SALES and meal planning/budgeting

I know I haven't been talking about grocery prices much lately. Life kind of kept me too busy to focus on it. However, groceries often account for a large percentage of people's budgets in this country, and so this becomes the topic of many conversations, in person and online. In my town, there's a near-constant chatter about prices and where and how to shop, and I see it in all sorts of online groups as well. I get it - it's really challenging to keep enough food around for a large(ish) family, especially with teens in the house. But since the onset of the pandemic, I've been mostly ordering my groceries online, and supplementing from one or more of my local makolets, and just hoping I can get everything I need while sticking to the budget I set. Usually I manage, but sometimes I go over, especially when there's a lot going on and I can't focus on food prep all that much.

So what do I do when I need to be careful?

Generally, I shop for sales, which means I focus on the produce I can get for 3 NIS/kilo or less (usually veggies not fruits), and this week I found a whole bunch!

Here's my 3 NIS or less produce haul for this week:

Tomatoes - 0.90 agurot/kilo
Cucumbers - 0.90 agurot/kilo

Carrots - 0.90 agurot/kilo

Cabbage (Purple and Green) - 0.90 agurot/kilo

White Potatoes - 0.90 agurot/kilo

Red Potatoes - 0.90 agurot/kilo

Watermelon - 0.90 agurot/kilo

Light Green Peppers - 1.90 NIS/kilo

Kohlrabi - 1.90 NIS/kilo

Eggplant - 2.90 NIS/kilo

Summer Squash (Kishuim) - 2.90 NIS/kilo

So now I just need to make sure I make lots of food that these veggies star in. Oh, and we'll be eating lots of watermelon because the one we got weighs TEN AND A HALF kilo!!

**This is where that meal planning idea comes in. It makes all the difference between using this food or throwing out food. So I should start planning my menu now, while my fridge is full of these deals!**

Other deals:

I also somehow stumbled upon those fruit flavored yogurts that are usually about 4 NIS each for 1.70 NIS each!

(I also bought the rest of our necessities, but that's not nearly as interesting as these cheap produce deals.)

I know there's a lot of talk about the high cost of produce right now, and I myself was feeling it acutely when I spent a week in the merkaz recently, where I couldn't find fruit for less than double what I pay here in the Golan. It was crazy! I bought some fruit anyway, because I couldn't imagine a week with no fruit, but it hurt a bit to pay those prices.

So I'm pleased to report that upon my return home I happily stocked the fridge with peaches and nectarines this week for 9.90 NIS/kilo and mangoes for 8 NIS/kilo or so!

I'd love to hear your thoughts about food prices in Israel and how you keep your grocery budget in check. Please drop a note below!

35 shekel meal for 6 people (no kids)

It's been a while since I posted about cheap food, but I think it's time to do one of those!

I'm in the middle of a pantry/freezer clean-out (because I literally have not had time to shop much in over 2 weeks, except for a random makolet run) so I thought I'd share some of my 5 - 6 shekels per person meals.

Yup, 6 shekels per person and I think everyone found enough food.

Here's how it went:

1 dozen medium eggs (10.50 NIS)
oil for cooking them (less than 1 NIS)
pinch of salt (almost negligible. let's say 5 ag)

These I made into omelettes - 2 eggs per person

Brown rice (500g) (3.50 NIS)
sliced mushrooms (not a lot - 3.50 NIS worth)
oil, water, salt, spices (less than 50 ag)

Bag of frozen peas (bought on sale for 7.50 NIS)

2 yellow peppers 
2 red peppers
1 light green summer squash
2 zucchini (found these in my fridge needing to be used up, I bought them a few weeks ago)

I bought the peppers and summer squash for 4.90/kg and the zucchini was a bit more. The total for all of these was probably under 6 NIS plus I drizzled olive oil on top, so let's add another shekel and half for good meausure. Total 7.50 NIS

Altogether this adds up to 34.5 NIS. Now I don't really know how to calculate my gas and electricity use, but that's not part of my grocery bill, so we'll let that slide and not add it in here! This fed 6 people dinner tonight, the youngest of whom is 12 years old! 

