Order of Operations: Produce

The first farmers market of the season today! The weather was beyond gorgeous and perfect for walking around the market. There's nothing like connecting with your food this way; the open air, the people, the farmers, all the produce displayed like art. It's a far cry from my experience in Costco under the halogen lights. That's why I jump for joy this time of year when I can do at least a part of my shopping outside!

Today I bought $15 worth of produce as well as $6 worth of local Honey
This includes:
Lettuce, Chard, Kale, Red Potatoes and Zucchini

There aren't a ton of options this early in the season so I'll be buying the rest of my produce for the week at my CoOp. I've given myself a $25 a week budget for produce. So by the end of the month I'll have spent $100 total. I wanted Local/Organic Produce, Grass-Fed Meat and Eggs to be the bulk of what I'm buying during this experiment. Now I realize some people can only go to the store once a week, I'm lucky to be in walking distance from my CoOp. So today I wanted to talk about using your produce most efficiently if you're shopping once a week.

Order of Operations
1. Start with your greens, the first 3 or so days of the week should be devoted to these, this is when you'll be adding greens to breakfast, in soups and having salads. If you buy fresh herbs like cilantro, fill up a jar with water and put the cilantro ends in it in the fridge, this will keep them fresh MUCH longer.
2.) Things like Avocado, Tomatoes, Strawberries, etc. should be eaten first as well.
3.) Half way through the week you can start on Zucchini, Carrots and other root veggies.
4.) Tough Root Veggies and Squash should be saved for the end of the week because they last the longest. So Potatoes, Butternut Squash, etc.
5.) There are a few things I eat all week long, I like to add onion to a lot of things and they last a long time so I just use them all week, I usually eat an apple everyday or two as a snack with peanut butter so this is something that can be dispersed throughout the week. I think the main thing you want to try and use first are the greens. This will also make your diet diverse if you eat greens at the beginning of the week and other things at the end. 

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What my week may look like:
Monday: Use greens first. Fry up some Kale or Chard in butter with sea salt. Have this on the side of some pasture raised eggs. Salad for lunch. For dinner I'll be making hamburgers with the meat I get from the farm and wrapping them in Lettuce instead of a bun.
Tuesday:  Use greens in your breakfast again. Salad for Lunch. Chop up Kale or Chard and combine with some bone broth and other veggies for a soup.
Wednesday: Use greens in your breakfast. Coleslaw for Lunch. Left over soup for dinner.
Thursday: If you still have greens use them in your breakfast again. More soup for lunch. Next use the Zucchini, I'll be making a Grain-Free Zucchini Lasagne.
Friday: Eggs and sourdough rye pancakes for breakfast. I'll be using some other veggies from the CoOp for a Curry with my soaked and fermented Lentils and Sprouted Rice (blog post to come on soaking and sprouting) For dinner use the Potatoes for a potato based pureed soup.
Saturday: Eat left overs of Lasagne, Curry and Soup.