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).

balancing lunch

Being on a student schedule, I usually get to eat lunch at home. Suuuuuuuuuch a luxury! I’ve had too many jobs where lunch was a ten-minutes-at-my-desk-or-a-meeting affair. Having a (relatively) slow and relaxing lunch is a really nice way to work some self-care into my day. AND, as such, I want it to be balanced and leave me satisfied. Here are some recent lunches!

Lunch #1: The McGriddle (hahahaha not. But hear me out).

 

So my little sister is the master of microwave-cooking eggs in a mug. She taught me how to do it (relatively) well. So I take an egg, THOROUGHLY whisk it in a mug (key) and microwave it with some waxed paper on top for a minute, stirring halfway through.

Then I put it on a salad with greens, chopped apple or pear, and goat cheese. And THEN, put a little MAPLE SYRUP on top. Thus, egg+cheese+maple syrup=McGriddle!

Hahaha I know it’s BS. But this is a really good salad.

  

On balance I’m going to give it a B-. Delicious and healthy, but I probably snacked a good amount later since it was pretty low-cal and I just generally feel fuller when I have grainy carbs with lunch.

Next lunch: Count those food groups!

 

The savory portion of the meal was kind of a mini-version of the grain bowls I’ve been lovin’ on lately. Quinoa, black beans, kale, mushrooms. Topped with avocado for healthy fat/general bliss.

On the sweet end, chopped apples with Greek yogurt and cinnamon. A silly revelation that you all will think is super vapid: for years I put yogurt in a bowl and fruit on top. But if you put the yogurt on top of the fruit… it doesn’t stick as much to the bottom of the bowl! Another deep thought from my blog. You are so welcome.

   

Enjoyed with flowers! Nice and filling, this one. No complaints.

Third lunch: Veggie extravaganza!

I love how simultaneously nutritious and overflowing this plate is.

Let’s do a lap, shall we?

Going clockwise from the orange section, we begin with oven-baked sweet potato fries. Next, the last of some leftover brussels sprouts cooked my favorite way, which have been popping up all over the Internet (jk that’s my bff’s blog! check it out!). For the protein and healthy fat element on this plate of carbs, we have some Trader Joe’s refried black beans topped with some beautiful sliced fresh avocado (tip: Costco has the best avocados. I think they are absolute rubbish at Safeway, Giant and Trader Joe’s). Finally, something rather special: kale chips made with TAHINI. Dude. Try it. Kale and sesame are a match made in heaven. Just make sure to bake your chips on a low temperature and keep an eye on them, because they get crispy faster… then promptly transition to burnt.

It seems unfair to grade this one on balance, cause cmon- it’s a beautiful thing to have your entire day’s veggie needs in a meal. That being said… B+ rather than an A because I was hungry for a snack not too long after I ate it :) Don’t care, still delicious, still awesome for me.

 

ends and beginnings

A celebration in style:

We begin with an ending- Steve is officially done with Americorps!

FYI, I spent my first year post-college providing afterschool enrichment at a program in south Arlington, a DC suburb chock-full of at-risk kiddos who need a good, safe, educational-type place to go afterschool. They also enjoyed having wholesome young do-gooder Americorps members upon which to heap ridicule at that program :) That’s where I met Steve, and we oh-so-subtly had our workplace romance (everyone knew). I felt burnt out at the end of one year, and left for the food bank, but Steve had another year in him. That was nice for me cause I could keep my connection to the program, and also got to meet Steve’s very cool new coworkers.

SO we had a big fat picnic. In the shadow of the Washington Monument! (The Lapiz, as our kids and parents called it).

Friends!

 

(Friends and their significant others. Including people with SPOUSES. HALF OF THE PEOPLE AT THIS PICNIC WERE MARRIED AGGGH WHY I AM SO OLD).

Being national parks, of course, the hallowed grounds of the monuments do not permit drinking.

Cough.

No one would ever suspect this innocent-looking cup contains alcohol.

What I really housed were these:

  

(Just in that corner is the nacho cheese. Mmm).

So Kyle. Kyle! Agh! Our friend Kyle came, who did the first Americorps year with me (we actually led the same team of kids, which naturally inspired tons of rumors about his love for me, and then later in the year his entirely fictional girlfriend they called Savannah. Hah man kids are so funny). Kyle is going to INDONESIA! His (actual) girlfriend got a Fulbright (!) and then he wanted to be with her (aw) and found himself a job, in the same town in Indonesia (hey hey!) and off he was going.