When my kids were younger, cheap meals used to be doable for less, but that doesn't work now. Still, I think this dinner is pretty well priced for a variety of foods and offers something for everyone!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Last night I had NO time to cook, so we made do with the following:

pasta (half a bag of whole wheat pasta - 2 NIS for a half a bag - plus a bag of white pasta - also 2 NIS)
cottage cheese (bought on sale for 3.33 - lately I've found cottage cheese on sale on Sundays for 3/10 NIS)
shredded cheese, about 250 g - 8 NIS

random soup (leftover pea soup - it was a super simple soup and I bought the split peas on sale for 5 NIS/kg, so I'd say it was 3 NIS worth of soup from shabbat plus random veggies (1 onion, 2 kishuim, 2 carrots, a couple of garlic cloves - 4 NIS, let's say) plus rice noodles (I used 2/3 of a package - 4.70 NIS) and some seasonings (under 50 ag)

Total for that meal was under 28 NIS, and we ate the rest of the soup for lunch today! 

Anytime I manage to make quick homemade meals without spending a lot is a WIN!!

About those peas I found hiding in the freezer:
I'm hoping to clean out that freezer very soon. It's a bit embarrassing, but my freezer is a ROYAL MESS! I keep buying things on sale and shoving them in there. Only there, I must admit, is 3 different places. I have 2 fridges (with small freezers) and one large freezer. But it's time to get rid of one of those fridges - we got it secondhand, and it needs a repair (it leaks a lot of water) and it was useful for a long time, but I am ready to make it work without it... So it's cleanout time and then I can reclaim my mudroom! I'm excited because I really want to paint that room purple... AND I can't wait to lower my electric bill!

I'm not sure my family will let me paint our entryway purple, but I'm sure going to try!

Hope you found this helpful! 

Pre-Fast and Post-Fast Menu

We all know that Tisha B'Av is approaching, and it's probably the most difficult fast of the year.
Ironically, that means we're all thinking about FOOD, of course.

Tisha B'av is strange - we need to eat before the fast, but I always have a hard time figuring out what to do about that meal.

I mean, I know about the egg and bread seudah. I'm talking about the "real meal" before the egg and bread. (We make that a meal of its own, for the official "seudah mafseket".)

On erev Yom Kippur, the only other 24+ hour fast on our calendar, the meal before the fast is very much a shabbat or chag style meal.

Tisha B'Av? Not so much. It's the 9 Days, our days of National Mourning. We can't sit down to a festive meal as we prepare to sit on the floor and cry for a whole day. It wouldn't feel right, at least, not to me. Not to mention that we don't eat meat or chicken, so we are obviously limited with our menu options.
And I don't want to cook elaborate dairy foods, either. For one thing, I don't eat dairy (allergy), and for another, those foods are PRICEY and definitely make me think "celebration!"

So I guess we'll be doing more of an "every day" sort of meal. I considered soup, but I think it's just too hot for soup!

Here's the plan:

Garlic Bread
Baked Ziti (and something dairy-free for me, not sure what)
Cut vegetables with dips
Watermelon and Grapes

 Bonus: I'm really sticking to inexpensive foods that require minimal cooking time and that I know my family will eat. I even managed to get Alma brand mozzarella cheese for the baked ziti for 35nis/kg today.

For post-fast, we'll have more watermelon and grapes, a cheese platter (splurged. Bought cheeses for 35/kg, which is really not so bad), breads and rolls, tuna, and similar. Maybe ice cream or sorbet. I don't want to stress about cooking at the end of the fast day, so this made the most sense to me!

What do you plan to eat pre-and post-fast?

Menu Plan for the week

Quick! It's Monday night and I was at a complete loss for what food to make. 


That's because I never planned my menu this week. So I must make up for it now. (Better late than never?)

Sunday night - we were out

Monday night - Pasta with cheese, roasted kishuim

Tuesday night - Sloppy Sams, fresh dinner rolls, corn on the cob 

Wednesday night - Scrambled eggs, Whatever veggies need to be used up, ??

