5/28/2011 Basket - Three Potato Soup, Broccoli Cauliflower Cheese Dip

Three Potato Soup
Uses: Potatoes

1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced

3 red potatoes, peeled and diced

3 golden potatoes, peeled and diced

1 Tbsp butter

Honey

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

½ large onion, sliced

1/8 tsp. ginger powder

2 cloves garlic

4 cups skim milk

lime juice to taste (~1/4 cup)

salt and pepper to taste

· Preheat oven to 400°F.

· In a roasting pan, toss potatoes with butter and honey; roast until soft and golden in color, about 15 minutes. (I just drizzled the honey all over. No measuring. Just drizzling.

· In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions, ginger and garlic; sauté until soft and translucent, about 8 to 10 minutes.

· Add potatoes and milk to pot; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer, about 8 minutes.

· Remove soup from heat, blend thoroughly in an electric blender (I used our hand-held which made it SUPER easy, and I blended multiple times, to be sure it was all smooth.

Broccoli Cauliflower Dip
Uses: Broccoli, cauliflower


http://allrecipes.com/recipe/knudsen-hot-broccoli-cheese-dip/detail.aspx

We modified the recipe there to include cauliflower--we did about 1/3 broccoli and 2/3 cauliflower and it was delicious!

5/21/2011 Basket - Stuffed Peppers, Stuffed Mushrooms

So we recently came across several pictures of our food and realized we had totally forgotten to post about a bunch of things. Oops! So we'll have a couple posts of things we made from past baskets--enjoy.


Sometimes when we go out to eat, we like to just get appetizers and dessert. Entrees are often so big that we don't have room to get appetizers and dessert as well so we just skip the entree. In that same vein, we decided to make our own appetizers for dinner one night.



Stuffed Peppers
Uses: Anaheim pepper

Recipe - http://1.usa.gov/m6qWFu

Instead of the Chile Colorado, we used another Anaheim chile (we also did it once with a jalapeno, which was great too).

Stuffed Mushrooms
Uses: Mushrooms

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/mouth-watering-stuffed-mushrooms/detail.aspx



There is also bruschetta in the picture above. For that recipe, see previous post here.

6/18/2011 Basket - Cucumber Sandwiches

We got four cucumbers last week and I finally found a way to use them! I served these sandwiches with Tomato Basil Soup and felt very Zupa-esque. Plus, the two guests that ate the sands asked for the recipe. Two points for me!


Cucumber Sandwiches
Uses: Cucumber

Picture from Allrecipes, but looks a lot like mine did. 'Cept mine weren't so pixelated.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cucumber-sandwiches-iii/Detail.aspx

Random Baskets - Italian Wedding Soup, Apple Pork Chops with Stuffing, Carrot Souffle, Four Berry Sherbet

I'm sure you've all experienced that thing where you get to the end of the week and know you have a new basket coming but you still have SO much left from the last basket. Or maybe that's just us....either way, we came up with a fun three course meal to use up a bunch of remaining ingredients from past baskets.

Italian Wedding Soup
Uses: Spinach, carrots


12-15 frozen, pre-cooked meatballs (or you can make your own if you want)
6 cups chicken broth
1 cup spinach - rinsed, packed, and thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups pasta (we used mini fusilli)
1/3 cup diced carrots (we omitted these because we used all the carrots on the souffle)

Cook the meatballs according to the package directions. Cut into quarters.
Heat chicken broth to boiling. Stir in the spinach, pasta, carrots, and meatball quarters. Cook, stirring frequently, at a slow boil for 10 minutes or until pasta is cooked. Serve with cheese sprinkled on top (we did provolone but Parmesan or Romano would be good as well).


Apple Pork Chops with Stuffing
Uses: Apples, celery, onion

4 apples
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup water
1 T cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg

Peel, core, and slice apples. Place in crock pot with brown sugar, water, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Just know that the amounts above are approximations--we just put some in there and didn't really measure. Cook on low heat for a couple hours. (You can also use canned apple pie filling instead.) Place cooked apples in the bottom of a rectangular baking dish.

Prepare and cook stuffing. We used this stuffing recipe, but did a slight modification--reduce butter to 1/2 cup and add 1/2 cup chicken broth in with the butter. You may want to cook for a little less than the recipe says since the stuffing will go back in the oven with the pork chops.

Sear 4-6 pork chops in a hot pan. Place pork chops over cooked apples, then cover pork chops with stuffing. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake another 10 minutes.


