It is that time of the year, gray mid-February, when I start to dream of Spring vegetables. It is also the season where I begin purging my freezer and pantry so that, when Spring finally comes, I have a head start on Spring cleaning. Of course, half bags of this, and frozen pints of that, will make a bit of a mishmash of my menus in the weeks to come.
My CSA box seems to feel as I do, since this week’s contents were a rather Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde hybrid of roots, roots, and more roots, greenhouse offerings, and the beginning of Spring shoots and leaves. Thank goodness for pea shoots, seen above, which offer hope that the winter may end someday (and we shall not eat cabbage again until then.)
As you can see from the menu below, my dietary restrictions continue. I have been doing well in terms of ingredients and portion size and very much hope that my test results in a few weeks will show the effort that has been put into making and maintaining these changes. I did have one leetle setback this week – L., who is in the middle of college application hell, had reason to celebrate and we did so with takeout. We had Chinese food, though certainly not as much as I would have liked, and I was horrified to find that I felt guilty the entire next day. What’s that about?!
This Week's CSA box contained:
Herbs: a bouquet of a few sprigs each of dill, parsley, chives, rosemary, sage and thyme
Greens: a punnet of pea shoots, a baggie of spinach leaves, a bunch of collard greens and a head of lettuce
Alliums: a handful of shallots and a head of garlic
Vegetables: a butternut squash, a brown bag of assorted mushrooms, a head of bok choi, a couple of Jerusalem artichokes, five carrots, two parsnips, four leeks, two red beets and two turnips
Fruit: --
Remainders: a few potatoes, part of a cabbage 😱
So, with the addition of the above remainders (Lord help us) and a couple of avocadoes (minus whatever I use for lunch) these items will be transformed into:
Sunday “Pantry Roulette”; fridge, freezer, and pantry item dinner]
A taste of Bissara (North African Split Pea Soup)
Pan Fried Mackerel with Meyer Lemon
Curried Leeks and Greens
Steamed Potatoes
Monday [Wildcard; a more complex or fiddly dish than usual to test my culinary skills]
Salad of Mixed Greens with Pumpkin Seed Oil Vinaigrette
Polenta with Chives
Tuesday [Pasta]
Grated Carrot and Beet Salad with Tahini Dressing
(with the addition of slab bacon for L. and over lentil pasta for me)
Wednesday [L.'s choice]
Pea Shoot and Wild Rice Pilaf
Thursday [Fish]
Mixed Salad
Steamed Wheat Berries
Friday [Veggie-centric most of the time but not this week]
Shaved Jerusalem Artichoke Salad with Blood Orange Dressing
Pan Roasted Butternut Squash
Wilted Baby Spinach Leaves and Crunchy Pea Shoots with a Grain Mustard Vinaigrette
Saturday ["Picnic"; something that is easy to assemble and easy to eat in front of a movie]
Mixed Salad
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