Week 2: Roasted Broccoli & Salad Galore

Sadly, it took three days to break our veggies out of the fridge because Sunday and Monday nearly killed us. We made a grueling trek to Austin for a baby naming on Sunday that involved the following spirit-crushing foods: kolaches (could you drive past the Czech Stop Truck Stop without making yourself sick?), chalupas, sangria, Mexican flag sugar cookies, spinach balls (thank goodness), cappuccinos, chips and a cheese sandwich on sourdough. I wish I were exaggerating. Our excuse is that Passover was going to start on Monday night, so we needed to ingest as much leavened food as our bodies could tolerate before it all came to a screeching, no-carb halt. Monday became a fast day (now I'm exaggerating) since I was still horrified at the prior day's gluttony, and that evening was our first night's seder, which I did not cook. So by Tuesday, I was ready for some seriously divine natural foods. Because we had more lettuce than I had ever dared to consume in a month, let alone a week, I knew my lunch was going to involve my new friend, Romaine. I loaded up my bag with the lettuce, almonds, sliced radishes, green onions, cranberries and blue cheese, then threw in some matzo for good measure. The salad was like a peace offering to myself and upon eating it, I felt the bliss of The Very Hungry Caterpillar when he eats a nice green leaf after days of wrecking his gullet on junk.

It was my job to bring roasted broccoli for 18 people to Tuesday night's seder, so I hit up Costco and bought a huge bag of it pre-chopped. I drizzled it with olive oil, mixed it with garlic and a ton of finely chopped green onions, and roasted it until the edges were crisp. I had never added green onions before, but because I add them to everything now, I had no choice. They turned out to be a tasty addition and I was inwardly joyous when a girl who "hates onions" requested a second helping.

While I dreaded the departure of leavened foods for a week, I was also bolstered by this new complication. On top of the CSA challenge we had undertaken just 10 days prior, Week 2 now became the Passover CSA challenge and we were going in armed with matzo and primed with produce.