Meat CSA and Zucchini Noodles

First a little overview of the Meat CSA we joined last month, and then fun with a new kitchen toy!

Earlier this summer I went in search of a local meat CSA.  We’ve been really trying to make a point to only buy grass-fed beef, local meats, and either organic chicken or close to it.  Luckily Whole Foods has their animal welfare rating which makes this a lot easier.

I guess you could say the next step would be to try and buy local when possible!  That’s where a meat CSA comes into play.  I’m sure by now you’ve heard of Community Supported Agriculture and probably in terms of veggie shares or fruit shares.  Well a meat CSA works the same way…you purchase a “share” of the farm.

I didn’t have a recommendation when I was looking so I went with a good old internet search, which led me to Chestnut Farms!

Things I was looking for in a CSA were convenience in the pick-up location, price, and information about their farm and how the animals are raised and fed. 

I loved this statement on their website:

“Our CSA is for people who love animals and happen to eat meat.  It is for people who want to know the farmer that raises their food and be sure that the meat they consume is humanely raised without any hormones or antibiotics.”

Couldn’t have said it better. 

Feel free to read more about their farm and their operations on their website!

So right now we opted for a 15lb share (the smallest they offer is 10lbs).  We figured we’d start there and if it was too much we could go down to 10.  Our first pick up was in July and the amount was pretty perfect. 

When you pick up your cooler you bring back the cooler from the month before.  During the pick-up they also have farm fresh eggs for sale, as well as a cooler full of “bits and pieces” that are either free or just $1…these are items like marrow bones, pork fat, bacon ends. 

This months share:

• a whole chicken
• chicken breasts
• 3 packs of ground beef
• fresh kielbasa
• bacon
• 3 packs of sirloin
• Lamb stew meat!  Excited about the lamb!

Last month was similar except instead of lamb we got pork, and instead of bacon and kielbasas we got homemade fresh chorizo and a couple smoked chicken breasts.

Their ground beef in phenomenal.  I don’t know why it’s SO much better, but it is.  It’s grass fed, and very lean because they don’t add any fat to it.  So you need to make sure you add fat when cooking.  But the first time we made burgers with their beef they were delicious!!

Everything is vacuum sealed and frozen and we just take out what we want when we want it.      

The farm is located out in the middle of Massachusetts and they welcome visitors who want to check it out anytime!   I hope to visit someday soon!

I’m also excited that they offer fresh turkeys for the holidays to shareholders! 

Ok I think I’ve talked enough about my monthly cooler of meat :)  If you have any questions about it just ask!!

I picked up the share yesterday and immediately took out some ground beef for dinner. 

I also broke out a new toy…

My spiralizer!! 

I bought the World Cuisine Spiral Vegetable Slicer from Amazon.

First up…Zucchini!

SO EASY!!  Seriously took 20 seconds to turn a whole zucchini into noodles!

I also whipped up a Bolognese-type sauce

• Sautéed onions and garlic in a little coconut oil
• added 1 chopped carrot
• add ground beef (little over 1 lb)
• 1 can tomato paste mixed in
• about 1 cup water/chicken broth/white wine
• salt/pepper/herbs and spices of your choice
• simmer
• stirred in a little half & half at the end :)

I added a pinch of nutmeg to the sauce which made it awesome btw.  Try it. 

For the noodles, I just sautéed them in a little olive oil for just 1-2 minutes just to heat…they barely need to be cooked. 

Love at first bite :)

 Do you belong to any CSA’s??  I always mean to sign up for a veggie one, but never do…plus paying it all upfront makes it a hard one to swallow at the time.  I pay each month with the meat.

Ideas for that fresh kielbasa?????

Learning to Dinner Plan

Menu/Meal planning for the week ahead has never been my strong suit.  I usually prefer to go to the store and see what’s on sale or what looks extra good that week.  This doesn’t always go well for me though, and sometimes can result in wasted food….which I hate.

However, last week was actually pretty good as far as meal planning goes!!

We only really cooked 3 days (out of 5, I don’t count the weekends in this), but I knew what was on the menu from Monday to Thursday.  It really did take a little weight off my shoulders knowing exactly what we were going to cook each night!

Monday: not technically a meal but I asked Brian go cook up some chicken however he wanted (grilled, sautéed, etc...), while I was at Crossfit. I love that he’ll cook if I ask him :) 

We each made our own meal with some of the chicken. I'm actually not sure what he had but he's very resourceful in the kitchen so I don't have to worry about him not having a good meal without me there to help.

I knew I wanted to make a salad that I saw in Cooking light that had arugula, tomatoes, chicken, and some crispy cooked prosciutto. It was a nice quick meal, and the salty crispy pieces of prosciutto were the best part.

