Verity's Veg Box #2

Unfortunately Verity's Veg Box #2 arrived while I was poorly in bed; It seemed that the trauma of having a wisdom tooth out had finally hit and although I made it back to work on Monday, on Tuesday I wasn't able to surface at all. It's going to be a difficult week to plan for as a family member is in hospital and requiring visits, Mr W is out on Friday night, I finish work late on Thursday night, and of course chewing at the moment is Virtually Impossible. But plan I must so that I make good use of what we've got and work out what else I need to buy to supplement it.

In the fruit box this week we got bananas again (yay! my favourite fruit!), oranges (Mr W will moan about these as they are difficult to eat at work), and plums which are just approaching perfect ripeness. It's nice that we've got bananas in a mix of ripeness this time around.

In the veg box we have got salad potatoes (so I'm guessing these are good for boiling rather than roasting?), another box of spinach (a last minute substitution it seems as I had been looking forward to trying some chard for the first time...), some vine tomatoes, a red pepper, two largeish courgettes, a smallish butternut squash and some shittake mushrooms (so that's the thing that's new to me this week!). Oh and some white asparagus! I've never had this in the UK before, only in Austria so it's quite exciting, although it seems a shame just to bung it in a risotto (which is what I usually do with asparagus!).

So, the menu plan:

Wednesday night: Risotto with tinned tomatoes, asparagus and grated courgette (with leftovers for me for Thursday) served with soft goats cheese and pine nuts.
Thursday night: stuffed red pepper for Mr W (which I can make on my morning off), stuffed with garlic and feta cheese and halved vine tomatoes served with couscous.
Friday night: salmon noodle soup from this recipe which I found when googling what to do with shittake mushrooms. We've already got rice noodles and I've had a jar of red curry paste in the cupboard for ages but not been brave enough to use it. I can make this quickly in two batches so that Mr W can eat early. Might interchange this with Wednesday night if I want something quicker than risotto.
Weekend Lunch: butternut squash soup (maybe using some red curry paste too for a twist?)
Saturday dinner: Tuna steak and jacket potatoe for Mr W with tomatoes. Can't think this far ahead to what I'll have.
Sunday dinner: Quiche/pastryless quiche for me filled with courgette and spinach and served with the potatoes and more spinach. Leftovers for Monday! We sometimes like to have a fish Sunday dinner so if we do have one of those, then the veg box quiche will be held over...It's ages since I've had the yummy M and S haddock mornay (gluten free!) and their carrot, swede and potato mash...



So it looks like I'll need to get some more tomatoes, maybe some more asparagus (British asparagus is now in season, yayy!), and possibly something for Sunday dinner.