It’s Week 42 of Dinner Plans and we're craving cozy comforts this week!
The leaves on the trees in the Village are beginning to change colors reflective of the season. 🧡 Signals of autumn are all around even if the temperatures here still feel warm.
We picked up this week's CSA box and it's rich with a few more heirloom tomatoes, loads of paddy pan squash and Anaheim peppers, and all the greens for salads. I also picked up some oyster and trumpet mushrooms from Oak Grove Farms. I've got plans to try my hand at making vegan scallops this week. Stay tuned for that recipe!
Seasonal Cooking Tip: Dice and Freeze Your Vegetables
This is a year-round practice for us but as the holidays quickly approach, I'm taking steps to prep more proactively. Enter: the dice and freeze. I've done this with butternut squash, beets, and carrots. I love this practice as a way to keep vegetables fresher for longer if I know I'm not going to use them right away. This will also work beautifully knowing that the Thanksgiving holiday is a little more than a month away. Here's what I do to prep the vegetables for freezing:
- Step 1: Wash and peel, if needed, the vegetables. Butternut squash and beets are relatively easy to peel and make it easier to dice them up.
- Step 2: Dice your vegetable into ½ chunks. The uniformity in cutting or chopping your vegetables will help them cook evenly when steaming, boiling, or roasting in the oven.
- Step 3: Store your diced vegetables in an airtight container or reusable bag. I love this Stasher Bag as it stands upright in the refrigerator and holds a good amount of the vegetables I put together from a given CSA box pickup. This will keep well in the freezer for up to six months making this a good quarterly practice if I know I'll have a plan for them.
What do we use the frozen veggies in? Roast them from frozen for an easy sheet pan dinner. They can also be used in smoothies to add in more veggies. Once you've got your diced frozen veggies prepped for the week you can whip up meals with ease.
See Part I and Part II of my Pantry Essentials Series for more tips and recommendations for keeping a well stocked pantry ahead of the holiday season.
DINNER PLANS FOR THE WEEK
From stuffed squash with peppers to seasonal enchiladas verdes using the paddy pans in our box to a cozy one pan chicken with mushrooms, cozy comforts is the theme of the week. There are a few freezer items on hand which will help to keep things relatively simple for meals.
Here is our game plan for dinner this week:
Sunday: One-Pan Chicken with Mushrooms in an Herb Garlic Sauce (recipe idea from NYT Cooking here)
Monday: Risotto with Vegan Scallops using the King Trumpets (Recipe Test)
Tuesday: Vegetable Enchiladas Verdes with Squash, Peppers, and Black Beans (recipe idea from Eating Well here)
Wednesday: Sheet Pan Kielbasa with Paddy Pan Squash and Peppers (recipe inspiration from Weelicious here)
Thursday: Stuffed Delicata Squash (recipe idea from Skinny Taste here)
Friday: Radish and Butter Tartines with a Simple Salad (recipe idea from Food52 here)
Saturday: Pizza with Four Mushrooms (Oyster, Lion's Mane, Trumpet, and Portobellos)
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. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to be in the know when they’re live. 😉
Wishing you a nourishing week ahead. 🧡
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