May 11 // Street Corn Salad, Yummier Pizza, and Lemon-Basil Spritzer

Also Breakfast Sausage Scramble and Strawberry Basil Salad!

Hello! This month has been nuts so this is the last email for the week and we’ll catch up later 😉. I hope it encourages you 🙌

This week’s meals all use a lot of common ingredients (such as corn and basil) to simplify grocery shopping, they use even fewer instructions than usual, and they all taste fresh and wholesome. Hopefully you get to try some!

Breakfast: Breakfast Sausage Scramble
Lunches: Street Corn Salad, Strawberry Basil Salad
Dinners: Pizza with Basil, Pizza with Corn
Treat: Lemon-Basil Spritzer

Breakfast

Sausage Scramble

If you’re trying to buy more of your foods from local farms, breakfast sausage is a great place to start because it’s relatively inexpensive, you can stretch it across lots of meals, it’s difficult to ruin, and it’s delicious.

Simply sauté breakfast ground sausage (ideally the kind that already includes seasonings such as fennel, sage, garlic, rosemary, thyme, and smoked paprika) and add in chopped vegetables such as sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, onions, peppers, garlic, etc. along with seasonings to taste, such as the ones mentioned above. We used a wok and covered the pan to steam the vegetables without burning them. Cook until everything is nice and crispy. You probably won’t need to add any extra oil because the rendered fat from the sausage is amazing and adds lots of flavor.

You can also add eggs (though some might protest that texture) but we choose to cook ours separately. It’s hearty, tasty, and delicious.

Lunch

Street Corn Salad

This is inspired by a recipe from Love & Lemons; our family opted for Greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise.

Grill corn—or, even easier, thaw roasted corn from Trader Joe’s—and mix in salt, pepper, smoked paprika, garlic, cilantro, lime juice, cotija cheese, and mayo or Greek yogurt. Add a jalapeño if your family wouldn’t mind.

It’s fresh and tasty!

Strawberry Basil Salad

This recipe is also from Love & Lemons! Any salad that doesn’t require lettuce gets my attention 😉

Combine chopped strawberries, avocado, tomatoes, torn basil, and fresh mozzarella. Add salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil and balsamic, and maybe squeeze some lemon or lime juice. Stir it all together and you have a beautiful, colorful, and fresh meal.

Dinner

If you want to elevate your pizza game a little, try these simple improvements that pack a big punch:

-Use fresh dough (if you’re not ready to make your own, you can buy it at Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Walmart, Publix, etc.) The pizzas pictured here were each half a batch of Whole Foods’ $2.99 dough.
-Use fresh mozzarella. It’s fun to rip into shreds, or you can use the little mozzarella balls.
-Fresh basil is delicious on pizza.
-At the end, sprinkle salt, pepper, and a light drizzle of olive oil!
Here’s a basic pizza that used these minor improvements. It was super tasty!

This video can help inspire you to make better pizzas, too 🤗

Pizza with Corn

Did you know corn tastes awesome on pizza? If tomato sauce isn’t your thing, try multiple kinds of cheese with corn and basil on top. It’s so good, friends. (If you want a more official recipe, The Original Dish has a good one.)

Treat

Lemon-Basil Spritzer

This mocktail is super simple: stir together seltzer water, fresh lemon juice, and fresh basil. You can add a little sweetener such as maple syrup. Muddle that basil and remove (or strain) if you prefer. Then top with a lemon peel and basil for garnish. Whoever you give it to will feel fancy and refreshed!

Exercise

We’ve already shared about this Youtube channel before, but Grow With Jo is such a fun dance party and you’ll actually feel sore the next day. Try this one:

Anna McNulty’s stretching videos are so inspiring! Her perseverance is admirable. These stretches are a great start if you’re trying to become more flexible.

Hopefully this gave you some good ideas! Please send pics of any food ideas you try for yourself!

Warmly,

Hope and the Family Scripts team