Menu Planning

As you might have noticed, I’ve slacked off with the menu planning.  And the lack of a plan has added to my cooking angst quite a bit.  I was at least keeping up with maintaining my white-board of produce that I keep on the fridge.  I snapped this photo Tuesday evening before I started cooking.  The various divided sections are all different weeks/categories of produce (FM, and three weeks of CSA produce).

Now that I’ve done combat with the fridge contents and have it down to a reasonable level (just in time for another camping trip, a camping trip in which we are only responsible for the meal that doesn’t need any produce, how’d we do that?) I cleaned up that white board and added a new catergory – leftovers.

Looking this over (and oh how I wanted to scrap Tuesday’s meal plan once I saw that fresh corn) I am brimming with ideas for cooking again.

• This roasted beet, goat cheese and pistachio salad (why do I keep thinking it has honey drizzled on it?)
• a mess of sauteed greens to use up all the dark leafy greens lurking in the fridge
• a broccoli, cherry tomato and chickpea salad from Good Food Fast
• something with the corn, maybe a corn and cherry tomato salsa?
• I figure we will bring the pattypans camping and grill them (contributing veggies to another meal)
• apple-blueberry muffins (we don’t list fruit on the white board, but I have a few blueberries and one apple that have seen better days)
• zucchini basil muffins

This list doesn’t look too bad, until I remember that it could easily take us the rest of the week to just get through the leftovers we already have made (though that roasted beet salad is half-way in between as I roasted the beets while the eggplant torte baked).  Tonight we fend for ourselves (i.e. leftovers), tomorrow I’m considering the greens, a grain, and the beet salad, I’d like to add corn on the cob but that would probably be too much food.  Maybe the broccoli salad would work camping?

things I want to eat

Instead of a meal plan for the rapidly diminishing week how about a list of things I want to eat but maybe not cook.  Or it could be I want to cook them but not eat them.  It is hard to say, other than I’ve been avoiding the kitchen since Tuesday, with the exception of a delicious buttermilk cake made in the cool of night.  Though the joke ended up being on me since it didn’t get too hot the next day.

Produce round-up
Produce lingering from the store: celeriac, celery
Produce fresh from the store: creamer potatoes, green beans, blueberries, cherries (at least I know all but the potatoes were localish)
Produce from the FM (lingering): purple potatoes, parsley
Produce from the CSA leftovers: chard, green onion
Produce from the CSA this week: arugula, cucumbers, zucchini, kohlrabi, cabbage, spinach

But what do I want to make?

• Arugula, Potato and green bean salad (the only reason I bought potatoes and green beans from the store – only to come home and learn I needed yogurt and walnuts too; still need to pick those up)
• Zucchini-Feta pancakes
• Tomato-Chard Curry with the chard, and maybe the spinach too
• Curried Red Lentils over hard-boiled eggs (doesn’t really use any veggies though I considered serving it alongside the chard)
• Riata
• Naan, but I fear having the oven on that long, maybe I’ll cheat and go with frozen…
• frittata would be good for leftovers but it isn’t calling to me
• these purple potatoes but with what?
• cucumber, tomato and feta salad

Perhaps nothing is clicking because I have a produce drawer almost full of wintery vegetables (save the zucchini and cucumber) and the weather is anything but?  I keep looking at celeriac recipes to get it out of my fridge and they are all very wintery (go figure, being a winter veggie and all).  Hmm, since it isn’t too hot today perhaps a celeriac-potato puree with sauted greens and sauted zucchini?  That sounds doable.

Week 3’s meal plan

Maybe it is cheating since I wrote this today (Thursday), but as I was putting away the share on Tuesday we already had plans to have a nice big yummy salad for dinner that night and I quickly decided to do something with the arugula and remaining farmer’s market tomatoes on Wednesday…

Produce lingering from the store: carrots, celeriac, celery
Produce from the FM (recent and lingering): zucchini, various berries, basil, tomatoes, purple potatoes, parsley
Produce from the CSA leftovers: lettuce, green onion, one kohlrabi
Produce from the CSA this week: arugula, green onions, cucumbers, rainbow chard, purple kohlrabi

Tuesday: big green salad with some bread (lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, carrot, toasted almonds)

Wednesday: pasta with arugula, tomatoes and white beans and yummy bread, berry pie for dessert

Thursday: big salad with fresh creamy dressing, grilled zucchini

Friday & Saturday: camping (sliced kohlrabi for snacking? utilizing green onions in breakfast burritos; bringing berries for snacking)

Sunday: swiss chard and potatoes?

Monday: eat out perhaps?

menu plan week 1

Due to an email snafu my first CSA pickup was a bit of a last-minute thing and I already had a fridge nearly full, sadly including most of the head of lettuce. I gave my neighbor the beautiful head of CSA lettuce so it would get used during its prime. Produce to use up: roasted beets, zucchini, basil, parsley, cucumbers, purple potatoes, radishes, green onions, chard, kale, unidentified green, various fruits that will surely be used

Tuesday: freezer meal
Wednesday: Greek Salad w/lettuce, tomatoes, radish, green onions, feta, kalamata olives and greek dressing made from a Penzey’s mix, chunk of bread on the side
Thursday: tacos (leftovers from Sunday – it was eat or toss tomorrow)
Friday (lunch): Bulgar, Beet, Chard and Feta Salad (modified from this AT The Kitchn post)
Friday (dinner): grilled zucchini sandwiches with garlic scape pesto?
Saturday BBQ meal (my contributions): nice green salad (lettuce, radishes, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, white bean dip (with rosemary or garlic scape pesto)
Sunday: something with kale… maybe Heather’s Quinoa from 101 Cookbooks
Monday: ??? at this point I’ll be ready to reassess and plot for whatever remains in the fridge

Meal Planning

I really thought I’d use this blog more as part of my meal planning but I didn’t.  However tonight I had some ideas and decided to commit them in this space.  Plus my fridge is totally full so I need to try and use some space hogging veggies (but mostly it is the 90 or so apples in 3 boxes and 1 produce drawer that are my “problem”).  I made the stuff I’d need to buy to make a recipe in pink.

