Well, One Month Later . . .

I'm about to go shopping again. Not that I haven't been shopping in the interim;  with Easter and so on, there's been a great deal of food-shopping going on here, but no time to write about it, and anyway, I figured that everyone else was busy, too.

But now here we are. Let's begin with a quick rundown of meals which have been both easy and successful of late:

1. Chinese stir-fry hot plate. This is a consistent hit. The exact contents change -- this past week, the meat was ground turkey, sauteed with onion, julienned carrot, shredded cabbage, very finely diced kale (because I was sneaking it in), and snow peas. I sauteed all of the above in a generous dollop of coconut oil, and seasoned it (also generously) with garlic and ground ginger, with a very sparing dash of tamari. I know that in the paleo-food world soy is out, but I haven't tracked down coconut aminoes as a substitute, and I don't ever use that much anyway. One of the things that had always been wrong with my stir-fry attempts before was that I tried to make stir-fry sauce, with lots of sesame oil, tamari, etc, which my husband has confessed to having hated. I find that just adding ginger is enough to give it the right taste -- Chinese-y, but not heavy-handed.

As an accompaniment, I made cauliflower rice:  chop cauliflower to the consistency of rice (or couscous, which is really what it reminds me of) and saute in coconut oil. To this I added a dash of ginger as well, plus a beaten egg towards the end, for extra protein and to give it that fried-rice taste.

2. Ground-pork French-style hot plate over fashionably wilted baby spinach. This was ground pork cooked with finely diced onion and garlic, plus tarragon, cinnamon, and allspice and a handful of very finely chopped kale, then served over the baby spinach, which the heat of the meat wilted to a lovely bright green translucency.

3. North-African-style chicken. I began with raw boneless skinless chicken thighs (my cookups have been a little slipshod lately), frying them in coconut oil with a spice mix of garlic, cumin, coriander, paprika, cinnamon, and ginger. For a vegetable side, I did cumin-roasted carrots from Well Fed:  you melt coconut oil, add cumin and cinnamon, and toss sliced carrots in this spice-oil mix, then roast. I also did an okra-onion-bell-pepper saute in spices similar to those I used on the chicken. I've really had a taste for these spices  -- don't know if it's the warm weather or the relative novelty or what, but we've eaten a lot of North-African/Moroccan/Middle-Eastern-themed meals lately.

Even the paschal chicken for our Seder on Holy Thursday was not Greek-flavored as in years past, but more cuminy-cinnamony-coriandery.

Our Easter meal was quite Greek-flavored, however:
small leg of lamb (I found a miraculous deal, under $50 -- I'd been planning to do something with ground lamb, then couldn't find any).

eggplant strata -- this was an adaptation of an more Italian-themed Well-Fed dish. I baked two sliced eggplant for about 20 minutes in the oven, then in a baking dish did alternating layers of eggplant and a tomato filling which included a can of tomato paste, a big can of crushed tomatoes, garlic, cinnamon and allspice, and four beaten eggs. You finish with a layer of filling on top, so that it bakes up beautifully pillowy and substantial, with the eggplant in between . . . It was a very nice and filling accompaniment to the lamb.

green beans sauteed with caramelized onions and almonds

Then I effected a total departure from the universe of no-sugar eating, and made a chocolate-fudge pie as follows:

Break 6 large eggs, unseparated, into a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add 2/3 cup sugar and two to four tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder, depending on how dark you like your chocolate. Beat all this together, then begin dribbling in 2 cups of hot milk, beating constantly so the egg doesn't get cooked. Stir in two tablespoons of coconut oil for added richness (this was because I hadn't used cream, but whole milk. When it chills, the coconut oil solidifies, which helps set the chocolate custard). Pour into a pie dish and bake for 15 minutes on 400, then turn the oven off and let the pie sit until nearly firm. Remove from oven, cool, and then chill in fridge. Serve with strawberries and chilled, whipped coconut milk.

OK, so now all the sweet stuff is gone, and we're back on board. I don't have specific meal plans for the week, beyond the following:

one ground-pork meal
two ground-turkey meals
two chicken meals
two beef meals (including tonight, since it's the Octave of Easter!)

vegetable options will include spaghetti squash, zucchini, cabbage, kale, and sweet potatoes, plus the frozen green beans and asparagus I have on hand.

breakfasts:  oatmeal with frozen raspberries and/or blueberries for the kids/eggs for adults (everyone like leftover stir-fry for breakfast, too, when it's available . . . )

*******

In other news, I put in my garden this week. I have:

*in a row along the side of the house, four tomato plants
*flanking the tomatoes on either side, two eggplants
*just in front of the tomatoes, an acorn squash (hoping to find some spaghetti squash to put in, too)
*at the front of the garden, parallel to the house, two zucchini
*in two short rows perpendicular to the house, six peppers
*five new plants for my corner strawberry patch
*lemon thyme, mint, orange mint, "boxwood basil," tarragon, and sage in the herb section
*zinnias and cosmos seeded between the rows of peppers (we'll see if they come up)
*sunflowers behind the tomatoes

We'll see how it does this year . . .

Week of February 26

 Should anyone outside my immediate family happen to drop by here, you'll want to know that I'm referencing Melissa Joulwan's cookbook Well Fed in all my meal plans. My aim is to cook my way through all the recipes in this book this semseter, to make this way of cooking and eating a way of life. Not a Rule, mind you. That's St. Benedict, and can't nobody improve on St. Benedict. But a lower-case little way . 



It's already Monday, and I've shopped and cooked-up and done a bit of planning. And eating . . .

