Week 10, meal 2

A cold, rainy day was all the excuse I needed to take the chili that I made out of the freezer and heat it up. It was looking a little sad so the first addition was a can of diced tomatoes. Next came sauteed green and red peppers along with some soy meat crumbles. It was served alongside homemade biscuits with vegan butter and sliced avocado, tomatoes, and soy sour cream. Came out even better than the first time!

Week 10, meal 1

When I woke up last Friday morning, I decided that I needed to make myself some treats to take to work. First, I used some lettuce and tomato in a sandwich with Nayonaise and "Turkey" slices. Then, while I ate breakfast I tried to think what I could do with all of my cherry tomatoes. What I made was east and delicious!

Pasta with a Quick Cherry Tomato Sauce

8-10 cherry tomatoes sliced in half
1 large (or 2 small) cloves of garlic, finely minced
1 tiny onion, finely minced (a 1/4 or a regular onion would suffice)
Handful of fresh basil, torn
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper
Nutritional yeast
2 servings of pasta, cooked

Saute the onions and garlic in some olive oil till the onions are translucent. Add in the cherry tomatoes and cook until they are very soft and will easily pop if you push on them with a spoon. Season with salt and pepper, add a couple tablespoons of nutritional yeast and add a little more olive oil. Throw in pasta and basil. Toss and serve.

This came out so good! It was nice to eat a cooked tomato since I have been snacking on so many raw ones.

Week Ten

I'm at the halfway point and already thinking about next season. I am on the fence as to whether I should be doing a CSA or just to my local farmer's market. I love what I get from Farmer Dave's and love that I am supporting a local farm, I'm just not sure if I can justify buying a small share just for myself. I will be thinking about this until the last pick-up and would love to know other peoples thoughts.

I did something new this week, something I should have been doing from week one. I purchased some of the Debbie Myer Green Bags a few weeks ago and have been using them inconsistently with mixed results. I have used them in the past and they worked great. They key to them is washing and drying the produce prior to putting the vegetables in to them. I washed and dried everything except for the lettuce and am crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. The line up in my refrigerator is pretty fantastic right now!

1 head of green leaf lettuce
5 ears of corn
4 garden tomatoes
2 plum tomatoes
1/2 pint of ground husk cherry tomatoes
1 heirloom tomato
1 bag of yellow beans
2 small onions
2 chili peppers
1 bunch of Basil
2 green peppers
1 misshapen eggplant

I am starting to think that I should be making sauce and canning some of these tomatoes, but the last few weeks I have just been enjoying them sliced with salt and pepper. My other idea is slow roasting them using this recipe , it looks and sounds amazing. I will keep you posted on what I make!

Weeks Eight and Nine

Weeks 8 & 9 were filled with meals not prepared by me because my hand was a mess, but I am back (for the most part) and ready to start afresh on week 10. Thinking back to what I ate the past 3 weeks, pasta salad, tomatoes and corn come to mind. I haven't wasted much and I even ended up giving a share away when I went to Martha's Vineyard for 5 days. It must have been a funny sight to see a Farmer Dave's box attached to a backpack, upside down with tomatoes squirting out (only one didn't fare well). I'm off now to do week 10.

Week 7, meal 1

Since I am off these next 2 weeks so my hand can heal, my wonderful roommate Kim (Hi Kim!) has been doing the cooking and baking. First we started off with the St. Patric's Day zucchini muffins and they came out great. I was reading the directions off and forgot to tell Kim 2 ingredients, those being sugar and walnuts. The walnuts got added to the top along with a cinnamon crumb topping but the sugar was forgotten about until I took a bite and noticed that something was missing. Next time we will be making sure that there are more raisins and that all the ingredients get in there before baking! There was also a banana bread made after this which looks amazing but is a gift present so I haven't eaten it yet. Kim made a glaze of walnuts, brown sugar and vegan butter. It made a toffee sort of thing on top. I'll let you know how delicious it is!

Our kitchen was already a disaster from all the baking so we decided to make a big pasta salad for dinner. After cooking a box of tricolor rotini, a light olive oil vinaigrette (from the Newman's own line) was added. Kim chopped up tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers and added to the bowl. I served mine with a sprinkling of vegan cheese and a Tofurkey sausage that I quickly browned in a pan. Kim used cheddar cheese and pepperoni to go with hers. A couple ears of corn and 2 Shirley Temples on the side, 1 with extra cherries and 1 without!

This made a ton, more than enough for 4 people or for 2 very hungry women who like to have leftovers so they don't have to cook everyday. Try the Shirley's, you won't regret it!

Shirley Temple

Grenadine
Ginger ale
Cherries
Ice

Take a tall glass, fill it with ice. Add a generous splash of grenadine and a few cherries and top off with ginger ale. Serve with a straw and feel 5 again!

Week Seven

This weeks haul made me pretty happy! So much new stuff, such an adorable green tote. I'm keeping this short since I'm typing one handed and it's pretty difficult.

2 medium onions
1 green pepper
1 cubanelle pepper
1 green chili
1 bunch of mint
3 ears of corn
2 tomatoes
1 eggplant
1 head of lettuce
1 cucumber
1 small bag of beans
3 tiny eggplants
1 bunch purslane

I'm excited for the eggplant and tomatoes. Hopefully I will gave some help cooking this week because I can't wait to see what I can come up with!

Week 6, meal 2

With the return of cooler weather and the abundance of veggies left in my fridge, I decided to make Everything But the Kitchen Sink Chili. I made an enormous batch so that I would have something to eat after my hand surgery. (Note- Cooking is very difficult with one hand and even more so when the hand that had surgery is your dominant hand!). I had friends over and it was truly a fantastic meal. I make it different every time, but I'll share the one I did on Monday.

Everything But the Kitchen Sink Chili

1 medium onion
1 small can of corn
1/2 cup of chopped peppers
1 large can of both kidney & black beans
1 regular size can of both Cannellini i beans & chickpeas
2 regular size cans of tomatoes. I did one of chopped, 1 whole
1 small can of tomato paste
1 zucchini
1 squash
1 palmful of both Chili powder & nutritional yeast
1/2 t. cumin
1 t. oregano


Vegan cheese, avocado, tomatoes and tortilla chips to serve with the chili.

Start by finely dicing your onion and sauteing it in about 1 T of olive oil. When the onion is fully cooked and translucent, add the squash and zucchini and cook and cook for 5 min. Add the beans, they all should be drained. Add the tomatoes and spices and simmer for 20-30 min, stirring occasionally. Serve over rice or on it's own, adding toppings as desired.

This makes enough for 10 people to have generous portions and it freezes well. Enjoy!