Carrot Souffle
Uses: Carrots

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/carrot-souffle-2/detail.aspx


Four Berry Sherbet
Uses: Strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries


~3 1/2 cups fresh or frozen berries
4 T lemon juice
1/2 cup plus 3 T sugar
2 3/4 cup milk

You can use a combination of fresh and frozen berries--just whatever you have. Blend berries and lemon juice in a blender until smooth (you may want to thaw frozen berries first). Strain through a fine-mesh sieve to remove seeds. Stir in sugar and let sit for 1 to 2 hours. Stir in milk. Freeze in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions.

6/25/2011 Basket - Carrot Cake

I get sick of eating carrots plain and in salad, so whenever we get them in our baskets I'm always searching out new ways to use them.  This is not one of the new ways.  That was the Curried Carrot Soup. This is just my tried and true method.

Carrot Cake
Uses: Carrots

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/carrot-cake-iii/detail.aspx

6/25/2011 Basket - Curried Carrot Soup

 I know this recipe looks weird. It was a total shot in the dark for me.  I like carrots okay. I love curry seasoning, but I don't love super spicy curry stuff. So, why not try them together?  I was quite surprised at how much I really liked it!

Curried Carrot Soup
Uses: Carrots

This has piped sour cream on top.

 
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/curried-carrot-soup/detail.aspx
(+ I added 1/2 c heavy cream)

6/25/2011 Basket

Slowly but surely I'm ticking off every single BB location in Salt Lake Valley and northern Utah Valley. Mostly because by 10:04 am almost every site near my home is sold out. Boo! But I heard this morning from the site manager that on Monday they are opening up a few new sites and making others bigger. Woohoo! Thus far, I have been to pick up sites in:

Salt Lake City
Draper
Riverton
Lehi
Saratoga Springs
... and today I add South Jordan.

1 head romaine lettuce
1 head cabbage
2 bunches green onions
1 bunch celery
6 large carrots
1 pint grape tomatoes
5 mangoes
8 granny smith apples
6 peaches
1 lb strawberries
10 limes
8 plums
1 bunch bananas

6/18/2011 Basket - Barbecue Chicken Salad with Cilantro Ranch Dressing, Fresh Salsa

Thanks to all the lettuce we get in our baskets, we are constantly coming up with fun, new salads to eat. Salads are a great catch-all meal because you can use random extras and leftovers in your fridge. This salad was inspired by some leftover barbecue chicken we had.

Barbecue Chicken Salad
Uses: Romaine lettuce, tomatoes

Chop some onion and mix with diced chicken and barbecue sauce. Toss with romaine lettuce, diced tomatoes, and grated provolone. Serve with Cilantro Ranch Dressing (see recipe below).

Cilantro Ranch Dressing

4 T Herdez green salsa
1 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup mayo
2 T ranch dressing mix
2 cloves garlic
1/2-3/4 bunch cilantro

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.


Fresh Salsa
Uses: Tomatoes, sweet peppers


4 tomatoes
1 mango
1/4-1/3 cup chopped onion
4 sweet peppers (I used 2 yellow and 2 orange)
1/4-1/3 cup chopped cilantro
lime juice
garlic salt

Dice the tomatoes, mango, and sweet peppers. Combine in a medium bowl with onion and cilantro. Add lime juice and garlic salt to taste.

6/18/2011 Basket - Steamed Tuna Cabbage (aka. the Trunky Diet)

I had three months left on my mission the first time I saw my companion make this. It looked disgusting. For starters, I did not like cabbage. Plain tuna did not look appealing. And it smelled weird. (It's the cabbage.) It took her making it three times in one week before she convinced me to try a bite.

It was a revelation.

For starters, I really love steamed cabbage. Plain tuna is much more appealing than tuna sands. And it smells heavenly.  (Once you know you like cabbage.) Thus began my first and only "diet." My companion called it the Trunky Diet.  You know, because I didn't want to go home *ahem* 50 lbs *ahem* overweight. I had plain cornflakes with a sliced nectarine and skim milk for breakfast. Steamed Tuna Cabbage for lunch. And bran crackers with yogurt for dinner. Every day. For my last six weeks. I lost 20 lbs. And I never got sick of it.  Weird.

