Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Dinner in a Box - Celebrating Swiss Chard

When was the last time you thought about gardening and growing your own food and live a sustainable lifestyle in the city?

What if you could only eat what you grow - or at least primarily - how efficient and or creative would you become to thrive with Lunch in a Box or Dinner in a Box?

I began this concept recently, because I decided that I needed an attitude overall toward gardening. If I thought of each garden box (raised beds) as lunch or dinner, then I would (hopefully) be sure to not waste anything, be more frugal and be more self-sufficient.

The thought of Lunch in a Box and Dinner in a Box has made me work our family meals and find recipes around what's in the Box.

So, here's our Dinner in a Box from Tuesday night. It's a great recipe for Dinner in a Box using Swiss Chard (compliments of Cookiemag.com)

Start your Dinner in a Box with 1 bunch of Swiss Chard - washed and drained.



Trim the leaves from the stems and roughly chop the leaves and pat them dry. Then, in a large skillet saute 2 cloves of minced garlic in olive oil. I use a liberal amount of olive oil, but use what you'd like. Boil water for linguine (or spaghetti) and cook a good amount al dente - then set it aside.

Next, sprinkle red-pepper flakes into the oil and garlic and saute for about 1 minute.

This Swiss Chard's been in our garden wine barrel for 3 seasons. It's prolific!

Add the chard and saute until it's wilted - then remove it from the heat. Now, add the pasta. Toss with salt and pepper and then - the fun part - toss a handful of grated Parmesan.

Serve and watch the eyes begin to smile. If you like you could serve some baked chicken pieces with this - I generally don't. Just a big plate of this along with my home made whole wheat bread.

Related Posts
1. Lunch in a Box
2. Eating Flowers - Lunch in a Box
3. Visit Amy's Kitchen for More Celebrations
4. More Inspirations Visit Melissa's Inspired Room


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6 comments:

kalea_kane said...

Sounds delightful. I really would love to have a garden. I am going to look into what I can grow in a pot on our porch. I have a black thumb. :)

Joe said...

That looks like a pretty good lunch in a box.

Amy said...

Yummy! That looks good, Lylah! I always love seeing what is growing in your garden.

Amy @ Finer Things said...

What a great concept! My garden just git its second till yesterday... we've planted broccoli. Now on to onions, bell peppers, zucchini and tomatoes. I can't stand to pay crazy prices for bell peppers in the dead of winter!

Goat Gal said...

That is a very cool way of looking at your garden!

abeachcottage said...

i like this idea! definitely a great way to think of it

sarah