Another uninspired pic day, but at least I’ve got a great tee.
October 2, 2015
Another uninspired pic day, but at least I’ve got a great tee.
October 1, 2015
Apparently, I didn’t take any good or exciting pictures yesterday. Here is a shot of the day’s things I’m letting go of as part of a minimalism game I’m playing.
September 30, 2015
The gathering storm makes for an unquiet yoga session.
September 29, 2015
Knocking out cross stitch projects like its my job.
What To Do With A Box Of Vegetables: Brooklyn Beet CSA Box 8
Whoo hoo! It’s CSA time again! Time to shrug off winter’s recipe rut and reign spring’s exuberance with bi-monthly boxes of vegetables (and hopefully meat).
This year’s CSA is from Brooklyn Beet CSA. Brooklyn Beet provides veggie shares from Angel Family Farm, a sustainable farm located in Orange County, NY that was created with the support of GrowNYC’s New Farmer Development Project; fruit shares from Hepworth Family Farm, a 250-acre NOFA-certified seventh-generation family farm in Milton, NY; baked goods from Wild Mountain Bread based in Brooklyn; and a wide variety of grass-fed beef, pasture raised pork, and other products (like other meats, cheeses, bread, flour, grains, lax-fermented vegetables, pastas and other pantry goods) from Lewis Waite Farm, which sources from over 35 local family farms.
I purchased a half share, and will be getting a box containing 6-8 vegetables (about 2 bags worth) every other week from June – October (11 shares), and plan on ordering a carnivore share box from Lewis Waite (4-6 lbs. of meat) for pickup each veggie week. I also purchased a “Challenger Share” for the season (6 deliveries total) containing odd bits like animal fats, organ meats, neck bones, shanks, and rendered lard to stretch my culinary skills. The price of my CSA averages out to $25.50 per share for veggies, plus an additional $45 per pickup week for meat/offal. This total will be accounted for in my weekly Adventures In Budget Paleo Cooking posts.
You would think by now that I’d be used to flying blind when it comes to CSA season, since they rarely seem to post previews of upcoming shares, but I’m not. At least not going into this first week. Pickup this year is on Tuesday, so it looks like another summer of alltheveggies for half a week & utilizing the stragglers before they go bad on Mondays and Tuesdays. Such is the life of a CSA devotee. Boom and bust every week (or every other week, in my case).
Brooklyn Beets 2015 CSA Box 8
1 bunch kale
1 bunch espazote
1 bunch lemongrass
1 bunch radishes
4 ears corn
4 onions
17 serrano peppers
10 roma tomatoes
Lewis Waite Meat Share Box 7
1/2 chicken
0.96 lb. lamb blade steaks
1 lb. ground turkey
1 lb. ground pork
Lewis Waite Challenger Share 4
2 lamb shanks
How I Used My Share
I served the leftover smoked shoulder bacon from last box in a hash with eggs, sweet potatoes and serrano peppers.
I treated the pork to Thai-inspired flavors and made a hearty dinner bowl with lemongrass, corn and onion.
I broiled the lamb steaks and served alongside some non-CSA green beans.
I turned the ground turkey into a puttanesca-inspired meaty ragu, using eggplant and tomato in my dish as well.
I threw hand fulls of espazote into quite a few dishes.
I made another big bowl featuring the kale, plus some ground beef and non-CSA brussels sprouts.
I used 2 serranos in pretty much everything I made.
Most of the lemongrass dried up before I used it.
I lost quite a few tomatoes, as well.
Leftovers: Lamb kidneys, lamb riblets, lamb shanks, half a chicken, a few radishes, a few serrano peppers, and a few onions
My Favorite Dish From This Box
This week, my favorite has to be the smoked shoulder bacon and sweet potato hash I made. It was creamy, sweet, hearty, savory, and smoky – delicious.
September 28, 2015
A new print from The Salt And Sea picked up at yesterday’s Atlantic Antic street fair.
Adventures In Budget Paleo Cooking – Week of September 21 – 27
This Week’s Menu
Monday
Breakfast: Green smoothie
Lunch: Leftover thai ground pork bowl from last week + 2 fried eggs
Dinner: Leftover ground beef bowl from last week + 2 fried eggs
Tuesday
Breakfast: Green smoothie
Lunch: Leftovers + fried eggs
Dinner: Paleo pasta puttanesc-ish with ground turkey
Wednesday
Breakfast: Green smoothie
Lunch: Leftover pasta puttanesc-ish
Dinner: Cheddarwurst + a simple salad of snap peas, cucumbers and spam sauce
Thursday
Breakfast: Green smoothie
Lunch: The last of the leftover pasta puttanesc-ish
Dinner: Crispy sweet potato hash with shoulder bacon, onions, and eggs
Friday
Breakfast: Green smoothie
Lunch: Leftover sweet potato hash & eggs
Dinner: Out
Sunday
Breakfast: Out
Lunch: Out
Dinner: Out
This Week’s Grocery List
Bacon cheddarwurst ($5.00 @ Whole Foods)
Snap peas ($1.55 @ Whole Foods)
Sweet potato ($1? From somewhere – this was a last-minute ‘quick I need to make something utilizing bacon’ thing, and I sent the DH to grab a sweet potato because hash sounded logical)
Smoothie Supplies
Coconut water ($3.99 @ Whole Foods)
4 Apples ($4.98 @ Whole Foods)
5 limes ($3.00 @ Whole Foods)
5 Avocados ($12.50 @ Whole Foods)
Cut kale ($5.49 @ Whole Foods)
Totals
Overage from last week: -$4.77
Whole Foods: $46.30
Most Likely Brooklyn Fare: ~$1
Budget Breakout
This week, I spent $52.07; $47.93 under budget. This week, I was mostly uninspired, did zero meal planning and only had a rough idea of what I had on hand while I was at the grocery store. Luckily, the DH was out at work one night so I could scrounge and I chose well with something that cooked quickly (cheddarwurst) + a side that didn’t need to be cooked at all (snap peas).
