What I Made

What I Made – Week 14

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The most visually impressive meal of the week is these blackberry almond sweet rolls. I recommend straining the blackberry filling after cooking it down to keep out the seeds. It’s an extra step but makes the outcome much less crunchy!
Even though it looks like green peppers in this shrimp quinoa pilau, that’s just the color the purple peppers turned when cooked!
A quick no-recipe meal made from leftover roast chicken, purple peppers cooked with seasoning, and a fresh tomato-onion-cilantro salsa is wonderful for a hot summer evening.
Cheesesteak stuffed peppers are a very fast meal – just layer a slice of cheese, some deli roast beef slices (and I added sautéed onions) and top with another slice of cheese, and bake 20 minutes. I used about a half pound of deli meat here.

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!

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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!

What I Made – Week 12

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I tried a new recipe for these blueberry lemon scones, substituting regular milk for the plant-based and was sure I was going to regret it. The dough was so soft I dumped it in a puddle on my baking sheet for the chilling step! But somehow it baked up perfectly, and the crunchy sugar topping was a definite must. Consider adding more sugar to the dough if you don’t have any for sprinkling.
Salmon with wilted chard and a tarragon vinaigrette is a true 30 minute meal with flavor that tastes like it’s much more complex. Four salmon filets will leave leftovers for the next day, but we always eat one bunch of chard in a single meal.
These pitas are stuffed with more veggies than you might realize – oven roasted sun gold tomatoes, cucumbers in the tzatziki yogurt sauce, and zucchini in the turkey meatballs! Don’t skimp on the herbs in the meatballs, they give great flavor.
This colorful salad is just beets, avocado, and a puréed onion dressing, but is a nice light way to enjoy beets in the summer.
This dish looks veggie-free, but it hides 3 sliced and then caramelized onions! This is Adas Polo or lentil rice with chicken from the Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat cookbook. I didn’t have raisins or dates, so I used craisins. Samin would also be disappointed that my dish turned out unseasoned. She says to salt the rice cooking liquid until it’s “uncomfortable” and I thought I was probably just short of that but that it would be close enough. I was wrong and should know better than to not trust her instructions…
The recipe for these wok cooked Romano beans seems too easy to be true: char beans and dried chiles, add 1/4 c water to steam until crisp tender, then toss with garlic and ginger, soy sauce and sesame oil, and top with scallions. I’m here to say it was delicious and much more flavorful than you might expect!
This zucchini chocolate orange cake is pretty much perfection (and a great way to use up zucchini). I swap chocolate chips for the pecans and concentrate the glaze and only use about a half cup of powdered sugar since the cake is plenty sweet without it.

We also ate (more!) sunchoke gnocchi with sautéed spinach and polished off the peaches and cantaloupe as delicious lunch time snacks. We still have more onions and cucumbers to use up.

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 11

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This is the week of the year when it’s almost too hot to stand over the stove, but we’re no longer getting much lettuce for salads! Only one salad this week, everything else I tried to make quick and easy or in the crock pot!

This sheet pan dinner simply includes sliced kielbasa, potatoes, and wax peppers, tossed with oil and whatever seasoning you like. I wish I had quick-pickled the peppers, because I missed the tang of vinegar in this.
Blackberries and blue cheese are combined with toasted pecans and a balsamic vinaigrette for this black and blue salad. I added quinoa to make it a full meal.
The cherry tomatoes add a colorful salsa to these zucchini quesadillas.
When I don’t know what to do with chard, I look for a recipe with spinach that also calls for sautéed onions. I toss the chopped stems in with the onions and use the leaves as the recipe directs you to use spinach. This lamb curry gets nice and tender in the crock pot after most of the ingredients are seared in a skillet. I added the chard leaves with about an hour left in the cook time.
This wax beans with chorizo dish would make a great side, but we add some extra chorizo and eat it as a main dish. (This is the Spanish dried chorizo, not the fresh sausage links you might see at the butcher counter.)
This tandoori chicken casserole has two whole zucchini shredded and mixed into the sauce! I usually use hot curry powder to give it a little kick, but I forgot this time, and missed the extra spice.

We ate the peaches plain, and are still up to our eyeballs in cucumbers with plenty of onions still on hand, but we did a pretty good job using up the rest of our veggies this week.

What I Made – Week 9

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For a pretty heavy basket, we didn’t make too many impressive meals this week. We were able to use up some of the older items hanging around from last week, though.

A special occasion dinner called for easy roasted potatoes, a pork shoulder smoked for over 12 hours, and skillet blistered green beans.
This black rice with tempeh, mushrooms, and garlic scapes had minimal ingredients, but lots of stir fry flavor. I steam tempeh for 10 minutes before frying to remove any bitterness because I read that once and thought, why not.
No one has ever confused me for a cauliflower fan, but roasted until brown with spices and used on top of a salad is pretty great. This shawarma spiced version also included red pepper hummus, mint and in a later version, feta and dried fruit, all topped with a tahini lemon dressing.
This zucchini noodle bolognese was so easy it really doesn’t need a recipe. I browned hot Italian sausage, cooked down some whole peeled tomatoes (canned from our garden bounty last year), and spiced it up with some Italian herbs to make the meat sauce. The zucchini will release water into the sauce, so thicker is better at this point. Pour it over the spiralized zucchini and top with cheese and you’re all set!

Not pictured are the blueberry and cherry sauces we made for topping waffles (or ice cream). We still have the kale and more zucchini to try and use next week!

