It’s been a few weeks since I posted my weekly menu – I need to get back to putting it up on time, since posting it here helps keep me accountable to making sure the plan for the week is in place at the beginning of the week. Menu planning is valuable all the time, but the busier I am, the more helpful I find it to have the menus written out and decided upon in advance.
Sunday – breakfast – leftovers; lunch – creamy cauliflower soup; dinner – chicken, quinoa, salads
Monday – b – french toast; l – creamy cauliflower soup; d – lentil tomato pie, cornbread
Tuesday – b – quinoa and milk; l – barley and white bean salad; d – turkey chili
Wednesday – b – chocolate zucchini muffins; l – barley and white bean salad; d – pizza, salad
Thursday – b – Amish oatmeal; l – stuffed baked potatoes, vegetable sticks; d – black bean tamale pie
Friday – b – polenta; l – leftovers
Today I transferred a bunch of the plants that I planted last week. After the fence went up (not yet done, but hopefully tomorrow it will be!), I realized that I needed to make four garden beds with three paths, instead of three garden beds with two paths, so that they could easily be reached. So that meant replacing one garden bed with a path, and naturally it was the garden bed where lots of vegetables were currently growing!
I started working in the yard before breakfast, and we took the ducklings out with us. They’re two weeks old, and since they’ve been three or four days old we’ve tried to take them outside whenever we’re out (and now that they’re older are leaving them in a protected area outside even when we aren’t out; they currently only come inside for the nighttime). So there I was, digging up plants, and the ducklings kept getting so excited about every turn of my shovel that they’d tumble into the holes I dug trying to get all the freshly revealed worms. They’re quite cute and very fun to watch! But I had to be extra careful when I was working not to hit them with the shovel, because right under the shovel was their favorite place to be. I solved this by turning over fresh chunks of soil for them and then throwing them to the side for the ducks to enjoy out of immediate reach of my shovel.
Today I made a nice big pot of turkey broth, which I haven’t been making much of since the weather has gotten warm. I also rendered a pot of beef fat, so I have a nice amount of tallow now. With the weather so warm, I can soak beans overnight and they’ll begin sprouting within a day of being drained. So I’ll be soaking and sprouting the beans and lentils for this week’s menu just a day or two in advance.
Have a wonderful week!
Avivah
Our first bean sprouting went really well. The soup was delicious and the cooking time was significantly reduced due to the sprouting. I’m going to try other beans this week.
Thanks for telling me that the beans needed to be drained or else I would still be watching them under water and wondering when the sprouts would come! 🙂
I’m glad your first try was so successful! It’s really easy once you know what the steps to take are – like draining them. 🙂
Looking forward to meeting you soon!
I bought Polenta after reading it on your site so many times- but, I realize I have no clue what to do with it. I sliced and sort of fried it on a little oil- it wasn’t that tasty at all. What do you do with it and how do you spice it??
thanks!
Polenta is cooked coarsely ground corn meal. I’ve never bought the stuff that’s prepared already, so I’ll just share how I make it. I boil the water, add salt, then mix in the corn meal (that’s been mixed with some cold water so it doesn’t clump up when added to the boiling water). Then I add lots of butter. You can pour it into a pan and let it set, then slice it and use it as a base for something (like tomato sauce with cheese sprinkled on top), but we just like it with the salt and butter. It reminds me very much of grits, a typical southern breakfast food.