Hey, hey. Look at that CSA. Everything we got in our share was the biggest it has been so far this season. Just look at that enormous zucchini. And those tomatoes. And that one huge beet that seriously overshadowed it’s baby friend.
This week was kind of a wild, unusual food week for us. I generally sit down at the beginning of the week and plan out each meal based on the ingredients we’ll get in our CSA, and then do a big grocery run to get everything else we need. But since we had just returned from the Lake Stevens Ironman, I was at peak laziness at the start of the week, so every meal was made on the fly. It turned out surprisingly well, even if we ended up abandoning all the veggies on the night we got our CSA share, and ate pancakes and bacon instead…
But onto the veggies! This turned out to be a week for baking the zucchini. I shredded it in my food processor (this is quickly becoming my favorite appliance) and used that beautiful goodness to do some serious afternoon baking. I made Pinch of Yum’s Honey and Olive Oil Zucchini Muffins, which are insanely similar to my own Zucchini Bread (but after baking zucchini bread over and over again this summer, I was ready for a little change). And I made Crazy for Crust’s Zucchini Brownies (substituting dark brown sugar for the white sugar, and whole wheat pastry flour for the all-purpose flour, since we’re running quite low on baking supplies around here). These brownies were insanely good. Like, a fudgy explosion covered with another fudgy explosion in the form of a chocolate glaze. And although they clearly don’t fit in with my usual attempt to eliminate processed sugars from our baked goods, I figured I could make an exception for brownies full of zucchini.
And after baking both of those, I still had some shredded zucchini left in my food processor, so I threw that into some tortillas with cheese, avocado, and salsa for some quick quesadillas.
I made a big stir fry with some squash (I was still working on last week’s squash at this point), broccoli, carrots, green beans, spinach, basil, and quinoa with some soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, and chili paste. Delicious, simple, and healthy.
Because a friend from Kentucky came to visit, I made my Kentucky Mint Bourbonales, using up all of our lovely mint.
I ended up slicing the cucumber and throwing it into a pitcher of water to make what I call “fancy water” once again, because we just didn’t have time to eat all of this stuff this week.
My beets went soft within just a few days, so I ended up just throwing those away (I’m sad to see food go to waste, but happy to not have to eat the beets, which made my list of “foods I can’t handle” last week).
I made a giant batch of homemade salsa with all of the tomatoes, peppers, some garlic, and sweet onion (also in my beloved food processor, what do you know?). I’ve never had success making a tomato based salsa that rocked my world. Does anyone have a great salsa recipe to share? I’m wondering if roasting the tomatoes, peppers, and garlic first would make it more impressive.
At the end of the week, we still have the swiss chard, kale, and that cute little yellow pattypan squash, which are all still alive and well, so I’ll just add them to next week’s meal planning ingredients. Any suggestions?
-Ally
*The link for my food processor is an affiliate link. It’s the most useful appliance in our kitchen, and I wholeheartedly recommend it.
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