Sunday, January 22, 2012 - Warming foods

It is cold and rainy. And it has been for several days. At first I thought today was going to be spent dealing with an electrical crisis at our house - we came home last night to a house that had electricity in only half of it. A little while later, it came back on though, much to my relief, although I still am guessing there is faulty wiring here somewhere, and perhaps water coming into contact with said faulty wiring....
In any case, I CAN cook today after all! So tonight's supper is mostly warming foods:

Tomato Soup with black beans and rice

Baked Potatoes / Baked Sweet Potatoes

Cucumber slices with dip of some sort (the one not warming food, we have cucumbers here to use up, and since cucumbers seem to have gone up in price lately, we are trying EXTRA hard not to waste any!)

Cauliflower something or other - I have a head of cauliflower to use up! - I think I will chop it fine in the food processor and mix with a few things and make some sort of cauliflower casserole. IF it's good, I'll report back!

Monday, December 26, 2011

We are hosting some old longtime friends tonight, for a Chanukah visit to the Northern part of Israel. I'm told that their 4 children can be somewhat picky, and I had no idea how to handle the list I was given. So, sorry dear friends, I ignored it, and figured your kids will survive if they have to try something new, or we'll find something to placate them with...

Here's my menu for tonight:

Homemade Oatmeal-Flax Bread

Vegetable soup

Stuffed Baked Potatoes (and a few plain ones, as 2 of my children won't eat them stuffed)

Make your own salad

Apple crisp

I feel like I'm missing something, so I might make something else, not sure yet. Ok, have to get back to preparing for guests!

Chanukah Sameyach!

Sunday, November 20, 2011

It has been so rainy here. It is absolutely incredible. Last November there was barely any rain (well, probably a little - I don't remember when exactly that incredible storm knocked over the tree in our landlord's yard!), and this past week, we have had one storm after another. Maybe I should put this up in more detail on my defunct-for-now "Northern Lights" blog! That would be an idea, don't you think?

Anyhow, I was inspired by a friend to consider foraging as a food option. There seem to be all sorts of weeds and wild plants sprouting, and rumor has it, tons of plants are... EDIBLE!

So I'm wondering, how many of you ever pick wild plants and eat them? How do YOU know what's edible and what's toxic? (and how are you sure?)

I'd love to basically avoid grocery shopping this week, except for a few things I thought of picking up for our ex-pat Thanksgiving celebration. I think I will push off my order from the health food store for another week - that 250 NIS minimum order for delivery is overwhelming me, as I don't have such a long list of staples I buy from the health food store right now (sadly, as I used to be a Whole Foods and Trader Joe's junkie, but it's just not feasible for us right now).

So - back to menus!

Tonight's Menu:

Split Pea Soup

Baked Potatoes

Crustless Roasted Vegetable Quiche - quick recipe: chop (as large or small as you want) your favorite vegetables (I'm using red peppers, kishuim, onions, garlic, and all the sad looking tomatoes from last week) and roast in the oven till browned (with olive oil and sea salt). You will need to roast a LOT of vegetables, they shrink in the oven! Fill up your quiche pans or casserole dish. Make a custard of eggs, milk, and spices (add gevinah levanah for an Israeli twist). Pour over veggies, top with cheese. Bake at 375 F till it's browned and done.

Pomelit

Back to Posting Menus! Nov. 8, 2011

I've taken quite a long break from posting, but now I'm trying to get my life back in order, and that includes finding time to plan (and blog about) menus!
This week I'm back to trying to minimize the shopping (but can't pass up Mega's special - 2NIS/kg for avocados, pomelit, and bananas, so I'm going to have to get there tomorrow!)... I peeked into my freezer and realized that there's enough in there to keep us going for a while.

Here are some foods we made this week using the items already in the freezer, fridge, and pantry:

Red Lentil Soup - saute 1 small onion and 1 clove garlic in olive oil. when soft, add water, red lentils (sorted and rinsed), salt and pepper (optional: juice of a lemon. I like it lemony but my finicky family disagrees. You can always add lemon to the bowl!). This soup is my go to soup when we are all cold and I hadn't planned soup, as red lentils cook so quickly it can be ready to serve in about 15 minutes!

