Benjamin Gardening: A Year Of Eating Locally - Weekly Meal Plan + Food Costs: Week of July 29, 2018

my farmer's market veggie haul this week

Well, I'm happy to report that my decision to cut out inflammation-causing nightshade plants seems to be working. As much as I LOVE peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, Mexican food, etc. I really really don't want to risk the sinusitis issues, so I continue excluding them from my diet. It's funny though. I tend to forget and I have to second guess everything. For instance, I put buffalo cauliflower on the menu last week. Ummm…..buffalo sauce has peppers, so no, I did not have buffalo cauliflower.

I usually add peppers to just about everything, so I have to watch that. I add crushed red pepper flakes to many sauces and soups, so I have to watch that. Tomatoes are included in many of my typical veggie dishes. Those have to be adjusted. It's interesting.

I made this chocolate zucchini cake recipe (our very favorite) last week and changed it to vegan. And it worked! I substituted the eggs for flax seeds + water, for the butter I used a combo of coconut oil and applesauce and for the sour cream I used a coconut yogurt.

If you’re just tuning in, this is our 1 year challenge in which I share our weekly meal plan as we try to eat primarily locally grown food. You will see that I often I make 2 different meals because I am primarily plant-based and my husband is not. Most of what we eat is made from scratch and any boxed, canned and/or frozen products follow the Real Food guidelines. Meal planning is my way of controlling the grocery budget (read as a LOT of dollars saved), ensuring there is no food waste for the week, as well as saving time. You can read more about meal planning here.

Read the entire series here.

I went blueberry picking again. I intended to pick 10 pounds and, well, before you know it I had picked 15 pounds. So, we have a lot of very sweet blueberries. This week I'm making a blueberry upside down cake with some of those delicious gems. I'll also be making freezer blueberry muffins, freezer blueberry pie, and freezer blueberry scones. And I'll freeze any that are left after we use them for snacks, oatmeal, etc.

blueberry upside down cake - it's delicious!!

This week I had some adjusting to the meal plan to do after shopping. This is the downfall of eating locally, but it's easy enough I suppose. I couldn't believe that not one veggie vendor had broccoli or cauliflower this week. Thankfully I had a bit of broccoli leftover from last week for Sunday's broccoli rice, but that was it. The broccoli in our garden is so very close to being ready but probably not for one to two more weeks. We've picked some of the shoots but the full heads are not quite there yet.

On to the meal plan!

Weekly Meal Plan:

Sunday

Breakfast - Blueberry Pancakes

Lunch - PB&J, Raw Veggies

Dinner - Grilled Shrimp, Broccoli Rice, and Grilled Zucchini

Monday