If you’re only here for the bacon, please skip down immediately to Friday. Otherwise read on for eggs, kale and lots of late summer deliciousness.
Monday
I covered Monday’s meals in two separate posts: hot cereal and pasta. My lunch salad was the cabbage and chickpeas I couldn’t fit into last Friday’s casserole.
Tuesday
On Sunday, we made a stop at Rockridge Orchards & Cidery on our way home from Mt. Rainier. Wade sells at some of Seattle’s farmers markets (sadly, not mine). Still, my family has been buying from Wade since the first West Seattle farmers market in 1999—my mom buys and freezes 25+ pounds of rhubarb from him every year!—so I am quite familiar with his products. But the farm store was new to me. Amazed by the 50+ taps, we forced ourselves to split a tasting. Even so, we carted home plenty of treats: house-made cider, beer, meat, eggs, chips and salsa. Whew!
With a new supply of eggs, I decided to try frambled eggs again, and served it with sautéed kale and nectarines. At the risk of losing all 9,952 readers* of this blog, let me say that kale and other braising greens are great with eggs. Especially good with fried eggs, greens are worth trying as a substitute for bacon. No, they doesn’t taste like bacon, but (obvious statement coming…) greens are healthier. They make a worthy pairing with eggs in their own right. Just so you feel you can still trust me, sometimes I do cook them (meaning the greens and the eggs) in bacon fat…
And what about dinner? Well, it’s Tuesday, so that obviously means pizza, right? Not delivery. Seriously you can make homemade pizza on a weeknight.
Wednesday
This is usually the day I start getting anxious about using up my CSA box. I tally up what I can use and what I need to freeze before the next box shows up on Thursday. Breakfast used my last nectarines and yogurt on oatmeal.
Due to a previous week’s mix-up, I got an extra large portion of Neah Bay King salmon from my CSF. This is such excellent-quality fish, I kept dinner simple.
I roasted it with olive oil, salt and pepper at 425 degrees in my toaster oven. I wanted a whole grain to serve with it. I forgot I had Einka & French Lentils left until I looked at the pantry list in my kitchenlister account. Following the suggestion on the package, I toasted the mix in olive oil and ground cumin. Then, I added water and a fresh tomato and left it to simmer.
While this easy, healthy meal was cooking, I had time to make another batch of tomatillo salsa. (This version was made with basil and mint.) I also grated the rest of the summer squash using my food processor.
I learned last winter how nice it is to have frozen zucchini for baking. Frozen squash also makes a quick dinner when combined with eggs as shown in my Zucchini Slice vs Frittata video:
Most importantly, I added notes about the salsa and squash to my pantry notebook. Otherwise, they might be permanently lost in the freezer.
Thursday
The morning started out right: pancakes on a weekday. One thing I love about kitchenlister is finding recipes I can use as a template for fast meals. I know any recipe I find will be something I can make. Even if I’m missing an ingredient, I can make substitutions and the recipe is still useful to me. Hence this recipe for griddle cakes. They are 100% whole grain and gluten-free pancakes. I keep many different flours around, but brown rice flour is not one of them so I used coconut flour instead. I find many recipes too sweet (and I was planning a sweet topping) so I skipped the maple syrup. I keep powdered buttermilk in my fridge for last-minute baking. Down to my last tablespoons of butter, I used my mom’s canned blueberry rhubarb sauce instead. This is the kind of flexible recipe that makes baking doable beyond the special occasion meal.
Pancakes are just about the most forgiving thing you can bake. Getting the consistency of the batter right doesn’t matter much. By using my smiley face pan to keep the batter contained, I’m almost guaranteed success. I topped the pancakes with Maple Baked Pears, a recipe I’ll be including in an upcoming meal plan. I love this recipe for its versatility—equally great for breakfast or dessert.
After picking up my CSA box, dinner was obvious with such a beautiful set of fruits and vegetables. I made an easy summer vegetable soup out of fresh cranberry beans. It was so delicious, I’ve decided to share the “recipe”—more of a formula really. It does depend on fresh beans, which are only available in late summer and early fall. So stop reading this and get to your local farmers market now!
Friday
Thank you for sticking with me all this way. Despite Tuesday’s atrocity of suggesting kale could replace bacon. Now that we’ve made it to Friday, I have some good news. Do you know what’s even better than kale and eggs for breakfast? Kale + eggs + BACON! And so for this morning, I give you baked eggs in (yes, leftover) cooked kale, Einka and lentils. Of course, served with some damn good bacon from Skagit River Ranch.
Like Monday, today’s dinner was pasta once again and is detailed in my post about healthy pasta. I will add one point here though. Note the bacon garnish resulted solely from our restraint in limiting consumption at breakfast. (Okay, I’ve lost all my readers again, haven’t I?)
Finally, to bring the week to a close: nice cream. I admit I am a novice when it comes to this vegan “ice cream”. I have made it once or twice but was re-inspired by this easy recipe using cocoa and peanut butter. Of course, seeing as I can’t seem to follow a recipe lately, I used an overripe pear and some yogurt instead of almond milk and peanut butter. (My yogurt is made from cow’s milk so this dessert is not technically “nice” cream anymore. But it came from Silver Springs Creamery so this local food is debatably just as nice for the planet as almond milk.**) My version was probably better suited to popsicles as it came out a little icy, but it still tasted yummy. In any case, it’s easy to feel good about eating nice cream. Even if you’re not vegan, it’s so much less work than making ice cream.
Oh Wait, I Forgot about Lunch Again
I’m sorry, but leftovers are just too easy. Pasta with fresh tomatoes, herbs and cheese, and maybe some extra chickpeas. A whole grain-lentil salad with salmon and sliced almonds. Fresh bean stew with crumbled bacon. And it’s August, so lots and lots of fresh fruit.
*In the interest of full disclosure, I do not have almost 10,000 blog readers. Or, at least, I don’t think I do.
**Note that I am misapplying the term “nice” here. In regards to ice cream, nice cream specifically refers to being nice to cows, not the planet. Also, the available information regarding cow’s milk versus almond milk is controversial, biased, and—to my mind—inconclusive, in terms of both health and sustainability. I consume both, and neither of them very often. When I do use almond milk, I make it myself and don’t strain it.
INSPIRED BY ALL THIS PANTRY AND FREEZER ORGANIZATION I’VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT? START A FREE ACCOUNT TO GIVE KITCHENLISTER A TRY.
If you have any questions or want more details about these meals, leave me a comment.
Read more about my “Week in Review” posts.