Crazy. Crazy. My friends are having such adventures! I think/hope I am due.

Anyway, Kyle brought an excellent salad that involved blueberries and walnuts and mint from his garden.

 

It was great.

Meanwhile, I made some stuff at home, because I was sick.. for days… Never took a whole sick day, and had so much comp time I didn’t even have to take official leave, but did a lot of leaving early. And I skipped the company picnic, which was pretty sweet.

So I had time to do some cookin’. We had some uh-mazing farmer’s market grape tomaotes, along with some oldish grapes. So I slow roasted them in the oven with olive oil and salt and pepper. Mm.

   

I tossed those with various leftover rice things and herbs and… whatever. Kind of a rice salad. Or pilaf.

The main highlight was the cake! I love staying home from work and making cake. It’s wonderful.

Decorating was fun (that’s the- ridiculous, in my and many others’ opinion- Americorps motto!)

 

We spent the evening talking (a lot) eating (a lot) playing some sweet Frisbee, reminiscing… it was a good one! I forget how nice it is to really mark the end of something in a meaningful way. And night picnics are the best :)

  

John, Steve coworker MacNair’s husband, along with being really nice is a ridonkulously good photographer, and Chris, Steve’s coworker Erika’s incredibly annoying and rude husband has a really good camera. So we were playing with it, and various tricks you can do on the iPhone to make streamers of light in the background. I was in charge of the flash… that’s about all my camera is good for!

 

So that’s the end of something.

The here and now… is wiping me out.

This is the typical state of my desk.

 

I made it look like this. I was pleased.

For ten minutes or so. Anyway, long enough to drink that cup of tea.

And these kiddos come when their mom, who runs a food pantry, comes to the food bank, and make beautiful decorations for my office (along with that picture on the left, made by a high-schooler who’s one of our most devoted volunteers).

But… it’s wiping me out. We’ll see.

Now for a beginning.

For a wee little while, I’ll have the best health care in the history of health care.

No deductible! No co pay!

(You should register too!)

highs and lows and hunger in America

I am on my Spring Break. I am also on my couch. God bless Spring Break. (I do still have to go to work. But then I get to go home after.)

Last week’s highs:

At church yesterday, I held a baby. A cute, warm, good smelling baby. As I sang in the choir. Then she fell asleep in my arms. So. awesome.

On gorgeous sunny Saturday, Steve and I parked at Gravelly Point and strolled all over DC. We walked back to Virginia over Memorial Bridge (the bridge directly next to the Lincoln… Memorial, thus the name) and I discovered an astonishingly gorgeous stretch of grass, trees, and blooming daffodils between lanes of traffic. We walked in the balmy weather as the sun set. It was the best.

In my chem class, the professor couldn’t get the overhead projector to work. He gave it a look and kind of wiggled his fingers. I said to my friend, “He looks like he’s doing a Jedi mind trick”. My friend, not missing a beat, wiggled his fingers and went, “Those aren’t the chemical equations you’re looking for.” Humor in chem class is very very necessary.

Last week’s lows:

Getting talked down to. In work and academic situations. Even if I were stupid, would you increase my productivity or learning by treating me like a stupid person?

Enough about that.

Here’s something AWESOME that I got to do through work:

 

There is something called the Hunger Free Communities Network that does… many awesome things.

Including assembling us in the hunger-fighting business do to some learnin’ from each other. Working in rural areas, working in urban areas, working with specific populations, utilizing specific federal programs, coordinating with other nonprofits, collecting good data, etc. etc.

It was at a lovely downtown hotel in a room filled with super cool people.

And there was a BREAKFAST BUFFET, oh joy!

A scrambled egg, cheerios and flavored yogurt parfait (I used to snarf those down in college… I miss flavored yogurt… it’s just too Frankenfoody and unethically sourced for me to eat now; sad), and enough EXPENSIVE BERRIES TO FILL UP MY BELLY! I love love love buffets. I never eat enough berries to leave me truly happy. I love berries. I should really grow them.

