Life with Figs is Sweet!

My mom called me last night to talk figs, and we spent 30 minutes bantering about how many awesome recipes there are for these sweet little fruits. There are fig sandwiches, savory fig salads, fig preserves, fig bars, and even fig infused vodkas to prepare with the bounty– the hardest decision to make is what to do with them!

Besides the fig excitement, my family is spending a lot of time watching the Olympic Games this week. Our menu for this week is focused a little more on couch-friendly, easy meals so that I can alternate time in the kitchen with rooting for Team USA.

Meal one: Fresh-Fig Grilled Cheese Sandwiches are the stars of the menu, with a bowl of fresh blueberries for dessert. That fig recipe is one of my very favorites, especially with fresh Ciabatta bread from Sweetish Hill bakery. I find that the sandwich is rich enough to make a meal, but if your family needs more food, Skillet Roasted Potatoes with Garlic and Rosemary would pair well as a side dish.

Meal two: Blueberry Flax Pancakes with Scrambled Eggs and breakfast potatoes.

Meal three: Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwiches with Roasted Okra on the side. That roasted okra is so tasty sprinkled with sea salt; we find that we prefer the flavor and texure of it to homemade French fries, and it is much healthier, too.

Meal four: This recipe for Stir-fried Sweet Potatoes and Collard Greens is easily adapted for the Hon Tsai Tai or Sweet Potato Greens that are in the Local Box. Just substitute those greens for the collards, and follow the recipe as written.

Meal five: The flavors of eggplant and zucchini go really well with tomato, so I will prepare them in this Slow Cooker Lasagna recipe. Eggplant and zucchini both give off a lot of water as they cook, so there’s plenty of moisture to cook the noodles right in the crockpot in that recipe. Super easy!!

What are you making with the bounty? Customer Cory B. shared his recipe for blueberry oatmeal cookies in last week’s blog comments, and we featured it in the newsletter on Friday. Please be sure to share if you’ve got good Local Box fare cooking at your house!