Winter CSA Deliciousness!

Woo Hoo for CSA boxes!

I don't know about everyone else, but I have been dying to get a CSA box!  It's amazing how dependent I have become on fresh veggies.  I had to go to the store to get some and I was disgusted.  Everything had less flavor and it was obvious it had been picked many days before.  Quite disappointing!

"Rumor" has it that there will be a plethora of beets and carrots in this week's box.  So I thought I'd share a great recipe that I have some to LOVE!  It goes well with a roasted pork loin.

Roasted Beet and Blue Cheese Salad

4-6 beets, washed and cut into sixths
4-6 carrots, cut into pieces similar in size to the beets (this ensures even cooking)
1/3 C. crumbled blue cheese (or more to taste)
1/4 cup chopped pecans
3 C. mixed greens
good quality olive oil and balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Toss beets and carrots with a little olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
3. Bake on a cookie sheet for about 30-40 minutes, testing for doneness.
4. Toss roasted veggies with the pecans and blue cheese, then drizzle olive oil and vinegar to taste.  (I recommend going to We Olive in Ventura to get some exciting flavors- I like the basil olive oil and a berry basil balsamic.)
5. Serve over mixed greens. ENJOY!

A New Breakfast Food!

As mornings get cooler and sunshine is scarce, I find myself craving warm breakfasts!  With my early morning schedule (I'm a teacher) I don't have much time for complicated warm breakfasts and am not that organized to do anything the night before.  So I came up with a CSA friendly breakfast that is surprisingly DELICIOUS!!!  You may be very surprised at how good greens are in the morning...

Cottage Cheese and Greens

1 bunch of greens (kale, swiss chard- both work really well), stems removed, chopped
1/8-1/4 of and onion, chopped
6-10 sun-dried tomatoes chopped
1 tsp. olive oil
1/4 tsp zatar, or other seasoning you like
 sea salt to taste
1/3-1/2 c. cottage cheese

Heat the oil in a pan and saute the onion until starting to get soft and fragrant.  Add chopped greens and seasonings, saute until soft, add chopped sundried tomatoes and season with seas salt.

Serve over cottage cheese.

Squash, Delightful Squash

Special maneuver on my part... thought I hit publish about 2 weeks ago... UGH!  So here it is... :)

Although it may seem I was smothered by one of my giant, magnificent CSA boxes, I have not.  I have just been entirely too busy cooking delicious fall foods that I neglected to share my creations with you all. :(  Well, that all stops today!  I have two recipes to start with that will change the way you view a CSA box filled with squash!

The Ultimate Fall Pizza!

As many of you know, I have become a pizza princess... not quite the queen, striving for that title!  I recently was missing my weekly dose of kale (I know, I am a food geek) and I needed a new pizza to make on Fridays.  I looked in my fridge and thought..... hmmmmm.... squash???

Here is the result! (This is not a quick pizza, and when you are roasting the squash, you may want to do a bunch and toss the left  overs into pasta with some goat cheese for a delicious meal on Saturday night with minimal prep!)

1 recipe of pizza dough (I use Martha Stewart's recipe, but TJ's premade dough is FABULOUS!)  I recommend for the fall pizza to use the whole wheat one for more depth of flavor.
1 package sliced crimini mushrooms from TJ's (I think they are about 8 oz)
1 good size delicata squash, peeled, cut into 1/2 in chunks. (You can really use any squash you want.)
1 onion thinly sliced.
2-5 gloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
spray olive oil, or about 1-2 TBSP. drizzled
1/2 c. quattro fromaggio
4 oz. goat cheese

Put mushrooms, squash, onions, and garlic on cookie sheet and toss/spray with olive oil.  Cook on upper rack in oven for about 30 minutes at 375 degrees.

Prepare your pizza stone by preheating in the oven to 475 degrees. 

Meanwhile, brush the rolled out dough with olive oil, sprinkle about 1/4 c. of the quattro fromaggio onto the pizza, then distribute the roasted squash, onions, and mushrooms.  Crumble goat cheese over the veggies, then sprinkle remaining quattro fromaggio.

Bake until golden on edges, about 10-12 minutes.

Curried Spaghetti Squash

(Yes, you read that correctly!)

I have to admit, I borrowed (but did alter) this recipe from JR. Organics, a CSA in San Diego County that my sister subscribes to.  I think you will find it is the most delicious way to eat spaghetti squash EVER!!!!

