Tight food budget until the end of the month

[conuly]

As I said. So after Thanksgiving we're going to be trying to use up a lot of the vegetables from the CSA pickup.

That's the stuff we haven't eaten already - a lot of carrots, sweet potatoes, and squash. The nieces, as a rule, don't like carrots, sweet potato, or squash. Orange vegetables as a group. I've already apologized, but it's GOT to be used up. Poor babies. I keep trying them in different ways, too, but... *shrugs*

Mostly we have butternut squashes, but there's this red one that looks like a small, red pumpkin. Not sure what sort of squash it is, but really, excepting spaghetti squash they're mostly interchangeable, aren't they?

As Ana was doing her homework she glanced over at me grating potatoes. "OOOH! ARE YOU MAKING POTATO PANCAKES?" Yup!

Then she watched me grating the carrots and parsnip that went in the pancakes as well, and I convinced her to try a little sliver of parsnip. "It tastes... a lot like a carrot." Yes, it does.

And THEN she looked over and saw the red squash thing. Itching for another distraction, or possibly just in a very good mood, she burst out with "Is that a pumpkin? Are we going to get to eat that?!?"

Me: No, it's not a pumpkin, sweetie, but we are going to eat that, probably next week.
Ana: Wait... is it... *face falls slightly* is that a SQUASH?
Me: Pumpkins are squash. And yes, so's that. And yes, we are going to eat it. Next week. It's got to be used up, and we're on a budget.

She took it very well, I must say. Now I just have to dig up some new recipes that maybe won't taste so offensively... well, honestly, I'm not sure why the nieces don't like orange vegetables, but it's an awful pity, they're cheap and filling and nutritious. Still, I wish I knew what it is about them that bugs the girls so much. (Evangeline used to adore carrots, at least, but for a while she's been copying her sister in that respect.)

Comments

[adrian_turtle]

Cubes of pumpkin, butternut squash, or sweet potato can be a good addition to chili with beef and/or black beans. The sweetness and smooth texture balances the spiciness. (Not quite the way tomato does, and not quite the way avocado does. Sort of in between those effects.)

[conuly]

Well, I'm making black bean and butternut chili this weekend. Fingers crossed.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

I have a recipe for chicken pot pie that actually called for finely diced pumpkin in with the other vegetables (carrot, onion, you know, the standard stuff). I don't normally have pumpkin hanging around, but the one time the presence of fresh punkin coincided with my pot pie, I put it in and it did seem to add a little something.

Squash also freezes well, if you have freezer room.

I like squash, but have you tried it in a mixed scallop or gratin with other root vegetables? Orange cheese might disguise the orange vegetables for the Pickers. I seem to remember once eating twice-baked potatoes with shredded squash mixed into the mash along with shredded cheese--it was decades ago, so it's fuzzy, but fwiw...

[conuly]

If we have any chicken left over after Friday (chicken salad for dinner, or possibly soup) maybe I'll make that. Pot pie... could I make miniature ones in a muffin tin, do you think? That'd be cute.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

If you want to finick around making a bunch of little crusts, sure, fly at it.

My own "pot pie" is a casserole in a large dish covered with one layer of crust. I don't have the patience to make a bunch of little ones, and I think a double-crust is too much crust for the typical depth of an American pie pan.

[conuly]

I don't like cutting open messy pies and serving them. It's a... thing.

Heh.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Neither do I, that's why my casserole style--you scoop the crust off with a spoon or serving ladle, flip onto the plate, follow with a scoop of filling, done.

Much better than trying to finagle a slice out of a scalding-hot pie with those useless "pie server" thingies.

Re: Heh.

[conuly]

I thought those were for cakes, where they do some good. If I *must* cut pies, I use a ladle, or else fingers and a fork.

[blackhanddpants.livejournal.com]

I have one that will only eat carrots if they're RAW, the other will only eat them if they are steamed until they are NOT CRUNCHY. One will eat broccoli, but only RAW, the other won't touch it any old way. They'll happily eat canned green beans, but insist that fresh green beans look too much like asparagus, which they won't touch. Neither one will eat squash of any stripe (outside pumpkin), but they'll both eat peas, and one will eat fried okra.

I've stopped trying to make it make sense.

[conuly]

It doesn't even make sense to them! Ana was forlorn the day she realized she didn't currently like banana, which she'd loved only a few days previously. That exact same thing (and same fruit, even!) happened to me repeatedly as a child, and I told her that it's just her body getting bigger, and as she gets older she'll consistently like more and more things. I don't know if that's true, but it's better than "Yeah, well, suck it up, I bought 3 pounds of the fruit for you so you better darn well eat it".

