Meg's Meal Planning

CSA

Summer CSA Week 3

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Basil


Bell Peppers

Blueberries

  • Blueberry muffins-Made with oats, flaxseed, and whole wheat flour!  You’ll love this in the morning or a snack during the day! 

Dill 

  • Lemon dill sauce to put on top of salmon burgers 

Green Beans

  • Side dish with salmon burger and rice 


Lettuce

  • Salads for lunch

Pickled Cucumbers

  • Bread and butter pickles. I love making these in the summer! They are the perfect side dish to burgers, hotdogs, chicken, ribs, anything! 


Summer Squash

  • Sliced, seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper and grilled 10-15 minutes


Zucchini

  • Same as summer squash

Week of July 12th

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I’m back! The past two weeks were much needed! I caught up with old friends, celebrated my one year wedding anniversary in Portland, ME, (click here to read about Portland), and went on a family vacation!  Over the past two weeks I finished my CSA, made LOTS of PESTO, tried some new recipes, and ate way too much seafood! (Not always a bad thing!).  

  
I made two variations of pesto.  The first one was with just basil and the second one was with basil and sorrel, both from the CSA.  

Basil Pesto

  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups fresh basil
  • 1/4 cup unsalted almonds
  • 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
  • 2-3 cloves of garlic 
  • 1/3 cup olive oil

Directions

  1. Add all ingredients, except olive oil, to a food processor and blend well.
  2. Slowly drizzle olive oil and continue to blend.
  3. Add salt and pepper to taste.
 

***For the 2nd batch I followed the same recipe, but added fresh sorrel with the basil.  I froze more than half of the pesto and stored the rest in a tightly sealed mason jar. 

Monday– Panini- homemade basil pesto (see above), tomato, fresh sliced mozzarella. Another easy dinner!  Spread the pesto on the panini, layer with tomato and sliced mozzarella. Toasted on panini maker! 

Tuesday– Grilled salmon and grilled snap peas. Finished off the last snap peas from the CSA.  I love this grilled snap pea recipe, I’ve used it almost every time. It’s simple and tasty! I didn’t use a wood plank for the salmon because last time, we didn’t like how it came out. Any tips?? Instead, the salmon was seasoned with salt and pepper and placed directly on the grill for 10 minutes. 

Wednesday– Pasta with cherry tomatoes and fresh basil.  Another easy dinner for a summer night.

Thursday– Left over pulled pork, baked beans, and kohlrabi coleslaw. The pulled pork was from my parents and the kohlrabi was from the CSA.  I had never heard of kohlrabi before; it tastes like a cabbage, but has a little more crunch!

Friday– Pesto chicken. Finished off the rest of the basil. This was a great recipe, something I can’t wait to eat again once I start getting tomatoes from my garden! 

  

Week of June 21st

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This was my third week doing a CSA. This week I recieved arugula, romaine lettuce, sugar snap peas, bok choy, and cherries.  Click here to see everything I made with these items. 

Monday– Soup with asian noodles, steak, mushrooms, and bok choy. My second time cooking with bok choy, and this recipe did not disappoint. I don’t normally make soup in the summer, but I made an exception for this. The flavors blended great together! And there was enough left over to enjoy another night! See wha else I made with bok choy. Click here! 

Tuesday– Turkey burgers stuffed with gorgonzola cheese, topped off with mushrooms. The cheese made every bite good! We had left over mushrooms in the fridge from Monday night’s dinner, so I sautéed them on the stove and added them to the burger.

Wednesday– Ground turkey tacos with black bean and corn salsa. I used the leftover ears from last week’s friends BBQ. I cut them off the cob, added black beans, avocado, fresh cilantro, and tomatoes. Seasoned with olive oil, lime juice, and salt. I made the salad up in advance on Sunday but didn’t add the avocado until I was ready to serve it.

Black Bean and corn salsa

  • 3/4 can black beans, rinsed and drained
  • Two ears cooked corn, corn cut off cobb
  • 1-2 large tomatoes, seeded and diced
  • 2-3 pieces green onion
  • Fresh cilantro, chopped
  • 1 avocado, diced
  • Lime juice to taste
  • Olive oil to taste
  • Salt

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl, stir until blended, serve immediately. (If making in advance, don’t add the avocado until ready to be served).  

