Dinner Plans: Week 14

It’s Week 14 of Dinner Plans and we've got a birthday to celebrate this week!

It's mine. 🥳 I'm taking the morning for a solo birthday hike this week and carving some time to think about the goals I want to set for the year ahead. I love celebrating birthdays and always see them now as a chance to take stock on where I am on the road to where I want to be. I'm also looking forward to seeing the cake the kids and my husband make. Savoring this season, indeed.

Seasonal Cooking Tip: Simple Stocks for Easy Meals

When it comes to seasonal cooking, this year I'm sharing a weekly tip here focused on preparing ingredients, preserving foods, and kitchen hacks that help you save time.

This week we're talking about simple stocks to prep for easy meals. I've got it on my to-do list to write out a how-to for making stocks using food scraps but for now sharing a quick run down of how I do this. Making our own chicken, vegetable, or beef stock is so simple and a great way to use food scraps to reduce food waste. Here's how I make mine:

• I have a freezer bag of food scraps that I keep. In it I've usually got celery ends, carrot peels or carrot ends, onion peels, and even the stems from fresh herbs like parsley, thyme, and rosemary.
• When the bag is full, I add the scraps to a stock pot and add in a few more aromatics like whole heads of garlic, more onion and carrot, and some fresh herbs. I like to add black peppercorns and, if I have it, chicken bones or beef bones.
• I cover the scraps with 8 to 10 cups of water and bring everything to a boil before simmering for 2 hours. Then, I strain the stock from the scraps and portion into freezer safe containers. I allow the stock to cool completely before labeling and freezing for up to 6 months.

I'll use our homemade stock to make rice, simmer beans, make soups and stews. It's such a versatile ingredient to have on hand for easy, breezy seasonal meals.

Dinner Plans for Week 14

We picked up our Riverdog Farm box this week and I am definitely feeling all the spring salads given the number of greens. I picked up a few springtime veggies at the Napa Farmers Market such as snap peas, asparagus, grapefruit, and cara cara oranges. I'll roast and grill some proteins for the week's dishes. This will help make meal prep even easier.

Here’s what we have in our CSA shares this week:

Riverdog Farm:

• Gold Oak Murcott Mandarins
• Green Garlic
• Spinach
• Red Russian Kale
• Little Gem
• Italian Parsley

Our Game Plan for Dinner this Week:

Sunday: Roast Leg of Lamb with Shaved Fennel & Citrus Salad (recipe idea here)

Monday: Crispy Grains Bowl with Dandelion Greens Pesto and Sautéed Kale, Radish, and Olives with Marcella or Lima Beans

Tuesday: Potato and Chorizo Tacos with Cabbage-Cilantro Slaw

Wednesday: Shaved Beet & Carrot Salad with Citrus Dressing

Thursday: Little Gems with Sautéed Asparagus, Sugar Snap Peas, Daikon Radish in a Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette served alongside Roast Chicken Thighs

Friday: Birthday Dinner! Ordering in from a fave Napa restaurant 🥳

Saturday: Pizza with Pesto, Roast Chicken, and Burrata

From favorite recipes to new things with a wide variety of ingredients, cooking delicious food with our CSA definitely gets us out of a dinner rut and reduce food waste. I share meal ideas for our busy weeks with our weekly newsletter. Finally, Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to be in the know when they’re live. 😉