The Plan:
Day 1: Bok choi salad with peanuts and garlic sesame dressing, Grilled steak, Strawberries and homemade whipped cream
Day 2: Disappearing greens gumbo
Day 3: Homemade pizza, Tossed salad
Day 4: Slow Cooker pulled pork, Strawberry poppy seed salad
Day 5: Cilantro lime rice bowls with black beans, radish, and turnips
Day 6: Tuna salad sandwiches (simply mix Primal Kitchen mayo with canned tuna, pickles, and dill), radish and turnip slices
Day 7: Creamy spinach and artichoke, Pita bread, Strawberry smoothie
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)
- Chicken broth
Into Storage:
- 2 gallon bags of frozen strawberries
Notes: Strawberry picking season!
It is the most wonderful time of the year again – strawberry picking season! Grab your rain boots and head out before the heat to gather as many of these precious berries as possible.
If you want to know my secret to eating local all year round, this is how I do it. Pack away what you can when it is in season. Whether you freeze whole berries, make jam, or dehydrate there are lots of ways to make sure you can have a taste of summer in the dead of winter.
I also picked my first strawberries last weekend from my own small patch. If you want to garden but don’t know where to start, strawberries are a good bet. They can be grown in pots or in a garden and they spread easily with minimal effort. The first year I planted 3 small plants in a small corner of a raised bed garden mid summer. I only got a couple of berries. Last year they spread over half the garden and I was getting strawberries from June until November (ever bearing variety)! This year I decided to let the plants spread through the entire 4×10 foot bed. Yesterday I picked a whole bowl full!
Although it is great to walk out my back door and grab a fresh strawberry, I just can’t grow enough to satisfy my family of 5 so I still make a few trips to a nearby pick your own farm.
Check out my updated Strawberry Picking Season blog post from today for everything you need to know before you head out to your own local patch.
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.
Psst…like Farmer Cassie said in her newsletter this week, the Disappearing Greens Gumbo is delicious and will use up all of your greens in one dish if you want. Mine will have mustard greens, turnips greens, radish greens, kale, and scallions. You could also use the spinach and bok choi, or even lettuce! Also, how about that dill smell when you opened your box today?!
Mustard Greens (1.0 bunch): gumbo
Scallions (1.0 bunch): 1 in bok choi salad, 2 in gumbo
Garlic Scapes (1.0 bunch): 1 for bok choi salad, 2 for pulled pork, 2 for cilantro rice
Lettuce, Romaine (1.0 head): strawberry poppy seed salad
Bok Choi (2 count): bok choi salad with steak
Salad Turnip (1.0 bunch): cut off the greens and use in gumbo; slice turnips for salads, tuna salad, and rice bowls
Dill (1.0 bunch): tuna salad
Spinach (1.0 bag): creamy spinach and artichoke
Cilantro (1.0 bunch): cilantro rice bowls
Kale, Red Russian (1.0 bunch): gumbo
Radish, Red (1.0 bunch): cut off the greens and use in gumbo; slice radish for salads, tuna salad, and rice bowls
Salad Mix (1.0 bag): tossed salad
