One Potato August Cook's Calendar
Here's a preview of what's cooking this month so you can plan your meals, plus the sauces we'll be sharing, and new family activities to do in the kitchen.
Cooking with your Calendar
Welcome to this month’s Cook’s Calendar. You will receive one at the start of each month to reduce the stress of having to plan meals every night of the week. This is a feature that was requested by many of you. Do you like to stick to the dates? Vary them depending on the farmers market harvest? Click Here to let us know how the calendar is changing the way you approach meal planning and we will share your tips (just five quick questions, three are multiple choice - easy!).
We’ve been sending you new recipes (and pre-filled grocery links for those recipes) on Thursdays to help you prepare in advance. Whether you’re a “same day grocery orderer” or shopper, you can get cooking for a great Thursday night meal when you have all your ingredients before you. But, if you are scheduling your grocery delivery in advance, or planning to shop at the farmer’s market on the weekend, you can review the recipe and create your own plan for when you’d like to make that meal. (We like to print out the calendar from the downloadable link and hang it on the fridge - adding and moving meals depending on the type of week we are having.)
With each recipe, we’ll be giving you tips on doubling ingredients for leftovers, and how to combine into lunch or second meals that don’t taste like leftovers!
Getting Saucey
Now that we are warmed up (the weather is steamy), we’ll be featuring several of our beloved One Potato Special Sauces that you can access directly from these links! If you are looking for a cool, indoor kitchen activity this weekend, whip up a batch of a few so you can store the delectable sauces in your fridge or freezer. They’ll be ready to use when your weekly recipes arrive. Vinaigrettes (and all this month’s sauces) add pizzazz to multiple dishes. We encourage you to be creative about your sauce collection!
August Sauces
The Benefit of a Good Prep
One Potato recipes come to you with tips for prepping and storing your ingredients anytime - so it’s that much easier and quicker for you to prepare the meal.
Stock up your pantry
Here’s a reminder to stock up your One Potato Pantry & Fridge Staples. You can download and print the shopping list: One Potato Pantry Staples Printable Shopping List.
For some of the recipes this month, there are specialty ingredients (such as dashi, which is used to create an umami flavor in the Salmon Teriyaki dish). You can make the recipe without them, but we’ll also provide you with other dishes and inspiration for using these ingredients in future recipes. For easy online ordering, we’ve compiled the pantry & fridge staples in this Instacart grocery list. (See the bottom of this email for tips on using Instacart for ordering from the list.)
Here’s what’s cooking this August:
August 2nd
Recipe: Salmon or Tofu Teriyaki Dinner, featuring One Potato Teriyaki Sauce and light Soba Noodle Dressing
Prep: This dish comes together quickly on a weeknight, and if you want to pre-slice your cucumbers and red peppers, you can breeze through it even faster. You can store the veggies in an airtight container until ready to use.
Make Extra: This flavorful salmon, and the soba noodles, are delicious cold. Make extra noodles for a cold Soba noodle salad for lunch, top with any protein you wish: leftover salmon, or shredded chicken or tofu, for a new dish. You can even enjoy the soba noodles in their light dressing on their own, adding some hemp hearts or sesame seeds for a healthy snack.
August 4th - Get Growing with Chef Lola
Activity: “Get Growing with Lola” will cover not only great tips for harvesting basil leaves, but how to keep store-bought basil fresh longer. Lola will also review harvest tips for other fresh herbs (parsley, mint, chives, etc.). Plus, keep an eye out for a super quick Back to School survey from us at One Potato.
Prep: On Thursday, you’ll be cooking up some gnocchi with pesto sauce - so if you haven’t yet made a batch of One Potato Chia Seed Pesto, read Chef Lola’s tips for harvesting your homegrown basil in today’s email, collect all your ingredients, and get ready to whip up some homemade pesto - with a nut-free recipe. We’ve heard from many of you that this is a favorite recipe!
August 8th
Recipe: Spinach Gnocchi with Chia Seed Pesto - our version is nut-free! Dress your side salad in our One Potato Red Wine Vinaigrette
In this recipe, we’ll share how to make your own homemade spinach gnocchi in only 15 minutes, using frozen spinach. Of course, if you don’t want to spend time making gnocchi, enjoy the Chia Seed Pesto over your favorite pasta or store-bought gnocchi or ravioli.
