Category Archives: menu plans

How I do menu planning

frugal strategies, homemaking, menu plans

The way I shop is different than the way most people do (ie buying almost everything once a month with just a couple of trips mid month to buy produce), and not surprisingly, the way I menu plan is different as well.  It’s a pretty simple process that works well for me in making meals with a good amount of variety while staying within a fairly strict budget.

The main difference in my approach to what is typically recommended is, most people make a menu plan and then go shopping for the ingredients. I go shopping, make sure I have basic staples on hand and supplement with whatever is a good price, and then I make a menu plan based on all of that.

Here’s what I do:

Step 1 – Make list of available ingredients.

When I’m ready to write up the weekly menu plan, I first take a look to see what is in the fridge. Are there any leftovers that need to be used up, vegetables that are getting soft? I look in the freezer and see what I have there – is there anything taking up space that needs to be used up?  I make a list of all of these things, and this becomes the basis of my menu plan.

This week my starter list looked like this:
fridge – hardboiled eggs, sprouted green lentils, sour milk, beet salad, carrot kugel
produce – napa, baby bok choy, jicama, apples, carrots
freezer – 1.5 lb ground meat, sweet potatoes, strawberries, peaches, bananas

I also look to see if there’s anything in the pantry that I have a large amount of – I try to keep basic supplies in stock and rotate through it regularly. This week I noticed that I have several boxes of rye noodles, so that went on the list.

Step 2 – Make list of recipes that use available ingredients.

Next I look for recipes that will use what I have on hand. I have a few recipes that I make somewhat regularly, but nothing that I make week in and week out.  Months can go by before I make the same recipe again!  As I see recipes that look interesting, I write down the name of the recipe, as well as where I found it.  If it’s an online recipe site (eg food.com is the one I usually go to), I note the recipe number, and if it’s in a cookbook, I note the page.  On recipe sites I do a search for the key ingredient that I want to use up (eg green lentils); I also ask myself, ‘what can I do with x ingredient?’  Not infrequently I’ve made up recipes that have turned out very well based on that question!

Step 3 – Fill in chart with recipes from list.

On this same paper where all the available ingredients and recipe ideas are listed, I quickly make a graph that will have room for three meals a day, Sunday through Friday.  Once I know what ingredients I have to work with and which recipes will use them, I start filling in the graph. The more perishable something on my list is, the sooner it gets scheduled. Sunday lunch or dinner almost always includes leftovers from the weekend. I don’t like to have things sitting around in my fridge, because the reality is that they’ll get forgotten and turn into interesting science experiments that get tossed at the end of the week. 🙂

Very often I have a basic framework for my weekly meals that I set up once a year, though I don’t always stick to it.  It will look something like this:

dinner – Sunday – leftovers (meat); Monday – vegetarian; Tues – dairy; Wed – meat; Thurs. – vegetarian

Then I match up the main dish I’ve selected with the day that it best fits for (eg, pizza would be written down for Tuesday).

I don’t usually use all the ideas that I come up with for the week. Some get transferred to the following week, some don’t. This week I had the following listed on my sheet:

  • warm lentil and potato salad
  • roasted garlic quinoa and vegetables
  • baked sweet potatoes and apples
  • curried chickpeas with vegetables
  • spicy peanut sesame noodles
  • jamaican rice and peas
  • braised lentils with sausage

If you look at my menu plan for this week that I posted yesterday, you’ll see that I didn’t use half of these ideas.  For example, there are two lentil recipes listed though I knew I didn’t need more than one, but I don’t know how the week’s recipes will go together overall until the menu is put together.  I like to have several good options to choose from and then I pick the one that works best in the context of what else we’re having that week – for example, I wouldn’t want to have potatoes every day, so I’d choose the recipes in which the ingredients were more varied.

A couple of things I also took into account this week: yesterday I was just finishing writing up the menu plan, when my mother walked in and said she had lunch for us! She had attended an event yesterday morning and the hosts asked her to take as much of the leftovers as she could (they know she’s the grandmother of a lot of local grandchildren!), so she brought us a couple dozen bagels, egg salad, and tuna salad. Because I use whatever is prepared first, that became a much enjoyed lunch an hour later.

