Quick & Easy Lettuce Wraps

Hi foodie friends! We haven't posted in a while, but that definitely doesn't mean we haven't been cooking and eating lots of delicious meals. We've just been crazy busy! A few re-caps of our recent adventures:

• Todd flew a helicopter. And, he was freakishly good at it. I was pretty scared at first, but once we were up in the air, it was AMAZING! I would highly recommend it if you ever get a chance to go up in one.
• It was the 4th of July! My mom and company came up to celebrate. It was a great day full of family, history and fireworks. Despite a lightning delay, we even got to see the Boston fireworks for the first time... pretty much the coolest fireworks show ever.
• I started my second session of summer classes. I'm currently working toward my MBA in the evenings after work, and for some crazy reason, decided to take three classes this summer. We'll just have to work a little harder on the cooking and blogging schedule now that I'm swamped with schoolwork again.
• We had the greatest weekend reuniting with old friends. On Friday, Todd and I went to dinner with my good friend from high school and her family at a tasty place in the North End called La Famiglia Giorgio. It was great food and so much fun to catch up with her here on the East coast. We also picked up some more West coast friends from the airport after dinner and spent the weekend in Connecticut. We ate tons of tasty food, attended a birthday party, went wine tasting, ran through sprinklers, tried to avoid getting ticks, caught lightning bugs, toured the Huntington House, and had two nights of sleepovers. A perfect weekend!

Anyway, that's my attempt at explaining away my lack of positing, but the other big reason is that we actually didn't have a share delivery last week. Since it was a holiday on delivery day, our crop is being pushed out an extra week into October. That just means I'll have to catch up on our recipes now!

One thing that Todd and I REALLY love are lettuce wraps. I guess that they can get pretty unhealthy depending on where you get them (I'm talking to you, PF Changs!), but they're a really tasty way to ditch bread for a night and have a delicious meal. Typically, you'd want to use a stronger lettuce variety so your wraps don't fall apart once you fill them, but two layers of the red leaf lettuce from our share worked just as well. Here's what you'll want to do:

Ingredients

• 1 pound of ground beef
• Lettuce leaves
• 1/2 an onion, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 3 carrots, sliced thinly
• 1/4 a cup of chopped peanuts. You might want to buy the pre-shelled ones, since it will save some time.

• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 5 mint leaves, cut into pieces. We picked ours fresh from the garden!

• Salt and pepper
• A pinch of red pepper flakes

Instructions

• Brown the ground beef with the onions and garlic; once almost cooked, add the carrot slices. Season with salt and pepper.

• While the meat is cooking, make the sauce by mixing together the sugar, lemon juice, soy sauce and red pepper flakes.
• Also, prepare the lettuce by washing and pulling apart the leaves.
• Lower the heat to simmer, and add the sauce and the mint leaves. Stir for a couple of minutes until the sauce is incorporated.

• Assemble the wraps! Take two layers of leaves, and top with the seasoned meat and peanuts. You can also add additional soy sauce if you'd like.

Yum! We really love making these, especially since you can substitute different protein and adjust the sauce flavor to your liking. Hope you like them, too.

-Amanda

Chips... Made from Kale!

So, after getting kale last week and using it as a sautéed side for a meal, my sister Lynne, who has an sweet blog too, suggested that we make kale chips. I'd never heard of them, but since I am am huge fan of chips (not the healthy kind), I though it would be a good recipe to try if we got kale again.

The awesome thing is that making kale chips is VERY easy to do. It doesn't take long and you can mix and match the flavors to your liking.

I used a recipe from the Food Network, but all I really needed was the over temperature - 275º F.

You take the head of kale and wash it well, spin dry it in a salad spinner, then cut out the main stems. I think you could cut more, but I only cut out the main tough stem from each leafy section. Then, I cut then into "bite sized" pieces, about an inch or two long.

I threw all the pieces into a big bowl and lightly tossed them in olive oil. I layered them out on a cookie sheet sprinkling them with sea salt.

Then, I baked them for about 10 minutes, flipped them over and baked again for 10 min. That's it! They were ready to eat. We didn't have a huge amount of kale, so we ate our whole batch hot from the oven :-)

The best part of this recipe is making up your own flavors. We did one sheet of sea salt and black pepper and one of sea salt and sesame seeds.

I can't wait to get more kale and try new flavors. There is defiantly a cayenne pepper batch in my future!

-Todd

Week 2

So, that was fast! Here we are in week two already. Yesterday, I picked up our second share, which was full of some old friends (ahem, kohlrabi) and some new veggies to experiment with.

