Crate Full of Veggies - week three

It's time for another Crate Full of Veggies. But before we get started, let me remind you about my cookbook giveaway. That's right, one lucky reader will be gifted a copy of Hannah Kaminski's, Vegan a la Mode, a BRAND new cookbook with over 100 amazing looking frozen treats. If you haven't entered yet, do it!

Okay, you all entered? Good. Now we can talk about veggies. I had a great week with a lot of delicious, fresh meals and I didn't have to go grocery shopping even a little. Although, in the interest of full disclosure, we did eat pancake dinner twice in order to avoid the store but that's Jason's favorite dinner anyway, so we were both quite happy in the end.

In my crate this week:

Strawberries

Broccoli Florets

Red Fire Romaine Lettuce

Snow Peas

Snap Peas

Kale

Mustard Greens

Radicchio

Bunching Onions

Red New Potatoes

Dried Cayenne 

Thyme

The very first night I made Thai Green Curry using up all my broccoli and snow peas plus a few bunching onions from the week before. 

Thai Green Curry

I do it the easy way and buy my curry paste. This makes curry a very quick, simple meal. Just add a can of coconut milk, your veggies, bamboo shoots, and some Thai basil and you've got dinner.

The best thing about Thai Kitchen Curry Paste is the recipe right on the label. So if you are making curry for the first time, grab some paste and you have your cheat sheet right there among your ingredients.




Again I brought home lots and lots of strawberries. I froze almost all of them, enjoyed some of the fresh ones in my morning oatmeal, and turned the remaining berries into these:

Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Creamsicl

These creamsicles became a bit of a hit on the internet over the weekend which has given my blog a little extra attention, a thrill for a new blogger. Here's the recipe. If you try one summer recipe from my blog, make it this!

I had no idea how to use radicchio so I searched the web. I found this:  a whole slew of Martha Stewart's radicchio recipes! There were quite a few ideas and I settled on this one.

Radicchio and Endive Salad

I didn't have any endives but I added a few more bunching onions. I liked everything in the salad except the radicchio which was too bitter for my liking. Nonetheless, I was happy to try something new and glad to find Martha Stewart's radicchio recipes.

Later in the week we had a rare nice day (June in Portland) so we grilled some veggie burgers and enjoyed some kale chips alongside.

Veggie Burger and Kale Chips

Kale chips are fantastic, healthy, and totally satisfying. Toss the de-stemed kale in olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake at 270 for about 25 minutes, turning over a few times.

I enjoyed many side salads this week using the romaine lettuce, mustard greens, and bunching onions.

And at the end of the week I had some potatoes, snap peas, and onions left. I added some carrots and cabbage and tossed the vegetable medley in olive oil, seasoned with salt, pepper, fresh thyme and rosemary and roasted the whole thing in the oven at 425 degrees F for about 35 minutes, until potatoes were tender.

Thyme and Rosemary Vegetable Roast

Well there you have it! How about you? Did you enjoy any seasonal meals this week? Did you try out any new vegetables? As always, I LOVE to hear from you.

Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Creamsicles

One of the best thing about living in Oregon is the fresh and local strawberries. And then of course there are the hazelnuts. Oh and the coffee. And the mountains. The coast. The gorge. And of course Portland's naked bike ride.  Let me rephrase: there are so many great things about living in Oregon, among which are the fresh, local strawberries. If you have been following me over the past week, you already know that I have an abundance of strawberries and yesterday in between consoling, playing, and feeding my daughter, I de-stemed, washed, and froze bags and bags of berries. In the process I got hungry and paused to whip up a batch of Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Creamsicles. Thanks goodness I did!

You ready for an incredible easy yet fantastic summer dessert?

Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Creamsicles
makes about 10 creamsicles

2 1/2 cups fresh strawberries
1 can full fat coconut milk
1-2 tbsp agave nectar
2 tsp vanilla extract

12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
3 tbsp coconut oil



In a food processor, blend together strawberries until smooth. Add coconut milk, agave nectar, and vanilla and process until combined. Pour into popsicle molds and place in freezer until frozen all the way through. 

Combine chocolate and coconut oil and melt in a microwave or double boiler.

Prepare a cookie sheet with a silicone mat or waxed paper. Dip frozen creamsicles into melted chocolate and set on cookie sheet. Return to freezer for a couple minutes. Enjoy!


Hope you all have a wonderful summer weekend! Get excited for next week; The Sweet Life is having it's very first giveaway!

A crate full of veggies - week two

Last week I started my CSA diary as a way to encourage myself to let no vegetable go to waste and hopefully to get others excited about eating seasonally. And I ate well this week! Having limitations forces me to move past my go-to recipes and think more creatively about food and flavors.

This was my crate full of veggies this week:

buttercrisp lettuce

bunching onions

strawberries

broccoli

new red potatoes

kale

beets

mint 

oregano

This week I had so many strawberries. Not only did I come home with a few extra pints in my crate (the perks of having a farm share from your parent's farm), I also took Eden on her first strawberry picking expedition on Sauvie Island. Looking for a good work out? Strawberry pick with an infant.

Anyway I was able to enjoy a lot of fresh strawberries this week.This Strawberry and Cream Oatmeal might be my new summer breakfast.

Strawberries and Cream Oatmeal

I made another attempt at my Neapolitan ice cream cake, but I'm still having problems with the chocolate layer's texture. Of course trial and error is never a bad thing when it ends in three layers of ice cream. Note the mint garnish from the CSA.

Neapolitan Ice Cream Cakes

With my remaining strawberries I removed the stems, washed, and froze them. Make sure to freeze berries in single layer on a cookie sheet and wait until completely frozen to bag them. Last year I was impatient and bagged up my raspberries too early and ended up with a brick of mushy berries in my freezer.

Okay moving on. Last week I learned that broccoli needs to be used up pretty fast so the day after picking up my crate I turned my broccoli and potatoes into broccoli quinoa fritters. It was a total experiment that turned out great!

Here's a quick summary with approximate amounts: 3 cups steamed and diced broccoli, two cups boiled and mashed potatoes, 2 cups cooked quinoa, 1/2 cup daiya "mozzarella" cheese (totally optional), 2 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix it all together in a bowl. Form patties with about 1/4 cup batter and cook on oiled skillet over medium heat for about 9 minutes both sides. Makes about 15 patties. Great with a bit of vegan sour cream and served over a bed of (buttercrisp) lettuce.

Broccoli Potato Pancakes

I was able to enjoy these fritters for most of my lunches this week by keeping the batter in the fridge and cooking up only a couple at a time.

What's left? The kale, fresh oregano, and onions were mostly used up on this tomato asparagus pizza. (I still have a couple onions left over.) The kale got all crispy in the oven and it was like eating kale chips on top of pizza...wonderful.

Asparagus, Kale, and Tomato Pizza

And because one pizza just wasn't enough, the next day I made another which turned into my favorite meal of the week: beet and cashew "goat cheese" pizza or as it was referred to by a reader "Beetza".

Roasted Beet and Cashew "goat cheeese" Pizza"

I will definitely be making this through out the summer.  and you should too! Here's the recipe.

This week was a lot of fun as I tried and enjoyed new things. I am amazed at how much easier it has been to be creative when ingredients are limited rather than the other way around.

Have you tried any new recipes lately? Do you have any seasonal vegetables you don't know how to use? This week I received some radicchio in my crate, a vegetable I have never used. We'll see what happens...