Wanna see what's in my drawers?

Vegetables drawers that is.....

Green Beans

Cherry Tomatoes

Chard

Yellow Squash

Strawberries

Radishes

Red Kale

Spinach

Carrots

Sweet Potatoes

Asparagus

Wheat Berries

That is a LOT of fresh produce!  Have I mentioned how much I love my CSA?

Enterprise, we pick YOU up.

Every Thursday.

Want your own CSA?  Check out localharvest.org for one near you.

We have our share, now this is where the fun begins.  We get to plan out our meals!

Some things are already earmarked in my head.  I have a lunch date with a friend, so I used the spinach and sweet potatoes (roasted) for a salad.

The beans, *I* loves raw beans, so some of them will stay that way and she can chomp all she wants.  She already had some tonight.  The rest, I am going to sauté with onions, oil and butter. Yum!

The chard, I am going to make that chard lentil soup again.  We didn't even get to freeze any last time, David & I ate every single container of leftovers.  We have some church peeps that could use some meals too, so between this and the parsnip soup, I think we'll have some food to pass on.

Squash gets steamed for the kids.  They gobble that up.  Easy peasey.

Tomatoes are for my salads.  I'll do more with these once our tomatoes from our garden are ready to go.

Carrots - some will go for the chard soup and some will get sliced up for snacks with hummus during the week.

Radishes - same as carrots.  Some go with salad, some with hummus.  I might attempt the Green Bean and Radish Salad recipe that came in this week's share newsletter. Maybe.

Asparagus - I am thinking I'll just steam or roast it.  But this might call for a special peek at the Rodale cookbook to see how we might make it into a main dish.

Wheat Berries - I am definitely going to try to make the Mushroom Wheat Berry Pilaf that from the newsletter.  That looked mighty tasty!

So there you have it. Now that I know what I want to make, now it is a matter of when!

Happy cleanER cooking!

P is for Parsnip

My personal productivity was plentiful so I penned the process of preparing the plethora of parsnips n' produce puree and posted pronto. Peeps, I'd be pleased as punch if you provide pointers on possible prospects for planned parsnips in potential packs of produce.
_________

Curried-Apple, Parsnip Soup 

Ingredients
3 parsnips
3 cups water
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 large red pepper
2 cloves garlic
3 large Granny Smith apples, fresh
1 cup red lentils
1 tbsp salted butter
1/2 tsp salt or to taste
1 1/2 tbsp curry powder
pinch of red pepper flakes or red pepper sauce to taste
I added a splash of apple juice just cuz.

Directions 
Wash and cut apples, parsnips and red pepper into rough pieces and put in slow cooker, leaving skins on all veggies.
Combine all recipe ingredients in slow cooker with water (omit or add some water depending on volume of ingredients in pot).
Cook on high until all ingredients are soft-about 2 - 3 hours.
Then, using a hand blender or blender and puree all ingredients in cooker until smooth.
Continue cooking on low until all flavors have combined and you're ready to eat!
Easy as pie and better for you.
Makes about 6-8 servings.

NI
Calories: 162.2; Total Fat: 2.7g; Dietary Fiber: 7.4g; Protein: 4.7g

Chock full of Chard

We have more chard. Surprise surprise. I like chard, don't get me wrong, but I'm starting to run out of ideas. And if you know me, you know I do NOT like to waste food. So I found a new recipe that called for chard and I was determined to try it.

Except halfway through I realized I completely messed up.

Don't you hate that! Pissed doesn't even begin to describe. Poor David got the brunt of it.

Argh!  I had everything planned out; all our meals for the week. I committed to writing everything down to stay On Plan and within my points.

Thing is, one of the keys to weight loss (or weight maintaining) is to plan; if I don't plan my meals and workouts ahead of time, I end up making choices that don't always support my goals. For example, if I forget my breakfast, what choices do I have? Vending machine? Cafeteria? And if I go there I end up spending extra cash, go for the cheap danish and end up with the empty icky feeling by 10am after I come down from my sugar rush.

