Soup and Suits

We get our veggies delivered every week from an organic farm called Farm Fresh to You. It's not as fancy as it sounds, and it's pretty reasonable - we get an extra biggie size box every week for $176/month.

 

I love getting our produce delivered because I hate food shopping. I mean, I really really really loathe it. So if I can avoid the veggie aisle, it makes the weekly trip to the store that much more tolerable. Bonus: the produce is organic. We always have fresh fruit in the fridge for the kids to grab. And usually each week we get stuff in the box that I might not have ever purchased on my own, which adds a sense of adventure to our meals. Kohlrabi anyone? Candy cane beets? Romanesco?

 

Alien fractal broccoli aka Romanesco.

 

 

But to make something like this work - both financially and meal-wise - we had to commit to making a few changes in the way we cook and shop. First: we plan meals around the produce that we get in the box each week and not vice versa. Squash? Making risotto. Fennel? Chopping up some slaw. Collard Greens? Sauteed in a pan. Now of course, we don't eat exclusively like this. Some days I want to make something that is NOT in the box, and I'll have to buy something extra, but the majority of our meals are planned out with our weekly box of ingredients. It's perfect for a lazy cook like me. Our box is delivered on Friday, which is super convenient, because I can take stock of what we have and then plan/shop accordingly over the weekend.

 

Second - and this is important to making it work financially - you have to use up everything in the box. And believe me, this is much harder than it sounds. I have lost whole drawers of beets because I just didn't get around to using them in time. Even now I have 3 squashes lurking on my kitchen counter, just waiting for a recipe. They are funny looking round ones that I've never seen before and I'm not sure what to do with them. I also tossed the list of produce that came with the box of squashes, so I don't know what they are called.

 

But I will eventually find a use for them.

 

Take this weekend, for example. On Saturday morning, I opened my refrigerator to find 8 humongous leeks and 2 ginormous heads of cauliflower staring at me. I'd been collecting the leeks for a couple of weeks now, because, what the hell am I going to do with leeks? But when I realized I had cauliflower too, I suddenly had a plan: Leek and Cauliflower soup. I made some stock from an old chicken carcass in the freezer (yeah - I freeze my whole chicken carcasses) and then cooked up the soup for dinner. Viola!

 

Kids were not thrilled. But hey, meal time can't be a carnival every night. Some dinners are just bound to suck - anyone remember eggs a la golden rod? And this soup did not suck. It was actually delicious. It just wasn't what the chilluns wanted for supper. Left to their own devices, they'd be still eating the sack of Babybels from Costco. But they forced it down - and with only a minimum of gagging. And I offered them large hunks of french bread to dip in the soup, which seemed to miraculously change the flavor of the soup from gaggable to tolerable.

 

And then the next day I got snookered into taking them to In and Out for burgers, which completely nullified any nutritional value that they got from the leek and cauliflower soup. See how it works?

 

G = 0 Kids = 852

 

In other news...

I need to figure out what the hell I'm going to wear for my upcoming triathlon in February. My main stumbling block is my boobs - isn't it always? Since it's a reverse tri, I could just wear a swimming suit under a pair of running shorts and a t-shirt. Except for the fact that I might knock myself - or someone else - out with my swinging breasts. Meghann from Meals and Miles has a hysterical and charming post about her quest to find the perfect outfit for races. After reading it, I kinda feel like I can just skip directly to her conclusion: break down and buy a tri suit. I'll let you know what I find. But unfortunately, I don't promise pictures. Unless I can photoshop. Or wear Spanx, which, I might add, isn't just an idle threat anymore: I recently bought a pair of compression "recovery" socks. Give me a break. They are Spanx for legs.

So why not wear a full Spanx slip for the "recovery" of my ass and trunk?

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