The Veg Box Menu Planning Thread

[HairsprayBabe]

Combination of being nosey and wanting to skim ideas off other people...

What are you getting in your veg box this week, and what are you planning on doing with it?

This week we got:
Carrots
French beans
Romanesco cauliflower
Curly kale
Mixed salad leaves
Sweet mixed peppers

And we are having:
M: Cauliflower Cheese
T: Chef Salad
W: Harissa cabbage and white bean stew
T: Tofu Stir fry
F: Roasted Veg and puy lentil medley
S: (staying and DM's)
S: Carrot soup with homemade cheese scones

Oooh, dh got some chicken thighs today when I let him loose in the supermarket unsupervised, so that stew sounds good!

And colcannon.

He also got a gammon joint, so that'll go well with various cabbage dishes.

And turkey mince which I might make stuffed cabbage rolls with.

Did stuffed cabbage rolls using turkey mince and a packet of microwave rice. It was OK, not sure I'd do it again.

Made brocoli and blue cheese soup, frozen for work lunches, low cal enough to use on 5:2 days

Tomato salad with quiche tonight

Still have to use a pepper, cauli, half a cabbage, carrots and parsnip!

Do you top up your veg box with extras from the supermarket or do you just make do with whatever you get?

I tend to have to buy onions and either cucumber celery or peppers depending on what we get...

I like beetroot roasted, in foil with herbs, and then slice and put on puff pastry to make a tart with goats cheese or roasted veg.

Or roasted and in a salad with goats cheese and nuts.

Basically roasted with cheese!

www.riverford.co.uk/pet/recipes/view/recipe/beetroot-and-pink-peppercorn-gratin

This was suggested on riverford home page, might give it a go next time I get some beets

I try not to top up but sometimes I do. We always need tomatoes and cucumber and usually peppers to go with the DCs tea (sandwiches and a chunk of raw/salad veg usually), so we do top them up. We almost always have enough onions but we sometimes run out of potatoes, and they don't send us sweet potatoes which we love.

I stir fried some finely chopped kale with garlic and ginger and soy sauce (get me) to have with... er... can't remember what (but everyone ate at least a little) and I've got DH onto it too as he did spinach and garlic to have with some prawn kebabs.

we always need more onion.dp love to have them for all meals :)roasted in sandwhiches,salads etc etc

I put onions and celery in most things with a sauce base (curry bolognese, pasta sauce chilli etc) so we go through a fair amount of both!

Lôvely cauliflower steaks tonight, and I'll do cauli cheese with colcannon tomorrow. And planning a carrot and pepper with dip lunch on Thursday. Can I make a dip with sardines, I try to eat fish with bones once a week for the calcium.

Melanie how do you make your cauli steaks? I have attempted before but never really been very impressed!

I ggogled a few recipes. In the end I cut 2 large slices out of a small cauli, and marinated them in the leftover oil from a jar of anchovies, and the juice of half a lemon. Sprinkled over plenty of paprika and celery salt, baked at 200 fro 30 minutes, turning half way through.

Right I will give that a go when I next get cauli I think we have jar of roasted peppers in the fridge, will marinade with that!

Roasted peppers are often in brine/vinegar, might not be quite the same?
I think we're having cauliflower karahi from this cookbook - it's a lovely book with quite typical (I assume!) British Asian family cooking - including shortcut things I had no idea existed, like frozen ginger cubes! It was written by a FB friend (not someone I know IRL but that's how I knew about it).

Link

Tomorrows lunch will be using up some leftover supernoodles (they were DH's but I hate to waste food) turned into a ramen bowl with a boiled egg, cabbage, red pepper and carrot slivers, spring onion and some sushi ginger slices. And a Kallo stock cube.

I would love to write a cookbook I love kitchen experimentation but I don't think I have the patience as i am a chuck in a handful of xyz type cook!

The peppers I get are the tesco antipasti ones and they come in oil, I have used it in bakes and pasta dishes for years because I also hate waste!

DP made me rageful last night I asked him to use the food processor to wizz up some cauli cous cous before I got home and he used the stick blender. Ruining the cauli and making the house stink in the process! Fortunately he only used 1/2 of the cauliflower so there was still enough for dinner.

