life with a csa

(sing it to the tune of “life is a cabaret!”)

So my roommate Alli, her boyfriend Jason, his roommate, and I, have all gone in on a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture- Google it!). Split four ways, it comes out to $5 a week per person.

Because obviously CSA’s have their pluses and minuses (one minus being that I have gotten so much lemongrass in the past three weeks that I’ve had to turn it into a flower arrangement in the living room), I thought I’d share some of what I’ve been throwing together.

Because I am not always the organized woman I aspire to be, some nights I end up eating haphazard leftovers directly out of a baking dish.

These were all delicious:

 

Beginning at 12:00, behold:

-a slice of grilled paneer with oil and balsamic. I bought paneer at the most epic Indian grocery store I have ever beheld and have used it to make lots. One of my favorites was making a bastardized version of grilled halloumi (Greek style): I just put some olive oil in a pan, cooked the paneer in it (on both sides) then added balsamic to deglaze the pan and add a little acidity. Brilliant, if I do say so myself.

-socca, to which I’ve hopefully sung enough odes by now that y’all are familiar with it

- turnips with miso butter, per Eating Well. Google it! Quite delicious.

- finally, my apple-potato gratin

Quite carb heavy (though I did foist some of that gratin off on my roommate, who didn’t protest all that much). But a very me-friendly meal. Local were: the turnips and their greens, the potatoes, the apples. Not bad!

Another night I had Steve over and made:

- Salmon (thawed frozen from Trader Joe’s. Silverbrite. Ultra fishy, wouldn’t necessarily recommend) marinated in CSA lemongrass broth (steeped lemongrass in hot water); soy sauce; watermelon rind pickle juice (!)

- roasted radishes (watermelon radishes! So pink and pretty!)

- rice steamed with a knob of lemongrass and finished off with CSA cilantro and butter

- CSA green salad with homemade vinaigrette

 

Then I had one helllllllllllll of a week at work. Plus my car broke down. Plus I had to work Saturday. Gah gah gah.

So Sunday I slept my face off (score) and cooked all day (double score).

The first order of business was brunch, for which I made banana pancakes (using up an old batch of banana oatmeal and repurposing it into something more fun) and kale chips.

     

Then I did my version of meal planning. None of these matched up (I subbed Wednesday’s lunch for Sunday’s dinner, ate Sunday’s dinner on Monday). My main goal in this endeavor is to make sure I have enough to eat all week so I won’t be able to lie to myself that I “need” to have ice cream for dinner.

 

My first step is always to make a list of what I have already made (or quick-prep ingredients). I did REALLY WELL cooking a BUNCH of stuff on Sunday, so I had a LOT premade. The CSA was really good for this.

I got a pumpkin NOT from the CSA but still local- my neighbor’s parents grew it! To be more specific, they grew a gazillion pumpkins and gave them all to their son, who is now earnestly trying to get rid of them.

Happy to do my part, I threw together something sort of fun and inventive: I sliced the pumpkin into super thin slices, that looked sort of like lasagna noodles. Then I made a basic bechamel, to which I added yogurt because I like the tang, I’ve done it successfully in the past while following a Cooking Light recipe, and most importantly was worried about my plain yogurt going bad. I layered the pumpkin “noodles” and the bechamel (which I’d pepped up a bit with nutmeg and balsamic) and it was PRETTY DANG TASTY.

I also seasoned it, and everything else lately, with this:

Bought it at the DOLLAH STORE. I mean cmon guys, it’s all the same sea.

Anyway, for the other CSA items for the week, I made the following:

Looks kind of like hot and sour soup, doesn’t it? What it actually is is cooked yellow split peas and greens (beans and greens!), given some richness and pep with ginger and garlic (from the farmer’s market) and coconut milk (from the freezer! It freezes well, note to self, and it’s so nice because I perpetually only need a little bit when I make curry recipes), and finally more of that paneer.

Inventive. Or weird. However you want to phrase it.

Finally, I’ve been getting almost as many radishes as lemongrass. I combined two types of radishes (white and watermelon radishes- the watermelon radishes have beautiful pink centers!) along with purple potatoes, olive oil, salt, and pepper, and gave them a good roast.

