Archive | February, 2013

Spring CSA – Week 2

28 Feb

The first week of our CSA was awesome! I was really excited to figure out what to do with our produce box. It was especially fun because I had a couple things I’d never cooked with before, like beets and collards.

Green Smoothie... delicious!This week is a little more of a challenge — the box is almost entirely greens. This is pretty typical for CSAs in the spring, since greens are what’s in season. But I generally don’t eat much or cook much greens, and if I do, it’s mainly just spinach. The first step was asking a coworker to help me identify what was what in my box! The next step was figuring out meals. I figured I’d be doing a lot of salads, soups, sauteed greens, and maybe a new version of a green smoothie. I think the only thing I had cooked with before was the bok choy and the lettuce, so another challenge!

In the end, I ended up eating out a lot this week. My goal is to cook more next week!

What’s in my CSA box this week?

1/2 lb of Turnip Greens (O)
1 Butterhead Lettuce (O)
1.3 lbs of Rutabagas (O)
1 bunch of Bok Choy (S)
1 oz of Curly Parsley (O)
1 bunch of Mustard Greens (O)
1 kohlrabi (my coworker shared from her box!)

(O=Certified Organic. S=Sustainably Grown)

What we made:

Day 1

Delicious stir fry! Rutabaga, kohlrabi, and last week’s carrot chopped into matchsticks; baby bok choy and last week’s cabbage; two fried eggs; soy and oyster sauce; brown rice.

Day 2

Green smoothie, this time with turnip greens instead of kale.

I sauteed some mustard greens and mixed it with rice and leftover carrot/potato soup that a friend made. The soup was amazing. But it turns out, I DO NOT like mustard greens. I picked them all out and enjoyed the soup.

[Worked late and picked up some fast food on the way home.]

Day 3

Green smoothie. I mixed in a bit of parsley along with the turnip greens.

[Ordered out with my coworkers.]

[Dinner with friends.]

Day 4

[Slept late and skipped breakfast. Definitely should have had a smoothie.]

[Brunch out with friends.]

[Dinner out with my family.]

Day 5

Green smoothie.

[Leftovers]

Mashed rutabagas and a green salad with barbecue pork chops.

Day 6 -Mon

Green smoothie with rutabaga leaves.

[Leftovers] I did add a chopped tomato from last week to an avocado to make up some guacamole.

[Out to eat to use a Groupon that was about to expire.]

Day 7

Green smoothie with rutabaga leaves, turnip greens, and a bit of parsley.

Leftover stir fry.

Leftover mashed rutabagas and pork chops.

Day 8

[Leftover pasta for breakfast]

Green smoothie for lunch.

See? WAY TOO MUCH eating out. I did have a whole lot of green smoothies though. Next week will be better!

Garlic Mashed Rutabagas

25 Feb

We got rutabagas in our CSA this week. Having never seen one before, I had to do a bit of research. Here’s what I found:

Rutabaga!

  • It’s a cross between a turnip and a cabbage. In English-speaking countries outside of North America, it’s more commonly referred to as a “Swedish turnip.”
  • It’s in the brassica family, so it’s related to turnips, cabbage, kale, cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts, etc. Rutabagas have loads of nutritional value.
  • You can eat any part of the rutabaga! Some ideas: The root/bulb and stems can be sliced and diced and added to a stir fry. The bulb can be mashed like mashed potatoes. The leaves can be cooked like any greens, sauteed and added to pastas or soups, or used raw in green smoothies.
  • Pretty much anything you’d do to a potato or sweet potato, you can do to the rutabaga bulb. It’s like a healthier, more nutrient-rich, less-starchy, delicious version of potato.

For dinner, we decided to try garlic mashed rutabagas. The BF and I spent a considerable amount of time shouting “rutabaga!” while cooking. It just is a necessary part of cooking a veggie with such a weird name.

Mash 'em up

I thought it was delicious. It tastes so much like the butter and garlic I added, I really didn’t think it was all that different from mashed potatoes. Give this a try! Even if you still include the unhealthy dairy mixed into it, rutabagas are still way healthier than potatoes. They have about 36 calories and 8 grams of carbs, compared 77 calories and 18 grams of carbs in a white potato. I added some plain Greek yogurt to make it a little creamier. That allowed me to reduce the amount of milk and butter.

