Archive for July, 2010
We started our CSA mission with the intention to become healthier, and as summer wanes away, I must confess to falling off the wagon. I must confess to giving some greens to a friend, instead of eating them. I must confess to letting some greens wither up and land in the trash can. So, what happened? As usual, Life-with-a-capital-L took over.
We started off the summer with a fairly calm routine. It included meal planning, grocery shopping, and cooking. Lately, though, we’ve been busier and cooking at home less and eating out more. Try as I might, I just can’t force myself to order a salad instead of an entree at a restaurant. That would be like, well….what would that be like? That would be like going to Paris and not visiting the Eiffel Tower. That would be like getting a pedicure and then wearing only tennis shoes. That would be like reading a whole book, other than the last chapter. That would be unimaginable in my book. So, when I eat out, I do not eat well. I engage in the pleasure of enjoying the variety of food that was cooked. By Someone Else! How I love to have food cooked by someone else! No mess, no dishes. *Sigh*
Back to the veggies, so we’ve been lazy with our veggies lately, but we have a game plan for healthier eating after our upcoming vacation. We’ll do it. We must.
Posted in It’s been a busy few weeks around our house. Though my husband and I are both teachers, with all summer off, we hardly end up feeling like we’ve had all summer off. We have work stuff and home stuff keeping us plenty busy.
The folks at the CSA farm have been busy, too, Many crops are in season. Lately, we’ve enjoyed a wider range of vegetables, including two varieties of cucumbers, kohlrabi, purple snap beans, sugar snap peas, and broccoli. Our household hasn’t tried the kohlrabi yet, but we have greatly enjoyed the rest of the veggies. The broccoli definitely impressed us–it was very flavorful. We learned that purple snap beans don’t stay purple once you cook them. We’ve eaten a lot of salads, but have also continued to try our hands at some fancier fare.
A success this week was Swiss Chard and Artichoke Pizza. You can find the recipe at Farmgirl Fare’s blog. We added red peppers to the saute because we enjoyed the mixing of the sweetness of the red peppers with the more bitter chard when we made chard pie. We also made a second pizza with red sauce. Our friend Shannon was visiting. Like us, she couldn’t decide which pizza she liked more. The chard went really well with the red sauce and makes me think I should make a lasagna chocked full of my next load of greens. Also, I didn’t prepare my own dough and went the lazy route, using store-bought crust instead.
I’ll leave you with this beautiful site…my oldest son liked the sugar snap peas so much that he asked for them for a snack!
Update on my youngest son: still no veggies have crossed his lips. We tried to get him excited about the sugary peas, which were just like candy, but, umm, he didn’t buy it.