1 medium-large spaghetti squash
1 1/2 TBSP. Coconut oil
1 TBSP. curry powder
1-2 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp. salt (or more to taste)
1 small hot pepper, seeded, chopped
1/3 c. chopped sun-dried tomatoes (optional)
juice of one lime

Bake spaghetti squash for about 45 minutes at 375 degrees. 

Put coconut oil in a large pan, heat it up, add curry powder, salt, pepper, and garlic, saute until fragrant.  Scrape out spaghetti squash into pan and turn off heat.  Toss until combined.  Add sun dried tomatoes and squeeze of lime.  Serve immediately!  You will never believe how good this really is!!!!

Bell Pepper Deliciousness!

As a kid I hated bell peppers! Every time my mom would make Spanish rice with peppers I would cringe.  Well, I hate to admit it, but now I love them!!!  But I must clarify, I love my organic bell peppers, the ones from the store are so flavorless, bitter and give me a stomach ache.  So imagine my delight when I saw this week I had gorgeous bell peppers to enjoy!  These peppers are just so amazing.  One recipe I had wanted to try for years is stuffed peppers.  The only problem was most recipes had meat in them or were weak on flavor.  This inspired me to make a vegetarian version (for those of us who are too lazy to cook meat in the summer!) and I think you will really enjoy this Mediterranean style stuffed pepper. :)   In my version I have used bulgar wheat.  This grain is high in protein and a delicious replacement for ground meat in this dish since it has a similar texture.  The best thing about it is that you cook it like you do couscous.   Simply pour boiling water over it, put a lid on it and let it absorb for a little while.  Very simple.  Happy eating!

Mediterranean Stuffed Peppers

PREHEAT OVEN TO 350
4 bell peppers
1 cups bulgar wheat
1/2 red onion (or yellow if you don;t have red) finely chopped
2 small/medium zucchini, chopped
10 cherry tomatoes, or one big tomato chopped
handful of chopped parsley
2 carrots grated
15 kalamata olives, cut in fourths
6 oz. crumbled feta cheese
4 TBSP.  grated quattro fromage, or other grated cheese
1 TBSP olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

1. Begin by cutting the tops off the peppers and cleaning out the inside.  I like to slightly cut the bottoms of the peppers to make them stable in the pan.  Then spray a 9 in square pan with oil and place the four peppers in the pan.
2. Prepare the bulgar wheat. Place 1 C. of bulgar wheat in a saucepan and pour 1 1/2 C. boiling water over the bulgar and put the lid on for about 20-30 minutes to soak.
3. Saute the onion, zucchini, tomato, and carrots until cooked.  Stir in parsley, bulgar wheat, olives and feta and stir until well combined.  Then turn down the heat to low, out the lid on the pan and cook for about 5 minutes.
4.Stuff the peppers with the mixture.  Be sure to really stuff them.  Then top with a tablespoon of grated cheese. 
5. Cover with foil and bake for 25-30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Cauliflower Summer Squash Tomato Curry

Light Summer Dinner

In an effort to eat up all my summer squash and not do it in the ordinary way (read fried zucchini), I combined a delicious cauliflower tomato curry dish with some squash as well as a few other items from this week's box.  It proved to be a DELICIOUS summer lunch/dinner meal!

Cauliflower Summer Squash Tomato Curry

1- medium onion
slivers of fresh ginger to taste (I used about a pinkie sized piece and sliced it into tiny match stick pieces)

     Saute above in about a teaspoon of olive oil and 1/2 tsp salt for about 10 minutes.
     Then add:
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1/4 tsp. allspice
2-3 cloves garlic, minced

     Saute for about 5 minutes.
     Stir in;
1/2 c. water
1-2 chopped summer squash
1 head of cauliflower cut into bite sized pieces (I tried to make the squash and the cauliflower about the same size)
1/2 tsp. salt

     Cover and cook over medium heat or until cauliflower is tender. (about 10 minutes)
     Stir in:
4 c. pureed stewed tomatoes, or 1- 1lb 14oz can crushed tomatoes
1/2 tsp. salt
1-2 c. baby spinach (or chopped spinach)

     Serve over hot rice.  Will be a little soupy, so serve in bowls.

