The Food Box Chronicles

I forgot to take pictures of my most recent food box creations. Between the baking and wrapping and cleaning and shopping . . . it's been a whirlwind of a week.

I made:

* African Yam Peanut soup (from the Rebar cookbook)

* Mashed potatoes and turnips

* Balsamic Spinach

* Roasted Squash and Blueberry Muffins

* Lemon Cashew Dip (omit garlic and add lemon zest)

* Blueberry Pancakes

I am now on a food box "break" for a couple of weeks over the Christmas holidays, a very good thing considering the amount of soup I have in my freezer!

The Weekend Homemaker

I spent almost all of last weekend in the kitchen, cooking and baking my way through my last food box. I know that some people think that spending a weekend in the kitchen is ridiculous, but making food is very relaxing for me. It helps me to reconnect with myself and I eat so much healthier when I give myself this time. Also, a weekend in the kitchen means almost no cooking during the week! Lunches are a snap to prepare and I can get dinner on the table in under 15 minutes.

In my last food box, I received: pears, asian pears, apples, a lemon, carrots, a squash, a pomegranate, tomatoes, broccoli, potatoes and onions.

An onion, some carrots and some potatoes were used along with leftover thanksgiving turkey, lentils, peas and barley to make a turkey soup.

I roasted the squash . . .

And baked it into these lovely squash and pumpkin seed muffins.

I had a delicious snack of pomegranate and asian pear. I love pomegranates! They are a pain to eat, but worth the trouble.

I roasted tomatos. They will be used next weekend in another soup.

I made broccoli soup with the broccoli, an onion and potatoes. This recipe is so easy and dairy free!

Broccoli Soup

1. caramelize one chopped onion in olive oil

2. add one large thinly sliced potato and fry with onions and oil until soft

3. add 8 cups vegetable stock

4. add broccoli (I would say about 4 cups chopped) and bring to a boil

5. simmer until broccoli is soft and then puree with a hand blender

6. season with salt and pepper as desired

So good and so easy!

Lastly, I made my favourite vanilla roasted pears, using up the pears and the lemon. So good with yogurt or oatmeal!

My food boxes have gotten out of sync due to the upcoming Christmas holiday and another box has already arrived. It will be another weekend in the kitchen!

The Food Box Chronicles

After a 6 month hiatus from my organic food box delivery as a result of a move and a lovely summer and fall spent purchasing my goods from my neighbourhood farmer's market, I have finally resumed purchasing food boxes. My first one arrived on Thursday and I am so excited to see what new meals I will discover as I try to eat through each box!

This week I received: apples, onions, parsnip, pears, sunchokes, bananas, celery, kale and salad mix. My plans for all of these lovely fruits and veggies?

• gnocchi with kale (kale)
• vanilla baked pears (pears)
• apple-parsnip soup (apples, parsnips and onions)
• chocolate-chip banana muffins (bananas)
• salads with celery and salad mix (with some celery left for snacking)

The sunchokes? I have no idea . . . even after searching google for recipes, nothing appeals. I think that this vegetable may be going the way of the kiwi and the avocado (which reside on my "never send" list). If you are familiar with this tuber, please advise.

I love my root veggies, but what the heck?

The Food Box Chronicles

I've started packing for my move and the renovations have begun on my new place (I will be painting tomorrow), but the food boxes keep on coming! I am not sure what I will do once I move as I will not be able to have the food boxes dropped off at my new condo. I may have to turn to the neighbourhood farmers marker instead. Not a bad trade off!

In any case, my food box delivery on April 21 contained: apples, onions, carrots, yams, pears, a cucumber, bananas, celery, garlic greens, asparagus, lettuce and sunflower sprouts.

And I made one of my new favourite dishes, Roasted Asparagus and Eggs.

I also made lots and lots of salads with the cucumber, lettuce, celery and sprouts.

I am so glad to be moving from the roots to the leaves as the weather warms up. Soon will come the fruits. Mmmm.

The Food Box Chronicles

Yes, it is time to catch up with my food box reporting, especially since I have moved from bi-weekly to weekly food box deliveries. Unfortunately, I seem to be spending more time eating than taking pictures as I do not have much to account for the last delivery.

On April 14, I received: blueberries (frozen from last year), two kinds of apples, onions, potatoes, bananas, garlic greens, lettuce and spinach.

Now, I do recall making blueberry sauce (for crepes), more crepes with Nutella and bananas, a spinach quiche with a potato crust, potato and apple soup and lots of salads. However, I do not have any evidence for this so you'll just have to take my word for it!

