The Plan:
Day 1: Butternut squash soup, Crusty sourdough bread
Day 2: Quiche with mushrooms, radish greens, and chives, Frozen fruit smoothie with spinach
Day 3: Homemade pizza, Tossed salad with lovage, carrots, radish, and green olives
Day 4: Grilled burgers, Roasted carrots and potatoes
Day 5: Out to eat for a birthday!
Day 6: Pan roasted chicken with lemon green garlic green beans and potatoes
Day 7: Shrimp, orange, and arugula pasta salad
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)
- Butternut squash (root cellar)
- Apples (refrigerator “root cellar)
- Strawberries, peaches, green beans (freezer)
Into Storage:
- Vegetable broth
Notes: Greens Season
Oh how I have missed the greens! Every day over the past 2 weeks I have watched our grass slowly green up and today it is practically glowing. In contrast with the dried, brown, muted tones of the nearby prairie, it is a feast for my eyes. There is a woods nearby on a hill and when I glance up there is a sea of light green starting to fill in the bare branches.
Today, as I am typing this, there is a spring storm with lightening that will release nitrogen in the air and help more green things to come to life. This is truly greens season.
The greens I have missed the most though, are the ones that grow in the garden and can be foraged to eat. As someone who follows a local, seasonal diet, greens are noticeably absent from about December until now. I’ve been able to get spinach from nearby greenhouses for the past few weeks, and now today is the official start of my Spring CSA from Keewaydin Farms.
Salad mix, arugula, green garlic, lovage, watercress, chives, radish greens. I’m not sure you will find anyone more excited than me for greens season. My body has been craving the fresh, natural vitamins and I’m so excited to taste these flavors again from my farm box. I will be binging on salads and stuffing greens into all sorts of foods through June.
I hope you are able to pick up some local greens or perhaps grow some lettuce or other cold tolerant greens in your garden. Spring is a glorious time of the year!
Speaking of green – Earth Day is coming up on April 22nd. Check out my family guide to activities to celebrate Earth Day. My family will be cleaning out the storm drains that we adopted and spending as much time outside as possible. What a wonderful world we live in!