Now, eight years later, I still love Steamed Tuna Cabbage.  So does my husband. And once I convinced them to try it (I was patient, I know how it is), my kids devoured it.  So, without further adieu, I present:


Steamed Tuna Cabbage
Uses: Cabbage, carrots

1 head of cabbage, quartered with interior and stem removed
20 baby carrots, halved or quartered depending on thickness
2 cans tuna
olive oil
salt and pepper

Steam cabbage quarters and baby carrots together until soft when pierced by a fork. (If you don't have a steamer, place in a large pot with one inch of boiling water, cover, and reduce heat to low.) Place cabbage quarters and carrots on four separate plates, top each with 1/2 can of tuna chunks. Drizzle with olive oil (adds the necessary moisture to the dish), top with salt and pepper to taste.

6/18/2011 Basket - No-Bake Fruit Tart

We've got a lot of fruit laying around. I was going to make a fruit pizza, but it's too hot to turn on the oven. So I made a few fruit tarts.

No-Bake Fruit Tart

Uses: Any fruits you have laying around.

We used our Pampered Chef Tart/Quiche Pan and sprayed it well with non-stick cooking spray.

The crust is your average Rice Krispies Treats, flattened and pressed into the sides of the pan. For the size of our pan, I melted 2 Tbsp. butter in a sauce pan. Then I added 2 C. mini marshmallows and once they had melted, I added 3 C. Rice Krispies. Finally mix it all up and press it in the pan.

The filling is a fruit dip that we enjoy which is easy to make. Beat 8 oz. softened cream cheese, 1 Tbsp. milk, 1 tsp. vanilla, and 1/2 C. brown sugar with a hand blender. Spread over Rice Krispies crust.

Cut up any fruits you have and arrange them on the fruit dip filling. Brush the completed fruit tart with any citrus juice to keep the fruit from browning. I brushed with orange juice.

6/4/2011 Tropical Pack - Mint Syrup (for Mint Ice Cream)

Stole this idea from Lissa, but since she never posted about it, I am. I might as well lather ice cream on my hips, cuz that's where it's going anyway.  But it tastes so much better in your mouth, and it makes your skin so sticky!

Mint Syrup
Uses: Mint

This is the natural color.  You can add green food coloring to make it pretty if you want.

2 c sugar
1 c water
1 cup mint leaves (pressed down)

Dissolve the sugar in the water over medium, remove from heat and add mint leaves. Set aside for an hour, strain out the leaves, and store in your refrigerator. Makes 2 cups. You can use this on top of ice cream or fresh fruit, to make limeade, or to make homemade ice cream.


Homemade Mint Ice Cream

4 c half and half
1/2 c heavy whipping cream
1 c mint syrup
1 pinch salt

Mix, place in your ice cream maker, and churn following the manufacturers guidelines.

6/4/2011 Tropical Pack - Mint Ice Cubes

When I got a bunch of mint in my tropical pack two weeks ago, I was excited.  I love mint! Only when I tried to figure out what cook did I realize that I HAVE NO BLINKIN' CLUE what to do with mint leaves.  I looked up tons of recipes, tried many, and often ended up disappointed. This ended up being my back-up plan, and I love it. Fancy for parties, perfect to add to water or limeade, and my husband devours them.

Mint Ice Cubes
Uses: Mint leaves

This recipes has two alternatives, depending on the number of mint leaves you have. Hot water will bring out the mint flavor, hence more leaves are required with cold water.

12 fresh mint leaves
2 cups boiling water

Place one mint leaf in each cell of an ice cube tray.  Fill with boiling water and allow to cool for 10 minutes.  Place in freezer until solid.
______________________________________

24 fresh mint leaves
2 cups cold water

Place two mint leaves in each cell of an ice cube tray.  Fill with cold water and place in freezer until solid.

6/18/2011 Basket - Mini Stuffed Peppers

My in-laws are fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants sort of people. So when they decided to make a spur-of-the-moment trip to Utah this last weekend, and told me that they'd be visiting Grandpa on Sunday afternoon/evening, I should have known better than to think I'd be off the cuff for dinner.

Well, Sunday morning as I left for church, they changed plans. Suddenly I was in charge of making the big Father's Day dinner. I called my mom, cancelled going to her place, and started churning. What on earth did I have enough of that I could make for one celiac (no gluten) and three people with lactose intolerance? Talk about a quagmire. Luckily, my husband suggested that we had a boat-load of small sweet peppers, and in a stroke of brilliance I realized that I could do mini stuffed peppers. They turned out delish, and everyone could eat them. Points for Janae: 100.