*step away from the danish*

Oh but it tastes so good going down!

Anyway, everything was going fine - I had an amazing run during my lunch to earn my APs (activity points), ate a little later and had a late snack so I wouldn't snack on the kids' dinner of ham fried rice.

I picked up local lemons and was ready to use up my CSA chard.

I started the lentils, the organic chicken broth, CSA carrots, spices and started sautéing the onions and realized the lentils weren't holding up.

Maybe this is a newbie mistake, but I suddenly relized that red lentils aren't the same as brown. Der. They were turning to mush.

Grumping through cooking the rest of the onions and tearing the pieces of chard (aggressively I might add), I was sure I screwed this dish up. David tried to console me.  I think I grumped at him some more.  I tasted it before I added the chard and it wasn't terrible - it was more like a thick soup base rather than bean soup.  So I added the chard, simmered it until the leaves softened and then added the lemon juice. When I sat down to eat it I could not believe my tastebuds! It actually worked!

I love my new mistake! Don't you love when that happens?

Here is the recipe for my delicous mistake

Lentil Chard Soup

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups dried lentils (I used red lentils, but recipe called for brown)
1 qt chicken broth
1 qt water
1 cup diced carrot
1 3/4 teaspoons sea salt
Dash of dried thyme
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 parsley sprigs chopped
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups chopped onion
1 teaspoon ground cumin
6 cups torn Swiss chard
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Combine lentils (sorted & washed), water, and next 6 ingredients (water through bay leaves) in a large Dutch oven; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 45 minutes or until tender.

Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cumin; sauté 10 minutes or until browned. Stir onion mixture into lentil mixture.

Discard bay leaves.

Add chard to soup; simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes or until chard is tender.

Remove soup from heat. Stir in lemon juice and pepper.

Makes 6 bowls of 1 1/3 cups soup.

Serve with 1 tablespoon of plain yogurt.

Adapted from Cooking Light, OCTOBER 2003

NI: 283cals/5.2fat/20g fiber/18.2g protein

The Outer Aisle or Outside

Going from flash frozen veggies to outer aisle was a big step. Going organic was the next step. CSA came next and now for the biggest transformation of them all. 

Local food.  

Like really local.  As in my backyard local.  

I am pretty clueless when it comes to plants and things. I've pretty much killed any plant that I have tried to grow. I even let an African Violet wither and die and you really can't kill those things. In all honesty, it isn't surprising since plants need water and I forget to give myself water, so how am I going to remember to give plants water. 

But, I will try.  

And now I have my kids to help remind me.  They are good at reminding me to give them drinks at dinner since I forget that too. 

Now the question is....

What will go into this beyond organic jardin?  

Before

Working on tilling the soil

Deciding to make our own raised bed

The Outer Cosmos

After finishing up around the outer aisle, you inevitably have go through the check out line where the marketeers try to entice you with the last minute impluse buys and reading material.

Picture this: David, *S*, *I* and a bunch of bananas standing in the checkout line at 7:30am.  And since our 5 year old son has begun to read, he practices on pretty much anything and everything.  

*Pause for brag time*

He was reading words and flashcards at 3 1/2 and he now reads books; not like memorized books, but ones he's never seen before.  He isn't even in kindergarten yet!   

*Brag un-pause*

So David and *S* were at the check out and *S* begins reading signs in the grocery check out line to the amusement of the ladies in line. Then he reads a line from the cover of Cosmo about 7 blah blah Ore-Gasm Tips. 

*Silence* 

He moves on to reading cookie labels and David pops out with, "Ah Son, a good gentleman always has at least 7 of those tricks in his repertoire...a lady needs consideration." 

Ah, my boys.  

Thank goodness he moved on to the cookies before David had to explain what "Give Yourself a Brazilian" means.