Green Bag Special

You can read about the rest of our CSA adventures by visiting:
www.greenbagspecial.com

Green Bag Special has a new home. I moved to my own domain. Join me at GreenBagSpecial.com.

(This blog has a new home at GreenBagSpecial.com.)

I like veggies. There are certain veggies that I daresay I love. However, I am still a little nervous about getting a BAG full of vegetables each week from the CSA farm. The cause of my nervousness: What will I do with all of the mystery veggies?

I may be somewhat literate in the veggie world. I even branch out to the more adventurous veggies, such as artichokes and asparagus. What? Those aren't adventurous to you. Sorry. In either case, those are nothing compared to the wonderful array of veggies I'll be meeting in my close future. Our CSA recently sent a list of what to expect this year, and the list contained some mysterious vegetables: bok choy, collards, kale, kohlrabi, and swish chard, just to name a few.

What's a girl to do? Well, I was thankful to discover a cool book called From Asparagus to Zucchini: A Guide to Cooking Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce, written by the Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition. This just might be my bible for the months ahead.

The book introduces a wide variety of vegetables by providing a general introduction to each, most importantly how to cook and store them. Then, readers are provided a handful of recipes featuring each vegetable. Right now, I can only imagine how useful this guide will be.

Let's see, kohlrabi. The book describes this as a cross between a turnip and a cabbage (not sure this one will make our greatest hits list this summer...we shall see!). Did you know you can peel kohlrabi and eat it like an apple? Right now, I'm imagining a turnip/cabbage apple and thinking, "Eww." If that doesn't appeal to my family, perhaps we'll try the sauteed kohlrabi with onions and butter.

Another handy feature of the book is a chapter of seasonal recipes, which will help me throw together some tasty dishes using the vegetables delivered in my "green bag special." There's even a chapter of kid recipes, which I will hope will inspire my sons to eat more greens.

So, if you are new to the CSA lifestyle, I highly recommend this book.

Why is the lovely, yummy eggplant is such a wallflower of a vegetable? It is such an awesome vegetable to behold: it's purple, it has a funny shape, and it's slightly smooshy. What I love about the eggplant is how easily it can be chopped. I'm a big fan of squash, especially acorn squash; however, I always fear I'll end up in the emergency room after fighting a squash while cutting it. The eggplant causes me so much less stress, plus people can eat the skin. Take that, Squash!

I think it tastes like a cross between a potato and a zucchini. While our culture seems to appreciate the other two, eggplants are rarely used. If you are looking for a wonderful use for an eggplant, here's an idea: Take your favorite lasagna recipe and use eggplant instead of the noodles. To do this, here is what you need to do:

* Preheat your oven's broiler

* Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil, and spray with cooking spray or rub with olive oil

* Cut your eggplant in half, and then slice it into 1/2 inch slices, with each being the approximate width of a lasagna noodle

* Lay the eggplant pieces on the foil. Do not overlap.

* Place in the over and broil each side for 5-7 minutes, or until cooked through

Now, it's ready to replace the noodles in your recipe. This is an extra tasty AND extra healthy swap!

Welcome to Green Bag Special! My family is changing the way we eat, and this blog will be a place to share some of those changes as we go through this evolution.

Our thoughts and course of action are being influenced by various media. We are reading books by Michael Pollan, such as In Defense of Food. We are watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution on television, and we viewed the movie Food, inc.

Why? First and foremost is health. We were shocked to learn that this generation of children may have as many as 1 in 3 become diabetic. As parents, we have scrutinized almost every decision we made regarding our children's care; however, we didn't deeply scrutinize our diets. Now, we want to dig a little deeper to lead our children down a better path. We also were concerned about our own health as we head toward middle age (maybe we're already there--yikes!). When you start having your cholesterol and blood pressured scrutinized, it becomes real that our diets influence our health.

We are also heading down this path to help ourselves lose weight. My husband and I have struggled with weight for most of our adult lives. We know what we need to do: eat less and move more. However, in the day-to-day struggle to keep up with our jobs and families, those simple lessons are hard to follow.

This spring, we are making a major change to our diet, which leads us to the title of this blog: The Green Bag Special. We have joined a CSA (community support agriculture) farm, which allows us to receive a bag of locally-grown organic veggies each week. The contents of the bag of veggies will vary based on what's in season. I have always enjoyed a wide range of vegetables, but I can't say the same for my family (especially my youngest child, who only eats a range of about five-ten foods). The weekly Green Bag Special will encourage me to find new recipes to enjoy the wide variety of vegetables we receive. I plan to use this blog to share what's in the bag and what I plan to do with it.

So, welcome. I hope to make this an interactive blog where others can share their recipes and thoughts, so feel free to share.