Ingenue Mom

Veggies this week: Collard Greens Broccoli Early Red Onions Swiss Chard Radishes Loose Leaf Lettuce Tarragon Chives Lemon Balm My Meals This Week: Grilled Chicken with Tomato Tarragon I'm more excited about this meal with Tarragon than I was about last week's meal! CSA veggies used: tarragon, leftover garlic stem from last week Salsa Not exactly a meal, but I make fabulous salsa & I can use the red onion & some garlic from last week. CSA veggies used: red onion, garlic stem from last week Marinara Sauce with Collard Greens I use the Jamie Oliver marinara sauce recipe from one of his cookbooks. I think it's Jamie's Dinners. Basically it's just a bunch of tomatoes chopped up with garlic & olive oil. This time I'm going to chop up some collard greens & add that in too! CSA veggies used: collard greens, garlic stem from last week Stuffed Potatoes I'm creating my own stuffed potatoes this week! I'm going to make them the same as the recipe...

Here's how my meals from Week 1 ended up! Collard Greens Quiche This was really yummy!! I added onions, garlic & cheese!  Mexican Style Stuffed Potatoes with Buttercrunch Lettuce Salad The potatoes were awesome!! But neither of us were super crazy about the salad. I need to find a different way to use the lettuce. Lemon & Sage Roasted Chicken with Caramelized Endive I ended up just baking the chicken. The caramelized endive ended up very similar to spinach & it was good, but the recipe called for WAY too much butter. If I made it again, I'd use less than half that much butter. Baked Balsamic Chicken This was great, but I make this meal all the time so I knew it would be! :) I didn't end up making the mustard & tarragon chicken.

Today Isis and I went and picked up our first CSA share box for the year! This year they are putting them in these cute canvas bags so it was actually much easier for me to get it and get it in my house while also getting Isis inside!  Veggies this week: Collard Greens Green Onions Buttercrunch Lettuce Cilantro Oregano St. John's Wort Endive Garlic Stem Radishes 1 dozen eggs My meals this week: Collard Greens Quiche -I have a great crustless quiche recipe from a friend of mine where I basically just do 8 or 9 eggs, some sour cream, cheddar cheese and whatever veggies I want (this time Collard Greens) with some cheddar cheese on top. It's really easy and works great for any meal! I may add some garlic stems to this, too. CSA veggies used: collard greens, garlic stem, eggs Mexican-Style Stuffed Potatoes with a Buttercrunch Lettuce Salad - This just seemed like a simple meal! With the salad, I'm just doing the lettuce, some onion, broccoli and ranch dressing. CSA veggies u...

Avenue D Photography I am done with my long-term sub position! I have a job at the school in the fall! I am close to finalizing my plans for our new sitter for Isis in the fall! I am home with Isis until sometime in July when I will start setting up my classroom! Free time, here I come!! For the next few weeks until July, I've got plans! I had great plans to keep up with my blogging when I went back to work, but that really kinda fell through. I've decided I need to just take it easy on myself. I absolutely love blogging and I love reading blogs and keeping in touch with my blog friends. BUT, I also love teaching and I need to focus on that right now so that I can be the best teacher I can for my students. As I've said before , they deserve my absolute best. Isis also obviously deserves my absolute best & between being a mom, wife, teacher & blogger, blogging just took second stage and I think that's okay. I still make appearances - at least once every 2 weeks...

Last week was my birth stories guest blogger week, so I didn't post several things I normally do. One of those was my CSA share update! So I'm going to try to quickly cover 2 weeks in 1 this week. Last week, our share box had tomatoes, lemon cucumber, pickling cucumber, slicing cucumber, sweet corn, green beans, green pepper, banana pepper, poblano pepper, lemon basil, spicy globe basil, thai basil, chives, st johns wort, dill & stevia. Unfortunately, last week was also a week where we had a lot going on & we weren't home for as many meals as normal. I did make some mac & cheese with turkey bacon, corn & green beans one night. Isis also ate some cucumber with her meals several days! I made quick pickles & we had a teriyaki chicken & green pepper stir fry! This week, our share box has tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, slicing cucumbers, sweet corn, green beans, green peppers, banana peppers, swiss chard, sweet basil, sage & oregano!...

I've been sharing about my CSA share experience & today we added to the experience by actually visiting the farm for a family day they were having! We got to go on a little tour & Isis got to meet some animals! We also got a delicious dinner, although we had to take ours to-go because Isis was ready to take a little nap. Here are some pics from the farm!! She was excited to be going to the farm!! First she met some chickens, roosters & guinea! They live in the Hen House. Then we saw the corn... ...and the tomatoes (along with a lot of other yummy vegetables that we will get to eat from our share boxes!) My favorite was probably the peacock named Peanut. Isis loved looking at the cows in the barn! Isis got a little warm in the barn - look at those rosy cheeks! The pigs were stinky, but kinda cute - there was a little one named Spot. Isis loved them! Overall I think Isis would recommend the CSA shares & the farm! Read more about our CSA experience !!

