Last weeks goal was a fail, but Ebates...

Last week I failed my goal of eating all the veggies in my CSA box, but I didn't throw anything away.  So I will try, try, try to finish everything before it spoils.  Thank God family is coming to visit this week so I can have some help consuming these veggies.

On a side note, I recently received my "big fat check" from Ebates.

This is definitely not the biggest or fattest check I have ever received, but free money is free money.  I use Ebates every time I shop online and receive cash back.  There is literally no catch.  I have talked about Ebates a number of times and am still shocked that people don't use Ebates for all their online shopping.

Sign up today with my referral link here and receive $10 in addition to the advertised cash back after making a purchase through Ebates.  By signing up I also get a chance to win a vacation to Disney World and you know baby Della Favorite would love to go to Disney World.  Fine, I would love to go as I have never been.  Regardless sign up and let me know what you think of Ebates and how much money you have gotten back.  My friend has already surpassed by total earning by shopping for all his work purchases through Ebates.  Yes, I'm jelly, but love that he is getting to reap the benefits of this amazing site. 

Veggie Eats - Tuesday and Wednesday Recap

TUESDAY

 Breakfast

I wanted a bowl of Cap'n Crunch, but I was a good girl and made a green drink with half the kale.

Dinner 

My husband loves french onion soup.  Chances are if french onion soup is on the menu, he'll order it.  So when I suggested french onion soup due to the ridiculous amount of onions we had, the husband was all about it.  What husband wants, husband gets... once in awhile.

However, in my husband's mind soup is not a meal.  So I had to make sausage and Israeli couscous stuffed peppers because husband likes meat. 

Yes I forgot to take a picture of them cooked.  

And I love Israel couscous.  If you have never had it, you need to try it!  So good.

WEDNESDAY

Lunch

I made zucchini noodles aka zoodles with a tomato and sausage sauce. 

Easy, quick, and it used 2 vegetables. 

Dinner

BLT, BLT!

The only thing that would have made this better was some avocado.  I love me some BLATs.

And here's what is left of the vegetables:

And meal suggestions with the remaining vegetables would be greatly appreciated!

Chimichurri Sauce / Marinade Recipe

 MONDAY

Yesterday I didn't get a chance to post, but the only vegetable I ate was a tomato with my cheese quesadillas.

I had plans of making dinner for my husband since I hadn't seen him in 6 days, but instead we decided to order pizza and spend some quality time together, you know, watching Claws.  Love me some Desna and her crew.

TUESDAY

Monday I marinated a skirt steak in homemade chimichurri with the plans of eating the steak that night.  Because we don't waste food (or that's the goal) dinner was chimichurri steak, mashed potatoes, and mozzarella topped tomatoes.  

Chimichurri is super easy to make in the food processor.  I always make extra sauce as I like to top my meat with it.  Whatever chimichurri sauce you don't use can be stored in the fridge for up to a week in a air tight container.   

Chimichurri Sauce / Marinade

Ingredients:

1 cup parsley, leaves removed from stems (about 1/2 of bunch depending on size)
1 small shallot
3 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Juice of 2 lemons
1/2 cup olive oil (If you prefer a thicker sauce reduce the olive oil to approximately 1/4 cup)

Directions:
1.  Combine wet ingredients into a pourable container.  Set aside.
2.  Add parsley, shallot, garlic, and spices to food processor.

3.  Turn on food processor and pour in wet ingredients blending ingredients until dry ingredients are finely chopped.
4. Use as a marinade for the meat of your choosing

Chimichurri goes great with  red meat, poultry, and fish / seafood.  You can use the sauce as a base and a sauce to top cooked meat.  I also served a side of sliced heirloom tomatoes topped with mozzarella, basil, salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar.

This is by far one of my favorite snacks.  It is easy to make and looks pretty.  Plus my dog loves tomatoes so he is a fan.  

Tonight's meal Incorporated a number of veggies in my CSA box.  Tonight we finished all the potatoes and some of the parsley, garlic, shallots, and tomatoes.  

2 days of veggie eating down, 5 days to go.

Another week, another box of veggie goals

I got 99 problems, but a 1/2 bushel of organic veggies ain't one, HIT ME!

A month ago I made it my goal to eat all the veggies that came in my CSA box.  I chronicled my week starting here posting pictures of what I ate as well as sharing some recipes like my basic pesto.  Ultimately I did not meet my goal and tossed some vegetables.  For those of you who know me, I hate wasting food.  It goes with my hoarding nature.  For the most part I've eaten 90-95% of the weekly vegetable box.  However, last week I did end up freezing some onions and shallots because... let's be real, a girl can only eat so many onions and shallots before she is over it!  I'm convinced they give me heartburn.  Or it could be the baby in my belly?  Either way...  At least I didn't toss any vegetables last week.  I would say that is progress.