Sunday night's dinner:

After cooking up 9 pounds of boneless, skinless chicky breasts and three pounds of ground turkey for use this week, I made what I guess amounted to paleo Italian-style Hamburger Helper for our Sunday-night supper. Here's what I did:

* Brown 3 lbs ground beef with 1 diced onion, a lot of garlic powder, and Italian spices (basil, sage, oregano, etc) also liberally applied

*Add 1 can tomato paste, mushrooms, and a shake of frozen chopped spinach (just enough so that there's really spinach in the "sauce," but you don't exactly taste it. Let the meat sauce/mixture simmer and fill the house with its delicious aroma.

*Make cauliflower "rice" by dicing it to a rice-like consistency in the food processor (a Well-Fed invention -- cauliflower "rice," that is, not the food processor). Add to the meat mixture and cook until tender (about 5-10 minutes -- I wanted it gently al dente, but not raw-cauliflower crunchy).

On the side:  carrot sticks and kale chips (see Melanie's recipe in Snacks)

I had enough beef/cauli stuff to send with my husband to work for his lunch today.

What we have left to work with for the rest of the week: 

Protein

The aforementioned chicken breasts and ground turkey (plus more uncooked in the freezer)

Tuna (about 4 cans)

Salmon (2 cans)

eggs (4 dozen left of the 5 dozen I bought, including one dozen hard-boiled)

Produce

carrots
1 more cauliflower head
2 heads cabbage
onions
8 sweet potatoes

Freezer (non-meat)

bell peppers & onions
a little chopped spinach
leftover cabbage soup from last week

In cans

tomato paste
stewed whole tomatoes

The usual complement of fats, condiments, and spices

Outdoors

very fresh new tiny dandelion greens

Other

seaweed sushi wraps, ie snacks for the 8- and 9-year-olds who love seaweed

Meal Possibilities: 

Mexican, Chinese, Indian hot plates
crockpot chicken/vegetable stew (probably on Thursday)
sausage-egg scramble
tuna salad
salmon-egg muffins for Friday
cabbage soup for Friday

Monday
breakfast:  oatmeal/eggs
lunch:  tuna salad (husband took Sunday supper leftovers to work)
dinner:  Mexican-style chicken breasts with peppers and onions, with sides of cumin-roasted carrots and cauliflower "rice" -- recipe below! (UPDATE: and now in the recipe file)

Tuesday
breakfast:  oatmeal/eggs
lunch:  dudes took Mexican chicken leftovers to work. The three of us at home had plain chicken breasts (I put some fresh cilantro on mine) and apples
dinner:  Greek Cabbage Rolls 

Wednesday
breakfast:  oatmeal/eggs (we're boring, but it gets the job done)
lunch:  Thai-Style Totally Paleo Chicken Salad 
dinner:  crockpot meal:  Well Fed's "Velvety Butternut Squash" recipe made us as soup, using sweet potatoes instead of butternut squash, with shredded chicken breasts to make it a complete veg-and-protein meal

Thursday
breakfast:  oatmeal/eggs
lunch:  chicken breasts, leftovers
dinner:  ground-turkey chili (using Well Fed's "Chocolate Chili" recipe)

Friday
breakfast:  oatmeal/eggs
lunch:  salmon muffins
dinner:  First Friday Dinner at Belmont Abbey (which will be pasta and not paleo, but we'll go with it) 

Mexican-Style Paleo Chicken Breast Dinner

I had all these chicken breasts which I'd cooked up on Sunday, plus a bag of frozen peppers and onions, plus carrots and a head of cauliflower. Here's what I did with them: 

*Sauteed peppers and onions in a knob of coconut oil. They were frozen, so I wanted not only to thaw them but to cook down the water in them so they wouldn't be runny. I turned the heat down on the big iron skillet and let them simmer away while I worked on other parts of the meal.

*While those were cooking, I put chicken breasts (about 8 -- they're kind of small) in a bowl, then in a microwaveable cup I melted another big spoonful of coconut oil (about 2 T, I would guess) with chili powder and unsweetened cocoa powder. Not quite sure how much:  "to taste," anyway. I stirred this all up together and poured it over the chicken, tossing to coat. Then I let that sit.  

*I had the kids peel five carrots, which I then cut into carrot sticks. As I'd done with the chicken, I melted some cumin and cinnamon with a knob of coconut oil in the microwave and then tossed the carrots in that and put them in the oven on 375 to roast for about half an hour (this is a Well Fed recipe, and actually in the cookbook it's more detailed, and they're even more delicious than what I'm describing here. This was my quickie corner-cutting version).

*When the chicken had marinated for a while in the spice/oil mix, and the carrots were close to done in the oven, I added it to the sauteed peppers, scraping all the spice marinade into the skillet. I covered the skillet and let all that simmer together (but not too long -- just enough to warm the pre-cooked chicken)

*I stemmed, chopped, and "riced" the cauliflower in the food processor. In a separate skillet, I sauteed it for about five minutes in coconut oil, until it was tender but not mushy.

Kids liked their chicken and cauliflower rice to be separate on the plate. At least one grownup opted to have chicken, peppers, and the chili-chocolate-mole-tasting pan juices over the cauliflower rice. Carrots on the side.

Week of February 20; or, the Welcome to Lent Edition of the Mealblog

Should anyone outside my immediate family happen to drop by here, you'll want to know that I'm referencing Melissa Joulwan's cookbook Well Fed in all my meal plans. My aim is to cook my way through all the recipes in this book this semseter, to make this way of cooking and eating a way of life. Not a Rule, mind you. That's St. Benedict, and can't nobody improve on St. Benedict. But a lower-case little way . 



