September's Vegetables

You'll recall that each time we go to the grocery store, we pick up a new ingredient from Aisle 1. It will take a while to make it all the way down the produce aisle, but we're making progress.

Vegetable #1 - Organic Snap Peas - We haven't ever purchased fresh snap peas, although we have used frozen ones, so this was a nice fun experiment. We roasted the peas (after removing the "string") with olive oil, parsley, thyme and Parmesan cheese. Next time - and there probably will be a next time - I'll add the cheese after roasting instead of before.

Vegetable #2 - Organic Broccoli Slaw - The recipe on the back of the bag called for mixing the slaw with Ranch dressing, raisins and sunflower seeds. Since we just purchased the Costco bag of craisins, I used those instead of raisins. This wasn't our favorite salad, but it was nice and crunchy.

That took half the bag, the other half we used instead of the carrots in this recipe. This was much better! It looks pretty much the same, doesn't it? We liked the addition of apples and feta cheese.

Vegetable #3 - Organic Vegetable Medley - Time for some more roasted vegetables, but this time we added some chicken to the pan. I thought the result was a bit too tangy, so we probably won't have this again. However, it was a delicious dinner for one time.

Vegetable #4 - Cauliflower - There wasn't a recipe idea on the back of this package, so I searched the internet looking for something new to try. I didn't feel like turning on the oven, so went with Braised Cauliflower. The result wasn't as pretty as I expected it to be, but at least it tasted good. To make it yourself, saute some onions, garlic, red pepper flakes and sun-dried tomatoes in a bit of olive oil, then add some cauliflower florets and quickly brown the pieces. Add some hot milk and salt and cook until tender.

Vegetable #5 - Regular Snap Peas - Based on the instructions (or lack thereof) on the back of the package, I couldn't decide if the recipe was to be served with raw or cooked snap peas. I decided to cook them briefly. The option was to toss with taco seasoning or Parmesan cheese; we went with the Parmesan version. Even after taking the time to de-string the "ready to eat" product, the peas in this particular package were quite "woody" so we didn't particularly like them, but we did eat them all. Fiber is good for you! I wonder if it was due to the fact that they weren't organic, or if it was just a dud batch.