We joined a CSA!
OK most people are probably wondering, what is a CSA? Well, it’s Community Supported Agriculture. My husband and I purchased a share of a local farm in February and now we reap the benefits by receiving fresh veggies (and later on in the summer, fruits) every week. By paying in advance, we helped the farm with start up costs for the season. It helps us truly eat locally and support our local economy.
We decided to try out a CSA this year instead of planting our own garden. Our ultimate goal is to have a vegetable garden but this year just wasn’t the year for us to start. The CSA was such a good decision! We have gotten to try so many different vegetables that we would have never bought regularly and we are only 3 weeks in! I’m so excited to keep getting fresh vegetables (and eventually fruit) for the rest of the season.
CSA pick up seriously threw off our grocery and meal planning routine. Before, John and I would plan Saturday to Saturday with grocery shopping on Saturday morning! We typically plan two to three different lunches and two to three different dinners depending on serving sizes. To begin meal planning, we take into account the food we already have (I like to call the shopping our pantry, but really it’s shopping our pantry, refrigerator and freezers). Doing this helps us save money by reducing our food waste.
Now, we pick up our veggie share on Tuesday evening, so we plan Wednesday or Thursday to Wednesday. I grocery shop for our supplemental groceries on Wednesday morning, and then sometimes we go again on Saturday mornings. The Saturday trip is to pick up the things that typically last a week in our house. It’s been hard to transition that grocery run to Wednesday. Ideally, at some point in the summer I’d like to get back to shopping once a week! (A special surprise for me was we ALMOST made it to one grocery run this week, but we ran out of ice cream and Dijon mustard).
In our CSA bag this week we received:
- baby bok choy
- salad greens
- kale
- edible flowers
- cilantro
Our meal plan!
Lunches
Asian salads w/ ginger lime dressing (inspiration)
- -from the CSA: salad greens, cilantro, edible flowers, carrot tops (from last week)
- -from our stock pile: baby carrots, chick peas, cashews, sesame seeds, sesame oil, rice vinegar, honey, minced ginger
- From the store: lime, red pepper, chow mein noodles
The inspiration recipe obviously used cabbage as the main body of this salad and since we had salad greens from our CSA we used those instead. In addition, I added chick peas for some extra protein and edible flowers just because. I did not use green onions or sugar snap peas, though they would have been delicious! The ginger lime dressing alone made this salad exquisite.
Salmon bagel sandwiches w/ chips and Guacamole
- From the CSA: cilantro, Romain/butter lettuce from last week
- From our stock: cream cheese, everything bagels, red onion, corn chips
- From the store: salmon, tomatoes, avocados, lime
I have been craving these delicious sandwiches for weeks! We had a coupon for smoked salmon that was almost expired, so we had to use it! These sammies are super simple: toast the bagels, spread the cream cheese, top with smoked salmon and greens! You can add tomatoes or avocados or anything else you might think is tasty but I like to keep it simple!
The guacamole is pretty basic as well, mash your avocados (I used 3 for 6 servings) add chopped tomatoes, red onion, cilantro and juice of one lime. Season with salt, garlic powder, and pepper to taste.
Gouda apple and bacon grilled cheeses w/ potato chips
- From our stock: sliced Gouda, potato chips
- From the store: bacon, sourdough bread, apples (honey crisp)
These sandwiches were divine! We had a coupon for a “cheese tray” so we purchased the Gouda tray. We used a George Foreman-like griddle but you could easily make this on the stove top. First, pre cook your bacon in the oven at 400 degrees for roughly 10-14 minutes depending on your crispness preference. Butter the outsides of your bread, layer Gouda, thinly sliced apples, bacon and more cheese on top, close the sandwich place on griddle and cook until desired gilded color.
For Vivian, and myself on day two, I sautéed some leftover sliced apples with butter and cinnamon. The best dang apples I’ve ever eaten, she loved them too!
Dinners
Chicken fried rice w/ carrots and bok choy topped w/ spicy mayo and cilantro
- From the CSA: bok choy, cilantro, carrots from last week
- From our stock: rice, chicken, soy sauce, homemade spicy Mayo, ginger
- From the store: garlic, onion, soy sauce (to replace)
Fried rice is pretty easy. I like to cook it all in one big pan on pretty high heat. You’ll want to use pre cooked rice, old rice is better but you can cook rice right before making this dish and it will be fine. Dice your chicken raw and add to pan with a little bit of oil. Cook through. Then add chopped onions, carrots and bok choy. Once cooked add minced garlic and ginger. Then add cooked rice and let that fry a bit. Make a well in the center of the pan and add a bit of oil then two beaten eggs. Cook eggs in the well before adding to the rest of the rice. Finally, pour soy sauce over everything and mix well. Serve topped with spicy mayo, cilantro and more soy sauce if desired.
Lemon chicken kale pasta w/ a side of broccoli (inspiration)
- From the CSA: kale
- From our stock: chicken, butter, tortellinis, Parmesan
- From the store: onion, garlic, lemon, broccoli
I changed a lot from this inspiration recipe. I used tortellini instead of a basic pasta, chopped onion and garlic instead of powdered seasoning and I did not use shredded chicken; I used cooked and sliced chicken breasts. The one thing I should have done was cooked the onion and garlic before adding the kale. I wasn’t thinking as I made it so our onions a a little crunchy. The flavor of this recipe is all there, it’s so good and we will definitely make it again!
Yum
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