Today's share box is my favorite so far!! It has tomatoes, lemon cucumber, pickling cucumber, slicing cucumber, sweet corn, roma green beans, yellow wax beans, green peppers, banana peppers, eggplant, tarragon & sweet basil!! Here are the meals I have in mind: Pizza with black olives, green peppers & banana peppers Eggplant parmesan with green beans Quick Pickles (this is more of a snack) BBQ ribs with green beans & corn Tomato & basil pasta Chicken & peppers teriyaki stir fry Eggs!! And here are a couple of highlights from last week's share box meals: Lemon basil & red pepper chicken w/ broccoli, cucumbers & garlic bread Steak (from the farm) w/ grilled parsley potatoes & garlic bread (We love garlic bread.) We also discovered this week that Isis loves cucumber!! I held a piece & let her chew on it for a little while when we were cooking one night & she loved it so much that we stuck it in the Beaba Babycook & made her some c...

This week's CSA share box had tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, pickling & slicing cucumbers, swiss chard, potatoes, cinnamon basil, lemon basil, spicy globe basil, curly & flat parsley & lemon balm. We also got another dozen eggs. Here are my meal plans for this week, although I'm not sure yet which day we will eat each meal... Tomato pasta with the tomatoes & spicy globe basil Steak w/ steamed swiss chard cooked w/ onion, garlic & butter & also some potatoes w/ parsley Chicken w/ cinnamon basil, garlic green beans & some cucumber Chicken w/ lemon basil, steamed broccoli & cucumber Salad w/ chicken, sliced cucumber & lemon basil w/ a vinaigrette dressing Pizza w/ black olives Beet salad w/ the beets & cabbage left from last week Eggs w/ turkey bacon Has anybody cooked with swiss chard before?  How do you cook it? More CSA info here!

I already told you all about the fennel pasta salad & cucumber tomato salad that I made last week with the foods from my CSA share . I also made a pizza with the banana peppers from the share! I used a deep dish pizza crust mix (yeah I'm lazy), some Ragu pizza sauce, black olives & the banana peppers with cheese! It was yummy!! Then we made this tomato pasta with some more tomatoes & the fresh oregano! We just cooked the pasta, then put the tomatoes on the skillet for a minute with the oregano, olive oil, red pepper & smoked paprika (my husband is obsessed with smoked paprika - puts it on everything). Then we tossed all of it together with the pasta & some parmesan cheese! It was great for dinner & for lunch the next day!! Check out my previous CSA share meals & info !

Tonight I made the Fennel, Bean & Pasta Salad! I also made a Cucumber & Tomato Salad! I think they both turned out really well!! (These pictures were taken with my phone. Sorry they're not great looking foodie blog pictures.) Fennel, Bean & Pasta Salad - I posted the recipe here . This was really different! We had never had fennel before. My husband preferred to eat it heated up rather than chilled, but I ate it cold. It was good, I just don't think I'm a huge fan of fennel. I need to find some other ways to cook it to see if I like it better in different recipes! Cucumber & Tomato Salad Ingredients Dashes of red-wine vinegar (to taste) Pinch of sugar Dash of olive oil 2 tomatoes 1 green cucumber 1 yellow cucumber Handful of feta cheese Handful of fresh, chopped thai basil I just chopped this all up & mixed it together & voila!! It was delish!!! CSA food used: Fennel bulb Cucumber Lemon Cucumber Tomatoes Thai Basil

I picked up our first CSA share today!! I'm so excited about doing this!! The box today included carrots, beets, cabbage, fennel, banana pepper, tomatoes, lemon cucumber, cucumber, scallions, white radish, thai basil, sage, oregano, chives, st. john's wort & sunflowers! We also got 10 lbs of meat & a dozen eggs. The meat was a one-time purchase & we'll get more when we run out. The eggs are a weekly thing. Tonight I made a vegetable soup with some frozen vegetables I'd already gotten, but I added the carrots from the share & some fresh oregano! Lewis said it was the best vegetable soup I've ever made!! The fresh carrots & herbs definitely added some extra flavor that you just don't get from frozen veggies. Tomorrow, I'm going to make a Fennel, Bean & Pasta Salad with a recipe that was included in the newsletter the farm provided to us. Here's the recipe: Ingredients: Fennel bulb, remove leafy tops & reserve 1 small onion o...

Since having Isis & recently starting her on solid foods, we have really done some research on food. It's such a basic part of all of our lives & you'd think we'd be interested in it already, but it has really changed for us since we became responsible for another life. We feel like we have just a few years to really provide her with a great nutritional start in life & we want to do the best we can. This had led to several conclusions for us. We've done a lot of research & had a lot of discussion. This is something every parent has to do on their own & they may come to different conclusions than we have. I personally don't believe that the conclusions are the important part with this topic. I think it's the research & the interest in providing what you feel is best for your child. Here are our conclusions: We want Isis to eat organic as much as is within our power to provide this for her. We will not be feeding her red meat for several y...