A Week of Fall Meals
One of the things I’ve loved about the CSA (I know, I know, you’re thinking “will she ever stop talking about the stupid CSA?”) is that we’ve eaten so many fresh meals this summer, that it’s fun to get into fall (or, you know, below 90 degrees) and eat slightly heavier, warmer meals.
Hello, crockpot, is basically what I’m saying here.
My family was here this last weekend and between that and the various Halloween festivities, I basically haven’t cooked in a week, but here’s what we ate the week before THAT.
Monday
- Black Bean Soup
- Biscuits
- Pluots
Tuesday
- Fig and Beet Tart
- Green Salad
- Grapes
Wednesday
- Steak and Bok Choy Stir Fry over Rice (We had gone out to eat at a steakhouse for Restaurant week and I froze the leftover filet mignon and used it in this. And. . .that was very tasty. Also, I doubled the bok choy because I’m drowning in the stuff).
- Mango and strawberries
Thursday
- Green Calzones (I used rainbow chard and some random summer squash instead of spinach and zucchini and it was excellent. I also made my own ricotta cheese (much less impressive than it sounds – three minutes in the microwave) and used this pizza dough for the crust)
- Baked Pears with Raspberry Sauce (this is one of my favorite side dishes of all time, mainly because it’s pretty much a dessert).
- Green Beans
Friday
- Zucchini Pizza
- Carrot Puree
- Green Salad (I roasted the tomatoes and the mushrooms in the oven beforehand and oh man, it was delicious)
Saturday
- Pork and White Beans (When we went to the steakhouse, Bart also go the most enormous pork chop I’ve ever seen. He ate until he was full and there was still, no kidding, two-thirds of it remaining. I chopped it up, froze it, and added it to the crockpot in the last two hours of cooking. Also, I left out the sausage because, good heavens, how much meat do you really need?)
- Spinach Salad (the last of the summer strawberries, goat cheese, candied almonds with poppyseed dressing)
Eaten anything great this fall?
I love when you do these, you give me such ambitious ideas.
I've done monster batches of scones (bemoaning the lack of clotted cream this side of the atlantic), found a fantastic corn chowder recipe, and started the annual Christmas Cookie Campaign to figure out what will be given to friends (or in some cases hoarded jealously)
You've almost got me convinced to sign up for a CSA. I just can't shake the fear that I'll end up with 17 lbs of kale and turn my family green before we get through the first pound. But really, it would probably be a good idea.
My favorite fall recipe, and conveniently Tyler's as well, is butternut squash soup. When Jack was 4 weeks old I decided to be ambitious and sign up to take meals to 2 other first-time moms (our ward provides meals for two weeks!). So I made over THREE GALLONS of this soup. Oops. We were eating leftovers for days. No one complained.
Beef and fig tart – I'm impressed! I just finished my lunch of zucchini pizza, and it was every bit as amazing as you said it would be. And I didn't think I liked zucchini! Also, I had forgotten about baked pears. I will have to make those again soon.
I really want to do a CSA so badly. A few friends and I are talking about it. I don't blame you for blabing about it, I'm sure I would/will!
Love that you made use of restaurant leftovers. That's clever and thrifty.
I'm a sucker for bok choy, I think it's delicious!
I don't have a crockpot, perhaps it's time I buy one! They're not as well known here in the US, but it would be great to come home to a good meal now that the days are growing shorter and I work longer hours!
I'll have to make note of all these great sounding recipes, especially the fig and beet tart. I recently made a Fall favorite of ours, Sweet Potato Chili-in the crock pot. I've been eating it all week at work!
Your CSA is similar to our co-op-I buy what's there from the farmer's and find a way to use it.
Thanks, Janssen. You've given me some good ideas for the produce I'm trying to use up. I have quite a good crop of bok choy in the garden, as well as chard and other vegies, so your menus are very timely. Happy eating (and the Halloween pictures were darling).