This Week’s Bounty & Hostess Pack

I forgot the pineapple in with our basket picture, but here’s the rest of it:

• 1 Pineapple (missing)
• 1 bag pears
• 1 5lb bag +3 loose red potatoes
• 1 bag carrots
• 2 bunches spinach
• 1 celery
• 9 bananas
• 3 yellow squash
• 3 yellow onions
• 7 oranges
• 1 clamshell grape tomatoes

The hostess pack has everything else to round out our Thanksgiving meal:

 

• 10 lb bag russet potatoes
• 1 pineapple
• 1 celery
• 1 large bag green beans
• 2 yellow onions
• 2 parsnips
• 8 granny smith apples
• 2 bags carrots
• 7 yams
• parsley
• sage
• rosemary
• thyme

The herbs are in the little baggies on the side.  I love the smell of fresh rosemary, it’s one of my favorites. 

So, what’s your favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner?  Mine is the fruit cocktail and the veggie tray.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the turkey and mashed potatoes and all that, too, but I love to snack on all those yummy veggies, call me crazy.

Pear Butter

 We have a really big pear tree in front of our house that gives us lots of pears every year.  These pears are not really good for canning, they are more grainy and tend to fall apart if you try to can them, but they make really good juice.  We use our steam juicer and then we are left with this pear pulp.  Last year we decided to put that pulp to good use, we made pear butter.  When I say "we"  I actually mean my husband.  I may have given him the idea, but he did all the work.  Well, this year he's been gone a lot so I decided to try my hand at it.  I picked a bunch of pears with my sister-in-law and then juiced them.  That was pretty easy.  Then, I looked for a pear butter recipe.  That got a little confusing for me.  There are so many recipes out there and some I had the ingredients for and some I didn't.  So, I made up my own.  I didn't have any clove, so I used some pumpkin pie spice.  Most recipes called for pear sauce, similar to apple sauce.  Well, I blended up the pear that was left in the juicer and it ended up being thicker than pear sauce, so it cuts down a lot on the cooking time.  Also, a lot of recipes called for quite a bit of sugar, since my pears are really sweet, I cut down on that, too.  Oh, and when I juiced the pears, I cored them, but I left the peel on.  When I pureed them, I did it peel and all.

Pear Butter

13 cups of pear puree
1 cup sugar
2 TBSP cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
Juice from 1 lemon

Combine all ingredients in a large pot.  Heat through.  If butter is too thick, add some pear juice.  If it's too runny, then just cook on low to reduce.  Be careful, as it cooks it will probably splatter.  You can either partially cover with a lid to let steam escape, or stir constantly to keep air bubbles from building up.  Since it's already pretty thick it doesn't take long to reduce.  Once you get it to the consistency you want, ladle it into hot jars leaving 1/2 inch head space.  Process in a water bath for about 25 minutes for pints.

Verdict:  Just so you know, this recipe has not been tested for canning, but I adapted it from recipes of others who have used and tested them for years.  Follow at your own discretion.  If in doubt, you can freeze the pear butter, or store in your fridge for up to 2 weeks.  This is really good.  It still seemed pretty sweet to me, but I think it's just because my pears are sweet like candy.  It's really good to use with peanut butter on sandwiches, or my favorite, on some toast with butter.

Eggplant Parmesan

Yeah, a recipe!  A good friend of mine gave me some eggplants from her garden.  I was so excited and couldn't wait to make this recipe.  I like this recipe because it doesn't use crumbs for the breading.  It is gluten free, even.

Eggplant Parmesan

1 medium or 2 small eggplant
1 egg
1 TBSP water
Parmesan cheese
jar spaghetti sauce

Peel the eggplant and slice 1/2 inch thick.  I cut mine lengthwise, but you could also cut rounds if you want.  In a shallow bowl or container crack egg and beat it up with the water.  In another shallow bowl put the Parmesan cheese.  I didn't have enough real cheese, so I had about 1/2 grated cheese and 1/2 of the powdered kind.  Dip eggplant into the egg, and then coat with the cheese.  Place in a greased dish.  Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Cook eggplant for 20 minutes.  Turn over and cook for another 10 minutes.   Cover the eggplant with spaghetti sauce and put back in the oven for another 15 minutes.  Enjoy with a big tossed salad.

Verdict:  I loved it!  I love the flavor of the Parmesan.  I used my own canned spaghetti sauce on top and it was fabulous.  My 2 year old had thirds.  My 8 year old told me it wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be.

This Week's Bounty

1 bunch celery
2 heads lettuce
1 container mushrooms
7 sweet potatoes
2 yellow squash
1 head garlic
4 tomatoes
5 avocados
4 apples
11 plums
9 bananas
1 bag grapes

My 6 year old's favorite thing to eat is plums.  She is very happy this week.

This Week's Bounty

 I'm thinking tacos at least  once this week.

2 head romaine lettuce
2 bunches broccoli
3 bags carrots
5 avocados (2 were for volunteering)
3 garlic bulbs
5 tomatoes
2 cucumbers
13 bananas
5 plums
6 apples
7 pears

I need to find something really yummy to do with the pears.  They aren't my kids favorite and always get eaten last after all the other fruit is gone.  Anyone have any really great pear recipe ideas?

