A Year Of Eating Locally - Meal Plan + Food Costs: Week of August 19,2018

What I love about eating locally right now is it seems everything is in season.  There's so many choices!  Watermelon showed up at our market for the first time two weeks ago and I was able to get one before they were sold out this week.  Actually, I bought two - one large and one small.  Partly because I was worried about not eating watermelon (which I've been craving) if the one I bought turned out either mushy or under ripe, and partly because I wanted a little extra to toss into the freezer.  Have you ever thrown frozen watermelon, some water and a touch of honey in a blender?  Oh my!  It's soooooo good and refreshing in summer.

So good.
Did I tell you it was good?
Ah yes....it's really good.

The "recipe" is:
2 cups frozen cubed watermelon (slightly thawed) + 1 cup water + a touch of honey (to your liking) // blend // serve immediately.  If you like mint, add a sprig of mint and even more refreshing!

Anyhoo, it's a good thing I did because one was very mushy.  The coop girls were THRILLED!!  The other one was good so I put a few cups in the freezer and saved the rest for us to snack on this week.

We are knee-deep (a slight exaggeration) in green beans and cucumbers right now.  I've been able to keep up with the broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, and other bits, but oh my are the beans and cukes taking over.  I pick them one afternoon and it seems like the very next morning there's more, ripe and ready for picking.  I didn't even see them the day before!

I decided to freeze some of the leftover meat last week (pulled pork, pot roast, chicken) and use this week so that I could make super easy meals.  I'm using canned beans for my meals.  I'll be spending my time processing veggies for the freezer.  I'm going to process peppers, green beans, and I bought a bag of corn (I believe around 50 ears of corn) from a local farm since I don't grow corn.  I did grow it a couple of times but it takes up a lot of space so I buy it instead.  I believe that will be enough corn for us for winter.  The peppers I will continue to process as they ripen.  The nice thing about them is there is no prep except rinsing and cutting.  And I will continue to process green beans every week until they slow down.

On to the menu!

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.

Weekly Meal Plan:

Sunday

Breakfast - Breakfast Burritos

Lunch - Raw Veggie Sticks, Crackers,  & Hummus

Dinner - Fajitas (bean & veg-me, leftover chicken & veg-J)

Monday

Breakfast - Peach Pie Oatmeal

Lunch - Salad

Dinner - Burrito Bowl-me, Pulled Pork Mac & Cheese, Green Beans-J

Tuesday

Breakfast - Peach Pie Oatmeal

Lunch - Salad

Dinner - Breakfast for dinner - Sweet Potato & Veg Hash-me, Leftover Pot Roast Hash & Eggs-J

Wednesday

Breakfast - Peach Pie Oatmeal

Lunch - Leftovers

Dinner - Flatbread Pizza (Pesto & Veg-me, Pesto & Chicken-J)

Thursday

Breakfast - Peach Pie Oatmeal

Lunch - Salad

Dinner - Veggie Spring Rolls, Zucchini Fritters, Grilled Pork Chop (J)

Friday

Breakfast - Peach Pie Oatmeal

Lunch - Leftovers

Dinner - Gnocchi with Pesto, Eggplant Parm, Meatballs (J)

Saturday

Breakfast - French Toast

Lunch - Pasta & Veggie Salad, Chicken Sandwich (J)

Dinner - Corn Fritters with Basil Cream, Grilled Veggies, Millet, Leftover Pot Roast (J)

Weekly Food Cost:

Farmer's Market - $98.00 (*includes meat & corn for the freezer)

• CSA Share (lettuce, arugula, cabbage, radish, carrots, zucchini, onions) - $18.00
• Watermelon (2) - $8.00
• Bag of corn (I believe 50 ears), Peaches, Raspberries, Eggplant, Potatoes - $30.00
• Grass-fed Beef, Ground Beef (6 pounds, mostly for putting up in freezer) - $25.00
• Pastured Pork, Pork Chops (3) - $12.00
• Milk & Half & Half - $5.00

Commissary - $30.23

• sweet potatoes, rice wrappers, rice noodles, millet, canned black beans, canned adzuki beans, canned chickpeas, tortilla shells, oatmeal, mozzarella, flax seeds, whole grain crackers, 

Hannaford - $8.48

• Whole Grain Organic Sandwich Bread - $5.99
• Cashew Milk - $2.49 (I used a $1.00 off coupon)

Grand Total - $136.71

Weekly Food Notes:

• You should never (ever) see eggs on our shopping list since we raise chickens for eggs.
• I had on hand:  pulled pork, pot roast, chicken (all from last week's meals), herbs (garden), veggies (beans, cukes, broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, kale, etc. - garden), pasta, raw walnuts, raw cashews, honey, date sugar, flour, rice, Trader Joe's boxed Mac & Cheese, oil, butter

A Year Of Eating Locally - Meal Plan + Food Costs: Week of August 19,2018was originally posted by My Favorite Chicken Blogs(benjamingardening)