Smashed

They’re a little more yellow than potatoes. I like ’em smashed, not mashed. Or shmashed. Whichever. We had garlic mashed rutabagas with barbecue pork chops and a green salad. Yum-o! (And just for the record, I did eat more salad than what’s pictured here. Gotta get your veggies!)

Dinner's ready!

Garlic Mashed Rutabagas, with inspiration from Paula Deen

My sincere apologies that this isn’t a real recipe. I didn’t measure anything! Here’s my recommendation: take your favorite mashed potato recipe, and follow that, subbing rutabagas for the white potatoes. It’s that simple.

2 rutabagas, peeled and cut into 1-2″ chunks
2 cloves garlic, minced
plain Greek yogurt
milk
butter
salt & pepper

Peel the rutabagas and cut them into small chunks. Place in a large pot and cover completely with water. Add a few dashes of salt. Bring to a rapid boil, and then simmer 35-40 minutes until tender.

Drain the rutabagas. While they’re draining, add the garlic and a little butter to the pot. Heat over medium or medium-low until you can smell the garlic, 3-4 minutes. Reduce heat to low.

Return rutabagas to the pot and smash with a fork or potato masher. Add a spoonful of plain Greek yogurt and a splash of milk. Mix well. Add butter to taste, and/or serve with a pat of butter on top.

Linking up with:

YOLO Mondays from Still Being Molly and Lipgloss and Crayons
Monday Meet Ups from Covered in Grace
Market Yourself Monday from Sumo’s Sweet Stuff
Your Great Idea Link Party from Or So She Says
Time for a Party from Fine Craft Guild
Make Something Monday from Sarahndipities
Made by you Monday from Skip to my Lou

Spring CSA – Week 1

20 Feb

The BF and I just started a spring CSA. I’m super excited to get a delivery of fresh veggies each week. Our CSA runs for 9 weeks, so my plan is to post once a week about what we got and what I made. (Just fyi, day 1 and day 8 overlap each week — Day 8 is breakfast and lunch, and then Day 1 would be what I make for dinner that same night after receiving the new delivery that afternoon.)

So first, some FAQs.

What’s a CSA?

Community-Supported Agriculture looks different in every town, but for the most part, they work like this: You pay a subscription fee up front to a local farm. Then for a certain number of weeks, the farm gives you a box of produce, containing whatever was harvested that week. Each week the box looks a little different, though it’s fairly easy to guess what types of foods you’re going to receive if you know a little about seasonal produce in your area. (Hint: spring means greens. Lots of  ’em.) Most CSAs use organic and sustainable farming techniques. Read more at LocalHarvest.org about the benefits of CSAs for both farmer and consumer.

Where is your CSA subscription? 

Our subscription is with the Community Nutrition Partnership, a nonprofit in North Carolina that aims to provide fresh, healthy produce to families of all income levels. Unlike a traditional CSA with a local farm, going through a nonprofit means that our subscription also pays for TWO needy families to have their own subscription. Also, if people forget to pick up their CSA one week, instead of going back to the farm to rot, that box will be delivered to a local family in need. Also, they deliver. Awesome perk.

How can I find a CSA for me?

Check out the interactive map at LocalHarvest.org to find a CSA in your area.

What’s in my CSA box this week?

1 bunch of Collard Greens (O)
1 head of Cabbage (O)
1 lbs of Carrots (S)
2 Apples (O)
1 lb of Sunburst Tomatoes (O)
1 bunch of Kale (O)

For this week only, I also received extras as a thank you for getting a few coworkers to sign up:
more greens (kale and other mixed greens)
2 extra tomatoes
1 bunch of beets

(O=Certified Organic. S=Sustainably Grown)

What we made:

Day 1

Pasta! We sauteed some of the collards and 2 tomatoes in rosemary and olive oil. We added spaghetti noodles and jarred tomato sauce to complete the pasta, and served it with hunks of baguette and a couple eggplant cutlets from Trader Joe’s on the side.

Day 2 

Breakfast smoothie! I added two kale leaves to my fruit smoothie. And since it was Valentine’s Day, I added 3 or 4 beet leaves to make it pink. With bananas, vanilla yogurt, and orange juice, it was delicious (just tastes like fruit) and healthy.

