Happy New Year!

Well, it is so late in the new year to be finally posting that!

Why have I been away all this time?  Well, I was busy busy busy sewing up some cool Christmas presents.  :-) Which I will share with you another day, because I don't have the pictures right now!

Remember the last post I made (long ago...) about my new favorite blog?  Well the very next day I found my really new favorite blog.  It's called Cooking Traditional Food.  And I'm in love with it.  Kerry has put together some amazing recipes using ingredients that I use, and has even inspired me to start sprouting wheat again and even start trying to sprout beans!  (no success on that front yet...)

Okay, well the best part of it all is that Kerry offers a menu mailer-- a weekly or monthly mailer with a menu, the recipes, a shopping list for all the ingredients you need that week, and a daily guide for notes to write about what you need to do each day. I was really excited about this, because I was struggling so much for the last few months with figuring out what to eat each day, scrambling to make it, just buying whatever at the store and then making meals out of it later,...

I joined her email list just so I could get two free ones (a 'budget" one that's only three dinners per week and centers on less meat, and a "classic" one that provides five dinners per week and meat as the main course more often).  I used those two mailers to generate a meal plan for the last week and a half before Christmas. That week and a half was so nice!  I knew each day what I was going to cook and I could start it early enough to have dinner at a somewhat reasonable time.  :-) Hooray.

Guess what?!!??

Chris gave me a year subscription to the budget menu mailer for Christmas.  I was/am SO happy!  I have only been using it for a week now, but this week has been so stress free (on the food front-- NOT so much on the children puking front).  I printed out the mailer (the budget one comes once a month) and I put it in a binder to keep in the kitchen/dining room so that I can reference what's for dinner and the recipes easily.  I have been reviewing it each night before I go to bed so I am prepared for what's ahead the next day!  It's been great.  THANKS CHRIS YOU ARE THE BEST!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

I will be posting more soon.  I have to tell you how my couch recovering project went, tell you about my Christmas sewing project, some coconut flour pancakes I came up with for John, the pickles fermenting on my counter, and a whole bunch of other stuff I took pics of long ago and never told you about.

Love, Janet.

I Love Canning

Here is just one more reason I love canning. 

The other day, I had no idea what to make for dinner.  I was already four o'clock and I couldn't thaw anything.  I needed something quick! 

First I peeked at my food log calendar-- the calendar that hangs in my kitchen and on which I write what we eat for dinner every day.  I'm not a great plan-a-menu ahead person-- you all may have figured that out by now-- but I do like to have a record of what we ate.  This helps so much on days just like this day when I was unprepared and needed to think of something but couldn't think.  I just used a meal that I made before.  (I usually try to make something that I made more than two weeks ago, so my family isn't grumbling at me--- Lentil Shepard's Pie AGAIN??!?)...

I found it-- butternut squash soup, biscuits, applesauce.  Perfect.  Then, I went to my cabinet and grabbed:

Canned chicken stock, canned crookneck squash and canned applesauce! While the soup was cooking, my little helper and I made some quick baking powder biscuits (using sprouted wheat flour!) and I even used my cast iron griddle for a cookie sheet-- no clean up!  Yes!

ps. two cooking tips are hidden in this post!  Get a food log calendar!  And use cast iron cookware for quick, easy (sometimes little or no) clean-up.

pps. Here is my butternut squash soup recipe (more or less) in case you are interested.  I used to look up recipes for this soup but by now it has kind of morphed into it's own thing.


Butternut Squash Soup
about 4 cups butternut squash
about 4 cups chicken (or beef or turkey) stock
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp kelp powder (Salty, also has iodine, since our salt doesn't)
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
two shakes or less red pepper flakes
1/2 cup of milk, or cream (if using cream, it will come out creamy using less, too-- one time I only had about 3TBS cream and it was still delicious!)

place all ingredients except cream/milk in stock pot.  heat to boil. reduce to simmer. use immersion blender to make smooth.  taste and adjust seasonings.  add cream.  serve. 

Menu Plan... Kind of!

Hey, everyone!

I have finally come up with somewhat of a menu plan for the next week or so.  I had to go to the store, and I wanted to make sure I bought lots of fruits and veggies-- but also ones that I would use up in the next week or week and a half.  I didn't want to just buy veggies all "willy-nilly" and then not know what to do with them or never end up using them before they went bad!

So, here's the list of meals that I came up with to eat in the next week.

