Turnip & Carrot Casserole

In looking for more creative ways to use our abundance of vegetables from the local CSA, I stole this recipe and made a casserole out of the turnips and carrots.

It was extremely easy to make, very fast, and very tasty. 

(Although, I didn't have bread crumbs, so I used a crumb mix and it was a little too salty - bread crumbs recommended!)

Certainly not my favourite recipe, but it was tasty, and a great way to use up some veggies for a good creative dinner! 

Best served with fresh salad :) 

Definitely will try this again with bread crumbs when I get a chance! 

{xoxo}

CSA Update

So I thought I should update everyone on our CSA investment. 

If you missed the prelude you can read about how and why we chose to join with Summer's Gold this year to get fresh vegetables during the summer. 

As I had stated in the previous post, I was definitely worried after the first couple of veggie deliveries. 

The amount of veggies we received was disappointing. Not really vegetables we used on a daily basis to begin with (i.e. radishes, green onions), but also not nearly enough to get by without going out to buy our own. But as the weeks have rolled on, the veggies have become more diverse and the amount has substantially increased. Even after giving one third away to our friend and fellow shareholder, we've had tons of vegetables for the week. Here's some pictures of a load we got somewhere in the middle (potatoes, cucumber, lettuce, beat greens, broccoli, radishes and a tomato): 

Last week we received cabbage, lettuce, cucumber, peas, green beans, potatoes, & dill. 

We're now at the point where we can't always finish the veggies before the next load gets here. 

Having the fresh veggies have been amazing. I pick up the odd things to supplement what we already have, such as carrots to make coleslaw, and tomatoes for salads, but we can mostly make do with what we're receiving from the CSA. 

This weeks [pictured below] we received potatoes, peas, cucumbers, cabbage, carrots, turnip, and kohlrabi. What's kohlrabi you ask?? I have no idea! I've never heard of it. But I am gonna learn how to cook it!

Here's a closer look at my new purple friend, kohlrabi :) 

Stay tuned to find out what I decided to do with kohlrabi and turnip.
Should make for some interesting meals this week!

At this stage, I would say that we will definitely be ordering from the CSA again next year, but I'll keep you posted as the summer goes on :) 

{xoxo}

Easy Radish Dip

So now that I've signed up for this CSA in Grande Prairie. I have to figure out how to use up all my veggies before the next batch arrives! If I had a whack of corn and potatoes, I could polish those off no problem, but instead I have radishes. What do people do with radishes?

There's the obvious... add them to salad! Which was actually a great idea. Adds some colour and flavour to my salad. I never would have bought these, but I can see myself doing it in the future now just for the added texture and interest. Also, the taste is very muted in the salad so it wasn't as strong as putting a whole radish in your mouth.

But that still left me with more radishes... so I found an easy radish dip and made an appetizer for my guest and husband. The husband really liked it and kept eating it all week actually! It's super easy!

Ingredients

I block cream cheese

6-7 radishes

4 cloves of garlic

Steps

Mince garlic and radishes in food processor, then add cream cheese and blend.

(add radishes to make it even healthier, and add garlic if you like things really garlicy)

We found the dip strong at first, and then the taste was a bit muted and better the next day.

{yumm}

Summer's Gold CSA in Grande Prairie

Getting pregnant means BIG changes in your life. Or at least I'm told it will..... and with this change comes a certain level of responsibility. I feel more obligated to eat healthy foods, and to get my recommended amount of fruits and vegetables, and to exercise (at least a little bit) each day. I still go off track from this... clearly... but it's always in the back of my head that I'm being healthy for two now.

The tricky thing is that I don't want to get caught up in all the "do this"/"don't do this"'s that I read on the internet. I'm obviously not drinking alcohol or smoking or anything, but if I read that I shouldn't eat deli meats I get really hung up on all the deli meats I may have eaten accidentally, and how much of it, and whether I should eat things that may have deli meats, etc. etc. You can probably find it written to avoid anything while pregnant if you look hard enough. I still want to be cautious, I just don't want to be paranoid.

So I'm doing things that I know are good - like building up my inventory of vegetables! Not only do I have my veggie garden at mom's house growing ample potatoes, onions, carrots, etc., but Mr. A and I also signed up for a CSA (community shared agriculture) in Grande Prairie called Summer's Gold. I was told the portions are huge and the food's amazing. The food is grown locally, and they deliver packages each week to GP. And the price isn't bad, so we went for it.

We purchased the small portion (you can pick small or large), and we decided to split it with a friend (who gets 1/3 of the haul each week) because we had no idea how much to expect! Our first package came a couple weeks ago with radishes, lettuce, green onion, and strawberries.

Honestly, I thought the portions were smaller than I was lead to believe. But the owner assures me that they will get bigger as the summer goes on! The fruit and veggies were all very good. No denying that. My other concern is that I'm going to get a truck load of veggies that I have no clue what to do with! I managed to finish my green onion from week one, but now I have some lingering from week two while I await my week three package tonight! I'd rather have twice as many strawberries - if I could choose! But maybe it'll force me to be creative. I have to learn what I'm gonna do with an abundance of radishes, squash, zuccini, etc. that I don't ever purchase in a typical grocery trip. 

Here's to my healthy eating vegetable experiment! 

{yumm}