Deadra: lack of a menu, menu, and talk of kitchen chemistry.

This week Adam is going out of town for a while, and then his parents and brother and his family will be in town, so I suspect I'll make a couple large meals then mostly we'll be going out to eat.  So my menu this week is kind of a lack of a menu, geared towards the small people, there will be mac and cheese on the menu.
For me since I am eating impaired lately I have been following what I tend to want, so there is no planning for that, but it is pretty predictable.  I want brothy soups, bibimbap and milk.  Unfortunately it's pretty hot, so brothy soups are not fun to make!  I'll persevere though!
I've been fermenting up a lot lately too.  I'm plowing through a batch of vegan kimchi I made, I had a continuous brew of kefir water and kombucha going and I just started milk kefir again.  I am also soaking some organic soybeans to make a fresh batch of natto.  The warm weather makes everything ferment faster, so I really need to stay on top of it.  I think I'm going to convert my stone fireplace into a fermenting cabinet, it's nice and cool in there, it'll be perfect for fermenting in the summer months.
Although I have picky eaters for the most part (according to my palate) I am lucky that they like ferments!
Happy eating!

Tiffanie: this week's menu

This week I've got house-guests, starting on Wednesday, so we'll be doing more eating-out. I'll have to be extra vigilant about the CSA greens and make sure we eat them quickly.

My plans this week:

• homemade pizza and green salad. I'm having a lazy Sunday afternoon at home with the kids, so I think we'll make some pizza dough and create individual pizzas.
• lentil soup, bread, salad. It's going to be sort of hot for soup this week, but I have all the ingredients on hand and it's handy to have soup around when there are guests to feed.
• spaghetti with garlic, olives, tomatoes, and arugula. Borrowing from Jamie Oliver, here, for a simple and tasty pasta dinner. I like strong pasta sauces like this one. I have a bunch of English peas this week, too, so I might try another of his recipes and cook them in white wine with scallions and spinach.
• I want to try the recipe below, for no-bake energy balls. Seems like a good way to fatten up my skinny little children. Also, they can help make them.

No-bake energy balls:
1 cup raw oats
1 cup coconut flakes
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup chia seeds, ground or raw (you can also use flax instead)
1/4 chocolate chips (optional)
1 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl, refrigerate for 30 minutes, roll into bite-sized balls. Makes about 20 1-inch balls that can be refrigerated in an airtight container for 1 week. Enjoy!

Tiffanie: this week's menu (and last weeks)

Hmm, spring break seems to have interrupted my menu posting. I thought I'd done this already! So, last week we ate... leek and potato soup, green salads, sweet potato hash with kale and spring onions and oyster mushrooms, spicy cauliflower chickpea curry soup, roasted butternut squash with rice chickpea pilaf... can't remember what else.

This week's plans:

• leftover leek and potato soup, with chickpea flour rosemary flatbread, green salad and steamed artichokes.
• tempeh salad in a wrap. Need something else here, maybe a fruit salad.
• Creole Hoppin' Jean, with corn chips and sauteed chard.
• sweet potato hash for me on husband-works-late-night
• we're going out to eat one night (daughter has late class)
• some broccoli grilled cheese sandwiches for the kids.

I'm doing well against the CSA onslaught, though I still have a black radish and a daikon radish, plus random beets and turnips and celery roots rolling about. I'll try and slip them into things.

Deadra: Reinventing the Wheel.

I've started making a two week menu, as I discussed a while ago.  I really enjoy perusing my "Food, Glorious Food, Want to Try" pin board on my pintrest account and choosing meals from there for my menu. However, while many of them are amazing, sometimes I need to reflect on what my family loves.  Granted many of the things I make rather harken to what tastes we love, but I need to make things that I KNOW we love.  Today I made soft meatballs with noodles and red sauce.  (tomato sauce)  It was so yummy, everyone stuffed themselves silly and left the table satiated.  There was no begging to try a bite, no Mama getting exasperated from the lack of tasting.  It was yummy and a hit!

