Last night when I sat down to plan our weekly menu, I pushed a piece of paper and pan towards the older kids and told them to write down anything they’d like to have this week.  This week’s menu is pretty much based on whatever they said they wanted.  You won’t see many vegetables listed, and that’s because I need to do some vegetable shopping – haven’t bought any produce for three weeks- so whatever I end up getting will flesh out the meals for the week.

Shabbos (Sabbath) – night – challah, chicken soup, roast chicken, ratatouille, potato kugel, beet salad, dried fruit (figs, dates, raisins, prunes), peanut butter cups; lunch – chicken, cholent (beef stew), kishke (stuffing), sweet potato pie, carrot raisin salad, beet salad, coconut chocolate bars

Sunday- brunch – blueberry pancakes with sour cream; snack- broccoli-cheese sticks; dinner – chicken, salads

Monday – b – polenta with sour cream; l – leftovers from Shabbos ; d – potato soup and dumplings

Tuesday – b – coconut flour biscuits; triple berry compote (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries); l- potato soup with veggies; d – turkey stir fry with quinoa and sauteed vegetables

Wednesday- b – Amish oatmeal; l – pizza (lately we’ve been making two kinds of crusts, the usual whole wheat crust, and then a gluten free crust made of nut flour), carrot fries; d- hearty split pea soup

Thursday – b – omelets; l – split pea soup; d – to be determined

(Breakfasts will be supplemented by milk.)

Today I have a pot of turkey broth started that will be the basis of the potato soup and split pea soup; that will add lots of great flavor and nutrient density to them.  Also, dh is starting the GAPS diet and broth is the primary foundation of the first stage, so as much broth as I already make every week (about 20 quarts or so), I’ll be making even more now!  I learned about this diet a year or two ago as part of my ongoing unofficial nutritional research.  I recently suggested it would be helpful to him in improving his digestion.  We bought the book and it hasn’t yet arrived, but the diet is online for free.  I keep meaning to post about the importance of diet as the foundation for healing just about everything, but it’s such a big topic that I’ve been pushing it off for months!  There’s so much you can do to help yourself and your family build their health just through the food you feed them.  As I wrote last night, food is powerful in a number of ways!

The turkey from the broth will be used for the turkey stir fry on Tuesday night.  I’ll share later on in the week about how easy it is to make flavorless soup chicken delicious!

Today I’m trying an experiment. I’ve been doing some experimental cooking/baking to minimize grains over the past couple of months, and a while ago found a recipe for pizza crust that uses cauliflower as the base.  I haven’t yet tried it (I’ve preferred the hazelnut crust I’ve been using) but was thinking that I can adapt the concept to make broccoli-cheese sticks that will make a great snack.  I’ll let you know if the experiment is successful and share the details if it is.

I’m also going to cook up the triple berry compote today so it will be on hand to serve on Tuesday morning.  This is another experiment of mine (those of you who have been reading here for a while know that most of my cooking is experimental!) but I’m sure it will be good.  There’s not much you can do to ruin a blend of three yummy berries, right?

Otherwise I haven’t been in the kitchen much today; I’ve been poring over fruit tree catalogs, trying to figure out what to order for spring planting.  And then thinking about other kinds of planting I’d like to do; medicinal plants, edible landscaping, and how to best use the small amount of space I have.  The problem is that I’m going to have to choose since there are so many I want and I’ll only be able to have a fraction of them.  Sigh.  I haven’t finished but I’m making some headway. 🙂

(This post is part of Menu Plan Monday.)

Avivah