What I Made – Week 8

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You would have thought this week’s basket world have brought more salads, and it should have! Here’s what we ate instead.

This blueberry buckle has 4 cups of blueberries! Not on purpose, but it was an effective way to use everything up, so we’ll call it a happy accident.
Roasted broccoli is tossed with olive oil and harissa for this tofu quinoa bowl.
A salad! Lettuce topped with mozzarella, craisins, and chicken with a garlic scape dressing.
This cabbage is seared before being braised in a spiced tomato sauce. I didn’t top it with yogurt like the recipe said, so it could have used some lemon juice or another splash of something tangy.
These mini-burritos are filled with beans, rice, and chard, topped with cheese, and broiled until melty and just slightly browned.
I added a can of diced tomatoes to make this vegetable vindaloo with potatoes and carrots extra saucy! I did forget to add the peas.
And finally for birthday dinner, skillet steak with peas and asparagus, a very quick and very tasty early summer meal.

What I Made – Week 7

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Our household comes down strong on the side of waffles in the morning debate of pancakes versus waffles. With blueberries throughout and topped with butter and real maple syrup, how could you not love these?
Blueberry muffins are pretty great, too. Especially when they make use of this incredibly simple-yet-foolproof muffin recipe.
Two whole-roasted components that were later disassembled into a meal: a chicken cooked per Ina Garten, but smeared with homemade pesto under the skin, and kohlrabi, later peeled and combined with peppers and feta.
It’s not very pretty to look at, but this zucchini chicken enchilada casserole is one on my go-to zucchini recipes these days. Instead of spiralizing them, I cut the zucchini into thin rounds and dry them a bit with a quick turn under the broiler before layering it into the casserole.
This pasta with sausage and peas was great on a rainy evening, and even though we used hot it’s,Ian sausage, it wasn’t at all spicy.
I actually roasted these beets early in the week along with the chicken and kohlrabi, so the assembly of this salad just required cooking the grain (freekeh, in this case), making the vinaigrette, and chopping the lettuce for a very quick weeknight meal. Is this meal prep?
I amped up the veggies in this clam pasta with white wine sauce by adding extra carrots, but it would also be good with some wilted spinach stirred in.

We still have more lettuce to use and a bundle of garlic scapes (in addition to what we harvested from our own garden)! We’ve frozen some of the extra peas, because we’re doing the same with what we’ve been getting from our garden, too!

What I Made – Week 6

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Let’s start with the most photogenic dish of the week, and also a surprisingly easy one! We used arctic char instead of the bass, and swapped the arugula for regular old lettuce.
This potatoes, fennel, and sausage skillet is an example of how I followed a recipe, but completely changed everything. I didn’t think my skillet was big enough to cook everything together, so I roasted the potatoes in the oven, adding the sliced fennel halfway through. I browned the sausage and onions in the pan, and cooked the onions in the sauce to make the glaze. Then I just topped the potatoes and fennel with the glazed onions and sausage. It was tasty, but heavy for a summer meal.
A pretty straightforward taco salad with last week’s shredded beef. We mixed a tablespoon or two of hot salsa and a tablespoon or so of spice blend into the beef to amp up the taco flavor.
I’ve made this recipe for salmon and napa cabbage many times, but didn’t follow the directions for the fish as closely this time. Do as the recipe says, not as I did if you want delicious crispy skin.
Another meal where I made some changes for the texture. I pan fried the tofu instead of marinating it, then just added oil to the marinade from the recipe to make a dressing. We left off the rice noodles this time, but I also like bean thread noodles on this.
Part salad, part grain bowl, the basic formula for this quinoa base with a lemon scallion vinaigrette and whatever cheese, dried fruit, and nuts you have (or not) is the recipe I always go to when I have a leafy green and no ideas for dinner.
Behold the collard breakfast sandwich! We followed the recipe instructions for the collards but managed to change just about everything else: an English muffin instead of a biscuit, peach bourbon jam instead of the aioli, country ham instead of pancetta, and a fried egg in place of the scrambled. But it tasted very good anyway.
Last but not least, rhubarb! lemon! cheesecake! I like to layer the curd throughout the cheesecake rather than just swirling it on top for maximum combination per bite. It’s also great with gluten free cookies for the crust.

What I Made – Week 5

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This chicken, kale and artichoke casserole was very easy to put together. I thought my skillet was too small for the last few steps where all the ingredients are combined, so I did it in a casserole dish in the oven instead and just cooked it 20-30 minutes. I would probably reduce the amount of liquid if I did it this way again.
Oh wow, another salad! This one with oranges, goat cheese, scallions, pistachios and some leftover red pepper dressing.
Finally I got both ingredients at the same time and made a strawberry rhubarb pie this year! It was a little more strawberries than rhubarb but you won’t hear me complaining.
These massive, meaty pork chops were the perfect accompaniment to this apple, kohlrabi and mint slaw. I will definitely make this again; it’s a great side dish that has so many flavors haters like me will barely notice the kohlrabi.
Unglamorous shredded beef tacos! I was too tired at the end of the week to make the salsa so we used leftovers from takeout (in the plastic containers) and topped with lots of lettuce and cilantro.

Not pictured was the sunchoke gnocchi and sautéed spinach we had (pictured here in Winter Week 15) and the many, many salads we made. We finally used up the last of the lettuce today so we only have a few red scallions rolling around the produce drawer. We’ve got to try to keep this pace up heading into the height of summer!