We had a nice introductory session, where various current and former politicians reminded us (this is a direct quote): “Most members of Congress are caring human beings”.

Hahahahaha.

And then it was breakout session time. I went to one that discussed data (because I am a thrill a minute) but it really WAS thrilling because it ended up starring my new HERO. Mariana Chilton. Director of Center for Hunger Free Communities.

Awesome things Center for Hunger Free Communities does:

-Pushes for food insecurity screenings in hospitals.

In a nutshell, this captures the most vulnerable people when they’re in a crisis situation: in a hospital, either because they lack health insurance, because they or their child has had a medical emergency. Perhaps they deal with issues of domestic violence (the incidence of which increases in households that are food insecure). The idea is that these people, in crisis, are asked by the doctor/nurse/health professional who admits them, whether or not they are in a state of food insecurity (a lot of the time, proxy measures are used: for example, you might ask, “Did you have to choose between buying food and paying rent this month? Or between buying food and paying for medicine?”) Last year, I thought all the time how our kids were definitely in need (they were low-income to qualify for our program, and they received food bank meals every day after school, AND they took home food for the weekend), but that in some ways they were the lucky ones, whose parents were on top of it enough to put them in an afterschool enrichment program. When you’re screening in a hospital, you’re catching the most vulnerable people you might not catch anywhere else. If you’re interested, you can read more about it here: Children's Healthwatch

- Documents hunger from the perspective of actual hungry people

Rather than a bunch of people like me who have (blessedly) never faced food insecurity, why not hear about it from the people who have? See the real environment and real challenges. Here: Witnesses to Hunger

-Combines nutrition and public health research

As someone who’s obsessed with both (and hopes, maybe, someday, to have my name followed with RD/MPH), I was hugely inspired by Mariana Chilton’s research. The latest of their organization’s impressive reports demonstrates (I’m talking to you, Newt Gingrich) that feeding the hungry, along with being the morally right thing to do, also reduces health care costs. You can read it here: The SNAP vaccine

(FYI, this jargon is really familiar to me, working at a food bank, but SNAP stands for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, previously known as food stamps. In general, if any of these subjects interest you, please get in touch! They’re what I deal with at work every day and what I’m passionate about. Drop me a line at lelelurvesplants@gmail.com)

On a less deep note, I was super excited for lunch. My supervisor, Amy, had gone the previous year and spoke highly of the food.

I was immediately excited to see iced tea at every seat. I love free iced tea so much.

 

They made a big hoopla of asking who was vegetarian/kosher/gluten free and put stickers on our name tags… and then it was a buffet?

Silly.

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed my mound of Caesar salad, roll, assorted roasted veggies (Amy and I spent an amusing amount of time speculating which veggies), potatoes, a giant vegan butternut squash ravioli with eggplant tomato sauce…

… and there were mini Crumbs cupcakes! Hugely exciting.

But then I hadn’t had a chocolate one.. and they were so small… and also so good.

The nonprofit world is so female. (Single dudes,, you are really missing out on an opportunity. Start volunteering!). We spent a long period of time at lunch chatting about cupcakes. And having to go to the bathroom a lot. And weddings. In retrospect, it was kind of embarrassing.

Breakout session #2 was a bit less awesome, just because getting food to kids in after school programs (what I do, under a federal program called CACFP) is a bit complicated. Do you send prepackaged meals? Do you do a vendor? Etc. etc. etc.

The day concluded with a candlelit, atmospheric gathering that involved chocolate fondue (!)

 

Random roast turkey (?)

 

Passed appetizers (this was a fried artichoke that was surprisingly just okay)

 

And an open bar!

While a speaker discussed a conference I lack the funds to attend, I tried my first Cosmopolitan. I did not like it, and was glad it was free.

control freak tendencies

So anyone who has spent any time with me in real life has figured out that I am a control freak. Like, pretty intensely. Never is this more manifested (at least in my head; hopefully it’s less visible to others) than when there are leftovers in my house.

To clarify: not my leftovers. Other peoples’ leftovers.

You would think that being a foodie, I’d enjoy getting food related gifts. Sweet treats, dishes made from exotic recipes, restaurant leftovers. But quite honestly, the only gift I’d really like is some sort of raw ingredient. That I can cook, MY way, knowing EXACTLY how it was prepared and WHAT went in it and the health implications thereof.

