It’s been so busy around here that I haven’t posted my weekly menu plans for the last two or three weeks – generally I do my planning for the week on Saturday night but now that Shabbos is over so late, there’s not much time to do it and I have to get used to setting aside time on Sunday mornings.  I’ve said it before, but life runs so much more smoothly when I have the menus decided on in advance!

Sunday – breakfast – fruit, bread and cheese; lunch – split pea soup; dinner – squash apple bake, tomato salad, zucchini in sauce, and something else I still have to decide on 🙂

Monday – b – breakfast tacos; l – rice with pigeon peas; d – chicken chili

Tuesday – b – raisin walnut scones; l – lentil tomato pie; d – chili con carne

Wednesday – b – muesli; l – lima bean patties, salad; d – pizza, salad, fries

Thursday – b – almond muffin loaf; l – CORN (clean out refrigerator night/day); d – black bean tamale pie

Friday -b – polenta; l – leftovers

Breakfasts are supplemented with fruit and milk; lunch and dinners with some kind of fresh or cooked vegetables.  Now that the weather is turning hot, my kids have really been enjoying main dish salads for lunch – I make a huge amount of salad, and then we throw in eggs, nuts, chicken, or cheese, and top it with a nice dressing.  There are many variations to what you can put in and everyone likes how satisfying but still light it is.  Ironically, making a huge salad like this takes more work than things that seems much more complex – all that checking and chopping!  I may end up substituting a main dish salad for one or more of the planned lunches, depending on the weather this week.

I mentioned several weeks ago that I was seriously considering the GAPS program for my kids stands for Gut and Psychology Syndrome, a dietary protocol that restores optimal digestive functioning), but dh felt that I shouldn’t do it.  Our diet is pretty good and most meals above actually fit according to the GAPS recommendations (GAPS doesn’t include grains and some beans, which I still use a bit, but most recipes above use nut flours); he has been doing GAPS for over two months and felt it was unnecessarily burdensome  to limit the food options for them when they’re all thank G-d healthy and not in need of it (though of course it would benefit everyone).

Something else that is different now that the weather is warm is that the beans need less time to sprout before being used in their respective dishes.  Today I’ll be soaking pigeon peas, lentils, and chickpeas so they’ll be available for the meals they’re called for on Monday and Tuesday, but I’ll be soaking the limas on Monday and the black beans on Wednesday – in the winter you need more time to think ahead but two days is enough for beans to sprout now that it’s so warm.

In my garden, I have kale, chard, spinach, and lettuce, which I’ll be using this week.  I’m also thinking of using the last of the turnip greens and pulling them up so I can plant something else in that spot.  When you use your garden space effectively, you can get three seasons worth of crops out of each planting space – that’s what I try to do.  When I did my monthly shopping I saw some small pepper and tomato plants at such a good price (.50 each) that I decided to get them even though it’s really too early to transplant them.  Yes, I did transplant them. 🙄  I cover each of the tomato plants on cold nights with a five gallon bucket and so far they’re looking great.  It will be nice to have tomatoes earlier in the season than in the past (usually I don’t transplant until the end of May, so this is a month in advance).  I got four kinds of peppers (4 banana peppers, 2 Big Bertha, 2 CA Wonder, 2 of something I can’t think of right now), and a couple different tomatoes – they only had grape tomatoes and First Ladies – I got four or five of each.  I included all of them in my grocery budget for last month. I also picked up a couple lavender starts and two sage for the same price (there wasn’t much of a selection beyond what I got) – I couldn’t remember if sage came back up on its own last year or not.

I also just sent off for an order of seeds on Friday, and am really looking forward to getting those.  I should get the tomato and cucumber seeds planted this week so they’ll be ready to transplant as soon as possible, but there seem to be so many things to do right now (particularly with graduation plans for dd and ds, their plans for next year, and the conference) that I can’t say with confidence that I’ll really do that this week.  I’m pretty relaxed about the garden piece  – you do what you can when you can, and if the plants go in later or not at all, it’s not the end of the world.  I also want to put up a fence this next week or two, which is a big project.  Got to keep in mind priorities!

My strawberry plants look amazing!  Last year I bought 25 of them and hardly got more than 10 strawberries, but this year they’ve spread, plus I got about another 20 plants for free from someone last year, and there are signs of lots of berries forming.  Now if I could just keep my two year old from picking them and telling me they’re dandelions.  🙂  When I bought blueberry bushes last year, I got three kinds that would bear fruit at different times, and this year the early bearers are showing signs of blueberries – we can’t yet eat them this year (have to check this with a rav) since they are only three years old, but it’s still nice to see them blooming.

Have a wonderful week!

(This post is part of Menu Plan Monday.)

Avivah