Today marks the first week of our CSA and I am so excited to show you our goodies and hopefully a few recipes over the next week. This year we decided to do a different CSA, unlike ones in the past where we sign up and get whatever they have to give us that week, we actually get to choose our produce. On Sunday night we can log-in into the CSA website and choose 10 items from the list they provide.
This week we chose to get:
Dino Kale
Red Kale
Green Kale
Rainbow Chard
Collards
Lettuce, but requested cucumbers (more on that below)
Broccoli
Snap Peas
Summer Squash
Zucchini
We had originally requested cucumbers but since it was most likely a popular item we didn’t end up getting our first choice and were given our second choice of more greens- in this case lettuce. The other great thing about our CSA is that after you make your choices you can purchase additional items (if available).
The plan for our CSA goodies is to saute or roast the zucchini and summer squash, saute the snap peas in a recipe and cook up or juice the greens.
Since I am crazy busy with work this week I have invited Mellissa from A Fit and Spicy Life to share one of her recipes. Enjoy!
Curried Quinoa and Cranberry Salad
Ingredients (Serves 4)
For the Salad
1 cup quinoa
1 cup water
1 cup vegetable broth
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup slivered almonds
Salt/Pepper
Dressing
1/4 cup orange juice
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons agave nectar
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp Dijon mustard
Instructions
Bring the quinoa, broth, and water to a bowl. Add quinoa and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.
In a small bowl whisk together orange juice, lemon juice, olive, oil, mustard, agave and curry powder.
Place cooled quinoa and dressing in a large bowl, top with cranberries and almonds.
Season with salt and pepper. Chill for a few hours until cold. Enjoy!
Mellissa is a 30 something girl living in Minneapolis who lives fitness, food, travel and wine. She creates healthy recipes and tries to share her love of food with friends and family
This week is going to be pretty crazy at work- we have a convention and then I am leaving next week to be a stay-at-home/work-at-home mom. I will be posting sporadically this week but you should head over to Naturally Family where we have a number of post prepared. Today we are talking about my Pregnancy Ups and Downs and also about creating boundaries in the bedroom.
Almost all of my prenatal fitness has revolved around walking, prenatal yoga and Summer Sanders’ workout videos, that is until I finally found swimming. Back at the end of May, Neil and I went to get anniversary massages at a spa which allowed us full access to their facilities including their pool. Since we had the entire day I decided that I should pick up a pregnancy friendly bathing suit since all of pre-pregnancy ones were much too small. I didn’t want to spend a ton of money so I ended up buying one for $20 from Old Navy (non-maternity). It’s a bit big in the chest and the bottom due to the the need for it to fit around my giant baby belly but it works.
After our massages we took advantage of the pool and it was glorious! We did lap after lap sometimes jogging from end to end and other times swimming and it felt amazing. Being in the water really relieved the pressure on my hips and legs and I still got in a great workout. It felt so great that I couldn’t wait to go swimming again. Since then we have only had access to outdoor pools and the lake but have made an effort to get out and enjoy both when the weather and time allows.
We are so lucky that Neil’s work has an arrangement with a local tennis club that has an outdoor pool. We are able to use the pool throughout the week after 5pm and all day on the weekends. We went this past Monday and got a nice swim in. Swimming has easily become my new favorite pregnancy activity. I really recommend that you pregnant ladies get out there and do some swimming this summer because it feels so good and is low impact but a great workout- especially on the arms- you will be carrying around a baby soon so need to strengthen those arms of yours!
Hi, I’m Alison, a Physical and Massage Therapist, and I write about healthy living, wellness and rehabilitation over at Berry Happy Bodies. I want to thank Lindsay for letting me guest post today! Lindsay has recently written about her CSA box and using her greens. My husband and I subscribe to one as well. One solution I came up with to utilize all the leafy greens before they take a turn is to make smoothies. When I add a frozen banana it actually satisfies my sweet tooth as well. Win! Here is one of my favorite summer smoothie recipes.
Green Monster Smoothie
Serves 2
Ingredients
1 frozen banana
½ cup chopped pineapple
1 Tsp shredded coconut
2 dates without pit***
½ cup spinach or other leafy green
1 cup coconut milk
1 scoop vanilla protein powder (Vega is good for vegans)
¼ Tsp coconut extract
¼ Tsp coconut extract
Stevia to taste
6-8 ice cubes
Place in a blender and whirl away.
*** I usually soak my dates overnight in water. But, I have made this without the presoak, the dates are just not as sweet.
Your baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. She’s shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of her first bowel movement.