Thursday night - clean out the fridge night

Lunches will be rice and lentils, corn bread, salads, and whatever else we manage to quickly assemble on any given day.

Phew, now I won't be staring at ingredients on a shelf wondering what on earth we're going to EAT?!

Shabbat Menu

I'm home, cooking for Shabbat again! And looking forward to a day of rest, food, Torah, and family time (with no SCREENS)!

So here's the plan:




Friday night

Whole Spelt and Oat Bran Challot (freshly made, they are rising as I type this!) 
Vegetable Soup
Spicy Roast Chicken
Potato Kugel
Apple Crisp
Roasted Kohlrabi
Roasted Root Vegetables
Lettuce salad the cherry tomatoes and red peppers

Shabbat lunch

Whole Spelt and Oat Bran Challot
Spicy Roast Chicken
Black Bean Cholent with Vegan Kishke
Potato Kugel
Apple Crisp
Roasted Kohlrabi
Roasted Root Vegetables
Cherry Tomatoes with Basil and Olive oil
Some other Salads
Chocolate Chip Squares (wheat-free, vegan) for dessert

Seudah Shlishit

Challah Rolls
Egg Salad
Chumus
Carrot and Cucumber Sticks
etc

What's your plan for this Shabbat? Do you make everything from scratch, too?

Shabbat Menu

Time to cook for Shabbat! Are you ready? It's very cold and rainy here, I hope everyone can stay warm and dry!

This week, I've got:



Challah from the freezer, 

Vegetable Soup, 

Oven-Fried Chicken (from the freezer), 

Potato Kugel (made it fresh!)

Brown Rice with Roasted Garlic

Stir Fried Vegetables (bean sprouts, cabbage, carrots, kohlrabi...)

Baked Tofu for the vegetarian 

If we have a salad it will be made of lettuce and whatever other random veggies are left, I'm not going to be able to pick up fresh vegetables tomorrow!

and

Black Bean Cholent for lunch (maybe with vegetarian kishke!)
(and whatever is left from Friday night)

For Dessert: Brownies and Caramel Popcorn

Looking forward to another great, restful shabbat!

Menu for the week!

Hi everyone, it's that time again. The time on a Sunday when I wonder what I should make for supper... and then I realize it's time to make a menu for the week so I don't do this every day! It's so much easier for me to feed my family when my menu is already planned out! That way I can go about my day, and when I need to cook, I just cook! Without having to rummage thru the freezer and pantry and wonder what to make. Instead, I do all that rummaging on Sunday at some point and then I plan out my menu based on what I see I have (or what I plan to buy).

So, here's the plan:

Sunday night: Black Bean and Tomato Soup, Quick Garlic Bread

Monday night: Shabbat Leftovers

Tuesday night: Split Pea Soup, ???

Wednesday night: Steamed or roasted veggies, Macaroni and Cheese

Thursday night: Scrambled eggs, ???

OH MY. I really haven't figured out my menu very well. I guess it will be ok, there are always going to be days when I don't feel inspired to cook, and I guess this is just one of them. It doesn't help that there are hardly any vegetables in the house, I think! If I pick up some vegetables tomorrow, maybe I'll be more inspired and I'll update this menu. (Watch this space for updates!) 

And now, I'm off to bake some muffins with those bananas I threw into the fridge before Shabbat so they wouldn't get moldy!

Menu for the Week

It's time to plan out my weekly menu, so I took inventory and we're doing really fine with everything except fresh veggies.
So tomorrow I have to buy whatever vegetables I can find inexpensively!

So here's my tentative food plan:

Sunday night (we had): Red and Black Lentil and Sweet Potato Soup, Pita Pizzas, (Vegan Polenta "Pizza" for me)

Monday Night: Shabbat Leftovers

Tuesday Night (break the fast): Split Pea Soup, Baked Ziti, Freshly squeezed grapefruit juice (got a whole lot of grapefruits from a neighbor), Salad

Wednesday Night: Scrambled Eggs, Baked Potatoes, Salad

Thursday Night: All the leftovers from the week

Snacks will be popcorn, apples, carrot sticks, roasted chick peas, muffins from the freezer

Lunches will be Soups and Sandwiches

What's on your menu this week?

