Eating Veggies: A couple ideas

There are so many delicious vegetables coming at me from all different directions right now - from my CSA, farmer's markets, my parent's garden - it is time to get super creative to make sure lots of veggies are getting eaten with every meal. Here are some of the ways that I have been putting this wonderful produce to use.

• First... BABY FOOD! Local, chemical free veggies grown with love are the perfect thing to feed my little munchkin as I introduce him to the world beyond the bottle. Here he is eating (or wearing?) pureed beets: 

• Next...BREAKFAST. Veggie omelet with homefries, yum. The omelet is filled with CSA broccoli, onion, tomato, and basil from my deck. Topped with arugula and hot sauce. The homefries are CSA potatoes, which were actually first made into a potato salad and then pan-fried. I had more potato salad than I could possibly eat so this was an attempt to make sure it did not go to waste. An interesting experiment that came out pretty good!  

• Then...LUNCH. A salad... duh! From the CSA: salad mix, tomatoes, cucumbers. Plus garden basil and cilantro. SOme mozzarella cheese and some flax seeds (so good for you!). Dressed with a squeeze of lemon, some olive oil and black pepper. 

• Finally...DINNER. FALAFEL!! I was came to the idea to make a falafel dish in part due to the overwhelming amount of cucumbers in my life right now. I was thinking... I should make tzatziki (an idea inspired by KGF superstar Sam Bower)! Which is a tangy sauce for dipping or dressing. Here is how I made it (although I am sure there are many variations! 
• I eyeballed amounts of plain greek yogurt and sour cream as the base for the sauce.
• Next I squeezed in half a lemon and half a lime
• Then I added a healthy amount of chopped farmer's market garlic
• And the best part...grated cucumber! I used a whole cucumber grated very finely until it was basically a pulp.
• Finally, some spicing with salt, pepper and dill. 

• Next I made falafel balls, which is a simple combination of garbanzo beans, citrus, and spices. You could use lots of different things, but I used:
• One can mashed garbanzo beans
• Finely chopped CSA celery
• Finely chopped garden cilantro
• Lots of garlic
• Cumin
• Coriander
• Cayenne pepper
• Lemon and lime juice
• All combined with an egg and some flour so it came together into little balls. I chose to bake them instead of fry them because it is healthier and easier clean-up. Here is how they looked on their way into the oven:

• Since I was going to have a taco set-up for my falafel, I made some simple veggies to go with it. CSA cabbage and carrots shredded with some cilantro and chopped CSA tomatoes. Easy and delicious! 

• Finally, the fun part, putting it all together! I heated some tortillas and smeared some tzatziki onto them, then added the cabbage and carrots and tomatoes. To that I added the falafel balls and I topped it all with more tzatziki and some sriracha. Deeelicious!! I highly recommend trying this one!