Meal Planning

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve and I'm planning to go grocery shopping in the morning.  Here is what we currently have that needs to be used:  sweet potatoes, baby red potatoes, apples, dry squash seeds (from the last time I cooked butternut squash), celery, red bell pepper, green bell pepper, and lots of carrots.  Here is what I'm making:

Black Bean Burgers

Because I made a new batch of burgers that are currently in the freezer so they are an easy, healthy dinner.

Creole Red Beans & Rice

I was going to make this today, but it turns out I need a can of tomatoes and green chiles.  This will use up a portion of the bell peppers.  I bought a small bag of small red beans awhile back for making this recipe and it's still lasting awhile.  Dry beans are so absurdly small and cheap compared with canned.

Vegan Garlicky Korean Mac and Cheese

Because it was so good last time and it's easy.

Homemade Pizza

For New Year's Eve since we're having a little party at home (i.e., Simran is actually being allowed to stay up with Sameer and me to eat snacks and watch the ball drop on TV).  I already have one more pizza dough in the freezer.

Idli-Sambar

This will use up the rest of the fresh bell peppers, some of the carrots and celery, and the diced turnips taking up space in the freezer.

 

Vegan Potato Soup

To use up the potatoes and some of the carrots and celery.  I'm thinking I'll make this for dinner tonight and we can have sandwiches or other leftovers with it. 

Whipped Sweet Potatoes

To use up the sweet potatoes.  I'm just going to bake them and puree them with a little water and my immersion blender and we can eat them as a veggie side.  They don't require any other ingredients.

 

Croutons

I made two loaves of pumpernickel bread on Christmas.  The leftovers aren't moldy yet, but surely they aren't good anymore, so I'm going to try making them into croutons for topping soups, salads, and just plain eating.

Applesauce

NYE Snacks:

Roasted squash seeds

Ganache Truffles (because I had ganache leftover from the Christmas cake, so I stirred some peanut butter into it and I'm going to scoop out spoonfuls and roll them in powdered sugar since I made the ganache from rather dark chocolate)

Cheese & Cracker (we have a variety of vegan and dairy cheeses and a variety of crackers)

Olives (I would normally stop by the Whole Foods olive bar before NYE at home, but this year I ordered a variety of olives online)

Final Fall CSA Box

The final CSA box arrived yesterday.  It contained:  several sweet potatoes, a large butternut squash, three turnips, some really nice looking lettuce (red leaf? it's part red, part green), one bulb of fennel, a bag of carrots, popping corn on the cob, sunchokes, green kale, and a bag of apples.

The apples will probably become applesauce, like so many of the bags of apples that came before them, since we can eat it for dessert or use it in baking.  I peeled and diced the turnips and put them in the freezer until the next time I make pot pie or a vegetable soup they can hide in (e.g., sambar).  The butternut squash will be roasted and pureed with the trio of tiny butternut squash I already had and all their seeds roasted.  The puree can either be an easy vegetable side dish or used in soup or other cooking.  I will bake and whip the sweet potatoes as an easy vegetable side.  I'll wash the kale and put it in the freezer for use in breakfast smoothies.

My meal goal for the next two weeks (minus Christmas) is to use up things in the fridge and freezer.  I normally make this my goal from Thanksgiving till Christmas, but the produce boxes took precedence this year and added a lot of extra incoming food and a lot of extra cooking.  Here is what I plan to make:

 

Tuscan White Bean Soup with Roasted Fennel (The How Not to Diet Cookbook, pg. 32 -- please note this is different from The How Not to Die Cookbook) and Roasted Sunchokes with Smoked Paprika Aioli (Vedge, pg. 50) and Roasted Butternut Squash Puree

Making this today because I have things to use up before they wilt and I hate cooking on Saturdays.  This is also going to be a LOT of cooking and I prefer to do that while Sim is busy with school classes.

Red Chile Cheese Enchilada and Fresh Guacamole

Saturday night dinner because I hate cooking on Saturdays and I can mostly make this in advance.  Also it'll use up some of the corn tortillas in the fridge and I have tons of ripe avocados for the guacamole, which I'm willing to make on a Saturday because I'm going to eat SO MUCH of it.  We can also eat some of the fresh lettuce with enchiladas.

Black Bean Burgers and Japanese Sweet Potato Fries

We have still more burgers in the freezer and I didn't get a chance to make the fries last time.

Whole Roasted Carrots with Black Lentils and Green Harissa (Vedge,  pg. 146)

Because I have pretty much everything I need to make this already on hand and it would use up a bag of carrots from the farm box while they are still fresh and sweet.  Haven't made this recipe before, so it's going to be labor intensive.

Lentil Haggis with Neeps and Tatties (Vedge, pg. 156)

Because it would use up the bag of fingerling potatoes AND the turnips from the farm.  I need half a cup of beer though and a fresh container of vegan sour cream.  Another new-to-me recipe.  I don't know what most of the words in the recipe name mean.  This meal might not end up happening anytime soon.

 

Creole Red Beans & Rice

Because I've got a green bell pepper in my fridge to use up and it's a fairly easy, healthy meal.  I'll probably end up making this on a night I meant to make one of the new Vedge recipes and didn't bother.

Homemade Pizza

Maybe for New Years Eve dinner because Simran loves it and I have one more pizza dough ready to go in the freezer.  I need more mozzarella first.

Vegan Garlicky Korean Mac and Cheese

I don't know when I will make this and I'm not sure anyone else in the house would like it, but it sounds delicious.  Since I have broccoli in the freezer, I wouldn't even need fresh produce so it could be an it's-almost-grocery-day meal (a thing that did not exist for me before the pandemic, when I went grocery shopping whenever I needed an ingredient, but it's a thing now).

[I was right about the Korean mac and cheese.  It was delicious and Sim thought it was too spicy.  It's not very spicy, but she is a child.  This is a nice comfort food for me, even with the inclusion of broccoli.]

Christmas Dinner

Idli-Sambar

Because it uses things up.

