Menu Plan Moday: 7/14-7/20
Wow! It’s hard to believe that we are heading toward the ides of July already. From the perspective of the calendar, it seems that summer’s halfway over. In terms of the growing season, it seems we’ve only just begun!
My fridge is busting at the seams with local produce from our CSA and farmer’s market, and my freezer is full of meat recently purchased through our local Weston Price co-op. On Friday I took home a box of beef tallow for costing $0.50 per pound! This is top-notch organic, grass-fed beef with the second-highest levels of CLA (conjugated linoleic acid), which means that this tallow is really good for us! And at $0.50 per pound, it’s a real bargain!
Along with the beef, I just picked up my order for half of a lamb to store in the freezer. I estimated that we (my family of four) would get about 30 meals out of the lamb,and so it comes out to roughly $4 per meal for the lamb. That’s a great deal for such high quality, healthy lamb! By the way, if you are reading this and are local to Portland, OR, and you would like to know more about the co-op through which I am able to purchase these foods, please feel free to contact me.
All that to say, my goal this week is to use what I have on hand; especially my fridge full of produce including cauliflower, lettuce, broccoli, kohlrabi, beets, cabbage, and zucchini. I also have several eggs to use, so here’s hoping I won’t need to go to the grocery store at all this week!
Monday:
B: Pesto scrambled eggs
L: Refried baked beans topped with cheese, sauteed veggies (make extra for Tuesday’s lunch)
D: Cheeseburger wraps with french fries and salad
To do: Defrost and marinate lamb for Tuesday, make sauerkraut, soak pecans
Tuesday:
B: Hidden veggie smoothies with quinoa porridge
L: Veggie fritters (leftover sauteed veggies with leftover pancake batter)
D: Lamb kabobs with veggies and salad
To do: Go blueberry picking! Soak quinoa, make crispy pecans
Wednesday:
B: granola with milk and fresh berries, turkey sausage for Jonathan
L: qunioa tabouleh, cheese/veggie quesadillas
D: Lentil-pecan patties and a side of salad
To do: Defrost fish stock & whole chicken
Thursday:
B: breakfast sandwiches (sausages and cheddar sandwiched between leftover pancakes)
L: miso soup (fish broth, carrots, cabbage, scallions, kelp, miso)
D: Quinoa-stuffed roast chicken
To do: Pack snacks for beach day trip, start crock-stock with chicken carcass
Friday:
B: eggs fried in butter w/ cortido on the side
L: TBD–we’ll be at the beach (maybe we’ll bring leftovers?)
D: TBD– we’ll probably eat out; perhaps seafood?
Saturday:
B: waffles with hidden zucchini and fried eggs
L: leftovers
D: garlic hot dogs, steamed broccoli, salad
Sunday:
L: leftovers
D: green popcorn, cheese, apples, and chicken “fingers” (leftover chicken from Thursday)
For more inspiring menu ideas, visit The Organizing Junkie!
Frugal Nourishing Foods: Dinner Time!
It’s carnival time! The focus here is nourishing food on a budget. That’s the focus of this blog, so I couldn’t help but jump in for a ride! (Don’t worry, there’s no yucky food at this carnival!)
Today I’m going to share my favorite nourishing “penny pinching” dish. It’s meatless, but meat can be added. This dish comes from The New Vegetarian Gourmet, which is a cookbook given to me for my wedding shower! One of the recipes has been a delicous staple on our menu (as Orthodox, we practice the tradition of fasting from meat on Wednesdays and Fridays, so we need a fair arsenal of vegetarian recipes!)
The recipe is called, simply “Spinach, Lentils, Rice“. I will modify the recipe to actually not be strictly vegan, but leave the modifications there. I have served this to many guests and always get rave reviews!
Spinach-Lentils-Rice
This is a very quick dish if you have leftover cooked rice. The lentils cook up rather quickly after having been soaked.
Serves 4
1-2 cups cooked brown rice (to make this extra nourishing, cook the brown rice in liver broth as mentioned here)
1 cup lentils, soaked in water for 7 hours and then cooked
4 TBS olive oil, coconut oil, beef tallow, ghee, or lard
1 onion, chopped
1-4 garlic cloves, dep. on your preference!
1 bunch spinach (or any leafy green), chopped
2 tomatoes, diced or 1 can, drained, or 1 cup sun dried tomatoes (whatever’s on hand!)
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and Pepper
1) Heat oil in large saute pan over medium high heat. Stir-fry salt and pepper for 30 seconds.
2) Add onions and saute until soft, but not caramelized. Add smashed garlic cloves and cook for a few minutes more.
3) Add tomatoes and spinach and saute until spinach is limp.
4) Throw in your cooked rice and lentils. Mix and cover pan. Reduce heat and allow rice and lentils to warm.
5) Remove from heat. Squeeze lemon juice into the pan and mix. Leave lemon wedges on the mixture, cover, and allow flavors to blend for about 10 minutes.
Optional add ons:
- This dish pairs very nicely with feta cheese, kefir cheese, or farmer cheese.
- Italian turkey sausage goes nicely with this dish.
- Serve with a side of lacto-fermented sauerkraut and you have a completely nourishing meal!
For more inspiration on frugal, nourishing main dish meals, please visit The Nourishing Gourmet.
Don’t forget to visit The Thrifty Oreganic’s other Nourishing Frugal Meal ideas:
Better than Lara Bars!
Have you ever wondered how to make your own Lara Bar? Here’s my recipe!
