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Local Box Meal Plan 10/17 – 10/21

By Kathryn on October 18, 2011 in Central Texas Local Box, Greenling Central Texas

Fair warning: I’m getting fancy with this week’s Local Box menu. I am attending two potlucks this weekend, and I’m showing off our local bounty with some special finger foods and small bites. This week’s produce lends itself especially well to hors d’oeuvres, but you could also stretch those appetizers into full meals by adding some easy side dishes.

Here’s what’s coming in the Local Box:

Asian Pears- Lightsey Farm
Apples – Top of Texas
Fuyu Persimmons – Lightsey Farm
Multi-colored Radish Bunch – My Father’s Farm
Summer Squash – My Father’s Farm
Bok Choy OR Chard – Fruitful Hill Farm OR Comanche Oaks
Italian Cucumber Melon – Tecolote Farm
Broccoli Crown – Engel Farm
Shallots OR Okra – Fruitful Hill Farm OR Bradshaw
Sweet Potatoes – Gundermann Acres

Menu 1: Grilled persimmon bruschetta combines creamy goat cheese with grilled wedges of sweet persimmons on French bread. For my potluck, I’ll grill the persimmons ahead of time, and plan to assemble the rest of the bruschetta at the party. A quick salad of cucumber, broccoli and radish slices would round the bruschetta out into a full meal.

Menu 2: This apple rosemary brie pizza makes a quick and easy appetizer, especially if I use a store-bought pizza crust. Doubling the portions and adding a side of sauteed okra with garlic would stretch it into a dinner, too.

Menu 3: I am taking this cucumber, apple and pear salad to a gluten-free gathering this weekend. If I have enough produce to double the recipe, I will serve the salad again as a dinner with some grilled bratwurst. A note about the cucumbers from Tecolote: Italian cucumber melons are a very mild variety of cucumber that is shaped like a softball or a melon. You can peel and cube this cuke just as you would the English variety.

Menu 4: The bok choy from Fruitful Hill Farm in this week’s box are enormous. One whole head of bok choy could easily feed a family of four, as in this Stir-fried Bok Choy recipe.

Menu 5: I’ve always heard that radishes and squash grow well together in the garden, so why not try them together on my plate? Sauteed summer squash with radishes looks like a pretty easy way to prepare the veggies together. I bet grilled chicken or grilled sweet potatoes would make an excellent companion.

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Local Box Meal Plan: October 10-14

By Kathryn on October 12, 2011 in Central Texas Local Box

In celebration of World Vegetarian Awareness Month, this week’s meal plan is meat-free!

Going vegetarian or vegan can seem like a drastic life change, but as many Greenling customers can attest, it can be an easy way to include more fruits and vegetables in your diet and cut down on food costs. For the latter reason, I have been trying to include at least three meatless meals in our weekly menu plans, and I have seen a slight decrease in my overall grocery budget. This is definitely a work in progress, and I’d love any feedback or ideas that you have for going meatless or sticking to a grocery budget.

Here’s what’s coming in this week’s Local Box.

Asian Pears- Lightsey Farm
Apples – Top of Texas
Banana or Bell Peppers – Lund, Gundermann & Engel
Live Rosemary Plant – My Father’s Farm
Garlic Chives- My Father’s Farm
Sweet Yellow Onions – Engel Farm
Zucchini – Gundermann Acres OR My Father’s Farm
Fuyu Persimmons – Lightsey Farm
Lettuce – Bella Verdi
Sweet Potatoes – Gundermann Acres

Here’s are the meat-free meals I’m preparing with the bounty:

Meal one: Fuyu persimmons taste great while they are firm, or as they ripen and get soft. You can eat them alone, but the ones coming this week look pretty small to work as a side dish on their own. I’m planning to use them along with the lettuce in this Salad of fall greens with persimmons and hazelnuts. I’ll sautee some zucchini in olive oil and sprinkle a few minced garlic chives over the top for a side dish.

Meal two: Squash, onion and bell pepper fajitas, Margarita’s tortillas, vegetarian refried beans on the side.

Meal three: Sweet potato burritos. This is a new recipe for me, but it looks like a wonderful way to use the pound of sweet potatoes we’re getting from Gundermann this week, along with an onion and the leftover tortillas from meal two. I will snip a few tablespoons of garlic chives into the burrito filling, too, for added flavor. For dessert, apple slices dipped in easy caramel sauce.

Meal four: This pear butternut squash soup looks wonderfully comforting, and it uses coconut milk, one of my favorite dairy substitutes for savory/sweet flavor profiles. A sweet yellow onion will make a fine replacement for the leek in that recipe, and if I have extra mashed sweet potato on hand from the burritos, I’ll sub that for the butternut squash in the recipe. We’ll round out the meal with a few slices of toast, some more sauteed zucchini with garlic chives, plus apple slices and caramel sauce if there’s any left from meal three.

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Local Box Meal Plan, October 3-7

By Kathryn on October 4, 2011 in Central Texas Local Box, Greenling Central Texas

We’re officially in between seasons in Central Texas. You can tell because winter squash and watermelon are arriving in the same week! I love this season-straddling produce because it allows me to experiment with recipes like cucumber apple slaw, and butternut squash-lime soup while using mostly local ingredients, a feat that’s impossible during other times of the year.