My meatball recipe is pretty basic:
1 pound organic pastured beef
1/2 pound organic pastured pork
1/2 cup bread crumbs (or so)
4 ice cubes of liver (shhh this is a secret!)
4 eggs
a healthy shake shake shake shake of Worcestershire sauce
3 or 4 or 5 grated cloves of garlic
salt and pepper
1/2 a cup or so of Parmesan cheese (grated)
oil or fat of your choice for the pan.

preheat oven to 350 degrees

mix the meats and let your cubes of liver defrost, mix
add everything else and mix carefully, don't beat the meat too much
using a small disher scoop the balls onto a greased tray, leaving space between them, careful to not pack the meat in too tightly
bake 20 or so minutes until they are cooked through (I had to cut one in half to check)
 remove from oven, let cool slightly and enjoy!

These are very delicate, not really ones to be tossed in a sauce, rather ones to sit atop your noodles and gently caresses with sauce.  They are tender and delicious!
PS you can't taste the liver!

I served them beside the red sauce.

Trixie's favourite Red Sauce.

1 24 ounce jar of organic crushed tomatoes
1/3ish cup of water (this is what I swished out of the jar)
3 or 4 or 5 grated garlic cloves
dry Italian seasoning, basil, parsley all to taste (about 2 teaspoons each)
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon of sugar
 let all simmer together
add 1 or 2 tablespoons of butter, once melted in and everything comes back up to temperature, remove from heat and add a generous squirt of good olive oil.

serve over yummy noodles! (and meatballs!)

Over all the whole dinner took me about 1/2 of an hour to make.

I need to remember this, one does not need to reinvent the wheel to feed one's family food they'll love!

Tiffanie: this week's menu

I'm falling behind on my CSA boxes already! Time to focus on using up the greens this week... fortunately I got a big bag of beets this week, so I've cooked them and they're ready to be added to the salads.

My plans:

• taco night, with mushrooms and maple-mustard tempeh. Big green salad.
• I'm going out to dinner with a friend on Monday night, so it's gardenburgers for the kids and a sweet potato hash with greens for the husband.
• bok choy and chickpea saute with toasted cashews. Rice. Green salad. Possibly hot dogs for the kids, since they don't eat much of this meal beyond the cashews.
• pineapple fried rice
• Sweet potato hash with greens and eggs for myself (late work night for husband), and pasta for the kids.

I'm soaking more sprouts now, so I'll bake some bread mid-week to use for sprout sandwiches. I'll also make a big batch of rosemary white bean soup for a friend, in the slow cooker.

My CSA box gave me lots of lemons, so it may be time for another lemon coconut bundt cake...

Tiffanie: this week's menu

First week of the month, so it's full of school meetings. Easy meals!

My plans:

• taco night, with fried mushrooms and baja style tempeh. 
• veggie curry, using the brown curry in a box. I'll put onions, tofu, carrots, potatoes, celery root, and celery in it. Cabbage salad on the side, with sesame seeds and an asian-inspired dressing.
• lal dal and rice. It's a nice red lentil curry. Sauteed chard.
• potato leek soup, homemade bread, green salad.
• sweet potato hash with greens for nights I'm eating solo (just one this week).
• a tabouli salad to supplement lunches

I'm already lagging a bit behind my CSA box, so this week I'm trying to stick to using up all the greens. I can store the celery roots indefinitely, but the greens only last a week or so. If I stick to this plan, I'll use up everything but the arugula... I might have to make up a pesto with it and freeze it, or add it the salads. 

Deadra: menu

I think this will be less of a menu and more of a EUREKA! post.

I enjoy making menus but it's always been tedious to follow them.  Even though I am married to a Google geek I tend to be a paper and pen girl.  I enjoy the act of writing, but it is wasteful, and the geeky husband isn't so likely to read what I've written on a scrap of paper.  So he's been hounding me forever to use Google Calendar consistently and I'm pretty good, I keep up with my on goings.  But I find it lacking in using it to keep track of my calendar, the kids's calendars, my menus and ongoing tasks.  I lamented to Adam (the geeky husband) that I needed something that combined all of this easily, and sadly Google doesn't have this product.  (yet?)  So Adam's instructed me to do this and that and it's never worked or it just didn't feel seamless to me it was clunky.  Until now.  (you knew that was coming!)  

