It's that time of the week!... As most of you know by now, I am enrolled in a CSA (community shared agriculture) program, which delivers--for a modest monthly fee--a freggie bag each week to a facility near my apartment for me to pick up.

Inside, the bounty of the Ohio farm!

This week we got fresh heirloom tomatoes... MMMM... radishes, onions, sweet corn, cucumbers, blueberries, cantaloupe, and goat cheese.

(the pineapple is from Giant Eagle, lol)

If you are in a big city, chances are there is a CSA / market bag that you can subscribe to, so check it out!!! It is so worth it :) and supporting local farmers is the best feeling!

On to the dinner.

Last night I made sirloin meatballs in the slow cooker (with grass-fed, free range beef, of course!).. super low-fat and yummy. Today I was just going to toss them over pasta with the leftover ratatouille , when an inspiration hit me...

... "OH MAN, I know a way to use up this pesky zucchini! I will just slice it in half, carve out the center with a melon-baller, and fill it with meatballs/sauce. YUM!"


Amazingly, I used only one meatball (2" diameter, cut in quarters) in each half of the zucchini, with half a cup of sauce. Above is a pic right before popping it into the oven.. on a piece of foil with nonstick spray... but something was missing....


Oh yes, some grated parmesano reggiano. Into the oven with ye, for 30ish minutes at 350.

In the meantime, I got cooking on that sweet corn and salads. My bf requested a pure, unadulterated form of tomato, so I granted his wish


For my own salad, I mixed up some tomato, cucumber, olive, oil, salt, pepper, vinegar, and lemon juice:


Okay, main course and salads are taken care of.. but I think we needed a little amuse bouche to start things off... so I threw together some 9 grain toast with the chevre and radishes from the market bag! This was my first time trying radishes (that I can recall), and they were crunchy little discs of delicious.

(my favorite pic.. look how gooey the cheese is, MMMM...(I have a problem))

This turned out to be quite a filling meal...


6 servings of veggies all for 651 calories each !!!!

(and yes, that is real butter on the corn and whole-fat goat cheese on the toast.. and yes they are calculated into the calories, but you could sub low-fat stuff for even fewer cals!).

300 calories each if you just made the zucchini stuffed with meatballs!



The zucchini was great... just soft enough to cut easily but still firm enough that the skin crunched. Flavor was ahh-mazing.

Images kinda suck because I left my iPad upstairs and used an old cell phone camera... but I hope this post inspires someone to eat more veggies! Better yet, local veggies!
Now it is time to make a fruit salad... ;)