Beautiful colors, no?

 

Ultimately, I’m really glad I did the CSA experiment, and it ended up reinforcing to me all of the stereotypes about CSA’s: it’s fun and convenient and inspires creativity to get an unpredictable weekly delivery. You also get weird stuff in weird quantities and get sick of eating the same stuff over and over (I’m looking at you, absurd quantities of lemongrass that are now making up the flower arrangement in my living room).

if it aint broke

You know what there is something to be said for? Routine.

Knowing what breakfast will make you full. Knowing what ingredients you can combine to make a delicious lunch that’s easy to transport. Having the dinner you can throw together in ten minutes flat when you arrive home from work totally hangry.

A few of mine:

This summer, I’ve actually been taking an oats break. I love oats, but right now what’s doing it for me in a major way is shredded wheat. My winning combo is shredded wheat, milk and/or yogurt (my favorite is six tablespoons yogurt plus two tablespoons milk. Oddly specific but awesome texture for soaking into the cereal but retaining some toothsomeness), nuts (either almonds or walnuts), and banana (chopped fine for maximum flavor dispersion- I cut the banana in half the long way, then those halves in half).

 

Flavors are nice, texture is fab, and it keeps me just as full as oats with the same unprocessed, whole grain goodness.

 

Back when I was taking classes (eesh, remember that? I wonder if I’ll ever do that again…) I made this for I want to say four meals in a row.

Cook up some mushrooms and garlic in oil, then add tomatoes and cook down. When they’re nice and soft, add some white beans.

Then cook in some couscous (you won’t need to add as much water cause the tomatoes yield a bunch). Trader Joe’s whole wheat couscous is to die for (and whole-grain-phobes would never know, it tastes exactly the same as the white stuff).

So good, so satisfying.

 

For lunch, you can have it with some yogurt ‘n fruit if you’d like!

Or just straight up. Spices are optional, too. You could tweak this quite a bit as you fancied. Cumin? Caramelized onions? Oregano? Harissa? Olives? Sun dried tomatoes?

  Another AWESOME superfoods lunch- sardine salad! I like mine mooshed up with finely minced celery and carrot plus some yogurt and chili powder. Or mustard. Or anything. Sardines are so good.

Then you can eat it with crackers or whole-wheat flatbread ripped up in a haphazard fashion and baked until crispy (lazy crackers!)

 

SO FUN TO EAT. I also suspect that it’s inherently healthier for me to eat stuff a little at a time, drawing out the experience, focusing on flavors and textures. More satisfying!

 

My be-all and end-all home-alone-for-dinner meal is greens with a poached egg on top.

Oil and vinegar. Salt and pepper. Yesterday, today and tomorrow.

tea with the queen

Oh P.S. My mom went to the UK last month to visit my studying-abroad sister and have tea with the queen so I was kind of foraging for myself for awhile there.

Which leads to things like this happening:

I sit at the computer being all “God I’m so tiiiiiiiiiiiiired. I’m so huuuuuuuuuuungry. I can’t even stand uuuuuuuuuuuuuup”.

And then going “OH MY GOD I WENT OUT TO LUNCH AT WORK AND HAVE LEFTOVERS! I AM SAVED!”

 

In a (compostable!) leftovers container was a deeeeelicious half a veggie burger from Busboys and Poets. Went on a rare and thus very exciting work lunch out in DC to welcome a new staff member at our DC office.

I kind of ordinarily think people who only eat half a sandwich for lunch are ridiculous and probably hungry all the time, but we had gotten their ridiculously good nachos as an appetizer and their veggie patty is also the size of my face. So.

That half a sandwich didn’t fill me up for dinner (not having preceded it with nachos) so then I randomly chewed on:

Tomatoes and bean sprouts, of course.

And SHOCKINGLY, SHOCKINGLY, eating those things with my bare hands did not leave me satisfied. I know. And then I ate a bunch of other crap. Can’t remember. It’s been awhile. April was not my healthiest month. Trying to get it together now.