At the end of this week, your baby will be considered full-term. (Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term.) Most likely she’s in a head-down position. But if she isn’t, your practitioner may suggest scheduling an “external cephalic version,” which is a fancy way of saying she’ll try to coax your baby into a head-down position by manipulating her from the outside of your belly. (source)
Baby’s Gender: We both think it’s a girl. <—change
Baby’s Name: We have a name for a boy or a girl. Choosing a boys name was easy for us and was decided upon months ago but the girls name has been a little more challenging but we finally decided on one.
Weight Gained: 25 lbs ish?
Clothes: Mostly just wearing dresses as they are the most comfortable.
How are you feeling: I am feeling pretty good. I actually over did it a little this past weekend because I was feeling so great. Sunday we went for a long walk, swimming, to the market, to a museum and to get a snack which left me a little worried because baby wasn’t moving around as much. I ended up calling the midwives to panic that there was reduced fetal movement but was reassured that if I had felt s/he move at least three times in the last hour things should be fine and that because I was so active that was why the baby wasn’t moving as much. Apparently my walking, swimming, etc is similar to rocking the baby so they felt pretty content to just relax. Monday morning I woke up to lots of movement and this baby has been crazy active since.
What do you miss: I miss the desire to eat normally- I am getting to the point where I am having slight food aversions or just no desire to eat (don’t worry I have had no problem eating just lack of desire). I miss running more and more but I think it’s because I know that soon I will be able to get back to it so there is combination of missing and anxiousness.
Symptoms: ,
Better ability to breathe. Baby might soon descend into your pelvis, giving your lungs some extra space. (source) I noticed on Wednesday that the baby seemed to move down some because I went from feeling them all up in my ribs and lungs to being able to breathe and my bump is noticeably lower.
Cravings: Green Lemonade (greens, apples and/or carrots and lemon). Blueberries. Amy’s refried black beans.
How are you sleeping: Sleeping has been a little more challenging, lately my hips have been bothering me and I’m finding that I am sore in my pelvis now too.
Workouts: This week I went swimming twice, to prenatal yoga and on a few walks. Let me tell you I should have started swimming earlier, it is amazing during pregnancy.
Things I’m looking forward to: Finishing my last two weeks of work. Getting this house in order for the babies arrival. Touring the birth center.
Pure Sweets is an organic, gluten-free, vegan, kosher bakery in Philly. A few months ago I contacted them about doing a review and the sent me a few items to try which include one of their crisp bars –The Ladybug, a flourless cookie- The Ape, a trio of mini macaroons- The Poodle and a bag of trail mix- The Camel. Neil and I enjoyed everything so much that we ended up placing an order for a few more goodies for ourselves and an order of mini macaroons for our babyshower.
For ourselves we ordered:
The Kitty:Organic citrus cardamom cookies made with organic citrus fruit. We both really loved the flavor of these cookies but unfortunately they didn’t travel so well and ended up having a strange consistency. I blame the heat and humidity we have been having here.
The Kid:Organic brown rice crisp bar topped with organic peanut butter, organic blackberry preserves from Italy and organic single-origin dark chocolate. After loving The Ladybug we had to order another crisp bar and let me tell you that this one was even better! Neil and I both wished we had ordered two because it was really hard to share (we fought over the last bite).
The Bat:Organic single-origin chocolate macaroons peppered with organic cayenne. This was one of my favorite macaroons. It was chocolately with just a mild hit of spice.
The Sphinx:Organic rosewater cardamom macaroons. These macaroons were really great, such an interesting flavor. We both really liked them but after trying a number of other flavors at the shower they ddin’t end up being a favorite of ours. Tip: Crumble and add to vanilla coconut yogurt with sliced strawberries- so good!
The Elephant:Organic cashew butter macaroons with organic caramelized nuts. This was my favorite of all the macaroons that I tried. The caramelized nuts really made this so delicious. I plan on ordering more of these soon!
The Owl:Organic salted almond vanilla bean macaroons. This one was good but you can get it dipped in chocolate and I think that would have made it even better.
The Panda:Organic single-origin chocolate chunk macaroons. I didn’t actually get to try this one (sad face) but Neil did and he absolutely loved it!
The Poodle:Organic lemon lavender macaroons.(I just checked my order and this one must have been snuck in by the good people at Pure Sweets) These are my second favorite ( The Elephant being my first) of all the macaroons. The lemon and lavender is such a great combination.
Pure Sweets photo shoot at our baby shower featuring father-to-be Neil and our friend Laura