I absolutely love recipes that can change through the vegetable seasons. My latest obsession is quinoa salad. It's light yet filling and feels so nourishing when I eat it. The quinoa and chickpeas both add protein, and I can make it as vegetable heavy as I like. I've been making a giant batch on Monday and eating for lunches all week long.

it's a great way to use up the veggies in my fridge to make way for new veggies to come. I also use leftovers a LOT in this. I often make roasted veggies for dinners, and we sometimes have multiple containers of random leftovers. These are great in this salad, and a great way to clear out little bits of leftover roasted veggies.

Now, most of my recipes aren't really recipes, because I adapt all the time and don't measure. So I'll share this with you as best as I can.

Base:
Quinoa
chickpeas
feta

Vegetables: changes with the season. Mostly cooked/roasted

Seasoning. To your taste. I like white balsamic vinegar or apple cider vinegar and black cherry juice concentrate, or balsamic reduction. These last two add some sweetness to the tart. You could also add a little lime or lemon juice.

On my most recent version, here's a close approximation to what I did:

9 cups cooked quinoa (1 cup dry = 3 cups cooked)*
4 cups cooked chick peas
1 tray roasted cauliflower (about 2 big heads or 3 small heads)
1 tray roasted zucchini and yellow squash (about 5-7 each, zucchini and squash)
1 bunch sautéed chard, stems included
3 cucumbers, peeled, cored and diced
1 bunch spring onions
(Pickled chard stems- optional)
1 overflowing cup crumbled feta
1/2 cup white balsamic vinegar
Balsamic reduction to taste.
​chopped basil for garnish

Cook the quinoa and chick peas early so they're ready. Cut the cauliflower, zucchini and squash into bite sized pieces. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, stir to cover veggies with oil. Roast at 400 for 40-ish minutes. When finished, set aside to cool. Meanwhile, chop chard. Separate stems and leaves. Chop stems first, chopping small. Get these going on medium heat while you chop the leaves into ribbons or bite sized pieces. Cook stems about 10 minutes, then add leaves and cook until just wilted, about 5 minutes. Set aside to cool. Peel and dice cucumbers. Chop spring onions.

Combine all the elements (quinoa, chickpeas, all the chopped and cooked veggies, feta) in a very large bowl. I also added some pickled chard stems, just because I had some leftover in the fridge that needed to be used from the fancy meal I made last week, but these are totally optional. Add your dressing (vinegar, reduction, citrus juice if using). On the reduction or cherry concentrate, drizzle all over the top of the combined salad. Then mix it all up.  Taste and adjust/add more seasonings as needed. Add basil when serving. Basil doesn't keep well in the fridge, so add some chopped basil each time you eat it.

*actually, I used my small rice cooker to do this and filled it to the three cup mark, so I'm not sure if that's exactly three cups, but it was close

In previous versions, I've used cooked collards cut into ribbons, roasted sweet potatoes, roasted beets, and so much more. Let me know how you get creative with this dish!

Ingredients:
1 head of Cauliflower
2 TBS Ghee (melted)
1/4c. Bufalo Sauce (I like Tessemae's Mild Buffalo).
1 TBS. Celery Salt

Directions:
1. Wash and cut cauliflower into small florets.  
2. In a bowl combine the cauliflower, melted ghee, and buffalo sauce and mix until the florets are well coated.
3. Spread on a roasting pan (making sure the florets do not overlap) and sprinkle with celery salt.
4. Bake at 400 degrees F for 40-50 minutes are until Cauliflower is crispy.

Now is the time to prep your kitchen to make cooking with your CSA easier! Here are the things I use most often:

-- Knife and cutting board. (okay, duh, but be sure those knives are sharp!)
-- Good pans, including cast iron skillet. (optional on the cast iron, but I use mine every day. It's my go-to pan.)
-- Salad spinner. While you can make do without, I use mine a lot because we love salads. Ours is one that you can also store the dried lettuce in the fridge to keep it fresh, so that's why it's an "essential" for me. We prep the lettuce as soon as we get it and eat on the salad all week long, or as long as it'll last.
-- Food processor. This one is a pricey investment, but I use it ALL the time. I use the shredder attachment to shred carrots, beets, zucchini and more. I make a carrot or carrot-beet salad of raw shredded carrots with either plain yogurt or mayo with a little cinnamon and raisins. It's a great salad if you're out of lettuce!
-- Crock pot or Instant Pot. These are great for when you need to throw something together in the morning and have dinner ready when you walk in the door. Soups are great this way, or a beef or pork roast. Here's a good Cuban-style marinade for steaks or to cook roasts. (When you cook a roast, it's good to have an acid in there to help break down the meat).

These are probably my top five. Some other suggestions include:
A sharp peeler is a good tool, and some people tell me a peeler-spiralizer is great, but I don't have that yet. I think there are other kinds of spiralizers, too.
An immersion blender is something I use a lot too, for making creamy soups or morning smoothies with veggies thrown in.
I use my dutch oven (a heavey ceramic coated pan) a lot for roasts, like roasting a whole chicken, or slow cooks in the oven, but you can also just use a baking dish or even a cookie sheet with a good lip.

If you want to get fancy and go to the next level of food preservation, you could look into a dehydrator and fermenting crocks. And some people tell me they love their mandoline, microplane grater and Julienne peeler, but so far, I've been able to live without those.

So tell me: what are your kitchen essentials? Did I miss anything? If you've been in the CSA awhile, and have some cooking tips for new members, please share, and I'll pass it along! Do you meal plan? Food prep the day you get your veggies? How do you make the CSA work for you?

Yes, they are actually called Superhero muffins! They taste like the most delicious, moist muffins you've ever had, but they're gluten-free! Also, maple syrup is the only sweetener. It's made with almond meal, zucchini, carrots, oats, eggs, maple syrup, and butter/coconut oil. It's a muffin that actually makes me feel good! Since we've been making maple, I've made quite a few batches of these in the last couple weeks. The kids and I both gobble them up.  They do freeze well, but I haven't had enough to save, and I always make a double batch! In fact, I finished off the last one of my most recent batch as I was writing this post! I included a photo of the recipe, but am writing out my double-recipe version. I adjusted the spices a fats a little.

4 cups almond meal (you can either buy or make food-process whole almonds)
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup raisins (or chocolate chips or chopped dates but I always use raisins)
6 eggs, beaten
2 cups grated zucchini (Barr Farms when in season)
2 cups grated carrots (Barr Farms when in season)
6 tablespoons butter, melted
6 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
1 cup Barr Farms maple syrup
1 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Position rack in center of oven. Preheat oven to 350. Grease muffin pan

2. In a large bowl, combine almond meal, oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, baking soda, salt. Stir in raisins and walnuts.

3. In a separate bowl, mis together eggs, zucchini, carrots, butter, coconut oil, maple syrup and vanilla. Add to the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Batter will be thick.

4. Spoon batter into the muffin cups. Bake until the muffins are nicely browned and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 25 to 35 minutes. 

Enjoy as a quick breakfast or mid-morning snack.