The Plan:
Day 1: Chopped salad with chickpeas, radish, salad turnip, and olives, Fresh sourdough bread
Day 2: Sesame noodles with bok choi
Day 3: Homemade pizza, Tossed salad
Day 4: Spinach soup with homemade rosemary croutons
Day 5: Lentils with cilantro lime vinaigrette, Chocolate peanut butter protein smoothie
Day 6: Cheeseburgers, Sauteed kale
Day 7: Vegetable curry with totsoi, potatoes, diced salad turnips, and diced tomatoes
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 (homemade and frozen in silicone bags)
- Diced tomatoes (frozen in a zip top bag last year)
Into Storage:
- Greens powder (dehydrated radish greens)
Notes: How to lower your grocery bill
First things first… check out the Mickey mouse potato I got from our CSA today (photo above)! How cool is that?!? Today is the first day of our summer farm share with Crossroads Community Farm and I couldn’t be more excited. This farm provides the best organic produce and does so much good for the Madison community, including intentionally growing food to give to low-income families. If you are part of this CSA too then check out my CSA breakdown below which shows how I am using each piece of produce in my plan this week. So many greens!
Next topic: Have you noticed lately that your grocery bill has been about 30-40% higher than a few years ago? I have, which made me reevaluate what we are eating. Certainly food is a necessity and deserves a prime spot in your budget, but when this category skyrockets, it is time to take a closer look. There are a lot of ways to still get healthy food at a reasonable price. Here are a few tips:
1- Cut back on meat: Meat will be the most expensive thing on your grocery list. Instead, opt for beans, nuts, and eggs to get your protein fix. My family gets a meat share from a local farm so we have so far been pretty insulated from the hike in meat prices, but I was shocked when I wanted to get some boneless skinless organic chicken breasts last week and they were $20 for 3 pieces! With all the fresh local produce now available, it is time to switch over to a more plant based diet for the summer. Coincidentally, this is one of the largest ways an individual can help combat climate change.
2- Shop the farmer’s market: when you are in search of fresh, organic produce at a fair price try the farmer’s market or a CSA farm share. When you buy directly from a farmer, prices on average are about 30% cheaper!
3- Make your own: Instead of picking up a pre-made dinner at the store, make your own from scratch. Forbes found that on average it is 5 times more expensive to order from a restaurant or buy pre-made meals compared to home cooking!
4- Buy from the bulk section: If you can find a grocery store with a bulk section, you can save a LOT of money. I use this to shop for my pantry staples like rice, dried beans, nuts, and spices. You can save over $1 per ounce this way! Please note I am talking about using bulk bins and buying what I need, not buying super huge bags of food from a wholesaler. Although wholesalers like Costco and Sam’s Club can be much cheaper, a lot of times you end up losing money because you can’t eat all the food before it spoils.
5- Use all of your food: There is no sense in buying it if you aren’t going to eat it! This is easier said than done. What works for me is to have a system. I plan all of my meals, including breakfast, lunch, and snacks. Then, I stick to the plan! I also try to eat more perishables, like lettuce and other delicate greens, soon after I get them so they don’t end up in the compost. These go at the beginning of the week’s plan. Supper leftovers become an economical lunch. Any produce left at the end of the week goes into a catchall meal like an egg scramble or the vegetable curry I planned on day 7 this week.
CSA Breakdown:
Hurrah, box one is here! For those of you also using Crossroads Community Farm, here is a breakdown of how I will use each piece of produce this week. Please note that I typically get the pre-filled share each week without substitutions and challenge myself to find new ways to use different vegetables that I may not be familiar with. So, if you are customizing your share, you will need to make substitutions to follow my meal plans. And you certainly don’t need to make the whole week’s worth! This is a jumping off point for you so that none of those awesome veggies go to waste. We rarely eat out, so this is a replica of our actual meal plan for the week and we typically have leftovers for lunch the next day. Also note that every week we have homemade pizza night with a tossed salad. You can throw practically any veggie on the pizza, even lettuce. You can also toss those extra veggies into the salad if you need to use something up.
A couple notes about how I cook my meals: I am assuming you all have onions/scallions/onion powder and garlic/scapes/garlic powder on hand. If there is a veggie in a linked recipe that I didn’t get in my box, I will be substituting with something from the box or omitting altogether. I will try to make that clear in the breakdown. This will be the same every week. I rarely buy extra vegetables at the store and instead rely on substitutions with what I have. Don’t forget that just about every part of your veggies can be eaten. I like to use the tops of the radishes, turnips, and carrots. I also use the stems from herbs like cilantro and dill.
Mizuna (1.0 bunch) – chopped salad
Potatoes – smalls (1.0 bag – 2.5 lb) – about 2 pounds for the spinach soup and the rest for the curry
Bok Choi (1.0 count) – sesame noodles (you also could use the totsoi for this recipe)
Salad Turnip (1.0 bunch) – Cut off the greens and save for the curry (in place of spinach). Dice 2 turnips for chopped salad and 1 turnip for the curry
Kale, Green Curly (1.0 bunch) – remove the stems (compost) and roughly chop the leaves. Sauté in a bit of olive oil and season with salt and pepper
Tatsoi (1.0 head) – curry (could also use with the bok choi in the sesame noodle recipe)
Spinach (1.0 bag) – spinach soup
Cilantro (1.0 bunch) – cilantro lime lentils
Lettuce, Green Leaf (1.0 head) – tossed salad
Radish, Red (1.0 bunch) – Cut off the greens. I plan to dehydrate the greens to make greens powder that I add to smoothies and sneak in meals in the winter but you could also chop and sauté with the kale or add to the curry. The radish bulbs will be sliced for chopped salad
Salad Mix (1.0 bag) – chopped salad
