Cheater’s Chiles Rellenos

I haven’t posted a recipe in a loooooong time, but this was too good not to share. Unfortunately, there are no pictures. Maybe I will remember to take some next time…because there WILL be a next time!

Last weekend I got a 25-lb. box of Hatch green chiles from Bountiful Baskets. That’s alotta roasting! I put most of the finished product in the freezer, but I had to throw together a couple of green chile meals since I had them on hand.

I’ve tried making Rellenos before, but I can’t seem to peel the chiles without tearing them. Maybe I need more practice? I don’t know. In any case, it was no different this time as my chiles quickly became un-stuffable.

So I improvised. This is not very precise, since I kind of just threw it together. And it requires that your chiles are mostly whole, or at least in generous pieces.

Cheater’s Chiles Rellenos

• Approximately 18 or so green chiles
• 2-3 beaten eggs
• Breadcrumbs mixed with salt and cumin to taste
• Bacon grease and vegetable oil (or cooking fat of your choice)
• 2 or so cups of grated Monterey Jack cheese

Once your chiles are roasted and peeled, dip them in the eggs, followed by the breadcrumb mixture. Fry in oil on each side until golden brown. Layer in a baking dish with the cheese and broil until the cheese has melted. Serve with rice and beans, and enchilada sauce to pour on top.

Next time, I plan to layer some cubed sirloin as well, since that’s what's in our favorite Rellenos from the Original Blue Adobe Grille. Yum!

So if you can’t manage to stuff and fry chiles without making a huge mangled mess (like me), this is a very tasty alternative that is comparable to the original. Enjoy!

Southwestern Spaghetti Squash Soup

I usually see spaghetti squash get rave reviews in the blogosphere. There are a ton of recipes out there, and some even use it as a replacement for pasta. I’ve tried it a couple different ways, but I just can’t seem to jump on the bandwagon. So when we got a spaghetti squash in our Bountiful Basket recently, I knew I’d need to find something different to do with it.

I’ve had good luck with other squash in soups before so that seemed a good place to start. The internet delivered this recipe and I decided to give it a try, with a few changes.

Southwestern Spaghetti Squash Soup

• 1 1/3 cups dry, uncooked black beans (or 2 cans black beans, drained)
• 1 spaghetti squash
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 an onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 green bell pepper, seeds removed and diced
• 1 jalapeno, seeds removed and diced small
• 1/2 cup roasted green chiles, chopped
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp ground oregano
• 1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
• 4 cups chicken broth
• salt to taste
• cilantro
• shredded cheese
• sour cream

If you are using dry black beans, you need to start several hours in advance. Rinse the beans, place in a large pot and cover generously with water. Bring to a boil, then cover and set aside to soak for one hour. In the mean time, preheat the oven to 375. Place the whole spaghetti squash on a baking pan and bake for about an hour, or until a knife slides in easily. When cool enough to touch, cut squash in half, scoop out seeds and discard. Scoop out the flesh and set aside.

Once the beans have soaked, drain the water and rinse the beans thoroughly. Cover with water and bring to a boil again. Reduce heat to simmer and cover. Let simmer until tender, at least one more hour (possibly more). When beans are done, drain and set aside.

In your soup pot, heat olive oil and throw in the onions and garlic. Cook for a couple minutes, then add green bell pepper, jalapeno and green chiles and cook for a few minutes more. Add spices and cook for a minute or so until fragrant. Add tomatoes and stir, then add chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer.

In a blender, combine most of the spaghetti squash with about a cup of the cooked black beans. Add a few ladles full of the soup and puree. Add puree, remaining spaghetti squash (I gave the strands a rough chop first) and remaining black beans to the soup. Add salt to taste (I needed about 1 1/2 tsp of kosher salt, but start with less and work your way up). Soup is ready when heated through.

Serve with cilantro, shredded cheese and sour cream.

The verdict: very good! As Paul said last night, we have found it’s hard to go wrong with Southwestern soups in our house. I will definitely have this on my list of go-to spaghetti squash recipes. By itself. At least for now. Do you have a tasty spaghetti squash recipe? Feel free to share!

Loving Lentils

For reasons of both health and finance, we’ve been trying to cut back on meat a bit and replace it with other proteins. This week I tried two new recipes featuring lentils.

 

Brown Lentils with Kale and Rice

I had some kale from Bountiful Baskets last weekend and thought that seemed like it would go well with lentils. After perusing some recipes that contained both lentils and kale, I cobbled this together.

