Weekly menu plan

Last week I didn’t make a menu plan after Passover ended, and for Weds, Thurs, and Fri, it  felt like the kids were constantly asking for food and wanting to know what we were having for the next meal – I didn’t have an answer except ‘I don’t know yet, ask me later’! Menu planning is a great tool to keep everyone well-fed and happy.  🙂

Believe it or not, we haven’t had any chametz yet!  Totally the opposite of those who mob the pizza and bagels stores the night Pesach ends, isn’t it?!  This week I’ll be making some dishes that use flour because I have 1.5 gallons of sour milk to use, and soaking flour in sour milk lends a great flavor and texture to quick breads.  (Realize that I’m referring to raw milk that has naturally soured, not pasteurized milk – which when it goes off is called spoiled, not soured.)

Shabbos – dinner – meatloaf, potato kugel, carrot pineapple salad, fresh salad, sauteed green beans and onions, regal chocolate nut butter bars (dd made this up and used almond flour instead of regular flour; it was pretty amazing and I’ll try to make it a couple more times to see how it is with honey instead of sucanat and reducing the sweetener by half – then I’ll share it with you); l – chicken, chopped liver, napa salad, carrot salad, sweet potato pie, pickles, potato kugel, regal chocolate nut butter bars

Sunday – brunch – amaranth, fruit; d – leftovers

Monday – b – pumpkin bread, apples, peanut butter; l – beef vegetable stew; d – Keema alu (Indian ground beef with potatoes)

Tuesday – b – biscuits, eggs; l – Jamaican pigeon peas and rice; d – amaranth cornbread, chili

Wednesday – b – berry muffins; l – twice baked potatoes; d – homemade pizza, salad

Thursday – b – banana bread, fruit; l – vegetable pilaf with cashews; d – hoppin’ John (black eyed peas and rice)

Friday – b – raisin scones; l – leftovers

I’m seriously considering beginning the GAPS diet for the entire family next week, so this week I’m using lots of ingredients that aren’t allowed on GAPS, like flour, rice, and all the beans that are in my menu  plan.  I’m not confident it will be financially doable on my budget of $600 a month for our family of 11, which is my main concern.  Short term (one month) I can probably do it since I have the nut flours I bought in bulk in the past, but I don’t know if it’s sustainable long term – it will take out all of the affordable foods (eg, grains, most beans, potatoes/sweet potatoes) and I’ll have to increase the more expensive foods (proteins and vegetables) to compensate.  Also, the kids are objecting strenuously to the elimination of raw milk and cheese.  I really haven’t decided yet – at some point I’m just going to have to jump in and do it, and stop thinking about it!

For now, the beans for this week’s menu are soaking on the counter and will be sprouted as soon as they finish.  Before Passover I made 5 gallons of lactofermented green beans and still have another 5 gallons of kimchi, so I won’t need to make any fermented vegetables this week.  I used up  my sourdough starter before Passover, and will get another batch started so I can bake with it later this week.

My garden is doing nicely and I should be able to harvest lettuce, spinach, mache’, and turnip greens this week to supplement our meals.  I’d like to get some more cool weather seeds planted this week, like snow peas, and see if I can get a crop before the summer crop is ready to be planted.   It really feels like time to spring into spring!

(This post is part of Menu Plan Mondays.)

Avivah

15 thoughts on “Weekly menu plan

  1. I enjoy reading your menu plans. I too, rely highly on this organizational tool. My question for you is –how do you handle the kids who don’t like what’s on the menu? Do you have any picky eaters or kids with food sensitivities?
    Thanks!

  2. I know you have mentioend that there are health reasons for you and your husband in going on the GAPS diet, but why would you put your kids on that diet as well if they present no health issues?

    1. Good question, Yael! The reason is that gut condition is at the root of almost every illness I’ve learned about (in a linked way even if not in a causatory way), and unless your gut flora is healthy, there will continually be issues resulting from that. Gut health is passed on from mother to child; if your system is compromised in any way, you’ll pass along that weakness. By strengthening your gut flora, it stregthens your immune system and also makes the food you eat better absorbed and thereby more nutritious for the person eating it than the person with poor gut flora. Whew! That was a short synopsis but there’s plenty to say on the issue!

      At this point, I believe most children need to heal their digestive systems, because of the highly toxic world we live in. Any child who has been vaccinated even once needs it, any child with an allergy needs it, any child on the autistic/adhd spectrum needs it, any child who has had thrush or athletes foot needs it – and there are lots of other indications. Basically everyone, lol! Toxins contribute to gut flora imbalances (eg vaccinations) and allergies, asthma, add, and autism are clear indications of more serious gut flora imbalances.

      I wouldn’t put my kids on the intro phase of the diet (not at this point, anyway) because I don’t know if it’s really necessary, although I believe it would be of great benefit.

      My husband and I would be considered very healthy according to most people – but we see underlying symptoms and don’t want to wait for them to grow into larger issues, so we feel it’s best dealt with now. Little symptoms always are a sign of something!

  3. Avivah- just wondering if you believe that some families are “hardier” than others. in our family (i mean my original family- parents and siblings) bli ayin hara even colds and flus are very rare- a cold once every 2 years and flu maybe once a decade. no special diets. lots of junk and lots of healthy food- broccoli and pizza, string beans, chocolate milk, chicken and oranges and carrots and french fries (just trying to give examples of the mix of stuff) and we all held the record for coming to school and work.
    any thoughts on this?

    1. Estee, this is a good question. I think some people do by nature have hardier dispositions; I also think everyone born in the 60s or earlier has a huge advantage over everyone who came afterward because they were basically brought up on real food (vs fake margarine, egg beaters and widespread use of processed foods). Because their bodies are stronger, they could better fight whatever germs came around.

      1. good for your kids and husband for willing to eat matzah on shabbos after pesach. I baked shlisshel challah on thursday, the joy of having delicious challah to bite into on shabbos was sublime :).

        1. It’s not that we don’t like fresh challah – it’s just that bread, even right after Pesach, isn’t that big of a deal to us. Our family was discussing on Shabbos the stereotypical frenetic rush to eat chametz – it’s just not us! My kids actually like matza a lot, but I limited it significantly on Pesach because it’s not what I consider a nutritious food. They would love to have lots more of it!

  4. Hi, I LOVE your food comments and approach! I found your website while googling just out of curiosity–to see if home-made kefir is kosher for Passover. (I was discussing home-made Passover foods, as an intellectual exercise with an intellectually curious rabbi in my family. )
    I totally agree on the importance of eating cultured fermented foods! Since drinking kefir, I have noticed important improvements in my body functioning.
    Now I’d like to learn HOW to do ferment vegetables! Thanks for sincerely sharing so many details! Leviah

    1. Hi, Leviah, welcome! I’ve done a number of posts on lacto fermentation (including recipes), so check the side bar and you can see different things I’ve written about it. I’ve also written about kefir there – hope it’s helpful!

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