More fun food from the CSA and a lifestyle change

We're still loving our CSA bag. On Friday night, we made roasted butternut squash, and we couldn't eat it all, so this afternoon I used the leftover roasted squash to make a delicious coconut curry squash soup. It's basically this recipe, with squash instead of canned pumpkin and light coconut milk instead of evaporated skim milk.

We also got some fantastic, fragrant cilantro in our bag this week, so I made a cilantro pesto from this recipe.

Now we have dinner for tonight and tomorrow night. We'll have the soup with apple walnut salad and the pesto with noodles, broccoli, and tofu, along with red pepper slices, as shown in the photo in the link.

Other stuff from our CSA bag: onions (1 is in the soup), apples, tangerines, & grapefruit. We're delighted with the food and how it encourages us to eat more fruits and veggies and to eat more often at home.

Almost-vegan feast

Tonight's dinner, mostly using stuff from our CSA bag, was excellent, and easy to make:

- Roasted butternut squash
- Roasted beets
- Sauteed beet greens
- Mushroom couscous

It was mostly vegan just because of the little bit of butter we had on the squash. This is a version of a meal we've had many times before, but everything was just a little more delicious since it was all so fresh and organic. The beets were particularly exquisite: sweet, woody, earthy, gorgeous. I always thought fresh beets were too hard to prepare, but after reading that all that was required was to trim the greens, wash them, wrap individually in foil, and pop into a 400 degree oven for 45-90 mins (depending on the size of the beet), and then peel and eat, I was sold. I'm never going back to my old Trader Joe's pre-peeled beets from the refrigerated section again. Now those beets just seem sad.

Eating with the Seasons CSA

We just joined Eating with the Seasons, an SF Bay Area CSA. We got our first bag last week, and it was great. Eating with the Seasons allows you to choose from several different size bags, and to choose the produce in the bag. We're getting the "small" bag, which includes 8 items for $24/week, plus a dozen eggs a week for $4.50. An example "item" might be 4 apples, not just 1!

For this week, here's what we ordered, how we've used it, and how we've liked it:

- Mushrooms. With the farm eggs in a scramble - heavenly! I don't know if I can go back to pre-sliced button mushrooms again.
- Avocado. These were small, but tasty, and perfectly ripe after two days. Ate from the shell as a snack.
- Grapefruit. Classic half with breakfast. Excellent.
- Pink lady apples. As a snack. Crisp and flavorful, with a nice balance of sweet and sour.
- Brussel sprouts (these counted as two items - not sure why). Sauteed with garlic, olive oil, and vegetable broth, and tossed with pasta. Very good, but not distinctly tastier than what we get from the store.
- Spinach. Haven't tried yet. Destined for tomorrow's egg scramble.
- Butternut squash. Haven't tried yet. Destined to be roasted and eaten out of the shell, possibly for tomorrow night's dinner.

I don't think we'll have any trouble using up our 8 items, and I am finding myself more inspired to cook, at least simple dishes. One thing I really like about our stuff is how it's relatively clean. I've heard some CSA subscribers comment that their stuff is dirty, as in lots of soil to scrub off. The produce in our bag was no more dirty than what we'd buy at the Farmer's Market.

Special Meals for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day

Happy New Year! Haven't blogged here in a looong time but just made two delicious celebratory meals and wanted to remember them.

New year's eve: vegetarian french onion soup, apple walnut salad, plenty of champagne, and decadent desserts from feel good bakery. We ate in our dining room on my mom's china by candlelight. A great New Year's Eve.

New year's day dinner: vegetarian hoppin john, greens, and banana cornbread (just cause I had some old bananas to use up; used a scant 1/3 cup maple syrup instead of 1/2 cup the recipe calls for and they are plenty sweet enough)