I sauteed some more collards, this time in garlic grapeseed oil. I took them to work and mixed them into some leftover Indian chickpea soup with that I got from Sandwhich. Served over white rice that I pre-cooked, my leftover soup became a delicious curry dish.

For Valentine’s Day, the BF and I decided to play it chill and spend some time together at home. I made a cabbage and carrot slaw (shredded cabbage, matchstick carrots, juice of 1 clementine, a bit of garlic grapeseed oil, salt, and pepper) that we enjoyed as a healthy side dish to the Papa John’s pizza we ordered. Then we settled in for a marathon of The Wire — we’re halfway through season 1!

Day 3

Apple and peanut butter for breakfast.

Some more cabbage and carrot slaw with leftover pizza.

Delicious kale and bean soup with a hunk of baguette.

Day 4

Green Smoothie... delicious!

A green smoothie! Kale, orange-peach-mango juice, banana, frozen pineapple, and blueberry yogurt. Yum!

[Lunch out at Moe’s]

[Mac & cheese and popcorn for dinner. Terrible, I know.]

Day 5

A green smoothie before hitting the road to Asheville, NC!

[Lunch at Salsa’s in Asheville]

[Dinner at Tupelo Honey in Asheville]

Day 6

[Tea for breakfast]

[Lunch at 12 Bones in Asheville]

Bowl of leftover kale and bean soup for a late dinner.

Day 7Kale &  bean soup

Green smoothie! Not even getting tired of these.

[Lunch: leftover Moe’s]

Bowl of leftover kale and bean soup for dinner. Plus I made a salad with greens, beets, walnuts, and fried goat cheese. The goat cheese was the best part (duh).

Day 8

Apple with peanut butter for breakfast.

I didn’t have time to put anything together, so I just had leftover beets for lunch, added to a random hodgepodge of snacks to make a meal.

Leftovers:

I had 3 collard green leaves leftover that I’ll just throw out — they’re pretty limp.

I have half a head of cabbage that I’ll save a little bit longer and try to find something for them. And I have 2 carrots and a tomato that will keep a while longer too. Maybe a stir fry? I hear we’re getting bok choy next! Another pasta? We’ll see…

Resolutions in Motion

19 Feb

The final tally…

Goal 1: Cook at home most nights of the week.

I achieved this goal for 3 out of 6 weeks. 50%? Yikes. But the good news is, now that I’ve started a spring CSA, I’m doing much better.

Goal 2: Have a max of 4 non-water drinks per week.

I achieved this goal 5 out of 6 weeks. Success!

Goal 3: Practice yoga once a week and take a walk at least once a week.

Between not achieving this goal some weeks or doing a walk but not yoga or yoga but not a walk, I’d guess I achieved this goal about 50% of the time. Not so great.

So now what? Resolutions in Motion

Overall, I’m thinking maybe I’m not so much a resolution person. I mean, I’m blogging about this to the world and linking up with other blogs, and the public accountability just didn’t do its job. Maybe the problem is that writing FAIL on my blog is big capital letters just isn’t enough of a deterrent to make me get up off my butt and go to yoga or cook dinner. Sorry, y’all. I just don’t care if you know that I failed at my resolutions.

But I do care that I failed because I set these goals for a reason. So I need to find other strategies that are going to help me stick to my goals.

Goal #1: I need to up my game when it comes to advance prep. I just am not going to plan, shop, and cook for a meal after a long day at work. It’s not going to happen. Our new CSA is really helping so far. Instead of starting from scratch, which is really hard for me, I can start with a list of ingredients I know I need to use and go from there. Then it’s like a fun puzzle. I also need to get back into meal planning and cooking on the weekends.

Goal #2: This one works. I think it’s easier for me to just say no to something for the sake of a resolution. I mean, really, it’s a split-second decision, and I can remind myself that I’ve hit my limit, and that’s it. A little easier than convincing myself to get up and spend an hour exercising or cooking dinner. So I’m just going to stick with this goal from here on out.

