Monday Night, Feb. 7, 2011

I ended up going out shopping on Sunday afternoon, only to be very disappointed with what I found. I went to Kimat Chinam, where for the past few weeks I have found amazing produce deals, and for the past few months in general  has had very good produce pricing... only to discover that they raised all their produce prices (cucumbers for over 5 NIS/kilo, for example)! So, I left and went to Mega, since I noticed an ad the other day about some low produce prices.

At Mega I found a bunch of produce, so I bought according to the sales. Once again, we have lots of cauliflower. I'll have to get creative with cauliflower! (I also found tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, and red peppers for decent prices)

Let me know if you are finding stores with good produce sales! (The shuk here in Teverya isn't really less expensive than the supermarkets, only perhaps right before closing, but that timing doesn't work out for me right now...)

Tonight's menu is a bit different. We like to mix things up every once in a while....

Breakfast for Supper!

Omelets
Cut Veggies - carrots, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes -  with avocado dip
Hash Browns
Carrot muffins
Citrus fruit salad


Some notes about these dishes:

My kids think omelets are so much cooler than scrambled eggs, so we'll go with omelets.


I have tons of avocados left from when I bought them at Yesh for 1.99NIS/kilo a week and a half ago. They are all ripe now. So, avocado dip is in order. I'm going to try to freeze some, as rumor has it that does work. What do you think?

Hash Browns allow me to pretend that I really am a southerner. I like to think I have southern roots, even though they're not very deep... I like potatoes in most any form, in any case, so I will introduce my kids to the idea of hash browns tonight!


Citrus Fruit salad - I have been buying all those citrus fruits that are in season right now. We have white grapefruit, pink grapefruit, pomelit, naval oranges, and clementines right now (yes, we also have lemons, but I'll leave them out of the salad!).  My 6 yr old really wants honey-cinnamon oranges, so I'll indulge her and make them again.


Let me know what you think, or what you're making for supper tonight!

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!

Sunday Night

It's going to be a busy week, so I've begun my planning already now that the kids are in bed (ok, only the younger ones).
Tomorrow, we plan to be out and about all afternoon. And I still have plenty of those 1 and 2 NIS/kilo veggies, plus the Bulgarian Cheese that was on sale at Kim'at Chinam.

Here's the menu for Sunday evening:

Black Bean & Tomato Soup (crock pot)
Embellished Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Salad - Lettuce, Tomato, Avocado, Bulgarian Cheese, and Olives(w/ a splash of olive oil)
Fruit for dessert (we have tons of oranges and pomelit right now)

A note about the soup: be sure to used pre-cooked black beans! (It's another one of those chop and toss recipes that I love: chop onions, garlic, celery, red pepper, a small potato, and 2 tomatoes. Place in crock pot with cooked black beans, tomato paste or crushed tomatoes, and 1 c. frozen corn. Cover with water or soup stock, season to taste. Let your crock pot cook it all day!)

Embellished grilled cheese means everyone gets to put their own "toasted" sandwich together. We usually offer a variety of cheeses, tomatoes, olives, and roasted peppers. But, of course, you can be as creative as you like!