CSA Week 1: Kale. And Kale. And some other stuff.

I seem to have lost some of my food photography skillz since last summer ... I will try to work on making my veggies prettier. :)

Matt and I drove to pick up our very first CSA share of the season on Friday, and I was so very excited! Except that it was pouring rain. And our (cardboard) box of food sits outside in someone's driveway for pickup. And when I got there, I saw that there was a loaf of bread inside. In a paper bag. A very, very wet loaf of bread. But hey, there it is! You can almost see it. This week, we received:

-Kale! Some really curly small-leaf kale. I forgot to take a photo of it before I made it into kale chips (recipe below) - which are in that plastic bag in the last photo.

-More kale! A different kind of kale. I forgot to get it out of the fridge for the photo, so just imagine MORE KALE.

-A half loaf of soggy sesame seed bread. Okay, it didn't end up being very soggy, and tasted very good heated up with some almond butter. Yums.

-BEETS!!!! Yes, I really am that excited about the darn beets. I used to think I hated beets ... then I got some in last year's CSA, learned how to roast them, and realized that they are one of my new favorite things. These beets are pretty weeny, but I am looking forward to roasting them tomorrow and having them with some salad. Yums.

-Greens - beautiful, beautiful salad greens. Seriously - don't they look fresh and delicious? I cannot wait to make myself a good salad Monday for dinner while Matt is at a decades-long group meeting for grad school.

Last year, the CSA share started kind of weak, with only salad stuff and other greens, and gained momentum as the growing season progressed. I am really looking forward to all of this deliciousness!

I got lots of kale last year, and never really knew what to do with it. Unfortunately, a lot of it went bad before I figured out what to do. But not this year! I am determined to not let ANY of this produce go bad. I had heard about kale chips last summer, but just never got around to making them. But since I had not one, but TWO giant bunches of kale, I decided to give it a shot yesterday. I went with a recipe from Smitten Kitchen:

Kale Chips

Ingredients:

kale (duh)

extra virgin olive oil (I used spray evoo because that's all I had on hand - worked great)

sea salt

aaaand of course I added a little garlic as well

Preheat oven to 300.

Wash and dry kale in a salad spinner to get out all the moisture (I had done this the night before, so the kale was nice and dry already). Cut or rip into bite-size pieces, removing the thick stems. Toss in olive oil, sea salt and whatever other herbs/spices you would like, and lay on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. Or not. I am out of parchment paper so I didn't use any, but I guess that would have been easier for clean-up.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until crispy. Mine were perfect at 15 minutes - and wow, I was really surprised about how fantastic they are. They really satisfy the salty chip craving - only it's kale! Which is amazingly good for you, and has a ton of health benefits. I am hooked, and I'll definitely be using the pounds and pounds of kale we get this spring to make kale chips!

Tasty Leftover Idea

First of all - how was your Thanksgiving? Good? Mine was great. We spent Thanksgiving here in Indiana with Matt's family, and we had a wonderful time! Have you ever had Thanksgiving at a cemetery before? No? Me either ... until this year. Matt's dad's side of the family gets together for Thanksgiving at a building in a cemetery, for reasons unbeknownst to me. I believe it's because it's the only place they could find that fit everyone? Unsure. What I DO know is that there isn't a bathroom - only an outhouse type deal outside. In the cemetery. No thanks! The cemetery was also on a "dead end." Giggle.

Anyway, I made a giant batch of cranberry sauce because I LOVE it and must have it smothered all over my turkey and stuffing. I always forget that not a lot of other people like it, though, so I had a ton of cranberry sauce leftover. That's when I discovered this recipe over on the Panini Happy blog: Pulled Turkey Cranberry BBQ Sliders. I modified this a bit (would you believe we didn't have hardly any turkey leftover? so I used a rotisserie chicken), and I absolutely LOVED it. So did Matt - it definitely got the Man A-Okay.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp canola oil (I used EVOO)

1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped

1 tbsp jalapeno pepper, finely chopped, seeds removed (I forgot both the onion AND the jalapeno)

1 clove garlic, minced

1 1/2 cup whole berry cranberry sauce

1/2 cup ketchup

1 tbsp prepared mustard (we used probably more like 2 tbsp of horseradish mustard - gave it a great kick!)

roast turkey, shredded (or umm rotisserie chicken)

Hawaiian dinner rolls, halved lengthwise (we didn't use buns and just ate it alone)

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan. Add onions and jalapeno (or, you know, don't) and cook over medium heat until the onions have softened. Add garlic and cook for another minute or so. Add cranberry sauce, ketchup and mustard and simmer for around 15 minutes, stirring often to prevent burning.

