Maintaing vegetables for longer than a week, my strategies....

My family participates in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program with a local, organic farm.  This means we get farm fresh, local produce every other week.  It also means that I am charged with the mission to keep our produce fresh as long as possible.  Let's face it, produce is not cheap and when you try to preserve it for any length of time, it is frustrating when it goes bad.  I have tried multiple ways to care for our produce, I have read blog posts, I have bought 'bags' touting their greatness is preserving produce, but my current system has worked for us better than any other.

I realize this system may not be for everyone, even I have issues with the fact that we use plastic bags.  Our family tries to reduce our waste as much as possible and we have attempted to remove most plastic products from our home.  To help with the waste issue, I wash our plastic bags and dry them out so we can use them again and again and again......  I also use paper towels in our plastic bags to catch any moisture.  To offset this potential waste, I made paper towels from cloth that we use and wash (these double as napkins and rags for cleaning up).  It's not a perfect system, but it has saved me from frustration and ruined vegetables multiple times.

I keep onions and garlic in this bag on the counter.  Onions should be kept away from other vegetables, you don't want your carrots tasting like onion, do you?  The refrigerator really isn't the best place to store onions, I've read it changes the flavor of them.  Onions also give off something that can speed up the spoiling process for other produce.  I definitely don't want to speed that process up!



These are the vegetables I put in the refrigerator.  There are others, but these are the ones from our CSA this week.  I put them in bags with a paper towel and then make sure the air is out of the bag and it is sealed well.  You'll see I have broccoli, carrots, parsnips, spinach, and kale in these bags.  I try to put the hardier vegetables in the same bag (parsnips and carrots are together).  The spinach and kale are together, notice the spinach is on top because it tends to go bad before the kale.  I use the spinach first and then attack the kale.  I use mesh bags for items like beets and cabbage.  Beets will go soft in the mesh bags, but it takes a while for that to happen.  We will either roast, dehydrate, or juice them before that happens.  The brussels sprouts are still on the stalk (LOVE THIS) and will be eaten tonight.  Finally, notice the bag labeled "For Broth".  In this bag, I have carrot tops and we will add to it throughout the weeks until we are ready to make bone broth (we waste very little).  I also fill bags up with beet greens to stick in the freezer for smoothies and freeze herbs to use later (although now I have a dehydrator, I may start dehydrating them).



See these beauties?  I bought this entire bag of bananas for $.99 because they were starting to go 'bad'.  I put them all in the freezer and will use them for smoothies in the coming weeks!  SCORE!


I have a bowl on our counter that has our winter squash and potatoes/yams.  This helps me remember to use these.  As the seasons begin to change, I'll post more pictures of the different storage methods we use for our vegetables.  What are some tips you have to share?  I would love to hear them!

Roasted Italian Spaghetti Squash Casserole



My family eats pretty healthy.  We buy the majority of our vegetables from the local farmer’s market.  We try to eat organic.  We try to eat what is in season.  However, I feel like I can definitely do a better job of sneaking more vegetables into our meals.  I am also very aware of how much my son LOVES carbs, any and all carbs.  He has been known to sift through meals to find only the pieces of pasta, even with high levels of encouragement to eat everything else.  He is not easily fooled either.  On the nights when I have tried a ‘pasta’  dishes with strictly spaghetti squash or zucchini pasta, he catches on rather quickly.  My thought with this dish was to begin introducing more vegetables while reducing our consumption of pasta. 

I also struggle with substituting spaghetti squash for pasta because I miss the texture and spaghetti squash seems to make things more ‘juicy’.  I like thick and hearty pasta dishes and feel that spaghetti squash tends to thin sauces too much. 

I decided to use spaghetti squash and our typical brown rice pasta to give my son the pasta he loves and give me the texture.  I then added nutritional yeast to thicken the sauce and add a ‘cheesy’ flavor.  I didn’t know how ‘creamy’ the dish would turn out, nor how the different flavors and textures would work together.  This dish was a hit with everyone in the family, definitely kid approved!

 

Roasted Spaghetti Squash Italian Casserole (Serves 6-8)

2 spaghetti squash (I didn’t weigh mine but they were medium in size)
Olive oil (preferably in a Mist-O spray bottle)
1 lb grass-fed beef
1 – 1.5 C clean spaghetti sauce
1-2 C chopped spinach
6-8 oz baby portabella mushrooms (diced)
1 small to medium onion, chopped
Garlic powder
1-2 TBS oregano
¼ C Nutritional Yeast (plus more for the top if you want)
4 oz whole wheat or gluten free pasta (optional)
Salt to taste
 

Preheat oven to 400.  Slice spaghetti squash in half length-wise and put on a cookie sheet cut side up.  Spray with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic powder (to your liking).  Roast the squash in the oven for 50 minutes, or until you can easily stick a fork in the squash.

 

This is what spaghetti squash looks like after roasting/baking.  It should be easy to remove the 'meat' of the squash for your dish.  You may want to use two forks to separate the pieces and avoid any large clumps of squash.

While the squash is roasting, sauté the onion in a skillet (I used cast iron) with a little olive oil.  Sprinkle with a little salt (1/2 tsp) to ‘sweat’ the onion.  Once the onion is opaque add ground beef and cook thoroughly. (Now is also a good time to cook your pasta according to the package if you are using it.) Add mushrooms and some garlic powder (1/2 to 1 tsp or to taste) to the mixture and sauté for 5 minutes.  Add your spaghetti sauce and cook for 3 more minutes.  You may need to turn off this mixture for a little while as your spaghetti squash continues to roast.  If you turn the heat off, turn it back on when the squash is finished.  Add the spaghetti squash to the pan along with the spinach and cook until the spinach begins to wilt.  I used two forks to separate the different pieces of my spaghetti squash; I wanted it throughout the dish and not in lumps.   Add the pasta and the nutritional yeast, combine all ingredients thoroughly. 

Place all ingredients in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes (top with additional nutritional yeast if desired).  The reason I used a cast iron skillet is so I would not need to transfer ingredients from one dish to another for baking.  However, if you do not have an oven-safe skillet, you will need to transfer this to a baking dish.  I would add a little olive oil on the bottom to prevent sticking. 

My husband and I added red pepper flakes to ours and some Celtic salt.  Please add additional spices as you see fit.  This dish was creamy and delicious.  It is definitely something we will have again.

Finished product!