Living with a CSA

This week, I made one of the most time-consuming recipes of my life.  It was a little bit like a manicotti, with pasta rolls stuffed with greens and ricotta, and topped with a sauce, but I foolishly decided to make the pasta from scratch.  The whole recipe took about 3 hours of hands on time, not counting the cooking in the oven, and cooking on the stovetop part!  Thankfully I decided to make a full batch, which was two full pans worth, so it lasted for 3 days.  Normally I am totally okay with complicated recipes, but this one was a doozy!  I didn't want to set foot in my kitchen for like 3 days afterwards!

In other news, we ate a lot of quinoa this week. I got this pretty tri-colored quinoa from Bob's Red Mill, and it was a great, hearty addition to several meals. My mom and I were talking about vegan eating the other day, and she was mentioning that in order for vegetarian and vegan meals to be sustainable long-term, you have to give them some kind of bulk, usually through adding a grain (or beans).

I am totally on board with this idea, and we do this regularly (as evidenced below).  I do love just greens, but usually have to serve them with something else to make them filling enough for a meal. Plus, grains are a much cheaper filler than meat, and tends to go a lot further.  This might not work for everyone, but it has worked great for us!

This Week's Menu:  

Quinoa Salad with Pan-fried Green Pepper and Cilantro Ranch - the link isn't an identical recipe to what I made this week, but a similar idea.  I subbed out the rice for quinoa, left out the sweet potato, added spinach and pan-fried the pepper.  Extremely delicious and pretty easy.
Swiss Chard Cannelloni  (This is a link to the cookbook, not the actual recipe, and is the one affiliate link in this post)- This was the time consuming culprit.  Fun to make, but WOWZA it took a long time!  I would suggest making it with pre-made pasta sheets.
Sweet Corn and Black bean Tacos - I modified these out of necessity, when I realized that I had like 1/8 cup of corn rather than the required 2 cups (I think?), but they were still super delicious!
Beet Salad with Quinoa and Spinach - This blog is hit and miss for me.  Some of her stuff is great, and sometimes the flavors just don't do it for me.  This one was pretty terrific though!  I would definitely make it again!
Garlicky White Bean Stew - Fine, but maybe could use some tweaking?  I didn't love it.
Peanut Butter Vegetable Stir Fry- This has been a family favorite for years.  Even Fox was totally willing to eat broccoli and carrots with the sauce.
Cashew Corn Chowder- this recipe was a relatively recent discovery, and is an absolute favorite.  It is delicious.  The cashew cream and olive oil are a perfect and lovely finish.

Have you made any delicious vegetarian food lately? I am always looking for great new recipes to try!