• 1 cup dry lentils
• 2 Tb olive oil
• 4 scallions, sliced thin
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1 orange sweet chile, finely diced
• 1 tomato, diced
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp ground oregano
• 1/2 tsp tumeric
• 1 bunch of kale, shredded or torn into bite size pieces
• salt and pepper to taste
• juice of 1 lemon

Boil the lentils until tender, about 20 minutes. Heat olive oil in a large skilet over medium, add scallions and garlic and cook for a minute or two. Add chile and tomato, stir and cook for several more minutes. Add spices, then kale, and cook until wilted. When the lentils are tender, drain and add them to the skillet and squeeze the lemon juice on top. Serve over rice.

 

The verdict

Me: Scrumptious! I thought it was very tasty, with an almost Indian flair. I ate leftovers for lunch twice this week.

Kids: They both ate second helpings!

Paul: It was just okay. He thinks this is because he’s not a big fan of rice.

Despite that…I will be making this again. Tasty, frugal and filled with nutrients makes this mama happy. I think it goes great with the rice, but I may try pairing it with potatoes and see if Paul likes it any better.

 

Brown Lentil Tacos

While it may sound less than appetizing, this worked out surprisingly well. I don’t have a precise recipe (or a picture), I just replaced the ground beef with cooked lentils and made it all up like I usually do.

• 1 cup dry lentils
• 1 small can tomato sauce
• 2 Tb taco spice
• 1 can refried beans
• taco shells
• shredded cheese
• diced tomato
• sliced black olives
• sliced scallion
• shredded cabbage (or lettuce)
• Sour cream
• Tapatio

Boil the lentils until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain, then place in a medium saucepan with the tomato sauce. Heat over medium low and add taco spice. Meanwhile, heat refried beans and prepare other fillings. When everything is heated, toss it all into some taco shells and enjoy!

The verdict

Me: Scrumptious again! I could barely tell they were made with lentils and not ground beef. They tasted great and were extremely satisfying.

Kids: They again had second helpings. I think that is mandatory with tacos.

Paul: Good! He said while it wasn’t exactly the same, he didn’t feel like he was missing out by not having beef.

Success! We’ll be doing that again as well. You could even go half and half with the lentils and beef if the thought of meatless tacos sounds wrong to you. Either way, I think the key is having a really great taco spice that packs a lot of flavor.

Our lentil experiments went very well this week. I wish I could say that for all of my kitchen experiments. But at least this encourages me to keep trying new things!

Any tasty lentil recipes out there?

Samoas!

Since it’s Girl Scout Cookie season, I’ve seen a lot of tasty homemade cookie recipes on Pinterest. I decided to try one.

 

I liked the idea of making them as bars to save time, but I wanted to see what would happen if I tried making them in muffin tins. I figured it would be a little faster than rolling and cutting the shortbread dough, and would keep all the layers nice and tidy. So that’s what I did.

 

I pressed the cookie dough into the tins and baked them. I used two muffin pans for a total of twenty-four cookies, but they came out a little thick. I think I’d try to spread it out more next time, or halve the recipe.

 

While the dough was cooling, I toasted the coconut and made up this caramel sauce to use in place of the caramel candies. I halved the recipe, which was good because I burned the first batch. Yuck. If you try it this way, be sure to keep a close eye on the stove , keep the heat on the lower side, and stir almost constantly. Burned sweetened condensed milk smells nasty.

After mixing the coconut and caramel, I pressed the topping into the tins on top of the cookie. It seemed at first like it didn’t want to stick to the cookie, but they stayed together pretty well once they set.

 

Then it was time for chocolate. I melted some chocolate chips and started dipping.

 

The chocolate tended to form a thick layer on the bottom, so I scraped each one against the side of the bowl as I dipped them. It worked pretty well.

 

Then I drizzled a little chocolate over the tops, and stuck them in the fridge for the chocolate to set. Not the prettiest cookies out there, but they sure tasted good.

You can see that little guy on the left has an extra chocolate layer between the cookie and coconut. That’s because he came apart when I pulled him out of the tin, and I had to glue him back together. I saved him. Then I ate him.

So while I like how the muffin pans worked out, they were definitely on the thick side. It isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I may try to get them a little thinner next time.

These cookies freeze really well, which makes it easy to pull out just a few at a time. Just be prepared for some chocolate beards and mustaches if you feed them to kids.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

I departed a little from our usual corned beef and cabbage St. Patty’s tradition in favor of something a little simpler. It was just me and the girls at home since Paul was at the Renaissance Festival promoting greyhound adoption with the hounds. And it was just one of those days! You know the kind I mean. So I give you our St. Patty’s dinner:

 

Cloverleaf rolls, made from this potato bread recipe formed into the shape of a clover as per these instructions.

