This zucchini oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe was a new one for me. The oats help absorb some extra moisture from the zucchini, but it’s still definitely soft, even if the edges looked crispy. Next time I would refrigerate it per the directions instead of a quick dip in my freezer!
I STILL have some zucchini to use up, as well as lots of watermelon and cantaloupe to eat, but the cucumbers are slowly becoming dill pickles as we speak!
We have lots of leftovers from last week, so I’m planning just the basics this week, along with a few new favorites and one very fancy breakfast recipe!
Back to a full week of cooking! I didn’t plan it this way, but looking at the photos I guess it’s bowl food galore.
This Thai red curry soup was extremely spicy (my preference, I always go a bit heavier with the curry paste than the recipes call for) but wasn’t overwhelming, thanks to the creamy flavor of the coconut milk. If you prefer less spice, you’d be safe with the 3 tablespoons of curry paste the recipe calls for, and two tablespoons would be only a hint of flavor, I think. I also used rice vermicelli noodles per the photo on the site, even though the recipe doesn’t specify.
I turned this Tex Mex Tofu Quinoa Bowl into a salad by putting it over lettuce. Can you tell I had food styling help on this one? 😉
This one pot cabbage casserole may not look like much, but it’s got all the flavor of cabbage rolls with none of the work. Of course, we used fresh tomatoes instead of canned diced tomatoes, so some chopping was involved, but this is still one of my favorite easy recipes and it uses up half a head of cabbage!
I was able to use up several of my veggies and make a meat free, one pot dinner with this lentil salad. (I may have served this with fish, too!) I find the key to this recipe is really tasting the salad and adding vinegar to balance the flavor of mint, earthy lentils, sweet carrots and roasted peppers, and salty cheese. I just should have drained them a lot better to make them less soggy!
This Instant Pot Jambalaya is pictured immediately before I drowned it in hot sauce. There is lots of prep work and chopping for this recipe, but the actual cooking method couldn’t be easier. I used a tablespoon of Cajun seasoning but it definitely could have used more. I added sliced okra right before I cooked it under pressure and thought the texture was perfect. (I have never experienced the burn error this recipe warns you about.)
I’m planning to cut the rest of the corn off the cobs and freeze it for use in soup or chicken chili later this fall or winter.
I also let those cayenne peppers turn red on the counter, then I finally dehydrated them and pulsed them in the food processor to make red pepper flakes. I didn’t use the good appliance, so the size of the flakes is a bit inconsistent, but they are definitely potent!
To make this week, I’ve planned ways to use peppers, peppers, and more peppers
I spent Week 16 at the beach and didn’t take pictures of what we made, so it’s a combo list this time around!
Week 16
Week 17
Clockwise from left: Red Leaf Lettuce, Yukon Gold Potatoes, Yellow Seedless Watermelon, Green Cabbage, Canary Melon, Bicolor Sweet Corn, Green Bell Peppers, Red Radishes, Bartlett Pears, Red Grape Tomatoes, Orange Carrots
In the winter, there is nothing I love more than a pot of homemade chicken stock simmering away on the stove. After it’s done some might turn into chicken noodle soup, but the rest gets frozen because in the heat of summer you’d have to beg me to turn on the oven to make soup. That’s why gazpacho is a summer staple: cool, fresh, and the prep work is all chopping and no cooking.
The benefit of all the hard work in the winter is having homemade stock to use as the base for this recipe. To that, you add diced tomatoes, onion, peppers, cucumbers, celery, and a little sugar and lemon juice. For an extra kick, add a dash of Worcestershire and Tabasco sauces.
I left mine chunky, but you could run it through a blender for a smoother consistency.
I just added the stock frozen, and let it thaw while all the flavors combined.
My Grandma is a faithful reader of CSA in the City, and each week when I talk to her, she lets me know which recipes looked good, and which did not. You see, Grandma is not a shrimp fan (she’s allergic, so you can’t blame her). The last few times I made a recipe with shrimp, Grandma made sure to tell me everything I posted that week looked good, except the shrimp. So with apologies to Grandma, here’s another shrimp recipe, this time with a Southwestern flair.
The shrimp marinate for a while in a mixture of lime juice, chipotle peppers and adobo sauce (buy one of the small cans at the store) and some garlic and cumin. I don’t have a grill, so I cooked them in a skillet on the stove. Then, I sliced this week’s red onion with some of last week’s green bell peppers. They got a quick toss in the leftover shrimp marinade and were sautéed until done.
Wrap them in a tortilla and eat them just like this, or top your fajitas with whatever you’d like: cheese, lettuce, salsa, etc. Continue reading
CSA in the Suburbs 