We belong to a local CSA, so we get a box of produce every week. We used to pick it up on Mondays when we did errands, but doing errands on Monday was making me go crazy because it started the week at a too-frantic pace. So, we changed our pickup day to Wednesday, now errands are Wednesday (which includes grocery shopping), so meal planning is Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. (To be honest, it’s usually right before we need to get going!)

See what we do? We plan our meals for the week after we know what’s coming in the produce box (the list posted online at the beginning of the week), but before we do our grocery shopping. It was like a revelation, this meal planning concept. I had no idea how much stress it would relieve! Before we start our lists, we do a quick pantry/fridge inventory to see what we can make from what we have, and then we buy staples and any recipe necessities.

Here’s a tiny sample of this week’s planning:

We have a tube of pre-made organic polenta. I know polenta is very simple to make (it’s cornmeal and water, maybe a little salt), and one day I will definitely make a batch, but until then, the little vacuum packed tubes are a good size for the two of us. I really love polenta, and could probably eat one of those tubes myself, but I won’t. This time. Anyway, I remembered last night that we have this polenta, and I want to have it, so I carefully and scientifically evaluated what would be the most nutritionally optimizing foods to eat with it. Just kidding, I just picked something at random that I knew we had in the fridge: a pound of mixed greens already cleaned and prepared!! So, here’s the meal that will make: braised greens with pine nuts and sliced olives over pan-toasted polenta slabs. Slabs doesn’t sound all that appetizing, now you know why I’m not a cookbook author.

How will this delectable meal be prepared?

Have all this stuff ready before you start (note: all measurements are approximate — Here’s the truth: use what you like. Pants loves onions, so ours would have more onion. Some might want it more salty or less salty, so adjust the soy sauce. Or eliminate it and use salt if you don’t like that soy sauce flavor! I would probably use more garlic because I like it a lot. Want walnuts and no olives? Great! Want green olives and ripe olives? Great! Try stuff, see what you like! You could make it more Italian by adding chopped tomatoes. You could make it Southern by subtracting the nuts and olives, upping the vinegar and adding sugar or maple syrup, maybe a little liquid smoke and tabasco. Don’t be scared! Go crazy!):

1/2c - 1c chopped white/yellow onion
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
for braising the greens:
     1c water or broth to which you’ve added:
          2t soy sauce
          2t acid (lemon juice or vinegar)
3/4c pine nuts (raw or toasted, your preference)
3/4c chopped kalamata olives (pre-pitted)
add’l small amount of liquid or fat to brown onions/garlic

In a tall pot (like a stock pot) brown some garlic and onions. You can brown them in oil/earth balance/water/broth. Whatever you like. Since we did some McDougalling (extremely low fat vegan), we unlearned some habits like starting every dish with oil. In my opinion, some foods really need to be browned in fat (potatoes & polenta, to name two) but onions and garlic do not. You’d be surprised at what little flavor that fat at the beginning is actually adding! I literally can’t tell the difference in a dish where the aromatics (onion, garlic, celery, carrot, etc) have been started in water or broth vs oil. And since in this dish I know there’s some good veg fat in the nuts and in the olives, I won’t cook with oil except to grill up the polenta.

So, now your onions and garlic are soft and translucent. (PROTIP: start with your onions, give them about a half-minute headstart on your garlic…that helps the garlic not scorch. If things are getting scorchy, add a little more liquid or fat.)

Next, stuff all your cleaned/trimmed/chopped greens in the pot. The heat should be low to medium-low. A pound of greens may look like a lot, but it will cook way down, so far down that you’ll probably wish you had more greens! Pour over the liquid you prepared and give everything a stir. Cover.

Cook on low to med-low heat, stirring occasionally. Keep an eye on them to make sure the liquid hasn’t cooked out since the greens can scorch if that happens. If you’re worried, add more. Test and taste the greens for tenderness and flavor. When you like the flavor and texture, stir in the pine nuts and olives, turn off the heat, and cover to keep warm.

After stirring in the additions to the greens, I’ll pull out that tube o’ polenta and cut it open. It’s packed in water, so if you try one, cut it over the sink. I’m going to slice it lengthwise into planks about 1/2 inch thick. Maybe we’ll get 6 planks or so. I’ll brown them in olive oil until they crisp on one side (maybe 2-3 minutes?) turn and brown the other side. I’m not really trying to fry them, just get some nice browning on the surface. The inside will be creamy and soft. Plate the polenta in a shallow bowl, spoon the greens (with some of the liquid, if you like) over top. Salt & pepper to taste.

Regarding cooking greens like kale, collard, mustard, chard, turnip greens, beet greens: Here is my confession, my shame. There have been cooking greens available nearly every week in our CSA since we moved here. For most of that time (until last fall, I would say) we subbed them out for something else. We were scared of greens and didn’t know what to do with them and I wasn’t sure I even liked them. I honestly don’t know what happened, we just ate them a few times, tried some recipes (some real recipes) with them and KA-BLAOWAM!! Now I LOOOOVE greens. I actually crave them. I want to eat them twice/thrice weekly. We have them in stir-frys. We have them with beans. We have them with grains. We have them braised like this. I would eat this on toast or rice or even savory oatmeal. The other day I made kale chips (massaged ripped up kale with a little oil and too much salt and baked on low heat until they were crispy). I got the salt amount all wrong, so each one was like a crazy crispy Green Salt Bomb. I still ate them, they were awesome.

So, that’s a small slice of our planning and an example of what we eat. That dish is planned for Sunday. We planned out one week’s worth of dishes, including today. One day (Thursday) is a lunch, since we go to my mom’s for dinner every Thursday. For lunch that day we’re having BLTs on lavash bread (a flatbread that’s thin like a flour tortilla, but more hearty, like a pita). Uh….bacon? Yes….tempeh bacon! Yum!!