• Lentil Shepard's Pie (recipe coming tomorrow!) 
• Split Pea Burgers and spaghetti squash
• Spaghetti and Salad
• Vegetable soup
• Baked Beans with sweet potatoes and broccoli
• Indian Cauliflower and Potatoes with Indian veggie patties
• Bean soup 
• Pizza
• Farfalle with Broccoli

Yay!  This whole list is vegetarian.  Allright, I lied a bit.  The broccoli farfalle has anchovies.  :-) 

Menu Plan 7.11.2011

Hey!  It's 7/11!  Makes me think of slurpees... :-)

Well, it has been officially FOREVER since I posted a menu plan.  Or even had one, really. But this morning I sat down to think about what I would even buy at the store today, and I realized I should make a menu plan.  Or something.  So, I did.  Kind of.  :-) 

It's summer, and it's hot so I don't want to cook ever.  But Chris DID put in the A/C unit in our living room today!  So instead of being 95 in here at the end of the day, it will be 80 or 85, with no humidity!  Yay!  But I digress... here's the plan!

• Grilled mushroom 'burgers'
• Pasta salad
• Spaghetti
• Zucchini Cakes (hoping to post a recipe-- I made these last week and the recipe needs a little perfecting yet.  But I have 8 or 9 zucchini in my fridge, so I have plenty to practice with!) 
• Leg of lamb on grill
• Tuna Salad
• Egg Salad
• Bean and Rice burritos (we had these last week, and I made the best tortillas EVER! and some delicious tomato corn salsa to go with it) 
• Veggie wraps
• Tomato sandwiches
• Cauliflower and potato curry
• Quiche
• Chicken Tikka Masala

Well, that's what was on my list.  Ben requested soup... but I vetoed that due to the heat!  No one except Ben wants to eat soup in 90* weather!

Last night we had a picnic out back.  It was so hot, and we hadn't been home, so the house was closed up and stuffy, and there was at least a breeze blowing outside.  So we had tuna sandwiches (with tomato from the farmer's market and lettuce from my porch planter) and apple slices. 

Alright, the children are begging to go out, so we will ride bikes before it is 100* and while Ellie is asleep. I hope to get back on the blogging bandwagon sometime this week. :-)

Menu plan from 6.10.11

Just walked by my fridge and thought how I never shared this with you. I know that was days ago, but I didn't forget about you. Well, alright, I kind of forgot about you... :-)



Just tune in to my food logs this month, and you'll get a better idea what we're having!

Menu Plan 5.1.2011

Well, it's that time again... I have to come up with some sort of plan by which to feed my family for the next two weeks.  I feel that our house is COMPLETELY stocked with food right now, due to our recent trip to Miller's Natural Foods. Check out our trip!!!

Okay so, off the top of my head, here is what I want to have for dinner the next few weeks. I haven't asked the troops what they want yet, so I may have to make some additions. :-)

1. Taco Corn Fritters (Chili?/ Beans and rice?) Salad
2. Vegetable Tetrazzini
3. Potato Soup
4. Vegetable soup
5. Hummus, veggies, pitas, (something else)
6. Orzo Salad (like we had at Easter) I don't really have a recipe, so when I make it, if it's good, I'll post it for you to enjoy too. Because, it was awesome!
7. Coleslaw with something.... (what really sounds good here is hot dogs.  But I don't know if I want to pay as much as the hot dogs we eat cost, or go to the OTHER store that only carries them... )
8. Socca with something.... (maybe a roasted veggie and socca sandwich? I'm not good at making socca yet, but I want to be.  And, I found garbanzo bean flour at Wegman's! I was looking in the wrong aisle before...)
9. Black Bean Burrito Bake (I probably won't use as much cheese as she does this time, since we have cut way back on dairy) and fresh veggies
10. Quinoa Burgers and potato wedges and broccoli
11. Green waffles and green gravy (MAYBE... Ben asked for it the other day)
12. Chicken and vegetables (sweet potato wedges?) 

Okay, well, that was fun.  Can you see I really feel a bit sketchy about this plan.  Lots of maybes, and uncertains.  One thing I know for sure is that I have to get some veggies!

This week, hopefully I'll be back a bit more than last week.  I hope to tell you about our garden and the changes taking place there, and why I was so excited about a turkey carcass! 

Menu Plan 4.15.2011 Revisited

Thanks to everyone who gave me ideas to have for dinner last time!  We made it through, with your help! Here's how the menu worked out at our house the last few weeks:

1. Zucchini spaghetti (Ben's request this week) with cous cous, beans and creamy garlic sauce (Something I threw together and possibly could write about!)
2. Beans and rice
3. Beans and rice with Taco Corn Fritters (Everyone in my family LOVED these!!)
4. "Macaroni for dinner," as requested by Sam... Not sure exactly what that one's going to end up being :-) Vegetable tetrazzini (Thanks again, Aunt Joanne!)-- we ate almost the whole pan of this-- I will definitely make it again!
5. Potato soup
6. Mashed potatoes and sauerkraut
7. Split pea soup with biscuits
8. Vegan Lasagna (or maybe a vegan lasagna recipe that I modify with ricotta cheese instead of tofu) 
9. Vegetable soup
10. Beans and rice again! (I really love this with taco seasoning and hot sauce, and my kids all eat it willingly, too!)
11. Pizza with millet crust (toppings: broccoli, mushrooms, onions, yellow peppers)
12. Pizza with regular-type crust (Same toppings as before!)
13. Tuna fish on homemade pitas and hummus with veggies
14. Easter dinner-- turkey, ham, amazing orzo salad, regular-type salad, green beans with pine nuts, buttery delicious dinner rolls (a la my uncle Andre!)
15. Baja Fresh at my mom's (vegetarian burrito with guac that we split)
16. Vegetarian Chili with cauliflower
17. Cauliflower and Potato Curry

Menu Plan 4.15.2011

Alright, well, if you have been counting, it has been almost THREE weeks since I last did a menu plan... Well, we have been scraping by, just barely.... I am about out of ideas.  That's one of the reasons I have been dragging my feet this week.  Here's what I got so far...

1. Zucchini spaghetti (Ben's request this week) with cous cous, beans and creamy garlic sauce (Something I threw together and possibly could write about!)
2. Beans and rice
3. Beans and rice with Taco Corn Fritters
4. "Macaroni for dinner," as requested by Sam... Not sure exactly what that one's going to end up being :-) 
5. Potato soup
6. Mashed potatoes and sauerkraut
7. Split pea soup
8. Vegan Lasagna (or maybe a vegan lasagna recipe that I modify with ricotta cheese instead of tofu) 
9. Vegetable soup
10. .....
11. .....
12. .....
13. .....
14. .....

See my problem!?? I am out of ideas!  I need some help!  What's your favorite vegetarian dish? Or, just your favorite dish in general? We are looking for new ideas at the Good household! 

Menu Plan 3.19.2011 Revisited

Here's my menu plan as I wrote it two weeks ago and what we ended up having/ how I ended up editing it. 

1. Spaghetti with veggie sauce-- homemade noodles with flax; roast zucchini and fennel tossed in.
2. Wings, broccoli, homemade sauerkraut-- potato wedges and roast carrots
3. Chili
4. Bean soup
5. Asparagus pesto* Chris has forever vetoed the asparagus pesto!
6. Potato and spinach curry
7. Palak Paneer (Spinach and cheese curry) with coconut spice rice*
8. Homemade Sauerkraut with green mashed potatoes and leftover grilled steak
9. Asian Anise soup* with hummus and veggies-- we made the Green Energy Soup instead.  Only Sam liked it. (Weird, right?  That the two year old ate it and no one else? I thought so...) with homemade bread.
10. Butternut squash soup with socca-- with bread
11. Red cabbage slaw with lime vinaigrette* and a roast-- will have next time!
12. Broccoli, Chicken and Rice casserole that I kind of made up on the fly.  I'll have to share the recipe this week.  :-) 
13. Kids: Pizza-- well, more like tomato pie, with broccoli, tomatoes and shredded carrot on top Mom and Dad: Date to Burrito Loco with friends!!

And the extras that I want to make:

1. Granola
2. Sweet Nut Mix*
3. Chipotle flax crackers*
4. Sweet Carrot Bread*-- this was pretty good!  I used prunes instead of raisins.  Ben didn't like it. 
5. Zucchini coffee cake (only use half the sugar)-- SO GOOD. Made it twice. mmm. Will make again, and soon! (I have frozen shredded zucchini in my freezer from last year's garden.  That makes this recipe a snap to throw together!)
6. Whole wheat honey scones (Use less honey-- 2-3 TBS)-- deliciousness.

Menu Plan 3.27.2011

It seems like I just posted a menu plan!  But this weekend was my weekend to go shopping (I've been going only every two weeks, and LOVING it), so I needed to make a plan.  Here it is. 

