in-between and a meal plan

If you are at all attached to a planner (or planner system), you know that Sundays denote either a beginning or an end. I’ve always been in the Monday-start camp, but Sundays have always felt like more of a transition day than an end. It is when I decide what to abandon from last week and what to move into next. It is a prep day. It is a rest day. It is most definitely an in-between day.

Food habits fall into this camp as well and realizing that perhaps my love of my latest CSA has to do with it’s schedule (Monday pickup). The veggies are of course scrumptious, but I guess I have always struggled with weekend pickups and the introduction of new at that point. I spend my weekend assessing inventory, clearing the fridge of the last week’s bits, and laying some groundwork for the next.

I’ve been cooking by feel (and the seat of my pants as they say) since the beginning of the pandemic and as all else in life falls into a more settled pace, I feel I have room for a meal planning practice. So, I spent a lot of time in cookbooks this weekend in hopes of finding some new and inspiration.

You’ll notice that I haven’t come up with many complete meals. Mostly ideas tied to ingredients and maybe some cravings and hopefully I can piece together some meals from it all.

LEFTOVERS

• Split pea soup
• Refried black beans
• Blistered green beans with crispy chickpeas and curried sauce
• Homemade pasta (with basil and whole wheat)
• Sesame-tahini sauce for noodles and salads

TO MAKE

• Red beans and rice
• Red bean, quinoa and walnut veggie burgers (for freezer)
• Zucchini bread
• Roasted butternut squash purée (for the freezer)
• Granola or granola bars
• Quinoa & cauliflower bites
• Sweet potato and black bean quesadillas or sopes
• Sweet potato and potato cakes or hash browns
• Ice cream (vanilla and honey)
• Something with sourdough discard… probably waffles
• Another legume… probably a white bean.
• A bread… not sure which yet.

CSA VEGGIES LEFT

• Cucumbers
• Sunflower sprouts
• Potatoes
• Onions
• And will likely have sweet potatoes left