CSA Week 3

Picked up CSA Week 3 tonight!

Here is what I have:

1 bunch swiss chard
1 bunch lettuce
small bunch radishes
small bunch white larger radishes (?)
1 small butternut squash
small bag of green beans
small bunch of scallions
2 small green bell peppers
2 hot peppers
3 tiny patty pan squash
3 tiny summer squash/zucchini
basil
cherry tomatoes
2 mystery roots

I need help identifying the following:

First, I have these two mystery roots---I have no idea what they are. Any ideas?

Next, I think these are just another variation of radishes, but they are larger and whiter than the radishes that have previously been delivered. Let me know if you think these are something other than radishes:

As far as what to do with all this healthy goodness? Well, here is the plan:

I still have swiss chard from last week, so I will cook both bunches together tonight.

My husband has not yet had the pleasure of the successful radish chips recipe or the super fresh green beans, so Friday night I will probably break out some frozen pulled pork bbq and serve radish chips and green beans on the side.

The patty pan squash and summer squash/zucchini will be cooked Thursday night either in a mini-caserole or shredded and in patties. The scallions may also be used in this recipe.

I will make salads for lunches and use the lettuce, tomatoes, and bell peppers.

I will save the butternut squash for next week when hopefully I will have another one.

That just leaves the mystery root (which needs to be identified before it can be cooked) and the hot peppers. I am not really a fan of hot peppers, but I am determined to use all of my CSA delivery, so I will brainstorm on this one.

In summary:

Wednesday: not cooking (eating leftovers)
Thursday: Squash patties or caserole and finishing leftovers
Friday: pulled pork bbq with radish chips and green beans
Saturday: we have dinner plans out
Sunday/Monday: unsure, depends on the identity of the mystery root

Carmelized Butternut Squash

I deviated from the plan for meals published late last week. I got distracted and we had a pizza delivery kind of weekend.


Tonight I regrouped. I was on my own tonight, so I decided to just eat various vegetable dishes.

First, I finally took the 3 small butternut squash from the last two weeks of CSA deliveries and caramelized them.

The ingredients used were three small butternut squash, salt, pepper, 3 tbsp light brown sugar, 1/2 stick butter. (I jumped the gun and chopped one of the butternut squash before I remembered to take the picture.....oops!)

First, I peeled and chopped the butternut squash. Peeling a butternut squash is not the easiest project. I find that if you cut the ends off and stand the thing upright, you can peel them with a sharp knife pretty easily. My vegetable peeler does not get deep enough with these things. I chopped these into small pieces because they were very small squash to begin with. the chunks were about 1/2 inch cubes.

Then, I tossed the chunks with salt, pepper, brown sugar, and the butter, which I melted in the microwave. I spread the chunks out on a foil lined cookie sheet.

Then I baked them at 400 for 30 minutes, turning them twice with a spatula so they brown on each side.

They tasted very nice and the texture was great. I was a little surprised at the small quantity produced by 3 squash, but again, they were the smallest butternut squash I have seen. I also did not like that the butter ran into the corners of the pan and burned, causing lots of smoke in the oven. I think I used too much butter and would cut the amount by half next time.

I also made the beets and apples recipe from last week, but this time I added pears to the mix, cut out the butter, and used apple juice instead. It worked very well. 

Finally, I made a salad with CSA lettuce, cucumbers, and tomatoes.

The next CSA delivery comes tomorrow. Here is what I have left from last week:

lettuce
tomatoes
1 cucumber
swiss chard (previously thought to be collards)
small bag of okra

The lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber will be used in lunch/dinner salads, and should be gone by tomorrow.

I will saute the swiss chard and bake the okra tomorrow. That should finish off last week's delivery just in time to see what next week's delivery holds.

Quinoa with Chicken and Slow Roasted Squash

Tonight's supper featured five CSA ingredients: summer squash, patty pan squash, zucchini, green bell peppers, and cilantro.

I decided to add the green bell peppers at the last minute well into the process, so they did not get pictured.

First, I needed to slow roast the veggies. I cut the squash and zucchini thin and spread it out in a foil lined roasting pan. I also added the green peppers at this step. I sliced them and put them in the roasting pan as well. I couldn't fit all the raw veggies into one roasting pan so I used two. then I drizzled olive oil on them, salted and peppered them, and put just a little sprinkling of roasted red pepper. When I have made similar recipes in the past, I also roasted eggplant and onions this way. I didn't have any of those on hand tonight though.