Steve came over for meals a lot, because he is good company and my house makes scary noises from time to time.

It was good cause I still had all this food at my house, cause we tend to overbuy.

So I did a his and hers leftovers-utilizing thing.

His:

  

Leftover pasta made into salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, hummus, and vinaigrette.  

Hers:

  

Leftover rice cooked up with hummus, tomatoes, kale. Both pretty good.

 

Then my mother returned!

A welcome to America meal, beautifully arranged, if I do say so myself. Nice colors. Nice textures. Nice flavors.

 

I had leftover black bass from a delightful day of grilling, so I made it into a nice pasta dish with caramelized onions, Swiss chard, and vegetable broth. YUM!

 

And my mom did not return from England empty-handed!

First, this chestnut spread:

Um, literally squeezed it out of the tube and onto my finger. Went, “I know this was probably really expensive and I want you to know that I’m really enjoying it despite eating it like a cavewoman.” Didn’t stand a chance. Ridiculously amazing. Not as thick as peanut butter: more the consistency of frosting. And the flavor of sweet chestnutty buttery… awesomeness.

Zoomed right through these, too:

My mom studied abroad at St. Andrew’s in Scotland (where Wills and Kate later met!) and became passionately fond of oatcakes. They are uh-mazing. Super dense, not that sweet, just… so hearty and satisfying and great. And you can put honey on them :D

Finally, proper English breakfast tea!

 

Proper leaves, so I got out my little buddy that Steve gave me.

 

I call him Mao.

superstar protein

I had the BEST dinner last night.

I went to class, went to the gym, got home at, oh… nine.

I’ve been having positively European-late dinners lately with my current schedule.

Anyway, here’s what I did:

Toasted some curry powder (1/2 tsp?) in a hot-ish small pot. Dumped in some thawed frozen spinach (a cup or so) and some Trader Joe’s tomato and roasted red pepper soup (also about a cup or so). Let come up to a bubble. Added an egg (!) and poached, lid on, for seven minutes or so.

Like… the best dinner I’ve had in recent memory. No lie.

 

My lucky mother was in Seattle, from whence she has just returned. The boyf was in class. I thus had total license to eat eggs, the ULTIMATE DINING ALONE PROTEIN.

Oh and the ultimate protein, against which all other proteins are measured (as I’m learning in my nutrition class). And the most easily absorbable source of iron.

And it was just hot and satisfying and a bit spicy and a bit tangy and flavorful and rich and delightful.

Oh and as you’ll observe, you need virtually no fresh ingredients. Freezer, pantry, we always have eggs… boom.

The moment I split open the yolk with my spoon… just… no words. It kind of reminded me of the richness of the tikka masala sauce you’ll have in a not-authentic Indian meal. But healthier :D

As mentioned in previous posts, while it’s rare that I’ll eat eggs for breakfast, I love and enjoy them for the day’s later meals.

This is another warmish, high-in-veggies egg thing:

Cut up a tomato. Microwave it in some balsamic and a bit of oil (not much; the egg yolk makes the dressing rich).until it’s softened and jammy.

Then toss it up with some greens and throw a poached egg on top.

Nice sweetness happens with the tomato and balsamic!

Another dimly lit late night dinner, with tea and yogurt.

  

We had some green tomatoes (a decidedly whacky winter has livened up the produce section at the farmer’s market)

I sauteed ‘em up, some in thin slices and some chopped up with sweet onion. Set the slices aside….

… while I added beaten up eggs to the chopped tomato and onion mixture.

Then put the slices decoratively on top!

Then cooked everything.

NICE flavors!

 

This was a total superfoods after-church-brunch salad:

farmer’s market greens. farmer’s market cucumbers. farmer’s market eggs, hardboiled. smoked herring (!) oh yeahhhh omega 3s and low mercury holla!

  

Plus a wonderful grapefruit (vair sad that this last day of February marks the end of National Grapefruit Month).

Annnnnd my favorite farmer’s market bread, with flax seeds (within) and sunflower seeds (baked on the crust). Whole wheat. Delicious.

Superfoods!