Day 1: Veggie stir fry over rice
Day 2: Mushroom swiss burger with carmelized fennel, Corn on the cob
Day 3: Homemade pizza, Tossed salad
Day 4: Braised cabbage with bacon, Zucchini muffins
Day 5: Baked potato bar
Day 6: Sloppy Joes, Carrot sticks
Day 7: Black bean, carrot, zucchini, onion, and pepper burritos
Notes: Our garden is starting to produce. We harvested our first pepper this week and we have loads of green tomatoes. The kale and chard are overflowing and herbs are getting tall. Time to start “putting up”. I typically make batches of soup, tomato sauce, pesto, chopped peppers, green beans, muffins and whatever else I can to freeze. I spend as much spare time as I can in the kitchen preparing for the winter. Often times this means doubling a batch of something I’m already making, or if I’m cutting up a pepper for a recipe, I will cut up several more at the same time and put them in a freezer bag. It is sooooo worth it when you are dreaming of summer veggies while wrapped in several blankets, sipping tea, and watching the snow fall. Makes for really easy dinners in the busy fall and spring too. Do you save anything for the winter? How do you do it? Freezer vs canning?
GLP tip of the week: Only 2 more Wednesdays in July! Have you joined in on #PlasticFreeJuly yet? Challenge yourself. What can you easily swap to avoid using plastic? Or maybe there is something you can just stop buying altogether. That is my favorite, when I realize that I truly don’t need something and can save myself the time and energy of buying it and dealing with the garbage. This week I have a couple of suggestions for dental care swaps you can make that will help you avoid plastic in the bathroom. Floss – switch to silk dental lace (I’ve found it half the price at my local co-op compared to amazon and the refills are cheaper than the initial purchase). Toothbrush – try bamboo. Toothpaste – try tablets. There are two currently available, Bite and Welldental. I like the Welldental and they are cheaper. I bite them in half and they last twice as long. Also great for air travel since they don’t have to be counted as a liquid.
CSA notes: As I said above, it is time to store some veggies for winter. We are going to be getting a lot of cucumbers and this week I’m using them and one leftover from last week to make refrigerator pickles. You can use the dill head from your share this week. This is the recipe I use and then adjust the proportions depending on the number of jars I plan to make. Here is how I am using the rest of the produce this week. Use anything and everything you have left in your fridge in the stir fry.
- Carrots: stir fry, carrot sticks, burritos
- Fennel: thinly sliced and sauteed in butter and olive oil until carmelized, about 15 minutes, similar to carmelizing onions.
- Zucchini, Green/Gold: 1 in muffins, 1 in burritos
- Basil: pesto
- Dill Flower: pickles
- Thai Basil: a handful sprinkled over stir fry, rest chopped into pesto
- Onion, Pearl: 1 stir fry, 1 in braised cabbage, 1/2 in Sloppy Joe, 1/2 in burrito
- Lettuce Head, Various: tossed salad
- Garlic: stir fry, sloppy Joes, burritos
- Cucumber: tossed salad, pickles
- Cabbage – Red: 1/4 in stir fry, 3/4 in braised cabbage
- Pepper, Bell (Green or Purple): burritos
- Corn, Sweet: corn on the cob. I have to enjoy the first corn of the season this way. If it’s good you don’t even need butter and salt
