CSA - yah!

This is a girl appropriately name after her great great granny Olive. We picked up our CSA box last week and she shouted, "Yah, tomaaaatoes! Now we can make tomato samriches (sandwiches)." I used to love walking in my granny's garden when I was Olivia's age. Smelling the garlic, looking for bugs, picking tomatoes and beans. She taught me how to string beans and I think my mom still has the tin pot we used to string them in. I have the pale pink colander that we rinsed them in. Maybe one day we will have a garden that our kids and trapse out to in the morning and get dewy grass all stuck to their feet like I did. But until then we will support our local CSA farm. Tomato, basil, cucumber and mayo samrich - with a little salt and pepper. Actually, I think I used Kefir cheese instead of mayo. It is the consistency of cream cheese, but tastes a little more like yogurt - kind of tart. Good substitute...not for mayonnaise. There is no substitute for mayonnaise. We may be eating healthier these days, but I would still eat a spoonful of mayo if I had the opportunity. We just use the kefir cheese for variety.
So., this was part of our first box. I had thought about taking a picture of every box - we get one bi-weekly...but then I added that idea to the list of things I have decided not to do (nor feel guilty about not doing) while pregnant with a third child or parenting three children. I can share more of that list later.
More from the same box. We have definitely been exposed to some things we don't recognize. Just this week I put what I think was a kind of squash in a potato squash soup. The herbs a lot of fun to mess around with and the sprouts have been a great addition to salads.
This was actually my first attempt at a vegetable broth. With all these veggies around I have tons of ends and skins...and we don't compost (though the skunk that lives in our backyard might wish that we did), so I have been saving them in the frig and then making broth. Seemed to taste fine to me.
Beet bonanza. I have to admit that some of those are still in my fridge. I have used all the small red ones in smoothies...that's right beet smoothies...and I put spinach in them too! My kids are so suckered. With enough OJ and banana and cherries they don't know the difference. Although one morning Olivia did say, "This one tastes a little beety." She was right. I'm not sure what to do with the black beets. I think I will roast them and use them in salad.
Shelling beans with Olivia.
I'm not a big casserole maker. But Mike isn't a big squash fan. I could eat a whole bucket of sauteed squash and onions with evoo, garlic, and salt and pepper. But I have to get a little creative for him because he thinks they just taste like dirty water. This is a squash, mushroom, parm. bake. Not too bad.
When I told Mike I could stick my face in this dish he said I was weird. The picture isn't great and the recipe is just one I adapted from the back of the red quinoa box from Trader Joe's. It has avocado, tomato, black beans, corn, bean sprouts, red onion, evoo, s/p, cilantro, maybe I put balsamic vinegar in it. It is so good. You could add chicken and make it your main dish. We have put salmon on it.
This is equal to cleaning out the refrigerator. If things are about to go bad - put them on a pizza and lots of cheese. So far it has all been edible.
Our purple carrot - still orange on the inside.

So the CSA journey begins...

From the kitchen

I have been completely encouraged in the kitchen these days. I feel like I am finally hitting a grove with cooking the way I want to cook - healthy, tasty, interesting, simple. For the most part I think we all feel really good, enjoy our meals together, and I'm learning to do it as a good steward of our money and our bodies. I've tried a bunch of coffee cakes in the past and, honestly, when you try to make them healthy they taste like cardboard with a crunchy dirt topping. This one was great and we ate it with PLAIN yogurt (it was sweet enough) and fruit. I'm not good a linking to things and I am too lazy (actually, I just want to go to bed and read my Julia Child book) to type out the recipe. But I got it from passionatehomemaking.com. Actually, I have found a lot of pretty good resources from her lately. I made her protein bars - yum! Perfect since we are an almond butter family because of allergies.

While I am recommending things - I found her family food budget the most helpful of any I have read on line. Most of you know my math skills are...well, anyway I try really hard to be frugal and can figure things out, but then I can't remember what the best deals were or where they were. I write them down, but...well, let's just say Mike walked through the dining room the other day and asked, "Are you starting another journal?" I have one for school research, cooking, health food research, etc. I have notebook/journal issues. But her way of making a budget, where she shops, how they like to eat, etc fits with us - so if you are interested it is a link on the right side of her blog.

Also, I will just confess here that I am about to embark upon project MAKE IT MYSELF. Here is what I am going for: laundry soap, dishwasher soap, shampoo (already doing this - my scalp which has itched sine I hit puberty has not itched at all), hand soap, and baby wipes. Some things will be money saving (some of it we bought cheaply anyway). Some of it will just get some of the chemical junk out of our house. I'm not a fanatic here, but honestly have you ever tried to cook while the dishwasher was running? That stuff reeks! Well maybe I am becoming a fanatic. But I am really trying to stay balanced about this whole thing. I am trying to trim down our budget and simplify our life. On the outset it won't be so simply - figuring out how to do it all. But in the long run I love the idea of fewer products and smell good or not at all.

I'll keep you posted. I have two months to make it and give it a trial run. If it doesn't happen by baby time, it will probably be another year.