Weekly Menu Planning

 
Time to plan my weekly supper menu, before we run into some crisis and the kids start bugging me to order pizza on a random night (they try that pretty frequently but I try not to give in...)!

So here's the plan. It might be a little boring, but I'm trying not to shop much this week:





Sunday night: Whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce and cheese, fresh vegetable sticks

Monday night: Shabbat leftovers

Tuesday night: Homemade dinner rolls or bagels (depends how much energy I have), cream cheese, mushroom-barley soup 

Wednesday night: Black bean and tomato soup, baked potatoes, whatever fresh vegetables need to be used up.

Thursday night: Split pea soup, random leftovers from the week

Lunches will be leftovers or sandwiches or pancakes...

What's your plan for keeping your family fed for the week?

Shabbat & Rosh Hashanah Menus

We'll be eating lots of apples this holiday!

It's almost here. The not-quite-three-day-yom tov!

First it will be Shabbat, then Sunday is Erev Rosh Hashana, and then comes Rosh Hashana, which, even in Israel, is 2 days of course. So it's quite intense and I imagine Sunday will be a panicky sort of day if you don't plan well in advance. That's why I've done almost all the shopping for the holiday already (I do plan to fill in a few things on Friday, assuming the skies have begun to clear). Have you shopped?

Lots of time will be spent in shul, davening, hearing shofar, praying for the dust storm to leave, and more.

Yes... dust storm. We are blanketed in fine particles of sand... it actually looked like it was snowing the other night - the glow of the lights on the particles of sand drifting through the air really made it look like snow! But the fact is, we are running the air conditioning, so snow it is NOT.

So here's my plan: (mostly, it's cook in an air conditioned kitchen!)

Shabbat Menu:
I'm not cooking for Shabbat. We are taking food out of the freezer. I know there's a pan of chicken in there plus a few kugels and some rice with vegetables. That should work! I figured I deserve an easy Shabbat with all the cooking I need to do for the holiday!

Rosh Hashana:
Night meal 1:
Honey Challot
Apples and Honey
Pomegranate Chicken
Garlic Roast Potatoes
Steamed Broccoli
Israeli Salad

Day meal 1: (plus guests)
Honey Challot
Salads - whatever I get around to preparing 
Oven Fried Chicken
Apple Kugel
Butternut Squash Kugel
Corn?

Night meal 2:
Honey Challot
(New Fruit - still have to buy one)
Split Pea Soup?
Salmon steaks cooked in lemon and herbs
Spinach and Cheese pie
Rice with stir fried veggies

Day meal 2:
Honey Challot
Any leftovers we feel like eating (most likely the chicken and sides from those meals will be left)
OR if for some crazy reason there's nothing left, I'll cook a simple meal, like omelets or macaroni.
I'm keeping a flame going so I can light the gas stove if I need to, and the oven may or may not get left on.

Baking: Honey Cake, Cinnamon Cake, Chocolate Cake


We're hosting a shiur (class) at the house on the second day, so I'm setting aside a honey cake for that. 

And that is how I am planning Rosh Hashana through my dust-filled foggy brain...
What about you? 
(As you may notice, I'm not doing much in the way of "simanim" this year. Do you do them? Do you do them every year? Is it an important family tradition of yours?)

Shabbat Menu

My days and weeks keep flying by... and here we are, it's September already... 


And even though it's hot, my head keeps thinking it should be cooling off! So much so that this morning I found the idea of a cool crisp day when I need a sweater popping into my head. I can guarantee you, however, that I don't need a sweater just yet!

So here's my early September Shabbat menu - for just the immediate family this week.