Since becoming serious about cooking traditionally, I have had to give up an awesome convenience food / “on the go snack”: the “bar”. My favorite for a while was the Odwalla Bar; $.88 at Winco, I could load up on these babies and my kiddo loved them for her snack. Ironically, it was the Odwalla Bar that lead me to believe that my daughter was sensitive to wheat/gluten. I’ll spare you the delicious details, but suffice to say that it was the Odwalla Bar, in a way, that lead me on this journey!
Fast forward two years into the future. Lara bars come on the scene. What could be better? A whole food, gluten free snack bar! These have like 3 ingredients! But they are also expensive. And rightly so; I mean, the ingredients are good quality and good quality comes with a price.
I don’t know if the recipe below really comes out that much cheaper than a box of Lara Bars at Costco (~$18 for 18 bars). This recipe made about 18 bars and I’m pretty sure the ingredients, altogether would total a lot less than $18. It also takes very little time. Here’s the basic idea of the recipe. It’s not an exact science, so forgive the “Italian” style of recipe writing:
Better than Lara Bars
10-12 pitted dates
1/2 cup natural peanut butter (more may be necessary)
handful of raisins
1 cup of shredded coconut (plus more for coating)
1 TBS Raw Honey (or other liquid sweetener)]
Liquid Stevia to taste
handful of chopped crispy nuts (macadamia nuts or almonds are great)
1/3 cup of coconut oil or butter
2 scoops of Rainbow Light’s Chocolate Rice Protein Powder (optional, but really good!)
1) Place dates into food processor and process until you have a paste.
2) Add raisins, peanut butter, honey, and coconut and process until mixture forms a big mass.
3) Add your coconut oil now, as well as the protein powder, if using. Mixture may seem a bit “wet” from the coconut oil. This is okay,but if it seems too runny, add more shredded coconut. Taste for sweetness, and add a few drops of stevia (or more honey) to acheive desired sweetness.
4) At this point, add the chopped nuts.
5) Form pastey mass into balls or bars and roll in shredded coconut (or rapadura or cocoa).
6) Place bars on parchment-lined baking sheet and chill in freezer for about 10 minutes.
Notes: This is a pretty forgiving and versatile recipe. Try subbing raisins for any dried fruit (apricots or cherries would be great!) The coconut oil is not absolutely essential to the texture, either. You can get by without it, but it adds some good nutritional properties! You also don’t need nuts, the peanut butter is enough!
These are amazing! They are full of healthy fats, complex carbs, and protein! Enjoy for breakfast on the run or for dessert with a glass of milk!
Menu Plan Monday!
It’s menu time again! This week, I’ll be capitalizing on using what I have on hand in the veggie department. We have been blessed with a steady supply of fresh veggies from our CSA and our local farmer’s market (my kids and I boarded the local lite rail last Wednesday and loaded up on fresh food!)
We also have some various cuts of meat in our freezer that were from the 1/4 cow we purchased back in December, and it’s high time those got eaten!
Monday:
B: Pesto scrambled eggs
L: Quinoa tabouleh, sauteed zucchini, leftover carnitas
D: Rib steak with salad and a side of pesto buckwheat risotto (leftover from last week)
To do: Defrost rib steak, soak quinoa, start lentil sprouts
Tuesday:
B: Green smoothies and quinoa porridge
L: Sprouted lentil salad and beef vegetable soup (beef broth, leftover rib steak, veggies)
D: Roast (heart) with carrots, celery and mashed potatoes with salad
To do: Defrost heart, defrost beef broth, soak pinto and kidney beans for chili)
Wednesday:
B: Meusli and Sardines for Jonathan
L: Leftover roundup (whatever’s on hand!)
D: Vegetarian chili (pinto & kidney beans with zucchini and other available veggies)
To do: Go to farmer’s market for veggies
Thursday:
B: Eggs and Breakfast Sausage from US Wellness Meats
L: Quesdadillas with leftover heart and sauteed veggies
D: Out to dinner! Friends are babysitting so we can go out!!!
To do: Prep waffles
Friday:
B: smoothies and “re fried meusli mush”
L: Quinoa tabouleh, sauteed veggies, leftovers
D: Swiss chard lasagna with a side of salad
Saturday:
B: millet/rice waffles
L: leftovers
D: US Wellness Garlic Hot Dogs with High Enzyme Salad
Sunday:
L: Fish fry @ a friend’s house (with Alaskan salmon she caught!)
D: Green popcorn, cheese, apples (with some additional leftovers for Jonathan!)
For more inspiration, visit The Organizing Junkie! Please let me know via comments if there are any recipes you might like links to! Happy Monday!
And the Winner Is…..
Congratulations Erica Gott! You hit the nail on the head.
Everyone else who commented did a great job and came very close; but Erica gets 100%!!.
#1. Even though I don’t often buy tropical fruits, I will be tempted with a pineapple from time to time, and pineapple vinegar is a great way to utilize the leftover skin and core!
#2.What better way to use pineapple vinegar than cortido!?!
#3. This was a tricky one. It’s coconut kefir. The purple “blob” is my kefir grain, which was dyed purple after living in my grape juice for a while!
#4. Everyone came really close on this one. These were fermented sweet potatoes. I attempted these for my baby Jonathan, but he didn’t particularly like them. Oh well.
#5. This last one was clabbered raw milk , which can be used to make whey and cream cheese.
Great job, and thank you to all who participated! I plan to do more fun things like this in the future, so please stay tuned!!!!