Meal Planning

Last full week before Christmas.  Also the last week of CSA until next June.  The box is arriving Thursday.  Here is what I have to use up between now and then:  leftover roasted butternut squash (from making the carbonara last week), golden beets, tons of various potatoes, two large Japanese sweet potatoes, some tomatoes, three tiny butternut squash, like five avocados, and a few celery root.  There's also a bit of the seasoned tofu leftover from the carbonara.  We ordered a bunch of delicious Indian food Saturday night, so we're still finishing off those leftovers too.  Here is what I'm making this week:

Celery Root Fritters with Remoulade (Vedge, pg. 130) and Curry Butternut Squash Soup and Salt-Roasted Golden Beets with Dill, Avocado, Capers, and Red Onion (Vedge, pg. 45)

I'm using up the roasted butternut squash in place of the pumpkin the pumpkin curry soup recipe.  I've done it before and it worked out well.  This will be a lot of cooking, but it'll use up most of the last CSA box, so I think I'll do this tonight.

Vegan Methi Chicken Curry and Aloo Matar and Brown Basmati Rice 

I didn't get around to this one last week since we ended up ordering in on Saturday.  The aloo matar will use up some of the potatoes.

 

Black Bean Burgers and Japanese Sweet Potato Fries

In case I run out of time or am too tired to cook on any given night, I can make this.  I made a double batch of the burgers last week and they're just sitting the freezer waiting to be reheated.  The fries are just a way to use up the Japanese sweet potatoes that I think stands a better chance of working out than the last time I tried baking them when they were just awful.  I'll just cut them into wedges, toss them with olive oil and salt, and bake them like I do the truffle fries.  I still have some garlic aioli I made leftover from last week's truffle fries too.

Brinner

Sameer made a big batch of waffles yesterday, and I can always make sausage and the innards of breakfast burritos.  Also pancakes.  I have a lot of yogurt, and those use up some yogurt.

My favorite breakfast burrito with the tofu egg scramble and potatoes from the VeganRicha link above, the vegan sausage from the other link above, sliced tomato, vegan garlic aioli (I just use Vegannaise when I don't have garlic aioli premade for something else, but it's even better garlicky), and sriracha.

On Thursday we're supposed to receive in the CSA box:  sweet potatoes, fennel, either kale or bok choy, greenhouse lettuce, sunchokes, apples, fresh popcorn, and more butternut squash.  I could make the fennel into Tuscan White Bean Soup with Roasted Fennel from the new How Not to Diet Cookbook, pg. 32.  When the fennel arrives, I'll have all the ingredients.

Christmas 2020

Planning this today because I'm going grocery shopping later and want to get as much squared away in advance as possible.

Crudites and Pumpernickel Bread with Homemade Ranch Dressing

Gardein Turkey or Chik'n (or a new fake meat if I see anything appealing in the freezer section; if not, I'll use the last of the seven grain chik'n tenders purchased before Thanksgiving)

 

Boxed Mashed Potatoes

 

Green Bean Casserole 

 

Candied Pears 

 

Yule Log Cake

Peppermint Ice Cream

 

Gingerbread House (because Sim's school is doing a Zoom gingerbread house decorating night, and making one from scratch last year wasn't harder than dealing with a boxed one; plus this way it's good enough to eat, which is the only thing Sim wants to do with it anyway)

Gingerbread house walls.  This is the point at which I realized I didn't have enough dough for the roof and had to make a second batch of dough.  It's currently chilling in the fridge for the next three hours.  If you use the linked gingerbread recipe to make a house, make sure to double it.  I can't remember if I doubled it last year or what.

I used a new frosting recipe in the hope it wouldn't get too soft at room temperature to hold everything together like the buttercream I used last time, and I erred on the side of too little milk initially, so it was too dry and it's a bit of a mess.  The second tablespoon of milk made it much more workable, and it's been sitting like this without falling in on itself for a couple hours now.  One more hour till the Zoom decorating party.

Finished product courtesy of Simran and a bunch of candy from the grocery store.  It's the next day and it's still holding up.  The Wilton frosting recipe with half veg shortening is definitely the way to go for gingerbread house decorating.

Meal Planning

The last time I went grocery shopping was a little over a week ago.  I have to plan dinners for the entire week, so I'll probably end up ordering some groceries from Instacart around mid-week.  I have a bunch of potatoes, a couple small heads of green romanesco cauliflower, a butternut squash, and some apples from the farm.  Here's what I'm planning to make:

 

Vegan Penne alla Vodka

I can put the romanesco cauliflower in this, as well as some of the broccoli and other random veg taking up space in my freezer and some of the vegan Italian sausages in my fridge.  I think I'll make this today.

 

Idli-Sambar

 

Vegan Butternut Squash Carbonara

This will use up some of the butternut squash, and I can puree the rest into a simple side dish for other nights.  I've never made this before, but it sounds good and reasonably simple, and I already have all the ingredients.

[a very saucy butternut squash carbonara and baby bok choy with Chinese mustard sauce in the upper left corner]

 

Seven Layer Tortilla Pie 

Not vegan, but it's delicious and I have all the ingredients to make it on hand.

Black Bean Burgers

Because they can be prepped in advance.  I need to make a new batch though because we ate the last batch pretty fast.  Sameer seems to like them almost as much as I do.  I just need parsley, mushrooms, and burger buns to make this dinner.  I could even make some of the farm potatoes into baked truffle fries. 

 

Vegan Methi Chicken Curry and Aloo Matar and Brown Basmati Rice 

Yule Log Cake

I made a pumpkin cake roll a year or two ago but I've never made a yule log cake.  I was going to make one last Christmas but then we were all sick.  So Sim and I are making it this year.  Here is the collection of recipes I will be using.  It's going to be intense.

Chocolate Sponge Cake with Ganache

(accompanying how-to video from Chef John, especially important for knowing how to tell when you're done beating the eggs)

Cinnamon Coffee Frosting (filling) 

Meringue Mushrooms (decoration)

Marzipan leaves and berries (decoration) 

Regarding how to make bark and affix a little side branch

 

Planning to serve peppermint ice cream alongside it because it's delicious and I've never made peppermint ice cream before.

