CSA week two, plus grocery findings

Good morning and happy Sunday! Hope that everyone had a great week and weekend so far! Our week was pretty busy and I did some "throw together" dinners during the week without many pictures. However, I did get a pretty nice CSA haul this week:

I didn't do the extra fruit share this week - mostly because it was still apples, and living in Upstate NY has spoiled me to want apples when they're in season. Still, I got: 

• 2 kohlrabi (a new-to-me veggie)
• Frozen green beans, corn and blueberries
• Oyster and shiitake mushroms
• A handful of onions
• A big bag o' garlic 
• Stella Vallis Tomme cheese

I also still have a decent amount of veggies from last week:

• Onions and potatoes are being stored right now (I also got a free bag of russet potatoes from PC!)
• Still have carrots from last week 
• Still have frozen broccoli from last week

Okay, so what have I done/am planning to do with all of these veggies?

• Last week's garlic bulb was gone in a couple of days. I am realizing how much I use garlic in just about everything! 
• I'm storing the onions and potatoes in modified Trader Joe's paper bags, in cool dark locations, so hopefully they last well until I need to use them. 
• The carrots are in my fridge - I need to use them up soon. 
•  The pea greens from last week ended up being polished off by me - raw - Sunday as a snack while preparing lunch. 
• The apples from last week were brought in to work with lunch by my husband and myself. The last of the apples were sliced last Sunday, and eaten with brie. 
• The watermelon radishes were all used up in salads. 
• The frozen broccoli, green beans, corn and blueberries are all in the freezer still, so I'm holding off on using them up. 
• Friday night, we brought a rotisserie chicken home from Price Chopper for dinner. I sauteed the frozen kale with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper and used some leftover mashed potatoes. It was good - and an easy meal!
• Saturday night I made chicken tortilla soup from one of my light and healthy cookbooks, but the only thing I put in it from the CSA haul were onions and garlic. 
• The cheese will be tried today, after my boot camp class at the gym! Cheese, once it's opened, never lasts more than a couple of days in this house. 
• This evening, we're planning broiled steaks with sauteed mushrooms and onions (with garlic) and, if I feel ambitious, homemade garlic and rosemary bread. 
• The rest of the garlic will get chopped up, mixed with EVOO, and frozen. (Food safety tip: it's important to freeze that mixture, and not refrigerate it!)
• During the week I'm planning an cooking tilapia, and making this kohlrabi recipe to go with it: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/roasted-kohlrabi/
• Carrots may get used in salads. If not, I have to make a soup next weekend! 

I also found some interesting stuff to stock the freezer with during my travels on Saturday:

• Walmart now carries more gluten free frozen goods! I found Tyson gluten free chicken tenders and nuggets in their freezer and picked up the tenders. I still haven't found the GF Purdue chicken anywhere. Once in a while when we feel like being bad, chicken tenders/nuggets with homemade french fries is a necessary dinner.

• Price Chopper had Contessa frozen  convenience dinners on sale (Buy One, Get One) last week. I haven't tried them, but they caught my eye and some of them were labelled GF! After reading the ingredient label, they're not that bad for a convenience meal - each package has 2 servings, and they're between 300 and 350 calories per serving. We picked up the Shrimp Fried Rice and Paella meals to store in the freezer for when we need a quick meal.

My first CSA

I've been toying with the idea of subscribing to a CSA for a couple of years now. I'll admit that the reason I haven't is basically laziness - I didn't really want to be bothered having to go somewhere inconvenient to me to pick stuff up. Last week, though, I started a Field Goods subscription for the first time, and I am really impressed! 

As those of you who follow me on social media know, I've been trying really hard to eat healthier this year. So far it's paying off, and my clothes are fitting much better (I even dropped a size when I bought new pants for work a week ago!). But, the fact that Field Goods drops off to a location convenient to my office, combined with the fact that I'd like to incorporate more veggies into my diet, made me sign up. 

Right now I'm signed up for a $37 subscription. That gets me: 

• The "Small" fruit and vegetable share, which they say is good for 1-2 people. 
• The extra fruit share
• The herb and allium share
• The cheese share (which is what my husband was most excited about, lol)

All right, so what did I get? 

First, not pictured: 

• We got a Caerphilly cheese from the cheese share. Man, that stuff was good - didn't last long enough to take any pictures. 
• We got frozen broccoli and kale, which is sitting in my freezer as we speak. 
• Carrots (which I forgot to take a picture of for some reason)

Pea greens (I've never had these before, but they were good!):

Yukon gold potatoes: 

Watermelon radishes, another "new-to-me" veggie: 

From the herb and allium share, I got a whole bag of onions, and a bonus bulb of garlic (not pictured):

Also, I got a whole bunch of yummy gala and fuji apples (from the combined fruit and small fruit and vegetable shares): 

All right, so what have I made with these so far?

First, there's this awesome salad: 

Organic baby greens, pea greens, watermelon radish, cucumber, red bell pepper, carrot, mushroom, and chickpea. That's one good (and colorful!) salad, and I still have some left over for tomorrow's lunch. And I love how the radishes really do look like little watermelon slices! :-)

Then, last night's dinner, szechuan style shrimp. I use this base recipe, but I double the sauce (and obviously use gluten free soy sauce) and add a lot of veggies. In this case, I wanted to use up some veggies that I had on hand, so I threw in snow peas, the last of my red bell pepper, mushrooms and baby corn. I serve it with jasmine rice, and I was so stuffed by the end of the meal that I didn't even have room for more of that awesome salad (but I guess I did get a lot of veggies in the main dish). 

Other stuff that I didn't take pictures of - Well, for breakfast a couple days I did a hard boiled egg with a sliced apple, and yesterday's lunch was apple slices and light brie cheese. I also polished off the pea greens (raw) yesterday. Right now I'm storing the onions and potatoes and carrots, and hoping to find something to make this weekend (if nothing else, maybe a chicken soup). 

Can't wait to see what this week's bundle brings!