Category: menu plans

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

Shabbos – dinner – challah, chicken soup, chicken, carrot tzimmes, eggplant curry, mashed potatoes, chocolate garbanzo cake, protein bars, chocolate chip cookies; lunch – cholent (beef stew), kishke (baked stuffing), chicken, squash pudding, Israeli salad, fresh cranberry relish, desserts as above

Sunday – brunch – pizza (with gluten free crust); dinner – beef stew, squash pie, cucumber salad, coleslaw

Monday – b – banana custard; l – blended vegetable soup; d – shepherd’s pie

Tuesday – b – cottage cheese pancakes; l – cauliflower cheese soup, baked potatoes; d – turkey hash

Weds – quinoa casserole (NT); l – colcannon; d – homemade buckwheat noodles with sauce (either peanut sauce or meat sauce – to be determined)

Thurs – b- yogurt, sliced almonds (soaked and dehydrated), sliced bananas, shredded coconut; snack – celery with peanut butter; d – Thanksgiving – turkey, roasted sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, salads, green beans with almonds, pumpkin pudding, cranberry-pear pie

Breakfasts are supplemented with milk and fruit; lunch and dinner are supplemented with vegetables.  This week I’ll be picking beet greens, turnip greens, and spinach from our raised beds (the lasagna beds are being built up for the coming planting season, so nothing growing there).  When we planted it technically was too late, but I’m so glad we did!  Greens sauteed in butter or coconut oil are a great addition to any meal.

On Friday I was able to do a good amount of prepping vegetables for this week – I chopped a bunch of yellow summer squash and broccoli and put them in the freezer, so they can be pulled out and put right into the pot for vegetable soup.  Dd14 prepared 2 gallons of sauerkraut and 1 gallon of ginger carrots  to ferment.  A couple of weeks ago I soaked and dehydrated about 10 – 12 cups of almonds, so now I have plenty ready for the week.  For once, I don’t have any beans on the menu for this week, so I won’t be soaking or sprouting anything.

So today my prep work will consist mostly of dealing with the cases of bananas that I bought on Weds.  The kids are eating them up, but I still have at least sixty pounds left, and they won’t stay in this perfect shape forever!  I think I’ll do some baking with them – I’m thinking about making banana date muffins and banana bread.  I’ll freeze a bunch to use for smoothies, too.

Avivah

Shabbos-  dinner – challah, chicken soup, chicken, baked butternut squash, baked yams, carrots and celery, sauerkraut, power bars and lollipops; lunch – chicken, beef cholent, kishke, mini pumpkin kugels, cucumber salad, orange cranberry relish, power bars, peach crisp

Sunday – breakfast – oatmeal; snack – ants on a log (celery spread with peanut butter, topped with raisins); dinner – leftovers – kasha, rice, baked beans, lentils, soup, cooked vegetables, salad (I like the fridge to be empty to start off the week :))

Monday – b – polenta; l – hearty vegetable soup; d – pizza with nut flour crust, salad

Tuesday – b – coconut mango pancakes; l – hard boiled eggs, vegetable sticks; d – falafel, salad, techina

Wednesday- b – chocolate zucchini muffins; l – shopping day so I’ll pick up something; d – corn chowder

Thursday – b – sweet potatoes with almond sauce; l – corn chowder; d – beef and pinto beans

Friday – the last few weeks the kids have enjoyed a special baked treat about an hour before candlelighting – it’s always something made with challah dough

Every time I make a nutritional change to our diets, it means that menu planning becomes more time consuming for a while until I get used to thinking about the new way I’m changing over to.  I’ve made a number of adaptations over the years, and each time, there’s a learning curve as I have to readjust the kinds of foods I make, looking for different recipes and taking into account new and different information.  That’s the challenge I’m having right now, trying to make gluten free meals (as well as trying to cut down on grains in general).

I’ve depended heavily on wheat flour for our breakfasts in particular – muffins, biscuits, pancakes, and waffles regularly appear on our breakfast table.  The easiest thing is just to stop having them, and eat eggs and yogurt every morning instead.  That idea has a lot of appeal, honestly-the kids love omelettes and yogurt with what I call grainless granola (sliced almonds, shredded coconut, sunflower or sesame seeds, and raisins) – it would make menu planning so much simpler!  But instead I’ve been looking for substitutions since my kids really enjoy this kind of food.

