Built around the box Leila listed on 7 October. Prep is tonight, Wednesday, not Sunday — the week starts today, so the big session moves to the front and the top-up lands Saturday.
Prep guide (the working document): https://grub.pescehead.com/grub/week-2026-10-07-prep.html The week: https://grub.pescehead.com/grub/meal-plan-2026-10-07.html
Leila: ~1,600 cal/day, ~125 g protein, savory breakfasts, no avocado, 1–2 starchy carbs a day. Lunch bowls land around 500 cal with the egg and chickpeas on top; dinners 450–550 cal. RF: same, LDL-aware — three fish dinners and no red meat anywhere, which the box makes easy.
The box, and where every item goes. Nothing is left unassigned:
| From the CSA | Where it goes |
|---|---|
| Kale, 1 bunch | Half massaged for lunch bowls (Wed–Sat), half wilted into Thursday's stew |
| Dandelion-type greens, 1 bunch | Thursday's smoky white bean stew, wilted in at the end — cooked, not raw |
| Romaine, 1 bunch | Sunday's big salad; leaves kept whole until the day |
| 9 apples | Raw with breakfast, one in Friday's celery salad, and a batch of baby muffins |
| 6 pickling cucumbers | Mast-o-khiar Saturday, bowls Wed–Thu, baby spears, 2 kept whole |
| 2 yellow squash | One in Wednesday's squash "pasta", one in Sunday's sambar |
| 1 zucchini | Wednesday's squash "pasta" |
| 1 green bell pepper | Sunday's sambar |
| 2 eggplant | Saturday's baingan bharta — the long one is the sweeter of the two |
| 1 long radish (daikon) | Sunday's sambar, plus a quick pickle for the bowls |
| A ton of red peppers | Roasted for bowls, Friday's sheet-pan salmon, quick-pickled for Monday |
| 2 sweet potatoes | Roasted, lunch bowls Wed–Sat and baby portions |
| 3 potatoes | Friday's sheet-pan salmon |
| 1 butternut pumpkin | Half roasted Wednesday (Monday's side + the breakfast tahini dip), half cubed raw into Thursday's stew |
And the Whole Foods order:
| From Whole Foods | Where it goes |
|---|---|
| 4 bananas | The baby's overnight chia puddings, and eaten as they ripen |
| Blackberries | Mashed into the baby's chia jars; the rest on breakfasts |
| 2.5 lb carrots | Thursday's stew, the lunch bowls, and raw sticks for the baby |
| 2 tomatoes | Saturday's baingan bharta base |
| 3 yellow + 1 red onion | Across everything; the red one for the celery salad and the pickle |
| Celery | Friday's celery, date and apple salad |
| Mint | Saturday's mast-o-khiar, fresh rather than dried |
| Parsley, basil | Tonight's squash pasta, the celery salad, the bean toasts |
| Green onion | Scattered over the stew, the bharta and the farro bowls |
| Sardines | Tonight's squash "pasta", and on the bean toasts Sunday and Tuesday |
| Cod | Monday's parchment fish |
| Yogurt | Saturday's mast-o-khiar, and a spoonful on the bowls |
Everything in both lists is used below, and the shopping list at the bottom is only what is still missing.
Three additions on request (7 Oct): a simple pot of beans, overnight chia puddings for the baby, and the celery, date and apple salad.
One new recipe, six proven. The new one is baingan bharta — the bharta masala is already in the pantry box, so it costs nothing to try. Everything else is from the corpus.
| Day | Dinner | Lunch |
|---|---|---|
| Wed 7 | Zucchini & yellow squash "pasta" with sardines, pecorino, lemon | Out or leftovers — tonight is prep night |
| Thu 8 | Smoky white bean stew with crisp tofu, the dandelion greens and kale wilted in at the end, bread or rice | Farro bowl |
| Fri 9 | Sheet-pan salmon with roasted red peppers & potatoes (the cherry-tomato version, peppers swapped in), celery, date & apple salad | Farro bowl |
| Sat 10 | Baingan bharta with rice and mast-o-khiar | Farro bowl |
| Sun 11 | Vegetable sambar with daikon, yellow squash and green pepper, rice; romaine salad | Marinated beans on toast with roasted tomatoes |
| Mon 12 | Cod in parchment with quick-pickled red peppers, roasted butternut alongside | Leftover sambar |
| Tue 13 | Use-up slot — not a recipe, on purpose | Marinated beans again, different toppings |
Starch by day: Wed none, the squash is the noodle · Thu rice · Fri potatoes · Sat rice · Sun rice · Mon roasted butternut · Tue whatever is left. One a day. Sunday's and Tuesday's bean lunches are on toast, which is that day's second starch — that is deliberate and within Leila's 1–2.
Greens, stated plainly: massaged kale in four lunch bowls, a whole bunch of dandelion greens plus the rest of the kale wilted into Thursday's stew, a celery salad Friday, a romaine salad Sunday, and curry leaves and cilantro through the sambar. The box and the Whole Foods order covered greens between them; nothing extra bought.
Protein, stated plainly: chickpeas and a boiled egg in every bowl, the pot of beans and crisp tofu Thursday, salmon Friday, yogurt Saturday, toor dal Sunday, cod Monday, sardines tonight and again on the bean toasts. That is where Leila's ~125 g comes from.
Named at the step inside every dinner above. Plus, from the prep: plain unsalted roasted sweet potato and butternut, plain chickpeas, plain farro, a boiled egg yolk, cucumber spears, and the apple oat muffins from Saturday. Plus the overnight chia puddings, four jars from Wednesday and four more from Saturday, on whole milk with mashed banana or crushed blackberry. No honey, and no maple in her jars either. No whole nuts — omit rather than chop them small, and that includes the almonds on Friday's celery salad.
The box covered the vegetables. This is the short list.
The CSA box and the Whole Foods order between them cover all the vegetables, the cod, the sardines, the yogurt and the herbs. This is only what is still missing.
Produce: 6 lemons, 2 limes · 1 head garlic · fresh ginger · cilantro · 1 apple is already in the box, no need to buy · fresh curry leaves for the sambar (Indian grocery; frozen is an acceptable substitute, dried is not worth the trip)
Protein: salmon fillets ~¾ lb — not in the Whole Foods order, and Friday needs it · 1 block firm tofu · 8 eggs · Parmesan or pecorino · feta if you want it on the bowls
Pantry: 1 lb dried cannellini or great northern beans · 2 cans chickpeas · 1 can chopped tomatoes · farro 1 cup · toor dal ¾ cup · chia seeds ¾ cup · 4 Medjool dates · ¼ cup almonds · tamarind paste · tahini · maple syrup · rice · Dijon · red wine vinegar · olive oil · 1 loaf bread (breakfasts and the bean toasts) · whole milk for the chia jars
Spices: nothing to buy. Baingan bharta masala, sambar masala, turmeric, cumin, coriander, mustard seeds, hing, Kashmiri chilli, smoked paprika, oregano, garlic powder and limoo omani are all on the shelf, and the limoo is what makes Thursday's stew taste like it should.