menu for the next few days

I usually menu plan for the week on the weekend. Now that my CSA arrives Tuesday I have to switch that up... it's more challenging than it seems since we usually end up at the farmer's market on Saturdays. The next bunch of weekends we will be out of town so it might be easier.

Saturday night we had tacos- used some of the lettuce and onion we got this week and picked up an amazing heirloom tomato at the farmer's market

Sunday we're having steaks and veggies on the grill. In the grill basket will be: onion, summer squash, potatoes, and possibly some broccoli

Monday is old school- hot dogs, GG's coleslaw (best recipe), mac and cheese - yum!

Tuesday our new CSA will arrive but most likely we'll still be finishing off this one. Maybe chicken, salad, veggies depending on the contents of my fridge

Wednesday- we're going out with friends

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Tuesday is Erika's birthday and I wanted to make a pie to take to summer school lunch. I picked up some rhubarb at the farmer's market (I bought 4 pounds so I could freeze some before it isn't picked anymore).

I decided to try this recipe and make a strawberry rhubarb pie. Usually I'm against combining rhubarb since I love it plain but the stalks I bought were more green than red and needed some sweetening :)

I'll update on Tuesday when we eat it how it went. It smells delicious though!

Raspberries!

I love berries... blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries are definitely my favorite.

Because of our cold (crappy) summer so far- berries are pretty late. Strawberries have just finished (and I missed them because I was gone), raspberries and blueberries are just starting.

Saturday I went and picked some raspberries. Unfortunately, the farm I went to only does raspberries, loganberries, tayberries and boysenberries (no blueberries here) so I'll have to go to a different farm later this week.

I picked about 8 lbs of raspberries for my first round of berry picking.

I wanted to eat some, freeze some and make some jam. Last year I think I made too much of each type of jam so the 6 jars I made of raspberry were perfect. I used a different recipe this year and it came out well. Definitely more sour than last year's raspberry jam but that was a little too sweet. With peanut butter, it's the perfect sweetness. I used Pomona's Universal Pectin (instead of Ball brand) and the recipe with 1/2 c honey instead of sugar. Next time- more honey!

PS I hate the upload picture option in blogger! For the life of me, I can not get these in the order I want! Oh well, it's a game for you- put the pictures in order :)

Goal: No Waste!

One of my goals this summer is to have less wasted food. We do eat most of what we buy but my husband is often a little trash-happy and throws away food because it might be a few days old.

Today we had stirfry to use up some broccoli and cabbage and I could've probably added some more veggies but no worries.

I had strawberries that were about to go bad too (I ate over 3 lbs but that last pound...) so I made a strawberry pie. It looks good! I can't wait to try it out tomorrow.

Update: The strawberry pie is AMAZING. Yum. It's pretty sweet, I could probably cut the sugar a bit!

Between the compost and my goal of no waste hopefully i am helping out!

CSA Week 5

OK so this is my first FULL week of my CSA. Last week was tough because I didn't get home until late Thursday night so it was a rush to use all the veggie Fri-Mon

Week 5:

• 2 summer squash
• 1 head red leaf lettuce
• lots of snap peas
• 1 head green cabbage
• 1 small head of broccoli
• 4 onions

I'm struggling with what to do with the cabbage. Last week I sauteed some in butter, made coleslaw and STILL had some left. I'm going to flash freeze and keep some for soups in the fall.

I guess we'll be having some stirfry this week with the cabbage, peas, onions and squash!

what's cooking? CSA week 4

So this week was our 4th week of the CSA and the first week I was home for it! Over the past few weeks it's included: lettuce, onions, pinto beans, arugula (plant), calendula (plant), rhubarb, and some other stuff.

This week we received:

• 2 heads of leaf lettuce
• snap peas
• green cabbage
• beets
• onions
• cilantro (plants)
• strawberries

Since I was away I'm trying to catch up now and cook it all before next week's box arrives on Tuesday.

What's cooking you ask?

• Leaf Lettuce- I'm using for salads
• Snap Peas- I love to just snack on them
• Cabbage- I'm making one batch of my GG's coleslaw and another batch of it sauteed in butter and salt (recipe from the farmer)
• Beets- roasting with some carrots and oil, salt, and pepper
• Cilantro- planted the plant in our garden for now
• Strawberries- dave ate them before I got home or they would've went bad. He did buy me 4 lbs at Costco though
• Rhubarb (I froze it the first week)- I made a delicious variation of Martha Stewart's rhubarb crisp. I didn't have oatmeal (I realized in the middle of the recipe) so I used Bob's Red Mill Museli mix and it gives it a great flavor. I also changed it by using wheat flour and only half the rhubarb (1 lb instead of 2) because that's all I had. I LOVE rhubarb- it's so sour and sweet. I'm definitely in the camp of rhubarb without strawberries- it doesn't need them!

I'm looking forward to next week's Harvest Box (arrives on Tuesday) because this week I'll have the whole week to cook with it!