This Week's Bounty

I'm glad my kids like grapes.

2 clamshell of concord grapes

7 ears of corn

8 bananas

5 pears

6 tomatoes

1 cantaloup

2 head lettuce

3 green bell peppers

4 red bell peppers

1 bunch celery

This Week's Bounty

I just know when my kids see this weeks basket they are going to love it!  I am loving it.  I've already eaten one of the plums and it was pretty yummy.

2 Pineapples (one was for volunteering)

1 bag green grapes

8 plums

8 nectarines

4 asian pears

4 apples

7 bananas

6 cucumbers

13 roma tomatoes

1 head lettuce

3 yellow onions

2 green bell peppers

3 red bell peppers

I'm kinda thinking I might have to get a couple of jalapenos and make me some salsa this week.  Of course, that also means I need to get some more tortilla chips.  Anyone out there know how to make your own tortilla chips?

This Week's Bounty

We got something new I've never tried so I'm excited!

2 containers figs (one was my extra for volunteering)

1 head lettuce

2 bunches spinach

1 head cauliflower

3 yams

5 peaches

3 pears

1 bag plums, about 13

1 bag green grapes

6 bananas

I'm not really sure what to do with the figs, but I figured I'd get the extra container so that I could try a couple of different ways to prepare them to see which I like best.  I did eat one just plain and it wasn't great, but it was okay.

This Week's Bounty

 Yeah!  I'm back.  I have my camera and my computer working at the same time.  I am loving all the yummy stuff this week.  It's really heavy on the veggie side, but it's all veggies that my family loves, so we are good.

 2 heads lettuce

1 bunch broccoli

1 4/5 bags carrots

5 ears corn

2 green bell peppers

LOTS of white potatoes

3 tomatoes

8 nectarines (2 were from volunteering)

5 bosch pears

1 Cantaloupe

1 bag green grapes

6 bananas

In addition to my regular basket, this week I also went for the Mexican Pack.  When you order one of the "packs" they always say "hoping for..." and every time it's a little different, but mostly the same.  The Mexican pack usually costs $7.50.  Here's what came this week:

 2 sweet onions

2 avocadoes

5 jalapeno peppers

1 clove garlic

10 little limes

11 tomatilloes

4 ancho chilies

1 bunch cilantro

And if you get the Mexican pack, what else to go better with it than tortillas?  Tortilla pack is $10.50 and you get 7 dozen tortillas.

 3 dozen 12" flour

2 dozen 6" flour

2 dozen 6" corn

Check out the size difference.  The 12" inch tortilla's are HUGE!

I'm around

I've not really disappeared, it just looks that way.  The last two weeks were busy and I wasn't able to get pictures of my basket and I've been doing too many other things to post, but I should be back soon.  I made a yummy Eggplant Parmesan that I'm going to have to share with you all soon.

Green Beans and Bacon

Growing up my mom would fry some bacon, then as she boiled her green beans she would throw the crumbled bacon in.  I loved the flavor, but not the soggy bacon.  I decided to try something new.

Ingredients:

• Green beans, ends trimmed and snapped into pieces
• a couple pieces of bacon

Directions:

Steam the green beans until almost done.  While green beans are steaming, fry bacon until crispy.  Remove bacon from pan and pat dry, leaving drippings in pan.  When green beans are almost done, transfer them to the pan with the bacon grease and fry saute them for a couple more minutes to finish cooking.  Crumble bacon and toss with green beans.

Verdict:  These didn’t have as much bacon flavor as I had hoped, but I still liked them.  My kids were really funny about this.  They only wanted the bacon, but I told them they had to eat the green beans too.  My 6 year old, when I asked her if she like the green beans, she told me not really, right after she put 2 of them in her mouth.  Oh well, even if they didn’t really like them, the bacon got them to eat their veggies, right?

This Week’s Bounty

Here’s our haul this week.  As soon as I saw the tomatoes I was super happy, and I know my daughter will be too.

• 2 head lettuce
• 2 bunches celery
• 2 yellow onions
• 1 bag green beans
• 5 white sweet potatoes
• 1 clamshell various cherry tomatoes
• 4 mangoes
• 8 white peaches
• 7 plums
• 1 cantaloupe
• 1 clamshell strawberries

The tomatoes had red, orange, yellow and purple in there. super yummy!  Now, what to do with the sweet potatoes?

This Week’s Bounty

I was so excited as we were unloading the truck this morning to see Salad Savoy!  If you don’t know what that is, don’t worry, I didn’t until the first time we got it in our Bountiful Basket.  Here is a great link to my Salad Savoy Chips.

• 2 heads salad savoy (1 purple, 1 white)
• 1 Golden Dewlicious melon
• 1 head romaine lettuce
• 1 head cauliflower
• 1 bunches broccoli
• 5 bananas
• 5 nectarines
• 6 plums
• 2 mangoes
• 2 organic tomatoes
• 2 bunches green onions
• 1 1lb.bag baby carrots
• 1 clamshell blackberries

As I type this, the blackberries are gone.  It was all I could do to get the kids to wait for me to take the picture before eating them.  We’ve never had the Golden Dewlicious melon before so that will be something new.  I have a couple of kids who like anything melons so I’m sure that won’t last long as soon as I get it cut up.

