Getting Ahead Of The Game!

Of course you know I get these beautiful boxes filled with a variety of organic produce every Monday.  And as long as we are home and eating dishes made from the produce I can keep up with what we got before the next order comes in.

Some weeks I fail miserably at that!  We have too many activities during the week for me to cook….the kids are not home (they make a nice dent in the produce!)….or for whatever reason we end up eating other things. 

The last few weeks with the holidays I have been overrun with the produce! 

But this week I worked hard to catch up and I believe I see progress!  (Until Monday when the new delivery comes in that is!)

Yesterday (New Year’s Day) I made it a point to have a leftover buffet.  I pulled out all of our leftovers and we went to town on them.   We had a ridiculous mishmash of little containers full of so many different things!

Cooked spinach, cooked collards, potatoes au gratin, the lentil loaf, sweet potato casserole, half a kabocha to cook, salad….and MORE!

I was surprised, but thanks to my three very hungry guys we made a fantastic dent and I actually have some clear spaces in my fridge!

Part Two of my “clear out the fridge” plan was to make a whole bunch of dishes to bring with me when we went to visit my mom-in-law today.

First came the Good Luck  Hoppin’ John, which I actually made the night before.

During the day I soaked the beans:

 

Then I tried to use my liquid smoke to imitate the ham hocks and bacon I USED to put in it! 

I sliced the tofu really really thin and put in a baggie with some liquid smoke and honey…I just eyeballed it.  I wanted to put maple  syrup but I couldn’t find where FabHubs had hid it…so I tried to sub honey instead.

I let this sit in the fridge overnight…turning and squishing every now and then.

The next day I fried it trying to get it crispy.  I wanted to use half for the Hoppin John and half for my broccoli salad.  

Let’s just say while the result was usable…this was not one of my best tasting results.  I know I am on to the right idea…it just needs some tweaking!

I  cooked  the beans, then the rice (using brown rice of course) in another pot, and then mixed the whole thing together.    

The bottom line was the whole thing mixed together tasted pretty good…with a dash of salt and another dash of hot sauce on top!

I finished the dish about 11:45 on New Year’s Day and quickly made a cupful for each family member to eat before the clock struck twelve!   You have to eat it on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day for best results!

 

Then it was onto  the broccoli salad.  I had two heads of broccoli that needed to be used up and this is my MIL’s favorite so I knew she would be thrilled if I brought some up!

First I chopped up the broccoli and put it in the big bowl.  I also chopped up an onion….half went into the bowl with the broccoli, the other half was put aside for the last recipe I was going to take up.

The original recipe calls for sunflower seeds…but I didn’t have any.  I did, however, have cashews and decided to give them a try in here!  I had both raw and roasted salted cashews…I went back and forth….and finally went with the roasted salted. 

I chopped them up and threw them in the bowl….along with a large amount (cup?  3/4 cup?  I didn’t measure!) of golden raisins.

 

The I whipped up the dressing…which is what makes the salad!   Although I guess the nuts and raisins make a pretty great contribution too…..

The dressing is non-fat plain yogurt (I used Fage) with apple cider vinegar and 1/4 cup Sugar In The Raw. 

I was going to use the rest of the yogurt in the container…so I just mixed the sugar and vinegar right in there….then popped the lid back on the yogurt container and transported it like that.  I didn’t dress the salad until I got to my MIL’s house, although you can…it tastes just fine that way too!

Next I needed to use up these babies!!!

I had two already…and then my mom brought me over another one on Christmas day…this was getting out of hand!

This recipe for avocado salad is so easy and so good….there wasn’t any left!

I used the half of chopped onion (as mentioned above!) Then I just peeled and chunked up the avocado and mixed it all together. 

I poured a few healthy splashes of balsamic vinegar and sprinkled some S&P on top…mixed it all up and VOILA!!!

Now it is brown because of the balsamic….when I was growing up my mom used to make it with apple-cider vinegar and it wasn’t so brown….but I do love my balsamic and decided to try it on my beloved avocado salad.