(source)

Tuesday night I was going to make some tomato sauce. Brian requested it that weekend, so we bought some grass-fed ground beef and 2 Italian sausages to add to it for some protein and extra flavor. (side note: wasn’t a huge fan of the sausage, next time I’ll leave it at the ground beef, still tasty but not my favorite)

I don't really have a sauce recipe per say, but it almost always involves:

• lots of garlic, minced, added to the pan with the olive oil first.
• Then maybe some diced onion, possible carrot
• I add my meat here if I'm using it...usually ground turkey or lean beef
• A can of tomato paste, stirred in.
• A splash of red wine if I have it around
• Seasonings and herbs (whatever I feel like... dried basil, oregano, parsley, salt and pepper).  I don’t add much herbs though because I don’t want to take away from the tomato flavor.
• 1 or 2 cans of ground tomatoes, preferable San Marzano (I always stock up when they are on sale at Whole Foods)
• Bay leaf

Simmer on low, covered, 20-40 minutes, or longer if you want.
If its tasting too acidic for me, I'll add a teaspoon of sugar.
That's basically it. I'm not Italian, I don't have some secret family recipe, but this always comes out delicious.

I had a big salad at lunch that day so I was less worried about veggies tonight. I had a big bowl of sauce with some whole wheat penne.  I like less pasta and more sauce when I make a sauce like this!

Wednesday is usually dinner on your own as I go to Crossfit, and Brian has basketball.

Thursday we had Shrimp and Soba Noodles with Peanut Sauce!

I saw the peanut sauce/soba noodle recipe when Tina had it a couple weeks ago and it just sounded really good to me.

The recipe was from Runner’s World.  I sent Brian the link to start it, and I’d finish it when I got home.  Somehow he ended up at a different Soba Noodle with Peanut Sauce recipe on Runner’s Word…what are the odds!?  So I just adjusted it slightly when I got home.  The final recipe for the sauce was:

Peanut Sauce:

• 3T Peanut Butter
• 2T Water
• 4T low sodium soy sauce
• 1T honey
• 2T Chinese Rice Wine
• 1T champagne vinegar
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2T sesame oil
• 1/8 tsp crushed red pepper

In a large sauté pan I seared 1lb of shrimp on med/med-high heat for about 2 minutes per side.  Set the shrimp aside, and cooked up 1 bag of broccoli slaw.  Once the slaw was tender I added the sauce, cooked for 1 minute, and added back in the shrimp, and the cooked soba noodles. 

Toss all together, and serve topped with chopped scallions.

BIG FAN of this!!!  SO flavorful!!  Plus pretty easy.  I can definitely see this one added to the rotation.  Plus you could add so many different veggies/proteins!

I need to figure out how to get better at this. 

Sometimes I’ll even sit down, go through cookbooks, magazines, blogs…etc, and nothing strikes me.  Or I can’t remember where I saw something.  It really depends on the week.

How do you keep track of recipes you see online that you want to try??  Everyone says “oh I flagged this”  or “bookmarked” it…what exactly do you do??  Do you just add it to your “favorites”?  Or is there some website that keeps track of these things??  Right now I even have just a Google document where I’ll copy/paste a link of a recipe I want to remember…but there’s GOT to be a better way??

We’re on the downhill side of the week!!  2 more days till the weekend!  Easter Plans??  What are you making for Easter??  Any good ideas?

Zucchini Lasagna

It almost felt like fall today with the chillier temps.  I was regretting my iced coffee decision once I got the office…I was COLD!

Although the iced toasted almond coffee with milk was still delicious :)

That would be a yogurt-waffle bowl breakfast.  Haven’t had that in a while:

• 0% Greek yogurt
• sliced strawberries
• toasted Kashi waffle
• all topped with real maple syrup :)

All that was missing was a chocolate chip!

The same day I drank that pumpkin beer, I also did another Fall-esque activity: made a huge pot of homemade tomato sauce.

Since we’re still getting more zucchini from our garden than we know what to do with, I wanted to try another popular zucchini dish…

Zucchini Lasagna!

Basically using sliced zucchini as my “noodle”.

I decided I wanted a nice filling meat sauce with this. Of course, you could make whatever type of sauce you want…especially to keep it vegetarian.

I had ground beef in the freezer, so I used that. My basic sauce is as follows:

• 1 T olive oil
• 1 large white or yellow onion, chopped
• 4-5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 lb lean ground beef (I used 93% lean)
• 2 carrots, grated
• 1/3 – 1/2 cup red wine
• 1 can tomato paste
• 2 – 28oz cans crushed tomatoes
• 1 – 28oz can whole tomatoes
• 2 bay leaves
• salt and pepper

1. Heat oil at medium/med-high heat in a large heavy bottom pot, add onion and cook for 4-5 min.
2. Add garlic, cook another 3 min
3. Add ground beef, and break up using a wooden spoon, add some salt here.
4. Once beef is mostly browned, add carrots, cook for another 1-2 min
5. Add tomato paste, and stir around until it’s all mixed in
6. Then add red wine, stir and scrape bottom of pan
7. Add the rest of the tomatoes, 2 bay leaves, more salt, pepper, and other seasonings if you’d like (dried oregano, parsley, basil…)
8. Simmer for 45min-1 hour

Mmm the sauce definitely stole the show, and I have leftovers in the fridge and the freezer.

