Summer 2014 CSA: Week 1

Good morning! Let’s talk vegetables in honor of National Eat Your Veggies Day yesterday.

Last week was the first week of the community supported agriculture program that Tim and I signed up with through the wellness program at work. Aside from the farm fresh eggs, our first delivery on Tuesday included sweet potatoes, asparagus, romaine lettuce, dandelion greens, an awesomely huge tomato, red mustard greens, radishes, oregano, broccoli raab, and scallions.

Here are some of the meals we made with our goodies!

First we made a chicken and gnocchi skillet with the dandelion greens, radishes, and oregano for dinner on Wednesday and Thursday night.

I don’t think I’ve ever had dandelion greens before, but I liked them cooked down in this dish. Our lesson learned was to cut the stems out because the stems were definitely more bitter than the rest of the leaf. I also liked preparing the radishes in a different way besides just slicing raw in a salad!

Friday nights are often pizza nights in our home, and we were psyched to try our hand at a homemade asparagus pizza.

We topped a multigrain crust with the sliced asparagus spears, sliced mushrooms, sliced yellow onion, ricotta, some shredded mozzarella cheese, minced garlic, and some spices. For the win!

Our weekend was full of non-homemade meals, so we didn’t bust into the veggies again until we made lunch for the beginning of the week and dinner on Monday night. For lunch, we went with a tried and true favorite, this grilled sweet potato salad recipe. This used up the sweet potatoes and most of the scallions.

Finally, Monday was a throw together kind of night, so we used up the head of lettuce and topped it with grilled shrimp and leftover ingredients from our pizza toppings.

We also cut up that huge tomato for the salad, and it was delicious. We had some left over, so I sliced it and packed it for a snack at work. Drizzled in a little balsamic with some s&p, it really hit the spot.

I think we did pretty good for week 1! The only two things that didn’t get used were the broccoli raab and the mustard greens. I’m chalking that up to not having any meals at home on Saturday and Sunday at all.

Yesterday we picked up delivery #2. Is it normal to feel this much excitement about vegetables?

AND fruit!? These strawberries don’t stand a chance at lasting beyond today.

Possible meals on deck for the next week:

• Spiced collard greens and ground beef
• Balsamic chickpea and kale salad
• Chicken kabobs with a side of farro, bok choy, and radish
• Beet salad
• Avocado egg salad to use all those eggs!

–Let’s chat–
Tell me about the eats from your week last week. What was the best meal you made? If you are participating in a summer CSA program, how did you get creative with your produce? What fruits and vegetables are you loving lately? Did you celebrate Eat Your Vegetables Day?

Have a good one!