Goal #3: As for walking, the biggest issue is the weather. Maybe I can look into a community center during the cold months — I know the gym at UNC had a walking track inside. Otherwise, I know that if I just hold out a few more weeks, I’ll start walking again. I don’t mind blistering heat, so I can make it through the summer, but I can’t stand cold, so I’m just not sure this is ever going to happen in the winter. As for yoga, I just need to remind myself in that moment that as much as I don’t want to get up and go, I’ll be so glad I did when it’s over. A friend said that to me last week, and she was so right. I always enjoy yoga, but I never want to go to it. Weird. So instead of thinking about the next 10 minutes, I’ll think about an hour from now, and how great I’ll feel after finishing practice.

That’s it! Even though I won’t be blogging about these any longer, I’m going to keep my resolutions. Maybe I’ll post a random update on how it’s going. I hope all your resolutions are going well!

I’m joining the final Resolutions in Motion link-up! Check out the link-up and giveaway at any of the host pagesShaping Up to Be a MomCovered in GraceRamblings of a Southern Belle, and Craftbotic

Kale & White Bean Soup

18 Feb

I was a little skeptical about a kale soup. It sounded just a little too… healthy. But I ended up loving this.

Each week when we receive our CSA, the nonprofit who provides it highlights an ingredient and a recipe for that ingredient. This week was kale, which I found out is rich in antioxidants and vitamins K, A, and C.

Since I had a ton of greens (it’s that time of year!), I decided to go ahead and try out the kale and white bean soup recipe that the CSA people shared with us. I followed the instructions but halved the amount.

Kale & Bean Soup

I thought it was a very delicious soup, especially when I dipped a hunk of baguette in it. It has a vegetable Italian -ish flavor, maybe kind of like a minestrone. And it didn’t occur to me until after I made it, but this dish is both vegan and gluten-free, so if you have dietary restrictions, this is a great option. Though if you want to substitute chicken broth for the vegetable broth, you certainly could.

I added in a tablespoon of flax seed, which adds fiber and serves as a thickener. It’s not necessary though, so if you’re not into it, just leave it out.

The recipe called for white beans, and had I planned on making a trip to the grocery store, I probably would have used white beans, Great Northern, cannelini, or something like that. But since I had everything else and didn’t want to go out, I just substituted garbanzo beans (chickpeas). You can use whatever variety of beans you prefer.

I had a big bowl of it for dinner, and there’s probably enough left for 2 or 3 more bowls.

Buon appetito!

Buon appetito!

Kale & White Bean Soup from Community Nutrition Partnership

1/2 Tablespoon olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cups kale, chopped
2 cups vegetable stock
1 can white beans
2 tomatoes, diced
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 Tablespoon flax seed (optional)
salt and pepper, to taste

Heat oil in a large stock pot. Add garlic and onion; saute until fragrant. Add kale and stir frequently until wilted.

Add about half the broth and half the beans. Also add all of the tomatoes, seasoning, salt and pepper. Simmer 5 minutes.

Meanwhile,  use a blender, food processor, or fork to mix the remaining broth and beans until smooth. Stir into soup to thicken. Simmer 15 minutes. Serve hot.

Linking up with:

YOLO Mondays from Still Being Molly and Lipgloss and Crayons
Monday Meet Ups from Covered in Grace
Market Yourself Monday from Sumo’s Sweet Stuff
Your Great Idea Link Party from Or So She Says

Resolutions, Week 5

12 Feb

Week 5 report…

Resolutions, Week 4Goal 1: Cook at home most nights of the week: FAIL

Complete fail. But we’re starting a spring CSA tomorrow, so I’m going to have to start cooking. I’ll have a load of fresh produce sitting in my kitchen. Tomorrow I’m going to get the first delivery of my weekly box from the Community Nutrition Partnership. This week, we’ll receive 1 bunch of Collard Greens, 1 head of Cabbage, 1 lbs of Carrots, 2 Apples, 1 lb of Sunburst Tomatoes, and 1 bunch of Kale. I don’t eat many greens other than spinach, and I’ve never been a fan of collards, cabbage, or kale, so we’ll see how this goes. I’m thinking of making a kale and white bean soup or maybe some green smoothies.

Goal 2: Have a max of 4 non-water drinks per week: SUCCESS

I’m pretty certain it’s just 4. Could have been 5, but I think just 4.

