrabi along with a large carrot, a small potato and and a little onion.

We tossed it with a little olive oil, some fresh chopped thyme and salt and pepper.  It was really good and the house smelled awesome.

We had it with grilled steak and salad.  The white bits on the salad were the turnips, raw.  They were pretty good! Phoebe was really into them.  I'll have to do some research to see how else we can use them.  I was going to end with a potato salad I made the other night but I think I may have over loaded you already.  So instead, I leave you with this bit of wisdom from the cap of a Magic Hat I had the other night:

Those people at Magic Hat are just full of sound advice.  Cheers!