Because of the fiasco with all of my milk souring thanks to my forgetfulness, I needed to find ‘sour milk recipes’ (in most quick breads, sour milk/buttermilk is a baking enhancer).  To use some of the milk, I scheduled muffin loaf, biscuits, and cornbread for this week.

So that’s my basic three step process – once the menu plan is done, it eliminates the ‘what should be we have for dinner’ question, as well as the need to go shopping to pick up some groceries needed for that night’s planned dinner.  Truly, I credit making a menu plan and sticking with it one of the biggest factors in keeping things in the house running smoothly.

Avivah

Weekly menu plan

menu plans

I haven’t had much time to post lately, but this morning I had a solid chunk of time and wanted to write a few posts for the coming few days. But wouldn’t you know, I was having problems getting online! And naturally, the problem wasn’t resolved until all of the littles were awake and my opportunity had passed. 🙂

Shabbos (Sabbath) dinner – challah, chicken, roast vegetables, potato kugel, carrot kugel (w/almond flour), salad, chocolate coconut chia bars; lunch – were invited out

Sunday – breakfast – chia muffin loaf; l – bagels, egg salad, tuna salad; d – braised sprouted lentils with sausage, roast vegetables, beet salad

Monday – b – fruity chia blend, hard boiled eggs; l – spicy peanut sesame noodles (with rye noodles); d – vegetarian chili, cornbread, apple-celery salad

Tuesday – b – coconut rice; l – vegetarian chili, cornbread; d – curried chickpeas with vegetables

Wednesday – b – eggs, salsa; l – biscuits with peanut butter and jam; d – ground beef and cabbage stew

Thursday – b – carrot banana muffins; l – ground beef and cabbage stew; d – sunburgers

Friday – b – spirulina chia blend; l – CORN (Clean Out Refrigerator Night/Day)

This week I’m experimenting with two new items I bought in bulk: chia seeds (5 lb) and xylitol (55 lb). You’d think I would buy a small amount first to see how I like it, but I didn’t so it’s a good thing that so far I’m happy with both! They’re interesting additions to our diet and later in the week I’ll write more about them.

A couple of weeks ago when I did my monthly shopping, I was thrilled to find a new source of raw milk that is exclusively grass-fed; my current source wasn’t. The price was about $1.50 a gallon higher but I was glad to pay it, and I stocked up. Unfortunately, I was doing a huge organizing job in the basement during our recent heat wave, and I needed to plug in the fan; since the only plug was the one the mini fridge was using, I figured I’d unplug it for 30 – 40 minutes and then plug it back in when I was done and didn’t need the fan. Bad idea – that’s where most of the milk was being stored and I got so busy that I forgot all about it for three days. 🙁 So now I have a lot of milk to use for baking. It will take me a while to use it up since I’ve moved away from a heavily grain based diet, and I’d have to make wheat flour (vs nut flour) quick breads every day to use it quickly! The good thing is that raw milk sours, not spoils, so it is still usable and at least it won’t go to waste. But I sure am disappointed not to be able to drink the milk as I had intended and wouldn’t have spent $45 to have sour milk!

Because I had some large bulk purchases this month (nut flours, xylitol, chia seeds, 5 gallon coconut oil) plus the boys backpacking trip supplies, I have a good amount of staples, but left myself unusually low on funds. Like maybe $12 for the second half of the month! Times like this are in some ways more fun because it forces you to be creative unless you want to feel deprived. 🙂

I got a lot of organic apples because they were on sale for just .33 lb, which was amazing! But they don’t holding up well in the heat (nothing does!) and I don’t have room in the fridge for them all, so today or tomorrow I’ll be slicing them up and freezing them. I don’t feel like canning or dehydrating them, and I think this will be the easiest thing right now. We gleaned peaches a couple of weeks ago from a neighbor with a fruit tree, which also had to be sliced up and frozen since they were so ripe.

