When Life Gives You Garlic Scape, Make Pesto

I discovered this pesto recipe last year when the CSA had garlic scape.  I had never heard of it before - but that's the beauty of the CSA.  Forced kitchen experiments.  I woke up Sunday morning, made coffee, and then on a whim decided to whip up this 4 ingredient deliciousness with my immersion blender before heading to Bob and Edith's for breakfast, since I had the ingredients on hand.  And it takes about as long to make as it takes to plug in the blender.

I used it as a cucumber dip today and at somepoint this week will probably use it on whole wheat pasta, with greens and chicken or something.  It is very fresh, lemon-ey, and garlic-ey.

Ingredients:
3 garlic scapes
1 lemon - zest and juice
enough olive oil to taste
enough parm to taste (I keep some in the freezer because I can't eat it fast enough.  Worked perfectly.)

Directions:
Put in immersion blender attachment or in a food processor.  Press the button.  Add more of something if you need to.  Eat however you see fit.

Clean Out the Veggie Drawer Tacos

 Today is CSA pick-up day!  I swear, it's like I get Christmas once a week in the form of a Lancaster Farm Fresh box. But in order to make room in my fridge for this week's delectables, I was having a bit of a backlog and needing to eat to make space.  My own damned fault, really.  I had the audacity to buy veggies in a grocery store.  Even though I am well aware of the fact that my second full time job is preparing and eating the CSA.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it.  I have gotten to the point of packing dinners to take to work to eat before happy hours.  Kale > bar food, in case you were wondering.  Anyways, I digress... My tacos:


Ingredients
1 T canola oil
1 summer squash diced
1 bunch asparagus diced
4 scallions diced
1 can black beans
1/2 bunch cilantro
3 small tomatoes
1 mango diced
avocado
2 limes
corn taco shells


Directions
Heat pan to medium heat. Add oil.  Add asparagus, squash, scallions.  Season  well with cumin, garlic  powder, and salt.  While that cooks for a bit dice mango, tomato, and cilantro.  Add rinsed can of black beans.  Cook for a few minutes more, seasoning more if needed.  Turn off heat and add mango, cilantro, and tomato.  Stir well.  Put 3 taco shells on a plate and microwave under a wet paper towel for 30 seconds.  Fill taco shells and top with 1/4 of avocado sliced.

I will be noshing on this all week.  I will probably eat it cold on a salad, cold on taco shells, we'll see.

An Awesome Sandwich with Honeycomb

I'm not even huge on sandwiches.  But man, this was a good sandwich.  An awesome hurried dinner for what became an awesome (somewhat unexpectedly so) evening.  A month ago, I bought some raw honeycomb from the Savannah Bee Company.  I stopped off at Whole Foods on my way home starving and with a desire to use this honey in my dinner - and with only literally like 10 minutes to change, put away groceries, and get out the door eating dinner as I walked.  I love the life I lead.  But my dinner became this.

Ingredients: 
1 cranberry flat sandwich bread thing toasted
4 pieces of uncured salami
small smear of brie like soft cheese slightly stinkier (the $5 cheese not the $12)
1 tsp honey comb
giant handful of mixed greens from the CSA

Directions: 
Assemble.  Devour.

CSA Breakfast Skillet

This was more photogenic in parts before they met the skillet.  But I hadn't had coffee, so I didn't think to take pics.  Use your imagination.  Super delicious start to this long day.

Ingredients:
1 tsp canola oil
1 small potato shredded - I leave the peel on (yukon gold)
1 scallion chopped
1 C spinach, stems removed
1 egg and 1 egg white beaten
1 oz cabot sharp reduced cheddar shredded
garlic powder, salt, hot sauce

Directions:
Heat iron skillet.  Add oil.  Add scallion, spinach, and potato.  Cook.  Add a splash of water if it starts sticking.  Add beaten eggs and cheese and garlic powder and salt.  Flip and cook.  Don't scramble.  Flip.  Done when eggs aren't runny.  Voila.  Put in bowl and top with hot sauce of choice.  Though Crystal is the best.

Second Attempt:  Same recipe as above but no eggs and I added 2 small diced tomatoes. 

