CSA Week 1!

I joined a CSA with a friend this year. We got our first box of produce last Monday. Between the two of us, we got

1 bunch asparagus
1 bunch carrots
1 green leaf lettuce
1 red leaf lettuce
1 bunch kale
2 greenhouse-grown tomatoes

1 bunch beets
2 zucchini
2 summer squash
2 heads of broccoli

I think I'll post what I do with the contents of each box every week (or at least most weeks). We split it evenly, so I got half a bunch of stuff that came in bunches, half a head of each lettuce, and one tomato, zucchini, squash, and head of broccoli. 

I steamed half the broccoli for dinner one night (I know, it's not really a dinner, but I had had a late lunch that day).

First use of the steamer in the new apartment

I love broccoli

I actually ate the carrots for breakfast, just chopped up with a little salt (long story short, my fridge in my new apartment didn't work well so I couldn't buy any milk, etc., so I was in desperate need of things to eat for breakfast on a super hot day). I don't have a picture of the carrots....

I washed all the lettuce the other day and tore it up for salad. I spun it through the salad spinner. I ate some salad for lunch but still have a lot left for a side to dinner tonight!

Lots of salad!

I sauteed the kale and asparagus with just a little ground mustard, salt, and pepper... added a little red wine vinegar to the kale after it had sauteed a bit. That was a delicious dinner, even if it did make me feel like a rabbit eating only greens :)

Asparagus and kale all washed and ready to go 

Dinner!

Asparagus ends... maybe cream of asparagus soup later?

I chopped up the giant tomato and put some home-grown basil on it along with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and salt--a caprese salad sans cheese... made a very filling lunch, actually.

Colossal tomato 

All chopped up

I even had tomato leftovers

So that means I still have some lettuce left, half a head of broccoli, the beet (I got one big beet, my friend got 2 small ones), and the squash/zucchini. Also the asparagus ends, which I might try to incorporate into a soup. I've never been a fan of squashes in savory dishes, so I plan to make my mom's zucchini bread recipe tonight with both the zucchini and yellow squash (I think that'll be interesting), and maybe I'll grill the rest tomorrow with some burgers b/c I have ground beef thawing in my new (functional) fridge. Finally, I'm going to make this awesome recipe with the beets. My friend made it last year for the fourth of July, and it was totally incredible. 

Everything that's left--the asparagus ends, zucchini,
squash, beet, bag of lettuce, and half a head of broccoli

AND we get more food tomorrow! This is so exciting! This was a super busy week, so I didn't cook as much as usual, but I still put a good dent in the food and usually cook just about every night, so I think it'll be just the right amount of food :)

I'll post the zucchini bread and beet recipe/final products as individual posts when I make them! Though I am a big fan of my CSA after this first week, I don't want to give away any details of where I live, so I'll withhold the name. I will say that my mom also tried a farm share this year, and she has been very disappointed, so I'm glad mine worked out!