Meal Plan this week (getting close to Pesach)

Pesach is coming! Pesach is coming!
(Pesach is Passover, for those unfamiliar with it, it is by far the most labor intensive Jewish holiday, and requires a complete change-over to special Kosher for Passover kitchen items - all of them. Foods considered chametz are not allowed, and in addition, some people don't eat Kitniyot - which is mostly rice, legumes, and some seeds. We try to use up all of our chametz before Pesach, as we are not allowed to eat or even own chametz over Pesach...)

Here's my meal plan for the week:

Sunday night: Shabbat leftovers with some additional cooked vegetables - steamed summer squash,  carmelized onions

Monday night: Crock Pot minestrone soup, whole wheat pasta with cheese, fresh cucumbers and carrots

Tuesday night: Crock Pot potato and vegetable stew, rice and lentils, make your own salad (we have some lettuce, purple cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, and oranges - that I will dress with honey and cinnamon)

Wednesday night: pizza, homemade french fries, make your own salad

Thursday night: Some sort of soup in the crock pot, Pasta with black bean "meatballs" and tomato sauce (from the freezer), whatever vegetables are left...

There are other things to use up too - oatmeal, which we'll either eat for breakfasts or bake into muffins, flour, which we'll use for pancake lunches and a batch of bagels one day, some malawach my friend gifted us with when her freezer broke - perfect for lunch one day...

How are you doing clearing out for Pesach? I'd love to hear your plan!

Freezer Cleanout Shabbat

So Pesach is coming closer... how are you doing with your prep?
Today I inventoried my pantry to make sure I know what I must use up in the next week...
And I did a freezer cleanout for Shabbat!

Here's what I took out of my freezer:

Challot and rolls
Chocolate Chip Squares
1 pan rice
1 pan roasted potatoes
1/2 pan roasted butternut squash
1 carrot kugel
2 pans of chicken

2 containers of soup stock (used some in the soup and some in the cholent)

In addition, I made:

Split pea soup
Cholent
Beets
Banana Cake

Those, together with plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, should be plenty for us for Shabbat!

I am so happy that I "fed the freezer" other days. Today was an easy cooking day!

Are you doing a pantry and freezer cleanout? I'd love to hear about it!

Freezer Cleanout and Leftover Dinner

I haven't been posting my meal plans lately, it seems that there have been other things on my mind. But it is time to get organized again! (What better time of year to do that than in the month before Pesach?!)

I am working on cleaning out my freezer in preparation for the arrival of Pesach. I love Pesach, really I do, but sometimes all the preparations for it stress me out...

So today I served this supper:

Potato and Vegetable soup (lots of onions, potatoes, and carrots, since those are all really plentiful and cheap right now, with a smattering of summer squash and garlic thrown in for taste). I made enough to last for another 2 meals, so that will be a good thing at lunchtime tomorrow!

Leftover Vegetarian Cholent from Shabbat - I made too large a cholent and whatever hadn't been brought to the table was still pareve. Today was use it or lose it day. I served it, and some ate it...


Steamed Broccoli and Snow Peas - this was in a mystery dairy container in the freezer. I really must learn to label my frozen foods better!

Eggplant with tomato sauce and cheese (also from the freezer)

A wacky meal, but everyone found something they were ok with eating, so I guess it worked...

Shabbat food

It's Rosh Chodesh Adar, so it is time to work on using up the chametz in our house before we start the Pesach shopping! Today I started looking through my freezer and discovered that there are enough side dishes in there for this Shabbat, plus perhaps one more. Good thing, because I am tired and don't feel like being creative in the kitchen!

So for Shabbat this week, we have:

Vegetable soup (my usual, double batch, making that fresh)

Chicken in sweet and sour apricot sauce - just mix up apricot jelly, vinegar, some extra water if needed to thin it down, garlic, ginger, ground pepper... pour it over chicken, allow to sit for about an hour (in the fridge), then bake till done!

Side dishes from the freezer

Vegetable lo-mein from the freezer

Cholent (vegetarian - using my new go-to recipe! Must thank my friend Batzion for introducing me to smoked paprika and changing my cholent recipe forever, for the better!!)

Brownies or chocolate cake, haven't decided which

Breakfast bread from the freezer

Homemade Chumus that I made the other day and must get used up

Avocados, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers - make your own salad...

Challot from the freezer

Hopefully, that's it.

What are you making?

Shabbat Menu (eclectic)

Shabbat Parashat Bo, Jan 27-28, 2012

I need to use up all the odds and ends that are in the freezer. You know, when there is just a little left from some Shabbat meal and you're not sure what to do with it, and to avoid throwing out food, you wrap it up and shove it in some corner of the freezer?

Well, I want to clear out all those little packages... and a perfect Shabbat for this is one when we have no guests!

