CSA Inspired - Fresh Local Organic (week 2)

Yours truly, Tonya Peele, The Inspiring Cook is excited to give you a glimpse of the natural goodness that arrived in my CSA share box for week 2. Each week I am like a little kid on Christmas morning as I pull back the box top to see the variety of organically-grown produce that me and my family can feast on for the week.

So, here's what I got this week: mixed salad greens, radishes, asparagus spears, tomatoes, collards, and green onions.

As I mentioned last week in the first CSA Inspired post, if you don't belong to one of over 100 CSAs in NC you can find the same produce I receive as part of my CSA membership at your local farmer's markets.

Figuring out what to cook with my produce this week was quite easy. My inspiration came from an Operation Frontline recipe. I am a volunteer Nutrition Instructor for Operation Frontline (OFL), a partnership of the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle and Share Our Strength, which partners with locally-based community agencies to implement courses focused on offering nutrition and cooking classes which emphasize making healthy affordable meals.

For 6 weeks, I am part of a team that's teaching a phenomenal group of Comb's Elementary School students how to prepare and cook healthy meals. This week we learned about a variety of vegetables and how they work together with other nutritious foods like fruits and whole grains to make our bodies strong. The kids got a chance to put their culinary skills to practice by making Roasted Vegetables with Pasta. Vitamin and fiber-rich vegetables including mushrooms, green peppers, onions, and squash were chopped and roasted at 350 degrees to make a nutritious pasta dish which was paired with salad greens dressed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. To our excitement, every kid devoured their serving of pasta and asked for seconds! A few even asked for third helpings. I must admit they were a bit hesitant about the salad, although each student agreed to take a "courtesy bite".

So the overwhelming approval of the roasted vegetables at this week's OFL class inspired me to cook my own roasted vegetables with a Mediterranean Soul flare. I roasted asparagus, radishes, green onions, and portabella mushrooms according to the OFL recipe. Instead of pasta, I served my roasted veggies on a bed of couscous cooked in tomato juice. I also paired my dish with a simple salad of mixed greens and a homemade balsamic vinaigrette dressing. Quick, simple, healthy and most of all YUMMY!

Operation Frontline Recipe
Pasta with Roasted Vegetables (Serves 6)

1/2 cup olive oil
4-6 cups bite-size diced vegetables (onions, small red potatoes, green pepper, red pepper, zucchini, eggplant, yellow squash, or mushrooms)
salt and pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cut up all the vegetables and toss in a bowl with oil just to coat them. Mix in some salt and pepper.
3. If using potatoes, lay them out on a cookie sheet. Do not overlap the potatoes.
4. Lay out other vegetables on another cookie sheet. Put second cookie sheet in the oven 10 minutes after you put potatoes in.
5. Roast until desired doneness.
5. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and sprinkle on parmesan cheese, if desired.

Be inspired to cook!