Day 1: Tomato soup, Grilled cheese sandwiches
Day 2: BLT chopped salad with corn
Day 3: Homemade pizza with zucchini, Easy cucumber and tomato salad
Day 4: Whole roasted chicken, Italian lentil salad, Sauteed garden kale
Day 5: Tacos with homemade pico de gallo, Corn on the cob
Day 6: Baked potato bar (steamed broccoli, sour cream, cheddar cheese, salsa)
Day 7: Eggplant pizzas, Watermelon slices
Notes: This week I’ll be putting up several batches of tomato soup for the winter. It is the BEST for lunch over Christmas break. I will triple the recipe using some of our garden tomatoes. I will also use my garden tomatoes to make a batch of homemade pico de gallo by dicing a couple of tomatoes and adding to minced onion, chopped cilantro, fresh squeezed lime juice, and sea salt. Also, I really like the eggplant pizzas as they have some of the flavor of eggplant parmesan without all the work (or breading).
GLP Tip of the Week: Store bought ice cream cartons are lined with plastic and unable to be recycled. When you eat as much ice cream as my family, that is unacceptable! I have a couple ideas for ways you can indulge in this sweet treat for the rest of the summer without all the plastic guilt. I’ll admit that I rotate between all of these options.
If you are lucky enough to own an ice cream maker, use it! You can buy milk and cream in glass bottles, sugar in bulk, and have endless options for mix-ins. It is super easy, but requires an up front investment in the machine.
The next best thing is seeking out an ice cream shop in your town that either makes their own ice cream or carries bulk ice cream. This is a good option if you don’t want to keep any in the house since it is so tempting to gobble up a whole pint in one sitting. But wait! Invoke your inner child and opt for a cone over a dish. The disposable dishes are also lined with plastic and unless you bring your own utensil, you will end up with a plastic single use spoon. Many places make their own waffle cones which will help save on behind the scenes plastic packaging.
Finally, if you are on a budget you can forego ice cream altogether or (for the sane people out there) search for companies that sell their ice cream in recyclable containers. My favorite is Talenti gelato. I only buy it when it is on sale and then I reuse the containers for storing my homemade ice cream, to use for bulk grocery shopping, and for storing little items at home.
It sucks to have to think so much about something so wonderful, but to me it is worth it to reduce plastic without giving up one of my favorite things in the world!
CSA Notes: Here is how I am using our share this week
- Potato, White: 5 for baked potatoes. The rest go into storage
- Tomatoes: 2 for pico de gallo, the rest go into tomato soup. I supplement from my garden so you may have to adjust accordingly or buy more at the store if you are following my whole weekly plan.
- Cherry tomatoes: 1/2 container for BLT salad, 1/2 container for cucumber/tomato salad
- Eggplant: eggplant pizzas
- Broccoli: steamed and served over baked potatoes
- Zucchini, Green/Gold: sliced or shredded for a pizza topping
- Onion: 1/2 minced for pico de gallo, 1/4 in cucumber/tomato salad, 1/4 in lentil salad. 1 in eggplant pizza. I will use my stored onions for the tomato soup
- Watermelon: sliced and served with eggplant pizzas. I have a hard time doing anything else with the seeded variety
- Garlic: tomato soup
- Cucumber: 1 in cucumber tomato salad, 1 in lentil salad
- Corn, Sweet: 2 in BLT salad, 4 cut in half and boiled to eat with tacos
