After receiving my box of produce today, I thoroughly enjoyed getting out my cookbooks and searching for ways to prepare the bounty of produce I received today. One of my recent goals has been to try to prepare food that I can take with me in my lunch throughout the week. While I'm a huge fan of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I also believe I could probably benefit from a more varied diet during the week. Yet, when I'm busy, it seems the last thing I really want to do is put effort into anything other than pb&j.
So what a great afternoon! I chopped cucumbers, bell peppers, onions, olives, and tomatoes before adding in cooked rotini and italian dressing for a pasta salad. I made a huge pot of brown rice which was used for my bell pepper, tomato, soy cheese, olive, and rice quesadillas tonight, and provided me with enough left over that I can easily create several other dishes out of it. I brought in the basil plant off the back porch to remind me to make and freeze pesto in the next couple of days. And throughout the afternoon, sunshine streamed through the kitchen, a local musician crooned from the stereo, and the cats wandered around aimlessly.
Even after dinner and the salad, I still have an entire drawer full of produce and all that stuff in the freezer still to use. I learned that the greens that I had no clue about are collards, so I'll have to come up with some way to use them...or pass them off to my housemate. I never expected that cooking and veggies could make me so happy, but playing around with produce was one of the best parts of my day.
Some other beautiful parts to this day included:
-waking up to the sound of rain on my roof and the hollowness of my windchime
-crunching through the red, rust, and yellow leaves
-sitting on the back porch to finish my reading and enjoying the intermittent sun and rain passing by
-scritching the heads of cats and hearing their contented purrs
-the feel of leaves as I ran my hand across multiple bushes
-the 2 beautiful roses blooming on the newly hacked bush
-a mid afternoon phone call with my father
-a supportive chat session with my sister
-and researching local organic food options for my SIL
I hope you all have been passing through a beautiful day yourselves!
2 comments:
Just yum! I want to have lunch with you.
I love collard greens, cooked in a bit of olive oil with a lot of garlic!
How fun to receive an entire box of produce a week! Learning new veggies is awesome! Can you eat it all or are you doing some preserving as well? Greens make yummy smoothies --- raw, mixed with fruit juices or frozen bananas --- many options and delicious!
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