Sausage Pizza with Chard, and Butternut Squash

Did you know that Butternut squash is really good on pizza?  Well, it is.  Pizza is great because you can do so many things with it.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Butternut squash, peeled and cut into strips or cubes
• 1 red onion, chopped
• sausage
• 1 bunch chard, chopped
• pizza crust
• pizza sauce
• cheese

Directions:

I could put my crust recipe on here, but I just use the one out of my Betty Crocker cookbook.  I like it and so does my family.  Use what you like.  I partially baked my crust and then added tomato sauce seasoned with Italian seasoning, but use whatever pizza sauce you like.

Okay, heat about 2 Tbsp oil up in a pan.  Add the onion and squash and cook about 10-15 minutes until the veggies are soft.   You can also add the chard to this pan if you want.  I didn’t.  I cooked the sausage in another pan and once it was cooked through, I took out the sausage and cooked the chard in the drippings.  Add sausage to the veggie mixture.  While you are cooking, have whatever child is helping with dinner grate the cheese.

Once your crust has sauce on it, cover with cheese.  (I believe cheese goes on the bottom of the pizza, but you can do it last if you want).  Spread chard over the sauce, then top with your sausage/veggie mixture.  Put in the oven and cook for about 12-15 minutes until crust is browned and cheese is melty.

Verdict:  I really liked this.  I went light on the sausage because I’m not a huge meat lover, but my sweet husband thought there were too many vegetables and not enough meat.  He also isn’t a fan of butternut squash on pizza.  I will convert him, yet.  The kids had pepperoni pizza.  For those who want to know how to prepare the squash.  When it is whole, I will take my vegetable peeler and just peel of the outside rind of the squash, then I cut off the top and bottom, scrape out the seeds, and slice or dice or whatever.  Easy, peasy.  I’ve never had chard on pizza, but I could definitely do it again, but next time I will chop it smaller.

Sautéed Chard over Couscous

I made this yummy recipe the last time we had chard, but I never took a picture or wrote down what I did.  I was really excited to see the Chard this week and I was hoping I could remember how I had fixed it last time.  I think I did pretty good.

 (I am having some trouble with getting the picture for this, so once I do, I will post pictures, but I wanted to get the recipe up)

Ingredients

• 1 bunch chard
• 1 can garlic and olive oil tomatoes
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 cups water or chicken broth
• 2 cups couscous

Directions:

Heat olive oil in a pan.  While it is heating, wash chard.  Separate leaves from the stems.  Chop them all up.  I chopped up and used the stems as well as the leaves and I like it that way.  (You could do as my sister does and just chop up the leaves and put peanut butter on the stems and eat them that way.)  Once oil is hot, add the chard.  I did season it with about a teaspoon of garlic salt with parsley and a little pepper.  Meanwhile, bring the water or broth to boil.  Once it’s boiling, add the couscous.  Cover and remove from heat.  Let the couscous sit for about 10 minutes and then fluff with fork.  Once the chard is wilted and tender add the can of tomatoes.  Heat through.  Serve the chard and tomatoes over the couscous. 

*If you are really missing having some meat in this meal, I think a polska kielbasa sausage would be a nice addition.  Also, if you don’t have garlic and olive oil tomatoes, you can always add those flavors to regular diced tomatoes.

Verdict:  This was really good!  My husband, who likes to have meat with dinner, didn’t really mind that there was none with this meal.  My 2 year old gobbled hers up and had seconds.  The rest of my kids mostly at the couscous and the melon that I cut up with dinner.  I did cook extra couscous knowing that my kids would like that better, so you may find that you don’t need as much.  Oh well, they don’t know what they are missing. 

This Week’s Bounty

Grapes!  We love grapes!

• 2 bunches green chard
• 1 head iceburg lettuce
• 1 honeydew
• 2 butternut squash
• 5 bananas
• 8 nectarines
• 3 tomatoes
• 3 pears
• 5 big carrots
• 1 bunch broccoli
• 1 bag red grapes

My Bountiful Basket sure does look good.  I love all this stuff in the summer time.  My kids have really been going through our produce lately, so this is great!  I love nectarines so that is what I’m probably most excited about this week.

Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls

Okay, so I’m not really sure what goes into a cabbage roll, but this is a little of what I imagine.  I was just trying to make something up to use my cabbage and what I had on hand and it turned out pretty good.

Now, my measurements are approximates as I was making this up and didn’t really measure that well.  So, go with the flow and make it to suit your tastes.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 pieces of bacon, chopped up, or you can crumble it later, I like chopped
• 1 lb ground meat- I used chicken, but sausage would be really good, or even ground pork or beef
• 1 small onion chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2- 1 whole head of cabbage, sliced and chopped
• 1-2 carrots, shredded

Directions:

1.  Cook bacon in frying pan until crisp.  Remove the bacon and put on paper towels to dry, reserve the drippings in the pan.  Add about 1 Tbsp oil to pan and add your ground meat (this may be unnecessary in fattier meats like ground beef, but for my ground chicken, it was needed).  Add onion and garlic to the meat and cook until onions are soft and meat is fully cooked.  Remove from pan, again reserve the drippings.  Add cabbage and carrots to the pan.  Cook for about 7-10 minutes on medium or until cabbage is tender-crisp.  Toss meat and bacon in with cabbage.  Serve alongside green salad, at least, that’s what we did.

