A week in pictures…

Instead of reinventing the wheel again, this blog post I decided that I would show you all what I did with the delicious organic produce from my Sage Mountain Farm CSA box.   I also wanted to share with you something fabulous that I discovered at my (not so) local Barron’s this month.  Flavored vinegars.  Now I know that flavored vinegars have been around for a while, it’s nothing new, but I wanted to encourage you to try my new favorite flavor…Mango!  It is a white balsamic vinegar and it makes eating salad a real treat.  The smell alone is enough to go gaga for, but the flavor will really get you to clean your salad bowl for sure!  This week my salads featured lettuce, green onions, and radishes from Sage Mountain Farm’s awesome organic CSA box!

I used my produce for the usual salads and added lettuce to a veggie burger here and there, but the recipes that I want to highlight are the two from Forks Over Knives.  Chef AJ’s Red Lentil Chili always gets rave reviews, but this was the first time I had ever tried it.  Sure enough, it lived up to the hype…delicious and quite popular with most members of my family.  This dish was garnished with organic green onions from my weekly CSA box.  We decided to call it “red lentil stew” because my kids thought that it didn’t really fit with their concept of chili, but whatever you call it, give it a try.  It’s a keeper in my book!

The next recipe from Forks Over Knives that we tested out this week was Enchilada Casserole.  This one got mixed reviews from my crowd, I think because of the chunks of vegetables.  Texture can be an issue for kids.  Based on flavor, it was a good recipe and although it won’t take the place of our usual bean and vegan cheese enchiladas, I know it will show up again from time to time.  Pretty easy to toss together and it uses CSA greens, and you all know how I love that!

As for the other photos above, I made kale chips in the oven.  They were seasoned with nutritional yeast flakes and Bragg’s Liquid Aminos.  Funny story, I make these every once in a while with just the Bragg’s, which is like soy sauce, and they go over well.  I like them when I am craving something salty and I have excess greens to use up.  This time I was really wanting a salty snack, and I think it turned out a bit like grocery shopping on an empty stomach, because they were S.A.L.T.Y. In fact, I was dared by my hubby to eat a whole plate of them, which I did, but boy…talk about too much of a good thing!

Last photo is of some cute  little rice rolls.  I used short grain brown rice and filled them with slivers of carrot, radishes, and greens along with a tiny bit of soy chorizo.  All yummy things from my CSA box (except the soy chorizo)!  And you know, Sage Mountain also offers wholesome green-fed pork so…you could make rice rolls with some veggies and some pork from the farm as well!

Have a great week!  If you liked this post, let me know in the comments.  I’ll post again soon with more ideas for enjoying the delicious organic produce from Sage Mountain Farm!