Happy Holidays Oahu Fresh members!  Are you doing your holiday shopping already?  If so please remember that you can give the gift of Oahu Fresh to a family member and/or a friend!  We offer convenient 1 month and 3 month options for both weekly and every other week delivery, and delivery can start whenever your “giftee” chooses!  Call us at 343-8196 or email us at info@oahufresh.com if you have questions.

This week we’ve got a wonderful bag for you!  Anyone running the Honolulu Marathon will find lots of great veggies to add to pasta dishes during this carb-loading week!  Ho Farms supplied us with beautiful swiss chard, we’ve got eggplant and string beans from Pacific Gateway Farmers in Kunia, mushrooms from Small Kine Farm in Waimanalo, hydroponic lettuce from Mari’s Gardens, and broccoli from Leilehua High School’s ag students!

A few thoughts on how to use this produce, for pre-marathon meals or post holiday shopping trips.

Chicken and Swiss Chard Pasta Bake   If you’re planning to eat this after shopping, put it all together and have someone at home put it in the oven before you get back.  Otherwise, make it and re-heat!

Baked Angel Hair with Eggplant

Frankies Spuntino’s Fried Eggplant Sandwich   There’s video with this one!!  A great idea for lunch on Saturday…

Roasted Garlic Green Beans with Lemon and Parmesan   Grill your mushroom for a meatless dinner and have these on the side.

Creamy Broccoli Soup

 

 

Aloha everyone!  It’s Thanksgiving week and we have a great bag for you that will hopefully round out  your holiday menu or help you create a beautiful locally sourced side or pupu to take to someone else’s house!

We’re sending you organic hydroponically grown arugula and kale from Mari’s Garden, long beans from Ho Farms, grape tomatoes and okra from Pacific Gateway Center Farms Kunia, and organic beets from Kahumana Farm.  Below are our suggestions for using your fresh produce in this week’s big meal, or with the yummy leftovers!

Roasted Beet Tartare   Serve with crackers or toasted sourdough for a nice appetizer or have with a side of turkey the day after the big meal!

Okra Chips

Easy Arugula Salad

Kale Tacos with Carmelized Onion, Fresh Cheese, and Red Chile   In case you feel the need to switch over to something completely different for the football games, these look amazing!

Tomato and Mozzarella bites   Feel free to experiment with these, by using feta cubes, cucumber slices, lettuce or arugula, or anything else you can slide onto the toothpick!

Use your long beans to make this Healthy Green Bean Casserole!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone–mahalo for your support of our local food system!

Hello everyone!  Wow-it’s almost Thanksgiving, the Super Bowl of eating!  I’m looking forward to some tasty treats and will be doing a trial run this week to determine what in the menu is going to work and what’s out!  Hopefully we will put some of our locally grown great produce to work too.

This week you will be receiving some wonderful organic carrots from Kahumana farm, hydroponic lettuce from Mari’s Garden, green eggplant from Ho Farms, citrus from Kama`aina Land Plant Rentals and Nursery, grape tomatoes and bush beans from Pacific Gateway Farmers, and broccoli from Leilehua High School.  Sounds like plenty of wonderful veggies to make a veggie tart, quiche, or gratin with.  We’ll post a few recipes to help you get started, and please feel free to also send us your creations.

Spaghetti Squash Noodle Bowl–a great way to use your broccoli, beans, and even a few torn lettuce leaves.  This is accompanied by a peanut lime sauce…YUM!

Candied Orange Peel   The easiest recipe I’ve seen…

Spicy Carrot Soup with Coconut, lime, and Young Ginger   This recipe calls for 6 cups of carrots…which is a lot!  You probably won’t have that much from your bag, so either cut the ingredients by half or two thirds, or pick up extra carrots to make this later.

Easy Oven Roasted Broccoli

Roasted Tomato and Garlic Tartines   scroll way down for this one, it’s a great looking pupu

Green Beans with Shallots

Enjoy everyone!

 

Join the O’ahu Swim Academy & O’ahu Fresh in helping our island Ohana by donating to the 2nd Annual Turkey Drive.

Let’s give a little to our fellow Ohana here on the Island by donating a Turkey. Our goal is 2000 lbs of turkey in one day. DONATE ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 17th from 10 AM -8:30 PM. SEE BELOW FOR MORE DETAILS AND HELP OUR HUNGRY OHANA.