Edited 12/24/2020:  Everything was going great until I started to unwrap the partially cooled cake from the towel to add the filling.  It just stuck to the towel until the cake fell apart completely.  I think when I did a pumpkin cake roll successfully the towel might've been lined with plastic wrap so that the towel itself never touched the cake, no matter how dusted with powdered sugar it was.  I should've done it that way again, but this recipe had such good reviews that I just followed it exactly.  

 I finished unwrapping the broken cake, added the cinnamon coffee buttercream, and wrapped the crumbs and cake pieces back up again to the best of my ability and wrapped the "log" in plastic wrap.  It's a mess.  It's chilling in the fridge now so I can cover it in ganache later, but it'll still be flat and weird shaped even when it's covered.  It looks like it fell in a volcano.  The taste is okay (very light, fluffy cake) and probably won't be affected too terribly by how it turned out, but if I did it again I wouldn't use the cinnamon coffee filling.  I think all chocolate components would be too much chocolate, but the cinnamon coffee frosting wasn't optimal with this cake.  I used it on a very dark mocha cake before and it was better with that.  The only reason I didn't use that cake recipe here was out of fear it wouldn't hold up when wrapped into log form.

Edited 12/30/2020:  I ended up cutting the crushed-looking, broken cake in half and stacking it on top of itself after it chilled in the fridge so it looked more like a messy little layer cake.  After pouring the ganache over it and decorating it with the meringue mushrooms, the overall flavor combination was very good, though it still looked very messy.  Sameer and I ate it, and Simran deemed it "too chocolaty," but she doesn't normally like chocolate cake in the first place.  She liked the peppermint ice cream though.

Meal Planning

 This week I'm planning to make:

Tofu Pot Pie and Pumpkin Curry Soup

Gonna use Earth Balance in place of butter for the pie crust to make it fully vegan.  Making this tomorrow.  Using leeks from the latest farm box in the soup, and it's looking like the orange veg in the soup will be pumpkin and maybe a sweet potato this time around.  I just dumped a bunch of stuff I needed to use up in this soup the last time around and it was its tastiest iteration yet.

Creole Red Beans & Rice

Using brown basmati rice in place of the white rice.  This will probably be Wednesday night.

Sameer plans to fast on Thursday, so Sim and I will eat leftovers or sandwiches or the last of the black bean burgers I made last week and stashed in the freezer.

Homemade Pizza

Because I haven't made pizza in a little while and I've got mozzarella in the fridge and pizza dough in the freezer.  Probably Friday night dinner. 

I also have a bundle of parsnips from the latest farm box.  I don't love parsnips' sharp flavor, but truffled parsnip soup sounded interesting, so I'm going to use this recipe as a jumping off point and just make something based on what I've got at home.  I'm thinking it will contain parsnips, maybe potato for creamy starchiness, shallot and maybe some onion, celery (not the root, I don't have celery root), and some white truffle oil and coconut milk.  Maybe chives sprinkled on top if any of the ones in the planter outside are still green.  Maybe a bunch of garlic too.  I don't know what I'm doing. 

 

 

 

Preparing for Thanksgiving 2020

We aren't going anywhere or having people over or anything, but I'm cooking several things and need the space in the fridge.  Here's how I'm preparing.

 

Weekend before Thanksgiving:  Drew up Thanksgiving meal plan.  Ordered groceries for the week from Instacart.  Turns out Mariano's didn't have the Gardein turkey cutlets, but they did have the Gardein 7-grain crispy tenders, so we're having that as our protein (because they're easy and we all like them).

Monday:  Made candied pears and put them in the fridge for Thursday.  Made cinnamon ice cream base and put it in the fridge to cool down.  I also made healthy chocolate truffles and cherry chocolate chia pudding, unrelated to Thanksgiving but because I wanted to eat them.

Tuesday:  Farm box didn't arrive yet.  We had this for dinner, which I think looks very pretty all things considered.  Clockwise from top:  Brussels sprouts, sunchokes with smoked paprika aioli, pistachio-crusted tofu, and leftover whipped sweet potatoes.  Everything was from previous farm boxes except the tofu, which had a best by date of Wednesday and needed to go.  I also made apple pocket pies (added a vanilla sugar glaze to make them more closely resemble those hand pies Hostess makes and because the pastry crust was a bit bland) to use up the last of the apple pie filling made from apples in a previous farm box.  I also remembered to put the ice cream maker core in the freezer (it has to freeze for 24 hours before use).

Wednesday:  Farm box arrived.  Sameer gutted the pie pumpkin, and I roasted it.  After it cooled down, I made pie dough and compiled the pumpkin pie.  I don't feel secure about my pumpkin pie making abilities, so we'll see how it turns out.  This was my first attempt making it with fresh pumpkin puree or a standard buttery pie crust (tried two other crusts the last two years and didn't love them).

 

I also need to mix up Chinese mustard sauce for the bok choy, make the rest of the yogurt into ranch dip, and grate cheese and chop an onion for the green bean casserole (grating and chopping are the steps I hate most so I try to do them in advance).  If I still have time, I might prep the rest of the green bean casserole and put it in the fridge, bake and whip some sweet potatoes, and run the cinnamon ice cream base through the ice cream maker.  But I could also do those steps Thursday without much trouble. 

My Favorite Healthy Things to Eat

I'm going to keep updating this list I think.  But I've been meaning to make a list of reliably good recipes I make since this blog is a list of pretty much everything I've ever made, some of which should not be made again.  This list will focus on plant-based, mostly whole food recipes that taste good to me and also make me feel good (i.e., vegan healthy stuff).

 

Breakfast...

Kale-Berry Smoothie (My go-to breakfast.)

 

Soups...

I like to make a big pot of soup about once a week in the cold months.  I eat it for lunch with some fruit and give a cup of the non-spicy ones to Simran as a side dish to her usual quesadilla or whatever she's eating for lunch.

Curry Pumpkin Soup (The tastiest of the bunch. Even Simran likes it.)

Vegan Cream of Broccoli Soup (Great way to pack beans and cruciferous greens into a meal.)

Sambar  (Full of protein and veg, so add brown rice or idli and it's a filling meal all by itself.  It's spicy, so I like it when I have a cold.)

