Pizza – an unexpected way to eat vegetables.
A delivery once a fortnight is perfect for our two person (plus one bunny) household. I’m glad we’re not getting these once a week. Possibly if we ate only fruit and vegetables, but we’re omnivores so the Tuesday box of goodies is only part of what we eat. I wouldn’t mind a little more fruit to get us through, but other than that, the vegetables are spot on. Because we only get the $33 Appetiser box, that makes it great value at $16.50 a week.
Vegetable garden
I’ve been slacking off in my vegetable garden lately due to the rain. I think my radishes, carrots and beetroot are suffering. Would it be considered crazy to poke clear umbrellas into the soil to shield them from the weather?
Planning
I’m getting the hang of planning for the two weeks at a time. The bonus is that we shop less than so I can spend more time cooking, writing, photographing, and dreaming up new projects (also eating, being wrapped in blankets, drinking wine, playing with a fat rabbit etc).
No baking
Our new secondhand oven is deranged, so baking is out of the question. After failing at baking repeatedly, I invested in an oven thermometer to confirm my suspicions. Now I’m not the best baker and I’m working on that but 3 hours to cook a roast was crazy. Fluctuating up to 100°C off course, when the dial says 260°C, it’s only at 160°C, but the top layer may burn. This means it’s all a crazy experimental and requires constant monitoring of the thermometer. Is this what cooking on a firepit is like?
Roasting is possible, though takes much longer and melting cheese is fine.
Still waiting on our landlord on the outcome.
Foodbox Menu 2
Items in bold or italic are from our Foodbox or vegetable garden.
- Sirloin steak with sweet stem broccoli, coleslaw, creamy mashed swede.
- Spiced meatballs and spaghetti in tomato sauce. Kale sauteed with olive oil and garlic.
- Egg foo young with prawn, sweet stem broccoli, mung bean sprouts, shiitake mushrooms, spring onion and coriander on rice.
- Smoked chicken penne with roasted cherry tomatoes and sauteed kale. Topped with parmigiano reggiano.
- Bœuf Bourguignon. (by special request)
- Corned beef with cabbage, potato, carrots, onion and mustard sauce.
- Corned beef hash with potatoes, onion, topped with smoked cheddar.
- Tortilla pizza with prawn or smoked chicken, cheddar, cherry tomatoes, basil and spinach leaves.
- Smoked ham and vegetable soup with grilled cheese sandwiches
- Slow cooked brown sugar beef with mashed potatoes and cabbage.
- Ham sandwiches with mung bean sprouts, spinach leaves, beetroot, smoked cheddar, pickles, mayo and mustard.
- Steak salad with spinach leaves, cherry tomatoes, mung bean sprouts, fresh peas, basil and chick peas.
- Smoked chicken wraps with spinach leaves, basil and mayo.
- Corned beef sandwiches with spinach leaves, mustard sauce and pickles.
- Sausages, baked beans and eggs on toast.
- French toast with maple bacon and grilled banana.
- Omelette with ham, basil, sweet stem broccoli, cherry tomatoes and cheese.
I’ll be saving the soup for the final day as a failsafe to use up whatever is left before the next delivery. I’m sure there will also be plenty of leftovers eaten throughout the week.
This is a guide only. Whether we’ll make 17 meals over the next 2 weeks remains to be seen. It seems quite daunting laid out like that.
For a full list of our Foodbox contents, please see my previous post.
Bunny Eats Design 
Foodboxes sounds awesome!! This pizza looks SO good too.
Thanks you should check it out in your neighbourhood. I’m sure with your diet, you’d power through a foodbox 🙂
Love tortilla pizzas for easy, use-up-lots-of-leftovers meals. That is friggin’ annoying with your oven. Pretty sure you can get them calibrated, but I imagine at a cost.. Mine fluctuates ALL the time, but no more than 20˚ or 30˚ which is managable, but means keeping a constant eye on the oven thermometer.
It has really tested my patience. The most annoying things is having to eat undercooked food because I can’t bear to wait yet another hour for dinner and I can’t bear to ditch it and get takeaways either. The worst thing is, is that that they might take it away to get fixed and then I won’t have a stove either.
That’s rubbish about your stove. I hope they just buy you a new one! Is that likely?
A brand new one is unlikely. This is a replacement one for one that conked it a few months ago. It’s just annoying that someone would sell one that didn’t work properly.
The items on your menu sounds delish!
Thank you!
I used to get a foodbox every week – I thought the produce was such good quality – so often the stuff you buy at the supermarket doesn’t seem to last very long. The only problem I had was trying to time it right with my supermarket shop, so I have all the ingredients at the same time. I often found I ran out of meat, or vege or fruit, so I went to the supermarket and ended up doing a big shop again. I just couldn’t get it right! Nice post idea, Ingrid
Hi Ingrid, we don’t usually buy our produce at the supermarket, but I know what you mean. This time round we have bought what feels like enough meat for 2 weeks though time will tell. Will make an extra trip tomorrow but that is for Mothers Day cooking so doesn’t count. 🙂
Looks awesome Genie! I actually decided just today to blog about my menu planning experiences…something we just started doing and it’s paying off in time and money saved already! Love it!
I have never gotten a CSA box but I know I should really try it. I’m a little more inclined now that I’m planning my menus ahead anyways….
Thanks for this post!
Hi Jessie. I look forward to reading about your menu planning. Your dishes are also so interesting and delicious looking and you seem to be forever challenging your tastebuds and cooking skills. CSA or produce deliveries are great if you are flexible and happy to eat whatever is in season. I always buy the same few vegetables so we generally eat the same dishes. It’s nice to be forced to try new vegies.
Your pizza looks delicious. Menu planning works awesome, doesn’t it?
You could use tiny cocktail umbrellas. 🙂 That would be a nice picture. maybe just do it for fun. In all your spare time. haha! Ya right. I love the idea of this box. We too have been a bit lazy with our veggies. I packed myself up a box of carrot, celery and cucumber sticks last night and then left it in the fridge 😦
Wow I want some pizza now