Veg-Tastic

First two shout-outs. One to o Britt for telling me how to cook these wild and crazy vegetables in a comment on my last post, and the second to Amie for coming over to help me identify, chop up and cook my gigantic box full of vegetables.  We ate a feast afterward.

Here's what my box actually contained (I miss identified some vegetables yesterday).

Collards

Kale

Onions

Strawberries

Broccoli

Peas

Beets

So we cooked the collards as Britt advised, by sauteeing them with olive oil, onion and garlic.  We went ahead and cooked them all, mostly because I didn't think I would ever be motivated to do it again later in the week. Here's what they looked like after Amie chopped them all up:

Here's what they looked like after we cooked them down.  I've never had a collard green before. They were pretty good. Not nearly as gross as I expected them to be.  They would probably not be my first choice in vegetables, but anything sauteed in olive oil is pretty good in my book.

We also chopped up some kale.  I've never had kale before. I followed a recipe for kale chips that I once saw in a Real Simple magazine that I read in the eye doctor's office. I took a picture of the recipe with my phone in case I ever wanted to make it.  I tossed the chopped up kale with olive oil and put a little salt and pepper on them. Then baked them at 300 degrees for 20 minutes. These guys were delicious.  They got real crispy and tasted like potato chips, except way healthier. I liked these a lot. I still have a lot of kale left, so I'll be making them again later in the week. Here they are about to go in the oven.  

We also boiled the beets.  I've never had a beet before.  There were only a handful and they were very small. They boiled a long time, but finally got soft and Amie peeled off the skin.  Here they are after being cooked, peeled and cut.  They reminded me of cooked carrots and again, were not nearly as gross as I expected them to be.

Here's a shot of the stove, when it was really cooking.  We've got onions in the back left, beets boiling in the back right, collards on the front right and one of my meals for the week, chicken with rice, peas and broccoli in the front right.

We ate a lot of veggies today, but I still have a good bit left.  Some cooked, some left raw, but it is a much more manageable amount.  I tried three new vegetables today!  Three that I've never really even seen in a grocery store before!  I can't wait for next week's shipment.

Have you guys ever had collards, kale or beets?