Here's the week two lineup:

• Red leaf lettuce
• Russian kale
• Kohlrabi
• Napa cabbage
• Shelling peas
• Pea tendrils
• Classic french cheese from Shy Brothers Farm in Westport, MA

By the way, the cabbage takes up half of the fridge!

I can say for certain that you won't be seeing any recipes with the cheese. That's because we already ate it! It's been a nice snack for while we're cooking dinner, especially on delicious stoneground wheat crackers from Whole Foods! Here's a picture of Todd and the cheese:

Also, you may be wondering what we did with some of the week one items that we didn't mention... like the strawberries and eggs. I had some leftover shortbread from my strawberry shortcake baking this weekend, so Todd and I made some more whipped cream and used our share strawberries for that. A perfect dessert, if I don't say so myself. Todd has also eaten a few of the eggs, but we have a great recipe coming for you soon - a delicious weekend breakfast recipe that you can make with basically anything you have on hand. You'll definitely have to come back for that one.

Here we go, week two!

-Amanda

Getting to Know Kohlrabi

kohl·ra·bi - (noun) A cultivated cabbage, whose stem above ground swells into an edible, bulblike formation.

Thank goodness someone knows what it is (thanks, Dictionary.com!) Monday night was our kohlrabi experiment, and guess what... we loved it! When we first saw this veggie in our week one share, we didn't know what we would do with it, but while kohlrabi may be strange looking, it tastes great both raw and cooked. You basically peel off the skin and slice it up - super easy!

Onto the recipe. We were hoping to make a cooked recipe, so I poked around the web and came across a yummy looking one for roasted chicken with carrots and kohlrabi. In true Share Stories fashion, we changed the recipe a bit to use some of the other items we had on hand:

Ingredients:

• One and a half pounds of chicken breasts, sliced into large pieces
• Four carrots, peeled and sliced into 2-inch pieces
• One large potato, peeled and cubed
• One small onion, sliced
• Two garlic cloves, sliced (you can also mince it, if you don't like big pieces of garlic like we do)
• The ingredient of the hour - one kohlrabi, cubed
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Poultry seasoning (or your favorite fresh herbs!)
• Optional: One Swanson Flavor Boost packet. I only used this because I bought a bunch of them a while back and am DETERMINED to use them... mainly so they're not a waste of money. You can just as easily use some chicken broth, or skip this ingredient all together.

Instructions:

• Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees
• Heat a couple tablespoons of oil in the pan; after seasoning the chicken, sear it in the pan. Share Stores tip: Resist the urge to move the chicken while you're searing it. You want to let it turn a nice golden brown, so no peeking!

• At the same time, prepare the veggies.

• Once the chicken is ready, place the veggies in a casserole dish, with the chicken on top. Cover with foil (poke a few holes for steam) and bake for 30 to 45 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. We originally set the timer for 20 minutes, but needed to add about another 20 so the potatoes wouldn't be hard.

The finished product is delicious, and definitely a recipe we'll be holding onto!

-Amanda

Lunches by Todd

What's the biggest difference between my wife and I? I'll eat ANYTHING, literally anything. I don't care what's mixed with what or what it is. I'll eat it.

So keep that in mind when you're reading my posts about meals I made for myself with little to no help from my more culinarily realistic wife.

I had a 150 mile bike ride this weekend, so I knew I had to eat healthy. Two salads in two days...

Day 1:

• Red Leaf Lettuce (Farm Share)
• Organic Hard Boiled Egg (Farm Share)
• Bacon
• Blue Cheese Crumble
• Organic Avocado
• Olive Oil
• Balsamic Vinaigrette
• Organic Chopped Walnuts

Washed the lettuce, cut it up into bite sized pieces and threw them in a bowl. I did try a piece of the red leaf lettuce on it's own and it was AMAZING! Very sweet and crispy! There is something to say for fresh and local. I ate the whole salad and wasn't even hungry till dinner. I think the protein from the egg and walnuts helped!

Day 2:

• Leafy Green Leafs (Farm Share)
• Okay, so I don't really know these were but if I had to guess I might say Chinese Cabbage. If anyone else has any ideas please feel free to comment.
• Green Onions (Farm Share)
• Scapes (Extra from our neighbors Farm Share) 
• Small Can of Tuna
• Organic German Mustard
• Sweet Relish
• Balsamic Vinaigrette

I mixed the Green Onions, Scapes, Tuna, Mustard and Relish together to create the tuna salad.

I washed the green mystery leaves and spread them on the plate. I put the tuna salad on top and drizzled the balsamic and olive oil over everything as a dressing.  It was amazing. The only issue I had... those mystery leaves had small prickly hairs on the back of them. 

