ICIA killed my waistline

It was a long, fun weekend of road tripping to Iowa to see my Spartans play good ball.  My lovely friend decided to treat us, her ‘foodie’ friends, to some of Iowa City’s signature eateries.  Alan & I committed to total carb overload – sigh.  It would NOT be a dining experience at Atlas without 1) Baked macaroni topped with this marinated tomato delicious-ness…and 2) a buffalo chicken burrito.  This was no ordinary buffalo chicken burrito, folks.  It was filled with mashed potatoes, carrots, celery, and crunchy onion straws.  UN REAL.  The following day after tailgate, we dined at Quinton’s.  You can pretty much call this place the home of soup bread bowls.  What a lovely way to warm up after a fall football game.  Did I mention the intense tailgates, filled with traditional Iowa dishes!?  I didn’t catch all of the names – too much captains and coke, perhaps?  Opps.  I think every tailgate had a batch of scotcharoos – essentially a rice crispy treat, made with peanut butter and topped with a huge layer of chocolate.  And some kind of pickle pinwheel, rolled in smoked meat.  Come on, people…ICIA killed my waistline.

So after my long, fun weekend of….non-stop eating in Iowa, I came home to do my normal refrigerator ‘clean out.’  I find that sometimes we have lingering items, that either need to get used or get tossed.  So, I embarked on a 2 hour cooking spree…ya know, while all the goodies from ICIA digested.

·         Quiche.  I am huge advocate that you can put just about anything you like in a quiche and it will taste good.  Not to mention this is a easy re-heat weekday breakfast.  So, I chopped up our remaining fresh herbs (sage, thyme, and rosemary), 1 pre-cooked chicken sausage, piqullo peppers, finely sliced golden beets, and then my ‘usual’ quiche egg mixture.  And it tasted great as I was munching at my desk this morning.

·         Asian Slaw.  This is a staple in our house, mainly because we have mastered the vinaigrette – vegetable oil, apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt.  I shredded ½ head of cabbage, 1 carrot, a few chives.  Gingered some golden beets.  Combine with the dressing, add sesame seeds.

·         Roasted Buttercup Squash.  I received this in my farmer’s CSA box 2 weeks ago, but haven’t touched it.  Guilty…didn’t know what to do with it.  Decided to slice off the top, scoop out the seeds, and roast for a little over an hour.  It turned out delicious…sweet, weirdly savory.  I removed the rind, mashed with a fork, and stored in the fridge for dinner tonight.

·         Meatballs.  Still attempting to create the best meatball recipe ever.  Found this one in Real Simple to use as inspiration - http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/spaghetti-bacon-meatballs-00100000068418/index.html   The bacon was a nice touch.  I think I’ll incorporate it in the future.  And is there anything other than Spaghetti and Marinara that pairs better with Meatballs?  No.  So we whipped that up for dinner.  I mean after my carb binge in Iowa, I figured, why stop now?

Revived

Whelp, back at it.  My short lived attempt at maintaining a blog ended after 3 posts.  Not that I have lack of topics to write about, but the lame excuse of lack of time.  However, I have a hankering for blogging.  Crossing my fingers for no more lame excuses.

I’d have to say the most life changing foodie thing that’s happened to me in the past year is enrolling in a CSA.  CSA = Community Supported Agriculture = Members of the community make an upfront financial commitment to a local farm and basically become shareholders of the farm.  In return, the member receives seasonal food from the farm each week.  Mine happens to be certified organic; however there is no reason to be uneasy about the farms that aren’t ‘certified.’  This certification is uber expensive, and many local farms still practice organic farming without it.

 Getting my CSA box every week is pretty much like Christmas morning for me every Wednesday.  I even get a little sneak peek every Tuesday, when Farmer Vicki sends me an ‘update from the farm’ and a list of what to expect in my box.  With every bit of excitement this adventure has created in my household, it has created a bit of challenge.  I consistently attempt to keep weeknight dinners unique.  I have learned to prepare more NEW vegetables & fruit in the past 6 months, than I ever imagined.  At the same time, we get seasonal crops.  So, sometimes, we get bundles of the same veggie for 4 weeks in a row.  And I have to think of new ways to incorporate into our meals, without feeling a bit of wear out.

 This week…beets. 

 I love roasted beets.   Topped with julienned basil, crumbled goat cheese, and balsamic.  I really thought I would never get sick of that exact combination.  But, my crisper has been stock piling beets, and I realized it is because we have eaten the same beet recipe like 7 times in the past 2 months. 

 So, I have been experimenting with different ways to integrate.  I found a few good combinations that I’ll try again.

*Combine the following – 1 julienned beet, 2 thinly sliced apples, minced shallot, ½ thinly sliced celery root (a few celery stalks would work too), juice of 1 lemon, olive oil, S&P

*Roasted dinner – add in beets with other root veggies like potatoes and carrots, and roast with a favorite roasting meat, like pork tenderloin

*and just to pass along my favorite way to roast beets, I tightly wrap multiple beets in a giant piece of aluminum foil.  Add in an obscene amount of good olive oil inside.  Roast on 400 until you can easily piece with a fork.  Save the beet infused oil and use to drizzle on peppery greens.