In with the Old, In with the New

For the last few months at home, most of our meals have been pretty basic. It’s been a steady rotation of a pot of beans, a bowl of pasta, salads, Mexican take-out, eggs. The farm, still usually my only real outing of the week, is what helps us lift all that up on a notch or two. And even on days of the same old, same old for us, we get the excitement of seeing which foods Nina can try for the first time. After a few months of sticking to a strict one new ingredient per week rule and not seeing any allergic reactions pop up, we’ve gotten way looser with the rules and let her try most of what we eat.

Weeks 4-10 of our CSA have included mixed greens, kale, kohlrabi, carrots, summer squash, leeks, basil, arugula, chard, radishes, onions, cucumbers, zucchini, green beans, choi, mint, tomatoes, garlic, peppers, and more.

Here are some of my favorite simple meals so far from this strange, strange summer.

In the mornings, there have been eggs with kale, potatoes, olives, and feta. Eggs on tortillas topped with sour cream and Jon’s homemade tomato and corn salsa. Egg sandwiches with crispy mortadella while Mom was over to babysit and marathon Queer Eye one day. I’ve always been hooked on eggs, but I make them way more often now that I’m home literally every day. Bonus: however I cook them, they’re fun and easy to feed to Nina.

On zucchini week, we returned to old classics like squash blossoms stuffed with goat cheese and my Armenian arugula wraps.

A new squash season option: a bowl of pasta, pasta optional. Sauteed summer squash and cherry tomatoes tossed with tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and shredded basil. We revisited this combo again when tomatoes cropped up, but added some rotini and used fresh sauce I made from the farm’s overripe tomatoes.

There have been plenty of salads to satisfy those “light and refreshing” cravings. Spiced cucumbers, kohlrabi matchsticks, mustardy mixed greens with lemon, tomatoes with basil, onions, and mozzarella.

On a night that we didn’t succumb to the siren call of take-out, pinto bean tacos with homemade guacamole and roasted cauliflower. Don’t get me wrong; there’s nothing wrong with those order-in nights. In case anyone forgot, balancing full-time work and full-time parenting simultaneously during a pandemic is tiring as hell. Believe me, these are the glamour shots here. Sink perpetually full of empty baby bottles and toys strewn across the floor not pictured.

But we try not to let the exhaustion and lockdown malaise get the best of us every night. Sometimes, we try. I got a perfect baked chicken recipe into my repertoire of easy go-to meals and made Nina her first non-vegetarian meal with it. That night we both had chicken, tomatoes, and carrots. Since then we’ve moved on up from ALL PUREES ALL THE TIME to small bites.