It would have been best if I had dealt with the apples last week, but instead I took care of the large amount of organic carrots I bought (another nice sale, .50 lb)- in the hot weather I have to really be on top of the unrefrigerated produce so the great buys don’t end up being financial losses. Sometimes I really don’t feel like I want to spend the extra effort on doing things like this; when life is so busy you have to make a choice and doing the most frugal thing isn’t always the first thing. When dd15 saw a 40 lb case of ripe bananas for .25 (no, that’s not a typo!), she had to strongly encourage me to buy them before I would agree – I didn’t feel like making the effort to quickly use/freeze them before they’d be overripe and attracting fruit flies.

I haven’t been spending much time or energy on the garden, and like everything, you get the best results when you consistently invest yourself in something. But again, my energy isn’t unlimited, and I’m willing to accept that I have more weeds and less produce than I would if I was more attentive to the garden. So I’m not harvesting the amount of vegetables I initially anticipated. The ducks are growing fast and though they’re quite happy, I’ve hardly had time to pay attention to them – they get fed and watered daily, but aren’t played with the way the first ducks that we had were. Part of it is the hot weather – no one wants to be out in the middle of the day, and everyone has been busy going in different directions around here lately. My hope in getting the ducklings when they were a day old was for them to be used to us, and though they’re used to the kids playing on the swingset (that’s the part of the yard they prefer to stay in) while they watch from under an outdoor chair, they aren’t interested in being held by any of us.

We have another busy week ahead, but it’s a reasonably paced busy week with some nice activities planned. I hope you’re all enjoying your summer!

Avivah

Weekly menu plan

menu plans

Here’s this week’s menu – we won’t be having any meat meals for the next week and a half, in accordance with the restrictions of the Nine Days (a time of mourning in the Jewish calendar).

Sunday – brunch – eggs with cream cheese; dinner – tuna casserole

Monday – banana ice cream, l – ladies cabbage, eggs with cream cheese;  d -West African stew

Tuesday – b – buttermilk pancakes with real maple syrup and/or homemade jam; l – honey baked lentils, kasha; d – easy fried rice

Wednesday- b – potato pancakes, yogurt; l – West African stew; d – pizzas (one whole wheat crust, one nut flour crust)

Thursday – b – maple grits puff (will adapt from this recipe); l – honey baked lentils, baked potatoes; d – Really Good Vegetarian meatloaf

Breakfasts are usually supplemented with fruit; lunch and dinner is usually supplemented with vegetables.  Last week I began incorporating two official snacktimes into the day for the littles, since they were constantly asking to eat something and stopping to make them something each time left us all feeling that we were making and serving food all day long.  Snacks are foods like ants on a log (celery spread with nut butter and topped with raisins), fruit, nuts, and popcorn.  This week I’m planning to make nut flour cookies, almond macaroons, and coconut flour biscuits for snack time.

>>Also, where are the menu plans, I need your primal menu plans!!!!<<

I’ve gotten so busy the last few weeks I haven’t taken time to post my weekly menus.  But now that I’m posting, they still aren’t primal – sorry to disappoint you!  The menu plans for my family aren’t primal, only my personal plan is.  Since most readers don’t know what is being referred to, I’ll explain that at the advice of a homeopath/alternative nutritionist, I’ve adapted my personal way of eating so that I pretty carefully stick to ratios of 80% calories from fat, 10% calories from protein, 10% calories from carbohydrates.  I’ve been doing this not somewhat haphazardly for several months, but it’s been about 5 weeks that I’ve been tracking it to be sure the ratios are balanced properly (they weren’t on target at all before that).  I plan my food for each day the night before, and use Fitday.com to track the ratios.  Eating in this manner is referred to as paleo or primal, though one doesn’t have to keep to the same ratios that I do (mine is a healing protocol).

So my daily food isn’t too exciting, though it is very tasty and filling – it’s basically lots of vegetables (salads and cooked – these are the carbohydrates), proteins (eggs, chicken, cheese, fish, meat), and lots of high quality fats.  If I were cooking primally for my family, I’d snazz it up a little but I’m happy keeping it simple because otherwise I’d never make the effort to cook for myself. 🙂

We aren’t yet getting much from the garden – unfortunately, we’ve had very little rain and scorching temps, and the garden is growing more slowly than I would have liked.  Such is life!  🙂  It makes me think quite a bit about those dependent on rainfall for their livelihood.  Other than a handful of grape tomatoes, our noteworthy vegetables from the gardens have been two huge spaghetti squash from a plant that volunteered from my compost pile.  But I have a lot of tomatoes on the brink of being ready; I hope that next week we’ll start being able to pick them fresh for our meals.