Then, I put them in the oven at 325 for 55 minutes. I stirred them and flipped them over about half way through. They shrunk significantly, so I ended up putting them all in one pan. Here is what they looked like after the roasting:

While the veggies were cooking, I made the Chicken and Quinoa. I cubed 4 chicken breasts and cut all the fat and gristle off. Then I seasoned the chicken with salt, pepper, turmeric, garlic powder, and mustard powder. Just a light sprinkling of each of the spices over the chicken does the trick.

Here is what the chicken looked like going into the pan:

In the pan I put about 1tbsp of olive oil and 1 tbsp of lemon juice. Then I cooked the chicken on medium until the cubes of chicken were cooked through (about 8 minutes). I kept the temperature low so that the chicken cubes did not brown and just simmered in the olive oil and lemon juice.

I cooked 1 cup of Quinoa. For those of you who have never worked with Quinoa, it is a delicious whole grain. It cooks like rice or couscous. It tastes very similar to couscous, but with a nuttier flavor. First, I toasted the quinoa in a pan. Then I mixed 1 cup of quinoa with 2 cups of chicken broth. I brought it to a boil. Then I reduced the heat to simmering, covered the pan, and waited 15 minutes. All the liquid was gone, so all I had to do was fluff the quinoa and it was ready to serve.

Finally, I put the quinoa in a serving dish, mixed in the roasted veggies, the chicken cubes (without the liquid in the chicken pan), and tossed in the fresh cilantro (that had been washed and torn off the stems). Then I topped the whole dish off with some grated reggano cheese.

Cheeseburgers with Radish Chips and Green Beans

Tonight's Supper used 3 CSA ingredients: Green Beans, Radishes, and Lettuce

We buy our hamburgers from Costco, they are frozen sirloin burgers and they grill for about 4 minutes on each side. They are low fat because they are high quality meat and they taste great. These burgers were served on whole wheat buns with lettuce from the CSA.

The green beans were deliciously simple and easy. 

First, I washed the beans:

Then, I cut the stringy ends off:

Finally, I dropped the beans in boiling salted water and boiled them for 10 minutes.  Then I drained them, salted them and served them. Green Beans are one of those veggies where the freshness really pays off. These had a great taste.

I first tried this Radish recipe last week. This time I made some revisions to the recipe. I cut the leaves and stringy roots off the radishes and washed them. Then I sliced them thin. Next I put them on a plate with a paper towel underneath. I seasoned them with garlic salt. This time, I let them sit for 20 minutes to get the water out:

Then I pressed a paper towel on top of the radishes to get more water out. Next, I sprayed a cookie sheet lightly with Pam. I spread the radishes out on the cookie sheet. I baked them at 400 for about 20-25 minutes, flipping them over once. They came out great. Most of them were crispy, and even the ones that were not super crispy were still not soggy. The flavor was fantastic!

In all, we had a lovely meal with side dishes so much healthier than french fries or commercially produced potato chips. 

On a side note about CSA ingredients: We have had so many cucumbers I have kept cucumber water in the fridge for the last week. Surprisingly, my husband LOVES it. He has requested that we keep some kind of flavored water in the fridge all the time. It is usually very difficult to get my husband to drink enough water, so this is an unexpected benefit to the CSA membership!

CSA Week 2 Delivery

Week 2 of the CSA delivery arrived today! Here is what I have:

2 patty pan squash
1 summer squash
1 small zuccini
12 cherry tomatoes
cilantro
beets
radishes
lettuce
2 small green bell peppers
green beans
okra
2 cucumbers
1 butternut squash
1 bunch of mystery greens with very large leaves

I set the butternut squash with the other two from last week. I will cook all three of these at some point this week by caramelizing them in chunks.

I will try the radish chips again this time with the modifications to the recipe I suggested last week. Hopefully this week I will perfect this recipe.

I am going to start using some of this produce for lunches, and will be making salads with the lettuce, cucumbers, green bell peppers, and tomatoes.

One night I will make Quinoa and chicken with roasted squash and cilantro and possibly some more of the veggies.

I will re-create the beets and apples from last week since I again have extra apples and it was a nice healthy dessert. 

Still brainstorming what to do with the okra and mystery greens.

