Meal Plan: June 28-July 4

Every week we make a meal plan for the week ahead. The plan accounts for 5 breakfasts, 4 lunches (plus fruit or vegetables), 4 snacks, and 5 dinners each for the two of us. Lunches are typically a double batch of whatever the recipe calls for. We make the lunches and do other prep work on Sunday. Nearly all items are purchased from either our local farmers market or Whole Foods. We live in Cincinnati, OH.

Scene from a great weekend

June 28-July 4

This weekend involved grown up things like getting belts replaced on our car (that noise, UGH) and lots of cleaning. We made up for it with 3 mile walk and afternoon hangout on our deck in perfect weather, complete with a pitcher of a  muddled peach/peach syrup/thyme/tonic water situation that was so delicious and a perfect reminder that beverages don’t always need booze to feel special.

When Shutterbean was recently posting all sorts of porky deliciousness on Instagram, I kept waiting for a recipe to appear on her blog. It finally did, and served as a jumping off point for this week’s meals! We don’t normally eat this much meat in a week, but price/labor per meal, this is a total winner. Plus, your house will smell incredible while the meat is cooking. I’m excited to toss the pork with different flavors and broil it to bring different flavors to the different dishes we’re making.

If this goes well, I think the chicken that is currently taking up way too much room in our small freezer will be getting the same treatment soon.

Maybe next week we’ll go vegetarian to make up for it (maybe).

Base recipe

• Slow cooker pulled pork

Breakfast

• Oatmeal with peaches and peach sauce

Lunch

• Awesome beet and green bean salad

Snack

• Carrots and cucumbers with cilantro hummus

Dinner

• Pork taco soup- leftover pork broth seasoned with salt, taco seasoning, and a squeeze of lime; some shredded pork; black beans; corn; fried tortilla strips on top
• Pork spring rolls- rice paper, rice vermicelli, pork, avocado, cucumber, carrots, bell pepper, basil, mint, and a dipping sauce of some sort
• Pork bowls- cilantro rice, grilled peppers and onions, tomatoes, pork

A Half Bushel of Peaches

Note: My dear friend and former roommate Lauren is talking today about one of her new favorite products, and I think I might have to go buy some myself! Check it out here

Last Saturday, we bought a half of a bushel of peaches from The Peach Truck, AKA the best peaches you can possibly buy if you don’t live in Georgia.

In case you were wondering, that is a LOT of peaches.

While we were planning on eating a lot of peaches straight up, I knew that there was no way we could eat them fast enough to keep them from going bad, so this week has been spent finding various ways to cook/preserve them.

1) Bourbon peach hand pies– I used a 4 inch cutter, and we ate 3 of these beauties before putting the rest (unbaked) into the freezer for many rainy days in the future. Huge sense of victory from successfully tackling pie crust!

2) Peach butter– I added some vanilla bean infused bourbon to this batch, and did the full water bath canning process (for the first time!)

3) Peach sauce– So yeah… that’s a link to the same recipe as the butter. I wanted to see if I could make the recipe in a slow cooker (without the bourbon), and after cooking all day, it wasn’t nearly at a butter consistency, but had thickened enough that I was afraid it would burn if left cooking overnight, so I went ahead and canned it all as a really delicious peach sauce. I’m sure we’ll have no trouble coming up with ways to use it

4) Peach simple syrup– I used the microwave method because I really wanted that vibrant fresh peach color and flavor. This went into the refrigerator and will be added to cocktails, sparkling water, and whatever else I can find for months to come

5) Peach thyme sorbet- recipe to come!

6) White Chocolate Strawberry Peach Cake- Josh has been drooling over this cake since he bought me Homemade Decadence for Christmas. Mission accomplished

The rest of the peaches have been eaten fresh in a variety of ways (sliced and tossed in a little balsamic to top avocado toast- divine), and I’m starting to slice and freeze the rest.

The dishes are killing me.

The Peach Truck will come through Cincinnati one more time in a few weeks, and I’m contemplating buying another bushel. I’m thinking some jams are necessary, and a pie, but does anyone have more fun ideas for a giant box of peaches?!

Meal Plan: June 21-June 27

Every week we make a meal plan for the week ahead. The plan accounts for 5 breakfasts, 4 lunches (plus fruit or vegetables), 4 snacks, and 5 dinners each for the two of us. Lunches are typically a double batch of whatever the recipe calls for. We make the lunches and do other prep work on Sunday. Nearly all items are purchased from either our local farmers market or Whole Foods. We live in Cincinnati, OH.

Beauties from The Peach Truck

June 21-June 27 Happy Monday! This is my first meal plan in a few weeks, and I’m noticing a lot of black beans. We obviously missed certain flavors while in Portugal, though now I’m missing fresh seafood, caipirinhas, and delicious pastries so… can’t win ’em all. My huge project(s) this week is figuring out all of the ways to use the giant box of peaches we stood in line for half an hour to buy from The Peach Truck. Worth every minute. So far I’ll be making a cake, hand pies, peach butter, canning them, freezing them, and who knows what else. Will report back with all of the (successful?!) finished products. My house is going to smell like heaven. Blew the budget to buy all of the things to process the peaches. No regrets.

Breakfast

• Strawberry basil smashed avocado toast
• Frozen berries and pink cashew cream

Lunch

• Black bean, quinoa, and citrus salad– sub pineapple for grapefruit

Snack

• Carrots, cucumbers, and roasted red pepper and paprika hummus

Dinner

• Pork chops with peaches, sage, and potatoes
• Summer squash tacos with avocado chimichurri– add chicken
• Caribbean plantain and bean boats
• Carrot coconut soup
• Roasted aubergine and tahini bowl

…And We’re Back

Josh and I just got back from two weeks in Portugal! It was an incredible trip full of amazing food, loads of booze, bright sun, walking up more hills and climbing more stairs than you could ever imagine, and drinking in the beauty of a country that used to rule a good part of the world. This was a trip we’d been dreaming of for years, so to see it finally come about (and be there for my 30th birthday, no less) was so awesome. I’ll be writing up a post soon of our favorite restaurants in the Lisbon area and Porto, but for now I’m going to enjoy the return to my kitchen and eat as many raw fruits and vegetables as I can, something I missed desperately while still enjoying copious amounts of seafood and pastries.

Meal Plan: May 31- June 6

Every week we make a meal plan for the week ahead. The plan accounts for 5 breakfasts, 4 lunches (plus fruit or vegetables), 4 snacks, and 5 dinners each for the two of us. Lunches are typically a double batch of whatever the recipe calls for. We make the lunches and do other prep work on Sunday. Nearly all items are purchased from either our local farmers market or Whole Foods. We live in Cincinnati, OH.

Grow!

May 31-June 6

It’s the first day of June, and it’s 53 degrees outside.

I find this extremely confusing. Shouldn’t it be a high in the 80’s today? At least the produce doesn’t seem to be confused, since I was able to get two cartons of crazy good strawberries at the market yesterday. It’s the best time of the year!

In case you woke up to a cool spell as well, you should make spicy cumin lamb hand-smashed noodles. They’ll warm you right up.

I *might* have made them again last Friday. Twice in one week. You could say we’re big fans.

This week is a busy one for us, full of exciting things, so the meal plan is slightly abbreviated, but delicious!

I hope everyone is as excited about June as I am.

Breakfast

• Blueberry mint smoothie– add spinach
• Granola– with strawberries and yogurt

Lunch

• Strawberry spring salad with lemon roasted chickpeas

Snack

• Carrots and cucumber

Dinner

• Kimchi fried rice
• Lamb and potatoes
• Lunch bowl