Verdict:  Both my husband and I found this a little bland.  Next time I would probably add more garlic, maybe some ginger or something, but the kids ate it up.  In fact:

The licked the pan clean, almost literally.  I was a little surprised they liked it that well.  This is one that is definitely going into our rotation.  Quick, easy, and yummy.  I’m all for that.  Plus, we have over 20 cabbage plants out in our garden right now and I know I’m going to be needed to find some uses for them all this summer.

This Week's Bounty

I was out of town last week, but this week sure does look good.

1 head lettuce
1 head cabbage
2 celery
8 carrots
3 bunches green onions
1 pint grape tomatoes
1 clamshell strawberries
5 peaches
10 plums
6 mangoes

7 Granny Smith apples (one of my favorites)
4 limes
4 bananas

I had some super yummy lemonade this last week that used fresh lemons and I just may have to use my limes to make limeade.  I also need to find some uses for those green onions.

Potato Hash with Sausage and Chard

I was really excited to see gold potatoes in our Bountiful Basket last week.  The hard part was trying to decide how to use them.  I decided to try some of them in this hash.  I had some smoked sausages left over in the fridge and some swiss chard that needed used.

Ingredients:
10 ish small potatoes, diced
1 small onion chopped (mine was chopped really small so the little ones would eat it)
2 smoked sausages (you could substitute any kind of meat)
1 bunch swiss chard, leaves and stems chopped
2 Tbsp oil

Directions:
Heat oil up in a pan.  Add the potatoes and cook for about 10 minutes and then add onion and cook for a few more minutes.  Add sausage and chard.  Cook until chard is wilted and tender and potatoes are tender.
Serve with optional toppings.  We used salsa and sour cream, but cheese would have been really good, too.

Verdict:  The kids ate this all up.  One picked out her sausage and shared with her sister.  Most of them at least tried the chard, but if anything was left on their plate, it was that.  Also, oldest daughter preferred hers plain.  We ate this for dinner, but it would have been just as good for breakfast!

This Week's Bounty

I was so excited to see grapes this week.  I almost bought some when I went shopping, but decided to wait and see.  However, I had to take my kids with me this week, so about 1/3 of the grapes are gone, along with about 4 apples.

1 head lettuce

6 ears corn

1 bag carrots

1 bag yukon gold potatoes

4 tomatoes

6 apples

1 clamshell strawberries

1 bag grapes

Our site was short 1 cantaloupe, so I donated mine since my kids and myself are not big fans.  I'm seeing grilled corn and grilled potatoes in our future this week along with my nice, big green salad that I love!

This Week's Bounty

Sorry I was gone last week.  My computer got a virus and it took me a while to pick it up.  I'm back now, though.  Super excited about this week's basket, something fun and new for me to try!

1 Bunch Rainbow Lights Swiss Card

1 Head lettuce

6 ears corn

1 pkg mushrooms

4 tomatoes

1 bag carrots

9 green chilis

3 mangoes

6 bananas

6 apples

1 clam shell blackberries

I've never had Chard before but I'm excited to try it.  I discovered a couple of months ago that I love Kale and I know this tastes different, but can be used almost the same way, plus, it's super pretty!  My blackberries didn't last long after I took the picture, they were super good!

Scalloped Chicken with Green Beans

Have you ever looked in the cupboards and thought "I really should use this.....someday"?  Well, that's kinda what I did.  I have stuff in there and I know I should use it, but I just don't think about it a lot.  Right now I'm really into cooking from scratch and trying to eat healthier, which usually means things that don't come in a box.  However, I had this box of scalloped potatoes in there and found a recipe to use them with.  Bonus, it was a crock pot recipe which I need on Thursdays when I have exercising, story time, and scouts all on one day.

Ingredients:
1 box scalloped potatoes + the seasoning packet
1 bag frozen peas (I used fresh green beans from my basket this week)
chicken pieces (I used 4 chicken quarters, my kids loved the legs and I like the thighs)
2 cups water

Directions:
Put potatoes, green beans, seasoning, and chicken in your slow cooker.  Add the 2 cups of water and cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high for about 4 hours.

Verdict:  This chicken was really good.  I liked the potatotoes okay.  My husband said it was one of the best ways he's had green beans.  I did find that this was pretty soupy in the end.  I would recommend either not using as much water, or cracking the lid for the last hour of cooking so that some of the liquid can evaporate.  And of course, serve this with a nice green salad tossing in whatever veggies came in your Bountiful Basket.

Pork Chops & Fixins

Have you ever looked in your freezer and thought "I wonder how long that's been in here?"  Well, I ran into that today.  There were these pork chops that I had gotten for some recipe and I'd gotten a big package and only used half of it.  Well, there was the other half and it needed used.  Now, I'm not a big pork fan, but my husband is a real meat and potatoes kind of guy so I thought I'd cook something to really brighten his day.  Broiled Pork Chops, Roasted Red Potaotes, Parmesan Asparagus, and a green salad.

Doesn't this look yummy?!

