Another week brought another CSA basket.  This week it contained:
- 1 Butterhead Lettuce (red or green)
- 1/4 Lb. of Lettuce Mix
- 1 Bunch of Golden Chard
- 1 Bunch of Green Onions
- 1 Kohlrabi
- 1 Quart of Snap Peas
- Garlic Scapes
I ate up the snap peas right away, I should have taken a picture of them!  

Breakfast - Blueberries and Toast

What can I say about blueberries and toast?  I use the Becel vegan margarine on my toast.   I'm not saying margarine is even remotely good for you, but I just can't seem to give up having 'buttered' toast every once in a while.  

Lunch - Sweet and Spicy Golden Chard

I love chard so much, I took advantage of Field Good Farms trade-in policy, and traded the head of lettuce in this week's box for another bunch of chard (pictured below).   I chopped up an organic apple, rinsed and sliced the chard, and then put them in my cast-iron dutch oven with a bit of water, sprinkled cayenne pepper on top, and left it at a medium-high until the water evaporated.   Last but not least, I put some raw pumpkin seeds on top. 

Dinner - Ginger Collard Greens and Lentils

This dish is really delicious, it's been a favourite of mine for years!   It's a really substantial dish with a tonne of flavour, you won't regret trying it out.   There's a reason it is referred to as a comfort food. 

Collard Greens Ingredients
-half of a red onion, finely chopped
-large chunk of fresh ginger, skin removed and finely chopped
-six carrots, peeled and diced
-one bunch of collard greens, rinsed and sliced into strips (instructions here)

Collard Greens Instructions
-put the onion, ginger, and carrots in the bottom of a pan with a bit of oil and cook until onion starts to brown
-add the collard greens and 2-3 cups of water
-bring to a boil, and then reduce to a medium heat while the water evaporates, and the collard greens soften and cook through

Lentil Ingredients
(I made this dish at someone else's place, so I had to use their ingredients, and it turned out pretty well)
-one cup of brown lentils
-2 1/2 cups of water
-one half of a red onion, chopped
-2 sticks of cinnamon
-3 tsp. turmeric 

Lentil Instructions
-cook onion in a bit of oil
-add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil
-simmer until lentils have absorbed all the water
-remove cinnamon sticks and add a bit of salt

Hello everyone!  Welcome to this week's 'What I Eat.'  I did too much frying this week, and ate less protein than is ideal.   However, as I always say, this is called 'What I Eat' not 'What I Should Eat!'  My CSA basket wasn't markedly different from last week, so I've decided not to feature it today.  

Breakfast - Sweet Potatoes and Green Beans

This breakfast was made by frying sliced sweet potatoes in a ceramic frying pan, and adding frozen green beans towards the end of the cooking process. 

Summer Refreshment - Lemon Balm Iced Tea

I made this tea by putting ripped up lemon balm leaves into boiling water and then leaving them to soak with the burner off.  I used a large tea/spice ball (see photo below), but you could use something else or just strain them out after they're done soaking. Once it had cooled down, I added about a tablespoon of maple syrup.   You can make herbal iced tea out of any combination of fresh and dried herbs and it pretty much always ends up tasting delicious! 

Lunch - Kohlrabi 'Fries'

I used the kohlrabi I got in last week's CSA basket.   Normally I would have roasted it, but it was just TOO HOT to fire up my oven.  I sliced off the skin, cut it into chunks, fried it in my ceramic frying pan with about a teaspoon of oil at a medium temperature, and then served it with ketchup.   Ketchup is definitely a weakness of mine; I really try to limit how much I eat (because it is filled with salt and sugar, often in the form of high-fructose corn syrup).

Dessert - Hand-picked Blueberries

Sorry, I'm not willing to disclose my favourite blueberry picking spot on the interweb :)

Dinner - Roast Chicken with Rice, Roasted Carrots, and Green Beans

This is a lovely dinner my parents made for me when I went for a visit.  When you have a number of food sensitivities, this is the easiest thing to have people prepare for you - meat and vegetables!   I skipped the roasted potatoes, opting for the brown rice instead. 

Here's my second CSA basket from Field Good Farms!  

It contained:
- 1/2 lb. of Lettuce Mix
- 1/4 lb. of Spinach
- 1 Kohlrabi
- 1 Head of Lettuce (red butterhead)
- 1/2 bunch of garlic scapes
- 1 bunch of radishes (either tri-colour or french breakfast)
- Basil stalk
- Coriander (cilantro) bunch

Every meal in today's post was made from last week's, and this week's, CSA basket. I'll get back to you guys next week about what I ended up doing the kohlrabi, this is a new vegetable for me.   Here's a great Pinterest board with recipes specifically chosen for the Field Good Farms CSA!

Breakfast - Radishes (Roots and Greens)

This was an absolutely delicious meal!  I sliced the radishes and fried them in my ceramic frying pan.  I rinsed and sliced the greens.  When the radishes were done, I removed them from the frying pan and added the greens with a bit of water and cooked them until the water evaporated.  

The leaves of the radish plant actually contain more Vitamin C, protein, and calcium than the roots!    A lot of my patients/readers think I'm crazy for eating vegetables for breakfast, but I promise if you give it a try you'll never go back.   Not only do they taste great, they're more hearty and satisfying, giving you more energy for your day.  