Two challenges this week:

1) A strangulated budget. Some funds should be hitting our account by the end of the week, but from Monday to Thursday-ish I need to make a fistful of dollars go a long way

2) The start of Lent.

Actually, the second challenge is a good thing, given the first challenge. The kids have to eat on Ash Wednesday, but the larger and more . . . appetitious . . . among us will eat only one simple meal with no meat. So that's one way to stretch the budget . . . fasting as gift.

To Aldi Wal-Mart and Bi-Lo, because Aldi didn't open till 9, and we needed milk, tomorrow to buy:

2 bags 1 bag frozen chicken thighs or breasts @ $5. 99 $10.98 each (for 5 lbs). Boneless skinless thighs and boneless skinless breasts cost the same;  I don't like to use frozen, particularly, because they're injected with saline solution, but you get more for your money in these big freezer bags than you do in the packs of fresh chicken, and in any event, Aldi never seems to have boneless skinless thighs fresh.

3 or 4 "bullets" of frozen ground turkey @ $1.99 each 3-lb pack of fresh ground turkey @ $7-ish.

whatever produce looks good:  certainly sweet potatoes, maybe broccoli? celery for soup?(bought sweet potatoes and a big spaghetti squash)

3 dozen eggs @ $1.29 a dozen $1 a dozen, on special at Bi-Lo. I'd been about to buy some more expensive eggs at Wal-Mart when an elderly lady sidled up to me and remarked that Bi-Lo was having this sale. I put down the expensive eggs at once, bought my milk and meat, and toddled on across the road to the Bi-Lo. I bought my spaghetti squash there, too, because Wal-Mart had been out of them. It was a big spaghetti squash, but still a bummer:  Wal-Mart's are 94 cents, and this one cost $1.29. Oh, well.

milk (I forget now what it cost last week -- $2.58 or something like that)

I still have a head of cabbage, plus about 5 big carrots, plus some fresh and frozen spinach.  I also have cans of diced tomatoes and tomato paste. Still have seaweed wraps to make snack "chips" -- the kids love to do this. Still have two cans of salmon.

Dinners We Want: 

Hot plates:  Everyone liked Chinese last week. I'd love to do something Moroccan (I still have some Ras el Hanout spice mix I made up a couple of weeks ago). Could make ground-turkey "falafel." Indian always a hit -- I have rogan josh spices and coconut milk in the cupboard. Everyone also likes sausage-egg scrambles.

Soup for Wednesday:  tomato-based vegetable. Possibly with lots of cabbage.

This is enough to be going on with, anyway. There's an awful lot to be done with chicken and ground turkey:  these are the new beans and rice in my life.

Things I've noticed in the few weeks we've been eating this way:

*I'm having far less trouble with fatigue than I had been having. Of course, I'm also taking my vitamin D religiously, and that helps. But eliminating grains and upping my protein has made a noticeable difference in my energy levels. I have the drive to blog again, for starters . . .

*My teenaged son's skin has cleared up dramatically. Of course, he's not eating a purely paleo kind of diet;  he goes out with friends, he eats what he feels like. But at home this is our regimen, and I think it's making a difference. Something is, anyway.

*People are less hungry than they used to be. I notice a lot less snacking. We've never been a household full of snack foods -- here it's always been fruit or nothing -- but I notice far less continual rummaging for something to eat. Meals are a lot more satisfying, and when even lunch is something cooked rather than a pbj, it seems to satisfy people on multiple levels.

*I seem to have lost about eight pounds. This is really good news. I don't need to be thin-thin, but 160 pounds on my 5'4" frame was a bit much. 

Biggest complaint? We don't have dessert much any more. My 8- and 9-year-olds make cookies periodically (and they've become very competent, I have to say), but somehow my extra energy has not yet extended to making the fruit desserts in Well Fed. 

Oh, and -- 

We didn't give up coffee and alcohol as part of our paleo eating plan, just so that we can give them up for Lent. I've been a decaf drinker for months now, of necessity, but I'm still psychologically all wrapped around my cup of coffee in the morning, so ouch ouch ouch.

The Week in Food: 

Monday:  We had leftover turkey-jicama hash and turkey-cabbage-Eastern-European hot plate for lunch. In the afternoon I cooked the chicken breasts, browned the ground turkey, and roasted the spaghetti squash. For dinner I made a Moroccan hot plate by sauteeing two julienned carrots and the innards of the roasted spaghetti squash with most of the chicken breasts (I left four out for future meals) shredded, in coconut oil with a Ras el Hanout spice mix:  cumin, coriander, ginger, black pepper, allspice, clove, cinnamon . . . very fragrant and spicy. We had some sauteed spinach (coconut oil, garlic powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt & pepper) on the side. With two dishes we had a huge, filling, delicious dinner, with enough for lunch leftovers for Tuesday. (and yes, at least one younger child griped a little about the Moroccan spices, but everyone at least picked the chicken out and ate it).

Tuesday:  Oatmeal or eggs for breakfast, leftovers for lunch. For dinner, since it's Shrove Tuesday, I'm going to break the paleo regimen and make pancakes and bacon, with raw honey instead of syrup, because that's what we have. I may make scrambled eggs or omelettes on the side for those of us who'd prefer not to eat grains and sugars (though I know there's some sugar in the bacon, dagnabbit).

