Tuesday, January 31, 2012

MegaPost! Creepy Fennel, Box Contents, Vegetarian OmNoms


This looks so much like a human hand that I'm kind of afraid to go near it. There's probably some creepy camp story about how some guy's hand got turned into this bulb of fennel and now he's coming to kill me because it's in my kitchen.

Another week, another produce/grocery box! Yeah, it was technically last week, but maybe I'll have a smaller and smaller lag between getting the box and showing it to you as time wears on. Or maybe not. Time will tell! This week, we got the Family Vegetarian Box just to try it out. It's only $10 more than the Couple Box and includes the addition of more produce (thyme, cilantro, and bok choy this week) and butter or eggs (whichever of the two the Couple Box isn't already getting that week). We ran out of eggs, so we thought we may as well give it a try and save ourselves the trip to the store. We're going back to the Couple Box for our next shipment.

A ton more food-related words and pictures after the jump!


Here's what we got:


Produce:
15 baby white potatoes
1 bag of stir fry mix
1 head bok choy
1 head Sierra lettuce
2 bunches broccoli
2 heads cauliflower
chanterelles (don't know how to quantify this w/o weighing)
2 yellow onions
1 small box blueberries
3 lemons
3 blood oranges
2 avocados 
8 tangerines
1 terrifying human hand of fennel
9 carrots (in orange, yellow, and purple)
1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch thyme



The Other Stuff:
1 dozen eggs from Dare to Dream Farms
1/2 lb Organic Valley farm butter
1 wedge Vella Dry Jack from C'est Cheese (cheese)
huge bag of red lentils (pulse)
1 jar Avila and Sons walnut butter (nut/dried fruit)
1 jar Lovebirds honey (local)
OJ
3/4 lb Green Star coffee (fair trade)


The specialty items were just fantastic again.

We barely used this week's meal plan at all. We slightly altered the stewed lentils recipe, which I posted earlier and you already read because reading this blog is among your favorite daily activities.


Isn't the base cut off of the bok choy pretty? Now, back to the topic at hand!

We did stir fry the stir fry veggies along with the broccoli and some carrots. We added tofu and a lot of noodles and sesame paste! Click on the link and prepare to be astonished.


OMGthosenoodles. They're life-changing. And they have a good amount of peanut butter in them, which significantly ups the protein in this vegetarian meal.

And because I'm in an inappropriate over-sharing kind of mood, here's another insanely delicious vegetarian meal we made with the contents of this box:


I got a little shave-happy. This is the Sierra lettuce topped with shaved fennel, shaved parmesan, and, in keeping with the theme, shaved purple and yellow carrots. It was very tasty. We used the Sweet Om Mama dressing from last week's box, which was spinach/cress/herb flavored, and it was so, so happy-making. And the main course:


Jonathan slaved away in the kitchen making this insane risotto containing one of the onions and all of the chanterelles. He is the most awesome person ever to exist. I'm so glad my elaborate scheme to trick him into marrying me by replacing the guy playing a priest in the musical we were both in with a real priest, a la Miss Piggy in Muppets Take Manhattan, worked out.

That's it for now. I hope it's shaping up to be a great week for everyone!

2 comments:

JR said...

Can't recommend the Noodles and Sesame Paste highly enough. While plentiful in New York, it's hard to find in LA--even in Chinatown, we've only seen it at Yang Chow--and easier to make at home.

Snarky said...

I first read this as a human "head" and stared at it for a very long time, trying to see the head. I finally thought I did, but then kept reading and realized I did not.

I get my CSA box on Tuesday and am so excited! Hopefully I will have a body part veggie too!