Last night I told my dh (not for the first time) that I wished I was a person who could have one or two weekly menus and use them forever.  It would be so easy to know that Wednesday night was always baked salmon, you know?  No brain work, no time, no thinking involved.  But as he said to me, “You’ve never been like that.”  Sigh. It’s true.  It seems so boring and limiting.  But boring has its definite advantages. 🙂

Avivah

I was finding it more challenging than usual to make my weekly menu plan this week since a) I’m once again having the thoughts that cycle through every so often about going grain free or at least gluten free; and b) I’m out of eggs until I go shopping again, and since they are a staple food I generally use a lot of, I have to mentally make a conscious shift for meal planning when they’re not available.  I could use egg replacer for the baked goods, but instead decided to do some searching for new concepts and ways to use the grains I have in the pantry, and this week’s menu will be basically gluten free (except for the bread this morning).

Shabbos – dinner – challah, chicken soup, chicken, roast sweet potatoes, glazed beets, Israeli salad, upside down coconut brownie pudding; lunch – beef stew, kishke, chicken, salad

Sunday – breakfast – homemade bread, cottage cheese; lunch – organic blue corn chips with bean dip, whitefish salad; dinner – green bean salad, sweet potato pudding, beef stew

Monday – b – lemon almond pancakes; l – black bean and quinoa patties; d – kasha nut loaf, techina sauce

Tuesday – b- yogurt with grainless granola (equal amounts of shredded coconut, sliced almonds, raisins, and a second kind of nut or seed); l – lentil onion pancakes; d – baked beans with hot dogs

Wednesday  – b – sweet potato rounds with almond sauce; l – leftovers from Monday and Tuesday; d – split pea soup with barley and vegetables

Thursday – b- quinoa oatmeal squares; l – split pea soup; d – lentil pecan burgers

Friday – b – polenta with sour cream

The  meals are all supplemented with fruits (breakfast) and vegetables (lunch), which I generally decide on before the meal.  The yogurt is in the dehydrator right now.  I have a huge amount of sliced almonds soaking on the counter – I like to prepare a nice amount at a time so I can prepare them at the beginning of the week and have them ready when I need them.  I’ll put them in the dehydrator before I go to bed so they’ll be ready in the morning.   I’ll start the beans for the week soaking – lentils, black beans, and either navy or red beans – this ensures that they are sprouted by the time I want to use them.  Sprouting not only makes them significantly more digestible, but also makes the nutritional value shoot way up.  Beans are so easy to use when I take the time to plan ahead, and getting all the prep work done in the very beginning of the week means I don’t haveto spend time or thought on it later on.

If any of you have thoughts/experience on how to soak nut flours/meal without making it dairy, I’d love to hear them!  I soak nuts in a salt water solution, then rinse them before drying them, but that wouldn’t work with ground nuts.  Since I can buy already ground nut meal much more inexpensively than  the nuts themselves, the suggestion to prepare them in my usual way and then grind them isn’t going to be so helpful. 🙂

Avivah

This week it felt quiet at our Shabbos table  – dd14 went to NY for the weekend for her camp bunk reunion, and then ds10 was our for lunch, so there were only seven children home for the meal.   And since the baby was sleeping in the beginning, it was only six at the table at a time, so it really felt empty, even with our spontaneously invited guests (one for dinner and one for lunch). But it was still a beautiful Shabbos- the weather was just beautiful.  When looking out the window, it looked like a stark winter day, but as soon as I stepped out, I felt the beautiful warm autumn air and didn’t want to go back inside!

Shabbos – dinner – challah, chicken, cauliflower popcorn, mashed potatoes, sauteed broccoli with red pepper and onion, green bean salad, fruit; lunch – beef ch0lent (stew), chicken, potato knishes, mini pumkin puddings, sweet and sour carrots, cranberry orange sauce, coleslaw, pickled green tomatoes, fresh salad, fruit, nuts, dried fruit

Sunday – breakfast – chocolate pudding; lunch – noodles with sauce, bean stew; dinner – cholent, kishke, roasted vegetable, salad

Monday – b – banana date muffins; l – cottage cheese pancakes; d – beefy beans and rice

Tuesday- b – yogurt, mango; d – carrot and spinach soup, baked potatoes

Wednesday – b – sourdough pancakes; d – millet cheese cakes

Thursday – b – southern biscuits, eggs; d – honey baked lentils, cornbread

Friday – b – creamy oatmeal

Breakfasts are supplemented by milk and fruit, lunches and dinners with vegetables.  If lunch isn’t listed, it’s because it will be planned leftovers of the dish planned for the dinner before (ie purposely making a larger amount so there will be enough for two meals).