On Sunday, November 17th starting at 10 am, donations will be accepted at the O’ahu Fresh location until 3 PM. From 3 PM until 7:30 PM we will be driving around  town in a climate controlled van to pick up donations in the form of Frozen Turkeys.

What we are doing:

Picking up turkeys and giving them to the Hawaii Foodbank to benefit our local Ohana in time for Thanksgiving.

What you CAN do:

Shoot us an e-mail at TurkeyDrive2013@gmail.com,  message me on FB or text me with your address to pick up the Turkey. We are only doing pick ups in the Honolulu area (due to the fact that we only have a limited window of time for pick ups). If you would like to donate, but you live outside of the Honolulu area, please be sure to drop off your turkey at the Hawaii Food Bank from 8-8:30 PM sharp. If you live in the honolulu area and you just want to drop it off, you can do that too. Here is the address:

2611 Kilihau St.
Honolulu, HI 96819

Here is the address/contact information for O’ahu Fresh:

45 Queen St. #203 – Honolulu, HI 96813| phone: (808)343-8196

Drop by O’ahu Fresh from 10 am – 3 pm to drop off your frozen bird. We will be there awaiting your donation!

Please keep in mind that no one will be at the Hawaii Food Bank until 8 PM. We will meet you at the Hawaii Food bank by 8:30 PM. The Director of Donations at the Hawaii Food bank will be there to accept your donations until around 8:30 PM.

Want to donate more than one turkey? DO IT, and get some free gifts for your donation. A free 1-week subscription to Oahu Fresh (valued at $25) along with a free private swim session/goggle (valued at $37) will be given if you are willing to give 5 turkey’s to the drive.

If you have any questions/comments/concerns regarding this, please be sure to contact me ASAP. We can only collect at this time/day due to various constraints at the food bank and of course our own schedules.

Please see  www.HawaiiFoodbank.org,  www.OahuFresh.com, and www.OahuSwimAcademy for more information on the services from each organization.

Thanks again!

-Matt, Lisa and Chris

P.S. UPDATE!!! Our Friend  Omar Razvi, is getting together a bunch of people at  RB Sports Bar & Grill  at roughly 6 PM for a turkey drop off/drink session. Join him at 6, we will pick up the turkeys at aroun 8 pm this coming sunday. Thanks Omar for your help!

It’s a bounteous bag this week Oahu Fresh members!  And plenty of autumn faves in this bag too–beets (Kahumana Farm), butternut squash (Ho Farms), mixed citrus (Kama`aina Land Plant Rentals and Nursery) and mushrooms (Small Kine Farm), as well as green onions (Green Growers), 1/2 pound chinese parsley (Leilehua HS), organic mixed greens (Kahumana Farm), and some mixed greens OR daikonfrom Pacific Gateway Farmers in Kunia.

I am starting to think about recipes for Thanksgiving, and I think much of this produce could be used in dishes to complement your big meal!  Here’s a few I’ll be trying out this week so that I can sample them before the big day!

Butternut Squash and Mushroom Tart with Gruyere   This is a fast tart recipe!!  Even though you make the crust yourself it doesn’t get refrigerated…so you put it right in the pan.  This recipe also calls for pre-cubed and pre-sliced squash and mushrooms but using fresh will only add about 15 minutes to your prep time.  Use your fresh Waimanalo grown mushrooms in place of the shiitake.

Beet and Green Onion Appetizer   Perfect to take to a Thanksgiving potluck!

Cilantro Pesto   Another great pupu to take with some great bread, veggie sticks, or crackers.  Also you could jar this and present it as a hostess gift!

One more Cilantro Pesto recipe, this one has really great pictures of each step.

 

Mixed Greens Salad with Beets and Walnuts   A yummy and healthy lunch or dinner!

Crispy Chicken with Green Onion Pesto

Finally, thank you to all of the veterans out there.  We believe you deserve thanks all year long, but we’re especially grateful today for your service!

I couldn’t resist adding one more recipe–this one is for your butternut squash and it includes curry and coconut milk as well as fish sauce!  AND it’s for your slow cooker!!!  You can also do it on the stove…but I love the idea of putting all this together in the morning and coming back to it later, all done and ready to eat!  Slow Cooker Winter Squash Soup with Curry and Coconut Milk