Black bean – kale – kohlrabi – garlic scape burgers

yikes, that’s a mouthful.

This really is the best part about the CSA- the opportunity to make bizarre meals.  My inspiration actually came from this blog, where there was a recipe for garlic scape and kale hummus.  I figured since I had garlic scapes and kale, but no chickpeas, I could make a black bean hummus.  I also have more kohlrabi than I know what to do with, so obviously I wanted to add that, too.  After I got everything in the food processor it dawned on me that I should just add some cornmeal, too, and make burgers!

Last night I topped the burgers with plain yogurt and chipotle chili powder.

 

Tonight I added my caliente goat cheese and a fried egg….DELICIOUS

I’m not the best at taking food pics haha

I definitely like the black bean burgers best with cheese and egg.

If I were my roommate, I would probably like this with olive tapenade.

CSA black bean burgers

–chop 2 kohlrabi (root, stem, and leaves)

-steam in the microwave for 2 minutes
-add to the food processor, along with 5 chopped garlic scapes and a handful kale

 

-blend in the food processor
-add a 29 ounce can of blackbeans, continue to process
-add cornmeal, a 1/4 cup at a time, until the desired consistency is reached
-add cumin, taco seasoning, and crushed red pepper, blend
-form burgers and bake at 400 degrees until crispy or you lose patience

Total Price: $4.39 ($0.37/burger)

–1 29 oz. can black beans: $0.99
-5 organic garlic scapes: $0.15
-2 organic kohlrabi: $2.00
-organic kale: $1.00
– 1/4 cup organic cornmeal: $0.25

Toppings:
-1 container organic plain yogurt: $0.80
-organic caliente goat cheese: $2.00

Stroke of Genius of the Month

So, as you may have noticed, I haven’t been making dinner as much lately, or, when I do, it has turned out to be something quick that doesn’t have any leftovers.

On the flip side of that is the fact that I have far more green, leafy vegetables than I know what to do with.

Tie both aforementioned facts together with the problem that I need to make a lunch everyday that includes protein, yet I am still burned out on sandwiches, and you get my new, cheap lunch idea:

-Mix together greens, 2 eggs, salt, pepper, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar in a microwave safe container and microwave for 2 minutes at lunch time.

What you end up with is a salad souffle of sorts that seems totally inspired but, in my case, stemmed from extreme desperation.

The total cost?  About $0.84.

Mexican Spring Vegetable Casserole

random ingredients

I hope this is what summer grad school is.  I got in 3 hours of microscope time today, got trained on a new instrument, put together the rest of the rough draft, sent a few emails, organized my inbox, and then came home and made aammaazzing dinner.

I finished off so many leftovers today that when Becca came home she thought I had organized the refrigerator.  My meal consisted of: 1 leftover egg, ~1/4 cup of salsa, 6 corn tortillas that got left out in the fridge so they were hard/crunchy/kinda gross, 6 radishes and 6 green onions that needed to be used because they were from last week’s CSA, 1/2 cup black beans, and gross leftover chives from my very first CSA.

When I was laying out all the ingredients I realized I could make something that resembled lasagna with the tortillas and salsa, so I rolled with it.  It turned out surprisingly good!

Mexican Spring Veggie Casserole

-layer a pan with corn tortillas

-next, add black beans and salsa

-thinly slice 6 radishes and layer on top of salsa

-chop radish greens and green onions, layer on top

 -season with crushed red pepper, salt, and taco seasoning
-tear up remaining tortillas to cover vegetables
-crack an egg on top and spread egg evenly over tortillas; add chives

-bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees

This tasted really good, although in the future I would probably just discard the really crunchy/dried out portions of the tortilla or make sure they are on the bottom where they can soak up all the good salsa/black bean juices.  The egg really pulled everything together…I would maybe add another next time.  I wasn’t exactly sure radishes would go well in this dish, but their tangy horseradish-ness worked well with the black beans and salsa.  Definitely glad I tried this instead of letting my gross tortillas go to waste!