There isn't really a recipe here.  I just wanted to brag on my asparagus, mostly.  The kids and I went walking along the ditches by our house and picked it just before dinner so it was fresh and super delicious.  It went along really well with the potatoes from our basket and of course, the salad that we also made using produce from our Bountiful Basket.

This Week's Bounty

What a haul this week!  I am really excited to see red potatoes.  We get a lot of Russets here in Idaho, but not so many reds usually.  I love red potatoes.

 

1 Cantaloup

1 Pineapple

1 clamshell Strawberries

3 clamshell blueberries

5 bananas

1 big bag Green Beans

3 Broccoli crowns

2 Cucumbers

3 on the vine Tomatoes

1 Head Lettuce

2 Jicama

lots of Red Potatoes

Grilled Cheese and Squash

The other day we had soup and sandwiches.  My kids loved Grilled Cheese and I thought I'd make it just a little healthier.  I've mentioned before that they aren't big fans of squash so I will roast it, puree it, freeze it, and then I pull it out and then add it to other dishes.  Usually things like soup or macaroni and cheese.  Well, it also works well for grilled cheese.  I adapted this from the book Deceptively Delicious

doesn't that look good!

Ingredients:
butter
bread
cheese, shredded
squash

Directions:
Heat a skillet on the stove on medium low heat  If your bread is already sliced, good for you, otherwise slice it.  I was using some bread I had just made, so I had to slice it myself.  Mix your cheese and squash together.  I didn't measure anything, I just knew about how much cheese I needed and added some squash to the mixture.  Butter one side of a piece of bread.  On the other side spread some of the cheese/squash mixture on.  Top with another piece of buttered bread, butter side out.  Brown in skillet.  Turning once to brown both sides. 

Verdict:  My kids didn't even know the difference.  My husband said he thought there was a slight texture change, but it was still good.  I think he was just really happy to have homemade bread that he didn't care I put squash in the grilled cheese.  We personally like to have grilled cheese with soup so that we can dip our sandwiches in the soup.

Menu for the Week

I have come to the conclusion that life goes much better and I use more of my basket if I come up with some kind of a menu.  This may interest you, or it may not, but for it's a lifesaver.

Monday

Macaroni & Cheese w/ Broccoli

Tuesday

Stir-Fry over Rice

Wednesday

Beef enchiladas

Corn on the cob

Thursday

Crock Pot Scallop Chicken

Roasted Cauliflower

Friday

Pizza

Salad

I also have snacks planned out for my kids after they get home from school.  Things like veggie sticks and ranch, and smoothies.  Sometimes it's cut up fruit or muffins.  I just didn't think you needed to know all of that, unless you want to... Let me know.

This Week's Bounty

So excited for this week's basket.  One of the watermelons kinda broke so we cut it up and shared it with the volunteers.  They said it tasted really good.  I'm not a watermelon fan, so I will take their word for it.  My kids were really excited for the watermelon and the strawberries, though.

1 Watermelon

1 Pineapple

5 Bananas

2 clamshell strawberries

7 apples

2 grapefruit

6 ears corn

1 cucumber

4 yams

1 cauliflower

1 broccoli

Daikon Alfredo

In all of my looking around I found two different recipes where they used daikon as pasta.  I was quite intrigued.  My kids love pasta, but I'm not such a huge fan.  The recipe I really wanted to try had yummy tomatoes in it, but again, kids.  They don't like tomatoes in their pasta.  So I decided we would try it with alfredo sauce.  One word, yummy!

Daikon Alfredo

Ingredients:
Daikon
Salted water
2 pieces Bacon, chopped
1/2 onion chopped
2 Tbsp flour
2-3 cups milk
1/2 cup cream cheese (I used that new Philadelphia cooking cream, origional and it was good)
1/2 cup parmesan (I just used the powdered stuff)

Directions:
First, peel daikon.  Then, using the potato peeler cut off slices of daikon into wide "noodles" and put in the salted water.  I watched a chef use his knife and cut around the daikon to make really long noodles, but it didn't work so good for me, use the vegetable peeler.

While the "noodles" are soaking make your alfredo sauce.  First fry your chopped bacon pieces.  I did add some olive oil because I needed enough fats to add the flour to.  I think I used about 1-2 Tbsp oil.  It kinda depends on how fatty your bacon is.  When bacon is almost crispy, add onion and fry until onions are soft.  Add flour and cook for 1 minute more.  Add milk and stir.  I'm not really sure how much milk I added but I think it was 2-3 cups.  Mixture will thicken pretty quickly.  If too thick, add more milk, too thin, well, you added too much.  Once thickened, I added the cream cheese and parmesan cheese.  Stir to melt and blend in.

Take daikon out of water and squeeze extra water out.  Add to Alfredo sauce and stir to coat.  Cook on the stove for only about 1 minute more.  You want your noodles to still be kinda crunchy.  Serve and enjoy.

Verdict:  Okay, I loved this.  I didn't think the daikon was too strong and I liked the texture.  I also served this with some steamed asparagus and the sauce was really good on the asparagus, too.  I mean, how can you go wrong with bacon and cream cheese?  The kids, however, had a difference of opinion.  They liked the sauce, one daughter would suck it off the noodles and then pile the noodles on the side of her plate.  Another just picked out the bacon.  Oh well, I thought it was super good and was glad to eat the leftovers all on my own.

Ants on a Log

 

I don't know how she did it, but my mom instilled in me a love for vegetables.  Not all vegetables, mind you, but most of them.  I remember having to write a poem in grade school about our favorite food and I wrote one about Celery.  I really do like celery.  This is one of my favorite ways to eat it, and my kids love to help, too.

Ingredients:

Celery stalks
Peanut butter
raisins

Directions:

Wash and dry celery stalks.  Cut into thirds, or halves is smaller.  Fill with peanut butter and top with raisins to look like ants.

Verdict:  Yummy!  We all ate these for a snack.

This Weeks Bounty

I don’t have a picture for this week.  Saturday was a crazy day and as soon as I got home from picking up my basket I had to head off to a meeting and a picture did not get taken.  Here is what I got, though:

• 1 3lb bag Fuji apples, plus 2
• 1 bunch asparagus
• 2 bananas
• 1 clamshell strawberries
• 1 yellow squash
• 2 bunches broccoli
• 3 cucumbers
• 3 grapefruit
• 1 honeydew
• 1 pineapple
• 1 Daikon

This is a daikon.  I think I might try this Pan-Fried Daikon Cake, or maybe Pickled Daikon and Carrots, or perhaps Daikon Fettuccine.  I love that it is an adventure in trying new foods!

This Week's Bounty

What a haul this week!  I love my Bountiful Basket!

2 clamshell strawberries

4 cameo apples

4 minneola Tangelos

4 mangoes

1 honeydew

2 bags radishes

6 yellow onions

1 bag carrots

2 celery

1 bunch broccoli

1 head romaine lettuce

10 persian cucumbers

Now to come up with a menu for all of this.  I'm thinking maybe some beef and broccoli or some fajitas?

Fried Zucchini

Okay, so it’s not the greatest picture, but I almost forgot to take one before they were all gone!  A couple of weeks ago we got Italian Squash (zucchini) in our Bountiful Basket.  My family isn’t all that big on zucchini, but I remembered the super good recipe that a friend used to make for us and I knew I had to make it again.  First I had to get a hold of my friend to get the recipe, but as soon as I did I made this.

Batter:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

Heat deep fryer up to 400 degrees.  Mix batter together.  Cut zucchini into about 1/4 in slices.  Dip in batter and deep fry.  Work in small batches because you will need to turn them about half way through.  Take out of oil and drain on paper towels.  Dip in ranch.  We prefer the Hidden Valley Original Buttermilk dressing that comes in a little packet and you mix up yourself.

Verdict:  YUMMY!!!  We had my brother and his family over for dinner tonight and we served this alongside Celery and Potato Soup.  I know, they don’t really go together, but I had celery I needed to use and zucchini I needed to use and so it all worked.  Everyone seemed to really like dinner, though, and now I have the recipe for the batter for this summer when all of my zucchini is ripe and I can’t make any more zucchini bread.

Lots of Veggie Taco Soup

We’ve had some gloomy weather lately and soup just sounds good.  Taco soup is one of my favorites.  Since my kids don’t really care for squash I found found that if I hide it in soups or tomato based dishes they gobble it up.

Ingredients:

• 1-2 cans of beans (I used about 3-4 cups of black beans that had previously been cooked and frozen
• 1 can tomatoes (I used lime and cilantro flavored)
• 1 can corn (again, I used some I canned last summer)
• 1 cup pureed squash
• 1 zucchini shredded
• ground beef (or chicken, or turkey, or whatever, I used leftover taco meat)
• 2 Tbsp taco seasoning (more or less depending on taste)
• 1 small onion chopped

Directions:

Cook meat and onion, drain off grease.  Add all other ingredients and heat until warm through.  Don’t drain beans, corn and tomatoes, add juices and all.  Add extra water if necessary.  Serve topped with sour cream and cheese.  Can also serve with tortilla chips.

Verdict:  This went over really well.  The baby and the oldest both had seconds.  I wasn’t sure how the zucchini would do, but nobody seemed to mind them except #2 and she mainly sopped up the soup with her piece of bread.  I love that since I had all of this in my fridge or freezer it took me only the time to dump it all in the pot and heat it through.  I’ve also made this a veggie version by omitting the meat and just using a lot of beans and veggies.

This Week's Bounty

1 Cantaloup

1 clamshell strawberries

1 clamshell blueberries

5 cameo apples

5 oranges

5 bananas

1 vine cherry tomatoes

3 chayote squash

1 bunch celery

1 head lettuce

7 ears corn

I'm not quite sure what to do with the Chayote squash yet, but I'm going to be finding some recipes and we get to try something new this week!  I love Saturdays.  Picking up my Bountiful Basket is almost like Christmas every week. 

Asparagus Popover

I read a comment on another blog where someone was getting tired of receiving asparagus in their Bountiful Basket and was in need of some new recipes.  I haven’t had that problem, but thought I would branch out in case anyone else wants to try something new also.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb asparagus
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 slices bacon cooked and crumbled
• salt and pepper
• pinch sugar
• 3 oz cheese (called for gruyere, but all I had was a shredded mix.  I think gruyere would be fabulous

Directions:

1.Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 425 degrees.  In a medium saucepan, add enough salted water to reach a depth of 2 inches; bring to a boil.  Add the asparagus and cook until crisp-tender, about 3 minutes.  Drain and rinse with cold water, then pat dry with paper towels.  Cut the spears crosswise into thirds

2. In a medium cast-iron skillet (I used my stainless steal that can be put in the oven), add the butter.  Place the skillet in the oven to melt the butter.

3. In a medium bowl, microwave the milk on high for 30 seconds.  Whisk in the eggs, then the flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper and the sugar.

4. Add the asparagus pieces and bacon to the hot cast-iron skillet and pour the batter on top.  Sprinkle with half of the cheese and bake until puffed and golden-brown, 18-20 minutes.  Top with the remaining cheese.

Verdict:  I found the batter a little bland.  I think some kind of sauce or spice to kick it up would have been nice, but my kids loved this!  I had roasted some cauliflower for the side just in case they didn’t like it as well.  I tried saving some for my sweet husband when he got home, but the kids ate it all.  Some would pick out the asparagus first and then eat the batter, other ate the asparagus last, but they all ate and many had seconds.  The only downside is that this stuck to the pan for me.  Cast-Iron may have been better.

Lettuce Wraps

A friend told me about how she makes lettuce wraps, so I thought I'd give it a try.  I tweeked her recipe just a bit to use what I had on hand.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef (why is it almost always 1 lb?  I actually used less, so do what you like)
1 Bell pepper diced
1 small onion diced (I only used about half because my kids really don't like onions)
2 Tbsp olive oil
couple drops sesame oil
1/2 tsp ginger
2 cloves garlic minced (I used dried, it's what I had on hand)
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 cups dry rice
4 cups water
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
Lettuce leaves

Directions:

1.  Put 4 cups salted water in a pot and bring to a boil.  Add rice, put heat on low, cover and cook about 20 minutes.

2.  While rice is cooking heat olive oil ans sesame oil in a frying pan.  Add hamburger with onion, bell pepper, ginger, and garlic.  Cook until hamburger is cooked and the onion and bell pepper are soft.  Add soy sauce.

3.  Once rice is cooked add vinegar and sugar, stir to combine.

4.  Now the fun part.  Make sure your lettuce leaves are washed and dried.  I used iceberg but any lettuce and work.  Put some rice in the middle of the leaf, top with meat mixture, fold lettuce over the filling, and eat!

Verdict:  The hamburger I used was really taco meat from the other night, but it was still really good.  I'm sure you could make this with just about any  meat, though.  I loved how the vinegar and sugar flavored the rice!  Unfortunately, this meal seemed to be everything my kids did not like.  Oh well, more for me.  I would love to make this again and again, only adding more veggies and less meat since that is what I like.

Sausage Stuff

I know, I know, it's not that great of a name, but it's what we always called it growing up.  This recipe is so easy to make and can be adjusted so many different ways.  It is a quick go-to dinner for me.

Ingredients:
1 Keilbasa sausage (I'm not a big meat eater, so I only use 1/2 and then I can stretch it into 2 meals)
1 jar spaghetti sauce (I just used canned tomatoes and add some italian seasoning)
1/2 cup italian salad dressing

Directions:
Put everything in a pan and heat through.  You can also add olives if you want, I just didn't have any this day.  Once it's heated, serve over rice, pasta, couscous, whatever you like.

Verdict:  This time I used olive oil and garlic tomatoes and they weren't the best.  I've done this before with plain diced tomatoes and instead of italian dressing I used sesame ginger, that was a total asian spin and it was super good that way too.  This recipe is so versatile you can do just about anything with it.  My kids mostly like the sausage out of it and the rice separate.  Their loss.

This Week's Bounty

2 heads lettuce

1 bag green beans

4 tomatoes

2 bell peppers

2 zucchini

2 bunches asparagus

7 oranges

4 mangoes

7 bananas

1 container strawberries

1 mini watermelon

I'm so excited to eat this week!  A friend just told me about how she makes lettuce wraps and I am seriously going to try them out this week.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Broccoli Salad

Last week we got broccoli in our Bountiful Basket and I thought it would be perfect to use as a salad for out Cub Scout Blue and Gold dinner. 

Broccoli Salad

1 head Broccoli chopped into bite size pieces
handful of sunflower seeds
handful of raisins
Small Red Onion chopped (I used a yellow onion and it was a bit strong, glad I only used a part of it)
dressing:
1 cup mayonnaise
2 Tbsp vinegar or lemon juice (I used lemon juice)
2 Tbsp sugar

Mix everything together.  I find it helpful to let it marinate for a while before serving it.  You can also add crumbled up bacon to this, but I didn't want to.

Verdict:  Like I said, the red onion would have been better, mine was a little bit strong, but there was none left.  Here is a tip if you want to stretch the broccoli a bit, peel the outside of the stalk and the chop it up and add it.  I do that when I make stir-fry and broccoli soup. 

This Week's Bounty

 

1 bag Carrots

1 head Romain Lettuce

1 Bunch Spinach

3 Tomatoes on the vine

4 small Yams

4 Zucchini Squash

2 Bunches Asparagus

2 Grapefruit

3 Mangoes

5 Apples

7 Bananas

1 Cantaloup

Looks pretty good to me :)  As a reminder, I make sure to volunteer at my site, that way I can pick an "extra" for helping out.  This week I chose the second bunch of Asparagus.  To volunteer you show up at the volunteer time listed on your check-out sheet, or even a few minutes earlier.  Our truck usually seems to be a little bit early, so it doesn't hurt to be there 5-10 minutes early, just saying.

Celery and Potato Soup

I ended up with quite a bit of celery in our last Bountiful Basket and I like the canned Cream of Celery soup, so I wanted to try and find a soup recipe.  My stand-by cookbooks let me down, I couldn't find in Betty Crocker, Better Home and Gardens, Rachel Ray and a few others.  Sad, so I took to the internet.  I found a yummy sounding one on SparkRecipes. 

Don't you love our Ducky bowl?

Ingredients

1 tbsp Olive Oil 1 small Onion, chopped  

4 stalks Celery, chopped  

2 medium potato, peeled and diced  

4 garlic, minced  

bay leaf, thyme and parsely  (I used a bay leaf and about 1 tsp Italian Seasoning)

7 cups Water or chicken broth (I used about 4 cups water and 3 cups chicken broth)

Directions

Heat oil over medium heat, add onion and celery, and cook gently, stirring often, for about 10 mins, until very tender. Add 1/2 tsp salt after 5 mins. make sure the vegetables do not colour.
Add potatoes, garlic and herbs. Stir together and add water. Bring to simmer, add salt to taste. Cover and simmer 30 -40 mins, until the vegetables are very tender. Remove from heat.
Use a food processor to puree the soup (I only pureed part of the soup so that I would have some chunks in it. After that, return puree to the pot, stir and heat through. Season with salt and pepper. Garnish with celery sticks in individual bowl (I forgot to do this, but that is okay, it was still really yummy).

Verdict:  YUMMY!  Supposedly this was supposed to have 10 servings in it, but it barely fed one adult and 4 young children.  My husband only got a tiny bowl of what the kids didn't eat since he came home later.  This was warm, filling, nutritious and really tasty.  We will be making this again.

This Week's Bounty

My Bountiful Basket time was changed a few weeks ago and it is now closer to the evenings, so it's hard for me to get a picture taken and get on here to post it right away.  Oh well, I still love the baskets and I'm still so excited to be getting them.  Here is what we got this last week:

3 Mangoes

3 Apples

7 Bananas

1 Cantaloup

11 Minneola

1 pkg Blueberries

1 bunch on the vine Tomatoes

2 bunches Celery

 1 head Broccoli

1 head Cauliflower

1 bunch Asparagus

I'm really excited for this week.  I introduced my in-laws to parmesan asparagus and found out that a couple of my friends all make this now, too.  I am also going to try making Celery Soup this week.  I've had to search the internet for recipes since I cannot find one in any of my many cookbooks.  I will let you all know how it goes.

Black Bean & Guacamole Tacos

I am not a big meat eater.  In fact, I'm pretty picky about which meats I'll eat and which I won't.  I also like to eat meat free occasionally.  This is one meal where my whole family comes away happy.  I have never measured any of this out, I just kinda eye-ball what I think we are going to need.

 

Black Bean and Guacamole Tacos

Guacamole (either homemade or store bought)

1 tomato chopped

lettuce shredded

black beans

shredded cheese

corn tortillas

oil for frying tortilla (About1/2 cup I think)

Heat oil in a skillet on the stove over medium heat.  When oil is hot cook tortillas one at a time for only a few seconds on each side.  Drain on paper towels (or if you are like me and can never find them, old newspapers work well, too).  Take a tortilla, smear guacamole on half of it, add other toppings, and fold in half.  Eat!

Verdict:  My sweet husband is the only one who hasn't had these since he has been gone everytime I've made them, but the kids will eat multiple tacos, which I see as a good sign.  None of my kids seem to miss having meat on their tacos and they will usually eat them with the lettuce and tomato on them also.  I can barely get them to eat a green salad, but put it in a taco shell and it is all good.  I'm sure you could add salsa or olives or anything else to them, but we like the blend of flavors just like this.

Green Cake Mix Cookies

I needed a quick treat for Story Time today and since it is St. Patrick’s day I wanted something green.  This was super easy, they turned out really yummy and the kids had fun eating their green cookies.

Ingredients:

• 1 Yellow Cake mix
• 2 Large Eggs
• 1/3 cup oil ( I actually used applesauce instead)
• food coloring (I used about 3 drops, but would have like a little more color)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix all ingredients in a bowl.  Place by teaspoon full onto a cookie sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes.  Place onto a cooling rack shortly after taking them out of the oven so that they don’t end up sticking to the cookie sheet.

Variations:  You are welcome to add chocolate chips, toffee chips, nuts and dried fruit to these.  I didn’t this time because I wanted them all green for the holiday.

Verdict:  My kids totally loved these.  I had to take them away and hide them until story time so that we would have some left.  One mom told me that she has tried to make these before, but they’ve never come out quite so good.  I admit, they are a sweet, light, fluffy cookie and I ate more than I probably should have.