Goal 3: Practice yoga once a week and take a walk at least once a week: HALF SUCCESS

I didn’t walk at all — the weather was bad. I did make it to yoga though, which I’m particularly proud of because I was reallllly feeling like sitting on the couch and watching a movie that day.

Don’t forget to check out the hosts of Resolutions in Motion: Shaping Up to Be a Mom, Covered in Grace, Ramblings of a Southern Belle, and Craftbotic. Visit any of their pages to link up your resolutions post.

Alfajores

11 Feb

Last month was my turn to host book club. I chose Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende, which a friend recommended. I loved it! It was the last book I read in 2012, and it was a great way to end my literary year. If you’ve never read any of her work, check it out.

For the club meeting, I wanted to prepare food that fit the theme of the book. Allende is Chilean, and the main character in this book, Eliza, is also. After some research, I come up with two dishes: empanadas and alfajores. I balanced it out with chips, guacamole, and a few other snacks.

Alfajores are traditional cookies in Spain and many Latin American countries. This particular version I found online as ‘authentic Chilean.’ I prepared them the day of our meeting, and they were amazing! It’s pretty simple…

Make some thin, slightly crunchy, round sugar cookies.

Cookie

Make some gooey, caramelly dulce de leche, kind of to the texture of taffy.

Dulce de Leche

Smush them together into a sandwich.

Sandwich

Dust them with a bit of confectioners sugar.

Dust

Serve. Mmm…

Serve

Alfajores adapted from Mummy’s Busy World

1/4 cup  and 3 tbsp butter, room temperature
1/4 cup and 3 tbsp sugar
3/4 cup and 3 tbsp of flour
1 egg
Powdered sugar for dusting
1 can of sweetened condensed milk

Cookie:

Beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the egg and flour, and mix until incorporated. Once combined, divide into two. Form each into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and freeze for 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Flour the surface of your work space and roll one section of the dough out very thinly — about 1/8″. Cut with a round cookie cutter and place on prepared baking sheet.

Bake for about 12 minutes or until edges get slightly brown.

Dulce de leche (adapted from CFE)

Most dulce de leche recipes call for boiling a can of condensed milk for a few hours. I decided to try a different route — one that wouldn’t take as long and seemed safer than risking an exploding can. Still, be very careful with this method. The candy gets hot enough to burn and really sticky.

Pour the sweetened condensed milk into a large mixing bowl. Microwave at medium heat for 2 minutes. Remove and stir with a whisk.

Continue microwaving on two-minute intervals until the dulce de leche has a taffy-like texture after whisking.

Assembly:

Once the cookies have cooled, form the dulce de leche into small coin-sized pieces. Sandwich the dulce de leche between two cookies. Use a fine-mesh sieve to sprinkle a dusting of confectioners sugar on top of each cookie. Serve.

Alfajores

Linking up with:

YOLO Mondays from Still Being Molly and Lipgloss and Crayons
Monday Meet Ups from Covered in Grace
Market Yourself Monday from Sumo’s Sweet Stuff

Resolutions, Week 4

5 Feb

Wow, I can’t believe it’s week 4 already! Here’s the round up:

Goal 1: Cook at home most nights of the week: FAIL

We had some Groupons to use before they expired, we went out of town, and the BF treated me to dinner a couple times to make up for working so much lately. C’est la vie.

Goal 2: Have a max of 4 non-water drinks per week: SUCCESS!

Woo hoo, two weeks in a row of success! I noticed myself over the weekend thinking, ‘Oh crap, this is my 4th drink, this is it, no more until Tuesday…’ And then on Sunday skipping the Coke for dinner and on Monday skipping the coffee shop. All of which is EXACTLY what I’m supposed to be doing when I set a goal for myself. So… win!

Goal 3: Practice yoga once a week and take a walk at least once a week: SUCCESS!

After several weeks of either failing to meet this resolution or only kinda meeting it, this one is finally a complete, unquestionable success. I walked for 3.63 miles last Tuesday when we had a gorgeous, 70-degree, sunny day. And I went back to yoga Sunday night for an awesome yoga practice.