The sourdough starter I finally started at the end of last week is looking good and should be ready to use for the sourdough pancakes by the end of the week.  The sauerkraut fermenting on the counter should be ready in another week- it looks good but the cabbage still has some crunch left to it and it’s best when the cabbage is nice and soft.  I’ll start some beans and lentils soaking today so they’ll be sprouted for later in the week.  I also want to make another batch of yogurt today – we have been going through loads of it since I started making it myself; the kids really like it!

Avivah

Here’s the menu for this week:

Shabbos – challah, chicken, potato knishes, roasted vegetables, sauerkraut, rugelach, power bars; lunch – chicken, cholent, kishke, roasted potatoes, pineapple coleslaw, sweet potato pie with crumb topping, broccoli plum salad, cauliflower salad, oatmeal raisin cookies, chocolate-peanut butter squares, almond power bars, plums

Sun- brunch – cottage cheese pancakes, homemade grape jelly; snack – oatmeal cookies and fruit; dinner – broccoli and cheese stuffed potatoes

Mon – b – sunflower seeds,  sliced almonds, raisins with yogurt; l – panini sandwiches; d – lentil pecan burgers, kasha, broccoli salad, orange glazed beets

Tues – b- zucchini muffins; l – quesadillas (with the last of the corn tortillas); d- turkey shwarma, quinoa, salad

Weds – b – stovetop rice pudding; l- leftovers; d – flax rice spirals w/ red beans and sunflower seeds

Thurs – b- buckwheat porridge; d – chicken chimichangas with green tomato salsa

Fri – b – eggs, biscuits, chocolate pudding

As always, breakfasts are supplemented with milk and fruit.  Since I bought two cases (28 pounds each) of plums last week, that will be the dominant fruit (finished the 36 lb of grapes already).   I have a lot of canned fruit as well- cherries, blueberries, peaches, pears, applesauce, and mango – so even though I don’t have any frozen fruit in the house, we still have a nice selection.

My dd14 is planning to go to NY for the weekend for a camp reunion, and it looks like two friends from a different area are going to spend Thursday night and Friday morning here with us, then they’ll all take the bus to Manhattan together.  Dd  asked me if we could have food that would be familiar to her friends, which sparked a conversation among the kids about if it’s more fun to have something new and different at a friend’s house or the same thing they eat at home.  My kids like new things but with the understanding that not everyone does, we decided to stick with the dinner that was already planned and make a standard breakfast.  The dinner may change between now and then- I told dd I’m willing to serve whatever she wants, but she has to decide what it will be if she’d rather have something else.

For the meal prep for this week, I soaked and dried eight cups of sliced almonds and eight cups of walnuts.  We made another gallon batch of yogurt last night, and have a gallon of sauerkraut fermenting right now.  I have 2 lb. of lentils and 2 lb. of red beans soaking.  I didn’t get around to getting the sourdough starter going last week, so maybe this week I will!  I’m thinking that everyone will enjoy fresh rolls this week for lunch, so I’ll make some regular bread dough for that.

Ds10 was in the yard and started to lose his balance when tying his shoes next to the garden bed.  He grabbed what was next to him to keep from falling, and ended up pulling up a huge beet.  I had no idea any of our beets were so big!  I told him to go back out and pick three more, and then I had to make an addition for tonight and tomorrow’s dinners to use these beautiful fresh beets and beet greens!

The fall garden is looking good and I’ll soon be able to supplement our meals with the greens we’re growing. I really should get some more seeds into the ground this week while the weather is mild.  Now that the last tomato plants are ready to be pulled, it makes more room for planting.  I hope that we’ll be able to enjoy fresh home grown lettuce, spinach, and other greens throughout the winter.

Avivah