Frugal Friday: Homemade Salsa with my CSA Leftovers

It’s funny how, when you put an idea out there -- into the vast wide universe -- it comes back to you.  Not to get all hippy-dippy, but this weekend I was thinking about making some beautiful fresh salsa with a few leftover tomatillos I had, and later that day, my brother-in-law offered me all the tomatoes I could pick from his garden. Score!

I had to use these up, and I knew I had more than one serving’s worth of salsa here, so I decided to freeze what I made.  

First, I gathered everything from my pantry and refrigerator that could remotely be a part of a salsa. I found:

• Cherry Tomatoes
• Grape Tomatoes
• Jalapenos
• Small green peppers
• Sweet Onions
• Tomatillos

Perfect ingredients for a beautiful, fresh salsa -- and all hand picked and organically grown!

Second, I started chopping everything together. I did this in batches, using my Pampered Chef Food Chopper. I seriously love that thing. Of course, both kids loved banging it on the cutting board. It provided a solid seven minutes of entertainment for them before they ran back off to play dinosaurs.

Finally, I seasoned the salsa with a pinch of salt, black pepper, and a touch of cumin, and ladled it carefully into my mason jars. Isn’t it pretty?

I’m so looking forward to opening the freezer in the middle of winter and finding this delicious salsa. It will add a fresh, healthy kick to plain cheese or chicken quesadillas, which my kids absolutely love. 

We only have one more week of our CSA deliveries. I’m glad I’ll have this little reminder of late summer tucked away in my freezer.

Frugal Fridays: Fried and Fabulous Eggplant Parmesan

My husband has never insisted that I blog about something before. After eating my version of eggplant parmesan, he was absolutely adamant that I share this recipe.  For my part, I’m thrilled it turned out well, considering I had absolutely no plan other than to use up the stuff in my CSA basket. Here’s what I had to work with:

• 7 small graffiti eggplants
• 1 pint of cherry tomatoes
• 6 beets
• lots and lots of eggs -- we get an egg share but we haven’t been eating many lately
• basil

Pretty random, right? But I have a decently stocked pantry so I decided to make some kind of eggplant parmesan. I’ve always baked, broiled, or grilled my eggplant in the past, but this time I thought, what the heck, let me fry it up and see what happens.

What happens is the cook loses an eyebrow, but the food turns out delicious. 

One Dish Eggplant Parmesan

For the fried eggplant:

• 6-8 small graffiti eggplant, cut into medallions
• 4 tbsp flour
• 2 eggs + 1 tbs milk, mixed and seasoned with pepper
• 1/2 -3/4 cup Panko bread crumbs 
• 2 tsp Italian seasoning
• salt & pepper to taste

1. Take out 3 bowls, and create a breading assembly line. The first should be flour, the second should be the eggs, and the third should be the Panko mixed with Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper.  2. Dip the eggplant in the flour, then the eggs, then coat completely with the bread crumb mixture.

3. In a large saute pan, pour in enough canola or vegetable oil to coat the bottom of the pan. 4. Heat the oil on MEDIUM heat. Oil that is boiling hot pops and sprays. Everywhere. Including my eyebrow. 

5. Toss the coated eggplant into the saute pan and fry for about 4 minutes on each side, until brown and crispy. Set on a paper towel on a plate.

For the pasta: 

12-16 oz dry pasta

1 cup parmesan cheese

1 pint cherry tomatoes

1. Cook the pasta according to package directions. Set aside 1/2 cup of cooking water to help thicken the sauce.

2. Drain pasta (minus the 1/2 cup cooking water).

3. Add 3/4 cup cheese to the pasta and mix until mostly melted

4. Add the cherry tomatoes.  The hot pasta will slightly cook them until tender and sweet.

5. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Put Everything Together:

1. Spoon the pasta into a large serving bowl

2. Add the fried eggplant and mix together gently

3. Top with 1/4 cup grated parmesan and chopped basil

Mangia!!

Oh wait. I forgot to mention the beets, didn’t I?  I boiled and peeled them. That’s it. And guess what? My kids both turned their noses up at the eggplant, but devoured boiled beets. Who knew?

Frugal Fridays: Chicken Quesadillas with Fresh Tomatillo Salsa

You might have noticed that I changed the post title from $5 Friday to Frugal Fridays. I wanted to have a little more leeway regarding recipes that I'd like to share with you!


Today's Frugal recipe comes almost completely from this beautiful CSA basket that came yesterday:

The fresh cherry tomatoes, tomatillos, jalapenos, and onions were just begging me to make a salsa. Because I always plan my meals around condiments, quesadillas sounded like a fabulous accompaniment, especially since I had some leftover chicken from my freezer cooking extravaganza.

Chicken Quesadillas

• Tortillas
• Shredded chicken (I used 2 breasts, this is a great way to stretch your protein and use up leftovers)
• Shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 onion, diced finely
• 1 ear of corn, cooked and cut off the cob

Sprinkle all ingredients in between two tortillas and bake in the toaster oven for 5 minutes at 400.