Vegetable Manchow Soup (My favorite food when I have any sort of cold or flu because it's spicy and light but also nutrient dense.) 

Veggie Sides...

Blanched dark leafy greens with Walnut Sauce (Even Simran likes this.  It's best on lacinato or dinosaur kale, but it's good on chard or pretty much whatever you've got.)

Shaved Brussels Sprouts with Whole Grain Mustard Sauce (Simran doesn't eat the sauce on this, but she eats the seared sprouts without complaint.) 

French Beans with Caper Bagna Cauda (Simran's favorite veggie side.) 

Collard Greens with Almonds (It's easy and very healthy.) 

Steamed Asparagus with Lemon-Caper Mayo (I keep a container of lemon-caper mayo in my fridge all summer alongside a container of steamed, chilled asparagus ready to eat. This is another one where Sim doesn't like the sauce but she'll eat the veg plain.)

Smoky Potato Salad over Greens (This is good in summer whenever you have arugula or salad greens that you need to use up.)

Red Cabbage Slaw (This is another one no one in the house likes as much as I do.  It goes well with Mexican food though and Sameer will eat a large plate of it if he has red chile pesto to mix in.)

Main Courses...

Creole Red Beans & Rice (I replace the white rice with brown and adjust the cooking time and liquid amount accordingly.  I really need to type up the times and amounts.  Otherwise this is a quick and easy one.)

Vegan Shepherd's Pie

Tofu Pot Pie

Tofu Provencal

Dal Makhani  

Nut-Crusted Tofu

Hearty Veggie Hoagies (Sim loves these and you can make them hours in advance. Great for hot summer days.)

Veggie Summer Rolls (Light and delicious. A fair amount of prep work, but Sim helps, and they're perfect for hot summer days.)

My Comfort Foods...

Breakfast Burrito with sausage (Seems like a lot of work if you're tired and/or depressed, but you can buy vegan breakfast sausages ready made in the freezer section and, once you've got everything cooked, you've got several meals worth of breakfast burrito materials ready to re-heat, roll up, and eat.)

Black Bean Burgers (Make a batch whenever, individually wrap them in wax paper, and put them in a ziploc bag in the freezer.  Then you've got several meals worth of burgers ready to heat in the oven or toaster oven whenever you need something healthy, tasty, and protein-packed.) 

Vegetarian Club Sandwich (This isn't really health food, but it's quick and easy, not terrible for you, and it does make me feel better when I eat it.  Tofurky deli slices are vegan, but Morningstar bacon contains egg whites, so you can make it vegan by using bacon-flavored tempeh slices instead and Vegannaise in place of the mayo.  I exclusively use vegan mayo now. I've never missed the eggy version.)

Buffalo Tofu Salad (The theme I'm seeing in this post is "things I can make once and eat for several days." This is another one of those recipes I eat for lunch for like an entire week. I need to update my buffalo tofu recipe because I make it differently from the original recipe and bread it with 1/3 cup cornmeal and 2/3 cup oats.)

Sweets...

Healthy Chocolate Truffles (Even Simran likes this one, and she prefers straight up junk food.)

Cherry Chocolate Chia Pudding (Ideal healthy way to curb a craving for chocolate or candy.  I'm the only one in the house who thinks so though.)

Mango Sorbet (We all like this one.  I need to type it up.  It's just unsweetened mango -- canned or frozen, though fresh would work if you have it -- blended with the juice of a fresh lime or two and about a tsp of agave nectar.  Then run it through the ice cream maker.)

Fall CSA Box #3

This week's box includes:  arugula, radishes, German butterball potatoes, apples, lacinato kale, mixed baby lettuce, baby spinach, carrots, and sunchokes.

I airfried about half the potatoes and made them into vegan cheesy fiesta potatoes a la Taco Bell.  I had some Tofutti vegan sour cream to use up and made the last of my cashew yogurt into vegan nacho cheese with a recipe from Artisan Vegan Cheese.  It wasn't great.  Don't try this.  I ate the whole thing and the potatoes were fine (cooked through without burning, to my surprised delight), and the vegan cheese sauce and sour cream were good for being vegan, but all together it doesn't resemble the real deal at all.  Don't bother.

The baby spinach went into the freezer for use in breakfast smoothies.  I peeled and cut the carrots and radishes for snacking and washed the lettuce for easy salads.  There were only a few apples, not really enough to warrant making applesauce, so I'm holding off until the next box comes early next week to see what more I have to work with.  Here's what else I'm making:

Kale with Walnut Sauce

 

Roasted Sunchokes with Smoked Paprika Aioli (Vedge, pg. 50)

 

This upcoming week is Thanksgiving, so that will account for one of our meals and another day worth of leftovers.  Sameer also wants to make falafel for another dinner.    

 

I have all the ingredients to make black bean burgers, so those will either be a meal or go straight to the freezer for easy meals later (I just cook them in the toaster oven straight from the freezer for like 10 minutes on each side at 375).  I love those things.  Lately I've been eating them topped with lettuce, tomato, red onion, avocado, yellow mustard, and a slice of Daiya vegan havarti with jalapeno.  

I made a pot of vegetable manchow soup yesterday to use up the green cabbage.  I dumped some cubed tofu, shelled edamame, and diced bell pepper from the freezer into it just to get rid of them.  About a third of the soup went into the freezer for later and the rest I need to finish off now that I've eaten all the sambar.

I also have some tofu I need to use up or freeze in the next few days.  Between that and the potatoes, I might end up making pav bhaji (I'll have burger buns for the black bean burgers anyway) and tofu pot pie at other points in the week.

Thanksgiving 2020

Crudites and Pumpernickel Bread with Homemade Ranch Dressing
For lunch and noshing on till dinner time.

Gardein Turkey Cutlets (if Mariano's has them -- nowhere I've been this year has carried them and I can't find Gardein chik'n tenders anymore either; if things get really dire, I will make nut-crusted tofu)

  

[Clockwise from top: Gardein chik'n tenders, baby bok choy, green bean casserole, and mashed potatoes.]

Boxed Mashed Potatoes

 

Green Bean Casserole

 

Candied Pears

 

Pumpkin Pie

 

 

Cinnamon Ice Cream 

 

Apple Pocket Pies

I'll finish off the homemade apple pie filling in these.

