Weekly menu plan

Today ds10 asked me what we were having for lunch, and I suggested to that he start writing some ideas of what he’d like down for the week.  He ended up getting a call from a friend and going out with him, but dd13 decided to put her ideas down instead.  I asked her to make it slanted more towards non-meat meals since our camping trip was so high on the meat proteins (used 12 pounds of hamburgers, 5.5 lb beef hotdogs, and a couple of pounds of canned ground meat for chili – for three dinners).  After writing it all out, she told me now she appreciates the effort it takes for me to do it every week!  Here is what she decided on:

Shabbos – dinner – chicken breasts in coconut curry sauce; roasted root vegetables, rice, gravy, salad, pecan power bars, apples; lunch- meatballs, sweet potato pudding, marinated mushrooms, Japanese radish, sweet and sour carrots, fresh salad, hot cherry peppers, pear chutney, watermelon, pecan power bars

Sunday – b – oats and milk; l – apples and peanut butter; d – chicken coconut curry, rice, pickled veggies

Monday – b – banana bread; l – peanut butter popcorn; d – split pea soup, cornbread

Tues – b- polenta; l  – leftover split pea soup; d – pizza

Wed – b – Perfect pancakes (flour soaked overnight – not indicated in recipe); l – sweet potato fries, ricotta cheese; d – chicken noodle soup

Thurs – b- Amish oatmeal; l -to be determined; d – bean burritoes

The breakfasts will be supplemented with fruit.  Dinners and lunches are supplemented with vegetables – we’ve used a lot of our home grown veggies in the last weeks.   Almost all of the squash plants were hit by powdery mildew and are dying now, but we got a lot of nice winter squash before that hit that I’m putting in storage – mostly butternut squash, since that’s what we planted the most of, but we also have acorn squash and a couple of pumpkins.  So far our tomato plants are still doing well, despite the blight that has hit a huge number of gardeners across the country.

I really would like to put in our fall/winter garden right away, but haven’t yet done it because I don’t have compost to add to the soil.  Last Shabbos we had an organic landscaper and his family for Shabbos lunch, and he told me to speak to him since he sometimes comes across stuff that would be good for boosting soil quality for free that he’d be happy to pass on to me.  If I can get a truckload of stuff this week (not likely, but you never know!), then I’ll try to get the cold weather seeds in.  I specifically ordered a bunch of seeds that can flourish in the winter in my part of the country, mostly green leafy vegetables, to supplement our meals even when the summer is over.  I’ve never done that before and would love to see how it works out.  But it’s not worth trying to grow in clay soil that hasn’t been amended.

I also need to start saving seeds for the coming season – the autumn is already almost here!  That’s something I’ve never done before, but whatever seeds I can save from my heirlooms will save me the cost of needing to buy those seeds in the spring.

I’m planning to go fruit picking with the kids this week, pears and maybe figs, if the person I was in touch with a month ago still has them (they were unripe when we went).  Naturally, whatever we pick will end up in large part being eaten fresh this week!

Avivah

6 thoughts on “Weekly menu plan

  1. I just packed up hot dogs, hamburgers, chili, and tofu mac and cheese for our meals. Guess all campers have the same menus! 🙂 And the week after we get back, we’ll go apple-picking, be”h. 🙂 We’re just lagging a week behind you all! Shavua tov…

  2. I noticed that many of your oat recipes call for rolled or quick oats. Can you substitute steel cut oats instead? Would you add more liquids or cook/bake longer, etc…?

    Thank you for posting recipes. I tried the Dutch Puffs today and the kids really liked them (especially the name).

  3. Sara – I answered this when you asked it on the Amish oatmeal recipe but it looks like something happened to my computer before it posted so it didn’t show up, so I’ll answer it here! (Mentioning that since I don’t want you to think I ignored the question the first time.):) I don’t think steel cut oats will substitute well since they are an entirely different consistency. I always have steel cut oats in the pantry, but don’t use them very often – when I do, it’s soaked overnight and then cook them with milk. The kids strongly prefer rolled oats to steel cut. But you can try soaking them overnight so they’ll be softer, and then experiment with how it works as a substitute.

  4. Thank you for answering my question here. I kept checking the amish oatmeal post and when I never saw an answer I assumed you never saw it.

    Two quick (or not so quick questions):

    1. I was under the impression that steel cut outs were nutritionally superior to rolled (or other types of) oats. Is that incorrect? I happen to like using oats as I feel there has been a positive correlation between our oat intake and a drastic reduction in our cholesterol levels (though I’m not sure how important cholesterol levels are but anyway…).

    2. I assume you soak the oats in water and cook them in raw milk. I tried looking for posts related to raw milk and I couldn’t find any. I recall reading that you use raw milk. Did I miss something? I am interested in using raw milk but I can’t figure out how to get any that is chalav yisroel.

  5. Steel cut oats aren’t any different nutritionally than rolled oats – the only difference is rolled oats are steamed to flatten them in a roller. Here’s a source with some more details that you may find helpful. http://coachlevi.com/nutrition/rolled-oats-steel-cut-oats-difference/

    Here’s a non-comprehensive post on raw milk, but I’ve mentioned other things about it in different posts. http://vibrantmoms.com/nutrition/raw-milk/. For more details on soaking various foods: http://vibrantmoms.com/nutrition/soaking-grains-flours-beans-and-seeds/.

    Re: chalav yisroel – you could make a day trip to upstate NY and get it direct from a farmer – you can watch it being milked. Would make an educational and fun ‘field trip’. 🙂 I read somewhere online that there’s a rabbi in Monsey (??) that you can order raw milk and similar kind of things from – sorry, don’t remember where I saw that or I’d look it up to pass the info on to you.

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