It was down the hatch and I was full and healthy!

A Berry Treat

It's been hot lately. Like, seriously hot. The kind of hot where you're like OH MY GOSH I'M MELTING... oh wait, that's just the sweat dripping from my ENTIRE BODY. And oh, did I mention I'm just sitting here, not moving at all?!

Despite the heat, my mom decided to take the kids (my mom has three litte guys, ranging in age from 6 to 12) strawberry picking at a local farm in Connecticut. It was a welcome treat when I got to her house this weekend and she offered me some of the delicious berries. They were seriously the some of the sweetest strawberries I've ever had, and when she mentioned that they were already getting too ripe, I knew it was time to try out my newfound favorite dessert - strawberry shortcake!

I've never actually make shortcake on my own, so I scoured the web for a recipe that was semi-healthy (aka not made with shortening). I decided on this tasty recipe from Cooking Light, with some tiny changes. Instead of the turbinado sugar on the shortbread, I just used a sprinkle of regular sugar. I also only used a tiny bit of sugar on the strawberries - I think they taste delish on their own! Share Stories Tip: I'd suggest slicing the strawberries first, so you can mix in the sugar and lemon juice, and let the berries marinate in the frige while you prepare everything else. The longer they sit, the more syrupy and sweet tasting they get.

After your strawberries are chilling in the frige, mix the dry ingredients and cut in the butter. You'll want to end up with a crumbly mixture:

After you add the buttermilk and shape the shortbread, place it into a well-greased cake pan. I thought this was the coolest part:

Bake! Hopefully, you're a more patient baker than me. I'm always sneaking a peek to see how the baking is coming along. Once these babies are cool, you're almost ready to assemble:

But, before you do that, you need whipped cream! Of course, you can always buy the store stuff, but another recipe change I decided on was making my own whipped cream. I'm not usually a huge fan of whipped cream, but when you make it at home it really is amazing. And, as I learned recently, SO easy. Check out the recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 pint of heavy whipping cream (organic if you can get it)
• 3 to 6 tablespoons of powdered sugar... If you like it sweeter, go for more sugar. Just be sure to add the sugar in slowly and taste as you add. Remember: you can always add more, but once you've added too much, you can't go back!
• That's it! Crazy, right? If you happen to like other flavors, go ahead and add them. Vanilla extract and lemon zest work well. You can also add some rose water, a little tip Todd and I picked up during a recent cooking class.

Instructions

• Whip, whip and whip some more! You'll definitely want to use a hand or stand mixer for this on high speed. When you start to see the stiff peaks, it's ready.

Voila - strawberry shortcake!

-Amanda

Kale, Not Kayl

Farm share night one had Todd and I standing in the kitchen wondering what to make. It was one of those nights where all of a sudden it's 9 p.m. and you're opening and closing the fridge, hoping that the next time you look in they'll be some magical meal waiting for you. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, and since we didn't have any protein choices to choose from, we settled on organic raviolis with a spinach and kale saute (fresh and local recipe #1 below).

I absolutely can't write about kale without sharing a story about my great grandmother, Mama. When my mom was trying to decide what to name my little sister, she was going over some of her favorite names, one of which was Kaleigh. Mama was NOT happy with the name because she was convinced that everyone would call my sister kale for short (she was very clear that kale was a vegetable name. Mama's first choice was Amber). In the end, my mom still picked Kaleigh, and guess what, despite telling Mama we wouldn't call her kale, we do! Except, we spell it Kayl :)

Here's the recipe for Amanda and Todd's Famous Spinach and Kale Saute (ha!). Word to the wise, when making kale, you'll want to completely remove the stems. We'll have to remember that tip next time.

Fresh & Local Recipe #1 - Kale and Spinach Saute

Ingredients

• 2 cups of kale, chopped
• 2 cups of spinach, chopped
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Italian seasoning or fresh herbs, like basil
• Balsamic vinegar (we like to get the good stuff from a local shop, but any kind is fine)

Instructions

• Heat two tablespoons of olive oil. At the same time, chop the veggies.
• Once the oil is hot, add the green onions and garlic; saute until they begin to brown slightly.

• Add the kale and spinach, along with a couple tablespoons of water. Lower the heat and cover to steam; stir occasionally. You might want to use a bigger pan than us, but don't worry - it cooks down.

• Once the greens are wilted, add a splash of balsamic oil, a sprinkle of Italian seasoning, and mix throughout. 
• Season with salt and pepper
• Enjoy!

What's your favorite kale recipe? We're definitely hoping to try another before the summer ends, so please share!

-Amanda