Friday night:
Fresh Challot
Vegetable Soup
Oven Fried Chicken
Roasted Kishuim
Rice
Baked Sweet Potatoes
Salad

Lunch:
More Challot
Black Bean Cholent
Oven Fried Chicken
Leftover sides from Friday night
Salads

Dessert: melon, chocolate/crispy rice squares (so easy. melt chocolate. stir in crispy rice cereal. pour into baking pan. allow to cool)

Seudah Shlishit:
Rolls, egg salad, spreads, apple crisp, cut veggies

Today, that looks like a lot. I should get cooking now, but I am too tired. I'll just have to pull myself together tomorrow!
What's your Shabbat plan (besides sleeping, that is!) ?

"Nine Days" Pantry Challenge Menu

It's that time of year again - the Nine Days are here and it's hot out. It's actually quite fitting to have a week in the summer to focus on lighter eating. It seems to be quite practical, when you think about it, even though that wasn't the origin of this custom. I believe in keeping 9 days food very simple, not any fancier than a regular weekday's meals would be.

In my house, it's not really going to be a "lighter eating" week, since we eat vegetarian during the week year-round, but I plan to do a "lighter spending" week! Starting very soon, we will not be able to avoid spending money as we approach our son's upcoming Bar Mitzvah. There's just no way around it, even though I decided to self-cater the Thursday night event. Self catering is a lot of work, but it allows me to control the cost of the event, while serving foods that would be out of our price range if we did a catered event, as well as the ingredients used. With all the different foods we need to be careful about (at least labeled!!), this seemed to make the most sense...

But I digress. This week we'll be pantry challenging...

Here's the planned menu:

Sunday
Lunch: Sandwiches, cut vegetables with chumus
Supper: Spaghetti, Steamed Kishuim, Watermelon

Monday
Lunch: Lentil patties, rice cooked in vegetable broth, carrot sticks
Supper: Baked Potatoes/Baked Sweet Potatoes, non-dairy crustless vegetable "quiche" (using random veggies from the freezer)

Tuesday
Lunch: leftovers from Sunday and Monday
Supper: Sloppy Sams on Fresh Rolls, Corn, tomatoes & cucumbers

Wednesday
Lunch: leftover Sloppy sams and corn
Supper: Scrambled eggs, Pancakes, melon

Thursday
Lunch: Sandwiches, any vegetables that need to be used up
Supper: Pasta with sauce and cheese or polenta, salad, ??

Shabbat - this is a really tentative plan
Fresh Challot
Food from the freezer, plus fruit soup and a fresh black bean cholent
Seudah Shlishit will be tuna salad/egg salad, rolls, veggies, and  lots of fruit and lemonade or something like that...

Weekly Menu

Time for my weekly menu planning! I'm so curious to hear how many of you out there do weekly menu planning! What's your strategy?

This week, we really need to use up some things from our freezer, so while I cannot call this a full pantry challenge, I am trying to keep my supermarket purchases really basic this week.



Here's the plan:

Sunday
Lunch: Rice, Tofu, corn, assorted leftover vegetables
Supper, Baked potatoes and sweet potatoes, hard boiled eggs, carrots, roasted kishuim, and some figs

Monday
Lunch: Random things from the fridge that need to be used up (potatoes, veggies, polenta, yogurt...)
Supper: Shabbat leftovers

Tuesday
Lunch: Sandwiches, carrot sticks, apples
Supper: random freezer findings

Wednesday
Lunch: Random freezer findings
Supper: Baked Ziti, make-your-own-salad

Thursday
Lunch: Any random leftovers from the week
Supper:Pizza (homemade),  salad, steamed veggies

This is not such a detailed menu, but hopefully it will do! It's time to do a good freezer cleanout in any case!
How's your menu for the week shaping up? Do you find menu planning saves you money? Do you waste less food?

Weekly Menu

I am having a hard time transitioning to summer menus. It's hot and I have little energy in the late afternoon for cooking. SOOO... if you have ideas for healthy suppers that 1)my husband and kids will eat 2)preferably don't have too many ingredients I'm unable to eat (right now that includes nuts, dairy, and wheat), 3) can be eaten cold, and 4) are not expensive and are preferably vegetarian, PLEASE let me know!

