Here are the last few CSA's we have had (Oldest to newest top to bottom):
You'll notice that they are very greens heavy, with lots of kale and swiss chard in them, but it has given us a desire to branch out and try new recipes with those greens that have become new favorites of ours since starting the CSA (so not so new anymore, but still relatively new).
Two of the more exciting uses of those greens are potato lasagna and Swiss chard and feta pie (both pictured below):
(I know this doesn't look that appetizing... but it tastes AMAZING!)
(This tasted every bit as good as it looked)
With the beets, we had a really good meal of Penne with Beets, beet greens and goat cheese:
and another great recipe we made recently was southwestern quinoa stew with squash , black beans and corn... it didn't use anything from our box... but tasted great! :-D
In other news, our adoption training encourages us to try the food of our child's culture, because they might like it when they get home, and also it gives us a feel for how they might be uncomfortable trying our food. We like a lot of food, so we didn't really expect to have any discomfort with new food, but were happy to try one of theirs, so we made jollof rice (which is a typical Ghana dish). Really, it's rice with vegetables and chicken (although sometimes they make it with fish) and we really enjoyed it.
Also, just while I was taking some pictures of the other stuff, I decided to take a picture of how we (ahem... I) plan the meals for the week and go grocery shopping. I got these amazing little papers from Michaels for a dollar in the discount racks by the front, and I love them!
On the left is what day of the week we plan on making each meal and as you can see, if I need a page number, I add that too. On the right is a space for a grocery list.
So, what I do is first I gather a variety of cookbooks/ scattered papers that I have printed out in the past and bring them over to wherever I am going to sit down and plan the week's meals. I also bring the camera that has the most recent CSA picture on it, so I know what veggies I need to stick in there. I have, in general, a good working knowledge of my favorite cookbooks, so it is more of finding the recipes I am thinking of instead of looking for recipes with that ingredient, but sometimes I just thumb through it. After I get a few meals picked based on the CSA, I then spot check and go through a mental checklist:
Did I plan a leftover meal? - One meal a week is always our leftover meal that we pack up and put the leftovers into tupperware containers and eat for lunches, saves money and we have tasty healthy meals all week long.
Did I plan a bison meal? - With a freezer full of it, it is foolish to have even a week go by without at least one meal including our beef substitute.
Did I plan for a fast dinner on Thursday and Sunday? - Blake and I play a video game online with friends and we meet up relatively early on these two nights, so I have to make sure dinners are relatively fast so we can make them and eat them, and join with friends on time.
Are there any foods in the box I missed?
Are there any sales on proteins at Sprouts that I wanted to use?
Did I plan a chicken meal? (We have one almost every week, not every week, but pretty consistently because we like chicken, and we buy frozen chickens at costco).
As I go through these questions, I usually can piece together both the order of the meals, and what we are eating every day. Some weeks when the box is light, like this week, I give up and ask Blake what we should eat... but this is mostly just when I give up, because he plans very very simple dinners when asked (this week, it was quesadillas).
So, I have picked all the meals that we need to eat, keeping in mind any special occasions that mean we are not making a dinner that night, and I write them in on the left. Then I go through the recipes, with knowledge of our pantry, and write any ingredients that we need on the right. Sometimes, I am not sure if we still have that ingredient, so I write it on the right anyways, and add a question mark, and plan on checking it before we leave (doesn't always happen, so sometimes we are at the store, and trying to remember if we have it or not, and based on our guts, we either buy another one or chance not having it in the recipe).
I really enjoy planning meals this way. We never eat the same two weeks in a row, and I am constantly finding and printing out new recipes (if I haven't found a meal I want for kale or something else we need to use, I will find one :-) ). Also, it saves money because we almost never give into temptation to just eat out because we already have a plan for the night, and we already bought the ingredients or took the meat out of the freezer or need to use that vegetable from the box. Also, we have days designated as eat out days, and we can use self control and wait till those days to get to eat out.
I hope this helps some people plan meals, and if not, now you know how I handle getting that random box every week.
No comments:
Post a Comment