Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Weekly Meal Planner using Produce from my Abundant Harvest Organics Box

The new box of AHO produce is here! The new box of AHO produce is here!

Sometimes I feel like a kid opening a present when I get my box each week. Thank you California farmers for the beautiful gift of healthy fresh organic food, plain and simple!

Ma grew her own but in my busy modern life this is not possible for me so I feel very grateful for all the love and time our organic farmers give to their crops. Sometimes I cannot even believe they work that hard everyday, organic farming is no walk in the park from what I can tell. So thank you farmers who sell your produce to AHO, thank you from the bottom of my heart!

From left: arugula, collard greens, & mustard greens
Here is the list of this week's treasures:

  • Fuji apples
  • Mountain Barlett pears
  • lettuce
  • watermelon radishes
  • spinach
  • potatoes
  • collard greens
  • thyme
  • mustard greens
  • carrots
  • arugula
I also purchased these lovely add-on's this week:
  • Napa cabbage
  • kale
  • kobocha squash
  • bacon
 Here are the meal ideas for this week:


Meal 1
Spinach & Potato Fritatta
Follow my easy fritatta recipe using potatoes and spinach.
I like to use the least amount of pots as possible when I cook so my recommendation for this one is to saute your fresh spinach in the pain first with anything else you are adding in. Sun dried tomatoes and/or walnuts or pine nuts would be tasty. Onion is always good too.
After you have that nicely sauteed remove it from the pan to a plate.
Then add more butter or oil and layer the pain with thinly sliced potato. Fry it well and then flip them and fry them for a few minutes.
Then add the spinach mixture on top and pour the egg mixture over that and follow the rest of the recipe as stated in the other post.
You will have a nice potato crust.

Meal 2
Spicy Salad with Pears
I am going to try something new here and saute or roast my radishes after I thinly slice them.
I will also saute my mustard greens.
Then I plan to serve this on top of the lettuce and drizzle some good olive oil and balsamic vinegar on top.
I will also add in some chopped pear to balance out the spicy with some sweet.

Meal 3
Smoked Clam Chowder (dairy and corn free)
See the linked recipe for making this. You can use the carrots and the other potato from the box and the fresh thyme. I will be drying   the rest of my thyme using my new "in the garage method" I first tried with chocolate mint.

Meal 4
Arugula Raisin Walnut Squares
I found this recipe about two years ago and I have to say I LOVE these! They take a bit of work but they are worth it. They even taste really good cold the next day.
They are pretty hearty on their own but if you are serving a big crew be sure to make something to go with this. Chicken or fish would be nice.

Meal 5
Apples, Onions, & Collard Greens  
I have never tried this so I cannot make any promises! I have been doing a lot with onions and apples lately though and the results have been YUMMY so, I am going to give this new idea I came up with a try and see what happens!
Finely chop the onion and apple and caramelize them in some expeller pressed coconut oil or butter. Take time with this step to get them nice and brown, it adds so much flavor!
Then follow the directions on the fresh facts for preparing the collard greens and add those to the mix.
I have the bacon I bought too so I may actually get the bacon chopped up and fried first before I start the step of adding the onion and apples.

Meal 6
Sage, Apple, Onion, Sausage, & Cabbage Soup
This is so good I may just keep getting cabbage as an add on and make this every week!
See Meal 2 of this post for the recipe: http://littlehouseonthecanyon.blogspot.com/2011/11/weekly-meal-planner-using-produce-from.html 

    1 comment:

    Susan said...

    Hi! I tried to comment yesterday but I don't think it went through. I love your blog! I found it from AHO's facebook page. I am a subscriber to Abundant Harvest as well. I also have a blog based on their produce and my experiences with it... hopefully we can get ideas from one another!

    www.vegitationagitation.blogspot.com