The Plan:
Day 1: Zucchini eggplant bruschetta, Shiso iced tea
Day 2: Grilled hamburger patties topped with tzatziki sauce, Easy dill pickles, Fresh blueberries and cream
Day 3: Homemade pizza with banana peppers, Summercrisp salad
Day 4: Broccoli soup with cheddar toasts
Day 5: Fennel, basil, kale, garlic, and cherry tomato penne pasta
Day 6: Adobo pork chops, Buttered green beans
Day 7: Coconut crusted cod, Asian slaw with a ginger peanut dressing
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)
- Vegetable broth
Into Storage:
- Dill pickles
- Dilly green beans
- Dehydrated shiso leaves
- Broccoli (cut into small florets and freeze in zip top bags – I typically don’t blanch)
- Blueberries (frozen in zip top bags)
Notes: Reuse Your Plastic
Lots more food heading to storage this week! You will notice that most of the food I preserve, I put in the freezer instead of canning. While canning is definitely a good option for long term storage, it can be quite time consuming. I find freezing in zip top bags to be a much quicker process.
You may be wondering why someone who is crazy about reducing plastic freezes so much food in plastic?!? I can explain. See, plastic is actually a wonderful substance in a lot of ways. It holds moisture and keeps out air. Freezer bags are awesome for keeping your food fresh. And, you can use them over and over!
I haven’t actually bought a zip top bag in about 8 years. I use them, wash them with warm soapy water, hang to dry, roll up to store, then repeat. Sometimes they spring a leak, and then I recycle with other plastic films or use them for non food purposes.
Are there alternatives? Yes! Silicone bags hit the shelves several years ago and are gaining popularity. I have a bunch and use them all the time. They work like plastic, but without the yucky chemicals. They dishwasher safe and made to be reusable. Downside – silicone are expensive. I don’t know if I’ll ever have enough silicone bags in all the right sizes for the massive amount of food that I freeze, and that is okay. I will keep reusing and reusing my plastic zip top bags.
My Plastic Free July tip this week: reuse your plastic zip top bags! Plastic you already have is “free”. Don’t stop at reusing plastic bags. Reuse plastic cutlery, containers, packing film and anything else that is plastic. Plastic is hard to recycle – make use of what you already have.
If you want to read more about this subject check out my Plastic Free Challenge #16
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.
Fennel (1.0 bulb): Pasta dish – slice and sauté in olive with onions and garlic scapes to top pasta
Banana Pepper (1.0 count): sliced and added to pizza
Broccoli (1.0 head): broccoli soup; I have extra that I’m going to cut up and freeze for winter
Zucchini, Green and/or Gold (1.0 count): bruschetta
Basil (1.0 bunch): Add a handful to the bruschetta, the rest add to the pasta dish
Shiso (1.0 bunch): shiso tea. I’m also going to dehydrate some to use in the winter
Eggplant, Japanese (1.0 count): bruschetta
Lettuce, Summercrisp (1.0 head): tossed salad
Beans, Green (1.0 bag): steamed and buttered to serve with pork chops; I’m also going to pickle some
Dill (with flowers starting, older) (1.0 bunch): pickles and dilly beans
Onion, Purplette (1.0 bunch): 2 small in broccoli soup, 1 larger in pasta dish
Kale, Lacinato (1.0 bunch): Pasta dish – add to the sauteed fennel and cook until wilted
Cucumber (1.0 count): I got 2 large ones. The smaller one will be used for tzatziki, the larger one for pickles
