I like to meal plan. Oh, there are challenges in a bi-diet house (I’m ovo-lacto vegetarian; he’s an equal opportunity eater), but over the years, we’ve learned to make it work.
Here’s my usual practice:
1. Sunday morning: sip coffee, peruse recipes, consider what is seasonal.
2. Make meal list for week. Strive for meals that will use up similar ingredients
3. Grocery shop
4. Prep food
Things around here are changing, though. I joined a CSA. I pick up my allotment each Tuesday. It’s always a mystery what will be in the mix until I’m at the farm.
I could just save meal planning until Tuesday, but I like to get grocery shopping out of the way. So here’s what I’ve been doing:
1. Make sure I have staples that will work well with most veggies. To me that means tortilla, quinoa, eggs, corn meal (oh, creamy polenta, how I love you).
2. Assess mid-week. I spend time prepping the CSA share on Tuesday. So far that has entailed lots of washing greens. Once I see all the clean produce in front of me, I decide what I’ll use for salads, what I might roast and sautee, and I think up meals for the next few days.
3. Visit the farmers markets. We have one near us nearly every day, and while I don’t want to spend my time going to markets each and every day, they do allow me to supplement what I have with fresh, local goodness.
4. Read Cheryl’s CSA diary. She’s doing a fantastic job tracking how she uses her CSA, and I’m getting loads of new ideas from her.
There you have it. Joining the CSA has thrown me off my routine (not a bad thing!), but it’s giving me a great reason to experiment with new, often improvised meals.
And when all else fails, there are always smoothies to be made!
What wonderful ways does your meal planning change this time of year?
My meal planning changes with the start of our CSA pick up, too. I mostly make sure we have meat or fish to grill with whatever veggies I’m going to get and I don’t buy any produce at the grocery store. I can’t believe how much money that saves me, too.
Thanks, Beverly! I’m glad my diary is useful to you. I almost wish we had gotten an every week share, instead of every-other, but soon we’ll have our own veggies from the garden and it will be challenging to use everything.
Do you belong to Costco? If you do, you can buy a 4 pound bag of organic quinoa for cheap. I’ve also seen big bags of organic chia seeds, but they don’t always seem to have those.
Love my CSA but I pick up on Wednesday and Saturday is my grocery store day (work, family and my Whole Foods location makes it difficult for mid-week excursions). So meal planning is like a game of chance during CSA season!