Polenta and CSA

Today we got another share from our CSA and it included, lettuce, hot peppers, bell peppers, beets with tops, spring onions, basil, tomatoes, summer squash, turnips, kohlrabi, carrots and radishes. 

So for dinner tonight I decided on my starch (polenta) and went to work.  I ended up making a goat cheese polenta with sauteed veggies. 

I cooked the polenta (corn grits) as directed and then once it was cooked, stirred in some local garlic goat cheese.  It made the polenta very creamy and super tasty. 

For the veggies, I chopped up the summer squash, hot peppers, bell peppers, spring onions, garlic and tomatoes.  Added some salt, pepper, and Italian seasonings to taste and it was complete.  It was a very quick and simple meal but was filling and delicious.  And the great thing about it is you could use whatever vegetables/cheese you have on hand. 

I still need to do something with all this cabbage we have.  Any ideas?

CSA and Pesto

I have been behind on updating our CSA share every week and what we do with the vegetables we receive.  Really we have been receiving a lot of veggies and sometimes we don't know what to do with it all.  Like lettuce, how many salads can one person eat?  Or cabbage, we have two heads of cabbage in the fridge right now.  I need to make some sauerkraut before it gets old. 

We have also been receiving tons of peas, dill, cilantro, carrots, lettuce, spinach, garlic scapes, basil, green onions, turnips, fennel, peppers, squash, and it goes on and on.  I broke down and gave away a lot of dill and cilantro.  I can only do so much with dill and cilantro is repulsive to me anymore. 

With a lot of our veggies we have been making stir frys. 

This one had rice noodles, garlic scapes, green onions, peas and bok choy, along with our normal seasonings. 

The other night Jeff was nice enough to make a wonderful dinner, the best in a while.  He made pesto with all of our basil we have received, plus some pine nuts and jalapenos.  He also sauteed some peppers and zucchini to add to the pesto and pasta.  He also made a wonderful balsamic reduction and made bruschetta with it.  It was amazing.

Sorry I don't have recipes for these, we just kind of made these dishes from our heads and knowing the basics of these dishes. 

Kitchen Creativity

Each week when I make up a new shopping list for meals, I always try to have different recipes.  No same recipes two weeks in a row or even three.  This way I am hopefully trying new recipes or at least mixing it up and not eating spaghetti every week because that is just boring and not a well-rounded diet.  I have been trying to mix it up to get a big variety in my diet lately and part of that is not using the same recipes over and over again.

Anyway, to the point.   When trying to be creative in the kitchen I feel it flows the most when I don't have a recipe already planned to use but I am hungry and need to eat something.  Times like these, when I begin searching and scanning what my options are and then deciding what to eat, are when I feel most creative in the kitchen.  I don't have anything follow I just having to decide what is going to be good out of leftover ingredeints. 

This week for lunch one day I had one of these moments and this is what I came up with.

 

It is a toasted sandwich with tomato sauce, melted cheddar, baby spinach and spices.  

And it was quite tasty and I was very pleased with my self for coming up with it.  I oringinally was just going to make a plain ol' grilled cheese but say the tomato sauce and figured why not.  Overall I think it was a success and need to push myself to be more creative in the kitchen.

Happy Eating, 

Megan