Day 1: Tuscan bean soup
Day 2: Turkey burgers with tzatziki sauce, Sauteed beets with poppy seeds
Day 3: Homemade pizza, Tossed salad
Day 4: Gazpacho, Corn on the cob
Day 5: Emergency meatballs with homemade pasta sauce, Green beans almondine
Day 6: Tuna salad, Green pepper slices
Day 7: Veggie frittata
Notes: The emergency meatballs are one of my go-to make ahead recipes that really helps me on busy nights. They can go straight from the freezer to the oven to warm up. Top with a jar of no-added sugar pasta sauce, steam some broccoli or green beans and dinner is done! Same for the tuna salad. Pop open a couple of cans, add some avocado oil mayonnaise and some chopped pickles. Pair with celery sticks or sliced peppers for scooping and you are good to go. Both are healthy, low carb meals that are perfect for the first week of school.
GLP Tip of the Week: This isn’t really a tip, but since I’ve been writing so much about how I am working to store food for the winter, I thought I would share pictures of how exactly I am doing this. See below for photos of my work from the past week. Usually, I just make extra of the nightly meal or chop up veggies for storage while I am chopping others for my meal prep. Right now I put most of my food in Ziploc freezer bags. I use the same bags over and over until they get holes, then I re-purpose them for other non-food things. If you’ve been using a bag for a while, I recommend you fill it with water to check for holes prior to using for freezer items. I also always make sure that anything I am adding to the bags is cooled beforehand because this type of plastic will leach into your food if heated. That means you also need to remember to place it into your refrigerator to defrost rather then the microwave. My long term plans are to switch entirely from Ziploc bags to other non-plastic storage containers. So, as my supply of plastic bags dwindles (it is taking years!), I am slowly building up my arsenal of silicone bags, which you will see below. I once tried to freeze broth in a glass jar, as I have heard you can do this, but unfortunately I ended up with a broken mess in my freezer. Most likely I didn’t leave enough head space at the top of the jar and I was reusing an old pasta sauce jar which is usually not as thick as a Mason jar. How do you store your food in the freezer? Feel free to share pictures in the comments!
Chicken Broth Corn Cut Off the Cob Green Beans and Peaches Tomato Soup Homemade Pizza Dough
CSA Notes: Here is how I am using our share this week:
- Onion, Yellow: 1 for Tuscan bean soup, 1/2 for gazpacho, 1 and 1/2 for pasta sauce or frittata (you will need more onions this week to follow my complete plan or buy jarred pasta sauce)
- Lettuce, Romaine: tossed salad
- Tomatoes: gazpacho, pasta sauce (you will need more tomatoes this week to follow my complete plan or buy jarred pasta sauce)
- Beets: shredded and sauteed with poppy seeds
- Beans, Green: green beans almondine
- Kale, Green Curly: chopped for tuscan bean soup
- Pepper, Anaheim: veggie frittata
- Garlic: tzatziki, tuscan bean soup, gazpacho, pasta sauce, frittata
- Cucumber: 1 for tzatziki, 1 for tossed salad, 1 for gazpacho
- Pepper, Bell – Green: sliced and served with tuna salad
- Sweet corn: corn on the cob
We save old plastic jugs from other things (yogurt, cottage cheese, Costco peanut jars, etc.) and freeze our homemade broth in that. We freeze it with the lid off and room at the top, then add the lids once frozen. Those containers get used over and over again so I don’t feel too bad about them being plastic.
That is a great idea! When I run out of plastic bags, I may do this. I can only afford so many silicone bags!
The watermelon looks great; enjoy!
We cracked it open – lots of seeds, but delicious!