I’m not going to try and calculate a total cost here because I think it would be impossible with all the CSA ingredients…the tortillas were ~$0.40, the egg was $0.17, salsa was free from my mom, the black beans were crazy cheap because I bought them dried…I would definitely say this meal was less than $4.00 🙂

Pickled Beet Salad with Fried Eggs

I realized I never was able to post what I got in my CSA box on Friday!

The CSA is going really well..my pickup is on Friday and every Thursday night I’m usually scrambling to use up what I had from the week before.  I think I also came up with a good way to quantify how much money I’m spending…well, a couple ways.

1.  I walked around the farmer’s market the other day and realized that if I went there to buy the exact same things I get in the box, in the same quantities, I would spend much more.  This makes me happy.  (I think I’m spending more, though, than if I were only buying sale items…jury is still out).

2.  Another way to determine it is to decide how many meals I am able to use my veggies in- for instance, with the lettuce I got this week I have made 5 salads and I have used the mushrooms in 2 meals.  Once I’ve used all the veggies for the week, I’ll be able to see how much money each serving was.  I think last week’s ended up being $0.50 for each serving.  not bad!

Okay, back to the point.  Here’s what I got this week:

lots of green this week!

Here’s what it is:
-a TON of romaine lettuce (you can’t tell that most of it is behind the brown bag)
-green onions
-Shiitake mushrooms
-radishes

So, last Thursday I had an insane amount of veggies left.  I still had 3 beets, 3 turnips, and a whole bag of pok choi.  I decided to pickle everything and see how it turned out!  I’ve never pickled before, so I was pretty confused about everything.  I mixed a couple different recipes…I happen to think it turned out amazing.  Tangy and a little bit sweet, with an amazing color.

Pickled Beets

-chop beets/stalk/greens, toss in olive oil, and roast in the oven at 400 degrees for ~15 minutes
-simmer 1 cup vinegar, 1/2 cup turbinado sugar, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1 cup water
-chop remaining ingredients while the beets are roasting (I did pok choi, turnips + stalk + greens, and romaine lettuce)
-once beets are out of the oven, layer vegetables in a mason jar and pour liquid over vegetables
-be sure all the vegetables are submerged
-let veggies sit in the refrigerator for at least three days (I ate some after 4, we’ll see if the taste changes at all as the days go on)

 Pickled Beet Salad with Fried Eggs

-combine romaine lettuce, shredded carrot, pickled vegetables, and 1-2 fried eggs
-add olive and salt, if desired
-be sure to soak up some of the purple juice with your fried egg!!

yum 🙂

Total Cost:

Pickled Beets: $3.63

–3 organic beets (CSA)- $1.00
-3 organic turnips (CSA)- $1.00
-bag of organic pok choi (CSA)- $1.00
-1/2 cup organic raw sugar: $0.63
-1 cup vinegar: no clue

Pickled Beet Salad with Eggs: $2.14

–2 organic eggs: $0.34
-organic romaine lettuce: $1.00
-2 organic carrots: $0.20
-1/6 organic pickled veggies: $0.60

omelettes!

Omelettes are something that have taken me a long time to perfect.  They’re such a great meal in a pinch, though.  You can add any vegetable, any cheese, any sauce, and you’re good.  Here are some of the tricks I’ve learned along the way:

1.  If you think you’ve oiled/buttered/sprayed your pan enough, you haven’t.  don’t forget-  the sides of the skillet!!

2.  Use the smallest pan possible.  A smaller, thicker omelette is much easier to make than a thin one.

3.  This may be a no brainer, but it took me a long time to figure out this was key- whisk your eggs in a seperate bowl or glass first.  Add a little water or milk to give them extra fluff.

4.  Another no brainer, but again, I made a lot of gross omelettes before I figured this out- take the time to sautee all your vegetables before you add them to the omelette.  Sautee them first, THEN start your egg.  Then you’re not rushed and either undercooking your veggies or, even worse, overcooking your egg.

5.  If you want an omelette but are out of cheese, use salsa.  It adds the needed creamy-ness that makes an omelette good.