And Colcannon, thrown together using this recipe and this recipe. If only we had had bacon…

 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Mini Mince(meat) Pies

Ever since returning from the semester of college that I spent in Oxford, England, I’ve missed mincemeat pies. Yes, I’ve missed them for nine years. Up until now, I’ve just accepted that. But no more! I felt it was time to test my cooking skills and make my own.

After perusing the interwebs for recipes, I cobbled together a list of things I wanted in the mincemeat. Meat was not one of those things. Though it seems that traditionally they did contain meat – hence the name, mincemeat – the ones that I tried way back in my Oxford days did not. At least, not as far as I know.

Once I assembled my ingredients, I played with the quantities until I came up with this combination. (DISCLAIMER: I in no way claim that this recipe is “authentic” or anything. It was pieced together from the internet, which we all know is extremely accurate and never lies.)

• 1 1/2 cups raisins
• 4 apples, peeled and diced very small
• 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
• 1 scant cup of dried figs, chopped*
• 1 cup green holiday cherries, chopped*
• 3/4 cup candied citrus peel (recipe here)
• 1/3 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup apple juice
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1/4 cup brandy
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp cloves

(*Next time I think I would leave out the cherries, they weren’t needed. Maybe the figs, too. I only included them because I couldn’t find currants. We’ll see.)

I put everything in a pot and simmered on the stove until the apple softened and the house smelled wonderful.

 

Then I made up a batch of Pam’s Pie Crust and cut it into little shapes with a cookie cutter. I pressed a small circle of dough into a mini muffin pan, making it fit by removing a small wedge from the circle first. I filled each little pie, then put the tops on and baked at 410 degrees F according to these directions. I had a little leftover dough so I made a couple in a regular muffin tin, too.

Yum! They were very tasty. The pie crust recipe made enough for one full mini muffin tin (24 pies) and a few extra in the regular muffin tin. But I had a lot of leftover filling, so I put it in the freezer to use another time. Which is good, because I’ll definitely want to make them again soon!

7 Holiday Recipes

 

For this week’s 7 Quick Takes, here’s some new (to us) holiday recipes we’ve made this fall and winter.

 

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1. Pumpkin Cornbread – A tasty variation of cornbread that is perfect for fall. Just be careful not to let it dry out, like I did the second time I made it. My oven seems to run a little hot, so I need to bake it for less time than the recipe calls for.

 

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2. Crispy Pumpkin Cookies – I love pumpkin cookies, but my husband is not a fan of how soft and chewy they are. Well, these cookies are the best of both the pumpkin-flavored and crispy cookie worlds.

 

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3. Candy Corn Bark – I saw several different variations of this recipe pop up all over Pinterest before Halloween. This version turned out fantastic! And I even found real white chocolate chips (made with cocoa butter instead of oil) at the grocery store. Super yum.

 

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4. Meringue Cookies – I have a lot of leftover egg whites from making ice cream (see below) and I decided to give meringues a try. I went with the Vanilla Rum flavor, it tastes great! Mine are definitely not as pretty, though.

 

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5. Peppermint Bark Fudge – I’ve been on a real peppermint kick lately, and this seemed like the perfect recipe to try to get my fix. So easy, and so good.

 

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6. Peppermint Ice Cream – Speaking of peppermint, one of my favorite holiday treats is Peppermint Ice Cream. I simply must have it around Christmas. Since my homemade ice cream has been turning out so well, I wanted to try my hand at making this holiday treat, and The Pioneer Woman came through for me as usual.

 

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7. Eggnog Ice Cream – Finally, a new favorite in our house, we discovered Eggnog Ice Cream last Christmas and fell in love. So, of course, I had to try my hand at this one as well. I used The Pioneer Woman’s Vanilla Bean Ice Cream as a base (and cut back on the vanilla a bit), then added flavorings from this recipe. I did compensate for the difference in volume between the recipes, but I think I would even go a little heavier on the spices next time.

If you have a chance to try any of these, do it! They are all fantastic ways to celebrate the season.

Merry Christmas everyone!

A Couple Things

We’re just getting settled back into our routine after a great trip to Wisconsin. Lots of fun, time with family, and recharging our batteries.

 

But more on that later.

