Minnesota CSA Box Week 2 + Simple Taco Salad

Over the past few months there’s one Pinterest board of mine that’s received a lot of attention.  It’s Dream Kitchen.  We’ve always wanted to remove a wall in our kitchen to open up the space a bit more for a few years and after months of contemplating, we’ve finally made the decision to do a kitchen remodel. With a bit of stress and a whole lot of mess, we’ve been painting, removing floor trim, tearing up the kitchen cabinets, moving out furniture, removing old flooring and pretty much staying up way too late every night to get things done. 

How do you live through a kitchen remodel while not eating out every night of the week?  (Well, I’m not going to lie, after a day of demolition this week, it felt good to sit down on the deck and eat our ordered pizza with a glass of cold milk.)  You make simple recipes.  You make no cook recipes.  You get creative, even when the water has been turned off in the kitchen. (And order take out to save your sanity).

Here are five tips to eating healthier while going through a kitchen remodel:

  1. Have sandwich fixings at the ready…bread or buns, veggies, deli meats, all make quick lunch breaks in the midst of demolition, don’t require any cooking and give a boost of energy.  Just serve with a glass of cold milk and an apple.
  2. Breakfast at home with the kids means something grab and go.  Granola bars and trail mix with a little yogurt and fruit make the meal.  Or today’s breakfast includes cereal out of a solo cup.  (Our refrigerator is still currently plugged in, try to leave that til last if you can!) 
  3. While sandwiches are good for lunch, it’s nice to have a something a little heavier at dinner – especially if you are working all day.   Out of kitchen cooking options include something off the grill (it’s like camping!), something from the slow cooker (just needs a plug in somewhere outside the kitchen) and if you happen to have a hot plate or single burner (I think of this kind of like college, make do with little).   You can even cook up ground beef for tacos or Simple Taco Salad in the slow cooker.
  4. Consider subscribing to a CSA.  If I’m honest, I will tell you, I am NOT going to the grocery store right now because I don’t have a lot of space to store all my pantry food (unless you call throwing it in a box storing!).  I don’t want to fill up the frig with foods that aren’t necessities because I will soon have to unpack that frig.  If it were not for our weekly CSA box (see my previous post on more about a CSA), we wouldn’t be eating vegetables.  I’m grateful for this natural boost of veggies in a box that we must eat up each week!
  5. Don’t forget the disposable plates, silverware, cups and bowls.  Without a sink in the kitchen…dishes either get washed in the bathroom.  I am trying to keep that to a minimum for obvious reasons!

Speaking of our weekly CSA, I wanted to share the goodies from the week 2 box:

 Romaine Lettuce

Radishes

Napa Cabbage

Kohlrabi

Swiss Chard

Cabbage

Bibb Lettuce

Simple Taco Salad

Simple Taco Salad

An easy summer recipe the whole family will love!
Course Salad

Ingredients
  

  • 1 head Romaine lettuce
  • 2 cups corn (fresh, frozen and thawed or canned and drained)
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 green bell pepper, diced
  • 1 pound lean ground beef
  • 1 package taco seasoning (lower sodium)
  • 1 package tortilla strips (find them in the salad dressing aisle)
  • Fresh cilantro and lime, optional

Instructions
 

  • Precook meat in slow cooker with onion and green pepper on high for 2-3 hours. Add taco seasoning.
  • Prepare salad by layering Romaine lettuce, beef mixture, corn and tortilla strips. Top with cilantro and fresh lime juice as desired.

I hope you enjoy the recipe – it’s good with or without a kitchen remodel!

Here’s a couple of before pics from our kitchen:

Kitchen Remodel wall com


Stay tuned for after pictures! 

What’s your secret to living lower stress in the kitchen in the summer?

3 Comments

  1. Brenda Raffelson on July 31, 2015 at 12:41 pm

    Hi Jen,

    I was just diagnosed with Celiac Disease & wondering if you have any great gluten-free recipes or websites with some good ones.

    Thanks for you time,
    Brenda Raffelson

    • Jen on August 3, 2015 at 6:28 am

      Hi Brenda,
      Thank you for reaching out to me with this question. Let me pull some resources together for you.

      Jen

  2. […] Did I mention I cooked this without a kitchen?  Our kitchen is down to bare walls, bare floors and white drywall dust everywhere in preparation for a remodel.  I made this outside on a burner on the side of our gas grill.  I chopped those vegetables and sliced that lean sirloin using my deck dining table as a countertop.  If I can do it outside, you can do it inside!  (Tips for eating healthy through a kitchen remodel here!) […]

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