6.  There is no spice or vegetable combination that is bad in an omelette.

7.  Use the smallest spatula possible when flipping your omelette.  This will help you wield it best.

8.  Don’t let your pan get too hot, but if it’s not hot enough your omelette won’t cook well.  medium to medium low is best.

9.  Let your omelette cook part way before adding your vegetables.  If you add too soon, you will end up with a mess.

10.  Some of my favorite combinations: onion, green pepper, colby jack; spinach, onion, black beans, salsa; spinach and goat cheese; potatoes, onion, fennel, gouda;

end of the week CSA omelette(this is the second Thursday night omelette I’ve made with the last few remnants of the week’s CSA)

–sautee chopped turnip greens, beet greens, green onions, or kale, green onions, chives (or a combo of both!) in olive oil
-while sauteeing, whisk two eggs in a cup; add a tablespoon or two of milk
-remove veggies from pan, spray extra cooking oil in pan
-pour eggs in pan, let them cook for ~1 minute
-add veggies, salsa, cheese (I used gouda for the first omelette, bleu cheese for the second)
-flip one side over, creating a pocket
-if desired (I usually don’t), flip the omelette by rocking it over the spine (?) of the omelette. (what the heck do you call that part?)

okay, so it looks more like a taco than an omelette, but at least it stayed together!

Total Price:$1.24-$2.20

-2 eggs: $0.34
-whatever veggies are in your fridge: $0.20-$0.75
-bits of cheese: $0.50-$1.00
-1/8 of a cup of salsa: $0.20

Lazy Girl Organic

..except that my plan went horribly wrong!

My goal was to use my new rice cooker and my not new food processor in an attempt to save time.  check.  What I didn’t anticipate was that it was going to take me almost an hour cleaning up all the food I burned in my new cast iron pan.  oh well.  it was totally worth it.

What did I make?

Well, I was going to make squash/potato/onion/garlic latkes.

before

except that it turned out looking like this:

after

I promise you this tasted good.  Once the bottom started burning, I abandoned the idea of latkes and made it a scramble.  I had planned to make fried eggs to neatly place on top, but instead I added them to the pan.  This, of course, did not help the mess of the pan.

I did enjoy using my rice cooker, though!!  It was definitely nice to not have to worry about burning the rice.  Thanks, Jill!!

Squash and Egg Scramble
-combine shredded squash, onion, potato, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, and garlic (I used a food processor)
-form into latkes
-fry in olive oil
-abandon plan and scramble
-add two eggs and continue scramble
-add copious amounts of salt
-serve over brown rice

Total Price:$1.98

-1 cup organic brown rice – $0.75
-3/4 cup organic squash- $0.15
-2 organic potatoes- $0.53
-1/2 organic onion- $0.15
-1 clove garlic- $0.10
-2 eggs- $0.30

Roasted Black Bean Garden Salad with Fried Eggs

so. freaking. good.

I have become my mother’s daughter.

Things I have never understood about my mom include her extreme propensity for hot tea and wilted salads (not combined).  (Fortunately I haven’t picked up her habit of drinking warm milk yet).

I made this salad tonight for a few different reasons.  One, it was a chilly, kind of gloomy night.  It’s been in the 80’s here recently and today was rainy with a high of 60.  I had a long day and sometimes I just want a hot meal to sit down with in front of the tv.  Another reason I chose this is because I am sick of grains today.  For breakfast I had two bowls of shredded wheat, lunch was a big bowl of oatmeal, and my pre run snack was quinoa.  I was grained out!

I made this dish a few days ago and LOVED it.  Becca spent 4 months in Costa Rica and said the flavors are reminiscent of what she would eat there.  I am currently smitten.

Today I was going to add garbanzo beans, but somehow am out, so for some extra protein I added two fried eggs.  What’s nice about this dish is that it can be modified to include anything you have in your refrigerator.  The seasonings are simple and for most people, pantry basics.

