Green beans

What I Made – Week 13

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The sauce for this Thai style tofu fried rice was lighter than some stir fries, but still gave a good balance of salty and sweet.
The biggest part of the basket the past few weeks has been the dreaded summer squashes. This squash crust pizza almost makes you forget it’s there! You have to keep the crush dry and thin, but reminds me of a cauliflower crust.
Perfect for a hot summer day, this corn salad with shrimp (instead of crab) comes together quickly and with minimal ingredients, but packs a lot of flavor.
Orzo and squash is a mid summer go-to in our house. Ricotta and basil keep this dish light and makes plenty of leftovers!
With a rare rainy and cooler day, we fired up the oven for some Moroccan-spiced roast chicken with carrots. The warm spices are perfect matches for the sweet carrots.

I forgot a picture of my cheddar squash bread, which collapsed in the center like a cheese soufflé but was excellent warm!

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What I’ve Planned – Week 13

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A true summer basket this week! I couldn’t be more excited about corn (all 8 ears!), but won’t say the same for all this squash! Let’s see how many recipes I can hide it in this week.

We’ll eat all our fruit as snacks. I may have to make some additional squash breads to use up everything we got this week!

What I Made – Week 10

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I had great lighting for all my dishes this week, even if many of them were mostly the same. (And all served in bowls?!) Not pictured are the leftover pulled pork we paired with blistered green beans, quiche with chard, loaf of zucchini bread, and some zucchini chocolate chip cookies I made this week.

I like the bright flavor of the herbs (parsley and mint here) with the earthy beets and tangy dressing of this Farro Salad with Beets, Scallions & Pistachios.
Some day I’ll remember to cook down the tomato sauce until it’s really thick so my zucchini lasagna doesn’t end up watery. Didn’t manage it this week, but I thought this vegetarian version with mushroom tomato sauce and finely chopped kale mixed in with the ricotta was a tasty change.
The flavor of the sauce for these drunken zucchini noodles is spot on, and almost makes you forget you’re having zucchini for dinner again. (Almost)
I’d never attempted this Broccoli and tofu stir fry, but newly equipped with a tofu press, I battered and fried them for a stir fry that takes some extra effort, but definitely tastes more complex than our usual basic recipe.
Sundried tomatoes really would have brightened up this Greek farro salad, but the salty cheese, spicy peppers, and tons of herbs pack lots of flavor, even if the colors are a bit dull.

We used everything this week except a couple of cucumbers, some of the parsley, and yes, still more zucchini! Even when the months seem like they all run together, that’s how you know it’s July.

What I Made – Week 21

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This was a comfort food week, through and through, never mind that it’s still hot enough outside that turning my oven on still makes the air conditioning run…

This is basically eggplant Parmesan without all of the work! The only slicing involves cutting the eggplant in half, then the insides are scooped out and cooked until tender with onions and sausage. I left off the breadcrumbs for the topping and didn’t miss them. By the way, the marinara sauce is made with tomatoes from our garden!

This tempeh stir fry with broccoli was tasty, but I probably should have doubled the sauce for two small-ish heads of broccoli. I just pan-fried tempeh instead of making the crispy tofu from the original recipe. I also added some of the spicy peppers from a few weeks ago. (After stir frying, they are really not that spicy.)

This spaghetti allá vodka with Swiss chard is so good and so easy. And did I mention you only use one pot, so cleanup is simple too?! It’s a great way to use both the chard leaves and stems and you can easily substitute spaghetti for a pasta shape of your choice.

In keeping with the one-pan theme, this was Greek chicken with roasted potatoes and green beans. Unlike the recipe, which suggests putting everything in at the same time, I like to give the potatoes a 15 minute head start, then add the chicken and cook for another 15 minutes, then add the green beans for the final 15 minutes or so.

This poached cod in cherry tomato curry was…bland? Maybe I’m used to my garden’s extra sweet cherry tomatoes, but I also got very little spice from the peppers, and not much coconut flavor from the coconut cream. I’ll have to try again, maybe with some hot curry powder next time.

What I’ve Planned – Week 21

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I had thought I would be traveling this week, but instead I have more time to cook through this week’s veggies. Here’s what I have on the menu:

I’m also planning to make pimento cheese and pear scones. Together with a bunch more tomatoes from our garden, the roma tomatoes will become tomato sauce that I will can for later.

What I Made – Week 15

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This post is more than a bit overdue, and I had quite a few repeat recipes this week around, so I’ve only posted pictures of the new things I made with my Week 15 ingredients.

This chicken stew with farro, tomatoes, olives, and feta kinda tasted like a savory oatmeal. I followed the cookbook’s instructions but wished I had cooked it just a little less time so the farro wasn’t quite so mushy. I also pulled out the chicken when the cooking time was up and re-crisped the skin under the broiler.

I tried this recipe for zucchini blondies, swapping the zucchini for yellow squash and the butterscotch chips for chocolate, naturally. It tasted like a combination between zucchini bread and zucchini cookies. Although they were much chewier the second day, to get more of the brownie/blondie texture out of the oven, I think next time I’d bake it a bit longer and up the butter to a half cup. Also, I find whenever I add cinnamon, I taste more of the zucchini bread than a zucchini cookie, but I suppose that’s mostly personal preference!

Then I tried some zucchini brownies. The chocolate flavor was really prominent, but I think I would have preferred it with a more finely shredded zucchini texture.

These pita pockets are stuffed with cherry tomatoes from my garden and kabobs (made with ground elk, of course), all topped with creamy baba ghanoush eggplant spread. I always add more lemon juice and salt than the recipe calls for, and added a bit too much yogurt this time, resulting in the looser texture.

This dish is cheating, because it’s not using CSA ingredients at all, but instead features cherry tomatoes and basil from our garden. It was very easy to make and too good not to share here.

These are delicious garlic miso green beans with pan-fried teriyaki tempeh.

I topped a corn, tomato, and avocado salad (tossed with salt, pepper, olive oil, and lime juice) with a pre-marinated fish filet for a quick and easy no-recipe dinner.

I also made tuna poke, zucchini chicken enchiladas, and zucchini bread.

What I’ve Planned – Week 15

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I’ve got an ambitious plan to make up for lost time with my menu this week, including trying to use veggies that have been languishing in the crisper for several weeks now. (Looking at you, cabbage!)

Some old favorites:

And some new ideas:

  • Plum cake (I’ll probably freeze this for later)

I’m also going to see if the cayennes ripen to red on the counter, then dehydrate and crush them to make homemade red pepper flakes!