Food Prep Friday – May 24, 2013 Edition

I am fortunate to have a job with a schedule that’s usually very flexible. I prefer to get my 40 hours in by Thursday to give myself 3-day weekends most weeks. Since my Friday workouts are usually short (1 – 2 hours), I like to take advantage of the extra free time to plan my meals and prepare my food for the week. I find this helps me eat healthier, save time, and reduce my food spending.

Throughout the week, I maintain a shopping list that I add to as things run out in my kitchen or I find new recipes to try. Sometimes I get impulsive and add items I don’t need and later cross them off. I save my grocery trip until Friday, when I receive my weekly produce delivery from Farm Fresh to You. I edit my shopping list based on the items in my box.

This week, I received:

3 fuji apples
2 Hass avocados
4 apricots
1 clamshell of blueberries
2 bell peppers
2 HUGE eggplants
1 bunch of broccoli
1 bunch of carrots

Here’s my final shopping list for the week (I know I’m a huge nerd for using engineering paper).

After I completed my grocery shopping extravaganza, I came home and prepared…

1.5 cups of Basil pesto.  This is great to mix in with quinoa or spread on tomato slices.

5 cups of steel-cut oats and a boat-load of quinoa.

5 roasted sweet potatoes for snacking.  My first-ever batch of homemade almond milk.  It’s so easy, I don’t know why I waited so long to try it.  Oh She Glows does a great job of breaking down the process step-by-step.  The almond pulp by-product looks like it would make a nice addition to smoothies and oatmeal.

Most importantly, I prepared fuel for my long ride tomorrow!

Usually, I would also cook a couple types of beans, but I decided against it today because I still have some chickpeas and black beans from last week.

Advertisement

What’s In The Bag? – July 28, 2009

A few years ago, a friend told us about Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Basically, a CSA is a farm or cooperative of farms that will deliver a share of their produce every week to their members. It’s like having the farmer’s market delivered to you! We agreed that we should do some research and join a CSA.

After spending some time at Local Harvest’s website, we determined that we decided to try Eating with the Seasons. We chose Eating with the Seasons for several reasons. They have a delivery location close to my work, all of their produce is organically grown, and unlike many other CSAs, they let you pick the items in your share every week. Another great feature of Eating with the seasons is they sell locally produced specialty foods.

I thought it would be a great idea to feature the produce I receive every week from the CSA. I will call the features “What’s in the Bag?”. I really like to encourage others to consider joining a CSA and I think showing off the produce is a great way to do that.

What’s in the Bag?:

Nectarines

Avocados

Summer squash medley

Strawberries

Lemons

Onions

Carrots

Balsamic vinegar: This is seriously the best balsamic I ever tasted. It comes from Oils of Paicines and has been sold out for months. This was the first week they had it back in stock so I ordered two bottles.