The original recipe says to remove it from the heat and THEN mix in the turkey/chicken, but we just shredded the rotisserie chicken and then tossed it in the saucepan. Since the chicken was cold, I left it on the stove for a bit, stirring occasionally, to heat it up.

The verdict? Delish! You can make it as sliders and put the turkey/chicken on buns, or not. I reheated it today, served it over a salad with romaine, cucumbers, green onions, corn and black beans for a little bbq tex mex salad. Delish!

How was your Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving Recipe Swap

Okay, I realize that it's probably a little late for a Thanksgiving recipe swap, but I am late in reading my blogs (per usual) and just came across b.e.g.'s recipe swap post. I usually make my grandma's chocolate chip pecan pie for Thanksgiving, but this year I made Pioneer Woman's chocolate bourbon pecan pie to try something new.

Instead, I will post the recipe for one of my family's Thanksgiving traditions - noodle kugel!!!!!! Now, I realize a lot of you probably aren't familiar with kugel. What can I say? It's a Jew thing. :) My parents always make kugel for Thanksgiving, and this year I thought I would make it to take over to my in-laws for dinner tomorrow. Kugel is basically a baked noodle pudding type deal. I know it might sound weird, but the main ingredients are egg noodles, eggs, cream cheese, butter, and sugar. CLEARLY you can't go wrong.

Ingredients:

1 pound medium egg noodles (I always use the No-Yolks)

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened (I always use Neufchatel cheese)

1 1/4 cups sugar

8 eggs, well beaten

4 cups milk

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp lemon juice

dash salt

Topping:

2/3 cups graham cracker crumbs

1 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

Cream together the butter and cream cheese. Add sugar and mix well. Blend in eggs. Add milk, vanilla, lemon juice and salt. Add noodles and mix thoroughly. Pour into a 9x13 inch baking dish. Mix graham cracker crumbs and cinnamon and sprinkle on top of noodles. Bake for 1 1/4 hours or until nicely browned and crusty on top. Let cool at least 30 minutes before serving. Cut into squares.

Just give this a shot - trust me, you will love it. Even though it is kinda sweet, I serve it as a Thanksgiving side. Enjoy!

Football food?

I was SO excited to watch the first Michigan football game of the season yesterday! And while I thought about making some tailgate food for myself, in the end ... all my beautiful fresh veggies won me over. The other day, Kyle showed me this recipe from Smitten Kitchen for roasted carrot and avocado salad, and ... I wanted it!

First, I took my beautiful carrots and scrubbed them clean ... and then I peeled them because they were still kinda dirty.

I chopped them up into 1-2 inch segments and threw them in this pretty red bowl.
Then, tossed them with olive oil, cumin, salt and pepper...

Preheated the oven to 400* and threw them on a foil-lined baking sheet. Okay, this is actually a roasting pan. But you know ... whatevs.
Around 35 minutes later, they looked all pretty and tasty and browned, like this!
I put the carrots in a bowl, sliced half an avocado and threw it on top ... then cut a lemon in half and squeezed it over the carrots and avocado. Drizzled with more olive oil, threw a little more salt and pepper on top ...
... and, ta da! DELICIOUSNESS! This was really, really, really good.
The flavors were really interesting - I don't think I've ever had avocado and carrots together before. YUM. My only regret was that I didn't get more carrots from the farmer's market. They're all gone now!

AMAZING

So, I got home from work today and Matt was in a pretty bad mood.  In addition to all of the homework and reading he has for grad school, the unit he's deploying with is making him learn the first level of Arabic on Rosetta Stone.  Now, NO language is easy to learn quickly, and I'm pretty sure that Arabic is probably one of the most difficult.  

I called and woke him up early this morning after my car battery died on my way to work (blah)...and then apparently he sat and did Arabic all day long.  By the time I got home, he felt as though he had learned nothing...and also, he had about a gazillion other things to do today.

SO.  He went off to class tonight, and I decided that he would be much happier if he came home to cookies tonight.  I had some leftover pumpkin puree, so I decided to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.  I searched for the recipe online, and wrote it down on a piece of paper.  And now I have no idea what website it came from...does it sound familiar?  If so, let me know where it came from so that I can give it proper credit!

