This Week's CSA Meal Plan

My boys start school next week.

Did you catch that? Boys. Plural. As in BOTH OF THEM. Which means two mornings a week, I will have a few peaceful, glorious hours of complete and utter quiet to do with however I please.

I'm honestly not sure if I'm giddy or terrified over this.

I don't think I'm going to figure out what I'm feeling though until I'm in that moment. Because I have so many things on my plate for this weekend, I'm once again questioning my sanity. The fun all kicks off with our CSA bonus purchase:

Napa Cabbage
Carrots
Beans
Scallions
Beets
Tomatoes
Potatoes
Red Basil
BONUS PURCHASE: 25 lbs peaches!!

Thursday

• Grilled cheese sandwiches, with a red basil pesto on this Mama's sandwich! (CSA item)
• Sliced tomatoes (CSA item)

Friday

• Pizza
• Popcorn

Saturday This is Canning Day! Did you see all those pounds of peaches on that list? Yeah, my little guy ended up being quite obsessed with peach jam last year so I knew I'd have to make more this year. And this is the day for it! Lots of peach jam, peach butter, and joining forces with a friend to make Guinness jam (yeah, this will be interesting) means I am keeping dinner simplesimplesimple.

• New Recipe! Best Pulled Pork in the Slow Cooker
• Cole slaw (CSA item)

Sunday

• Black Bean and Corn Quesadillas (thank you freezer!!)
• Fruit salad
• Refried beans for me (again, thank you freezer!)

Monday

• Grilled brats with caramelized onions
• Parmesan potatoes (CSA item)
• Leftover slaw

Tuesday

• New Recipe! Homemade Chicken Nuggets
• Beans (CSA item)
• Tossed salad (my garden lettuce is still going strong!)

Wednesday

• Leftovers

Happy planning!!

We are again supporting Lotfotl Farm by participating in their Community Supported Agriculture program. Interested in doing the same? Find farms in your area that offer CSA, or similar, programs!

This Week's CSA Meal Plan

Did you know it's insanely difficult, to nearly impossible, to keep up with a food blog when your computer goes on strike?

It really is. Trust me, I know this first-hand now.

And here's hoping my crochet and clothing businesses do really well in the next few weeks because I guess I'm in the market for a new laptop. Ugh!!

In actual food news though our CSA pickup with week is frighteningly normal. So normal in fact that I'm not quite sure what to do with these grocery staples. After a while you get used to looking up recipes for kale and chard and mizuna and other assorted vegetables you'd never heard of before. I suppose it'll come back to me though:

Carrots
Sweet Corn
Beets
Melon
Tomatoes
Potatoes
Scallions

Thursday

• Date Night!! My kiddos will dine on boxed shells & cheese, because they love it and it's easy for the sitter to make, and probably carrot and cucumber sticks.

Friday

• Traveling

Saturday

• Traveling still

Sunday

• New Recipe! Chili Basil Flank Steak (psst! This is courtesy of my freezer. Can't wait to share this one with you!)
• Roasted potatoes, beets, and carrots (CSA item)

Monday

• New Recipe! Marinated Greek Chicken
• Tomato-Cucumber salad (CSA and neighbor's garden items)

Tuesday

• Tuna Pasta Salad
• Melon (CSA item)

Wednesday

• Leftovers

Happy planning!!

We are again supporting Lotfotl Farm by participating in their Community Supported Agriculture program. Interested in doing the same? Find farms in your area that offer CSA, or similar, programs!

This Week's CSA Meal Plan

I seem to be in sandwich mode this week. Now that I look over my plan, I see lots of sandwiches and sandwich-like items. And bacon. I'm using bacon several times.

Even I get stuck in ruts, either with a particular ingredient or flavor style. There are some weeks I'm heavily influenced by my always intense desire for nachos (mmmmmm, nachos). Some weeks I'm clearly craving Chinese. Sometimes I'm all about beef while other times I'm only inspired by pork dishes.

Funny how the mind works.

Anyway, here's our CSA pickup list that I'll grab tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get just about all of it used this week:

Carrots

Beans
Squash - if this is zucchini again I'm totally making zucchini brownies

Cucumbers
Broccoli
Romaine Lettuce
Sweet Onions

Thursday

• Mac & Cheese. I know I said I'd keep meals simple on Thursdays this summer. But Gavin gets his check-up in the morning, and as I'm positive needles will be involved, I think he'll need some comfort food afterwards instead of "rabbit food."
• Sliced cucumbers (CSA item)

Friday

• Pizza
• Salad for me
• Popcorn

Saturday

• BLT's
• Leftover mac & cheese. While I normally use this as a main dish, I know it's also often used as a side. Time I experiment a little to see what variation my family prefers!

Sunday

• Meatball subs, using my Freezer Meatballs recipe (I'll make up a huge batch so I can stash some away for later)
• Fresh carrots and cucumbers (CSA item). I think it's nice to balance a heavier main dish with something lighter on the side.

Monday

• Leftovers

Tuesday

• New Recipe! Chicken Club Lettuce Wraps (CSA item: lettuce)
• New Recipe! Garlic Cheddar Beer Bread

Wednesday

• Freezer Find
• Roasted broccoli (CSA item)

Happy planning!!

We are again supporting Lotfotl Farm by participating in their Community Supported Agriculture program. Interested in doing the same? Find farms in your area that offer CSA, or similar, programs!

This Week's CSA Meal Plan

This last week has been an intense lesson in patience.

