I have a love-hate relationship with grocery shopping.  I love to do it because I enjoy checking out all the amazing foods and getting new ideas.  I hate to do it because I get so frustrated by all the non-food concoctions being advertised as food.  I love to do it because I enjoy seeing how much money I can save.  I hate doing it because I always want to save money and it hurts sometimes to spend more on the good ingredients I love.  Complicated, huh!

To solve the problem, late last summer I joined a CSA.  This one, in fact.  There were only a few weeks left, so I figured it was a good time to just try it out. I loved it!!!!  I was so upset when it ended around Thanksgiving, but I signed up for a bigger box for the next season.  That left me with the winter to contend with.  I did a bit of research and decided on produce delivery services Suburban Organics and The Fruit Guys.  I alternated between the two each week, and kept myself in fresh, sometimes organic, sometimes local, sometimes seasonal, produce.  It was great all winter, and I will probably do the same thing next year. 

Luckily, the CSA season has begun again, and I am back to the farm each week, now with little Jemma.  I am excited that she will be seeing the farm her food comes from, meeting animals, and enjoying the experience (hopefully!!).  I know she is too young to appreciate it much now, but she loves to hear birds making noise and feel the wind, so she is getting something out of it.  

We picked up our first box last Thursday, so I wanted to clean out our fridge first.  The only things left from our previous deliveries were a grapefruit and an avocado.  We don't really like either of these, so I put them together into a salad.  Not the best idea, but if you like both you would probably love it!

 The first thing I did for the salad was to make the dressing.  I mixed lemon juice, salt, pepper, dijon mustard, and lemon juice together until it was combined.

Then, I peeled and sliced an avocado, and put the in the dressing to marinate.

Just before dinner, I mixed it with a peeled and sliced grapefruit and some lettuce.

I served the salad with salmon and couscous.  There was some extra dressing that I drizzled over the couscous, and that was probably the tastiest part!

This post was shared with the Hearth and Soul Hop, Your Green Resource, and Real Food Wednesday!

Recently we received rainbow chard in our produce delivery, and I didn't want to prepare it in my usual way (sauteed with garlic and onions).  A quick search revealed this recipe, which I had most of the ingredients for.  Yay!  A jumping-off point!

I gathered up all the ingredients.  I didn't have enough rainbow chard, so I added in a small head of red cabbage.  That turned out to be the best decision of the meal!

To start, I chopped up a tangerine and onion and sauteed them in olive oil. 

While that cooked, I removed the stems of the chard and chopped it.

When the onion/tangerine mix was done, I added 2 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar and the stems.

While THAT cooked, I sliced up the purple cabbage and added it in.

 The last thing left to slice was the chard leaves.  I cut them once in half and then rolled them up.

Then, I sliced them all up at once.  It gave me ribbons quickly.

They went into the pan with all of the other colorful veggies.

When the chard wilted, I added a little more vinegar, and some salt and pepper.  We ate it with salmon, and it was so beautiful... and TASTY!

This post was shared with Pennywise Platter Thursday and Weekend Gourmet Blog Carnival!

This was one of the easiest and most delicious dinners I have made in a while.  Check this out!

First, I sliced up 3 golden beets and 3 regular beets.

Then, I arranged them on a making sheet and sprinkled them with olive oil and sea salt.

They went into the oven at 350* until they were lightly cooked.  

While the beets cooked, I cleaned up some baby spinach. 

The last prep step I had to do was chop up some spring onions for the salad dressing.

The spring onions were mixed with a 3:2 ratio of olive oil and rice wine vinegar and some sea salt.

When it was time for dinner, John cooked up some salmon and we assembled the salad.

 It was so delicious and easy, I could hardly believe it!!!

This post was shared on Simple Lives Thursday!