From the In-Box to the Veggie-Box

Every Thursday we get very excited to receive our fruit & veggie box from Desert Lake Gardens. We're never sure about what we're going to get and it has become a weekly challenge to plan our meals around the surprises that show up on our doorstep.

The one downfall? We tend to get similar foods a few weeks in a row and sometimes....it can get a bit boring. A few weeks ago, I was so broccolied-out, I emailed them with a specific request to "hold the broccoli!!!" which they did, happily.

Tuesday, realizing that we had a fridge full of greens and zucchini and another veggie delivery imminent, I rifled through my cookbooks in search of something new.

I found two recipes. One from my sister and the other from a friend's husband "T". They were both emailed to me and printed out on scraps of paper so, unfortunately, I can't give credit for the original recipes....

The first is an arugula salad, aptly named "Baby want flavour?". It's an amazing combo of spicy arugula, sun dried tomatoes and Parmesan in a, slightly sweet, balsamic dressing. It is yum, yum, yummy. T thinks it's funny to call me "baby" (hence the name) and sent this recipe to me 5 years ago when I emailed to ask for another. It was a happy mistake and, as you can see by the smudged print-out, a recipe we throw together often. At the time, T was in the music biz but has since gone back to school to become...a chef. Go figure!


Baby want flavour?
1.5 part Arugula
1 part Radicchio
Honey
Balsamic vinegar
olive oil
Sun dried tomato (cut in fine pieces)
Parmesan cheese
salt & pepper

Mix honey, balsamic, olive oil & tomatoes in bowl (ratio = to taste). Add
greens, top with parmy and put in open mouth!!


The second recipe is Chocolate Zucchini Bread. It's a great way to use up a pile of zucchini and trick your kids into eating it. That being said, I did catch Winnie using her chubby little sausage fingers to pull out the strings of zucchini....
&*#%! How does she know??

Chocolate Zucchini Bread
3 eggs (or egg replacer)
3/4 Cups vegetable oil
1 1/2 Cups sugar (I use maple syrup)
2 tsp vanilla
3 Cups zucchini, grated
1/2 Cups nuts, optional
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 1/3 Cups flour (I use whole wheat/spelt)
1/2 Cup unsweetened cocoa

Combine wet ingredients, then dry ingredients, and then mix it all together. Add zucchini & nuts, bake in 2 greased loaf pans at 350 for 45 min.


When I was whipping this up, Jamie told me that baking was my "foreplay". I'm pretty sure he meant forte......either way, I think it's a recipe worth trying!