veggies

How to use leftover veggies

Cooking & Baking , 0 Comments

photo-1I like to try to use up all of my food as soon as possible. This can be hard when you’re cooking for one. Especially those recipes that uses a ton of veggies, because you never need them all!

The key, I’ve found, is to make one “main” dish once a week, with several smaller side dishes to fill in throughout the week. I know this won’t work for everyone, but it works pretty well for me.

I’ll use this week as an example:

On Monday night I made the best veggie curry pot pie. I mean delicious. But I had cauliflower left over as well as some carrots and onions.

With the cauliflower, I made a curry coconut side dish (above).

Mine looked nothing like theirs! No clue why. It tasted good, though, with a spicy kick. I like curry a lot, so this wasn’t too much curry in one week for me, but you could do a quick Pinterest search and find something totally different—like cauliflower mac-n-cheese. Yum!

Next up I’ll be making these spicy maple roasted carrots.

Then I’ll just have to figure out something to do with the onions and the extra pie crust. I’m thinking a berry pie for the crust and adding the onions to the leftover dressing I have in the freezer.

Basically, my advice is get creative and try to use everything in your fridge each week. Occasionally, I’ll have a Sunday night where I try to use up all my leftovers in a soup or casserole.

So many options, so few meals!

 

 

 

Farmers Market: Engel Farms

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Full disclosure: I’ve been working for the Engel’s this summer, selling fruit and veggies at Austin’s farmers markets.

Having quit my full-time job in April as a newspaper lady, I’ve been doing random jobs this summer while I build up some freelance clients. One of these jobs is working for Engel Farms. While I was working at the Lakeway Farmers Market I decided to shoot some pics of the produce coming out of their farm to share with everyone.

This isn’t to say other farms don’t have lovely produce as well, but since this is the fruit and veggie stand I’ve been staring at on my weekends, I tend to have a bias on how beautiful it looks.

The Engel’s farm is in Fredericksburg, which means—famous peaches! They are as good as everyone says. Even when they are a bit harder than you would like, they still have a sweet punch when they’ve been picked off a tree at the farm just a day or two ahead of when you are biting into it.

Most people don’t realize the fruit at the supermarket was picked much earlier and will never taste or smell the same as freshly picked peaches. This week was the first week for the farm to have eggplants, figs and pears. I brought two eggplants home, which I plan on using for tomorrow evening’s dinner, along with a variety of tomatoes.

The Engel’s tomatoes are fun, too, with varieties such as the Rembrandt, chocolate tomatoes and pop-n-sweet. If you’re always disappointed by the melons at your local grocery store, try farm fresh melons—they’re way sweeter and tastier. I eat them plain or chop them up in my arugula salad.

Farmers Market sandwich

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For the past week I’ve been helping Engel Farms from Fredericksburg, Texas, sell their produce at farmers markets around Austin. In addition to getting some cash in my pockets, I also get to bring home some lovely produce, including golden zucchini, tomatoes, peaches, blackberries and whatever else is fresh from the farm.

Today I decided the squash and zucchini had a few days left in it, so I cooked it the way my mom always does. With a little olive oil in a pan, you add the sliced squash, zucchini and onion and saute it until you get it to your favorite texture. I like mine a little softer, but golden on each side. Sprinkle salt and pepper to your liking.

I also have some French bread I’m trying to eat by the weekend, so I sliced it up, added a dab of butter to each piece (OK, a huge slather, really) and then toasted it in the toaster oven. When it came out, I added the sauteed veggies, and, presto—what I’ve deemed Farmers Market sandwich was born. It was so delicious I almost forewent peaches and ice cream. (I said almost!)