Oat groats with roasted acorn squash, kale & Parmesan: $1.32/serving

Another acorn squash ripened last week, and though it was tempting to roast it and freeze it for baby food or another winter-squash soufflé, I knew I had enough on hand to turn it into a light meal on its own. Any whole grains would work here—barley, farro, rye berries, etc.—but you may need to add a little more liquid, as oat groats are on the quicker end of the whole-grain cooking scale. Likewise, other greens (chard, spinach, et al.) can be substituted for the kale. I’m not a huge fan of acorn squash (yes, yes, I know I’m growing it; it came out of a “harvest variety” packet of squash seeds, so I kind of got blindsided), but this dish really brings out its sweetness, and roasting really improves the texture. In fact, I fully anticipated to be either studiously avoiding or resignedly picking at the squash chunks in my bowl, but they ended up being my favorite part.

Barley-lentil stew with prosciutto & dill: $1.83/serving

As mentioned in previous posts, we were gifted a family-sized CSA box a few weeks ago, and were able to make use of every single item in it…except for half a bunch of dill. (The other half went into two loaves of dill-olive bread.) Dill is pretty far down the list of my favorite herbs. In fact, it may well be at or near the bottom. It’s mostly known for going well with seafood, which I hate, and/or eggs cooked by themselves, which I also hate, leaving few options for use (other than pickles, of course). Luckily I was able to find one. Yes, it’s a stew, which isn’t exactly the most appealing meal in late August, but the yogurt and dill combine to give it a coolness that somehow seems perfectly appropriate.

Sweet potato, apple & spinach salad: $1.47/serving

I make a lot of salads. Most of them I don’t bother posting here, as they’re usually just a mishmash of ingredients I happened to have lying around, paired with produce from the garden and tossed with some vinegar and olive oil. Simple, often boring (by food-blog standards, anyway), and not always good enough to bother re-creating. This salad, however, was an exception. It was originally supposed to be black beans and rice with roasted sweet potato and lime, but, as I came to discover at the last minute, I was out of black beans. Time for Plan B. Thanks to some apples from our neighbor’s tree and some spinach in the crisper, I was able to transmute most of the original ingredients into a salad that’s actually worth revisiting.

Baked orzo with sage pesto: $1.04/serving

If you’re like many gardeners this time of year, you probably have (or have access to) a large, lush, healthy bush of sage…waiting for October or November. Sage is usually considered a fall herb, but it certainly doesn’t have to be. Combined with a little mint, parsley, and/or basil to offset its medicinal taste, sage makes an unexpected, light, summery pesto. It’s great by itself on pasta, but even better in this baked orzo dish that comes together quickly and makes enough servings to last through the week, for lunches or emergency dinners on days it gets too hot.

Creamy lemon pasta with olives & basil: $1.01/serving

Because basil is finicky to grow from seed outdoors—and doesn’t last as long once it gets going—we’re currently on our second planting of basil in the indoor Aerogarden, timed (hopefully) to coincide with the ripening of our larger heirloom tomatoes. Unfortunately, this means we’re currently having to buy basil, as I did for a lemon-basil cake I made for a party this past weekend. Do you have any idea how much basil costs in the store? Either $1.99 for a few limp sprigs packed into a plastic clamshell case, or upward of $3.50 for a “hydroponically grown” (with, incomprehensibly, dirt clods attached to the roots) or living bunch. You’d better believe I’m using every last minuscule leaf of that stuff. All I had left was enough for a sprinkling over this vaguely Greek-inspired pasta, which is good hot but even better cold as a salad. I must say, though, the basil completely made the dish, and may have earned it a spot in our regular rotation once the home-grown basil gets going.

Sweet corn risotto: $1.36/serving

Is anyone else having as much trouble as I am procuring decent corn this summer? It happened (albeit slightly early) with the corn & prosciutto crisp last month, and it happened again this week: I go to the store expecting bins overflowing with cheap, fresh, delicious corn and find a sad little pile of overpriced, desiccated cobs that look destined for someone’s bird feeder. I specifically don’t grow corn in the yard because it’s always so cheap, abundant and delicious elsewhere, and this is the first year it looks like that decision is going to come back and bite me in the butt. I might have to do without, or at least play pretend with a few bags of frozen corn. So, dear readers, if you have access to plump, fresh, juicy ears of corn, this recipe is for you. It’s intentionally simple to bring out the sweetness of the corn against the savoriness of the Parmesan.

Bacon mac ’n’ cheese: $1.17/serving

Those who remember the bone marrow mac ’n’ cheese and the cheese-stuffed mac ’n’ cheese pie know I’m not shy about taking a perfectly reliable institution and making it…well…wrong. Or, at least, as much more wrong as a big pan of cheese, bread and pasta can possibly get. This version, I reckon to say, is probably even worse for you than the stuff that comes in the blue box, assuming you find artery-clogging fat and nitrates slightly below artificial “cheez” and preservatives on the acceptability scale. But it’s worth it, especially since “upscale comfort food” of this nature is in vogue now and can run you $7 or more for a wee little serving at a pretentious gastropub. For $7, you’ll have enough of this to eat for days. (Worried you’ll get tired of it? Don’t. I made this last week and would happily still be eating it today if we had it around.)

Mushroom potstickers: $1.68/serving

Though these aren’t the best-ever potstickers, which by definition must involve pork*, they just might be the best vegetarian/vegan potstickers. Two kinds of flavorful mushrooms (or more, depending on your budget) sautéed with green onions, cilantro, soy sauce, sherry, sugar, and oyster sauce (or vegan oyster sauce), and that’s it. They’re easy enough for a weeknight meal if you’re used to making potstickers by hand, or a great appetizer choice for a mixed-crowd dinner party or potluck. You’ll never go back to the processed, frozen-in-a-bag kind again.

Fresh oregano pesto: $1.15/serving

If I could go back three years and undo one of my many newbie gardening mistakes, it would undoubtedly be planting herbs in our raised beds. Specifically, rosemary, sage, thyme, mint and oregano. I’m not exactly sure what I was thinking, but as anyone with half a brain cell could have predicted, they’ve all become mutant bushes of death that have taken over and choked out anything within a 5-foot radius. Thankfully, most the herbs are (almost) making up for the inconvenience with their usefulness. Not so much the oregano, however. Sure, I use it here and there, but it’s not sturdy like rosemary, sage and thyme, or supremely versatile like mint. I don’t know why it took me so long to try it in a pesto, but I think it may have found its new calling. Not only does it use up a lot of the leaves, but this pesto tastes incredible; full of fresh-oregano flavor without being overpowering. Try it on pasta.

Grilled chicken yakitori: $1.82/serving

Despite the fact we in Portland are more or less forced to make the absolute most of our three months of sunshine, I don’t do a whole lot of grilling. Mostly because there’s not much to grill other than large amounts of (expensive and not-too-good-for-you) meat, and also because if I am going to grill a large amount of expensive and not-too-good-for-you meat, I’d rather do it on the smoker and really make the whole enterprise worthwhile. Dragging out the grill for just a quick 20-30 minutes just seems so inefficient. But if I’m going to do it, this is one of the things I like to make. It’s on skewers so you can choose as many or as few bite-sized chicken pieces as you want, and the yakitori glaze really complements the grill-smoke flavor. Serve it as a full meal with rice and salad, or bring some skewers to a group barbecue.