 

Any other dishes will be informed by what arrives in the farm box on Tuesday or Wednesday.  Possibly whipped sweet potatoes, pumpkin (or winter squash) curry soup, brussels sprouts, or dark leafy greens with walnut sauce. 

 

[Edited 11/23/2020:  Got the email listing what we're getting in this week's farm box.  I'm getting a pie pumpkin, so I'm going to make the pumpkin pie from scratch instead of canned (using Alton Brown's recipe for the pumpkin puree).  We're also getting kalettes, sweet potatoes, and baby bok choy, so I'm adding Baby Bok Choy with Tamari and Chinese Mustard Sauce (Vedge, pg. 83), whipped sweet potatoes, and kalettes cooked in the style of Shaved Brussel Sprouts with Whole Grain Mustard Sauce to the Thanksgiving menu.  If I run out of time, the kalettes will just go into the freezer for breakfast smoothie fodder and I can use a can of pumpkin for the pie.  I'll make the pumpkin curry soup next week with any leftover pumpkin or sweet potatoes as well as the leeks that are coming in the farm box.]

[Mocktail of the night:  cranberry lemonade made from the remainder of a container of lemonade concentrate in my freezer, a couple small cans of cranberry juice cocktail, and a bunch of lime La Croix.]

Fall CSA Box #2

The second fall CSA box arrived and it contains:  apples, spinach, carrots, watermelon radishes, bibb lettuce, butternut squash x2, yellow onions, golden beets, brussels sprouts, and sweet potatoes x2.  

I already washed and bagged the spinach and beet greens for use in breakfast smoothies (I considered cooking the spinach with garlic but it would've wilted down to a minuscule amount).  I peeled and sliced up the carrots and watermelon radishes for snacking (I have no idea if raw watermelon radishes are good for snacking, but I hated that carpaccio recipe and I don't know what else to do with them).  I'm using a couple of the yellow onions in the spaghetti squash with Beyond Beef sauce that I'm making for dinner tonight.  The bibb lettuce is nice and fresh but probably won't stay that way for long, so I'm making a basic green salad out of at least half of it to go with dinner.  The rest can go into salads or on lunch sandwiches or in breakfast burritos.  I'm going to roast the sweet potatoes and butternut squash and puree them (separately) for easy vegetable sides to go with other meals.  I'm going to keep roasting all my squash seeds too.  I bought a different vegan butter at the store (Vedge recommends Earth Balance) in the hope that it will be one that can be melted and browned without adversely affecting the flavor.  I love Miyoko's Creamery vegan butter, but it tastes bad if you brown it and I'm not sure what ways you can cook with it without that happening, so butter has remained the primary animal-based food I've been cooking with.  Making the roasted squash seeds with Earth Balance this next time and seeing how that goes.  Here is what else I'm making this week to use up what I've got:

 

Shaved Brussels Sprouts with Whole Grain Mustard Sauce

Because of the brussels spouts from the farm box.

 

Salt-Roasted Golden Beets with dill, avocado, capers, and red onion (Vedge, pg. 45) 

To use up the golden beets from the farm.

 

Applesauce

To use up this week and the last of last week's farm box apples.

 

Chilli-Garlic Noodles

To use up part of the green cabbage from a past farm box, probably Saturday night.  I had planned to make the other half of the cabbage into potstickers but couldn't find wonton wrappers at the store today.  Thinking about cooking the leftover cabbage, shiitake mushrooms, green onions, green bell pepper, etc. in a pan and throwing it on top of some soba noodles or ramen for an easy dinner on a night Sameer is fasting.  Or I suppose I could make it into vegetable manchow soup.  Wonton innards and manchow contents are basically the same ingredients.  I'm the only one in the house who eats it, but it's good and healthy and makes a nice cold weather lunch or side dish.

 

Roasted Squash Seeds  

 

Idli-Sambar 

Because the cashew yogurt I bought at the store today is only good for the next week and I use it up quickly eating sambar.  This will also make use of a sizable container of chopped farm box vegetables that have been taking up space in my freezer since the summer.  I might throw the last of the Japanese turnips in the sambar pot too.  I put some of them in a curry tofu pot pie earlier this week and you couldn't even taste them.  It was great.

I also have some leftover pie crust dough from making that tofu pot pie this week, so I'm thawing the apple pie filling I made a few weeks ago and going to make some kind of small apple pie or tartlet out of it this weekend.  There's too much pie filling though, so I will probably end up making another apple pie on or around Thanksgiving.  Maybe some cinnamon ice cream to go with it.

Fall CSA Box #1

Apparently fall CSA boxes get delivered on Thursday because mine just arrived.  It isn't as big or expensive as the summertime ones, so it isn't quite as intimidating.  Box #1 contains:  apples, 1 head green cabbage, 1 spaghetti squash, Japanese turnips (sigh), red beets, green kale, red thumb fingerling potatoes, rainbow carrots, and leeks.

 

I was already in the process of making a pot of soup to use up some of the stuff in my fridge (especially the homemade broth).  I used curry pumpkin soup as the base recipe, but instead of pumpkin I used some diced butternut squash leftover from when I made the winter cassoulet.  When the new CSA box arrived with leeks inside, I added them too (because I don't really know what else to do with leeks), and then added a hefty spoonful of mashed sweet potatoes that were leftover in my fridge and extra vegetable broth to try to keep the ratios (alliums : orange root veg : liquid) scaled properly.  I'll fix the flavors as needed after blending it all smooth.

[Dumping everything in the soup pot]

[Finished soup.  I ended up adding a pinch of salt, some fresh ground black pepper and less fresh ground white pepper, a teaspoonful of tamarind concentrate, and a heaping scoop (maybe 1/4 cup?) of solid full fat coconut milk and blended it all with an immersion blender.]

The turnip greens, beet greens, and kale have already been washed and added to bags in the freezer for use in breakfast smoothies.  I peeled and sliced the carrots for snacking.  The beets will be boiled and sliced for snacking as well.

