Meal Planning Without the CSA

I miss our CSA.

When we picked up most of our produce on Mondays, I could plan the week of food based on whatever was in the box. I didn't have to think about vegetables. Meals practically made themselves, once I got into the groove of figuring out what to do with all those vegetables.

And now?

No more weekly pick ups. How sad for us. I'm thankful to have our weekly local farmers' market. BUT... I actually have to plan meals before going to the market now. It's like I've forgotten how to decide what I want to eat since I got used to being told "here are your vegetables for the week." Well, I could eat chocolate morning, noon, and night, but that isn't exactly the healthiest option. ;)

I keep passing the list of "possible meals" we have posted on our refrigerator and feeling rather uninspired and as though the meals are not quite good enough. Not balanced enough, not flavorful enough, not interesting enough. It's rather frustrating since I KNOW we all like those meals.

So what are we going to feed the kids tonight? It's supposed to be pizza night for me and Aaron after the kids go to bed, but I'm craving vegetables oddly. In the vegetable category, we have a large bunch of beautiful swiss chard waiting to be enjoyed. I'm thinking about making Crustless Swiss Chard Quiche because we haven't had it in quite a while, and I remember LOVING it. Besides swiss chard, we have plenty of squash, including pumpkins that I promised to share with Caleb. Caleb wants to make pumpkin cookies from a recipe he saw in a book by Jane Breskin Zalben called "Don't Go!" Maybe they will be nut-free and I can send them to school with him!

This post is dreadfully rambly, but I think it reflects how I'm feeling about meal planning without my CSA pickups. Perhaps I need to return to the habit of meal planning once a week, and I can post those weekly menus as a reminder.