The Plan:
Day 1: Garden fresh tomato basil soup, Grilled cheese
Day 2: BLT chopped salad
Day 3: Homemade pizza, Easy cucumber and tomato salad
Day 4: Eggplant parmesan, Steamed green beans
Day 5: Grilled beef and veggie kabobs with classic barbecue rub, Grilled corn on the cob
Day 6: Greek salad, Shiso fruit salad with melon
Day 7: Slower cooker stuffed peppers
Into Storage:
- Tomato soup: quadrupling the recipe and sending 3 gallon sized bags into the freezer
- Diced tomatoes: I have tons of garden tomatoes and a large box of Romas from my CSA. Any leftovers near the end of the week will be diced and placed in quart sized bags to freeze. These can be used the same as canned diced tomatoes.
- Eggplant Parmesan: 2 extra batches headed to the freezer in aluminum pans
- Peach slices: Sliced with the peel on and frozen in a single layer on cookie sheets then transferred to zipper bags in the freezer. I’m hoping to get at least 2 gallon sized bags. These are great in smoothies, oatmeal, and desserts in winter
- Fajita kits: strips of red bell peppers and onions in zipper bags.
- Diced bell peppers: Any leftover from my large CSA box will be diced and frozen in quart sized bags to use in soups, chili, and various other recipes in the winter
- Pickles: I use this easy dill pickles recipe
Out of storage:
- Homemade chicken stock from the freezer to use for tomato soup. I will also be making more with my veggie and bone scraps
- From our Mastadon Valley Farm meat share: frozen bacon, sirloin steak, and Italian sausage
Notes:
I’m back and more motivated than ever to provide free meal plans to my readers. What I learned during my brief time off is that meal planning is key for me. I spent the past few weeks trying to “wing it” and come up with meals on the spot or a day ahead. We even (gasp!) ate out a few times. It was nice to have a change, but also very overwhelming. Unfortunately, the result was a pile of food waste, often times hungry family members, and a general layer of chaos that I don’t need in my life. So, now that I am getting back into my usual rhythms, I hope you will continue to follow along for home cooking inspiration. I imagine most of you are like me and desire fresh, healthy food for our families, while at the same time breaking away from the global food machine in order to support local farmers and the environment. Let’s do this!
I’m adding a new section to my weekly meal plans that will detail what I am putting into storage and what I am taking out of storage. This is an area where I really struggled when I first made a commitment to eat local year round. I think it is helpful to see how others store food. It also helps with planning so you can be prepared with all the ingredients you need before you start dicing, slicing, cooking, and freezing. Let me know if this is something you like.
CSA Breakdown: For those of you also using Crossroads Community Farm, here is a breakdown of how I will use each piece of produce this week. See the first CSA post from this season for details of how I structure the plans.
Tomatoes: many things! I also purchased a large case of Romas so I have a lot to go around. Tomato soup, BLT chopped salad, cucumber tomato salad, Greek salad, stuffed peppers, dicing and freezing anything I have left.
Eggplant, Japanese or Globe: eggplant parm
Onion, Yellow: kabobs
Beans, Green: steamed and served with eggplant parm
Pepper, Red Sweet Carmen: kabobs
Muskmelon: shiso fruit salad
Basil: tomato soup
Shiso: half for fruit salad, half chopped and added to stuffed peppers
Pepper, Red Bell: stuffed peppers (I also got a large case of peppers so you may have to purchase more to make this recipe)
Garlic: tomato soup, stuffed peppers
Cucumber: easy cucumber and tomato salad. I bought extra for pickles too
A1 Corn, Sweet (some tips cut): 2 for BLT salad, the rest grilled and eaten on the cob