 

The Japanese turnips will become Miso-Butter Braised Turnips.  It's a flavor I've tried before but a different recipe.  Still hoping to make a turnip dish that doesn't taste bitter to me, so I'm going to go ahead and make these tonight so they are at optimal freshness.  Since the greens are already spoken for, I will substitute the remaining arugula in my fridge.

 

The spaghetti squash will probably utilize the puck of Beyond Beef in my freezer, some onion and garlic, and any tomato-based sauces leftover in the fridge and, barring that, a jar of marinara.  I might chop and add the remaining spinach in the fridge to the sauce just to use it up and also add some greens.  The spaghetti squash seeds will yet again become snacks. 

 

I'm not sure what to do with the cabbage yet.  It's too big to use up in one meal.  If I go to the grocery store this weekend, I can pick up some wonton wrappers, green onions, a green bell pepper, and some shiitakes and make both chilli-garlic noodles and vegetarian potstickers.  That might be enough to use up the cabbage.  

Not sure what to do with the apples either.  There is still a big container of homemade apple pie filling in the freezer (never made an apple pie before, but Thanksgiving seems a good time to try), but I could always make another big batch of applesauce.  Also considering making a date caramel dipping sauce for eating with raw apples. 

Tonight, even though Sameer is fasting, I'm cooking to use up some things that need to go (and also because it'll yield leftovers we can eat for lunch tomorrow).  I'm doing the miso-butter turnips, the curry squash soup I made this morning, and celery root fritters from the Vedge cookbook.  I also have a bunch more cashew yogurt that needs to be used up, so I might make a double batch of pancakes to freeze for later and possibly some cornbread for eating immediately.

CSA Box #22

This week is the final summer CSA box.  I signed up for fall too though, so I'll keep getting produce for seven more weeks.  This week we got:  2 babynut squash, apples, carrots, 2 sweet potatoes, kalettes, popcorn on the cob, baby arugula, salsify, bok choy, red radishes, Japanese turnips, spinach, ginger, 2 rutabaga, chioggia beets.  Here is what I'm making: 

I washed the ginger and put it in a bag in the freezer for use in breakfast smoothies.  Same with the turnip greens, radish greens, and kalettes.  The arugula and spinach may go into the smoothie greens bags if I can make space in the freezer.  Otherwise I'll serve them with a vinaigrette or something.  I'm setting aside some of the turnip green stems and kalette stems to make vegetable stock (the Vedge recipe calls for kale stems and broccoli stems, but I'm using what I've got).  Vegetable stock will also use up several of my carrots, some of the cabbage head in the fridge, and one of the turnips.

 

Savoy Cabbage Colcannon (Vedge, pg. 95)

This would use up the small head of savoy cabbage and some of the potatoes I got from the farm.  I usually make vegan Irish sausages to go with colcannon. 

 

Whipped Salsify with Red Wine and Truffle Jus (Vedge, pg. 109)

 To use up the salsify.

 

Marinated Chioggia Beets and Their Greens with Nigella Seeds and Sherry Vinegar (Vedge, pg. 116)

Because I boiled chioggia beets once not realizing they weren't normal red beets, and the taste and texture were not good that way.

 

Grilled Baby Bok Choy with Tamari and Chinese Mustard Sauce (Vedge, pg. 83)

Because it's the best bok choy recipe I've found.  I'm not grilling it though, just slicing it up and searing it just a little in a hot pan.

 

Thanksgiving Root Stew (Vedge, pg. 141)

I plan to make vegetable stock to use in this stew and also in the cassoulet.  This should use up some of the random root vegetables from the farm.

 

Winter Vegetable Cassoulet (Vedge, pg. 157)  

This calls for winter squash, rutabaga, turnip, and a small amount of the vegetable stock. 

[Edited 11/5/2020:  Sameer said he liked the cassoulet.  I found it excruciatingly bland and didn't like it at all.  Getting the impression I only like starchy root vegetables when they are potatoes or fully pureed.]

Roasted Rutabaga Salad with Pistachio and Charred Onion (Vedge, pg. 42)

If I still have rutabagas left over after the cassoulet and Thanksgiving stew, I will make this.  But I think I might manage to use them up before this.

CSA Box #21

Today's CSA box contains:  rainbow carrots, lacinato kale, leeks, red beets, white potatoes, apples, purple daikon radishes, sunchokes, arugula, brussels sprouts, ginger, cilantro, savoy cabbage, celery root, and baby spigariello.

I don't really know what to do with radishes that aren't the French breakfast ones, so I'm going to try Purple Radish Salad for these daikons.

 

The beet greens, arugula, and spigariello will all go into bags in the freezer for breakfast smoothies.  The ginger will go into the freezer for inclusion in breakfast smoothies too.  I will boil the beets and peel and slice the carrots for snacking.

 

I want to make the apples into apple pie filling because Simran wants to make the Not So Poison Apple Cupcakes from Disney World.  My plan is just to make spice cupcakes with apple pie filling and top them with cream cheese frosting that I already have leftover in the fridge from the last time we made carrot cake cookies.  

[Edited 10/30/20:  These cupcakes turned out really great.  I stand by my decision to use cream cheese frosting even though the original Disney version has buttercream.  I used an apple corer to take out the center except for 1/4 at the bottom, then filled them with the apple pie filling I made earlier in the week from the apples from the farm, put the tip of the cupcake core back on like a little lid, and piped the frosting in a swirl from the outside in with one of the biggest piping tips I have.  The spice cake was a little bland on its own (not sure what it was lacking -- salt?  I didn't add salt since I used salted butter), but the filling enhanced its flavor greatly.]

Everything else I'm making is below, including some items carried over from last week that I didn't get around to:

 

Brussels Sprouts

 

Hakurei Turnips with Falafel and Crumbs and Creamy Sesame (Vedge, pg. 84)

 

Shishito Peppers with Dipping Sauces

 

Roasted Cauliflower with black vinegar and kimchi cream (Vedge, pg. 90)

Lacinato Kale with Walnut Sauce

I actually ran out of space in the freezer for more smoothie greens, so I'm going to make walnut sauce and do the kale this way for dinner tonight.

