Day 1: Greek marinated chicken, Greek salad (sub bell peppers for cucumbers), Baked acorn squash
Day 2: Salad night – Potato salad with green beans, Lemony couscous salad with green peppers, Nectarine and Shiso salad
Day 3: Homemade pizza, Tossed salad
Day 4: Beef pot roast, Roasted Delicata squash, Sauteed kale
Day 5: Potato and sweet pepper soup, Corn muffins (from frozen supply)
Day 6: Veggie fajitas with onions, bell, and jalapeno peppers
Day 7: Tomato soup with Parmesan toasts
Notes: So it begins…the zucchinis, sweet corn, and cucumbers are on their way out and the winter squashes, potatoes, and peppers are making their way to our plates. Mmmm, fall veggies are so good! One of our ash trees is turning red, there is a bite to the overnight temps, and a smokey smell in the air. Two of those things are normal this time of year. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the effects of the wildfires all along the West Coast and how they are impacting us even in Wisconsin. The sunrise and sunset are beautiful with a bright red hue, but the air quality? Not so great. The evidence of human impact on the Earth is everywhere. To those of you dealing with losing a home or unable to even step outside without breathing in toxic particles, I am so sorry. All I can say is I am doing my darnedest to help lesson my personal impact on the environment and it starts right here with meal planning. Cooking at home, eating organic food produced right nearby, cutting back on meat consumption, and careful planning to eat every single morsel so as not to send it to the methane-producing landfills are all things that you can do too. I’m getting ready to launch a Seasonal Eating Guide that will take you through every step to start on a path to local, seasonal eating. Stay tuned!
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 on how I structure the plans.
- Tomatoes (1.0 Unit) – 1 for Greek salad, the rest for tomato soup
- Pepper, Jalapeno (1.0 count) – fajitas
- Kale, Green Curly (1.0 bunch) – remove the stems and roughly chop then saute in olive oil until wilted, about 5 minutes, and sprinkle with sea salt
- Shiso (1.0 bunch) – 3 leaves cut into thin strips for fruit salad, the rest will be used to make Shiso tea
- Acorn Squash (1.0 count) – baked squash to serve with chicken
- Parsley, Flat Italian (1.0 bunch) – split four ways between these recipes: Greek chicken, Greek salad, couscous, potato salad
- Potato – Gold (medium) (1.0 bag – 3 lb) – half for potato salad, half for potato soup. If you find you have some left, store for future use they will keep for quite a while in a cool, dark environment.
- Beans, Green (1.0 bag) – potato salad
- Onion, Yellow (1.0 count) – you will need more to make all the above recipes. Greek salad, potato salad, potato & pepper soup, fajitas, tomato soup
- Delicata Squash (1 to 2 depending on size) (1.0 Unit) – roasted and served with pot roast
- Lettuce Head, Red leaf (1.0 head) – tossed salad
- Pepper, Sweet (Red Bell, Yellow Bell or Carmen) (1.0 count) – you will need more to make all the above recipes. I have green peppers in my garden that I am using in Greek salad and lemony couscous. Red sweet peppers, like Carmen, are best for the potato & pepper soup. Bell peppers work well for fajitas.
- Garlic (1.0 count) – Greek chicken, potato salad, potato & pepper soup, tomato soup
