In an effort to make our lives easier next year when this time of year roles around, I’m going to start posting a weekly “Seasonal Eating” series.  Every Thursday or so after we get our CSA share on Wednesday, I sit down and plan out the meals I’m going to cook for the week.  I usually first make a list of all of the produce we have from the CSA and our garden, and then plan meals around it.  Hopefully this will be helpful, for not only us, but others out there trying to eat seasonal and needing ideas for meals. I’ll also link to recipes when they are online.

Produce (Our Garden)

Spinach, Turnip Greens, Mustard Greens,Turnips, Kale

Produce (CSA)

Beet Greens, Peas, Carrots, Beets, Head Lettuce, Lettuce Mix, Garlic Scapes, Strawberries

Meals Planned

Meal 1 - Steaks, a big salad of head lettuce, baked beets, carrots and garlic scapes, and turnips with poppy seeds.  I’ve made the turnip recipe before and we really like it.

Meal 2 - Pork chops with balsamic strawberry sauce (I’m experimenting on this but that is the plan), cooked turnip greens, peas, and a salad.

Meal 3 - Pasta with beet greens (we haven’t tried this recipe before), salad, gluten free bread from Sweet Escapes pastries with white bean spread.  We like the gluten free Tinkyada pasta the best.

Meal 4 - Beet and kale risotto (recipe from a recent Cooking Light magazine) with a salad.

Meal 5 - Spaghetti with spinach, artichokes, and sundried tomatoes (from Bon Appetit magazine) and a salad.

Meal 6 - Mustard greens with rice from Local Flavors by Deborah Madison, and asian pork medallions (recipe from a Cooking Light 2006 magazine).

I usually just plan 6 meals a week and on Wednesday when we pick up our CSA we just wing it and make whatever sounds good.  We adapt these recipes so they contain no gluten, dairy, eggs, or nuts… most of them are allergy free anyway, but sometimes I leave nuts or cheese out of the recipe or use olive oil instead of butter.

I’ll try to post next week as well, things may get a little crazy as we get ready to move and have family in town in the next few weeks.

Hi everyone, sorry for the lack of posts this spring.  Jeremy and I have been very busy doing various things, we just got back from my sister’s wedding in Oklahoma…  congrats Angie!  We are scheduled to move into a house at the beginning of July and have been packing like crazy for the past few weeks.

I’ve also been busy cooking like always!  We got our first CSA share last week, and had some delicious stuff in it:  turnips, pea shoots, braising mix, lettuce, carrots, garlic scapes and strawberries.  I’d never had pea shoots before and didn’t even realize they were edible, but they are a pretty tasty green with a slight pea flavor to them.  We made sauteed turnips with pea shoots and bacon and it is surprisingly delicious.

Our garden is also in full swing, today I harvested about a pound of strawberries not including the ones Jacob ate. :)  We’ve also harvested arugula, mustard greens, mesclun mix, lettuce, spinach and turnip greens.  We are eating plenty of green vegetables this summer, and I’ve even gotten Jacob to try a bit of lettuce… as long as it has salad dressing on it.

Hope everyone is having a great spring and I’ll try to post some pictures of the garden soon.