Wednesday:  fasting for adults. oatmeal for kid breakfast, chicken breasts and/or whatever leftovers there are  jacket sweet potatoes for kid lunches. Dinner:  still need to decide what kind of soup.(some adaptation of a peasant cabbage soup out of my old Vegetarian Pleasures cookbook. Mainly I just have to do away with the potatoes in it. More cabbage . . . )

Peasant/Provencal-ish Cabbage Soup 


Okay. Here's what I used:

two medium sweet onions, diced very finely
two large carrots, peeled and also diced very finely
three bay leaves
thyme, sage, and garlic to taste
knob of coconut oil
one can tomato paste
one medium head cabbage, shredded
one 1-lb can of crushed tomatoes (or diced, or stewed, whatever you have)
water to cover
salt and pepper to taste

Saute onion and carrot in coconut oil in the bottom of a stockpot. Add bay leaves and spices. Because my stockpot has a relatively thin bottom (it's just enamelware, nothing fancy), I added a little water at this point to keep things from burning to the bottom. Experience dictates these things.

When onion is transparent and carrot is starting to get soft and the whole thing is fragrant, add the can of tomato paste. Stir into the onion/carrot/spice mixture, then add the cabbage and toss to coat with the vegetable/spice/tomato paste. Add the can of crushed tomatoes, then water to cover. Salt and pepper to taste. Simmer until cabbage is wilted and transparent, and you're ready to serve.

If you do dairy, you could top this with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese. If you do grains, a loaf of crusty bread would be nice. We do neither at the moment, so are having hard-boiled eggs, halved and dusted with paprika, as a protein side.

Vegetable broth would be better than water for this soup, but I didn't have any on hand.

Thursday:  thinking of doing a turkey sausage lasagne for dinner with cabbage leaves as lasagne noodles. The other possibility would be a sausage-egg scramble, but I think we might be tired of eggs by this point.

THURSDAY UPDATE:  Upon reconnoitering in the fridge and larder, I think I'm going to do a Cajun-inspired hot plate using pre-cooked ground turkey with okra I still had in the freezer from last summer, when the nice elderly security guard from the community college across the street brought me a big bag from his garden. So, with some crushed tomato, onion and garlic, and lightly sauteed julienned-and-chopped carrot bits for a "rice" texture (carrots being what we have left in the fresh-vegetable department at the moment), plus Cajun spices . . . it'll be dinner, baby!

(second update:  It was really good. I served it in crisp white restaurant-style bowls, like chili. Raves all around.)

Friday:  Anyway, we'll very likely have eggs for breakfast and lunch on this day. Something involving canned salmon for dinner before Stations of the Cross. Stay tuned . . . 

Well, I was right about the eggs for breakfast. But today the expected funds went ka-ching (very quietly, but still, ka-ching) in the ol' bank account, so that I was able to go grocery shopping. More on what I bought for the coming week later, but first:

Lunch:  southwestern-style tuna salad:  canned tuna + tiny-diced onion, fresh cilantro, chili powder, and lime juice.


Dinner:  kind of sort of the same idea, only more Thai-inspired. Ginger-lime shrimp like we had last week, but on a bed of julienned-zucchini noodles for a Pad-Thai-type treatment, spritzed with lime juice and garnished with fresh cilantro.


OK, what I bought for the coming week: 


from Aldi:
5 3-lb bags of frozen boneless skinless chicky breasts
6 1-lb "bullets" of frozen ground turkey
1 3-lb "bullet" of frozen ground beef
produce:  1 pack zucchini, 2 bags sweet onions, 1 bag carrots, 2 bags apples, 2 heads cabbage
6 cans tomato paste (stocking up the pantry while the sun shines)
4 big cans stewed whole tomatoes (ditto)
10 cans chunk light tuna in water (ditto ditto)
5 dozen eggs

from Wal-Mart:
2 cartons organic whole milk
2 jars refined coconut oil
1 bottle extra-virgin olive oil
2 packs seaweed wraps for snacks
1 large bag frozen tiny shrimp 
produce:  1 bunch kale, 1 bunch cilantro, 8 smallish sweet potatoes, 2 heads cauliflower

(I also bought bunny food, hay, and bedding, plus three new blueberry bushes which I need to get into the ground in a break between rains, plus pansies and violas for out front.)

I plan to do a big meat cookup sometime tomorrow. Stay tuned for another blog post with meal plans for next week!

February 13-19

 Should anyone outside my immediate family happen to drop by here, you'll want to know that I'm referencing Melissa Joulwan's cookbook Well Fed in all my meal plans. My aim is to cook my way through all the recipes in this book this semseter, to make this way of cooking and eating a way of life. Not a Rule, mind you. That's St. Benedict, and can't nobody improve on St. Benedict. But a lower-case little way . . .


Back home. Fridge empty. What to eat? 


Dinners We'd Like
Cinnamon Beef Stew
Meatza Pie (with ground turkey this week)
Italian Sausage (turkey) and Eggplant Strata 
Indian, Chinese, Moroccan Hot Plates (chicken)
Friday:  omelettes with veggies (zucchini "noodles" would be good if I can find zucchini -- it's not exactly in season right now . . . )

Sides 
spaghetti squash
diced butternut squash
stewed frozen peaches 
spinach salad
sweet potatoes in various forms (roasted, home-fried, julienned)
cauliflower "rice"
cocoa-toasted cauliflower
cumin-roasted carrots

Lunches
leftovers
Hot Plates
tuna
egg salad

Breakfasts
oatmeal (kids)
eggs (adults)
sausage-egg scramble for weekend

Snacks
hardboiled eggs
kale chips (thanks, Melanie!)
seaweed crisps
fruit

Shopping List
9 lbs ground turkey
4 packs boneless skinless chicky thighs
beef stew meat
2 spaghetti squash
6 large sweet potatoes
1 bag fresh spinach
2 heads cauliflower
1 large eggplant
1 bag carrots
2 little packs pre-diced butternut squash for the lazy
1 bunch kale
4 zucchini? 
2 bunches bananas
1 bag apples
2 packs frozen peaches
5 dozen eggs
1 pack seaweed wraps
2 cans diced tomatoes
4 cans tomato paste
6 cans tuna
1 bottle olive oil
1 bottle sesame oil
milk
1 jar refined coconut oil

