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Lindsay and Adam's food time as "together time"

Lindsay and Adam first learned about the CSA concept while on their honeymoon in upstate NY. They thought: "Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could find something like that in DC?"

So they did: they joined the Owl's Nest CSA in 2018, and it turns out that CSA as honeymoon discovery is absolutely perfect because cooking and eating their CSA produce is a way they keep their relationship healthy and strong.

If you visited their home on a Sunday morning, you're likely to find Adam and Lindsay in the kitchen. "It’s our time to re-boot for the week," says Adam. "It’s a very together thing. We go food shopping together, we cook together, and in the kitchen, we each have our thing. Like, I always chop the sweet potatoes." While they're chopping, they're checking in with each other about what happened last week and planning for the week ahead.

Those Sunday batch cooking sessions aren't just together time, they're also important for eating well throughout the week. As a teacher and a grad student, they don't typically have a ton of cooking time on weeknights, so batch cooking on Sundays helps ensure their busy lives are also delicious lives. In fact, as we talk one Monday evening, Lindsay says: "we’re literally warming up something from Sunday right now."

Before they met, they each did some meal planning on their own, and together, they "love trying new things and exploring different things to eat." The CSA has been a step along that journey. They tried Blue Apron and dabbled with the Whole30 diet, and these pre-CSA food experiences "opened the aperature to more creative meal planning."

From there, meal planning became Lindsay's "passion project." Right now, their weekly CSA pickup - "it's really a highlight of the week," says Adam - provides the inspiration. As soon as they receive their weekly CSA email, she starts planning: she cross references the produce from the share with her favorite food blogs and Instagram feeds (scroll down to see her recipe resources) and identifies 4 recipes she'll make that weekend: at least a breakfast, a lunch, and 2 dinner meals. Then, she double checks to make sure she has planned a use for each CSA item and starts her grocery list.

It all pays off when they're relaxing Sunday afternoon after a morning in the kitchen. "The most joy Lindsay has is looking at our fridge at 2pm on Sunday, and it’s completely full of good food," says Adam. And it's not just the qualiy food, but the time spent making it as quality time spent togther.

 
 
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Lindsay's recipe and food resources

  • Favorite batch cooking recipes: Every week we make a big batch of sweet potato hash with chicken sausage, fruit salad for breakfast. Whole roasted chicken with vegetables on the bottom, enchiladas with collards instead of tortillas, we do an eggplant layer casserole with egg, we do a lot of soups, chilis, stews, curries sweet potato, chili with sweet potato and turkey - crockpot. Salad with some sort of meat on top. Quinoa bowl with roasted vegetables. Mixed in some pesto, and a chicken sausage. Marinated beet salad with. We eat a hot breakfast together every morning.

resources

  • Food52
  • Smitten kitchen - "literally everything is delicious" says Lindsay.
  • eat.live.run,
  • Ina Garten
  • fuckyeahvegan
  • Michael Pollan Cooks - "this will change the way you think about the food in general," says Adam.
  • Salt Fat Acid Heat
 
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A peek in their pantry

  • Good set of knives and cutting board.
  • Good quality tupperware so you can store your meals
  • Crockpot and/or instapot.
  • Salad spinner is important.
  • Soup pot to make a stew
  • Staples: good olive oil, onions, vinegar for when you just need a pop of flavor, a few lemons.
  • Heavy hitter spices: garlic powder, cumin, chili powder, and fresh garlic.
 
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Couples kitchen tips

  • Prep chop and wash everything on Tuesday when you get home from your CSA pickup.
  • Always chop and separate bottom and top half of scallions. * Don’t be scared to freeze stuff. They freeze often freeze kale as soon as they arrive home from their CSA pickup. As of January, they still have shakshuka in the freezer from the summer.
  • It's ok if not everything comes out perfectly the first time. "Practice makes perfect," says Lindsay.