Well, the imperfect foods delivery has been such a success that I decided to look into other CSA’s that deliver in order to supplement our grocery sitch. Imperfect foods is awesome, but since they are only addressing one part of the food chain (the waste part) – AND the system is in overly high demand right now – they don’t have as good of a selection or supply to fulfill our ravenous family of four’s needs.
So, now I’m doing Farm Fresh To You as well. It’s basically the same in that you have a window of time to edit your box before the send it to you. But instead of choosing from the store’s rejects, a la imperfect foods, you have the cream of the crop. Literally. The farm’s produce is picked and sent straight to you. It’s not like they are sending “the good stuff” to the store and the rest to their CSA members. You are getting whatever they have. And you can add various other (non-produce) offerings from local vendors – dairy, meat, grains, etc. You can skip weeks as needed and tweak the size of your box whenever, so I’m thinking it will be great for this self isolating time period.
If you want to give it a try, too, I have a referral code ELIS5262 that gets you $15 off.
I would advise you to join asap though, because I’ve heard reports that several CSAs have now had to create waitlists because of the overwhelming popularity.
In any event, we are down to almost nothing so I’m happy to have a shipment coming tomorrow. I will be sure to show off what I got!
In the meantime, here some of my past week’s meals…starting with a tri color quinoa, green bean, chicken pesto dish.
I chopped and steamed the green beans, cooked the quinoa and chicken, and then tossed it all in pesto (from the freezer stash) and sun dried tomatoes.
Done and done.
Next was a grits bowl with some Asian-ish toppings, including sauteed tempeh.
I cooked the grits in the instant pot using a crazy ratio that made me nervous (1 1/2 cups grits to 6 1/2 cups water. I greased the entire pot with bacon fat first so nothing would stick and it worked out perfectly! I let it pressure cook for 10 minutes and left it on keep warm until serving.
Then I topped it in steamed (from frozen) broccoli, hard boiled eggs, tempeh, and cashews…plus bragg’s aminos, sesame oil, and sriracha.
We spent the weekend doing fun Easter things like dyeing eggs, so we had those ready to go.
I am using the instant pot upwards of 3 times a day!
For the first time ever, we actually had leftovers of this, so we had it again the next day (Kyle for breakfast, the kids for lunch).
Sometimes I think that we are Caesar salad fiends…
I made garlic bread with Udi’s GF bread.
The salad had chicken and romano cheese. Perfectly easy after a long day with the kiddos.
This next meal was a chopped cabbage slaw kind of thing, with ranch dressing and beef burgers.
I added tortilla pieces and pepitas, like the bagged salad mix that I got last month.
This was also the last of the cilantro, but I should get more in our next CSA box.
Another day, another slaw!
I’m sorry but cabbage is a family favorite and it also last forever, so it’s a great choice when you are buying in two week increments.
I sauteed shrimp to top these Asian bowls, but then I didn’t really feel like any myself, so I crushed up the last bits of a bag of kettle korean bbq flavored chips to go on top instead.
Crunch and flavor heaven!
And in case you were wondering about my grain bowls…they are still going strong! I am getting low on candied nuts, but I plan to make another batch soon. I have more kale and rice arriving with the CSA. Our neighbors gave me a bunch of lemons for the dressing (although I’m getting low on miso so I will have to figure that one out sometime this month…).
As crazy as it sounds, these bowls are the main thing keeping me feeling normal during this insane time.
My coffee has already gone down the tubes…and my chocolate stash is mostly bizarre odds and ends…sooooo it’s REALLY nice to have a bomb a$$ bowl of kale massaged in lemon miso with grains and feta and nuts to look forward to every day.
Every once in a while I crave other stuff too.
Like leftovers! Salmon + roasted Brussels + salty almonds + carrots.
SO happy.
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