Coming this week: March 31, 2011

by Brie

I just got my email invoice for this week's box. I am very excited by what will be arriving on Thursday and have started to think about what to make. This weeks box has:

• Gala apples
• Blueberries
• Pineapple
• Avocado
• Cauliflower
• Carrots
• Cocktail tomatoes
• Rainbow chard
• Yellow pepper

Any ideas for recipes?What would you make?

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.

Thursday, March 17th box: Meals from around the world

by Brie

I love opening up our box and imagining all of the meals we could make with the produce inside. It's like looking at an empty canvas. The hard part comes when I have to narrow down all the choices.

The bag of beets and crimini mushrooms are going to be part of a Ukrainian meal we are making for a weekend dinner party. I tried making homemade pierogies once before and they turned out great. This time I am going to make them with a potato and mushroom filling. The beets are going to be turned into borscht, with a little help from the big bag of celery from our box.

(I am trying to find new recipe ideas for beets. I thought this beet cake with cream cheese icing looked good. Do you have any yummy beet recipes to share?)

The broccoli and leaf lettuce are going to form the basis of two Thai meals. I am thinking of a broccoli and tofu stirfry served with noodles, although I still haven't decided on a sweet ginger sauce or peanut sauce. I love lettuce wraps because there are so many filling options. I love these soba noodles and vegetable lettuce wraps with hosin and chili sauce and curried chickpeas an quinoa recipes.

Finally, the spinach and basil are going to be used to make an Italian meal. I am still deciding between a spinach-walnut pesto and a warm spinach-basil sauce.

This week's box had bananas, blueberries and navel oranges. All great fruit to be eaten for snacks or as dessert!

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.

Thursday, March 10th: Making muffins and roasting vegetables

by Brie

Our box this week arrived after dinner and the kids had to open it as soon as we dragged it into the house. They they had to sit and eat half the strawberries. I managed to snag one for myself and it was good!




Some anjou pears arrived in the box which means I will be making my favorite spiced anjou pear bread. This bread recipe has been one of my best discoveries and is perfect for taking visiting. It also got me thinking about how I could bake with the grapefruit. Grapefruit muffins anyone? And because we go through muffins like crazy in this house I am also going to turn the big bag of carrots into spiced carrot muffins. I like to make the mini muffins and freeze some to be pulled out when needed for snacks.

There were two greens in the box this week, Swiss chard and spinach. I am going to cook the chard with chick peas and fresh tomatoes and serve it with quinoa but you could also try a chard and goat cheese pizza or spicy Thai vegetable soup. I am going to try making these spinach brownies. The spinach would also be tasty in this curried lentil and spinach soup.

Whenever I see little potatoes in my box I always want to sprinkle them with some sea salt and roast them. Yum. You can't go wrong with roasted potatoes. I have the same urge with yams, but cut as fries. But they would also be great baked and served with cream cheese. The beautiful cauliflower will end up being roasted with sea salt and thrown into my favorite soup recipe. For something different you could try a cauliflower cheese pie or cauliflower curry.

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.

Thursday, March 3rd: What do you do with a rutabaga?

by Brie

I knew as soon as I opened the box this week that I would be turning the butternut squash into my favorite soup. It is so simple and so good.

What I had no idea how to use was the rutabaga. I discovered there are actually a lot of different ways to cook it. Like mashed peppered rutabaga, soup or caramelized with onions. I am intrigued by this rutabaga souffle and plan to make it for Sunday dinner.

Whenever I see an avocado I always want to make guacamole. If I can stop myself from just cutting it up and eating it on its own first. So the avocado, along with cherry tomatoes on the vine and two yellow peppers that will be turned into salsa, will be saved for a Mexican feast. Maybe with a taco salad or black bean, spinach and mushroom burritos.

Spinach and broccoli are very versatile vegetables. Both are great in salads or pies. I want to try something different this week so I am going to make spinach and artichoke dip for a party and lemon broccoli risotto for dinner one night.

The box had some great fruit this week. The strawberries were eaten immediately. And the oranges and bananas will disappear soon too.

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.