Local Produce Box: Week 11

Talk about a full produce box: cherry tomatoes, yellow tomato, field tomatoes, eggplant, purple carrots, peppers, potatoes, Napa cabbage, cucumber, pears, apples, cantaloupe, and onions.

With more fruit than usual this week, we ate many small fruit salads; the pears were unbelievably sweet, and we really enjoyed the cantaloupe.

I was happy to savor the yellow tomato - so good - as the ones I was growing in my garden turned all black on the bottom as soon as they ripened; I had to toss the entire plant without enjoying a single tomato....

As for cooking/meals, here is what we ate:

(from left to right)

1. Basil Scalloped Tomatoes and Croutons - recipe courtesy of Oh She Glows. With so many cherry tomatoes on hand, as well as a lush basil plant in the garden, this was the perfect recipe for this time of year. I think I used the wrong kind of bread to make my croutons (they got a little mushy) but this was still a tasty dish. 
2. Cabbage Salad - my own creation: Napa cabbage and tomatoes dressed with Greek Caesar dressing.
3. Eggplant Tacos - a staple meal for us; as soon as I saw the eggplant in our box I knew we'd be having these tacos. Delicious.
4. Plum and Tomato Salad with Basil - another gem from The Forest Feast; an unusual but delicious combination. 

I love that at this point in my 'local produce box journey', I immediately have several ideas on what to make as soon as I look in the box. Of course I do look up the odd recipe because I love to try new recipes and keep meals and cooking fresh and interesting, but having cooked a mostly plant based diet for quite some time now, I have a great arsenal of simple recipes that I can turn to. This is proving especially useful as the recipes that have come with the produce box have not been nearly as helpful as they were last year.