Today I wanted to share an awesome pie crust tutorial that I’ve found infinitely helpful in my pie baking.

Pam’s Pie Tutorial

Food processor instead of pastry cutter? Yes, please. Rolling the dough between two slips of parchment paper? Genius. I’ve used her method a few times now, and even though my technique isn’t perfect yet, the pie crust still turns out delicious and flaky every time.

I should note that I don’t have any leaf lard, which she calls for in her recipe, so I usually use 1/2 cup of butter and 1/2 cup of shortening for the fat. I’ve been pleased with the result.

While in Wisconsin we acquired a large bag of apples that were just screaming to be made into pie. So we obliged.

 

It was quite an operation, as you can see. And the resulting pies were delicious indeed.

I am looking forward to the plethora of apples we are likely to get in our Bountiful Baskets this coming season. As well as other tasty things that give me an excuse to make (and eat) pie.

Check out the tutorial, then go and make one!

Carrot and Squash Curry Soup

My meal planning has definitely changed since we started getting our weekly Bountiful Basket last August. I never know exactly what we’re getting, so I have to base our meals around whatever shows up on Saturday morning. It does take away the ability to plan somewhat in advance, but has given us the opportunity to try a variety of new recipes. These fruits and veggies have got to be used!

In the recent weeks we’ve gotten a lot of carrots, and this last weekend some yellow squash, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to try PW’s Carrot and Squash Curry Soup. I had first seen it a while back and saved it in my Recipe Box. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, but since it had curry in it I figured it would be interesting to say the least.

What a fantastic recipe! Not only is it super easy to prepare, but the flavor is wonderful. Give it a try! Just be sure to leave plenty of time for the veggies to simmer, it takes about an hour. I had to add a bit of water at the end because it was a little thick after I pureed it, but in the end it turned out great.

Pineapple Meringue Pie

I saw this recipe last week on Tasty Kitchen, and just had to make it. It took a few days before I had enough time, and during those days my taste buds were in an agony of anticipation. It looked so good!

Finally on Tuesday I was able to put it together. I had some pie crust dough frozen in the oven which saved some time. (Oven??? Of course I meant freezer. Oy.) Instead of crushed pineapple, I used some fresh pineapple that I had on hand and just pulsed it through the food processor to get it to the right consistency. And even though I had never made a meringue pie before, the instructions – and my Kitchen-Aid – made it very easy.

You have to try this pie! It is simply delicious.

Here’s the step-by-step tutorial on Tasty Kitchen.

And the recipe, Grandma Inez’s Pineapple Pie, courtesy of Perry’s Plate. Whose pie pictures are much prettier than mine.

Go. Eat. Enjoy!

Yum Yum Pumpkin

Sunday afternoon I was browsing through some of the blogs I frequent, and came across this recipe for Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls on MADE. I knew I had to make them right then. Lucky for me, I had some extra cream cheese frosting waiting to be used. AND pumpkin puree in my freezer for just such an occasion.

 

Photo courtesy of Good Life eats

The recipe is originally from Good Life eats, you can find it here. They take a little bit of work and rising time, but are totally worth it.

 

Photo courtesy of MADE

I followed Dana’s tip and used some thread to cut my rolls. Much easier than using a knife!

 

Photo courtesy of MADE

Yum! Go make some. Or if you don’t have pumpkin…make PW’s!

Broccoli Cheese Soup

I made Broccoli Cheese soup last night. This has been one of our standby recipes for a while. Hits the spot every time!

I found the recipe on allrecipes.com a few years back, and just tweaked it a little to suit our taste.

My changes:

• I use fresh broccoli most of the time, though frozen works fine.
• I use butter instead of margarine. Yech!
• I leave out the onion. I started making this recipe before I really started appreciating onions, and I just can’t bear to change it now.
• I use half Velveeta, half sharp cheddar.

Tasty, comfortable and warm. Perfect now that the weather is (finally) cooling. And it gets some vegetables in Veronica, as long as the broccoli is chopped small. That alone makes it a favorite in my book.

Check out some other Tasty Tuesday recipes!

Roasted Vegetable Minestrone

Last week I made this Minestrone soup that The Pioneer Woman posted on her blog recently. The pictures lured me in, it just looked fantastic.

 

Photo by Ree Drummond

See?

And it tasted fantastic, too! I did have to add an additional 4 cups of liquid to mine. I think my zucchini and yellow squash were on the big side. I may just do one of each next time, it made A LOT of soup. I also substituted Great Northern Beans for Cannelini Beans, since that’s what I had in my pantry. I’m looking forward to making it again when the weather cools a bit!