This week I'm going back to the goal of consuming ALL the veggies I have before I pick up next Sunday's box.  And I don't want to have to freeze any items this week.  I'm going to chronicle what I eat if it includes a vegetable from my box and share recipes again if any of them are share worthy.  In fact I'm getting hungry right now writing about food so I will cut this post short.

The items I received this week are pictured above.  I'm sad that the farm told us we would not be receiving any more Jersey corn, but I'm excited at the variety of the different vegetables I got this week including:

Stay tuned to see if I can reach my weekly goal.  "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, I CAN!"

One Pot Cherry Tomato Pasta Recipe

Tonight I played Chopped.  Well my version of Chopped, which means I come up with a meal based on what I have in the house.  Currently I have a ton of tomatoes and onions from my CSA box so I wanted to utilize something that incorporated these two vegetables.  Sometimes the creations I come up with are total misses and that is why I am thankful Domino's Pan Pizza is only an Alexa order away.  But other times, like tonight, my meal turns out to be kick ass and something worthy of making again.  On Monday I made a delicious Chicken Murphy inspired dish, but of course I didn't pay attention to the amount of each ingredient I added so recreating that meal is going to suck.  But I'm going to do it because it was that good.  Lucky for me, I added all the ingredients I used into MyFitnessPal tracker.  Go team! 

This recipe is crazy easy, does not dirty many dishes, and comfortably fills up one person.  This could serve a couple as a side if consumed with a main protein, like a chicken cutlet.  Now I want a chicken cutlet...

One Pot Cherry Tomato Pasta

Servings: 1

Ingredients:

• 3 ounces dry spaghetti 
• 1 medium onion, chopped, approximately 100 grams
• 6 ounces cherry tomatoes, cut in half
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, omit if you don't like a little heat
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup and 2 tablespoons water
• 1.5 tablespoons fat free half & half
• 2 tablespoons Parmesan Reggiano cheese
• Parsley

Directions:
1.  Combine spaghetti, onions, cherry tomatoes, garlic, basil, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, olive oil, and water in a large skillet
2.  Bring ingredients to a boil over high heat
3.  Once boiling cook pasta for 9 minutes, or until al dente and water has evaporated, stirring frequently
4. After pasta is cooked remove pan from heat and mix in half & half and all but 1 tablespoon Parmesan Reggiano cheese
5.  Serve immediately and top with parsley for color and remaining Parmesan Reggiano cheese

I would definitely recommend serving this pasta with a chicken cutlet or sliced sausage for a little more protein, however, it makes a delicious vegetarian dish on its own.  I hope you enjoy!

Beets in my box ... my CSA box

Beets look intimidating, but they are really easy to cook once you learn how to prep them.  I used to throw away the beet greens, but the whole beet is edible.  You can substitute beet greens in any recipe calling for leafy greens (think swiss chard, spinach, kale, etc.)

Who am I kidding, I still throw away the beet greens.  My mom, was recently visiting so lucky for me she consumed the raw beet greens in her green drinks.  Last time I had beet greens I sauteed them in olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper and immediately threw them away after one bite.  Neither my husband or I could handle the earthiness in sauteed form.  Thank God for moms, especially my mom, who will take one for the team.

Don't feel so bad for her.  She claims she likes beet greens.

PREPPING

To prep the beets for cooking I chop off the stems (keep the stems if you dare) and give them a good wash and scrub with a potato scrubber to remove any caked on dirt.

I find that the skin slides off easier if you drizzle each beet with a small amount of oil.

I then wrap each beet in foil and place in a baking dish.  The baking dish is my insurance policy against leaks because beet juice stains everything!

Beets, depending on their size, can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour to cook at a 375 degree heated oven.  These beats were relatively small, ranging in size from a tangerine to a nectarine, and took a full 40 minutes to cook until fork tender (meaning a fork easily pierces through the skin).  I would recommend checking the beets after 30 minutes of cooking to see if they are tender and then every 10-15 minutes to ensure you don't overcook them.  Beets should be slightly soft, but not mushy. Once cooked I cool the beets until I can handle them.



The dark skin will peel off in between your fingers with a rolling action.  It's ridiculously easy, but you can also remove the skin with a paring knife or carrot peeler.  I remove the stems and keep beets whole until ready to eat.  Once cooked they last about a week in an airtight container.