Here is a close-up of the greens.....please let me know if you can identify them.

Also post below if you have any ideas for what to do with all this beautiful produce!


UPDATE: After a little planning and brainstorming, here is the supper menu for the week:

Wednesday- Hamburgers with Green Beans and Radish Chips
Thursday- not cooking
Friday- Quinoa with chicken, cilantro, and roasted squash and zuccini
Saturday- Carmalized Butternut Squash, Collards (?) and some protein I have not yet decided, maybe a fish
Sunday- Stuffed Chicken, baked okra, beets and apples
Monday- not cooking
Tuesday- new CSA Delivery

Fillet with Joi Choi, Tomato Salad, and Whipped Potatoes

Tonight's supper used three of our CSA ingredients: Joi Choi, Cherry Tomatoes, and Italian Basil. Now we only have 1 cucumber and 2 small butternut squash left from last week's delivery. The butternut squash should be ready to eat this week.

We buy our Fillet at Costco. Like most cuts of meat from Costco, we cut them in half and freeze them. I simply salt and peppered both sides and grilled them for about 4 minutes on each side.

The potatoes were small red potatoes. I peeled and boiled them, then added butter and sour cream and whipped them.

The Joi Choi was simply prepared by steaming it for 10 minutes, adding salt and pepper, and drizzling it with a little sesame oil. The flavor was very nice without being too strong.

The tomato salad had the following ingredients:

Cherry Tomatoes
Basil
Mozzarella Cheese
Balsalmic Vinegar

The beautiful cherry tomatoes were washed and sliced. I also washed and sliced the basil. I have sometimes used fresh mozzarella for this recipe, but I had tons of block mozzarella on hand, so I just cut it into small chunks (about 1/4 inch cubes). Finally, I drizzled a little balsamic vinegar on top of the above listed ingredients. This dish is best when it can sit for at least an hour before serving so that the flavors can mingle.

Finally, I plated it all together, and we had a delicious supper!

Tomorrow night I am taking the night off from blogging and from cooking so that we can eat some leftovers and I can rest and prepare for Tuesday's new CSA delivery.

Pulled Pork BBQ with Sweet Potato Fries and Strawberries

Tonight's supper had no CSA ingredients, but I have had several people ask me for this recipe in the past, so I thought I would go ahead and write it up.

I made pulled pork in the crock pot. The ingredients are simple:

Pork
Onion
BBQ Sauce

For the cut of pork, you can use a shoulder, a boston butt, or what I have here, a pork loin top loin roast. The kind I buy is a little more expensive, but it has less junk in it and it is lower fat. I buy this at Costco. This one was 6.75 lbs. I have also made this recipe with this cut of meat but from  the grocery store that was 2.5 lbs. I personally have found that since this recipe takes awhile to make, you might as well make a bunch of it and freeze it.

I cut the strings off the pork roast and put it in the crock pot whole. I sliced the onion and put it around the pork roast. I also added 3/4 cup of water. Then I put the top on and cooked the pork on low for 8-10 hours. No need to stir or turn, just leave it be.

Then I took the pork out and put it on a large plate. I discarded the onions and the juices left in the pot and washed the pot out (let it cool a bit or it will crack). I scraped the visible fat off the pork roast. Then I pulled the pork with two forks. This process will take awhile and is tedious, but it is totally worth it.....stick with it!

Then I put the pulled pork back in the crock pot and mixed in the BBQ sauce. I personally prefer to use Melvin's mustard based BBQ, but whatever your preference is will work just fine. You might even get ambitious and make your own. Regardless, at this point I thoroughly mix the BBQ sauce in so that all the pulled pork is wet throughout. Then put the top back on and cook for another 4 hours on low. Stir well every hour or so and be sure that the sides don't burn. I serve the BBQ on a whole wheat bun to convince myself that this is not too unhealthy.


I bought these sweet potato fries frozen from Costco. I bake them at 350 for 25 minutes. The only thing I put on them was salt before baking. They are delicious and nutritious.

The strawberries are not from the CSA, but they were on sale at the grocery store yesterday.

In the end, we had a delicious meal:

The pork freezes really well. It is one of my tried and true recipes. This pot will probably get us through Christmas.
Tomorrow's Supper: Fillet with Joi Choi, heirloom tomato and mozzarella salad, and red potatoes.