radish – Chocolate 'N Children

June 12, 2015June 9, 2015

Food Friday – Mixed Veggies

I needed to use up a bunch of “leftover” vegetables. So I turned them into a vegetable medley. This combination of veggies was so colorful, and I love eating colorful foods.

1 Carrot – sliced
1 Green Bell Pepper – chopped in 1/2 in pieces
2 stalks Celery – sliced
2 Green Onions – sliced
1 small bunch Cauliflower – cut in small pieces
2 small Radishes – sliced
1 handful fresh Spinach
2 Tbsp butter
Salt & Pepper to taste
Grated Parmesan Cheese

Warm butter in skillet over medium heat

Add all vegetables except for the spinach

Pan fry until veggies are to desired doneness. I like mine just a tad bit crispy still so about 7 minutes.

Add spinach and cook until spinach is wilted, about 2 minutes.

Season with salt & pepper to taste

Serve with Grated Parmesan Cheese on top.

June 4, 2015May 27, 2015

CSA Week 3

There were so tasty things in my box this week. And some vegetables I’m not that familiar with. Be prepared for fun recipes tomorrow!

More green onions – I have got to find a use for this. This is 3 weeks in a row, and they’re all sitting in my fridge…

Radishes – the recipe I tried last time was pretty good. But no one in my family really likes radishes, so I’m going to have to try something different. Also, I have the tops this time. I’m thinking I’ll try a pesto and see whether I like the carrot top pesto or the radish top pest best.

Beets – I’ve never ever cooked beets. I’ll be looking at lots of beet recipes this week! They have the tops too. I’m pretty sure I can use these like any green similar to kale. I’ll be finding out what the taste difference is!

Spinach – we love spinach salad! I doubt I’ll have enough to do more than just salads. Especially since this is our preferred way to eat spinach.

While we’re discussing salads, here’s a head of red lettuce. I see some delicious salads in my future!

More Kale – I love cooked greens but the kids and my husband are not impressed. I’m going to try kale chips this week, maybe those will be better received…

Tomatoes – I love tomatoes. And these are huge and delicious looking. Can’t wait to start eating these.

Come back tomorrow to see what I did with all these familiar and unfamiliar vegetables.

May 22, 2015May 21, 2015

Food Friday – First CSA Box Results

My first CSA box was full of some great stuff. Take a look at all the tasty treats here!

What did I do with all of this? Well, for starters I had fun! I love trying new recipes and experimenting in the kitchen. Here’s what I came up with.

Roasted Radishes

Thinly slice your radishes and spread them on a cookie sheet. Top with a bit of butter, salt, and pepper, and bake in the oven at 300 for about 30 minutes. Taking them out and stirring every 10 minutes.

Don’t these look delicious? I’m not a big fan of radishes, but these had a great flavor and after being baked were still packed with flavor but were not spicy like raw radishes are.

Strawberry Shortcakes

Because who can resist a strawberry dessert with strawberries so sweet they don’t need sugar!

I purchased the cake from the store.

The strawberries are easy, cut the tops off, slice, and put them on top of the cake.

I put my strawberry tops in a tupperware in the freezer for using in smoothies later.

For the whipped cream, it’s so easy! 1 cup of whipping cream, 1 Tablespoon sugar, beat with an electric mixer until it’s as thick as you want it. I like mine pretty thick. Place on top and enjoy!

Pesto

I had what I think were carrot tops, so I made some pesto to top my steamed carrots and broccoli with.

I liked the pesto on my carrots but not on my broccoli. I also tried it on corn chips and that was not good at all. So stick with using this on carrots.

4 Cups carrot tops (cut off the stems and use mostly just the leafy parts)
1 Clove garlic
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp oil
2 tsp lemon juice

Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend, scraping down sides as needed, until the pesto is finely chopped and well combined. Serve with roasted or steamed carrots.

May 15, 2015May 14, 2015

First Food Friday

We’re trying out a CSA for the first time this year. I’m so excited! To celebrate, I’m going to be doing a Food Friday series on the blog every Friday.

I picked up my first box on Wednesday, so no recipes today since I haven’t had a ton of time to work with my box yet, but you’ll start seeing recipes and tips next week. So come back.

This week, I’ll just show you what’s in my box and my initial reactions to everything.

Lettuce, a whole giant head of it. Actually, it’s a bunch, not a head, because it’s not round. Anyways…we love salads at my house so we’ll have no trouble eating this up!

Broccoli, we also love broccoli – at least I love broccoli so I think everyone else should too. I did steam some for dinner Wednesday night and it’s delicious! There’s six little heads here. Come back next week to see what I do with all of it.

Strawberries, and they’re delicious! Also, they didn’t last past Thursday, we just gobbled them up. Someone did tell me that the tops are great in smoothies. So I’ve frozen them for later smoothie making. We’ll see how it turns out.

Broccolini, at least, I think that’s what it is. There seems to be a lot of leaf and not a lot of broccoli flower. I’ve seen so many recipes for this green but my local Kroger doesn’t sell it, now I get to try it!

There’s one other mysterious green leafy item that I think is carrot tops, I’ve also heard that these are very tasty and quite nutritious but I’ve never tried them. This could be exciting. If all else fails, I’ll just use my favorite greens recipe and it’ll be delicious.

These are some rather large green onions (also see the carrot tops in the bottom-left-hand corner). One per recipe should work great.

And last item, radishes. I haven’t had a radish since I was a kid. I sliced up the tiny one that you can see in the picture and ate it just to see how spicy they are. Not too bad, but I don’t see any of my kids or my husband eating them just sliced on a salad so I’m going to have to find a better use for them.

I’m so excited to have some new vegetables I’ve never tried before to cook with, and I’m excited to have some of my favorites like strawberries and broccoli, and not so excited about the radishes.

Come back next Friday to see what I make with all of this!