Would-be Day 36

Hi folks.  Is anybody out there?  I cannot tell if anyone is actually reading this or if all my visitors are spam searchers.  Haha.  If you are out there reading this, then thank you!  And please do not let the upcoming pictures of green smoothies scare you away....

So yesterday morning, before heading out to volunteer again at our local market, Hollygrove, I whipped up a fruit and kale smoothie for breakfast.  I only had a few random things on hand, so here's what went in:

Mango, pear, and kale, kale, and more kale.  A little lemon juice, agave nectar, flax seeds, and almond milk, too.

Blend it all up, and here's what you get:

Bright green smoothie-licious!  I must say...it was a little bit tough to get all of this down.  I think the kale to other stuff ratio was too high and I felt like I was drinking sludge.  I also do not have a great blender so even though I ran it until I thought it was going to die, the smoothie was still not totally smooth.  However, I know how to fix that problem, and I did this morning with a slightly modified version:

In addition to the stuff above, I added a half banana (in place of some of the mango), and soft silken tofu.  Voila!

I really think the banana is the key.  It makes the texture smoother and it adds a natural sweetness to the mix.

It is also a less frightening shade of green, don't you think?  This one was dee-licious!  Easy to drink and I wanted more after I was finished.  (Note: you can really add lots of different fruits to this smoothie.  I have done kale with blueberries, blackberries, peaches; I have done kale with banana and a small scoop of almond butter; you can also use spinach or other greens in place of or in addition to the kale to get your veggie fix).

So now back to yesterday.  Here is the haul from this week's produce box (plus some additions I purchased separately):

What was in the box:  a big bunch of green onions, turnips, shiitake mushrooms, cremini mushrooms, arugula, salad greens, parsley, tangerines, baby eggplants, 9 sweet potatoes (yes, 9!), green beans, mustard greens, and satsumas.  Wow.  As if that was not enough, I also added on the creole pumpkin, meyer lemons, cucumbers, dried basil, and some cool beans called wing beans--see below.  Aren't they cool?  They were grown by a local Vietnamese CDC, Mary Queen of Vietnam CDC.

So last night, my friend Stacey and I cooked a big batch of the greens soup that we have made before (a simple version of the gumbo z'herbes from a few weeks ago).  She also got the produce box and was anxious to use up the greens in a way that would leave leftovers for easy meals throughout the week.  It included the turnip greens, mustard greens, collards, green onions, celery, and all the other spices and goodness in the recipe.  It turned out delicious, as always.

Tonight I decided to use up several of the veggies in a stir-fry.  I had so many mushrooms from this week and some left over bok choy (yes, from 2 weeks ago and it was still super fresh) so I threw it all together with some green onions, garlic, carrots, wing beans, and mustard greens.  I also marinated some tempeh in a mixture of Bragg's Liquid Aminos, sriracha, ginger, and peanut butter then threw that in the wok at the end.  It all came together like a Thai peanut inspired stir-fry, which made my peanut-loving taste buds verrrry happy.

Serve over some brown rice and you are good to go!

The wing beans tasted just like green beans but milder.  I threw them in towards the end so they would keep their crunch which was a good complement to the wilted greens and mushrooms.  If I had had some peanuts, I would have sprinkled them on top for some more texture, too.  Next time...!

How do you get creative with veggies you find around the market?  How do you use them all up before they go bad, especially when the weekly box is as big as this one was???  I hope I can make good use of everything!  I intend to make a pumpkin curry with the creole pumpkin, and maybe jazz it up with some greens, green beans, mushrooms...using this as a starting point:  Engine 2 Curry filled Pumpkin

Here's to a good, plant-strong week ahead!