The Plan:
Day 1: Garden fresh tomato basil soup, Grilled cheese sandwiches
Day 2: Grilled steak, Green beans Almondine, Corn on the cob
Day 3: Homemade pizza, Easy cucumber and tomato salad
Day 4: Grilled pineapple, pepper, chicken, and rice bowls with Hoisin sauce
Day 5: Out to eat!
Day 6: Broccoli mac n’ cheese (yes, we are eating out of a box this week!), Melon cubes
Day 7: Black bean and chard quesadillas, Pico de gallo
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)
- Steak from Mastodon Valley Farm meat share
Into Storage:
- Tomato soup (freeze in gallon zip top bags)
- Diced tomatoes (freeze in quart size zip top bags – next year I’m going to can these!)
Notes:
The third week in September is always a busy one for my family. It is my daughter’s birthday, we are finishing up back to school meetings, work tends to be demanding, and soccer, swimming, and band are in full swing. This is the week I stray a little from my usual meal routines.
You will notice we are planning to eat out. There is a tradition in our family that the birthday person gets to choose a restaurant to eat at on their special day.
I’ve also put some processed food in the plan – mac n’ cheese. We usually try to reserve this boxed delicacy for occasional lunches in the summertime, but I’m going to be running on fumes and need something very quick that everyone will eat. I’ll add a little more nutrition by putting broccoli florets in with the boiling pasta for a few minutes then drain it all together before adding the cheese.
And finally (gasp!) there is a pineapple in my plan. Last I checked we can’t grow tropical fruits in Wisconsin, although there are some amazing energy saving greenhouses that are growing lemons and limes. This is another special birthday treat for my daughter who just loves pineapple and her favorite rice grain bowl recipe calls for it grilled.
I like to be honest with what we are eating. Sometimes my plans shift a little, but overall I stick to what I write every week on this blog. All I can hope for is that my overall commitment to eating a whole foods diet based on local and seasonal food is inspiration to others to make small changes in their lives too. I don’t pretend to be perfect, and neither should you.
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.
Tomatoes (1.0 increment): tomato soup, cucumber tomato soup, pico de gallo
Pepper, Bell – YELLOW (1.0 count): rice bowls
Beans, Green (1.0 bag): green beans almondine to serve with steak
Broccoli (1.0 head): mac n’ cheese
Pepper, Red Sweet Carmen (1.0 count): snacking
Basil (1.0 bunch): tomato soup
A3 Muskmelon, Infinite Gold – Large (1.0 count): serve with mac n’ cheese
Pepper, Red Bell (1.0 count): rice bowls
Cucumber (1.0 count): cucumber tomato salad
A1 Corn, Sweet (some tips cut) (1.0 count): last corn on the cob of the season