You may notice that I’m beginning to include some holiday type recipes in our Local Box menu as we gear up for the Thanksgiving cooking season. I’ll be experimenting with several new recipes this year, and I like to practice those while the stakes are low. This also helps me introduce new recipes to my family so that all the offerings on Turkey day are familiar favorites. Here’s what’s coming in this week’s Local Box:

Asian Pears- Lightsey Farm
Apples – Top of Texas
Assorted Peppers – Lund Produce, Gundermann Acres & Engel Farms
Watermelon OR Cantaloupe – My Father’s Farm
Sweet Potato Greens – Gundermann Acres
Hard Squash [Butternut or Spaghetti] – Engel, My Father’s Farm, Gundermann Acres
Pickling Cucumbers – Gundermann Acres
Green Shallots – Fruitful Hill Farm
Limes – G&S Groves

Here’s what I’m making with the bounty:

Meal one: Apple and grilled cheese sandwiches, cucumber apple slaw, sliced melon

Meal two: I’m substituting sweet potato greens for collard greens, in this hearty White Bean and Greens Soup recipe. Sauteed pears with balsamic vinegar and a crusty baguette will fill out the meal.

Meal three: Butternut squash-lime soup looks tasty, and it uses the butternut or acorn squash, peppers and limes from our Local Box ingredients in one fell swoop. The shallots this week look big enough to substitute for the onion in that recipe, too. Sliced melon will make for an easy dessert.

Meal four: This one is a weekend meal, since it’s a little time consuming. I’ll roast a turkey breast, can some cranberry jalapeno jelly to serve on the side, and make this simple stuffing recipe with the rest of meal two’s baguette.

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Local Box Meal Plan, September 26-30

By Kathryn on September 27, 2011 in Central Texas Local Box, Greenling Central Texas, Uncategorized

It’s raining! It’s raining! Isn’t it is thrilling to see clouds in the sky and wet stuff on the ground? Hopefully all this lovely rain will make its way to our farmers and give their fields a much-needed soak.

Speaking of thrills, how about the prickly pears and sweet potato greens in our Local Box this week? I’ve never cooked either of those items before, so I am very excited to give them a try. I hear that prickly pears are similar in flavor and texture to watermelon, except less sweet, so I bet they’ll pair really well with the limes coming in the box. Sweet potato greens are similar to spinach, chard and collard greens, so I imagine they will taste great sauteed, steamed or boiled. I haven’t found many recipes where they are used raw, but those that do call for them describe them as similar to purslane in flavor.

Here’s what’s coming in the Local Box:

Asian Pears - Lightsey Farm
Prickly Pears / Cactus Apples – My Father’s Farm
Sweet Potatoes – J&B Farm
Assorted Peppers – Comanche Oaks & Engel Farm
Okra OR Bibb Lettuce – Bella Verdi OR Bluebonnet Hydroponics
Sweet Potato Greens- Gundermann Acres
Summer Squash – My Father’s Farm OR Gundermann Acres
Pickling Cucumbers - Gundermann Acres
Green Shallots – Fruitful Hill Farm
Limes – G&S Groves

Here’s what I’m making with the bounty:

Meal one: Pan-seared tilapia with fruit salsa. I love this recipe, since it is an easy way to prepare environmentally friendly fish. I’m going to use our prickly pears and a mango, diced, in place of the tomato in the salsa recipe.

Meal two: Sweet Potato, Corn and Jalapeno Bisque, Butter lettuce salad with shallot vinaigrette salad dressing. It looks like we’re getting enough green shallots to use them in both the salad dressing and the bisque recipes. (Substitute shallots for onions in the latter.)

Meal three: Pear stuffed pork loin, with sautéed summer squash and red pepper on the side. This pork loin recipe is definitely a weekend endeavor, since it takes half an hour of hands-on time to prepare and a few hours to bake. However, it looks delicious and it uses a jalapeño to boot. It’s also a nice change from eating pears raw, which we’ve done for a few weeks now.

Meal four: Pear bread. S autéed sweet potato leaves, cucumber and black eyed-pea salad. Try a nibble of the sweet potato leaves before making dinner; if your family will eat them raw, skip sautéing them and toss them in with the cucumber salad.

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Local Box Meal Plan, September 26-30

By Kathryn on September 26, 2011 in Central Texas Local Box

Here’s what’s coming in the Local Box:

Asian Pears – Lightsey Farm
Prickly Pears / Cactus Apples – My Father’s Farm
Sweet Potatoes – J&B Farm
Assorted Peppers – Comanche Oaks & Engel Farm
Okra OR Bibb Lettuce – Bella Verdi OR Bluebonnet Hydroponics
Sweet Potato Greens- Gundermann Acres
Summer Squash – My Father’s Farm OR Gundermann Acres
Pickling Cucumbers – Gundermann Acres
Green Shallots – Fruitful Hill Farm
Limes – G&S Groves

Here’s what I’m making with the bounty:

Meal four: S autéed sweet potato leaves, cucumber and black eyed-pea salad. Try a nibble of the sweet potato leaves before making dinner; if your family will eat them raw, skip sautéing them and toss them in with the cucumber salad.