The taste is so worth the ugly color!  Although everyone sort of turns their nose up at it until you explain….and they taste.

And so we packed all of our kids into the car….and to Grandmother’s house we went!  

Yes! Those are two more kids than usual!  The beautiful young lady would be my FabStepdaughter…and the beautiful little lady is my FabGranddaughter!  (Yes…I am a grandma!)

My Very “Producive” Week In Review

Ugh..that was  bad, wasn’t it!  Sorry!!

Here I was going to blog about how I  used my produce box all week…and then I pulled a disappearing act.

This week I went into overdrive and became overwhelmed….and it just didn’t happen.  By evening I was tired and just couldn’t summon the energy and creativity to blog.

But the food part and pictures did happen  so I can put together a quick recap! 

Monday:

All fruits and veggies from my produce co-op except the carrots, (organic from Costco:

Homemade coleslaw, Asian style vinegar based dressing

  

I dragged this thing out…it is at least 18 years old and I haven’t used it probably in 10 years…but it worked!

     

Roasted tater chips…sweet and russet!

   

Final dinner was a huge helping of the coleslaw to fill me up, the homemade potato chips, and a Boca Burger on an Arnold Sandwich thin with totally processed American cheese, and organic onion and sliced cucumbers.

      

Dessert was yummy mango…not quite ripe enough though so it was a little tart.  These two were chunked and shared between the four mango lovers.   Mangos are not on FabHubs approved fruit list!

  

Tuesday:

Oatmeal with almond milk, leftover mango, cinnamon, and almond butter.  I had been craving this!  Obviously only the mango came  from my delivery!

A snack of local Florida mandarins…I didn’t even know we grew mandarins in Florida!  We loved these…a lot more than the blood oranges that came last week.

  

Lunch was a tempeh wrap.  I have never tried tempeh before!  It was really good and is a definite repeat.  I put it on a flatout wrap with some more sliced cukes,  green leaf lettuce, and grape tomatoes.  I rounded it off with a large helping of my Asian style  coleslaw…very healthy, low in fat and very filling!

    

Sorry for blurry picture!

Dinner….

While looking  for a recipe to use my collard greens, somehow I found this perfect recipe!

Perfect because oddly enough…I pretty much had all of the ingredients for it!  I had bought  the Field Roast vegetarian sausage when we went  camping a few weeks ago with the Boy Scout troop…but because they ended up having some vegetarian MRIs  I never used it and it was at the point where it really needed to be used…or else!  It wasn’t apple sage…it was Italian…but I didn’t care, it still fit the bill!

     

From the produce box I pulled into service some garlic, red bell pepper, red onion, and collard greens.  We were out of whole wheat pasta so I just used what we had on hand.

          

Dessert!  Dark organic Green and Black chocolate and organic raspberries.

 

Wednesday:

Around here, week was getting crazier so pictures are sparser!

For breakfast I mixed Fage 0% Greek yogurt with the last of the razzies, some bananas, some Granola To Go (about 1/4 cup sprinkled), 1/2 TBS almond butter, and a drizzle of Agave nectar.   Yummy…but I did miss my oatmeal!

For dinner I wanted to use up the  broccoli before it went bad, some more potatoes (I have a major back up of those right now and need to use them!) and the eggplants.

I ended up roasting the eggplants over charcoal to make  baba ghanoush…I took pictures of the process but they seem to have left!

So I have:

   

I snacked on this with some of Mary’s organic crackers that I received from Oh She Glows Angela in the box of fabulous goodies I won from her!

OMG!  I am in heaven with these crackers…they are so crisp and crunchy and flavorful  and I immediately read the package to find out if they are Canadian only or American because I want to buy more of them!  I was hugely relieved to see they are made in California!  I will be hunting these down in Whole Foods!

  

For dinner we had the baked potato which I smothered topped with a little in light sour cream and cheddar cheese (I know!)   The lemon was for the broccoli! 

