CSA Pickup

Yesterday we picked up our box of yumminess, so I thought I would report. The only sadness was that strawberries are done. :( In their place, we got a quart of blueberries. Here was our share:

• 2 bunches of kale (not sure the variety, but at least one was crinkly leaved)
  
• 2 bunches of beets (red and golden)
• 2 or 3 zucchini
• 2 or 3 summer squash
• 2 cucumbers
• about a pound of shell peas
• 2 heads of lettuce (Romaine and Boston Green)
• 2 bunches of arugula
• 1 quart of blueberries

I think I remembered everything this time. For dinner last night, I took one of the zucchini from our box and a golden zucchini from the farmers' market and instructed Aaron in making zucchini-potato pancakes according to Weight Watchers. They were yummy!

I'm considering making a banana blueberry bread I saw on AllRecipes, and I'd love to get my neighbor's recipe for the beet salad she brought over the other night. Other than that, I'm a bit stumped on meals for the week. It's been ridiculously hot and humid for the past few days, so cooking has felt rather unappealing. Hot stove or oven in hot weather leads to a very grumpy me. I welcome cold meal ideas!

Grilled Moroccan Chicken Kabobs

Yum yum yum!!

The above picture is what we had for dinner last night. It was fairly easy to make once I got past cutting the chicken. My kids loved the chicken. They were not as delighted with the zucchini or the onions. My son swears he only likes uncooked zucchini (what is wrong with him? *grin*), and my daughter likes to imitate. The only change I would make to the recipe would be to marinate the vegetables with the chicken.

Ingredients:
1 1/4 pound(s) uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 Tbsp orange juice
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp table salt (I used kosher salt)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground (I didn't measure this)
2 sprays cooking spray (we skipped it on the grill)
1 large zucchini, cut into 1 inch thick half-moons
2 small red onions, quartered through the root

Instructions:
Mix the chicken, spices and orange juice together in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 6 hours (oops - I only let it sit about an hour because I didn't read ahead).

Off heat, coat grill with cooking spray (oops, we skipped it and it still worked). Prepare gas grill for direct high-heat grilling OR build a high-heat charcoal bed in the center of the coal grate on a charcoal grill.

Divide the chicken, zucchini and onions on 4 large skewers. Set skewers directly over the heat and grill for 16 minutes, turning about every 4 minutes so that all sides are evenly browned/cooked.

One skewer = one serving. We doubled the recipe for leftovers. Nom nom nom!

Garden Pictures

As promised, here are pictures from our garden. I took these this evening.

A view of the main raised bed. You can't really see the bed behind it, but I think you can spy the 2 sunflower plants next to the left bean tipi. The sunflowers are not in the raised bed. For the curious, the white house is not our house.

There are small yellow flowers on our cucumber plants. Hopefully you can see at least one in the center of the picture.

One of several tomatoes! I think it's a pretty good size and am looking forward to its ripening.

Bean flowers. I don't see loads of flowers at first glance, but I see more when I move some of the leaves.

The less successful section of the garden. The leaves with some brownish parts are supposed to be swiss chard. The leaves which look munched on (and probably are by some kind of microscopic pest) are supposed to be broccoli. Grf.
One of my rogue squash plants has produced this. This plant was NOT supposed to be in the raised bed with my carrots and pole beans. Yet it is determined to bring me fruit of the earth. I believe it will be a pumpkin. Pie... bread...

My beloved sunflower plants. I do wonder when I will see signs of an actual flower.

Yet more squash/pumpkin. There are some flowers just barely visible in this picture. Some will be zucchini; others will be summer squash. And a few will make more pumpkins. By the way, the plant which looks like some tall misplaced grass is one of the corn plants.

A better look at one of the corn plants.

I remain hopeful about the blueberries. They seem reluctant to get any bigger or turn blue.

The fruit trees are not terribly interesting from a picture perspective. They continue to produce more and bigger leaves. The strawberries seem to have run their course this year. We are planning a different protective structure for them next year to allow them more room to grow.

Next up... grilled Moroccan chicken kabobs!

Chestnut Farms!

A long overdue post about our trip to Chestnut Farms!

We visited dear friends in western MA about 2 weeks back. On our return trip, we traveled to Hardwick, MA to "meet the meat" from Chestnut Farms.

These are the sheep we saw from where we parked our car. The property is gorgeous and so peaceful. It was like walking into a calming breath.

We started at the barnyard, where we met baby goats, baby turkeys, chicks (1 day old!), piglets, pigs and the master boar, one of 2 roosters (THE rooster as they call him for his antics), and saw several wandering chickens in addition to the "pretty ones" that I think Rich keeps for pets.

Aaron is not a fan of touching or holding birds. Yet he held a baby turkey. I'm pretty sure he's thinking about Thanksgiving.

Ellie loved all the animals, but the goat loved her equally.

Caleb and I both want a goat.

The kids insisted on riding a tractor. I insisted on watching them play with the piglets.

Apparently piglets like shoelaces. They rooted at Ellie's shoes despite her loud protests.

For me, the highlight of the trip was to see the school bus chickens. I had learned from the farmers who came to the Natick market that they keep their chickens safe from non-human predators in converted school buses. I believed them, but I still wanted to see the buses with my own eyes. Now that I have, I share the bus-converted to-chicken coop with you!