So what I've been doing has been to create 3 other calendars, menu- dinner, menu- lunch and menu- breakfast, then I hover my cursor under the date and click, creating an event, then I choose the calendar (which has been colour coded, breakfast, lunch, dinner) write as the event the 'what' and if I need to add notes or a link I click on 'edit event'.  So now on my calendar I can see my menus and Adam can decide if he's coming home for dinner.  Plus I love how I don't have to hunt for the link!

So you can see I have dinners planned all next week, but only lunch and breakfast planned for Monday.  (dinner is purple, lunch is blue and breakfast is pink).  Also a peek at my week.  heh. 

So I am sure that this isn't new to many of you, but it's handy for me!

Candice: Two Weeks Out?

Dea has started meal planning for two week periods, which intrigued me. So I tried to put together a two-week menu this weekend, keeping in mind what we already have in the house and what is likely to come in from our every-other-week CSA. This week we are having:

Monday; Tri-tip, mashed potatoes, artichokes, spinach salad

Tuesday: Nacho Night! (This takes many forms, but basically means ground meat of some kind prepped with taco seasoning and guac, salsa, corn, shredded cheese, etc on a bed of tortilla chips or an actual tortilla. Almost healthy!)

Wednesday; We'll be at a comic book signing so dinner will be out somewhere

Thursday; Butternut squash soup with beans, greens and sausage

Friday; Balsamic roasted veggies (fennel, carrots, potatoes) with pork chops and quinoa

Saturday: Leftovers, and I'm making Warm German Potato Salad for an Easter party

Sunday; Who the hell knows

Next week:

Monday; Mama is out for meetings, so dinner will be something frozen or leftovers

Tuesday; Nacho Night! They keep eating it!

Wednesday; Chicken soup with lots of carrots

Thursday; Breakfast for dinner (hash browns, eggs, bacon)

Friday; The boy and I will be in Florida, Daddy and Little Miss will be on their own

Tiffanie: this week's menu

Spring is here and I'm meal planning on the weekends again!

My plans:

• this delicious looking Mushroom Stout Pie with Potato Biscuit. *drool*
• I am beginning a weekly chili -- it's time the children learn to appreciate chili and fixings. This week's will be the Cook's Illustrated Best Vegetarian Chili. It's a fun recipe, lots of dried chilis and secret ingredients like walnuts and shiitake and bulgur. 
• on my solo dinner night, sweet potato hash, with a bit of carrot and kale and red onion, and fried eggs on top. Tried this last week, and it was so so good.
• something quick and easy, based on what I have from my CSA box. Maybe a tofu kale scramble, or a breakfast-for-dinner... I kind of wish I could sneak in a pureed soup, but this might not be the week for it.

I just put together a quick fennel pickle, with Meyer lemons sliced in, and black pepper. I'm worried I made it too salty, but I can always dilute it, I suppose. I might pickle up some beets and carrots, too... our visit to Happy Girl Kitchen has brought pickles back into my life. 

Tiffanie: this week's menu

Oi, I have not kept up this month! I shall do better! We had guests last week, so I made a batch of slow cooker posole verde with the last of my Rancho Gordo hominy. It was so yummy and gone in one sitting. Then we ordered in pizza. Then I left for the weekend for Monterey (thanks, child-raising partner!).

This week we didn't have many dinners with the husband (working late), so we had/are having:

• leftover lal dal
• spaghetti and beanballs
• rosemary white bean soup
• sweet potato hash with kale and carrots and fried eggs (a solo dinner for me)
• creole hoppin' jean

My CSA has started up the spring season! If you are looking for a CSA, I do like High Ground Organics.

My veggie box included fennel, which I want to quick pickle over the weekend. It's a decent way of eating fennel, better than everything else I've tried.

I have a lot of spouts seeds (around 12 oz), so I am going to start up making sprouts for sandwiches. It's a good excuse to make yummy no-knead bread. And to eat cream cheese. :-D

How is spring changing your diet? 

Tiffanie: this week's menu

Hmm... seem to have missed posting last week. I blame the return of school. We ate something.

