This might not be worth it...

So I left off last Saturday with grand plans. I was going to make cobbler, meatloaf, banana bread and tomato basil sauce. Well, 3 out of 4 isn't that bad right? I'm not sure.


First thing I made is the banana bread (that took nothing from my veggie basket but used up gross brown bananas!).

 

Second thing to be made last sunday? Meatloaf. Again, I used absolutely nothing from the veggie basket. Not true... as it turns out, I used some onions.

Then, with the help of my two fabulous (but mightily tiring) daughters, we made the rhubarb cobbler. I managed to use 1 tiny item from my basket for that.

 

I never made it to the tomato sauce. It just is sooooo much work peeling and seeding tomatoes. And you have to do that for any recipe you want to cook tomatoes in. All that to say that I never made it to the tomatoes. There is just so much to do in a weekend, on top of the two young kids we have. I don't have enough time in the week. I swear, this is work for a stay at home mom. I can see how easy it is to keep busy, just with cooking alone!

So this week, we have managed to use the mini squash and patty pans, finished of the weird beans from 2 weeks ago, had a crazy salad that was inspired by Madge (you know who you are). I have to side bar and describe this salad for you. I am quite disappointed that I didn't take any pictures. Anyways, I used the micro greens that were in our basket this week, onion, pepper and cucumber (from 2 weeks ago) and added strawberries and raspberries to it. Then I took some almond slivers that were lying around in a cupboard (from like, christmas baking I swear!) and candied them in butter and brown sugar, and threw them on top. I made a lovely vinaigrette with some white wine vinegar, honey, olive oil and dijon. Fabu!

I'm sure we used other stuff from our basket but things we most definitely didn't use: eggplant. That has gone the way of the compost. 

I try to be organized and have a monthly meal plan in place, however when I made this months meal plan, I also had done august at the same time. By the end of September I was, well, uninspired. I have nothing scheduled for this week. I have to come up with some meals AND use up these veggies. God knows the next basket is just around the corner. I digress. I finally made the tomato basil sauce. I managed to use up 2 items from my basket and the amazing organic garlic my friend grows.  Now, I need to pre-empt all this by stating that if the hubby had not volunteered to peel and seed the tomatoes, their fate would have been quite different (I would have chucked them). Well, all that work and here is the fruit of my labour:

That's a whole lot of work for not a lot of yield. I mean we had two full baskets of tomatoes (like in photo) and all I get is 1 jar of sauce? I just keep coming back to "Is it worth it?".  I am working my butt off here to use up these products, but the just don't send enough to make any given recipe. And I am running out of ideas on how to use the tomatoes they keep sending us. So hubby says to me, have you asked them to send less tomatoes? And I say that no, I don't think it's necessary to make such a request, what with the weather turning cold. Then he says the worst thing possible: "greenhouse". Sigh.


On a side note, I just came back from apple picking with the girls this morning. I will be making apple jelly and a nice apple crumble I think!


Results:

• Almost 1L jar of tomato basil sauce

Used up:

• Tomatoes
• Basil

Suggestions?


Anyone have a delicious scallop potato recipe? I would love it for the army of potatoes I am accumulating. 


BTW, if you want the recipe for anything I make just let me know and I will post it. I'm all for sharing!