What's in the box? Plus an easy tofu curry.

It's Wednesday - that means box day!  We pick up our Full Belly Farm CSA box at an undisclosed location in East Sacramento (it involves a back alley - sshhh!) and plan our meals for the next week.  Here's what we'll be eating:

Sugar snap peas
Strawberries
Arugula
Chard
Parsley
Lettuce
Spring onions
New potatoes

Now for some close-ups.

Arugula:

I really love the spicy leaves.  They play nicely with cheese (ricotta and saltier cheeses) and also make a mean alternative pesto.  And who doesn't love a great arugula salad?

New potatoes:

Last week, our potatoes were purple.  These are little white waxy potatoes.  Do we have a potato salad in our future?

Ruby chard:

This evening I spent some time looking for new chard recipes, and now I have some creative new ideas.

Crisp, fresh parsley:

And we got two heads of lettuce, including an iceberg:

Tonight, we used the sugar snap peas (you can see them on the right-hand side in the group picture at the top).  I made a coconut curry that uses an Indian-style dried curry powder instead of a Thai curry paste.  The original recipe comes from Heidi Swanson's 101 Cookbooks, but I made a number of tweaks.

Here's what I did: Sliced and patted dry a block of tofu and pan fried over medium heat for a total of 11 minutes, flipping about half-way through.  Removed the tofu from the pan and kept the heat at medium.  Added 1/2 a cup of coconut milk (I use light) and about 2 tablespoons of curry powder (I like a slightly spicy, Madras-style curry that I get from the Sacramento Food Co-op in the bulk section) and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt and whisked to incorporate.  Added 1 small chopped red onion (from the box!) and 1 garlic clove and simmered for about 2 minutes.  Stirred in another 1/2 cup coconut milk, plus 1/3 cup water, and the reserved tofu.  Simmered until the sauce thickened a bit, probably about 5 minutes.  Added sugar snap peas, about 3/4 pound, and covered the pan.  Cooked for about 7 minutes (my peas took a while to cook - next time I would steam them first).  Served over rice, garnished with roasted cashews on top.  A tasty quick dinner for a weeknight!

It's going to be a great week!

Sugar snap peas: a quick stir fry.

Last night, I ended my second running hiatus.  I did a tentative two miles and suffered no extreme consequences.  I popped ibuprofen, ran happily on the treadmill, did my physical therapy exercises (which looked ridiculously easy compared to the ninja-ball moves being performed by the intense lady next to me at the gym, but I swear my moves involve a lot of tough quad-clenching that is not immediately obvious to the naked eye), and came home to elevate and ice the knee.  After all this, a girl's gotta eat! 

I had planned on a simple - very simple - meal revolving around the sugar snap peas from our box.  I even broke one of my cardinal rules and purchased a pre-made bottle of teriyaki sauce.  Yes, I did it.  No, I'm not too terribly ashamed, partly because I could pronounce all the ingredients and it was healthier than a frozen pizza.  Some nights I am not cut out for galloping gourmet status! 

So I iced, blogged, and showered, then whipped up a tasty tofu stir-fry with sugar snap peas and couscous (my guilty grain pleasure, due solely to speed of preparation).

 First, I pan-fried tofu cubes over medium heat in about a tablespoon of oil for a total of about 11 minutes, flipping once.  While these cooked, I made the couscous (using a knob of butter, veggie broth, and dried garlic & ginger), removed the strings from the sugar snap peas, and steamed the peas for about three minutes.  Then I added the peas to the tofu, plus a generous pour of teriyaki sauce, and flicked the heat to high.  I let the whole mess simmer for a couple of minutes until the sauce reduced somewhat, then served the delicious, savory feast over couscous.  The sugar snaps were delectably sweet, and the sauce was also pretty tasty.  I gobbled it all up and literally licked my plate.

Dessert?  The faux-light Cooking Light brownies, three times the chocolate (twice the melted chocolate, and a generous pour of chocolate chips into the batter).  The recipe is meant to make SIXTEEN servings.  I will be lucky if I get 10. 

And the knee verdict?  Today, the day after my little two-mile run, my knee is sore.  But it's a tolerable, somewhat dull ache, and it's better than it has been after running.  So I am going to consider this progress, and I plan to stay off the knee for at least a few days.  PT and cross-training are my friends; I just need to convince myself of this.  Who would have ever thought that I would be addicted to running, rejecting the cardio machines in favor of a spin around the neighborhood?  Not me.  My next semi-short-term goal is to get a bike.  If I can do a spin class, then I am pretty sure I can bike.  I'll just have to learn all the rules of the road, and how exactly to use all those gears!  We live one mile from the wonderful American River Parkway bike path, which runs from Sacramento to Folsom.  How can I not take advantage of that?