Week One: Pickup

This week we received:

red russian kale
romaine lettuce
red leaf lettuce
swiss chard
beets
broccoli
kohlrabi
cilantro

I was away for our first pickup, but my coworker retrieved all the vegetables and later made the hand-off to my boyfriend, S. When I came a few days later, I was greeted by a fridge full of greenery.

Sunday night I used the kale to make kale chips. I was introduced to kale chips about a year ago at a pot luck, and they instantly became one of my favorite foods. I plan to try to "chip" other greens, including the chard later this week. We enjoyed the kale chips with some garlic and rosemary chicken (my sister's specialty) and store-bought naan.

Since January, in an effort to be healthier and save money, S and I have been bringing breakfast and lunch to work rather than purchasing every day. Breakfast is usually yogurt, and a muffin or two made from an Eating Well recipe, and lunch has been sandwiches and baby carrots. This week, lunches are a salad made of the romaine and red leaf lettuces, topped with the rest of the chicken from Sunday. I bought some salad dressing (Newman's Own Light Caesar) to keep at work, since I figure I will be bringing many a salad in the coming months.

Last night I had quite the evening of cooking. It began with making the kohlrabi into quick pickles, using rice vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Pretty tasty! Still not sure what to do with the kohlrabi leaves... I also tried some kohlrabi raw with salt and that was delicious too - very fresh tasting. Today I learned that kohlrabi is in the cabbage family: who knew?

Next came dinner: pork chops with cumin first pan seared, and then finished off in the oven. For a side, I sauteed the broccoli and beet greens in some cajun seasoning. Up until now, I have almost exclusively sauteed any greens in garlic, but I wanted to branch out since I figure I'll be doing a lot of greens sauteing. This came out decently, though I was more fond of the broccoli than the beet greens, which were still a bit bitter.

In the mean time, I was roasting the beets themselves to use in lunch salads. I learned from last time I roasted beets to wear gloves to peel them, and in this way have successfully avoided pink fingers for the rest of the week!

After dinner, I made some "healthy muffins" (lemon blueberry, adapted from this recipe) and, because the mood struck me, some chocolate chip cookies. Need to balance out all these leafy greens somehow!