So here's the plan:

Challot (from the freezer)

Split pea with vegetable soup (using vegetable soup from the freezer) (Fri. night)

Vegetarian Cholent (lunch)

Chicken and Shnitzel from the freezer

Corn bread (made fresh)

Roasted carrots (made fresh) (got carrots for under 2 NIS/kg, so I made lots of these)

Misc. side dishes from the freezer

Tofu something or other (from the freezer)

Choc. Chip/Oatmeal Squares

Wednesday night - May 18, 2011

Wow! Once again, I don't have to cook this Shabbat! 2 weeks in a row, quite unusual around here.

So, that means I want to skip my usual Wednesday grocery run. And looking thru my fridge/freezer and pantry, I think this means we'll have some sort of "shmorgasbord" dinner tonight. Let's use up some of my ridiculous odds and ends! (Actually, when I do this, my kids ALL find at least one food they are happy with, so I think it works out ok in the end)

Here's what I found: beets, lettuce, red pepper, yellow pepper, tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, potatoes, kishuim (like zucchini),eggplant, melon, apples, overripe bananas, eggs, cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese, yogurt, milk, 2 grapefruits, phyllo dough, "corn pie" (polenta with veggies and cheese), assorted packages of leftover this or that, barley, rice, oatmeal, whole wheat flour, couscous, etc

Here's what we'll have:

Vegetable soup with barley (in my crock pot)


Corn Pie, Broccoli Quiche, and assorted odds and ends from the freezer

Baked Potatoes


Banana Bread


Make your own salad

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?

Tuesday Night, March 15, 2011

Sorry for not posting for a couple of days. Life got in the way. My computer has been turned into the telephone - it's they way we communicate with friends and family overseas - webcam and magicjack - and it's hard to find time to just write. It's been especially busy the last couple of days...

In addition, I have been feeling seriously burned out. Not just cooking burnout, just plain burnout. Sometimes life gets like that. Trying to figure out ways to recharge without actually abandoning my children...

:-)

Anyhow, here's the supper plan for tonight:

Pitot with vegetarian taco filling
Cucumbers
Potato Bourekas (working on the freezer cleanout)
Artichokes (that's what happens when my younger 3 children accompany me to the store. they see artichokes and start dancing. isn't that nuts? not exactly frugal but they were a lot less expensive than last time I saw them - only 8NIS/kilo - so I bought them. at least they weren't begging for candy!)

A bit of a hodge-podge menu, I admit, but everyone ate happily, which was the goal. When my hubby gets back from his trip, I'll have to re-start the "organized" menus...

Have a good day!

Tuesday Night, March 8, 2011

I'm so tired; one of my kids has a cold that is not going away on its own. I'm starting to get concerned... and it's wearing her out and wearing me out. We are not sleeping so well at night!

So, even though it feels like spring, we're still eating soup!

Here's my plan for Tuesday night:

Vegetable Soup (with extra garlic to help get rid of that cold)

Chick Pea & Tomato Salad - don't forget to soak the chickpeas overnight before cooking them! Combine cooked chick peas with diced tomatoes, olive oil, basil, salt, and pepper. (it really is worthwhile cooking the chick peas from scratch - the frozen and canned varieties cost so much more per kilo! and the cans may have BPA in them, so best to avoid them altogether...) I was considering making this a chick pea and roasted tomato salad... any idea how that would taste?

Cut Veggies (we have cherry tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, and celery)

Baked Ziti or other pasta (something without tomato sauce for the picky kids!)


Banana Bread - I bought too many bananas and now we MUST find a way to use them!

We're definitely working our way through the pantry and freezer stuff. How about you?

Wednesday night - Feb. 16, 2011

I'm thinking about a pre-Pesach pantry challenge in a big way. Time to use up some of those things I stocked up on when I found good sales. That said, I am not going to forgo buying fresh produce, eggs, and dairy products, even chicken for Shabbat...

This morning I poked around the fridge and freezer, and I will be making supper using things I have on hand.

On the way to the table:

Yesterday's Tomato Soup - my pot is big enough to stretch it out for 2 meals!

Rice and Lentils - most people make this as one dish, but my crew is so ridiculously picky that I will make rice and I will make lentils... I make lentils very simply: start with sauteed onion, garlic, and any veggies you want to add. Add sorted and rinsed lentils to the pan, along with water and seasonings (or soup stock). cook till liquid is absorbed and the lentils are soft in texture (you may need to add more water as you go along. I don't measure quantities. I just guess.).

Roasted Cauliflower
 
Cottage Cheese Pancakes - I have cottage cheese that is about to go out of date. Mix it up with eggs, flour, salt and pepper and make pancakes!

Make your own salad - diced cucumbers, shredded carrots, purple cabbage, and honey-cinnamon'd oranges


What are you making for supper? Are you doing a pre-Pesach pantry challenge or freezer cleanout? I'd love to hear how you handle it!