Roasted Sunchokes with Smoked Paprika Aioli (Vedge, pg. 50)

These were a weird texture last week.  I'm going to try cooking them longer this time maybe.  I'd never had sunchokes, so I'm not sure if they turned out the way they were supposed to.  The flavor of the aioli was good though.  It would be good with roasted or fried potatoes.

Since I have cabbage and leeks, I might make some fresh vegetable stock.  Again I only have one celery root, so it's just enough to make a tiny amount of the celery root fritters from Vedge.  Or maybe I'll put it in the stock in place of celery since I don't have any.  I don't know.

CSA Box #20

CSA box #20 arrived.  It contains:  a single gigantic Japanese sweet potato, Russian banana fingerling potatoes, Hakurei turnips, apples, honey nut squash x2, white onions x2, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, radishes, red frills mustard, baby bok choi, fresh ginger, sunchokes, and shishito peppers.  Here is what I'm making.

The turnip greens, radish greens, and red frills mustard will all go into the freezer to serve as greens in breakfast smoothies.  The ginger will go into the freezer for use in smoothies too.  I'm going to set aside five apples for Sameer to eat and make the rest (plus the apples he didn't eat last week) into applesauce.  I'll roast the honey nut squash and the larger winter squash from last week's CSA box and puree them for an easy vegetable side we can feed off for days.  I'll season and roast their seeds too.

I made the whipped salsify recipe from Vedge last night and it was fantastic.  I only had an eighth of the amount of salsify the recipe called for, so it only made a tiny amount, but it tasted like French onion soup flavored mashed potatoes.  I ended up using an open bottle of marsala in place of the red wine the recipe called for and it worked.  The hardest part of the recipe was peeling the skinny little sticks of salsify, so I'm going to try making it again except with the parsnips I already have in place of the salsify.

Whipped Parsnips with Marsala and Truffle Jus (Vedge, pg. 109)

 

Roasted Sunchokes with Smoked Paprika Aioli (Vedge, pg. 50)

 

Shaved Brussel Sprouts with Whole Grain Mustard Sauce

 

Grilled Baby Bok Choy with Tamari and Chinese Mustard Sauce (Vedge, pg. 83)

 

Hakurei Turnips with Falafel and Crumbs and Creamy Sesame (Vedge, pg. 84)

 

Shishito Peppers with Dipping Sauces

 

1 Pot Gobi Matar and Brown Basmati Rice 

 

[Edited 10/18/2020:  I was roasting all the winter squash on Friday and didn't realize until they finished that the large one was a spaghetti squash.  So we ate it last night with sauce Sameer made from a can of crushed tomatoes, some kalamata olives and onion and garlic and dried herbs, and a puck of browned Beyond Beef.  A healthier, less fatty version would replace Beyond Beef with some sort of red beans, but Beyond Beef tastes good and it's a pretty good meal hack to have on hand.  Two nights before that I used another puck of Beyond Beef, cooked brown rice, some tomato sauce and related accoutrements to make stuffed bell peppers from the green peppers in the fridge.  I sprinkled a little vegan parm on the tops and they were great dairy-free.  We finished all the leftovers.

At the moment I'm baking all the sweet potatoes.  We only have one serving of whipped winter squash left in the fridge (the honey nut squash we've gotten from the farm is hands down the best squash I've ever had -- looks like tiny, darker colored butternut squash and tastes like sweet potatoes more than anything), so I'm going to whip up the sweet potatoes to eat the same way.  They really don't need butter or syrup or anything added to them since they're sweet and creamy on their own.  I'm planning to bake all the Japanese sweet potatoes in another day or two.

 

I've also got a cup of Medjool dates soaking so I can make cherry chocolate chia pudding this afternoon.  I cooked an extra cup of black beans yesterday to make into healthy chocolate truffles too.  Any homemade date syrup leftover from the pudding will go into the truffles.  After the sweet potatoes are done baking, I think I'll marinate and roast the most recent squash seeds for snacking.  I washed them Friday and have been letting them just dry on a sheet pan for the last two days, which makes the finished texture much nicer and crispier than if you don't let them dry completely before marinating.  

 

I also need to use up the unsweetened cashew yogurt before its use by date of -- I think -- tomorrow, so I'm going to make some pancakes (most of which will go into the freezer for Sim to eat in the coming days) and possibly cornbread, depending on how much yogurt and time I have.  I also made sausage patties before lunch and Sameer is fasting today, so Sim and I will probably have a brinner of sausages, pancakes, fruit, and the last of the seasoned potatoes I've been eating in breakfast burritos.]

[Clockwise from top:  roasted sunchokes with smoked paprika aioli, baby bok choy with tamari and Chinese mustard sauce, whipped parsnips with marsala and truffle jus.  The parsnips still tasted like parsnips, so this was not as good as it was with the salsify.  The bok choy was much better than before because I have storebought Chinese mustard now and didn't have to try to make my own.]

Bananas Foster Pancakes

CSA Box #19

Box #19 arrived this morning, and it contains:  apples, kalettes (cross between kale and brussels sprouts), microgreen pea shoots, arugula, celery root x1, winter squash x1, golden beets x2, sweet potatoes x3, parsnips x2, purple carrots x3, wild hen of the woods mushroom, fresh turmeric, salsify, watermelon radishes x2, green peppers x3.  

I already washed and bagged the kalettes, arugula, and beet greens and put them in the freezer for breakfast smoothies.  Did the same with the turmeric.  Ever since I switched from dry turmeric and ginger in smoothies back to frozen (if you can't find frozen, I've started buying fresh and just washing, cutting, and bagging them for the freezer -- I don't bother skinning them), they taste much better and also just feel better on my stomach.  I use a chunk of turmeric about the size of my thumb and an equivalent amount of ginger.

It's going to be 80 degrees today, so I'm holding off on some of the cooking, but I plan to roast the winter squash for pureeing and then season and roast the seeds like last time.  I bought pumpkins for carving too, so that'll be more seeds for roasting.  We still have a huge container of butternut squash puree in the fridge from last week's box.  I don't know when I'm going to make what yet, but here are recipes that will use up the vegetables.

