What we ate last week

Thanks to our very first Organic co-op basket and a very generous sharing of fresh homegrown beef from my in-laws, this was a great week for trying new things in the kitchen.
My wonderful husband agreed to play Sous Chef and between the two of us we knocked out some good meals in half the time it usually takes.
We didn't want to waste anything from our basket so we tried to incorporate as much as we could into each meal. The highlighted items came from the basket.

This is what we tried:
Monday: BBQ Grilled Steaks, Baked Potatoes and Steamed Broccoli.

Tuesday: Grilled Green Chile w/Monterey Jack Burgers & Napa Cabbage Salad w/Buttermilk Dressing (Smitten Kitchen Recipe)

Wednesday: Chicken Curry, Whole Wheat Couscous, Sauteed Patty Pan Squash (From Dennis' Aunts garden) and Whole Lemon Tartletts w/strawberry topping. (Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

Thursday: Steak Quesadillas (using left over steak from Monday), Baked Tortilla Chips and Avocado-Mango Salsa (All Recipes)Corn on the Cob and Chocolate Pudding Pie w/Fresh Whipped Cream

Friday: Leftovers (no children were home so we didn't feel it necessary to cook for just us two!)

Saturday: Went to a Birthday Party Dinner! No cooking!

Sunday: Ground Beef Tacos (Homesick Texan) with leftover Avocado Mango Salsa & Chili Beans

Our favorite this week (all around family census)was... the Grilled Ortega Chile w/Monterey Jack Burgers and Napa Cabbage Salad!

(Yeah, that would be the hubby's rare burger, NOT how I like mine!)


We received a brown lunch bag full of fresh green chiles in our basket and didn't really know what to do with them all! So we roasted them on the BBQ and used some to put on Burgers made from fresh home grown beef topped with Monterey Jack Cheese. Put them on a crusty bread roll and mmmmm! They were so good!
Also, the Napa Cabbage Salad w/Buttermilk Dressing, a recipe from Smitten Kitchen, was a nice companion to the burgers and was more on the pickley side rather than the sweet side for a slaw-type salad. This is a good thing to us! I will use the recipe again!

If I would have offered it in the runnings, then the Whole Lemon Tartletts would have been picked. But I didn't think it was fair to count dessert. However, it was an awesome recipe from one of my favorite cooking sites Smitten Kitchen (you might have already noticed how much I like this site). The dough alone is heavenly. Using a whole lemon gives you these wonderful little candied bits of lemon peel in the curd. It was very very good!


The Chicken Curry was my personal fave. I just couldn't get enough!


And the kids devoured all the Sauteed Patty Pan Squash. We hope to get some more of that sometime soon!

After snacking on the grapes, plums, nectarines and bananas, we are pretty close to finishing off the last of everything! We get our co-op basket every other weekend. Now we have to wait another four days until we get the next one. I can't wait to see what we get and what we'll cook up next time!