Zucchini can somewhat be treated the same way as eggplant.  You want to remove as much of the water in the vegetable as you can before you bake with it.

I used 1.5 med/large sized zucchinis and cut them lengthwise into strips, then in half if needed. 

Sprinkle with salt and place in a colander to drain.

Mine sat for probably 1.5 hours, and I saw lots of liquid leave the colander.  In theory this should have been good enough, and I think this would work if you got your zucchini sliced REALLY thin. 

However, mine was just “normal” thin, and in the end I wish I had cooked the zucchini first!

So I would recommend cooking your zucchini prior to baking.  Grilling would be delicious!  But steaming, boiling, or sautéing would work too.  Don’t cook too long though, don’t want mush!!

The rest of my lasagna consisted of:

Filling:

• 16 oz part skim ricotta cheese
• 1 egg
• fresh parsley, chopped
• salt and pepper

And Mozzarella cheese of course!!

To layer:

• Start with a layer of sauce
• zucchini slices
• 1/2 ricotta mixture
• mozzarella, shredded
• sauce
• zucchini
• ricotta
• mozzarella
• zucchini, if you have some left
• OR
• leave off the last layer of mozzarella, add sauce
• then top with mozzarella!

Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes.  Cover loosely with foil for first 25 min, then remove foil.

Let sit for at least 10min before cutting.

Since I totally forgot the middle sauce layer, I had my serving with a big scoop of sauce on top!

Served with a side of “garlic bread” made on TJ’s sprouted wheat bread :)

Woof! Spaghetti Squash!

Ok so I need some work in the blog-post-title department, but there are 2 very important parts to this post and they are completely unrelated. 

First the big news…WE GOT A DOG!!!!!!!

I’ve been a dog lover all my life and once I moved out on my own all I wanted was a pup of my own.  However usually my apartments did not allow pets and in general I was just too busy.  But I’ve waited and waited and then got married…and then Brian wanted to wait and wait…and finally FINALLY I got the green light. 

I knew I wanted to adopt, there are so many dogs out there who need homes!!  Plus we didn’t want a puppy, that requires way too much time than we have right now, plus he’s already house broken!

Meet Bromley :)

He’s a 2 1/2 year old Shih Tzu and a complete sweetheart!

We picked him up last night and so far I think he’s liking it here.  Of course I’ll keep you updated on our little furball.  For now some pictures!

 

I worked with GRR, Inc. Getting all Rescued and Rehomed, and they were fantastic.  The first 2 dogs I contacted them about, they deemed were not a good fit for us.  I was sad and frustrated at first but they didn’t give up on us.  The director, herself, went out one day to visit various shelters in Kentucky and found us our furbaby. 

Ok, Part 2: Spaghetti Squash and a Sauce you can eat with a spoon.

I realized that when making this tomato sauce last week that the process was very similar to making chili the week before!  Just leave out the spicy and smokiness.

Similar ingredients.

• 4-5 cloves of garlic
• 1 medium onion
• 1 red bell pepper
• 2 shredded carrots

Sauté all these items in 1-2T of olive oil in a large heavy bottomed pot or Dutch oven. 

Pick your seasonings and add a little bit here and there through the cooking process instead of all at once at the end or beginning.  I used:

• salt
• pepper
• oregano
• basil

You can use whatever seasonings you like.

Then add 1 package of lean ground turkey and cook til browned.

Once browned I added:

• some red wine I had opened (about 1/4 cup)
• 1 small can of tomato paste

Stir for a couple minutes and add:

• 2 large cans (28oz) of crushed tomatoes
• 1 medium can of tomato sauce

Finally 1 or 2 Bay leaves go in and let it simmer for 45min – 1 hour

Meanwhile bake a Spaghetti Squash!

Cut the squash in half the long way (the “hot dog” way as Brian would say haha).  Then bake in a glass or metal baking dish, cut side down, for about 45min at 375* until it’s tender and you can shred with a fork.

  Shred and “fluff” your “spaghetti”

Towards the end of the simmering time for the sauce I added about a half package of frozen spinach (defrosted and strained of excess water).

  Dinner time!  With a sauce this thick and chunky, I like a ratio of about 40% spaghetti squash and 60% sauce.

   This was deeeeelicious!  Especially with a nice piece of bread on the side.