As in, I need more of it.

My son is recovering from his tonsillectomy, slowly. Oh-so-slowly. And while smoothies were going to be my main way of ensuring he got something remotely healthy into his little tummy, I skillfully broke my blender on Day 2 of his recovery. Good job Jeanna!

I think we've reached that point where he has moments of mild discomfort, but is basically over the worst of it. So now I've got to re-teach him that meals are consumed at the table, that he can't whine to get what he wants, and no we are not going to watch "Frozen" every single day.

Wish me luck in retraining my 3 year-old!

Btw, here's what I'm picking up tomorrow:

Squash

Cucumber

Beans

Broccoli 
Chard 
Mizuna
Parsley

Thursday

• Bread
• Balsamic Kale Salad. Because I have two weeks worth of kale in my fridge I need to use up.

Friday

• Pizza
• Salad for me
• Popcorn, but only if Kieran's doctor approves it.

Saturday

• New Recipe! Grilled Balsamic Steak Skewers
• Baked potatoes
• Mizuna salad with fresh raspberries, nectarines, and a peach-herb vinaigrette (CSA item)

Sunday

• New Recipe! Honey-Lime Glazed Salmon
• Roasted beans (CSA item)

Monday

• Grilled chicken
• Broccoli salad (CSA item)

Tuesday

• Pasta with corn & kale
• Fresh bread

Wednesday

• Leftovers

Happy planning!!

We are again supporting Lotfotl Farm by participating in their Community Supported Agriculture program. Interested in doing the same? Find farms in your area that offer CSA, or similar, programs!

This Week's CSA Meal Plan

My 3 year-old had his tonsils out on Monday. And I'm pretty sure I've been running on coffee and adrenaline since then. He's been exceptionally clingy, and quite crabby about his incredibly sore throat.

I don't blame him.

It does make things interesting from a meal-planning and cooking perspective. I'll be keeping things extra simple as I'll also be blending smoothies, mixing pudding, and whipping up other soft-but-still-somewhat-healthy nibbles for Kieran. I've never been a fan of making multiple meals for one family dinner, but that's pretty much what I'm faced with for the next two weeks. So here it goes!

To help with that healthy part, later today I will pick up:

Squash

Kale - This is totally getting smoothied!

Cucumber

Beans

Broccoli OR Sweet Onion

Beets
Cabbage

Thursday

• Bread
• New Recipe! Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Salad (CSA item)

Friday

• Pizza
• Salad (my garden is really starting to burst forth)
• My boys will share some kind of soft foods smorgasbord. Applesauce and pudding will play starring roles.

Saturday

• Italian Beef sandwiches on pretzel buns
• Cole slaw (CSA item)

Sunday

• Freezer Find, probably chicken tetrazzini
• Sauteed beans (CSA item) with fresh herbs

Monday

• Culver's. We want to help raise money for a local, all-abilities playground.

Tuesday

• Leftovers

Wednesday

• Soup: either a chicken-noodle or Cheddar Broccoli. Despite the heat of summer, I feel like I need something that all four of us can eat together.
• Onion-Rosemary Focaccia

Happy planning!!

We are again supporting Lotfotl Farm by participating in their Community Supported Agriculture program. Interested in doing the same? Find farms in your area that offer CSA, or similar, programs!

This Week's CSA Meal Plan

We are now several weeks into CSA season. And already I'm doing better than last year! It helps that even though we're getting veggies weekly instead of every other week, it's a smaller amount of vegetables so it's more manageable. Plus I'm sticking to my plan on not buying any vegetables at the store, unless it's for a recipe featuring something from our CSA box.

And we've added another vegetable to the "I Like This" Column (Swiss Chard). But, to be fair, we've also put one in the "Dear God Please Don't Make Me Eat This Again" Column (Bok Choy).

I like to be fair.

But anyway, tomorrow I will pick up:

Broccoli

Kale - I have breakfast/lunch intentions for this

Cabbage

Lettuce

Squash - Likely to be roasted and pureed to "hide" in future soups and sauces

Cucumber

I will use these lovelies in a variety of ways this week:

Thursday

• Bread. Our CSA pickup is at a local bakery so I like to cruise their end-of-the-day sale selection. Since Thursday has long since been my most exhausting day of the week, and now I've added another hour of processing fresh veggies, I've decided that Thursday night meals will be as simple as possible during the CSA season.
• Salad with radishes (from last week's box) and cucumber.

Friday

• Pizza
• Popcorn
• Salad (CSA item, plus I've got a bunch in my garden that needs picking)

Saturday

Mizuna
This photo is courtesy of Lotfotl Farm; not sure my my watermark appeared.

• Grilled pork tenderloin, seasoned with Gateway to the North Maple Garlic Seasoning
• Mizuna (last week's CSA) salad with fresh raspberries from my garden, maple toasted pecans, and a peach vinaigrette.
• Fresh bread

Sunday

• New Recipe! Grilled Salmon & Pineapple with Avocado Dressing
• Steamed rice

Monday

• Leftovers

Tuesday

• Crispy chicken tenders
• Steamed broccoli (CSA item)
• Applesauce

Wednesday

• Greek Tacos (this will use up any cucumber I have left)
• Potato or KALE chips. Yup, I've tried the latter now and they really are tasty!

Happy planning!!

We are again supporting Lotfotl Farm by participating in their Community Supported Agriculture program. Interested in doing the same? Find farms in your area that offer CSA, or similar, programs!