Tomatillo Salsa

• 5 large tomatillos
• 5-6 cherry tomatoes
• 1 small onion
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• salt and pepper to taste

Finely dice all the vegetables and mix with the spices.  The beauty of this salsa is its fresh simplicity.  All local, organic ingredients, picked fresh just hours ago. Gorgeous!

 The bright, sweet tomatoes really pop in your mouth, and are a perfect accompaniment to the cheesy, gooey quesadillas.  

What to Do With All That !$^&%*%*$ Zucchini

I promise the words “Deceptive” or “Sneaky” will not appear in this post.

Ideally, I believe that vegetables and other wholesome foods should be presented to children simply and in their natural state.  

I'll wait until you're done laughing.

 I have a friend whose child is so averse to vegetables, he picks flecks of green oregano off his pizza.  

Even if you and your family don’t mind eating vegetables al fresco, there comes a time when everyone is mildly (or extremely!) sick of eating the never-ending summer bounty of zucchini.  For the next couple of weeks I’ll be presenting a variety of different zucchini recipes for normal cooks who just want their families to eat healthy food, darn it, and stop whining! 

Maybe that’s just me, though.

A few tips if you’re in the business of disguising zucchini. While the skin is edible (though it should always be washed well first), you will have better luck hiding the featured ingredient if you use a vegetable peeler (I like the OXO Good Grips Swivel Peeler) to peel off all traces of the green skin. The pale green flesh is much less noticeable for recipes in which it is imperative that no trace of any offending green shows through.

Anyway, let's kick this thing off with one of my absolute favorite ways to "hide" zucchini in baked goods: lots and lots of chocolate.

These delicious muffins are such a decadent dessert, no one will know that the star ingredient is the Vegetable-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named.

Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

(adapted from Bakingbites.com)

2 c. flour (could do 1 cup whole wheat, 1 cup white)

1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder

1 c. sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 eggs (OR 1 egg plus 1 tbsp water with 2 tsp ground flaxseed -- again, upping the healthy factor)

1/3 c vegetable oil (or a comparable amount of applesauce)

3/4 c. buttermilk

1 tsp. vanilla

2 medium zucchini, shredded

1 c. chocolate chips or chunks

1. Preheat Oven to 350.

2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, and salt

3. In a medium bowl, whisk eggs, oil, buttermilk, and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients and stir until just combined

4. Fold in  zucchini and chocolate chips until evenly distributed

Bake for 25-35 minutes. Makes 1 dozen muffins. Can easily be doubled; these muffins freeze beautifully.

Make it Yourself Monday: Easy Pickled Radishes

We have radishes in abundance from our CSA box this week.  So far I’ve prepared them in the most obvious ways possible: in salads and in a stir-fry.  After discussing it with my Stepmom, she gave me the fabulous idea to make Radish Pickles! She is one of the best cooks I know, but there have been a few times where she tells me how “easy” a recipe is only to have me completely bungle the whole thing. 

This recipe is super-easy, for real. I whipped these up in 10 minutes, and then refrigerated them overnight.  

Radish Pickles

5 Radishes

1 1/2 cup Apple Cider Vinegar

1/4-1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1. Add the cider vinegar, brown sugar, and salt to an 8 oz mason jar. Make sure to leave room at the top for displacement when you add the radishes (My kitchen rug now reeks of vinegar. You figure it out. Guess I should have taken physics.) Mix gently.

 2. Cut the radishes into strips, whatever size you want your “pickles” to be.

3. Add radishes to the jar with the vinegar mixture, cover,  and refrigerate at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.

Variation 1: For my second batch, I kept the radishes, vinegar, and sugar the same, but added 1/4 tsp ground ginger, 1/2 tsp soy sauce, and one smashed garlic clove.  They were divine.  

Variation 2: Use the original recipe but add one hot pepper to the jar. This will give the pickles a nice spicy kick.

Kohlrabi= German for Delicious

All week I've been thinking up delectable things to do with  what will be in my CSA (community-supported-agriculture) box on Thursday.  The strawberries and rhubarb are a no-brainer, and I have no problem whipping up a delicious, fresh salad from the salad greens, spinach, and radishes.  The kohlrabi, though, had me stymied, until my husband reminded me of the amazing kohlrabi slaw I made last year.  


I'm embarassed to say that when I first saw it in my basket, I didn't even know what it was. Always the etymologist, once I found out that "kohl" means cabbage in German, I immediately decided I was going to make a slaw with it.If you're stumped by this bulbous, Sputnik-shaped growth in your CSA box, here is a fabulous recipe that will have you falling in love with kohlrabi.


Kohlrabi Slaw, serves 4
2-3 large kohlrabi bulbs, stems and outer skin cut off, julienned
1 large onion, diced
1 cup craisins
1/2 cup Wegmans Yogurt Coleslaw dressing (or whatever cole slaw dressing you prefer)


Mix it all up, refrigerate, and you have a beautiful, healthy summer salad!