I love roasted beets.  Cooking brings out the sweetness in beets and their flavor is enhanced by combining them in recipes / meals that call for cheese (feta, goat, white cheddar), salt, and vinaigrette.    

Once the beets were cooked lunch was a breeze.  I used leftover veggies from my CSA box and topped the salad with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, and feta cheese.  Yum!

Goal Failed

Well today is Sunday and we did not eat all the veggies in our CSA box.  We ended up tossing some lettuce and a few sliced red onions.  I still have a yellow squash that I will try and eat this week.  Lucky for me I have guests coming this week who love veggies so I hope to not have to toss any veggies this week.

Chard + Berries = Blender Bliss

I didn't get a chance to blog last night because I worked late.  We didn't eat dinner until 8:45pm and I had no mental capacity for any form of thought. 

 BREAKFAST

Yesterday I finished all the chard and I have come to the consensus that the trick to a decent tasting chard green drink is frozen berries.

Lots of them...

DINNER

I don't really have a desire to discuss dinner as it left me feeling sick to my stomach.  We did finish off the corn.  I should say my husband finished off the corn.  My piece was rotten, which I didn't realize until I had eaten half of it.  So that's why farmers use pesticides...

Remaining veggies:

- Mixed greens
- Yellow squash
- 1/2 of a purple onion

About last night... Basic Pesto Recipe

I had plans to blog about my veggie eats yesterday since I incorporated veggies into TWO meals, get it girl, but I was exhausted after work and making dinner.  Plus, soaking my feet and watching Master of None was much more appealing.

BREAKFAST

Turns out chard is much more palatable in a green drink with berries.  Yesterday I blended chard with Siggi's Mixed Berry Yogurt, vanilla almond milk, and frozen mixed berries.  I pounded it on my way to work.

The earthy taste of the chard was masked with the sweetness of the berries.  I normally like pineapple with spinach or kale, but I think chard goes best with berries.  I have some more chard to eat so I'll continue to experiment.

DINNER

Dinner was very green, but awesome!  I love pesto and whenever I get basil in my CSA box I make some type with stuffed pasta and last night was no exception.  I made a traditional basil pesto with cheese tortellini and sweet Italian chicken sausage.

Plus a side of sauteed zucchini and onions because the week is coming to an end and I have to eat all the veggies in my box! #goals

I think I make a delicious pesto if I do say so myself. You can substitute the basil with any green, however, I recommend that at least half the greens are basil when making this recipe. 

Basic Pesto

Ingredients:
2 cups washed and dried basil, stems removed
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup parmesan reggiano cheese
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until the consistency of your choosing.

It's that easy.

You can eat this pesto cold or warm.  When eating it with a pasta I cook the pasta as directed and then bring the pot back to the warm stove top.  With the flame off I add the pesto to the warm pan and gently fold in the cooked pasta.  In this case tortellini and chicken sausage.  The pesto will warm with the residual heat of the stove top.

Serve with cheese and enjoy!

Remaining veggies:

- Mixed greens
- Yellow squash
- 1/2 of a purple onion
- Swiss chard
- 2 cobs of corn 

Greens in question

Today I only ate veggies at breakfast.  I had plans for a nice pesto pasta for dinner, but my husband and I had to go to the store for supplies for a time sensitive house project.  So we ate at the diner.  You know, tough life.

My CSA email said that this week's box contained both spinach and chard, however, I only received one bag of questionable loose greens.  I figured that the bag was a mix of both greens and after washing the greens (how I wash greens here) I had a feeling it was chard, but stayed optimistic that it could be mixed with spinach leaves as advertised.

Wrong!  I should have known by the yellow stems...

This is now the second time I was told that my CSA box contained spinach only to find out that it was chard by the taste.  And there is nothing more off putting then taking a sip of your delicious green drink only to taste dirt.  It's not that I don't like chard, I just don't care for it in my green drink as it has a very "earthy" taste.  Earthy is great in a salad, and I love roasted beets with cheese, but earthy is not so great in a drink.  For those of you who stumble across this post I would love to know any suggestions for incorporating chard into a green drink without having to add tons of sweetener to mask the taste as I fear I will have more chard to come throughout this season. 

Remaining veggies:

- Mixed greens
- Yellow squash and 2 zucchini
- Purple onion
- Swiss chard
- Bag of basil
- 2 cobs of corn

Steak Salad

Day 2 and more veggies consumed.