In the meantime here's my plan for the week:

Sunday night: rice, roasted kishuim, roasted corn, baked beans,  watermelon

Monday night: Garlic bread, lasagna, salad (I'll probably have polenta with tomato sauce and nutritional yeast) - that's a birthday dinner!

Tuesday night: Scrambled eggs, home-fries, cut vegetables

Wednesday night: Grilled Cheese Sandwiches (more polenta for me), make-your-own salad

Thursday night: No idea yet!

Lunches will be random whatever shmorgasbord of things I can put together without too much thought...

How are you handling this summer heat?

Menu for the week

Friends, it is time to plan a menu for the week!

We were actually supposed to have a family menu-planning session, but haven't gotten back to it. Have you ever done that? 

I'm not 100% sure I recommend it, but we do them anyway. We have had so many unrealistic suggestions (ice cream and m&ms do NOT make a meal, my dear children!), that I regret having them sometimes...  But I do feel it's good to check in with the family, hear what they have to say about meals and menus, discuss the basics of healthy eating, and try to accommodate the stronger preferences they may express (but no, no matter how many times they ask, we will not have pizza and pasta on a daily basis, sorry everyone!).

So here's the plan for the week


Sunday: Pizza night

Monday: Shabbat leftovers

Tuesday: Lentil Soup, rice, stir-fried veggies (with seitan? I found some in my freezer, that was bought on sale at some point)

Wednesday: Tomato soup with rice, scrambled eggs, salad

Thursday: Baked potatoes with assorted toppings, leftovers from the week

Lunches will be sandwiches, pancakes, and random things I find in the freezer


Besides the focus on really inexpensive foods, this menu is basically a pantry challenge menu - I will need to buy eggs and some fresh vegetables, but otherwise I think we have enough to get by. (We may be running out of flour, I should really check!)

Looking forward to a productive week without spending far too much (time and money) on food!

Some notes about the cost of food: I use brown rice (I normally pay 7-8 shekels/kg), whole wheat flour (4.50/kg) and red lentils  (8-9 shekels/kg) regularly.  This way we are still eating healthy complex carbs, but not spending a lot of money on them. We've been buying potatoes, carrots, cabbages, onions, and more for 1-2 shekels/kg, and celery cost me 2 shekels/bunch last week, so I have plenty. Also I managed to get the largest head of lettuce I've ever seen - certified no pesticides - for 4 shekels. I'll be eating lettuce all week long, for just 4 shekels! I'm sure it would cost me more in water and fertilizer to grow my own. And lately, I have not been so interested in foraging greens (my spring allergies are acting up and making me sneezy and sleepy!), so finding inexpensive greens is a really good thing.

What inexpensive pantry staples do you rely on? What about inexpensive vegetables? Do you have access to vegetables for 1-2 shekels/kg?

Menu Planning for the Week!

It's that time again - the new week has begun and you realize that if you don't start to make a plan for how to get it through the week smoothly, you're sure you won't.

While I can't help you squeeze in all the errands, appointments, work, playdates, and all, I can tell you my menu plan!

Menu planning makes my life run smoother because instead of drawing a blank and saying, "uh oh, I have no supper!", I can check my plan and get my family fed. Most of my meals are simple and don't require TOO much prep time. Once in a while I need to remember something a bit further in advance, but that's why it's good to check the night before too!

So here is the plan (suppers)

Sunday: Vegetable soup, Baked Ziti, Salad

Monday: Shabbat Leftovers

Tuesday: Fresh dinner rolls with sloppy sams, rice, steamed kishuim

Wednesday: Tuna patties, broiled eggplant slices, baked potatoes/baked sweet potatoes, make-your-own-salad,

Thursday: Rice, black bean crumbles in tomato sauce, some cooked vegetables (not sure what we'll have in the house then!)

Lunches will be leftovers, sandwiches, and salads

What's YOUR plan?

End of Pesach Menu Planning

We have a rare "2-day chag" coming up here in Israel! I know I've really gotten used to one day of chag at a time, but I'm sure we can muster up our strength for the 2 days looming ahead of us.

