Back to School Meal Guide

Written By Hanna Gilreath

Back to School is finally here, it doesn’t seem quite real that it has returned so soon. With the kickoff of school comes busier schedules, more after school activities, and for many this equates to less time to spend thinking about and preparing food at night. It is easy to see why this time of year leads many of us straight to the drive thru line! While I cannot say we have figured it all out I do know that with a new baby, a business, and one of us still in graduate school we don’t have a lot of time every night to spend in the kitchen. Therefore all of our meals and snacks have to be quick, easy, and nutrient dense. Also, we will be adding more and more to our online store so that you can buy online each week and pick up in store, saving you from having to stop and go in the grocery store every night!

STAPLES (my weekly must have on hand to make things easier items)

  • Sourdough Bread (we have this available in store). - For me a sandwich saves me for lunch many days and any bread going stale I can toast to make croutons, breadcrumbs, or a breakfast casserole.

    • For those who really want to make sourdough at home we now have a sourdough starter for sale! I can’t tell you making your own bread is time friendly, but I do love it!

  • Milky Way Farms Milk- Raw milk is a constant in the house. It helps to improve gut health, provides essential vitamins, and is necessary in my morning coffee.

  • Ground Beef- We currently have ground beef from Yon Family Farms at the market $8 per lb. (you get a price break when you purchase 5 lbs at a time).

  • Bacon/Sausage - Currently we source our pork from NC. Having quick options of these is a must have in our house. I am a huge fan of breakfast for dinner.

  • Siete Chips - we tend to reach for a 4pm snack and for us these chips just work! No seed oils, no long list of preservatives, but all the good!

  • Pasta- Naked Pasta out of Greenville, SC stocks our store and I am a pasta once a week person. There are so many ways to make a pasta nutrient dense such as adding bone broth, lean proteins, quality dairy milk, seasonal veggies. The list is endless!

  • Siete Taco Shells/ Taco seasoning - We carry both of these in store and truly my go to dinner when I have no time to cook is tacos or nachos!

  • Silva Coffee- I am not going to be caught starting my day without coffee!!!

  • Salametti Sticks- Think about the best snack sticks you’ve ever had then double it. These are charcuterie level snack sticks and are what we both reach for constantly! The pigs for these are raised just down the road in Townville, SC.

  • Microgreens- Microgreens get so overlooked! When you’re needing a quick way to make sure you’re getting all of your micronutrients this is such an easy hack to get those in. I add them to potatoes, eggs, and chicken. Whatever you’re eating I promise it could be enhanced by these!

  • Take and Bake Casserole- Everybody needs a planned and prepared meal! Having a quality frozen casserole is a life saver for sure and has kept us from ordering in quite a few times. We are fortunate enough to have tomato pie, lasagna, and spinach manicotti here in store! ( We hope to expand this further )

Sample Meals!

Quick Pizza Panini

  • You need (We have all of these ingredients available in the store)

    • Rutter’s ranch coppa

    • sourdough bread

    • fresh mozzarella cheese

    • naked pasta marinara sauce

  • Put marinara on one or both pieces of bread, top with fresh mozzarella and marinara sauce. Press into a preheated oven that has some melted butter in it and toast both sides! It is that simple and can be done in under 10 minutes. You can even add microgreens to this sandwich to increase nutrient density. You could pair it with a fresh vegetable or a salad.

Vegetable Soup

  • You need

    • Charleston’s Favorites Vegetable Soup

    • 1lb Ground Beef

  • All you have to do on this one is brown your ground beef, add in the vegetable soup, add any extra veggies you want and it’s good to go!! Bonus if you add in some cornbread made with Marsh Hen Mill Cornmeal.

Fettuccine Alfredo

  • You need

    • Naked Pasta Fettuccine

    • Naked Pasta Alfredo Sauce

    • DarkSpore Oyster Mushrooms (Optional)

    • Microgreens

  • For this recipe I boil my noodles, add in sauce, and add in the sautéed mushrooms ! Top each bowl with microgreens and you’re all set!

Hamburger Steak with Rice

  • You need

    • 1lb Ground Hamburger meat

    • Yep Seasoning

    • Marsh Hen Mill Carolina Gold Rice

    • DarkSpore oyster mushrooms

  • Make hamburger steaks to your choosing (I like ketchup, yep seasoning, salt and pepper) , Cook in cast iron with olive oil until done to temperature. Add mushrooms to the pan with leftover hamburger fat (you could throw onions in here too) and sauté until tender.

    • One step further is to cook mushrooms in a separate pan with butter and scrape the pan drippings. Add flour and Milky Way farms milk. Season with salt and pepper and you have an easy gravy for this!

  • In a pot cook Carolina gold rice with bone broth. Season with yep seasoning

    • Cooking with bone broth for grains is something I love to do. Not only does it increase gut health and make the grain easier to digest but it boosts total protein of a dish!

If you purchase all of the items to make one of these meals for farm pickup on 8/14, 8/14, or 8/16 you will receive 10% back off the ingredients!

Hanna Gilreath
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