Produce | Fitness & Feta

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!

For those of you who might be new to F&F, my full-time job is spearheading a wellness program for a Massachusetts-based electronic health vendor company. The program, named Wellness Works, has been underway for almost a year now, but yesterday kicked off one of our most exciting initiatives to date, a community supported agriculture program!

For those of you who have been around awhile, you might remember that Tim and I participated in a CSA program last year. If you aren’t familiar with the concept of a CSA, it is a growing movement that not only supports farm preservation, but it also connects communities with the land and people who grow their food. As supporters of local farming, CSA members enjoy their share of the harvest. I am thrilled to be a part of the group who made receiving fresh produce and farm fresh eggs at work possible this year!

After researching several local places, our company decided to partner with Heaven’s Harvest. I included this article in a recent Friday Favorites, but it mentions some of the benefits to offering produce deliveries at work. I like it for the accessibility and convenience, and Tim likes it for the opportunity to get creative with new to us foods. However, I’m most excited for staff who don’t necessarily eat all that well to have the opportunity to increase the amount of fruits and vegetables in their diets.

Some of the main reasons we chose to work with Heaven’s Harvest include:

All certified organic produce
Three different share offerings (small, medium, and large) as opposed to a lot of the other farms that only offered two
Flexible payment options (staff can choose to pay upfront or in installments)
All customer service issues handled directly through the farm
Willingness of the farm to deliver to all seven of our Massachusetts based buildings
Excellent service and follow-up we received from the Heaven’s Harvest family

A couple of weeks ago, the farmers invited us for a tour so we could understand the process firsthand. I took a field trip out to New Braintree with two of my co-workers, and we had a great time seeing the inner workings of the farm. Here are some scenes from our visit:

We were also invited to stay for a homemade lunch, so after our tour we enjoyed a delicious meal that really hit the spot.

Everything was so tasty, and we really enjoyed the company and conversation at lunch. The Heaven’s Harvest family was extremely hospitable and gracious, and I knew leaving that day that we made the right choice for our CSA vendor.

After the first delivery at work yesterday, everybody was just so happy! Worksite wellness offerings really do increase morale.

Tim and I opted for the medium share this summer, and the cost is almost $40 a week from June 10th through September 18th, with a little extra for the eggs. Check out the items from our first box today:

Sweet potatoes, asparagus, romaine lettuce, dandelion greens, a awesomely huge tomato, red mustard greens, radishes, oregano, broccoli raab, and scallions. I love it! I really want to include a CSA series over the summer that highlights how Tim and I use all our produce, but we’ll see if I actually have time to follow through with that. Pictures at the very least!

Because of the Tuesday deliveries and busy summer weekends, we’ve decided to switch our meal plan and food prep day from Sundays to Tuesdays/Wednesdays. It will be a work in progress for a couple of weeks until we settle into a new routine, but I’ll let you know how it goes!

On our list of things to cook over the next couple of days:

This sweet potato salad
A chicken gnocchi skillet with dandelion greens and radishes
Asparagus, mushroom, and ricotta pizza for Friday night

And we’ll see what else comes to mind!

–Let’s chat–
Have you participated in a CSA program before? Does your company offer this benefit or anything similar to staff? What would you make with these ingredients? Have you ever toured an organic farm before?

I don’t blog about every initiative we put on at work, but for some more posts from my wellness at work series: