Foodie Friday

It's time to make you all jealous again.  Here are some more of our goodies as of late with our CSA veggies!  I've been so spoiled this summer!

Ecuadorian style lamb chop with vitamin greens, rice and egg.  Nate took the vitamin greens and mixed them up with tomato and spices so it turned into a nice side dish that he describes as kind of a Mexican "stew".  He cooked the lamb on a cast iron skillet with just some oil and salt and pepper. And then the rice was simple and we put an egg on top of it again as that is frequently done in Ecuadorian cooking.

Chicken fried steak with grilled cauliflower, carrot and fennel.  This one was pretty easy.  We got the chicken fried steak from an Omaha Steaks pack we recently ordered (got a really good deal in the mail and took advantage).  Nate whipped up a pretty simple white gravy.  He tossed the veggies with some olive oil, salt/pepper and a few Indian type spices and then grilled them until they came to a nice crispy perfection.  SO yummy.

Stir Fry!  This was pretty basic, but so yummy.  We took some sirloin and stir fried it with broccoli, summer squash, zucchini, green pepper and mushrooms and put that on top of some rice noodles.  It was pretty much perfection.  When all else fails and we don't know what else to do with our veggies for the week we stir fry them!

This next one is another of my favorites.  It's a homemade chicken and basil ravioli we make.  We make the dough from scratch and then fill it with chicken, ricotta cheese (which also came from our CSA!) and basil.  Then we boil it up and when it's done we toss it with a light sauce made of olive oil, lemon zest and more basil.  It is sooooo good.  Nice light meal in the summer too.

And this last one is cheating, no prep required other than washing it.  Sugar snap peas.  We only got them once this year and I'm still sad they're gone.  These made a fantastic snack one afternoon while Nate was brewing beer.

So we are making the most of our veggies.  We have a ton of cabbage on hand right now and can only make so much coleslaw, so Nate's going to attempt making his own sauerkraut.  We have some green beans and I think we just might make green bean casserole for the summer because why not?  I just love CSA season!!  I'm not the main chef on these items, but if you want more specific recipe information just let me know and I'll be happy to email more details to anyone!

Have a great weekend!  We're Duluth bound for All Pints North and I can't wait!  I'll be sure to share all about it next week!

Foodie Friday

Today I thought I'd make you all jealous and share some of the awesome food we've been enjoying as of late because CSA season has started in our house and that means tons of fresh veggies and awesomeness!  Here are a few favorites of the last couple of weeks!

Nate made us an Ecuadorian style meal for date night this week.  He marinated a pork chop in some spices.  Then he took some of the vitamin greens, kale and spinach that we received from our CSA and turned that into a pureed green sauce mixed up with garlic scapes, onion and jalapeno.  He also added in some turnip that also was in our CSA.  On the side he gave us a little bit of rice with a fried egg on top, because most Ecuadorian meals include an egg and we are getting fresh eggs with our CSA this year too.  This meal was AMAZING.  

Next up is a meal so simple it was actually made by yours truly!  I can't take credit for the idea, the recipe came from our CSA's blog.  But it seriously so simple.  We are getting a cheese share with the CSA this year and one of the cheeses was a soft cheese called Quark - it's a similar texture to a cream cheese and is even sweet like one.  They suggested putting the quark on a baguette and then topping with a slice of radish (also in our CSA box).  My in-laws tried the recipe and said they used Wheat Thins instead of bread, so we decided to do that too.  So there you have it - a little cheese spread on the cracker, top it with a radish slice and garnish with just a little salt and pepper.  OMG.  To die for. I realize you may not have access to quark - cream cheese would probably be a fine substitute or even a soft goat cheese spread would probably be tasty too!  We added a little leftover fried steak for some extra protein, but I seriously could have been satisfied with these little cracker treats all on their own!

And last up pizza.  I know I talk about how we make our own pizza here on the blog a lot.  This last one however was extra awesome, because we topped it with our own homegrown basil and Nate actually grilled it!  It came out with the crispest, most delicious crust ever!  We're having another one for dinner tonight and I can't wait!  Until we make it to one of the pizza farms, doing it up at home will definitely work for now!

So there you have it!  Did I make you hungry?  Or jealous?  What are some of your favorite foods in the summer?  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Fud

So.  Let's talk food.  Yes, this is a fashion blog.  I have my outfit pictures from yesterday to share as well. But I want to talk about the awesomeness of my CSA share.  I've mentioned it a few times this summer on the blog here.  CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.  How a CSA works is, area farms sell shares of their produce and when you buy one, you get a box of goodies every week.  

Back in January, my mother in law asked if we'd be willing to split a full share with them this summer.  It was an investment - but we decided to take the risk and see how things would go.  We also added a half dozen eggs to our order, which meant that in addition to a box of veggies each week that we split with my in-laws, we also get six farm fresh eggs.  I was nervous about doing this, I didn't know if we'd actually like the items we got or would be creative enough to use them all.  See, the challenge is - you don't necessarily know what you're getting each week until the day the box is delivered.  Much of it depends on how the season is going and you pretty much get what you get.  But, I've been very pleasantly surprised at how well we have been doing with this and I can honestly say, it's the best thing we did for ourselves this year.  I look forward to each Thursday when our new goodies arrive!

Dress as skirt - Cliche Mpls

Tank top - Mossimo, Target

Jacket - LOFT, thrifted

Sandals - Merona, Target

Necklace - Charming Charlie

Bracelets - thrifted and S&D 

I've also mentioned before that the Pants Monkey loves to cook and is far more creative and willing to take risks in the kitchen than I am.  That may have helped us a great deal in making this CSA share work well for us.  I know my in-laws have actually struggled a bit with their items.  They also went out of town a couple of more times than we did this summer too.  Not everything is unusual - right now in fact we're getting very normal, common veggies - tomatoes, carrots, green beans, etc.  Earlier this summer is when we were getting more unusual items like kale, collards and fennel.  We've managed to try every single thing though and I have loved it all.  Because our growing season was late too we'll be enjoying products at least through the end of this month.  I will be sad when it's over!

Follow me on Instagram (feed is at the right, otherwise my username is muppetmusic22) to see pictures of some of the delicious creations we make.  I will apologize now for making you hungry if you do!