Roasted Black Bean Garden Salad with Fried Eggs

–preheat the oven to 400 degrees C
-in an oven safe dish combine 15 oz of can drained black beans (what I mean by “can drained” is leave some of the black murky liquid- it adds flavor to the rest of the salad), half a chopped onion, 2 chopped tomatoes, 1 diced garlic clove, 3 stalks of chopped swiss chard (stems and leaves), 1 corn tortilla cut into strips
-add olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, and cumin; toss
-let roast for 15-20 minutes; fry eggs last 5 minutes of roasting

tomatoes and black beans

+ onion, swiss chard, garlic, and corn tortilla

+olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, cumin, crushed red pepper

I only added this picture because I want to show off how cute my egg pan is

Total Cost: $3.50

–1 can organic black beans: $1.39
-1/2 organic onion: $0.15
-1 clove organic garlic: $0.10
-3 stalks swiss chard: $0.90
-1 corn tortilla: $0.04
-2 organic roma tomatoes: $0.72
-2 all natural eggs: $0.32

and I still have 1/4 left for lunch tomorrow! 🙂

Back Home Again in Indiana (and my kitchen)

My kitchen has never looked so good to me as Saturday when I got home.

What looked even better was Bloomingfood’s when I went grocery shopping Saturday night.  You know, the great thing about stores like B-foods as compared to normal grocery stores is that produce that wouldn’t  normally go on sale are reduced every time there’s a surplus.  So, what did I get this time that I can’t normally afford at Marsh?  parsnips.  I freaking love parsnips.  I also got more celery root (new addiction).

salvation

– .61 lbs organic celery root: $1.21 (1.99/lb)
-1.49 lbs organic parsnips: $2.52 ($1.69/lb)
-2.55 lbs organic bananas: $2.52 ($0.99/lb)
-2.99 lbs organic rolled oats: $2.96 ($0.99/lb)
-organic kale: $1.89
–2 x organic frozen edamame: $3.98
–5 x Chobani yogurt: $5.45 ($1.09/each)
-2 x organic canned black beans: $2.78 ($1.39 each)
-1 dozen all nautral corn tortillas: $0.59
–.13 lbs organic garlic: $0.78 ($5.99/lb)

Total Price: $24.88

So, what else have I been up to?  Well, the day that I got home I ate 4 bowls of cereal, 1 bowl of oatmeal, and I made barley/red lentils with roasted celery root, turnip, potatoes, and red onion.  Why did I eat so much cereal?  For some reason I was craving it like crazy.

Hmm, what else?  Yesterday I made rice with roasted vegetables and smoked clams in rosewood oil.  Nothing too exciting.  Here’s a picture of all the colorful veggies I had lying around in the fridge: (carrots, parsnips, turnip, potato, red onion):

how amazing does that look?

What else?  Oh!!  Here’s a new recipe.  Tonight I was craving quesadillas but didn’t have any cheese so I thought egg might be a good substitute.  It didn’t quite have the effect I was looking for but it was really, really good.

 

Here’s what I had to work with: corn tortillas, kale, a potato, red onion, tomatoes that I froze before I left for Orlando, and eggs.

I love all these colors!

Huevos Quesadilla
-finely chop potato, 1/10 a large red onion, and a leaf of kale
-sautee in olive oil, add a couple quarters of tomato
-when the vegetables are ready, add two eggs into the pan; scramble

yum 🙂

-scoop vegetable/egg mixture onto a corn tortilla, add extra tomatoes, cover with another corn tortilla, and heat in the skillet until warm; flip if you can and heat for a minute or so on the other side

kind of difficult to eat without anything gooey holding it together, but totally worth it

Total Price (2 quesadillas): $1.51

-2 eggs: $0.50
-4 tortillas: $0.20
-1/10 red onion: $0.10
-1 potato: $0.15
-1 leaf of kale: $0.20
-1 tomato: $0.36

Old Bay Pasta with Smoked Clams

I came home from work today so hungry that I wasn’t hungry anymore.I didn’t want to roast vegetables because I knew that would take a long, didn’t want to make rice for the same reason, and didn’t want to thaw any meat.