Chinese Vegetable Soup - this soup starts the same way most of my soups do: saute onion and garlic in olive oil. (you can also saute fresh sliced ginger with the onion and garlic, if you don't have any, you can use the dried ground version, just add toward the end of the cooking process) when soft, add your choice of vegetables - I used mushrooms, broccoli stalks (peeled and thinly sliced), carrots (scrubbed and thinly sliced), and snow peas (still had some in the freezer from when they were buy 2 get 1 free at Shufersal). You can also use bok choy, celery, and any other vegetables you have around that seem like they'd fit. saute it all. then add soy sauce and rice vinegar. Allow to simmer for 10 min. Add water to desired level. Add pepper (and ginger) to taste. garnish with green onion, if you have some!

Pasta with creamy sauce (I cheated and used up the leftover garlic and dill cream cheese as the basis of this sauce)

Pasta with tomato sauce

Baked Potatoes

Steamed Broccoli

Make your own Salad

Fruit Salad

These foods came together in different combinations to make several nights worth of suppers!
What have you been making?

Tuesday Night, Aug 23, 2011

It's time I got back to planning and cooking regularly for my family, as I no longer have good excuses not to! (They were: 1. We're moving soon. 2. We just moved and we're unpacking. 3. I don't have an oven)

Here's tonight's plan:

Broccoli puff (broccoli is a bit of a splurge but not so much that we can't have it once in a while) (broccoli, cottage cheese, shredded cheddar or other hard-style cheese, eggs, salt pepper, a bit of flour, all mixed up and baked in a casserole pan)

Make your own salad (we have lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and chick peas)

Baked potatoes 

Yogurt smoothies

What's on your menu?

Shabbat Parashat B'ha'alotcha, June 10-11, 2011

Assuming I can breathe tomorrow, I'll cook for Shabbat... (I'm having something of an asthma flare-up which was exacerbated by smoke in the air from a nearby brush fire today, and I'm trying very hard to avoid the emergency room. Good luck to me...)

Here's the plan:

Some sort of cold soup (help!)

Chicken with date honey (again. trying to use up the date honey)

Barley with mushrooms

Roasted Zucchini

Fresh tomatoes and cucumbers


Baked Potatoes

Fruit for dessert


...

Monday Night, May 2, 2011

Today we commemorate Yom HaShoah. It is a day dedicated to the memory and heroism of the victims and survivors of the Holocaust. We pledge to never forget; to never allow history to repeat itself. We speak with our children about our history, and pledge with them to keep the memories alive.

We speak of people starving, being starved, being treated as subhuman. We pledge to treat all people with dignity and respect. Lessons we all want our children to learn.

We spend each day learning, but the solemnity of this day required that I say something particular. We learn, read, and more, and I plan our dinner. Nothing fancy, but enough to nourish.


Here's the menu:

Pita crisps
Minestrone soup (made with homemade pureed tomatoes. This time I roasted them in the oven before pureeing. yum)
Baked potatoes topped with broccoli and cheese
Make your own salad

Post-Pesach

Well, we worked late into the night motzaei pesach and got everything back in order, more or less. (Still don't have a place for my beautiful turquoise Dutch oven to call home though. It is sitting, quite unceremoniously, under the kitchen table again. So sad.)

Today, everybody just wanted bread and cookies, and crackers too. Somehow though, my little girls were still willing to eat the leftover Pesachdik baked goods!

So I sent my hubby to the store and he came back with tons of chametz, including a couple of long, fresh, baguettes.

Here's what we had for supper:

Pizza baguettes (made with homemade tomato sauce - see the "Homemade Alternatives" page for my super easy, cheater recipe)  - My oldest child suggested we also make a couple of matzah pizzas - he was feeling nostalgic. We skipped the matzah pizzas.

Fingerling potatoes with ketchup (over Pesach, I discovered that my children who do NOT eat potatoes all eagerly eat fingerling potatoes! very interesting discoveries...)

Sliced cucumbers

Sunday Night, April 3, 2011

Pesach is getting closer! How's your pantry challenge coming along?
I rummaged through the freezer, and my produce and here's what I pulled together tonight:

Vegetable soup (I even used the pureed cauliflower in it! Also used some of that 1 NIS/kilo cabbage in it!)
Fish Sticks (bought these a while ago, and though they are not healthy and not frugal, I occasionally serve them because some of my kids like them!)
Spicy Roast Potatoes
Cheesy Garlic Bread
Carrot Sticks

Tuesday Night, March 28, 2011

Working on the pantry challenge... I'm having a hard time with this right now. I have so many little odds and ends left in the freezer that I'm not sure what to do... Right now I am focused mostly on the fridge, but I'll try to find ways to use the freezer stash as well.

Tonight, we're going to have:


Minestrone Soup (found a few small containers of leftover minestrone from other times. If it's not enough to go around, I'll add a few more veggies and  no one will be the wiser. The real question is, can I mix in the pureed cauliflower that stares me in the face every time I open the freezer?!)

