meal planning Archives - The Scratch Advantage

Hello there! It has been a very hectic summer couple months. Thanks for sticking with me, if you’re reading this.

May and June sort of went like this…

Cruise, Memorial Day in Dallas, Michigan trip for work, Austin trip for my birthday… and then finally a couple relaxing weekends at home before the trips begin again. I will definitely try to plan some scheduled posts prior to future trips, as I know it is very difficult for me to remember to blog while traveling!

Kristen & Trey on the Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship — Kristen & Trey on the Cruise

Spirit of Detroit statue — Spirit of Detroit

We have made a couple new recipes lately, mostly from Smitten Kitchen’s wonderful website and book — Smitten Kitchen Every Day.

For example… we made this delicious squash and potato torte with some of our summer squash from our CSA box.

Squash and Potato Torte from SK — Squash and Potato Torte from Smitten Kitchen

I also bought this spiralizer from OXO to make noodles from the zucchini and squash we keep receiving! I’ve used it once, and it works pretty well. I combined our squash noodles with a pasta dish, based off of another SK recipe for corn, bacon and parmesan pasta.

Tonight, my husband and I will be making corn fritters and have already made a delicious strawberry cake to celebrate the 4th of July. We are both working tomorrow, unfortunately, but we are excited to have the day off in the middle of the week!

Happy 4th of July with Summer Strawberry Cake

Strawberry cake review: definitely 5/5 stars. Trey and I both loved it, and Trey doesn’t even normally like cake. You could probably improve it by serving with whipped cream, but I didn’t have any heavy cream with me to make any. Plus, we thought it was pretty delicious on its own.

Let me know if you try any of the linked recipes!

I’ll be back on here soon to share our latest meal plan and recipe recap.

Can you believe it’s almost May? I think every year, April is one of those months that goes by very quickly for me. I am excited for more spring and summer vegetables to use in our meal plans over the next couple weeks!

Recap of last week’s meal plan:

Last week, we made quite a few meals, and I wanted to first give you a quick recap of the recipes we made and what we thought about them.

Spaghetti with Swiss Chard : 4/5 stars!
- I really enjoy this meal. Last time we made it, it was too spicy, so this time, we reduced the amount of chili flakes we added to about half. It definitely improved the heat level for us. This recipe is one of my favorite ways to use Swiss chard.
White bean & kale quesadillas : 5/5 stars!
- We loved this meal! The texture of the kale with the white beans was fantastic, and the spicing was perfect for us. I will say that doing them one at a time on a skillet took FOREVER. Next time, we will do them on our griddle so we can do 4-5 at a time and reduce the cook time by 30-40 min.
Braised beef with lots of onions : 5/5 stars!
- This recipe is one of our favorites, though we always waffle on which sides to make with it. This time around we had it with some bread and leftover beet salad. I do think this is more of a winter dish. However, the flavors are fantastic and made a fun Easter dinner celebration.
Multigrain bread : 2/5 stars
- I am planning on writing a whole separate post on this bread. In general, I was not able to get a good rise out of this bread during the final prove. It tasted fine but turned out very flat and dense.
New York Chopped Salad : 3/5 stars
- Surprisingly, we both liked this one. It was a good way to use up the romaine lettuce we had from the farmers’ market, though it was a bit time-consuming with the preparation. I’d make it again, but I may not stick to a specific recipe or do the same dressing.

In general, I won’t repeat reviews unless we changed something about the recipe, as we do repeat recipes (e.g. baked oatmeal) fairly often.

This Week’s Meal Plan:

Now onward to this week’s meal plan…

Weekly meal plan - April 27 to May 03 — Weekly meal plan – April 27 to May 03

CSA Vegetables - Carrots, broccoli, Swiss chard, black beans, collard greens, romaine lettuce — Carrots, Broccoli, Swiss Chard, Black Beans, Collard Greens, Romaine Lettuce

We are about to go on vacation next week (HOORAY!) so this week will be a bit busy due to packing, trip planning, etc. Before trips, I try to use up a lot of pantry-items or items that I think may go bad when we are away. We actually did not use any of our cookbook sources this week and are falling back on our staples. These tend to be easy dishes that can be changed up to match the veggies and ingredients you have on hand.

We will try one recipe that’s new — the lemony pasta with collard greens from Cookie and Kate’s website. I’m excited for a new way to use collard greens and will keep you updated on how it goes.

Our staple recipes…

Vegetable fried rice is based on this fantastic recipe from Cookie and Kate’s website. This week, based on what we received in the CSA, we made it with Swiss chard, cabbage, and spring onions from the farmers market. My husband was suspicious about the Swiss chard, but he really enjoyed it in this dish!

Our version of tacos will be basically roasting whatever veggies (broccoli in this case) we have on hand, cooking black beans, and then serving with simple toppings. Our toppings include cheese, salsa, cherry tomatoes and avocado. We will also thaw some of our grass-fed ground beef from Gina’s Acres farm that we bought in the last farmers market in our area.

After Wednesday, you’ll see a lot of TBD — we need to be sure to use up our CSA veggies that will arrive on Wednesday. Thus, I did not set any specific plans as I think we will improvise based on what we receive.

What are you cooking this week? Are you excited to get into summer veggie season? I know I am ready for tomatoes and corn!