Day 1: Minestrone soup
Day 2: Broccoli Alfredo
Day 3: Homemade pizza, Easy cucumber and tomato salad
Day 4: Cedar plank salmon, Caprese salad (tomato, basil, mozzarella drizzled w/ balsamic vinegar and olive oil)
Day 5: Egg scramble, Carrot and banana muffins, Watermelon slices
Day 6: Cheeseburgers, Grilled eggplant, Herb potato salad
Day 7: Zucchini and corn fritters
Notes: I’m going to sound like a broken record, but this truly is the time to stock up your freezer. I will be making a double batch of the minestrone soup and freezing half. I will also be make an extra batch of carrot and banana muffins. These are really good for snacks and lunches. Also, peaches are delicious right now. Slice them up, place in a single layer on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, and freeze for 20-30 minutes. Remove slices and place in an airtight bag, label, and keep in the freezer to use in smoothies, over ice cream, or in your morning oatmeal all winter long.
GLP Tip of the Week: It’s time to start preparing for school (or work) lunches. Today, I’m going through our take away containers and bags. Take a few minutes and join me! My overall objective is to maintain items that are reusable in order to reduce as much waste as possible in the lunch process. Packing lunches has always been one of my most dreaded jobs, so my secondary objective is to make sure we are set so that I don’t get stuck doing all the work!
- Somehow things disappear or get damaged. Today I’m looking for items that are no longer usable and then recycling them, if able. Bags with holes, cracked or warped containers, etc. Any containers without lids will be re-purposed for other types of storage.
- It is also important that everyone can easily grab containers and bags to pack their own lunch. I prefer glass containers that are stackable so they take up less room in the drawer. These are the same containers we use for our supper leftovers, which is the first thing we use for lunches anyways.
- Each person in the family has their own lunchbox. It doesn’t have to be anything special. I’ve been using the same one for the past 9 years. It was a free bag I got from the hospital for storing breast milk after my son was born. It works so much better than a paper or plastic bag that gets thrown away. The kids’ lunchboxes will go in the lunch drawer, the adults’ are put up higher (not enough room in the drawer).
- I prefer to use sandwich and snack bags that are reusable, like Lunch Skins, although you can easily reuse Ziploc bags. Just rinse them out with soapy water, hang to dry, and move back to your storage area. We also keep a few Beeswax wraps for sandwiches. I’ve also heard good things about these silicone Stasher bags, but I haven’t tried them because they are so expensive.
- Gather everything in one spot and then make it neat and tidy. You’ll be happy that you did when the first day of school comes around and everything runs smoothly!
CSA notes: Here is here is how I am using our share this week.
- Carrots: Minestrone and muffins. Any left will be cut up for lunch or stored in the fridge to use later.
- Tomatoes, slicers: Half in the minestrone. 1 sliced to top cheeseburgers. 1-2 for the caprese salad; you can either slice them and lay the mozzerella and basil on top or you can cut up smaller and toss everything together. If you have any leftover, use them to double the minestrone or slice and serve with a little bit of salt alongside the zucchini fritters.
- Tomatoes, cherry: half sliced and tossed with scrambled eggs, half sliced for easy cucumber salad
- Eggplant (Japanese or Globe): cut into planks then salt and stack them up. Place a plate on top and let them sit for a few hours. This will help to press out the bitter juice. Rinse under running water then pat dry. Brush with olive oil and grill until tender.
- Broccoli: the one I received is huge! Use for the alfredo
- Zucchini, Green/Gold: Shredded for fritters
- Onion: 1 for Minestrone. 1/2 for zucchini fritters. 1/4 for cucumber tomato salad. 1/4 for potato salad
- Basil: I don’t know about you, but I received a gigantic bunch this week! So put it on everything. You can add to the minestrone, put on your pizza, put in the potato salad, and of course top off the caprese salad. Any left will again go towards pesto to freeze for the winter.
- Watermelon: sliced to enjoy next to scrambled eggs
- Cucumber: cucumber and tomato salad
- Garlic: minestrone, alfredo, zucchini fritters
- Corn, Sweet: 2 in minestrone, 4 in zucchini fritters
