Thursday, July 30, 2015

CSA Round Up: Week 5

It's a new record, folks! It's only Thursday (13 days in) and my CSA basket is gone! Week 5 (I have a bi-weekly pickup, so this was my third of the summer) was another bonanza. There's snap beans (basically red green-beans), zucchini, green onions, fennel, beets, chard, lettuce, and turnip greens:


First up, taco salad. This is lettuce and green onions from the basket, plus romaine, Beyond Beef Feisty Crumbles, black beans, tomatoes, and blue corn tortilla chips. For hot-weather food, it was pretty hearty and delicious.


After a decade of being vegan, there's not many vegetables I haven't tried. That said, I've always avoided fennel because I'm not an anise fan and assumed it would taste like licorice. But in the spirit of using everything, I roasted the fennel with beets and zucchini and threw it on top of some greens. I pride myself on not being a picky eater (except, you know, anything with meat, eggs, dairy, honey...), but I can now decisively say that I do not like fennel. I picked it all out of the salads. The fennel-less salad was good, though. And that's right, I repackaged my salad in the greens package.

 

While I'm certainly no believer of the protein myth, I am trying to drop a few pounds and figured cutting back on my usual carb-bonanza would be a good place to start. Here's Beyond Chicken grilled strips with some boiled snap beans (and broccoli, and more repurposed packaging in the background):


Outside magazine had a great (albeit long) profile on Beyond Meat this winter, where the company basically said they were taking plants and turning them into meat using a machine instead of an animal, which was a far more efficient and humane practice. I've used that logic ever since on skeptical omnis who don't want to eat fake meat because it's too "processed." I explain that meat is processed, too, just by an animal's body instead of a machine. Given a choice between the two methods, I'll take the machine product.

Last up, more fake chicken (this time Simple Truth Meatless Griller Strips from Kroger), with brown rice and a random mix of greens: beet greens, turnip greens and chard. I'd never had turnip greens before, but I really liked them, especially mixed with the slightly sweet chard. I also thought they also paired nicely with the Simple Truth strips, which have a different taste and texture than the Beyond Meat ones.


These super boring fake chicken dishes are great examples of why I love having a CSA - even when making the most plain, lazy meals, I think "oh hey, I have veggies I need to use up", and so I add a serving of greens. Totally worth $20 every other week, IMO.

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