Make Extra: Stored properly in the freezer, homemade gnocchi will keep for up to 4 months, so you can have it any time. For an extra meal this week, add pesto to your breakfast (or have Breakfast for Dinner!) by whipping it into scrambled eggs or stirring into Greek yogurt. Add a little white vinegar and olive oil and you get a zesty marinade for grilling vegetables. You can also use this pesto as a delicious sauce on homemade pizza, instead of using a tomato-based pizza sauce. In fact, next week we’re featuring a homemade pizza recipe…
August 11th
Remember the Environmental Working Group’s list of the Clean 15 Fruits and Vegetables? This month we’re sharing more information about the Dirty Dozen - a list of fruits and vegetables that tested for high levels of pesticides and fungicides.
Prep: Make a batch of the One Potato Pizza Sauce or use leftover Chia Seed Pesto as your pizza-sauce base in this week’s upcoming recipe. Also, keep a jar of One Potato’s Lemon Vinaigrette on hand to dress your Greek salad.
Activity: Print out One Potato’s quick reference charts of the Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen, and go on a scavenger hunt in the grocery store. Share with your kids ways to choose fruits and vegetables with lower pesticide levels, like buying organic or washing produce thoroughly.
August 15th
Recipe: Homemade Pizza with Greek Salad, dress with One Potato’s Red Wine Vinaigrette or Lemon Vinaigrette whichever you prefer
Prep: Prep your salad ingredients by chopping the cucumbers and halving the grape tomatoes and kalamata olives (or buy pre-sliced). Prep any pizza toppings that you want to use when you get your groceries from the store.
Make Extra: We love cold pizza as a summer snack but we know that not everyone agrees. But if you have extra chopped toppings from the pizza, they can make a tasty antipasto snack or addition to a salad.
August 18th
Keep an eye out for our second installment of the Order Up! One Potato Community Member Profile. We’ll also be sending you a recipe for a refreshing summer drink. If you want to be featured in an upcoming installment, reach out to us at hello@onepotato.com. We love learning about your family cooking experiences and what your kids can teach us!
August 22nd
Recipe: Garlic Shrimp or Tofu Veggie Skewers with Tropical Salsa, side of Sweet Corn Pilaf
Prep: To save time, buy pre-cut fresh pineapple and mango for your tropical salsa side dish. When you bring your veggies home from the store, pre-cut red peppers to make cooking your pilaf even quicker.
Make Extra: Make extra brown rice. Extra rice can always serve as a great base and a quick dinner fix if you saute some veggies, stir in the rice, and then sprinkle with parmesan for an easy veggie risotto.
August 25th
BACK TO SCHOOL?! We can get nostalgic when we think about character lunch boxes or paper bags with mom-drawn pictures. While many students are eating in school cafeterias, we want to hear what your kids like to make snack time better. Do your kids trade their snacks? We give you some yummy snacks your kids won’t want to give up.
We’ll be sharing results from our Back-to-School Reader Survey - you can get a head start by taking the survey here, and sharing your back to school pain points in feeding your family. Don’t worry, we’ll be sending direct links to the survey in the first week of August.
August 29th
Recipe: Yogurt-Marinated Persian Chicken Kabobs for Labor Day party dish inspiration. Dress your side salad with the Lemon Vinaigrette - we love having this on hand!
This is a great dish for a summer week night dinner on the grill (see last week - we’re loving kebabs at the moment!) and easy to bring with you to an end-of-summer Labor Day BBQ.
BONUS: We’ll be revisiting what to do with those BBQ leftovers, as well as sharing some more ideas.
Prep: When you bring home your grocery haul that includes your chicken and marinade ingredients, whip together your yogurt marinade. Start marinating your chicken at least 2 hours in advance for a fuller flavor. If you’re short on time, just be sure your first step is marinating the chicken while you prep the rest of the recipe.
Happy Labor Day Weekend, One Potato Family!
Looking for one of your favorite One Potato recipes? Let us know in the comments, or send us an email hello@onepotato.com and we’ll try to add it to an upcoming calendar.
Looking for one of your favorite One Potato recipes? Let us know in the comments, or send us an email hello@onepotato.com and we’ll try to add it to an upcoming calendar.
How to Use Our Online Shopping Lists
Remember: In our linked Shopping List, the cart might have multiple brands of the same ingredient listed - in case you want the sugar free or organic version, for example. All you need to do to have the ingredients quickly delivered is
Verify your location
Choose your preferred store and delivery service (Instacart will show you how many items in the list are available at your preferred store; if the item we’ve recommended is not available they should show you an alternative item)
Confirm the items and quantities that you want to purchase - Click the “Add” button next to the ingredient you want to add to your cart
Check out and schedule your delivery
Feel free to message us with any questions