MONDAY EVENING UPDATE:  Went to Aldi, for budgetary reasons. Bought about 7 lbs ground turkey;  the only skinless, boneless chicken thighs were frozen, so I bought four large packs of those, plus two equally large packs of frozen skinless boneless breasts. Found stew meat for what didn't seem that fantastic a price, but went ahead and bought it. Cauliflower didn't look good. No spaghetti squash, zucchini or eggplant, so I bought two heads of green cabbage instead. Otherwise, aside from oils, kale, and seaweed, I found everything on my list there. Will hit the regular grocery later in the week.


Came home and baked and put away all the chicken thighs, made ground-turkey meatzas (these are "pizzas" with a meat crust;  really you need beef, though. Turkey fell apart too much), and browned the rest of the ground turkey with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and diced onion. Put half away in the fridge for later in the week, and with the other half, I made the following for dinner: 

Greek Cabbage Rolls

I guess I was thinking, you know, dolmates or something. I had a couple of pounds of ground turkey already browned and flavored with salt, pepper, onion, and garlic;  to that I added a generous dose of cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice, plus one can of tomato paste. I also added in some leftover garlicky cooked spinach from last night's dinner.

While this meat mixture was keeping warm, I de-stemmed one of the heads of cabbage and pulled away the toughest outer leaves. Then I carefully removed about ten thinner inside leaves, filled each one with some of the meat mixture, rolled/folded it up into as neat a package as I could manage, and nestled the packages into a baking dish. When I'd used up all the meat and filled two not-so-large bakers, I covered them with foil and put them in to bake for 30-45 minutes, just enough for the cabbage to be tender. 

These were delicious. The younger kids peeled off their cabbage leaves and just ate the meat inside, but really, the cabbage with the meat worked very well. It was a filling dish, so unless the bottomless teenager on dish duty has finished it all off, there will be some leftovers for tomorrow.  


For a side dish I julienned two sweet potatoes and made shoestrings/noodles by sauteeing in coconut oil, with a little salt and cinnamon. This may be my new favorite side dish in all the world. We also had Italian-cut green beans (from a bag of frozen) sauteed in coconut oil with salt and pepper. 


Tuesday
breakfast:  oatmeal/eggs
lunch: tuna salad (made it sans mayo:  just tuna, hard-boiled egg, & pickle relish)
dinner:  some kind of chicken hot plate;  probably Chinese with chopped stir-fried cabbage, or else Eastern European with cabbage and apples. 

UPDATE:   Chinese hot plate for Tuesday night dinner: 


shredded cabbage (about 1/3 head)
thin-sliced onion
2 large carrots julienned
a couple handfuls frozen green beans
garlic powder
grated fresh ginger
coconut oil
about six medium-sized boneless skinless chicken thighs, pre-cooked with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika, and diced into 1-inch cuboids


I melted the coco oil in the skillet, sauteed the onions till they were soft, added the frozen green beans to give them time to thaw, then the cabbage and carrots, then the chicken. Dash of garlic powder and grated fresh ginger to taste. One-dish meal. Very filling for five people. I had enough left over for a single-serving take-to-work microwave lunch tomorrow.


Wednesday
breakfast:  oatmeal/eggs
lunch:  chicken salad or some other chicken thing
dinner:  cinnamon beef stew w/cumin-roasted carrots


Thursday
breakfast: oatmeal/eggs
lunch:  stew leftovers
dinner:  Indian-themed chicken hot plate


Friday
breakfast:  oatmeal/eggs
lunch:  tuna salad
dinner:  omelettes? vegetable blue-plate special? 


Saturday
breakfast:  oatmeal/eggs
lunch:  leftovers
dinner:  going to the Cub Scout Blue-and-Gold Banquet. Must take food.


Sunday
 brunch after Mass:  sausage-egg scramble
dinner: whatever . . . 

UPDATE:  How the week played out

Dinners: We had cinnamon beef stew on Wednesday, with leftovers for Thursday lunch. Chicken Rogan Josh on Thursday, using already-cooked boneless breasts, a can of coconut milk from the cupboard, and spice mix I'd made up last time we had Rogan Josh. Carrots and green beans on the side. 

Friday dinner was ginger-lime shrimp -- I'd had to go back to the store, and they had pre-cooked frozen shrimp on sale, so dinner was a matter of marinating the shrimp as they thawed in garlic, ginger, and lime juice, then searing them in the cast-iron skillet. With them we had sweet potatoes. 

Saturday night dinner we had various Latin American food at the Cub Scout Blue-and-Gold Banquet. 

Tonight (Sunday) we had the remainder of the ground turkey I'd pre-cooked on Monday sauteed with cabbage, carrots, and onion chopped to coleslaw texture, plus two Gala apples, peeled and chopped. The vegetables were a good way to stretch the leftover meat without overpowering it -- I can see cabbage standing in in lots of recipes where I need something to provide either a noodle or a soft rice texture. At any rate, chopped finely it was a very good "filler" to extend my limited amount of meat. Seasonings were ground mustard and caraway seeds -- I was going for sort of an Eastern European flavor. Sweet potatoes and roasted sweet onions on the side (I did buy a lot of sweet potatoes last week . . . ). Anyway, this was a good "hot plate," and we have enough leftovers for my husband to take to work for lunch tomorrow. 