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• 2 whole Zucchini, Halved, Cut Into Strips, Then Cubed
• 2 whole Summer Squash, Halved, Cut Into Strips, Then Cubed
• 8 ounces, weight White Mushrooms, Stems Removed And Quartered
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• Kosher Salt To Taste
• 2 Tablespoons (additional) Olive Oil
• 2 whole Carrots, Washed And Sliced (not Peeled)
• 1 whole Medium Onion, Diced
• 3 stalks Celery, Sliced (leaves Included)
• 8 cups Low Sodium Chicken Broth
• 2 cans Cannelini Beans, Rinsed
• 1 cup (heaping) Cut Green Beans, Fresh Or Frozen
• 1-½ cup Medium Or Small Pasta Shells, Uncooked
• 1 can (14.5) Diced Tomatoes With Juice
• Salt And Pepper, to taste
• ¼ teaspoons Turmeric (optional)
• Parmesan Cheese, Shaved

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

Toss cubed zucchini, squash, and mushrooms in a bowl with olive oil and a sprinkling of kosher salt. Arrange onto two sheet pans (to avoid crowding) and roast in the hot oven for 5 to 10 minutes, or until brown and black parts begin to show. Remove from oven and set aside.

In a heavy pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add carrots, onions, and celery and stir to cook for 3 minutes. Pour in broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for ten minutes.

Add cannelini beans and green beans. Cook on low for five minutes. Add pasta and cook for an additional five minutes. Add canned tomatoes, stir, and cook for an additional five minutes on low heat. Check for seasonings, adding salt, pepper, and turmeric.

Add roasted vegetables at the very end. Stir and allow to simmer and heat for a few minutes before serving. Be sure to check seasoning! Add more broth if necessary to increase liquid amount.

Serve with Parmesan shavings and crusty Italian bread.

White Chili, Green Salsa and Brownie Bites!

 

Just a quick Tasty Tuesday post on some things I made for a little baby shower this weekend.

Hearty White Chili – Great flavor and not too spicy. Quickly becoming one of my favorite chilis.

Tomatillo (green) Salsa – I used maybe a third of the cilantro at most (one whole bunch seems like waaaaay too much), removed the seeds and ribs from both halves of the jalepeno to make it a mild salsa, added 1/2 cup of diced green chiles, 1/4 cup of green onions and 1/2 tsp of THIS, and omitted the black pepper. Sooooo good!

 

Picture by Ree Drummond

Pretty Little Brownie Bites – When I saw these I knew I had to make them for the shower! It was so much fun to decorate them with all different kinds of treats. They are really good with ice cream, too.

Check out some other Tasty Tuesday recipes at City Wife, Country Life!

Home-made Pizza is Scrumptious

I meant to post this last week for Tasty Tuesday, but I got busy. So here it is!

 

When I remembered to take a picture of the pizza I made last week, this was what was left. It was the second pizza. And there were four of us – three adults and one toddler. It was so good! We all ate A LOT.

I had finally found a crust recipe that we liked, though the first time I made it we all felt it was a bit thick for our taste. So this time, I used one crust recipe to make two pizzas. Voila! Perfection! Here is the recipe:

1 (.25 oz) package active dry yeast
1 tsp white sugar
1 cup warm water
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 450. I put my pizza stone in and let it sit for a good half-hour.

2. In a medium bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in water and let stand for 10 minutes, until creamy.

3. Stir in flour, oil and salt until smooth. Let rest 5 minutes.

4. Roll out into a round (or in my case, two rounds). It then says to top and bake for 15-20 minutes…but I didn’t. First, I put the crust in by itself for a couple of minutes. Then I pulled it back out and topped it. Then I baked it for about 10 minutes. It came out perfect! And so easy.

Then…the sauce. The sauce! It was another thing I had been looking for, and now I have a great home-made sauce recipe from good(Cheap)eats. Here it is:

1/4 cup olive oil
2 tsp minced garlic
28 ounce can diced tomatoes or 7 fresh roma tomatoes, diced (Fresh is worth it…I put mine in the food processor and they came out perfect, not too chunky)
1 tbsp basil (I was out, waaaa!, so I used oregano which was also tasty)
1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
6 ounce can tomato paste

In stock pot, heat olive oil until shimmering. Stir in garlic and cook until just lightly browned. Add tomatoes, basil, oregano, salt, and red pepper flakes. Simmer until juices have started to evaporate slightly, about 10 minutes. Blend in tomato paste and cook 3 minutes more. Cool slightly before using on pizza.