We are having this tonight under500calories.com/recipe/94785-jamie-olivers-butternut-squash-fritters
With roasted purple sprouting broccoli, tomato salsa and avocado.

melanie have you tried cabbage steaks and broccoli ones too.yum yum.
we use this for sardine and sometimes add horseradish Sardine pâté with sweet red onion toasts

Pickling the red onion in vinegar and sugar makes a sweet, tangy topping that balances perfectly with the piquant sardines.

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 0 minutes

Total time: 10 minutes 10 minutes

Serves: 2

Ingredients

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

½ tsp caster sugar

1 small red onion, thinly sliced

95g can John West Parmentier Sardines in Olive Oil

100g essential Waitrose Creamy Soft Cheese

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp finely chopped parsley

½ tsp sweet smoked paprika

4 slices sourdough or other rustic bread

1 tbsp Cooks’ Ingredients Nonpareille Capers, drained and rinsed

Method

1. Place the vinegar and sugar in a small bowl and mix well together. Stir in the red onion then place in the fridge.

1. Drain the sardines and place in a separate bowl. Using a fork, roughly mash the fish then stir in the soft cheese, lemon juice parsley and paprika.

1. Toast the bread and place on 2 serving plates. Spread with the sardine pâté. Stir the capers into the red onions and scatter over the pâté.

Oh I bet my DP would like that!
I am not a fish fan myself really, I eat 90% veggie with fish once or twice a month.

Today we got:
Carrots
Cauliflower
Curly kale
Radicchio
Cherry tomatoes
Mushrooms

Not a great selection, but I have been gifted a few small squash from a friends allotment and we still have a leek and some peppers left from last week as well, so should be able to come up with something nice for the week.

Having my parents and brother over for lunch on Sunday so I may need to top up the veg with a broccoli or something to make it stretch.

hairspray do you have potatos.you could mix the cauliflower in with them one night for a take on dauphinoois to make them both stretch.
could you add the mushrooms and cherry tomatos sautéed into some sort of pasta bake.
or we make a version of this which is great and uses some of your ingredients
www.vegetables.co.nz/recipes/potato-gratin-with-tomato-and-leeks/

Finishing off most of the veg this weekend-

Boiling a ham, added cabbage and carrot 30 mins before end.

Roast parsnip
Potatoes dauphinoise ( oh, these are so good!)

We eat lower carb so no spuds sadly mainly because I am losing weight atm and so don't get them.

This is what we are having this week:
herb crusted salmon kale and cauli rice
veg curry cauli rice
veggie sausages harissa roasted veg
shakshuka
Stuffed squash
out
soup and homemade cheese scones

I really hate mushrooms so I gave them to MIL and she swapped me for a head of broccoli.

Harissa paste was beyond manky this morning so I have marinaded the veg in a "hungarian" spice mix and a sprinkle of chilli flakes, hopefully it will give it the same spicey smokey type flavor as the harissa should have!

I've signed up for go veggie for November, so I'm on the hunt for inspiration!

butternut squash sliced pizza.tossed with garlic and red onion.
stuff butternut squash.
garlic mushrooms on toast.
pearly barley stock.into cooking water:edame beans.peas.peppers.onions.garlic.cauliflower.mmmmmmmm.leftover in tub which look good for tomorrow.
egg friend rice with peppers and kale

We have a bit of a chaotic week next week with half term and what not so plan is flexible
this week we got:
Butternut Squash,
Harlequin squash
Courgette,
Peppers,
Salad,
Cabbage
Broccoli

We still have onions left from a few weeks ago and I will pick up some munchkin squash at the farmers market for Wednesday

M: Tofu Stirfry with cabbage, peppers, onion and broccoli stem
T: Courgette and squash italian bake with salad
W: Baked cheesy mini pumpkins with home made herb scones or flat bread depending on time
T: Hunters (quorn) chicken with squash mash (or possibly wedges) and roasted chilli broccoli
F Out for my brothers birthday
S Having a Halloween party
S Hod knows - depends how "tired" I am from the party