This week I’m unusually low on groceries only three weeks after doing my monthly shopping.  I bought two cases of sweet potatoes that were supposed to last for at least six weeks but rotted after two and had to be thrown away (note – there apparently was some kind of problem with the quality, it’s not that I bought too much or stored them improperly; I’ve been buying like this for two or three years with no problem, and the store is refunding the entire purchase price), the 10 gallons of milk are finished until the next shopping trip, I bought 30 dozen eggs and they’re finished after 3 weeks (when I expected them to last for at least a month as they usually do), there’s hardly any hard cheese left….and with dh eating according to the GAPS diet, I’m going through vegetables faster than usual.

So I’m just about out of some basic staples and this week will be a real pantry challenge for me.  My goal is to make ample meals three times a day for 10 – 11 people each time, without spending more than $25 on some vegetables and eggs for the week, otherwise only using what I already have in the house.  The menus below are based on those ‘ground rules’.

Shabbos (Sabbath) – dinner – challah, chicken soup, roast chicken, ratatouille, butternut squash fries, roast potatoes, fruit cobbler, chocolates ; lunch – cholent (beef stew), kishke (stuffing), chicken wings, broccoli apple salad, carrot raisin salad, brownies, mock oatmeal cookies

Sunday- breakfast – grits, grapefruit; lunch – beef stew, salad; dinner – quinoa with roasted garlic, tempeh (fermented soybean curd), and stir fried vegetables (onions, napa, snow peas, butternut squash)

Monday – b – coconut rice; l – millet cheese cakes; d – Nancy’s chili (new chili recipe I’m trying out)

Tuesday – b – johnny cakes with homemade strawberry jam; l – Georgia peanut soup homemade bread; d – fish and chips, coleslaw

Wednesday – b – peach and berry cobbler, cream; l – soup and bread; d – hot dogs and baked beans

Thursday – b -breakfast tacos; d – vegetable pilaf with cashews

Friday – b – banana nut muffins

I only listed the main dishes for the most part since I won’t know what veggies I’ll buy until I see what is a great deal.  But there will be some sort of vegetables at all of the lunch and dinner meals.

Today we started soaking three different kinds of beans for this week’s recipes: 2 pounds of pintos, 2 pounds of kidneys, and 2 pounds of navy beans. In the morning I’ll drain them and they’ll be ready to begin sprouting.  I also started (well, to be accurate I asked dd15 to start them) soaking nuts: 12 cups of cashews and almost 4 lb of walnuts. Cashews don’t need much time to soak – if you leave them too long they get slimy – so I’m going to put them in the dehydrator before I go to bed. Then in the morning I’ll take them out and put the walnuts in to dry.  Have I recently mentioned how much I love my dehydrator?  🙂

I’m thinking about getting another sourdough starter going; it’s been a while since I baked any sourdough.  It takes about a week to ‘grow’ your starter so you really can’t spontaneously decide you feel like making sourdough one day!  The bread that I’m planning to make midweek will be whole grain but not sourdough.

I did a mega batch of fermented vegetables last week – four gallons of cortido (ethnic sauerkraut), and 3 or 4 gallons of green beans.  The cortido should be ready this week and I’ll see how it compares to our favorite, an adaptation on the basic curried carrot sauerkraut recipe I shared a while back.

(This post is part of Menu Plan Monday.)

Avivah

Wow, the past week has zoomed by.  I can’t believe it’s already time to post my weekly menu!

Shabbos – dinner- challah, soup, roast chicken, potatoes,  asparagus, carrot kugel, salads, peanut butter cups (will share recipe later this week); lunch – cholent, kishke, kugel, salads, fresh mangoes, power bars

Sunday – breakfast – french toast; lunch – eggs and cream cheese; dinner- beef stew, carrot sticks, salads

Monday – b – lemon blueberry muffin loaf; l – chicken vegetable soup, toast; d – falafel, techina, chopped lettuce, ginger carrots and pickled green beans

Tuesday – quinoa pudding; l – baked stuffed potatoes (broccoli and cheese); d – red beans and rice with sausage, roasted vegetables

Wednesday – b – banana bread ; l – eggs, eggplant casserole; d – black bean quinoa burgers

Thursday – b – baked banana oatmeal; l – turkey hash; d – CORN (Clean Out Refrigerator Night)

It’s hard for me to believe that we’ve finished over three quarts of elderberry syrup in four months, but we have!  This afternoon I made a small batch of elderberry syrup with the last of the dried elderberries.

