Dinner in a Pinch

You've all heard moms go on and on and on about how busy and exhausted they are, right? I can't honestly say that I'm not over scheduled or ridiculously tired, I'm just good old fashioned lazy.

That's why James ate this for dinner on Saturday:

Right. That's an unpeeled cucumber, some cheese, and a tomato with the stem still firmly in place. Not only is this meal nutritious, it also builds character.

For lunch on Sunday, James at a tomato:

Yeah, just a tomato.

And then there's Maggie. She likes her food cooked, so she got a hot dog roll:

Just holler if you want the recipes.

(...there's another new post down below.)

Week 7: Holy Over Abundance!

July 24, 2010

Oh. My. Balls. This week's share was beyond ginormous. Any kind of plant eater, even a triceratops, would be 100% blown away by this haul.

Check it out:

Do you ever fill your entire shopping cart with vegetables?  Me neither, but trust me, this load would have done it. If I had bought this produce from the grocery store, there's no way I could have fit my Cocoa Pebbles into the basket--unbelievable.

The breakdown looks something like this:

3 bunches of kale (I took one from the extra pile because I'm insane)

2 bags of lettuce

3 heads of cabbage (there were a zillion in the extra pile, but I passed)

2 bunches of swiss chard

1 giant zucchini

2 onions with ginormous greens

2 yellow squash

2 heads of garlic

1 light green squash

2 pat a pan squash

11 (!) cucumbers (3 from the extra basket)

1 bag of multi-colored carrots

I also headed over to the pick-your-own section and went home with nice, fluffy bunches of basil, cilantro, parsley, mint, and dill.

I've already made a huge batch of hash browns with kale, roasted carrots (this time with onions and dill), and a nice, big bowl of cole slaw. If you want more explicit recipes for any of these earth shattering delicacies, let me know and I'll post in on the recipes page--but if not, I'll bask in my continued laziness.

Today, I want to focus on swiss chard. Here's a stock photo:

I know it's beautiful to look at, but you know what? It's disgusting.

One time, when I was a kid, my sister dared to me eat some ear wax. Let's just say that swiss chard can be held solely responsible for a really nasty flash back.

Thankfully, I learned how to manipulate swiss chard beyond the point of recognition--in the form of pesto.

We already ate one batch, but I put four more in the freezer. Apparently, it freezes really well:

The bag on the left is a double batch and the other two are enough for one box of pasta each. Thankfully, the pesto used up every last leaf of that completely hideous vegetable of the devil swiss chard.

I used my immersion blender to chop and mix 2 bunches of swiss chard, a handful of basil, a handful of parsley, a few green onions, some slivered almonds, and enough vegetable oil to give it the right consistency. Salt and pepper only help the cause.

And now, I'll leave you with some pictures of James and his new best friend, the crazy cucumber.

It's a necklace:

It's a crown:

It's a belt:

It's a mustache:

Hoo boy--it's either a noose or an Abraham Lincoln beard. Hard to tell: