Tips for Reheating Food without a Microwave
Soon after my full conversion to traditional food, I decided to get rid of my microwave for health reasons. There are conclusive studies showing the microwaves effect on food, but if nothing else I was eager to make some more space in my tiny kitchen for all of the real food cooking I was about to begin doing!. Read the rest of this entry »
Nourishing Fast, Frugal & Freezer-Friendly Soups!
It’s wintertime, which means soup is a mainstay at our house. I find soups to be the gold star winner for fast, frugal, and freezer-friendly. Sceptics may doubt that a soup can truly be a filling meal, but as my friend Jude said recently after eating a bowl of my homemade, from-scratch soup: “I feel like my insides are alive!” I often serve soup alone or with basically sauerkraut and creme fraiche. Read on for some tips and recipes on fast, easy, and frugal soups:
Read the rest of this entry »
Menu Plan Monday: Leftover Makeovers
It’s Monday still on the Pacific Coast, so I think this will still qualify as a valid “Menu Plan Monday“. Ironically, I’m late in posting because I spent the time I should have been using to menu plan to plan a class I taught last Saturday night on menu planning!
If you are interested in receiving the handouts and “weekly meal planning tools” I shared at the class, simply e-mail me and put “MenuPlanning Docs” in the subject line and I’ll send them your way!
This week I’m thankful to have to buy very little at the store for my meals. I was able to plan the meal almost entirely out of what’s in my fridge (many leftovers!) and freezer! Purple meals are those in which leftovers are utilized!
Monday:
B: egg & veggie scramble with avocado (puree leftover veggie saute and mix with scrambled eggs. When eggs are done, toss in mashed avocado for enzymes)
L: asian chicken soup (leftover asian plum chicken cooked with leftover chicken stock, added a little hoisin sauce for taste)
D: Taco-seasoned beef w/ spinach and carrots (my favorite crock-pot recipe! Kids inhale this–spinach and all. Will post soon)
Tuesday:
B: Turkey Breakfast Sausages (from Nourishing Traditions)
L: Leftover taco beef and shredded cheese on romaine
D: Shepherd’s pie (hash of leftover rib meat, onions, and beef broth, sauteed carrots, broccoli, peas, green beans, topped with pureed cauliflower and herbamere)
Wednesday:
L: l/0 spaghetti squash w/ marinara, fresh veggies or pickles
D: eggplant-squash veggie fondue (CP) with plantain chips, fresh veggies
Thursday:
B: strawberry kefir smoothies
L: hot dogs, cheese chunks, and peas
D: Taste of Italy White Beans and Sausage (CP)
Friday:
B: Coconut Flour Zucchini-Spice Muffins w/Almond Butter
L: spaghetti squash pad thai (leftover spaghetti squash topped with leftover peanut sauce in freezer)
D: African Vegetable Stew (CP)
Saturday:
B: out @ Farmer’s Market
L: leftovers
D: out with friends (hubby watching Duck game, I’ll be visiting missionary friends)
Sunday:
L: leftovers
D: leftovers
For hundreds (literally) of other menus made by real people, 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:
