Our Final Month and a Half of CSA boxes

Phew, we had quite the summer of produce! I'm pretty proud of how little food waste we had though and that we managed to try so many new recipes; many of which even the boys enjoyed! I don't think I plan to participate in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box next year but we shall see since I think I said the same thing by fall of last year and forgot when January rolled around. I'm just so tired by this time of the year trying to keep finding ways to use everything up.   

CSA Box #10  August 21st: More squash, zucchini, and eggplant. We got a few sizes of tomatoes, radishes, cucumbers, waxed beans, cantaloupe and watermelon. 

We cut up the cantaloupe and watermelon for eating. I sliced up and roasted the radishes with the beans for dinner one night. I made a squash/zucchini casserole and then spiraled the rest and flash froze them for winter; bagging up several batches of zoodles for myself. 

I made a batch of marinara and added pureed eggplant to it. Then used the remaining 2 eggplants to make eggplant meatballs to go with the sauce and some pasta. The boys enjoyed it. 

 CSA box #11 August 28th; Watermelon, corn on the cob, eggplant, zucchini, green beans, tomatoes (big and small), and cucumber.

That very night I brought 1/2 of the corn, 3 tomatoes, and some cucumbers to my brother. We used the rest of the corn to go with our sausage sandwiches. I cut up the whole watermelon for us to snack on. 

I cooked up the green beans to go with our dinner the next night and made both a tossed and a pasta salad using the rest of the cucumbers and some more tomatoes.

 

The last of the tomatoes (along with plenty from my mother in law's garden) went into yet another batch of marinara and I made my husband another 1/2 batch of zucchini relish.

 

  I roasted the eggplants, scooped out the insides, and froze them for use later in the year.  

CSA Box #12 September 4th: I was away in Glacier National park and while Evan offered to go pick up our box I knew it would sit in the house for 6 days before I'd get to use it. We opted to leave it at the farm since they state that any boxes that aren't picked up go back to the farm for them to sell at their stand. I figured it was better for them to make some money then for us to let perfectly good produce go to waste. 

CSA Box #13 September 11th: Lettuce, tomatoes; big and small, some green peppers, a dozen ears of corn, eggplant, and radishes. 

We used the lettuce, radishes and small tomatoes in our salad. I made stuffed peppers with the peppers and one large orange tomato. 

 

We ate the corn for dinner on two different nights to go with our burgers one night and to go with some pork tenderloins and potatoes another. We also cut up another large tomato to go on our burgers. 

I made an eggplant parm. casserole with pasta on another night and added the remaining two tomatoes to the sauce using up all the veggies from the week.  

CSA Box #14 September 18th: This week we got another dozen ears of corn, a head of romaine lettuce, some yellow beans, butternut squash, tomatoes, zucchini, & spaghetti squash. 

We ate the corn for dinner on two different nights. I cooked up the butternut squash to go with turkey one night. The lettuce was used in our salad and the yellow beans for dinner on yet another night. I mostly used the tomatoes on sandwiches or cut into wedges to eat with hummus. 

I cooked up the zucchini with some onions and mushrooms to eat as a side dish with dinner another night. 

 

CSA Box #15 September 25th: another dozen or so corn, some acorn squash, butternut squash, broccoli, lettuce, 2 types of tomatoes, summer squash and zucchini. 

I made up a plate of veggies and hummus at 2:30 when I got home from picking up my box in lieu of lunch then cooked up the broccoli to go with our chicken. I cooked up the corn the next night to go with our burgers and sliced up some lettuce and tomato too. The rest of the lettuce went into our salad and I continued using the tomatoes for snacks and sliced up on sandwiches.

 I made corn fritters with the 8 leftover ears of corn and froze most of them for this winter. We've definitely had our fill of corn. 

 

I made stuffed acorn squash for my husband and I one night and a maple butternut squash side dish another night.  

 CSA Box #16 October 2nd: Our Last Box! Another dozen ears of corn, some tomatoes, lots of zucchini and squash, some green peppers, a couple eggplants, a head of lettuce, and a head of cabbage. I think I was supposed to grab some winter squash too but while I found the empty boxes I wasn't seeing the winter squash to pick from and no one was around. I honestly didn't care as I more than feel like we got our money's worth of fresh veggies this summer.  

We cooked up the corn that very night and I cut the leftover corn off the cob and froze it for winter; I plan to use it in a pot pie recipe. The tomatoes and lettuce went into our salad and to use on our chicken fajitas. I made another couple of squash casseroles with the zucchini and summer squash. I made a big batch of cole slaw to go with our fish one night. 

We used the peppers with some onions and chicken for chicken fajitas. I had lots of leftover tomatoes in the crisper drawer so I threw them all into a pot with an eggplant, a zucchini, a pepper, and some onion and mixed up one last batch of marinara sauce.  

before pureeing 

the added veggies make our sauce a bit more orange than red but my boys happily eat it so I keep sneaking the extra vegetables in. 

I made some muffins and froze a few bags of shredded zucchini so I can make some bread/muffins again in a month or two. 

 As of finishing up the writing of this post the only produce items I have left to use up are a spaghetti squash and an eggplant. Both of which I hope to use to make some sort of stuffed squash recipe this weekend. 

 Linking up with: Thinking Out Loud, Spread the Kindness,