Tag Archives: locavore

Bok-os!

Posted on by — 5 Comments ↓

Problem #1: the week 7 veggie box shows up with just over 2lbs of bok choi in it. Holy carp…what am I going to do with TWO POUNDS of bok choi?

Problem #2: the usual Saturday evening blahs over what to have for dinner on the one unplanned night of the week, and we were missing one of the usual key ingredients. We decided to make tacos, and though it took some convincing, I was finally able to persuade dh that if you have no ground turkey in the house, the taco gods will still approve of you making tacos with diced chicken. [We don’t typically use ground beef – the one exception being the “meatloaf mix” of ground beef and pork that we get from BJ’s a couple of times a year.]

…and then I said, “What if we use bok choi instead of taco shells?” We had taco shells in the house. As a matter of fact, we had two boxes of them, due to a shopping oops on my part a few weeks before. Still, the idea intrigued him. “So, what – it would be like the lettuce cups from PF Chang’s?” he asked. Yep, that was the idea.

So, we created the tacos in the usual fashion (less the ground turkey) and then put them on bok choi leaves instead of taco shells. The verdict? OMG, this may be the only way I have tacos again if I can ever help it. And thus, we proudly present…

BOK-OS!

Note also that this is a bit healthier than using the shells – at least 100 cal less. And, you get all the benefits of the hard shell (crunch!) with the benefit of the soft taco (no breakage!). It’s really a win-win situation.

Bok-os

Bok-os: Crunchy, soft, healthy...what a combination!

Prep Time: 5 mins

Cooking Time: 15-20 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 Tb olive oil

1/2 pkg reduced sodium taco seasoning

2/3 cup water

4 leaves bok choi, washed

toppings of your choice (we went with reduced fat sour cream, shredded monterey jack/cheddar blend, and medium-heat salsa)

Make it Happen

1. Dice the chicken breasts (small pieces) and cook with the olive oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.

2. When the chicken is fully cooked, add the taco seasoning and water; stir to combine and stir frequently throughout cooking to ensure no sticking.

3. Once the majority of the liquid is gone from the pan, remove the chicken from the heat. Serve on leaves of bok choi (one per person), with the toppings of their choice, and fold the leaf as you’re eating it (like a soft taco shell).

Roasted Garlic Eggplant Dip

Posted on by — Leave a reply

First off, let me say that I’m not a fan of eggplant. I’ve tried it in parm form – meh. I’ve tried it in grilled form – meh. I’ve never been a fan of baba ganoush. In other words, eggplant’s just never worked for me. I tried to make things out of it when it showed up in earlier weeks’ veggie boxes, and it just never found a warm spot in my heart.

Until now.

I’ve FINALLY found a way that I like eggplant! My theory about it still stands: eggplant is a delivery mechanism. Just as pita is often a means of delivering hummus, eggplant is typically a way of delivering something else. In the case of the most common use for eggplant (eggplant parmesan), it’s for delivering cheese and red sauce. You might as well be eating cardboard that was breaded and fried – and in some cases, you’d get more flavor.

So, when I got yet another eggplant in the CSA box (albeit a small one), I knew I had to find some way to turn this thing into a delivery of something I wanted. It didn’t exactly help that I’m slightly under the weather and have a completely variable appetite. As I was thinking about what to do with said eggplant, I was struck by the idea of roasting it until it was mushable. Just roasting the eggplant by itself seemed silly and wasteful, though. As long as the oven’s on, why not roast some garlic with it and put them together in a bowl? YES! I would turn eggplant into a roasted garlic delivery mechanism! GENIUS!

How did it turn out? I LOVED IT. Given that it was a small eggplant, it made enough for about one person, or *maybe* two people (if they’re friendly). I saved a small amount for dh, since he was out of the house while this was made. And, now, if I *ever* have another eggplant cross my path, this is the first thing I’ll want to do with it. This could totally be done with a larger eggplant; all of the other ingredients just need to be scaled up proportionately. Given the size of the eggplant that I used, if you got the standard 1lb eggplant, you’ll just want to double the rest of the ingredients and probably add about 5-10 min cooking time, to make sure that you get it to the desired consistency. The eggplant should be browned (not blackened) on top.

The other nice thing about this recipe is that it requires very little “active” time in the kitchen. And it’s easy. I’m a big fan of easy. Note that I don’t use a blender or food processor. For one thing, this was done with a small eggplant, so it was a small enough quantity that A) it wouldn’t have worked well in a machine, and B) I had a sleeping child a few rooms away and was afraid to wake him up! With a larger eggplant, a machine may be employed – but I don’t feel that the dip was lacking because it had a less-than-smooth consistency.

(Apologies for the chip being in better focus than the dip…my camera REFUSED to believe that the dip was focus-worthy. IT WAS WRONG.)

Roasted Garlic Eggplant Dip

My new favorite way to eat eggplant!

 

Prep time: 5 min (active) + 30 min (inactive)

Cooking time: 30 min

Serves: 1-2

 

Ingredients

1 small white/Italian eggplant (about 6oz)

1 small head of garlic (about 4 small/medium cloves)

1/2 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp grated parmesan cheese

olive oil

salt

 

Make it Happen

1. Wash the eggplant and pat it dry. Slice it lengthwise and leave it with the insides (meat) facing up. Sprinkle salt over top of the eggplant meat and pat it down gently, to distribute it evenly across the top of the eggplant. Leave it to sit for 30 minutes to draw water out of the eggplant.