This week's plans include:

• quinoa and bean croquettes, with more quinoa and mushroom gravy. Green salad.
• African peanut soup with mustard greens. I shall sub in tofu for the chicken.
• Lentils and basmati rice and caramelized onions with spiced pita crisps. Sauteed chard.
• Biscuits and gravy, hash browns, fruit smoothies.
• a butternut ginger soup, homemade bread.
• roasted butternut squash, with a pilaf of chickpeas and cranberries and nuts.
• a gluten free muesli I made once and liked...
• trying a strawberry cobbler recipe... I have a bunch of frozen strawberries that defrosted unexpectedly and refroze, so they're good for baked things.

I am also snack parent on a field trip day, so I'm brainstorming ideas. I'm thinking of making a wholesome oaty fruity bar. What else? Baby carrots? I'm trying to stay away from sugary snacks, so no yogurt tubes. Could do cheese, though they get plenty of cheese in their diets already... Then there are the parents. I could just double up everything for them...

What We Cooked for Grandpa

My father-in-law came to visit - a little unexpectedly - so I had to re-work the meal plan a bit (I didn't think he would like black bean chili or braised kale with chickpeas), but this is what I managed to feed him.

While browsing the web, I came across a cookbook title that was so applicable to my life that I had to borrow it from the library: Parents Need to Eat Too: Nap Friendly Recipes, One-Handed Meals, and Time-Saving Kitchen Tricks for New Parents. I'm not a new parent but with the baby demanding to be held all the time and snatching anything in my hand so she can shove it into her mouth, I thought it would give it a try.

Honey Soy Salmon - A winner. The marinade is made of honey, soy sauce, and sriracha. Incredibly easy. Marinate salmon fillets for 20 minutes at room temperature or overnight in the fridge and stick in the oven for 12 minutes then serve. Everyone loved this meal, including the 4 year old, who gobbled it up, and my father-in-law, who ate it with as much gusto but with much more refined table manners. My husband asked that I add this one into the regular meal rotation. I served it with steamed rice and stir-fried broccoli.

Apparently, this is also a freezer friendly meal. Just marinate the fillets and freeze. The fish will marinate while it thaws.

Overnight French Onion Chicken - I wasn't a big fan of this dish but I'm glad that I tried it. The recipe calls for caramelizing 6 finely sliced onions in the slow cooker overnight and then adding chicken, broth, sherry, and thyme in the morning. Just before dinner, I also toasted Italian bread in the oven and melted gruyere on top. The preschooler refused to touch it. The husband picked out the onions. I thought it was a little too sweet and slightly disappointing for the effort. My father-in-law really liked it. One note in the book suggested keeping the leftover onions and using as a base for French Onion Soup so I may do that.

I haven't decided what else I'll make from the book. Below are recipes that I found elsewhere.

Lacinato Kale and Ricotta Salata Salad - This was my first time making a raw kale salad, which I served with the French Onion Chicken above because I wanted some kind of green added to the meal. I liked it but everyone else refused to touch it. I think I'll try to make other raw kale salads.

Roasted Mushroom and Beef Barley Soup A nice standby soup recipe for cold weather. My 4 year old used to love the barley in this soup and would ignore the mushrooms, but this time around, she refused to touch the barley and would only eat the mushrooms.

Chocolate Banana Bread - A recipe I found off the Cook's Illustrated site - I didn't add the link since you need to be a subscriber to get the full recipe. I am not a good baker, but this was simple and good. The bread was nice and moist, it had good banana flavor, and it wasn't too dense. It has been our unhealthy snack of the week.

Candice: Turns Out I'm Horrible at Planning Meals

Meal planning is something I aspire to, but just isn't happening. I did join the winter CSA and I keep the newsletter up on my fridge, checking off veggies as we go. This winter has been brutal for me. It's unusually cold for Northern California, and I'm about 20 weeks into my third pregnancy. We're also in the middle of renovating our master bathroom and repainting the master bedroom so our bed has been relocated to the living room. The novelty has long worn off. All of the above, coupled with a body clock that is still confused by my distance from the equator even after a decade in the Bay Area, has made for a really sessile mama. I normally love the meals of winter: hearty soups and stews, chunky casseroles, more bread and pasta than is wise…but we're not making any big culinary plans over here.