About ten months ago, we were given a case of frozen bananas.  Today I got a call from the person who gave them to us then, asking if we’d be interested in another case of frozen bananas.  His wife works in the food industry and the institution had more than they needed, so the bananas were peeled and then frozen when they were started to get spotted so that they wouldn’t get overripe.  It’s a good thing that when I went shopping last month, I decided not to get a case of bananas, isn’t it?!  And it’s also a good thing I know what to do with frozen bananas!  As you see, the bananas were worked into this week’s menu.

Tonight I started a new batch of turkey broth brewing on the stove.  I soaked the red beans and black beans and will drain them in the morning so they will have time to sprout before Tues/Weds night dinners.  Since I have a fresh batch of sauerkraut that’s just about finished and a couple more batches of lacto fermented vegetables in the fridge, I’m not going to make anymore this week.

Oh, I have to add my usual comment that breakfast is generally supplemented by fruit and raw milk, lunch and dinner with vegetables in some form.

Avivah

I put this week’s plan together very quickly and will probably end up adapting it a bit, but this is what it looks like for now:

Shabbos – dinner – challah, chicken soup, roast chicken, roasted cauliflower/carrots/pearl onion/garlic, green bean almondine, roasted potatoes, fruit salad, nut butter truffles; lunch – cholent, kishke, chicken, carrot raisin salad, tomato avocado salad, lemon pudding pie, truffles

Sunday – breakfast – oatmeal with coconut milk, grapefruit; d – chicken split pea soup, carrot salad, fresh salad

Monday – b – zucchini bread; l – ricotta cheese pancakes, d – bean and cheese burritos w/ sprouted whole grain tortillas, roasted root vegetables

Tuesday- b – quinoa porridge; l – chicken split pea soup; d – red beans and rice with sausage, lacto fermented green beans

Wednesday – b – mango muffins; d – pizza(one with hazelnut crust, one with regular crust), salad

Thursday – b – baked oatmeal; l – red beans and rice; d – CORN (Clean Out Refrigerator Night) or crustless non dairy broccoli quiche (depending on if there’s enough leftovers in the fridge for a meal)

As always, what is written are the main dishes; breakfasts are usually supplemented by fruit and milk/yogurt/kefir; lunches and dinners are supplemented with vegetable side dishes.  I have a bunch of frozen hard cheese, cottage cheese, and ricotta, and this week I’m planning to make a dent in it.  I’ll be going shopping the week after next, and since my full size freezer is packed, I must use stuff up to make room for more!

Ds10 just shredded a bunch of purple cabbage to get a new batch of sauerkraut started fermenting.  I have a couple of quarts left of my last batch, but in this weather it takes a lot longer than in the summer, so by starting it now it will be ready when this runs out!  I also have a couple of quarts of lacto fermented green beans in the fridge, and I’ll try to use that up this week so I have more available fridge space.

The zucchini bread is baked for tomorrow morning; dd15 baked two large pans full so we’ll put one pan in the freezer for a busy morning.  I suggested she make it earlier today so that she wouldn’t have to stay up later tonight or rush in the morning to have it baked on time (it’s her turn to do breakfast duty).

Today at 5 pm three of my kids are having a piano recital (ds10, dd13, and dd15), and I have the soup for dinner simmering on the stove so it will be ready before we leave.  We’re making dinner for a neighbor again and I don’t want a big rush when we get back.  I was planning to make cornbread to go with the soup for her (not for us, since the soup and salads will be plenty for us), but now I’m thinking about sending a bag of organic blue corn chips instead.  I’m not sure if that will seem strange to her, though.  Any opinions?

Avivah

I hope everyone had a wonderful Shabbos!  My husband was away and we all missed him, but the kids and I had a nice Shabbos nonetheless.  We’re glad to have him home, though!

Shabbos – dinner – challah, chicken soup, chicken, roasted sweet potatoes, baked eggplant, green bean salad, brownies; lunch – cholent, kishke, chicken, potato kugel, coleslaw, green bean salad, cashew butter balls  (I didn’t write the menu in my planner this week so I’m going by memory and know I’m leaving things out)

Sunday – breakfast – pumpkin pudding; lunch – creamy cauliflower cheese soup; d – going to bar mitzva

Monday – b- coconut mango pancakes with cream; l – cornmeal fritters, salad; d – beef stew, green bean salad

Tuesday – b – chocolate zucchini muffins; d -West African stew

Wednesday – b- quinoa porridge; l – West African stew; d – meat stir fry

Thursday – b – date scones with whipped cream; d – CORN

I liked how it worked last week not to plan all the lunch meals in advance, since I kept finding that I wasn’t cooking everything as scheduled because using up what we already had was taking priority.  Last week I had so many  leftovers to start the week that they significantly contributed to the first three dinners of the week.  This week I don’t have quite so much, but I’m going to leave a couple of lunch meals unscheduled for this week.

