Veggies 4 Me

While folks up north are starting to enjoy apple cider and fall foliage, down here we're just getting started on the local growing season.

This year I joined a CSA called Veggies4U.com - I paid up front for a weekly box of vegetables starting today through next May. This is a great way not only to get delicious fresh produce, but to support local small farmers. I'm very excited to start cooking from the farm!

This week's haul:

Five ears of corn, three cucumbers, two yellow squash, a spaghetti squash, an eggplant, an avocado, and a bag of baby arugula. We'll see what good things I can do with these throughout the week.

Pretty Corny

Corn soup and grilled cheese sandwich with tomato:

Corn soup:

4 slices center cut bacon, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
3 ears of sweet corn, kernels removed
2 cups 2% milk
Salt and pepper to taste

Cook the bacon in a large skillet until the bacon is crisp and the fat is rendered. Remove bacon and set aside.

Add the celery and onion to the skillet and saute in the bacon fat for about 10 minutes, then add corn kernels, reserving 1 cup of kernels, and saute for 10 minutes more.

While the vegetables are sauteeing, simmer the corn cobs in the milk (break cobs in half if necessary to fit in pot.)

Discard corn cobs, and add sauteed vegetables, bacon, and milk to blender. Puree until smooth. Pour the soup into a pot, add the reserved corn kernels, and simmer until heated through. Season to taste.

Makes 4 servings, 175 calories each

Grilled Eggplant Parmesan

Okay, not exactly Parmesan, because I didn't have any Parmesan cheese, only mozzarella.
I grilled the eggplant early this afternoon, so I could put the rest of the dish together very quickly.

1 eggplant: (1 lb. appx): 100 calories
1 cup marinara sauce: 200 calories
1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella: 300 calories
Makes 4 servings, 125 calories per serving

Cut the eggplant into 1/2 inch rounds and grill over high heat for about 7 minutes per side; let cool. Put a small amount of marinara sauce in a baking dish, add the eggplant rounds, top with more marinara sauce, then sprinkle each round with a generous pinch of mozzarella. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for 10 more minutes or until the cheese browns. Serve with pasta.

1/2 cup whole wheat linguine: 100 calories
1/4 cup marinara sauce: 50 calories
2 tbsp. shredded part-skim mozzarella: 75 calories

Moving slowly back to reality

Still working my way through some leftovers from Saturday night, but just a little bit at a time.

Grilled sandwich:
3 oz. Publix sourdough bread
1/2 oz. prosciutto
1 oz. Manchego cheese
Fig paste and brown mustard
375 calories

3 oz. watermelon: 25 calories

Out to Birthday Brunch: The Breakers

Because why stop at one celebratory meal of unrestrained indulgence when you can have two?

Prime rib with bearnaise sauce, spit-roasted chicken, brown bread with sour cream and caviar.

Lettuce with balsamic-fig dressing, cornichons, two kinds of pate, roll, roasted vegetables, Caprese salad.

Egg Benedict, slice of bacon.

Cheese and fruit.

Dessert I: Tiramisu in chocolate cup, key lime pie, chocolate raspberry mousse cake.

Dessert II: Petit four, pistachio macaron, chocolate truffles, chocolate-covered toffee.

Not shown: The glass of Champagne that our dedicated waiters refilled whenever it got close to being empty.

A spectacular meal in a gorgeous setting. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for this fabulous experience.

(Healthy eating resumes tomorrow.)

Birthday Dinner

Because I like meals that are made up from little bits of things:

From top center: fig paste, salami, hummus, St. Andre, Manchego, four kinds of olives, deviled eggs, sliced baguette, devils on horseback (dates stuffed with blue cheese and wrapped in bacon), melon with prosciuto, Peppadew peppers stuffed with goat cheese, crackers.

A Few Leftovers

A couple of the past week's meals:

Beer Can Chicken

Burgers on the grill

Whole Foodie

Lunch at Whole Foods:

Reed's Light Extra Ginger Brew
Chicken and dumpling soup
Salads clockwise from top: Sesame tofu, orange ginger beets, curried chicken salad, lentil and quinoa tabouli, and cabbage crunch.

Out to Lunch: Seasons 52

Saturday's lunch was at the Palm Beach Gardens location of Seasons 52, a small restaurant chain which proclaims on its menu that no menu item is more than 475 calories. They put the nutrition information on their website, which makes it great for a calorie-counter like me. Each time I've been there, the food has been delicious. It doesn't taste like diet food, that's for sure.

Artichoke and goat cheese flatbread (370 calories):

This had a very thin crust, almost like a cracker, and in addition to the artichokes and cheese had roasted peppers, onions, and olives. I shared this with my husband as an appetizer.

Braised beef tacos (420 calories):

Braised beef in red mole sauce with pickled onions, cilantro, guacamole, and slaw on corn tortillas. If I had one criticism it would be that the tortillas were thick and stodgy, a little too heavy for the filling. I ate one whole taco and just the fillings out of the others. It had a great mix of flavors, sweet, savory, sour and herbal.

I'll definitely be going back.

Breakfast on the Beach

A perfectly fine way...

to start a perfectly fine day.

Cow Boot*

That's right, we had some delicious cow boot for dinner... wait, not cow boot.

Moo shu.

8 oz. pork tenderloin, marinated in teriyaki sauce
Baby corn
Broccoli slaw mix (shredded broccoli, cabbage and carrots)
Served with flour tortillas and hoisin sauce

4 servings, 300 calories per serving

*The 10-year-old in the house wants to make it known that he was the one who made the "cow boot" joke.

Ketchup, er, I mean catch-up post

A whirlwind week full of meetings and homework and school holidays - I had time to cook and take pictures, but only now have I been able to take time to blog about it.

Red beans and rice with chicken sausage:

Spicy chicken andouille-style sausage: 120 calories
3/4 cup red beans and rice: 200 calories

A post-workout breakfast:

Thomas's Triple Health muffin: 100 calories
1 slice 2% American cheese: 45 calories
1 slice ham (1 oz.): 30 calories
1/4 cup egg substitute: 30 calories

Teriyaki chicken:

4 oz. grilled marinated chicken breast: 200 calories
1/2 cup brown rice: 110 calories
1 cup Asian style slaw (slaw mix, seasoned rice vinegar, and Sriracha): 25 calories

Cuban-style panini:

2 oz. sourdough bread: 160 calories
2 oz. smoked turkey: 60 calories
2 oz. ham: 60 calories
1 oz. Swiss cheese:  80 calories
Mustard and pickles

Fancy flatbread

I love homemade pizza in all its forms, but maybe the most when I make a combination that's not likely to be available from the local joint.

4 oz. Publix prepared pizza dough
Caramelized onions, fig, and port spread
Blue cheese
Prosciutto

Brunch munch

1/2 cup shredded hash browns (Simply Potatoes): 70 calories
1 egg over easy: (70 calories)
1/8 cup shredded low-fat Mexican cheese: 35 calories