The Plan:
Day 1: Zucchini and eggplant bruschetta (last zucchini and eggplants!)
Day 2: Tuscan kale and bean soup, Crusty sourdough bread
Day 3: Homemade pizza, Tossed salad
Day 4: Grilled steak, Bok Choi salad, Roasted Delicata squash
Day 5: Homemade hummus plate with homemade pita chips, kohlrabi, carrots, peppers, and olives
Day 6: Egg scramble with peppers (and any leftover veggies)
Day 7: Beef pot roast, Lemony brussels sprouts, Roasted potatoes
This meal plan was curated using local foods that are in season now or preserved during the peak growing season in the U.S. Midwest. The plan is an exact replica of what our family is eating this week unless we are out of town. Meal plans are developed using whole foods and my meal planning system (click here!) and are meant to be healthy and easy to prepare. Most recipes will take no more than 30 minutes of active cooking time. Occasionally meals may require all day slow cooking, advanced prep, or some oven time. Recipes are provided when available. I sincerely hope this will help with your own meal planning!
Pantry Shuffle:
Out of Storage: (preserved when in season and coming out of my root cellar, freezer, canned, or dehydrated stash)
- Steak and beef roast from Mastodon Valley Farm meat share
- Vegetable broth
Into Storage:
- Potatoes (store in root cellar, they will keep for months)
- Apples (store in bag in the fridge, they will keep up to 6 months)
- Tuscan kale and bean soup (doubling the recipe and storing half in a gallon zip top bag in the freezer)
Notes: A Well Stocked Pantry
It always amazes me when I put together my grocery list for the week and there are only five to ten items on there. This week I have just 7 items to shop for in order to make all of the meals in my above plan!
I owe this all to my CSA farm shares and a well stocked pantry and freezer. Don’t get me wrong, I can still rack up the grocery bills if I’m not careful, but since I’ve been on this local, seasonal eating journey, I have found that keeping certain things on hand at all times means that I buy less at the grocery store each week and I can throw together a meal with minimal planning if I need to. I still plan to a T because that is just how I am and it makes life easier!
Every week when I do my meal planning, I make sure to shop my pantry before I head to the store. I look for things that need to be used up, as well as anything that we are low on that needs a restock.
This week when I pulled up the Tuscan kale and bean soup recipe and shopped my pantry, I discovered I have everything on hand except for the celeriac/celery. The produce is all in my farm share, homemade broth is in my freezer, spices and olive oil are in the cabinet, and I have tons of dried beans. All I have to do is pick up a fresh loaf of crusty sourdough bread!
I wrote an article a while ago with my personal tips for stocking a pantry and a list of items that I keep on hand. If you are just starting out with homecooking or you need a reset, you are going to want to check it out! When you have fresh food from the farm and a well stocked pantry, you will be able to provide your family with simple whole food meals in no time AND lower your grocery bill.
How to Stock a Pantry for the First Time
Bonus Notes: I got some really cool conjoined delicata squash from my farm today. Check it out in the picture above! Also check out the picture below with my haul from one of my new gardens. It is going to be a hard frost in a couple days and I am working to get my gardens cleaned out. In this particular garden I got several very large sunflower heads, tons of pie pumpkins, popcorn, and butternut squash. The green pumpkins will be used for fall decorations and the orange ones will be used to make pumpkin puree for cooking and baking. The popcorn bunches will also be used for decoration, then when the popcorn is totally dried and it is time to get out the Christmas decorations, we’ll take the kernels off the cobs and pop the corn!
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.
Carrots (1.0 bag): Tuscan kale soup, bok choi salad
Potato, Harvest Moon (1.0 3lb. bag): Roasted to serve with steak, rest are going to storage
Brussels Sprouts (1.0 box): lemony sprouts to serve with pot roast
Bok Choi (1.0 count): bok choi salad to serve with steak
Onion, Yellow (1.0 count): Tuscan soup
Kale, Green Curly (1.0 bunch): Tuscan soup
Delicata Squash (1.0 count): roasted and served with steak
Lettuce Head, Red Leaf (1.0 head): tossed salad to serve with pizza
Garlic, small (1.0 count): Bruschetta, Tuscan soup, hummus
Pepper, Green Bell (1.0 count): egg scramble
