Day 1: Cashew chicken with onions and peas
Day 2: Tuscan bean soup, Dark velvet beet cookies
Day 3: Homemade pizza with pesto and shaved fennel, Tossed salad
Day 4: Pot roast, Mashed cauliflower, Roasted fennel
Day 5: Fried eggs w/ sauteed beet greens, Zucchini muffins
Day 6: Burgers with tzatziki sauce, Carrot sticks
Day 7: Coconut shrimp, Asian slaw
Notes: This is baking week for me. It is a delicious way to sneak more veggies into my family. Don’t be afraid of the beet cookies, they are fantastic! However, be sure to consume them within a few days or they will get soggy. On the other hand, I like to make a double batch of the zucchini muffins and freeze half for later use. Makes for a great grab and go snack or to throw into a lunch. I cut back on the amount of sugar the recipe calls for. I’ll be freezing more pesto this week too since I have extra growing in my garden. It is one of my favorite reminders of summer during the cold weather months.
GLP tip of the week: Continuing with the #PlasticFreeJuly theme, I’m going to highlight several areas this month where it is totally possible to reduce or eliminate plastic from your life. This week let’s talk about getting rid of plastic bags for good. These single use plastics are large polluters of our environment with over 160,000 used per second, but only used for an average of 12 minutes each. They are also one of the top 12 items of debris found in coastal cleanups. I was recently in Boston and was pleased to discover that there is a citywide plastic bag ban. Luckily I had a fold-up bag in my purse, but if I didn’t I could have purchased a paper bag for $0.05 or a reusable bag. The city also has recycling containers on nearly every street for plastic bags. The result – no plastic bags hanging in the trees or floating in the pond in Boston Commons. No plastic bags flying through the air on a windy day, And no plastic bags headed to the landfill. Unfortunately there are many states, including Wisconsin, that have a ban on banning bags! This makes me sad. But there are ways to fight back. Take a few minutes this #PlasticFreeJuly and write to your legislators to let them know how you feel about plastic bags. You can also fight back in your own home by refusing to use them. Put reusable bags in your purse, diaper bag, car, and anywhere that you frequently need a bag. In my opinion, they work so much better than plastic bags anyways. If you forget one at the store, refuse the plastic bag and put your items right into your purse or cart them out to your car. If you do have plastic bags in your home, don’t throw them away! Reuse them until they are at the end of their life, then find a store or recycling center that will accept them for return. If you have a good handle on shopping bags, then first of all – whoohoo!! Secondly, challenge yourself to reduce produce bags, ziplock bags, or products that come in a single use plastic bag. What do you do to reduce plastic bag use in your household? How do you remember to take your shopping bags with you? I’d love to hear what others are doing.
CSA notes: Here is how I am using my produce this week. Happy eating!
- Carrots: 2 in Tuscan bean soup, 2 in asian slaw, 1 grated into tossed salad, a few cut up for carrot sticks for supper and lunch, and if there are any left than I plan to shred and add to the zucchini muffins or save for later as they will keep a long time in your fridge.
- Fennel: small amount shaved over pizza and remainder roasted. The fronds can be sprinkled over pizza and the roasted fennel
- Lettuce, Romaine Heart: tossed salad. Also use any other veggies you have leftover in the salad. The lettuce we get is pretty big and the salad lasts us a few meals, keep adding any leftover veggies
- Cauliflower: steamed and then mashed with some butter
- Zucchini, Green/Gold: made into muffins
- Basil: pesto
- Onion, Purplette: 1 for cashew chicken (in place of green peppers and broccoli), 1.5 in Tuscan bean soup, 0.5 chopped and sauteed in olive oil with beet greens then served over fried egg.
- Beets, Bunched: greens chopped and sauteed in olive oil and served over fried eggs. Beets cooked, pureed, and baked into cookies
- Kale, Lacinato: Tuscan bean soup
- Cucumber: Tzatziki sauce
- Peas, Sugar Snap OR Snow: used in place of green peppers and broccoli in cashew chicken recipe
- Cabbage – Red: 1/2 in Asian slaw, the other 1/2 I will save for another time, perhaps some more coleslaw for lunch. Stored in a bag in the crisper drawer of your fridge, it should last a while
