Fun with Veggies...

Here is my CSA pickup from last week.  I got lots of delicious stuff that I have used this week!

In the mix:

Butternut Squash

Eggplant

Apples

Tomatoes

Cucumbers

Pears

Romaine Lettuce

My CSA is ending soon, what am I going to do!!!

On Sunday, I took a lot of these ingredients and started my prep-ahead for the week.  I've talked about this before, but I try to prep ahead as much as possible for the week ahead. So on Sunday after the marathon, I diced and roasted my butternut squash, cooked my chicken sausage and onions and made a four cheese pasta with all of the leftover veggies I had in the fridge.  This dish, we have been eating for lunches and we also had for dinner last night. In addition, I made a salad with all veggies from my CSA.  I always have a salad made in my fridge so we can eat it as a side throughout the week.

Let's first start with the pasta.

Three Cheese Chicken Sausage Pasta with Assorted Veggies and Chicken Sausage
Ingredients:
1 Tomato, chopped
3 links of chicken sausage, cut in half
1/2 zucchini, diced
1/2 cup of onion, diced
1 lb of whole wheat fettucine
1/8 cup of feta cheese
1 ounce of Columbian cheese, crumbled
1/8 cup of marscapone cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup of reserved starchy cooking water
Instructions:
Cook pasta according to package instructions.  Saute sausage and onions in olive oil until soft.  Add in assorted veggies.  Drain pasta once it is cooked and reserve 1/2 cup of water.  Add pasta back into pot.  Add veggies, salt and pepper and cheese. Serve!

On Monday night, I made a repeat dish- Butternut Squash and Chicken Sausage Risotto! I'm sorry, I know you guys just saw this dish, but I'm obsessed!!! And now that I've finally gained the patience to make it, you will be seeing this risotto and others a lot.  It's SO GOOD!  On the side, I stuffed half a zucchini with chicken sausage and cheese.

I really can't say enough about risotto.  I think its pretty simple and it tastes even better the next day for lunch! It's also easy to make on a weeknight if you roast the squash and cook the onions and sausage ahead of time.
Last night I wanted to tackle my huge eggplant.  I've wanted to do something different with eggplant for awhile.  One of things on my list was to make eggplant rollatini's, but after I breaded and baked my eggplant, I decided to take it in a different direction and make eggplant lasagna, using the eggplant as my "noodles." I only had a taste of this last night when it came out of the oven because its really for tonights dinner... but let me tell you, it was awesome!

 

Eggplant Lasagna
Ingredients:
2 cups of breadcrumbs
2 eggs, whisked with some milk and s&p
1 large eggplant, cut into long rectangles to use as "noodles"
2 cups of your favorite tomato sauce
1 cup of mozerella cheese
2 cups of part skim ricotta
1 cup of cooked chicken sausage and onions (I cooked a big batch on Sunday)
Instructions:

Dunk your eggplant slices in the egg mixture and then into the bread crumbs. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 400 for 20 minutes.

Once your "noodles" start to get soft, start building the lasagna.  Put 1/8 of a cup of sauce on the bottom of your baking dish, then add the eggplant.

Next, mix ricotta, a tiny bit of egg and mozzarella together and spread over eggplant.

Top with chicken sausage and onions.

And more mozzarella cheese.

Add more noodles

Sauce

Cheese

And bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and lightly browned. I added salt, pepper and oregano on top too.

Serve and enjoy!

And that's what I've been up to in my kitchen lately.  What about you?

I'm off to pick up my CSA- I believe I only have one week left!