Chickens doing their chicken thing, out in the open air.


Stop - Chicken Crossing. :)

Inside one of the buses. The buses are open in the day, surprisingly clean considering their residents/riders.
We had a great time seeing where our chicken comes from. I feel even better than I already did supporting this farm and encouraging others to do the same.

Birthday Party Goody Bags

Short post here with a simple question:

What do you do with the candy your kids get from going to birthday parties?

I try to avoid feeding my kids foods with HFCS (high fructose corn syrup), and candy is not eaten daily (maybe not weekly?) here. Part of me thinks "eh, it's just one piece from a birthday party." Part of me thinks "yuck! I'm setting them up to eat junk food!" Yet another part of me thinks "This can teach them about moderation and exceptions to the rule."

After 34 years of cavity free teeth, I have to have a cavity filled this week. I found myself throwing away a few pieces of candy that Caleb brought home, probably unfairly. So I ask you for your thoughts - what would you do with food you don't want to feed your kids? Should I have left it at the party somehow?

Garden, Food, SO much happening!

Where to start? So much has been happening, and I seem unable to find time to update here. Daily swim lessons mean my mornings are consumed with time at our local pond. Until this week, I hadn't made a reasonable attempt at meal planning in weeks. Yes, I know I had tried some Weight Watchers recipes, but I didn't even get through the 3 I picked! Oy! On with some updates...

Garden
We have a veritable jungle in our raised beds. The pole beans are lush tipis and are beginning to flower. The carrots look like a mass of parsley. The misplanted squash (squash which inadvertently ended up in the big bed) is trying to take over the entire bed, but at least it is flowering beautifully. We even think the peppers might have sprouted at long last. I must remember to take pictures to share with you!

The only failure thus far has been the swiss chard. I will have to figure out a better way to plant chard in the future if I want to try to grow our own.

Our lettuce survived Ellie's enthusiastic and untimely harvesting, so we are still enjoying salads and crunchiness on our sandwiches. Our basil has grown enough that we made a small batch of pesto today. Caleb LOVES pesto. Love is an understatement in this case.

Food
The lentil burger recipe I tried was basically a bust as far as creating something that would make a burger. Aaron saved the recipe by adding several eggs, and the kids actually did eat the burgers. I think I will cook the lentils MUCH longer next time to see if I can avoid using an egg (saves on the WW points).

Tonight's dinner will be grilled Moroccan chicken kabobs. Caleb is looking forward to it, so at least 3 of us ought to enjoy the meal.

I made a crustless swiss chard quiche thanks to having delicious chard from Stillman's, and the kids really do love it. I think I may have to create a page just for recipes and link from daily posts to it.

Looking forward
As summer continues, we are looking forward to more fruit from our CSA and the farmers' markets. We have been enjoying strawberries and raspberries tremendously. The kids are not as enamored with blueberries as I recall, but I'm happy to have the locally grown fruit.

I'm excited to watch our garden's flowers become food and to watch my kids' excitement at the impending harvests. Both kids helped pluck basil leaves for the pesto we ate today, so I'm sure they will enjoy more picking as the season arrives.

My remaining challenge is summed up in my blog's title - meal planning. I truly have forgotten how to set aside to do this very simple yet important task. I am hoping that the box of goodies from the CSA will re-inspire me to get back to it. Cooking for my family is SO much easier when I plan.

In the meantime, I'll try to post garden pictures soon!

CSA!!

Yes my friends, CSA season has at last returned to our household! Today was the first pick up for our share of the Stillman's CSA. As I expected from the first box, we have loads of green leafy goodness. Here is a tally of what was included in our full share box. We share this box with our neighbors, so really I only keep half of what is on the list.

• 2 bunches of kale, 2 different varieties
• 1 quart(?) strawberries. What do you call the next box size up from a pint?
  
• 2 heads of lettuce, 2 different varieties - green and red
• 2 bunches of swiss chard, 2 varieties - "plain" and "rainbow"
• 2 bunches arugula
• 2 bunches of radishes
  
• beets, glorious beets. I *think* 2 bunches.

Tonight's dinner was lentil burgers with a side of carmelized onions and kale. The lentil burgers are a Weight Watchers recipe that we had to modify to make work. I'm not sure what the recipe author thought would bind the lentil mixture together, but the recipe had no egg or additional oil. Aaron saved the recipe by adding a few eggs. The kale recipe comes to me from RecipeZaar.

Yes, this is what I offered to my kids for dinner.

My kids actually ate the burgers!! Given that I thought they were a certain fail when I had to bring Aaron in to rescue the recipe, I am delighted they ate them. Caleb had a few bites of the kale, claimed to like it, but did not finish his small portion. Ellie wouldn't touch the kale. This didn't surprise me. Dark green leafy vegetables can be a really hard sell to kids, and this recipe doesn't make them LOOK appealing, even though they taste great. I have much higher hopes for the swiss chard (quiche is coming soon to a kitchen near me...*grin*).

Anyway, it is SO nice to return to our weekly CSA pickup. I love knowing that I have guaranteed good (quality, quantity, etc.) vegetables for the summer. I love knowing that I can bring back last year's favorite recipes and try out some new ones.