Day 1: Mushroom and greens quiche, Strawberries with whipped cream (the real, homemade kind!)
Day 2: Thai curry soup with kale
Day 3: Homemade pizza with basil pesto, Tossed salad, Strawberry rhubarb crisp
Day 4: Grilled cedar plank salmon with spinach pesto, Strawberry poppy seed salad
Day 5: Sloppy Joes, Veggie sticks (kohlrabi, radish, salad turnips)
Day 6: Tuna salad, Strawberry spinach smoothie
Day 7: Fried rice with bok choi and any other leftover veggies
Notes: Busy Summer
I don’t know about you, but these last few weeks have been pretty crazy for my family with school ending, work, sports, birthday parties and other activities. We had such a slow down last summer because, you know, covid. It was great at the time and I vowed that when things opened up we would never overschedule again.
Well, here I am back in the swing of things and I think we overscheduled this summer! Luckily, by the time the end of July roles around things should ease up a bit. So for the next month I’m going to be relying on some quick to prepare meals. Here is how I am making it work this week:
Veggie prep. When I have a spare moment I’ll be slicing kohlrabi, salad turnips, and radishes then storing in a bit of cold water in the fridge to keep them fresh. This will make easy to grab snacks and dinner sides. Serve with ranch or hummus if desired.
Pesto prep. I’m going to use my spinach and the basil I’ve been growing to make a large batch of pesto all at once. Then it can be used for the pizza and to top salmon. Any leftovers will be frozen for use in the winter.
Easy meals. With a few exceptions, most meals I am making will come to the table in about 30 minutes or less.
Make ahead. I keep homemade pie dough in the freezer that I make in batches. Of course, you can also buy frozen pie crusts, but I’m not a fan of the packaging or the unnecessary, gross ingredients. Tuna salad is also easy to make 1-2 days prior to serving (store in the refrigerator).
Are you finding life to be busier than you expected this summer? How do you cut corners to make your meals come together quickly? (Not including eating out :)) I love hearing what others are doing!
CSA Breakdown: For those of you also using Crossroads Community Farm, here is a breakdown of how I will use each piece of produce this week. Please note that 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 week’s 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. Also note that every week we have homemade pizza night with a tossed salad. You can throw practically any veggie on the pizza, even lettuce. You can also toss those extra veggies into the salad if you need to use something up.
Scallions (1.0 bunch) – 2 in the quiche, 1 for strawberry poppy seed salad in place of onion/shallot, 1 for tuna salad
Kohlrabi (1.0 bulb) – peel and cut into sticks for snacking and to serve with Sloppy Joes
Garlic Scapes (1.0 bunch) – Pesto. I’ll use garlic powder for any other recipes that need that flavor
Bok Choi (1.0 head) – Fried rice
Salad Turnip (1.0 count) – greens chopped off and sautéed for quiche, turnips sliced for snacks and to serve with Sloppy Joes
Broccoli (1.0 head) – Thai curry soup
Strawberries (1.0 pint) – Lots of choices here! I recommend going to pick some extras or find local berries at a farmer’s market. We’ll be eating them for breakfast, lunch, and supper. If you only have the CSA berries, you may gobble them up on their own. You could also choose between poppy seed salad, strawberry rhubarb crisp, smoothie, or just serve with cream. Use heavy whipping cream and a hand mixer and beat on high until soft peaks form; you do not need to add sugar, but a splash of vanilla extract is awesome. You can find links to some of my other favorite strawberry recipes in this strawberry picking article.
Spinach (1.0 bag) – save a handful or two to sneak in a strawberry smoothie, the rest will go into pesto
Kale, Red Russian (1.0 bunch) – Thai curry soup (remove stems and compost)
Radish, Red (1.0 bunch) – greens chopped off and sautéed for quiche, radishes sliced for snacks and to serve with Sloppy Joes
Salad Mix (1.0 bag) – tossed salad
Lettuce, Red Butterhead (1.0 head) – strawberry poppy seed salad