I actually did mine in a large frying pan, but when I make bigger batches to freeze I will probably use at least a large pot, if not a stock pot. But one batch is not too big for a frying pan.

So, great crust? Check! Awesome sauce (lol)? Check! The only thing left is toppings, and once you have a great crust and sauce, you can top with whatever you want! I used mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, black olives and prosciutto, then a little bit of cheddar over the top. So good!

What I Did With My Basket

At the recommendation of a couple of friends, I decided to try the Bountiful Baskets Food Co-op. I’ve been trying to incorporate more fruits and veggies into our diet, and this seemed like a good way to get lots of fresh, tasty produce on the cheap.

Last week we got our first basket and, well, it wasn’t good.

It was great.

 

I logged into the website right away on Tuesday morning to make sure I could get the pick-up site I wanted, a park near our house. I couldn’t wait for Saturday to arrive to I could see what we got.

 

The baskets were all lined up and ready to go, one for fruit and one for veggies. You bring your own container to transfer them to to take them home. Very easy and efficient.

I’d like to apologize for the number of bottoms in this picture. It was inevitable, there was always someone bending over to get the stuff our of their baskets!

 

I brought this box. The handles made it easy to carry, which was nice, especially since I couldn’t find my extra laundry basket that I had planned on bringing.

 

Veronica was more than ready to help me unpack.

 

Peaches.

 

Champagne grapes. Teeny-tiny and tasty.

 

A cantaloupe.

 

Mangoes.

 

Grapefruit. Grapefruits? What’s the plural of that anyway?

 

Bananas.

 

Cauliflower

 

Tomatoes.

 

Red bell peppers.

 

Sweet corn.

 

Lettuce.

There were also cucumbers, but the lady next to me at the park was asking to trade some of her fruit for veggies, so I traded her the cucumbers for extra bananas and peaches. I figured it was the veggie I was least likely to use. Of course, the next day I had some tasty cucumber-melon water at Trader Joe’s, then wished I had kept them to make my own.

 

In addition to the regular basket, I also purchased an “Italian pack” which had zucchini.

 

Onions.

 

Eggplant.

 

Garlic.

 

Mushrooms.

 

Flat-leaf parsley, basil, rosemary and oregano. Smells from heaven.

 

The veggies, all clean.

 

And the fruit.

So you may be wondering, “Tori, what did you do with all of that fantastic produce?”

Don’t worry, my friends. I will tell you.

We cooked up the sweet corn right away Saturday night, and had it with grilled rib-eye and mushrooms and fried zucchini cakes. It was very tasty, but the corn was definitely the star. And that says a lot when it is sitting on my plate next to a grilled rib-eye steak. With mushrooms. Which is the best way to eat steak.

I made Cantaloupe Granitas for dessert one night, they were very fresh and light, perfect for summer. I admit, I put sparkling wine in them. Mmmmm.

Another night I made beef stew, but used cauliflower in place of potatoes. That was just okay. I think I overdid the onion a bit. And it didn’t help that I opened the wrong side of the pepper lid and accidentally dumped 1/4 cup of pepper into it. Luckily, I was able to scoop most of it out, but it was still a little too peppery. Live and learn to pay attention to the pepper shaker.

 

One of my favorite soups lately is Turkey and Rice, and I like to add red bell pepper to it so that worked out well.

Zucchini Bread was something I’d never tried before, but I saw so many recipes for it that I knew I had to give it a shot. And it turned out great! I will definitely make that again.

Then last night I made us mango mojitos. Just pureed some mango and mixed it with rum, simple syrup, sparkling water, lime juice and mint leaves. So good.

The grapefruit, bananas, peaches and grapes we’ve kind of just snacked on here and there. I’ve taken to eating a piece of fruit with breakfast and lunch, which is yummy and means I eat less of the other, less healthy things in our house.

 

But my crowning achievement this week was the Eggplant Parmigiana. It’s hard to describe it in a way that doesn’t sound like bragging. But it was fantastic.

We still have a few things from the basket left, so I will probably freeze some of it, and others we will continue to munch on.

 

 

And now they’ve been joined by a whole new round-up of characters. Some things are the same as last week, some things are different. That’s what’s so fun about this. You don’t know what you’re going to get until you pick it up. Before this morning, I’d never eaten a prune plum. I can now check that off of my bucket list.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to do my meal planning. And munch on some prune plums.