Leek, goat cheese and cherry tomato tart (seen a recipe, but I’ll probably wing it)

• leek (or 2)
• half pint of cherry tomatoes
• 3-5 eggs plus some milk
• piecrust (flour, salt, butter, shortening, water)
• remaining chevre

Swiss Chard and Caramelized Onion Lasagne

• 2 bunches swiss chard
• lots of onions
  
• ricotta cheese
• lasagne noodles
• white sauce (butter, flour, milk)
• asiago or parmesan cheese

Eggrolls (to be frozen)

• napa cabbage
• carrots
• ginger
• garlic
• tofu
• green onions
• wrappers

Now I just need to figure out what to do with all of this: 2 red bell peppers, 2 half colored bell peppers, 1 green bell pepper, 1 large bunch kale, broccoli, parsley (lots of it), potatoes (not so worried as they keep), winter squash (it keeps), lots and lots of apples (they will all be eaten.  And consider the fact that the two dishes above (plus the lunch soup) will probably feed us until next Tuesday… (Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday so 10 dinner servings and the above two will give us probably 10-14, plus three remaining soup servings).

Other thoughts: Swiss Chard & Apple frittatta from The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper, something with roasted peppers, a kale-tomato-polenta pie (where did I see that recipe?), more parsley pesto, potato-leek soup, blanching and freezing the kale.

And finally another meal idea!  But wait, can you freeze coconut curry?

Green Coconut Curry

• tofu
• broccoli
• bell peppers
• carrots
• rice

 

Planning

I need some plans.  Right now I feel like I only use a minute part of our veggies per meal – and we don’t eat meat.  Even when I use a lot of veggies, like last night’s massive chard use it leaves me with a lot of food (we ate 4 of the 18 phyllo triangles).  It is like I can’t roll enough of them into one meal and end up with too many leftovers (of the uncooked variety) which starts me at each pickup overwhelmed.  And my puny freezer can only hold so much stuff.

Tonight I’m making pizza topped with the beet greens as well as sun dried tomatoes and roasted garlic.  I might serve it with a spinach salad.  Later this week I can make a pasta-kale-white bean dish.  And serve it with more salad.

I could…

• use the remaining spinach in eggs
• saute the radishes with the snap peas
• roast the beets
• roast or grill the squash
• make a cilantro pesto (does this freeze well?)

If only I could come up with a way to tie the sauteed radishes & snap peas with the roasted beets and roasted/grilled squash into an actual meal.  

I still need ideas for

• broccoli
• parsley (it is huge bag of curly parsley)
• green onions (easy enough to use here and there)
• kohlrabi (which can be cut up for snacking)
• lettuce (anything other than really plain salad?)

Ideas for Kohlrabi

This is the vegetable that stumps me.  I started with google, which lead me to a list on Simply Recipes.  Then I checked 101cookbooks, then Food Network’s website, then Epicurious.  Some notes for myself: Kohlrabi is similar to broccoli stem or kohlrabi is similar to a radish-turnip cross.  Many people claim they are best eaten raw, and that is the easiest path.  The following have potential:

Kohlrabi Slivers with Pea Shoots and sesame dressing via Epicurious (but I think it is too late for pea shoots)

Kohlrabi and Squash Empanadas on Straight from the Farm found via Simply Recipes (would also use up the zucchini)

Kohlrabi Pickles on Restaurant Widow also found via Simply Recipes – this claims it is better uncooked

 

I’m sorry I’m not really giving any new ideas here,  this is one of those post that is blatantly for me.

Ideas for the week

Let’s see.  I have way more lettuce than I feel like I will ever eat (leftover romaine, leaf lettuce from last week, red leaf lettuce from this week); radishes, cucumbers, green onions, parsley, two kohlrabis, napa cabbage, oodles of dark leafy greens, broccoli, zucchini.  Oh and a couple carrots, some onions, a hunk of feta, a single fresh mozerella ball, sharp cheddar cheese, and I’m sure a few more things.  Oh yes, and leftovers: tabbouleh (should be gone tomorrow by lunch), bitter greens with sour cherries (if this reheats well), leftover asian-style slaw and a bread pan full of polenta.

I could make…

1. Thai Noodle Salad
2. Oodles of fabulous leafy green salads
3. Broiled Polenta with…. 
   • Assertive greens with cream and shallots from TNBR
   • Sauteed greens with garlic
   • tomato sauce and fresh mozarella
4. A quiche or frittata filled with dark leafy greens or broccoli
5. A quiche with zucchini and sun dried tomatoes and feta cheese
6. Swiss Chard Tart
7. Grilled zucchini
8. Steamed Broccoli
9. Tostadas (okay so this would only use up some of the lettuce)

Right now I’m wondering if I’ll ever get to go out to dinner again (okay, the next 20 weeks).