I used to be so good at meal planning, but lately it seems like I’m so disorganized. I hate to blame it on the CSA, but when I really look at the timeline of when our (my) shopping habits went downhill, it kinda lines up.
It makes sense, though, because I get a massive haul of veggies on Monday afternoons so I can’t do much in the way of meal planning on the weekend like I used to…and by Tuesday I’m knee deep in the week and so if and when I finally do get a grocery list together, it’s Wednesday and then I’m just trying to get by until the weekend. Add to that, the fact that Kyle’s been gone a bunch (he’s gone this whole week), and you get a perfect storm that ends up in zero planning.
So basically this is me giving myself a pep talk to get back to meal planning.
I don’t even want to reveal how long these been in the pantry. It was time.
Any time I get to use the pasta faucet I feel fancy.
I cooked two (8 oz) boxes of pasta, which went far faster than I thought it would…so fast, in fact, that I lost track of time which resulted in mushy overcooked noodles. Oops. The pagodas broke down into who knows what shapes. I was definitely feeling like a failure, but texture aside, it ended up alright. Note to self: Ancient Harvest corn and quinoa past cooks way faster than traditional pasta!
I chopped up a bunch of rainbow chard to fold into the hot pasta, which wilted it a bit.
I also tossed it in a lemon vinaigrette, which was 1/4cup olive oil, 2 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp mustard, 1 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp salt and pepper to taste.
Topped with sunflower seeds and then feta to serve.
Gorg!
On the side I made a simple salad with balsamic vinaigrette, dried cranberries and roasted pecans.
The kids and Kyle were super into this, but I was too fixated on the overcooked pasta. Luckily it made enough for lots of leftovers so the kids had a couple days of lunches done before I even started the week. That is a victory worth celebrating for sure.
By day three, I had to reinvent it a bit, so I added white beans and nooch. They were all for it. Sometimes simple is a ok.
The Swiss chard looks beautiful! It’s a struggle to put veggies in our pasta. Shaun dislikes wilted greens and I want so much to have our pastas with kale, spinach or Swiss chard. I’m just gonna do it one of these days. Lol.
You seem to have a limitless pantry! I think even with the CSA you can do some vague meal planning, like “mexican salad” or pizzas or asian grain bowls or whatever- that way you could just let the veggies be the variable and make sure you have whatever other ingredients on hand.
GF pasta is whacky, although have to say there’s a yellow lentil spaghetti from TJs that’s great and cooks evenly.