The Food Box Chronicles: The Week of the Broccoli Failure

It was another successful week in the land of the food box. My daily vegetable quota is on the rise and I almost think I could handle weekly deliveries of fruit and veggies as I have already plowed through my last box, which was delivered 1 week ago today.

This box (being carefully inspected by my food inspector, Oliver Twist) contained kale, blueberries, broccoli, potatoes, pea shoots, tomatoes, lemons, lettuce, hazelnuts, apples and kiwis.

I had my first big food box failure with this set of veggies when I attempted to make my favourite broccoli soup using broccoli and potatoes. It turns out that vegetable stock (which I was out of) is not something you can easily omit - blech. So, in order to make up for this, I bought some yams and used the food box tomatoes to make my favourite African Yam and Peanut soup. Mmmm. So good.

The next item I used was the kale. From this I made some Balsamic Roasted Kale (not chard) and had this as a side dish to some left over veggie chili that I had made a few weeks ago and frozen.

I made several salads with the lettuce, pea shoots and hazelnuts. Delicious. There is nothing better than a good salad and I am glad to be heading back in to salad season!

I used the kiwis to top some Sticky Thai Coconut Rice. However, I do have to say that I am not a huge kiwi fan and this rice is better with pretty much any other fruit! I will be adding kiwis to my food box "never send" list.

I cooked up my blueberries to make a blueberry sauce.

And I used this sauce to serve with crepes. I love crepes and will eat them for any meal of the day. My favourite toppings are either nutella or a fresh strawberry/butter/syrup combo, but this combo of blueberry sauce and greek yogurt was good too!

I even used some of my left over blueberry sauce to top my Sticky Thai Coconut Rice the next morning for breakfast. Much better than kiwi!

Last night, I picked up a few more potatoes and combined this with my food box apples to make Potato and Apple Soup, a new recipe I just stumbled across in an old magazine. It was delicious and creamy and packed with goodness.

Lastly, I have been sick with laryngitis and have been using my food box lemons for my favourite sickie beverage - hot water with the juice of half a lemon and a teaspoon of honey.

So, the week of the broccoli failure started badly, but ended well. I can't wait for the next box!

The Food Box Chronicles

So, what did my food box lead to this week?

Carrot, onion and zucchini soup.

Braised Turnips with Poppy Seed Bread Crumbs.

Vanilla Roasted Pears.

Applesauce.

Applesauce muffins.

Oh, and unrelated to my food box but worth a mention, I also made some very delicious Best Cocoa Brownies.

The Food Box Chronicles

I'm almost caught up with my Food Box Chronicles just in time for the next delivery!

In my most recent delivery, I received frozen blueberries, apples, onions, pea shoots, oranges, beets, lemons, pears, bananas, ginger, baby bok choy and red leaf lettuce. I also upgraded my order with a loaf of Anise Fig bread from Wild Fire Bakery.

Using the left over sweet potatoes from my last delivery and the ginger from this delivery, I made Sweet Potato Coconut Soup. I also made several great salads with the lettuce and pea shoots.

The next thing I made was a Beet and Brown Rice Salad with Goat Cheese. This salad sounds and looks a bit odd, but it is my favourite use for beets.

I also made up another batch of Vanilla Roasted Pears and two dozen "kitchen sink" muffins with the blueberries. However, my absolute best recipe find was Roasted Salmon with Thai Red Curry and Bok Choy. This delicious dish used up my baby bok choy and lemon and is absolutely company-worthy (I replaced the salmon with trout as I was able to get this fresh). Highly recommended!