It's farmshare day!

Tuesday afternoon around 4:30 PM is quickly becoming one of my favorite times of the week.

Reasons why:
#1 - It's not Monday anymore
#2 - It's almost time to go home
#3 - It's Farmshare Time!!!

For those of you that somehow don't know about my farmshare from Know Your Farms, my coworker Elizabeth and I split it each week. It is delivered to the office at 4:30 PM on Tuesdays, with all of the fruits and veggies from local farms within 100 miles of Charlotte. It is AWESOME. For the price of about $15.00 per week, I get more produce than I should be able to handle (but don't you worry... I handle it just fine).

Part of this farmshare is the reason I have taken on a flexitarian diet - I am not opposed to eating meat (and Friday night's scheduled dinner is a big ol' steak from Outback... I have a coupon.), I just choose to eat a mostly vegetarian diet. I eat meat on occasion throughout the week (mainly deli meat or turkey/chicken sausage). Anyway, due to this new diet change and my newfound love for working out, I have decided to take a little Weight Watchers hiatus and see if I can lose weight on my own by living a healthy lifestyle. I seem to have plateaued since umm March with Weight Watchers and essentially keep gaining and losing the same 3 lbs. While frustrating, I know I need to make some more lifestyle changes in order to get these last 10 lbs off.

I digress - the whole point of this blog post was to discuss (as promised) what came of my farmshare this week!

After work, I made myself workout - went on an enjoyable run/walk (I put run first this time because I think I did more running!!) and did some strength training. Came back, showered, and got down to business in the kitchen.

Let me first address that I am trying to grow an herb garden - or rather, keep an already grown herb garden alive. I can hardly keep myself alive let alone plants or other living creatures - so this is an experiment... See my cute little herb garden below: thyme, oregano, and basil. I included some fresh herbs in my recipes tonight. Shout out to my mom for giving me the moral support it took to make the $8.00 investment in these plants :-)

Recipe 1: Sauteed Peppers and Onions - very simple recipe. I diced up fresh green pepper, onion, and seasoned with Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle seasoning.

Recipe 2: Veggie and rice deliciousness - I do not have an official title for this recipe, but it is definitely delicious.

First I put a pot full of brown rice on to boil (1 cup of dry rice cooked according to directions). I diced up eggplant and onions and sauteed in a large pot with a little olive oil and garlic. Later in the cooking process I added fresh basil and cuban oregano (courtesy of the farmshare) After the veggies were softened and appeared to be fully cooked, I added some sliced green olives. Here is where I usually add a can of diced tomatoes. I did not have a can of diced tomatoes, but fortunately I had a container of homemade tomato sauce courtesy of my lovely coworker Elizabeth. I added the rice and the sauce and voila! Veggie and rice deliciousness. The beauty of this dish is that with a rice and tomato base, basically any veggie could be added and taste yummy. The first time I made this recipe, I happened to use what I had on hand which happened to be the components I continue to use due to their deliciousness.

Note to self: need to restock the garbanzo beans... Side comment: I ordered some fun pantry organizers (can holder and small shelf) as well as new food storage containers (yay for new Rubbermaid Glass!) from our employee purchase website today. Can't wait until they arrive!

Recipe 3: Gnocchi and chicken sausage pasta sauce - I cheated and pulled the sauce out of the freezer (pasta sauce, spinach, and garlic and fontina chicken sausage from Trader Joe's). I also bought the Whole Grain Gnocchi from Trader Joe's and put it all together. Not a farmshare recipe, but this was my dinner tonight - carbloading after my workout :-)

Recipe 4: Roasted Potato and Onion - diced potato, onion, fresh garlic, fresh thyme roasted in the oven until it appeared to be cooked. It's as simple as it looks. Finished off with a bit of salt and pepper to taste.

As you can tell, I was busy in the kitchen today but now I have lots of food to last me the rest of the week! My potato and onion dish turned out kind of like hash - I might have that for breakfast tomorrow morning with some grits. Yum! Lunch tomorrow is at Flat Iron Kitchen in Davidson. If you haven't been there yet, you should... the staff is very attentive and the food is delicious. I already know what I am getting and it is what I had last time (boring, yes. so what? delicious, definitely.) A shrimp salad with a basil citrus vinegarette, goat cheese, picked beets, and some peppers over spring greens served with a side of multigrain bread. Nom nom. Tomorrow, the week will be halfway over!! Dinner tomorrow night is my refried bean "tostada" with arugula instead of spinach... or should I have a hummus wrap with arugula? Sigh, the decisions...