Egg Broken: To Support Community Agriculture: Marriage & The Weekly Meal Plan Edition (Week 1)

Usually, our meal planning is willy nilly. I go to yoga a couple times a week, so that means Michael is in charge of cooking those nights, and the other nights I'll cook. Usually, we decide what to make the day of, maybe we talk about it, but usually it's a solo effort.

But, when we signed up for our CSA we realized we'd have to switch it up, in order to ensure all of the goods were used. And, Michael said, we weren't just making stuff! We'd make new stuff! We'd make a but concerted effort to try new recipes. The bonus of our CSA is that it lets us choose our crops, but going into our first meal planning, we had no idea how much we would get of each item. Quantities unknown, eagerness nowhere in check, minds racing as if we had 20 minutes on the clock to impress Aaron Sanchez & Geoffrey with his glasses, we began.

Sitting together on the couch, we had dogeared magazines: 2 recent Bon Appetits, one Food & Wine. I had an inbox full of recipes I send myself to "remember." Michael had his imagination and a cookbook or two. We knew we'd be receiving:

Strawberries
Collard greens
Pea shoots
Lambs quarters
Sautee greens (hearty mixed greens)
Rainbow chard

We're homebodies, generally, but this week I had two work happy hours. So Michael would be on his own for two nights. How long would things last? What went with what? Would there be leftovers? Should we make separate lunches? What the f*** are lambs quarters? But, if I'm going out, and we're trying to save money, you should eat the greens! I might have said that. I might have suggested that I have all the fun and my husband should sit home by himself eating just the greens. EAT THE GREENS.

Then, well, strawberries would be for lunch, an easy agreement. Collards, Michael's specialty, would be for dinner. But, wait, do we cook pea shoots? I have a recipe in my inbox for stuffed collards! But, I'm making collards. Rainbow chard is sort of like collards? Can I switch them out? [Googling: stuffed chard-- yes! Yes, okay.]

natural ombre.

Our marriage will survive meal planning, right? I asked. Maybe we should stop talking about this for now, I said. Then, I forgot about that BUT THANKFULLY remembered that there was a pea shoots recipe IN bon appetit! And, I could serve them with fish! Actually, not a bad idea. Things were coming together, and even though I was desperate to have the WHOLE. WEEK. PLANNED. Michael assured me we could go to the market again during the week and not just on Sunday and things would be okay. Spoiler alert: they were okay, great even! I mean, I did not make enough stuffed chards for the week because they were itty bitty. And we went to the grocery THREE times (compared with 5? 6?) But, we're alive to tell about it. In conclusion, Michael is planning this week alone. (It's not so dramatic; he has the week off of work, etc.)

So, here's what we ended up with: