by Sam Tackeff | Aug 1, 2016 | Farm, Meal Planning
Picking up my farm share is hands down one of my favorite parts of my summer. I came back from a long weekend in Colorado mid week, and had moved my farm share pickup from Tuesday to Friday. I used to be a Friday sharer, and truthfully I think I miss it. I was super excited to get back to the farm this week.
The past few weeks I’ve been feeling extra organized, and it’s felt really great. Normally, coming back from a trip I can feel uninspired and unwilling to get back to real life, but my Coloradan host was just as much of an organizer as I am, and I felt particularly on top of getting back into my routine when I returned.
The rain broke in the late afternoon for a nice time in the fields on Friday. There was only a handful of pick your own this week, but I always enjoy hanging around the stand chatting with other sharers and the farm staff. Everyone was getting excited about spiralized vegetables and peanut sauce, fermentation, and travels to Colorado. If you don’t have a spiralizer yet, I recommend the Paderno or the Inspiralizer! Game changer!
On the Stand: potatoes (2 lbs.), cucumbers (5), summer squash and zucchini (1.5 lbs.), 3 pounds mix and match fennel, cabbage, and beets. I have a glut of beets so I took mostly fennel and a head of cabbage. 1 bunch carrots, 1 bunch scallions. 1 lb. tomatoes. 1 bunch choice of collards/kale/chard – went for the kale. 1/2 lb. beans. 2 heads of lettuce. 1 eggplant or pepper – went for the pepper. (Bonus: a half dozen eggs from one of the sharer’s chickens; and the full amount of garlic harvest – maybe 10 or 12 stalks).
PYO: blueberries (1 pint), flowers (25 blooms), herbs – I took an abundance of parsley, thai basil, and mint.
:: The Weekly Meal Plan: Week of August 1st, 2016 ::
This week’s prep: here’s what I’ll be making with my produce and some of the meat share. Most of the produce will be for my lunches. I still have a cucumber, the zucchini, cabbage, herbs, and beets from last share to use up. Oh and a few of the snap peas for snacks.
– hard boil eggs and pre-peel some of them
– a batch of Turkish zucchini with fresh tomatoes
– chop kale and lettuce for lunch salads
– prep snacks: sugar snaps, baba gannoush
– roasted chicken for lunches
As for our meals this week:
Monday: chicken italian sausage with potato and fennel salad
Tuesday: cod with rice and Turkish zucchini
Wednesday: Indian spiced lamb with coriander and cumin carrot and cucumbers
Thursday: miso salmon with rice, pickled cucumbers and carrots
Friday: kapuska (Turkish meat, cabbage, and rice)
Saturday: out?
Sunday: shakshuka
by Sam Tackeff | Sep 13, 2015 | Holidays, Meal Planning
Tonight is the eve of the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah, so I celebrated with friends and family, and partook in some of my favorite foods: Tsimmes, a dish of braised beef, carrots, and sweet potatoes, my grandmother’s potato kugel, blueberry cheese pie (what we call cheesecake), and my mom’s carrot cake!
My aunt pulled out all the tricks. She always has a great wine selection (and hard liquor – clutch for any family situation.) And the evening starts with a well curated cheese board, and chopped liver for us traditionalists. Cooper, the lab, was sniffing around for crumbs, but feeling under the weather, so alas, I couldn’t share with him any of my generous cracker schmears. Not that I’d ever do something like that.
We also had salmon, beef tenderloin, a deconstructed cabbage roll casserole, green beans, and vegetarian lasagna. And then dessert: the aforementioned cheese pie and carrot cake, a Venezuelan layered dessert called Marquesa, lemon meringue pie, apple crumble, and fruit.
So it’s possible that I won’t need to eat for a few days, but I’m still on the hook for a healthy meal Monday through Thursday this week. On Friday, I’m running Reach the Beach (a 200 mile relay through my home state of New Hampshire, so my meal will likely be some American Chop Suey served to me in an elementary school cafeteria around midnight!
Here’s what’s on the docket this week. The weekly cook-up, which, in addition to my dinners make up my breakfasts, lunches and snacks for the week:
– cook a large batch of greens
– hardboil eggs
– braise green beans with tomato
– make fennel salad (this holds!)
– chop peppers for snacks
– make pesto
Monday: grilled jerk chicken with fennel salad
Tuesday: pork tenderloin with pesto and zucchini noodles
Wednesday: roasted fish with sticky roasted tomatoes and garlic
Thursday: steak and potatoes with green beans.
And here’s a closing note for you of my favorite evening ritual: a pot of herb tea. I’ve been alternating between fresh mint, and dried lemon verbena. I took a good portion of my mom’s plant, and have been supplementing my habit with the leaves from Stearns Farm.
What’s on your dinner table this week?
by Sam Tackeff | Sep 3, 2013 | Blogging, Meal Planning
Why hello there! We’re having a house guest this week, it’s the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah), and the work week is only four days long. I still felt the need to do a grand cook up this week, and a meal plan, you know, just in case.
Things I prepped tonight, mostly for lunches:
– baked chicken thighs with garlic powder, chile powder, salt and pepper
– roasted cauliflower with coconut oil, chile powder, salt and pepper
– roasted green beans (in the liquid from the baked chicken…ie: saves a pan!)
– chopped up three bell peppers, and a large cucumber
– pot of chicken broth in the slow cooker all afternoon
– pot of Rancho Gordo white limas
The hands on time for this stuff was less than an hour, and I’ll have lots and lots of options for mix and match meals.
No matter how tired, lazy, or busy I’ll be this week, at least I’ll have a good, healthy lunch.
(FYI: breakfast is pretty much the same every morning except for Friday (cough *Sportello bagel* cough) – a very large iced coffee, and three boiled eggs spaced in intervals from 10, to around noon. Lunch at 2:30. I’m a weirdo, but it works for me.)
We got a brand spankin’ new Breville Juicer in the office on Friday, and I’m dying to take it for a spin – I’m thinking that I might bring in some kale, apple, cucumber and celery just to give her a go.
Monday :: Since this Labor Day Monday was pretty much Sunday – which around here means seafood night – fish was on the menu. Fish cooks up quickly, and I always commit to eating it the night of purchasing it so that it’s as fresh as can be. This week crab-stuffed flounder was on sale at Whole Foods, so I got one for each of us, and served it with a heaping portion of asparagus, tossed in shallot oil and roasted, and some fresh tomatoes slices.
Tuesday :: Chicken sausage, roasted baby potatoes, garlicky kale, salad with tomato and avocado.
Wednesday :: Rosh Hashanah dinner! I’m not sure what’s on the menu, but I can pretty much be sure that there will be some homemade chicken soup, some gefilte fish slathered with horseradish, tsimmes (braised beef, carrots, and sweet potato), potato pancake, and my mom is making carrot cake.
Thursday :: Vietnamese Bun bowls and/or goat stew. I have goat meat, but I’m not 100% sure that guest (a former vegetarian) will be able to deal with the goat. In which case it’ll have to wait until next week!
Friday :: Out.
The weekend? Not sure yet! I know, I know.. what good is a plan when you only have a few days squared away? Wait, no, it’s better than no plan at all. This’ll largely depend on what we decide to do for the weekend…
What are you eating this week?
by Sam Tackeff | Nov 4, 2012 | Challenge
Seven weeks. It’s been seven weeks since I started the gym challenge, and today was the day I headed back in for the re-test of our power benchmark. I can’t express how proud I feel at how much I’ve progressed in nearly two months. But it’s significant. It feels really good. I was excited to get back in the gym today even though I’m still feeling a little sick and weak from this long cold. It’s good to be there, accomplishing things. If you had told me last year that I’d be doing handstand pushups, dead-lifting more than my body weight, or running races, I’d have laughed in your face. But here I am. And it feels great.
Strength: Back Squats –we’ve been working nearly every week on back squats. At the beginning of the challenge, I got to 95# for two lifts. Today, I hit a brand new max weight of #125. I attempted #135, but it was a little bit too much for this tired body of mine. That’s 30 pounds heavier than six weeks ago, not too shabby!
Benchmark WOD 1: “Fran”
21-15-9 reps for time:
Thrusters 95/65
Pull-ups
The prescribed weight for Fran for women is 65, but because I had to re-test with the same as six weeks ago, I loaded up to 45 pounds, and subbed jumps for pull ups. I eeked things out at the initial test in 9:40, and wanted to die. This time I improved my time by 10 seconds. Which… was a little disappointing. But 10 seconds is 10 seconds, and I’m looking forward to seeing how much I can improve in the next few months.
When I got home, Devon had picked me up a Barbacoa Bowl from Chipotle – meat, vegetables, pico de gallo, hot tomato salsa, lettuce and guacamole.
I then set to work doing a massive amount of cooking for the week.
I roasted parsnips in coconut oil with salt and pepper, I did the same to a delicata squash, sliced into rings. And while I was at it, I roasted a whole spaghetti squash. I also roasted a piece of lamb liver, but forgot to take a photo of it – a little too much juggling in the kitchen!
And then I made a big pot of Mel’s Chocolate Chili. The whole batch this time instead of being stupid like last time and making a half of a batch. Next time, I’ll double it.
Then, I took a dozen eggs and I baked ’em! I popped them in the oven at 325F for 30 minutes, sitting in one of my madeleine tins. You can place them right on the rack, but this makes it a lot easier!
When they were done, I put them in ice water for 10 minutes to cool, dried them off, and popped them back into their carton.
Then, I put together another braise – Maple Cider Vinegar Braised Beef.
I seared some beef shank meat in coconut oil, removed it from the pan, and then added onion, garlic, and shallot. I let it cook for a few minutes, de-glazed the pan with a quarter cup of maple syrup, a quarter cup of cider vinegar, and a cup of homemade beef stock. Nestled in a few bay leaves, and the shanks, covered the pot, and braised the meat for 2.5 hours, turning the beef every half hour or so.
After two and a half hours, the meat was tender and falling apart, and the liquid had reduced to a sticky sweet and sour sauce.
I took out the meat, reduced the sauce for another 15 minutes or so on the stove top, and put it away for a meal later in the week so the flavors would continue to meld.
Last but not least, dinner!
I pan fried some chicken thighs with salt and pepper in my cast iron, and made salads with avocado. Light and fresh! We devoured it in front of the TV watching old episodes of Dexter.
What are you cooking up this week?