Black-Eyed Pea, Quinoa, Avocado Salad

This is a fresh fun salad when the standard greens are boring you.  It was perfect for this gray, drizzly, not quite warm enough day.  I love salads like this, a whole meal if you want - with beans, grains, and veggies a plenty.  And will be just as good the next day.  I served it over arugula and with a small piece of salmon on the side that needed to be cooked.  I will no doubt be eating it on top of arugula for many more meals this week.

Makes 5 - 1 Cup servings
Ingredients:

Dressing: 
1T Dijon Mustard
Juice of 2 Mandarins
1T canola oil
dash of garlic powder





Salad:
1/2 C raw quinoa cooked to package directions
1 can black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained
1 avocado diced
handful small tomatoes diced or 1 large
1 red bell pepper and 1 yellow bell pepper diced
salt and pepper
arugula


Directions:
Start quinoa on stovetop.  1/2 C quinoa and 1 C water.  While that is simmering - dice all of the things that need dicing.  Toss everything together, letting quinoa cool a bit before adding into salad.

My Spinach is Better than Yours

Spinach is delicious.  But sometimes it's kind of boring.  Here is how I make it delectable.  I buy a bag and forget about it for several days, and then decide I need to eat it.  Here's how:

Ingredients: 

2 tsp canola oil 

1 bag spinach

2 T walnuts (kept in the freezer for freshness)

2 T raisins
garlic powder, salt, pepper, to taste 

Directions

Heat oil in skillet.  Put all the other things in the pan.  Stir around til spinach has wilted.  Eat half for dinner.  Eat half for lunch the next day cold.  Voila.  Bag of spinach consumed.

    

Turkey and Vegetable Ragu Detox

On the heels of two ridiculously decadent trips... Las Vegas, NV three weeks ago and Savannah, GA last week, I am in desperate need of vegetables and lean protein.  Those two trips have revolved around eating some pretty fabulous meals.  Not to mention that the past few days I've had an average of three desserts a day.  I don't regret one bit starting breakfast with bread pudding from Goose Feathers on Sunday or the Banana Praline Gelato later that day or sampling Leopold's Ice Cream after a modest breakfast of corned beef hash on Monday....

But, today is Tuesday.  My remaining pralines from River Street are in shards in my freezer awaiting my frozen yogurt experiments.  Because again.  Today is Tuesday and I am not having dessert after breakfast today.  I do not need to live my life, "full as a tick." (A fabulous expression I heard for the first time recently.)  I have a beach trip around the corner...

Getting home yesterday at 5:00 pm, I was a bit groggy from napping on the flight, I decide I need a Target run and a grocery run.  My Target run turned into my grocery run because once in the store, I decide I can manage a dinner out of things I can find in Target and they had milk....  so who needed a real grocery store?  Here is the result, which also was my lunch today, will be a few other meals later this week, and is also in my freezer for a rainy day...

Lettuce cups, grapes, & string cheese

Turkey and Vegetable Ragu Detox

Ingredients:
1 T canola oil
1 package extra lean ground turkey
1 bag frozen spinach
1 jar Classico Pasta Sauce
1 package white button mushrooms, sliced
1 small zucchini
1 small summer squash
Seasoning - oregano, crushed red pepper, basil, garlic powder, salt, pepper
Sprinkle of Parmesan
Romaine lettuce

Directions: 
Brown turkey in oil.  Season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  Add sliced mushrooms, sliced zucchini, and sliced summer squash, seasoning more and cooking for a bit.  Add bag of spinach and jar of tomato sauce.  Swish jar with water to get all the bits and add water.  Maybe 1/2 cup.  Cooking/heating til spinach is defrosted.  Add red pepper flakes to taste, more garlic, salt and pepper.  Top with parm when done.

This makes a small vat of food.  I froze two quart freezer bags for later and kept enough for 3 more meals in the fridge.

(I had the intention of serving this over spaghetti squash.  Target didn't have that.  So I ate it in romaine leaves making lettuce wraps.  One could eat it over pasta, and I may use my frozen portions over pasta later... But I was in the mood for vegetables as I have eaten my weight in starch in the form of pralines, ice cream, pie, and bacon caramel popcorn over the past few days.)