2. While the eggplant is sitting, prep the garlic for roasting: slice off the top and a thin layer of the bottom of the head of garlic, so the tops and bottoms of the cloves will be exposed. Set the head of garlic aside on the same cutting board as the eggplant.

3. Preheat the oven to 400F about 15 min. into the eggplant’s resting phase.

4. When the eggplant is done sitting, use a paper towel to wipe off the water and salt from the top of the eggplant. Place the eggplant halves (still meat-side up) on a cookie sheet covered with a sheet of aluminum foil.

5. Lightly brush olive oil on the meat of the eggplant halves.

6. Take a smaller piece of foil and pour a little olive oil on the center. Place the garlic head on top of that olive oil, then lightly pour olive oil all over the head of garlic, until it’s fully coated. Fold up the tin foil around and over the head of garlic, so as to make a closed pouch, then place that on the cookie sheet next to the eggplant halves. Roast at 400F for 30 mins.

7. Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and scoop the inside of the eggplant out into a bowl with a large spoon. Mash the eggplant gently with the spoon.

8. Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves out of the skin, then add those to the bowl. Mash those gently, as well, then stir to combine.

9. Add the lemon juice and the parmesan cheese to the bowl; stir to combine.

10. Serve with chips of your choice (or good dipping veggies – like carrots, celery or peppers). I served mine with multi-grain tortilla chips.

Adventures in CSA (week 7): Just as I suspected…

Posted on by — Leave a reply

…this week’s box was definitely cheaper through the CSA than at the store. Some of that was clearly due to the contents (asian pears tend to have that effect, given that they cost $2 apiece at our store), but some of it was because there was just so much stuff in the box this week.

Week 7 CSA
Weight
(lb)		 Grocery Store Unit Price
(per lb)		 Grocery Store Total Item Cost
Bok Choi 2.88 $1.29 $3.71
Collard Greens 0.76 $0.99 $0.75
Radishes 2.00 $0.99 $1.98
Yellow Onions 0.45 $1.49 $0.68
Carrots 1.88 $0.99 $1.86
Parsnips 1.31 $2.49 $3.27
Empire Apples 1.77 $1.59 $2.82
Asian Pears 2.00 $2.00 $4.00
Acorn Squash 0.09 $0.99 $0.09
Italian Eggplant* 0.38 $1.79 $0.69
Sweet Potatoes 1.05 $1.29 $1.36
Red Potatoes 0.95 $1.49 $1.41
New Potatoes 0.93 $2.66 $2.47
Grocery Store Total Cost $25.09
Week 7 Savings (Deficit) $5.09
Program-to-Date Savings (Deficit) $20.39
Notes:
* Items were not available; closest equivalent was used.

At this point, given our current savings, we’re already ahead enough that I can see quite a lot of value from this particular CSA program – we’re getting local veggies for less than what we’d pay to buy them at the store (trucked in from farms both near and far). I’m not sure that we’ll see the same value from the winter CSA that kicks up in two weeks, but we’ll have to see. As a complete fluke of timing, the first box from that CSA will arrive only a few days after the last box from this current subscription. D’oh!!

Only a couple of the items on this list have been used up or are spoken for – the eggplant was used (recipe coming tomorrow!), the bok choi was half-used last night (another recipe coming!) and will get completely used up tomorrow, and we have some plans for the potatoes for tonight – probably just baking some potato crisps.

It also helps that a lot of the winter stuff *keeps*, so you don’t suffer massive loss if you don’t get to use everything up in a given week. Apples, potatoes, onions, etc. all generally can last for a while if kept properly, and that allows us to stretch things out a bit. It is a bit funny to plan this week’s meals (leaning heavily on the crock pot, since I’m at a conference four out of five days and dh has a big all-day meeting scheduled for two or three of the same days)…none of what we came up with really makes a dent in the CSA box. In other words, we still have a long way to go.

Some of it is also a cost issue – I can easily take carrots, parsnips and onions and toss them in a crock pot with a roast – but the roast would cost a ton more than the other ingredients. I cringe at the price of beef most days (not to mention the nutritional content), so I try to limit it. We do have pork roasts a few times a year, which is slightly cheaper, but it’s still another case of “holy cow is that expensive – and why is it so much fattier than I want?!” The one way that we found to save money on pork loins is to buy the big 10lb loin from BJ’s and then cut it into three equal parts, storing the one(s) we don’t need for the week in the freezer. It slashes the price of the meat and ensures that we have it in the house for when we need it (assuming we remember to take it out a few days early to thaw).

And again, we come back to the delicate balance between cost and nutrition. I can’t imagine making this my crusade; as one person, I feel like I have zero standing to yell at Big Farm, the USDA, and the FDA with enough authority that they’d actually listen. As a working mom, I wish it were easier; hopefully as I get more experience with CSA-based/influenced cooking, the entire process will be simpler and I’ll feel like I can do this balancing act without flailing my arms in the air all the time.