My aunt gave me a pumpkin one time. It was great!

Anyway, we never host Thanksgiving and are always sent leftovers from whatever we attend. This year was no different, since my aunt Jeanie, whose wonderful Thanksgiving I attended; and my aunt Joanne, who picked my mom and sister up at the airport the day before Thanksgiving, ordered them home, and promised them Thanksgiving delivered to the house, did too.

So this year, I decided to try and just CHILL OUT and ENJOY THE LEFTOVERS.

For this particular lunch I was helped by the fact that I got to eat outside, due to it being in the MID SIXTIES despite the fact that it is LATE NOVEMBER! Gosh, lucky me :D

Along with a bucket of tea, I made a wonderful Whole Foods Hot Bar-esque plate. It’s great having lots of different things to taste! This is the ultimate for me! I should enjoy it!

 

Starting at the mashed sweet potatoes and going sideways, there are those wonderful orangey mashes of delight; my roasted veggies; some broccoli stem relish (that I’ll post about sooner rather than later); black olives (I know fancy shmancy sour olives and wrinkly olives and all that are the gourmet things to enjoy but I had forgotten how much I loooooove BLACK OLIVES FROM A CAN!); and brussels sprouts.

Even better was the side dish:

Greek yogurt, shredded wheat, and the most EXTRAORDINARY cranberry slaw/relish thing. Don’t know how it was made but it’s marvy!

 

But wait! There’s so much more!

I feel like it’s such an obvious choice after Thanksgiving or any mashed potatoes occasion to make shepherd’s pie.

We had indeed been sent home with mashed potatoes (and though mashed potatoes are one of those foods that incite my control freak tendencies, these tasted delicious and fresh, and not positively overloaded in butter. You also just use a thin layer of them as the topping, as you’ll see, so I consider this a healthful choice.)

But wait! I not only had leftover mashed potatoes. I had leftover VEGGIE BURGERS, having made a batch of my lentil burgers earlier in the week.

So this isn’t just Thanksgiving Leftovers shepherd’s pie- it’s VEGETARIAN shepherd’s pie!  

I had previous made and loved Cooking Light’s wild mushroom lentil cottage pie, so I roughtly followed its methodology.

I sauteed carrot, celery, and onion to tenderness, then added some mushrooms.

Then deglazed with a splash of veggie broth.

 

Rather than adding cooked lentils, I crumbled in my veggie burgers. I used considerably less vegetable broth- maybe 1 cup total. To enhance flavor, I added red wine vinegar and some ketchup.

 

It looked somewhat astonishingly meaty; and also did a beautiful job of thickening up as it baked, producing a texture (though not a flavor) very reminiscent of traditional shepherd’s pie.

By far the most fun activity- frosting the pie!

By which I mean smearing on mashed potatoes.

This was fun but I also had a slightly control freak-y moment when I worried I’d run out of mashed potatoes. But I did not. And got really the perfect layer.

  

When my pie emerged from the oven it had charmingly sprung a “gravy” leak in one corner, but goodness the potatoes were lovely.

 

As for the taste, my mom and I chowed down on roughly three fifths of that big pan there. Very nice.

Finally, this is the ultimate in my control freak tendencies: when I inherit something I’d never in a million years make on my own.

When I look at a sweet potato, I see a vegetable. I see a vegetable that is very sweet and delicious on its own, and mixing in large amounts of sugar seems silly. I see a vegetable that is silky and tender in texture when cooked well, and mixing in large quantities of butter seems silly (and less than heart healthy).

So when I get sweet potato casserole… with sprinkles on top… I am left slightly befuddled.

BUT in these circumstances, just MAKE SOUP.

Really, when the world throws you a curveball, it is just always a good idea to make soup :D

My sweet potato casserole soup has three ingredients:

1. Sweet potato casserole
2. Vegetable broth (to thin it into soup, dilute calories/butter/sugar)

and

3. Roasted butternut squash!

 

Compatible in flavor, adding a nice texture to sink one’s teeth into, the butternut squash did a PERFECT job of bringing this soup together.

And lo and behold, all that butter and sugar and pecans? It made for a DELICIOUS soup.

In fact, it was positively INSPIRED and never something I’d make on my own. So there, control freak. Let a little outside influence in.