Day 1: Slow cooker stuffed peppers

Day 2: Tuscan bean soup

Day 3: Homemade pizza, Tossed salad

Day 4: Beef pot roast, Roasted carrots and beets, Baked acorn squash

Day 5: Shrimp stir fry with carrots, salad turnips, and green beans served over rice or cauliflower rice

Day 6: Onion and pepper fajitas with black beans

Day 7: Pasta alla Norma

Notes: It’s a carb heavy week. Rice, pasta, beans, pizza crust, and probably bread with soup. I guess I am naturally feeling the effects of fall and wanting to store some energy! In general, I try to cook with less starchy carbs and should be back on track next week. I harvested the last of the eggplant from our garden this week and I’m going to try a new recipe, Pasta alla Norma. Let me know if you have made this before and have any suggestions to make it great. To save time this week, make a bigger batch of rice when you make stuffed peppers (or more caulirice for a low carb option) and store half in the refrigerator to use for the stir fry later in the week. You may also want to chop up all the carrots at once and portion it out to use for the Tuscan soup, tossed salad, roasting, and stir fry. They will store in the fridge all week long. Same with the peppers. When you are prepping the bell peppers for stuffing, take a few minutes to also slice the hot peppers for fajitas later in the week. Onions can be chopped and portioned in advance too. If you get all your chopping done at once, the meals for the rest of the week will come together so much easier. No recipe for the stir fry or fajitas this week. I add taco seasoning to the onions and peppers for fajitas and I like to get creative with the stir fry and add whatever spices come time mind plus Tamari soy sauce. Ginger, garlic, turmeric, and curry are all good options.

GLP Tip of the Week: Don’t rake your leaves! While leaves in the street gutter are bad (they will make their way into the drainage system and eventually into the local streams), leaves on your lawn are good. Allowing the leaves to fall where they may on your grass will provide a natural habitat for earthworms, butterflies, and other beneficial insects. These creatures will break down the leaves into compost which will fertilize your lawn and make it even better the next year. If you need to mow your grass, use the mulching setting and allow the clippings and shredded leaves to stay on the lawn. Not only does this help the environment, it also will save you a lot of time. A major bonus is that you will not need to buy plastic bags to collect all those leaves. Of course raking piles of leaves for jumping fun is acceptable, just be sure to spread them back around the lawn when your fun is done.

CSA notes: Here is how I am using my share this week

• Carrots: Diced for Tuscan soup, topping salad, roasting with beets, and added to stir fry
• Beets: roasted with carrots
• Pepper, Bell – YELLOW: stuffed peppers
• Kale, Green Curly: Tuscan soup
• Acorn Squash: Cut in half, scoop out seeds, brush the flesh with olive oil then bake flesh side down at 375 until fork tender, about 30-40 minutes. Scoop out flesh and mash with butter or eat plain.
• Beans, Green: Stir fry
• Onion, Yellow: Could use in stuffed peppers, kale soup, stir fry, or fajitas. You will need more to make all the recipes
• Salad Turnips: Diced for stir fry. I plan to chop the greens and add to the Tuscan soup, but you could also add to the stir fry at the end and saute until wilted.
• Pepper, Anaheim (green, hot): sliced for fajitas
• Pepper, Carmen Sweet Italian: sliced for fajitas
• Lettuce Head, Various: tossed salad
• Pepper, Sweet Bell Red: stuffed peppers
• Garlic: In almost every meal this week. You will probably use a whole head!