Lunches:  leftovers, omelettes, tuna salad, hardboiled eggs, scrambled eggs -- we eat a lot of eggs. Plus apples and bananas, toasted seaweed sheets, whatever veggies are left over, etc. 

Sunday Brunch:  I had had to go to the store for coconut oil, which Aldi didn't have, and there, in addition to the frozen shrimp, I bought some jicama. A jicama. A jicama root. One of however you designate a unit of jicama. 

Anyway, jicama. You can slice or julienne it raw for use in salads, which I've done, but you can also cook it. If you're going to use it in place of potatoes, in for instance a recipe for home fries or potato salad, you have to pre-cook it for a long time -- 12 to 24 hours, according to the cookbook -- to tenderize it enough for it to stand in for a cooked potato. I bought my jicama on Friday, peeled and diced it, and put it to cook in the crockpot covered with water for what turned out to be slightly more than 24 hours. It cooked all Friday evening, all day Saturday, and all morning Sunday, until I was ready to use it in a ground-turkey hash. 

I drained the jicama in a colander, then fried it in some coconut oil in my cast-iron skillet.  To the fried jicama I added about half a bag of frozen peppers and onions, which I'd thawed in the fridge and pressed the water out of. As all this was cooking, I seasoned it with salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, and chili powder, and when the vegetables were looking done, I added . . .  half a pound, maybe? . . . of pre-cooked ground turkey. More chili powder to spice it up, and scrambled eggs on the side, and that was brunch after Mass. 


As always, I'm indebted to Well Fed for the bones of this meal.

February 5-12

Should anyone outside my immediate family happen to drop by here, you'll want to know that I'm referencing Melissa Joulwan's cookbook Well Fed in all my meal plans. My aim is to cook my way through all the recipes in this book this semseter, to make this way of cooking and eating a way of life. Not a Rule, mind you. That's St. Benedict, and can't nobody improve on St. Benedict. But a lower-case little way . . . 


Plans for the week of February 5-12


First of all, the men of the house will be on their own from the 6th through the 11th, because the wimming (and one boy) are going to visit family. So what I'm planning, shopping, and cooking for, with regard to the upcoming week, is a kind of desert-island scenario, in which people could swim to land and go to fast-food restaurants, but won't. WON'T, I SAY. Because there will be food here, and mother will have cooked it, so there'll be guilt, too. So there. 


Meals, therefore, will be simple. I'll make a big pot of chili  big thang of Czech meatballs for Sunday night, which should provide dinner for two for at least another day. Baked or grilled chicken thighs will be good to grab for lunch, and perhaps some pork chops. Maybe one more big container of browned ground meat, possibly with stuff already mixed into it so that they don't have to think about making it into a meal. 


For example:   


Last night (Thursday), we had what I thought was going to be a cruddy desperation-dinner kind of meal. Friday is shopping day, not to mention that for us it's meatless, so on Thursday we have what I like to think of as Mardi Gras without the parade:  ALL MEAT MUST GO. 


Last week this felt like a feast, because what with one thing and another, and especially with the chili's stretching over several meals, we had a lot of meat left to work with. This past week, on the other hand, not so much. There had been hamburgers on Saturday night, and then on Sunday we had Meatza Pie (from Well Fed),  essentially a pizza with a ground-beef crust like a flat burger, which was a huge hit but very meat-intensive, using up nearly a pound per person. Perhaps I made mine too thick. Oh, well, people loved them, but I may be a little more miserly with the meat next time, or mix beef with ground turkey to stretch.


Anyway, we ate well all week, but by yesterday the fridge was starting to look empty. We used up the last few bits of chicken in a quick soup (sauteed onions and garlic in leftover chicken fat/pan juices from baking, diced chicken thighs, chicken broth, a handful of frozen green beans, salt & pepper), which left for dinner about a pound and a half of browned ground turkey, seasoned with Italian-sausage seasonings (basil, oregano, sage, garlic, paprika, red pepper flakes). By way of vegetables I had a few roasted sweet potato wedges, about a soup-bowl-ful of spaghetti squash seasoned with garlic, and a half-bag of frozen chopped spinach. And I had eggs. 


I quickly stir-fried both the sweet potatoes and the spaghetti squash in a little coconut oil, which revived them and gave them a little crispiness. To a thin pool of leftover chicken broth in another skillet I added the sausage meat and shook on the half-bag of spinach. All this I sauteed until the broth was gone, the meat was warm, and the spinach was cooked. Then I added three eggs and scrambled them with the meat and spinach. 


And I thought, This is one lame dinner. And I'm serving it to at least one person who really dislikes cooked spinach. Oh, dear. 


Well, knock me over. That dinner was the sleeper hit of the week. The non-spinach-lover declared that the spices in the sausage (which really was quite zesty, though not too hot for the 8- and 9-year-olds at the table) made him not notice the spinach, and this was quite something, because he always notices sneaked-in spinach.  The 9-year-old said that this was the best meal he had ever had in his life, with the possible exception of a dinner he remembered eating at his grandmother's when he was 8. 


So I'm thinking I'll mix that up again, so that it can be nuked and served in less time than it would take to call Papa John's. Maybe I'll omit the eggs, since it's going to sit in the fridge for a few days;  I don't think anyone would miss the eggs, and I'd only put them in to stretch the meal farther anyway.  


Menu Plan:


Sunday
brunch:  sausage and  egg scramble (sans spinach, but with some of the same meat)
dinner:  chocolate chili, a double batch in the crockpot Czech meatballs, enough for dinner for 5, plus plenty of leftovers. We took a bunch on the road with us for a car-picnic. Very portable and good even cold!