LUNCH

For lunch I ate last night's leftovers.  Wasn't really craving fajita filling, but I hate throwing food away and the whole point of this week is to eat all the items in my CSA box, not waste.  More about my week's goal here.

Thus I took one for the team. 

DINNER

Starting around the third trimester I started craving red meat, which is not my norm.  My husband is in heaven.  We eat a lot of steak salad because it is quick, easy, and relatively healthy.  Plus we get a lot of different lettuce types since getting our first CSA box and the lettuce is delicious.  It tastes so much better than the packaged (and washed) lettuce you buy at the grocery store.  The only thing I dislike about the lettuce is it is not washed so I have to make an extra effort to get rid of the dirt and creepy crawlies.  Easiest way to clean lettuce is to submerge it in cold water.  

 

I repeat this a number of times until the dirt and bugs settle to the bottom of the bowl before I transfer the lettuce to a salad spinner.

 

 

We generally don't finish a bag of lettuce in one sitting so I make sure to spin, spin, spin the lettuce in the salad spinner, dump out the water, and then spin, spin, spin the lettuce again.  And dump out more water repeating this process until I get the lettuce as dry as possible.  If you thoroughly dry your lettuce it will stay crisp in an airtight container for up to a week.  You're welcome.   

So dinner was delicious.  We made DIY salads using the fresh Jersey corn in our box warm off the grill, mini heirloom tomatoes, filet mignon, and red onions and feta for me and blue cheese for him.

Happy Campers!  Now since we ate "low carb" we theoretically should be able to have dessert right?  Let's be real, we would have had dessert either way.

Remaining veggies:

- A few mixed greens leftover from tonight
- Yellow squash and 2 zucchini
- Some purple onion
- Bag of Swiss chard / spinach (not sure yet what it is)
- Bag of basil
- 2 cobs of corn

Eat your veggies

I get a CSA box every Sunday because I firmly believe in supporting local farmers.  Plus, my mom treated us to this box for the second time because organic ain't cheap!  My husband and I try to meal prep on Sunday's to make sure we utilize everything in our box.  Emphasis on try.  We generally start the week out strong cooking what we planned to make and eating lots of veggies.  However, by the end of the week we are both tired and end up ordering take out and what's left of the box goes in the trash (sorry cilantro... we're not huge fans) or gets chopped up and frozen to use later (onions from last week).  Not this week!

My goal is to try and eat all the vegetables in the CSA box without having to toss a single item.  To be accountable I am documenting how I eat the box veggies along the way.

This week we got:
- Bag of mixed greens
- Yellow squash and 2 zucchini
- 3 purple onions
- Bag of Swiss chard / spinach (not sure yet what it is)
- Bag of basil
- 2 bell peppers
- 4 corn

LUNCH

Lunch we utilized a few basil leaves after stopping by the deli to get fresh Italian bread, store made mozzarella, and garlic marinated sundried tomatoes. 

And because this fresh sandwich was so good topped with imported balsamic I decided to have another.

And I would have had another, but we ran out of bread. 

DINNER

For dinner I racked my brain on what to make that incorporated both bell peppers and onions and the husband picked fajitas.

You can make fajitas fancy or you can make them super easy.  I chose the later.  I like to make fajitas on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper because I can season the veggies and meat without dirtying a bowl and clean up is as easy as grab parchment paper and drop in trash.  BOOM.  

Pan Chicken Fajitas

Serves: 2-3

Ingredients:
1 lb chicken breast
2 bell peppers
2 small onions
2 garlic cloves
2 tablespoon olive oil
Seasoning (I make my own, see below)

Seasoning recommendation:
1-2 teaspoons Adobo (depending on my mood...I love salt)
1.5 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon (Spanish) paprika
1 teaspoon cumin
Pinch of red pepper flakes

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Cut chicken into small strips (I recommend about 1/2 inch by 3-4 inches)
3. Thinly slice bell pepper and onions.  Chop garlic
4. Combine chicken, peppers, onions, and garlic on parchment lined cooking sheet
5. Top chicken and veggies with seasoning and olive oil

6.  Mix, mix, mix until evenly coated

7.  Spread chicken and veggies out making sure that chicken is not overlapping

 
8.  Bake for 25 minutes flipping the mixture halfway through
9.  Serve with warmed tortillas, lime juice, and the condiments of your choosing

 

Remaining veggies:

- Bag of mixed greens
- Yellow squash and 2 zucchini
- 1 purple onion
- Bag of Swiss chard / spinach (not sure yet what it is)
- Bag of basil
- 4 corn