My childhood memories, though, are filled with my mother's obvious disdain for cooking, so I keep trying to be less bitter about the fact that I have to produce meals for my family every damn day. It certainly didn't make her any happier to feel that way and it's not working for me, either. And, when I do force myself to plan out meals in advance, I find it makes things easier on everyone because my husband is grateful to have an "assignment" even if I am too exhausted to assist in the kitchen.

Here's a list of things we've been eating for dinner: 

-Meat Muffins (really just fritattas in muffin tins)

-Butternut squash soup (with ham, beans and greens)

-Nacho night (a weekly favorite. I probably should establish a set day of the week for it)
-Pad Thai (homemade and thus peanut free for the boy. He LOVES it. I get weepy knowing he will probably never experience real pad thai out in the wild)
-Beef Stew
-TJ's corn penne and some kind of tomato-based meat sauce

I've also been trying to reduce the amount of packaged cereal and cow milk eaten by my children. My husband takes breakfast duty and has been pretty good about trying new ideas. He mixes and matches from the list below depending on hunger levels:

-Sprouted-grain toast and jam
-Plain puffed millet with almond milk (the girl loves and requests this)
-Yogurt with jam
-Leftover meat muffins
-Oatmeal
-Scrambled eggs
-Fruit with everything

When I am functional in the morning I make myself pretty much the same thing every time: Full fat greek yogurt, nuts and seeds (sunflower, chia, sliced almonds, pepitas), some kind of freeze-dried fruit from TJ's (blueberries or grapes), a diced apple (minus whatever the kids claim when they see me cutting up an apple) and a boatload of honey. Lots of fat and calories for incubating, yay!

Tiffanie: this week's menu

Missed last week; developed some severe jaw and tooth pain that is either sinus related or one of my molars is dying. Lovely times! So I ate very little and all of it was soft.

But! This week I am cooking again, just in time for a cold winter storm.

My plans:

• mushroom taco night
• white bean rosemary soup, with no-knead bread and green salad
• a lal dal (red lentil curry) with jasmine rice and roasted brussels sprouts
• posole verde; a vegetarian version with mushrooms, tomatillos, poblano peppers, hominy.... so very good.
• potato leek soup (my comfort soup), aloo samosas (filled with peas and mashed potatoes; the kids will help make these), and possibly smoothies.
• shakshuka, from this recipe: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2013/02/shakshuka-recipe-eggs/. It looks perfect for me when I'm eating alone. It's a spicy tomato sauce with poached eggs. 

Happy eating!

the latest dishes

What I've been making:

Chicken and Pork Adobo from a recipe cobbled together with my parents' offhand instructions and two Filipino cookbooks (adobo is one of those recipes where everyone's version is very individual and everyone is very attached to their version of the dish). This wasn't a new recipe but I haven't made adobo in a long, long, long time so I thought it worth noting. While what I made wasn't quite like my parents (too much sauce!), the flavors were right and the father-in-law and husband were very happy with it. My mom also told me that adobo is very freezer friendly so it can be made in huge batches but leftovers of adobo never last long.... Served with rice and sliced tomatoes on the side.

Butternut Squash Risotto from the Pioneer Woman - This was delicious. I haven't made risotto in a long time - maybe 3 years? - and this was my first time making butternut squash risotto. Will definitely make again but not too often since it does require standing by the stove for a little while to add the broth in 1 cup increments and stir the rice. Served with roasted asparagus.

Mushroom Stroganoff with Goat Cheese from Alton Brown - This was the first mushroom stroganoff recipe that I've tried and liked. Definitely a keeper although more of a once in blue moon dish rather than one to put in the regular meal rotation.

I almost forgot to mention that I made potstickers for Lunar New Year. Mine were filled with ground pork, water chestnut, and chives. mmmm.

Also, old standby recipes such as chicken cilantro burgers, turkey tacos, pasta, and breakfast for dinner.

Up next:

Seven Vegetable Couscous with Spicy Harissa
Chicken and Pork Adobo (again)

The baby also started solids! She's been eating bananas, pears, avocado, and rice cereal (okay, well, maybe the avocado hasn't really made it in to her mouth but she was very good at mushing it with her hand....) Next up for baby are roast yams.