I knew I wanted to delve into the smoked clams Santa gave me in my stocking.  I love clams.  I started eating them a few years ago because they are extremely high in iron.  The smoked ones in cottonseed oil are beyond the best!

Anyway, I settled on pasta because fresh pasta is usually pretty quick.  Over New Year’s I bought a pasta cookbook at a secondhand store.  It’s pretty amazing..it has something like 127 fresh pasta recipes.  I came across one which intrigued me – Old Bay pasta.  Normally, I couldn’t care less about Old Bay seasoning.  However, when I moved out of my apartment in Milwaukee I hoarded all the food left behind.  One item was a full carton of Old Bay.  I’ve never used it….until tonight!  The only thing I knew was that the seasoning went well with seafood so I figured I’d give it a shot.  The recipe also called for orange juice, so I was pretty excited for this.  The result?  Surprisingly good.  The strongest flavors in the pasta were the celery salt and orange juice.  As weird as it may sound, it worked.  To go along with the pasta I boiled diced carrots, potato, and garlic in the cooking water.  Since the pasta was made with a tablespoon of Old Bay, no seasoning was needed.  For sauce, I just used the oil from the clams.

Old Bay Pasta

unlikely pasta ingredients

-combine 1-1/4 cup semolina, 1-1/4 cup wheat flour, and 1 tablespoon old bay seasoning in a food processor
-in a seperate bowl whisk together 3 eggs and 2 tablespoons orange juice; combine with flours in food processor
-mix until a ball of dough forms

when I first did this, I stopped too early and tried to use the dough when it was like this:

not ready!

The dough was very tough and kind of dry.  I ended up adding another tablespoon of orange juice, but then the dough seemed too moist.  I ended up just kneading it with some white flour to make it the right consistency.

-make the noodles using the 6 thickness and fettuccine die

–chop 3 large carrots, 1 potato, and 1 clove of garlic.  Add to boiling water.
-once the pasta is ready, add it with the vegetables.
-boil ~5 minutes
-plate and top with a container of clams!

not the most photogenic, but it tasted good!

 

Total Cost: $4.69

–organic whole wheat flour: $1.69
-semolina flour: $1.66
-old bay: free!
-organic orange juice: $0.08
-organic eggs: $0.50
-3 organic carrots: $0.46
-1 organic potato: $0.20
-1 bulb organic garlic: $0.10
-clams: free!

I have so much left over…definitely probably enough for at least 2 meals

 

Squash Part I

I feel as though this may be a multi-part series.  I have A LOT of squash.

tonight's ingredients

At first I was thinking I would maybe make butternut squash soup since I have soo much squash.  At the same time, though, I was really feeling fried potatoes with that salad.  After a bit of brainstorming I decided to make squash latkes.

Definitely one of my best meals in February 🙂

To add a little bit of protein to my salad, I decided to fry a couple eggs to throw on top of the salad, too.

The star of my salad, by far, was these latkes.  They were SO good.  Here’s what I did:

Butternut Squash Latkes
-In a small bowl, combine 2 grated potatoes, half a grated onion, and 1 large garlic clove (pressed or finely chopped)
-mix in 3/4 cup butternut squash and cumin, salt, and pepper, to taste

mix mix mix

-Form into patties and place onto a well oiled frying pan at medium heat

hexagonal close packing (sort of )

 

-cook on both sides, about a minute each side to begin.  Continue flipping periodically until you reach the desired crispness

golden goodness

That’s actually it…it was ridiculously easy!

To complete the meal, I placed two fried eggs and two of these cakes on top of romaine lettuce and drizzled it with a little balsamic vinegar.

yum 🙂

 

This ended up being a pretty cheap meal!

Total Price: $1.81
eggs: $0.33
squash: $0.13 (used 1/8 of my squash, paid $1.00)
romaine: $0.35 (total estimate, but definitely less than $0.50)
potatoes: $0.60
onion: $0.30
garlic: $0.10 (paid $0.84, has at least 8 cloves)

ohh, and I still have 2 more latkes!!