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

I'm told that butternut squash can be used to make non-pumpkin pie. Not knowing what a pumpkin pie ought to be like, I have no idea how good a substitute it is.

[conuly]

1. Yes, it can, and it's not bad. I should do that.... And yes, carrot cake is yum. I'll probably make carrot muffins this weekend.

2. OMG! NO PUMPKIN PIE? I FORGOT, ENGLAND!

If you promise to bake it, I'll send you a can of pumpkin (you can't really use any old pumpkin, it has to be a pie pumpkin or it's too watery) and a recipe. No pumpkin pie is my vision of hell. I love me my pumpkin pie!

*thinks*

All those recipes call for "pumpkin pie spice", I'll send you a recipe for that as well. I assume you can get cloves, nutmeg, ginger, vanilla extract, cinnamon? (I've heard Brits say Americans like cinnamon too much, so I feel the need to confirm!

3. Note, I say I'll send it, but I may put it off for a bit and you'll have to remind me. I'm horrible about this sort of thing.

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

I have tasted pumpkin pie once, as made by an American expat from a can of pie filling. I wasn't all that keen, but then me and sweet things don't get on. so I'm not going to say she made it badly.
Yes, we can get all those spices and more. Waitrose may even have the cans of pie filling. We also have pastry :)
If this is going to be hassle, or the post will be silly-expensive, then please don't bother, lovely thought though it is.

[conuly]

It wouldn't be that big a deal, but if you've already had it and didn't like it I won't bother. Rather save it for me :)

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

Save it for you :)
I just did a quick search, and yes, should I feel the inclination, Waitrose will provide.
http://www.waitrose.com/shop/ProductView-10317-10001-10003-Paula+Pumpkin+Puree

[eofs.livejournal.com]

We do have cinnamon, but it's Ceylon cinnamon not the cassia sold as cinnamon in the States.

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

Carrot cake. Worth a go?

[inboxfive.livejournal.com]

I don't have recipes right on hand, but I can find 'em if these sound like they'd be at all appealing: Squash pancakes, carrot soup, sweet potato chips.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

Do they not eat carrots in any form? They're so different dependent on the way they're served, can you convince them to try other ways? (I adore them raw - wolfed down three last night - but don't really like them cooked any more than 5 mins steamed, and roasted they are totally vile. And I don't like them grated, except in carrot salad - grated carrot, mayonnaise and raisins, mmmmm.)

I nibbled a bit of raw parsnip last year when I was putting one in a soup and quite liked it, though cooked it's horrible. I don't like anything of that ilk - parsnips, swede, turnips, or sweet potato, squash, any of that lot. So I can't help too much with recipes as I don't have any! That said, I do use them a bit in mulligatawny soup which I'm sure you could adapt to work with what you've got. (Its base is swede, carrot, sweet apple and onion, but any combination of like vegetables works. It's a wonderfully versatile meal. If you'd like the recipe, let me know.) Similarly you could try curried parsnip soup - whether their issue is texture or taste (for me it's both) that's a meal which disguises both.

[conuly]

They eat carrots grated so as to be unrecognizable :P

Parsnips are just very white carrots that are sweet!

[eofs.livejournal.com]

It's the sweetness in such vegetables that I dislike ;0) That's why I like carrots less the more they're cooked. But raw I thought parsnip had an interesting tang to it.

It's strange that they should not like orange veg, which tends to be the sweeter end of the spectrum, yet like green (if your recent comments about Eva and broccoli are anything to go by) on the bitter end.

[conuly]

I know, it's the opposite of what children are "supposed" to like! They love broccoli, love green beans, love kale, love cauliflower (even if it's orange), love red peppers, even love brussel sprouts*! Beets, too! But orange vegetables? Not so much.

Though my persistence is paying off, tonight Ana said she's starting to like carrots and sweet potato "a little", probably because I serve at least one of the two every week. (I don't make them swallow it down, I do expect them to take a small bite to see if their tastes have changed.)

* Which means the only brassica they don't like that much is cabbage, but admittedly I don't have many recipes for that. They also like collard greens at least some of the time. Yup, another brassica. What I love about that plant family is that most of them even have related names, so you don't need to know botany, just etymology to identify them. Even cabbage is the cole in cole slaw. Broccoli isn't a related term, but doesn't it LOOK related, with the col in the middle of it? Sadly, it's just a diminutive, but I like my version better.