$20 Challenge - Spring Flavors
What is the $20 Challenge, you may ask? The $20 Challenge is our new blog feature where we will purchase produce at the market each weekend (that costs a total of $20 or less) and create delicious recipes throughout the week. We’ll show you what we purchased and share the recipes we made, including any additional tips we learned along the way.
Things to keep in mind:
Many of these recipes include staple items (they are not included in the $20 budget)
Some days we’ll feature specific vendors, some days we’ll shop from all around the market
We’ll explore new products as well as highlighting our local favorites
We’ll keep it simple most of the time, many of these fruits and veggies need very little (if anything!) to be delicious
We will alternate weekly between our Downtown Hillsboro Saturday Market and Orenco Station Sunday Market
On Saturday, June 6, we purchased the following.(Pro shopping tip, don’t wait until the last minute to shop at the market - many items sell out!)
Bag of Spinach - Sparrowhawk Farm, $3
Bag of Braising Mix - Sparrowhawk Farm, $4
Pint of Snap Peas - Sparrowhawk Farm, $4
Bundle of Celtuce - Sparrowhawk Farm, $3
Pint of Strawberries - Guerrero Produce, $3.50
Total Purchase = $18.50
Total # of Recipes = 4 (+ 2 bonus recipes when we turned unused braising mix and spinach into a savory breakfast skillet with eggs).
Air Fryer Parmesan Snap Peas
We have absolutely jumped on the Air Fryer bandwagon, and love it! It’s easy and delicious, which also happens to be two of our favorite things. These crispy delights were the perfect snack and we’re planning on making them many more times while Snap Peas are in season!
Strawberry Spinach Salad
We chose a classic dish to pair the strawberries and spinach. (To be honest, we did purchase a half flat of strawberries, but only because that is the only way there would be a pint leftover for a recipe. They go fast!) There are so many ways to customize this salad to meet your needs. We selected this specific recipe for the creamy, strawberry dressing. Poppy seed dressing is another, equally as tasty, option. For those not living in a nut-free zone, throwing in some walnuts or pecans adds a savory, crunchy element. Needing even more? Add bacon.
Simple Braised Greens
We love recipes that have simple in the name! All we had to do was chop up the braised greens, sautee’ them with oil, and add salt and pepper flakes. That is definitely something we can do to add a healthy dose of greens to any meal. Adding garlic and onions would take this recipe even farther, and we’ll definitely be adding those components next time we make this recipe.
Celtuce Stir Fry With Eggs
Are you familiar with celtuce? We have to admit, it’s new to us. We decided to keep it simple (it’s a theme!) while we introduced ourselves to this Asian vegetable. This recipe describes how to prepare and use celtuce, which was very helpful. We were intrigued by this celery slash lettuce stalk, and enjoyed munching on this stir fry. We look forward to exploring more celtuce recipes in the future.