Mini Stuffed Peppers*
Uses: Hoards of small sweet peppers

These are cold leftovers, and they still look yummy.

15-20 small sweet peppers (appx)
1 lb ground beef
2 T onion, chopped
1 c cooked rice
1t salt
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 (8oz) cans tomato sauce
1/2 c shredded mozzarella cheese

Slice off the tops of the small peppers and seed them. Cook in enough boiling water to cover for about 5 minutes, drain. Cook beef and onion over medium heat until brown. Stir in rice, salt, garlic, and one can of tomato sauce; cook until hot. Stuff peppers with beef mixture** and lay sideways on a cookie sheet covered with foil. Pour the remaining can of tomato sauce over the openings of the peppers, sprinkle with mozzarella. Cook for 20 minutes at 350°.

*This recipe is based on Stuffed Peppers from the Betty Crocker Cookbook
** You will likely have left-over filling. Since my kids don't like the peppers, I usually just give them the left-over filling.

6/18/2011 Basket

Today we picked up our basket at the Provo Town Square Mall.

This week's bounty includes:

3 cucumbers

2 celery bunches

2 6 oz. containers of blackberries

19 sweet peppers of assorted colors

11 plums

5 apples

10 vine-ripened tomatoes

1 bunch spinach

1 head romaine lettuce

1 pineapple

1 cantaloupe

1 bunch bananas

1 head cabbage

6/11/2011 Basket - French Onion Soup

Is it just me, or does anyone else agree that we seem to get an incredible amount of onions in our baskets?!  I guess they are cheap, but I typically use 1-2 onions a week, and I seem to get five times that in almost every basket.  Okay, every other basket. Anyway, I'm not really complaining, so much as making an observation. I can use the onions if I try to. And I do.  'Cause I'm cheap like that.

So, I know that Sven already posted this exact same recipe, but I came across it independently several years ago and it really is the best one.  It deserves two posts.  Mostly because I took a picture.

Rich and Simple French Onion Soup
Uses: Onions.  Lots and lots of onions.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Rich-and-Simple-French-Onion-Soup/Detail.aspx

(By the way, ignore when the recipe says  "do not brown the onions."  You most definitely SHOULD brown the onions.  It takes a good 15+ minutes, but you should get those onions good and brown.  The soup is infinitely better with caramelized onions.)

6/4/2011 Basket - Banana Bread, Applesauce, Chocolate Strawberries

We've noticed lately that we tend to accumulate certain fruits and vegetables from week to week. This week we had an abundance of apples, bananas, and strawberries.

Homemade Applesauce

Uses: Apples

This applesauce is super easy and is so much better than anything you can buy at the store.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sarahs-Applesauce/Detail.aspx

Banana Bread

Uses: Banana

I like this recipe for banana bread because it uses over 2 cups of mashed bananas per loaf. When I made mine I added a layer of chocolate chips in the batter, so that my baked bread had a sweet cocoa ribbon in the center. I also added a simple streusel topping.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Banana-Banana-Bread/Detail.aspx

http://www.food.com/recipe/streusel-topping-127724

Chocolate Strawberries

Uses: Strawberries

We did this the easy way and melted both white chocolate and milk chocolate chips over a double boiler. Then dip and serve. My wife did little squiggles of chocolate to make it look good.

6/11/2011 Basket

Kudos to Sven for normally taking the "what we got" pictures.  It's a lot harder than it looks to stack everything up and get a decent picture!  This basket was from the Draper pick-up near Traverse Mountain.

1 watermelon
1 canteloup
6 peaches
3 d'anjou pears
5 bananas
8 cripps pink apples
1 bunch of spinach
4 artichokes
5 yellow onions
1 head of romaine
3 yellow bell peppers
10 small sweet peppers

6/4/2011 Basket - Ants on a Log

In case you're wondering what I did with all that celery, we've been eating a lot of these:

Let's just presume that unless I take credit, I stole the picture, okay?  This one is from AllRecipes again.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Ants-on-a-Log/Detail.aspx

Can't remember the last time I ate raisins.  I'm not much of a raisin girl. But WOW.  They really do add such a sweet taste, and you can hardly even detect them in your mouth.  I've eaten more ants on a log than my three kids have, put together!