Baked potatoes (actually, not sure if we really need these; maybe I'll rummage through the freezer and find something to use up! I'm afraid some of my labels rubbed off and I'm left with mystery food... does that ever happen to you?)

Cottage Cheese pancakes (we like these slightly salty. mix cottage cheese, eggs, flour, salt, and pepper. cook in a skillet just like pancakes)

Make-your-own-salad

Let me know if you're also doing a pantry challenge. How's it going?

Thursday Night, Post-Taanit Ester

Looks like I have a feast to prepare. Several of them!

I wonder if I can double-up some of the preparation, and serve some things more than once.

Here's how we'll be breaking the fast:

Vegetable Soup (my usual, saute onions, garlic, celery, carrots, and any other soup worthy vegetables. lower the flame and cook, covered, for 10 min. then add soup stock, spices, salt and pepper. simmer until you need to serve it. the longer it cooks, the more complex the flavor...)

Broccoli Quiche - if I run out of time, this will be a crustless quiche.

Baked Potatoes

Artichokes - love those dancing children! (see Tuesday's post if you're not sure what I mean!)


Salad - right now I have tomatoes, purple cabbage, cucumbers, and red peppers. perhaps i'll throw in a sliced carrot, too.

Wednesday night - March 2, 2011

I had a really busy day yesterday and the afternoon flew past me. So the kids and I decided together to just have pitot topped with olives and tomatoes, with cheese melted on top. I steamed some broccoli to get everyone to eat something green.

So for Wednesday, I'm planning a little better (I'm ok with my fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants dinner, after all, everyone needs to just take care of other things sometimes!)...

Minestrone Soup - since I use such a variety of veggies in my minestrone soup, I think I can sneak some of that cabbage into it without being noticed. And to my son who reads this blog - please don't tell your brother and sisters!

Broccoli Puff - this is a simple mixture of chopped broccoli, cottage cheese, shredded cheese, eggs, a little flour, salt and pepper, baked up till it's golden brown on top. Yummy, a favorite in this house!

Tomato & Mozzarella Salad - my kids love mozzarella cheese, so I just slice up tomatoes, drizzle with olive oil, and add some chunks of mozzarella and some fresh (or dried) basil. You can keep this frugal by using small chunks of cheese, and not so much. Really tomatoes are the star of this salad!

Spicy Roasted Potatoes - Mix olive oil with mustard, garlic powder, and ground black pepper. Cut potatoes into wedges and coat with olive oil/mustard mixture. Roast in a 400 F oven till crispy, golden brown. The kids like to dip them in ketchup....

Wednesday night - Feb. 2, 2011

My house feels really chilly. We all had hot chocolate before putting the kids to bed tonight.

I know that those of you in the States will think I'm nuts, and I'm sorry that you have to deal with so many snowstorms and "Crazy Weather" (one of my kids once wrote a song entitled "Crazy Weather"... It was a big hit in our house!). But I'm thinking that we need cold weather food for Wednesday night.

So, here is the plan (using only foods that we already have in the house):

Creamy Green Vegetable Soup
Stuffed Baked Potatoes
Zucchini Pancakes
Lettuce, Purple Cabbage, Cinnamon-Honey'd Oranges, Avocado, and Walnut Salad (ok, the salad is not a cold weather food, but we have plenty of these ingredients and serving salad always makes me feel like a better meal planner.)

Some notes about these foods:

Creamy Green Vegetable Soup - Trying to get the kids to finish up the cauliflower that I made the other day. Here's what I do - make a basic vegetable soup with onions, garlic, celery, broccoli stalks (peeled and chopped), and zucchini. After it has simmered for a while, add some frozen spinach and the already cooked cauliflower. Puree it before serving. Serve with croutons or "soup nuts". (The kids love it and have no idea which veggies are in it!)

Stuffed Baked Potatoes - Bake some potatoes, cut in half, keeping the skins intact, and scoop out the insides. Mash it up with garlic, cheese, chopped broccoli or any other additons you like. Scoop back inside the potato halves, and bake again.

Zucchini Pancakes - I make these with shredded zucchini, chopped onion, ground flaxseed, egg, salt and pepper.

Salad - pretty self explanatory. You can make Cinnamon-Honey'd Oranges like this:  Peel and section a few oranges. Cut them into bite-sized pieces. Place in a bowl you can cover, drizzle with honey and a generous amount of cinnamon. mix gently. cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving with your salad. There is no need for any other dressing on this salad!