Day 1: Black bean burgers with Avocado ranch dressing, Fruit salad

Day 2: Lettuce wraps

Day 3: Homemade pizza, Tossed salad with radishes

Day 4: Dilly chicken salad, Leftover tossed salad

Day 5: Emergency meatballs, Jarred tomato sauce, Steamed broccoli

Day 6: Baked potatoes with cheese and sour cream, Sauteed kale and radish greens

Day 7: Artichoke and tuna panini with mizuna

Notes: Finally! Today is the day our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share starts. This means that each week for the next 20 weeks we will be getting a box of vegetables/fruit from a local farm. We’ve been with Crossroads Community Farm for at least 5 years now and could not be happier! I highly recommend supporting your local farmers and taking part in a produce share. However, if you don’t, no worries. Go to your farmer’s market or grocery store and you should be able to find just about any of the same produce in season. And if you don’t see an ingredient, you can always omit it or substitute with something similar (like swapping the mizuna with arugula or other lettuce in the tuna panini recipe). My family eats a lot of vegetables, so we get a full weekly share and also supplement with our own gardens. For those of you following this blog for meal ideas to use your share without ending up with a bunch of wasted vegetables, I will have a special CSA notes section at the bottom of each meal plan (see below) to tell you how exactly I am using every single vegetable to it’s fullest each week. If you have good ideas, feel free to share in the comments. I am always open to suggestions.

GLP tip of the week: Check out the Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) 2019 Guide to Sunscreen. They have “screened” them and make recommendations for those with safe ingredients for humans and marine life. These are sunscreens that actually work when applied correctly!

CSA notes: I typically get the pre-filled share each week without substitutions and challenge myself to find new ways to use different vegetables that I may not be familiar with. So, if you are customizing your share, you will need to make substitutions to follow my meal plans. And you certainly don’t need to make the whole weeks worth. This is a jumping off point for you so that none of those awesome veggies go to waste. We rarely eat out, so this is a replica of our actual meal plan for the week and we typically have leftovers for lunch the next day. Please note that every week we have homemade pizza night. You can throw on practically any veggie from the CSA if you need to use something up. Here is how I am using all the vegetables this week:

• Scallions: avocado ranch dressing, lettuce
• wraps, and chicken salad (any leftovers can be sliced and put over baked potatoes)
• Mizuna: Tuna paninis. If you think you have too much for the sandwiches then throw half into the tossed salad or cook with the filling for the lettuce wraps
• Bok choy: lettuce wraps
• Salad turnips: lettuce wraps – I also chop up the green tops and cook with the mixture
• Broccoli: steamed and served with meatballs
• Dill: chicken salad, could also substitute dill for the mint in the garbanzo bean spread for the paninis
• Spinach: add to the salad mix for tossed salad x 2 nights
• Cilantro: black bean burgers (sprinkle any leftovers over the lettuce wrap mixture or put on your eggs in the morning)
• Kale: sauteed with the radish greens in olive oil and lightly salted. Serve with the baked potatoes
• Radish: Chop off the greens and save to sautee with the kale. Cut up half of radishes and cook in the lettuce wraps. Slice the other half for the tossed salad.
• Salad mix: tossed salad x 2 nights
• Red butterhead lettuce: carefully remove the leaves one by one and rinse well and pat dry. Use to fill with the lettuce wrap mixture