And to my complete horror,  I am having a complete brain blank here and have no idea what that other stuff is that I put on my plate that I am sure made my husband give me “the look” that I get when I serve my no meat meals!  I will have to show the picture to FabTeen and ask him…he will remember for me!  Thank goodness for kids!

(HA!  Update here and I didn’t even need the kid for it!  After squinting hard at the photo for a while, I remembered all by myself!  They are homemade bean burgers…which were not the best I have made but they were palatable.  And yes…I definitely, absolutely got the look!)

Thursday:

Thursday I finally broke out the kabocha squash.   I have received two of these in my boxes and have yet to use them!

If it weren’t for Heather, who eats these fanatically when she is not eating almond butter, I would have never known what to do with it! 

It is something I never would have bought…it looks ornamental!  But because I have been “hearing” about this for weeks, when it showed up in my box I was pretty excited!  (Yes, I know…excited about a squash, pretty pathetic!)

Hmm…I had some more “done” photos of these but they must be hanging out with those missing pix of the eggplants on charcoal!

At any rate…I am in LOVE with this squash!  It is so sweet and yummy and I loved it prepared this way and it totally reminds me of something else I have eaten…boniato maybe?  Although the skin is different…..don’t think so…but I don’t know!  I ate it skin and all.  I loved the crunchy skin on  the sweet, soft flesh…it was so perfect. 

We had dinner:

A salad I threw together with more veggies on their last legs, begging to be eaten, a nekkid Boca Burger, the last of the broccoli sprinkled with a little parmesan…and the Kabocha!

And I kept going back for more and more and more and more kabocha.

and we watched Survivor, and then CSI, and then I hit the kabocha bowl again!

   

I have one more kabocha to enjoy…and  then I need to hunt some down!  After I thank Heather of course!

Friday:

Was a day of complete lunacy where I had one activity after another from the moment I woke up until I  got home after 9 p.m.  Bake sale, Girl Scout activity, picking up kids, driving kids….it was nonstop!

No pictures!  Dinner was 1 slice cheese pizza and a bottle of water at the Girl Scout activity!

Saturday:

The madness continued!  Girl Scout caroling at a local nursing home, then a memorial BBQ (didn’t eat anything there) then a big family Hanukkah dinner!  Didn’t get in until well after 1 a.m.!   (Geez!  When did that become late?  Probably after the second child!)

Still no pictures!

I  passed on the brisket (which upset my sister terribly!!!) and filled my plate with salad,  also avocado salad, and delicious homemade latkes!

Sunday:

Finally!  FabHubs wanted more latkes and since we have a ton of potatoes to use up that is what we had at breakfast! 

Camera was still sleeping though!  And the day was another one on the run…so no pix at breakfast!

Off to yet another Girl Scout activity!  FabPreteen ate pizza…I waited for dinner though.

Dinner was another avocado salad with avocado and red onion from  the box, tossed in balsamic with a little S&P.  Very simple but very good!

  

More tossed salad, again to use up veggies before I get my  refill  tomorrow!

Brown rice:

And a coconut/peanut tofu stirfry!  I had some green onions that were starting to go mushy and they fit  the bill perfectly in here! First time I have ever pressed  and pan fried tofu…it was good…not great but good.  Need to tweak the seasonings here…..(soy sauce, peanut butter, garlic, coconut)

      

And that is my week in review!  I did a great job using up my fruits and veggies from this week…and  even most of what I had piled up in the fridge from previous weeks!

Still left from last week and before are two mangos, two bananas, 2 lemons, 1 kiwi, salad, 3 zukes, more collards, a bunch of fresh spinach, some fresh herbs (I seem to have trouble using these up!), white taters, yams, and a kabocha! 

Sounds like a lot but relatively speaking it is not and will be easy to use!

The fridge actually looks kind of empty and ready to receive tomorrow's delivery.

The clock just struck midnight and I am off to bed!  Another busy busy day tomorrow.