Thursday– Left over bok choy soup! Sorry no new idea tonight! Sometimes ya just gotta go with the leftovers!

Friday– Blueberry chicken with side of grilled snap peas. Another one of those Say What Meals?!?!?! I had to convince my husband to give it a shot. The broken down blueberries makes for a nice summery dinner dish! 

  

The next two weeks will be very busy! I’m celebrating my one-year wedding anniversary, welcoming my sister home from Australia, and going on vacation! So I’m taking the next two weeks off from blogging about my meal plans. But be sure to follow me on Instagram at megsmealplanning to view pictures of my food adventures for the next two weeks! See you all again on July 12th! 

Pesto Pizza

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This was an easy week night recipe, especially since I already had the pesto made up. If you don’t, no worries, it’s still simple to make. I used the pesto I made from sorrel. Click here for the pesto recipe. And I used store bought dough.

I LOVE fresh basil!!

 

Spray pizza stone and roll out dough, use flour if needed

 

Spread pesto on top


Ingredients

  • 1 package of store bought dough
  • Fresh pesto, click here for pesto recipe 
  • Mozzarella cheese, shredded
  • 1-2 tomatoes, slicked
  • 5-6 basil leaves, sliced

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Spray a cookie sheet or pizza stone and roll your dough out. Use flour if sticking to rolling pin

3. Spread pesto over dough

4. Add shredded cheese

5. Add slicedtomato

6. Bake for 12-15 minutes

7. Add basil slices

Week of June 14th

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Week two with my CSA farm box. This week I received sage, asparagus, lettuce, snap peas, spinach, bok choy, and arugula (But I gave the arugula to my mom).  I again tried to plan my meals around what I got in the CSA.  The bok choy, asparagus, snap peas, lettuce, and spinach were pretty easy to use, but MORE sage!! Both weeks I got a large bunch of sage, so I froze a lot of it this time around. Click here to see everything I made with the items form week two. 

Monday– Pulled pork sandwiches with baked beans and lettuce.  I have to admit I didn’t make the pulled pork or the baked beans.  I stopped by my parents house after picking up the farm box and my parents insisted I take some of their leftovers home…ok fine twist my arm!  But I did add the fresh lettuce for a healthy side, topped it off with carrots and red peppers.

Tuesday– Chicken breast stuffed with sage, dried cranberries, and gorgonzola  with a side of grilled snap peas. This recipe is unbelieveable! It tasted like something I would order in a restaurant!  The original recipe calls for dried apricots and goat cheese, neither which I have, so I substituted for what I had in stock.

Wednesday– Steak and bok choy stir fry. I have never cooked with bok choy before, but it was pretty easy and this recipe was a one pot meal!

Thursday– Homemade pizza with pesto, fresh mozzarella, and tomato. I used the sorrel pesto I made last week.  I followed this recipe, but used shredded mozzarella instead. Click here for the pesto recipe. 

Friday– Dinner party!  We had a few friends over for a Friday night bbq. Since I enjoyed many of the recipes I made last week, I made them again tonight.  This way I was familiar with recipes instead of trying something new for the first time.  The menu for dinner tonight was BBQ chicken with sage/cheddar biscuits, summer pasta salad, and corn on the cobb.  For dessert I made lemon shandy bars that were oh so ooey and gooey!

  

CSA Week 1

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In my first week of participating in a CSA farm box, I received kale, sage, asparagus, broccoli rabe, sorrel, and radishes. Here is a list of everything I made with the ingredients from week one.

Kale

Sage

Asparagus

Broccoli rabe

Sorrel

  • Pesto – I decided to make a pesto sauce with the fresh sorrel to have for future dinners. I used sorrel, parsley, garlic, salt and pepper, and olive oil. Blended it in my food processor until smooth and stored in a jar.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups chopped fresh sorrel, ribs removed
  • 1/3 cup fresh parsley leaves
  • 2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
  • 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1/4 cup almonds or pine nuts
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  1. Add sorrel, parsley, garlic, Parmesan cheese, nuts, and olive oil to a food processor and puree well.
  2. Transfer the pesto to a jar with a tight fitting lid. Store in refrigerator.

