Monday, December 15, 2014

The Papa Spud’s Experiment: Week 1

The Papa Spud's Experiment: Week 1

A while back I was asked if I would be interested in teaming with Papa Spud’s, a farm to fork delivery service connecting over 50 local farmers and artisans with tons of lucky Triangle residents.  I of course said yes because I’ve often toyed with the idea of signing up for such a service but I’ve never pulled the trigger.  So here goes!

I will warn you that you should not expect anything earth shattering in my next few Papa Spud’s, just a busy Chick’s tips to work more fresh local produce onto my family’s plates.  And yes, you’ll learn lots of fun facts about my lack of knowledge about a few, ok a lot, of veggies :-)

Week 1 was quite exciting – getting to pick the contents of our box and then the excitement of the delivery of the first box.  Honestly, it was ridiculously exciting.  I will admit it was also a little daunting.  I love to cook, but with our busy schedules I do not get the chance too nearly as much as I’d like to so the pressure of using all of these fabulous veggies before they go bad is not to be underestimated.
The beautiful box

Here are the beautifully lush contents of said first box:

My first Papa Spud's box 'o yumminess

Step one on Wednesday night was of course to figure out what was what.  Seriously.  I had to look a couple of things up…

Step two, chop some veggies.  It is much easier to grab a healthy snack if it is prepped and ready to go so the first task I tackled was chopping up some carrots and cucumbers:

My exceptional chopping skills on display ;-)

The carrot sticks and cucumbers were perfect for my work lunches and with all of that baby bok choy I knew the chopped carrots would be perfect for stir fry.

Friday night was the first time I cooked with any of the veggies.  I made two super simple side dishes:

Roasted red potatoes (cubed and roasted with olive oil, garlic and rosemary)

My favorite and easiest side dish - roasted red potatoes

Sautéed spinach (sautéed with olive oil and garlic)
Sautéing like a champ

On Sunday night I hade the most fun, I decided to tackle the baby bok choy.  While I love bok choy, I have never purchased nor cooked it before so I was of course nervous.  I started easy and worked it into a simple stir fry:
My new favorite stir fry

Bok Choy Pad Thai Stir Fry (baby bok choy and carrots sautéed with olive oil, garlic, and pad thai sauce, served over rice)

You can very easily add chicken, beef, shrimp or really anything you like.

The leftovers then became lunch for work on Monday :-) :
Leftovers - time and $ saver

I think that’s a pretty darn good start for my first 5 days!  If you have any fun recipes you want me to try, send them my way: info@cluelesschick.com

Until next time,
aka Chick #1

P.S. A HUGE Clueless Chick thank you to the lovely ladies at Clairemont Communications for connecting us and of course an even bigger thank you to Papa Spud's for the box 'o yumminess!

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