With our record snowfall, I’ve been snowed in for a week now. We were stuck three days after the first snow and then a bunch of neighbors got together to pay for a private snowplow (our city isn’t very good about plowing side streets – my in laws two miles away are in a different county and they had the county plow go down their street four times; in one day; they can’t believe what we have to deal with). Then there was the next snow and our street was so blocked up, the private plow we tried to hire couldn’t get through! The city plowed our street on Friday, but it still doesn’t look like I’ll be going anywhere for a couple more days since the new radiator in our van sprung a leak (fortunately it’s under warranty). Right before the last snow I picked up enough vegetables for two weeks, as I do every two weeks (around $50 for two weeks, so I stayed within the $25 limit I said I was committing to; anything else I need will be coming from whatever is in the pantry or freezer).
I’d be feeling very, very low on food by now if I had the habit of buying just a little more than I need; I never expected that it would be so long before I could get out, but it doesn’t really make a difference to me. Even though it’s been a month since I shopped (except for getting the vegetables a week ago) and out of a couple of staples that I rely heavily on (raw milk and eggs), we’re doing fine.
Here’s the menu plan for this week:
Shabbos – dinner – challah, chicken soup, roast chicken and potatoes, carrot raisin tzimmes, beet salad, peanut butter cups; lunch – cholent (beef stew), eggplant dip, kishke (stuffing), traffic light salad, beet salad, ginger tamari corn chips/blue corn chips with dip
Sunday – breakfast – oranges and pumpkin pie; lunch – homemade eggrolls; dinner- hoppin’ john with gribenes
Monday – b – coconut rice (will share recipe later this week); l – mushroom barley soup; d – sausage chowder
Tuesday – b – banana nut muffins; l – mushroom barley soup; d – baked fish, fried okra
Wednesday – b – quinoa pudding (w/coconut milk); l – cabbage soup; d – Jamaican rice and beans
Thursday – b – blueberry Dutch puffs; l – CORN (Clean Out Refrigerator Night – well, day in this case :)); d – tacos, guacamole
Today I’m doing a some advance prep for the meals for this week. In recent months I’ve been moving away from relying heavily on grains and beans, but am falling back on them more this week to compensate for not being able to go shopping for milk and eggs.
I’m soaking 4 pounds of black eyed peas for the hoppin’ John and Jamaican rice and beans, 2 pounds of red beans and 2 pounds of chickpeas for the sausage chowder. All except the black eyed peas I need for tonight’s dinner will be strained in the morning to begin sprouting. I’m also soaking five cups of rice for breakfast tomorrow as well as a couple of pounds of barley for the soup. I have a new way of soaking grains to break down the phytic acid that I’m experimenting with and will share that once I see what the results are.
I have another 16 quart pot of stock on the stove. It’s crazy how much stock we’re going through – at least three pots this size every week. As always, stocks are at the foundation of many of my meals; even those that look vegetarian are cooked with a rich stock base to boost the nutrients.
(This post is part of Menu Plan Monday.)
Avivah
you’re living proof that a well stocked pantry serves you well! great menu!
Hi, Tami, welcome! Having a well stocked pantry is key to keeping costs down and food quality up, regardless of the weather. 🙂
Good thing you were well stocked! I am in California and can’t imagine being snowed in. Sounds pretty miserable!
What’s in traffic light salad?
Hi, PS- welcome! Traffic light salad consists of red, yellow, and green peppers diced up with black olives and an olive oil dressing. We love it!
The funny thing is that for me, I’m really not well stocked right now. I shop once a month and I’m due for my big stock up, so all of this snow cam at the ‘end’ of my larder. But we’re still holding out pretty well. 🙂
Wow, those dutch puffs sound amazing! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
🙂
Hi Avivah –
I know this is not the right place for this but can you share how you go about deciding which sites you pick for your research. There are so many sites out there that say so many things that are opposite of each other. It is a little overwhelming to first off find the information and second of all know who to trust.
Thanks
Devoiry
It’s a good question; I wish I had something black and white to recommend. I kind of have developed a sense of what kind of info I’m looking for; it helps that I’m a very fast reader so I can quickly scan one site and be on to the next one without wasting much time. I’d probably start someone off with the Weston Price Foundation site (westonaprice.org) for questions about nutrition; there’s tons of info there on nutrition related matters but it can be a little overwhelming at first. At this point I know of many other blogs that write about things along the lines that interest me, but none of them were out there when I started eating the way I do.
As far as natural remedy kind of issues, I just keep looking for what makes sense to me. I don’t blindly follow suggestions without understanding why something should work first. I try to learn about different properties of herbs and when to use them. I generally do a google search for something like ‘natural remedy for xyz’ (whatever I’m interested in), and keep reading until I get a good sense of what I want to explore further. I basically ignore any site that is selling a particular product or look for components of the remedy they’re offering to see what the active ingredients are.
Hope that isn’t confusing!
Thanks Avivah I will give it a try even though I am not a fast reader but I will try the google search and see what comes up.
First off, we are obsessed with the dutch puffs and have been for awhile!!! Could you share the recipe for the eggroll and cabbage soup. I’m getting some cabbage tomorrow and need tomethign else to make besides sauerkraut. Thanks as always!
I got the recipe for eggrolls from recipezaar and healthified it, but I threw it away. I made up the cabbage soup, but I’ll try to post the approximate amounts.
Thanks for the link to the dutch puffs — I made blueberry ones this week and it’s a good, filling breakfast!
As far as your PB cups go, I have to tell you that you brought all 3 of my kids to tears because of them. 😀
My oldest last night “complained”: “Mommy, these are so yummy, I can’t NOT have any more”.
My second this morning when asked what he wanted for breakfast: “Chocolate Peanut Butter” — sorry, that was a treat last night, there is no more…”But I LOVE it.”
And my third last night started crying because her hands got so dirty and she hates being a mess!
I think it was a hit 😀
(We added chopped walnuts to it for crunch.)
Lol, I’m glad they liked the pb cups – sorry about the emotional fallout, though! And also glad you liked the Dutch puffs – it’s a nice simple breakfast.
I tried the healthy chocolate with agave and they are great. My kids also approve of your recipes!
I’m so glad it was successful – thanks for letting me know!