Radish

Week of June 7th

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This was the first week using my CSA farm box from Beckett Farms, LLC in Glastonbury, CT.   I’m so excited to be participating in a local CSA. I’ll admit, I was a little overwhelmed picking up my box on Monday and not knowing what to expect.  I usually do my meal planning/shopping on Sundays, so having to wait until Monday to plan and Tuesday to shop threw me off a little. However, it was well worth the wait! I planned all my meals based on what was in box.

Week one contained – sage, sorrel, kale, radish, broccoli rabe, and asparagus. I have never heard of sorrel before and had to do some research on what to make. Click here to see everything I made using ingredients from week one of the farm box. Overall, I’m VERY satisfied and can’t wait to see what surprises I’ll get from week two!

Monday – Pappardelle pasta with a brown butter and sage sauce. I knew I was going to get sage before I picked up the box, so I planned for this easy meal for Monday. The brown butter sauce is as simple as they come. And I love the wide noodle of pappardella!

Tuesday – Chicken sausage and kale served over quinoa.  This is a one pot meal!  YAY!  (If you couldn’t tell by now, I LOVE one pot meals) You cook the chicken sausage and kale together, then add quinoa and chicken broth. It reminded me a little of cooking risotto, adding quinoa to the broth and letting it simmer. It tasted delicious!

Wednesday – Pork burgers with apple and sage with a side of prosciutto wrapped asparagus. I have never made pork burgers before, but these were unbelievable! Sage is quickly becoming one of my new favorite herbs! It adds an earthy fragrance that pairs very well with the pork and apple.

Thursday – Broccoli rabe, red pepper, prosciuitto stromboli. I roasted the peppers first, then cooked the broccoli rabe before assembling the stromboli and cooking it for one hour. The prep work was a bit longer than I anticipated, but well worth the wait. No sauce needed for this tasty stromboli.

Friday -BBQ chicken with radish and cucumber salad, sage/cheddar biscuits and buttermilk mac and cheese. This dinner screams summer! My husband and I really enjoy cooking together and this meal was as fun as they come!  It was the perfect end to a long work week!

Summer pasta salad with asparagus, roasted peppers, and fresh mozzarella

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I made this pasta salad for a work cook out, but it’d also be perfect for a Father’s Day BBQ. I was able to use some of the fresh asparagus from my CSA farm box! This recipe was inspired by apples and sparkle . 

Asparagus ends snapped off and cut into 1 inch pieces

 

 

Roasted red peppers, stemed 10 minutes in bowl

 
 

Pasta cooling

 
Ingredients

  • 2 red peppers
  • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1/4 teaspon red pepper flakes
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 bundle of asparagus, tough ends snapped off, cut diagonally into 1 inch pieces
  • 1 lb penne pasta (I used veggie penne)
  •  8 oz fresh mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

Steps

  1. Roast the red peppers – Turn oven to broil and let it heat up for 5 minutes. Wash the peppers, cut the top and ends off, then slice open and remove the seeds and stems. Lay down flat, skin side up on a foil lined cookie sheet. Broil 7-9 minutes, turning pan halfway through cooking time.Peppers are done once they start to turn black and blister. Remove from oven and place into bowl. Cover tighly with plastic wrap and let peppers steam for around 10 minutes. Scrape away skin and cut peppers into 1/2 inch pieces. Set aside
  2. In a large bowl combine the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, basil, garlic, red pepper flakes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix together and remove 3 tablespoons of the vinaigrette and place into a medium sized bowl.
  3. In large dutch oven, bring 4 quarts of water to a boil, add 1 tablespoon of salt and the asparagus. Cook until just barley tender (about 3 mintues). Use slotted spoon to remove asparagus pieces, place in colander, and rinse under cold water until cool.
  4. Add pasta to boiling water and cook until done. Drain pasta and add the hot pasta to the large bowl and toss to coat in the dressing.
  5. Add the roasted red peppers and mozzarella to the bowl with the asparagus and mix in the vinaigrette.
  6. Once the pasta has cooled, add the asparagus mix to the bowl of pasta.
  7. Enjoy!