In the Box — CSA Week 1 {Meal Planning}

Our first CSA box arrived last night, so exciting!  This CSA is new to us this year so we had no idea what to expect.  I love that it gets delivered to the front door though.  Our usual CSA went bi-weekly and now we’ve learned it may not actually happen.  Huge bummer.  I’d say by the size of this first week’s box I think we’ll have plenty even if the other one doesn’t pan out.

Spinach
Baby Bok Choi
Hakurei Turnips
Spicy Greens Mix
Red Leaf Lettuce

My meal planning has to whip back into shape now that we’ll be getting these weekly boxes.  I hate to waste food, but especially hate to waste food when I am more connected to the person planting, caring, and picking it for me.

The evening they arrive I go through them and store them properly, taking note of what we have for the week.  That night or the next day I sit down to tackle the plan with my cookbooks, laptop, and pad of paper.  Deciding what we will use, what can be frozen, what can be preserved and sketching out the meal plan for the week.

Here is the plan for using this produce in the box this week…

I have never had Hakurei turnips (never heard of them), but at the recommendation of the CSA newsletter I am going to give them a try raw in salad with the red leaf lettuce.  I am also going to saute as a side dish for later in the week.  The spicy green mix I will use it my favorite salad, I am sure we’ll have it both plain and atop a pizza.  The baby bok choi will be great in in a stir fry, preparing it similar to this recipe.  That leaves the spinach, which I just bought at the store DOH, so I am going to make and freeze a cheesy spinach dish from the From Asparagus to Zucchini cookbook.  This cookbook is by far my best resource for recipes each week.    It is like a quiche except it has a brown rice crust.

Off to the store to get a few ingredients and get cooking.  Thankful today is a day off work.