With all the holidays, it’s been a while since I’ve posted my weekly menu! Now that cold weather here, I’m shifting into winter fare – and winter dishes are not only satisfying and warming, they’re simple to make. Winter is a time to slow down, snuggle up with your kids on the couch, and enjoy the mellowness of the days spent together. Porridges, soups, stews – now is the kind of weather when these kind of dishes are appreciated.
Shabbos – dinner – challah, chicken soup, meatballs in sauce, roast potatoes, ratatouille, salad, chocolate/carob cake (we forgot to take the fruit crumble out of the freezer or we would have that as well); lunch – chicken, beef cholent, kishke, mango noodle kugel, potato shells with vegetable filling, broccoli plum salad, Israeli salad, pear chutney, chocolate chip cookie bars, melon, and chocolate/carob cake
Before I make up my menu for the week, I take a quick survey of what’s in the fridge. That way I can be sure to integrate any leftovers or any vegetables that might otherwise be forgotten and spoil. I don’t shop for the things on my menu; my menu is generally made up of things that I already have. This is a very different approach from what is generally suggested, which is to make up a menu and then go buy the ingredients you need. That’s a good approach, so if you’re doing that and it works for you, keep doing it! The advantage of my way is it saves more money because I’m taking advantage of whatever sale items I’ve bought, so all the ingredients I use will be purchased at a discounted price. This alone means my meals cost 30 – 50% of what I’d pay if the ingredients I needed but planned for weren’t on sale.
Sunday – brunch-coconut honey pudding; dinner – creamy butternut squash soup (we have loads of butternut squash from our garden), beef cholent, noodle casserole
Monday – breakfast – buckwheat muffins; lunch – spaghetti squash with tomato vegetable sauce; dinner – Mexican lasagna, salad
Tuesday – breakfast – millet porridge; lunch – sausage hash and potatoes; dinner – chickpea and peanut stew, rice
Wednesday – breakfast – egg muffins; lunch – will pick something up when doing monthly shopping; dinner – stuffed cabbage soup
Thursday – breakfast – Amish oatmeal, lunch – CORN; dinner – vegetable bean soup
Sunday I usually do some preparatory work for the meals of the week. This week that will include soaking and sprouting the beans for Mexican lasagna, chickpea and peanut stew, and bean vegetable soup. I’ll start cooking a large pot of bone broth since I use that as the base for as much as I can for flavor and nutritional value – soups, stews, and to cook grains. I haven’t made yogurt for a very long time but I’d like to give it a try this week – it’s getting to be challenging to find anything but nonfat and lowfat yogurt in the stores). I also want to get a sourdough starter going so I will have it to bake with next week. And since I only have a small amount of fermented sauerkraut left (out of a gallon), I’ll probably prepare make ginger carrots.
My ds16 has an allergy to wheat gluten, which we’ve known about since he was seven or eight but it wasn’t major so we didn’t do much about it. Though I’m sure the soaking of grains helps foods digest more easily for him, he decided last week he wants to try not to eat any wheat for a while and see if he feels any differently. I planned this week’s menu with him in mind. I also planned my bulk order with him in mind, and ordered 30 lb of quinoa instead of the 50 lb of spelt I was planning to get (I already have plenty of millet, rice, oats, and buckwheat) so that I’ll have more options for him.
Avivah
Is this similar to your receipe?
http://www.recipezaar.com/Chickpea-Peanut-Stew-83748
I’m going to give that one a try, but would love your receipe too.
Yes, that was the original recipe that I adapted to our family’s tastes. The main changes are I don’t use chili peppers and I use chicken broth instead of vegetable broth for the base.
I would love to have the recipe or the coconut honey pudding, mexican lasanga, and the egg muffins. If any of these are in Nourishing Traditions or Eat Fat, Lose Weight you needn’t type out the recipe unless someone else wants them as I have the books (but since I lent them out to a friend I can’t check if these are in there at this moment).
When you make mexican lasanga or noodle casserole, what type of noodles do you use. We use brown nice pasta for lasanga, but it is costly so I was wondering what you do.
None of those recipes are from either of the sources you mentioned, so I’ll post them in the next couple of days. I found the Mexican lasagna recipe because I was looking for a way to use the corn tortillas I have in the freezer – I don’t use pasta often.