Without further ado...

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

2 cups all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat flour because I'm out of white flour)

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg.  In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.  Dissolve the baking soda in the milk and add (ummm...I didn't have any baking soda so I just threw in the milk alone).  

Stir the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and mix well.  Add vanilla and chocolate chips.

Bake for around 10 minutes.

Note from the chef (that's me!):  I just realized that I forgot to add the vanilla.  Oops.  And mine had to bake for way longer than 10 minutes...more like 15.  

Oh, and just so you know, I did sample one small cookie, and it tastes FANTASTIC even without the vanilla and baking soda!

Matt is due home any minute now...let's hope that these cookies cheer him up!

Delicious Food!

So, there's something I don't talk about on the blog much...and I have no idea why that is.  But, here's the deal.  I love to cook, and I cook pretty much every day!  And I find lots of new and fun recipes, and...I never post any of them, really.  What is up with that?!

Anyway, I made a great new salmon recipe yesterday and I LOVED IT.  So, I decided to post it here!  I originally found it on the Weight Watcher's website back when I was a member.  I copied and pasted it into an email (tricky, right??!) and saved it for later.  Yesterday, I found it, and I decided to give it a shot.  Without further ado.....

Broiled Salmon with Citrus Salsa

Ingredients:

olive oil

salt and pepper

1 cup orange sections, coarsely chopped (I used one whole orange)

1 cup grapefruit sections, coarsely chopped (I used half of a grapefruit)

1/2 cup sweet red pepper (I didn't measure, but used half red pepper and half purple pepper)

1/2 cup onion 

jalapeno pepper

1 tbsp sugar

filets of salmon

So, I don't really measure anything...just use whatever you feel would be tasty.  :)

Place filets on the rack of a broiler pan coated with cooking spray.  Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper (I sprinkled with garlic salt, because...well, just because).  Broil 10-12 minutes or until fish flakes.

In the meantime...combine all the other ingredients to make the salsa.  Take the salmon out of the oven, and TADA!  You have a super easy, super delish, refreshing and fun meal.

I served it with a microwaveable Seeds of Change quinoa/brown rice mix with garlic.  It was fantastic.  I also sauteed some onions in olive oil and then threw in some frozen butternut squash, covered it, and let it steam for awhile.  When it was done, I just sprinkled a little bit of salt on, and - voila!  A delish AND healthy meal!

Matt and I eat salmon once or twice a week (gotta get those Omega-3's in!), so I am always looking for a new and different salmon recipe so we don't get bored.  I've done marinated salmon, salmon burgers, salmon tacos, baked salmon, spice-encrusted salmon...you name it!  Do YOU have a tasty salmon recipe?  If so, tell me about it! 

Oops!  Forgot to mention for all of you WW ladies that one filet with 2/3 cup salsa is approximately 9 points.  I'm not sure I completely believe this, though, because it is SO light and fresh!

Pure Deliciousness

Well, it's Sunday night.  Aren't Sunday nights rough?  When you realize that your lovely weekend has come to a close, and you have to go back to work tomorrow?  Blah.

Today was pretty low-key.  Sunday is my day off, so I skipped the Shred.  But, I felt...lazy.  Perhaps I am getting set in a routine?  This is a good thing!  Instead of feeling lazy all day, Matt and I took Oscar out to a nearby lake for some hiking.  We hiked vigorously and I sweat like crazy!  It wasn't super hot, but the humidity was out of control.  We were only out about 45 minutes to an hour, but I was out of breath and my heart rate was definitely up!  So, that's good.

Then - DELICIOUSNESS!  I made a really amazing dinner.  Which I feel obligated to share with you, clearly. 

Without further ado:  Weight Watchers Crock Pot Beef Brisket!  Yummmmmmy!  6 points for a 3 oz piece of brisket with 6 tbsp of sauce.

1 4lb beef brisket (I used a 2 pound and it was plenty for the two of us)

1 large onion sliced and separated into rings (I omitted the onion because Matt doesn't like it)

3/4 tsp pepper

3 tbsp all purpose flour

3 tbsp brown sugar

2 garlic cloves, minced

3/4 cup beer

1/2 cup chili sauce

Trim fat from brisket (this was the hardest part!); cut in half.  Place onion rings in slow cooker.  Sprinkle with pepper evenly over brisket.  Place brisket halves over onions.  Put flour, brown sugar and garlic in a small bowl.  Gradually add beer and chili sauce, stirring until blended.  Pour over brisket.  Cover with lid and cook on high for 1 hour, then reduce to low and cook 6-8 hours or until tender.