(This post is part of Menu Plan Monday.)

Avivah

Weekly menu plan

menu plans

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

Weekly menu plan

menu plans

I noticed my freezer is getting full so this week will be using up some things I have in there that are taking up lots of space – mainly sliced yams, bananas, and lots of cauliflower.  I won’t be doing my monthly shopping until next week so whatever I’m using is what we have on hand – usually breakfasts are supplemented with fruit and milk, but I’m almost out of milk and low on fresh fruit (though I have plenty of frozen and home canned).  Lunches and dinners are supplemented with salads or cooked vegetables, and I’m going to be making a conscious effort to include greens from our garden.

Sunday – breakfast – homemade whole wheat bread, peanut butter and mulberry jam (homemade), grapefruit; lunch – broccoli cauliflower quiche, potato pudding, coleslaw; dinner – Greek lemon egg drop soup

Monday – b – sweet potato rounds with almond sauce; l – cheesy cauliflower soup; d – oat walnut burgers

Tuesday – quinoa porridge (I’m trying a new recipe but the link is for the old one); l – (picnic) carrot millet cake bars, vegetable sticks; d – vegetable pizza with whole wheat crust

Wednesday – b – buckwheat granola; l – baked potatoes, eggs; d – black bean quinoa burgers

Thursday – b – banana pancakes (grain free); l – main dish salad; d – vegetarian meatloaf

Friday – b – cashew butter muffins (grain free); l – leftovers

Snack – banana nut pudding (banana, nut butter, yogurt – blended and refrigerated)

At the end of last week I realized that I haven’t been harvesting the greens in my garden enough.  It’s a funny thing – I’ve been subconsciously avoiding picking our vegetables because I didn’t want to use them up!  But we have so many wonderful greens growing and soon the weather will be warm, so I really need to use them before I plant the summer vegetables!  I’ve been enjoying sauteeing onions, chives, and garlic with spinach, turnip greens, beet greens, and kale from the garden, then having it together with my eggs for breakfast (I eat slightly differently than the menu plan I post for my family). And this is also the season to harvest wild greens, like dandelion and plantain – they are much less bitter when the weather is still cold, and I see them sprouting everywhere.

I also have lettuce and chard growing abundantly, so I’ll be using those more this week as well.  The strawberry plants in the garden are starting to ripen and the kids have enjoyed picking and eating the freshly picked berries.

You may assume that I have loads of yard space when I mention gardening, but I really don’t.  I live in the city on a small lot, and while I’ve converted a lot of the yard to garden space (about 1/2 the available space – the other half I left for the kids play area), but I also try to maximize the planting space.  In the past I used to think that someone with a small yard had no chance of harvesting enough vegetables to be significant or to make it worth the effort, but I was really wrong on this.  I’ve done this by building raised beds and using the square foot gardening method, using vertical planting as much as possible (takes less ground space), and by improving the soil so it’s more productive (ie lots of composting of kitchen scraps!).

I planted some tomato and cucumber seeds last week, which were given to me by a lovely guest who had some left over after doing her planting, and hopefully they’ll be ready to be transplanted by the beginning of June.   My lasagna garden bed has begun sprouting some volunteer plants (when I compost, I basically just bury the veggie scraps in a hole and cover it), so I now have some potato plants, a cabbage, and a few squash plants that have popped up.  I’ll probably move them to a different location since they aren’t exactly where I want them to be, but it’s so fun to see things growing without me having done anything!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Avivah

Weekly menu plan

gardening, menu plans

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

Weekly menu plan

menu plans

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

Weekly menu plan

menu plans,

I was just thinking tonight about how very many weekly menus I’ve shared here – I hope you find them helpful!  Here is this week’s menu:

Shabbos (Sabbath) – dinner – challah, baked chicken, roast potatoes, vegetable salad, marinated tomato olive salad, roasted cauliflower, ratatouille (it actually was something new and not quite ratatouille but I don’t know what to call it!) , kimchi, curried purple sauerkraut, sandwich cookies; lunch – bean stew, chicken, kishke (stuffing), cucumber-tomato-olive salad, almond mandarin salad, carrot cake

Sunday – breakfast – eggnog (raw milk, raw pastured eggs, organic cream, honey); lunch – hearty soup with diced chicken, brown rice and yams; dinner – chicken, ratatouille, salads

Monday – b – Amish oatmeal; l – egg drop soup (lamb broth base with lots of vegetables); d – rice pasta with cheese sauce

Tuesday – b – breakfast bulgur; l – chickpea yam patties; d – quinoa with meat sauce

Wednesday – b – yam rounds with sweet almond sauce; l – baked potatoes with sour cream and vegetables; d – chickpea cheeseburgers

Thursday – b – baked oatmeal; l – CORN (Clean Out Refrigerator Night/day); d – injera with vegetable alecha

Friday – b – polenta with sour cream

Today I decided it was time to do something about the three cases of yams left that I got (for free)  three weeks ago.  Some of them are starting to get small soft spots, and once that happens, it doesn’t take more than a week or two for them to spoil.  I asked my dd9 to estimate how many there were so I could figure out what I had to work with, but she actually counted them all. The verdict is that we have 98 very large yams (each is equal to about three small to medium size yams).  Of those, I had ds11 sort out about 40 lb of those that are in perfect condition, so I don’t have to think about those for now.  Of the other 80 pounds or so, I got busy with today!

a) I have a load of yam chips in the dehydrator right now – I peeled them, sliced them thinly, then spread coconut oil on top before putting them in to dry.  b) I boiled a large pot of sweet potatoes to make into chickpea-yam patties (will adapt this recipe).  c) I made a huge pan of coconut-nut crusted yams that I’ll put in the freezer to use for next Shabbos.  d) I also sliced a bunch of yams thinly and put them in the freezer.  I’m planning to make another dehydrator load full in the morning, and will probably slice up a bunch more for the freezer.  I could can them,  and though right now I don’t want to take the time to do it, if I decide I want to later on, I can take them from the freezer or use the ones that are still in perfect condition.  d) For lunch today I created a new soup that used up the last of the chicken broth, soup chicken, and naturally, included yams.  e) I have yams scheduled for Weds. breakfast with sweet almond sauce.  With wonderful bounty comes much work! 😆

Last time I bought raw milk, I was delighted to find that it stayed fresh for four weeks in the fridge.  Planning to keep everything refrigerated once again instead of freezing some, I sent down several gallons with my kids to our mini fridge in the basement.  Since in the past they didn’t make sure it was plugged in (we don’t use it regularly), I gave explicit instructions that the fridge be plugged in.  I asked them later on if they had, they confirmed it was plugged in. But – I didn’t ask them if they turned the dial on, or if they closed it securely.  🙁  So I now have five gallons of sour raw milk.

Fortunately, unlike pastuerized milk which spoils and is disgusting when it goes off, raw milk continues to be edible and simply changes form.  The cream at the top has changed into sour cream and is really delicious!  The rest of it will be used for soaking lots of grain based dishes, since I can’t think what else to do with it except make it into yogurt.  We’ve been largely avoiding oats and minimizing other grains for a few months now, but these next couple of weeks will see them featured more in our breakfast menus!  The milk will be useful to soak the grains for Amish oatmeal, breakfast bulgur, and baked oatmeal.

We also did an inventory of our pantry, to see what food we have that need to be used up before Pesach (Passover).  It was interesting to note the difference between this year and past years – we really don’t have a lot of grains around anymore, so there wasn’t that much to use up.  I found some rice pasta, a few boxes of bulgur, and a package of teff flour that I bought (many months ago!), thinking I’d make injera (Ethiopian flatbread).

I have a couple of new recipes I’ll be trying out to use up the bulgur, and I’ll start a sourdough starter in the morning with the teff flour so I can make injera on Thursday.  I’m a wimp when it comes to spicy food so I’ll be making a very mild Ethiopian-style vegetable alecha to go with it (that means all hot spices or chili peppers will be omitted!).