1. Spaghetti (Zucchini or wheat, haven't decided.  Might have both!)
2. Roast with Beet Salad and roast carrots
3. Beef tacos with broccoli
4. Potato and Spinach Curry
5. Noodles with gravy and salad
6. Mashed potatoes and Sauerkraut (Our next batch will be done this weekend!)
7. Lentil Stew
8. Chili with stewmeat, Salad and cornbread muffins
9. Sweet Potato soup with salad (or maybe coleslaw?)
10. Chicken Tacos with a veggie
11. Beans and Rice

Let's see how we do for the next two weeks!  Thanks for keeping me on track.  :-)

Do you menu plan? What's your favorite way to plan?

Menu Plan 3.19.2011

So I realize it has been more than two weeks since I posted a menu plan-- almost three weeks! I ended up going out of town at the beginning of last week, so that threw my blogging and menu plan off a bit.  In a good way, of course!  :-)

Here's what I got for the next two weeks:

1. Spaghetti with veggie sauce
2. Wings, broccoli, homemade sauerkraut
3. Chili
4. Bean soup
5. Asparagus pesto*
6. Potato and spinach curry
7. Palak Paneer (Spinach and cheese curry) with coconut spice rice*
8. Homemade Sauerkraut with green mashed potatoes and leftover grilled steak
9. Asian Anise soup* with hummus and veggies
10. Butternut squash soup with socca
11. Red cabbage slaw with lime vinaigrette* and a roast

And the extras that I want to make:

1. Granola
2. Sweet Nut Mix*
3. Chipotle flax crackers*
4. Sweet Carrot Bread*
5. Zucchini coffee cake (only use half the sugar)
6. Whole wheat honey scones (Use less honey-- 2-3 TBS)

*Recipes from Breaking Free: Truths for Healthy Living

I'll check back in a week or two to let you know how my meals really turned out.  I love the flexibility of meal planning like this!  I have everything I need for a variety of foods, but I can make what I feel like on a given day! What's your favorite dinner?

Menu Plan Revisited

Here's my menu plan from two weeks ago, and I have edited it to see how I did:

My Menu Plan

1. Zucchini Spaghetti with Spaghetti Sauce we had this twice!
2. Coconut Cucumber Soup* with roasted carrots and creamy spinach soup the cucumber soup was NOT a hit for dinner, but Ellie and I did like it.  I think I will make this again as a light, cool lunch, especially when it gets hot outside!
3. Asian Anise Soup* with potato wedges --will add this to next menu plan
4. Split Pea Soup* with salad  I added a carrot, an extra potato and a parsnip to give the soup some texture.
5. Asparagus Pesto Fettuccine* --will add this to next menu plan
6. Beans and Rice with salad
7. Lentil Burgers with carrot sticks these turned out so good!  Especially with some ketchup, mustard, onion and avocado.
8. Raw Falafel* with guacamole, raw veggies and maybe hummus This was good.  I really liked the falafel (I've never had it before), but I did not blend it until it was smooth enough, and I added water to it, which just made it seep through the dehydrator trays. But, I really liked it, especially with guacamole and cucumbers on top.
9. Chicken, potato wedges, creamy spinach soup I posted the creamy spinach soup recipe earlier this week, and it was a hit with everyone!
10. Beef Roast, broccoli, quinoa I am going to make black quinoa with this meal tomorrow!  I had never seen it before the last time I was in the Wegman's bulk foods isle. 
11. Cauliflower curry** had this one day, Creamy Potato and Spinach curry** and this another day with soybean socca. I had never heard of it before, but I have been reading Pure2Raw, and they raved about it, so I just had to try it! My first attempt was pretty ugly (although the kids loved it!).  My second attempt was MUCH BETTER.  :-) 
12. Vegetable Soup
13. Sweet Potato Soup over Barley-- I was not sure about the barley but I wanted to make this simple soup a meal... Sam had three bowls! :-)

I also have some extras that I am planning to make-- snacks/desserts/breakfasts

1. Sesame Rice crackers (recipe coming sometime this week, maybe!) Yay!  I finally posted it here.
2. Avocado Muffins* these were great-- I made them for breakfast; the recipe made seven, and we ate all of them!
3. Cashew Butter
4. Nutty Gelato* made it with cashew butter instead of almond butter.  I must say, it was really sweet!  I will cut back the agave, but otherwise, and excellent dessert!
5. Sourdough starter (with rye flour) I made this, but it started to get moldy, so I threw it away.  I did make a couple of things with it first, like my oatmeal sourdough apple cake!
   
6. Raw Granola (haven't settled on a recipe yet) hopefully next time!
7. I also discovered an amazing snack this week over at Pure2Raw-- popped amaranth!  I bought some at Whole Foods, not knowing what I was going to do with it, and then Pure2Raw had this great post about popped amaranth! It's delicious.  Chris wants to make a video-- maybe sometime soon!