6/4/2011 Basket - Old Fashioned Onion Rings

I have this uncanny ability of predicting just what I'm going to get in my basket each week.  If I buy a huge bunch of celery on Thursday, I will get two more huge bunches in my basket on Saturday.  Or, if I buy a bag of onions on Friday, I happen to get ten more the next day.   See? I'm quite remarkable.

So the question is, what do you do if you three huge bunches of celery?  I have no clue.  But if you happen to have 24 onions, I can help.  Word to the wise: even if you *love* onion rings, do not quadruple this recipe.  The regular recipe is enough.  Not that I know from personal experience or anything.

Old Fashioned Onion Rings
Uses: Onions

I stole this picture from Allrecipes.  You'll see that when you click on the link.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Old-Fashioned-Onion-Rings/Detail.aspx

6/4/2011 Basket

This morning we picked up our basket at the Provo Food & Care Coalition.

This week's bounty includes:

6 bananas

10 onions

3 apples

6 ears of corn

2 tomatoes

1 cantaloupe

3 lb. strawberries

2 heads of romaine

1 bunch of celery

5 lb. Yukon gold potatoes

1 bag 'o grapes

5/28/2011 Basket - Tomato Basil Soup

If you like to get Tomato Basil Soup at restaurants, this recipe is NOT for you.  Because after you eat it, you will never again be able to enjoy restaurant Tomato Basil.  It can never taste this good.  Also, you ought to know that I blame this soup for single-handedly adding on one pound to each of my hips this last month.  For the record, it was sooooooo worth it.

Tomato Basil Soup
Uses: Tomatoes

 

I stole this picture off the internet.  But it looks like my soup.  Minus the good photography skills.

6 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and diced

1 (11.5 oz) can tomato-vegetable juice cocktail

1 (14.5 oz) can chicken broth

20 fresh* basil leaves, chopped

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup butter or margarine

Combine tomatoes, vegetable juice, and chicken broth in a large sauce pan over med-high heat. Bring to a boil, then drop heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. Add basil and puree soup in a blender. Return soup to pan over med-low, add cream and butter, and stir til butter is melted.

*or 1 t dry basil, but it won't be nearly as good

5/28/2011 Basket - Minty Pineapple

We have some dear friends who recently moved to the Seattle Washington area who introduced us to this recipe. We got three pineapples in our basket this week, so we've been thinking of interesting ways to use them. This one used one pineapple and some mint from our tropical pack. Try this one; it's amazing.

Minty Pineapple

Uses: Pineapple, mint

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fruit-recipes/pukka-pineapple-with-bashed-up-mint-suga

5/28/2011 Basket - Garden Chowder

So there's this lady down the street, right? You probably have one just like her. You know, the kind that makes gourmet food and has the best recipes, that you conveniently forget to invite to any baby/bridal shower you have because you're embarrassed to let her see how lame you are. (Hey, nothing is wrong with buying those brownie bites from Costco. And serving just that. With water.)

Well, I got this recipe from her. I probably should have had her take a picture of hers, too. I tried to make mine look cool by having plants in the background all faded out. Instead you can just tell how badly I need to weed. Ha.

Garden Chowder (aka mana from heaven)
Uses: potatoes, cauliflower, and broccoli

1/2 c green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 c onion, chopped
1/4 c butter
1 c potatoes, diced
1 c cauliflower, diced
1 c broccoli, diced
1 c carrots, diced
1 c celery, diced
3 c water
3 chicken bouillon cubes
1 t salt
1/4 t pepper
1/2 c flour
2 c milk
1 t parsley
3 c shredded cheddar cheese

In a large pot, saute pepper and onion in butter until tender. Add vegetables, water, bouillon, salt, and pepper, bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Combine flour and milk until smooth, stir into pan. Bring to a boil, cook and stir for two minutes. Add the parsley. Just before serving, stir in cheese until melted. Die and go to heaven.

5/28/2011 Basket - Fruit Pizza

You may need to sit down for this next revelation... I don't like fruit [gasp!]

No, seriously, I don't.  Not plain, at least.  I like just about any fruit in milkshake form, though.  Add enough milk, ice cream, and sugar, and anything can taste good.  Well, except for maybe brussel sprouts. I'm betting they would taste equally nasty with milk, ice cream, or sugar.

ANYWAY. One way that I love to make fruit palatable is in...

Fruit Pizza
Uses: Any fruit from your basket (I used apricots, bananas, and pineapple; plus kiwi from my tropical basket)

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Fruit-Pizza-I/Detail.aspx