Lufa Farms meal planning experiment
For a while, I've considered joining Lufa Farms, a rooftop garden program here in Montreal. You select weekly basket items from their farm and their partner farms, and it's delivered CSA-style to your designated "pick up point." Riding the wave of September good intentions, this week I finally decided to take the plunge. My first pick-up day will be on Tuesday, and I got to prep my basket today.
Unlike in other CSA, the Lufa basket is fully customizable so long as you have an order of at least $15. They give you a suggested basket, but you are welcome to exchange, remove, and add to your heart's content from their marketplace, which includes not only produce but also meats, breads, prepared meals, pantry staples, etc.
I admit, I was excited, but also nervous. I've never really done this before and I'm worried about food going bad before I eat it. I was also worried about the possibility that I'd fill my basket with food and still not solve the fundamental problem for me, which is that I go into the kitchen on a weeknight, don't want to cook, don't see anything immediately at hand that screams "dinner" to me, and default to a bowl of cereal or a TV dinner. If I bought $30 of produce and still had that same problem, I would consider the Lufa experiment to be a failure.
I logged onto my Lufa account and saw that ten items had been pre-loaded onto my basket. I sat down with Marc and we immediately got rid of a bunch of them: one of the two tomato items, eggplant, a Boston lettuce, etc. Then we added some fruit that looked tasty, and Marc went back to his office, satisfied in a job well done.
I was not satisfied.
To me, looking at this list, I saw a bunch of produce and still no viable meals. It was full of lots of snacks, but I worried that I'd come home on Tuesday with my arms full of vegetables and fruits and still not know what I was having for dinner. Also, there was a bunch of stuff sitting on the list that I had no idea how I was going to use. What was I supposed to do with a single orange bell pepper? Or three limes?
No, this would not do. Not only had I not solved my fundamental problem, but I'd introduced new problems into the mix.
So I went back with a new idea: everything on the list would need to have some function, or else I'd take it off. At the same time, I would figure out what I was having for dinner for the full week and make sure it used stuff on the list.
I realized I have a potluck dinner this Friday and didn't know what I was making for it yet. But I still had a bunch of semi-perishable ingredients (specifically, almond slivers and sesame seeds) from the Japanese cabbage salad I made for my last potluck that I've been meaning to use up for a while. So I decided to make the same cabbage salad again. Onto the list went a red cabbage. I looked for some green onions but didn't like what I saw; I'll have to pick those up at the grocery store.
Now, the thing about that cabbage salad is that it only uses half a cabbage. I'd doubled the recipe last time and it made 4 quarts (litres) of salad, which was way too much. And probably will be too much even for my potluck on Friday. So I hunted around for more red cabbage recipes and stumbled across this warm red cabbage salad recipe. Conveniently, we get a free apple as our "gift" in this week's Lufa basket, so that can be the apple that goes in the salad. I added some goat cheese to our order as well, but the nuts were expensive and I'll probably just go buy those. I figure I'll make that salad for Tuesday, right after I pick up the order, so that's Tuesday and Friday set.
As for the rest of it, I've got a lot of "snack" foods, both fruits and vegetables, and some stuff that will probably make a nice salad. I've also got 1-2 lbs of vegetables in the "not pretty, but quite tasty" selection I made. (At $3, it's a great deal.) I won't know what's in there until I get them, which means I'll have to figure out plans for them on the fly.
Anyway, after some brain-wracking and a tense-ish conversation with Marc in which I tried to express my reasonings and may have fallen short of the mark, here's what I've come up with. The basket I've selected is $37.05, plus I will need to buy a handful more things from the grocery store. But that should get us through the bulk of lunches and dinners for this week, so I consider it money well spent. (I hope.)
Meal Plan for the Week of Sept. 10-16
Dinners:
Saturday, Sept. 10:
Couscous made with leftover chicken stock, with leftover shredded chicken on top, served with leftover stewed veggies
Sunday, Sept. 11:
Out of the house for all meals (brunch with friends, BBQ with Marc's family for supper)
Monday, Sept. 12:
Shepherd's pie from Marc's aunt (which we'd both forgotten we had in the freezer), with leftover roasted veggies
Tuesday, Sept. 13:
Lufa Farms pickup day
Warm red cabbage salad with nuts and goat cheese (using up half the red cabbage, the free Paula red apple sample, and half the goat cheese)
Wednesday, Sept. 14:
Leftovers
Thursday, Sept. 15:
Julie out of the house for supper (Heavy Gear game), Marc leftovers
Friday, Sept. 16:
Japanese cabbage salad for potluck dinner (using half the red cabbage and a bunch of leftovers)
Lunches for Julie:
Salads of spring mix and surprise microgreens, with sesame seeds and/or cooked protein
Snacks:
- Yellow peaches
- Orange bell pepper
- Cherry tomatoes
- Toasted coconut slices
Stuff I don't know how to use yet:
- Surprise herb bunch
- "Not pretty, but quite tasty" vegetable selection
Things I will need to buy to make the above work:
- Walnut or pecan pieces (3/4 cup, for warm cabbage salad)
- Green onions (for Japanese cabbage salad)
- Ramen noodles (1 package, for Japanese cabbage salad)
- Protein for lunch salads
Prep to be done Saturday afternoon:
- Do groceries
- Toast nuts
- Chop green onions
Prep to be done Tuesday night:
- Shred cabbage
- Cut up bell pepper
- Cook warm cabbage salad
- Plan for and prep "not pretty, but quite tasty" vegetables
Prep to be done Friday afternoon:
- Prepare Japanese cabbage salad
So that's where things stand right now. Will I be successful? I don't know. We'll how to see how things work out. Whew!
