Day 1: Black bean and chard quesadillas, Shiso iced tea
Day 2: Chicken Caesar salad
Day 3: Homemade pizza with pesto, Tossed salad
Day 4: Grilled steak, Shaved beet salad, Steamed green beans
Day 5: Zoodles with jarred tomato sauce
Day 6: Tuna salad, Kohlrabi sticks and cucumber slices
Day 7: Lentil soup
Notes: Are you getting sick of cooking? Remember, dinner doesn’t have to be anything fancy. In fact, a lot of times my kids like plain foods better than then the spiced up version. This week is pretty simple. Chicken Caesar salad is just lettuce and grilled chicken with store bought Caesar dressing (try Primal Kitchen or Annie’s in a glass bottle). Steak, green beans, zoodles, kohlrabi sticks, cucumber slices – all these things need very minimal prep and can even be prepped ahead on the weekend or night before. I usually like to stick with recipes that, aside from the veggies, have five or less ingredients. And even though I try to make most things from scratch to avoid plastic packaging and waste (and save money), I do sometimes buy jarred things like salad dressing, pasta sauce, and mayonnaise in a glass jar that I can reuse or recycle. But I also look for products that are made from simple ingredients. My philosophy is that you can be good to the environment, eat healthy, and still enjoy some of the convenience of our modern society. Who has time for anything else?
GLP tip of the week: This week for #PlasticFreeJuly I would like to encourage you to obtain a good quality, long-lasting, reusable beverage container. It doesn’t have to be brand new. Many insulated aluminum or stainless steel containers can be used for hot or cold beverages and can last just about a lifetime. This is in converse to the readily disposable plastic lined cups at fast food restaurants, plastic soda and water bottles, and coffee cups. In the 2018 USA Coastal Cleanup, 242,543 plastic bottle, 286.678 plastic bottle caps, 168,855 beverage cans, 111,682 glass beverage bottles, and 144,464 plastic straws were found. Beverage trash makes up 5 of the top 10 items found on our coastal waters!! If our society stops thinking of beverages as disposable items that would make such a huge difference! You can use your own container at the coffee shop or other restaurant to fill with the beverage of your choice. Better yet, fill up with water, coffee, or tea at home and save loads of money. Get one, or two, for every member in the family and then don’t forget it wherever you go!
CSA Notes: Wow, so many veggies! I recommend doubling the lentil soup recipe and putting a lot of your greens and leftover veggies right in. You can leave out carrots and tomatoes if you don’t have any. You can eat half the soup and freeze the other half for winter. Here is how I am using my produce this week.
- Scallions: 2 for quesadilla filling, 1 for Caesar salad
- Kohlrabi: peeled and cut into sticks and served with tuna salad
- Beets: greens go into lentil soup, roots are for shaved beet salad. If you have carrots left from last week you can add those as well and not use as many beets. The beets will keep for months in your fridge, but the greens should be used quickly.
- Kale, Green Curly: lentil soup
- Zucchini, Green/Gold: zoodles. If you don’t want that many zoodles, put the rest in the lentil soup
- Basil: sprinkle some over zoodles and sauce, rest goes into pesto
- Shiso: iced tea – steep the leaves in hot water for 20 minutes, then strain. Refrigerate until cool. Add lemon or lime juice and honey to taste and pour over ice.
- Celery: a few stalks chopped into tuna salad, several stalks for the lentil soup, any leftovers will keep in a bag in the fridge for a month or so. Be sure to save any trimmings to make broth. Celery give it a great flavor
- Beans, Green: steamed and served next to steak. Give some raw to your kids too for lunch.
- Chard, Red: leaves and stems chopped for quesadilla filling
- Onion, Purplette or Pearl: bulbs and stems chopped for lentil soup
- Lettuce Head, Various: half for Caesar salad and half for tossed salad
- Garlic: pesto, lentil soup, save the rest as stores for months a dark, dry place
- Cucumber: 2 sliced, then cut into halves or quarters and put into Caesar salad and tossed salad. The other 2 can be sliced and lightly salted to be eaten with tuna salad and for lunches
