The Plan:

Day 1: Bok choy salad with peanuts and garlic sesame dressing, Skirt steak

Day 2: Grilled asparagus, mushrooms, and greenhouse tomatoes with classic barbecue seasoning served over rice

Day 3: Homemade pizza

Day 4: Easy chicken Caesar salad

Day 5: Black bean and chard quesadillas

Day 6: Penne pasta with arugula pesto and local greenhouse cherry tomatoes

Day 7: Veggie fajitas

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)

• Pepper and onion pack (pre-sliced last season and frozen in zip top bag)

Into Storage:

• None

Notes: Local Eats

If you haven’t found any locally produced food yet this year, now is the time to go looking. There has been some warm weather and rain across the U.S. and the greens are taking off. Head to your nearest farmer’s market for a smorgasbord of lettuce, bok choy, chard, and other greens just waiting to give your body that burst of vitamins (A, C, K, magnesium, potassium, and more) it has been craving for over 6 months!

Produce that is at its prime can’t be shipped across the country (or world). So much nutrition is lost in transit. You need that fresh picked salad to give you what you want in taste and what you need in nourishment.

If you can’t find any locally produced food, try foraging! You can walk right into your backyard and dinner is served! Here is a quick read on the most simple foods to forage in spring. 

CSA Breakdown: For those of you also using Keewaydin Farm, here is a breakdown of how I will use each piece of produce this week. See the first CSA post from last season for details of how I structure the plans.

-Red Butterhead Lettuce: Caesar salad

-Bunched Spinach: Caesar salad

-bunched arugula: pesto

-Asparagus: Cut into 1 inch pieces, toss with olive oil and barbecue seasoning, then grill in a grill pan

-Bok Choy: bok choy salad

-sage: dehydrate and grind to use in winter as poultry seasoning

-Swiss Chard: quesadillas

-Collards: dehydrate and grind to use in winter in smoothies and to sneak greens into meals

-Mixed Radish: slice for snacks/lunch, greens will be dehydrated with the collards

-Green Garlic or Green Scallions: bok choy salad and pesto