This Post Is About Food. And Pinterest.

I have never been a Pinterest junkie.  I created an account a few years ago (because everybody was all YOU SOOOO HAVE TO GET ON PINTEREST) but I never really played around on it much.  I think the only things I had pinned for the longest time were a few shelf storage ideas way back before Delano was a mobile baby, because I was trying to come up with a unique plan for childproofing our stair railing along with creating a play area.  My most favorite idea was this one:

I thought this idea.....a bookshelf up against the railing (since Lucas wanted to keep the original railing intact).....was PERFECT.  And I thought we would turn that whole section by the stairs into a play area.  But then I realized - what if I have a climber??  Then bye-bye-baby head-first over the shelf and down the stairs.  So this idea was canned......at least for anytime in the near future.  I still like it a LOT, though.

Lucas ended up building a plexiglass wall against the railing that works perfectly and doesn't hurt the original railing at all.  And it's been perfect.  And the desired play area moved over to the opposite side of the room (no chances of falling down any stairs!).

For me, for a long time, Pinterest was just one more thing for me to become obsessed with that I didn't need.  I have Facebook for that.  And email.  And Twitter.  And my online bank account access.

But then I joined Weight Watchers, and I needed recipe ideas.  The Weight Watchers website has recipe ideas out the wazoo......but it's really overwhelming.  It's like sorting through McKay's cookbook section, which is INSANE.  So I started looking up Weight Watchers recipes on Pinterest, and it was awesome, because a lot of them show the PointsPlus value right there in the description.  So I started pinning recipes that looked yummy, and I've made several of them already.

I haven't made this yet, but it looks delish!

I also haven't made this yet, but it looks quite yummy and in need of some chips and salsa and maybe a margarita.

And then I joined a CSA.  Which meant I was receiving vegetables that I had NO idea what to do with.  Like turnips.  And radishes.  And even with vegetables that were familiar (like greens and zucchini), I needed some new ideas besides simply sauteing them.  So I started hitting up Pinterest for ideas because it is SO EASY to look up recipe ideas for specific foods.  Plus the big seller is having a picture handy for everything.  It's really like buying a book because the cover catches your eye. 

These roasted radishes looked delicious via Pinterest.  I plan to make them again with WAY less salt, because I oversalted them the first time and kind of ruined them.

This picture also drew me in, and gave me a way to use my tomatoes.  And it was a really good soup!

Tonight I've been pinning a bunch of recipes for greens, because I've got a bag of kale and a bag of spinach to work with this week.  Sure, I could simply saute them or I could freeze them, but I'd like to try something new.  So I've decided to make this:

This recipe is really simple and calls for kale, but I'm going to use both kale and spinach.

Since the recipe above won't use all of the kale and spinach I have, I plan to use the rest for salad.

I plan on roasting my zephyr squash like this delicata squash recipe, even though it's not a delicata squash:

I also have a lot of tomatoes, bell pepper and yellow squash.  So I've decided to make a spaghetti sauce that uses all three.  I found a relatively simple sauce that not only calls for tomatoes, bell pepper and yellow squash, but also calls for onions and carrots, both of which I also have from CSA baskets.  WIN!

I hope it's as good as the ingredients portray.

I'm still going to have a little bit of yellow squash and zucchini left over, which I'll probably end up freezing unless anybody claims it.  I also just remembered that I have a whole head of green cabbage in my basket, which will definitely not be seeing any action this week!  So I guess I'll be freezing that, even though I already have a whole head of purple cabbage in my freezer (which is planned for a soup later on). 

Cabbage, anyone???

I should probably learn how to freeze meals instead of just freezing individual veggies.  I can freeze soups, but I'm not sure what full meals can be prepared and frozen successfully.  Like what can go together and not turn up all mushy and weird after being defrosted.  I've seen Top Chef......I've seen the frozen meal disasters.  Or maybe I just shouldn't bother.  Do I really need more meal preparation activities in my future?  Probably not.  I'm doing the best I can with what I'm given at the moment!

At least someone knows what they're doing.

I still think I need a separate freezer.......