Ta da!

This was seriously one of the tastier things I've ever made.  The brisket was so tender that it just fell apart.  YUM!  Try this - ASAP - and let me know what you think!

Lovely Weekend

Happy Saturday, my lovelies!  Sorry I missed posting  yesterday.  I was busy entertaining my little sister...and reading Eclipse, naturally.  I finished it this morning, about 24 hours later than I expected.  Aaaaand now it's on to the next book:  Scarlett, the sequel to Gone With The Wind.  Obviously not written by Margaret Mitchell, as GWTW was her only book.  We'll see how good this is...I'm only about 50 pages into it, and it's not super fantastic.  I'll let you know in a few days.

So, as far as being fit goes, so far so good!

For yesterday:

Morning:  Day 4 of the Shred!

Breakfast:  One cup of Quaker Oat Squares with skim milk and strawberries

Lunch-ish:  1 Kashi dark chocolate and coconut bar (yummmmmmy!)

Snack-ish:  1 WW chocolate chip cookie and a small amount of Kraft mac and cheese that I made for S when she came over

Dinner:  Leftovers from Thursday night - the ham and potato au gratin dealy.

Today:

Morning:  Day 5 of the Shred!  Yesss!  Does anyone else get kinda...bored with the Shred?  I mean, I like it and I like knowing what I'm doing.  But now that I'm on Day 5 of the-same-exact-thing, I find myself really looking forward to Level 2.  Thoughts?

Breakfast:  Two Eggo Nutrigrain waffles with strawberries and maple syrup 

Lunch:  a few saltines to ward of an approaching migraine

Afternoon:  5 mile brisk hike/walk with my boys, Matt and Oscar

Afternoon naughty snack:  One scoop of grasshopper ice cream (mint chocolate chip with oreos!) in a sugar cone.  Hey, it was hot, and we had a nice long hike!

Dinner:  Sliced steak over polenta - recipe from WW Momentum Cookbook.  This was soooo tasty!  Recipe at the bottom.  Sorry, no photos...I just didn't think about it.  But this is definitely a winner!

Does anyone have any fun Sunday plans?  I plan on sleeping in, doing Day 6 of the Shred (blaaaaaah!), and reading.  I may throw in some laundry, because...you guessed it!  I'm going on ANOTHER TRIP NEXT WEEKEND!  On Thursday, I'm leaving to drive to Charlotte, NC, to visit my wonderful friends Anna and her husband Tim, and Cassie, her husband Dave, and their new little baby Charlie.  I'm so excited!  I'm not super excited about the 9 hour drive, but I'm going to head to the library to pick up a book-on-cd from my summer reading list.  Any suggestions?  I need it to be around 16-17 hours.  

Okay - House just came on, so I'm out of here!  Here is the fab recipe - I almost never make steak, but this one was truly yummy!

Sliced Steak with Crispy Polenta:  6 points

1 one pound flank steak, trimmed

1/2 teaspoon ancho or regular chili powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 16-ounce tube of fat-free polenta, cut into 12 slices

1 1/2 cups fresh or thawed frozen corn kernels

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1/2 red onion, chopped

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Spray a nonstick ridged grill pan with nonstick spray and set over medium-high heat.  Sprinkle the steak with the chili powder and salt.  Place the steak on the pan and cook until and instant-read thermometer inserted into the side of the steak registered 145F for medium-rare, about 5 minutes on each side.  Transfer the steak to a cutting board and let stand 5 minutes.  Cut on a diagonal into 16 slices.

Meanwhile, spray the broiler rack with nonstick spray and preheat the broiler.  Arrange the slices of polenta on the rack and broil 5 inches from the heat until crispy and heated through, about 2 minutes on each side.

Spray a medium nonstick skillet with nonstick spray and set over medium heat.  Add the corn, bell pepper, onion, and jalapeno pepper;  cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes.  Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the cilantro.

Place 3 slices of polenta on each of 4 plates and top evenly with the steak.  Spoon the corn mixture on top.

*Chef's note:  I didn't have any jalapeno or cilantro, so I omitted these and it was still darn tasty.  I also have a bit of an aversion to chili powder, so I sprinkled the steak with salt, pepper and garlic instead.  I also broiled the steak as well as the polenta - I get nervous cooking steak on the stove.  :)  But that's just me!*