CSA, Again!

Today was exciting - I picked up a new CSA box of veggies for the first time since before the holidays. I think this is a good box, and I'm committed to using up all the veggies and not wasting anything! I did pretty well at this last semester, except at the end when it was Thanksgiving, hubby was leaving, and I was studying for exams.

Here's how it looks:

You may not be able to see all this, but there's kale, scallions, grapefruit, two oranges, Swiss chard, broccoli, spinach, salad greens, carrots, beets, and cabbage (I think that's it!). Pinterest is amazing for collecting recipes to use this stuff up, and I'm hoping I'll make some really yummy stuff over the next couple weeks!

Eggplant Pizza

I'm on a roll with these recipes... today I want to share my method for making veggie pizza, and this most recent one happened to be an eggplant pizza. The great thing about pizza is that it can be a canvas for whatever you need to use up!

I found one recipe online that suggested broiling the eggplant first - this helped cook it a bit and make it soft enough to bite into when eating it on the pizza - just brush with olive oil and sprinkle on salt, then broil for a few minutes on each side.

Next, it was time to spread out the dough. I used to make my own pizza crust, but I just started buying a frozen ball of dough at the grocery store and honestly, it tastes just as good and it's definitely easier. It was even easier than usual to stretch and spread the dough - I think leaving it out for a couple of hours (at room temperature) may have helped. My pizzas are rarely perfectly shaped - I just solve this problem by calling it "artisan" pizza. See? No worries! 

I spread a somewhat thin layer of sauce on the dough, then sprinkle chopped up garlic and red pepper flakes on top. On this pizza, I also added some grape tomatoes I needed to use up, and put a few pieces of eggplant under the cheese before sprinkling the cheese on top, followed by the rest of the eggplant. Also, in case anyone actually uses this as a recipe, I put a layer of Crisco on the baking sheet before pressing out the dough.

Ready to go in the oven! 

I cooked it at 370 or so, and 20 minutes later, it looked like this - yum! 

Roasted Squash and Pepper Tacos

Here's the next installment of my CSA recipe series - I got this recipe from the website of my CSA - like others that I get there, just e-mail me if you'd like the recipe!

Especially in my first few boxes, I got a lot of zucchini and squash, and a lot of peppers. This has been the perfect easy and yummy recipe to help me use those things up! It's just a matter of slicing the zucchini, squash, and peppers, slicing up some onion, and dressing all that with olive oil, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and cumin. The filling is roasted in the oven for about 30 minutes, and then I put it in some whole wheat tortillas, and top with salsa, shredded cheese, and Greek yogurt (which I use instead of sour cream). I love making Mexican inspired things at home because they are such a great combination of scrumptious and easy, and this recipe is no exception.

Filling ingredients, except for the onion

Finished product! Yum!

Kale Chips

I first made kale chips earlier this year. To be sure, they don't totally substitute for potato chips, but they make you feel much better about eating them, and they do satisfy a craving for something salty and crunchy. Even better, they're super simple to make. I've used a couple recipes as a guide - one on Allrecipes and the other from Smitten Kitchen.

First, I ripped all the leaves off the ribs and made sure they were roughly in bite size pieces. Then I drizzled them with olive oil and sprinkled on some salt, then tossed it all together. I baked it in a 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes (I think maybe 13 minutes total... but who's counting?).

Some of them may have found their way into my tummy before I took the photo!

For whatever reason, they were even better than I remembered them being. I do think I may have put on too much salt, but you know - live and learn!

Just wanted to share one way I've used the kale I've gotten in the CSA share. It's great to have a way to make it into an easy snack!

This Week's CSA Haul

It's been a while since I actually photographed my CSA veggies, but I made sure to do it Thursday after I got home. Here's what's in season now:

Beets, kohlrabi, turnips, cilantro, mustard greens, kale, eggplant, a few peppers, onions, sweet potatoes, green beans, and mixed salad greens.

I'd never heard of kohlrabi before, and I still have yet to taste it. According to Wikipedia, it's German for "cabbage-turnip" - fun fact! I found a recipe for roasted kohlrabi that I'll be trying later in the week.

I'm also excited about the green beans - they are one of hubby's favorite vegetables, and he'll be here sometime next week, so I'll wait to cook them til he's here!

I'll be sharing a few more specific recipes in the days to come, to share how I'm using my local veggies.

My Newest Cooking Adventure

I briefly mentioned this before, but I'm finally taking the time to write in more detail about my latest food adventure - I joined a local CSA (which stands for community supported agriculture). Individual programs looks slightly different, but in the one I chose, I sign up for a set number of boxes of produce at a time (from a local farm), and I get to choose the frequency and dates I pick my boxes up. Since I'm living on my own for now, I started out signing up for four boxes on a biweekly basis. So far I've picked up two of my boxes, and it's been great for making me go out of my comfort zone both eating and cooking, and it has also helped me focus on continuing to consume a healthy amount of fruits and veggies! Joining a CSA was something I'd wanted to do for a while, and I'm so happy to finally be doing it!

I'm hoping to update the blog on a semi-regular basis with a record of what I've been getting and how I manage to use it. Figuring out how to use the bulk of the veggies I receive is definitely a challenge, but one I'm glad to be taking on. For one thing, it makes it easier to decide what to make for dinner (narrows it down a bit). That being said, here is a photo of the contents of my first box:

Some of this will be obvious, but there was arugula, acorn squash, basil, summer squash, eggplant, beets, peppers, sweet potato greens, mint, and onions.

I used all this in a variety of ways over the next couple weeks, but here are some things I managed to photograph. These dishes include the contents of this box and the next one I got as well.

Quesadilla (with summer squash I believe) and sauteed greens and peppers 

Balsamic glazed beets with goat cheese and basil

Pasta with acorn squash and pork in a spiced sauce

This was the first time I'd ever cooked okra, so there's a bonus picture of it before I chopped it up

Okra fritters 

It's been fun finding ways to use my local produce, and I'll try to continue sharing the different things I end up doing! It occurs to me now that I've also made a couple of delicious vegetable pizzas (usually with eggplant and in one case with summer squash). The vegetable pizza, along with the veggie frittatta, is one of my favorite ways to use the veggies up!

There's my introductory post! As usual I'm more than open to suggestions of what to do with these things, or other stories of similar experiences.