I have a large pot of lamb broth bubbling on the stove right now.  Last week I made up a very yummy soup using the broth as a base, adding lots of vegetables (particularly notable amounts of cauliflower and napa), then stirred into the boiling soup a bunch of eggs.  It was very satisfying.  So I’ll be making that again this week.

I have a couple of pounds of chickpeas soaking overnight that I’ll begin sprouting in the morning to use for the chickpea cheese burgers, and two more pounds that were already soaked and are cooking right now to use for the chickpea-yam patties.

Fortunately I got this taken care of by 2:30 pm, so when a friend called to let me know about an event the local police training academy was sponsoring, I was able to spontaneously leave with all nine kids within about ten minutes. We had a really nice time, even the older kids.   They got to do a mock police academy training that consisted of a number of fun activities, go in the fire truck, police helicopter, operate the bomb squad robot – all in all lots of fun!

The minute we got back I had to go with ds3 and ds7 to violin lessons, and then right after returning from there, had to take ds11, dd13, and dd15 to a recital by world-renowned pianist Leon Fleisher.  (They were the ones to go since they take piano lessons.)  It was a wonderfully full day and tomorrow I hope to get started with Passover cleaning!

(This post is part of Menu Plan Monday.)

Avivah

Weekly menu plan

menu plans

I’m so happy that at the end of last week I was able to get 30 dozen pastured eggs and twenty dozen gallons of raw milk – I really appreciate how much they add to our meals and I’ve missed having them the last couple of weeks.

Here’s the menu for this week:

Shabbos (Sabbath) – dinner – sourdough bread, chicken soup, roast chicken, potato kugel, beet salad, broccoli slaw, curried eggplant, mushroom, and tomato; lunch – chicken stew, kishke (stuffing), traffic light pepper salad, broccoli slaw, tomato olive salad, sweet potato pudding, blue corn chips and salsa

Sunday – brunch – eggs with sauteed broccoli and carrots; snack – bananas and peanut butter; dinner – chicken stew, salads

Monday – b- smoothies (milk, eggs, fruit); l – twice baked potatoes, spinach; d – Indian ground beef, stir fried green beans with cashews

Tuesday – b – homemade yogurt with sliced almonds and raisins; l – sourdough bread, borscht; d- whiting boulangere, baked yams, lacto fermented green beans

Wednesday – b – huevos rancheros, kimchi, guacamole; l – Italian kidney beans, polenta; d – crustless broccoli quiche

Thursday – b – cottage cheese, fruit, nuts; d – hamburger and rajmah (curried kidney beans)

This week I made sourdough instead of my regular challah for Shabbos.  It was good, but the kids asked if I could still make traditional challah for next week.  I preferred the sourdough; it has a nice hearty flavor and is very satisfying.  But how much I enjoy something is definitely affected by the nutritional value since I can’t shut off the connection in my mind between how something tastes and how it is processed by the body!

Last night I started a pot of lamb broth going that I’ll use as a base for the borscht later on this week, as well as using it as is for eating/drinking.  I had some today for dinner – so rich and flavorful, yum!  Hot broth makes a wonderfully satisfying drink on a cold day.  I keep thinking I’d like to get my kids into the habit of having a cup each night before bed (particularly because of the benefit to their teeth), but I first have to remember to suggest it. 🙂

Today I prepared yogurt for the week.  I made a gallon and a half, since that’s what comfortably fits into my pot!  That should be enough for two breakfasts.

I cooked up the last of the sale tomatoes I bought at the end of last week together with some tomatillos.  I’m not sure yet what I’ll do with them – I’ll reheat them in the morning to can them, probably as some kind of salsa.  Everyone really enjoys salsa with corn chips for Shabbos dessert, and it’s also nice to have the salsa for breakfast tacos or together with eggs.

On Weds. last week my ds soaked a lot of kidney beans for the dinner he was preparing that night, not realizing I had already soaked and cooked a pot full.  They were finished sprouting by today and I cooked them up to use  for later this week.

(This post is part of Menu Plan Monday.)

Avivah

Weekly menu plan

menu plans, nutrition

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