One struggle I’ve had with exercise over the years — aside from being a diva about the weather — is that I get bored easily. I would cut my walking sessions (or elliptical machine sessions, when I used to go to a gym) short because I was bored, and my mind would either wander, or worse, focus in on how miserable I was working out. Music wasn’t enough. I tried to read when I used machines, but it was hard to concentrate with so much going on around me. Then I found podcasts, and problem solved. My favorites are This American Life and Radio Lab, both of which I can download through iTunes for free. They’re usually an hour long, which is the perfect length for a walk, and I’m so wrapped up in the story, that I don’t think about my legs hurting or being cold or whatever. It’s great.

So when exercise is too easy for me, I get bored, but when it’s too hard, I just want to give up. That’s why yoga is such a great form of exercise for me. The guiding principle is to do what you need to do when you need to do it. If I’m really feeling it and I want to push myself, I can opt to do a more difficult form of the pose. And if it’s just not my day, I can scale it back, or take a break altogether. It’s very personal, but also communal at the same time. I’m doing this very personal, self-reflective, and body-focused exercise, but there are tons of people around me doing the same thing. And that group effort encourages me to keep going for the full 75 minutes. I’m so focused on my body and what I’m doing, that I make it through a fairly long and fairly strenuous exercise session without constantly wondering when we’ll be done. And the whole time, my mind is blissfully clear of anything outside of that room — one of the few times I can stop my brain from racing about stress and worries.

Whew — got a little long-winded about exercising! That’s weird.

Now for the Resolutions In Motion Facebook/Twitter Hop! This hop is for anyone and everyone who wants to make some new friends on Facebook and Twitter! Our co-hosts won their spots, so make sure to visit them and follow!

There are three linkys below: one to link up your Facebook page, one to link up your Twitter account, and a third for any Resolutions In Motion participants who have a weekly post to link up!

We hope your goals are going great- only two weeks left! Psst, did you see our post about all the amazing grand prizes?! Next week we’ll post about all the other fantastic prizes that our participants can win!

Now on to the hop!
Please feel free to share this button:


Follow your hosts: 

Shaping Up To Be A Mom (Facebook/Twitter)

Covered In Grace (Facebook/Twitter)

Ramblings of a Southern Belle (Facebook/Twitter)

Craftbotic (Facebook/Twitter)


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Squishy Cheeks & Cupcakes (Facebook/Twitter)

Violet Imperfection (Facebook/Twitter)

Blessed to be a Blessing (Facebook/Twitter)

Wine & Plum (Facebook/Twitter)



Link up your Facebook and Twitter accounts below!



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DIY Bubblegum Valentines

4 Feb

Okay, I just spent the majority of my designated blog-post-writing time trying to think of some sort of pun to name these:

V Day Gum

As a self-proclaimed pun-lover, I’m ashamed. I’ve seen a million candy Valentine puns lately, and my mind is just drawing a blank on this one. Oh well. They’re still cute.

I won’t lie, I generally get pretty excited about seasonal decor. I even have a Valentine Pinterest board. But so far I’ve kept all that stuff mostly under wraps. I haven’t made any heart garland for Valentine’s Day, decorated gourds for Halloween, or red-white-and-blue centerpieces for July 4th. We didn’t even decorate for Christmas this year! I think maybe it’s because I feel like it’s a bit odd or a waste of time when it’s just me and the BF at home. Maybe one day when we have kids I’ll spend hours making adorable seasonal crafts with them.

In the meantime, I restrain myself to mostly food-oriented projects, and the little bit I do unleash is usually targeted at my coworkers. So I made these adorable little bubblegum valentines.

Yum Gum

I had a jar of bubblegum, so I pulled out all the Valentine colors — red, pink, and white. Four gum-balls in mixed colors went into bags I had leftover from making teal thank-you cookies. I cut a strip of white cardstock to fold over the top of the bag. I used my lace edge punch to create a lace border on the front and then stamped “you’re so sweet.” and two hearts in red ink. Fold the bag over, slip the paper on top, and staple shut.

you're so sweet.

Super easy and super cute. Making enough for my coworkers took about a half hour while I watched TV. I just hope they appreciate how hard I worked on these. ;)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day! And if you think of a good pun, let me know.

Linking up with: