While I was in Portland, I found this recipe for Winter Vegetable Stew with Maple Glazed Tofu in the Oregonian and thought it sounded perfect since I knew our Full Circle Farm box was going to have turnips, which I have never cooked before. I made a couple changes: I left out the fennel, used mostly chicken broth instead of water, chopped regular bok choy instead of baby (because baby bok choy was not available at the store), and cut my tofu into 16 squares instead of 8 rectangles. The other major change is that we don’t have a pressure cooker so we just made it in a normal pot, and it worked just fine. Matt helped chop all the veggies and made the glaze for the tofu, so it went pretty quickly and was super easy and pretty fast. Plus, I just heated up some of what was left (it made a giant pot of soup) and it works pretty well as leftovers–hooray!
Breakfast with scrambled cheddar eggs, toast (with jam and cinammon sugar), turkey bacon (not really bacon, but still delicious), and fresh squeezed orange juice from our CSA oranges!
The last time we got oranges in our Full Circle Farm box, we planned to peel and eat them as snacks, but by the time we were in the mood, most of them had gone bad. So this time I used our three giant navel oranges to squeeze some fresh organic orange juice with nothing added! It only made one small glass (a little over 1 cup of juice), but it was pretty wonderful. We shared the OJ and each had some french press coffee (Matt’s breakfast job).
A great start to the day!
We are trying to maximize our use of the digital camera AND to eat lots of new healthy foods, and so this blog will probably take a food-related spin more often.
We recently joined Full Circle Farm‘s CSA, so we’re trying lots of new fruits and veggies. The first couple weeks were a little rough and a couple things went to waste, but now we’re working on making a two-week meal plan everytime we get a box (we get one small box bi-weekly), so that we can ideally eat more fruits as snacks (something we always say we’ll do, and then have a hard time following through) and use up the veggies that we’re not so used to cooking with.
After a week in Portland for work (where I stayed at the super-fun Kennedy School hotel), I was completely tired of eating out. So we planned a homemade dinner for Saturday night! We spent the afternoon in Kirkland getting the car’s oil and filter changed, buying puppy toys, building a futon, and grocery shopping! We really over-estimated how long the futon would take to put together, so dinner was SUPER late. We made a yummy basic roasted chicken, with super crispy yellow fingerling potatoes and simple steamed broccoli. So delicious! Plus, I used the drippings from the chicken to make a tasty sauce which the potatoes soaked up nicely. While we waited for the chicken to roast we had an apple and a pear for a snack and a green salad with cucumbers, tomatoes and organic croutons! Our apple, pear, potatoes, broccoli, lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes all came from the CSA! A few were from Full Circle Farm, a few were from other local NW farms, and the rest were from other organic farms farther away. So yummy, fresh and healthy!
BONUS: I got to use my new digital oven probe thermometer that Matt got me for Christmas from Williams-Sonoma! Spectacular, and so fancy!! AB would be proud.
Let’s try to get back to blogging regularly!
Chicken:
6 chicken tender strips, pounded flat
1 cup honey
1/4 cup soy
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp vegetable oil
red pepper flakes
cumin
onion powder
cayenne pepper
– mix honey through pepper and coat chicken in Ziploc bag, store in fridge to marinate for at least 30 minutes
Stuffing:
1 1/2 to 2 cups prepared, plain couscous
1 TB parmesan cheese
3 TB shredded Italian blend cheese
1 egg, beaten
Italian seasoning
salt
pepper
cumin
– mix all together in small bowl and set aside until chicken is ready
Sauce:
2 TB chicken broth
2 TB honey
2 tsp soy sauce
cayenne pepper
cumin
– mix all together and set aside
Preparation:
– preheat oven to 350 degrees
– in lightly buttered/greased casserole, spread a half-inch layer of plain couscous (I made an entire box of instant couscous and used some for stuffing and some for pan, with a little leftover)
– with one piece of chicken, lay flat, top with 1-2 TB of stuffing mixture and roll. repeat with all pieces and place them on top of couscous in casserole
– cover casserole with foil and place in heated oven and bake for 20 minutes
– remove cover and baste with half of reserved sauce
– return to oven for another 10 minutes and repeat basting with rest of sauce
– cook for another 5-10 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through