Leftovers From This Week
At the end of the week, I have half a chicken, lamb shanks, burger patties, lamb kidneys, a couple cucumbers, 2 peaches and a handful of radishes left over. I need to incorporate these items into my menu for next week.
—
Think eating healthfully is too expensive for you? Think again. According to the USDA, to ensure a nutritious diet as of December 2014, a family of two aged 19-59 years should spend between $388.90 and $776.10 on food per month, or $89.80 – $179.30 per week. Source
For my family of two adults, I spend roughly $400 a month on groceries or $100 a week – and we eat well. Not caviar and lobster well, but I do manage to serve a predominately paleo diet with little to no processed foods, and I get to throw in a few luxuries here and there (like expensive snacks for the hubbs and the occasional ridiculously expensive bag of coffee). We even manage to buy “good” meat (grass fed beef and free-range chicken) most of the time – and I make this budget work even on the weeks we pay for convenience by getting delivery groceries. I make: 10 breakfasts, 5 lunches, and 10 dinners a week – plus enough snacks to satisfy and fuel two active adults.
I’m hoping that this series will help shed a little light on the day-to-day things a “paleo” person really eats — and how that way of eating can work on a budget. I want to nudge anyone sitting on the fence right over the edge by showing that it *can* be done and that you don’t just eat meat, meat, meat and more meat.
September 27, 2015
im reaching here, but today’s POD is a screenshot I took of Pinterest loading – because I liked the colors.
And I forgot to take an actual picture while I was out and about today.
Paleo Pasta Puttanesc-ish
Eggplants, man. What to do with a bountiful eggplant season when half your household hates them is quite the yearly conundrum. I’ve made meatballs with them, used them to lend silky body in meat-based Indian dishes, made a dipping sauce out of them, and have found a myriad other ways to tuck them into dishes well enough to hide the texture.
This go ’round, I opted for pasta sauce.
Gluten-free, paleo, whole 30
Paleo Pasta Puttanesc-ish
Globe eggplant (about 3-4 cups cubed)
Spaghetti squash
1 small onion
3 cloves garlic
1 lb. ground turkey
2 anchovies
5-6 roma tomatoes (about 2.5 cups chopped)
Dried mushrooms or mushroom powder (I used 2 Tbsp. dried porcini)
2 Tbsp. capers
2 big pinches red pepper flakes
2 Tbsp. + 2 Tbsp. tomato paste
4 Tbsp. + 2 Tbsp. worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. dried basil
2 tsp. dried oregano
Fat of choice
Kosher salt & black pepper
Optional: pecorino or parmesan
Preheat your oven to 375F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and set aside. Halve the spaghetti squash lengthwise, scoop out the seeds, season generously with salt, pepper and a drizzle of oil and place face down on the sheet. Bake 30 minutes.
While the squash is baking, make the sauce by whizzing together the eggplant, tomatoes, anchovies, garlic, mushrooms, capers, onion, red pepper, half the tomato paste, and 4 Tbsp. of the worcestershire sauce. Taste and season with salt and pepper as necessary.
When the sauce is ready to go, brown the turkey in about 2 Tbsp. fat of choice. Season with the remaining 2 Tbsp. tomato paste and worcestershire sauce, generous dashes salt & pepper, and the dried basil and oregano. Cook through and set aside.
When the 30 minutes on the squash is up, move the squash to the outer sides of the baking sheet and dump the sauce in the middle, spreading out so more surface area hits the heat. Bake an additional 15 minutes.
When the 15 minutes is up, check the squash. If a knife pierces the skin easily, it’s done. If not, let cook an additional 10 minutes, stirring the sauce before putting back in the oven. I let mine cook those extra 10 minutes, and then stirred the sauce once again once the squash was removed from the pan – letting just the sauce bake an additional 5 minutes.
Scrape the flesh of the spaghetti squash with a fork to create “noodles”, and toss with the sauce and the turkey. Taste once more and adjust seasoning if needed.
Serves 4
September 26, 2015
My DH brought me Fall 🙂
Gastography 