Another reason I love a sauce like this, is that I eat the leftovers like chili!  Straight up, in a bowl, with a fork, cheese melted on top :)

Time for some puppy play time!! 

Sunday Baking and Cooking!

Yesterday was one of those "lazy" Sunday's. I put lazy in quotes because it didn't really feel lazy, but to me that just means no set plans. I woke up to rain, made muffins, ran errands, grocery shopping, studying, and dinner! Full day actually!

First was the muffins! I had two over ripe bananas that I put in the fridge last week because I knew there were muffins in my future. I don't know why but I always make muffins instead of loaves of bread...I just like the pre-portioned packages they make themselves into :) I tend to make my recipe as I go, but I always write them down in case they need tweaking. Although I'd say that these came out great! Hearty, banana-y, and not too sweet. These wouldn't be "bring to work" baked goods because I know everyone at my work's idea of muffins are the high-calorie sugar bombs you get at Dunkin Donuts...not my kind of muffin. Those are like cake hiding in a muffin body.

On to the recipe!

Banana Hazelnut Muffins
(I had bought some hazelnuts and hazelnut meal when I was in Oregon and finally used them!)

Pre-heat oven to 375 F

1 1/2 cups White Whole Wheat Flour (I use the King Arthur brand)
1/2 cups Oat Bran

1/4 cups ground flax

1/4 cups Hazelnut meal (could use almond meal or any other nut meal I suppose)

1 t Baking Soda

2 t. Baking Powder

1/2 t. salt

1/4 t. cinnamon
1/8 t. nutmeg

(feel free to increase the cinnamon or nutmeg to your liking...you don't taste it much in these muffins but if you really like a cinnamon flavor in your banana muffins then go for it!)

1 cup vanilla soy milk

2 T Canola oil

1 T Honey

2 T Agave Nectar

1 Egg and 1 Egg white

2 Ripe Bananas (mushed)

1/4 cup hazelnuts (chopped)

1/4 cup chocolate chips (optional)

- Mix Dry Ingredients together in 1 bowl

- Mix wet ingredients together in another bowl

- Add wet ingredients, nuts, and choc. chips to dry and mix until combined...DON'T OVERMIX!!

- Spray muffin tin cups with cooking spray (I use spray canola oil)

- Divide batter among the 12 cups

- I like to top wet muffins with oats and raw sugar

- Bake for 18min

- cool and enjoy!

Batter:

Before going in the oven:

Muffins!

Personally I think the banana flavor really comes through better after they have cooled for a while (even better the next day). I'll calc the nutritional facts later but I'm guessing around 200cals per muffin but that also has a lot of fiber and protein that normal muffins don't have :) The flavor is much more of a banana muffin than hazelnut, so feel free to play around with extracts or amounts of the hazelnut meal if you want a more hazelnut tasting muffin.

On to dinner... I had bought a spaghetti squash a couple weeks ago, but just never got around to it. For some reason they always intimidated me because it just seemed like a complicated process...I never really knew how easy it was until I saw Kath's video. However, before I got around to the squash I took a package of extra lean ground turkey out of the freezer for some homemade tomato sauce!

The Sauce of the day:

Started by sauteing 1 chopped onion, 4 cloves of minced garlic, a little over 1/2 of a green pepper (chopped, and 2 grated carrots.

Saute in 2 T Olive Oil and seasoned with salt and pepper

Meanwhile in a non-stick pan I cooked up the package of turkey with about 1/2T olive oil, salt, pepper, and a little Penzey's Tuscan Seasoning

After adding the turkey to the pot, I added 2 280z cans of crushed tomatoes, 1 15oz can tomato sauce, 1 small can of tomato paste, 1 bay leaf, some dried oregano, and more S&P.

For the squash: Cut in half length wise (remove seeds) and place open side down on a cookie sheet and put water in the cookie sheet (I put just enough to cover the whole sheet). Baked at 375 for about 40min until tender. Let cool for 10min or so, and then take a fork and scrape out the "spaghetti"! This was so easy and fun! I'd eat it straight out of the squash!

At the end of the sauce cooking I added half a package of baby spinach and let it wilt in.

Dinner is served! The sauce is really thick and chunky and there wasn't a ton of squash so I had a big bowl of sauce with squash on top! Topped with a little shredded parm, and I made two slices of "garlic bread" with whole wheat spread with smart balance, sprinkled with garlic powder and salt and toasted. The two slices cut in quarters for three of us :)

The roomie and fiance LOVED it! So did I! Why have I never had spaghetti squash before!? It's my new favorite...I wish I cooked up more squash to have around.

Breakfast today was a muffin and 1/2 cup of TJ's plain Greek yogurt with raspberries, granola and honey.

I was really looking forward to my leftover sauce and squash for lunch but one of the girls here got engaged over the weekend so we are going out to lunch! I guess I'll save it for tomorrow :\