I enjoy my curry very spicy, so I added red pepper flakes, and if you like a more curry flavor, I would double all of the spices.

Veggies as dessert!

Carrot cake to indulge!

It's fairly easy to have vegetables for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but the challenge comes when trying to incorporate my CSA veggies into dessert.  Always up for a challenge, I decided to start first with an easy veggie dessert, carrot cake.  When I searched through familiar recipes (including my grandmother's decadent recipe from the 1950's), I realized that carrot cake was perhaps the most over sugared and fatrfilled cake out there.  All recipes contained 2 or more cups of sugar and 1-2 cups of oil... simply too much to enjoy eating, plus the shock my body would have when consuming.  I decided to convert my grandmother's recipe to a modern day healthy version that doesn't taste flavorless and like rubber.  Luckily, it was very simple!  I promise you WILL NOT miss the sugar and oil and will be bringing this cake to your next gathering!

Simply Carrot Cake        (Preheat oven to 350)

2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon (plus 1/2 tsp. each of other spices of your choice- nutmeg, cardamon, allspice, etc)
     Mix above ingredients in a LARGE bowl and whisk to remove lumps.
     In a separate bowl combine:
1 c white sugar
1 1/2 c. nonfat yogurt (I used the TJ's organic nonfat European style)
juice and zest of 1/2 a lemon

     Mix together and mix into dry ingredients until combined, do not over mix.
     Fold in:
2 c. grated carrots
1- 8 oz. can crushed pineapple in juice.
1/2 c. chopped walnuts (optional)

Pour into 9 X 13 greased pan.
Bake 35-50 minutes depending on oven, I started checking for done-ness at 35 minutes.  Look for dark golden on the top.  It's great if you cook it in a glass baking dish so you can see how it's progressing.

I made this simple poured icing.  I only used 2/3 of the recipe to keep it lighter, but if you like icing, you'll love this!

Lemony Poured Icing

1 block reduced fat cream cheese (room temp.)
juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
3 c. powdered sugar

Combine all ingredients with mixer.  Pout over carrot cake.  Enjoy!!!

Summer Veggie Love!

Summer Soup!

This summer I had the great fortune of traveling over much of the Midwest.  It was a very fun and HOT trip!   On my travels I was inspired to try new foods and recipes.  One highlight from my trip was a stop for lunch at the Moosewood restaurant, AKA vegetarian mecca. :)  I had an amazing meal and bought a cookbook with some delicious recipes!  Upon arriving at home I also purchased a few more of Mollie Katzen's books and below you will find two recipes I found to be too yummy for words...

Gazpacho

This recipe is based on Mollie Katzen's recipe in the New Moosewood cookbook.  I made alterations according to what veggies I had in my CSA box.

The best part of this recipe is that it requires no cooking and is refreshing on a hot summer day! 

Best served with fresh crusty bread and butter.


4 cups tomato juice or pureed stewed tomatoes
1/2 large onion, finely diced
1 clove of garlic, finely minced (or pressed through a garlic press)
1 bell pepper, finely diced
2 green onions, minced
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, finely diced
2 cups fresh diced tomato

juice of 1/2 lemon and 1 lime
2 TBSP red wine vinegar
2 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/4 c. fresh, mined parsley
1 TBSP. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
hot sauce to taste (I prefer the hot sauce from Trader Joe's, made with just red ripened jalapenos!)

Combine all ingredients, puree to desired consistency, ENJOY!!

Marinated Cold Cauliflower Salad (taken from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest)

This is a surprisingly delicious, refreshing cold salad.  It's perfect for a summer picnic since it has no eggs or mayonnaise in it.

First, make this marinade to cook the cauliflower in:

1/3 c. olive oil
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
1/2 c. water
3 large cloves of garlic
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. whole peppercorns
2 bay leaves

1 medium cauliflower cut into bite sized pieces (head about 6-7 inch diameter)

Combine all the ingredients above and bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and let simmer for about 15 minutes or until the cauliflower is tender (not soft).

Remove cauliflower with slotted spoon, put into serving dish, cover and chill until cold.

Meanwhile, prepare the following ingredients:

1/2 c. finely minced red onion
1/2 c. minced fresh parsley
handful of minced fresh basil
1 medium carrot, grated

When cauliflower is cooled, toss with other ingredients and serve.  You will be pleasantly surprised!