Monday
breakfast:  oatmeal/eggs
lunch:  baked chicken thighs, baby carrots, clementines, almonds (for both homeboys and travelers)
dinner:  leftover chili with salad/carrots/clementines


Tuesday
breakfast:  eggs
lunch: chicken thighs or pork chops, baby carrots, clementines, almonds
dinner:  leftover chili if there is some;  otherwise a choice of chicken thighs, pork chops, or ground meat mix, with the aforementioned selection of fresh produce


Actually . . . the whole week is going to look like this, and as I won't be the one deciding what's for lunch or dinner, I think at this point we can just say lather, rinse, repeat. 


I may make a double batch of cioppina tonight, so that it can be frozen and eaten next Friday. (Note to self:  Call the dudes and tell them to get it out of the freezer). They could do tuna for lunch. 


Snacks: 
hardboiled eggs
almonds
fruit/veggies


Shopping list
ground beef, 5.5 lbs
ground turkey, 3 lbs
boneless, skinless chicken thighs, 3 packs
pork chops, one big econo-pack
bag spinach salad
bag baby carrots
sweet potatoes
bananas
clementines
almonds
garlic powder
can tuna (4) 
eggs (box of 5 doz)
milk
frozen chopped spinach
frozen green beans
frozen peaches

We want to do a dessert, maybe for Sunday. Well Fed has a really nice-looking peach crumble kind of thing, with an almond-meal crust. I'm going to try grinding almonds in my little manual food processor and do this. It's essentially stewed fruit with some crunch on top. 


Weekend Cookup
brown ground turkey with sausage spices and diced onion, chopped spinach added
bake chicky thighs and pork chops with paprika-garlic rub
make chili, leave in crock pot to simmer and reheat 
pre-roast sweet potatoes
hard-boil a dozen eggs


That seems . . . too easy. But it should keep two dudes in simple grab-meals for a week.


 

January 30-February 3

 Should anyone outside my immediate family happen to drop by here, you'll want to know that I'm referencing Melissa Joulwan's cookbook Well Fed in all my meal plans. My aim is to cook my way through all the recipes in this book this semseter, to make this way of cooking and eating a way of life. Not a Rule, mind you. That's St. Benedict, and can't nobody improve on St. Benedict. But a lower-case little way . . .

Dinners we might want

Hot plates: 

Moroccan (just made Ras el Hanout! Mmmm):  chicken, red pepper, roasted spaghetti squash
Italian (with sausage seasoning? maybe as a sausage-egg scramble)
"Diner Blue Plate" meat & veg combo (potentially several nights)
Greek (along the lines of pastichio)
Basic saute of chicken, peppers, onions

Other: 

Saturday night hamburgers (buns for kids) w/peppers & onions, salad
meatza pie
Rogan Josh (with chicken)
Friday:  In the doctor's office yesterday, while waiting for my husband, I heard on the health tv that plays eternally in the waiting room a lady demonstrating how to make cioppina. I need to look up a real recipe, but I think I've got the gist of it already, and I'm adding that to our list for Friday.


Lunches: 

pre-grilled chicken/beef/etc. w/vegetables &/or fruit
dinner leftovers
salmon muffins for Friday

Breakfasts: 
oatmeal (kids)
scrambled eggs (adults & kids who want eggs)
for weekends, sausage-egg scrambles

Side Dishes/Snacks: 
hardboiled eggs (people like them better if they're halved and sprinkled w/pepper or paprika)
almonds
bananas
clementines
spinach salad


If the Pampered Chef manual food processor I ordered last week gets here, I can try making almond butter/almond milk/almond flour. Funzies! 
 

 Daily Meal Breakdown

Sunday

brunch:  sausage-egg scramble
supper:  Meatza Pie. Many thumbs up. For a family of 5 healthy eaters, though, you need a lot of meat;  my meatzas took about a pound of beef per person. I made a topping of pureed fresh tomato with basil, two cloves of garlic and olive oil. I spread this on the meat "crust," then spread sauteed onions and peppers over that. The family stood and cheered.

Monday 

breakfast: oatmeal/eggs
lunch:  meat muffins with turkey Italian sausage (homemade) and peppers and onions
dinner: chicken rogan josh with sweet potato "shoestrings," green beans, and halved hardboiled eggs sprinkled with curry powder and paprika. Rogan Josh also a Hit.

Tuesday

breakfast: oatmeal/eggs
lunch: leftover rogan josh/plain chicken thighs, green beans chick thighs chopped, stir-fried in coconut oil with green beans and sliced onions and sprinkled with ginger. Insta-Chinese! (the guys who went to work/college got the rogan josh for lunch)
dinner:  Greek hot plate with ground beef/lamb mixture seasoned with garlic, cinnamon, & nutmeg, with roasted spaghetti squash and cherry tomatoes. Spinach salad on the side. (I also chopped a little spinach into the meat itself, in case anyone didn't eat salad)

Wednesday

breakfast:  oatmeal/eggs
lunch:  leftovers*, hardboiled eggs, almonds
dinner:  omelettes not cooked by me, because I will be at choir, plus diced roasted sweet potatoes and onions, plus green beans

Thursday

breakfast:  oatmeal/eggs
lunch:  chicken salad, leftover veggies, almonds
dinner:  Italian sausage meat muffins, spinach salad

Friday

breakfast:  oatmeal/eggs
lunch:  salmon muffins
dinner:  cioppina, spinach salad

Saturday

breakfast: oatmeal/eggs (maybe a sausage scramble)
lunch:  whatever
dinner:  kids cook

Recipe Adaptations and Ideas This Week
 
Salmon Muffins: 

Easy-peasy carmeleasy! I adapted the Meat and Spinach Muffins from Well Fed for Friday consumption, with great success. Here's how:

2 cans wild Alaskan salmon, drained, but with skin & bones
1 medium onion, sliced and diced very thin and small
dill weed to taste -- I use a lot, but no idea how much
salt & pepper, also to taste
4 large eggs

Preheat oven to 400. Mash the drained salmon with its skin and bones in a large bowl until all the big clumps are broken up. Mix in the onion and seasonings. Beat the eggs and add them, mixing everything thoroughly.