Hen of the Woods Mushroom

 

Microgreen Pea Shoot Salad with Champagne Vinaigrette

I figure I can use the microgreens and the other lettuce in the fridge to make a green salad to go alongside the hen of the woods.  This will probably be my dinner tonight.  I want to eat the microgreens and mushroom at their optimal freshness.

Salt-Roasted Golden Beets with dill, avocado, capers, and red onion (Vedge, pg. 45)

This will use up the golden beets.  It takes forever to roast them, but it's tasty, and I already bought a cucumber and red onion yesterday in preparation.

 

Watermelon Radish Carpaccio with fava beans and tarragon (Vedge, pg. 93)

I haven't tried this recipe yet, but the local grocery store still had fresh fava beans, and I ordered some nigella seeds that should be arriving today, so this one is going to use up the watermelon radishes.  I'm omitting the white wine because I don't know what else I could use the bottle on at present and don't want it taking up space in my fridge for the foreseeable future.  I'm also not making the vegetable stock from scratch (also a Vedge recipe) because it is SO MUCH WORK and involves buying an entire cabbage just for an outer leaf for the stock pot and I already have SO MUCH PRODUCE I don't need a cabbage too.  I'm sure it would be better if I don't cut any corners, but for now, I'm cutting corners.  I bought a high end looking stock at the store.  It'll have to do.

[Edited 10/14/2020:  I made this last night along with the seared French beans and golden beets, and I did not like it.  I barely ate any of it, and I ended up throwing away all the leftovers.  The fava beans were bitter, and I know I didn't overcook them because I made them perfectly multiple times this spring/summer.  I think they just weren't as fresh as the favas I had from the farm.  The radishes just tasted vaguely like radishes, which I historically do not like.  I feel like they should've been cooked in the stock rather than roasted on a sheet pan and then added to the stock.  The nigella seeds added a nice fragrance, but they couldn't save the dish.  I bet including the white wine in the recipe would've helped, as would homemade stock, and I'm sure it's a hundred times better at the restaurant, but I can't imagine this ever being something I would love because it's still mostly radishes.]

Seared French Beans with caper bagna cauda (Vedge, pg. 97)

We still have a bag of green beans from last produce box.  I think I'll make this today because Sim loves it and Sameer is planning to feed her processed junk food for dinner, so this will put something green in her anyway.

 

Whipped Salsify with Red Wine and Truffle Jus (Vedge, pg. 109)

I've never had salsify in my life.  It looks like sticks.  Again, not making the stock myself.  This is supposed to sort of resemble fancy mashed potatoes.  It sounds good.  We'll see how it goes.  

Celery Root Fritters and Remoulade (Vedge, pg. 130)

I'm not sure if the single celery root will be enough for this, but maybe I can scale the recipe down.  This is a good one as I recall.  I've made it once before.

Nashville Hot Cauliflower Bites

To use up the head of cauliflower in the fridge.

Note:  Vedge also has a recipe for Portobello and Celery Root Shepherd's Pie with Truffle.  Might try that one if we get more celery root in the future.  It also calls for turnips.  Thanksgiving Root Stew is another one that calls for celery root and also parsnips (and turnips or rutabagas).  That might be good when it's cold outside.  It calls for 8 cups of stock, so I'd probably bother making it fresh for this recipe.

There are now some four green bell peppers in my fridge.  I don't know how to use them up fast enough unless I make them into stuffed peppers.  I've been just setting aside the sweet potatoes for later use because they keep fairly well.  My favorite way to eat them is to roast and puree them like I do the winter squash.  The purple carrots I'll use like normal carrots, for snacking or for cooking.  I need to find a good recipe for the parsnips too.  I've roasted them before with other root vegetables, but I don't really want to eat that.  A parsnip mash or baked fries sounds more palatable.  I think they'll keep in the fridge for a bit though so they aren't a high priority at present.

Sameer plans to eat the apples plain.  If any aren't good enough for that, I can make applesauce again.

Meal Planning

Apparently I haven't posted in a few weeks.  We got a few kinds of winter squash in the CSA boxes over the past two weeks, so I've been roasting them and then pureeing them for eating in the style of mashed potatoes.  In spite of my not watering them, the chives grew back after the weather cooled down, so those and some garlic salt and vegan butter are nice mixed into the squash.  We've been getting various root vegetables in the CSA boxes too, which is nice because they keep a bit longer.  I've got some onions, russet potatoes, sweet potatoes, and Japanese sweet potatoes at the moment.  We've also gotten a lot of apples each week, which I've been making into cinnamon applesauce.

 

I just finished roasting a massive butternut squash for pureeing, and the seeds of multiple squash are roasting now.  I've only done this recipe with pumpkin seeds before, but it was really good (basically tastes like Gardetto's snack mix in seed form), so I figured it was worth a try with my various squash seeds.  [ETA:  They finished roasting.  It worked out.  Consume all the squash seeds going forward.]

This Friday's box is said to contain hen of the woods mushrooms, salsify, celery root, and watermelon radishes.  I haven't had hen of the woods in at least a year so I'm excited about that, and there are recipes for the other three in Vedge.

Tonight I'm going to make a vegan penne alla vodka with Tofurky Italian sausage and throw as many of my spare vegetables in it as possible just to use them up.  There are diced onions, red bell pepper, and asparagus in my fridge that need to go.  This could also use up some of my latest batch of green beans, or I'll just sear them and make caper bagna cauda and serve it as a side dish so they'll all be gone.  There are peas and broccoli in the freezer that can go into the pasta dish too.  

 

I also have some cauliflower I need to use.  I don't love cauliflower as a rule, but this recipe is really great, and Sameer likes it too.  Maybe I'll make the cauliflower tomorrow.

Friday I want to cook the mushrooms so we taste them at peak freshness, and I also have that huge batch of butternut squash puree.  It'll be a night of various small plates I think.  I want something protein rich in the mix (because I tend to get hungry again faster otherwise) and we aren't expected to get any fresh beans in the farm box.  If there are still fava beans in the produce section this week, maybe I'll try to make the watermelon radishes with fava beans dish from Vedge.  It looks like a lot of work, but I don't know what else to do with watermelon radishes anyway.