Pulling together a variation of my winter taco salad for dinner tonight. Have some black beans cooling, am pulling a jar of my shelf-stable salsa from the pantry, and chopping up some fixings.
What do you have cooking?
csa stash
Mid-October looks like:
- collards
- kale
- onions
- cabbage
- cilantro
- sweet potatoes
- watermelon radish (!!!)
- kohlrabi
- patty pan squashes
- bell peppers
- eggplant
- banana peppers
- lettuce mix
- beets
pick up a copy of today’s statesman
There is a little something that I have been working on in the food section! Super excited about it! A kazillion thank yous to Addie Broyles at the Austin American Statesman for giving me this opportunity and for being ever so patient with the Nervous Nelly that is buried deep in my belly. Be sure to pick up a copy today for ideas on how to baby step into batch cooking and lots of fun ideas for what to do with that pot of beans.
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You can find today’s article here (may be behind a paywall).
Happy Wednesday!
vegetarian meal plan – week 41
Can I just say that I am stunned that we are only at week 41 of this year. Shouldn’t it be way closer to 50 by now? Kidding… grateful to still have both October and November ahead of us. Best. Time. Of. Year.
In the kitchen, my quest to make new things continues. I reached official rut-stage way back in like March and the new season and cooler weather (!!!) has me all energized. It may seem like a whole lotta food for one week, but we eat maybe 3-4 meals out of 21 out of the house and do you know how often a 14 year-old eats? Also… breaking my meal plan up by ingredient rather than meal so that you have a better idea of how things map to your ingredient use.
Chickpeas
Israeli Couscous Salad* (using some zucchini)
Pasta con Ceci**
Chickpeas with garlic, tomatoes, and green chilies*** (using sweet peppers from CSA)
Veggie Naan’wich with Feta Chickpea Mash (using carrots, too)
Arugula & Parsley
Pasta in Parsley Pesto
Kale
Quinoa Bites
Kale & Potato Breakfast Scramble
Kale & Toasted Coconut Salad
Squash & Sweet Potato
Butternut Squash Puree for freezer
Vanilla Bean Sweet Potato Waffles
Zucchini
Zucchini Cardamom Bread****
Carrot
Carrot Cake (to gift)****
Other stuff:
Cheesy BBQ Baked Potatoes
Vegetable Broth
Veggie stir-fry
Rice and bean bowls
Buddha Bowls
Have a great week and happy cooking!
Cookbooks used this week:
* Salad Samurai
** Short Stack Vol 17: Chickpeas
*** World of the East Vegetarian Cooking
**** Naturally Sweet
Remember that the library is a fantastic place to try out new books before purchasing for your own collection!
quick tip: storing herbs
I’ve finally found the perfect way to store fresh herbs – quart-size yogurt containers! We usually have lots around in hopes of finding a better fate for them than recycling. We use them to sort craft supplies, as mini-buckets when we are cleaning and in a pinch, I use them to store things in the freezer.
To store herbs:
Cut a bit off the stems of your fresh herbs to match the height of your yogurt container. Fill with about an inch of water and plop your herbs (stem down) into the container. Snap the lid back on and store in fridge.
Still testing how long this extends the life, but I am already impressed that my parsley is wilt-free at Day 6.
vegetarian meal ideas (early fall)
Happy to report that I am carving time out for the kitchen again! Our collective bellies are better for it and my brain is grateful for the productive downtime. I cook to get food on the table (of course), but the act of feeding and focused purpose really, really helps me get out of my head.
As for meal planning, I haven’t gotten all the way through to the mapping stage (what belongs on each day) or to narrowing things down, but I have lots of vegetable-specific ideas for you. Texas growing seasons are really different than the rest of the country so we get plenty of late summer veggies (peppers, zucchini, eggplant) mixed in with the arrival of fall greens. Makes for a fun time of year in the kitchen!
Arugula
Spaghetti with Arugula, Olives & Capers*
Fried Egg Sandwich with Arugula*
Pesto with Parsley
Kale
Kale Salad with Toasted Coconut & Sesame Oil**
Greens & Grains Scrambles (egg or tofu)***
Kale Fried Rice
Bok Choi
Lemongrass Miso Soup (add Bok Choi)
Bon Choi with Stir-fried Mushrooms****
Eggplant
Grace Young’s Stir-fried Eggplant (modified with TVP)
Veggie Burgers
Rigatoni with Eggplant Puree
Still working on ideas for the rest of my CSA box which also included jalapeños, sweet peppers, daikon, carrots, turnips, sweet potatoes, and OMG so much zucchini.
Also… don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter. Coming at ya’ on Friday for the first time!
Cookbook list:
* Bon Appetit Fast Easy Fresh
** Super Natural Every Day
*** Whole Grain Mornings
**** Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian
newsletter coming your way
I’ve decided to jump on the newsletter bandwagon while I figure out how best to use this space. It’s been about 99.9% food and although I do spend A LOT of time in the kitchen, there are other things – knittings things, planning things, taking pictures of things, reading things, business things, homeschooling things, pretty things, and I even get riled up about some things.
First newsletter will go out at the top of the month. Will figure out if I have the oomph for more frequency as we go along.
veggie meal plan – august 22, 2017
Taking my cues from some magazines this week in hopes of expanding the weeknight repertoire. Rest of our meals will be rounded out by the french lentils and quinoa stocked in the fridge.
Meals
Socca*
Soba, Cuke & Soft Tofu Bowls**
Ratatouille
Hoisan Eggplant with Mushrooms & Tofu***
13yo’s choice (’cause birthday)
Breakfast
Ratatouille & Egg Toast***
Huevos Cuahtemoc
Hearty Pancakes*
Savory Cornmeal Crepes with Greens and Zucchini
Snacks
Cucumber Sandwiches with Toasted-Hazelnut Cream Cheese**
Mixed Cucumber & Cured Olive Salad**
Homemade Graham Crackers
Tres Leches Cake (’cause birthday)
Watermelon
* Sift Magazine, Spring 2017
** Short Stack Vol. 28: Cucumbers
*** Short Stack Vol. 22: Eggplant
weekend ingredient prep for easier weekday meals
I know it is already Monday and this particular ship has sailed, but hoping that this can be of help as the weekend approaches. Batch-cooking is a crazy crazy world and although I’ve never been a fan of the massive amounts of work that live beneath hashtag-batchcooking, I have come to incorporate a bit of this mentality into my weekend meal prep.
I cook up largish portions of legumes and grains over the weekend and try to get ahead of veggie prep to make meal “assembly” a little faster during the week.
meal plan – august 14, 2017
Happy middle of August, everyone! My CSA stash is screaming Texas summer this week – okra, eggplant, peppers, squash – so the bulk of my meals will focus on using all that up. Potatoes and carrots and beets will work their way in as snacks or hold up in storage for use next week.
I also made my way to the downtown library one last time to visit the cookbook stacks ahead of the closing of the third floor. Austin is getting a shiny new library in October and books from the non-fiction collection (3rd floor) will be in transition until then. Lots of inspiration from that last haul in this week’s meal plan. Link to books at bottom of post. Read More
