Thursday, January 27th box: soup, more soup and kale my kid will eat

by Brie

After the great box last week I could not wait for this week's delivery. We ate so well last week! And having the box helped me in coming up with our meal plan for the week. I used what we got and built around it, shopping on Saturday for the extras I needed to supplement my recipes.

This week I am focusing on soups. I am fighting a cold and, well, with the cold weather outside soups are a perfect meal in my mind. The acorn squash and apple soup recipe I made last week was amazing. I took it to dinner with friends and it was a hit. I don't know if it was thanks to the organic apple, the only sweetener, but it was like eating candy! I am tempted to make it again using the butternut squash that came this week. I have also been thinking about trying out some butternut squash soup recipes. I like this one for the combination of orange juice and ginger with the squash.

My all time favorite soup is French onion soup and it was my first thought when I saw the 3 lbs bag of red onions in the box. I have never tried making the soup with red onions, but I found this recipe and I am going to give it a try. If I had more onions I would be adding roasted red onions with butter, honey and balsamic vinegar to my meal plan and making a side of pickled red onions to go with burgers.

I am pretty sure the pint of grape tomatoes we got will be turned into salsa with the fresh cilantro and red pepper that also came this week. My husband loves to made fresh salsa with a vinegar, sugar and garlic vinaigrette. But. But, I may hold off and try these sautéed cherry tomatoes with garlic and basil or baked cherry tomatoes as a side dish one night this week.

The hardest choice this week was deciding how to use the big bunch of kale. I never used to know how to cook kale, but then I discovered a kale pizza recipe and I was hooked. It is really versatile and can use used in place of other greens, like spinach. I have heard good things about baked kale chips, and I will try them one day, but after making a zucchini phyllo pie last week (and my four year old eating three servings) I have decided to try a kale version of spanakopita. If you wanted to you could try making a squash and kale phyllo pie. I am going to see if I can get my girl to eat three servings of these kale phyllo triangles.  

The box this week had some broccoli, a big bag of Gala apples, some Anjou pears and Satsuma mandarins/ tangerines. While we are big fruit eaters in the house, and I expect the kids and I could work our way through it all, I have decided to set aside the pears and try making spiced Anjou pear bread. I love raisin bread and thought this would make a great bread to take to visit friends.  

This is what's on my menu plan this week. What are you cooking?

Brie loves eating food and is learning to love cooking food. She also blogs about motherhood at Capital Mom and about Ottawa with kids at Kids in the Capital.

First box. First blog post.

by Brie

I am very excited to be taking over blogging at the Life Organic Blog. Thanks Shannon for all the great recipe ideas you have shared here. I know I will be looking through the archives for suggestions!

I am even more excited with my first box (or Tupperware container) filled with fabulous organic fruit and vegetables. Its arrival late on Thursday couldn't have been better timed. By the end of the week we are running low on groceries and I am searching the freezer trying to remember what the brown thing in the glass container is. Now I have a fridge stocked full of fresh organic produce and I couldn't be happier.

As soon as I saw what was in the box I started wondering how to use everything. I don't have to think hard about the fruit. I predict that before I could ever get around to baking with the fruit it will be consumed by my two young kids. The pint of blueberries will disappear as soon as my four year old daughter gets home from school and we will eat the Granny Smith Apples, Anjou pears and bag of kiwis as snacks throughout the day. 

My plan for the lovely looking acorn squash is soup. Mmm, soup. It is perfect weather for soup. I am going to make this recipe, which will also let me use one of the crisp green apples, some shallots and a carrot. The rest of the carrots will be grated and made into carrot cake, topped with cream cheese icing of course, to share with friends this weekend. The carrots are so great looking I am sure my kids would eat them whole.

I am a bit of a purist when it comes to green beans. I like them steamed with some butter and salt. Simple but really my favorite.

The only difficult choice with this week's basket is what to do with a box of crimini mushrooms and spinach bunch. I am tempted to make a cheesy rice and spinach casserole or one of these great spinach recipes from around the world. Even a nice spinach salad with mushrooms and red onion would be nice. But I think I will make these mushroom and spinach calazones using our favorite homemade pizza dough recipe. This should make enough for dinner and have leftovers that can be frozen for lunches.

This is what's on my menu plan this week. What are you cooking?

Brie loves eating food and is learning to love cooking food. She also blogs about motherhood at Capital Mom and about Ottawa with kids at Kids in the Capital.