Fresh Food Friday!

Hey everyone! Thanks for stopping by for another Fresh Food Friday! Sorry that I didn't get one done last week, I was so sick! But I'm better now, and ready for action! 
If you stopped by because you heard about this from Lynn in the Good Food Easy newsletter, welcome! I do this every Friday, I try to get it out before 5:00, but as you can see sometimes that just doesn't happen. You are welcome to subscribe to my blog and you'll be notified when I post something new. 

This week I was really excited to get my bag-o-goodies! We got bananas! I know, I couldn't believe it either! They're GROW bananas and when they're purchased a portion of the money goes to help schools and community resources in villages. As if bananas could taste any better, these ones are infused with good karma. 

Along with the bananas we also got:

Mei Qing Choi (like Bok Choi), Eggs, Red Onions, Yukon Gold Potatoes, Gala Apples, Bananas, and a beautiful Pomegranate. It's almost as big as dog-child's itty bitty head!


This week there's not a lot of recipes to share. We go through bananas like whoa around here and they're already almost gone. The pomegranate the mister and I will share (can you believe I've NEVER eaten a pom?!?!). The eggs and potatoes will probably be used for breakfast tomorrow. 

For the Mei Qing Choi I just looked up recipes for Bok Choy and found this salad recipe I think I'll make with Chicken, it seems really easy. 
Baby Bok Choy with Yellow Bell Peppers


I have a pretty large supply of apples at the moment and I'm thinking of making some apple muffins with them this weekend.

The red onions will probably be used in various recipes throughout the week. We always use onions. 

Thank you for stopping by, come back next week! And by then I'm hoping that those pesky tabs will be working! 

Happy Friday!

Fresh Food Friday!

Hello friends! Time for another Fresh Food Friday edition!

This week we got: Chard, broccoli, apples, red onion, crimson grapes, tomatoes and eggs. 


Yummmm....


And here's what I plan to do with it:


Swiss Chard, Bacon and Ricotta Ravioli with Tomato Sauce from epicurious.com
    *this may be the recipe I'm most excited for. I'll probably even try to make my own tomato sauce since I have a plethora of tomatoes right now. 


Broccoli, Beef and Brown Rice Combo 
from "Melissa's Everyday Cooking with Organic Produce"
*I meant to make this last week but used all my broccoli before I got the chance.
 *Recipe after the jump!

Marinade:
2 large cloves of garlic
2 TBLS. soy sauce
1 TBLS. Honey
1 teas. toasted sesame oil
1 TBLS. rice vinegar
1 lb. boneless sirloin steak (I just got tri-tips from the butcher)

Rice Mixture:
1 cup long grain brown rice
2 1/4 cups water
1/2 teas.  vegetable or canola oil
2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced diagonally 1/4 inch thick
1 3/4 cup broccoli florets

Sauce:
3 TBLS. smooth peanut butter
3 TBLS. hot water
2 TBLS. seasoned rice vinegar
1 TBLS. soy sauce
1/8 teas. dried red chile flakes
2 teas. toasted sesame oil


Prepare marinade: Set large zipper-style plastic  bag in bowl to hold it upright. Add garlic, soy sauce, honey, oil and vinegar. Poke steak at 1-inch intervals  with tines of fork. Add steak to bag with marinade and seal. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to 8 hours, turning bag occasionally to redistribute marinade.

Prepare rice: In large saucepan place rice, water, salt and oil. Bring to boil on high heat; stir once. Cover with tight-fitting lid; reduce heat to low and simmer 45 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, 5 to 10 minutes. Remove lid and fluff with fork.

Meanwhile, bring about 5 cups water to boil on high heat in separate large saucepan. Add carrots and cook until tender-crisp, about 4 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon and set aside. Add broccoli and cook in boiling water until tender-crisp about 6-7 minutes. Drain and set aside. Heat grill.

Prepare sauce: In medium bowl, stir peanut butter and 3 tbls. hot water to combine. Add vinegar, soy sauce, chile flakes, and sesame oil; stir vigorously to combine. Place rice in large bowl; add sauce and veggies. Set aside at room temp.

Remove steak from marinade; discard marinade. Grill over medium-high heat about 3 minutes on each side; cooking times vary. Set steak aside and allow to rest 5-10 minutes. 

Slice steak into 1/4 inch thick slices. Spoon rice salad into bowls and top with steak. 


I haven't decided if I want to make something with the apples like an apple crisp or just make some sort of scrumptious dip for them. 
Same with the tomatoes, pretty sure I'm going to make a sauce. 
And the onion, well that will be used this weekend in my potato salad, and tonight with our burgers. 


Have a wonderful Friday everyone!
 
 
 

Fresh Food Friday!

Happy Friday everyone! I've decided to start a new thing here on my little corner of the interwebs. Fresh Food Fridays!
For the last four months the mister and I have been getting our veggies from a local CSA (consumer supported agriculture). I had wanted to do this for a while but had never followed through until this summer. During my Environmental Politics class last spring we had a speaker come and tell us all about the different options that were available to us here in the Eugene area. It's amazing the amount of small farms that we are surrounded by. One day I was talking to the mister about it and we decided that we were going to do it, and that we were going to start as soon as we could. 

There were two reasons we decided to buy local:
1. The amount of "fresh" non-organic vegetables we were buying at the store every week was comparable in price to the amount we would be paying for organic veg with the CSA. I was also fed up with buying veg and having it go bad within two or three days.
2. I come from a family of farmers. So doesn't it makes sense that I would support my local farmer?

We chose Sweetwater Farms in Creswell. We went with them because they offered three different sizes of boxes (small, medium, large), you pay by the month and they offer food for 50 weeks a year. If you want to check them out a little more here is their website: http://goodfoodeasy.com/index.html

Here's how it works:
Once a month I send them a check for my share.
On Wednesday I get an email with their newsletter letting me know what I will be receiving. They also include some recipes which is nice.
Thursday on the way home from picking up the mister we pick up our share. Then we come home and oogle over all the yummy things that we get.   

During the summer there were a lot of peppers and tomatoes, so we ate A LOT of stir fry and BLT's. Now that I have gotten used to having so many amazing veggies in my fridge, and since it's cooled down, I'm starting to get a little more brave about cooking. 

So here we come to Fresh Food Friday's.
Usually I'll post a picture of my haul, with a list of the recipes I want to try and maybe a copy of the recipes I'll be using. 
But tonight since I've written so much already, I'm just giving you a picture, and my menu. Sorry but my brain is shot.

So here's what we got:

Carrots, Romaine Lettuce,Potatoes, Tropea Onion, Eggs, Liberty Apples and

Plums. There was also Basil, but it didn't make it into the picture.

Here's the Menu:
Most of these include a lot of the leftovers we have from last week...

Broccoli, Beef and Brown Rice
   *Broccoli from last week and carrots

Broccoli and Mushroom Pasta Alfredo
   *Again Broccoli and Mushrooms from last week

Potatoes O'Brien (with bacon for breakfast Saturday)
   *Potatoes, Onion 

Traditional Sunday night dinner (pork chops, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob)
   *Corn on the cob from last week 

Leftover Pork, Wild Rice and Plum Salad
    *Plums and Pluots from last week


Chicken Ceaser Salad
    *Lettuce


Pound cake with Plum Sauce and Vanilla Ice Cream
    *Plums
  
Maybe I'll post the recipes when I make them, if they're delicious of course. If you want any of them just let me know and I'll post them or the links to them. 

Now I'm going to watch some baseball and let my brain relax. 

Enjoy your Friday night!