Sunday, March 2, 2014

Another week of menus

Alas, I did not photograph our basket this week, which contained red bell peppers, red potatos, cucumbers, romaine lettuce, carrots, celery, broccoli, yellow onions, bananas, gala apples, and oranges. These are all pretty standard produce items, but I still thought I'd share my menu plan in case you are looking for ideas.

I made refrigerator pickles with the cucumbers. I am not a fan of this green vegetable, but for some reason, I had a hankering for pickles. Thanks to having all this produce on hand, I've learned that refrigerator pickles are easy to make and stay on hand for a month, which is long enough for me to gobble them down.
I'm posting a picture, but I think something this unattractive qualifies me as running an "anti-food" blog. Eek. Anyway, to make refrigerator pickles, you heat 1/2 cup cider vinegar, 1/2 cup white vinegar, and 3/4 cup white sugar in a small saucepan until sugar is dissolved. Pack cucumber slices tightly into jars (adding herbs, onions, and peppers makes your jars much prettier) and cover with brine. You can add spices to the vinegar mixture after it's heated: 1-1/2 tsp. mustard seeds, some celery seed, some pepper. Enough with the cucumbers...

Sunday: I marinated Oven-roasted lime chicken from Crepes of Wrath (hands down, our favorite chicken recipe) the night before, and cooked it after church, along with a side of garlic mashed potatoes and cauliflower. I have found that love to mix cauliflower into mashed potatoes. Trust me, not only small children need their veggies "hidden." I would like to say we had applesauce with this meal, which sounds more balanced, but truthfully we munched on homemade rye bread to assuage our hunger while the chicken cooked. My youngest wants to learn to bake bread, so we made the rye on Saturday.

Monday: I also bought the stew pack from The Produce Gathering, which has all the ingredients for beef stew. Easy and satisfying, even though it shouldn't be 14 degrees in Oklahoma in March.

Tuesday: Most of the fruit from our basket will get used up just in lunches and snacks, but my family doesn't eat oranges very much. Instead of juicing them, I'm planning waffles and bacon. I slice oranges and put them on the table, and since the waffles come out one at a time, the waiting people munch on orange slices. You can make monkey mouths with them, which is an entertaining family activity. We offer waffles either plain, or baked with cheese, blueberries, or pecans.

Wednesday: I will likely saute onions and peppers for lunch some day, but I may save a few red peppers for sloppy joes. I now add a large amount of chopped bell pepper to my mom's recipe from college. Her recipe sautes onion (and bell pepper), then I add precooked ground beef (not quite a full pound, thanks to the copious bell pepper). The sauce: 3/4 c. ketchup, 2 T. sugar, 2 T. mustard, 1 T. Worshteshire, and 1 T. vinegar. I can serve this with oven roasted potatoes (cubed potatoes tossed with olive oil, paprika, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, a little cayenne, a little oregano, baked at 400 for 30 minutes or until soft) or broccoli. Yes, we eat steamed broccoli with both sandwiches and soups. It's easy, I like it, it's good for us.

Thursday: Glazed carrots and salad. My youngest loves both of these, and we'll probably have some kind of muffin or bread to go with it. If your family likes meat, you could add an entree. We have grown accustomed to simple vegetarian meals. Without the calories from a meat, you can make guilt-free brownies or chocolate snack cake.

Friday: Because my family is small and we're light eaters, I can probably fill out the rest of the week with leftovers. And most of my basket is relegated elsewhere at this point. There is a lot of celery remaining, however, and since the weekend allows me time to cook, I might whip up some homemade cream of celery soup. My middle child can't have processed foods, and the more I move away from them, the better the rest of us feel as well. Many recipes call for creamed soups, so when I have time, I make homemade versions and we enjoy a few casseroles. One of my favorites is Rotel Chicken Casserole. I actually have some homemade rotel in the freezer, left from last summer's tomatoes and peppers. Yum.

Saturday: I have a big project planned, so I won't cook. If we don't have leftovers, we'll order pizza or eat sandwiches. I could also make spaghetti sauce in the crock pot from some romas I have in the freezer, but we'll see.

I was thinking yesterday about my Facebook photos of yummy things I've made, accompanied by photos and recipes. Just to encourage you, my cooking doesn't always turn out. Yesterday, I overcooked the chicken I was making for the family; it was too dry. And the dressing I chose for our salad wasn't quite right. We'll eat it up, because I don't like to waste things, but trial-and-error isn't always satisfying. We are, however, nourished. And warm. And together.

And for that, I'm grateful.