The Plan:
Day 1: Zucchini eggplant bruschetta, Fresh raspberries with real homemade whipped cream
Day 2: Creamy pasta with peas and basil, Berry smoothie
Day 3: Homemade pizza, Tossed salad
Day 4: Beef and broccoli over rice
Day 5: Black bean and chard quesadillas, Guacamole
Day 6: Charcuterie board with homemade dill pickles, homemade strawberry jam, sourdough bread, summer sausage, raw vegetables, olives, cheese slices, and more
Day 7: Cauliflower cassoulet
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)
- Nothing this week
Into Storage:
- Raspberries (freeze in gallon zip top bag)
- Pesto (freezer)
Notes: Plastic Free July
We are almost halfway through the month so I want to make sure that I get the word out that this is Plastic Free July. Every year, this is a time for thinking about plastic and its impact on the environment and our health. It’s a great time to familiarize yourself with the products you own that contain plastic and find a few that you can swap with more sustainable materials like glass and paper. Or reevaluate if there is a plastic item that you can eliminate altogether.
My fellow CSA members – you are already on track with your produce since most of it comes completely package free!
I use this month as a time to reset and refine my habits. I usually pick a couple of items to focus on and really drill it into my life so that it becomes a lifelong way of living. I also take the opportunity to see where I have slid off track and find out if I can get myself back on board with less plastic.
For example, I started compromising with my kids at the end of the school year and buying a few packaged foods for them to take for lunch. I will admit that it was easier to grab a granola bar than make your own. But now that we are already a month into summer break, it is time to ease back on those plastic coated foods and back into more fresh. This is easier in summertime when everyone is at home for lunch and heating leftovers or grabbing something from the fridge is pretty simple.
If you are looking for ways to cut back on plastic, check out my Plastic Free Challenge that I created to break it down into small doable steps. Getting rid of plastic in your life can seem time consuming, expensive, and totally overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to!
Green Life Philosophy’s 90 Day Plastic Free Challenge
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.
1 Carrots (1.0 bag) – A few for the charcuterie board. They will keep for months in the refrigerator in a bag so we will keep the others around for snacking and maybe pickling.
1 Broccoli (1.0 head) – beef and broccoli dish
1 Cauliflower (1.0 head) – sausage cauliflower cassoulet
2 Zucchini, Green and/or Gold (1.0 count) – bruschetta
1 Basil (1.0 bunch) – half for the pasta dish. The rest will be made into pesto and frozen for the winter
1 Dill Flower (1.0 head) – homemade pickles
1 Celery (1.0 head) – Charcuterie board. Some will be made into ants on a log
1 Onion, Pearl (1.0 bunch) – 2 for pasta dish, 1 for cauliflower cassoulet
1 Eggplant, Japanese (1.0 count) – bruschetta
1 Lettuce, Summercrisp (1.0 head) – tossed salad to serve with pizza
1 Chard, Red (1.0 bunch) – quesadillas
2 Cucumber (1.0 count) – 1 for pickles, 1 for slices on the charcuterie board
1 Pepper, Green (1.0 count) – sliced for charcuterie board
1 Peas, Snow (1.0 bag) – pasta dish