The Food Box Chronicles

My food box for the week of March 31, 2010:

It contained apples, onions, carrots, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, cucumber, bananas, asparagus, salad mix and crunch bean sprouts.

And I made:

A pasta salad with cucumbers, parboiled carrots, red onion and crunch bean sprouts.

Applesauce muffins.

A citrus and mint salad.

And, my new favourite dish, Roasted Asparagus and Eggs (I'll get a better picture next time).

Yum!

The Food Box Chronicles

Yikes! It's been a crazy few weeks. I bought a condo and my computer had a major incident. My brother is also moving to town and I've gone apartment hunting with him a couple of times. It's been intense and it's no wonder that I can hardly drag myself away from the couch. In any case, I missed a couple of weeks of food box documentation and am just now posting about my March 3 delivery. I hope to get back on track over the next few days because lack of food preparation = cheezies in my cupboards = bad news!

Here is what I received on March 3, 2010:

Delicata squash, apples, onions, potatoes, rutabagas, oranges, grapefruit, pears, gold beets, kale and salad mix.

My first dish was a favourite standby, Potato Crusted Quiche. As a vegetarian, I never use the fillings this recipe calls for and, instead, used the potatoes, onions and kale from my food box to make a tasty pie.

The next order of business was stocking up on Botanical Burgers (I freeze them for work day meals). This took care of more onions and potatoes as well as the rutabagas and gold beets. I have to say that I prefer the red beet version, but these were good too.

I also tried this fresh citrus salad for the first time. A delicious taste of spring.

The bitter salad mix I received worked perfectly when stirred into Barley Risotto. Mmm. Perfect for a wet and dreary day.

And finally, I roasted my Delicata Squash with maple syrup and then mashed it into my kitchen sink muffins. I am not a huge squash fan, but love it in muffins with cinnamon and cloves (and chocolate chips, of course).

I can feel my winter eating habits (soup!) giving wait to a craving for crisp greens and tart berries. I can't wait until the local foods start rolling in!

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!

The Food Box Chronicles

Ooops, I forgot to take a picture of my complete food box this time around and I can't remember everything I got. However, I am sure that it contained (at the very least) apples, pears, bananas, sweet potatoes, turnips, onions, swiss chard, garlic and potatoes.

I had planned to make pasta with kale pesto, but when swiss chard arrived as a replacement, I ended up with swiss chard pesto instead. Definitely different than traditional basil pesto, but a good use for those greens!

I also made my ever-favourite Botanical Burgers. However, in this case, I replaced the beets with sweet potatoes. This worked out pretty well although I think I prefer the beet version for the texture the beets provide. Regardless, this recipe helped me to use up my sweet potatoes, turnips, onions and some potatoes. I added some baked potato fries on the side.

Lastly, my best new recipe find was Vanilla Roasted Pears from Smitten Kitchen (love this site!). These pears make a delicious dessert or healthy treat. I even used them on top of french toast for breakfast. I foresee myself making these with every pear delivery (in fact I've already made them again!). Yum!

The Food Box Chronicles

I have borrowed the idea for this post from one of my favourite bloggers, Carrie, over at Wee Two Three. If you are looking for meal inspiration, craft ideas or just some some adorable kids to admire, this is the place to go.

Several years ago (in another time and place), I had regular delivery of fruits and vegetables to my home. I found this a fantastic way to get more fruits and veggies in my diet, but never knew what to do with everything. I made a lot of salads and ate a lot of veggie sticks, but also threw a lot away. I discontinued this delivery when I moved and didn't really think of it again until I saw this post and was motivated to order a food box from Share Organics. I now use my food box as the inspiration for meals rather than a grocery top-up. This has worked out so well that I decided to chronicle some of my creations here.

The contents of my most recent box:

It contained lettuce, swiss chard, leeks, potatoes, satsumas, apples, pears, roasted hazelnuts, pea shoots and a pomegranate. Everything from Share is organic and most of it is local.

The first thing I made was Potato Leek Soup with the leeks and potatoes. I also made several salads with the lettuce and pea shoots and used the swiss chard to make Curried Lentil and Swiss Chard Stew:

I much preferred the Potato Leek Soup, but they were both good. After the soups, I used the apples and pears to make Apple Pear Sauce. Delish!

I used some of the sauce in my weekly "kitchen sink" muffins:

And last, but not least, I used the roasted hazelnuts and satsumas to make Chocolate Orange Hazelnut Biscotti (replacing the almond extract with orange extract and adding a couple of spoonfuls of grated satsuma rind). These turned out so fantastic that I even gave some away for Christmas gifts.

I am on a break from my food box while I am away over the holidays, but can't wait to see what the next box brings. Mmmm!