It’s taken us awhile to actually get crackin’ on this week’s vegetables! Thank goodness forGreen Bags! Seriously, though. We’ve got some friends who are a little more seasoned in thisCSA business, and they suggested using Green Bags. With our first batch of veggies, we bought the bags, but didn’t think it was necessary to get them in them right away. So, we threw the veggies in the fridge, thinking, “Oh, we’re going to use them tomorrow…they’ll be fine.” And fine they were, but we’ve since found out that if you put them in green bags as soon as you get them home, they will look almsot exactly the same as you did when you first picked them up. Moral of the story: Buy the green bags.
Here’s what we got (June 1st) last week:
From left to right, that’s: Baby Bok Choi, Asparagus, Carrots, Butter Lettuce, Oak Leaf Lettuce, Fennel, and a nice salad mix.
The whole point of blogging is being honest, so I’m going to just go ahead and say it: That’s a lot of lettuce. When we first got the produce, I looked at all of those greens, and thought: “I can’t possibly eat this much salad.”
What I should have been thinking was: “Hey, self! That’s what eating in season’s all about! Let’s find some creative uses for lettuce!”
So, without further ado, here is one of the ways (other than a salad) we’ve decided to use our ample harvest of greens. I promise I’ve got a much more creative use coming…but that’s for an upcoming post.
What’s better for a summer evening than a wrap? We decided to make Panko-Breaded Chicken Strip Wraps with roasted carrots and turnips.
To start it off, I cut our CSA carrots in half; they’re not giant carrots, so they look really pretty just split in half. I then cut up some beautiful turnips I got from the Old Cheney Farmer’s Market (I forgot which vendor…I’ll find out this Sunday and add it in the comments.) into pieces that were similar in size to the carrots, and threw them in a bowl. Next, I mixed up about a Tbsp. of honey with about a Tbsp. of olive oil, a splash of water, and some salt and pepper. After it was all mixed up, I tossed the honey/oil mixture in with the veggies and swirled them around in the bowl to coat them. Finally, I laid them out flat on a baking sheet. You can go crazy trying to keep all the carrots and turnips from touching…or you can just spread ’em out and call it good.
Here comes the chicken… I’d never used Panko breadcrumbs before, but I’d watched enough Iron Chef to know that they’re awesome. So, in order to coat my chicken strips, I set up a breading station that started with seasoned flour, then a bowl of 3 eggs with a splash of milk, then a bowl of Panko. I know this sounds like a lot of steps, but it all turned out to be pretty delicious…so you should probably just trust me.
I had my lovely husband cut three chicken breasts into strips (because…well, chicken goo…), then began the dipping process. It’s pretty easy. Coat with the flour, dip in the egg, coat with Panko, lay on a baking sheet (or pizza pan covered in tin foil…do what you’ve gotta do).
Once all of the chicken and veggies were coated, I put them in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. You can fill this time with hugs and kisses, baby snuggles, playing with your favorite pet, or watching Ally McBeal. Or all of those at the same time. That would be pretty awesome.
Once the 20 minutes are up, take the chicken out and begin assembling your wraps. We used spinach wraps, Farmers’ Market tomatoes, red onions, a big pile of our Robinette Farms salad mix, and some garlic-and-herb mayo. Once your wraps are assembled, your veggies should be lightly golden and singing angelically to you from the oven. This was our result.
I don’t know if I need to add this, but it was delicious. So far, CSA, week two has shaped up quite nicely! Do you guys have any unconventional uses for greens? I think we’ve got another big round of them this week, too!