The last day isn't actually Pesach anymore, but we obviously will still be eating Pesach food. We're not even bothering to go out of our way to eat kitniyot, even though we could. I am sure that Sunday we'll find plenty of chametz and kitniyot to lead us back into the more complicated menus of the rest of the year, so we'll just stick with our usual Pesach fare.

Here's the plan:

Meat Meals:

Vegetable soup with lots of garlic and ginger and kneidlach
Honey-garlic chicken
Shnitzel
Potato Kugel
Apple Crisp
Vegetable Kugel
Quinoa with stir fried vegetables
Make your own salad

Dairy Meals:

Fish Fillets cooked in lemon and herbs
Quinoa "Pie" - quinoa topped with vegetable-tomato sauce and goat feta cheese, baked
Broccoli-Cheese Pie/Broccoli with pine nuts for those who don't eat cow's milk
Garlic-Roasted Potatoes
Roasted Zucchini and Peppers
Make your own salad

For dessert, we have brownies and mandel bread
Also planning to make a batch of rolls for noshing. 
We have plenty of fresh fruit on hand, as well as chocolate, which means we'll be FINE.


What's cooking in your Pesach Kitchen? 

 

Menu Plan for the week

Hi everyone! It's Monday afternoon already. That seems to be the time I get around to sitting down and planning my weekly menu. I guess I'll just have to go with it for now. 

Doesn't life always seem to get busy?

I know it's easiest to function when things are busy when there is some sort of plan in place, so here's my menu plan for the week (feeding the family seems to be one of those things I just can't skip):




Sunday
Lunch: Vegetable soup with noodles
Supper: Embellished Shabbat leftovers

Monday
Lunch: Red lentil soup (spiced with onion, garlic, turmeric, ginger, hot pepper, and salt. Yum)
Supper: Grilled cheese sandwiches? cucumbers, carrots, and red peppers

Tuesday
Lunch: Pancakes, veggies
Supper: Baked ziti, salad, steamed kishuim

Wednesday
Lunch: PB&J Sandwiches, veggies
Supper: Tomato soup with rice, tuna patties, salad

Thursday
Lunch: any leftovers from the week
Supper: Vegetable soup, Spaghetti with tomato-vegetable sauce (and cheese for the cheese eaters), salad

Weekly Menu

 

 I haven't had a chance to plan my weekly menu! I keep getting caught up on the roller coaster ride of life. But I'm planning now, it's better late than never.

So here goes:





Sunday: 
Picnic lunch - leftover challah with salads and spreads
Supper - Shabbat leftovers

Monday:
Lunch: Reincarnated Cholent Soup (added tomato paste, lentils, spices, and water to it), sandwiches, avocado
Supper: Pasta, Salad, and some precious asparagus (that I foraged)

Tuesday
Lunch: Vegetable-noodle soup, cucumbers and tomatoes with techina
Supper: Tomato-rice soup, Lentil patties,  baked potatoes,  whatever vegetables I find

Wednesday
Lunch: leftover soup, corn muffins, ??
Supper: Crock pot split pea and vegetable soup/stew, ??

Thursday
Lunch: all the leftovers from the week, or whatever I find in the freezer (I know there are random containers in there!) if there are no leftovers
Supper: Homemade pizza, oven-fries, and salad

Shabbat menu

Last week, I did a ton of work for Shabbat, so I figured I could have a slightly easier Friday this week! Plus, my freezer seems to be full no matter what I do, and it is SERIOUSLY time to start emptying it.
So -- Here's my stress-free Shabbat menu this week:



Fresh Whole Wheat and Oat Bran Challot
Vegetable Soup
Cholent with vegetarian kishke

(that's all I'm making fresh, plus a vegetable platter, and maybe a fruit salad. Also making a platter of vegetables to take over to a friend for her kiddush)

From the freezer:
Chicken
Potato Kugel
Random Sides
Tofu Shnitzel
Cake

What are you making for Shabbat? Or are you taking a break from cooking too?