Week 7

Cabbage
All orange carrots
Escarole
Red and white onions
Zucchini

It's a slow week for veggies, between the spring and summer seasons. The timing couldn't be better, since I'm a bit behind (looking at you, turnips) after being away for two weekends. And looking back at all the deep-fried, chili-smothered, and cheese-stuffed tasty I had on those trips, catching up on the healthy stuff is in order. So this week, I'll be making an effort to use up more of what I've got so I'll be less tempted to go out for cheeseburgers when Friday rolls around.

I've already made a big pot of vegetable soup with the escarole, some carrots, one of each color onion, and a couple little zucchinis, plus some odds and ends from the pantry. I searched for uses for carrot greens, but most of what I found described them as either excellent compost or inferior parsley. So I took my chances and chopped up a few of them with some basil and threw that into the soup at the end.

Being in a healthful mindset, I'm trying to forget that I ever read this:

44. Make a crisp grilled cheese sandwich, with good bread and not too much good cheese. Let it cool, then cut into croutons. Put them on anything, but especially tomato and basil salad. This you will do forever.

I firmly believe the author that I would do this forever. Doesn't this sound like the perfect thing for a bowl of soup? The tip comes from a list of 101 salad ideas from the New York Times last summer.

Now that I've acquired a cabbage, I think it's time to work on that mystery cabbage (slaw? salsa?) I mentioned a couple weeks back. Maybe with some veggie tacos?