Unlike in other CSA, the Lufa basket is fully customizable so long as you have an order of at least $15. They give you a suggested basket, but you are welcome to exchange, remove, and add to your heart's content from their marketplace, which includes not only produce but also meats, breads, prepared meals, pantry staples, etc.
I admit, I was excited, but also nervous. I've never really done this before and I'm worried about food going bad before I eat it. I was also worried about the possibility that I'd fill my basket with food and still not solve the fundamental problem for me, which is that I go into the kitchen on a weeknight, don't want to cook, don't see anything immediately at hand that screams "dinner" to me, and default to a bowl of cereal or a TV dinner. If I bought $30 of produce and still had that same problem, I would consider the Lufa experiment to be a failure.
I logged onto my Lufa account and saw that ten items had been pre-loaded onto my basket. I sat down with Marc and we immediately got rid of a bunch of them: one of the two tomato items, eggplant, a Boston lettuce, etc. Then we added some fruit that looked tasty, and Marc went back to his office, satisfied in a job well done.
I was not satisfied.
To me, looking at this list, I saw a bunch of produce and still no viable meals. It was full of lots of snacks, but I worried that I'd come home on Tuesday with my arms full of vegetables and fruits and still not know what I was having for dinner. Also, there was a bunch of stuff sitting on the list that I had no idea how I was going to use. What was I supposed to do with a single orange bell pepper? Or three limes?
No, this would not do. Not only had I not solved my fundamental problem, but I'd introduced new problems into the mix.
So I went back with a new idea: everything on the list would need to have some function, or else I'd take it off. At the same time, I would figure out what I was having for dinner for the full week and make sure it used stuff on the list.
I realized I have a potluck dinner this Friday and didn't know what I was making for it yet. But I still had a bunch of semi-perishable ingredients (specifically, almond slivers and sesame seeds) from the Japanese cabbage salad I made for my last potluck that I've been meaning to use up for a while. So I decided to make the same cabbage salad again. Onto the list went a red cabbage. I looked for some green onions but didn't like what I saw; I'll have to pick those up at the grocery store.
Now, the thing about that cabbage salad is that it only uses half a cabbage. I'd doubled the recipe last time and it made 4 quarts (litres) of salad, which was way too much. And probably will be too much even for my potluck on Friday. So I hunted around for more red cabbage recipes and stumbled across this warm red cabbage salad recipe. Conveniently, we get a free apple as our "gift" in this week's Lufa basket, so that can be the apple that goes in the salad. I added some goat cheese to our order as well, but the nuts were expensive and I'll probably just go buy those. I figure I'll make that salad for Tuesday, right after I pick up the order, so that's Tuesday and Friday set.
As for the rest of it, I've got a lot of "snack" foods, both fruits and vegetables, and some stuff that will probably make a nice salad. I've also got 1-2 lbs of vegetables in the "not pretty, but quite tasty" selection I made. (At $3, it's a great deal.) I won't know what's in there until I get them, which means I'll have to figure out plans for them on the fly.
Anyway, after some brain-wracking and a tense-ish conversation with Marc in which I tried to express my reasonings and may have fallen short of the mark, here's what I've come up with. The basket I've selected is $37.05, plus I will need to buy a handful more things from the grocery store. But that should get us through the bulk of lunches and dinners for this week, so I consider it money well spent. (I hope.)
Meal Plan for the Week of Sept. 10-16
Dinners:
Saturday, Sept. 10:
Couscous made with leftover chicken stock, with leftover shredded chicken on top, served with leftover stewed veggies
Sunday, Sept. 11:
Out of the house for all meals (brunch with friends, BBQ with Marc's family for supper)
Monday, Sept. 12:
Shepherd's pie from Marc's aunt (which we'd both forgotten we had in the freezer), with leftover roasted veggies
Tuesday, Sept. 13:
Lufa Farms pickup day
Warm red cabbage salad with nuts and goat cheese (using up half the red cabbage, the free Paula red apple sample, and half the goat cheese)
Wednesday, Sept. 14:
Leftovers
Thursday, Sept. 15:
Julie out of the house for supper (Heavy Gear game), Marc leftovers
Friday, Sept. 16:
Japanese cabbage salad for potluck dinner (using half the red cabbage and a bunch of leftovers)
Lunches for Julie:
Salads of spring mix and surprise microgreens, with sesame seeds and/or cooked protein
Snacks:
- Yellow peaches
- Orange bell pepper
- Cherry tomatoes
- Toasted coconut slices
Stuff I don't know how to use yet:
- Surprise herb bunch
- "Not pretty, but quite tasty" vegetable selection
Things I will need to buy to make the above work:
- Walnut or pecan pieces (3/4 cup, for warm cabbage salad)
- Green onions (for Japanese cabbage salad)
- Ramen noodles (1 package, for Japanese cabbage salad)
- Protein for lunch salads
Prep to be done Saturday afternoon:
- Do groceries
- Toast nuts
- Chop green onions
Prep to be done Tuesday night:
- Shred cabbage
- Cut up bell pepper
- Cook warm cabbage salad
- Plan for and prep "not pretty, but quite tasty" vegetables
Prep to be done Friday afternoon:
- Prepare Japanese cabbage salad
So that's where things stand right now. Will I be successful? I don't know. We'll how to see how things work out. Whew!