Pour the salmon-egg mixture evenly into paper muffin cups in a conventional muffin tin or, if you have one, a silicone muffin baker. I have one and adore it -- that way I don't have to remember to buy muffin cups. Fill each cup to the brim, as the muffins tend to shrink a bit as they cool. Bake on 400 for 20-30 minutes, until gently browned on top. Let muffins cool, then tumble them out of the muffin tin to make room for the next round.

Makes about a dozen salmon muffins. My 3 kids at home ate 3 each for lunch, and I divided the remaining three in half and arranged them artistically on a plate as a little nibbly side dish at dinner the same night.



Shoestring Sweet Potatoes

 Also could  not be easier. Julienne several sweet potatoes (I find that once they reach a certain concavity, I can't julienne them any more, so I save the pieces to dice for a sweet-potato-onion roast), till you have the size pile you desire. Melt a couple tablespoons of coconut oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat, and saute the sweet potatoes until their orange fades to yellow, and some of them at least begin to be crispy. You can salt them and/or sprinkle with your favorite spice mix. They go wonderfully with curry, but would be good any time you want something sort of like French fries.

*Leftover Greek Stew

I had made a Greek Hot Plate dinner, with a mix of ground beef and lamb, seasoned with garlic, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice and sauteed with diced onions and a can of tomato paste. To make leftover stew I sauteed yet more onions in some beef fat and stock left over from browning the original meat, added a can of diced tomatoes with their juice, some more of the spices I'd used in the Hot Plate saute, and the leftover meat (a coconut-oil jar full). We chopped in some extra spinach, added a bay leaf, and let it simmer for about half an hour while we finished up school.  

P.S. Found a cioppina recipe! 

This week's grocery list (food only):

roughly 5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs
10 lbs ground beef
2 lbs ground pork if available;  if not, ground turkey for sausage
scallops, shrimp, and other fish for cioppina
fish broth? 
2.5 dozen eggs (bought 5 dozen last week, but didn't eat them all)
bell peppers (2 mixed packs)
spaghetti squash (1)
sweet onions
bunch bananas
clementines
bag baby spinach
tomato paste
diced tomatoes
spice-shelf replenishers:
allspice
basil
cumin
fennel (if I can find it)
ginger
paprika
thyme
refined coconut oil (1 jar)
whole milk (2)
almonds (2 bags:  pref plain unroasted)

Monday January 16, 2012: Meal Plan

M:

breakfast and lunch today were catch-as-catch-can/leftover affairs

snack:  almonds

Dinner:
chicken breasts baked w/coconut oil, cranberries, & a little honey
green salad w/vinegar & oil dressing
sauteed diced butternut squash & onion

T:

start pork roast in crockpot in a.m. 

breakfast:
kids: oatmeal leftover bagel/cream cheese
me:  scrambled eggs hard-boiled eggs (boiled 5, ate 2, put others in fridge for later)

lunch:
chicken breasts from last night's dinner
one kid:  pbj

snacks:  almonds, decaf coffee w/almond milk

dinner: 

pork roast rubbed w/cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, sage, coriander
unsweetened applesauce
leftover butternut squash

W:

breakfast:
oatmeal (kids);  eggs (adults)

lunch: leftover pork
start beef stew

dinner:  
beef stew
salad w/vinegar&oil dressing

Note:  chicken stretched to two lunches, so leftover pork is for dinner, w/green beans & caramelized onions & applesauce. Starting stew tonight to feed us through lunch & dinner tomorrow, when we're on the go.

Th:
breakfast:  oatmeal/eggs

lunch:
sandwiches (kids), hardboiled eggs or leftover chicken (me -- there's a tiny piece left) + fruit& nuts
dinner:  beef stew

Stew recipe: 

(modification of a recipe from Melissa Joulwan's Well Fed)

2 lbs beef stew meat
2 medium onions, diced
3 parsnips, sliced into bite-sized chunks
3 carrots, ditto
garlic to taste
1 large can diced tomatoes with juice
dash balsamic vinegar
coconut oil for searing meat (recipe called for 3 TB, but I didn't measure that carefully)
liberal sprinklings of salt & pepper, + cinnamon, clove, coriander, sage
a dash of cayenne pepper
a little water to keep it from cooking dry


Sear meat in large skillet, dosing it well with salt and pepper,  and transfer to crockpot. Add vegetables and seasonings. Pour on tomatoes and add some water to make it stewy but not soupy. Stir everything, put lid on crockpot, turn it on low (to cook overnight) or high (to cook in an afternoon), and leave it. Inhale delicious smells for hours on end. 

This was a HUGE hit with everyone. Requests for a repeat performance.

  
F:

breakfast:  oatmeal/eggs
lunch:  sandwiches (kids), ? for me Well-Fed spinach-egg muffins
dinner:  grownups out to dinner @ college;  cheese pizza for kids

Sat:
breakfast: oatmeal/eggs
eating with friends