Day 1: Kielbasa hash

Day 2: Grilled chicken, Tossed salad, Mashed squash

Day 3: Taco chili, Corn muffins

Day 4: Thai curry soup with totsoi

Day 5: Tuna salad, Carrot and pepper slices

Day 6: Potato leek soup

Day 7: Bok choy fried rice with radish and any other vegetables left in the fridge

Notes: Don’t forget to substitute, omit, or add to your recipes. Unlike baking, you don’t have to follow the recipes exactly. In fact, you can change an entire meal by swapping out the veggies each season to what is available at the time. This is what keeps cooking interesting and fun for me. Cooking flexibility will save you so much money and also allow your creativity to flow. If you are missing an ingredient, say you forgot something at the store (happens to me more than I would care to admit), you don’t have to abandon the meal. Find something else you have on hand or omit it. Some of my best meals have come together this way. The more you practice, the better you get. This week I am subbing totsoi (bok choy like vegetable) instead of spinach and salad turnips in the Thai curry soup. I will omit the fennel in the potato soup since I don’t have any on hand and when I add it in later this winter, the flavor of the soup will change completely. And the fried rice is adaptable to any veggies at all. Other notes: I have a frozen supply of corn muffins already, which will make the easy chili dinner even easier.

GLP Tip of the Week: Buy “naked” vegetables. Sometimes I am amazed by what I find in the produce department wrapped in plastic. Cucumbers, bananas, oranges, apples. This is crazy! Nature has provided these lovely items with their very own wrapper, there is no need to wrap them any further. Give them a wash and you are good to go. So this week I’d like you to take a look at your grocery store produce and notice where the plastic is. Avoid it if you can. Try to cook with veggies and fruits that are sold without packaging. Buy a head of lettuce to chop up rather than a clam shell or bag of greens. Bring your own produce bags to collect what you need. I think it’s time to kick plastic out of the produce department!

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

• Radish – Daikon: 1 in tossed salad, 1 diced for fried rice
• Pepper, Bell – YELLOW: kielbasa hash
• Broccoli: Thai curry soup
• Pepper, Jalapeno: chili
• Tatsoi: substitute for turnip and spinach in Thai curry soup
• Acorn OR Festival Squash: Baked until fork tender then mashed and served aside grilled chicken
• Onion, SMALL (red OR yellow): Kielbasa hash, thai curry soup, fried rice
• Potato – Russets: kielbasa hash and potato leek soup
• Bok Choi: Fried rice
• Pepper, Anaheim (green, hot): kielbasa hash
• Pepper, Carmen Sweet Italian: sliced and served with tuna salad
• Delicata Squash: Baked until fork tender then scoop out flesh and combine with acorn squash then mash
• Pepper, Sweet Bell Red: kielbasa hash
• Garlic: Potato leek soup and fried rice, rest into storage
• Leek: Potato leek soup