Hi Avivah,
I just wanted to tell you that I love your blog and have recommended it to many homeschool moms. I have a 2 year old and newborn, so I’m at a different stage, but I agree with many of your ideas and even the ones that I don’t agree with are enjoyable to read and enlightening.
I really took your idea of creating a personal parenting philosophy seriously and I am in the middle of a book you mentioned The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families.
I wanted to mention another book called Happiness is Homemade. Ever heard of it?
1 quick question: when you mention things like coconut-honey pudding for brunch is that all your family eats? or are you just listing it as a main dish with other things to supplement? do your children snack in between meals? if so, what kinds of things? maybe you mentioned this somewhere but I don’t remember.
Thanks again for this beautiful blog,
Estee
Hi, Estee – thank you for being here! I haven’t heard of the book you mentioned but I’ll look for it.
When I do my weekly menus I usually (didn’t do it this time so I’m glad you asked!) make a note at the end that what I post are the main dishes; breakfasts are usually supplemented with fruit and milk, lunch and dinners are supplemented by vegetables or whatever else is around. Today my kids made a couple of pots of popcorn (one regular, one caramel) for a snack in between brunch and dinner. When we have snacks, it’s most often on a day like Sunday when only two meals are scheduled.
I own Happiness is Homemade if you want to borrow it.
As with almost any book on the market, I’m sure there will be things you agree with and things you don’t agree with in the book 🙂
Hi Avivah –
I was wondering if there is any pro and con issue in terms of health or money wise of using stainless steel pans vs. pyrex. I have not been able to find cheaper good quality stainless steel pans but I can find pretty resonable pyrex pans.
Thanks Debbie
My personal avoidance of pyrex has to do with it being a breakable material that doesn’t stack efficiently. My kids do a lot of the cooking and I try to avoid getting things that can break; it makes the atmosphere more relaxed. And I like when I can most efficiently use my cabinet space – I have more dishes and more pans than most people so I need to find a way to make sure they all fit! I haven’t researched pyrex but based on the little I know about it, healthwise I wouldn’t have any hesitations.
Thanks Aviva. I will probably give this a try this week with the chili pepper. We do spicy here, which probably isn’t too surprising.
And I routinely leave out anything hot or spicy that is called for! 🙂
You can find whole fat yogurt at Trader Joes — and their prices are pretty darn good too. They also have full fat goat yogurt — yum!
Thanks, Yael – I recently discovered this (along with their extremely affordable coconut milk – a new mainstay of my pantry!), and was really glad since it’s the only place I’ve found full fat yogurt. TJ prices are reasonable, but I’m interested in seeing how much I can make for the same price, and see how much effort is involved. We use two 32 oz containers for one breakfast, and when each is $3, that starts to add up quickly.
isn’t Stonyfield Farms Whole milk yogurt full fat? We don’t have TJ here 🙁
Do you make both chicken and beef bone broth?
Do you use the carcass after you eat the meat or do you make your broth with the meat on uncooked?
Do you keep the broths in your freezer in small compartments? I am trying to figure out the bet way to have them to use for stews, soups, and grains and I was wondering your method. Thanks
Thanks for posting the recipes, Avivah. I can’t wait to try them.
I don’t know about Stonyfield, since they’re above my price point for yogurt.
I’m fortunate to have a free source of turkey carcasses, so that’s the kind of broth I usually make. After cooking the carcass for broth, I use the meat for a dish like pot pie or a stir fry. Or give it to our cat. 🙂
I don’t usually need to freeze broth because I use it so often. I make a large pot – about twelve quarts worth – every week. I refrigerate it and take what I need as I need it. It’s almost always gone at the end of the week. In the summer I don’t use as much so then I freeze part of it, in a container that holds about four cups, and sometimes I can it. I appreciate the convenience of canning it, since it doesn’t take up freezer space and it doesn’t require any defrosting time.
LN – thank you for the offer. I did a search for it at the library system I use and didn’t find it, so I will probably take you up on the offer to borrow the book. Right now the stack next to my bed is fairly high so I’ll probably wait a couple of weeks!
Oh – edited to say I just realized that this is a frum book and that’s why I couldn’t find it either library system I checked. I saw a picture of the cover and remember browsing it in a book store, but I’d have to read it again!
Yeah, it’s by Rochel Arbus. I got it as a gift…Let me know whenever you want it 🙂
I have to come back to find the link to the recipe when it didn’t show up on my google search. After making this every other week, I figured it was time to write it down. Thanks for a great receipe. Can’t wait for dinner.