Every week when I post my menu, I think how simple and boring it looks.  But our meals really aren’t boring at all!  There’s always much more on the table that what I write down here.  So in case you’re looking at this and wondering how our kids don’t pine away from starvation, rest assured that they’re getting plenty to eat!  I generally just list the main dish for each meal.

Avivah

Another wonderful week already beginning!  Last week we had friends and family over almost every night of the week for dinner, and I felt like I was in the kitchen nonstop (making huge batches of latkes will do that!)! This week I’m back to regular meals with just our family.

Sun- breakfast – homemade eggnog; l -Greek egg lemon soup; dinner- honey baked lentils, roast potatoes, fresh salad

Mon – b -banana oat pancakes, whipped cream; d – lamb vegetable soup, green bean mango salad

Tues – b – coconut flour biscuits, eggs; d – oven baked turkey chimichangas

Weds – b – baked banana oatmeal; d – crustless vegetable quiche

Thurs – b – pumpkin pudding; l – green beans, potatoes, and sour cream; d – CORN (clean out refrigerator night)

Fri- b – polenta with sour cream

This week I’m not planning out separate lunches since we’ll either make a double recipe the night before for planned leftovers, or have some kind of soup or salad with a simple protein for lunch.

I took ds16 to the chiro a couple of days ago and asked her to check on his allergies (with energy testing).  It was a pleasant surprise to hear that he’s testing with no food allergies!  The problem is an internal virus manifesting as allergic symptoms, so I ordered some homeopathic supplements, will get him started on those in the coming week when they arrive, and will go back for another appointment after that to see what’s happening.  Soooo – that means he can eat the same foods as everyone else again!  I still will be limiting grains because I think it’s healthier, but it’s nice to have more options.

Since this past week I bought a 40 lb case of ripe bananas, this week I need to make use of them.  In addition to the two breakfasts that have bananas in them, I’m hoping to do some baking for the freezer today: banana bread, banana date muffins, chocolate zucchini muffins.  I’ll see how realistic that is time-wise; so much to do, so little time! 🙂  A couple of these recipes use coconut flour and I’m interested in experimenting with them.

I also found an amazing deal on whole frozen organic green beans – 5 pounds for 2.99, less than I pay for my regular frozen green beans!  Being me, I bought 30 pounds.  🙂  (Fortunately it’s so cold that I’m able to store them on the secured steps that lead from the basement to the yard – that’s one of the very nice things about winter!)  Today I’m planning to try lacto fermenting some – I’ve never done this with green beans before, but I don’t see why they shouldn’t turn out great.

I also want to prep some vegetables for the week.  At the beginning of last week I did this and it made the rest of the week so much easier.  I prepped separate containers of various vegetables – eg, chopped napa, chopped green peppers, shredded carrots, washed snow peas, chopped cucumbers, chopped summer squash – they stay fresh much longer than when mixed together, and it was a cinch to throw them together in various combinations for a quick salad.  A large salad is a great lunch – I add cubes of meat/chicken/cheese, nuts, avocado, etc and this makes it very easy.

My garden beds are covered with about a foot of snow, so it will be interesting to see how my greens emerge when the snow melts.  But no plans to dig them out and see until then!  I have lots of baby napa in the fridge so I’ll manage fine without them right now anyway.

Avivah

Sunday – breakfast – yogurt; l – eggs, popcorn; dinner- meat sauce, potatoes, carrot salad, tomato salad

Monday- b- Amish oatmeal; l – broccoli/cauliflower cheese soup, coconut flour biscuits; d –

Tuesday – b- Dutch puffs; l – colcannon; d – spicy beans and beef

Wednesday – b- banana date muffins; l – spicy beans and beef; d – chili, cornbread

Thursday – b – hot rice and milk; l – CORN; d – lentil pecan burgers, baked yams

Breakfast includes milk and fruit – this week the fruits are persimmons and oranges.  Lunch and dinner includes vegetables – I have several ferments going now so those will We had a bunch of snow yesterday so after it melts from the garden beds, I’ll get to see how my greens have held up and how much there is to use this week!

Avivah

Here’s the plan for this week; breakfasts are supplemented with fruit and milk, lunches and dinners are supplemented by some kind of vegetables.  The vegetables I started fermenting a week and a half ago (sauerkraut, ginger carrots, pickles) are basically ready and we started enjoying them tonight.  I try to serve some every night for dinner, to promote good digestive health.  Plus they look and taste good!  (The pink sauerkraut looks especially pretty.)  Tomorrow morning I’ll be doing my mid month vegetable shopping and then I’ll be set for the next couple of weeks.

