Welcome to Meals for a Year

a collaborative project from Feeding the Soil

We're excited you're here! This project is a collaboration of kindred spirits from the Feeding the Soil community. We came together to create a year of meals that are:

• vegetarian
• healthy
• quick and simple
• limited to a reasonable number of ingredients
• seasonally appropriate, when possible

You can click on any month to the right and see a month worth of meals, organized by week. Each week has its own shopping list that is organized both by recipe and by area of the grocery store.

This resource was created by the following amazing people:

Ellie is a pescatarian lawyer living in Baltimore who enjoys reading, running, cooking, and crafting. She and her husband are making their way through a CSA share for the first time this year and have really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know some new vegetables, but she is looking for a way to make meal planning easier with a CSA share (so will be looking for meals that can incorporate a variety of vegetables). She writes about cooking at Barefoot and in the Kitchen.

Brenna is a ninth grade English teacher living in Iowa. She is currently finishing her masters research paper and carrying her first child, due in March 2012. She loves to cook (especially when the plans are already made!), does not like watermelon, and lives with her husband, John, and her pet rabbit, Clark. She inconsistently writes about teaching here and tweets about it here.

Rachael is just like all the other Jewish, vegetarian, weight-lifting librarians you know. Rachael has a passion for clean eating and fitness, and spends her free time quilting and crafting. Rachael's recently discovered Pinterest, and has so much fun pinning healthy recipes and using local ingredients. She lives in Indianapolis with her husband and two rescued lhasa apsos, Butch and Cassidy.

Stephanie is sick of food going to waste in the fridge because she just doesn't know what to do with it any more. Her, and her husband are trying to have a baby while searching for "home" and community (which she writes about in her blog Away We Go). Although Stephanie currently lives in Vancouver, BC and works as an event coordinator for a non-profit, she is hoping to move her family and start her own business on the other side of the country for a life in the Maritimes.

Robyn lives and works in Colorado with her husband and goofy dog. She spends her free time hiking up mountains (and sometimes between them), riding her bike, skiing, knitting and crafting. Her husband is recovering from a liver transplant and so they are trying to eat even healthier than before. She often finds that the hardest part is planning the meals and having the ingredients ready to go after a long day of work, the actually cooking is usually pretty easy.

Gracia is a 27 year-old Spanish newlywed (a year later is still newlywed, right) who works from home as a freelance translator. Her husband lost his job a couple of weeks ago, so she's trying to plan more her meals in an attempt to waste less food and stick to a budget better.

Seanacey relocated to Walla Walla, Washington about a year ago after spending two years as an English teacher in Japan, and is still trying to satisfy cravings for the amazingly fresh and seasonal food she experienced there (also the weird but wonderful desserts: black sesame flavored softserve, anyone?). She's an avid runner, a weekday vegetarian, and more than a little obsessed with Twin Peaks.

Sebrina is a young newlywed non-housewife. While she enjoys cooking daily meals, the cleaning and laundry get left to her husband but it's ok because they both are part-time freelancers and full-time Christian ministry volunteers. They are living as simply and cheaply as possible to prepare for a year of travel in 2012. You can read more about her various pursuits at Mismikado Down the Sidewalk.

Kate is a candidate for a Master in Public Policy at the University of Michigan, which she hopes to turn into a career fighting for the rights of mothers. She has a daughter, Sylvia, whose job is to be a baby, and a husband, Tim, whose job it is to be a computer programmer. She blogs at Practicing Empathy and sometimes Geeky Wives. She loves trying new recipes and loves super quick simple things, so this is a great way to try new things and share what works for her!

Julie loves food and spends probably too much time perusing food blogs for inspiration. She grows, shops for and cooks food for herself and husband Brian. Most evenings find her with a glass of wine in hand, alternating between checking out the garden, visiting with her chickens and being followed around by her dog Django and cat Maceo as she puts together some dinner. Julie derives great satisfaction both from carefully planning a week of menus and from being creative and spontaneous in the kitchen. She is so excited to share some of here favorite recipes with everyone!

Paige is a runner, writer, and foodie who lives in Los Angeles, California. Her favorite time of the month is when her CSA box gets dropped off at her doorstep and she gets to see what fresh produce she gets to play with for the next couple of weeks. Until she sells one of her screenplays, Paige is working as a Hollywood assistant.In her spare time, she writes scripts, novels, short stories and songs, devours college football games,watches way too much reality tv...oh, and cook. You can keep up with Paige and her latest food experiments on her blog -- Why Meatloaf?

Lauren lives in New York State with her fiance and 2 furry friends (a cat and a dog). She loves cooking but never seems to have time between her job (which takes over her life far too frequently), time with the fiance, and a little thing called sleep. She loves cooking and figuring out ways to reduce the fat in her favorite recipes without losing any flavor.

Sara runs two blogs, facilitates an online course about preparing your mind, body, and life for pregnancy, is writing a book about how to plan a meaningful and memorable wedding without losing your savings or sanity, is starting a national network of Montessori charter schools, and volunteers as the Director of Operations and Compliance for Austin Achieve--but only during her son's naptimes. Thankfully, Henry is a good napper and goes to bed early.

We hope you enjoy!