Lunch - Salad

I mixed the following ingredients into a salad:
-green butterhead lettuce (from last week's CSA basket), washed and sliced
-arugula (from my garden), washed and sliced
-cucumber, sliced
-organic grape tomatoes
-alfalfa sprouts
-raw pumpkin seeds
-Renee's poppy seed dressing

I try to make my own salad dressings.  I just wasn't feeling like eating salad today, but I have loads of lettuce to eat, so I 'cheated' with a store-bought dressing to make it more appealing.   I think I'll make it a point to feature more home-made dressings in future posts!  

Dinner - Pasta

Ingredients
-one jar of Aurora Crushed Tomatoes 
-basic leaves (from CSA), rinsed and chopped
-fresh oregano (from my parents' garden), removed from stems and chopped
-one yellow summer squash, roughly chopped
-spinach leaves (from CSA), rinsed and chopped
-one red pepper, chopped
-garlic scapes (from CSA), chopped and sauteed
-sea salt

I dumped all of the ingredients into a saucepan, brought it to a boil, and left it to simmer for an hour or so.  I used the rice noodles pictured below.   There are a few secrets to cooking rice noodles:
-add them to already boiling water
-stir them A LOT in the very beginning and, after they've heated up, stir them infrequently
-allow for a bit of carry-over cooking 
-rinse them immediately after removing them from the boiling water (expect the water to be quite cloudy and thick)
-coat them in oil if you aren't going to serve them immediately
-they make terrible leftovers!

Dinner Part Two - Bok Choi Salad

Ingredients
-three carrots, shredded
-two bok choi (from last week's CSA), rinsed and sliced
-one package of bean sprouts, rinsed

Sauce Ingredients (pictured below)
-one large chunk of ginger, zested
-cilantro (from CSA), rinsed and chopped
-lime juice
-toasted sesame oil (it took me quite some time to figure out that not a single bottle of toasted sesame oil in the Independent grocery store actually said it was toasted!)
-chili sauce (The Sambal Oelek pictured below, which is really just chili peppers in a bit of vinegar) 
-sweet chilli sauce (obviously you can use this on more than just chicken)

As usual, I just dumped flavours on the salad until it tasted good.  My best guess would be that I used one tbsp. of the chili sauce, 2 tbsp. of the sweet chilli sauce, 3 tbsp. of the toasted sesame oil, and 4 tbsp of the lime juice. 

Dessert - BUTTER TART!!

My friend brought me a butter tart from The Opera Bakery Cafe and it was delicious!  

Hello everyone!   Do you think anyone will notice that there's no breakfast posted today because I forgot I write a food blog and ate it before I took a picture of it?  

It has been brought to my attention that Bragg Liquid Aminos (as shown on their website) are actually called 'All Purpose Liquid Soy Seasoning' (pictured above).  I'm not sure what's going on, but I think I got so used to seeing them labelled as Liquid Aminos when I lived in the U.S., I didn't notice the label change in Canada?  I'm sorry for any confusion I caused in previous posts, but I'm fairly certain they're essentially the same product.   Either way, I've been cooking with the liquid soy seasoning.  

Exciting news!  You can now purchase two incredibly hypo-allergenic breads (in the freezer section) at Bins and Bins.  The breads are from Kinnikinnick, and they are the 'Sunflower Flax Rice Bread' and the 'Honey Brown Rice Bread.'    Most, if not all, of the grocery stores in North Bay have stopped carrying these breads.  Unfortunately, Kinnikinnick's website is not accurate or up-to-date, so I can't tell you the exact ingredients of these breads, but I am comfortable saying they are the most hypo-allergenic breads on the shelves of North Bay (to my knowledge).  Thanks to my Mom for arranging for Bins and Bins to carry these breads, and to Bins and Bins for agreeing to carry them!   

More exciting news!  Pictured above are the contents of my first CSA Basket from Field Good Farms!  It included:

1/4 lb. of baby lettuce mix
1/2 lb. of spinach
1 head of lettuce (green butterhead)
1 bunch of radishes 
2 pak choi (otherwise known as Chinese cabbage or bok choy)
1 stalk of basil

I'd like to give you an idea of how I processed this.   I made the basil into a pesto and the spinach into dinner right away.  If I hadn't have used the basil right away, I would have kept it out of the fridge.  I rinsed the baby lettuce mix (and spun it dry in my salad spinner) and will start eating it in salads right away.   The head of lettuce, bok choy, and radishes will last longer because the only trauma they have sustained is being taken from the ground.  

Lunch - Canned Salmon with Cucumber Slices

I combined one can of canned salmon with some Renee's Poppy Seed Dressing and chopped green onion.  I ate this salmon mixture with sliced cucumber. 

Dinner - Roasted Potatoes with Mustard Spinach

Ingredients:
-potatoes, cut into pieces
-fresh oregano, removed from stems and chopped
-fresh thyme, removed from stems and chopped
-grapeseed oil
-fresh spinach, rinsed
-one teaspoon brown mustard seeds
-hemp hearts

Directions:
I mixed the potatoes with the chopped fresh herbs and a bit of grapeseed oil.  I cooked them in a glass (pyrex) pan in a 380 degree oven until they started to brown, turning them once with a metal spatula.  Once cooked, I topped the potatoes with hemp hearts. 

I put the brown mustard seeds into the bottom of a cast iron pan with a bit of oil at high heat until they started to pop (see 'What I Eat - Day Thirteen' for more detailed instructions).  I added a bit of water and then the spinach, turning the heat down to low.   I left it to simmer until the spinach had wilted and the water had evaporated.