Sunday- lunch – meat stew; dinner – turkey gravy, stuffing, pink sauerkraut, fermented pickles, steamed broccoli and carrots

Monday – b- banana peanut butter shakes; l – eggs; d – turkey soup

Tuesday – b- carrot cake bars; l – twice  baked potatoes; d – turkey soup

Wednesday – b – yogurt, grainless granola; l – quinoa casserole; d – cabbage meat soup

Thursday – b – buckwheat crispies; l – fermented bean dip, crudites; d – CORN (clean out refrigerator night)

Friday – b – polenta

Today my ds3 was looking in one of the raised garden boxes and told me he saw a mushroom.  I wasn’t paying much attention, and a few minutes later he came to me with a mushroom sized turnip in his hand!  I was planning to pick up bunch of turnip greens today, and when I bent over, I noticed that at the base of all the plants it looked like large white marbles.  It was the turnips!  I’ve been seeing the gorgeous lush greens but this was the first time I saw them; it was very gratifying!  I  think they were planted too closely together and were pushing each other out of the ground.

So we thinned them out a bit and I spent quite a while checking the greens.  I did it when the baby and toddler were sleeping so though it was technically tedious, I found it very relaxing.  As I kept finding tiny little bugs, I showed them to my kids so they’ll know what to look for.  I would check at a leaf, and if I saw a bug(s), pass it to one of them and ask them how many they could find.  Some of the bugs are so small that they’re hardly bigger than a couple grains of sand. Ds7 got very good at it and was a real help.  I had half of the turnip greens sauteed in butter with my eggs for lunch, the other half will be sauteed in coconut oil for the turkey soup, and the baby turnips will be added in to the soup whole.

About six months ago I bought a bunch of nuts, including 25 lb of raw cashews.  The cashews were vacuum packed and I didn’t want to open them since I didn’t have an available container for them.  (The other nuts and nut flours I’ve bought in bulk came in boxes.)  Finally today we opened them, found and labeled a container for them, and then soaked twelve cups of cashews (they’re in the dehydrator right now).  I’m thinking I could use these to make my own cashew butter, in addition to snacking on them and adding them to dishes.

Tonight I have six pounds of buckwheat soaking.  Tomorrow morning I’ll dehydrate them so they can be served as buckwheat crispies for breakfast later in the week (and the rest will keep for another time).  I keep finding more and more ways to use my dehydrator – it’s becoming indispensable.  Last week I soaked a bunch of buckwheat with the intention to sprout it, but it got forgotten when a pot lid was put over it, and grew mold.  A nice addition to my garden compost.  🙂  Maybe I’ll leave some of this out to try sprouting.

I also started two pounds of pintos soaking.  I’m planning to make a fermented bean dip for the end of the week, and starting the soaking now will give me a couple of days for them to sprout, and then a couple of days to ferment.

We’ve been experimenting the last week with a few variations of snack bars.  None of them use any kind of sweetener (only dried fruit or banana), all are very filling and tasty. The ingredients for them all are very simple and basic.  The carrot cake bar will be a new experiment, and unlike the others, will have a grain in it (millet). I asked ds16 to put together a couple of batches of two kinds on Friday, and though when he finished making them, he thought the Larabar mock-up was a failure, today they tasted them and everyone loves them.     So far I’ve been using the bars as snacks, but there’s really no reason not to serve it for breakfast – they’re packed with nutrition!

I’ve personally been grain and pretty much starch free (ie, no potatoes, yams, corn, peas, winter squash – all things that are gluten free and okay for everyone else in the family) for about three weeks now (except for Shabbos, but even then it’s minimal).  I’ve known I would benefit from this for three years; I’ve wanted to do it for two years.  I had to hold off on this for the last couple of years due to a specific circumstance (not financial and not family related), but that has finally changed and now I’m enjoying eating this way.  It takes thinking about food differently, but practically speaking I just make my meals very simple- fats, proteins, veggies.

Avivah

Here’s what our Thanksgiving menu looked like – it was entirely gluten, grain, and sugar free, except for the two dishes my mom brought.

• roasted turkey
• cornbread stuffing (mom)
• mashed potatoes (mashed cauliflower for me)
• gravy
• baked yams and sweet potatoes (flesh mashed with coconut oil and cinnamon and left in jackets)
• maple pecan carrots
• spicy green bean salad
• fresh fermented cranberry relish
• vegetable salad
• cherry noodle pudding (mom)
• pear crisp
• pumpkin pie with pecan crust

Lots of yummy food but what was really nice was being able to share a family meal with our parents, being together with all of us in good health.  That’s really something to appreciate, isn’t it?

Avivah