Menu Planning from our CSA basket

We subscribe to a CSA, which stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Basically, we have a teeny-tiny share in a local farm, and our return for our investment is a big basket of food every two weeks. I never know what we're going to get, so it's like Christmas every time, picking up the basket and driving home with the sweet-spicy smell of basil wafting from the passenger seat, where the basket is riding. And when I get home, I have to unpack it all and come up with something to do with all that produce.

It's actually a lot of fun, and I love just having the produce around, because even aside from the planned dinners, I'm always finding uses for it in our lunches and snacks - throwing a bit of celery into a soup, or some tomatoes into pasta, or chopping up apples for snacks.

I didn't get a picture of our basket this week, but here's what we had in it:

Herbs:

-dill

-cilantro

-basil

Vegetables:

-celery

-red-leaf lettuce

-romaine lettuce

-bok choy

-zucchini

-carrots

-tomatoes

-onions

-potatoes

-butternut squash

Fruits:

-pears

-limes & lemons

-oranges

-grapefruit

-apples

And, of course, flowers.

And here's what we're making from it:

-salad from the lettuce and basil (and a few other veg)

-snacks from the fruit

Sunday: Chicken Salad with Dill, & crackers (using dill, onion & celery)

Monday: Cilantro Chicken & brown rice (using cilantro, onion & tomato)

Tuesday: Spicy Dill Rice (the combination of dill, cardamom and jalapeno sounds fascinating)

Wednesday: Veggie Stir-fry with Terriyaki Chicken (using bok choy, carrots, zucchini, celery and onion)

Thursday: Carmelized Root Vegetable and Meatball Soup (using butternut squash, potatoes, carrots and onion)

Friday: out

Saturday: Ham & Potato Soup (using celery, onion and potato)

For more menus, check out Menu Plan Monday.

peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell